#I need to see skater ryan now

[itscooltosk8]

My Instagram did a thing

[capybaraonabicycle]

Imagine: 13 with ice skates

The potential!

Awwww <3 Thank you for the mental image, hon!!

I kinda feel like this is a drawing prompt - which I won't do, at least not anytime soon, because I have too many drawing wips atm, but have my two cents on how that would go down :

Like with many - especially physical - things, I am rather sure the ability to ice-skate differs between regenerations of the Doctor's. Like, 11 would not be able to go a step without falling, constantly grabbing onto Amy and Rory for support - or River at the frost fair. And 7 would probably be indistinguishable from an Olympic figure skater - I don't even know him, really, but he has the vibe.

Now while 13 can be clumsy, I honestly believe she'd be surprisingly good on skates? Like, not grace incarnated but I'm sure she wouldn't fall (on accident) and know a bunch of tricks you haven't even heard of. I also think she can go scarily fast. She sometimes forgets she knows how to stop though, preferring to barrel into something soft that will cushion the fall instead.

So among thasmin, I believe, it would be Yaz holding onto the Doctor - she doesn't really need to, but if opportunity knocks, you know. But I can only see that happening with Dan - who is holding onto one of these kiddy-penguins to learn the steps while Di encourages him; she's casually skating backwards. If we're with fam 1.0, I think it is Graham trying to hold onto the Doctor - who is going around him in circles oblivious to him needing help - and Yaz and Ryan are having hot chocolate on the sidelines, wrapped into layers and layers of blankets and laughing at their friends looking funny and having fun on the ice.

What did you imagine for skates!13? Please do tell!!

[unluckyhoneybee]

Hey, could I get something where you are a skater and an injury kept you from going to the Olympics or stuff like that and one night when you are still recovering you go to the rink (you haven't skated on ice yet) and you think you are alone but Ryan is there (you don't see him at first). You are a bit scared but he ends up skating with you.

You looked down at your white skates and your firmly protected knee. It had been so difficult to get to this point. You had thought a lot about it. You could still feel the pain and see the accident pass through your mind.

"You can do this" You took a breath and put a foot on the ice. You were shaking at this point. "You got this, YN. You've done it a billion times."

Another foot and you were standing there. You were alone with your thoughts, fears and injury.

Two minutes passed and you were still be there, pressed against the side of the rink and grabbing hard so you wouldn't fall. You were frozen on the place. Just wait. You need time. A few minutes.

When you decided to push yourself away from the wall, your knees were shaking. You literally looked like Bambi.

Ryan had been watching, hidden on the shadows while he was eating a snack. He didn't want to disturb you, but then he saw your shaking figure and worried. It had taken you too long to start moving and now you were trembling and barely moving your feet.

"Hey"

The voice frightened you and you lost the balance, falling to the ice. Thankfully, it was a good fall and you hadn't hurt your knee.

"Oh shit" Ryan skated quickly to you and dropped on his knees to help you, but you flinched and tried to get up on your own. "I'm so sorry"

You turned around and looked at him, feeling for a moment as if a lightning had hit you. He was beautiful.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

You shook your head and looked down at the ice and your stupid knee. It was so frustrating. The topic brought tears to your eyes every single time and you were exhausted. You just wanted to be back here, to be the talented figure skater you used to be.

"Okay, did you hurt yourself?"

You shook your head and took a deep breath.

"Do you want to get up?"

"I-I can't..." You would fall if you did. "I can't skate"

Ryan frowned.

"Why are you here alone, then?"

Still, he thought your skates looked way to expensive for a beginner's.

"I don't want to talk" You groaned.

"Okay, no talking then. Just let me help you"

The stranger helped you up with ease and supported you. Ryan noticed how you barely put weight on your left leg and how terrified you were of letting him go. He notice how good you were keeping the posture and staying steady.

"You can skate, can you?"

You looked up at him and it hit both of you.

"I know you" He whispered. Your story came to his mind and he grabbed you tighter. Only a month before the Olympics, being the young skater and your country's future in figure skating, you had broken your knee pretty badly.

You looked down and took a deep breath. He was Ryan Graves, the hockey player.

"Don't tell anyone I was here" You tried to pull away from him although the fear was huge. But Ryan didn't let go of you. He didn't want you to fall.

"I won't. But... Why?" then he regretted. "Well, don't tell me. It's okay"

You sighed.

"I haven't skated since I had the accident. I thought today was the day. But I can't. I can't move."

Ryan grabbed you tighter.

"I'll help you." He whispered.

You looked at him.

"How?"

"I'll skate with you. You can grab into me, I won't let you fall."

And so you did. With Ryan skating backwards and your hands holding on his, you both moved around the ice. At first you were scared, you didn't trust your knee. But then, with some reassuring from Ryan, you started putting more weight on it.

"That's it... You are doing great!" You couldn't stop the smile from coming to your lips. "I'm going to let this hand go"

And he did. You grabbed the one you were still holding harder and looked into his eyes. He was a beautiful man.

Ryan and you skated for long, hand in hand and slowly bringing your trust back. Light conversation, questions, reassuring words... Everything had kept your mind away from your fears. And then he let go of you hand and you barely noticed. You skated away and your movements and figures you had rehearsed so many times came naturally.

Ryan loved to see it. He had never payed much attention to the figure skaters, but now he had one right in front of him and he couldn't take his eyes from you. You looked so happy, so free. That sadness he had seen in your eyes when he picked you from the floor was now gone.

At some point, you realized he wasn't next to you, he was almost on the other side of the rink.

You stopped in your tracks and your hands fell to you sides. You were back. You had done all of that by yourself. Ryan was looking with a smile. He seemed proud. Proud of you even though he had just met you.

So you skated on his direction. You gained some speed and maybe it wasn't the bed idea. But Ryan was used to stronger and harder moves, so when you launched yourself on his arms, he barely moved. He just grabbed you harder and kept you close to his body.

"Thank you" You whispered. Ryan felt amazing. He couldn't understand what he was feeling. But he kept you close.

"You did it all by yourself" He put you back on your feet and you grab into his strong arms.

"No. You hold my hand until I felt good enough. I couldn't have done it"

Ryan felt his cheeks warming.

"Do come here often?" He asked in a whisper.

"It's my first time in moths." You lowered your head.

"I'll come again tomorrow" He told you.

You smiled.

"Wait for me then"

[fullfriendnerdclutch]

Much to Benson's delight though, is the fact that the alien slug inside his stepfather turned out to be able to split itself into multiple clones of itself as part of its reproduction as long as it's getting enough nutrient and lived a healthy life. So, when Ryan is not around and Benson feels bored, he can just call a lustful slugged motherfucker that seemed available to give him a random fucking as he wished, just like right now having this skater punk forcefully shoving his stinky uncut cock to Benson's mouth

All of this revealed to Benson around a couple weeks ago when one of Ryan's friend came over to watch some football match on TV. As if on purpose, Ryan left instead to grab some beers from the corner store and that's when this friend of his shoved Benson down to the floor and smirked at him in delight

"He's been raving about your cocksucking skill ever since he slugged me during our break. Now all I want is to proof whether or not you worth the hype,"

As he pummeled his uncut horse cock to Benson's throat, he explained in great details how Ryan not only infected him but then face-fucked the site manager too with yet another slug that laid dormant inside hus body simply waiting for release.

Then, as Ryan's friend cleaned himself after shooting like 5 pumps of sticky white mess to Benson's face, he sunk his cock back to Benson's throat, albeit a little bit calmer now as he started speaking again

"Oh, it was a slug fest. Utilizing that site manager, Ryan basically plotted by making the site manager to call for a 1-on-1 with the rest of the construction crew. When they entered the room thinking they will just meet the manager, they got ambushed instead as your stepdaddy infected them with the flooding slug in his body while the manager ensured that the door is securely locked and no one can get out or wrestle themselves free unless they got slugged first. There was like....what....50 of us inside Ryan body? And all of us got our own new physique to play around. Upon inspection, they were too dumb to even notice how bloated Ryan was during that day LOL, well, not like they were the sharpest bunch of tools to begin with, and now, you have what....50 stepdaddies?"

That statement was enough to sent Benson to stratospheric euphoria as his pulsating cock finally erupted. The idea of having around 50 men all turned into slug-controlled puppet on his disposal is enough to make his head spin! Just imagining some of the dudes that worked with Ryan is already a turn-on because they tend to be super manly, totally straight as an arrow and oh-so-rugged.

Having them as dominant angry top that hated on the fact that they are only hard now when Benson is the one pleasing them is simply out of this world and that's just the right button needed for him to bust. Right when his cock spurted out his load, Ryan came back with a shit-eating grin plastered on his douchey face, cock already exposed and seemingly looking slick from pre

"Oh so I see that you two already bonded? Well boy, guess I'll introduce you to more friends of mine then if you are that eager to know them," he said as he strut his way to finish off the pent-up lust that already chubbed up his cock, Benson's eye sparkling with lust like the whore he is to please his own stepdaddy

Assimilated StepDaddy

Ryan slowly woke up, feeling disoriented. He looked around, recognizing his stepson's room. But something was off—he couldn't move. It hit him then: he was tied up on the bed. Panic set in as he struggled against the restraints.

"W-what the hell? What is going on? Why I'm tied up?" Ryan shouted, trying his best to free himself from the restraints. All he remembered was coming home from a hard day of work at the construction site and grabbing a beer to relax on the couch, and then... he woke up here?

"It's ok, Ryan, no need to freak out," He heard his stepson's voice as he entered the room while holding a glass jar with a strange slug creature inside.

"Benson? You did this to me? You little shit! I'm gonna beat your spoiled ass once I'm out of here!"

"Oh, you're going to beat my ass for sure, just not in the way you think," Benson said with a smug tone, he tapped his fingers on the jar, making the sluggish creature move as if it was excited. "It was very easy to drug your beer. You passed out faster than I thought you would, and I confess it was very difficult to drag you to my room, you're so heavy. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we don't have much time left."

"You drugged my WHAT? I knew you were a fucking freak but not at this level!" Ryan tried to pull the restraints once again, but he finally realized there was no use. He sighed and looked at his stepson. "Look, let me go now and I won't tell your mom about what you did."

Benson chuckled, "I'm not sure if I believe you; I know you very well, Ryan; in the past two years, I've known your true self; you're a cheater, a homophobe, and a horrible stepdad. I can't trust someone like you, I'm not dumb. But don't worry; once I help my alien buddy take over your body, our relationship will change to something more... trustful." Benson then looked at the creature inside the jaar. "Isn't that right, lil guy?"

Ryan could swear he saw the little creature nodding its head. "What the hell is this thing you're holding? You're freaking me out Benson.... please let me go!"

Benson got on the bed between Ryan's muscular legs and slowly started to pull down Ryan's underwear, he protested, trying to make the process more difficult for Benson, but with both his arms and legs tied up, Benson easily pulled his underwear down to his ankles. "Oh my, I can see why mom likes you so much because it definitely is not because of your personality," Benson said, amazed by Ryan's girthy cock.

"That's too fucking far! I'm gonna kill you, you motherfucker!" Ryan shouted.

Benson just ignored him and opened the lid, freeing the slug from the jar; the strange black slug crawled toward Ryan's ass and started to force its way inside his hole. Ryan's eyes opened in terror as he felt something squirming inside his ass. "Take this thing away from me! Take this thing away!" Ryan pleaded, no longer trying to keep his tough, manly persona.

"It's ok, Daddy Ryan, you're going to be a much better stepdad from now on," Benson said, caressing his muscular thighs and watching the tip of the slug disappear inside Ryan's ass. For a few seconds, nothing happened until suddenly Ryan's eyes rolled back, and his body started to contort and convulse, his hips bulked up and down, and his back arched as his muscles tensed until suddenly his body went limp.

That was when Benson heard his mom's car arrive; his heart raced as he immediately started to untie Ryan as quickly as he could; he thought he could turn Ryan into his pet's host before his mom came home from work. He untied Ryan's ankles and walked out of his room; it was then realized he had forgotten to pull up Ryan's underwear, so he ran back to his room and pulled his underwear up. He made his way to the living room just as his mom opened the door and walked in.

"Hey, Mom," Benson said, sitting on the couch and trying his best not to sound too out of breath.

"Hey, sweetie, where is Ryan?" She asked.

"H-he's sleeping in my room, I think he got so drunk that he crashed in the wrong room."

"Poor thing, he works so hard, let him rest a little ok?"

Later that night, while his mom was in the shower, Benson went to check on his stepdad, and to his surprise, the bed was empty. He jumped when he felt Ryan's hand grab his neck from behind and his big bulge pressing against his ass. Ryan leaned his mouth close to Benson's ear and whispered. "Fuck... he really hated your ass, I'm trying my best to control his body not to twist your little neck."

Benson smirked; he knew it was no longer his stepdad speaking. "I thought you said you would take full control of his brain?" Benson whispered back, pressing his ass harder against Ryan.

"Shut up you little..." Ryan stopped talking mid-sentence, and then closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and then looking at Benson with more calm eyes. "I will. It just takes a while to fully assimilate his brain. There's still some parts of him left, I can still access some fragments of his memories as well as the hatred he had for you..."

"I think we could use all his hatred and use it for something more..." Benson then turned around to face Ryan and was about to caress his hairy pecs when Ryan suddenly pushed him down to his knees.

"You disgust me, you always did. If I didn't have a fucking slug inside my brain, assimilating it and turning me into a brainless puppet, I would have punched your dumb face right now."

Benson was so hard, his cock was leaking only at the sight of his hot stepdad standing over him, with his huge bulge just inches away from his face. He knew it was the alien in control, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit scared.

"Ok, I'm starting to get a little bit wo..." Benson tried to stand up, but Ryan pushed him back on his knees again and then pointed at him.

"You better keep on your knees! That's where you fucking belong." Ryan whispered, he then pulled down his underwear, freeing his throbbing massive cock, hovering his shaft over Benson's mesmerized face. "I'm gonna facefuck you as a punishment, that's what spoiled brats like you deserve," Ryan then grabbed Benson by the back of his hair and smirked down at him. "You better take every inch of punishment," With that, he pushed Benson's face to take all his length. Benson loved the way Ryan grabbed both sides of his head and fucked his mouth like he was a fucktoy. Ryan came down his throat before his mom finished her shower.

A week later, Ryan had his brain fully assimilated by the alien slug, and there was nothing more left of him besides his hot body. The alien adopted a more loving and caring personality for Ryan that Benson loved, but sometimes Benson would ask the alien to act more like the old Ryan.

Their relationship had improved so much since Ryan got assimilated. Benson's mom would go to work in the morning before Ryan, so every morning before going to work, Ryan would go into Benson's room and give him a proper morning fuck, as well as his morning load. And every time Ryan came back earlier from work, he would take his shirt off and order Benson to lick his sweaty body clean.

"These armpits won't clean by themselves, boy. You better bury your face in these hairy armpits and clean them up with your slutty tongue!"

After giving his stepdad a proper tongue bath, Benson was sitting on Ryan's lap, with his ass fully stuffed by Ryan's hard cock while he squeezed and groped his stepdad's big hairy pecs.

"C'mon buddy, suck on your Daddy's tits, your mom will come from work at any minute," Ryan said while flexing his massive pecs.

Benson didn't waste any more time and started to suck on Ryan's huge tits. He had only two hours left before his mom would return from work, and he would always make the most of it.

[dorizardthewizard]

HSM (2006) rewatch pt 6

6: Stick to the Status Quo

Backpack alert! And Jason was actually carrying school books, there's hope for you yet boys

Love Ryan and Kelsi’s little glance at each other after Sharpay huffs off. I imagine they're not best friends yet since it was Ryan who flippantly told Kelsi they'd rearranged her song for the audition, but they bond over Sharpay's antics sometimes and obviously get much closer in the second movie.

What is this cafeteria area, it’s so nice? Mine had a hole in the ceiling that they’d cover up with a sheet of paper on parent’s evenings

“Bob, we need the cheerleaders in the jock group” “But sir, how will we know they’re cheerleaders and not girls from the other factions of the school?” “Make them wear their warmup gear in every single scene of course!”

Zeke decides really quickly after the Troy musical news to spill his secret, have they even spoken to Troy about this yet? Guy must have been waiting for the right moment for ages

Zeke: I bake Everyone: WHAT?!

This will never not be iconic. Poor Zeke he looks so sad ToT

Martha: Look at me and what do you see? Intelligence beyond compare!

We stan a confident queen <3 Also I love that they chose a plus sized girl for this

Ahhhh the “skaters”……..

A SAWWW?

I’m obsessed with orange shirt guy’s reaction and how he just misses the next dance routine because he’s having a breakdown by the stairs

WHERE DID HE GET THE CELLO FROM??? AND WHY IS IT MAKING ELECTRIC GUITAR SOUNDS!! This isn’t a complaint btw I love this

I like how in the next sequence we can see the groups mixing more as they dance, it basically represents what’s happening in the school as a whole since the audition. Everyone jokes about how they’re singing and dancing about how certain people shouldn’t be singing and dancing, but that’s not actually happening. It’s non-diegetic! An abstraction! A representation of the turning of the social and political landscape!

What I love about this song is you can go through it frame by frame and find fun little details or interactions in the background. Like here, Chad throws his basketball and it's Zeke that catches it (they face off in the background of another shot too). He dribbles it for a bit but loses it at some point in the song and pops out the crème brûlée instead. Love cheerleader girl who’s just trying to read on the side lmao. Or go against the status quo, as the cheerleaders were previously portrayed as shallow and not interested in topics deeper than discussing their nails, but here she is studying during lunch break, no longer caring if that makes her uncool.

Also I love that part of the choreography is literally just,, ruffling Chad's hair. And those girls in the top left swaying a bit? Yeah that's my level of dance skills too

Martha got done dirty, with the others it’s “stick with what you know!” and “keep your voice down low!” but with her it’s “she has gotta go!” LOL no wonder we never see her with the geek squad again

ZEKE DID YOU JUST HAVE THAT CRÈME BRÛLÉE IN YOUR POCKET

I had to copy and paste the spelling for crème brûlée I am nothing if not dedicated

That sudden burst into song after Gabriella and Taylor turn up is iconic

And now cello boy is just miming playing the cello??? WHERE DID THE CELLO GO

Hahaha the way it looks like Gabriella and Taylor are the only ones aware that they're in a musical

I had to comment on this song bit by bit because there’s so much to point out lol, I love Stick to the Status Quo it’s S tier I don’t care. It’s more musical-like than the other songs and it works really well since there are some spoken parts with the confessions. Also it’s just so chaotic, it's impressive what they managed to do with the choreography here and the transitions flow really well. The chorus does sound a little.... quiet? At times though? I think they get better at making the audio sound a bit more natural as the movies go on.

People say it’s silly that everyone’s so against people having hobbies, but that's taking the message too literally imo. High school cliques are a thing (although maybe more so in the US from what I've heard), and let's be honest a lot of interests or methods of expression are deemed "cringe" today, let alone back then before nerd culture became truly mainstream. Gender is a big divider too - we're still socially conditioned to think STEM and sports are for boys while the arts are for girls, plus things like the misogyny directed towards female gamers. And for the boys, 2006 was a time when the tiniest expression of something deemed "feminine" would result in you being called gay. So yeah, the message is still relevant today but even more so back then.

Plus even outside of such extremes, I feel we do tend to put ourselves in boxes. Just look at how many people believe in that left/right logical/creative brain stuff, people taking the Myers Briggs personality types so seriously, or those teenagers on tiktok trying to decide between aesthetics. Especially at that age, you're very concerned with constructing a consistent image of yourself and might feel nervous trying new things or pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, because "that's not my kind of thing".

Ooo I like Sharpay being manipulative of Darbus, showing her as a good antagonist. Not just in the way she acts towards the protagonists, but how she sweet talks others and shows a completely different persona to get what she wants. Girl can act, I’ll give her that.

Ryan just looking at his food LOL mood

Chad’s smile as he goes “What's up? Oh, let’s see…” while contemplating murder is so funny I love that delivery

Chad: Zeke is baking… Crème Brulee!

As opposed to the other stuff being baked in Albuquerque around this time…...

I love how Troy’s reaction is to immediately show interest and enthusiasm for Zeke’s new hobby! Supportive bro! Shut up Chad, don’t be mean to Zeke >.<

I like the detail that after Chad tells him to shut up, Zeke goes up to the skater guys, who seem to have made up as they’re sitting together and cello kid has his cello out. It shows that despite the most outspoken people like Chad and Sharpay, there’s a shift in the school. Generally I love the school scenes in this movie because there’s always something going on in the background, it feels so lived in and like you're watching a play in person

Yeah Chad’s being a bad friend here obviously, and there's a lot of ways you could read into his reaction. There's the general toxic masculinity, but he also bought into the school hierarchy and enjoyed his position on top with the rest of the jocks. Maybe he just doesn't get it because it's genuinely basketball 24/7 with him and he defines himself by his interests, maybe he just hates change (wait a minute... autistic Chad?), maybe the concept of Troy being less interested in basketball and hanging out with Gabriella makes him feel like his friendship is threatened.

aaaaand maybe deep down he's in denial about his own "unmanly" tendencies and doesn't want to confront that part of himself

But this also shows why Troy is the captain. Chad puts basketball and his own ideas on what's best for everyone above his teammates' feelings, so while he is more dedicated and commands the attention of the team, I feel a captain should be a bit more emotionally intelligent.

[asskickedbygirl]

Radio Bam - F!Reader Fic

Episode Two

ep one - ep three - ep four

Desc: Episode two of self insert radio bam fic! basically you’re a regular on radio bam.

A/n: high demand part 2 (three people), hope you guys enjoy feel free to give me ideas or suggestions for the next parts in my requests! i will be making this a series!

Warnings: mentions of sex

⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒

Dico: *aaaauuuuughhh* Weeeeelcome to Radio Bam everyone! Haha… on todays episode we got the one, the only, the Dreamseller himself, Brandon Novak. Couldn’t get rid of him if you tried! We also got sir Joe Frantz, Jessie Margera, our own hot pants Y/n, myself Dico aaaaand Baaaaam Margera!

Novak: What the fuck was that supposed to mean?!

Y/n: You’re like a really haggard case of herpes!

Novak: Yeah I bet you would know field fucker!

Y/n: Is this how I’m gonna be referred to as now?

Frantz: It sounds like you fuck fields.

Bam: No she just fucks in fields.

Jess: Oh my god I forgot about that.

Dico: You don’t listen to the show Jessie? If you did you would know my deepest darkest secret was aired out on live radio!

Jess: I have a life Brandon.

Frantz: Was this when a farmer watched you cum in Y/n?

Y/n: You know I don’t think we need to repeat the story.

Dico: Yeah can we not please.

Bam: Too traumatic?

Dico: Too soon.

*room laughs*

Jess: Man that was like ten years ago.

Dico: It’ll never be far enough away.

Novak: Did you guys even date after fucking in a field or what?

Y/n: Nah, we were just friends that wanted to lose our virginities.

Jess: Yeah except you guys acted like fucking idiots for months afterwards and I had to deal with it!

Bam: Oh shit yeah! Working at the movie theatre?

Jess: I was like a child who’s divorced parents wouldn’t speak to each other.

Y/n: Hey it’s not my fault Brandon wouldn’t look me in the eye for at least four months!

Dico: Okay but how did you expect me to redeem myself after an old guy witnessed me orgasming?

Y/n: Hey it was bad for me too! He saw my tits!

Novak: Lucky man.

Y/n: I was sixteen Novak.

Frantz: Wait you guys were like fully naked?

Y/n: No I just had my shirt pulled up. We’re not that weird.

Dico: At least you were wearing a skirt, I had to run away with my ass still hanging out.

Bam: What I wouldn’t pay to see that again.

Dico: Oh shit! Look who’s decided to join us everyone, listeners the one and only Random Hero, Ryan Dunn has entered the building!

Bam: You’re fucking late dickhead!

Ryan: It’s 7:03!

Frantz: Yeah that means we started three minutes ago genius.

Y/n: Professionalism at it’s finest ladies and gentlemen.

Ryan: Alright, alright, settle down weirdos.

Bam: Wait a minute, is this now the second person that’s slept with Y/n to join the show tonight?

Jess: Oh shit!

Y/n: This is not making me look very respectable.

Frantz: There should be a radio show for all the guys Y/n’s fucked.

Y/n: It would just be Dico, Ryan and a bunch of pro skaters.

Novak: Rubbing salt in the wound babe.

Bam: Wait which pro skaters did you fuck? I know of like two.

Y/n: I’m not answering that question on air. I’ve already lost enough self respect.

Dico: That was gone a long time ago.

Novak: Well you know to really hit rock bottom you gotta fuck me.

Y/n: I admire the fact you think I want to hit rock bottom Novak.

Novak: Only way is up babe.

Bam: Well now that Ryan and Y/n are both here, I think it’s time to tell the story of how Y/n got fired from the movie theatre.

Ryan: Oh christ.

Y/n: People I know listen to this Bam! My parents still think I quit!

Frantz: It’s too good to not tell.

Novak: Is this a dirty story?

Bam: Always with Y/n Novak. Always.

Y/n: My reputation is being tarnished.

Dico: What reputation?

Y/n: Enough!

Jess: Are you guys gonna tell the story or do I have to?

Ryan: There isn’t much of a story to tell.

Y/n: I mean for context Ryan and I dated for about a year after high school.

Novak: He stole your girl Dico?

Y/n: I am public domain.

Frantz: Yeah we know.

Novak: This is just hurting my feelings more and more hot pants.

Bam: Can we get back to the story please?

Y/n: Yeah okay so, as we know Dico, Jess and I worked at our local theatre and we could get free tickets so Ryan and I were there pretty often.

Ryan: I’m a cheap date.

Y/n: Well one day we were seeing some dumb movie at like 11pm on a Tuesday so like, ghost town right? No one in the theatre.

Novak: Oh I know where this is going.

Ryan: I think it was Happy Gilmore.

Bam: What?

Ryan: The movie was Happy Gilmore.

Frantz: You guys fucked to an Adam Sandler golf movie?!

Y/n: Way to ruin the suspense Frantz!

Jess: You guys fucking suck at telling stories.

Y/n: Can I continue?

Bam: Go on.

Y/n: Right so, we’re making out and Ryan starts moving my hand down to his crotch.

Ryan: You’re making me sound like a sleaze!

Y/n: Well it’s what happened! Anyways, since I worked there I knew that screen didn’t have any cameras, and if anyone were to go in the projection room they wouldn’t be able to see us cause’ of where we sat so I thought, fuck it! I started jerking him off or whatever.

Ryan: This is humiliating.

Y/n: Well you know it gets worse! I was thinking more and realised, realistically we could fuck and no one would notice. And we’re eighteen and stupid.

Frantz: A common trait for you.

Y/n: Whatever. So I whisper to him ‘do you wanna fuck?’ and he’s game, obviously. So we manoeuvre around and I’m on top and we start… you know.

Novak: Fucking.

Y/n: Thank you Novak. So yeah, but in the mean time I assumed only Dico and Jess were working that night since it was a ghost town. But little did I know, our manager-

Dico: The fart one.

Y/n: Yeah the fart one. He was on shift and he was a tightass that used to do ‘screen checks’ to make sure people aren’t being rowdy or something.

Jess: And to make sure couples aren’t fucking.

Y/n: Yeah that too. So anyways I’m sure everyone knows where I’m going with this, my manager walked in on me riding Ryan.

Dico: In a filthy fucking movie theatre!

Bam: Yeah that place was fucking minging, you guys probably caught a venereal disease from doing that.

Ryan: Probably.

Novak: Do you have some crazy fucking exhibitionist kink Y/n? Why have you been caught fucking by old men TWICE.

Frantz: She’s into other people being into voyeurism.

Y/n: Not funny.

Bam: What even happened after he walked in I forget.

Y/n: I mean I immediately got off Ryan and started apologising and covering myself. He just walked out and told me to come outside of the screen to have ‘a talk’.

Ryan: I had to sit there watching Happy Gilmore while she went outside.

*Room erupts into laughter*

Bam: Why the fuck didn’t you leave with her?!

Ryan: I did not want to look fart man in the eyes.

Y/n: Yeah well while you were enjoying the movie he basically called me a whore and fired me.

Frantz: He called you a whore?

Y/n: Well he said I ‘should be ashamed of my promiscuity’ and that I’m ‘no longer an employee’ and to tell my boyfriend neither of us are welcome back in the theatre.

Novak: You guys got fucking banned?!

Ryan: Big time.

Y/n: Do you think if we went back they would let us in?

Jess: I doubt fart man is still knocking around.

Ryan: Maybe our pictures are hung up on the walls with banned written under them.

Dico: No but we had a thorough staff meeting regarding ‘screen checks’ and why they’re so important after the incident.

Y/n: It’s not like you guys lasted long after I was fired.

Jess: Yeah Dico is not half as good as a coworker as you.

Y/n: Awwwww. You were the best coworker too Jessie!

Novak: Alright stop rubbing each others backs.

Frantz: I feel like that’s the nicest expression I’ve heard Novak use

Novak: Alright sorry, jacking each other off!

Y/n: Been there done that.

Novak: Are you fucking serious?!

Y/n: No.

End.

@jackussy420 @lovexjoe @ckygetsjobs

asked for part 2: @welcometojackass2022 @dxckfarmdunn @gnarkillknoxville

[babybammargera]

Highway to him

Bam x Reader

You pull up to set after Jackass 2 wraps to drive Ryan and Bam home. Everyone is scattered around the parking lot parking up their cars to go home. You're sitting in the window of your van listening to a random mix cd Bam had made you, watching for your best friend and boyfriend. You see both of them and call out from your perch, "Hiya big boy. Need a ride home?" Ryan's voice fills the parking lot when he spots you, "What are you doing here asshole?" Prompting Bam to look around confused as to where his girlfriend's voice just came from. He finally notices you and drops his bags and takes off toward you in full sprint, boots heavy on the pavement. He carefully but quickly pulls you the rest of the way out of the window and smothers you in kisses and a tight hug, "God I missed you, babe." You put your hands up giggling to stop his affectionate assault. "I missed you too B. It's only been two weeks and you're suffocating me like it's been years.” He smiles and plants a big kiss on your lips, releasing you from his grip. Ryan's voice comes from behind you, " It definitely feels like it's been years.” You quickly turn towards him and run to your best friend losing your slip-on Vans in the process. He meets you by Bam's abandoned luggage and yanks you into a bear hug. "It does feel like years since I've seen you guys. I missed you angel." A chuckle rumbles through his chest., "I missed you too but we should probably load up our bags, it's getting colder now that it's dark." You head toward where you parked, slipping your shoes on again then back to Bam who's throwing his bags into the van. He looks up at you realizing you're just wearing a tee shirt and the temperature outside is dropping more. He slips off his hoodie handing it to you before helping Ryan with the bags, "You're gonna freeze, put that on." You pull the sweatshirt over your head surrounded by Bam's strong but comforting scent. They finish packing and take a minute to say goodbye to the rest of the guys. You wave to the others then turn to your boys, "Get in shitbirds we're going home.” Ry shakes his head walking to the van, "Dude look how much you rubbed off on her." Bam snakes his arms around you, "I love my mean ass skate rat girlfriend." Giving you another sweet kiss on your cheek as Ryan fake gags. "Aw, Ry are you feeling left out?” He rolls his eyes and playfully shoves you and you bump into Bam. He jumps into the van taking up the backseat. "I'm not dealing with you being gross and handsy on the way home. I'm taking a nap." He closes the door ending the conversation. You hand Bam the keys, "I drove all the way here." He opens the passenger-side door helping you into the van, "How did you make it all the way from West Chester to Florida? That's at least 14 hours." You shrug as he climbs into the driver's seat, "Ape, Dico, and Raab called me. Your mom almost sent them with me because she was worried about me driving alone." He isn't surprised at this, April worries over you as if you were her own especially since you started dating Bam. "Well, now you got me and Dunn so she doesn't have to worry." You smile as he leans over and kisses you before starting the van. Ryan leans between you and Bam, "Ape should be worried about the 3 of us together. She knows how we are.” You nod and kick off your shoes getting comfy. The ride home is long but worth it, Bam driving singing along to his favorite HIM songs, and occasionally aggressive headbanging. After several hours Ryan wakes back up and is stir-crazy. He sits up connects his iPod to the radio and after shaking off the sleep starts performing Skater boy by Avril. Bam pulls into a rest stop, "If I don't stop I'm gonna piss myself and punch Ry for screaming in my ear." It's Ry's turn to drive so you're in the back seat with the boys in the front. The rest of the ride is spent screaming and dancing to music together. Until you fall asleep for the last few hours only waking up when Bam shakes you and yells, "WAKE UP DIPSHIT WE'RE HOME!"

[st-louis]

NICK SUZUKI: 2018 every player on the montreal canadiens [16/28]

drafted 13th overall by the vegas golden knights in 2018

his younger brother ryan also plays center; they have historically been very close but also very competitive. nick plays rough enough against him that ryan needed stitches at least once as a kid, and nick, who won the ohl sportsmanship award three years running, got a penalty for slashing ryan and tried to tell the referee that it was okay because they were brothers

(ryan is now a canes prospect)

when he was younger he once cellied too hard. his grandfather arthur, himself an accomplished basketball player, told him not to do it, but to act like he had done it before, and was planning to do it again.

growing up, his hero / the guy he modeled his game after was patrice bergeron. to the point not only did he wear 37 in owen sound, but where he snapped at someone in the bruins ahl organization for wearing 37 because he thought it was disrespectful.

i am actually going to put all of this under a cut because it’s so long. unfortunately i just have a lot of feelings about him.

he was drafted 14th overall in the ohl by the owen sound attack

in his first season with the attack, he had 20 goals and 18 assists. in his second season, he had 45 goals and 51 assists. in his third season, he had 42 goals and 58 assists. he was given an A.

in his fourth year, he had 22 goals and 23 assists with the attack, as well as wearing the C, before he was traded to the guelph storm to help them with their playoffs. he finished the regular season with 12 goals and 37 assists with guelph, then during the playoffs, scored 16 goals and had 26 assists.

in guelph he was reunited with a childhood best friend and flyers prospect, isaac ratcliffe, the captain of the storm. together they led the storm to an ohl championship, and just fell short of winning the memorial cup. literally anytime that ratty is asked about nick he just gushes. and gushes. and gushes:

nick has been plagued since juniors by the perception that he’s too small and not a good enough skater; his size was a large reason he dropped out of the top ten, and i truly believe he was incredibly upset about it

he heard that scouts thought he was too small and literally went out and gained like ten pounds in between the draft and his first dev camp. he’s been steadily bulking up since then. at his second camp,  he was 201 lbs. currently he’s 208 pounds and finally big enough to start pushing back.

he was very conscious about how people viewed him: “the hardest part was) probably just the noise . . . i didn’t know where i was going to go at the start of the year and scouts and people were starting to write about me. you try not to look into it too much, but basically every kid is going to read about themselves. they say they won’t but they definitely are. just seeing negatives and things like that is always tough. I’m trying to tell [ryan] to stay away from it, but for me, i was reading about it too much.”

in juniors he took so much abuse. like insane amounts of abuse. i think about this comment in the athletic regularly:

like i said, he won the sportsmanship award three years running. because he just took all of this abuse and didn’t really fight back and took very minimal penalty minutes. 

he broke a light fixture on his first day in vegas dev camp.

when he was interviewing with teams in the combine, he told every single team that the most important thing to him was to be known as a winner.

he’s just an incredibly fun player to watch, he’s so smart and deceptive. here’s a fun video breakdown before he ever even really cracked the nhl lineup. and another one.

in september 2018, he was literally in dev camp in vegas when he found out he’d been traded to montreal in exchange for max pacioretty, the CAPTAIN. he was so upset by it that his parents had to take him to the grand canyon to calm down.

it’s probably the best thing that could have happened to him. vegas was in win now mode and as you can see from cody glass, aren’t fantastic at developing centers. 

ultimately, nick’s view of the trade was that he wanted to prove montreal right for picking him.

no one really expected him to make the roster out of montreal’s dev camp. he was insistent that he did not want to go to the ahl and that his sole goal was to make the roster, whether as a center (his natural position) or a winger. there was a lot of internal competition between him and ryan poehling. but poehling got a concussion and nick basically forced his way into the lineup by playing so well in the preseason games.

he started out the year on the fourth line, as a winger. then he played his way back to center. then he played his way up the lineup. then he basically forced the habs to trade max domi because there wasn’t any room for him in the lineup anymore. basically the thing i love most about him is that whenever anyone doubts him, he just outworks and outsmarts them and proves everyone wrong.

just leaving this here:

just to note, nick does not believe in the rookie wall.

in his rookie season, in 71 games played, he scored 13 goals and 28 assists, for 41 points. in his first playoffs, in 10 games played, he scored 4 goals and 3 assists.

in the playoffs he got into some hot water for patting carter hart on the head after joel armia scored a goal. it was pretty dumb how big a deal was made of it; nick apologized.

he finished his rookie season in 36th place for the lady byng (lmao) and 9th for the calder. he was named to the nhl all-rookie team.

even in his rookie year, he got honorable mentions from teammates for best stickhandler and saucer passer. he also got 18.75% of the vote for best singing voice.

his play in the bubble is literally one of the main reasons tyler toffoli signed with the habs: he wanted to be lineys with nick.

in his sophomore season, in 56 games played, nick scored 15 goals and 26 assists, matching his point totals in 15 less games. in his second postseason, in 22 games played, he scored 7 goals and 9 assists.

he started out the year on a hot streak on a line with jo drouin and josh anderson, then hit kind of a scoring slump (although imo, he was still playing well, just not lighting up the board) and then picked it up again at the end of the year on a line with either cole caufield and joel armia, or cole caufield and tyler toffoli. people were VICIOUS about the slump... i still hold grudges to this day.

he was one of the most utilized forwards by ice time per game and sometimes played upwards of 20 minutes. sometimes he played more minutes than the defensemen.

he’s always one of the last ones off the ice in between periods and he’s always reviewing video on the ipad and i love that about him

his mom describes him as an old soul and a homebody who misses his parents and would rather spend the night in with his girlfriend than anything else (they are high school sweethearts).

he has a fancy cat named milo who is an instagram star imo

basically any older player (ilya kovalchuk, nate thompson, phil danault, tyler toffoli, corey perry, etc) who has played with him is like 

seriously his relationship with phil danault is really sweet. they stick up for each other in the media, phil “teaches [nick] his tricks,” and they have an intricate ritual where they tenderly bonk heads before every game

same with corey, who he skates with in the off season

his ritual with eddy is also fantastic

he’s like... polite and humble and responsible in availabilities and always ready to take responsibility for his own failures and missteps (i’m thinking of the one game where they lost in ot because he misread the play and completely flubbed it and he a) said it was his fault and he needed to play better and b) sounded kind of like he was going to cry)

but he’s also lowkey very ambitious. he and kk have discussed their future plans for the team and the fact that they want to win the cup, and he’s also not shy about indicating that he would like to be the captain one day. he’s well on his way.

he’s also a little cocky, but like, in a “i know i’m good but i work hard for it” way

legitimately his little attitude that flashes through is so funny to me

despite his grandfather’s celly advice, he’s got some fantastic ones

he was “scared” at the beginning of his first season and very shy with the other guys at first, but once he got comfortable, you can see how funny he is and how much fun he has with the other players.

he has such a cute sense of humor

legitimately, he’s one of my favorite players to watch. even when he’s just playing and not doing anything incredibly spectacular, it’s so obvious how smart he is and how well he sees the ice.

even his passes are just so fucking good

he has a pair of lucky socks that are full of holes

he’s a bengals fan (gally got him into them)

his bad habit is picking his fingernails

his friendships with kk and cole and cale fleury are really cute.

he and cole have fantastic on-ice chemistry and i am thrilled every time i think about the fact that we get to watch them for YEARS

he is an extremely  underrated shit stirrer

he still takes a ton of physical abuse, from being hit constantly to legit just straight up punched in the face in front of a ref, and he just bounces back up every time

he was one of the few habs to play every single regular and postseason game this year

he still gets chills every time he steps on the ice at the centre bell

he is an incredibly sweet kid who loves his teammates. he was the first person to go and physically comfort shea weber after the habs lost in the stanley cup finals.

eric engels sums him up:

literally i could talk about him forever so i will end here by saying that he’s going to be a star (he already is imo, but consider: he is 21. he’s this good at 21. he’s only going to get better).

to quote cole caufield: he’s a special player. he makes everyone he plays with better.

[vangoghmusings]

— when the karasuno volleyball team is required by the vice principle to join another extra curricular, the boys decide to audition for the school musical. what could possibly go wrong?

pairing: sugawara koushi x third-year fem!reader

word count: 422

previously: auditions

a/n: sorry this part is kinda short, part of it is in smau format though! i cant seem to not write a fic without it whoops :) but i hope you guys enjoy!! p.s. in the cast list the “.....” signify a person that is not a hq character or oc has taken that role 

taglist: two spots left!! once it closes you can keep track by following #vangoghmusings break free 

callbacks

What is a callback? What is a tenor? What is a monologue?  

Suga’ s Google search history looked like a chapter straight out of Musicals for Dummies. In preparation for callbacks, he figured he could actually try and understand what he was getting himself into.  

Callbacks came and Suga felt like a bull in a china shop, one wrong move and he would destroy the entire show and the roles weren’t even announced. That was until the following Wednesday.  

A small crowd, mostly the Karasuno volleyball team, gathered around the bulletin board, murmuring as they read the cast list in unison.

TROY BOLTON: KOUSHI SUGAWARA

GABRIELLA MONTEZ: Y/N L/N  

SHARPAY EVANS: KEI TSUKISHIMA  

RYAN EVANS: TADASHI YAMAGUCHI  

CHAD DANFORTH: DAICHI SAWAMURA

TAYLOR MCKESSIE: TJ ADAMS  

KELSI NIELSON: …...  

COACH BOLTON: ASAHI AZUMANE  

MRS. DARBUS: YU NISHINOYA  

PREP ENSEMBLE: …..

MARTHA COX: TOBIO KAGEYAMA  

THESIPIAN ENSEMBLE: …..  

SPORTS ENSELMBLE: …..  

ZEKE BAYLOR: …...  

JASON CROSS: …...

SKATER ENSEMBLE:  

SKATER #1: SHOYO HINATA  

Suga’s eyes widened in shock. He managed to get the lead.  

“How-”  

“DO YOU SEE THAT? DO YOU SEE THAT GUYS?! I GOT THE ROLE OF SKATER #1 AKA THE BEST SKATER!” Hinata cheered while leaping up and down.  

“What kind of name is Martha Cox,” grumbled Kageyama, causing Yamaguchi and Tsuki to snicker.  

“Ugh move! God you guys are hogging the entire hallway!”  

Suga blinked, turning to see Y/N pushing throw the crowd, TJ behind her. He moved and let her pass, watching as her eyes darted across the list. He smiled softly, watching as hers broke into a wide smile.  

“I did it I got the lead! And TJ! You got Taylor!” The girls squealed and hugged each other tightly.  

Y/N turned back to the cast list and frowned. She swiftly turned around and glared at the clumped-up group of volleyball boys.  

“If any of you dare to make a mockery of this show, I will have no shame in making the rest of your time at Karasuno miserable. Got it?”  

She smiled at the now gawking boys and turned to Suga.  “Here’s my number. We’ll need to practice lines and dance numbers together.” She scribbled her number on a page of her assignment notebook, tore it out and handed it to him. “I’ll see you at rehearsal.”  

“U-uh yeah,” Suga stuttered, blinking as she pushed back out of the crowd and down the hallway, TJ following while laughing.  

“You’re going to scare them off you know,” Taylor laughed, looping her arm over Y/N’s shoulder.  

“I know,” Y/N smirked.  

taglist: @mariachiii @oikawaplssteponme @melanimed @mixfi @iiminibattlehero @photosbyameil @bnhainthewoo @mypimpademia @myhoodacademia @lunabby010 @mythiccheroacademia @ecao  @denkisdurag @plutropica @cremeandstrawberries @koushisun @wrongbitch24 @humanitysbiggestsimp @complimentaryhugsgirl @oii-sugasan @mushfairy @abuliawrites @ms-riah07 @playwright-tsuzuru @darlingkuroo @jessie9008 @the-enchanting-necromancer [ORANGE TAG- PLEASE CHECK YOUR TAG SETTINGS <3]

[bqstqnbruin]

The other end of the spectrum

I don’t think I’ve written for any av besides Tyson, but don’t worry, he’s in this fic, I just kinda had to. But this was requested like a decade ago (no exaggeration there since you know I’ve had my account for about a year), and I still have three (maybe ?) more to work through. That being said, though, because I suck, Teach me something 3 is probably going to be dropping v soon since that is almost done.

Again, ignore typos (or point them out be like ummm excuse me) 

I hope you like it! -------------------------

Should you be skating with your AirPods in? It wasn’t something that you had ever tried before, but it might be worth a shot now, right? But they were expensive, what if they flew out of your ears during your Biellmann spin, or while you’re trying to land your triple axel and ended up breaking on impact when they hit the ice? What if they fell out and someone skated over them? You could argue that whoever did that would have to buy you new ones, but you really weren’t that type of person to do something like that. Maybe, you could just try with something slow and see how they felt? 

If only the rink weren’t open to everyone right now. Then you could lose yourself in the music of your routine like you did every time you were on the ice alone. You couldn’t make everyone get off the ice, either. Free skate was just that: free. There were parents with their children teaching them how to skate, some teenagers messing around on the ice, laughing, and making fun of how they look with their shorts and skates since it was the middle of the summer. None of them seemed to realize beforehand that the rink would still be cold since it was, you know, ice. One guy seemed to catch your interest: the only one skating around with a puck and a hockey stick. Hockey players and figure skaters were the exact opposite of the skating spectrum; you were all about delicacy and grace, hockey players were brash, crude, and rough. You were even on the ‘rougher’ side of a figure skater, and that only meant that you swore a little too much and didn’t really have an indoor voice. And yet, you were still infinitely more elegant than any hockey player you had ever encountered. 

Whatever. You had managed to be on one end of the ice while it seemed like everyone else besides hockey boy was on the other. If you started your routine or even just practiced some of the elements of the routine that you knew you needed to work on, maybe that would get him to go to the other end. Sure, it wasn’t completely fair, but, hey, it’s worked before. 

The AirPods were going to stay in, you decide, praying that nothing happens to the small expensive things in your ear. You start your routine, drowning out the sounds of the other skaters and letting the music fill your head. You close your eyes, not fully doing each element as you imagine a crowd around you. Competitions used to terrify you; the idea of a bunch of people holding their breath every time you did any sort of jump to let out a gasp if you fell or faltered, people averting their eyes if you had any sort of wardrobe malfunction that wouldn’t necessarily hurt your ability to skate, but would definitely hurt your ability to earn points from the judges, the overall sense of being watched was enough to almost make you quit the sport altogether. Now, it’s just natural, not being able to skate unless you know someone was watching you.

And someone was. Hockey boy, of all people, had stopped what he was doing with his stick and puck, standing against the boards, mesmerized by your fluid movements. He could tell that you weren’t doing everything to completion, but there was something about the way you seemed to take control of the ice that he couldn’t help but just stare at you. Your eyes were closed, it looked like you were muttering to yourself. Your hair was in a bun perched messily on top of your head, random strands framing your face seemingly perfectly. Who were you?

You decide to practice your camel spin; something that you were struggling with was making sure your leg was parallel, so might as well try now. You knew how it felt when it was right, you just had to actually get it right. Your music hits the place in your routine where you start to gear up for it, looking around you and seeing that you have open ice, you go for it. You do the move going right into it without problem. You can feel your leg just out of place as you speed up into the camel spin, not quite there. The music surrounds you in your AirPods, until one of them goes flying out. You stop your spin, trying to orient yourself and figure out where the small white ear piece went on the ice.

“Shit,” you mutter to yourself, scanning the ice to see if you can find it. If someone skates over it, you were going to throw a fit. Not at them, of course, because it was your own damn fault for wearing them in the first place, but a fit nonetheless. 

“I think this is yours?” a deep voice comes from behind you. You spin around to see the hockey player standing in front of you, AirPod in hand. He almost looks nervous to be standing in front of you.

“Uh, yeah, thanks,” you say, taking it from him and putting it back in. The music fills your ears again, only to realize that his mouth was moving. “Sorry?” you say, pausing the music so you can hear him.

“Oh, uh, I was just saying that what you just did looked really good.” His eyes dart between you and the ice, shifting his weight between his skates as he runs his hands through his hair. There was no way a hockey player could be this nervous in front of you. While you weren’t frail, you weren’t exactly made of pure muscle. People could tell you did some dainty sport just by looking at you. 

“Um, thanks. It wasn’t right, though,” you admit, looking at your phone to try to get back to where that move came in the music.

“What do you mean?” 

Was he actually interested? He could have skated away already if he weren’t and you were about to start talking to someone else to get rid of him, nor were you going to try to be rude to him. “My leg is supposed to be parallel to the ice when it’s in the air, and it wasn’t. For some reason, I’m struggling getting it up.” 

You look at each other, both blushing at the unintentionally sexual thing you had just said, “I’m willing to ignore how bad that sounded if you are.” Neither of you can help your laughter, but wow, he had a really nice laugh. 

“Can I help you in any way?” he offers, putting his stick down against the boards. 

“Uh, just watch me I guess? See if it looks like my leg is parallel or not?” you suggest. He nods, backing up to give you space after you hand him your phone with your music playing. You go on with the move, knowing that it didn’t feel right. “I have done this element hundreds of times, and yet in this rountine, I can’t get my leg parallel.”

“I mean, it looked parallel,” he says, skating back to you. You scrunch your face, obviously frustrated. Maybe you didn’t know how it felt when it was parallel? Or maybe you had stretched differently? No, you knew exactly how it felt. Maybe he didn’t know what parallel was. “I could help in any way you need me to, I just don’t know what I would do,” he spits out, his voice shaking again. Was he really nervous to be around you? Since when was a figure skater more confident than a hockey player?

“No, it’s fine, but thanks. I see my coach tomorrow, so I’ll have her check it out,” you shrug, bothered by the fact that you can’t get a simple move. 

You start to skate away, muttering a goodbye when hockey boy speaks up, “Wait! Are you going?”

“I was going to. I’ve kind of been here all day working on my routine, so I was going to go grab food.” 

“Maybe you’d like some company,” he asks, shuffling his weight between each skate, looking down at the ice. He brings his eyes up to meet yours, a smile on his face as his face turns red in anticipation of your answer.

“I don’t know if I should be going out with someone who hasn’t even told me his name,” you say, watching his face go from horror to relief.

“I’m Nate.” 

“Well, Nate, where do you want to go?”

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

Nate walked up to the Pepsi Center, feeling weird that he wasn’t in a suit and carrying a cup of coffee, but a bouquet of flowers, dressed in a normal t-shirt and jeans and also using the same entrance as everyone else. 

“Do you even like figure skating?” Ryan asks, him and Tyson trailing behind Nate as they struggle to keep up with Nate’s anxiously fast-paced walking. 

“I think he likes his girl more,” Tyson says. “Hey, man. Slow down.” 

Nate didn’t know why he was so nervous. It wasn’t over seeing you; you had been dating for nearly four months now. He might be more nervous about seeing you perform in general. You weren’t nervous about the competition and for some reason, it made him nervous; sympathy nerves? Were those a thing?

“She’s going to be fine, you know that, right? You said you’ve watched her practice this routine like a million times or something?” Tyson asks, hoping that it’ll calm him down. Nate didn’t even get this nervous when they were about to play a game. They were about to play game seven of a playoff game last season and Nate was the calmest guy in the room. 

“I know, I know. She’s just been struggling with that camel spin since the day we met and her coach said that she was doing it fine and I said that she was doing fine but she didn’t think she was doing fine, and-” he rambles as the boys try to find their way to their seats.

“Dude. You’re not the one performing. Calm down,” Ryan says. 

“I just want her to do well,” he says, shaking his leg, driving Ryan crazy. Tyson didn’t care much, but he just couldn’t figure out why his teammate was this nervous. 

“She’s going to be fine,” Tyson reassures him, hoping that that was enough.

Nate’s leg kept shaking the entire time. They watched routine after routine: men’s short, pairs, ice dance, no one he knew since it was a United States competition and he had no idea who even came to these things. The only reason he remembered figure skating existed at this point was because of you. 

You were waiting your turn to perform, running through your routine in the back area they had set up for the skaters to warm up, practice, stretch, calm down, do whatever they needed to do without pulling a Tonya Harding. Your coach was watching you intently, not nagging you enough to stress you out, but enough that you were fighting the urge to roll your eyes at the trivial things she was telling you. You already knew what you needed to do, and at this point, so close to you stepping on the ice, nothing in your routine was going to change unless someone hit you with a bat. 

It’s your turn, all the nerves you thought you would be feeling melting away. “You’ve got this,” your coach says before pretty much shoving you on the ice. 

You hear your name called over the speakers, waiting for the judges to give them the alright for the music to start and your routine to begin. 

“Yeah, Y/N!” you hear three voices call, trying to be in unison, but just off enough that you could make out one of the voices: Nate. You didn’t even know he was coming. You can’t help but smile, a real genuine smile, unlike the practically forced one you normally had on when you were performing. 

The music starts, you going through your routine like it was second nature. Knowing Nate was there made the routine feel so easy; every move you did felt right, the crowd seemed to be on their feet, not that you even paid much attention to them. You had no idea where Nate even was in the stands, not bothering to look for him until your routine was done. You wave to the crowd, everyone cheering, you hearing your coach screaming from the side. You find Nate, Ryan, and Tyson, excited to see them after the competition was over.

“That was amazing kid! You looked like you went to a whole other place while you were on the ice!” your coach boasts. You forgot you were even actually skating a competition for a moment there, “That might be a winning routine right there.” 

You hadn’t even thought about winning, you just needed a high enough score to be invited to the next competition. It was the road to nationals, the road to the national team for the next world championships. But winning? That would be amazing, and definitely help your case for the national team. 

You and your coach sit down, waiting for your score. You scan the audience, trying to orient yourself and find the boys again. Ryan looked like he was there because he had to be, which was fine; he didn’t really strike you as the type to want to go to a figure skating competition. Tyson seemed like he was enjoying himself, for the most part, maybe he actually liked the routines. But then there was Nate. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off you, even when you were just sitting down, pretending to listen to your coach ramble on about the next competition. You couldn’t believe he would come and surprise you like this. Or that he would not only make two of his teammates come, but also make them yell your name like they were teenage girls about to see their favorite boyband. 

The score was in, you were just waiting for the judges to announce it. This was the part you hated the most: the waiting. You were one of the last skaters, so whatever place this put you in was probably going to be your standing, maybe one place lower. Your score was in: five points higher than the next. “Holy shit!” you say, your coach hugging you as you sit there shocked.

“That’s first place! That’s first fucking place!” Nate starts screaming, Tyson and Ryan trying to get him to calm his excitement down, especially since there were children around. He couldn’t help it; his girlfriend probably just secured first place at the competition, especially after he watched her struggling with the routine in the days leading up to it. 

The next few skaters go, coming close to your score, but none of them really able to break it. There was one more skater, a girl who’s made the national team for the last four years in a row. If you came in second to her, you wouldn’t be that mad about it. 

She does her routine, you watching on the TV in the back while you know your phone was blowing up with texts from Nate. He knew that you wouldn’t look at it until the end of the competition, but that didn’t stop him from sending texting you about his excitement anyway. 

‘You were amazing’

‘I’m so proud of you!’

‘We’re going out after to celebrate’

‘But if you can’t tonight then we will tomorrow after the game’

The other skater finished the routine, she looked a little shaky in Nate’s opinion, but then again, what did he know. He was just so proud of you. “So after this, if Y/N can, do you guys want to come with us for a little celebration?” he askes Ryan and Tyson.

“Something tells me this celebration should be just the two of you,” Tyson says.

“Yeah, I really don’t want to be involved in whatever it is you guys are going to do,” Ryan adds.

“You guys don’t have to be gross,” Nate says. 

The score came in for the last skater: Y/N had a score 0.04 points higher than her.

You came in first place. You couldn’t believe it. Your coach practically lifted you off the ground, you were speechless, Nate was losing his shit in the stands. You couldn’t wait until after the medal ceremony for you to go see Nate. 

After you get your medal, congratulate the other skaters, and finally gather your things, the only thing on your mind was finding Nate, knowing that he had already waited for so long. “Nate!” you squeal when you see him, tossing your bag to Tyson, causing him to accidentally fall into Ryan as Nate picks you up off the ground, arms wrapped around you as he kisses you. 

“Get a room,” Ryan mutters playful under his breath as you two pull away blushing. “I’m joking,” he says, throwing his hands up in protest, “only get one if you both want to.”

You can’t help but laugh as Tyson tries to hit him with your bag. “God, Y/N, I thought hockey bags were heavy, what do you have in here?” He asks, handing it off to Nate.

“Costumes, skates, tights, warm-up clothes, headphones, makeup, hair stuff,” you start to list off, Nate throwing his arm around you as the four of your start to walk, “I think I have a mirror in there, some books.”

“Books?” Nate asks.

“What? We have a lot of free time,” you shrug. “But I’m curious: did you bring those flowers for one of your boys?” you tease him.

“Yeah, they’re for Ryan for not pouting the entire time,” he jokes, sending Tyson into a fit of laughter while Ryan punches him in the arm. Nate hands you the bouquet filled with sunflowers and roses, your favorite flowers. “These, I hope obviously, are for you.” 

“I love them,” you beam, stretching up to kiss him on the cheek. “You had mentioned going out tonight? Are you two coming, too?” 

“Nope, we’re going home,” Ryan says, jingling his keys in your face. 

“I was hoping to get a ride with you?” Nate asks, “Ryan drove the three of us here.” 

“Sure, where to?” 

“His house,” Ryan says, Tyson smacking him in the chest. “What! They could order food and be in private that is a perfectly reasonable suggestion!” Tyson pulls him away before he can say anything else, Ryan defending him while Tyson just tells him to quit while he’s behind since he has no chance of getting ahead. 

“Interesting choice of teammates to bring,” you tell him as his free hand intertwines in yours. 

He shrugs, walking with you to his car, “They were the only ones who I could convince to come.” 

“What did you have to promise them?” 

“I may or may not have to tie their skates for a few games,” he says, throwing your bag in the back seat as the two of you climb into your car. 

“You did that for me?” you say, pretending to swoon to make him laugh. 

“I think we’ve established that I would do almost anything for you.” 

“Great, because I need to go rob a bank real quick,” you joke, getting another laugh out of him as you pull away from Pepsi Center and head towards his place.

In the middle of his laugh, you hear him let out, “I love you.” His eyes go wide with shock, surprised he just let that slip. He had planned on telling you how he felt soon, but not like this. Not on some night in your car on your way home from a competition. 

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see him starting to freak out over what he just said. That was the first time you had heard him say it, but you knew he meant it. “You do?” you ask anyway, not bothering to hide the smile on your face.

“Well, uh, yeah,” he says, trying to calm himself down. Great. Now he was more nervous than he was before you did the routine. “You don’t have to say it back, I don’t know where you stand and I definitely don’t want you to think that I’m pressuring you into saying it or anything,” he starts to ramble.

“Oh, be quiet jitters,” you say, cutting him off before he takes it back altogether, “I love you, too.” 

[shyanshippingsociety]

Shyan Shipping Society Fic Promo - June 11 to June 18 2021

last week

another fic friday! on saturday night! listen, nobody's perfect. i gotta work it. again and again 'til i get it right.

anyway, it took some extra time to cook this one up because it's ESPECIALLY spicy! yeah, that's why!

June 11

if you really need me by RedLlamas | E, 2.4K, complete

After a marathon of sex, Ryan and Shane are angling for their fifth consecutive orgasms, but as they work for it, danger signals go off in Shane's head.

He said see you later, boy by Dippingmytoesindreams | G, 1.4K, complete

Shane is an inline skater, Ryan is a skateboarder. Can I make it anymore obvious?

June 13

The Place Where We Meet by Golden4278 & mightbeashaniac | E, 50K, incomplete

When knight Ryan Bergara received the honor of becoming the Prince's personal guard, he didn't know what to expect. He certainly didn't expect to become a babysitter for a spoiled brat and he most certainly did not expect to develop complicated feelings.

But as Ryan and Shane's relationship becomes more real, so too does the danger the kingdom faces.

look who's inside again by idkspookystuff | E, 4k, complete

RYAN (4:23PM) ok but there’s gotta be something kinky ur into

Ryan & Shane try a new scene.

June 14

my hands are shaking from holding back from you by morgueling | E, 3.6K, complete

Shane isn’t paying much attention, really, patting down his pockets to make sure he hasn’t forgotten anything that he’ll have to come back for.

He glances over at the sound of a zipper being pulled, just in time to watch Ryan adjusting a long black boot over her thigh.

Well, fuck. He’s definitely paying attention now.

June 15

Whale Songs by denimwrapped | T, 2.5K, complete

It could be humming, he thinks. Some distant angelic humming. What it’s humming about, he’d have to find out the hard way. All he can hear in his mind’s ear is come closer. There’s so much more in the depths than you’ve ever known.

June 17

pressing all your buttons by Zhalia | E, 5.1K, complete

There’s absolutely nothing in the world he would rather do than walk to Ryan’s home, let Ryan fuck him against a wall so hard he loses his mind and forgets everything. It's an itch, deep in his bones, that only Ryan can scratch.

If only he didn’t break off their… arrangement.

Shane decides it's best for them to stop whatever it is they're doing, to protect both himself and Ryan.

Ryan... well, Ryan disagrees.

all my thoughts turn to you by popkin16 | E, 12.1K, incomplete

Ryan meets the parent of his favorite student. And oh no, he's CUTE.

if you want to read some more fics, you can always check out our ao3 collection! see you all next friday hopefully!

[amphtaminedreams]

Farewell to Spooky Season, AHS Style: Lookbook no.12

Hi to anyone reading,

Happy belated Halloween!

I capitalise it because if I'm gonna recognise any day as sacred, it’s the spookiest one of the year! Halloween 2020 obviously hasn’t been as exciting as usual, parties and club nights being banned has meant there’s been far less opportunities to dress up, but I still managed to get out for the night before they announced the upcoming second lockdown and do a couple of spooky movie nights (and carve a pumpkin!)!

I originally intended for this lookbook to be last minute halloween costume inspo but I was lazy and didn’t manage to get it out on time-a lot of these looks minus the makeup and maybe an accessory or two could work on any day or night out so I thought I’d go ahead and post it now anyway. Celebrating the fashion moments of American Horror Story is something I’ve wanted to do for a while; it’s probably not the first show you’d think of for sartorial inspiration but Mr. Ryan Murphy has fucking fantastic taste in stylists and the first five seasons of AHS in particular, which I’ll be focussing on in this post, have given us SO many amazing looks. The man may be guilty of many things-subjecting us to the character of Will Schuester, trying to turn Richard Ramirez into a thirst trap, embarrassing everyone who raved about how good Scream Queens was when he wrote season 2-but costume related laziness is not one of them. We see more consistency in a Ryan Murphy character’s wardrobe than we do in their story arcs and I respect that because honestly, as much as I love joining in when it comes to ripping into his ability to cohesively bring an AHS season to a close when it airs, I’d probably be the same; if you put Lady Gaga in front of me and told me to write her lines I’d probably end up getting overly invested in what her character was going to be wearing in the scene too. 

So! Enough Ryan Murphy bashing from me! I’ll get on with it! Starting with 3 season 1 inspired looks:

Murder House: Elizabeth Short, Tate Langdon and Violet Harmon

-striped jumper from caitlinlark on Depop, kick flare jeans from ellagray-

When it comes to reflecting on season 1 of American Horror Story, all I can say do is thank the internet overlords that Tumblr has moved on from the romanticising school shooters and wearing normal people scare me tops phase to instead collectively taking the piss out of the “GO AWAY, TATE!”, “YOU’RE ALL THAT I WANTTT! YOU’RE ALL THAT I HAVEEE!” exchange. 

In terms of fashion *moments*, whilst season 1 doesn’t stand out as much as the seasons that come after, Violet and Tate’s wardrobes did give birth to a bit of a 90s grunge renaissance with their oversized knits and faded jeans and layering of textures. It did also give us good costumes in the form of Alexandra Breckenridge’s Moira O’Hara and Mena Suvari’s portrayal of the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short; unfortunately, I didn’t have a slutty maid costume lying around so I did the best I could at giving the outfit Elizabeth wears when she makes that fateful visit to the Murder House a modern, more party appropriate update.

In terms of season rankings, Murder House isn’t my favourite. It starts off really great but lulls a bit towards the end and I could never get behind Violet and Tate as a couple because you know, one of them is a school shooter who sexually assaults the other’s mum, and that’s a hurdle that I think most couples might struggle to get over irl. That being said, it was the season that started it all and showcased some of the most innovative writing and directing on TV, and it opened up a spot for horror on primetime television which as far as I know was kind of unheard of before then. Back when I first watched it, I had no idea what to expect not only because I’d never seen horror in a serial format but also because it seemed to be able to get away with the kind of storylines you’d expect network executives to fire people over. It introduced us to Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters and Denis O’Hare who would go on to make the show what it is today and more importantly, through Jessica’s glorious portrayal of Constance Langdon, provide us with an endlessly versatile meme format for this trying time.

Asylum: ‘60s Lana Winters, ‘70s Lana Winters, and Sister Mary Eunice McKee

-afghan coat from louisemarcella on Depop, red AA skater dress from julietramage, pink gingham co-ord from zshamim-

I think we can all agree: Asylum would’ve been a perfect series of television if it wasn’t for the completely unnecessary alien storyline. Like, I get that they fit in with the whole good vs. evil theme as a kind of non-biblical alternative to the idea of a higher, all-powerful being but there was already so much going on that it just wasn’t needed. Aside from that, I think the general consensus amongst watchers of the show is that Asylum has the best writing of any season and I think I’d tend to agree. It’s not my favourite because it’s too depressing to rewatch but if we’re talking the first time round, this is the series that had me hooked. Lana Winters?

Iconic. 

Sister Mary Eunice? Iconic. The Name Game? Iconic. Remember when you couldn’t go a day on Facebook without seeing that one photo of Naomi Grossman as Pepper used as the go to “what I really look like” photo in one of those “expectation vs. reality” style posts on your newsfeed? Those were simpler times.

Because this season was mostly situated within the hospital, we didn’t get that many proper outfits but when we did, they were stunning; if I had to state my absolute favourite AHS character of the entire show I’d probably go with Lana Winters and the part her wardrobe played in her characterisation would 100% play a part in that. The late 60s/early 70s was such a wonderful period for fashion and through her character we get to see both of those explored a little. Of course there’s also *that* Sister Mary Eunice scene with the red slip dress and suspenders too which yes, could be a perfect halloween costume, but I also strongly believe should be a perfectly acceptable outfit for any day of the year. 

Coven: Misty Day, Madison Montgomery, and Zoe Benson

-chiffon dress from rags_to_riches on Depop, pinstripe corset from hanpiercey, and tennis skirt from mollie_morton-

I hate to be a basic bitch but I have to say it: Coven is my favourite season of American Horror Story. Once you get over the complete waste of Evan Peters’ acting capabilities that resulted from the *choice* to have him play Kyle, the unnecessary rehash of the Evan/Taissa pairing from season 1 in what I can only assume was an attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the questionable Tate/Violet relationship, and the subsequent sacrifice of any interesting character arc we could’ve foreseen for Zoe Benson beyond her obsessing over a resurrected, non-verbal frat boy, it’s a perfect season. A supreme (heh) balance of horror, humour, and character drama, as well as the stunning aesthetics and forever quotable dialogue, make it my go-to season if I’m ever considering a rewatch. And if you disagree, let me jog your memory with the most mainstream (not to get all “normal people scare me” and suggest AHS is not a mainstream show, I literally just mean in the sense that even those who have never watched the show will have seen this)  reaction GIF set any FX show has even spawned:

Buzzfeed employees had a field day, Emma Roberts enthusiasts (I mean me) finally saw her cemented as the pop culture icon Scream Queens has since showed us she deserves to be (because not enough people have seen Unfabulous, Nancy Drew or Scream 4) and the gays everywhere rejoiced at the year’s worth of meme fodder they’d been provided with. It was Madison Montgomery’s world and we were truly just living in it.

And the fashion! I mean, Stevie Nicks meets 21st century teenage witches! Come on! 

Freakshow: Dandy Mott, Maggie Esmerelda and Elsa Mars

-olive green satin skirt from morganogle on Depop, headscarf from tonijordan, platform sandals from elliefewt, PVC skirt from bethpin_, corset top from sadieflinter, beret from house_of_erotique, flame detail platform boots from mad_rags_vintage-

When people talk about the declining quality of AHS, they usually point to Freakshow as the beginning of the end, but I have to completely disagree. I wasn’t a fan the first time round but on rewatch it’s probably the most emotional season of them all; no, there aren’t as many “horrifying” moments as in other seasons and Elsa is probably Jessica’s worst performance (which is still an incredible one by anybody else’s standards), however it makes up for it with the most sympathetic bunch of characters yet, and on the flip side, also one of the most amusingly depraved with Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott. Fans usually argue that the season went downhill once *SPOILER* Twisty the Clown was killed off but for me, he really primarily served as the catalyst for the far more interesting devolution of Dandy, who, imo, is the show’s strongest villain to date, rivalled only by Bloody Face. Then there was the episode Orphans too which made me cry buckets, the sole AHS episode to do so. 

We got a lot of great fashion content in this season too: the theatrical opulence of Elsa Mars’ wardrobe, “Maggie”’s nomadic fortune teller costumes, and all those twee suits we saw Finn Wittrock in. Highly underrated if you ask me. It seems an odd choice for me to use Elsa’s Dominatrix look as an inspiration for one of my looks here when we have that Life on Mars performance outfit and all the extravagant robes Jessica got to waltz around in for reference buuuut I didn’t really have anything to do the vibrancy of either of those justice so I went with the black leather option which is much more me. Am I saying I moonlight as a dominatrix? Maybe. Lol, no. I wish. It’s not for lack of trying. WHERE ARE ALL THE GENUINE TWITTER PAYPIGS AT!? Your girl wants to insult creepy men and get some new clothes out of it xoxo

Hotel: Hypodermic Sally, Liz Taylor, and The Countess

-silk white bralet from xlibby_maix on Depop-

Hotel is another season that I liked a lottttt more upon rewatch, once I knew I was okay to tune out the (completely predictable and utterly nonsensical) Ten Commandments Killer storyline that so much of the season initially seems to hinge on. I love Chloë Sevigny but the fact that her and Wes Bentley’s wooden John and Alex Lowe are positioned as the protagonists at the expense of the far more interesting Liz Taylor, James March and Hypodermic Sally really does a disservice to what is an otherwise great season upon initial viewing.

The visuals this season are magnificent and I think if I had to pick one character’s wardrobe to steal from the entire cast of AHS characters, it would be The Countess (a toss up between her and Misty Day tbh, so I kinda just settle for low-key channelling both). No fucking idea where I'd wear any of her clothes to but I’d make it work. Liz Taylor and Hypodermic Sally have some amazing looks too-there’s just honestly so much to choose from; that being said, this post wouldn’t be complete without a specific ode to the vampire goddess Elizabeth Bathory, who is everything I want to be in life minus the murderous qualities:

Everything. EVER-Y-THING. LOOK AT HER!

Lady Gaga is really a fucking goddess isn’t she. And people were claiming before they’d even seen it that she couldn’t act? A patriarchal society doesn’t like women that can do it all. Just saying. 

Anyways!

That’s it for now! I hope you enjoyed the post if you did read til the end! Sorry I couldn’t get this out before Halloween, I was typing and Picmonkey-ing madly from 2 in the afternoon on the 31st but I taking fucking forever to get ready and had to abandon all hope of getting it out on the day by 4PM. I’ve got so much content planned and it sucks because a couple of them are lookbooks which now feel completely redundant given we’re heading into a second lockdown, but maybe I should just do it anyway? The grunge inspired moodboard I just did seemed to get a good reception too so I’ve got some more of them planned. 

As always, hope everyone is keeping well, and feel free to inbox me with any suggestions, queries or even just to say hi if you need someone to talk to! I check here quite a lot so I should see it. Lots of love to everyone in this time!

Lauren x

[lillaxtrigger]

Young Hope: Chapter 37

The shining sun beats down its heat rays upon the vast, greenless landscape of Utah; the only shadows cast along the dry grounds be from the towering rocky formations upsetting the wasteland horizons. Miles underneath all this dry ground however be a network of caverns that stretch out deeper down into the earth, signs of green spreading out through the caverns the deeper down they go until growing to cover the rocks in the massively sized flora. Suddenly from an entire wall of the overgrown plants, a blade of jet black pierce right through and slice the vines straight off their stems; all the severed leaves and petals fluttering down to the ground and clearing the path for the black horned demon himself, Alex. Following the shape shifting demon through the flora dressed caves be his purple haired mentor and his orange haired sister; both of them trailing behind the boy as he continues to slice through the vines and plants in their path. “Roy, do you honestly think its still a good idea to come along down here; I mean you still haven’t fully healed yet?” the orange girl questions her purple hooded brother. Traveling along the back of the pack, the merc can’t help but scratch the spot where is missing arm once was while he answers his sisters worry with: “Mal, relax. The doc said herself how bout 94% of my bod’s good to go, practically ready to take on whatever wants me to bend over and take it from behind. A bit of minor pains ain’t gonna stop me from thrusting myself straight into the action.” “You’d like that, wouldn’t you. All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t hurt ya to spend about another week or two in bed.” “Tell ya what. Ya hire a nurse with some sweet ass cake to come in and give a full body on body exam and I won’t be a bitch. Til then, I ain’t layin in that bed another day. There’s only so much pornography can satisfy before it stops being pleasurable and starts making ya feel sad, like the kind of sad that makes ya question the fuck your even doing with your life. And you and I both know that I don’t need that being crammed in my overflowing vault of mental problems right now.”

“Hmph. Like your the only one with ongoing problems. One that would be nice of you to answer is why you decided to drag me along in this horrible ordeal of a spelunking expedition; having to soil my ability gardening through this overgrown cavern just so clear a path. It’s patronizing.” the demon leading the way chimes in with. “What it is is that I’ve been letting you metaphorically sit on your demonic ass for way too long now. We need to get back on track with our regimen so your don’t wind up turning into a pompous chode hole, that’s how ya ass gets flat. You wanna be out walkin around people hiding that plank ass of yours, or you wanna bake some delicious thick cake for whoever ya fancy given a slice too?” “For the love of sweet satan, just shut the hell up!” the flustered demon demands, his cheeks blushing bright red. “Yeah, please stop.” the purple angel’s sister begs for him.

“Aight, fine, fine. I get it, the sexual innuendo quota’s full here. Let’s just change the subject.” “Yes, lets.” “So, what’s with those numbers that you found in the middle of the mountain with yer threesome pals.” “I-” A small sigh escapes from her lungs as she decides to simply skip past her brothers wording and starts to dig into the contents of her backpack; soon pulling out the very same withered piece of wood that takes the shape of a severed hand. “We went and found this next to all those carved in numbers. Ryan claimed that they were a bunch of coordinates that pinpointed somewhere deep underneath the soil of the Utah wastelands. It’s still shocking to find something other than hallucinogenic liquid filled cacti growing down under the scorching rocks.” “You’d be hella shocked what sort of stuff you could find under the earth if ya dig deep enough. I recall the time I took a job digging out for an underground trading ring and wound up finding a bunch of people going around and trading all sorts of human, animal, and miscellaneous organs and body parts. Like it seriously didn’t matter where the hell it came from; long as you had a working organ from anything, you could make a marginaly medium profit from your harvesting venture. I specifically remember this one guy cashing in like 450,000 dollars for trading in a whale eye; a whole giant functioning whale eye. I seriously didn’t expect something so fucking huge to have an eye the size of a baseball.” “That is-...that is some serious grody stuff. What sort of demented and horribly grotesque mind would even think about running a bracket like that.” “Never really went and questioned who was running that joint, though that might’ve been for the best. The organ black market is vast Mal. Long as people need working organs to live, somebody’s gonna be in the market to trade for one.”

As the demon cuts straight through another bramble of plants that stand in the trio’s way, Alex’s foot is caught on a wooden root that sprawls across the ground and lets out a yelp as he starts to trip over; both Mally and Roy witnessing the demon straight through the ground. “Holy shit! Alex!” the orange skater exclaims while rushing over to where she had seen the demon fall, discovering a steep dark pit before them. “Alex!” she shouts down, gazing into the dark void of the cavernous pit. Amidst her panicking worry that she witnesses their demonic third simply hover right back out from the depths of the pit; the skater’s worry diminishing as she proclaims that: “Oh yeah, you can fly. It’s been a while since I’ve seen ya, hasn’t it.” “Hmph! Did you really believe that my demise would come from simply falling into a lowly pit? I thought you would have known better.” Alex scoffs. “Geez, sorry for being so concerned.” the orange skater coldly retorts, her expression beginning to sour. “Kinda looked like you didn’t exactly remember for a sec there either, mate. Seriously just yelping there like a little jackal getting their foot caught in a bear trap.” the merc jests to the demon. “Gee, I’m quite blessed to have so many others with my best interests in mind.”

Their eyes trail over to all the roots that pierce through the caverns hard rock, following them all straight into the very hole that the demon had fell down into; all the wooden roots growing thicker as they slither down into the holes depths. “I’m definitely feeling alotta stuff crawlin down there, it ain’t just these plants either. I’m talking strange things here.” the merc mentions. “What else could be crawling down this deep in the earth? Do you think that it could be hell down there?” his orange sister wonders aloud. “Hardly. We’d be drowning in our own sweat if it was.” the black horned demon corrects. “Whelp. Guess there’s one way to tell what’s down here.” Speaking this does Mally leaps right down into the depths of the mysterious hole, with her purple brother following her straight down into the void after; Alex simply hovering right over the hole and stating out: “As if you’d see me recklessly plunging down into some random pit.” Countering the demon’s very statement, Roy reaches right out from the depths of the void and grasps his pupils leg; Alex letting out a terrible shriek as he’s forcibly pulled down into the abyss.

Amidst their delve straight into the unknown depths of the pit, the three suddenly feel themselves splash down into a strong water current; the trio fumbling through the dark rapids as they’re swept deeper into the cavern river. While fighting against the forceful water flow, Mally reaches into her backpack and feels around for her trusty grapple-yo; her eyes adjusting to the darkness as her and the others that fumble behind her. Finally does she pull out her gadget right out from her pack, immediately tossing the yoyo straight to her brother; the gadgets string wrapping right around the merc’s leg. “Roy, get Alex!” she calls out to her sibling. Though Alex rolls right out along the merc’s left, Roy nonetheless attempt to catch his pupil before he could fumble further down the rapids; his right arm failing to reach the demon in time before Alex tumbles further down the current. “He coming your way, Mal!” he alerts to his sister. When seeing him tumble straight her way, the orange skater reaches out for demon and tightly grasps one of his black horns; Alex letting out a little yelp as the unexpected touch makes him puffs into smoke to switch from a boy to a girl. Despite the rushing rapids thrashing them all about, Mally maintains her hold upon her two companions as they all steer through the twisted and dividing river; the skater refusing to let go of either of them no matter how hard they slam against the rocky tunnels. But through the harsh of it all, the trio are soon greeted by a growing light coming from the end of the tunnel; the three of them closing their eyes tight as they’re forced straight through the end of the river rapids.

After a moment or two, the skater feels next to nothing underneath her feet; Mally slowly opens her peepers back up and lets her eyes adjust to the bright light that shines before her. As her eyes get used to this newfound light, the orange girl first beholds the very tunnel that her and the others had rode in through; the waters falling straight down and crashing into a lake below. Aiming her gaze straight up does she discover her gadgets string still tied to her brother’s leg, keeping her from plummeting out of the air. “Roy, you know where we ended up.” she asks him. “Just look for yourself.”

Gazing ahead like her brother suggests, Mally’s very pupils widen when discovering the incredible site that sprawls out before them all; the skater left to behold a vast, luscious jungle that sprawls out form what seemed like hundreds of miles on end; the horizon before them lush green mountains and peeks aplenty. Her site peers down to the plains that loom down below; finding what were numerous giant dinosaurs of many shapes and sizes all roaming through the valleys and lumbering across the thick jungle forests. One of the reaches its neck out up far above the treetops and lets out a thunderous roar that echoes through the entire vista; dozens of other dino’s and hovering birds joining alongside the outcry and creating a booming sonata of the jungle. “Whoa...But where is the light...” The orange skater peers right up above towards the very roof of these wondrous caves and discovers them covered in a blanket of strange crystals, all of them softly mimicking a glow that seemed like the sun itself; a light intense enough to avert her vision before it could harm her eyes. “All of this was underneath the dry lands of Utah the whole time. Incredible.”

Mally’s enchantment is then broken when hearing a voice beneath her grab her attention with: “Excuse me!” Glancing down to the demon she holds in her grasp, she hears Alex further request that: “Might you be so kind as to let go of my horn!?” “Oh right, sorry.” the skater utters as she complies to the demon’s demand; releasing Alex’s horn from her grasp and letting the demon hover through the air on her own. Aiming her site back up to her bro, Mally takes a turn to request that: “Yo Roy, mind kicking me up?” Upon his sisters request does the merc jerk his leg back and flings the skater right up in the air; Mally flipping through the air as she descends back down and lands right atop her flying brothers back. “So now that we got all the excess eye candy outta the way, what do ya think were supposed to be lookin for down here?” the purple merc asks her. “Hmmm...Good question. Guess what were hear to find out is what that hand we found in the mountain might’ve been trying to tell us.” “So just to be clear on this, do you even have a plan set on what were doing here?” Alex questions as she hovers over to their side. “Uh...Not really. I’ve kinda been following bread crumbs this entire time.” “Well, that certainly reassuring.” the demon sarcastically claims. “Guess that’s why they call it an adventure; to broaden our comfort zones and plunge straight into the unknown. I mean if people weren’t forced straight into the wondrous horizons, then they wouldn’t have gotten used to living alongside people like you.” the merc explains to his pupil; something that Alex seems to take visible offense to. “Wait, I didn’t mean...” Before the purple angel could apologize for his miswording, the demon looks away from him; Roy letting out a little groan upon his blundering statement.

As both the angel and demon start to float down onto the rough jungle landscape, Mally hops right off her brothers back and onto her own two feet; all the while Alex keeping her back turned away from her purple mentor. “Shit. Did I really sound that racist? Or demonist, I think? I just meant how anyone these days is willing to let others in their social circles.” the merc whispers to his sister. “That might just be the problem though. The few times I actually catch Alex at school, she’s usually all by her lonesome; sometimes snooping around to stalk Kingsley from class to class. I mean sure, there’s Cayenne jumping in to keep her outta trouble. But beyond that, most people that are around just tend to avoid her.” “Damn, didn’t realize how off I was with that whole xenophobic ball busting speech.” “I’m not sure if that really the crux of the problem.”

Peering back to the girl in question, the two look over just in time to witness a small lizard start to crawl out to Alex; the demon turning into a boy as he reeling back exclaiming: “Ugh! Vile thing!” Flailing his foot out to the small and harmless reptile, Alex scares the tiny lizard back from whence it came; gazing to the retreating reptile with a wicked grin as he taunts with: “Yes, run; you fowl creature! Return from the dung filled hole from where you spawned!” A short grunt manages to slip out from his mouth before the purple merc laments on how: “I thought this whole self superiority bullshit would’ve been buffed outta him by now.” “How you even brought up the subject of humility at all to him?” Mally then question. “Where exactly am I supposed to start with a mess that big?” “Come on, Roy. We both know you were an even bigger mess at 3 quarters of his age and you manage to get better. You need to make some leeway through to him, and what better time than any.” his orange sibling proclaims before shoving the merc right over to the demon; Roy nearly falling over from the unexpected push.

When realizing his purple mentor approaching, the demon simply gives Roy the cold shoulder as he simply peers away; Alex hearing the angel let out a little sigh before attempting to state: “Alex, listen. I think I need to clear up a couple things on what I said a few minutes ago. See, when I said that, what I meant was-” Right before Roy could even speak even another word on the matter however, all three of them hear a thunderous roar ring out through the whole jungle; one loud enough to cause the tree’s surrounding them to tremble like tuning forks. Emerging out from the treeline be the head of a monstrously sized Tyrannosaurs rex, its gigantic sharp toothed maw drooling as its cold beady eyes stars down upon the three; none of them even slightest bit fazed as they all look back to the giant. “Eh, gimme a sec here.” the merc request as he turns over to face the dinosaur. The towering T-rex then thrusts its gaping maw straight out to the approaching merc, ready to chomp down upon his flesh with just a single bite. Just before the ferocious beast could chomp down upon the purple angel, Roy throws his only fist straight out to the dino’s head and punching the dinosaur hard enough to send the thrusting back out through the jungle depths from where it had emerged; its careening body knocking down dozens of tree’s before skidding to a stop in the dirt. Arising from the soil, the once mighty T-rex gazes back over to the very angel that had sent it flying; the dinosaur racing away in a trembling fright and retreating deeper into the jungle.

When Mally peers over to her brother’s side, she notices him having a little bit of trouble moving his arm back into place; small grunts quietly escaping from between his teeth as he slowly jerks his only arm back down. “Roy, you sure you’re as aight as you say?” “Come on Mal, you know it ain’t nothing I’m used to.” Turning back to both his orange haired sister and pupil, the purple angel continues with: “So, whatdya think that hand ya found back in the mountain might’ve been trying to tell us pointing out a place like this?” “I’m...I’m not really that sure. That ice golem that guided us into the center of the mountain was hella bummed about whatever was on that icy pedestal going missing. These coordinates that hand left behind might’ve been a warning. Least that’s how I’m reading it.” “You think that the sites you had on this Mall guy Tore’s paling around with might be starting to line up?” her brother asks. “To be honest, I’m hoping they’re not.” Amidst their conversation, Alex cuts in between the siblings and claims how: “Hmph! If your blue brother was gullible enough to hastily set out with some rando he barely knows, then I say that fool might as well deserve whatever trouble he ends up in.” “Thanks Alex for your completely unnecessary and impractical input.” his purple mentor mentions. “It’s apparently all I’m here for.” Letting out a frustrated groan, Mally starts to trek out through the forest as she suggests that: “Let’s just get a move on. There has to be something here that this hand might’ve been trying to warn us about.” While the two boys begin to follow the orange skater through the thick of the prehistoric jungle, a figure peeks out from the tree’s behind them; their sky blue sclera squinting as they stare out to the trio as they trot along.

Not long after starting their trek through this prehistoric window through time, the three come to discover a deep, vast valley of thick, ivy covered tree’s that tower high up above; all the numerous branches that spread out from their bark stretching out to twice the size of jumbo highway truck beds. “Damn, can’t even see those crystals under these thick ass trees. You needin another flight, Mal; cause I don’t think Alex would say no if you rode him.” “Excuse me? As if I’d let anyone taint by backside so casually.” the demon object. “Doubt you’d be bitchin right now if it was Kingsley.” “You two are kidding, right? You really think I’m gonna pass up a chance like this? Check this out.” Upon her very words, Mally lunges straight out to the collection of ivy covered tree’s and lands right on one of their many branches; sliding right along the length of ivy until jumping out to the next branch. “That’s the spirit, Mal.” her purple brother cheers her with; both he and his pupil gliding through the jungle air to follow after.

Along her little skate through the prehistoric thick jungle skyline, Mally skillfully leaps right off from branch to slippery branch as if she was grinding from rail to rail; dozens of exotic birds fluttering out from the tree’s as she and the boys speed through the forest. Up ahead does she find barely any branches along the path to jump to, the skater eyes peering up to discover a couple of other limbs hanging above; Mally taking out her hockey stick upon seeing the opportunity before her. Leaping further up to one of these branches, the orange hooks the head of her weapon right along its bark; the momentum of her jump causing her to flip along the limb until she launches herself upwards to the treeline above. Once coming to the arch of her ascent, the orange lass takes out her trusty grapple yo and tosses it right out towards the branches ahead; the gadgets string enveloping one of the branches and letting her swing right up to another stretch of ivy.

After landing right along the branch does a blur streak right past the girl, nearly hitting the skater right along her side. “Whoa, what was-” Gazing out to the site up ahead, Mally finds an entire flock of winged reptiles gliding right towards them; their cold eyes glaring to the trio as their jaws ready to bite upon their skin. Another lizard breaks off from the flock and lunges ahead to the skating young girl; loud hiss escaping from its maw as he dives right down to its potential prey. Just as the carnivorous reptile was ready to sink its teeth into her, Mally swings her hockey stick straight into its open mouth and sends it careening straight back its flock; the lizard crashing straight into a number of its brothers and sending them down to the jungle floor with it. When a chunk of their flock is struck down, the entire swarm charges out to the young lady all at once; Mally tossing her grapple-yo out to the crowd and wrapping one of them in its string. Having one of the lizards in her grasp, the orange skater leaps right off the branch and spins right in the air; twirling the trapped reptile around and swinging it right back to its very flock. The entire swarm splitting off in different directions to evade another of their swung back members.

Despite the flock of deadly lizards having been broken apart, a couple of them persist and glide right out to the girl just as she starts to land upon another ivy covered branch; both of their mouths salivating as they attempt to strike from above and below. Moments before either of them could take a bite right out of the airborne skater, a pair of streaks swoop right in and knock the right out of the air; Roy kicking the one above while Alex slices the other clean in half. Finally landing upon the jungle branch below, Mally turns out to her two partners as they start to hang back and gives the duo two thumbs up with a thankful smile.

“Rather vapid of her to thank us for fixing her screw up. I would have at least made sure the whole flock was killed so that none of them could come back.” the demon claims. “You weren’t exactly eager to jump in against them all with her. Doubt there would be any of them left.” “Please, why would I even waste my breath on such inferior reptiles unless absolutely necessary?” “Because your part of this team, dick wit.” “Ha! Team. I seem to recall you practically kidnapping me against my will, all the while deceiving my foolish mother in claiming it all to be nothing more than a simple train trip.” “Hey! I didn’t spurt out a single white lie to your sexy milf momma. I told her that life ain’t gonna wait a single sec while you prep for whatever kind of curveballs its got planned to throw at ya pair of sweet cheeks. Gotta be ready to bat the ball back right into its stupid fucking face.” “Oh, believe me. I am more than prepared to face whatever challenge this existence has to stop me.” Right on queue of stating this does the demon accidentally smacks straight into a jungle branch, his purple mentor slowing down to witness Alex plummet straight down to what seemed like the waiting maw of a giant plant. “Agh. Mal, might need an assist here.” he calls out to his orange sister. Hearing her purple brothers call out, Mally takes a look back in time to witness the giant weed devour the little devil with just a single gulp; the skater letting out a little yipe before she takes out her grapple-yo and tossing it back out towards the site.

While racing right out to the towering plant that had consumed his pupil, Roy aims the palm of his hand out to the weed and fires out a beam of black and purple straight to the neck of the carnivorous flora; the ray cutting straight through the stem like clean butter and decapitating the plant in one swoop. The head of the monstrous plant having been severed, the purple merc gazes down to its giant bulb along the bottom and discovers something kicking underneath. “Alex, just cut right through!” he shouts to the demon trapped within. Upon these very words does a blade of jet black pierce straight out from within the bulb and slices straight through the flesh of the plant; a bout of steam wafting out as the black horned demon attempts to crawl his way out from the flora’s very stomach. Right as he begins to fully pry himself out from the depths of the plant, an entire mess of tendrils wrap around parts of his body and start to drag Alex straight back within the stomach; the slashed piece of the bulb regenerating as the demon is pulled right in. “Dammit!” His eyes are drawn above the bulb when the cut stem attached starts to furiously wriggle and bulge; the neck erupting in a splatter of gooey chlorophyll as a half a dozen more voracious plant head burst out, growling out a vicious sonata as she peer out to the angel hovering over them. “Gotta be kidding with this kind of Cerberus bullshit.” he curses. “Hydra.” his sister corrects as she swings right into the scene.

The orange skater swings over to take a crack at the deadly weed herself; leaping into the air and tossing her trusty gadget straight out to the bouquet of carnivorous green, her yoyo’s steel string wrapping around the plants numerous necks to bundle them all together. Mally streaks right past the tied tethered green and slams straight down onto the ground; all of the heads struggling and squirming as the orange skater tugs them all aside, demanding that her purple brother: “Get’em outta there!” From his sisters request does Roy delve straight down towards the stomach of the carnivorous plant, ready to thrust his fist through its flesh. Before the merc could even touch a single leaf of the restrained bouquet, a thick tree suddenly bursts out from the ground right underneath him and practically uppercuts the angel up to the treetops; Roy screaming out as he’s launched out beyond the leaves above. “Roy!” Among witnessing her brother being shot right out of the scene, the string wrapped around the bouquets numerous necks start to unravel; Mally ultimately losing her grip as the deadly green shakes itself free and is flung straight out towards the trunk of one of the jungle trees. Right after feeling the jungle tree’s harsh bark slam right against her back, Mally peers up to witness all of the heads that she had once kept down now lunging their maws right out to her; the orange skater able to do little but hold her hockey stick up to black the oncoming heads.

Right as all of the deadly heads tempt to take their bites out of the young girl, Mally sees each one of them suddenly come to a halt just a few feet from her; drips of their saliva drooling along the grounds right next to the young lass. Whaaa… As she questions why every one of them stops just short of gnawing her to bits, the skater watches as all of them forced to retreat back to the very bulb that keeps them together; even the heads being pulled right back from wench they had sprouted. Once all the heads were sucked back in, the bulb itself starts to shrink down while being uprooted from the earth; Mally glancing underneath the shrinking weed to find something of wood standing right behind it. As the entire plant is further shrunk down, she soon discovers not another strangely shaped tree, but a figure made from wood roots and leaves that grasps the weeds bulb and sucks every part of the plant into its body; their bright blue sclera upsetting the aged wood that makes up the figures very features with some of the deadly plants head poking out from its roots. The bulb that had trapped the demon is finally dispersed, exposing a female Alex to the open jungle air once more; her face twisting in utter disgust as she finds herself covered in juices and chlorophyll. “Ah, wretched!” Once having absorbed the rest of the killer plant straight into its body, the figure of wood and leaves thrust its other arm straight down into the soil beneath its feet; the roots of the carnivorous green sowing out from its body and straight out into the soil below, all of them watching as the plant worms away deeper into the jungle.

While Alex remains occupied with swiping away all the leftover strange goop that covers her body, Mally walks right past the demon as she approaches the wooden figure that had saved their hides; extending a hand out to them as she greets with: “Man, I don’t think we can thank you enough for-” She’s just a couple feet away before the figure turns right back, the roots of its arm stretching out to form a sharp tipped lance that’s pointed straight down the orange skaters neck. The figures bright blue sclera narrow as it continues to stare down orange young girl, finally questioning to her in a raspy, but faintly feminine voice: “What are you doing here?” “Ju-just take it easy. We didn’t come here lookin to start trouble.” the skater assures the wood woman, her brother crashing straight into the ground a couple yards behind her. “We just wound up following some coordinates and got swept straight in this prehistoric jungle.” “Who told you of this location.” the withered wooden warrior demands to know, pointing the tip of her bark lance right onto the girls neck. “We found the numbers carved in the center of a mountain next to this hand.” Mally explains as she starts pulling out the withered wood hand in question. As soon as her blue eyes behold the palm she pulls out, the wood woman turns her weapon arm back to normal as she snatches the severed hand right out from the skater grasp; the wood woman retracting her arm back to her head so that she can examine the palm closely. The wooden warrior once cold killer gaze twists into a mixture of bewilderment and lament while staring down to the severed palm she holds in her hands, letting out a small breath before whispering: “Nevaline. So you did make it.”

Amidst this brief moment of grief does a streak of black and purple streak right past Mally and rockets right into the wooden warrior; the purple merc grasping the wood woman by the neck and pins her right against the side of a thick jungle tree. “Roy, wait!” Mally shouts as she races out to the two. Though the orange girls fails to stop the conflict from starting as the wood woman shoves her arm into the very tree her purple foe pins her down to; a sharp branch suddenly bursting out from the side of the tree and twisting right at the merc. Roy lets go of the wood woman as he retreats away from the thrusting limb, the edge of the bladed branch slicing the socket of his missing limb; the limb twisting around and attempting to drive its tip straight into the purple angel. Right before the branch could drive its tip anywhere into the merc, the orange skater delves right in the nick of time and breaks the limb in half with just a single swing of her hockey stick. In the very next moment does Mally drive her weapon straight into the earth and leaps backwards to kick her purple brother aside; Roy skidding across the dirt and stopping just short of slamming right into a rock.

“Ah! Mal, what the hell was that for!” the merc exclaims. “You just tackled the person that saved Alex’s hide.” “What?” The merc witnesses his demonic pupil walk into the picture as she swipes away the last of the gooey chlorophyll off her; confirming that: “Indeed. And about time to. It was practically vomit inducing within that vile plants stomach.” “Try telling that to my arm socket.” Roy counters with; pointing out the bleeding gash inflicted onto where his arm once was. “I can-I can mend your wound. Just let me...” the wood woman offers as she starts to approach. Rising right off the ground, the purple merc starts to back away from the wood woman as she nears; ready for whatever sneaky bull she attempts. Peering right behind the wooden warrior however does he see his sisters cautious gaze, his siblings stare telling the merc to put his guard away; Roy stops backing away and presents his cut to the wood woman.

The wood woman reaches down to one of the patches of grass and makes a couple of blades slither right into her arm while warning the merc that: “This may sting a bit.” From this does the wooden warrior reach her arm over to the very wound that she had inflicted; the palm of her hand hovering over the merc’s arm socket as the pieces of grass she had taken slither out from the wood woman’s roots and pierce through Roy’s skin. The purple angel lets a little hiss escape from between his teeth as the grass worms its way around and over his arm sockets gash, the strings of green tying themselves together and effectively closes the merc’s wound. “That should stop any more of your blood from spilling out.”

Having patched up the cut she had inflicted upon the angel, the wooden warrior turns back to the orange skater  and presents the severed palm to demand: “Now answer me; what urged all of you to follow Nevaline’s directions down into this window of still time?” “We’re just trying to find where our brother went, following all this trace clues from an underground mystical library all the way to the center of a mountain and wound up coming down here-” Before Mally could admit any further info, her purple brother steps in front of the orange lass and starts to whisper: “The hell are you doing spilling our business to this piece of morning wood?” “She’s practically been the only thing down here that hasn’t tried to tear us into bloody meat chunks.” “Speak for yourself Mal. You serious not recall her launching me into the sky and cutting by arm socket open, recently?” “Honestly, that sounds like the fault of your own. Surely you of all people should’ve sensed her coming from a mile away.” their demonic partner brings up as she butts right in. “Gimme a damn break here. You know how many predators are lurking through these parts stalking us, and I was a tad busy saving your ungrateful ass.” “Yeah, we should be thanking...uh, thanking...” the orange skater mentions, her site turning over to the wood woman as she attempt to fish for a name.

“Carila, the soul keeper of this slice of time long forgotten and the very secrets it holds. I had intervened against your struggles against the deadly viper bulb to save the plant from your wrath.” “Well, seems for a keeper, you weren’t exactly in much of a hurry to aid us in the fight against that Tyrannosaurs rex or those vile flying raptor.” Alex snidely points out. “I admit, I thought that nature would simply take its course upon you all. But simply from observing you fend off all those carnivorous predators with such ease; I realized how less and less of a possibility that was. I approach you all now to request that you take your leave from this natural wonder and never return.” “Yeah, that ain’t happening.” Roy then tells her. “Indeed. And I’d like to see you stop us, you flat chested wooden tramp.” Alex adds. “If that’s what you wish.” Carila states as her limbs form into weapons.

Right as the three were about to lunge right out to one another, the orange skater once again stands between both parties; speaking on behalf of them all to the wooden guardian on how: “What Alex is trying to tell you that we can’t exactly leave yet, not until we get some answers for all the clues we’ve been following up til now. Whoever that hand you hold belong to, they used their last fleeting moments to carve in the coordinates we followed to get down here. You mentioned their name, you gotta know what they’re trying to tell us.” “And you said that you found these coordinates within the middle of a mountain.” Carila questions. “Yep.” The wooden keeper peers down to the withered hand that rests in her palm, letting out a little groan as she finally gives in and claims that: “If it was Neveline’s final request, then so be it. One that I hope was thought through. Just keep up.”

All of them watch as their newfound guild leaps right up to the tree’s and slithers along their bark like a serpent, Mally ready to jump after before she stops in her tracks when hearing her brother’s pupils remark: “Please tell me you’re not this daft.” “Excuse me.” the orange skater utters while glaring back. “Are you that moronic enough to trust the word of a strange woman that dared to point the tip of their weapon right to your neck?” the demon reinforces, her body shifting to that of a boy. “That strange woman just saved your buns from getting digested.” “Please, I did not need her charity. I was on the verge of escaping from the belly of the beast myself. I assure you that I’m not as defenseless as you’re claiming I am.” “I didn’t say a damn thing like that.” “No, but please. If you wishing to lead all of us to our eminent doom and destruction, then be our guest.” Alex states.

As Alex hovers out in the direction the wood woman had slithered out to, his mentor approaches the girl he had just argued with as she mentions: “Does he not realizes that this is why no one wants to hang around him?” “Yeah, I think I might need to have a word with him.” the merc admits. “Hey, are you to coming along or are you just gawking about waiting to be a prehistoric meal, keep up!” they hear the demon call to them with. “I hope you do so soon.” Mally hopes as both her and her brother leap up to the treetops to catch up to their wooden guide.

While both the purple angel and his demonic pupil hover through the jungle treetops, Mally grinds from branch to branch as all of them follow their newfound wooden guide, who slithers in and out from tree to tree. In the midst of their travels through the tree’s, the wood warrior decides to pry with: “Might I ask what may your ends in coming down here be? I wish to know what Nevaline was attempting to warn you all about.” “Uh...” Leaping right off the tip of a branch, the orange girl spins back to peek over to her purple brother for a clue of what she should do; finding the merc simply shrugging at her as she lands right upon another limb. “Like I said, we’ve been trying to find out where our brother wound up being dragged to. Our one solid lead to go off of is what he not only called himself, but what he had called the man he follows too.” “You seek knowledge of the Kybr, correct?” Carila question.” “Ah, yeah. How’d you-” “Believe me when I say that the Kybr have quite the extensive history; one that the gods themselves were hoping to bury with the passage of time.” “Any chance you could teach us what that history might be?” “Afraid not. But do not fret, your answers shall all be revealed once we travel to the very edge of this domain. Then and only then will you find out what the Kybr truly were.”

Tailing right behind the orange girl and wooden woman, Alex hovers aside his black angelic mentor to comment: “I highly doubt that this living bunch of old roots is so willing to lead us through this jungle for the sake of her departed friend. There’s a clearly ulterior motive afoot.” “I ain’t doubting that. But this whole trail for Tore’s provin hella thin as is; we gotta take in every lead that we get here.” “Rather foolhardy on your end if you ask me.”

“Yeah, speaking of shitty ends, we gotta talk about the way you just piss people off.” “Agh, not you too. I get enough of that sort of infernal yapping from my asinine mother.” “I’m just gonna cut through the bull here and say that maybe constantly acting like pompous dick horned asscheek ain’t gonna get up any friendly faces. You’d probably get way more tail and cooch waiting for ya at the end of the day if ya quit being such a stuffy little bitch.” “Oh, and you’re confident that piece of advice fares no hypocrisy coming from you? How everyone just tends to avoid you as well? Don’t think for a moment I haven’t heard all the stories concerning you and your demeanor when greeting others. Of how you ask almost everyone, even going up to multiple people at once if they’re down to quote on quote “Diddling down in the back alley” with all the charm and subtly of a wayward perverted slob.” From this very statement does the purple merc let a bout of laughter escape from him, Alex hovering back a bit as his mentor’s chuckling starts to die down before the merc responds: “Diddling down in the back alley”. Where did you even-...Did someone actually say that or did you just pull that outta yer ass.” “My point being here is that don’t not exactly have the heart of the public eye either.” the demon rings back. “Hey, least I’m open and outta the gate with that to people. Ain’t like those kinds of dipshits that try to walk around questions and be those fedora tipping self entitled jackass’s. I mean if the people would be less strict about fucking one another, the world would be an honestly happier place for everyone.” “What in the living realm of sweet satan are you paddling about?” “Uh, what was I talking ab- Right, right, right, right, your attitude. All I’m saying is if you don’t wanna wind up reflecting back on your life wondering why ya got nobody to talk to and comfort ya; then quit recklessly putting other people down and stroking yourself like a self masturbating stiff prick.” the merc concludes

“Oh really. Did you hold that sort of attitude when you were with Roxanne?” The mere mention of the girls very name proves enough to send a powerful jolt through the purple angel’s entire body; his expression breaking into disbelieving shock as he turns to his pupil and simply utters: “What?” “Did you really not hear all the rumors and blog posts being passed around about all that juicy drama? Cause from what I’ve heard, the two of you didn’t exactly split things off quite cleanly. All of them kept saying that you were the one acting like the right dick in that whole shpeal.” “W-wh-what the hell does all that gotta do with now?” “I’m just saying that if you’re wishing to criticize me for my behavior, shouldn’t you set a better example?” “You have no fucking clue what happened between us that night!? You really think your gonna get away with going for those kinds of low blows!?” “Hey, if were taking stabs at each other for how we treat people; then I sure as hell ain’t gonna miss the chance to get a couple in. An eye for an eye sort of approach really.” Upon the demon’s very words is Roy left utterly speechless, his enraged gaze cooling into a contemptuous glare before he finally responds with: “No wonder you don’t have any friends.” This last remark manages to shatter Alex’s smug grin so that only a glaring hurt remains; the demon shifting into a girl as she watches her mentor glide out ahead to both the orange girl and the wooden woman up ahead.

Gliding right between both his orange sister and the wooden woman, their newfound guide can’t help but squint her blue sclera eyes straight the purple angel; Mally meanwhile questioning her: “Why can’t you just simply explain all this yourself.” Shaking her gaze away from the purple merc and states how: “The knowledge that you seek simply cannot be put into words; thus I lead up all through this slice of still time to something needs no words to show you. Held with the confines of my sacred grotto lies a piece of wood nymph wood containing an unflinching, unbiased memory of the nature of its time. One that has been preserved since the Kybr’s inception.  If you truly seeks to learn of what the beings that she seeks out truly are, then they must let this root pierce into their minds and share its secrets with them all.”

Along their travels do the numerous jungle tree’s finally begin to thin and dwindle before them, letting the sunny light shine upon them once more as all of them start to reach the end of their forest trek. Leaping straight through the end of the woods do they come to witness a vast, crystal clear lake, reflecting the soft glow of the shinning rocks that shimmer above them all. Mally strolls over to the shoreline of the wide lake to discover half a dozen towering dinosaurs that float just above the surface; some of them swimming over to the shores to walk upon the land. “Wow...” the orange skater wondrously utters. “Yes indeed. Let’s truly thank our rashly trusted guide for leading us to absolutely nowhere, I’m sure that the majestic site was more than worth nearly being devoured alive.” the demon sarcastically mocks. “I did bring all of you hear for more than just the site. The scared grotto of my kind lies right underneath this very lake, buried underneath the galleons of crystal clear waters.” Carila counters. “Hang on here; you seriously expecting us air breathin motherfucka’s to swim all the way down into this who the hell knows how deep body of water?” “Oh no. You won’t have to touch a single drop to enter. Give me just a moment.”

Saying this does the wooden nymph waltz over to the very edge of the vast lake, lifting her root arms as high as she can before kneeling down and thrusting them right into the shoreline; the wood warrior remaining utterly silent as the trio behind her simply stare and watch. “Oh, the hell is this woman even doing?” Alex asks. “Are...are we supposed to do something with her while she’s like this?” Mally questions. “I think I know exactly what were supposed to do with her.” Roy suggests with a stretching grin. “NO!” both his sibling and pupil harshly deny.

Its after the two deny the merc’s request that they begin to feel the ground underneath their feet start to gradually quake, all the exotic birds perched along the edge of the woods behind them flying off as the trembling grows more fierce. Among the constant quaking are their sites drawn over to the lakes quivering waters, where upon they begin to witness dozens upon dozens of what seemed to be wooden tree roots arise from the surface; all of the clustered together as they erect out from the center of the lake. Water spurts right out between the encircling walls as the roots continue to rise out, the trembling starting to die down as they trio see before them an entire sphere made from wooden entangled roots; a path of wood erecting out from the lake trailing straight to the hole leading right inside. Once the entire ball had been risen out from the depths of the lake, Carila finally uproots her arms right out from the shoreline soil; the wooden nymph slowly pulling herself off the ground as the angel behind her questions: “So, this the grotto you talkin about.” “Indeed...” Though Alex is left agap by the incredible bout of natural power that the wooden woman had just displayed before her; the demon shakes off her astonishment and recollects herself to faux say: “I-I-I must admit, that was not half bad for a woman with such a plank chest.” Peering over to the very woman who had just finished erecting the entire cluster of roots, Mally finds the wooden warrior on the verge of passing out; the orange skater coming to her side and brushes her hand against the wood woman’s side. “You need a minute?” Upon asking of her well being does Carila simply swipe Mally’s palm away from her side; simply responding with: “I’m fine. Let’s just move out.”

While Mally follows the weary wood woman along the freshly erected root built path leading straight ahead, the demon and her mentor opt to simply hover along overhead; Alex glaring down to the wooden nymph as she ponders aloud: “Does she really take us for such dimwitted fools? Surely she doesn’t think that we would let her lead us right into her “sacred grotto” without even an iota of suspicion?” Hearing his remarks gaining not even so much as a single response, the demon peeks over to the purple angel hovering right beside her and see’s him simply ignoring her; rather staring down to his phone and texting. Left upset with the merc’s lack of attention, Alex shifts into a boy as he further questions: “Oh come now. Are you really still upset from calling you out over your double standards? Get over yourself already.” Despite his pupils clearly callous, Roy simply continues to look down to his phone, watching as a fresh text from his sister comes in reading:

Mally: “Did he seriously went and bring that whole mess up?”

Roy: “Yep.”

Mally: “What the actual hell! I kind see where Alex is coming from, but seriously bringing up that whole business with you and Roxanne was just a step too far.”

Roy: “I’m just done here. I seriously don’t know what to do next.”

Mally: “Why don’t I chip for a bit, have a little talk with him.”

Roy: “Wouldn’t mind if you whipped his ass either.”

“I must warn you now.” the orange skater starts to hear their wooden guide start to speak; Mally putting her phone away as she listens to what Carila has to further say. “Due to its very nature, the memory root shall attempt to bore itself into your mind to share the knowledge locked away within its very veins; the knowledge of the Kybr themselves.” “We really can’t thank you enough for leading us through this slice of prehistory; I gotta come clean here. That whole bread crumb trail I’ve been following was serious about done. I couldn’t figure out what the hell we were supposed to do down here before you came along.” the orange skater admits. “If that is all you simply wish out from this trip down, then I’d be more than happy to speed your trip along; simply as you not disturb any more of this domain.” “Ya don’t gotta worry a little green leaf on your head about it. We’ll be outta your hair faster than you can produce chlorophyll.” “Oh, I’m betting on that.” Nearing the hole leading straight into the spherical root cluster, both Roy and Alex begin to lower themselves down behind the orange skater and their wooden guide wander straight inside; a strange light beating upon them all as they enter.

Once their eyes start to adjust to the heavenly glow, the three peer out to behold what was field of red, near dying grasslands; the eerie plains of which decorated with open and withered tree that still drip out water from their hollow insides. “This is your grotto?” Mally despairingly question.” “It was...” the wooden warrior despondently confirms. “This is serious meant to be your sacred grounds? All the near dead flora spread through here makes it seem like a forlorn garden if nothing else.” the demon remarks. “Quit it.” Roy harshly growls. “What. No snappy and lewd comeback on your end?” Alex barks back. Rather than respond to his pupil, Roy simply glares out to the plains that lie ahead; the demon himself scoffing from his mentors shunning as he shares in the site.

Out along the very edge of this near lifeless grotto does the wooden woman lead the trio over to a small den made from the inside of a large hollow tree; the inside letting out this strange yellowish orange glow. Walking straight into this den do all of them find the very source of the light; a long single root that pierces straight through the earth below, with Carila proclaiming to them all that: “This root here is the very same that bestows the memories of the time it had grown in; to let another peer into the nature of its time. It however can only share its memories with but single entity and burrow its roots with their very mind to share its wisdom. So I must ask now, which of you three shall approach and bear the history it has to tell?” “You’re seriously expecting one of us to let this thing dig its tendrils into our heads? As if I’d let a dirt ridden plant like that come anywhere near me and taint my mind.” the demon rejects. “Yeah, I ain’t exactly in the mood to get brain probed either. Already made that mistake once letting the Austrian gov cut me open and dig out a chip that they accidentally lodged in there. The scares on the back of my head still itch like hell.” the merc also denies. Mally peers over to the two to find them both staring right at her, the orange skater asking them: “So your seriously expecting me to step up to the plate?” “Mal, you went through the highest of mountains to the deepest of pits just to try and find our bro. If anybody’s earned to find out the truth of this whole mess, it you.” her brother responds. Upon her purple brother’s very words does Mally take in a deep breath while turning out to the mystical root in question, exhaling before beginning to approach the piece of wood; the orange girl feeling a strange sensation through her body as she nears the glowing root.

Once the girl stands before the glowing enchanted root, Mally and those behind her watch as the tip starts to grow out towards the young girls head; the tip splitting in two as it wriggles near the sides of her cranium. With the roots only a few inches away from her head, Mally peeks back to the wood woman and asks: “This isn’t gonna hurt, right?” Right then and there does Mally get her answer when the root’s tips pierce straight through the sides of her head and burrow themselves into her cranium; a yelping shriek escaping from her mouth as she starts to spasm and tremble. The angel and demon taking in the site see the young girl shortly stop her violent shaking and watch her as she slumps backward, discovering her eyes devoid of any pupils as she blankly stares out to them both. “Uh, she gonna be fine after this, right?” Roy concerns. “These roots secrete a special ooze which mends injury upon exiting the host. She will awaken as if nothing had happened.” their wooden guide assures. “And how long will it take for her to wake up?” “With how much the roots have to show, I imagine a long while.” From these words does the wooden warrior start to stroll back out towards the way they had ventured in, the demon asking: “Where the hell do you think your going?” “I have duty to fulfill. One that I had held myself to since I was just a sapling.”

Upon the wood woman’s leave, the two peer over to the young skater as she remains utterly comatose; neither of them able to do much in the moment besides wait for Mally to finish her little history lesson. “Whelp, got nothing better to do.” the purple merc, waltzing out towards a couple of dead hollow tree’s. “Th-that’s it? Am I not to expect some sort of evaluation, training regimen, or any kind of inine physical activity that involves violence, most inflicted on my end.” the black horned demon questions. “I...I-I’m not really in the mood Alex. I’d rather just go behind a couple tree’s and alleviate some stress going through my head...by masturbating.” As his mentor walks out to the dead tree’s, Alex peers to the purple merc with hints of wondering disgust; grumbling: “It still baffles me what sort of sick forces present in this universe that chose him over anyone else to me my guiding mentor.”

Once delving deep within the mental depths of her own subconscious, natural sunlight shines out as the orange skater opens her eyes; Mally giving herself a moment to adjust to the heavenly glow before finally taking in the very site she stands upon. Stretching out as far as her eyes could see, Mally beholds a vast, luscious meadow filled with colorful flora; the likes of which rival the size of oak tree’s as the sun shines upon their petals. Fluttering along all these numerous flowers does the girl witness what she at first seemed like dozens of butterflies; their wings showing dozens of unique designs and patterns with glisten with the sunlight. When one of them starts to descend down towards her, the girl holds her hand out to let it perch atop her index finger; her eyes widening when it finally touches down and discovers what these creatures truly were. A fairy. A small fairy the size of her head greeting the young girl with a friendly wave. Mally left astonished as she gazes up to the numerous others that flutter and dance away from her; the one that stood on her finger gliding off alongside the swarm.

The orange skater follows after the flock of fairies through the lush meadow of giant flowers, soon peering out from the flora to come to a steep incline leading up to a clearing above; the face of this grassy cliff decorated with dozens of branches. Immediately does the girl start to climb up to the top of cliff, grasping hold of the patches of grass and tree limbs that litter its very face; all the while gradually losing site of the fairies that hover above. When just about to reach the top of this steep cliff face, a patch of grass that she holds onto breaks off from the rock; Mally losing her grasp and plummeting back down to the bottom of the incline. Moments before she could slam down onto the earth below, the girl feels something grasp her arm and stop her from taking the nasty fall; the skater peering up to find one of the branches that sprout from the cliff face holding onto her wrist with a warm greeting smile. More of this wooden limb begin to crawl out from the depths of the cliff, revealing itself to be a figure completely made from bark and leaves; quite similar to the guide that she and the others had recently met. The rest of the branches that protrude out from the cliff all start to erupt from its very rock, all revealing themselves to be other wood nymphs that start to sprout out from the earth. When the whole group of wood nymphs start to pull themselves out form the earth and start to climb up to the top of the cliff, the one that holds Mally flings her straight up with just a single sling upwards; the orange girl grasping the very edge of the cliff when coming to the top.

All the sprouting wood nymphs climb to the top of the steep incline as the young skater pulls herself up above the edge with them; Mally standing tall above the rock to behold the site that lies before her. Frolicking through the meadow plains does she discover numerous mystical and legendary creatures, all roaming about and coexisting with one another; centaurs proudly galloping through the calm plains, hard rock golems lumbering out in the distance, foxes with numerous tails racing along the thickets off grass, rabbits with but single horns protruding out from their heads that feast upon the wood nymphs offered leaves, even strange chimera’s sporting the body parts of numerous animals. When she finds dozens of shadows gliding over these flowery plains, Mally’s eyes peer up to the clear blue skies above and witnesses dozens of hovering beasts and creatures all taking through and sharing the air. Pegesi that gallop through the air, griffins that flap through the skies, dragons that huff out bouts of sparks from their nostrils, harpies that share the lower forms of wolves gliding alongside the gentle breeze, little plant creatures whose petals spin like helicopter blades. Incredible. These creature are all from legend, myths. They’re numerous. But why are they here? What even is this place?

The beautiful site of these vast and lively plains start to waver when dark clouds begin to blanket the clear blue sky in their darkness; Mally beginning to feel the very ground that she stands upon start to gradually tremble. Midst this earthly quaking does the orange skater discover a bright tan light that emerges out from the clouds, the glow beaming out from a pair of angelic wings that stem from the back of a human that hovers above them all. Is that… Fluttering above all the numerous mythical creatures of old, this winged figure thrusts their limbs down to the very trembling earth below; the rocky grounds soon fracturing apart at the very seems and uprooting chunks of the earth up towards the skies. The chilling outcries of the numerous mystical fauna pollute the very air with terror as the earthbound creatures fall into the depths of the stretching fissures, never again to see the light of day as they plummet down into the once peaceful grassy plains. Not even the giant rock golems prove safe from this horrifying phenomenon, their very earthly bodies fracture and crumble into chunks of broken stone; their remains joining the chunks of the earth in their ascent up towards the angel. Presented with this very threat do all the numerous sky bound beasts all take charge towards the angelic figure, their claws and beaks ready to rend the angel to pieces in their vengeful rage. Yet their numbers prove utterly fruitless as the angel gathers the ripped pieces of earth aside him and cast them all forth towards the armada; the entire airborne army shot down out of the sky from the barrage of rocks. Left distracted by the horror’s playing out before her, Mally fails to notice the earth beneath her feet crumbling apart; the ground finally giving way and causing the young girl to plummet down alongside the dozens of other mystical creatures to their doom.

Among plummeting through the dark abyss, the orange skater starts to feel the very air around her grow warm the further she descends; drops of sweat beginning to drip up from her body while falling. Its suddenly through the dark that she feels herself slam right down upon a patch of flat earth, feeling an almost relaxing warmth radiating onto her back. From the unexpected impact, the young lady opens her eyes once more to find every bit of the void she had once descended down through replaced with warm streaks of red and orange that waft through the wavy air above; with only the site of a single hand with a fiery orange tan upsetting the site. Mally reaches up to the presenting palm and grasp it to feel herself being pulled right off the warming stone, peering out into the horizon ahead to discover a vast fiery valley made from scorched rock and veins of lava that flow through the land like natural rivers. Beyond these streams of burning liquid, she finds dozens of flaming creatures that crawl and slither through this burning valley of blackened rock and lava; slugs made from molten liquid, butterflies whose wings blaze as they flutter through the air, fiery phoenixes that trail embers through the skies above, packs of deer with curling horns that spurt out flames, insects sporting hardened magma carapaces. Even the flowing rivers of lava hold their own life that breach out from the gooey surface like hopping mullets partaking in the air above.

Her eyes wonder away from the rivers when noticing humanoid like inhabitants roaming throughout these lively scorching plains; their skin a fiery tan orange, their hair bellowing through the air like burning flames as they all ride atop equine boasting skin of blazing rock and flesh. While she views some of these fiery nymphs mingling with one another as they relax along the lava riverside; other ride through the blistering hot valley brandishing weapons that blaze crackling flames; the pack charging through and hunting the blazing deer that roam the plains. Staring out to the site of all the numerous fiery people does Mally suddenly feel a hand grasp at her shoulder; the orange haired girl glancing over to her side to find a woman with long fiery hair, giving her a warm and welcoming smile.

Breaking her eyes away from the welcoming fiery nymph does the orange skater come to witness a hint of blue corrupting the blazing orange sky; Mally peering out to discover this blue light to belong to a pair of flaming blue angel wings attached to what seemed to be a regular human. When the angel thrusts their hands straight out the fiery plains it hovers above, the orange girl begins to hear a disturbance; her attention drawn back to the blazing woman that stands beside her to witness her violently spasm and fall upon her knees. Collapsing onto the scorched earth does this woman start to vomit out spurts of lava from her mouth; her fiery color draining away as more and more of her precious molten ooze spews out from her maw. The whole display brings out an unimaginable fright upon the young orange haired girl as she watches the crying fiery woman suffer from the uncontrollable hurling; Mally retching only further when daring to look out to the others that reside in the blazing valley. Every other living creature from the nymphs to the magma insects all start to quake and collapse in unimaginable agony as their blood of red hot magma spews and burst out from their orifices; all of their bodies breaking apart as more of their bright lava escapes from their flesh and arise up into the fiery air. Among this horrifying nightmare do the veins of lava that had flown through the land erupts out in columns of blazing bright red, mixing along with the bright orange blood that twist through the air and gather atop the angel. All the lava extracted from every single piece of land and creature below the angel gathers right above their head into a massive sphere; one that threatens to grow to the very size of the moon. Out from this newborn core of burning hot lava, a bout of flames spurts out from the underside and descends out over to the young orange girl below; Mally closing her eyes and putting her arms against her face as the fires were seconds from engulfing her.

Outside of Mally’s full on mental envisioning nightmare, the orange girl’s body yet remains complacently right within the small wooden den as the memory root remains within her head; the black horned demon standing outside tiring of simply standing watch and starts to wander out to the dozens of hollow tree’s that litter the grotto. She’ll be fine. Rather take this dull moment to investigate something a curious notion itching in the back of my head. Upon approaching one of these withered trees, the first detail that catch’s Alex demon red eyes simply be the very middle of their stretched and bulged out inside; with only the parted wood leading within the hollow center. The lack of any visible marks outside suggest something might’ve resided within these tree’s once. But what strange and disgusting sort of creature could have dwell underneath it very wood, and why are they practically the only noticeable foliage decorating that wood woman’s grotto? Finally taking a little peek within the hollow inside of the tree, the demon discovers some of the roots failing to simply rise up with the wall; rather a good half of them rising out to the center of the empty space. Far be it from me to waste time studying dendrology, but its a certain fact the inside of them don’t form like this. Seems more likely that something grew from the depths of this wood. But was it what manner of creature that grew within it sapped away its very life, or perhaps would it be something else?

Before the young horned demon could continue to ponder any further on the whole strange matter, Alex lightly jumps when feeling what he felt like raindrops pattering along his backside. The devil? The young demon climbs right out from the depths of the hollow tree and peers above to discover a light drizzle pouring down from the roof of the enclosed grotto; drops of water leaking through the root cluster and dripping down towards the ground. Rainfall? We’re underground, under the dry wasteland of Utah. What matter of trickery is this? In pondering this very phenomenon does he witness an entire chunk of the ceiling break right off; an entire torrent gushish right out from above; Alex finally realizing the events that were transpiring. “Oh sweet Satan, the grotto’s sinking!”

Once realizing the watery doom encroaching upon him and his other’s, the orange demon disappears in a poof of black smoke; swiftly reappearing out to the cluster of tree’s that his mentor had retreated to. “We need to escape immediately. This whole poor excuse of a garden is starting to sink back do-” Amidst attempting to warn his mentor of the looming watery doom encroaching upon them all, Alex transforms into a girl as she riles back in utter disgust when witnessing Roy watch his phone with his pants down. Hearing his pupils verbal retch, Roy swiftly pulls his underwear right back and puts his phone away in a startled panic; collecting himself before turning back to the demon and questioning: “A-Alex! Pht-thed-de-Th-the hell is gotten into you!? Don’t you know better than to disturb somebody while they’re appreciating the precious art of multiple biological copulation?” “Can you quit jelling off to your disgusting smut for a single minute and look up!?” the demon demands. Humoring his pupils request, the purple merc peeks up and behold the root ceiling breaking apart and letting torrents of water flood down and drown the garden. “Oh Jesus, the grotto’s sinking.” the merc states in a blatant calm tone, Alex letting out furious growl upon his mentor finally realizing severity of their situation. “Kay, how bout you go over wake Mal up and get her while I try and figure out where my pants went.” the black winged angel orders, both of them splitting apart as Alex zooms out to the den they had left Mally within.

The demon zips straight inside that very same den, finding his purple mentors sister remaining attached to the memory root, still as comatose as ever. Alex rushes right over to the orange girls side and swipes her body right off the floor by her collar, frantically shaking her while screaming straight into her ears to: “Wake up, you crass ruffian! Our aquatic doom is loom over us and your still casually napping away like the moronic brute you are!?” A furious growl escapes from his teeth as he finds the young girl failing to awaken from her coma, Alex swiftly resorting to physical means to attempt to snap her out from her daze; be it slapping her in the face, kicking her in the shins, and twisting her arms with Indian rope burns. Alas do any of these methods yield even an inch of progress in waking Mally from her unconscious stupor, the demon throwing her body down on the ground in his frustration. “What must I reduce myself to free you, dammit!?” Upon exclaiming such a question do Alex’s bright red eyes trail from the sides of the orange girls head and all the way out to the very root bounding her in place; the black horned demon letting out an irritated sigh as he shifts his hands straight into a jet black axe. Nrrr. Lumberjacking it be then.

Moving right over to the root that holds his mentor’s sister in place, the demon tucks himself back before swinging the blade of his newly formed hand axe out to the side of its very wood; putting every bit of himself in each swing as he repeats the process over and over. With nicks of the root being chopped through, eventually does he manage to severe the wood straight off the trunk; Mally’s body falling over as the root tumbles down onto the ground. Returning to the young skater’s side however, Alex finds the girl still out cold. Damn woman! His masters sibling refusing to awaken from her comatose stupor, the demon is left with little other choice but to simply carry the girl out and starts to pick her right off the ground; Alex surprised with how easy he could heave her right over his shoulder. Huh, lighter then expected. Perhaps this whole training nonsense may not have been a complete waste of time.

The orange skater nestled atop his very shoulder, Alex zooms right out from the den and start to glide straight towards the flooding grotto’s ceiling; peering out to his side to witness his purple mentor return to his side donning pants and all. “This rugged sibling of yours refuses to awaken!” the demon tells the angel. “That so? I ain’t so sure she’s exactly done with her little history lesson yet. That root that’s in her head’s gotta have a hell of a bombshell to drop if she’s still out. “Agh! Of all times for class to be in session.” The angel leads the demon out to one of the rapid torrents that fall from the broken ceiling; Roy warning his pupil to: “Hold your breath.” Both Alex and his mentor take in as much air as they could while rocketing straight towards the descending torrent; the two piercing straight through the water in a huge splash.

Hurdled through an entire stream of bubbles, Mally herself careens through a body of thick, crystal clear water; attempting to close her eyes and hold her breath for as long as she could while submerged. Alas can she could not hold her breath a second longer, a great exhale escaping from her mouth with next to no bubbles of air coming out; the skater left astonished and dumbfounded when finding the water around her as breathable as air. Right, all this a memory. None of it’s real. Her eyes open out to the crystal clear waters ahead and let her behold the numerous aquatic life that swims through out these oceans; schools of fish traveling together, octopi stroking through the waters, sting rays gliding through the sea like butter, and other sea life flowing all around. Yet these dozens of common sea creature be not the only that roam through the ocean, the likes of which that catch her eye being what she could only remember described as myth. Semi aquatic humanoid people dawning scales across their skin with manes of teal that flow like the wind as they swim through the waters; dressed in clothing holding swirling bright color’s and golden jewelery. Giant serpents that stretch along the sea, their gnarling teeth contrasting with their gorgeous fins as they devour prey whole. Some pieces of the coral ocean floor arising and revealing themselves to be massive turtles that trudge along the bottom of the sea. A massive shadow casts down onto them all, some peering up to find the silhouette of an incredible leviathan passing above. But all this was, wasn’t it? What happened to them all?

Midsts pondering of this beautiful sea’s very fate, Mally comes to witness a light of orange delve down into the depths; a human dawned with bubbling orange angel wings glide straight out right in the middle of this oceanic site. When the figure motions their arms straight up towards the surface, pillars of light rain down and pierce through the waters; galleons of sea water being lifted up within the light as the inhabitants retreat deeper down into the depths. Despite swimming as fast as they could, some are engulfed within these glowing columns; some of the sea folk watching in utter terror as their fellow kin are forced to rise from the ocean and up and breach the surface. Engulfed within one of these pillars, Mally is forced straight up alongside the galleons of ocean and flies straight through the surface; covering her eyes as she rises up into the light.

The young girl feels that very light eventually dim, letting her slowly open her eyes to adjust to the newfound site; Mally staring straight up to an entire sea of stars that glisten like diamond along a dark blue sky. Something about the ground beneath her feels strange as she pulls herself up, a comforting surface the likes of which she had never felt before; the skater aiming downwards to find whatever she stands upon wistfully fluffy and dark gray. She sees this fluffy gray shortly end straight out towards an entire thicket of clouds that stretch out beyond the horizon; mountains of fluffy gray ascending up above like mountains, with some puffs drifting across the skies. Alongside these stretches of gray fluff, Mally witnesses dozens of airborne creatures gliding through the skies while sharing the air with one another; avian birds that boast majestic feathers that bellow through the air, glistening lizards that crawl just along the clouds, airborne manta rays that glide through the breeze. Among these numerous skybound creatures does Mally witness numerous people; humanoids with hair like flowing clouds and tattoos of the very winds that streak across their pale bodies. While she finds some of them simply standing tall upon the clouds and taking in the view and mingling with each other, Mally see’s others ride through the air atop the numerous creatures of the night sky. All this was here once before, wasn’t it? But then…

The moment of calming sireen is then disturbed when another angel with wings of pulsing teal winds erupts right out from the sea of gray clouds; the figure hovering above them all as they wave their hands above their head in a swirling motion. The very air itself that was once peacefully still following the angel’s motion and is quickly whipped in a bellowing frenzy, the dozens of creatures and birds that once glides through the sky are cast aside by the raging winds; some of them torn right apart in horrifying fashion as easily as tissue paper among the gales. Its among the swirls of their hands that the angel thrust their palms straight up to the very stars above; the winds that surround them all blending together to form a powerful twister,  one that rips apart the stratosphere itself. Countless outcries and panicking screams flood the raging air as all the creatures and people swept up into this deadly tornado are plucked out from the earthly skies and our sent straight out in to the cold void of space; never to be seen again. Try as she might to keep herself gripped upon the night clouds, Mally’s grasp proves not enough to fight against the incredible gales and is caught within the winds alongside the dozens of other people and mystical animals all drawn straight into the tornado’s wrath; thrust upwards into the starry abyss of space like the rest.

Along the very surface of the Jurassic lake do a pair of figures breach out from its very very depths; the water that splashes out from their ascent glistening from the sunny crystals above; both the purple angel and black horned demon gasping for much needed air as they water splashes back down. After coughing up whatever water may be still left in his mouth, Alex peers out to the shoreline to discover the very wooden woman that had guide pulling her arms right out from the ground; cursing out: “That vile wooden bitch! She did attempt to drown us in that horrid grotto!” While his angelic mentor shakes off all the water that soaks him, the demon then witness’s the wooden woman start to flee out towards the jungle edge; a sinister gnarl escaping from Alex’s teeth before he tosses the comatose skater in his arms out to his mentor with: “Here!” Though caught off guard when his pupil throws his unconscious sister straight to him, Roy manages to catch Mally with but his only arm; his demonic student then delving straight after the retreating nymph.

Racing away from the lake shoreline, Carila gallops back towards the very woods she lead her guests through as fast as she could run; suddenly stopping in her tracks when a streak of orange and black crashes down before her. The dust settles to reveal the black horned demon with his hand in the form of a spiked hammer, ready to swing down upon the wooden warrior. She leaps back away from the demon’s hammering assault and beholds the fury burning with the demon’s bright red eyes; Carila’s own eyes widening as she utters: “Y-You!? But that means-” The wood woman’s face morphs into a star of utter horror upon discovering the demon’s angelic partner touching down; witnessing him gently put the unconscious girl down along the grassy plains before fluttering closer. “Noooo!” she growls. “Indeed.” the demon counters, slowly marching to the wood woman. “Were you really foolish enough to believe that galleons of dirty Jurassic water would be enough to do away with me? A miscalculated assassination attempt that that we’ll shall surely make sure you pay with your life.” “Why did you trying doing that shit, anyway? If its for the whole jungle protector bit, I think punching some dinosaur and cutting some weeds isn’t exactly worth getting so pissy over.” the purple merc questions. “...Do you honestly believe that this has anything to do with any meaningless duty? Do you not know the ramifications that your very existence implies!?” From these very words does the wooden warrior transform one of her arms into a sharp splintery mace; soon charge out to the purple angel as she declares: “This stopped being about the job the moment all of you came down here!” Carila swings her mace arm out to his head once close enough to the purple merc; Roy swiftly kneeling down to evade the spiked weapon and kicks the wood woman right off her feet, making her fall flat onto her back. Peering up does the wood nymph witness the purple angel lifting his leg up and diving his foot straight downwards; the wooden warrior acting fast and burrowing straight down into the soil before Roy could stamp her right out.

Having witnessed their foe dig through the dirt to escape, Alex sweeps his site all around the shoreline; wondering aloud: “Where the hell did that wooden harlot scurry away to?” Glancing over to his purple mentor, the black horned demon finds the merc waltzing to his side while staring straight out to the jungle edge behind him. “The jungle?” Alex utters. Fully turning over to the forest edge, a smarmy grin stretches across his cheeks as he lets loose a little chuckle; mocking out with: “A failed assassination attempt and fleeing into hiding? What a sheepish loathsome guardian.” “Don’t think she’s exactly done yet.” his purple teacher warns. From this warming does the forest before them begin to quake, numerous jungle tree’s spurting out from the earth and clustering together to form one gigantic arm; the limb hammering its hard wood fist straight down to the duo. Roy and Alex split away from eachother as the giant arm dives straight down upon the earth in a furious hammer; the demon between them blocking the flying debris before he claims that: “No doubt she’ll keep attacking like this unless we flush her out.” “Think I know a way that we can to.” Roy follows with.

Along the other end of the gigantic wooden limb, Carila manages to dislodge her own arm right out from the stub of the massive cluster of jungle trees; the wooden warrior peeking out along the stretch to witness the purple angel zoom right out from the horizon. Once the wood woman was right in site, Roy fires out a deadly ray of black and purple out from the palm of his hand and straight out to his wooden foe; Carila springs up to the treetops above to evade the dark blast. As soon as she lands atop one of the branches overhead does the wooden guardian thrust her foot deep into the bark of the tree she stands upon; all the moss covered branches that protrude out from the tree lunge straight out to the approaching angel, with their sharp tips ready to pierce through flesh. The purple angel weaves himself around all the branches that thrust their tip out towards him as he zips straight towards the base of the tree; not a single bit of their rough jungle bark able to brush along his precious purple hood.

Once near the tree his foe stands upon, Roy rams his legs right against its trunk hard enough make the jungle wood begin to tilt over; the towering tree’s roots tearing out from the soil as its plummets. With the very tree she stands upon on the verge of crashing down, Carila pulls her leg out from its very bark and leaps out towards one of the logs that neighbor her; the purple merc seeing his moment to strike and rapidly rocketing right up to the airborne wooden warrior. Right when the guardian was about to land right onto another branch, she feels the mercs fist right against her chin; Roy delivering a rising uppercut that sends her flying straight up through the treetops. Having been sent several feet above the treetops, Carila regains her composure just in time to witness a pterodactyl gliding through the skies; a smile cracking along the wood woman’s cheeks as her arm sharpens into a thin tipped pike.

The merc soon breaches through the treetops himself and hovers along the brightly lit cavern skies, holding his hand right above his eyes to block out the light of the crystals as he peers out to where his wooden foe might’ve went. A high pitched screech then rings right in his ears from behind; the purple angel peeking back just in time to witness the sharp beak of a pterodactyl thrusting out to him. Roy veers out along the side in an effort to evade the dinosaurs skewering tip, feeling the underbelly of the winged beast brush along the fabric of his hood as the pterodactyl passes by; purple angel peering out to the dino to discover the wooden warrior riding atop the monster, all with one of her limbs rooted right into its brains. “Jeez, who’d think that the protector of the jungle would stoop to such hypocrisy; how the prideful and bold have fallen from grace.” he mocks. “To hell with this outdated piece of earthly history, it could drown into the depths of the abyss for all I care anymore! For once in my long and arduous life of wasting away in this worthless hole, I’ve found a calling of greater importance.” Upon these very words does the wooden warrior swing her arm out in the air, flinging out an entire salvo of splinters and thorns that rain down towards the angel; Roy covers his face as the flurry of wooden needles showers down upon him. Her angelic foe distracted by the shower of sharp thorns, Carila forces her flying steed to glide out to the young merc once more; her free arm morphing into a splintered scythe as she rapidly approaches. Just as the wooden warrior was ready to chop her foe’s head clean off his neck, Roy quickly jets up right out of her blades swing and grasp the guardians arm before she could pass by; the purple angel uprooting Carila straight out of the pterodactyl’s brains and flings her back in the direction of the lake. The wooden warrior crashes right along the Jurassic lakes shallow shores, waves of the water splashing and rippling from her little dip. Water leaks out from the opening along the roots of her wooden body as she lumbers out from the lakeside; her bright blue sclera eyes trailing over to the comatose orange girl left resting along the shore.

Hovering down over to the shores where he had tossed away his wooden adversary, Roy’s eyes widen when that very same foe holding his comatose sister by the shirt collar; Carila brandishing a blade of wood straight against Mally’s very neck. “Listen, I get how all the work stress ya got piled up made ya fall from grace hard as hell; but going so low as to take a hostage that can’t even fight back? Not a bad play there if I’m being honest; even if its a dirty one.” the merc briefly praises. “Don’t you dare lecture me on morality, not after all that I had experienced. I imagine that with what the memory root is showing this girl, she would more than agree on how justified this is. A justice with which fate has bestowed upon me after enduring countless years of haunting memories and infinite sadness. And now...you shall taste that very same despair!”

Right as the wooden woman was ready to thrust her wooden blade straight into the comatose girls body, a sudden sharp pain thrusts into her side; the pain enough to paralyze the wood woman from moving even a single root. Slowly she peers down to the side of her lower torso and discovers one of the girls arms piercing straight through her wooden body; the orange girls head rising from its slump to reveal the bright red pupils staring back at her. A sinister chuckle leaks out from her devilish grin as the girl’s body start to morph before her eyes, the roots attached to her head transforming into a pair of jet black horns. “You blind fool. Did you honestly believe we didn’t think this wouldn’t be the first thing that you would try?” the girl asks as she finally fully forms into the very demon that had accompanied the two. With but a single swift movement, Alex slides his razor sharp hand blade across the wooden warrior root body while slipping right out from her grasp; Carila effectively split diagonally as what remains of her upper body is sent careening back in a splatter of chlorophyll. In a sudden poof of black smoke does the demon return over to his mentor’s side, Alex’s smile remaining when fully expecting some form of praise for his performance. His prideful grin deflates when peeking over to the purple angel and finding him not even uttering a single word as he simply stares outward.

When hearing the sound of agonizing grunts and gnarls, Alex glances out to the very wood woman he had just finished slicing straight in half; left astonished when watching her pull what little was attached to her head off the ground. “Gotta give it to ya; pulling yourself back up after having most of yourself slashed off; color me impressed. Even a pornstar’s morning wood would have trouble keeping itself up after getting slashed, they’d be lucky enough to walk away with even a slightly functioning libido afterward. And yet, here you are, ready to erect herself out from your slump and willing to get back in the shoot. Bravo” the merc further compliments with a full blow applause. “Will my disgust of your horribly perverted mind ever cease?” the demon beside him comments.

A bout of lime green pukes out from the fallen wood warriors maw, commenting in between her breaths that: “So many millennia have passed...and nothing...nothing has changed...You still treat us as clay...patronizingly abuse and mock us…as if were nothing but meager toys you could mold to your sick whims...completely disregarding the fact that we had lives of our own...You’re nothing but a sick little fledgling!” “Hmph, whatever qualms you had against demon kind, your grudge was surely not worth the sorry state you’re left in.” Alex chimes in with. “This is far beyond any demons, you irritating little imp. If you wish behold a true monster, look to the man beside you. His very presence is nothing but a reminder of horrors not just countless others had to suffer.” the wood woman specifies, Alex gazing back to the purple angel standing beside him. “Um, mind being specific here? I gotta a mile long list of people I screwed over who want to rip out my testies.” Roy requests.

Carila coughs up little bits of chlorophyll that splatter along the grassy shoreline, taking in another before continuing to explain: “My kind had been plentiful and happy. More than willing to support the very world we had shared with others. All that changed when your kind...the Kybr had revealed themselves...countless worlds and the lives that inhabited them were torn asunder and changed into whatever demented forms they had desired them all to be; caring little of how much any creature in this universe was suffering under their omnipotence. Throughout the ages did the wood nymphs dwindle in number in the struggle against the Kybr, their blood mixing along the oceans of other creatures that had fought against them. Not even the most powerful of demon’s could stand against them. I was helpless to watch as my people had thinned to a meager handful, constantly fleeing from a threat nobody in this universe could even comprehend stopping. I could no longer look to that very grotto under the lake as the place of my birth. All it stands to be now is a graveyard where the last of my kin had faded away.”

The wood woman grunts out as she stands atop her severed upper torso, resuming her lament with: “And though the Kybr have vanished, the scars they had inflicted still remain upon the universe and those who reside within; wounds that prove far too severe for time itself to heal. This jungle, this slice of frozen time was all that the wood nymphs had left to them; one of the pieces of this universe left untouched by the Kybr. And so with nowhere left in this world to harbor, we were tasked to preserve this land....I didn’t ask for this. None of us had! My own mental scars ached the very moment I had laid my blue eyes upon your black wings; the display of power he had demonstrated against this harsh natural land was more then enough proof that you were indeed one of them...one of the Kybr. You claim me as a hypocrite, yet here you stand, demanding one hurt by your ancestors to recount the tails of trauma they had inflicted. You spill the blood of their fraternity and now this? You Kybr are the real monsters.”

Having fully sat through the crippled wood woman’s brief history lesson, both the angel and demon look upon her with pitiable contempt, the merc between them stating: “So all this was just a ploy for vengeance over people that are not here anymore? I mean I respect the dedication, at least.” “But it seems that you’re admirable ploy for such pointless revenge has run its course. A shame.” the demon beside him joins. “Oh, but my ploy is far from over.”

Upon the very next moment does a giant stomp between the duo and their fallen foe; both of them gazing up to find the foot belonging to a massive sauropod that lumbers into the lake beside them. Once the giant dinosaur passes by, Alex returns his eyes over to their front and discovers their thought to be beaten foe having vanished; the demon’s eyes peeking over to his purple mentor to find him still staring over to the sauropod. Returning his sites back to the dino in question, he shares in the site of the wooden woman fleeing atop the beasts very back; a small growl escaping as he readies to fly out in pursue. Without even so much as a word of warning does his purple teacher suddenly take off after their retreating foe; Alex left behind to cough up whatever dirt wafts through the air from the unexpected takeoff.

The dust finally settles, Mally coughing up what dirt had slipped into her mouth and uncovers her eyes to the scene set before her. She stands in the midst of vast army stretching out for miles on end, made from diverse and numerous mystical creatures, people, animals that marching together; limb and limb, hand in hand; all of them determined to face the threat all of the stare out to. Turning over to the direction the battalion marches does she see a brilliant gleaming like that shines upon them all, a warm glow filled with comfort and hope. Peering beyond the heavenly light does she then discover what manner of foe this entire battalion faces; a giant withered head with angel wings coming out from its mouth and flapping in the wind, all attached to a centipede like body sporting numerous eyes along its glimmering exoskeleton. All the numerous eyes that decorate this holy abomination slowly begin to open; a shinning glow pouring out from their pupils and glimmers upon all standing before it, making the entire army stop dead in their tracks. The young girl standing out among them all watches as the sheer determination that once radiated from the entire army crumbles away in but a single instance; every single creature that had marched out to the celestial being now kneeling upon their knee’s and bowing faithfully to the angel’s blinding glow.

This hope filled light starts to fade away and lets the orange skater view the world around her once more; Mally discovering herself standing among yet another army made from numerous magical creatures, mystical beings, and mighty deities. Peering out to the direction they face does she discovers the angelic monstrosity they stand against; a twisted and warped purple shape protruding out several heads of different creatures from its edges, with wings flapping out from these creature’s eye sockets. A deep purple mist exudes right out from the dozens of mouths that the angelic horror opens; all the demons, gods, animals, and people that stand together against this threat all are halted mere moments from attack as this mist blankets them all. Among the army’s stupor does the girl see all of their eyes glow out with the very same purple they breath in; their daze swiftly turning into absolute maddening fury; raging screams and horrified shrieks echo out from the entire battalion as anger and confusion overwhelm them all. Mally watches in utter terror as all these people that once stood together in the face of greater adversity were now violently ripping each other apart; bloody chunks and part flying across the air in the descending madness. The angelic horror pours out more of this maddening mist out from its numerous maws until the very air itself was consumed in raging violet.

Soon enough does this fog eventually lift, letting Mally come to see herself hovering along in the void of space; staring down upon the earth as thousands, if not, millions of holy abominations much like the two she had seen before hovering alongside their angelic humanoid counterparts, surrounding the very planets stratosphere and beyond. Beholding this is she forced past all the winged monsters, her site zooming in towards the center of South America and keeps closing in until she sees a golden tower that stretches from the ground to the shrouding dark clouds. Atop this golden tower was a massive halo that holds a strange space within; all the while beneath this ring stood numerous figures, one with orange horns with a flame in the middle, another the head of a skull surrounded by a cosmic aura, one bearing a crown of pure flames and three eyes, one with a tiara of ice crowned atop her head, another garbed in a cape of winds, and finally one donning a set of armor made from thick bedrock. The millions of holy monsters and human angels all start emerge out from the surrounding clouds, all of which approach the towers very top as the halo overhead starts to rapidly spin and pulse. Working underneath this very ring is a lone angel donned with wings of pure solid matter, typing across and adjusting numerous holographic panels; this lone man pressing one final button on the screen right as all of his fellow kin lunge forth. All the numerous celestial beings that surround them are all drawn straight into the space held within the ring; the halo’s reach extending out to all the angelic beings that surround the very planet as the earth glows brighter and brighter the more of them are absorbed.

Her entire vision engulfed in this glow, the intense light finally starts to fade away and letting Mally open her eyes once more; the orange skater rubbing her head and flakes pieces of root off her head as she sits up. Greeted with a much softer glow set among the darkness, she starts to crawl out from the gap and comes to find herself back out in the prehistoric open air; the echoes of the jungle’s wildlife ringing in her ears. This ain’t the grotto. Is this still...What the hell even happened in the time that root burrowed through my skull? As the young lass ponders weather her surroundings are reality or not, a rumbling explosion draws her attention out along the lands very edge; Mally immediately taking off towards the direction she heard the blast go off without even a moments hesitation.

Once having climbed up to the towering head of the sauropod, the wood woman digs her roots straight into its head and burrows right into its very brains; the dinosaur crying out and flailing before the parasite atop its head takes control. Forcing the dino’s head to peer back, Carila is alarmed to discover the very angel that she had cursed in hot pursuit; the wooden warrior thrusting the sauropods elongated neck straight out to the nearing merc in a desperate attempt to swat him away. Roy hovers right aside the dino’s thrusting head and slaps the beast hard enough to make it careen out from the lake waters and crash along the opposite shoreline; the lake waters trembling from the hefty impact. Gliding out to the lake shores himself, Roy lands right atop the fallen dinosaurs very head and peers down to the hole that she had burrowed into the poor thing; a trail of its blood leading straight into the forest edge. A sinister chuckle leaks out from the merc’s maw before he shouts into the woods: “Running like this ain’t gonna do you a lick of good. You’re the one that started this whole shitshow, you should at least have the theoretical vag eggs to take the consequences like a stiff bean cu-” Right upon the very instant does massive mess of wooden roots stretch out from the edge of the forest and envelope the angel’s entire body; pulling Roy further into the depths of the woods.

All the numerous roots tied around the purple angel’s body bash the boy into tree after thick prehistoric tree pulling him deeper through; some of the towering tree’s crashing down to the ground from the slamming impact. Once dragged far enough through the woods, all the roots that bind the purple angel’s body unravel and send the merc crashing right into the face of a towering cliff; chunks of the rock descending alongside him as Roy shakes off his daze just in time to witness his wooden foe lunge out from the forest with a freshly made body. When Carila thrusts her newly made splinter claws right out to the falling angel, Roy strafes aside the wooden warriors thrusting jab; her claws digging straight through the rocky cliff face as she slides down. Carila bounces right off the rocks and out to the receding purple angel; Roy holding up his only arm as the wooden woman feverishly lashes her thorny claws and smashes through the fallen boulders while furious screaming: “Die!...Die! Die! Die!” “Still can’t believe your using the old and tired “sins of the father” bullshit just to throw this little shit fit of yours. Least you could do is come up with a better excuse that doesn’t dump all your problems on somebody vaguely related to some assholes that screwed you over. You might as well just be pissing in the wind at that point.” “What the hell could a cretin like you possibly know, left utterly ignorant of your ancestors sins inflicted upon this very world, all the tormentous suffering that had echoed across the anneals of time to countless others thanks to them. What would you know of that pain, of watching all the people you hold dear die before you!?” Upon the wooden warriors questions of suffering does the merc’s smug grin suddenly shatter, the skin along his arm socket violently pulsating as he leaps right over one of the Carila’s swipes. Hovering right above the wood woman, Roy hammers his tightly clenched fist straight down onto her head and punches her straight down into the dirt; shouting back: “You think I wouldn’t know that pain!?” Carila’s crash down into the earth manages to leave a crater the size of a small home; Roy glaring down as what remained of his wooden foe worms down into the soil. A serene breath passes out from the merc’s mouth, putting aside his short lived anger like a briefly brandished weapon. Easy Roy. Don’t need to get worked up all at once. Just start digging this morning wood out from the ground and then we can starting beating on her.

Right as the merc readies to thrust his arm down into the dirt, the crater he stands upon suddenly erupts in an explosion of dirt and rubble; the intense force of which launching the angel back up into the prehistoric air. Once stopping in the middle of the air, the purple angel peeks back down to discover what looked to be a gigantic worm all made from numerous roots bursting from the soil and rising straight after the merc; Carila riding right atop the worm with fury in her blue sclera. Roy ascends up along the cliff face as the wood worm furiously gives chase, the ascent crumbling into rocky chunks as both of them head towards the top. Coming out from the cliffs ascent, the purple angel glides straight into the forest edge perched along the top; peering back to see the worm stopping just short of the woods and continues the chase on foot. Yet even as Roy stays a good distance away from the pursuing wooden warrior, Carila refuses to hold up on her relentless assault and start to shove her arms straight into the very tree’s she runs right past; uprooting them from the soil and tossing them out like thick, ivy covered spears. Seeing all the plucked out tree’s descend down towards him, Roy weaves out from all the treetops that slam down upon the jungle grounds; some of them even knocking down the surrounding tree’s upon the descent. Jeez, seems like this bitch’d tear through this whole damn forest before calling the whole thing quits. Course, it be a bit easy just to tear and blast her to pieces; but that sure ain’t no fun. Think something more ironic might be better thematically appropriate here, but how to go about that? Upon coming along the next part of the jungle does the purple angel sense his answer, a devilish grin creeping out from between his cheeks as he peers out along his left. Oh yeah, that’ll work beautifully.

Back out along the receding lakeside, the black horned demon stares down into the water as it reflects her feminine form; a low growl slipping out from between her teeth before she swats at her own image. Where does that purple low life get the nerve? Ignoring his his own pupil and leaving them behind on the shores of a prehistoric lake. He should know better than this, dammit. Don’t say that he’s still upset of our last conversation? You’d think somebody with such grizzly professions would be more thick skinned than to be affect by something so harmless as words. How foolish.

On these very thoughts, the demon’s ears catch something rustling behind him; Alex quickly pulling herself up and turning out to the forest edge to find the bushes quivering. Her alarm dies down when witnessing none other than his mentor’s sibling emerge out from the green; stating: “Oh, its only you.” “A-Alex? Is- is this another...Is that you?” Mally utters. “Oh I don’t know, has that rancid branch that bore into her head deprived her of what sense you had?” “Okay, yeah, this is real.”

Strolling over to the demon’s side, the orange skater peers out to the vast lake before them while questioning: “So, where’s Roy.” “Hmph, that depraved brother of yours is off somewhere in combat with that wooden harlot after she attempt to drown us all.” “Ke-I-what...Agh...I’m out for about an hour and I miss all this. Though after everything that root wound up showing me, I shouldn’t be surprised things went downhill like this. We need to find them before it gets worse.” “Why should we? He doesn’t seem so eager to so much as speak to me, let alone fight by my side. Pretty rude if we’re being honest. Why should I humble myself to go crawling back to him?” Alex refuses with arms crossed. “Jeez, starting to see why he just up and ditched ya.” “What are blathering about?” “Did you seriously expect him to just leave off like nothing ever happened after you deliberately trash talking him about the beef with his ex?” Mally asks him, fully turning over to the demon. “Well, guess that should be the turnabout to it all, should it? If he’s so eager to jest of my demeanor; then he should be prepared to face the same sort of judgment. And from all those rumors said what had happened; its no wonder that she dumped him.”

Seeing her demonic partners make this last statement with a smug grin prompts the orange skater to slowly start stroll closer towards her; remaining silent as her fist clenching tighter the closer she nears. Once standing right beside the black horned demon, Mally roughly grasps Alex by the throat and pulls her closer; the skater swinging her fist hard enough into her jawline to splash her down into the shallow lake water. Pulling herself right out from the shallow end, Alex starts to cough up bits of water as she rubs the part of her chin that was struck; glaring up to the skater with: “What the hell is your-” Before Alex could so much as utter another word, Mally grasps the demon’s shirt collar and pulls her face to face; drips of sweat running down the demon’s head as she stares upon the skater blood red glare. “Did you not think that black horned head of yours that he said all that to you to try and help you, to try and break down the raw reality of how you treat people like they’re nothing just to try and change your sad, sorry situation. Cause if there’s one thing that my bro’s on the mark with, its that you no one likes you; and you saying shit like that is exactly why. You just treat everyone around you like your better than them, like barely anybody you know is worth your precious time. You think that’s the reason why everyone stays away from you?”

The demon’s face sours upon the girl’s enraged ranting; Alex growling back: “Like hell you know what people are really like around me, the way they all stare as if they’re very eyes say that I don’t belong with them. You wouldn’t dare say all this to me if you could see the scorns they’d give as far back as preschool.” Suddenly does Mally lay down a nasty headbutt right upon the demon’s face, one that makes Alex splash back down into the shallow shores; her node blood floating through the lake water as the skaters shadow looms over her. “You think that excuse is gonna come even close to working here? I knows somebody who has the same sort of copy paste sob story of being rejected cause of the way they look; somebody who could’ve just as well wound up being just as much of a bitter prick as you’re being. But she didn’t. She kept going and kept her chin up despite all the names, all the scorn, all the mockery. And thanks to that, she wound up having people that cared about her by her side, ready to throw down life and limb at the drop of a hat for her if ever need; and they’d sure as hell know she would do the same for all of them.”

Clutching the wet demon’s shirt collar once more, Mally drags Alex right out from the lakeside and has her stand right on the solid shores behind them; keeping her enraged glare upon the demon as she claims how: “Now you’re gonna go out and make up for the inexcusable shit that you said to Roy; or so help me god, I’m going to take you by the horns and drag your sorry ass out to him so I can shove my fist down your bunghole far enough to make you puppet out an apology. Do you understand me?” Among Alex mix of borderline fright and questionable arousal, Alex calms herself and states that: “Fine. But I’m going out of my own volition.” Saying this does the demon start to hover out to where her purple mentor had flown out to, all while the skater follows behind with her hockey stick brandished.

Perched along the branches of the prehistoric tree’s, several exotic birds that once called these woods their natural homes flutter away in terror as a streak of purple and black zoom right past; the tree’s that they once inhabited soon absorbed within a slithering mass of roots and bark that pursues after. While swerving around the dozens of towering jungle tree’s, the purple angel peers back to the mess of gathered wood that chases after his hide and finds his wooden foe riding atop the mass; her upper half sinking into the mass as she feverishly pursues after. Yeah, that’s it girl. Keep that raging hate boner up chasing after this sweet ass. Your gonna find out in a sec that this tail’s way too tasty for your own good.

Soon enough does Roy manages to glide right out from the depths of the forest and starts to descend down into a small valley clearing; the merc peering back to witness Carila leap right out from the woods, rocking a gigantic body cobbled together with dozens of jungle wood. While the two race through the valley field, Roy takes the time to peer back to the wooden woman feverishly chasing after and further demeans: “Ya know, I’m beginning to wonder when exactly all this pent up hatred and rage made ya loose yer head. Course, its another question to ask weather you had a mind in the first place underneath that mess of aging roots that you unfortunately gotta call a noggin.” Rather then attempting to respond back with words of her own, Carila instead lets out a monstrous screech as she leaps up through the air; her heavyweight body plummeting down towards the merc like a tumbling tree. The purple angel weaves right out from the wooden warriors plunge, her massive body crashing back upon the earth with a trembling quake; strands of white and yellow goo splattering along her feet the moment she stomps down.

Her blue sclera locked right upon the purple merc, she witnesses him retreat out to the side of a towering rock cluster; Carila wasting not another moment to lumber out towards her target. Roy rises right out from the wood giants tackle upon the last moment and makes her crash right into the rocks; countless boulders break off as the cluster crumbles to pieces, a couple of other strange boulders falling over and breaking apart into yellow goop. Carila keeps her killer glare onto the angel as Roy hovers high above and lands right atop a towering jungle tree sitting right in the middle of the valley; the merc sticking his tongue out while nonchalantly flipping her the bird. The wood woman stretches out her massive log of an arm right out to the very tree that her foe is perched on, plunging her roots straight into the tree’s very wood. The towering tree within her grasp, Carila uproots it straight out of the soil and flings the merc right off; several oval rocks falling off the branches as she continues to flail the massive jungle tree about. “Why won’t you die already!?” the shrieks whilst continuing to violently swing out to the fleeting angel. Straight into a cliff face, sweeping out through the meadow, and down upon uphill ascent of an incline; Carila slams the tree into wherever in her efforts to strike the purple merc out from the sky; Roy continuing to simply evade her flailing without so much as counterattacking himself.

Eventually does one of the wood nymphs aimless swings actually manage to swat the angel out of the air, sending the merc straight down in the middle of an enclosed cliiffside. An unhinged laugh escapes from the nymph as Roy pries himself off the soil; Carila’s blue sclera locked as she finally corners the merc. “Not once in the thousands of years I had been cursed to remain down in this slice of frozen time did I ever this this chance would grace me. But it shall be all worth it for avenging my ancestors that had suffered at the hands of you Kybr; forcing us all to hide down in this hellhole until our inevitable extinction.” “Funny as hell for you of all people to brag about taking vengeance. Just hope your ready to have those same words spewed right back in yer face.” Roy warns her.

These words of warning spoken do both of them hear an enraged roar ring out from above, the wooden warrior glaring up to the top of the cliff to witness a vicious T-rex start dropping down; the dinosaur descending down onto the wooden giant and digging its sharp teeth straight into her shoulder. Carila tumbles back as she attempts to pry the dino right off her as a triceratops charges in, ramming right into the guardians shin and knocking her down upon her back. The very moment she tumbles down into the ground does a pterodactyl swoop down and try to dig its claws straight into the wood woman’s tiny head; a whole pack of velociraptors joining in and clinging to part of her wooden body as she struggles against all the furious dinosaurs piling onto her. “Why!? Why are you all- Why is this happening!?” the guardian yelps out among the chaos.

The giant wood woman hears a devious laugh sound out alongside the growling dinosaurs, her head peering up to see the laughter coming from the purple angel as he hovers above; further berating her as she’s being torn apart at the seems. “Can’t believe you seriously call yourself a guardian of these parts. You’ve been on the job for serious how long now, and you were so occupied with wanking off your hate boner that ya didn’t realize where I lead ya to.” Curious of what the merc was prattling on about, Carila peers out around the very valley she had just thrashed about in. Absolute horror crawling through her as she finally discovers all the broken eggs that litter the ground, their shells and yolk splattered and scattered along the grassy plains. “You’ve been calling me a monster this whole time, all for a bunch of shit people related to me did a long while ago. And yet look at what you just did now. You were so busy trying to stamp me out that you wound up screwing over all these poor dino motherfuckers. Guess’s it might not be worthwhile if that kinda reach around prankster bull ain’t poetically catharsis.” The angel taunting words finally break the last bit of sanity holding the wood woman together, a maddening cry echoing out from her maw as all the roots that make up her body pierce through the dozens of dinosaurs that once tore her flesh apart.

Along the valley’s edge do both Alex and Mally emerge out from the forest in time to behold the wooden behemoth draw in the numerous scaly beasts within her own body; the dinosaurs crying out in agony as the wood nymphs roots tear their flesh and consume their very forms. Peering away from the agonizing site to find her purple brother hovering overhead, left utterly mesmerized by the grotesque scene playing out under him. “Shit man...” “Roy!” he hears his sister call out to him with.

The purple angel parts his eyes away from wretched site and gazes down to discover both her and his pupils approaching; Roy himself fluttering down to greet them back with: “Welcome back to reality, Mal. The hell sort of trippy sites did ya see while that root was digging in your brains?” “I...I’m not even sure I can put what all I saw into comprehensible words. But I can definitely say that whatever the Kybr were, friendly sure as hell is the furthest words away from them. I practically saw them all tear apart worlds and people effortlessly before my eyes.” the orange skater describes. “Wait a moment. Are you saying that irritating splinter woman’s venomous words towards your perverted brother hold some modicum of truth?” the demon questions. “Yep. Terrible stuff.”

“And speaking of mistakes, I think that Alex’s has something she wants’ta say to ya, Roy.” Mally segues to. “That true?” Roy asks, his purple eyes locked to the demonic girl. After transforming herself into a boy, Alex coughs a little bit before taking in a deep breath and going: “I-Indeed I do. For you see, underneath my awe aspiring complex personality; I am in fact capable of humbleness. And I dare slaughter anyone that says otherwise… My point is that humility allows me to perceive some ill made mistakes I have made; specifically making mention of your most recent relationship affairs as a crutch to counterargument. Such behavior was out of line for me. I’m starting to understand why those around me might react when taking aim for a more personal target. And for such an undeserved low blow; I must sincerely ap-..apo-…apollll...apolooo...ap...apooolllo...” Amidst the demons’s attempt to apologize, his mentor takes a gentle grasp upon his shoulder and gives a grin while responding: “Eh, I can probably take that crappy attempt of a sorry. Sound like I finally broke through to ya on that shit.” “Yes, well...best savor that. Don’t expect me to lower myself to such levels again.” Seeing the two make up brings out a warm smile across Mally’s cheeks a moment that’s promptly interrupted when a trembling squeal screeches before them all.

The trio glancing back towards the ongoing scene and come to watch as their wooden foe rises upon her feet, the countless dinosaurs that had once attempted to rend her to pieces now sown into her very roots; the head of the tyrannosaurus stuck to end of her right arm while the head of the triceratops is stuck to her left. The dozens of velociraptors decorated across her torso. “My duty doesn’t matter anymore; it never did in the end. Attempting to safeguard that which the Kybr had destroyed, it was nothing but a fruitless endeavor to falsify a purpose; one that I attempted to engrave in my fateless life for the sake of those long past. But now, a new road stretches out before me, one to prevent those like me to spawn in this world with such predetermined scars; ones that ache with a cold and empty loneliness and yearning for others that will never come to pass. And the first step upon that path is with the Kybr’s true extinction!” Upon those very words do all the dinosaurs trapped within her body all roar out at once; their outcries ringing across the entire prehistoric jungle.

“Oh yeah. Kind forgot about that. Probably should just blasted her to bits while she was turning, huh. Still, hearing Alex let out hilarious attempt of an apology might’ve been worth it.” the purple angel claims. “A rather careless mistake if you ask me; should’ve just ended her quite long ago. But this laughable error matters little in the end. No matter what grotesque form this worthless wood woman takes, its doubtful it would be nowhere near enough to stand up against the might of me and my constituents.” the black horned demon adds. “Couldn’t have said it better myself.” “Glad to see things are finally back on track.” the orange skater among them states; the trio taking their stance against the behemoth of wood and dinosaur flesh.

The horrible amalgamation of jungle wood and dinosaur flesh suddenly lunges forth, thrusting its T-rex limb and opening its jaw wide as its maw races to the three. The trio split apart before the head of the beast could sink its teeth into them all, with Roy leaping right back into the fray after which and kicking the head of the dino right in the cheek; the purple angel’s kick strong enough to make the entire giant tumble aside. As the wooden behemoth continues stumbling back, a lone yo yo twirls around the very same arm and wraps the T-rex head within its reinforced steel string; the string pulling back and keeping Carila front regaining her balance. Peering back does the wooden warrior discover that very string belonging to the orange skater, Mally single handedly keeping the amalgamation of wood and beast from standing on her own two feet. Its in that moment that the wooden woman hears the air above her let out a distinctive poof, the head of the giant gazing up to discover the black horned demon plunging down upon her with his hand taking the form of an axe. Alex slams his transformed axe hand down onto the wood girl’s neck, the impact however not being enough to make a clean cut; the demon’s weapon only getting through about a tenth of their foe’s thick neck. Before the demon could take another swing at her neck, Carila swats the imp away with her other free arm; this very action causing the giant body to finally fall onto the earth with a trembling quake. With the chimera of wood and flesh having crashed on her backside, the purple angel ascends the air above the fallen giant and holds his only arm up in the air; a sphere of purple and black cultivating in the palm of his hand. As the angel above her prepares his assault, Carila glances over to her arm to find the skaters string still wrapped around the head of the T-rex; a sinister smile cracking between her cheeks before she starts to pick herself off the ground. Rising right off the ground, the jungle wood giant thrust her arm straight upwards and flings the orange girl that had held her back up towards the purple angel; Roy discarding his ball of purple and black to catch his sister with but his only limb. “Dammit!”

With but a single hand, the merc manages to grasp his orange sibling before she could be flung right out into the jungle; Roy keeping Mally in his hand as the giant above continues to pull its heavyweight body off the ground. “Kay, we might need a plan here. How bout pulling out one of those strats of yours out, eh Mal?” “I ain’t too sure. Alot of them won’t be as effective with our blue brother AFK.” “Let’s just cobble one together instead. This 20 ton of morning wood is practically on high alert for anything I do.” “She didn’t exactly see Alex coming though. He got a good chop onto her neck before he was swatted away.” Mally gazes out behind the rising giant and discovers their demonic third gliding out from the depths of the woods, sweeping away whatever leaves and branches wound up on him. “I think that might just be our winning ticket. Fling me out.” the skater requests. “Uh, kay.” When her brother tosses her up into the air, Mally stiffens her entire figure before landing right back in Roy’s palm; the merc holding his sister like an Olympic javelin thrower as he asks: “Where at?” “Aim for the head.”

Just as his orange sister instructs him to, the purple angel lobs Mally straight towards the very head of the giant of wood and flesh like a throwing spear; the skater flipping herself feet first as she streaks through the air like a missile. Though Carila attempts to lift her triceratops head to block the oncoming lass, its weight simply proves far too much of a hindrance to lift up in time; the wood woman able to little but brace for impact as the orange skater harshly stamps her feet straight into the behemoth’s tiny face The wooden giant reels back as Mally leaps right behind the amalgamation and out to the approaching demon; Alex’s pupils shrinking when peering up and discovering the skater descending down towards him. “Grab me! Grab me! Grab me! Grab me! Grab me! Grab me!” the skater screams while plummeting down. Any attempts to catch the girl dropping down towards her are forsaken right then and there when the black horned demon disappears in a puff of smoke; Mally dive bombing straight through the cloud and violently crashing down into the dirt below. Alex reappears a few feet beside as the orange skater plucks her upper half right out from the soil, shaking the dirt out of her hair before sarcastically thanking the demon with: “Gee Alex, sure appreciating ya catching me in the air like that. Sure saved my hide from crashing down into the dirt face first!” “I’m honestly at a lost on what exactly you were expecting me to do with you bombing down to me at breakneck speeds.” Alex earnestly questions. “Well, can I at least expect ya to listen to a little plan I got going on in the deep fryer?”

Freshly recovering from the orange girls harsh stomp, the behemoth again charges out to the purple merc that hovers before her, thrusting the open jaws of her T-rex head towards the angel to try and take a bite out of his purple hide. Roy strafes right aside the dinosaur heads clamping teeth and darts straight to the giants chest to attempt to counterattack, ready to deliver a punch right through the sternum. Just before the merc could even touch a single root of the wooden giant, Carila’s chest suddenly burst open before him and unleashes an entire gaggle of velociraptors; all of the mule sized motherfuckers lunging out from the depths of the wood woman and biting down on the angel. “Gah!” Right as one of them was on the verge of piercing through the skin, Roy acts fast and casts a beam of dark and purple down upon where they spawned; effectively forcing all of them to retreat as the giant herself stumbles back. Once free from the numerous dinosaur jaws, Roy fires out another ray up towards the gigantic amalgamation’s head; the wood woman raising the shield like head of the triceratops; the beast moaning out in pain as its forced to take the blast literally head on. Having blocked the angel’s beam, Carila suddenly charges towards the purple merc while keeping the triceratops head up; Roy gliding back as the giant of wood and flesh readies to slam the head right into him.

Distracted from her feverish pursuit after the Kybr, the wood woman then and there feels something land atop her head and hook into the wood woman’s bright blue sclera; Carila letting out a horrible shriek as the hook digs further into her eye socket. Gazing up amidst her painful agony, the giant discovers the black horned demon perched atop her relatively sized noggin and shoving his transformed hook hand deep down into her eye; Alex wearing a deliciously sinister smile as he keeps holds onto his wooden foe’s head. “You-!” Just when she attempts to reach over and pry the demon off her, Mally leaps right onto the top of her arm and casts her grapple yo to the T-rex head stuck to the end; leaping off as its string wraps around scaly beasts upper jaw. Landing back onto the ground, the orange skater wrangles the massive tyrannosaurus head; the beast struggling to free itself as Mally keeps the beast bound. “Go for it, Roy!” she shouts to her purple brother. Both of his teammates keeping the giant mess of roots and dino flesh, Roy swoops back in the fray and takes hold of one of the triceratops’ horns before lifting the entire behemoth up towards the crystal coated ceiling.

The orange haired skater and demon release the giant from their grasps as the angel continues to drag the wooden giant straight towards the glowing roof of the prehistoric cavern. Once close enough to the shinning crystals above, Roy heaves the behemoth of roots and flesh skywards; Carila’s massive body crashing right into sharp glowing rocks hard enough to cause the entire roof to tremble. Alongside chunks of the glowing crystal and stone, the behemoth starts to plummet back down towards the prehistoric earth; Roy ordering his pupils to: “Finish it!” The demon is more than happy to obey his mentors command and lunges out towards the falling giant at breakneck speeds, clasping both of his hands together and forming them into the head of a giant axe. Closing in towards the very head of their wooden foe, Alex swings the edge of his weapons to the wooden warrior as she opens her maw wide; the demon only able to cut about 6/10th’s through the giants thick neck before suddenly feeling an overwhelming pain surge within his stomach. Roy and Mally gaze upon the site in a horrifying blend of alarming terror and utter dread; beholding a single straight root that had erupted from their foe’s mouth and pierced straight through Alex’s body.

The very silhouette of the root piercing straight through his pupil’s stomach causes his vision to fade in purple; the shadows of the site transforming into a pair of shadowy winged figures, one of which driving a sword through the other’s chest in a haunting similar manner. Bouts of purple liquid spurt out from the stabbed figures mouth as it slowly tilts its head towards Roy, its eyes reflecting despair and dread as it leaks out tears of violet. The very image pulled from the boy’s demented mind is swiftly overcome by a creeping darkness that stems from these figures and consumes Roy’s whole vision; the angel plummeting down to the earth as the socket his left arm once was start violently pulse.

The giant of wood and flesh finally crash back down in the once pristine valley, the dust swiftly settling to reveal Alex remaining utterly limp while dangling unto the very pike that pierces his body. “You nasty little devil...” Carila sighs. The wooden warrior’s arm staggers as she lifts the head of the Tyrannosaurs rex up to the impaled demon; the dinosaurs teeth glistening as its starts to open its drooling maw. “You’ve caused me enough trouble.” The T-rex’s mouth just inches away from the black horned boy, a streak of orange zooms through and breaks the demon off the wood woman’s pike just seconds as she bites down; Carila peeking over towards the same direction to discover the orange girl swinging away with the boy on her shoulder. While Mally flees out towards the jungle’s edge, she peers back to find the giant refusing to pursue as the wooden behemoth rises off the floor to instead face the purple angel; her brother continuing to struggle and tremble as he remains kneeling on the ground. Come on, Roy. Don’t quit now.

The merc breath shakes as he trembles onto the floor; the giant that he had once tossed aside now towers over him, with her very shadow looming over the young angel. “Do you feel it yet, Kybr? That is the very same horror and despair that your ancestors had inflicted upon not just me, but all the wood nymphs that had suffered under your power. Unlike those wretched monsters however, I take no joy in watching you suffer from your loss. Be grateful, young Kybr, for you shall join your demonic ally in his passing very soon.” the giant states, staggering her tyrannosaurus hand down to the trembling angel. “This day shall be remembered. The day the last of the Kybr are snuffed out from this worlds existence.” The tyrannosaurus’ close in on the kneeling merc, ready to tear apart the angel with its sharp killer teeth at any moment; its hungering breath waft upon the boy’s entire body.

The very moment the teeth of the beast were on the verge of clasp down upon him, the purple angel finally rises off the valley grass as the stitches along his arm tear off; the Tyrannosaurs rex’s assault suddenly thwarted when strands of pure black puncture through the dinosaurs head. Carila watches as these newfound strings push their way from the head of the T-rex and weave themselves across the cracks and crevices of her gigantic arm; the wooden warrior gazing down along her limb and discovering the very source of these strands. From the angel’s missing arm socket do dozens of these black tendrils wriggle out from the depths of his body; drips of the merc’s blood trickling down his torso and staining the grass beneath his feet. Though the amalgamation of jungle wood and dinosaur flesh attempts to jerk her arm away from the angel standing before her, the numerous strands of black enveloping her arm refuse to free her from their grasp; Roy lifting his head up and staring to her with his eyes glowing a sinister shade of violet. A single jerk back is all it takes for Roy to rip the gigantic log that was his foes arm straight off the rest of the giant’s body; Carila tumbling back to the edge of the small valley and falling upon the face of a rocky cliffside. Out from the fall does the wooden woman gaze back towards the violet angel, watching as the Tyrannosaurs rex and all the other tree that made up her severed limb are covered in more and more of these black lines until the fully envelope the limb; all of it swiftly devoured until being reduced to nothing underneath the shadowy mass.

As the giant wooden woman slowly pulls herself up along the cliffside, she keeps her eyes locked to the angel as he starts to hover out to her with his tendrils of pure black squirming like a mass of raging worms. “You think you’re the only one who can regrow their limbs?” she remarks. Though the giant reaches her only arm up to the forest above the cliff, not a single roots starts to stretch itself up towards the top no matter how hard she reaches. “Why...won’t...my arm...My neck!” Glancing down along the edge of her neckline, she finds the veins that run along the side of it now left severed and disconnected; a seething growl escaping from her mouth as she curses out: “That little bastard!” Its in that moment that the angel’s strands of black all wrap around the wooden behemoths massive log of a leg and tear off the entire limb in but an instant; some of the velociraptors that were once trapped within Carila’s body scrambling away through the valley.

Left desperate to end the angel that hovers before her, the wood guardian leaps into the air with but her remaining leg and hammers the head of the triceratops down upon him; the entire jungle trembling from the incredible impact. A moment of silence passes among the small valley, the giant letting a breath escape as she assumes the fight to be over. Alas does she swiftly retract that same breath as she begin to feel her entire arm quake; the head of the triceratops slowly forced back up by the dozens of the violet angel’s stands of pure black. “No...No!” Carila screeches; shoving her arm down towards the earth. Before the giant could crush the angel under her weight, a great surge of purple and dark blasts out from underneath the head of the triceratops; the pulse launching the giant of wood and flesh right off Roy. The ground beneath the behemoth cracks as she crash back down; Carila peers up from beyond her body to witness all the merc’s tendrils lunge out towards her; their ends transforming sets of deadly sharp teeth that open their maws as they close in.

All the maw made from the dark mass sink their chompers down into the giants very roots and begin to rip and tear apart the wooden guardians gigantic body; stains of chlorophyll and bits of red splattering across the valley grass as Carila struggles and flails under them all. When attempting to smack all the mouths of dark away with her other arm, she finds the beast itself missing from the end of her limb; the triceratops once trapped among her roots fleeing out in the jungle. All of her options to retaliate dwindling at the very seems, Carila decides to just simply cut her losses and makes a small branch protrude out from the side of her head; the wood woman pushing up from her shoulder and pulling her head off her giant bodies neck. Once freeing herself from the roots of her own body, the wooden warriors head leaps away before a set of black teeth could clamp down upon her head; Carila feverishly racing away from the scene and out towards the forest edge. The violet angel lets all the black strands that had emerged from his arm socket quickly finish devouring what remained of his foe’s abandoned corpse; and though silent, Roy keeping his enraged glare locked to the head as she pathetically flees.

Once getting far enough away from the action, Mally hops down from the tree branches and lands along the jungle floor with the wounded demon in her arms; the orange skater gently setting Alex along his side. The black horned demon lets out a retching groan as he squirms on the soft grass, the girl stating for him to: “Take it easy, Alex. Y-You’re gonna be fine.” “That fucking wooden plank of a nymph! I refuse to be left down by such a dastardly surprise assault!” the demon growls aloud, grasping the pike left stuck within his stomach. Before the demon could even start to pull the piece of root out from himself, Mally grabs hold of his arm and warns: “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! We can’t just pull that outta ya yet, we don’t got anything to patch it up with.” “Then what do you suggest we do?” “I-I don’t-” A brief breath escapes from the orange skater as she peers up to the roof of the prehistoric cavern; reviewing how: “Even if we could get back up to the surface, the nearest hospital’s probably miles away. Maybe we can...No...Ah...”

In the midst of breathing through the uninterrupted pain surging through his stomach, a strange scent greets the demon’s nose between his breaths; Alex taking a deeper smell of the air before concluding: “Is...is that me?” “Dammit Alex, can you stop thinkin about your self image for one bleeding second and worry about the literal hole in your stomach!?” “No, you rambunctious git! I can smell more of myself, more of me than their should be.” “Is all the bleeding making you hallucinate already, or are you just screwing with me? Cause at this point, it seems like either or.” The skater watches as Alex struggles to pick himself off the jungle grass and starts dragging himself across the floor; the demon heaving himself out towards the direction they’d just came from. “This...this could be just what I need.” he claims aloud. “What the hell are you on about?” the girl standing beside her questions. “This newfound darkness that permeates the air. If I can find and consume it, then it may be enough to patch up this pathetic wound I’m being forced to endure.” “And you’re sure about that?” “I’ve never been so sure in my entire life.” Upon those very words does the demon then feel something sweep him right off the rough jungle floor; Alex gazing up to find himself carried within the orange skaters arms. “Right, just lead the way.” Mally request as she starts to jog back. Gently caressed by the skaters firm, but soft arms, Alex reactively transforms into a girl as a bit of blush glows along her cheeks; the demon shaking this off to peer out to the woods ahead.

Feverishly dragging what remains of herself along the grassy valley, the wood woman’s fearful gaze begins turning into a hopeful smile the closer she nears the forest edge; Carila just a couple more feet away from her only salvation out from the brink of her demise. But just when she was ready to reach her arms out to one of the towering jungle tree, her hopeful grin shatters on the spot when feeling something grasp the back of her head and haul her away from salvation. “No! No! No! No!” she screams out as the dozens of black strands all jerk her back through the valley plains; the tendrils swiftly tossing her remains through the prehistoric air. Her careen through the valley air comes to a sudden end when caught by the purple angel’s actual arm, with the merc grip tightening as he clutches the head by the eyes. The wood woman hopelessly struggles as visible cracks start to form around her very head; the base of her neck falling apart as the fractures worsen.

Moments from snuffing out what remained of the once proud guardian, Roy stops tightening his grasps when hearing the head let out a wheezing chuckle; Carila proclaiming with a weak smile: “So you finally embrace it, do you?...You’ve decided to finish what your ancestors had started so long ago...It’s not surprising, not even a smidgen. Snuffing out the future of a species that your people had dwindled to near nonexistence; you’ll be no better than them in the end.” “Ya know...” Upon these very words does the purple angel resume squeezing the head of his foe in his iron grasp, Carila’s face contorting into sheer agony until finally breaking into chunks of withered roots; the wood woman’s remains scattering along the valley grass. “I can live with that.” Feeling something left within his grasp, the purple merc opens his palms and discovers something peculiar leftover from her demise; a set of strange seeds now resting in the palm of his hand, decorated with a bright blue circle along the middle. Hmm…

Among pondering what to do with the leftovers of his foe does he then sense both his sister and his pupil on the approach; Roy dunking the seeds down into his pants pocket as Mally lands behind him. Once gently setting the wounded demon down upon the gentle valley grass, a stark shock is reflected through the orange skater’s eyes as she peers up to discover all the waving black strands along her brother’s side; stuttering out: “R-roy?...Wh-what the hell are all those things?” “Why’d you come back?” he asks her. “Uh, well. Alex wanted to-”

Midst attempting to explain themselves, the black horned demon herself slowly arises from the valley earth while grasping the pike left lodged in his stomach. In just a single swift pull does Alex uproot the sharp spike straight out from her body in a splatter of black and red; an action of which catches both Mally and her brother completely off guard. “Give it to me...Give them to me!” she shrieks before lunging over to the dozens of strands stemming from the merc’s side. Both the merc and skater remain utterly astonished as the demon sinks her teeth into these black tendrils and tear them right off their stems; Alex slurping them all down like an Italian dish. While watching the demon continue to consume the numerous strands from her brother’s side, Mally’s attention is drawn over to the open wound left along Alex’s stomach; a thick black goop dripping out from within the demon’s body and filling the hole, all until the terrible wound that she had suffered from moments ago disappears.

A heafty sigh escapes from Alex as she leans away from the tendrils she had spared; claiming with euphoric calm how: “Ahh. Finally, that horrible pain has ceased.” “Alex...the fuck happened?” her mentor obviously questions. After pulling herself off the valley grass, the demon clears her throat before explaining: “Is it not obvious to you yet? All those black strand that had erupted from you’re arm socket, their very same substance is what makes up my biological makeup; tis why consuming them dressed my wound so efficiently.” “So this stuff coming out of his arm is some sort of demon goo?” the orange skater behind her asks. “To be less moronically blunt then that, this substance is one the feeds of negative emotion. I can only imagine something that this purple pervert thought off had awoken it from its slumber.” “So this stuff is a part of you. So can I...” Upon pondering of something, the merc begins to concentrate while keeping his eyes locked to the dozens of strands. All these dozens of black lines start to form together under the merc’s very command, forming straight from his arm socket and growing to match the exact length of his other arm; leaving five strands out along the end to form the fingers and thumb. Beholding the results of his concentration, Roy thrust his fresh new arm of pure black into the air as he cheers out: “Hell yeah. Got me a fresh new arm, bitches! I’m ready to belt people across the ass and make em scream out for more...Wonder what jacking it with this must feel like?” “Hmph. I’d normally be quite upset from this newfound development. The fact that you happen to sprouts a fresh new limb that happens to be made from the same biological material I am. But seeing how it had bloomed at such a convenient time, I suppose it’s something I can overlook. Consider it a gift then, for your gracious and surprisingly effective training.” A warm smile stretches across the angel’s cheeks when hearing his pupil state such, responding to the gesture with: “He he he. That ain’t the only gift that’s being given out today. I got something for ya that you’ll love.” “Oh, a present for me? You shouldn’t have; but please go on, don’t let me stop you.” the demon tells him with a grin.

Roy approaches the young demon before kneeling down to her very level; putting his hands upon her shoulders and simply stating to her that: “You pass.” From these very words does Alex’s grin suddenly break apart at the seems; the demon uttering: “P-Pardon?” “Congrats, kid. You graduated from your training, all with flying colors too. You’ve gotten over your smug demeanor and finally shown some actual growth and maturity while under my wing. I’m absolutely certain now that whatever this harsh existence that we have deemed to be life has to blindside ya around the corner with, you got enough in ya to take from their hands and shove it straight back down their damn throat.” “So...I won’t have to drag myself to your training sessions?” the demon softly asks. “Yep, you your own demon now.” “Uh...Well, that’s...quite the relief. All those regimen were beginning to grind through my life.” she responds with half hearted faux smug.

“Hey, uh, hate to bring down this his precious moment of euphoric conclusion of character growth, but I got a hell of a bombshell to drop here.” Mally cuts in with. “If it ain’t aimed at the Ukraine, the fire away.” her brother requests. “That memory root made me see a lot of things that Kybr had done in their time; none of it being remotely good. I’ve seen them change and transform so many lands and homes by just the wave of their hand; uncaring of how many people they kill, lives they ruin, or how many they driven to utter extinction.” “Eesh. Really that bad.” “So much worse than you think. And the cherry on top of this impending nightmarish sundae is that I had a horrible realization. Tore’s been out there helping somebody that wants to release them all back into the world.” “But we still don’t have a single clue where he might be.” “I think I might know where. But if we don’t hurry back up to the surface and out to them, then we’re gonna have a hell of a lot more problems that nobody can ever prepare themselves for.”

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

As so, the truth behind the Kybr and their past has finally been revealed to Mally and her friends, but can she relay this newfound knowledge to her brother in time before those how had once terrorized the universe could be freed? Find out on the season finale of Young hope.

[strathmoresmith]

Was it something I said

“God damnit,” Hope’s forehead hits the green tile, a bit harder than she meant to; blaming it on the joint she’d been nursing previously, and not the butterflies that were fluttering around in her mind. The cold water runs down her body, soaking through her bra and underwear. She turns the handle toward the hot water and dips her head underneath the stream letting it pound her, trying to wash away most of what just happened.

What the in the actual fuck? She thinks as the last of the puke disappears down the drain. This is a first, if she’s being honest with herself. A whole bunch of firsts. The mid-party shower, the puke. The unsolicited butt stuff, for sure. But more interestingly, this version of Amy. What was that? Who was that?

She’d always known that Amy was more than Molly’s sidekick—She’d seen Amy’s passionate speeches about plastic straws and gender-neutral bathrooms, but that was Amy standing up for others and Hope was tired of Amy always following. Following Molly, Ms. Fine, and especially tired of seeing Amy follow Ryan aimlessly around. She wanted to see her stand up for herself. Which is why Hope pushed her, in retrospect, maybe a little unfairly. But fuck, she’d finally gotten Amy’s attention, so that had to count for something. Either way, whoever this new confident Amy was, Hope was even more drawn to her than before.          

Hope turns the knob off and wipes the excess water from her arms, while she steps out of the shower and surveys the bathroom. Her clothes are everywhere. She grabs her jeans and struggles to pull them up her wet legs, still reeling from the last 20 minutes of her existence. Pulling on her shirt over her damp bra, and grabbing her jacket, Hope bends down and grabs Amy’s underwear. How weird would it be…? But, before giving it a second thought she is stuffing them in her back pocket, smiling to herself. Seriously, what the fuck?

--

She’d originally retreated into the bathroom to sulk by herself. After seeing Amy’s magnetic pull in Ryan’s direction, Hope was officially over it. Over the party, over high school, and finally, so fucking over those freckles. She’d spent the last two years agonizing over how to get noticed with no progress—and it was clear that Amy only had eyes for the SoCal skater, which Hope was not, nor could to be. She’d pathetically attempted the happy-go-lucky attitude with terrible success junior year and everyone had asked her if she was feeling okay, before she reverted back to her brooding self.

So, frustrated by the culmination of her miserable situation, Hope abruptly stood up from couch where she had been chatting with her classmates and made her way to the front door, ready to leave, when Annabelle grabbed her.

“Dude, you okay?”

“I’m out.”

“What? Why come on, it’s our last night as high schoolers!” Her words slurred a little.

Hope stared across the room just long enough to see Amy and Ryan leave the kitchen, hand in hand. Now even more irritated, Hope turned back to retrieve her arm from Annabelle’s grip to see that the girl has also witnessed their departure. Annabelle’s face transformed into a frown and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

“Do I need another reason, or am I allowed to go?” Hope said pissed to have received sympathy.

“Just wait, one second.” Annabelle’s eyes lit up, and with her free hand she dug in the back pocket of her jean shorts, revealing the better part of a joint. “I don’t recommend smoking this outside, if you want it to yourself,” she hands it to Hope, “happy graduation.”

[augustintravert]

♡  RYAN GUZMAN, CIS MALE, HE/HIM, HETEROSEXUAL  |  ❝  do you hear [ SONG BY ARTIST ] coming from the promenade? it looks like our latest contestant, [ AUGUSTIN TRAVERT ], has finally arrived at the retreat ! though the fans will soon know them as the [ THE ICARIAN ], because they’re [ SINGLE-MINDED ] but also [ PASSIONATE ]. maybe you can also blame that on them being a [ ZODIAC SIGN ]. you might recognize them from their ig [ @TRAVERT15 ], where they’re about to hit [ 207K ] followers . if you don’t, then you should know they’re a [ TWENTY-SEVEN ] year old [ HOCKEY PLAYER ] and serial swiper from [ VANCOUVER, CANADA ] . they’ve brought along [ LUCKY STICK, SIGNED MARIO LEMIEUX PUCK, & A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIS MOM  ] to the retreat, but that’s not all they’ve brought with them . hopefully, their surprise sex rehab will help them work through it.  ❞

♡  ABOUT THE CONTESTANT.

 Augustin was born with a stick in his hand. Alongside that came his father’s expectations. A failed skater himself, he wanted better for his son. Gus got it. Trainers at a young age. Rink time up to his ears. The best equipment money could buy. Always at a cost. An empty fridge. The lights gone out for a day or two at a time. Buses back and forth to the ice. Hockey had always been the priority.

DEATH TW: He was seven when his mother died. Car accident with no one to blame but the Canadian snow. It’s weird how memory works. Augustin can remember exactly what she was wearing that morning before she’d gone out but the sound of her voice? They slip away without aid. It never helped that his father couldn’t move past it. Their bedroom was a time capsule right down to the brush still tangled with threads of her chestnut hair. Her apron still hung on its 

Father and son relied on hockey. Heads ducked down and zeroed in: on the puck and the dream. That’s the reason he got to college, why he got drafted, why his rookie year sung his praise.

Turns out the pros the difficult. August sustained his first injury three years ago. Then again late in the next season. And then… now. A magnet for them. Fans were quick to give up hope. Fragile. Waste of money. Waste of the bench.

Some players, they can shake it off. Not him. Gus was always the type to take that shit to heart. Not that he’d ever show it. Fuck, he was good at hiding behind a stone cold exterior— a lesson learned from his father. But they ate away at him. Drinking was one outlet, drugs not his forte… so came sex. Legal, easy to access, fun.

Augustin slept with not just the coach’s daughter but also the owner of the team. Add in that neither took it very well and fraternizing with multiple boss’s family isn’t exactly smiled upon. His job is already in jeopardy. Why not throw in a scandal?

♡ THE INTERVIEW.

have you ever been heart broken and have you ever broken someone’s heart? tell us what that was like.

“Break hearts sounds a bit intense but,” August shrugged, his hand locked on his ankle as it crossed over the other thigh, “if you need to call it something… I guess. You’ve heard of puck bunnies, right? Always chasing the jersey. Some of them get it: one night, a good time, they’ve now got a story to go home and tell their friends. Others linger around like they expect some ring to come out.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Like I got time for that, let alone them.”

He licked his lips, the producer reminding him of the first part of the question, the part he’d intentionally skipped over. Gus nod his head curtly. “Yea.” His heartbeat counted out the seconds between. Thump thump. Thump thump. “Her name was Quinn. Sister of a teammate.” He looked away, exhaling out his nose. He didn’t talk about this. Locked it up and put hockey front and center. Revisiting was just like reopening an old wound: never truly healed. “I got an offer to play. She got a scholarship. Last I heard she’s married.” He shallowed harshly again, the worst bit left to say. “Married.”

what’s your best asset and why?

“Canucks would say my reflexes.” Just a single shot scored on him his senior year in college. The main reason he’d been recruited, his ambition and single-minded focus complimentary. “Lot of people say my hair. Guess it’s got its own fanbase by now,” he said, cracking a smile as he ran a hand through his chocolate locks. “Me though? Always been my eyes. Everyone always says I got a lot of Dad in me, but my eyes are purely my mother.”

♡  DETAILS. - NOT MANDATORY

You can check out my character tag for him here: https://kreacher1x1.tumblr.com/tagged/ch%3A-augustin-travert

An outdoorsy guy. Thrives on the outskirts of a city more than the city itself. If there was one thing in the world that could calm him down in a second it would be fresh mountain air.

Compartmentalizes beyond belief.

Canucks would see the show as good advertisement, with a strong urging to be on his best behavior. He’s got a corporation to represent…. Assuming he’s good to play again.

Realist.

work in progress so there’s more to come. tattoos yes. connections i am open and ready. let’s vibe.

[jeawrites]

RD AU Draft: 2

(Same as last time but now featuring some edited parts-- Considering this a draft because its mostly unedited and I haven’t added everything in yet- but feel free to read it! The finished part will most likely be uploaded on ao3 but I’ll be sure to post a link to it on here.) Anthony had, had a similar reaction to Evan’s when he saw Tyler’s outfit. He wheezed and laughed too hard for his own good, but he got over it quickly in place of his own excitement.

The entire trip to the skate park was about how much they were going to enjoy the bout, how much fun they were going to have. Even after they had gotten inside and seated it was still just him blabbering on.

“They’re so-so cool! I promise you’ll both enjoy this and-”

Tyler put his hand on Anthony’s mouth. “Okay, we get it. Calm down, dude,” he mumbled. After getting a nod, he removed his hand. Then, he jumped in his seat after hearing a voice. “Tyler?” he turned his head, fear raising in hm. More people he knew meant more people not letting him live down the fact that he wore this outfit, meaning more jokes, meaning- wait.

“Luke?” he asked, snickering.

The man in front of him grinned and crossed his arms. “The one and only,” he chuckled. “What’re you doin’ here? I didn’t know you liked derby,” he asked, curious. Tyler shrugged. “I don’t know if I do. My friend dragged me out here to watch. What are you doing here and-” he giggled, “With bunny ears?” Luke blinked and then chuckled. “These?” he gestured up, “Aren’t mine. I stole them from Ryan. He came with me this time, but I usually regular the bouts,” he explained. And, aren’t you one to talk, cat boy?”

Tyler decided to ignore the comment, not wanting to linger on the topic of his clothes. “No way is Ryan here,” he spoke, genuinely surprised. “Oh, yeah. It's his first time at one of these too,” he replied, “I wanted to get him introduced to a new sport.” Tyler nodded, and glanced over to his friends, who were both sort of looking at him in confusion. Which, that made him confused until he let out an ‘oh’.

“Right. Luke,” he looked at him again, smiling some, “This is Evan and Anthony, my friends. You and Ryan should come sit with us.” Luke smiled at the other two, getting polite smiles in turn. “Sounds great!” he agreed. “I’ll go find, Ry and tell him we’re over here,” he added and turned to walk away.

They all grew more excited for the bout.

--

The bout had started off good, the teams getting introduced and the first few rotations going well.

Tyler was really getting into it, yelling at the skaters, encouraging the team he was rooting for, the Derby Dolls, and getting just overly excited.

“Keep going!” Tyler shouted, watching as the girl quickly moved her way out of the group and onto the turn. The crowd cheered excitedly as well. “Yeah! You kick their asses, AnnihilateHer!” he shouted, gripping the edge of his seat. He was having a better time than he thought he would.

Evan watched the girl quickly move her way around one that tried to stop her, his eyes wide in amazement and his smile wide. “Good job!” he shouted, hoping his encouragement would reach her as she sped a corner.

Tyler watched her with careful eyes and then he glared at the ref who called her, managing to hear it was a backblock- like the eighth one called to night (not on just her). “She wasn’t anywhere near her back! Open your fucking eyes!” he yelled at the ref and he kicked the wall in front of him. He’s done it several times already.

Anthony laughed gently. He was glad his friends were enjoying themselves. “I told you both you’d like it,” he teased as the jam ended, the next one setting up to be a power jam. Tyler looked at him, his eyes sparkling and his grin crazily wide. “Dude this is sick! It’s so fucking cool- I can’t believe they’d allow a sport like this,” he laughed. “It’s wild,” he chuckled. “You’re wild,” Evan snickered, “You’ve kicked that wall a billion times now, and I think you’re voice is loud enough the refs hear you the last few times. Control yourself,” he teased and got a punch to the arm in turn. “Shut up and let me have this,” he stated, but there wasn’t any spite or sarcasm, he was still smiling and having a good time. This was fun!

He looked to Ryan and Luke, who were in a similar state, though Luke was calmer due to having seen this all live so many times.

“And she just slammed into her-” Ryan exclaimed, hands flailing as he tried to explain. “Yeah, I know, Ry. I saw it,” Luke laughed softly and he looked at him with wide eyes full of awe. “They didn’t flinch, Luke! That’s amazing! This is really cool-” he looked to the track as a new pack formed. “Can you imagine if I did that?”

Luke tilted his head a bit. “Ryan, if I could imagine you doing it, I’d already be doing it,” he answered and Ryan huffed a little. “Really, Luke! Think about it! It’d be so much fun to play together- to learn how to do this cool stuff and-”

“You know, you can play it,” Anthony answered him. Ryan paused and looked back, curiosity in his eyes. “What?” he asked. “You can totally play it. In fact, I’m making a mens team- if you want to play,” he offered and Ryan stared before grinning wide. “No way.”

“I’ll do it,” Luke followed, gaining eyes. “I’ll totally play. Sounds fun.” Ryan pursed his lips. “It does sound really fun,” he agreed.

Tyler looked at Ryan, nodding. “I was the first to join, can confirm it's very fun-” “You didn’t want to join- plus, you haven’t even played yet,” Anthony cut in and Tyler looked at him with a glare. “I was the first you asked which makes me first to join,” he stuck his tongue out at him, and Anthony stuck his out in turn before they both chuckled. “I was second to join then!” Evan declared, snickering.

Luke looked at Ryan as he spoke. “I was third. You wanna be fourth Ry? Come on, you wanna do what those awesome girls are doin?” he asked, encouraging him to join. Ryan bit his lip lightly, thinking it over before he nodded. “Yeah… Yeah! I do! I wanna do that shit too! Consider me on the team! Whenever it's actually made anyways,” he grinned.

Anthony couldn’t believe his team was actually beginning to form.

--

The bout ended on a good note, the team they were rooting for winning and Anthony treated his friends to dinner (he even took out Ryan and Luke- they were going to be on his team after all so he figured he’d get to know them).

But, when he got home and sat down to start putting preparations for the team together, he finally got hit with a realization;

Making a team was harder than Anthony initially thought.

He had to advertise out to get more people. Four weren’t enough to cut it- it wasn’t even enough to start practicing (five being a good place to start). He also had the issue of needing to register his team, get jerseys, budgeting, getting forms and waivers.

He needed some help.

He ran his hands over his face, and sighed. This wasn’t too good. Who could he get to help? He didn’t know anybody else who seemed to show an interest in coaching the sport, and it didn’t seem like the type of thing he could drop a flyer for.

He thought over people, thinking of names he hadn’t thought of for a good while until one hit him with a good familiarity and made the lightbulb in his head go off as he grabbed his phone.

Anthony stared at his phone, eyeing the profile he had quickly pulled up on Facebook- thankfully they were friends already. He was hesitant, of course. He hadn’t talked to Brock in years. Was this weird? He fidgeted a bit with the device before he sucked up his worries and quickly typed a message. When he finished it, he patiently waited, running his hand through his hair.

--

A yawn left Brock’s lips as he sat his bag down on his bed. His clothes were stained with a drink some lady spilled on him, and he couldn’t wait to get them off.

God he hated his job. He was the nicest person he could be, yet someone was always ready to complain. The fast food industry could die. But, that thought made him laugh a little. Like this country would let fast food die.

He shook his head and got changed quickly before he finally got into bed and looked at his phone, only to see he got a message from… Anthony?

He stared at his screen, eyeing the message a few times over in surprise. Why would Anthony of all people be messaging him this late? Or now? He hadn’t even talked to him for the last few years. Regardless of that thought, he opened the message curiously and read through it quickly, a smile crossing his face momentarily before confusion hit.

‘Wanna help coach a bunch of dumbasses with my dumbass?’

The idea of himself coaching didn’t sound right, but the phrasing of the request was funny and it did keep Brock’s attention, especially as three dots appeared at the bottom.

‘Roller derby, I mean. You wanna help coach it? Adult league.’

A sudden feeling hit at the mention of the sport. He had loved playing it as a child, really. It was dangerous- despite the gear they wore, but the team experience is something he always held onto, even after he aged out at 18. But, the idea of coaching it? It had never crossed his mind. Until now, and it was till laughable. However, an opportunity to meet new people is always nice, and he did need a change in setting from where he was now.

He especially needed the latter. Quickly, he responded back.

‘More details would be nice, like where you’re living these days. But, I’m in.’

--

Anthony didn’t actually live too far from him, so it wasn’t hard to start planning on moving closer to the area if he were to actually take up the coaching position.

“What’cha thinkin’ about?” he jumped a little and looked up from the counter before sighing. “Don’t scare me like that, Lui,” he mumbled before standing up straight. “Sorry, just thought I’d kick you from you daze before someone else did,” he spoke, a bit genuine and a smile went with it that Brock could resist. “It’s fine,” he passed it off, “Thanks for snapping me out of it, actually.”

The shorter nodded and kicked his feet lightly before speaking; “So, you gonna answer me?” Brock took a minute before nodding a little. “I was offered a coaching position,” he answered, “I’ve been considering taking it up. I’m supposed to go meet the… team they have so far and the actual coach.” Lui beamed. “You should do it!” he nearly squealed. “It’ll be good for you, Brock! Get you out of your comfort zone,” he added, “Plus- I can totally go with you to the meeting, right?” The brunette grew confused at that request. “Why… why would you want to go to the meeting?” he asked and Lui chuckled. “As your back up incase stuff goes wrong, of course!” he chuckled. “I’m a tough cookie!” he squeaked out and Brock chuckled. “Yeah, Okay. You can come. Just don’t be too mean to anybody.” “No promises!”