#Invi’s mask could also work

[albino-parakeet]

Wish there was a mask like Ira’s from Kingdom Hearts in Sky COTL.

like come on. I’m kind of surprised there isn’t a mask based on the unicorn already.

[fruit-sauce]

I need to pour out my thoughts on q!BBH after that last stream, I may go back on this but I just need to talk about him rn

q!BBH showing that he DID take all the furniture opens up a lot of ideas and possibilities that I didn't expect.

Firstly, the fact he can lie to the ghosties, while not the most surprising thing in the world, it does mean that everything he has said/done in private has the chance of being a lie. He said that he doesn't lie to us... directly. He could even be lying about stealing the furniture at all.

This also could mean that he got someone else to do it, but took all the blame so everyone would hate him, as according to his plan. BBH wants to be put in jail, but only at the right time. Whoever stole the furniture could be consistently working with BBH for his plan (if he is working with someone).

I was rewatching the VOD of the day he got imprisoned, and a moment that stands out to me is when, directly after Cellbit pushed him onto the cage block, while everyone is talking at once, BBH says "I'll play along for now, I guess" WHICH MAY BE NOTHING but I think that that has to do with how he planned for people to hate him, but doesn't want to be in jail yet; he knows he'll get out eventually, but he wants to keep the others mad at him.

Another line, after breaking out: "this is not going well for my plans" this one, I believe is actually 100% related to what he said now. His plan is to protect the eggs, but everyone is now voting to make stealing furniture illegal, instead of mines. He feels as though he's the only one who cares for the eggs, like everyone is more concerned about furniture than their own children.

(alright time to be salty /j)

Also, looking back at the VOD, Forever and Pac broke into his house THAT SAME DAY TO STEAL HIS STUFF??? Like. broke in, code breaks, masks, invis potions- and then suddenly BBH is such a criminal and 100% in the wrong??? WHAT???? Also I do know Forever then goes on to say that he doesn’t think that bbh stole it all and was wanting him to return all the furniture from the past, (even tho its not illegal and still isn't) but whatever-

I will point out, Richarlyson's gaming chair was important, it had emotional value, Cellbit being mad about that is understandable, I agree with him... but everything else could've been remade with just the stuff Forever stole, and I think that's really funny jfdlksjfklsdk

LOOK AT THIS LMAO:

[orangemoonxworks]

KINGDOM HEARTS: DIVERGE, VOL. 0 MARCH OF THE FOOLS, PART I — III WRITTEN BY: Naude Lucem -------------------------------------------------

The First District was the central point of Daybreak and at its heart stood a massive clock tower that rose into the clouds. If one were to reach the highest point of it, not only could they see all six of the districts surrounding it but a vast stretch of grasslands, an endless ocean to the west, and a barren wasteland far out in the distance. The clock tower, Arx ad Arbitris Tempus (“Stronghold for the Arbiters of Time”), was the base of operations for the Foretellers and the Lux Unitas. Of the seven districts that made up Daybreak, the First was naturally Ira’s jurisdiction.

As the others gradually arrived in the assembly chamber, finding their place around the long oval shaped table at the center of the room, Ira stood by the row of wall-sized windows gazing outside. Once everyone was fully present, he made his way to the head of the table. Since they amongst themselves, neither of them wore their iconic masks.

Ira cleared his throat then began. “Good. You’re all here.”

“You summoned us.” Gula snarkily replied.

“Well, I know you’re all busy – myself included. I’ll try to keep things short.”

Invi asked a question. “Is this about the Second District? Has any progress been made?”

“That happens to be one of the purposes of this meeting.” Ira replied. “We’ll be discussing what’s been happening lately concerning the scourges and the catastrophe that befell the Second District. I’m sure you’re all eager to know what’s going on, so that’s where we’ll begin.”

Ira continued. “We’re still eradicating the darkness. It hasn’t been easy, and we’ve lost some people in the process. I imagine it’ll be a long time before the district can return to any semblance of normal. Still, we’ve made some strides. We’ve managed to clear out a big portion of the district which has allowed our Guardians to advance further in. We’ve also strengthened and condensed the size of the barrier as we’ve progressed to keep the remaining darkness contained, and our mages have been hard at work cleansing the darkness and restoring the aether that once permeated the district.”

“Unfortunately, aether degradation is a serious concern. The black coats the Master provided us do well enough to stave off the darkness, but they were made specifically for us. The Master didn’t leave behind blueprints for them either, so reproducing the black coats is next to impossible. That means our Guardians and Mages are unprotected and perpetually at risk. And that’s something I can’t allow to continue. I’ve asked the Ars Magna Guild to study the coats and see if they can come up with an alternative. For now, we’ll have to lend our spares to those stationed in the district.”

Invi spoke in agreement. “That’s fine. I’m sure no one here has an issue with that.”

Aced interjected. “Tch. I don’t mind handing over the coats, but don’t go speaking for everyone.”

“It’s not as if it’s negotiable. Our Guardians and Mages need them.”

Aced replied, “Even so, our choices aren’t dictated by circumstance. We just happen to collectively agree on the matter at hand. It isn’t as cut and dry as you believe.”

Invi’s eyes narrowed. “These are trying times we’re in, Aced. You can feel however you want but we don’t have the luxury to be selfish and petulant.”

“What was that?” Aced sharply replied, arms folded against his chest.

Ira quickly interjected. “Enough, you two.”

Gula mumbled under his breath. “Looks like the meeting’s starting smoothly as always.”

Ira continued. “Anyway, let’s move on. Putting aside the Second District’s restoration, there is another important matter that must be addressed. Many lives were lost during the scourge – an estimation of 700 according to the Vitalis Registrum.”

Invi’s eyes widened. “700? That’s… so many.”

Ira went on. “An entire district of unsuspecting lives was taken. It has… been a challenge dealing with the aftermath. Understandably, people are in distress. Loved ones, friends, partners and whatnot all perished either due to fatal encounters with the shadows, or affliction of aether degradation. We’re doing what we can for those in mourning, but we can’t alleviate their sorrows.”

Ira extended the palm of his hand in Ava’s direction. “Ava and I have been preparing a grand ceremony to honor the lost. Their names will also be engraved in the Garden of Remembrance’s Wall of Memories. It is the least we can do. From this point forward, our goal – no, our mission – is to ensure something of that magnitude doesn’t happen again.”

Ira briefly paused. “That being said, although we’ve been working to the best of our abilities to pinpoint the cause of the shadow scourges, we’ve not made any significant progress other than detecting them the moment they occur. It isn’t enough time to act or prevent catastrophes. With the recent spike in scourges, our realm is in danger. We need to figure out what’s causing them and why.”

Aced chimed in. “We all have our own theories. You know where I stand, but I’m curious to know what everyone else’s thoughts are. Maybe one of us could add some insight.”

“Yes, and that’s next point of discussion.” Ira declared. “It’s why I’ve summoned you all here today. Of course, if there are other issues you’d like to bring up, they will be accepted within reason and discussed afterward. With that said, the floor is all yours. Any thoughts?”

Invi spoke first. “Hmm, well given the frequency in which they’ve been appearing, I can only assume that gaps have formed along the barrier. Even when the Master was here, it was under constant threat from the darkness. Luckily, he was able to maintain it. Without him here, the barrier likely can’t sustain this realm anymore. I believe the scourges are splinters of the darkness that’s managed to push its way in.”

Ira nodded in agreement. “Then you and I are of the same mind.”

Gula interjected. “Anyone could come to that conclusion. Since this realm’s inception, there haven’t been any run-ins with the darkness. The fact that we’re dealing with this now is reason enough to believe that.”

“Then what’s you’re take?” Invi asked.

“I don’t have one.” Gula replied while sighing, leaning back with his arms behind his head. “We don’t know jack shit and speaking on hypotheticals is a waste of time.”

“If you don’t have anything to say, then don’t speak.” Aced said, irritated.

“You don’t decide that. Gula isn’t wrong, but this is still a discussion.” Ira told him.

“That he should contribute to!” Aced angrily cut in. “He doesn’t get a pass for being a lazy prick!”

Gula grinned. “Wow. Those are some sharp words. Someone’s been studying comebacks.”

“You cheeky little bastard. Don’t make me –”

“Enough. Both of you.” Ira sternly spoke.

Ava spoke up. “If you’re both done, I’ll offer my opinion. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume that there are two truths; one where we have darkness intruding from the outside, and one where there’s someone orchestrating events from the inside. I take it that you lean toward the latter right, Aced?”

Aced responded with a nod, arms tightly folded.

Ava continued. “If there is someone causing the scourges to happen, then that means we’re likely dealing with someone who follows the path of darkness and knows how to wield its power. Darkness warps the heart, the mind, and the soul but it can’t strip away a person’s will. Whatever they decide to do is purely their own choice. The darkness only gives them a nudge.

“So? What are you getting at?” Aced asked.

Ava replied, “If we’re going to stick with that theory, then a reason has to exist.”

Aced’s face instantly scowled at her suggestion. “Tch! Does a reason matter if they’re a traitor? That should be enough for them to be dealt with.”

“Understanding their motives is important for what we’re dealing with.”

Gula responded, “Anyone who follows the path of darkness is either inadvertently or directly carrying out its will – which is to erase light from existence. We all know this from our teachings. That doesn’t help us solve the problem of who’s responsible.”

Invi agreed. “Right. We need to pinpoint a culprit.”

Ava continued, “In a general sense, you’re right Gula. But apart from the will of darkness, people have their own goals and desires that they pursue. Let’s think about it this way; if there was something you really wanted from the bottom of your heart, then you’d do whatever’s necessary to get it, right?  We should look at a potential culprit the same way; what would they want that’s worth the destroying this realm? And what if the shadow scourges aren’t just coincidences but calculated distractions?”

Ira spoke. “You’re implying the culprit is searching for something? I assume you have an idea.”

“It could be many things.” Ava replied then explained. “Our realm’s Heart crystal, the Kingdom key, the Hands of Caelum, the Cubis datums on Project Vitas Replica, or even the Book of Prophecies. These are all things that have been carefully hidden – all of which are important to the future of not only this realm, but also the continued preservation of light.”

Aced nodded. “Hmm, that makes sense. But if what you’re saying turns out to be true, then we’ll have no choice but to address the elephant in the room.”

“Being?” Ava asked.

“The only people who know they exist are the people in this room.”

A deafening silence immediately filled the room. Although Aced wasn’t fazed, the glares from Ira, Ava, and Invi were scathingly sharp enough to stab through one’s soul.

Ira spoke, his voice dark. “Aced, you…”

“I can’t believe you. Are you seriously implying that one of us is a traitor?!” Invi shouted.

“Everything Ava’s said so far falls in line with what I believe to be true. It’s almost uncanny.”

“I was just posing a hypothesis, nothing more.” Ava responded.

“Are you sure? You seem to be very interested in the matter.” Aced eyes narrowed suspiciously. “In the eight years I’ve known you, you’ve never gotten deeply involved with anything other than the Academia. Of course, that is your district so that’s to be expected. But still, it’s uncharacteristic of you. Hmph. I wonder, if what you’ve been saying this whole time is your actual thoughts, or…”

Ava’s brows and voice rose. “So, you think I’m a traitor??”

Invi furiously yelled, “No, I’m not letting that slide! Nobody in this room – including you, Aced – is a traitor! That you would even come to such a conclusion is sickening!”

“And she wasn’t nudging us to this point?!” Aced angrily shouted back. “We’re the only ones who know about those things! A traitor being in our ranks makes perfect sense! If one of us was corrupted by the darkness, then they’d have the power to bypass the barrier and allow darkness to break through!”

“For what reason would any of us need to risk the well-being of this realm?!” Invi responded. “Over the Heart crystal whose domain is protected by the World Gate and can only be opened with the Kingdom Key of which neither of us knows where it is?! The same goes for the Book of Prophecies! And not to mention the Hands of Caelum is a lost art! We’ve barely, barely scratched the surface on that! And Project Vita Replica is nothing more than a fantasy that will never be realized! Don’t you understand that?!”

Gula chuckled. “Wow, Aced. You’re on fire right now.”

“Shut your damn mouth, lazy bum!!!” Aced screamed.

Ira raised his voice. “Aced, calm yourself now!

“I won’t! I’m not backing down from this!” Aced furiously yelled back. “You say the traitor couldn’t be anyone in this room, but what of the people around us?! Anyone could be eavesdropping on us at any moment! Anyone could know about those things and gain an understanding of how to weaponize them against the realm!”

Invi jumped in. “So, what? We’re supposed to be suspicious of the entire realm?! By your logic, everyone is a traitor. The people’s trust lies with us, and ours lies with them! You’d rather we trample on all that just so you can feel some sort of vindication?!”

Aced’s large beefy fists crashed down onto the table. “I’d rather we get rid of the damn traitor so we can keep protecting this realm and the light!! You’re all too soft, naïve, and indecisive!! At some point, after everything that’s happened over the past year, it should’ve crossed your minds that there’s likely a traitor amongst us! Even that know-it-all buffoon we called our master would’ve come to that conclusion!!!”

Invi’s eyes widened and burned ferociously. She could tolerate Aced’s vitriol to a certain extent, but his disrespect for the Master was something her heart wouldn’t let slide. As the air rushed from her lungs to her mouth, the veins in her neck bulged bright red. “Don’t you dare speak about him like that!!”

Ignoring her outburst, Aced turned to their leader Ira. “And you – the man of the hour. You’ve let things spiral this far out of control to the point that the realm is on the verge of collapsing. And you’re supposed to be our leader? Tch! What a joke. I knew he made the wrong choice.”

Invi summoned her keyblade and, in a flash, appeared above Aced swinging her keyblade down on him. Aced quickly drew his own keyblade, blocking strike. The clash sent a small shockwave through the room. Despite the intensity of her strike, Aced’s raw strength easily overpowered her. He swung his keyblade. Invi leapt back, avoiding his attack, and landed on the table. She extended her arm out slightly, turning her keyblade sideways while still gripping the handle, then grabbed its tip with her other hand. Thin streams of water begin swirling in the air around her.

Aced kicked his chair back and readied himself. Suddenly, a white beam of light shot between them. It tore through the table, cutting it clean in half. Instead of piercing through the wall and leaving a gaping hole, it bounced off and traveled around the room hitting several other surfaces before returning to Ira’s keyblade. The chamber was nearly demolished – only the others stood unaffected. Invi, lying on one half of the split table on the floor, glared at him. Ira lowered his keyblade and sighed.

“I’ve had enough. This discussion doesn’t seem to be going anywhere meaningful, and I’d rather this not escalate any further. For now, the meeting will be adjourned. We’ll resume another time.”

Aced withdrew his keyblade and cast it away. “Fine by me. This was a waste of time.”

As he walked away, Gula smirked. “How about that – we actually agree on something.”

Ignoring Gula’s comment, Aced left the assembly chamber. Gula and Ava quietly followed shortly after. Invi pushed herself off the halved table then dusted off the back of her robe. Once she stepped out of the way, Ira cast a restoration art on the room, bringing it back to its former state.

“That didn’t go as well as I hoped.” Ira said.

“You should’ve expected that at this point.” Invi replied. “It was foolish of you to think that we’d all be on the same page, or even come to a collective agreement. That might’ve been true over seven years ago – before the Master disappeared, but definitely not now.”

“Maybe so. But we all took an oath to protect this realm together. As comrades, we should –”

“Look at us, Ira. Whatever comradery we had back then is long gone. Neither of us are who we used to be, and the divide between us keeps growing with each passing day.”

“I’d like to believe we can mend that.” Ira said then cast his keyblade away. “I can’t deny that it’s been difficult for everyone these past seven years. Being thrust into undertaking massive responsibilities all while shouldering the fate of an entire realm is too much for anyone to bear. Being the leader of the Lux Unitas and the overseer of this realm, trust me – I understand. You’re not alone in this.”

Ira paused, taking a short breath and briefly shutting his eyes. “To be honest with you, I find myself questioning if he made the right choice. The Master was known for his bizarre and illogical judgments but, in the end, they were always correct. I can’t help but feel this is the one time he was wrong.”

“Regardless of how things have become between us, I don’t want you to think for a second that that’s a reflection on you.” Invi said as she walked over to him, then placed a hand on his shoulder. “The Master chose you because he believed in you – just like I do. You’ve always been a leader, Ira. No matter where you go or whatever’s going on, you always manage to inspire everyone around you. You’re a light in the darkness. People see you as a symbol of hope because of how brave and selfless you are.”

She moved her hand then continued, “You go out of your way to help anyone – even to your own detriment. You’ll willingly sacrifice yourself for someone else’s sake if it means they’ll survive. And whenever the going gets tough, you never give up and never back down. You’re too stubborn for your own good. And while that does irk me sometimes, I admire that. The Master did too. That’s why, in spite of our differences, we come together whenever you need us. We trust you and you trust us. Tell me Ira, doesn’t that sound like a leader to you?”

Ira’s eyes slowly brightened and the tenseness in his body began to dissipate. All that escaped his mouth were small breaths, but subtle smile on his face was clear enough. But even so, he was still the leader of the Foretellers. Even if her words were enough to temporarily soothe his heart and mind, he had to keep up the role. And so, Ira turned away, averting her gaze, then cleared his throat. “I guess so.”

Invi’s eye lids slightly narrowed. She briefly shut her eyes, then took a small quiet breath. “Even if I think it’s futile, I’ll do what I can to help. You’re right; we may not be comrades now, but we must put our issues aside. We owe it to everyone to continue protecting the light of this realm and ensuring it thrives into the future. That was the oath we took and the promise we made to him.”

Ira’s brows nudged a bit. For some reason, his eyes dimmed.

“I’ll be looking forward to your assistance.” He replied.

“I’ll be on my way then.”

Invi said then started toward the chamber’s door. After she opened the door, she held it open with her palm pressed against it, then looked over her shoulder. “Oh, the next time you step in between me and that hot-headed grizzly bear, make sure you don’t accidentally slash my robe again. This took days to thread, you know. And this robe happens to be my favorite one.”

Ira choked then sighed. “Right, sorry about that.”

Invi closed the door behind her. Standing alone in the assembly chamber, Ira looked around the room. A ray of light broke through the clouds and shone through the thick glass windows, but it was short-lived. It was soon snuffed out by the clouds above – their shadow cast over most of the First District. Going over to the window, his gaze fell to the grounds below.

“The future, huh.” -------------------------------------------------

[lonely-lost-soul]

Under the Floorboards pt. III

(Technoblade x Reader): Pt. I, Pt. II, Pt. III, Pt. IIII

     From that day on Tommy stayed with you and Technoblade in your collective house, Technoblade tried to establish some ground rules but Tommy being Tommy refused to listen to any of them. He was dead set on building a cobblestone tower as well as taking all of Technoblade’s golden apples instead of eating the golden carrots that were graciously given to him. Other than that, things seemed to be going okay for your little found family. Well, that was until Technoblade and Tommy got wind that a man named Dream was sniffing around the area. 

 Dream was an enigma to you, after hearing Tommy’s stories about the man you could only come up with two conclusions about him. One was that you had no idea what his motivations were in the first place and secondly you wanted to beat his ass for what he did to Tommy. As... unique as he could be at times no child deserved to be exiled and manipulated, it was disgusting. He was a sixteen-year-old boy who got caught up in too many wars and too much violence, you needed to protect him. So long as he was with you and Technoblade that’s what you planned on doing. That was what you silently vowed to yourself, even if Technoblade didn’t share the same sentiment. 

 Now, it seemed you were coming increasingly closer to voicing those feelings to the man himself. Tommy was shaking a little besides you he tried to look strong as Technoblade frantically told him to hide and splashed him with invisibility potions. He looked over at you next and grabbed your shoulders, he actually looked scared, which meant he wasn’t messing around. 

          “You need to hide too. God- there’s nowhere that he won’t check.” Technoblade mumbled, his brow creased, and he closed his eyes. “He CAN’T know about you! No one other than Tommy can, they’ll hurt you and-” Hesitantly you put your hands on his cheeks,  

         “Take a deep breath…” You said tenderly as he opened his eyes to lock with your own. “We’ll be okay, splash me with invis and I’ll stay by Edward, hopefully it’ll mask my particle effects.” He gave a worried nod; you pecked his lips tenderly to reassure him as he splashed you with the potion. Just in time too because a knock on the door sounded, for once Tommy was absolutely silent. You watched as a man who rivaled your boyfriend in size came through the door, your eyes widened at the white mask covering his face there was an almost haunting smile painted on it. You pressed your tongue against your teeth and watched him give a wave to your boyfriend. Even without seeing his face you could tell he was smirking coyly at him. Never one to be intimidated Technoblade gave him a casual greeting and their conversation about Tommy’s location began. You had to cover your mouth with your hands at one point to stop yourself from laughing as Techno began talking to ‘chat’ instead of talking to Dream. You watched as the masked man grew more and more angry at Technoblade’s antics, he began speaking about a favor and Techno reminded him that he believes in full reciprocity. At the end of the interaction, it took all of your strength not to punch Dream directly in his stupid masked face. Why the fuck did it sound like he wanted to murder a child? If Dream ever laid a finger on him again, he was personally going to feel your wrath. The potion wore off almost as soon as Dream disappeared over the hills, Techno immediately turned to Tommy anger written all over his face.

         “Where you eating my gapples that ENTIRE time?!” Tommy sputtered out an excuse about absorption and you watched Techno open the window and beckon Dream to come back. You gave Technoblade a look and he scoffed at you, 

          “I won’t let him hurt you again Tommy. I promise.” You swore looking down at him, and his face turned a little pink. Tommy cleared his throat and shook his head,

          “Thanks, Ms. Blade but I’m tough enough to fight him head on! Have no fear!” He pointed to himself with his thumb a proud smile adoring his face. You gave a little laugh and nodded in agreement, 

          “You definitely are. Thank you for reassuring me.” You hummed and his smile only seemed to widen, 

          “I’m more qualified to protect your girlfriend than you are it seems Technoblade.” 

 Technoblade looked unamused, his eyebrow twitching in distaste. “Tommy I literally hate you so much. You’re a nerd.” 

         “Play nice both of you.” You scolded them, “We have to work together and at least pretend to get along or it’s going to be a very long partnership.” They both nodded reluctantly, and Techno sighed tiredly, he ruffled your hair. The rest of the night was spent gathering some more food in hopes it would stop Tommy’s gapple eating tirade, it obviously wouldn’t but it didn’t hurt to try. After that all three of you turned in for the night, as both you and Technoblade were getting ready for bed he decided to speak up about the plan for the next day.

          “Tommy and I need to make a trek into L’manburg to find Phil and try to get my stuff back. I don’t want to leave you here alone considering what just happened today, but you also can’t come to L’manburg.” 

        “Bubs you know I’ll be fine here alone did we not just have this conversation?” You pinched his pointed ears, and he made a sound of protest. “I’ve got fighting skills, after all have you not been training me in the art of war?” You teased with a smirk, “I got this Blade.”

          “Okay, okay, okay.” He leaned forward and kissed you and you kissed him back without hesitation. You felt him squeeze your hand fondly before pulling away from you. “When we get back home, we’ll have a date night okay?” Technoblade whispered softly pressing his forehead to yours. 

          “Gonna be a bit hard with the raccoon boy snooping around.” You teased eyes sparkling in delight, 

         “I’ll send him on a quest for something or other. So, it’ll be just us, I swear.” The soft look on Technoblade’s face made your heart squeeze in your chest. He brushed your hair behind your ear, “I’ll make you dinner, and we can watch a movie.” 

          “Well don’t take too long then.” You sent a teasing wink his way and he smiled fondly back at you. You kissed him again pulling him down into the bed, you both bounced with a laugh. His pink hair hung down and framed his face gorgeously, his glasses slipped down his nose. You pushed them back up with your index finger and he went cross-eyed, “I’ll be looking forward to it.” 

 The next morning rolled around and after breakfast both boys reluctantly packed a bag with important things they needed for the day. Stepping outside with the two of them, Technoblade gave you a farewell kiss and you watched them disappear over the hills. They were most likely going to go cause problems for other people on purpose. Finally alone, you decided to check up on the nearby villages to see if they had any interesting trades that you and Techno could exploit. You slung a bag over your shoulder and placed a good portion of emeralds inside of it, you placed a few potions inside of the bag as well. As a precaution you also grabbed an axe and a sword, you had to be ready for anything after all. Shutting the door behind you, you started your trek through the snow-covered woods you heard the snow crunch under your boots and began to hum softly to yourself. You paused a moment and raised an eyebrow as you caught sight of a blue sheep wandering by, tilting your head to the side you approached it. 

        “Well, hey little guy.” You murmured reaching out and running your hand through the sheep’s soft wool. 

         “Oh, um excuse me!” A voice spoke from behind you, you jumped with a yelp as soon as you spun around you were met with a fully transparent man. He had a yellow sweater with a big gash in his torso, and a beanie resting atop his head. You tilted your head up and locked eyes with him, they were almost completely white.

 He was a ghost.

          “That’s Friend! She doesn’t really like others petting her but it’s okay because you didn’t know.” The ghost smiled; it was contagious as you felt yourself smiling back at him.

         “My bad, my names (Y/n). What’s yours?” 

         “Oh! I’m Ghostbur! It’s nice to meet you miss, I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you new to the SMP?” He tilted his head floating around you, almost as if to get a better look at you. You focused more on his name, Ghostbur, which means this was Wilbur Soot, ex-president of L’manburg, and ‘brother’ of Tommy and Technoblade. 

 You cleared your throat and rubbed the back of your neck. “No, I’ve lived in this area for a while, but I’m a wandering adventurer. I trade with the villages around here for interesting collectables stuff like that. I don’t do much of that now though.” You watched the ghost’s eyes widen a little,

          “That’s so cool!” He praised, “I bet you have a ton of cool stories.” 

          “Yeah, there’s been a few close calls, but I’ve made it back alive and well- oh shit no offense.” You winced a little and he laughed shaking his head, 

          “No worries it’s okay! I’m fine with being dead you know, no one really liked who I was alive, so this is better for everybody.” He puffed out his chest a little and a big smile spread across his face, that only caused you to frown. You reached out to try and touch him and your hand went right through the man, you both seemed to shiver at that, and he looked at you in shock. 

      “I’m sorry to hear that...that must be really hard.” Wilbur’s jaw dropped at your response, he floated around a bit awkwardly. If he wasn’t floating, he would’ve been shuffling on his feet in a nervous manner. 

       “N-No it’s…Wilbur was a horrible, horrible man.” He took a deep breath and began to throw some sort of blue substance on the ground in a rapid manner, you watched as he began to mutter and breath heavily. 

        “Woah, woah, woah I’m sorry don’t freak out!” 

         “I’m not, I'm okay see, see I’m fine and happy. Very happy with everything that’s going on so no worries okay! Here.” He tossed the blue substance at you and you collected it with a weary smile, “Have some blue it’ll make you feel better.” You thanked him quietly and you both stood there a bit uncomfortably that was until thunder rumbled overhead. “Oh no…I melt in the rain.” 

         “Here why don’t you come with me.” You smiled softly, “I know a place where you can wait out the storm.” 

          “Aw thank you.” Ghostbur clapped, “Friend can come too right?” 

          “Of course.” 

          “Good. Then lead the way.” He chirped as Ghostbur followed you back the way you came, now before you get too mad at yourself you should know that Technoblade had informed you that during his ‘execution’ Ghostbur had visited him at his home. If he didn’t share that information with you, you’d be never revealing Technoblade’s base. As the house appeared over the mountains the ghost looked over at you with a bright smile, “Oh! That’s my friend Technoblade’s house, do you live with him?”

         “I do.” You smiled fondly and watched his smile grow excitedly, “He’s helped me out quite a lot.”

         “That’s wonderful! Technoblade usually never helps people unless he likes them or if they can do something for him in return. You must be very special, are you two together?” He only had to glance at you for a moment before laughing excitedly, “You are! That’s wonderful!” Ghostbur chirped, clapping his hands as he phased through Technoblade’s door, officially safe out of the rain, turned snow. You had let Friend inside as well and Ghostbur continued talking “Tell me how you met, please, please, please.” Seeing how excited the ghost was you melted, he won your heart just like Tommy. However, you had to keep in mind his alive self-did blow up an entire nation and that couldn’t be just brushed away like he seemingly was trying to do, you can’t erase the past. You can only accept what happens, learn from it, apologize and grow. However, you didn’t see the harm in sharing how the both of you met so you began to retell the tale to Ghostbur, the entire time he had an almost bittersweet look on his face. 

         “I was married once...her name was Sally. She...left though. But I still had my son, Fundy and we did the best we could together.” Ghostbur said fondly his eyes softening,

         “I’m sorry...that must’ve been really hard for the both of you.” 

         “It’s alright! She was a salmon, so she was going to swim away eventually.” 

         “Like- like an actual salmon?”

          “Yes?” 

The silence that stretched into the room was deafening, you cleared your throat deciding not to dwell on the fact that the ghost in front of you very likely fucked a fish. You hoped to god she was some sort of shapeshifter, in fact that’s what you were going to believe. You managed to break the silence by asking about Fundy, and the way he gushed about him was nothing less than fatherly. It was sweet and you listened intently to him, Fundy seemed like a good kid, a bit quirky but you were dating a blood god so who were you to judge? Eventually the snow outside stopped and the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds. Ghostbur glanced out the window and decided it was time for him to head out with Friend. It was about midday and you were almost sad to see him go. 

 Alone again.

You still had hours to kill before Technoblade and Tommy reappeared, so you figured it was about time to start doing some chores. 

---

         “Ghostbur what’re you doing here?” Fundy murmured softly, looking over at the ghost with an exhausted expression. His ears were pressed back against his head, talking to the man who was once considered his dad always made him exhausted. Wilbur, or Ghostbur now, really was pitiful.

         “Can’t I visit you every once in a while!” Ghostbur hummed a smile plastered on his face as Fundy frowned. 

         “Preferably not. Plus...I’m a little busy right now I’m meeting up with Quackity and the Butcher Squad to talk about Techno again.” 

         “OH! Technoblade! I just spent the loveliest morning with his girlfriend, she was absolutely wonderful! She asked all about you and just adored Friend-”

         “Rewind, Technoblade’s what?” Fundy’s jaw dropped to the floor and he felt a hand on his shoulder, the young fox man stiffened. He looked to the side and saw Quackity besides him, Ranboo was next to him but Tubbo stood a little ways away. 

        “Yeah Ghostbur. Do continue.” Quackity grinned, his missing tooth sticking out from his last encounter with Toothpick. Ghostbur wilted a little bit and his eyebrows creased on his forehead, he fucked up didn’t he? 

        “I-um nothing actually I misspoke.”

        “Did he misspeak Fundy, cause to me it sounds like we have new leverage against Technoblade.” Quackity laughed a crazed look in his eyes, “Once again Ghostbur I have to thank you for the great information.” 

        “You’re welcome…” He murmured weakly, as Quackity stepped besides the ghost. 

        “Get your weapons boys, it’s time to pay the Technoblade household another visit.”

~~~

Hey guys! Pt. III is officially up! Technoblade’s livestreams huh? :) 

Also friendship with Tommy ended Ranboo’s my new favorite child.

As always I love your feedback thanks for reading! 

[peninkwrites]

Wake Up. - Ch 16 of ?

Everyone keeps trying. It ends with another crater in the ground.

[CW: violence, mild gore, referenced suicide, self harm. yknow the usual]

crossposted to ao3

Ch 1

Ch 15

Ch 17

~

Punz has to make his return to the Mainlands, and Dream decides to see him out.  Tommy watches the pair of them drink water breathing potions with blatant envy, but it’s not like there’s anything he can do as the pair leave him behind.  Besides, now Tommy has a goal.

Punz and Dream make it to the surface at the same time, Dream having slowed down to compensate for Punz’s not yet healed leg.  The nearest bit of land is a rough swim away, so they finish the last section in a boat together, quiet save for Dream’s efforts at rowing, and where they land isn’t the most hospitable.  Desert followed by dense jungle.  Eventually they’d get back to plains if they kept heading east, and the other nearest coast, an even longer boat ride, is cold, towering spruce and rough terrain.  None of it has been touched.  The nearest Nether portal is in a patch of wilderness as nondescript as the rest about 600 blocks away.  They are thousands of blocks away from anything anywhere, at least a thousand just through the Nether.  They are as close to nowhere as one could possibly get.

It’s a shit walk home for Punz.  He doesn’t trust anyone enough to activate a stasis pearl for him at the other end.  They would ask questions eventually.  So, he’ll walk.  He’ll use enderpearls and tridents when convenient– tridents must stay in their enderchests while in the bunker, for the same reason there are no brewing stands or Nether portals down there– and try and find his way to the nearest highway on the Nether roof.

“What’re you gonna do, then?” Punz trudges off the beach, armor heavy on his shoulders, shaking out his wet hair, still squinting in the sun even after a good while back on the surface.

Dream adjusts his mask, “oh, you know,” he shrugs.  Dream destroys the boat, not a trace would be left of them along this desolate coastline.  “Tommy’s got me feeling inspired.”

Punz buries the prickle on the back of his neck and continues.  “Right.  I’m thinking I’ll check in again today, but maybe dial it back after this.  They don’t really expect me to be this invested, mercenary and all.”

“Actually,” Dream tilts his head, rummaging through his inventory.  “I have something else for you to do.”  He offers Punz a stack of tnt.  “I’m assuming you can come by the redstone and invis pots by yourself?”

Punz accepts warily.  “And what exactly is it you want me to do?“

“Thought it’d be obvious,” Dream laughs, “I want you to set up traps.  To… discourage them from looking for me.  And I told Tommy back before his first little escape attempt, I couldn’t think of a good enough way to punish him, so I was gonna hurt everyone else.  Set up traps.  Let me know who gets caught in the crossfire.”

Punz stares at the tnt.  You don’t care about these people.  Why would you?  Eventually you’ll be able to outlive them all.

Punz sighs, “seems like a lot of work.  I don’t see a point, really.”

Dream takes a step closer, hands clasped behind his back, leaning forward inquisitively like there isn’t a hint of accusation behind his words.  “Would you prefer I set them up?  I mean, the reason I asked you is because you actually need to be around the Mainlands sometimes, and I’d imagine you’d want to know where all the traps are.  And if I set them up…” Dream tuts him softly.  “Well, I wouldn’t want to get you blown up.  And unless you’re lucky enough to have a ghost, if your body is destroyed…” he shrugs.  “The book has its limitations.  I haven’t worked out all the wrinkles yet, you know how it is.”

Of course Dream has an answer.  Logical enough to not be worth contesting, but also clearly a fucking threat.

“And I was thinking once everyone starts panicking about the explosives, you could have a couple more hero moments where you… catch one at the last second,” Dream dramatically pretends to swoon.  Punz is unamused.  “Save the day!  Stuff like that to really keep you in their good books.”

Punz nods curtly.  “Fine.  I’ll do it.”

“And hey, if anyone dies who was on their last life, maybe I’ll show up and barter for whoever’s soul it is.  Might be fun,” Dream says cockily.

“That’s dangerous.”

“Yeah, what can I say,” Dream shrugs.  “I’m… confident in my abilities.”

Punz can only think of Tommy’s words, whispered and offered like a sacred truth.  He thinks he’s a god.

“Okay.  Fine, you go do whatever it is you do, then.  It’ll take me a while to get back, so.  Don’t expect anything to be done today,” Punz frowns, still just staring at the tnt in his hands.  He puts it in his inventory.

“Hey, no rush.  We have… forever, remember?” Dream laughs, before sauntering away from the coast, toward the jungle just beyond an expanse of desert.

~

Tubbo sleeps for eleven hours and for a brief moment when he wakes, he forgets what he’s lost.  The feeling which comes crashing down on him is horribly close to grief.  Tubbo feels Ranboo’s absence on the other side of the bed.  They had decided to crash in Ranboo’s house in New L’Manberg, if only because it’s closer, even if it’s more cramped.  From over the edge of the loft, Tubbo can hear rustling, the sound of something sizzling in a pan.

Okay, Mr. President, what are we going to try today?  Sapnap set up patrols, they’ll be working out from the locations we at least know about.  They hopefully know to look out for anything underwater.  Wilbur said an underwater cave…

Okay, today we should set up a brewing station.  Anyone who can’t go look can help gather ingredients.  We’ll churn out water breathing and night vision potions, start searching the seas.

Tubbo closes his eyes against the gentle light filtering through the windows, feeling as though a great weight were crushing down on his chest.

Start searching the seas.  Right.  Searching whole oceans, using a starting point that is based on nothing.  Where we found Wilbur is meaningless.  A dead end tunnel in the Nether is fucking meaningless.

When do you stop?

Tubbo shuts down that train of thought then and there, shuts down any thought besides getting out of bed and climbing the ladder down to the main room of the little house.

“Morning,” Ranboo says, dishing out eggs.  “You sleep okay?”

Tubbo nods, sitting down at the tiny, rickety table shoved in the corner.  This house is almost functional for one person, and arguably difficult to navigate with just one more.  Ranboo gets together two plates.

“Coffee?” Ranboo asks.

Tubbo starts to shake his head before he reconsiders.  He cannot afford any exhaustion.  “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

“No, no not at all,” Ranboo is too kind, too easy-going as he politely refuses to bring up the bitter ache still hanging in the air.

“Any word?” Tubbo asks.

“Uh, Sapnap went home to rest a little after we did, Phil said.  And only a few patrols are still out, I think.  I think Techno went home after he dropped me off.  No one…” Ranboo pauses with a frown, picking at his eggs mindlessly.  “No one has reported anything.  Good or bad.”

Tubbo nods.  He’d expected as much.

Ranboo is quiet.  This is the part where he’s supposed to read Tubbo’s silence for the dread it is and softly say, “we’re gonna find him.  We will.”  With enough certainty that maybe Tubbo can make it through the day a little easier, but this time Ranboo says nothing.  They eat.

Tubbo fills Ranboo in on his plans as they head out into the server, Ranboo quick to support it.

“I’m… I’m sorry I can’t search the ocean stuff, but I can help brew potions,” Ranboo offers.

“It’s alright, bossman.  I’d never expect that of you,” Tubbo puts a gentle hand on his arm.  He frowns, thinking it over.  “Oh.”

“What?”

“Well, I’d expect–“ Tubbo trails off, lost in thought, bitterness rising.  “I suppose it makes sense, doesn’t it?  Tommy got a message to you through endermen, so Dream takes him far underwater.”

“Oh,” Ranboo says more softly, dread a deep ache in his chest.  This is their second try.  Dream has only had time to learn.  And whatever efforts or progress they’d made to protect Tommy, either they only worked while he was still here, or Dream had already cut that thread.  Tommy cannot be guarded, there is no lodestone, no message sent through endermen… Ranboo won’t voice it aloud, but right now Wilbur’s plot to get a message through Ghostbur is the best one they have.

Well, Dream probably won’t ever let Tommy get ahold of coordinates again, so scratch that.  He probably drilled Tommy for every detail of his last escape to make sure it never happened again.

“Come on.  Let’s collect brewing stands–“ Tubbo’s attempt at shaking Ranboo out of his stupor hits him like a rocket to the chest.  He stops.  Let’s collect brewing stands.

Let’s sell drugs on the server.

Let’s start a nation together.

“Fuck–“ Tubbo stumbles forward.

“Tubbo?  What is it?”

Tubbo just shakes his head wordlessly, covering his face as it feels like something is laying on his chest.  He just needs to calm down.

It only gets worse, and Tubbo collapses against the post holding up the platforms of New L’Manberg.

“Tubbo?!”  Ranboo has no idea, how could he?  “Are you okay?!”  Ranboo kneels beside him, a hand on his shoulder, but Tubbo cannot catch his breath.

Tubbo doesn’t say a word.  He’s gasping for air, fighting back tears.  He feels like he’s dying.  He knows what that’s like.

Not as well as Tommy does.

The panic deepens, and Tubbo makes some horrible, choked imitation of a laugh, he feels numb, pins and needles cover his skin and there is only his lungs desperately gasping for air but it’s like there just isn’t enough for him anymore.  His vision blurs, for a horrifying moment he thinks he’s gone blind again, but no, he feels tears sting his cheek, he’s crying.  That is not enough relief to calm him, not when he can’t fucking breathe–

“Please, Tubbo.  You gotta– You gotta slow down–“ Ranboo is frantic, he doesn’t know what to do, he doesn’t know what happened, one second Tubbo was relatively fine and the next he couldn’t stand.

“Tubbo?” A worried voice speaks up behind them.

Ranboo turns back sharply, Wilbur stands frozen just outside his father’s home.

“I don’t– I don’t know how to–“ Ranboo is pleading.

Wilbur looks between them and it’s like a haze lifts, a tumultuous storm insists on calm, and Wilbur is there.  He comes and joins them on the ground.  “Tubbo, you’re alright, man.  Deep breaths.  Just, inhale– one, two, three, four– good, good don’t exhale yet– one, two, three, four, five–“ Tubbo breaks with a sob, exhaling sharply, struggling to draw breath, and Wilbur remains utterly calm.  “Okay, that’s alright, just try and hold it a little longer next time, it’s okay, man.  You’re gasping, let’s try it again, inhale– Ranboo, can you copy too?– inhale, one, two, three, four– now we hold for seven, okay? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and exhale slow, man, really really slow, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.  Good, that’s– that’s loads better, let’s go again, yeah?  Inhale, one, two, three, four.  Hold, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.  Good– and exhale, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…”

They continue like that for a while, Ranboo holding Tubbo’s hand, Wilbur sat in front of him, just breathing, and Tubbo doesn’t know what to do with that face finally looking like the man he’d once trusted with his life.

Tubbo is breathing on his own, Wilbur sits back, with a relieved half sort of smile, like he’s unsure if he should stay now.  Tubbo scrunches up his face as he makes one last effort to bury a sob, but he can’t, not after Wilbur was Wilbur again, so instead he falls forward, wraps his arms around Wilbur’s frail shoulders, and finally stops fighting back tears.  Wilbur is startled for maybe a moment, but then he’s holding him, shushing him gently like nothing has changed.  In the woods mere days ago, they had held each other, swallowed by mutual terror, but now Wilbur has the fortitude to simply pretend to be calm, if only for a little while longer.

Fucking hell– Tubbo is eighteen years old.  He’s a fucking kid, and what the fuck is Wilbur supposed to do with that?  This time he is free and still just as helpless as when he’d been trying to save Tommy while still dead.

Tubbo mumbles something into Wilbur’s shirt.

“What?”

Tubbo pulls back, taking a deep breath, staring at the wooden slats beneath them.  “I want to make water breathing potions.  And probably night vision too.  A lot of them.”

“Oh,” Wilbur doesn’t know why he feels surprised.  He wants them to look for Tommy whatever it takes.  Somehow actually trying makes the desperation of it all sharper.  “Right.  I… I know where we can get some brewing stands, yeah?”

The brutal irony does not evade either of them.  They gather brewing stands and whatever ingredients had remained there from Ghostbur’s abandoned sewer home.  Phil helps.

And what place remains, one designed and suited for brewing, if not the perfect replica of the Camarvan.

Tubbo and Wilbur don’t voice it aloud, but as they set up shop, the weight of it is like a knife in both of their chests.

They start with their collection of awkward potions.  Tubbo and Wilbur let Phil and Ranboo grind up the blaze rods, because how can Wilbur not think of his bold, ignorant claim we’re on the right side of history as he showed off their haul all that time ago.  For Wilbur it, of course, feels like decades.  But for Tubbo it feels like decades as well.

Tubbo goes and gathers carrots from Tommy’s garden, refusing to let himself think about or even look at the house just beside him.  Phil offers to take up fishing to gather puffer fish.  Ranboo already has an obscene amount of gold for the carrots.

As those three go to gather their assigned ingredients, Wilbur is left staring at a row of three brewing stands, the sharp scent of blaze powder stinging his nose.  They hadn’t really made potions all that long in the grand scheme of L’Manberg’s history, but that had been what they’d done before there was war, so it matters.  It feels louder.

This replica is too good.  Wilbur can feel the memories crawling up the walls, he can hear Tommy’s brash, young, loyal little voice and Wilbur hates it.

Tubbo returns first.  He understands when Wilbur stops leaning against the counter and heads for the door.

“I can’t- I can’t, I just need some air-“ Wilbur starts walking and he doesn’t stop.

Wilbur takes the nearest exit out of L’Manberg and of course ends up right by Tommy’s house.  He doesn’t look at it.  He doesn’t pause.  He just walks a little faster, sticking only to the prime path.

That is, until he sees a glimpse of stone, of a hole in the ground just over the hillside.  There is no reason for him to know what it is at a glance, but he has a sinking feeling either way.  He stops and approaches the cliff side.  He looks down.  There is no coherent thought or logic which he follows, but he finds himself stumbling further down the prime path until he finds a less steep ledge to scramble down, scraping his palms on the rocks just enough to sting, but really he’s just lucky his newly alive clumsiness didn’t make him break his neck.

Wilbur approaches the grave.

Here lies Tommyinnit.

Brother, soldier, friend.

You can let go now.

Without much choice, Wilbur feels a bubbling, hysterical laugh fall from his lips.  Other than that strange, unnerving giggle, he doesn’t move, merely stares transfixed at the stone.  There is a poorly undug hole in front of him.  It’s about six feet deep.  It’s empty.  And Wilbur’s first fleeting coherent thought since he’d left the Camarvan is the inexplicable urge to hop down inside of it.  As far as Wilbur’s intrusive thoughts go, that one is almost silly.  For some fucking reason, all of this feels silly to him.  It’s all just ridiculous, nonsensical nonsense and Wilbur, the perfect cosmic joke, the misfired chekhov's gun, the man who failed to martyr himself thrice, escaped from hell on a fucking technicality alongside the whims of a mad man, and he cannot wait to crawl back into a grave.  

Well, not back into a grave.  That would imply he ever had one to begin with.

That’s the thought that breaks one more shred of sanity he’d still been clinging to, and Wilbur is at least lucky enough to fall backwards onto the earth still soft from being undug instead of forwards into the pit as he laughs hysterically on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes at the thought of what a fucking overachiever he is, after everything he’s ruined, he’s going to take one last thing from his little brother.  Why not.  He’s already lost Tommy his freedom, why doesn’t he just take his spot in the resting place Tommy had been loved enough to deserve.

Back at the Camarvan whe Ranboo and Phil return, Tubbo says Wilbur went for a smoke.  It’s a fair lie, one Tubbo almost believes himself.  Still, better to save Wilbur even more people fussing over him.  Tubbo understood how irritating that could be.

“He did?” Phil frowns.  “It feels like such a little thing now, but he needs to stop that shit.  He doesn’t need something to mess him up any more.”

“Ah, we’re talking about me, then?” Wilbur had returned from his apparent smoke break, and none of them, Tubbo included, know what to do with the sight of him bedraggled and covered in dirt before them.  His eyes are red and a bit puffy.

“You alright?” Ranboo says, voice just a bit higher in his concern.

Wilbur gives him a weird look, like his asking is the peculiar part of this situation.  “Fucking dandy,” he says dryly.  “Why’re you all standing around?  Aren’t there potions to be making?  Shoo,” he waves them away from the doorway before walking past to the row of brewing stands.  They all pretend not to notice Wilbur’s hands still shaking as he takes the bottles off the stand and checks their consistency.  “So, I think we prioritize water breathing, yeah?  Someone wanna get me a pufferfish?”

Phil is quick to oblige, and none of them say another word about Wilbur looking like he’d just crawled out of a gutter.

So the day goes.

Two hours and over a dozen potions later, there’s the distant sound of something familiar to all ears present save Ranboo’s, however faint, that sound the three of them could recognize anywhere.

Somewhere else, somewhere too close for comfort, TNT has just gone off.

~

Tommy sits on the little chest full of notebooks in the corner of his cell.  The door to the cell remains open.  It unnerves him, his ability to wander the corridors.  He almost wishes he were shut in.  It’s the same as he’d thought since Dream had first promised he’d have full run of the base; it’s just a bigger cell.  The few intersecting narrow corridors, the only open space being that stupid dome, it feels more claustrophobic somehow than if he had been sealed into one room.  Sealed in, he could’ve pretended any amount of open space existed just beyond his sight.  Maybe another dauntingly big hall inside a mountain.  Maybe, if he were daring, a way outside.

Dream knew what he was doing.  Tommy could see all of it.  That illusory freedom meant he could not give himself some naive hope that just around some hidden corner there was a way out.  No wonder Dream had agreed to Tommy’s game.  Tommy doesn’t even have anywhere to attempt to look for trouble.  There is nothing, nowhere to start, and thus the door stays open.

Not to say Tommy isn’t trying his best.

Right now Tommy sits on top of the chest instead of his bed because he’s currently trying to saw through the iron band around his wrist by wedging it against the corner of his metal sink.

“You’re both metal, so how come you can’t break this shit, then?” Tommy mutters crossly to the sink, kicking it between attempts.  “You’re thicker than this stupid fucking thing, shouldn’t that mean you’re stronger or whatever the fuck?!”

Tommy gives it another try.  He thinks the weakest point of the fucking thing would surely be where Dream had welded on that ring on to seal it.  It was an annoying shape, the little ring about the size of his finger still pressed into the burn, the curve of it disrupting the rest of the band which fit his wrist perfectly.  Tommy doesn’t know why he didn’t just fucking close the loop.  He could’ve just made the band a bit too big and used some tool to pinch it closed.  Dickhead.

Tommy, as he had been for the past hour, continues to ignore the blood dripping down his arm.  The feeble attempt at scabbing the burn had managed without a health pot had cracked just from him moving, so now, with the pointed corner of the sink digging in, instead of cutting into the iron band, it had made quick work of deepening the wound on his wrist until it was a nasty cut as well.

Tommy hisses as his arm slips and the cut widens, but through the blood Tommy can at least see he’s scratching the metal.  And hey, if the bleeding continues in earnest, Tommy will have finally pushed himself enough to slit his wrist, just like Dream wanted.

Tommy knows that, unlike from a neck wound, he’s still got a pretty decent amount of time before he bleeds out.  Tommy pauses, frowning at the flow of blood which has gone from a few rivulets down his arm to a steady stream, his arm feeling oddly tingly.  Okay.  Maybe not much time.

“Well, no point in pussyfootin’ around for safety’s sake or whatever the fuck,” Tommy says almost cheerfully, raising his left arm with his right so he can slam it down on the edge of the sink in order to crack it open.  “Fuck!”  Tommy screams, falling back on the ground and cradling his wrist to his chest, kicking his feet out furiously.  He’s earned a fucking tantrum.  The metal does have a small dent in it, but that just gives it one more fucking place to dig into his wrist, not to mention the jarring pain that had shuddered up his arm.  That’s definitely going to bruise, not even mentioning the blood slickening both of his arms now and soaking his shirt.

Tommy doesn’t want to get up anymore.  He’s tired.  His wrist is throbbing and he has a feeling any more efforts are just going to make it worse.  The stupid fucking band was measured out to his wrist perfectly and Tommy had of course found a way to instead make the stupid fucking thing just a little bendy so it would dig in.

Tommy stares with bleary rage at the band.  At the little cube half encased in metal on the top.

“Oh, I was fuckin… I was fuckin stupid, okay,” Tommy had wanted the fucking thing off of him, a reasonable request, but the thing was almost shaped like a big ring.  It was easy to break the gem off the top of a ring.  Much easier than trying to break the band outright.  Tommy had no intention of trying to shatter the thing made with Netherite, but if he could just crack the thinner bits of iron holding it in place…

“One m-more try,” Tommy staggers to his feet, almost falling over he felt so dizzy, yet again he uses his right arm to hold up his left like a hammer, his left feeling far more tingly alongside the sharper sting of the burn, and goes to bring the lodestone down right on the edge of the sink.

“What’re you doing?”

That cold voice is the last thing Tommy hears as his vision blurs and, startled, he misses the sink, his arm getting thrown to the floor pulling him down with it so instead of hitting the iron or even his wrist, Tommy slams his own forehead into the edge of the sink.

It’s almost impressive.  He was about to bleed out and Tommy found a way to make himself fall unconscious even faster.

~

Maybe they shouldn’t be so willing to run toward that sound, but Tubbo, Wilbur, and Phil take off running towards it immediately, Ranboo close behind.

There’s a small crater in Tommy’s front yard.

“Niki!” Wilbur does not fall into an empty grave, instead one perhaps already occupied.  “Oh fuck– no no no no– oh god, oh fuck–” There’s blood burst across the ground and Niki isn’t moving.

Tubbo feels horror twofold.  Tubbo had been meters away from this spot, gathering fucking carrots, mere hours ago.  And it had been Niki instead.  “Wilbur, her leg,” Tubbo says weakly.

“G-Get me a health pot!  Quickly, please!” Wilbur screams up at them.  He finds her pulse pushing on fiercely.  “A-And I need– Oh, fuck, I need a r-rope or-or something–”

Ranboo scrambles to take off his belt, throwing it down to him.  Wilbur takes it, pulling it taut just below Niki’s right knee.  The blood flow slows from the mangled remains of her leg.  Phil has already taken off running back toward New L’Manberg.

“H-Help me, I can’t– I can’t get her out–” Wilbur struggles to lift her.  He can’t see very well and it’s not just from the gunpowder stinging in his eyes.  Wilbur blinks away tears, refocusing on Tubbo hopping down to help him.  The two of them manage to get her out, Ranboo helping to lift her back onto solid ground.  Phil returns with health pots and a golden apple.  “P-Please, Niki, oh god–” Wilbur supports her head as Phil carefully pours the potion down her throat, Ranboo taking a splash potion to her damaged leg.

“Punz,” Tubbo looks up at the stunned figure coming down the prime path.  “C-Can you find Ponk?  We need a doctor.”

Punz is pale as a sheet, looking like he’s about to be sick, but he nods and turns around, running toward Lemon City.

He didn’t get close enough for them to see the redstone still staining his fingertips.

[painless-innit-colourful]

Invisible

Potions of invisibility grant the user the ability to disappear, functionally: the concealment of one’s self through magic, distilled into a draught easy to swallow. For better and worse, Tommy’s familiar with the taste.

It tastes sour, primarily. 

Looking at the ingredient list, no wonder. Nether wart and fermented spider eye. Gross. There are some things a golden carrot just can't balance out. 

It's such a disgusting taste he doesn't notice the shimmering feeling, instead focusing his attention on scraping a thin layer of translucent brown sugar-mushroom-spider ick off his tongue. Not until: 

"Tommy?" "Y- Bleh- Yeah?" "Oh!" Tubbo waves his arms in a wild arc, smile growing, before his hand collides with Tommy's arm, and he picks up Tommy's wrist. "It worked!" "What do you- Ohhh..." 

If he blurs his vision, Tubbo's fingers circle around nothing. If he looks properly, he can just about see the edges of his wrist, the lines of his shirt sleeve. "Dude, how does that work?" "Which bit?" "Clothes. My clothes didn't drink it too." "Dude, I dunno... My turn!" 

They learn to spot the tiny signs of an invisible person. They learn to disguise them. Tommy tries to tackle Tubbo and misses completely, and both of them fall about laughing. 

Call that a drug van success story. 

--- 

He sprints past it, hoping they aren’t following, panic filling his bloodstream. He chugs the potion as he runs, drops spilling down his front, staining his navy coat with off-white shadows as he shimmers and disappears into thin air. 

Please don’t see me, please don’t see me.

He stumbles into the shallow waters of the lake, wading - disturbing the water, too many signs, you're gonna be seen - towards Tubbo's tunnel. He takes three steps and slips under the surface, landing on his hands and knees on the tunnel floor, waiting, waiting- Where are they? 

There's the sound of an arrow seeking its mark and hitting true, and for a split second Tommy sees an arm with deft fingers and a dark blue sleeve fall over the side of the entrance, and then the body is gone and shit shit shit- 

Tommy sticks his head back out- Who was that? Wilbur? Tubbo? He feels the shimmering feeling again - "a quick escape", where are the others - and slowly drops back to the tunnel floor. 

Make a decision, what if they find you, Little Laddy One Life? He walks away, opting to live to fight another day, hoping that his friends will join him soon. 

--- 

Funnily though, while clothes disappear with the potion, armour doesn't. He doesn't know why; he's not smart enough to. And right now, as he yanks the shoulder straps of his chestplate tight, he doesn't really care. 

"Stop!" They don't stop, voices mostly drowned out by the overwhelming sound of rushing water. Dream, his face also hidden, but by his signature mask as opposed to the magic of an invisibility potion, holds his hand towards Tubbo and tells him "I need the disc." Tommy crests the wreckage of the Community House, no longer attempting to stay hidden as the water thunders down around his ankles, pulling him towards the platform in the centre. It's a bizarre version of the Pit. It’s an arena. It's a stage. 

"No!" He screams, as Tubbo takes half a step back towards the ender chest. Heads snap to his position, looking at the empty suit of armour that's just appeared beside and above them. Tubbo stutters something in quiet disbelief, and between that and the sudden attention, Tommy falters. If he took off his armour now, could he get out of there? Or would the same fate that once befell Wilbur catch him? The blame for this building is on him, after all. 

He jumps in, landing on his feet between Dream and the cabinet of L'Manberg. He is caught in the crossfire of their questions: "Tommy?" "Is that Tommy?" 

He shouts, and he screams, and he revolves like a merry-go-round, trying to keep his eyes on everyone, not trusting that his armour'll be enough to protect him from the sheer amount of enemies about. So many people hate him, he realises, it's 30 v 2. Technoblade would like those odds. Technoblade, who's standing beside him, not invisible because he went to get milk. He likes the protection; he thinks. 

They don't listen. Tubbo keeps insisting he betrayed them all by teaming with Techno, that he betrayed L'Manberg, but they don't understand, he didn't have a choice, "You don't know what he did to me in exile." Tubbo has the disc in his hands, and without having an inkling of where Dream's eyes are, he watches him consider simply snatching it from Tubbo's hands. 

"You're not gonna give him the disc." Tubbo looks at him like it's a dare, and why can't he see? Tommy's practically crying with the effort and exertion of watching his best friend betray him in slow motion, of being this close to his abuser, of being blamed for something he didn't do, of being beaten down every time he gets on his damn feet. 

"I don’t need to prove myself to you. This wasn’t me. Trust me. Jesus— for once in your life, Tubbo, trust me." Tubbo's eyes are cold, his mind made up. What happened to us against the world?  "I did trust you. Once. The first time all of this happened. And I won’t make the same mistake twice." 

There's a little moment where time stops, and everyone draws nearer like a crowd at the coliseum, and Tommy feels his invisibility ripple slightly, warning him it's about to wear off. Who the fuck cares. 

Tubbo takes a step towards Dream, and Tommy lunges to put himself between them. "Don't you dare." Tubbo's hand goes to his axe. "You betrayed me, Tubbo, you- Did you just-" Both of their eyes are on Tubbo’s weapon, when he puts the disc away, staring Tommy down plainly with his one hand returning to the axe at his waist, and the other taking out his shield. "I didn't betray you." His voice is level, all business. Okay then, Mr President.

"You betrayed everything that you'd built with presidents prior." Tommy's anger, and hurt, and frustration, and pain finally boils over, so much so that it's visible in the way he shakes as he brings out his axe. "You know what?" He bites into a golden apple, feeling its effects drown out the rushing water and the shimmering sensation of his invis. "You've got your axe up." Technoblade’s tone is surprised but light as he tells Tommy to make this decision wisely, but he’s already gone, his safety and conscience be damned. He throws himself at Tubbo, brandishing his axe as the pigman taught him, like he once practised with the brown-haired boy he’s swinging at, thinking You say I betrayed you? I'll show you a traitor. 

Poetically, perhaps, it's less like a fight, and more like a dance. They are a whirlwind - a hurricane - clashing and blocking and pushing and shoving across the otherwise empty floor. Somewhere in the gushing water, Technoblade's bloodlust has seized him, and he's gone for the L'Manbergians and the festival-goers and the unrelated parties that came when they saw the destruction, and he's scattering them this way and that, but who cares about that? 

They are not equally matched. Tommy shakes too much: there is too much of him vulnerable here, not just his mortality, something that neither invisibility nor armour can keep from being scratched and damaged. He's losing. He's quite badly losing, despite Tubbo's inferior armour and weapons and allies, and he leaps into the nearest watery wall, letting the Respiration helmet Techno made for him protect him as the water drags him under and away from his attacker. His best friend. He bites into another golden apple, his pleas swallowed by the torrent. He still hears Tubbo's shout though, permeating the water and being relayed through his communicator from wherever Techno is. 

"Where are you?" 

He pops back up, shaking and soaking wet and sees a familiar sight: an old friend, a brother - once - staring him down with death in his eyes from behind brown hair. He was wrong, oh so wrong, all those weeks ago: at once he is Schlatt, alone at the end of his days, and there's Wilbur, old pals who'll be the death of each other. No. 

No. 

"I didn’t betray you, you teamed up with the very person that destroyed us the first time!" He feels his invis shimmer one more time, and the timing is immaculate, really. Cinematic, one might say. 

"I went for the discs— Tubbo, the discs— The discs were worth more than you ever were!" "No... Wh- Th-" The world stands still, and it feels so good, it's so good to finally say it, to watch Tubbo's face fall, his shield slipping from his hand, listen to the reactions around their little arena, watch as Tubbo shuts his mouth and yanks on the strap of his chestplate and lets it drop to the floor, leaving him defenceless and open to attack and wait- no- wait- 

Mutely, Tommy’s gaze drifts skyward, and it should feel good because they know now, they know how he feels, but it's not, it's not good because that- that wasn't true. That wasn't right. 

And he looks back at Tubbo, and finally, finally, his invis runs out, and he hopes it shows on his face, that he knows he's fucked up because Tubbo looks destroyed, and a shiver goes through him because he no longer looks angry he just- He just looks sad. 

He takes off his helmet, breathing heavily from the ache and exertion, heart burning in regret. 

‘The discs were worth more than you ever were.’

How do you fix that? For one crazy moment, he considers the invis again. Turning translucent and running, back to Techno- back to Technoblade who'd congratulate him on 'moving on' and tell Phil like he was proud and probably write that line on the fucking wall, how could he be such a monumental ass- 

"Tubbo?" Their eyes meet. Tubbo says nothing. 

"Give him the disc." 

He looks bewildered, "You want me to give Dream the disc?" He says, the tiniest sliver of something they used to have peeking through, the bearest hint of kindness, and bless him, it's more than Tommy deserves. It makes him want to go invisible again. 

He smiles softly, and it can't reach his eyes, but he pours every ounce of good left in him into it and desperately hopes it's enough.

"Yeah." And because he's fucked up, because he knows they can never go back from this: "I'm sorry Tubbo." 

--- 

He's done it again, he keeps fucking up. Sam's hand is holding him down by the shoulder, firm fingers digging into him, keeping him from reaching Ghostbur. 

He tried so hard. His throat is sore from not coughing. His muscles hurt from the pure tension and adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream, from his stubborn heart to the ends of his fingers and toes. He thought he'd gotten caught when he drank the potion in the waivers room, and his heart had been beating so loud that he'd thought Sam could hear it. 

Yet, they made it. But it doesn't matter, because he pulled out the axe too early, and now he's busted, and Sam's gonna kill him or Wilbur's going to come back or both, and it's all his fault. 

Every time he tries. Every time he tries to fix things, or do what's right, or have something for himself, it's taken away, destroyed and he's kicked to the ground. Every time. 

It's enough to make anyone want to be invisible.

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

Scattered AU Masterpost Part 2 [COMPLETE]

Due to post length limit (which is apparently a thing), this AU has been split into two parts. Find Part 1 here!

Join the Discord server here!

Contributions:

- Mumbo has a pet ravager miscellaneous ideas: the ravager is actually a bit small as far as ravagers go. Once Mumbo leaves to go to the hermits, he doesnt take the ravager with him, for fear the environment wouldn't be right for it. However, the ravager follows him and Iskall, startling both when it comes running up to Mumbo. The ravager does not like any of the hermits, however it doesn't attack them because it can understand that Mumbo cares about them. - anonymous

- related to scattered au and "what if this happened to old hermits too" -- python's stuck in a death loop in a bastion (his spawn is right next to a piglin brute). he has no clue what's going on but by god, does he blame zloy - Anonymous

- Consider: Etho's mask protecting him from the flowers that gave Hypno so much trouble. - @/rayveewrites

- (Scattered AU) After Etho dies accidentally at the spawn haven, his spawn takes him to Xisuma. Xisuma is clinging to life when he gets there, and Etho only has time to grab his admin's arms and promise he'll be found before Xisuma passes away. Etho and Xisuma get a few hours together to work on getting Xisuma to the surface before Etho starves to death, and he's transported somewhere else. After that Etho makes it his mission to cycle through spawns as quickly as possible to help Xisuma and anyone else who is trapped in their spawn graveyard, no matter how much his legs start to fail him from the damage starting to linger from building into the sky and leaping off to respawn over and over. - @/petrichormeraki

- Some honorable mentions from my written summary for mumbo in the au: the illigers being terrified as he keeps coming back no matter how many times they kill him; he gets adopted by evoker; he fails at evoker magic, like so bad he cant even dye a sheep; the evoker being so done with mumbo that they beg the vex to give him magic; mumbo summoning scar when the vex get annoyed at how often he summons them, mumbo eventually summoning bdubs after scar's contract to mumbo runs out.... and so much more - @/therainofsweetmelody

- Moobloom!Hypno attracts bees - @/itsabork

- Not too long into his messenger journey, etho remembers what had happened to impulse by the time he, zed and tango had found him, which inspires him to try and die in a different way each time he sets off to find another hermit, partly to avoid becoming resiliant to certain death methods and partly for the challenge - Anonymous

- Because Doc hasn't died his death messages haven't been showing up in the chat. The other hermits don't know if he's even in the same world as them. - Anonymous

- (Scattered AU) More on the Mumbo accidentally summoning Scar thing; the summoning has "opened" the chat for them, but only between Mumbo and Scar. All evokers can call on their Vex, after all, so why not an evoker in more-or-less training? - @/petrichormeraki

- (alternate headcanon) There's so much discussion in the server, I wouldn't know where to start restating. However, I wanna mention one thing: scar spawning in xisuma's first spawn, deep in a geode down under ground. Being trapped in an endless death loop due to the warden lurking just outside the geode, forcing scar into the same loop xisuma had been trapped in so long ago. Not only does he have to deal with the separation from bdubs once they got out of the end, now he seemingly cant escape the warden's clutches.... - @/therainofsweetmelody

- Admins log who knows how long: I've finally managed to get my helmet some repairs with this I could get some plugins to start working hopefully. Considering the situation going on, I better not have derped to hard on this, not now. - Anonymous (singleplayer sleep now works)

- (Scattered AU) Because the code is glitchy for mob hermita, Jevin would spilt when injured too much. So while X and Jevin are trying to get to the surface, they encounter a dungeon or a mineshaft and Jevin gets fatally injured. X starts freaking out cause he doesent want to be alone again and he cant bear to watch Jevin die infront of him and risk getting lost and seperated and Jevin just splits, theres two Jevins now and X doesent know what to think of it.While there are two Jevins, their consienceness is split between the two and his motor skills are more sloppy and X notices and realises that Jevin loses more of himself the more he splits. So while he has a lower chance of losing Jevin to an unfortunate accident, Jevin slowly reverts to a slime the more be splits and the more be spends time as multiple entities. X worries that if Jevin splits for too long or too much, he might lose Jevin - @/itsabork

- The only portal to get out of Hels and into the overworld is an incredibly complex vault boarder line weapon built by Hels Doc and Hels Mumbo and the location of the portal is known only to a few and it changes every season. Now cue Helsknight and Wels sneaking all around Hels while trying to look for this basically impossible to find and get into way home. - anonymous

- It takes a while, but eventually those outside of hermitcraft start wondering why all the hermits collectively disappeared. Sure, they started a new world, and sure they’re usually more secluded, but it’s been months. Skizz wonders why he hasn’t heard from Impulse in a while. All the legates wonder where Python went. Everyone’s confused when none of the hermits turn up to the next MCC. Things get weirder when none of them sign up for the one after. -🟣

- Ok to add on to the daisy ravenger post, on his way to 0,0 Mumbo found spawn spawn, slo when he arrived everyone had him at sword point, expecting angry illiger noises they were surprised when they herd "GUYS IT'S ME!!" - Anonymous

(Note: Hermits at the haven currently include Joe, Beef, Hypno, Scar, Bdubs, TFC, Mumbo, and Iskall, in order of arrival. XB is en route, and Etho was there briefly before dying and respawning elsewhere.)

- Pix and Zloy would be the first to notice the hermits' absence. After all, they do a weekly show about them. Maybe they just decided to have a few weeks of downtime before moving to the next Season? Though surely it wouldn't take this long... - @/rayveewrites

- because im a legacy sucker, the legates would likely be the first to notice the hermits' disappearance. between zloy being on the server, skizz being part of zits and very close to impulse, pearl knowing a few hermits, plus python literally disappearing. what they'd do about it? no idea.to keep it more on the topic of hermits though, don't think about how devastated skizz would be to find out what impulse went through. don't think about it :) - anonymous

- Hello I have produced thoughts! I don’t have room for both so I’m sending 2 asks -when Iskall arrives at the mansion all of the illagers are wary; if one of mumbo’s friends are here then he must be leaving soon. Despite their initial feelings they’ve come to care about this idiot that wandered into their house, and they’re fully aware he has no survival instincts whatsoever, so when he does end up leaving they send a ravager to keep him (and his friends, they suppose) safe -@/haworthiaace

- so like... hear me out ok what if the reason the whole world is corrupting and weird and why a lot of people are like slowly turning into mobs is because maybe this is the way the game and the mobs are turning on the hermits for like making really inhumane farms or something like that and the mobs somehow messed with the code of the world to get revenge - anonymous

- Scattered AU!! Biffa spawned very concerned and on a beach. Where is he? How did he get here? Is he alone? Well one of his questions was answered quickly as he heard a constant buzzing sound come from his communicator, upon opening it he saw probably millions of death messages. He quickly realised this was probably supposed to be a new season of hermitcraft, but he didn't really have time to think about it, night was quickly approaching and he could already see drowned swimming towards him. - Anonymous

- How many times did X die to that Warden? Maybe he develops something to counteract the Warden’s sensors, or that his heartbeat slowed down to the point that his suit can barely pick it up (therefor making it harder for the Warden to track Xisuma down). -🦊

- Etho tried his best to fight the system and not get any new features from all his deaths. But, the game has its ways. Slowly, after every death he has, the less alive he comes back. (Undead!Etho, could be ghost, zombie variant, or skeleton variant) -@/harley-the-pancake

- Other hybrid characteristics Hypno gets of the moonbloom: His ears turn into golden cows ones, the horns grow in, he gets a tail, and little flowers grow though his hair and wrap around his horns. He can also grow flowers around him as long as he has dirt, but thankfully they dont do anything beyond smelling a lot stronger and smelling very nice (and maybe a bit of evoking certain reactions, but nothing beyond what normal flowers can do, ie lavender being calming, just a bit more intense) - anonymous

- Beetlejhost ended up in the world along with the hermits, spawning as if summoned: in the middle of a circle of beehives. His spawn is in the birch forest near the s8 spawn, and his presence spooks anyone who stumbles across him. He blends in concerningly well with the black and white of the forest. Beef feels like hes being watched whenever he goes in the birch forest to get supplies, but joe never notices a thing. He teases the hybrids about their changes, leading him to get swiftly decked- - @/therainofsweetmelody

- beetlejhost spawns in a circle of beehives in the birch forest near spawn. he thinks he's invis, in reality it's just his stripes making him blend into the birch trees. he can't leave the circle of bees, ah how wonderful it is to bee bee-tlejhost - @/justme123abz

- Beetlejhost doesn't mean to be mean, really, he just has really, really bad timing. This includes seeing a pollen-stained Hypno and, with his gravelly voice, immediately say "Woah! Someone had some fun in the sun! Tell me, did you spend a week rolling in dandilions or do you just like the color yellow?" This does not go over well - Anonymous

- Speaking of hybrids, Xisuma spawned in a Wardens den right? Well unlike the other hybrids, Xisuma has been changing too but its been slow. Every time he spawned back in that place, on the warped ground, he's changed. He doenst notice the dark starts to seem less dark, until noises get louder, until he's more sentive to it then he noticed, he gets stronger and breaking though the stone with his bare hands seems a bit easier, its not until he finds Jevin and he points out the glowing horns (1)peaking from his temples when his hair is pulled back hastily that he realizes that something has gone horribly wrong with him. Thankfully Jevin helps ground him before he can freak out, so he shelves it for later, once they're out of this cave. The warden that once was down by his spawn is no longer there btw, disappeared. The horns grow slowly, and soon glowing vein like markings appear as well. (2) - Anonymous

- Okay, Xisuma, we established he spawned in the deep dark, right? As time goes on he adapts to the dark. The skulk sensors grow on him. However as time goes on, they not only grow on him, but become a part of him. His footsteps quiet to near silence, and he can feel sounds. He certainly isn't how he was when he entered, at first glance he might even be mistaken for a warden. - Anonymous

- Tango is the only hermit other than Mumbo Daisy kind of likes. Tango thinks Daisy is absolutely adorable, and Daisy does like the positive attention(and the treats). - Anonymous

- When tango meets mumbo’s pet ravager he loses his mind, he tried so hard to get the decked out ravagers to like him and then mumbo just waltzes in riding on one of the things! He ends up hanging around her a lot and eventually forms some sort of relationship, although not as close as he would like (he also gets a little more sympathetic once he sees the effects the evokers had on mumbo, he figures the guy earned a pet ravager) - @/haworthiaace

(Hermits now at the spawn haven, in order of arrival: Joe, Beef, Hypno, Scar, Bdubs, TFC, Mumbo, Iskall, Tango, Impulse, Zedaph. XB is en route, Wels and Hels are traveling through Hels to get there, Ren, Doc, and Grian are attempting to get there but their success has been limited so far)

- Scattered!AU: Idea that Ex is the ONLY one that knows what is going on and how to fix it perhaps (maybe 'cause of having been banished to the void for so long)? That's why he's trying to find X. - Anonymous

- Admins log: day 1006: Me and Jevin finally see sunlight, and I've managed to get the clock function on my helmet working, finally. As we're on our way to the surface, I only hope that I can find someone or something to help guide us to where we need to go, but unfortunately I've lost all signal to chat, and I think we're next to a woodland mansion. I think I've derped up this time.

- Dear Xisuma, if you see this message then the log is working, also fixed the clock in your helmet it's been 50 days, not 1005. I was about to leave with Iskall when I noticed you and Jevin outside with a few, erm, "buddies" of mine you two where passed out and I managed to stop them from killing you with Daisy, my pet ravenger. I'll explain everything later and spawns in the village are working, finally. I recommend not moving much and work on the data packs for a bit before you do anything elseExplanation log to Xisuma part 2: Sorry if the last one got cut off abruptly, apparently there's a limit to these messages. Any way please take care of yourself. Sincerely, your pal Mumbo Jumbo

- Admins log, day 51: I first want to say thank you Mumbo for bringing me up to speed and explaining why and how me and Jevin are here, next I want to say that these logs may slow down for a bit, I'll be working on some maintenance for some packs. I still don't know why this is happening, I now hope this is a wicked nightmare and not our reality. Hang on I see something over there it looks like, wait let me ju- Voice logs are off for the moment.

- all one anon

- mooblooms spread the flowers that enraptured hypno. now that hypno is a moobloom hybrid, he can make people "hypnotizd"! he doesnt like to, but if the spawn ever gets attacked, the hermits are winning easily. - anonymous

- I like to think that at some point when there's a significant number of healthy hermits at 0,0 they start group searches to find the rest of hermits - anonymous

- After awhile, if they can't change the spawn of everyone, they begin securing all the spawn points to everyone, so if their bed is ever destroyed in the future, they won't end up in a death loop again. They secure the death loop spawn points first. - @/ciaravixen

- For undead Etho: I know that ghasts aren't technically undead mobs, but they're basically ghosts and that's what I feel etho is becoming?He's leaving his mortality behind bit by bit as he ceases to care about death and starts to use it as a tool instead.One day he'll respawn without a body at all - @/draconic-dreams

- This is just a thought. Sand cant be good for Iskall's mechanical parts, and its not like he has anything to fix it. Does he have to wait to find doc to be able to have hope of fixing himself? - anonymous

- Jellie had spawned in the village that cub and xb had come across, so when xb heads to 0,0 he takes her with him (she'd be safer in the overworld than in the end, after all). Its quite a long journey, and she makes for good company. -@/supertiny-tins

- Grian, Doc, and Ren fianlly start heading out to 0,0. Its a long journey, they decide in the end to leave their beds behind at the cabin in case any of them die so none of them end back at their orginal spawns. they would of just made new beds every time but the lack of suplies and resources near by has been low oddly enough. Doc manages to push aside most of his fears to help Grian and Ren, who are weaker, but he keeps his distance whenever he can. They make many hastily built huts as they go 1most nights are spent sleeping on hard ground, later straight up blocks of wool they find but not beds, just wool is better then ground, and it doesn't do the weaker hermits any favors but it works. There are many close calls, but they manage to avoid death, mostly due to Doc. Along the way they start to find signs of other players, coble in places it shouldn't, a rare torch, half mined trees, but no hermits. They still have a way to go, but they're getting closer to the others and safety. 2 - anonymous

- Etho once found himself spawning in the middle of an ocean with nothing and no one in sight except of course... A faint trail of lights dancing beneath the waves... Pulsing and glimmering, almost in a rhythm, something so fascinating, so... So... He was meant to be doing something...? It was... Important... At least... It might have been... It's all.. Kinda hazy... It couldn't have been more important than the lights, nothing was more important than the lights... They were so beautiful... He could watch them all day... Etho never noticed how he slipped beneath the waves, nor how the glow squid's glittering eyes had turned upon him, coiling a tentacle around his waist as it dragged its prey deep into the depths, his eyes hazed with green, he never even noticed his lungs burning for air.And he never remembered drowning after he respawned. - anonymous

- Impulse actually punches through the Nether roof so they can traverse more safely to coordinates given to them by Etho. They leave trails of blocks so they can make their way back, of course. - @/rayveewrites

(Evil X is now hiding out in a cave near spawn)

- Shattered!AU: I see everyone's Warden!Xisuma heacannons and I give you Axolotl!Xisuma. Think about it he's been hanging around with them and Jevin in the lush caves so maybe he's becoming more like them. (Frills, a more pink-ish tint to his skin, the ability to breathe underwater, etc.) :D (Is this because the thought of him having Warden traits is terrifying to me? Maybe. Is it because I think he deserves to become something not scary after his whole ordeal in the Deep Dark? Yes.) - anonymous

- Ever since getting out of the loop, Impulse has had a horrible inner conflict between his guardian side being instinctually drawn to the water, and his human brain being deeply terrified of ever being submerged again. - @/asexualbert

- Because I absolutely adore Daisy, more headcannons for Daisy.Daisy will occasionally just pick Mumbo up gently with her horns when she thinks she isn't getting enough attention. Daisy has a bell collar, because she kept scaring hermits by following Mumbo silently. Daisy is more okay with Iskall than most other hermits, though still doesn't really like him. - anonymous

- Though I'm a sucker for angst, what if Impulse was saved by a dolphin pod or something instead of transforming into a hybrid (or after transforming if Guardian!Impulse is cannon). :3 I can picture dolphins don't take kindly to the Guardian Mobs, might even find them as prey if anything since they're fish. (Guardian!Impulse wouldn't count since they're smart enough creatures to tell the difference.) - anonymous

- Prob a bit early for epilogue stuff but I like to think that, once all the glitches are fixed, that those that became hybrids and would prefer to be back to normal get changed back. - anonymous

(Shade note: Personally, I'm a sucker for stories where the characters adjust and learn to live with the unexpected changes to themselves rather than having them magically fixed, but this option is certainly still here for the people who find it appealing)

- For the scattered au, after the numerous frozen deaths Grian's gone through he starts hearing voices from the snow, even from within Ren's cabin. A snow golem forms after a wandering trader drops a pumpkin and watches from outside the cabin, deciding to guard the place after taking a liking to Grian and Ren. - anonymous

- When Etho became fully ghost, it hit hard. BeetleJhost saw this, and after a while decided to teach him how to show his form and speak. It takes a lot out of him, but it’s worth it. His friends deserve that closure. (Listen, I was expecting angst, I just wasn’t expecting that much angst.) - @/harley-the-pancake

- Mod Shade, I want you to know that angsting ghost!Etho that hard was entirely on you. I was picturing him clipping through blocks and dropping items at inconvenient points, not fading out of existence entirely. - @/draconic-dreams

- Possible explanation for everything going on in Scattered:Players were never supposed to be so powerful; in the natural state of Minecraft they're just another mob, albiet one that can craft and use any tool.But the Players weren't satisfied with that. Everyone from the admin of the smallest server to the mythological ‘dev team’ has been imposing little changes on the world since its inception, slowly tweaking it into a better environment for Player-kind.A single spawn at the world's centre. The ability of Players to chat from one end of the world to another -- even across different worlds. Even natural regeneration, an ability unique to the rarest and most powerful of mobs. As time marched on, Players not only unlocked these things but began to take them for granted, drawing far away from the behaviour of normal mobs. This became normal. Players continued to create datapacks and run commands that tweaked the very nature of the world. -@/draconic-dreams

(Shade note: Perhaps it was just a random glitch, one fundamental line of code removed to shift the balance of power. Or maybe it was orchestrated, but by who and for what purpose? Either way, it will take the Hermits a while to realize this, and even longer to fix it...if they can at all.)

- Jessasin spawned in a mesa biome, of course he's confused on how he got there and why he's in this random vanilla world and not his usual modded world, but both questions got pushed aside when the death messeges arrive. He exploared the area gathering as much recourses as he can and goes off too find someone, anyone really. - @/ghan-does-things

- hello! I discovered the scattered au literally yesterday so sorry if this is something that has already been gone over but I had an idea about bdubs, what if his constant exposure to the void and surviving on nothing but chorus fruit for who knows how long made him slightly enderman-y? 1/2 (sorry, couldn't fit the whole thing in one ask)Like nothing obvious at first, but making eye contact makes him agitated and snappy, touching water makes his skin tingle and if you look at him in the dark his eyes seem to have a very faint pink/purple glow about them? Maybe the other hermits swear he's taller than he was the last time they saw him? And the tips of his fingers are blackened, he assumes due to frostbite, but it seems to gradually be making it's way further up his hands? again sorry if this has been gone over already 2/2 - @/plantichu

- Okay so after Welsknight and Helsknight manage to get past the crazy vault door in Hels, not sure how but it probably involved a lot of cussing on Hels part and Wels saying that he never wanted to look at redstone ever again. The portal takes them to the overworld near Xisuma and Jevin. - anonymous

- (scattered au) The first set of non hermits to join this corrupt world are two strangers that apparently came from infinity's grasp. The good news they both spawned at spawn, bad news the brought the tnt duper flying machines, good news that everyone was able to calm them both down. Now the fun begins. Tldr Illmango and Methodz finally get out of the infinity portal. - anonymous

- Loving the Scattered AU. Late to the party, but was looking at the wider MC community reaction to the Hermits vanishing. Once it's clear something bad's happened, would the Legacy crew and whoever else (former Evo squad members like Martyn and Jimmy as well, if they notice Grian go dark) take steps to find out what happened? Would they go to the MCC server (it's kind of a nexus between worlds) & get Noxcrew to try "pinging" the HC server? Would X & other admins see it but be unable to respond? - @/wixelt

- I dont know if anyone has mentioned it but uhhhh, guardian xb? he was a guardian hybrid before everyone got scattered like Ren was already a wolf/dog hybrid. iirc xb spawned in a desert which would be a very interesting place for a guardian hybrid to spawn - anonymous

- Etho has been so, so desperate to avoid dying the same way twice, to stay himself. He hasn't drowned that many times, he thinks. Surely, surely he's starved more often? There's a strange feeling of deja vu hanging over him when he respawns in the ocean, though he can never understand why. Each time the squid finds him, he drowns a little slower, and each time, he glows a little stronger.And he just can't understand, almost refuses to, as he treks from biome to biome, where the small green bumps that line his arms and face came from, how his fingertips seem to almost glow when he scoops a handful of water, how long he finds himself simply staring… at the moon, at sea lanterns, at torches, at lights… He would die a different way every time. He had to. He had to stay Etho. He would not become anything else. - Anonymous

- When Mumbo comes riding into camp on Daisy, it’s easy to see Impulse is not happy about the ravager being there. That’s expected, it’s not exactly everyone’s favorite mob to see around a safe haven. But when Mumbo and Impulse make eye contact, the evoker can’t help but make a simple warding gesture his friends at the mansion taught him- it’s a reflex move. Days later, Mumbo still isn’t sure if Impulse flinched because of Daisy’s sudden growl or his ward. - @/fluffy-papaya

- (From the Discord) What happened to the world: For years, seeds and the land they built had been carefully curated by those known as players, in an effort to make it both easier and more interesting for themselves. But the land doesnt want to be controlled. Their glitched, broken world is a result of the world itself rioting against their presence. Coordinates aren't visible with the debug screen, their coms only serve the world, to tell the players what it knows. Compasses spin wildly in the overworld, for there is no "world spawn" (though coordinates are visible with one in hand. Small mercies are still given). The world resists any further changes by the simple fact it refuses to accept what a hermit communicates. Maybe it's fixable, but maybe... maybe it runs deeper than just their world. (The Legates caused a lot of damage with all those withers, after all.) - @/basaltdragon

- While Iskall is in the desert, he ends up dying quite a few times, enough to adapt, he becomes like a stray, so now, if we have skeleton Etho, we have 3 undead hermits - anonymous

- When everyone is finally gathered and they manage to come together to use all their skills, new and old, the hermits use it to flee back to Season 7. They stay there for months, mostly to heal and adjust to what happened to them. (Trauma isn't easy) Those who have friends or family off server get invited to visit, but the hermits don't leave, they nearly lost each other and they aren't willing to risk it again right now. They'll make a new season 8 at some point, the hermits are too (1/3)restless and too ingrained in their ways to completely disregard how they've always done things, but that will come when they feel better, safer, more put together, when they can finally stop sleeping in a big pile becuase they're afraid the others will disappear. They never go back to that old glitched world, the idea makes them sick, and X starts the new practice of sending in the 'Cam' and/or 'alt' accounts in first to check out the world and set up commands and plugins remotely first. (2/3) What happened before will never, ever happen again he swears it. Next time they might not be so lucky after all [if you can call them all being traumatized, many of them dying over and over again, some being permanently altered, and barely escaping lucky] (also feel free to save these asks for near the end of the au!) (3/3) - anonymous (Shade note: I personally like the idea of them fixing and learning to live in the glitched-out world, but this is another alternate ending!)

- (From the Discord) What happened to the world: Alternatively, what happened is exclusive to their world. (I don't have Dramatic Storytelling for this one, sorry) EX has ADHD to the max, and everything he does is a desperate attempt to get Noticed, to get looked up to and listened to. He's known it was "wrong" for a while, hence why he took X's name and added "Evil", but he never seriously wanted them to hurt. Just to listen to him. He'd meant to come in and fix it all and finally be a hero. He didn't realize, either through haste or inexperience, that he too would be at the mercy of what he'd done.Maybe he does, eventually, make it to where the hermits have gathered. But does he really want to admit everything? (RSD had burned him before, and if there ever was something to place the blame on his head...) - @/basaltdragon

- lasting effects of deaths

- a large amount of assorted ideas

- The bell they put on Daisy was originally of the type that are put on cats, but Grian ended up switching it out with a cowbell because he hated the sound - anonymous

- False, Keralis, Cleo, and Stress make it to spawn, bedraggled and exhausted. Out of all the Hermits, they are some of the last to arrive. Along the way, they’ve encountered trials innumerable that have left them beaten and bruised, but after months of travel, they’ve finally made it.Shortly after leaving the Moobloom field, they came upon an abandoned cart in the middle of a desolate village. With some of the redstone they had found and whatever magic they managed to scrape up, they turned it into a sort of vehicle that allowed them to travel much faster. It had a habit of breaking every six seconds or so, but nothing they couldn’t fix. For the most part. A few accidental combustions aside, they crossed the server in record time.Once at spawn, False has to be forcibly restrained from immediately starting guard duty, and several of the Hermits have to physically wrestle her into a bed in order for her to get some rest. Stress starts up a potion factory the next day, and also starts decorating the spawn with the flowers she’s collected during their travels. Keralis helps out wherever he’s needed, but in his downtime, he constructs an elaborate warren of tastefully decorated, industrial tunnels under the spawn, just in case they might help. Cleo mostly just stays in bed, creating elaborate dioramas and mourning the loss of her zombie side. She’ll get better, but it’ll take some time. And that’s ok with the rest of them. - @/topazastral

- When Doc, Grian, and Ren finally make it to 0,0 there is no fanfare, no dramtic entrance, no revulation. They were travling and suddnly, there was a base, a hermitcraft base, and they could see people. Grian clambers to feet shakily from the shed, nearly falling but Doc and Ren catch him and toghther they help him walk foward and call out to their friends. They are safe now, they're here- Is that mumbo on a ravager what the hell? Wait thats Impluse? Seems like Grian wasnt the only one changed. - anonymous

- Jellie reacting to vex!scar headcanons -she recognises him instantly. The moment she and xb arrive at spawn she darts straight towards him. Of course, she cant figure out why he looks different, but regardless, thats her owner and she demands pets!!!-sometimes she will jump up and try to pounce on his vex wings, because shiny moving thing! Scar picked up on this very quickly and will move out of the way before she gets the chance (vex wings are rather delicate and a pain to get fixed)-whe she's bored, she will always go to mumbo and daisy for attention first. This makes scar rather jealous and she knows that damn well-Scar will sometimes pick her up and fly her around not too far from spawn for a few minutes. Nothing she isnt used to, as he flys with the elytra all the time, but something about flying with vex magic just feels... different. And fun! - anonymous

- Contrary to the enderman bdubs, ender dragon bdubs. His eyes aren't the normal brown, and are instead a bright magenta, he also now has ashen gray horns. - Anonymous

- Scattered AU: The intended world "theme" Xisuma had set up for Season 8 was Large Biomes. This was before anyone knew something was going to go wrong, of course, but it's had a horrible lasting effect in the glitched world. Not everywhere has generated as "large", so when Hermits are travelling they'll sometimes find normal sized biomes, and other times they'll find one biomes that stretches an abnormal distance in all directions. Grian and Doc's mountain range is one of these large biomes. - @/wixelt

- For the scattered au, the snow golem follows Grian and Ren (and Doc) to the spawn haven, for a few days the hermits are wondering what's leaving behind snow trails and zombie flesh, so they decide to have a night watch around this area. Ren volunteered and waited, half-asleep he nearly nearly gets hit with a arrow when he hears the sound of a skeleton getting hurt. He sees the snow golem and uses his sword to kill the skeleton. The snow golem tries to flee but Ren realizes and stops it (1/2)He welcomes the snow golem and introduces it to Grian and Doc, (where the snow golem warns him that it is keeping its eyes on him in its own language). Spooked, Grian tells them that he can understand it, and the golem tells him that he's been following them since their time at the mountain. They decide to give it the name Catmint and it helps guard the hermit's base at night (while giving a stern look at Doc every now and then.(2/2) - anonymous

- (Scattered au)Seeing as we now have 3 different variations of Etho, I raise you: all 3 at once. It turns out Etho was not in fact human, instead a shapeshifter who didn't know that he was, the deaths simply sped up the process, whereas before, while he would change slightly, it was never fast enough to be noticeable - Anonymous

- I had this idea some time ago actually but I thought it was silly but now that the au in ending might as well say it. It doesn't make much sense now with all the new development srry. What if one day Mumbo was callibrating his comunication monstrosity, and suddenly his communicator had signal. He called and called but whoever was a the other side didn't pick up, until they did and Mumbo was overjoyed, but the happiness died down when he could only hear chocked sobs and sharp breathing and (1)teeth chattering. Suddenly a voice whispered, little and fragile "h-h-he-lp". Mumbo knew that voice too well. Before he could even open his mouth to let his best friend he was coming for him, he'd be okay, anything, the breathing stopped. The call was still going, but no one was at the other side anymore, Mumbo hung up with tears in his eyes, and he swore he'd find him and he'd help him. (2) - anonymous

- Scattered AU: While there's still time for them: Mumbo was the furthest Hermit out in the Overworld, & didn't set off for over a year, yet wasn't last to 0,0 (with Iskall) by any stretch. More than half the Hermits seemed to arrive after him. This can be partly attributed to Daisy making good time, but it makes you wonder how many trials & tribulations impeded False, Stress, Cleo and Keralis along the way? How much Ren, Doc & Grian were slowed by Grian's condition? What took xB or Biffa so long? - @/wixelt

- Once everyone finds each other, at the world spawn, after the initial shock, and fixing of the world of course, the hermits all decide to settle much closer to each other. They were separated for quite a while, so it makes sense why they'd decide to keep close. Some groups also make shared bases. - anonymous

- I sort of want grian to be a bit more inhuman so how about grian’s skin on his arms, legs and most of his face permanently blackened by the severe frostbite and the rest of his skin has taken on a bluish tinge, his hair is no longer the Gold it was before but almost snow white with a tinge of dark and light blue, his ears and tail are snow white with what appears to be frost and ice growing on them (1/2)(2/2) grian can not cry because the tears will immediately turned to ice, he can’t swim because if his body touches the water the water will freeze over, his skin is cold to the touch and whatever he moves his body it will make a cracking sounds like breaking glass or smashing ice, no matter how warm it is he can always see his breath... i’m trying to think of more but I’m coming up blank so that’s it hope you like it. - anonymous

- bc i cant stand when cleo is unhappy: the moment she and joe reunite, joe realizes how horrible it is for her to have her body messed with against her will. and as an admin, he can modify her code to put her back to how she was in previous seasons (aka not totally rabid but still undead) - anonymous

- Admins log final day: I'm glad we'll all be able to wake up from this nightmare, and we're able to get an exit portal going thanks to Mango and Methodz having a backup of the key to open the infinity portal's power, we should be able to not only go back in time, but destroy this broken timeline. Were all grateful for them, and I did invite them both to help us incace this happens again. This will be the last day in this timeline, if you somehow found this helmet with these logs, thank you. :-) - anonymous

- Grian, Doc, and Ren find it hard to stay away from each other too long, especially Doc and Ren becuase they've been taking care of Grian for such a long time so they find themselves kinda hovering over him and Grian finds himself seeking them out even when he's with other hermits. The other groups, who've been toghther for awhile, do it too probs - anonymous

- Soon as Grian and Mumbo see each other, they launch themselves at the other and hold on for a long, long time. Iskall join in soon as he wanders by and they talk for hours about what happened, looking over Grian's new fox parts and the blue marks on his hands, Mumbo gray stained hands and magic, and just Iskalls overall experience. Also Grian's little fox buddy absolutely loves Daisy and vice versa. Its not uncommon to see the small fox riding on the ravager's back while Daisy scares people. - Anonymous

- I know I'm a bit out of loop w scattered au & is probably getting things wrong but consider this, when Mumbo accidentally summoned Scar, leaving Bdubs alone, Bdubs freaked out. The very person that meant rescue & hope for him back in the end is now gone, he felt like he's back into the void again and he thought Scar abandoned him because he's too weak & is a burden to Scar. (Yes I am currently drowning in Scardubs angst) - @/anthosaidsmth

- The glitches in the world didn't only happen to the Hermits, it happened to all worlds created in 1.17. The cause remains unknown, though it is believed that something or even someone corrupted/changed the code (what/who is up to imagination. In the case of the latter, so is the motive). My idea, we've already confirmed that Watchers are arrogant jerks so perhaps they couldn't stand the fact that players learned to do things against the rules that they put in place, and did this out of spite. - anonymous

- A bit late but I see all the Fox!Grian headcannons so what if Grian spawned in a jungle and slowly became a parrot hybrid instead? How idk, maybe resorting to eating seeds to prevent himself from starvation because there is no animals in this jungle.

- Here's a thought: The Hels!Hermits were also effected by whatever caused the scattering. They may all hate or annoy each other, but not having each other around to pick on isn't very fun (neither are death loops). Perhaps some of them gain humility over this or learn to be at least a bit nicer to each other and their counterparts. (or some of them find sadistic amusement in their counterpart's miseries) - anonymous

- Finally, once everyone has made it safely to spawn and the problems with the world have been resolved, the season begins. Some of the Hermits may have changed (more than just physically) but over time, they adapt and recover. Grian eventually starts yet ANOTHER war, Tango gets to build DO 2.0 (X is terrified at the fact wardens are involved), and Cleo becomes a coach on 'how to be a mob hybrid' (unless all new hybrids get returned to how they were before by admin powers or just being players). - anonymous

- With all the glitches fixed and all the hermits starting to get back to their normal (Well as normal as it can be after all of these), I wonder if Scar is still a vex. All the hermits just adapted to their situations, but Scar is different, he made a deal with the Vex. - @/anthosaidsmth

- It takes all of the hermits that changed a while to get used to the changes, but eventually they do, mostly through help and support from the other hermits - anonymous

- I had a wee idea and it's a little silly but I like hurt/comfort so maybe after all the scattered au events have passed and the hermits are all together living safely, every winter some hermits invite Grian to their bases to take care of him since the snow and the cold are very bad for him. Sometimes he gets fevers but most of the time he just needs a warm blanket and someone to distract him from the snow. This is also making me wonder if Grian could develop chinophobia (fear of the snow). - Anonymous

- conclusion

Art:

- An Evoker Mumbo

- Evoker Mumbo with Daisy

- Evoker Mumbo summoning Scar

- a Guardian Impulse

- assorted doodles here and here

- A two-part Impulse comic

Writing:

- some Etho lore come back to haunt him (pt 1)

- Cleo sharing mob-hybrid tips with Impulse

- Executioner

- Fish out of water

- Homesick

- Thalassophobia

- The General's Wager (pt 2)

- The Undertow

- Saviors

- Bdubs falling

- For lack of blue shiny rocks (pt 3)

- conclusion (pt 4)

- EX in the Deep Dark

- this road I'm on's gonna turn to sand

- Snapshots

- a multi-chapter Scattered interpretation written just before the real season 8, complete with some outside lore and crossover

- Scattered Across The Map (series of parallel multi-chapter fics)

- One Hundred Thousand Worlds Away

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

I decided to write for Cherry. I am dumb of ass.

[A picture of a small baby with orange hair. While she smiles brightly, her eyes closed, she seems to be trying to reach outside her crib, her hands open towards the camera.]

Me, 2 months old. Mãezinha says I was a rowdy baby. Apparently I broke a TV while crawling. She didn’t tell me how!! Meanie, bet it’s a big fat LIE.

[The same small child, on the ground. She looks a little older, and there’s a redness to her eyes that indicate she cried, her hands bruised as well. Her hair is disheveled and messed up.]

First time trying to hold a sword. It was too heavy for me; mãezinha says I wouldn’t stop crying until they handed me a wooden sword. Can’t imagine myself holding anything below a stone sword nowadays, not gonna lie about that one chief.

[A taller, more serious Cherry holding an iron sword. There’s many bandages and recent bruises on what’s visible of her body besides her peplos. She’s looking away from the camera, focused on what’s in front of her.]

Training session. Didn’t even get a scar! These newbs couldn’t even handle 6yo me. YOU MUST TRAIN 500 YEARS BEFORE THINKING OF BEATING ME, NEEEEEEERDS! Mãezinha also told me she wants to talk about my father. I never met him, so I don’t know what she wants to say…

[An even older Cherry, around the age of 16. Her confident smile contrasts the heavy armor she’s wearing, the dark bags under her eyes and the ugly bruise in her arm.]

They sent one of those big ugly things to fight me besides the men today. But no worries! Not like that’d get rid of me, anyway. Paizinho was watching closely, too. He might not know I’m his daughter, but mãezinha was right; maybe I’ll get him to notice me. Just more wins under my belt till then!

[Several pages are cut off, or otherwise ripped. The next time there’s any pictures, it’s the picture of a large house in the savanna, and in front of it, Cherry at the present. She has her hand on her hip, an axe resting on her shoulder, a tired smile on her lips.]

Tripod serves for something. New house! Hope the Império can’t find me like this. I didn’t travel 40.000 blocks for nothing, I mean. New beginnings, new me. Tchauzinho, mãe. It was a pleasure being your daughter. Bye, pai. It definitely wasn’t a pleasure being your daughter.

[A picture taken from a newspaper article. It shows Cherry, handcuffed and stuck inside of a box made of obsidian. She’s heavily bruised and her expression is solemn, almost resigned.]

I went back to take some of my old things with an invis. pot. They didn’t catch me. I stole this. My execution was pretty horrible. I didn’t die, sure, but my memory is fuzzy of that day. I just want to keep this as a reminder: Don’t trust people with that much power. If your own dad would turn against you for it, then who wouldn’t?

[A picture of a pink and white axolotl in a fish tank, above of which is a small bird. On the ground, next to the fish tank, is a sleeping Siamese kitten.]

Capt. Bonny, Ferris and Bolognese. Can’t believe I found them after scouting for the day. They’re all so CUUUUUUUUUTE! Look at Ferris’s beak! Cute lil’ bastard! And Bolognese’s lil’ nooooose! And Bonny looks so elegant swimming! Babies, all of ‘em. I’ll get them more friends soon. Maybe a doggo.

[An incredibly dark picture, only illuminated by a torch Cherry is holding. She’s covered in dirt and there’s rips in her clothing, but she smiles nevertheless, a shining picaxe in her visible hand.]

Visited the Greater Dream SMP today. They think I was just there to kick those Egg guys and take a peek at Technoblade? Hell nah! I was there to make sure where I could dig my tunnel to! Found the best coordinates to go to. The tunnel expansion proceeds! MOBILITY IS EVERYTHING!

[A picture of her dining room. Ranboo holds a book and quill at one end of the room, Ferris trying to bite his shoes while he attempts to write. Niki and Philza both are sat at the table, one eating a slice of cake, the other a plate of beans, rice, eggs and beef. Technoblade, seemingly mid-talk, is sat across from where Cherry presumably is.]

They came for me. The sellout tactics have worked better than I imagined. As warriors and people who hates authority figures, I think we’re doing well. As two people with sellout timers set, I think we’re doing even greater.

[A picture of Technoblade, looking away from the camera, searching through shelves and chests with a confused expression. His crown is nowhere to be seen.]

he doesn’t know LMAAAAAAAAAAO

[Cherry, wearing both Techno’s crown and a paper mask resembling a pig, drawn extremely childishly and cutesy. She keeps her hand under her chin, while the other holds a sword.]

HEEEEEEH!? SUBSCRIBE TO TECHNOBLADE HEH POTATOES HEH AUDIENCE RETENTION HEH BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD HEH BELLS MYTHOLOGHY I AM VERY SMART

[A picture of Cherry’s arm, being bandaged by presumably Ranboo, with his hands holding her arm and the bandage.]

He knows now. OUCHIE.

I LOVE THIS CHERRY MY BELOVED

[phoenix-downer]

Of Which Reason Knows Nothing - Chapter 2

I’m happy to post the second part of the project @chibiranmaruchan and I collaborated on! (You can find the first part here). They drew the art, and I wrote the fic. Working with them was a lot of fun, and I’m really happy with what we’ve created. I will also be posting this story to FFN and AO3 if those are your preferred reading spot(s).

Length: ~3000 words

Summary: Kairi may have lost someone important, but she isn’t alone, and she isn’t without hope. And her mysterious dreams just might have a clue as to Sora’s whereabouts…

Characters: Kairi, Sora, Riku

Additional Info: Implied Kairi/Sora, Riku and Kairi friendship. Post-Kingdom Hearts III. Referenced Character Death. Guilt, Grief/Grieving, Angst, Comfort, Dreams, Friendship.

Enjoy!

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That night, Kairi wore Sora’s hoodie to bed again. Maybe it wasn’t related to her dream at all, but it couldn’t hurt to wear it, just in case there was some sort of connection. 

As her eyes flickered shut, she murmured, “Sora, if you’re out there… if you’re trying to reach me… I’m listening.”

Neon lights, flashing colors. An enormous city with skyscrapers pointing towards the moon, trying to reach the heavens but getting pulled back down to earth. Water on the ground in puddles as raindrops splashed into them, disturbing the surface of the water, reflecting the surroundings like a mirror. 

She was back. She was back in the same place as before. 

White paint on the ground. Lots of lines running across the street. Big billboards running dozens of different ads at the same time. Cars with bright lights, too bright in the dark. The sky a strange shade of purple with ominous black clouds. A big white tower with the numbers 104 in neon red letters. 

She glanced at one of the puddles nearby. A face with blue eyes and spiky brown hair stared back. Lifting her hand, she gasped at what she saw. It wasn’t her hand. It was Sora’s, and he was holding a small black pin with a skull-looking emblem on it. He turned it over, and the whole world seemed to go wonky.

“Huh?” He dropped the pin and clutched his head.

“Sora!” she cried, but he couldn’t hear her. His Gummiphone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out. 

The message said: 

Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. 

—The Reapers.

“Huh?!” 

He put his phone back in his pocket. Pain shot up his arm, and he winced and looked at his hand again. Engraved into his palm were black numbers with yellow outlines and a red background. 

59:49. 59:48. 59:47. They kept changing, kept… going down. Kept decreasing with each passing second. When he looked at the 104 building again, it said YOU HAVE 7 DAYS in big red letters against a black background. 

“Sora!”

But the dream was over, and her eyes flew open. Fingers shaking, she grabbed the Gummiphone on her bedside table. The phone rang and rang and rang as her heart raced because of her dream.

“C’mon, Riku, please, please pick up—”

A few moments later, and he did.

“Kairi?” came his familiar voice, if a little groggy. She glanced at the little time display at the top of the screen. A few minutes after six. The video kicked in, and he yawned as he wiped the sleep out of his eyes.

“Riku, I had another dream about him again,” she said, unable to hide the excitement in her voice.

Riku perked up immediately at that. “You did? What was it about this time?”

“He was in that city I saw before, only this time there was more.” She closed her eyes and pictured it now. The busy crosswalk, the building with 104 written on it, all the colorful lights and sounds. And the red and black numbers carved into his palm. “There was a countdown, on his hand,” she added, trying to include as many details as possible.

“A countdown?” Riku repeated, his voice rising.

Her eyes flew open. “Yes. I’m not sure why, but—”

“Kairi, I think I know where he is. I think I know where he is,” Riku said, and his voice had more energy and hope in it than it had since… well, since everything had happened.

She tugged at Sora’s hoodie and sat up straighter at that. “W-what? But how?”

“When we were taking our Mark of Mastery exam, he met this guy named Neku. He told me later on that Neku talked to him about a game.”

“And?”

“There was a countdown on Neku’s hand that was a part of that game.”

She thought about this for a moment. “So you think he might be playing the same game as Neku?”

Riku nodded. “Yeah. He said Neku was from this place called Shibuya. If we can find that, we can find him.”

This was it, this was their best lead ever since he’d disappeared. She said goodbye to Riku and threw on some clothes. They had to go see Master Yen Sid about this. Their friends all deserved to know.

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Kairi waited with bated breath as Master Yen Sid closed his eyes and stroked his beard. Stealing a quick glance at Riku, she wondered if he was feeling as wound up as she was right now. His face was a calm mask, but then again, he’d never really worn his heart on his sleeve the way she and Sora did.

“So, you are convinced Sora is somewhere called Shibuya, playing some sort of game,” Master Yen Sid said.

Kairi nodded. “Yes, Master. I know it may seem a little crazy—”

“On the contrary, where else would a heart go after fading from the Realm of Light? Sora did not die a normal death, and there are legends of the same thing happening to others.”

“Really?” Riku asked. “Like who?”

Kairi knew what he was thinking. If it had happened to someone else before, there might be clues as to how to save Sora. 

“There was a man who called himself the Master of Masters,” Master Yen Sid said. “He had six Keyblade-wielding apprentices, all named after the Seven Deadly Sins. Ava, Luxu, Invi, Gula, Ira, and Aced, with him as their leader: Superbia. Legend has it that instead of dying, he simply faded away, never to be seen or heard from again.”

Kairi and Riku both waited to hear more, but it soon became clear that was all.

“That’s it? That’s all?” Riku said, echoing her thoughts. “This… Master of Masters guy never returned to the Realm of Light?”

“Well, there is more to the story, but it relates to the events of the Keyblade War, and the two of you would be here for days if I were to recount it all to you. I do not think a history lesson is what you want right now. I shared this with you so you would know that the same fate that befell Sora has befallen someone else before, if the legends are to be believed. That was why Mickey tried to warn him against doing what he did, but as the philosophers say, the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.”

Master Yen Sid smiled sadly, and Kairi’s heart sank. They had warned Sora not to save her and he still did? Why?

“I know it should be him here with Riku instead of me,” she said. “But if there’s anything I can do to—”

“Incorrect. You are exactly the person who should be here with Riku right now,” Master Yen Sid said. “For if Riku is to dive into realms unknown, who better to keep his heart tethered to the Realm of Light than a Princess of Heart?”

“I can do that?” Kairi said.

“You kept Sora tethered to the Realm of Light, did you not?”

“Well, yes, but… that was different, Master. My powers don’t work on other people the way they work on Sora, and I’m not really sure why, though I do have a few guesses.”

Riku raised an eyebrow but thankfully kept his mouth shut. 

“As I said earlier: the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing,” Master Yen Sid said. “But no matter; in keeping Riku tethered to the Realm of Light as he descends to the depths, you will be helping Sora. Surely you can see how your powers could still be used in this manner.”

“I suppose…”

“Have some faith in yourself, Kairi,” Riku said. “You kept Sora alive, and that let him save the rest of us. I know you’ll be able to pull this off.”

Kairi’s hand fluttered to her necklace. “But what if I can’t? What if I screw up again? I already lost Sora because I was too weak to stop myself from dying. I can’t… I can’t lose you too, Riku!” 

Riku put his hand on her shoulder. “You can do this, I know you can. You’re not alone. Together we’ll find Sora and bring him back.” His expression softened. “And you know how I know that?”

“How?”

“Sora believes in us. He believed he’d find you when you were lost. He never gave up on me after all the crap I pulled. So let’s believe in ourselves the way he does.” 

Riku was right. Even though Kairi had trouble believing in herself, she couldn’t deny that Sora believed in her. And she believed in him. She believed in Riku, too. And maybe that would be enough.

“Okay, I’m willing to try,” she said, and Master Yen Sid and Riku both nodded. 

“We must begin preparations at once,” Master Yen Sid said. “There is no time to waste. The sooner we can reach Sora and bring him back to the Realm of Light, the better.”

Finally. They finally had something to do besides sit around at home and grieve. Taking action felt so much better than doing nothing.

As she and Riku made preparations, she couldn’t help but reflect back on those words she’d told Sora and Riku before. This time, she wasn’t just going to protect Sora. This time, she wasn’t just going to fight. This time, she was going to act. She was going to be the one searching for Sora for once instead of the other way around. 

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The night before the mission, Kairi dreamed of Sora again. He was still in that same city, but he wasn’t at the big crosswalk anymore. He was on a side street, fighting some strange-looking creatures Kairi had never seen before. They weren’t Heartless or Nobodies, but they did look like large frogs with elaborate red and black tattoos where their legs should’ve been. And even through the dream, Kairi could sense how the atmosphere surrounding them felt. Her skin crawled and her mood dropped, and she could only imagine how Sora felt fighting them. 

When he had destroyed the last of them with his Keyblade, he stumbled against a nearby building, a store with bright red letters. His bangs were stuck to his forehead, and he was breathing hard. How long had he been fighting? How many of those things had he already fought?

But what really drew her attention was when he reached into his pocket and pulled out her lucky charm. Her heart soared at the sight of it. He still had it. He still—

“Why can’t I remember you?” he said, and his voice was anguished. 

Her heart sank. Sora didn’t… remember her? 

Why not? What had happened to him? Were all his memories gone?

“Sora?” she said. “Sora, I’m here!”

But he couldn’t hear her, and he tucked the charm back into his pocket. “Doesn’t matter. Whoever gave this to me has to be someone important to me.” He looked right at her and made a guts pose, even though he couldn’t see her. “Whoever you are, I’m gonna get home to you, some way, somehow.” He smiled, and it was so good to see his smile again. “I promise.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but the dream was over, and her eyes flew open. She rolled over onto her side, still wrapped in Sora’s hoodie, and huddled beneath her blanket as light poured through the window. 

Did Sora really not remember her? Her lower lip trembled at the thought. How could he have forgotten her after everything they’d been through? This was like when she’d forgotten him, and a lump built in her throat when she remembered how awful that had been. The memories slowly slipping away from her. The day she’d forgotten his name. The night she’d forgotten his face. The moment she realized she couldn’t hear his voice anymore. All of that came crashing back to her, and her eyes welled up with tears. 

But she and Sora had gotten through that, in the end. And his promise did make her feel a little better. Maybe the memories were all scrambled up, but they weren’t gone for good. They had to still be in his heart somehow. The bond they shared couldn’t be broken that easily.

The important thing was that he was fighting to get back to her. So she would fight to reach him, too. Whatever obstacles they might face, she and Riku would bring him home.

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“You ready?” Kairi asked as she held her hands out to Riku. They were back in Master Yen Sid’s study, and everyone else was here too – King Mickey and Donald and Goofy, Terra and Aqua and Ven, Naminé, of course, and Roxas and Xion and Axel. Even Isa was present. Admittedly, that made her feel a little uncomfortable, but at least he had the good sense not to try to talk to her. 

“Ready if you are,” Riku said with a half-grin. How he was so relaxed about this, she’d never know. Her hands were shaking a little, but when he grabbed a hold of them, a wave of calm washed over her. 

“For Sora?”

“For Sora.”

Her eyes fluttered shut, and she pictured Sora searching for her in Shibuya. Pictured Riku, pictured his heart. 

There. She could see his Station of Awakening now with its stained glass-like panels showing the people that were most important to him. Friends and family and memories spread throughout his heart. Taking a deep breath, she reached out with her light, tethering her heart to his. His memories started flowing through her mind, and she opened her eyes.

“Okay, I’m connected to you now. Whenever you’re ready.”

He looked around at their friends. “Hey, why the long faces? Don’t worry about me. I’ll be back here with Sora in no time, you’ll see.” He looked at Kairi one more time and smiled. “We won’t give up on him, because he never gave up on us. And he’s helped every person here in this room at one time or another. Now it’s time we return the favor.” 

There was a general chorus of agreement and well-wishing at that. Letting go of one of Kairi’s hands, Riku summoned his Keyblade and opened a large portal above them complete with swirling colors and elaborate designs of a bygone age. 

“Stay safe, Riku,” she said. “See you soon.”

And with that a great beam of light shot down and pulled him into the portal. Her hand was now empty, and she rested it over her heart. 

“Well?” King Mickey said. 

She smiled. “He’s okay. I can feel him.”

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

“And… I can feel Sora’s heart, too. He may not remember me yet, but I know he will soon.”

“That’s the magic of the paopu fruit!” Goofy said, then slapped his hands over his mouth as Donald tapped his foot.

“Hey, you weren’t supposed to tell everyone that,” Donald scolded, and everyone laughed as Kairi blushed. Great, did all their friends know about the paopu fruit? Well, not surprising. Juicy gossip had a way of spreading like wildfire. 

“Hey, if the Wayfinders can bring me and Aqua and Terra back together again, imagine how powerful the real thing will be!” Ven pointed out. “Especially because you and Sora—”

“Less teasing, more practicing with your Keyblade,” Aqua chided, but she was smiling, and Terra grinned and ruffled his hair. Ven pretended to protest, but it was obvious he liked the hair ruffling and playful scolding. 

As the others started up conversations with each other, catching up on how everything had been going since everyone had last seen each other, one person in particular sought Kairi out. Naminé, still holding her sketchpad and pencil but wearing a cute new dress, blue and yellow and white. 

“Kairi?”

“Yes Naminé? What is it?”

“I know you’re feeling sad about Sora forgetting you, but I doubt those memories are gone for good. Look at Xion,” she said, gesturing at their friend, who smiled and waved at them. “We all thought no one would remember her, and yet here she is now. Sora’s memories of you will come back, I just know they will.”

“Thanks, Naminé. And when Sora finally comes back, he can thank you properly, too.”

Naminé smiled, and Kairi went over to talk to Axel and Roxas and Xion some more, then to King Mickey and Donald and Goofy, then lastly to Terra and Aqua and Ven. She had something very important to ask, something she wanted to do as Riku searched for Sora and she kept him tethered to the Realm of Light.

“Master Aqua, please take me on as your apprentice,” she pleaded as she bowed low. This was her best shot, her best hope at becoming a better Keyblade wielder after the disaster that had happened at the Keyblade Graveyard. 

When she straightened, her throat dry, Aqua was beaming down at her. “I thought you’d never ask.”

She clasped her hands and thanked Aqua profusely. Here was an opportunity to get better, to improve, to become a better fighter by the time Sora and Riku returned. She wasn’t the weak girl that had gotten kidnapped and killed anymore. She had the heart and will to be strong, and she was going to prove it.

However long it might take, however hard she would have to work, it didn’t matter. Someday, she would fight by Sora’s side again. Someday, she would be able to spar with Riku and give him a run for his munny. Someday, the three of them would be together again and all would feel right in the worlds.

And someday, she and Sora would finally be able to make good on the promise they’d made. They’d be together every day, and nothing would be able to keep them apart anymore. 

For that, she would train and fight for as long as it might take. Now was the time to step forward like she’d said she would. Now was the time to act. The fight was in her hands, and she was ready at long last.

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A/N: A big thank you again to @chibiranmaruchan! And thank you to everyone who read, reblogged, liked, and commented on the story! Hope you enjoyed :)

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Author’s Note: The first thing I wrote after I beat KHIII, that I’m uploading again. Sora in Shinjuku with Yozora, some Invi and Ava stuff, and Sora missing Kairi/SoKai.

Sora didn't really know what to make of Yozora… and there was a part of him that didn't even care about that.

…Which was horrible of him, he knew, because he was supposed to be this happy-go-lucky kid who solved everyone's problems.

And Sora knew he should have been thankful he'd gotten a second chance at all... but there was a part of him bitter that he still couldn't be home with Kairi, and instead now had to help Yozora, his friends, and this Stella girl out.

And in some ways, from what he'd seen, the way Yozora treated Stella was frustrating to Sora:

The Keyblade wielder would have said Yozora and Stella reminded him of Kairi and himself a bit (before they'd finally found their way to each other as more than just friends)—with how the two of them seemed to get separated a lot—but Yozora was too aloof: acting like he didn't care about Stella at all. And Sora never would have treated Kairi like that, if his life depended on it.

Yozora's mismatched eyes watched Sora warily now, he could tell—as the two of them tried to figure out how they were going to scale down the roof of Yozora's old home, since Sora had lost his power of Flowmotion—when he finally asked the inevitable: "What's your problem with me, Sora?!"

Despite himself, Sora blanched at this.

To Yozora's credit, he actually hadn't said the words unkindly at all. But since Sora was used to being loved by everyone, having someone with less than pleasant feelings about him took him aback.

Sighing, as he scratched the back of his head, Sora decided that honesty was the best policy here. "...I just want to go home. You might not believe it, because I'm all scrawny now, but I've fought some great wars… I thought I'd earned a chance to finally be at peace with the one- the ones I love. But here I am.

"Though I swear it's not all bad, Yozora," Sora smiled, looking down at the car-lined streets beneath him, and the yellow street lights that reminded him so much of San Fransokyo. "I'm used to this kind of thing. And I'm sure helping you out is my way out of here, so let me aid you. I want to."

"Sora… You were originally going to say 'loved one' instead of 'loved ones', weren't you? You're really thinking about a girl ...I understand."

Without thinking it over, Sora was about to tell Yozora that that was the closest he'd ever heard him come to admitting his feelings for Stella—which the older guy probably would have murdered him for—but before the words could come out, Yozora was already interrupting him.

"You get an intense look in your eyes like I do when I use my powers… or when my emotions are a wreck. Do you have power there? Ya think you could do that to get down?"

Sora put his hands behind his head, trying to make sense of this question that he really couldn't understand at all.

Since when did anyone have magic in their eyes?! And even if he did have that, how was it going to help him descend the stories of floors beneath them safely?

But then it clicked.

Sora doubted it was what Yozora was going for, but he recalled his power to focus on ledges in the air and make a path to them in his mind and actually traverse it.

The brunet still didn't know how he did this—the power of the Keyblade, he assumed. One of the few he'd retained after he'd sacrificed himself for Kairi—but he was sure it would work. Air-stepping it was, then!

Smiling widely, Sora summoned his Keyblade to hand—so he'd have its power flowing through him when he attempted this—and first jumped to the roof on the tower of the castle... and fell through it, the way he had the tree house in the Deep Jungle so long ago (and dang, did it hurt). But then Sora was landing on a rafter, grabbing a chandelier in his hands, and landing on the ground in a tuck-roll.

And Though Sora doubted he could really hear this, since Yozora was too far away for him, he thought the man might have scoffed at his display.

But just as Sora thoughthe had, Yozora portaled right beside him and was quick to read him the Riot Act. "Sora, you ended up in the wrong room! And you- you're already in here with the enemy."

Sora groaned, running a hand down his face as he did so.

There was a good chance the one clad in a blue robe and mask had seen them—and as time seemed to slow down, Sora thought he did see her eyes narrowing in their direction—but it was also possible she wouldn't have noticed them at all, if Yozora hadn't spoken up.

But it was really too late to wonder now.

"You!" their enemy's somewhat raspy voice bellowed, as they summoned their Keyblade and sent shards of ice in Sora and Yozora's direction.

Sora leapt over them, and closer to the assailant like it was nothing. And Yozora teleported onto a wall the moment he'd seen the icicles.

Sora hissed, when he took in the sight of the Keyblade before him and prepared to send a fire spell back the way the blizzard spell had come from.

There had been a few people that Sora had caught glimpses of in this world who looked like they could have had Keyblades, when he saw their weapons in his peripheral vision...

But to for sure see a new person with a Keyblade now, who wasn't a friend Sora knew he could trust, put a sour taste in his mouth.

Sora had hoped that after the Keyblade War, that the number of new wielders would dwindle and Kingdom Hearts would be safer that way.

But yet here this person was, who was clearly a threat as they'd attacked them... and had even taken over Yozora's home.

"Fire!" Sora exclaimed, moving his arm in a wide arc around the flames—as they escaped from his Keyblade—so that the magic coming out of his hand could solidify the pyre in a new trick that he'd learned: It was much like he was using the bombs that Captain Jack Sparrow did: If the fire itself somehow wouldn't hurt one, then this shrapnel for sure would.

Yozora smirked Sora's way-the first bit of approval he'd ever gotten from his rival, that he couldn't help scratching his cheek awkwardly for—and closed the distance between himself and his adversary and placed his crossbows against their neck, as he pinned them to the bookshelf in this makeshift library.

"Name!" Yozora growled. "Name, and I might spare you."

'He's asking her name to see if she's a woman', Sora realized then-looking at Yozora with wonder, and banishing his Keyblade at the thought. 'Yozora's... intense. So I have no doubt he'd kill a guy who stole his kingdom, no problem. But it seems he'd hesitate if it's a girl that did it.'

"What?!" the woman—and she was exactly that—demanded, using a thunder spell so powerful that it destroyed the ends of Yozora's crossbows.

Yozora then pulled out a potion to smash against her face in retaliation if need be, Sora saw.

"Just because my outfit got cut in a fight—so it's less form fitting, and makes me seem a bit more masculine that way—means that this big boy wants to kill a little girl?!"

"I should!" Yozora roared, slamming the mystery girl into the novels, whilst she then attempted to kick out at his head.

Sora was horrified by all of this—since murder was still wrong in his book, and he wanted to find a way to resolve this peacefully, if at all possible.

They duo sort of missed out on doing the damage they had meant to do to each other.

And as Yozora was weapon-less, and was keeping the female from using her Keyblade arm, they both were about to claw at the other's face... until Sora begged them to stop:

Because even though Sora was miffed at Yozora, because his feelings were a jumbled mess after coming back to life (and he was jealous he couldn't return to Kairi the way Yozora could Stella, if he manned up), Yozora was still his friend.

And this person... something about her blue—almost purple, in the right lighting—dress reminded Sora of his beloved so much that it hurt. So he just had to save her.

"Stop!" And to Sora's relief and amazement, the villains did.

Encouraged by this—and clearing his throat to get ready for a speech—Sora gave his thoughts on the subject. "Yozora, I may not know you very well yet. But I know this really isn't you. It just can't be."

And Sora may have been imagining it, but he thought Yozora might have looked a bit ashamed by his own actions as those words sank in.

"And, you!" Sora continued on—unintentionally quoting her own word from before—as he began talking with rapid hand movements. "Your tone acted like there was no way Yozora could defeat you, despite you claiming you're 'just a girl', so I get the feelin' you must be an ancient and gifted wielder like Master Xehanort was. But you're lookin' at everything here as if you've never seen it before-like a kid at Christmas-which tells me you must be new coming back to the world like Ven was… and not really onboard with whatever this plan is. So, please: Can't the three of us talk and figure this all out?"

Sora knew that Yozora was about to tell him where he could stick it for even suggesting that, but thankfully the more talented one of the three had a bit more grace.

"The original plan was to give the Master... a seat. A seat of power, because he deserves it and probably needs to be the master of this- of this world after everything he's figured out. But lately, I don't care so much about that as I do finding my sister-who's been missing for ages. Following my Master's plan is the only way I know to do that."

Yozora was the first to react to this, as he let the woman go and even attempted to straighten out where he'd messed up her clothes some.

At first, Sora was baffled by this change of events. But then he remembered that Yozora had friends that he saw as brothers. So anyone who had such a bond would probably look a bit better in his eyes.

Sora couldn't help smiling some himself here, at the thought of his best friend and brother Riku:

How he missed him and the rest of his friends so much…

And Kairi... he missed her most of all. How he prayed that she was okay, and that Riku was taking care of her.

"What's her name? What's she like?" Yozora asked questioningly, with his head tilted to the side. And it pulled Sora back from his reverie, of where he'd been holding a hand out to Kairi—the Kairi in his heart—and trying to find a way to connect with her at all.

At first? It seemed like the woman wasn't going to answer.

And pleadingly, as books fell around him, Sora found himself ready to lay all his cards on the table. "Please tell us! We can help you find her, so you can leave Yozora's kingdom alone and this blood bath can stop."

But just as Sora said this, with his hand under her chin, the woman answered—so they both ended up speaking at the same time. "My surrogate sister's name... is Ava. And she's far too sweet for her own good. But she's also made out of steel, I tell you. I've often thought the blonde and red in her hair was reprehensive of those two traits of hers battling it out... And my name… it's Invi."

Invi... like the word "envy".

Now that Sora knew her a bit better, she reminded him of Naminé—for the time that she had been controlled by the Organization—and for the strength she'd displayed in doing the right thing.

Sora was then certain-that this beautiful lady, with a square shaped chin and button nose that she was now letting them see for the first time—would be the same as Naminé in that way.

"So will you listen to Sora?" Yozora asked the ultimate question as he stared Invi down-his hands on his hips, in a gesture that was somewhere between aggressive and kind. "And will you step down, and help me reclaim my throne?"

Invi shook her head, but Sora could tell she was only slightly hesitating here.

Clenching her fists, she uttered these words: "I won't challenge the Master of Masters directly. He's too strong... he knows too much—and in the end, he may be right about all of this—but at the same time... I don't trust him right now. So I will... stop opposing you, Prince Yozora. And if you need information on his coup, I guess I could give you some. But only if you come through with information about Ava."

"He will!" Sora decided for Yozora, before he could for himself. And Sora saw Yozora about to try and strangle him for it, but without much effort. "And I will, too! I think I may know how to find her. Yozora, I'll come back and see this all to the end later. I promise!"

This talk of Ava... it reminded Sora of someone else he'd met recently: Oerba Dia Vanille.

Sora wasn't sure if Vanille was Ava, but he did think Cocoon—that he'd visited after beating the Reapers' Game recently—might be the key to fixing everything here.

Sora had been given one of Chocolina's feathers—who had saved him and his new friends a couple of times lately—and as it reminded Sora of what Jiminy had done for him in his hour of need, Sora thought she might even have another miracle up her sleeve.

Because as Vanille had taught Sora: "When prayers turned to promises, not even fate could stand in their way."

So summoning his Keyblade to hand, Sora opened the gate to Cocoon and was awash in light.

He would fix this—fix the world again—and then he'd find Kairi. He knew he would.

Because she was his light in the metaphorical and literal sense, the way that Stella was Yozora's and Ava was Invi's… they were all connected this way.

Sora felt a hand in his—simply felt it—then closed his eyes and woke up to New Bodhum.

[tf2canons]

Parent mercs teaching their children how to do their first specialized activity? (couldn't think of a better word for it but basically, medic teaching his kid how to do surgery, sniper teaching his kid how to shoot, Scout teaching his kid how to play baseball, etc)

Spy - There’s quite a lot to Spy’s job, but as soon as his child is old enough to get into trouble he decides it’s very important that they know all of it. For safety’s sake. He’ll show them where you should stab someone so that it’s fatal, how to disguise yourself so that you blend into the crowd and go unnoticed, and how to use the invis watch without getting caught. He insists these are essential survival skills so they’ll be learning it one way or another. He’s a bit anxious for them to get it right, because every time they do something wrong he can’t help but think, “if they did that in the field they would be dead.” But by the time they’ve got it all down he’s extremely proud of them for their hard work. As bad as he is at expressing his feelings, he makes sure to tell them that.

Sniper - One of his own best memories is when his dad first taught him how to shoot, so he’s eager to give his kid that experience, but also a little nervous that they won’t enjoy it as much as he did. He’d take them out into the middle of nowhere and set up some targets of various sizes. He lets them watch him shoot for a minute before he puts the gun in their hands. He goes over the basic safety they should know and shows them how to hold it correctly. He’ll kneel down behind them so he can help them aim, talking them through it and making sure they aren’t scared. When they hit their first shot a huge smile will come across his face and he’ll ruffle their hair. “See that? You’ll be taking my job in no time.”

Medic - He’s been teaching his kid about biology and letting his kid watch him preform surgeries since he first brought them home, but he forces himself to wait until they’re old enough to handle sharp objects carefully before he lets them dissect something for the first time. It’s probably a frog or a baby pig, like kids have to dissect in high school classes. He’d tell them how to do it but he’d stand back and let them do it themself, partially so they could be independent and partially so he can take a million pictures. He’ll point out all the organs and then once they’re satisfied he’ll take the opportunity to show them how to do stitches, letting them sew it back up. They can move onto human cadavers later, but for a first step he’s extremely happy with this. 

Scout - He’s probably more excited to teach his kid about baseball than they are to learn it. He takes them out to the local diamond and (a little emotionally) presents them with their first baseball bat of their own. He has them swing it a few times to just get used to the weight of it before he sets them up a little tee for them to practice hitting balls off of. He brought a whole big bag of baseballs and he doesn’t mind spending most of the time jogging around and picking up balls they already sent flying. If they’re making fast progress he’d try to throw the ball to them so they could hit it, but he’d reassure them it takes some practice to get good at it. No matter how good they did, he’d be super proud of them at the end of the day and would take them out for hot dogs and ice cream after. 

Pyro - Nothing brings a family together like arson! If their kid expressed interest in fire, Pyro would happily spend time info-dumping explaining how fire really works, how some things are more flammable than others, how to be safe when you’re lighting stuff on fire, etc. They’d set up a bunch of little demonstrations and experiments in the backyard but they would be really careful to have their kid standing a safe distance away, because they know how much it hurts to get burned. If their kid is interested enough, Pyro will get them a little suit and gas mask of their own so the two of them can match and safely burn things together. Pyro would be thrilled if their kid liked fire as much as they do, but they would also be perfectly happy if their kid wasn’t interested. Pyro just wants them to be happy! 

Soldier - He’s been trying to teach them military strategy since they were an infant, and of course he teaches them how to snap someone’s neck, but not even that is as exciting as when he finally teaches them to rocket jump. Once they’re old enough to carry his rocket launcher and they get the basics of shooting down, he goes straight to, “Here’s how to use it to blast yourself into the air without killing yourself!” He makes sure they’ve got it all down (two or three times more than necessary) and that Medic’s standing by before he actually lets them try it, and even then he tries to catch them before they hit the ground in case they land wrong. But he’s absolutely thrilled when they get it right and he very happily tells them what a wonderful war machine they’re going to be. 

Heavy - He will not be showing his child how to shoot Sasha until they’re almost an adult, so instead he teaches them how to fight bears in the woods. Because for some reason he thinks this is safer, and even if they don’t really need to hunt bears it’s still a good skill to have. He makes sure they have a weapon in case things go wrong, but for the most part he just plans to let them watch him wrestle a bear to the ground and kill it with his bare hands. Afterwards he’ll explain to them everything he did and how to fight a bear without immediately dying, and they can help him carry it back to the house and cook up a nice meal. He won’t let them try to fight a bear on their own for some time, because he wants to make sure they won’t get seriously injured, but for now he likes that its something the two of them can do together. 

Demo - He doesn’t want to pressure his kid into the demolition business if they’re not interested in it, so he waits until they ask him to show them how to build bombs. But once they do he’s eager to show them. He starts out just teaching them the chemistry behind it, and he gives a lot of demonstrations before he even lets them within five feet of his explosive materials. After his childhood incident with the Loch Ness Monster he’s a little tentative to let children handle bombs, but his excitement to teach his kid outweighs that. He’s just sure to be extremely cautious with them instead, so he’s right there anytime they’re working with explosives to make sure absolutely nothing whatsoever goes wrong. 

Engineer - He’s been subtly trying to influence them into liking math and science since they were born. He always bought them those little science toy kits, and he loves to show them fun stuff you can do with physics and chemistry. And once they’re a little older, he decides he’ll show them how to build a robot. Nothing crazy, just a cute little thing that’ll beep and walk around. They’ll sit down together one afternoon and work on it, him explaining the science behind everything and showing them how to put the pieces together so it works. He’s very patient and he’s happy to see his kid even trying something like this, so he’ll answer any questions they ask in a way that’s detailed and easy to understand, and he makes sure that they’re having fun and that they’re not stressed or bored with it. When it’s done he’ll say something cheesy like, “See what you can do when you set your mind to it?” and he’ll insist on taking their picture holding their new robot.

[enbiart]

Paranoia

Words: 1.7k

Summary:

The traitor could be anyone. Anyone.

( @radiantmyde it’s the best boy...Gula...)

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

“Your role is to find the traitor.”

Gula shivered, and pulled his hood further over his face. He crossed his arms, trying to rub some warmth into them. The robes he and his fellow Leaders wore were more traditional than practical, it seemed. Then again, bitterly cold nights like this weren’t exactly the norm in Daybreak Town. A part of him wondered if the ever-growing darkness could cause chill like this.

It certainly didn’t help that Gula was out on the streets still, not even close to the warmth of his room in the clocktower. He had stayed out later than normal to let the evening pass into night and avoid the other Leaders for a day, taking his time watching the inhabitants of Daybreak Town go about their day.

Watching for signs of the traitor.

But now, he walked briskly, trying to get home as soon as possible and warm up. He breathed out and watched the mist puff out. It was freezing, before soon it wouldn’t surprise Gula if he woke up to a thick layer of snow. The thought of it snowing in Daybreak Town was a bit exciting, actually. He’d only seen snow a handful of times, and even then it was thin and muddy. Aced slipped and broke his mask, once, trying to race him across a road that had frozen over. When Gula’d tried to help him up, albeit laughing, he had wrestled him down and they both got their robes ruined in the mud.

The memory made him chuckle. He and Aced had always been competitive with each other, whether it be in sparring matches or races and whatnot; Laughing at each other’s complaining after they lose.They wouldn’t do that now without real venom, unfortunately.

Best not to think fondly of potential traitors.

He gulped. The clocktower rang to signal midnight and Gula picked up his pace. Street lamps lit his way and casted long shadows across the road. He sighed and closed his eyes briefly, trying to will away the creepings of anxiety. His movement moved the shadowy figures on the walls and ground, and he tried in vain to ignore the  dark alleyways hiding light knows what. He was the only one still out as far as he knew - the only one with even a reason to be out this late.

Unless someone followed you.

But, no one would be dumb enough to try and follow a Union Leader this late, much less attack one. Still, though, he tossed a nervous eye over his shoulder. He didn’t think even the traitor would be that stupid. Especially with Gula so watchful, now.

Nowadays, he’s always looking, always watching. Glancing over his back, scouting the crowd, picking out conversations and body language of the wielders of Daybreak Town. Ever observant, ever suspicious. If the traitor had wanted to attack him, they had missed their chance. Gula was no longer as carefree and relaxed as he was, despite the act he puts on. He has to act normal as to not attract suspicion of his own.

He can’t let the traitor get away.

He paused for a moment in the street. Shivering up and down, he took in slow, deep breaths. In, and out. In, and out. He was getting himself worked up too much right now over nothing. What kind of keyblade master is scared of shadows?

Right now, the only thing he wants to worry about is getting home to his warm bed and cozy little fire basin. Preferably sooner, rather than later.

A few more breaths and he was on the move again. Finally, he seemed to be getting close to the clocktower. But, really, why did he have to go so far out into Daybreak Town in the first place? Couldn’t he had loitered closer to home? Why did he have to move around town so much?

To get the traitor off his trail, just in case.

He shook his head. No, Gula, we are not thinking about this again. Not tonight, not until he’s in bed with comfortable pajamas, and a nice fire stoked beside him. He focused on that thought, and kept going, just a little bit faster.

The moon in the sky was bright tonight, with an array of stars spreading across. Gula stared out of the corner of his eye.

Pretty.

Invi and Ira would enjoy it, he thinks. He remembers when he was younger, back when he was just able to start summoning his keyblade, Ira would take him and Invi out on starry nights like this. He would point out constellations and teach them which stars were which. Invi would even give a fun fact from a book about this or that. Gula can’t really remember what they had said back then, though.

A shame. Maybe they could all get together like that again sometime?

Maybe I could get some information out of them.

Gula blinked. Lost in thought, he was this close to walking slam into the clocktower door. When had he got here?

Doesn’t matter, he thinks, he’s just glad that he’s here. He quickly fumbled the door opened, ignoring how numb his hands felt, and tossed one last glance behind his back. A dark, empty pathway leading back into town. Flowerbeds decorated the stone path in an array of brilliant colors. Or, used-to-be-brilliant colors. Was it just him, or were they all wilting a bit?

Ava probably doesn’t tend to it as much anymore.

The garden was mostly her idea in the first place, in fact. Before, she would drag him outside with her to help pull out weeds or carry water and fertilizer to the different plants. All the while talking about this flower or this bush while he quietly voiced his complaints. The meaning of this flower, of that one; Which fertilizer goes with which plant, and which one to not bring within fifty feet of this one. Ava used to spend a lot of time out there. The town’s not as bright without her flowers, he thinks.

Could the darkness in her heart be driving her to let them die on purpose?

Gula damn near slammed the door shut behind him as he rushed up the many stairs up to his room. His hands shook as he went, but he didn’t really care. Chalking it up to the cold, and definitely not anything else, he walked as fast up the stairs as he could without injuring himself. Really, why did they have so many chairs in the first place? Gula ventured to get to his room as soon as possible. . .Until he actually got to said hall, that is.

He stopped at the entryway, and looked solemnly down the corridor. Each room a ways apart from each other. And his all the way in the back.

He cursed at his misfortune, seeing as Ira’s bedroom still had light seeping underneath it. Gula did not stay out until midnight and almost freeze to death to be bothered now.

He took a deep, almost calming breath. Slowly, he made his way across the corridor, treading lightly as to not alert the other night owl to his presence. If he was lucky, then Ira would be too caught up in pouring over the Book of Prophecies to notice his footsteps. If not, then Ira would’ve been waiting for him to hound him with question after question of where he had been and why he was so late.

And he definitely wasn’t in the mood for a lecture.

Slowly, steadily, quietly, Gula made his way across. Past Ira’s door, thank light, without a hitch. Past Aced’s door, and wincing at the snoring he could hear even from outside. Invi’s door, which he could smell the faint smell of her unbelievably strong perfume. Ava’s door, with faded out stickers of cute animals still half scratched off her door from when she was little. And finally, his door, right next to. . .

Right next to Luxu’s.

Gula shuddered and try to ignore the sadness at seeing the door so barren. Luxu’s absence was troubling to everyone, to say the least.

Always a jokester, just like their beloved Master (who’s disappearance also left a mark), Luxu was one of their strongest. While he was seemingly careless most of the time, every now and then putting on an impishly innocent act in front of their Master, he was studious enough to put Ira to shame. He was quick and always took training seriously, enough if he seemed aloof about it.

Gula can remember countless nights where, when Ira was too busy, he and Luxu would sit in the library and go over material. Whereas Ira tried to teach as much as he could in a single sentence, often overwhelmingly, Luxu knew how to simplify the complex concepts in ways that got the idea across.

In short, Gula missed him. He wonders what made Luxu leave, anway?

Maybe he’s the traitor, and he’s waiting for the perfect chance.

Gula froze before clamming himself back inside his room, taking care not to slam his door this time. He turned back to the array of locks he had fastened to his door frame, and took his time twisting and turning them all into place. Locks really wouldn’t door much good against a traitor; If they really wanted to get in, then of course they had a keyblade. Still, though, it provided some semblance of comfort as he shivered and shook from what he didn’t think he could pass off as cold anymore.

Not after he lit the basin, and changed into his warmest night clothes, and wrapped himself in a thick comforter that did anything but comfort him. His hands shook and hurt as he held them in front of the small fire and tried to control his breathing. In, out. In, out. In, out.

Those locks really won’t stop anyone from getting in, only you getting out.

Gula shook a bit less, now, after heating up. His breathing hasn’t slowed, though. This is stupid, he thinks. There’s no way anyone would break in, traitor or not. He’s one of the Union Leaders. The other Leaders are roomed right next to him; Hell, one of them’s still awake, even. No traitor could possibly get in.

But the traitor could be anyone. Even-

Gula gulped hard and closed his eyes. Tried to focus on the warmth of the fire, the softness of his clothes, the chill of the air even. He didn’t want to think right now. Not about dangers, or darkness, or prophecies, or traitors, or ruined relationships and hated loved ones. . .

And definitely not the fact that the traitor could be right down the hall from him.

[romy350-romyakari]

So a quick question I have for you. (May not have a short answer) But what do you think Gula's personality to be like? What kind of strengths and weaknesses does he have? Beyond the obvious he's logical and reserved and clever, more in-depth traits that make his character fuller and more like a real person. I'd like to hear some of your deep analysation if you don't mind.

This has take long enough and I want to post it now. [Will edit this maybe later bur now I finish the visuals lets get down to this]

Oh boy

You call it

Everybody prepare bc this may have take me awhile but be ready for my analysis at some level of him.

Warning: this is kind of my personal view of all and may sound weird at some level but I am trying to make sense to all of them (Foretellers in general). I elaborate this in my way to plan some fanfics and to do so i kind of take my time on try to analyse what I had.

You may want to go straight to Conclusions but I point out too circular thoughts at the beginning just for the sake of think of this a bit more

Analysis of Gula:

Cold headed and one of the most clever and quick to catch up stuff that may be happening. He is between the Master of Masters apprentices one of the youngest and has a special friendship develop with Ava, the youngest between all as it seems.

This is the basic we know and I want to put as a base for what I will dive at some point and ramificate to them all in a light way just to reference a bit.

Observations:

Out of my obserbations between one of the strongest things the Master’s apprentices share is their faith that the Master is right.

Back on the scene where Ira confronts them and they acknowledge a nightmare roaming the scene cuts to a flashback which different from the present it has a warm and familiar vive. The Master hold them together, they would laugh and be somehow unite, but the present just will reveal how little they may actually know each other, most of them.

The fact that Ira doubts who to point as most of the other and the rest of the movie with the exception of the bond between Gula and Ava.

Why I point this? This is something special, Gula doesn’t seem to be close to anyone except Ava. He trusts her almost to a degree as his faith for the Master but on a friend to friend way, enough to reveal her and talk about his role completely and openly on his weakest moment .

+ He can care under his masks

Gula didn’t really like his role tha much I think. He didn’t even want the Master to disappear the way he did. But let me add my point on how he came to the conclusion he just wanted things to be the way they were before by summoning KH.

He seems to be usually quick to find a solution or reasoning with whatever he has in front of him but as time passes and he hasn’t been able to succeed as any other task he may have been previously assigned. Even with his best he may have feel the stress of all falling down as I guess, every passing day and thing going worse is clear sing that he hasn’t fuli hir role as his own expectatives. He only show his weak side on the moment he feels can’t deal with it alone after months.

+ Stress if you allow me to say.

It may be me but his minimum expressions show that he didn’t like the whole “Trust no one but yourself”. He may have let it pass about Invi, Ira and Aced but the fact it include Ava may throw him off been one of the closes person he had aside the Master. He wanted to trust her and he did, even if he constantly try to remind himself his Master words.

When he got lost and no more choices left for him to take on his mind there was the last plan: Summon Kingdom Hearts may lure the Master back, right? He would not let them fall intro such foolish actions, right? or so I think may be what pass through his mind or some nature of that. To everything fall since he in no able to fulfill his role.

+ Pressure which equals at rushed actions.

He may be one of the most precise and calculative between the 6 but, he at the end even if he is the genius one he does make mistakes. Like maybe talk a bit too much into the detail sometimes, he is young so understandable he rushes a bit too much sometimes, some few times really. When he slip the fact that Invi talk him into leaving Aced’s alliance he cover any mistake fluently and so naturally that I think he may know how to handle when he wants to clear stuff is he kind of messes up at this point but he could also play the facts though if you pay attention you can tell when he say something he didn’t need to on the moment. He sure knows how to keep an act if is need.

+ Effectiveness though minor struggles on the way

Gula is a boy who keep closed to others if people don’t try much to reach to him as I guess. Ava and the master seem the type to like to know the others but I think Ira, Invi, and Aced been young adults dealing with whatever is their duty they may have let pass the young one if he wanted to approach them or not, they would not mind. My faint guess is that he doesn’t show much of his true self to other and keep the cold headed manner since is what he may feel is expect to him and may be easier than show vulnerability of his own thinking and feeling at personal level, he may show it sometimes to the Master but I guess not that much since he may want to be probe at the others level been one of the youngest.

While I feel Ava been the most reachable one may have reach to him and with time build this friendship bond they have. The only scene I saw Gula drop his ‘mask’ was when He sincere to Ava and how he feel, how pointless his role seem or how much of almost a failure he got to be in a subtle way, he could no more and share with her what has been burdening him. But she could not help him because it go against her moral, he respect that and tae his mask up and wish for her the only thing the others didn’t say to him.

+ A mask over other mask

A/N: personally at this point I am sobbing a bit inside ; ;

But even after all, even if she turn him down, she is still his friend.

So i will touch the mobile game since I doubt their last conversation was that but his will be a bit more lighter so we can reach my conclusion. I can just assume a bit here and arrange facts but maybe is me trying to understand him.

After that on Back Cover I believe that wasn’t their final talk and may had another talk before the war but at this point I assume a pre-stress state creeping on them.

Gula may have go off with his plan but I don’t think he remember he badly even after that. He keep his believes strong towards his plans which I personally feel may be his attempt of ‘desperate try’ to get the Master to come back to all of them.

He may feel he can’t do anything about the end at this point.

In this moment on the timeline I assume pretty much each foreteller has fall in osme hole of pre-stress with the Keyblade War already on their heads. Which I assume took the drastic change I perceive on the story previously and at the war. Al is ending and I am not an expert but is the only thing I could think. Kids weren’t acting as kids too at this point in some cases because they were as well exposed to this opriment part of their story, fights between wielder became frequently and so all fall apart till it reach its end.

And the reborn.

He did try to wear his mask till the end and he did.

But it wasn’t over there as you know from the Epilogue on the Dark Seeker Saga. So let me one last time before reach the conclusions, there is so few left from me repeating stuff like crazy and to the best resume I can give and is more simple but I want to point this out before dive into it.

He got back to life, but even so you all hear him ask Luxu a reason why would he not include Ava. The bond of this two is a special thing I think the Master didn’t mind but will always be something to the matter, because they care about each other and if Ava’s out I have high expectation for him to want to know what become of her.

Hear me right here, the Master may still be important to them but Gula was expecting the Master to appear, maybe a childish thing that he would save them all because he was always hold in high regard by all of them but I think his faith may be starting to shake on a slightly not solid ground. Ava didn’t help him bug did give her an answer and even so is still his friend as so he to her.

Friendship has proved to be a factor that can get you to change views or who you choose to ally so I suppose he may play along but may not let this down, still this is a faint though with all going and and I first write most of the important remarks for this before this semi rambling part, sorry about that.

Conclusions:

Gula is a teenager that has got big responsibilities, may wear a mask ver the real one with his cool headed demeanor. tuns down companionship but if you get to actually know him you may notice this is just one side of his personality.

Weighted with the responsibility to stop an inevitable betrayal, and torn between his master’s orders and the believe one of the few he trusted till he could not longer wanted to do it all alone. shows weakness and vulnerability only with the ones he trusts and can keep appreciating said trusted people even if they are not up to help him on the moment. Loyal to some degrees.

Slips and messes up but tries to keep the control of the situation even so, flexible as the situation calls. but will always to be reasonable unless he is really into do a thing on his way, so kind of stubborn I will say.

Sassy when it calls and also probably honest s needed, a mechanism to comebacks or protection maybe but mostly used to handle situations.

May have his reasons to be so close and reserved. Life is not always fair you may guess.

At the end he is just a kid would may have been happy with the few he had before all this mess start to fall down and deserve a better guidance on social skills. He means no bad but truly would be more understood if there could have been time to work with his reserved ways and mistrust to the world in general out of his closed circle of people he trusted.

He is clever but still just a kid handed down a responsibility of something bigger than him.

He as the other may have get this to work if they have know at some good portion each other and had a light weight of trust. But that wasn’t the case this time.

He is a piece on this game after all where he still may remain for a while while, or who knows?.

Okey so I finally end this mess, I did some doodles but most of all I wanted to go around this thing I may overthinking and so. i truly love gula for the many ways you can read though him slowly and maybe I can help but wish happiness for him or so I hope, because he as the others deserve a chance to learn many thing out of dutty and be more than just a piece of something that was set to be.

I don’t think he means bad but I wish he could have learn more, maybe if he were to connect with others he would have archive some progress with his way to be, I believe it may had to do with past experience but out of all, I wish i could know more on what he think out of all of been back. If he goes full change of banc I am going to cheer for him and even the other as sobbing, is just maybe that I see him and the other as humans as possible gets me soft but I wish each of them could work on their own issues with the time flow on them and encounters in the future

Geez I suck at this and just may go in circles but I think it maybe was good to remak.

Thanks for getting this far if you read all!

[lovelyjasmari]

Lights Lessons ~ Chapter 11 Snippet, Kairi meets Ava

Here’s a little bit of chapter 11 that will be going live tomorrow, where Kairi meets Ava for the first time. I’ve been writing this scene over and over for more than a day now and this is the first time I feel like it may be good enough to stay. What do you think?

Kalai had described Invi to her, Lauriam Elrena and Ventus had also described the other Foretellers. Even so, Kairi could sense that there was something different about this person. The fact that she knew her name did not alarm her, nor did the fact that she knew her grandmother’s story. After a few moments, she returned her smile.

“You were the light that drew us to this place.” she said.

“And the darkness.” Ava replied.

“Who…told you that story? My grandma always told it to me when I was little, but I didn’t think…”

“It’s a story I told to my own daughter. She told it to her own children and they continued to pass it down until it found its way to your grandmother and then to you. I’m sure by now you know what it’s about.”

The Keyblade War, the first one. Even though Kairi had taken part in the second one, she did not understand any more about it now than she did before. But she was beginning to see that even with the fall of Xehanort, the True Light had not yet returned to the world, and darkness still threatened to take the worlds.

“We thought we were protecting the light.” Ava went on. “Myself and the other Foretellers. The keyblades we were granted, we thought they were for banishing darkness. But in the end…in the end…” She lowered her head, even with half her face hidden, Kairi could tell that tears were coming to her eyes. “In the end, all we did was create the catalyst for darkness to destroy the world!”

Almost on instinct, Kairi placed her hands in Ava’s. “The first Keyblade War was caused by you and the other Foretellers?”

“We didn’t want for it to happen! But it was inevitable! No matter what we did, it was going to happen!”

“I don’t understand!” her grip on Ava’s hands tightened a little. “If you were supposed to protect the light, how could a war be inevitable?”

“From the first, our Master set the pieces it in motion. And we all fell into it. The roles he gave us contradicted each other so we would have no choice but to fight. Eventually our unions fought with each other too, in our names. It’s what he wanted from the beginning and we were too foolish to question it, until it was too late. I was too foolish to question it, until it was too late.”

“Too late?”

There was a long pause between them. From Ava’s mask, one or two tears fell down her face and gently tapped Kairi’s hands. It brought her mind back to attention and she softly pulled at the Foreteller’s sleeve for more information.

“Kairi, it’s too late for all those who were lost.” she began. “It’s too late for the other Foretellers, still under the influence of the Master’s sinistry. But it’s not too late for the world, not too late for you.”

“I don’t understand.”

By this point, Kairi knew she was in no danger from this Foreteller. Whatever the others were doing, Ava was not working with them and she had begun to wonder if it was somehow Ava that had come to Kalai’s rescue. Though there was still something she did not understand, but she began to as Ava slowly took her hands away from Kairi’s grasp and brought them to the sides of her face.

“Your grandmother’s story, my story, it is not yet over. The second Keyblade War was only the beginning. The True Light will return to the world but it must be protected from the Master. In my attempts to thwart his ultimate design for the world, I…” more tears fell as her mask was removed.

Kairi gasped as she now stared into glowing yellow eyes, copper brown hair now tinted with streaks of silver. Ava lowered her head further in shame but the younger girl suddenly pressed herself against her, still feeling as though she could trust her. It had been so long since Ava had known any warmth so the embrace was not unwelcome, no matter how much she felt she did not deserve it.

“…you..your friends…must be the ones to bring the story to an end, Kairi.” Ava wept. “Right the wrongs that we have wrought.”

[gamesception]

Sception Plays KHUx episode 27: mice and wolves

When we last left off, the main plot - which for a while seemed like it was actually approaching a climax - got put on hold, leaving Sception to spin her wheels in Disney worlds for a bit.  This time, that holding pattern continues with Sception’s first visit to Cinderella world.

Before getting into that, though, it’s been a while since the last liveblog post.  Work & family stuff still keeping me busy, plus I’ve been playing Monster hunter with the brother & watching mha with the room mate, both of which have been pretty decent.  I’ve still been playing khux here and there, keeping up with daily & weekly quests, etc.  To avoid the liveblog falling way behind my plot progression, I’ve been avoiding story missions, and have instead been grinding out raids, pvp, union cross, & proud mode quests.

I don’t have much to add to my previous comments there, but I have ground out enough jewels to buy some decent skills, and to grab a few more medal packs.  From these I’ve managed a few exciting pulls:

An Invi!  Actually a pretty decent medal.  It’s pretty cool to have a medal for my own union leader.  Looks cool, hits hard, lots of buffs, refills her own gauge use after a cost reducing skill.  Yup, this serene mediator is ready to fail spectacularly at her peacekeeping mission by violently attacking anyone she suspects of violent intent.

A new Xion!  With a cost-cancelling imitation ability like those Naminé medals I like!  This is one of a handful of Xion’s that’s been really high on my wish list.  Not the highest, that would be the supernova xion with Kairi’s signature big buff/heal/gaugerefill ability.  But still, I was super excited for this one.  Not sure what skill to give her, though, as her imitation power’s already free.  Just a straight damage boost?  Maybe a defensive skill?  Eh, I can decide that later.

And the last one I want to call out is this KHIII Axel.  This is the first axel I’ve managed to pick up, and it’s pretty great to finally have the whole Axel/Roxas/Xion trio together.  This guy’s also an imitation medal, though the ability isn’t as good as the Xion above since it costs 5 whole gauges instead of none.  But that just made it easy to pick a skill for him.  He is a heck of a lot stronger in raw stats, though, so that’s cool.

I like to put him right before that dual roxas/xion medal I’ve got, the one I actually went through the hassle of raising to 7 stars, bringing the gang together.

.....

As for Cinderella land, it goes about as you might expect.

The royal retainer has us deliver an invite to the ball, on account of all the dangerous monsters.  You’d think a dangerous monster infestation plaguing the land might be cause to cancel frivolous parties, but I guess we’re going Mask of the Red Death on this one.

We meet Cinderella, and help the mice spruce up her dress for the ball.

But the step-family ruins it....

While we just, like, watch on?  From only like 50 feet away?  And it doesn’t occur to us to maybe step in and stop them?  Like, seriously, I don’t know if any of you have seen this movie recently, but that scene is brutal.  Nightmarish, even.  And it’s one thing for, like, a couple mice and maybe a sparrow to just watch on in horror because, like, what were they going to do about it, but Sception’s a whole ass person with a deadly magic sword, I’m pretty sure she could have stopped that.  Yeesh.

Anyway...

Fairy Godmother

Werewolf monster

Charming prince

Stroke of midnight

Slipper on the stairs

All the expected Disney Cinderella story beats.

...

What’s that?  You don’t remember the werewolf in Cinderella?  You really haven’t seen that movie in a while, have you?  Like I said, super intense, actually hecka dark and just kind of upsetting.

[maokokusei]

How the Foretellers act when they realize they’re in love/have a crush?

I don’t have nothing to do today, so here.

Ira

─ He’s too focused on preserve the events that lead to the future and holding the balance between the Unions to spend time with you. It’s not a case he usually stays alone;

─ But, after being begged by you to him to try to find a little dose of free time, you manage to talk a little more;

─ Time passed while you kept meeting and chatting alone, finding out that both have so many things on common…when he “suddendly” feels that something has changed;

─ Talking with you helps him distract from his costant exhausting work, but on the other hand, he can’t stop thinking about his own role;

─ But then, after a few weeks, he becomes suspicious. He notice that he’s enjoying your company, even if he doesn’t show it much;

─“For how long I’m feeling like this?” he questions himself;

─ We know he tends to make quick assumptions, so it’s easy for him to believe he’s having a crush on you;

─ Unfortunately, he’ll never talk to anybody about this. Neither you.

Ava

─ She’s your friend for a long time, so you two are really close. But she never considered to see you as something more;

─ Ava loves spend time with you, so she doesn’t suspect anything;

─ But then, after a silly and teasing question by you about her having a boyfriend, she starts to froze;

─ She never thinks about it, and she’s not that interested about this kind of things. Then, why from that moment, she seem to see you in a different way?

─ There’s nothing wrong, sure. But her prudent side asks her if she really want this…

─ She’ll confront you and calmly confess her “problem”, eyes darted to the ground while both of you are sitting on the edge of the fountain;

─ “What this sensation is called…?”, “Is this wrong?”

─ If you will return her feelings, she’ll act in a very childish way, suddendly hugging your shoulders. But then, after realizing this, she pulls away and the scarlet on her cheeks is visible underneath her fox mask.

Invi

─ She also never considered the possibilty that she could fall in love with someone. She’s too focused on her own role, as their Master desires;

─ She tends to stay alone most of the time, but you will join her. She’ll be neutral about it: even after weeks, maybe months…

─ It’s when she begin to enjoy your company that she notices that something feels strange in the atmosphere;

─ “Could I start to like s/o in that way…?”

─ She doesn’t know how to do to get rid of that question that keeps echoing in her head. But, when Ava catch her absorbed in her own mind asks if there’s something wrong, she’ll return to act normal with a no, continuing to do whatever she’s doing;

─ “It will be temporary.” she tells herself.

Gula

─ After finding out there’s a traitor among the Foretellers, he hasn’t faith in nobody. He can’t accuse you, as you aren’t an apprentice of the Master of Masters, so you couldn’t have the Lost Page in your possesion;

─ So he decides to take you in the alliance founded by Aced…

─ You’re aware that these kind of things are forbidden, and try to convince both of them that they’re doing the wrong choice: but they will simply ignore you;

─ You sigh in surrender, afraid that the two could do something crazy, knowing their temper. So you temporary “fake join” them;

─ After finding out the Aced’s situation when everyone was thinking he was the traitor, you don’t will hesitate to rush over Gula and immediatly asks Invi where is he;

─ You will find him uncosciouns with Ava keeping an eye on him, and when he wakes up, he will be surprised to find both of you there;

─ Gula will tell you that he wants the Master to return by summoning Kingdom Hearts, but you will stop him by hugging him and gently whispers that’s not possible;

─ From that moment, he feels a knot forming into his gut. Could it be…?

─ “Love? Bullshit!”

─ But with time, he will realize it’s all true, and not just an illusion. Infact, he’s a little scared at the idea of being in love with someone, but after some time he will talk you about it, asking you what you want to do.

Aced

─ He is so obsessed by taking over the Master that he even not realize there it could be such a positive emotion like love;

─ He’s clearly arrogant in confront of everybody, even you. He doesn’t manage to shake you off, you that continue to “torment” him by trying to soften him up;

─ At first, he will shout you to leave him alone…but you keep insist;

─ He then tries to shrug it off: he won’t let the darkness consume him;

─ Even so, he will learn from you that you can understand him when something goes wrong━and then, most of the time;

─ It’s on a sigh he will give up, and secretly admit that your lively personality it’s helping him to feel better. He is enjoying being at your side: in those moments, he feels all the problem gone;

─ But then, it will arrive the time when he realizes that staying with you is being dangerous;

─ “There is no way I could have fallen for that kid!” he yells to himself;

─ It will be more difficult for him to admit that he unconsciously develops a crush on you, but he will try to not think about it too much.