#It was a pain to get this posed with these giant swords

[lostchasingsilver]

[taleeater]

Dangerously Stupid

Part 1

I wrote this half asleep at 3am and have not proof read this at all, I’m so sorry.

Generation: Bayverse TMNT

Donatello x reader

Pronouns: Gender neutral

Warnings: fighting, blood, injury, not proof read

Summary: You watched the turtles stop the Foot from robbing a bank one night and step in to save Donatello while he’s down. What will happen next?

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Two months. You had lived in New York City only two months before you got caught up in a Foot Clan attack. Just your luck.

You were walking home late from your new, and already shitty job, when you heard loud banging noises from a closed bank up the road. Crossing to the other side of the street as you approached the building, you heard a loud crash of glass and paused in your steps. Waited, and listened. A robbery?

You didn’t have another second to process that thought when suddenly a loud explosion erupted from the building, the shock sending you stumbling back and falling on your butt.

Brick and concrete were strewn across the street, thankfully not being launched far enough to hit you. But then you noticed something from the smoking hole in the building. A quick flash of movement, the sound of a thud and a loud shout. Eyes wide and stunned, you watched as several people in black tactical gear were thrown yelling from the hole in the building out into the street. They had swords?? And guns. They had guns.

Adrenaline kicked in and you scrambled to your feet and rushed for cover in the closest alley way. Shit. Dead end. Quickly creeping back to the entrance you peaked around the corner to the open street. The thugs had started to recover slightly and were raising to their feet, looking around quickly like they were being haunted and drawing their weapons. If you ran out now they would surely see you, so you stood still and watched for an opening.

Suddenly, something large climbed out from the smoking building and the men quickly aimed and fired their guns at it.

Your eyes shot open in horror and brought a hand to your mouth to stifle your gasp as you recognized too late that it was a person- or so you thought. The large being quickly turned around as the bullets came and you watched in disbelief as the bullets bounced off their back. What was that, a shell?! The smooth hard panels reflected light from the street lamp and the flashes from the guns.

A loud thud and a grunt of pain brought your attention back to the thugs. Another large being had dropped down from above and landed behind the men in tactical gear, knocking back two of them and in a flash of metal, sliced a gun in half. This one was a bit closer to you. From what you could see, they were bald… and green? Much like the other guy. You noticed he was wielding two katana, and was making quick work of the thieves.

The other green guy by the building had now recovered and was running over with a rageful battle cry to assist in taking out the last of the goons.

But to your surprise, more people were thrown out from inside the building with a cheerful shout of ‘booyakashaaa!’ and a third large green man jumped out from the building. This one was cheering and swinging around what looked like nunchucks in a flourishing display and made a cool looking pose.

Now you were just feeling comically confused. Your eyes narrowed to observe the orange band around his eyes and take in his outfit, which looked like hard armor on his front and… jean board shorts. Mouth drawn in a tense line, your brain helpfully concluded that these guys were just really weird green body paint wearing commando-type jock vigilantes. Or you just hit your head when you fell back from the explosion and didn’t notice. Either way, you felt yourself relax and mentally shrugged, seeming as the weird giant costumed turtle-looking guys were taking out the bad guys with guns. Maybe you could get home soon and address whether you were hallucinating or not.

It seemed like the battle was just about wrapping up, when suddenly another masked vigilante appeared from inside the building. He quickly pushed the orange one away and shouted “Get back!” just as a second larger explosion burst from inside the building. You ducked for cover as more brick and mortar rained down from the building, and watched as the purple masked vigilante was thrown harshly from the building out into the street. He landed with a groan on his side, not too far from your hiding spot. You could see his shell was equipped with old recycled looking tech, and a long metal pole he seemed to have dropped was laying not too far from him.

“DONNIE!” The three other shelled vigilantes yelled, and started to book it towards their fallen comrade, when suddenly a black van came speeding down the street and rammed into the back of the red masked guy, sending him hurtling forward as the car came to a screeching halt. The doors flung open and more thugs with swords jumped from the car and started to attack the blue and orange masked guys.

You shrunk back more in your hiding place, afraid they would spot you. But then the sound of another car door opening caught your attention. The tech turtle guy was still in your line of sight, unconscious in the street. A woman with black hair and a red streak appeared before him. She pulled out her katana and raised it above her head and prepared to strike-

“NO!!!”

In a flash, you had leapt out from the alley and sprinted into the street. You weren’t thinking, moving on pure instinct as you stood defensively over the prone form of the turtle man and raised up your arm to block the swing of the sword. Somehow, you managed to block the woman’s strike. Your forearm braced against the wrapped handle. The women stared back at you in shock, then turned cold at your interference and doubled down the power in her grip. That’s when you noticed the sharp pain shoot through your shoulder. You groaned as your arm trembled with the strain of the woman still pressing down against your blocked swing. You may have stopped the sword from reaching the vigilante, but you did not have the power to stop the blade from cutting into the flesh of your trapezius.

The woman angrily pulled back, dragging her sword more through your shoulder and you cried out in pain. You stumbled into a crouch in front of the downed turtle, gripping at your wound while she recovered her form. To your horror, she readied to mercilessly strike you again when suddenly, the red masked vigilante appeared from the side and bodily rammed into her, sending the woman flying into the hood of the car in revenge.

“Eat that.” you heard him grumble while he rolled his shoulder. The large red masked turtle turned his attention to you and his eyes regarded you steadily. You were panting lightly and held his eyes for a moment before you both heard the quiet groan come from behind you. You quickly turned around, and saw that the purple vigilante was starting to come around. You placed your free hand lightly on his shoulder as his eyes fluttered open, leaning down a little to get a better look at his face.

“Hey, are you alright?” You asked him. Now that you were this close, you noticed the shape of his face was quite different, and the smooth skin under your hand didn’t feel like paint. You tried not to think too hard on it.

Behind you, Leo jogged over towards Raph while Mikey finished tying up the last of the Foot. Upon seeing a human crouched next to Donnie, he shot Raph a questioning look, to which the red turtle simply shrugged. Leo turned his attention back towards you as Donnie started to pull himself up into a sitting position, and noticed the blood seeping through your fingers clasped on your shoulder.

His eyes widened and rushed over to the human and his brother. “Hey, you’re bleeding-!”

“Wha…?” Donnie was still only half conscious. He thought he was dreaming, opening his eyes to such a beautiful person looking down concerned at him. Carefully, he pulled himself into a sitting position and was startled by his older brother running over to him in concern. At first he though Leo was talking about him, and glanced down at himself quickly to check for any open wounds, but when he found nothing he looked up and saw where the leader’s eyes were leading and found the spot where your hand was pressed over the bloody spot on your shoulder. “Oh dear, let me look at that….” Donnie’s brain fully woke up and he quickly shifted into doctor mode, gently taking hold of your arm to pull your hand away from the wound.

You had shifted your attention and were carefully regarding the blue turtle that had rushed over to crouch next to you, when you were startled by the sudden contact of a large hand enclosing around your wrist. You made a little yelp of pain as your hand was pulled from the bloodied wound, and when you turned back to look at the purple vigilante, your breath caught in your throat by the intense golden eyes staring at you.

Raph came to stand behind you and Leo to overlook the inspection of your wound. “Karai tried to slice up Don while he was down, but this kid jumped in and stopped her.” He supplied a bit gruffly. Raph regarded the small human with mixed feelings. He didn’t wanna trust them, but he had just witnessed this total strange swoop in outta nowhere and save his bro.

The expression on Leo’s face shifted to surprise, eyeing Raph to check he was being serious before turning back to regard the bloodied wound this human had sustained in defense of his brother. He opened his mouth to thank you but was cut off-

“Donnie!! I found your glasses!! -Woah! Bro! Who’s the pretty face?” Mikey chimed in and came rushing over excitedly to join the party.

Donnie was focused on carefully inspecting the wound, and trying his best not to overheat under the gaze of the beautiful stranger whose shoulder he was carefully prodding. The small human flinched suddenly with a small cry of pain when he pulled at the skin a bit to check the depth of the cut. Donnie hissed and pulled back. “Sorry about that- Oh, thank you Mikey.” He reached his hand out and his little bro returned his glasses to him. A little scrapped but still wearable. “Your cut is pretty deep. You should go to the hospital right away. Do you need us to call you an ambulance?”

Donnie was already reaching into his pouch to pull out some spare gauze. His mind was racing a mile a minute, and was trying so hard to stay focused on his task. He didn’t hear Leo and Raph’s exchange. He still felt a little shaken up from the explosion. Slightly bruised, and judging from how flustered and distracted he was feeling, maybe a little concussed. Every time he looked up to meet the stranger’s eyes he felt his heart jump in his chest and his breath catch in his throat. Don decided he just needed to quickly finish patching them up and get home to properly check himself over for injuries.

You, on the other hand, were feeling just as dazed and awestruck at the being that was currently looking you over. You watched this large human turtle work intently on gently applying a pad of gauze over your wound to stem the blood flow, and couldn’t help but feel like you were dreaming. You watched him quietly while your brain helpfully commented on how cute he looked with his taped turtleshell glasses on. But you startled at remembering he had asked you something. “…hm? Oh! A-an ambulance? No thank you. I think I’ll be fine.” You barely noticed the red seeping through the make shift bandage, keeping your attention focused on studying the purple one’s face so you could save it to your memory as he finished up working on your shoulder.

Mikey, who had been waiting intently for his chance to talk to you, had caught on to the tension between you and Donnie. “Broooooo… you feeling alright?” He asked curiously.

Donnie startled at the question and turned away from you, looking a little embarrassed and adjusting his glasses. “J-just fine, Mikey. Maybe a little bruised.” He quickly supplied.

However, a huge grin startled to stretch across Mikey’s face as he connected the dots, and opened his big mouth to tease when Raph’s big hand suddenly smushed into his face and shoved him off away from the scene.

“Come on bozo, give them some room. Let’s go check on the Foot.” Raph had taken pity on Donnie and decided to quickly redirect his hyper little bro. The quicker they could finish up here and head home the better.

Once Donnie appeared to be finished, Leo had gotten up and reached down to offer you a hand up. You were feeling pretty overwhelmed now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off. But you quietly took the offered hand and stood on shaky legs, feeling your head swim for a minute you leaned more heavily into the support of the blue masked turtle as you steadied yourself, your shoulder giving you a painful throb.

Leo kept a careful eye on Donnie as the tech genius pushed himself to stand up after you. As he leader he had to make sure there were no outstanding injuries he had missed on his brother while looking after this stranger. But he noted that Donnie seemed pretty dazed, and wouldn’t take his attention off this person who had saved him. He raised a questioning eye ridge in the direction of his brother and looked between the two, letting a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth. He reached over a slapped a hand down on Donnie’s shoulder to jostle his attention. “Good work Donnie. Now, Mx….”

“(Y/n)… (Y/n) (L/n). Um… thank you for patching me up…. Donnie, was it?” You had to admit you were feeling a little dizzy from the blood loss. But you really wanted to remember this moment, so you did your best to focus on the purple terrapin.

“Donatello, or… Donnie, if you prefer.” Donnie found himself smiling down at the small person. He felt Leo shake his shoulder a bit and shot him a questioning glance.

“Well, aren’t you gonna thank them for saving your sorry shell?” Leo teased his brother, it was clear to him Donnie was developing a bit of a crush, so he thought he’d torture him a bit. “Raph said they stopped Karai from slicing you a new one. You’re lucky they got to you in time.” Leo said a little more seriously. He realized then just how lucky they were you had been here, or else Donnie might be in much worse shape.

Donnie’s eyes snapped wide in shock, his eyes darting between you and Leo. His gaze landing on the cut he had just tended on your shoulder. “R-Really…? You got this protecting me…? I… th-thank you!” Donnie seemed really flustered. He looked guilty, but also a bit awestruck a random beautiful human off the street had stepped in to his defense, and at this moment, didn’t seem scared of him. You just stared up at him, and when he reached out to take your hand to squeeze in appreciation, you didn’t flinch away. “I-if there’s anything you need, just let us know… d-do you need help getting help getting to the hospital….? I mean- the police will get here soon but once-”

You felt your face heat up at the contact, feeling your heart rate speed up a bit, but quickly remembered why you couldn’t take their advice and quickly cut him off. “N-No! Really, I’m fine. I’m just glad you’re okay. I can get there on my own.” You gave him and the other large turtle a reassuring smile, just as you heard the approaching sirens sound out in the distance.

“Okay, time for us to go. Mx. (Y/l/n), thank you for saving my brother. And please… don’t tell anyone about us. We’ll be in touch.” Leo hurried out, leaving your side to tug his brother away from you as Raph and Mikey hurried off ahead to expertly climb up the closest building.

You watched in awe at their skill, seamlessly scaling the fire escape and brick before disappearing above the sky line. But noticed the purple turtle… Donnie, had stopped to turn back and get one last look at you, before disappearing along with his brothers into the night.

“Hm…. Donatello…. I’ll have to remember that.” You said to yourself. You quickly turned to leave, making to start walking home, thankfully in the opposite direction of the sirens. You had no desire to spend the next two hours giving statements to the police and being dragged off to an overly expensive hospital tonight. You just wanted to get home and take care of this cut yourself, and save yourself a decade’s worth of medical debt. Yeah, that’s exactly what you’d do.

You slowly walked down the dark streets and made your way back safely to your little apartment.

And promptly passed out on the couch.

Part 2

[quibbs126]

hi hi! could I request a Pitaya Dragon x Dark Cacao fan child? an example of a name might be dragonfruit choco, which my friend came up with for this ship they came up with. their dynamic is two big guys with swords and anger issues that are besties but also maybe more??? :000

oh and snapcube sonic and shadow

I only realized now that there was a suggestion for the character. Sorry about that. Anyways, this here is Dark Sapote Cookie

Also one thing to note, I basically had Dark Sapote finished months ago. I think you can tell by the way their lineart doesn’t entirely match what I do now. Literally all that was left was the sketch, which I did today. There’s another fankid in that boat, so she might get posted today too (among others that I just have forgotten to post)

But also on top of that, it’s been a good while since I’ve thought about Dark Sapote, so I may miss some stuff

Anyways, on to Dark Sapote. They’re half dragon and live in the Dark Cacao Kingdom. They have a more dragon like form they can transform into, though it’s more of a drake than a dragon, and they don’t turn into it often. They’re technically an heir to the Dark Cacao Kingdom throne, but they don’t do much of anything, so they aren’t really considered such. They also choose to live outside of the Citadel in a cave somewhere

Dark Sapote is extremely chill and often very sleepy, to the point where they’re pretty lazy. However, this isn’t entirely due to their nature, but rather due to the temperature. Because the kingdom is so cold, their body’s essentially in a low power state, as they subconsciously are in a brumation state, but also aren’t reptilian enough to actually go into it, so they’re just stuck like this. And they specifically have this problem because Pitaya is from a tropical and more fiery climate, and Dark Sapote inherited biology for a warmer climate, not a colder one. No one is really aware that this is the reason Dark Sapote is like this, not even Dark Sapote themself

In higher temperatures, they become more active and energetic, and in addition they become more powerful. But because they live where their power is dampened pretty much all the time, they don’t have the best grasp on their full power. If they were to go to say, Dragon’s Valley, they’d likely unleash mayhem with their uncontrollable power. Not quite sure how they haven’t encountered this problem yet, but whatever

They grew up in the Dark Cacao Kingdom simply because they liked Dark Cacao more than Pitaya, but they kind of all unwittingly created this giant problem for Dark Sapote, leaving them in this state

Anyways, on to the design

So Dark Sapote is a name I’ve had on file for a long time, after I discovered the existence of black sapotes, which is what they’re based on. Black sapotes are a tropical fruit like pitaya, and apparently when ripe, they taste similar to chocolate pudding

Black sapote:

So to look for things to say on their design, I watched the time lapse video Procreate makes, and now I remember, Dark Sapote was hell to design. And if I’m being honest, I think the rough sketch is the best version of them

They were apparently originally going to have horns or a crown of sorts, but I decided against it or it just didn’t work. Side note, but I need to give my characters more accessories, especially in the hair. That’s how they end up looking so plain

Their hair is supposed to be the same between the sketch and the final design, but you can’t really see it with the pose. Apparently I tried other hairstyles that would make it visible but for some reason I decided against them

Their side hair thing is supposed to be from Pitaya, with their side bang things, but I don’t think I executed it super well

The colors on the armor were such a pain, mostly because Dark Sapote has so many dark colors, making them all blend in with each other and the black lineart (I only color it at the end once colors are finalized). That was what made me shelve them for so long, because I couldn’t get them to look right, until one day I came back and was like “yeah good enough” and colored the lines, and then left because I was out at the time

Also the colors themselves aren’t the most appealing. The green and brown come from the fruit itself, but they aren’t the nicest to look at

To be honest, I think Dark Sapote needs another shot at a design. The final product isn’t the worst, but it definitely could have turned out better. And also, I like their character

And yeah, that’s Dark Sapote. If you see a redesign of them later on, don’t be too surprised. But regardless, I hope you can enjoy them in some capacity

[wolven91]

Drifting - Part 8

Casper knew there was something wrong straight away, albeit he didn't know what exactly had just happened. He had felt a flare of pain and suddenly his entire chest felt heavy, it didn't feel right. That alone was enough to set his mind racing.

His mind, supported by the software, warned him of the horrific damaged caused by the over-penetrating strike. There was shock, his brain dumped as many chemicals as it thought would help immediately into his own system, but the software listed his problems very neatly, allowing him to prioritise.

His optics clicked as he struggled, it was as if someone had strapped a thick, unyielding, belt across and around his torso, before heaving it as tight as they could possibly make it. His arm lowered, still holding the sword aloft in his victory pose, it's spout of intense heat dying and going out. His hand, still grasping the hilt, touched at his chest, he was still intact, he could see the metal, it's paint was scratched and marred, but he wasn't destroyed.

He wanted to sigh in relief, to breathe, to take in a steadying breath and clear this tightness.

Casper did what he had always done, and breathed deep, only for the vents across his chest, to remain closed. They twitched and sparked, but unlike every time before, where they had opened and flooded his heart with the rich oxygen of the training fields, this time they stayed closed. If Casper's face could contort, show worry, or perhaps fear, it would have. Instead, his optics clicked and whirred, the camera apertures dilating in panic.

He stumbled forward and tried again. 'Steady. Breathe in through the nose.'

The giant pair of intake turbines that sat within his chest, sputtered, and sparked. The connection to the main unit meant they received the order to spin up, to feed the furnace that was sat at the centre of his chest, but they couldn't comply. One of the turbines was outright gone. The majority of it was now scattered in a straight line leading away from the rig, following the path of the super dense round.

The other turbine tried it's best and the blades began to move, but they were sluggish. The metal blades caught and screeched as they scratched debris into the housing of the intake. The devastation of the round hadn't just destroyed internal systems, it had peppered the untouched areas with super-heated fragments that melted and burn holes in a sea of critical parts.

Qik's shot was perfectly landed, exactly right, to cause the whole machine to shutdown safely and eject the pilot. A kill shot. The average machine would be completely disabled. The machine that had just taken her shot, weeks before, was a mere object. It was inert as a rock, simply complicated in makeup. It too, would have fallen over with any other pilot.

But the spirit that drove this thing, that worked as the masterful conductor that led the collection of lifeless parts into movement and action had willed his mind and personality into all things. The amps in the wires pulsed like a heartbeat. The ones and zeros that may have made up the many layers of software may have begun as cold, unfeeling systems, now in fact; *desired* to work as intended. Emotion drove this machine as much as logic did.

The batteries sprung awake, switching from charging to output; the reactor was without O2! 'Turbines! To life!' They screamed.

Turbine Two was KIA and remained silent. The machine would mourn its loss later.

Turbine One was severely wounded, but it's fans could move. It could do its job. The turbine added as much torque to its fans as it could to push past the debris and get the airflow back!

The batteries, working in tandem, broke protocol and devoted more power than normal to the last remaining lifeline. The computerised systems, guided by the pilot's will to live, instantly stepped in and disconnected all the hard locked safety features, overclocking its systems beyond any recommended redline. Dying was not merely turning off, it was the great oblivion. The machine had no desire to turn to off for the final time. It wasn't ready to go yet.

Geckin engineers would be baffled later reading the reports. This machine should have seen the danger in still going and ejected the pilot to safety; away from the potential explosion of a reactor that was online, but without oxygen. But unbeknownst to them, the software was faced with a millennia of survival instincts of the pilot's layered mind. A thousand computer specialists, backed by an army of wet work AIs; couldn't have resisted the sheer force of will from Casper as his mind, dropping into survival instincts and, the lizard, the mammal, and the ape, all demanding his body to live.

His body was the machine, the machine would comply. It *would* live.

Turbine One's fan blades completed a rotation, then a second, and a third before it's RPM began to sore once more! One fan blade was sparking as it caught the casing, but it didn't matter; the 02 intake was climbing!

The vents across the mech's chest slapped open and the exhausts at the back belched an unhealthy-looking plume of black smoke. Casper had power, one lung was collapsed, but he could breathe. He could fight. He turned to the threat he felt like heat across the side of his face. His sensor suite was untouched and knew the exact point of danger.

Qik rose her rig's 'head' up to observe the human's rig stumble forward after taking the hit, just like he was supposed to. But then he straightened, black smoke rising from him, and looked her way. He wasn't supposed to do that. Qik's rig ducked its head and lined up another shot. She'd taken out hundreds of geckin pilots with that exact same shot, the pilot's will to go on didn't matter; the mech should have deactivated and ejected him away. This was the final lesson, this was supposed to be routine.

'Tough bastard.' But Qik kept that thought to herself.

Casper wasn't even thinking at this point, all he could see was red. He was hurt! Injured! There was danger! Run! Fight! Hide! Run! Fight! Hide!

The optics instantly clicked, focusing, and seeing the former ally crouched in the mouth of the hangers, with a giant weapon pointed his way. Red targeting highlights marked her.

Unbidden, the software told his animalistic mind that Qik was pointing a Maestrik 120mm/L61 cannon his way. Despite never seeing this weapon before, Casper knew it was unwieldy, unsuitable for active warzones, with the exception of fortified positions and overwatch operations. She had advantage, side to side movement wouldn't help. It was fully capable of destroying him with a single round, regardless of the ammunition loaded. There was no hiding, not even going to ground could protect him from what was pointed at him. There was no retreat. There was no hiding.

All this information was instantly provided and understood by the three layers of the human's brain before the lopeljack could prepare the next shot.

"Fight!" The Ape, The Mammal and The Lizard, all screamed in unison. The machine obeyed.

His mech launched forwards at the threat. 

Turbine One on its own couldn't feed enough O2 into the boosters to bring him closer to the danger in time, the calculations all declared he would fail. With the safeguards gone however, the software whispered that he had a chance... The reactor was willed into overdrive, spinning it up to maximum output, damning the consequences. The rods inside would eventually melt through the metal housing, but it would give him the edge! The boosters on Casper's back, usually gave off a lovey blue and white jet that burnt clean when it activated, but the flames that spewed out now, pushing his speed past what was possible on his own, was a dirty yellow, smoke and smog billowing out as a trail before it began to slowly change to blue in colour as the core temperature began to cascade upwards.

Qik was ready now, as Casper closed the distance. His rig raised the metal shield still bolted to his arm up, to protect his body, all the while the top of his recon unit's casing poked over the top; his optics never once leaving her.

'A good hunter's eyes never wander...' She mused.

The barrel roared and the entire atmosphere in the hanger warped and hiccupped as the force and concussive blast of the gun sent anything not firmly nailed down, flying. The round travelled the short distance in less than a blink. The world was moving in slow motion for Casper, so his optics saw the point of the spinning round as it destroyed one half of his reconnaissance unit. The round whistled into the distance, destroying several banks of dirt before eventually burying itself into the dirt. The rig flinched with the force of the shot, turning with the resulting air vortex of the round, but it was only a moment's distraction before the tiny red dot in the centre of the optic's aperture locked onto to Qik once more.

Cold. Dispassionate. Casper kept going.

Catastrophic damage was registered across his face, he'd lost radio, sensors and lidar, but the enemy was in front of him, he had committed and considered nothing else now. He cocked his arm, aligning the sword's hilt over the top of his shield to plunge it into the enemy's chest as soon as she was in range. He just needed a few more seconds.

The third and final shell tore Casper in half.

The vortex the shell created, added to the damage done by the round to the mech's midsection, disconnected both legs and sent the torso falling forwards, rolling into the dirt. A moment later, a small armoured circular aperture opened, and a tiny, human sized sarcophagus was fired into the sky, away from the unit's corpse. The reactor ignited and the mech began to burn and melt. It would continue to do so for several hours before it eventually laid there as a ruined husk into the night.

To Casper, he didn't feel the damage that 'killed' him, but he felt what it was like for his soul to be torn from his body. Like a crustation or arachnid, he felt his arms and legs be pulled from within the mech's limbs, shedding them like an old moult. He was pulled up, gathered into a tiny pathetic ball, and thrown from the back of the mech into the sky before he was deadened to the sensations of the world once more and thrust into the void. It was a mental trauma unlike anything else, Casper *knew* what it was like to die in violence now and for his very soul to be ripped from its home.

In the void, Casper wailed. Screaming into the nothingness at the awful sensations that he had just been forced through. He only stopped when he felt the exhaustion of the recent events catch up to him.

== 0 ==

Wren watched the pilot sarcophagus with disconnected professionalism. The engineering crew were well trained and moved with purpose and fluidity. The seal popped and the biological team stepped up. One of theirs stepped down into the casket and hooked two fabric loops under something out of Wren's sight. The geckin doctor knew it would be the human's arms.

At a curt hand signal to the crane operator, the human was lifted from the coffin-like structure, limp and unmoving. His body was slick with sweat and the room stank of his odour. It always did. Wren had hidden her disgust the first few times, but once she realised that the human was barely even conscious when he was retrieved from the mech, she'd stopped trying. He was lowered and gracelessly placed onto a gurney next to her. At least he hadn't vomited on himself this time. It wasn't that she cared for him, it just smelt even worse.

Wren knew other species felt emotions differently to geckins, she was a biologist after all, knowing how they thought was how they were winning the ongoing war with the ssypno. So, with 'Casper', she had adopted the persona of a care giver. It was a fairly easy act to pull off, she 'cooed' and 'fussed' over the human to ensure his cooperation, but that was no longer needed. He was obviously addicted to the Full Submersion Control, but its effects were lasting for the human. It took him time to recover where he was disoriented. Not to mention he was no longer property under the control of the geckin people. Damn that lopel for poisoning her hard work. Zeet had genuinely cared for the creature, thrilled to have found a worthy pilot for his life's work. Wren just wanted to peel back his skull and see how to recreate his strengths.

Now she was frustratingly obligated to tick the boxes to protect the geckin people. Mostly from the ire of the GC, should they ask what welfare checks they had put in place and attempt to accuse them of damaging the rarest species if all this went the way they expected. For all their faults, they would claim their tails should the geckins be found wanting in this regard. Falling out of their graces would do no good for keeping ssypno aggression in check.

"Sit him up." She ordered, stepping up the creature. Her research had come on leaps and bounds. The idea of near zero drift was unheard of and very, very interesting to the geckin private sector that paid for Wren's research. The geckin government had stepped away and had stopped protecting him now that the human was destined to no longer be their problem.

Wren sneered in uncovered disgust as she looked him over. Its flesh was clammy and pale, lacking the protection or brilliance of scales. When it had arrived, its flesh was pinkish brown. There were sections and areas where he was outright pale, obviously the skin was always covered by clothing in these areas, but now his skin was uniformly ashen, nearly grey throughout.

"Touch your fingers." She ordered curtly, raising her voice and getting a reaction from the creature. More of a flinch than acknowledgment. He didn't comply at first, his eyes, dull now, searching the room before finding her. She raised her arms and effortlessly touched her fingertips to her thumbs in a series, prompting him. She didn't like how his lips looked damaged, as if he'd been chewing them. Normal? Or a side effect?

"Touch your fingers." She instructed again, bored of this already. Her claws clacked against each other, giving a 'tik, tik, tik' sound that felt loud in the hanger bay.

The human complied, slowly raising his hands which both shook violently, as if he were shivering. It was slow at first. The task was to touch his thumb to the tips of each of his fingertips in a row, then back. He missed or made a fist at first before slowly coming back to his real body. It was as if they were training a pilot inside a mech, but the other way around. After a minute or so, he succeeded, Wren wasted no time.

"Touch your toes."

This one he did right away. She used to make him stand up and stretch, without bending his knees to touch his toes. Now he merely folded them at the knee while he sat there and brushed his hand against any part of his foot that he could reach. Good enough to her; instructions didn't say not to bend his knees.

"You're fine, get food and rest. No piloting tomorrow." More than enough medical care to appease a board. How 'kind' of her to prevent him from piloting for his welfare.

The human nodded, before shuffling towards the edge of the gurney and gingerly touching his toes to the floor. As he left, his gait was like a corpse that had come back to life, shuffling and lurching from one leg to the other. He wrapped his arms around himself and almost fell forwards, away from the geckins. He now walked as the geckin biological community had expected his gait when they had heard there was a biped species without a tail. Wren had turned back to her notes before Casper had left the hanger, before eventually disappearing from sight.

Wren merely sighed, already dismissing him from her mind. She'd like to get access to his brain before any long-term damage or even sudden damage occurred to it. But she'd settle for the plan offered by her benefactors. Either way, she'd get to play with that brain once it was in her lab, she often won these games if she just remained patient.

== 0 ==

"Casper?" Asked a voice, causing the formley lone occupant of the corridor to blink. He had been slumped against a wall, still standing, but gathering his strength. The haggard young man turned and looked back the way he had come, to now find the lopel mercenary, Qik standing there. He frowned, unsure if she was actually in the corridor with him, and reached out a hand to ensure she was real. She raised her own hand and caught his with ease.

"Hey Qik, sorry, I was daydreaming." Casper murmured before pulling his hand back before she caught the tremor that wouldn't stop. His skin physically ached where the soft pads of her hands had touched him.

"Sounds fun. Shall we get you to your quarters?" She asked, tilting her head, and watching him curiously. Casper merely nodded and made a concerted effort to walk with his back straight and steady rhythm to where his door waited for him. He touched the back of his hand to the sensor and the door slid aside with a hiss.

He stepped in, holding back a sigh until he was alone but was surprised when Qik followed without waiting for an invitation. He released his sigh and merely keyed the door shut behind her, too tired to protest. Ignoring her, he began to walk over to his bed, fully intending on falling into it until he woke up again. Qik's words caused him to pause and turn to look at her.

"I'm sorry I shot you." Qik started, feeling oddly guilty. "I'm sorry I shot you multiple times..." She added after a moment's consideration. She was a mercenary; he was hardly the first person she had shot. She hadn't even hurt him. But she felt... guilt. She knew that he felt truly connected to his rigs, whatever configuration they were. She didn't like to think whether he felt anything more than damage reports.

The human shrugged, his eyes were sunken, darkened and bruised as if he'd been hit in the face. He looked bone tired, smelt ill and his clothes, the human made tshirt he had arrived in that he wore now, hung off him. He'd lost weight. More then that, he'd stopped caring for himself and the geckin were obviously not offering that support either. They wouldn't now he'd played his hand and burnt bridges to leave.

"You're not having something to eat?" She asked, noting the pile of mess in his kitchen area.

"I'm not hungry." Casper explained simply, before going silent. With nothing more to say, he merely turned, shuffled again towards the oversized bed and physically collapsed into it. Clothes and all.

Qik blinked.

She was a mercenary of renown. The only reason she'd been stuck here for so long was because she was a lopel of her word, she'd signed a contract and would not leave until she completed that. It was a lifetime of work to gain a reputation of professionalism, but all it took was one bad contract and all that could be shaken. For her to be free once more, she just needed the next fight. She didn't *need* the human.

However.

In all her time as a mercenary, she'd seen many different types of pilots. Some were disconnected and professional about their work. Others were passionate, taking each contract as a bet against their own pride or skill. Not to mention the whole spectrum between.

So Qik had seen pilots like Casper before, they were the ones who had got into the trade for the wrong reasons. Money, Fear, Fleeing justice. It didn't matter, they were without hope and slowly wasted away. The lopel wasn't blind, she could see and hear just how animated the human became inside his rig. How withdrawn he was without it. He was addicted. It was obvious and should be obvious to him too.

But no one had explained about the seduction of the machine to him. No one had taken them under their wing, to explain that he had to care for himself. To know there was more than just the machine or eventually he wouldn't be able to pilot anything again. She was training him, yes, but did that mean that he was her responsibility? She didn't want an apprentice. She had just needed a way of salvaging her reputation from when he had first piloted a mech and fluked a draw.

She closed her eyes and sighed, turning her arm over and running two fingers over the bald circle on her inner forearm. It was one of the ports where she connected to her own rig. No one had taught her anything, she'd learnt it all the hard way.

But... she had to admit... She would have liked it if someone to have given a shit about her when she had started out...

Without a word, she left the main room to find the bathroom unit off to one side. As she fiddled with the dials, the large tub began to fill with hot water that steamed in the cold air of the living space. The console would handle the filling and dispensing of cleaning products into the fresh water.

As she watched the water rise, Qik considered how ace pilots often felt powerful inside a mech. They felt invincible. It *was* addictive. With their low drift, it meant there were very few reminders that the machine was not the ace's body. It was only the hiccups and delayed orders that brought pilots back to reality. The rigs were as dangerous to the enemy as they were to themselves.

As the tub filled, Qik strode over to the kitchen, where a pile of half-eaten high-nutrient slurry trays lay discarded. It only took her a few minutes, but she binned it all and filled a fresh bowl, warming it until it was piping hot. The slurry wasn't great, the appearance was of a lumpy mush and the taste was about the same. But if Casper ate two trays per day, he'd maintain his weight. If she could get three in him, he might actually gain something back onto his bones. The human was far too thin, no way was he an example of a 'healthy' human right now.

The bathroom unit pinged and one of the lopeljack's ears twitched. The bath was ready and an appropriate temperature.

Casper was so far gone that he barely woke as Qik rolled him gently onto his back. She removed his clothes with careful, respectful hands before slipping her arms beneath his knees and around his shoulders. He weighed nothing to her. He wasn't as small as a geckin, far from it, but even with her limited knowledge, he shouldn't be this light.

Walking the short distance, without his shirt, she paid attention to his body. She analysed it, like a doctor or field medic, dispassionate to his nudity. His ribs were well defined through the skin, and his collarbone stretched the thin looking skin taut. He looked like a refugee.

She shook her head as she gently lowered him into the steaming water, careful not to shock him or jostle him too much. His body jerked at the touch of water, and pale blue eyes cracked open, his head lolling limply against her arm as she settled him in the water. One hand never left him as she grabbed a washcloth and applied soap, before beginning to gently wash his body.

"...What... What are you doing?"

"I'm looking after you." She explained carefully. She used short, clear sentences, loud and curt enough to hear him, but softened the usual edge to her voice.

"I'm.. f-fine." He mumbled, trying to assure her he didn't need effort on his part.

"You don't look fine Casper, does anything hurt?" She asked, paying attention to dark splotches that created odd patches on his back. It could be bruising from when the pilot sarcophagus came back down to earth after being ejected from the rig. She asked her question and deliberately ran the cloth over these patches, noticing the flinch in the human's body.

"That... that uh..." He murmured, still very much confused and muddled, his voice went up an octave, wincing again. If Qik didn't miss her guess, she suspected he was in shock.

"A bit tender?" She asked softly.

"Uh huh." He mumbled, nodding his head jerkily. She let him sit back against the edge of the bath and began washing down his arms.

"Is there anything else that's bothering you? Anything else you can tell me about Casper?" She asked again, using his name to bring him back.

"My skin... hurts..." He admitted, blinking back tears, his eyes, already bloodshot, now swimming.

"It's the Nerve-Suit, the water will help it pass Casper, you're doing great. We just need to get you clean, okay?" She assured him, gently wiping over his chest, then continuing down his other arm.

"I'm sorry..." He whispered.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

"You shot me... I... Don't... Didn't..." He was confused, in shock, did he think she had hit him because he had angered her?

"It's okay Casper. It wasn't your fault; you did everything correctly. It was just the final lesson, to teach you the limits of your mech, to know that you can't let your guard down. To know..." She looked into his eyes before she finished her sentence. She was gladdened to see that his eyes were awake... and aware. She blinked and gave him a rueful smile.

"To know you're not invincible." She finished, touching a warm, wet paw to his cheek. Touching him, reminding him that he could feel things. Casper sighed and closed his eyes, his hand reaching up and gingerly hold the back of her hand. They stayed there for a moment, Qik not rushing him in any way.

Eventually, he reached for the cloth.

"I'll... finish..." He explained, before adding "I needed this I think."

Qik just gave a knowing smirk.

"'You think'?" She snorted. "Don't doubt me if I tell you to do something. Deal?" Demanded the lopel as she relinquished the cloth to the human's hands. In the brief moment that they touched her hand, she felt the warmth in his skin again. The cold clammy feeling of his skin, no more. He still looked sickly however, and the cheekbones that dominated his face told her of what else he needed.

"Deal." The human said, squeezing the cloth and began washing himself, seemingly losing the self-conscious taboo that had held sway over him whenever they got changed together. Qik stood and left the bathroom, striding over to the kitchen and retrieving the slurry bowl. She picked up a spoon and returned. The human glanced up, his eyes flicking to the bowl and grimaced.

"Oh, come o-..." He began, but the merc was having none of it.

"You will eat." Qik declared. The young man's shoulders sagged, and he nodded, briefly running the wash cloth down his legs.

Qik folded herself down, dipping the spoon into the white and pinkish goop, before offering it to him.

"This is embarrassing." Casper bemoaned before having the spoon ladle the mixture onto his tongue where he didn't need to chew before swallowing. They repeated these three or four times whilst Qik replied.

"Then it's a lesson. Feed yourself after each deployment and I don't need to do this. Every time you don't; either me or someone from our company will do it." She grinned wickedly. "Can't wait to see some of the guys playing 'here comes the draconian' with you." She teased, knowing that it was not an idle threat, even if he didn't know yet.

"I'll eat. I promise I'll eat." Casper swore around a mouthful before swallowing again. "How come I've... wasted away like this?" His hands gestured to himself, the tendons standing proud. She considered her words before explaining.

"Ignoring you not eating, FSC is intensive. Your brain is working full time to control every single subsystem of the rig. Brains are hungry. Lack of any food and it'll eat away at you instead." Qik pointed out succinctly.

"How come you don't look like this then?" Casper asked, while Qik noticed his wandering eyes. She wasn't annoyed.

"I'm a career girl. I look after myself. I exercise, I eat, I get sunlight. All mechs, all the time? That's a fast track to being a husk. Plus, it's a shallower slope for us lopels to slip down." She added at the end, spoon finally hitting the bottom of the bowl as she continued to feed Casper, despite him having both hands free again. The water was a different colour now... The filth and grime finally removed from him.

"How do you mean?" He asked.

"It's all about your drift. You could out manoeuvre me, quite easily. Sure, my training might give me an edge, but you've got that beginner's chaos, trained pilots won't know how to handle you, you make choices that aren't normal. The lack of drift means your brain is handling more, however. Less drift, more intense the usage. I have about one, maybe two percent drift. As long as I take breaks, look after myself, eat my veggies; I'll keep myself looking fine." She said, putting the empty bowl to one side. It was only mild, but she felt that he had gained a bit of colour in his cheeks.

Casper sloshed the water as he brought his hand up to look at his fingers. The water was beginning to prune them. He touched his thumb to his fingertips in series, then did it the other way. Perfect each time.

He felt... human again.

"Since you're pretty much done with training now, we need to think of your callsign." The lopel who was still crouched next to him said nonchalantly. She was currently resting her arms on the edge of the bath, still sat on the floor, with her chin resting on her arms as she watched him.

"My callsign?"

"New Guy doesn't really inspire 'fear', does it?" She asked. Casper blinked and realised that she was talking sense, again. He'd need something, a name that connects to him personally. He thought of what he knew of callsigns and decided he needed a 'cool' one.

"Maverick?" He offered.

"*No*." The rabbit-like alien snapped. "There's like a million 'Mavericks' and they're all assholes." Qik immediately retorted, shooting that idea down rather rapidly. Casper sighed and grimaced at the water again, it was actually gross, now that he thought about it.

"I think I need to get out."

"Mm, water's gone bad." Qik agreed, standing and grabbing a towel. The large cut of fabric was designed for larger species than the geckins, the whole living quarters were, but seemingly for something just a bit bigger than a human. Like a lopeljack. The lopel grinned and looked away, holding the towel out as a makeshift curtain as the human stepped from the bath, intending on grabbing the towel from her.

Instead, the lopel grabbed the human into the towel, covering him briefly, spinning him in place, before escaping into the living area, laughing at the human's indignant squawk.

Casper freed himself and glared at the retreating short, stumpy, white fluffy tail of the lopel and had to consider it was a nice view. Turning to the bathroom counter, above the sinks was a mirror that reflected everything. There was a pale monster in the room with him.

Casper, blinking, focused and realised the creature was *him*. He was truly pale and gaunt. He'd known that he'd lost weight over his training, but this was dramatic. He looked sick. He looked *dead*.

"I really do look like a ghost..." He agreed to no one.

"What's a 'ghost'?" Called Qik, doing *something* in the other room. Running water and clinking gave the man hints.

"Uh.. A ghost, a spectre. The dead with unfinished business. They're usually really pale; you can't always see them. They can be friendly, or they can be pretty nasty. We got kid's tales and horror stories of all kinds with ghosts." He explained, leaning forwards and pulling the darkened flesh around his eyes taut, feeling how thin it felt.

Qik's head appeared around the doorframe in the mirror, pulling his attention.

"Perfect. You're 'Spectre' then." The head disappeared immediately, leaving Casper frowning before whipping his around to stare at the empty space incredulously.

"Excuse me?" The young man demanded, feeling energy diffuse him like no meal or sleep could.

"Would you prefer the callsign; Ghost?" 

"Aw man, that's too on the nose! My name is *Casper* for Christ's sake!"

"And 'Maverick' the single most overused callsign was a better idea? Nah, I'm your sponsor into the company, I'm registering you as either 'Spectre' or 'Ghost'."

"For fucks sake." Casper groaned, leaving the bathroom to find the lopel had tided the kitchen very neatly, and was now flicking the heavy blanket out, neatening it and preparing the bed.

"Come on. Bed. I don't know about you, but I'm tired." She ordered, merely tilting her head..

"Together?" The young man asked, glancing from the bed to the merc.

"Yes. My place is on the other side of the complex because they didn't trust that I wouldn't kill you in your sleep for breaking my mech first time round." She explained as if explaining something simple or obvious. Casper merely blinked and stared.

"Is that true?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, I got bored when they were building your second rig and broke into the offices." She remembered with a grin, placing a fist on her hip. "Read their comments that they were worried I'd end you, but those files prove that they got their dirty little claws into all sorts of devious shit." Qik explained in a false hushed whisper.

Casper walked over and at her urging clambered into the bed first as she continued.

"Honestly, I can't wait to get out of here, I think you'll do better away as well. We just gotta' play smart." She explained, crowding him by swinging a leg under the covers and using her wide hips to bounce him further into the covers. The lopeljack was certainly bottom heavy, whilst her top half was muscled, her hips and thighs were exaggerated, but not unpleasant to look at from Casper's perspective.

Now they shared his bed.

He lay there for a time as the lights winked out and stayed dead still, facing the ceiling with his hands resting on his stomach, over the covers. He wasn't expecting a visitor, nor for the lopel to ever enter his bed. Whilst the young man felt a thousand times better than he did before getting home, he was now more confused than when he had been freshly pulled from the pilot's casket.

There was the sound of movement to his left and he felt the mattress warp as Qik turned over.

"Turn away from me." She instructed. Unthinking, he complied, turning to his right and facing the wall, more confused than embarrassed now.

A silky soft, muscular furry arm, snaked underneath his head, whilst a large warm body shuffled and pressed into his back. A lopeljack was taller than a human, reaching nine feet with ease, and hitting ten or even eleven if one included the ears. Her knees easily pressed into the back of his own as he was scooped into her hug and her other arm came round and over to hold him in place.

"What are-" He started, but Qik was ready.

"I can't sleep unless im hugging a pillow. Yours are too small, and I left mine at mine, so you'll have to do." She explained, her short muzzle working its way in and against the short, buzz cut of his head. She gently rubbed her face against him before settling.

"We're..." Casper began, but didn't know where the sentence was going. Noticing his hesitance, Qik settled matters.

"We're all snuggled, like two rounds in a mag. Don't think about it... just relax..." She whispered, gently squeezing his middle into her.

He laid there for a time, blinking, feeling her chest rise and fall as she laid there. He wanted to panic, to perhaps ask if she was sure? But... he was tired. His eyelids drooped and despite himself jerking awake once or twice, eventually he settled into a sleep that as so deep, even when Qik unintentionally turned over an hour later, dragging him with her; Casper never stirred even once.

Qik placed a finger under his nose to ensure he was still breathing in that moment, but relaxed when her fur ruffled under his breath and then she too, fell asleep.

[r/WolvensStories]

[Ko-Fi]

[therewasatale]

doctor-leech

On Ao3.

It wasn't alone.

The monster's body finally fell on the ground, filled with cuts and bullet wounds.

The few members of the Guard of Priwen finally dared to take a deep breath. They managed to take the monster down, even if they had to give their own blood for a fight.

But their enemy was not alone.

McCullum heard to growl above him. And felt his every muscle tensing, yet he froze up only for a second. But that second was too long.

The lesser-vulkod jumped down between them, its eyes fixed on the leader of the Priwen.

In one moment, McCullum was standing, with two feet on the ground and saw those long claws lashing out at him. Then in the next second, he was in the air, but his mind couldn't keep up, he didn't even realize when he got hit. His instinct wasn’t able to keep up with the creature’s speed. He hit the wall with full force.

The impact knocked the air out form his lungs. White spots like stars sparkled in front of his eyes. Someone shouted, but the hunter couldn't hear it. His head painfully was throbbing, beating inside his skull like it tried to crack open. He smelled and tasted blood as his body fell on to the ground.

"Geoffrey!"

It was Jim, that he recognized, but he couldn't look at him. His eyes focused on the lesser-vulkod, the giant vampire that should have belong of the werewolf’s family. Thick, dark fur, sharp, claws and teeth. Its bloodlike eyes remained on the hunter. It growled and took a step closer to him.

Geoffrey felt his hammering heart, and knew what was coming next. He has seen before what happened to those poor souls who were defeated by a monster like that. His fingers tightened around the grip of his sword.

The monster was about to slash out again when a bullet stopped it.

"Get back!" It was another voice - deep, filled with darkness that didn't belong any living, not anymore.

Geoffrey blinked.

The Ekon teleported in front of him, in one hand he held a short barrel shotgun.

"You --" another pang of pain ran through his body, cutting his sentence in half. "Shit!" For a second panic set in, as his instinct screamed. He needed to get away, he was in bigger danger than before.

However, the Ekon didn't turn around to attack him, instead, he stood his ground. "Don't move, and stay behind me, McCullum!"

Geoffrey couldn't answer, and the vampire didn't wait for one.

Reid used his blood shield as the creature attacked, and waited for the right moment to shoot.

One lesser-vulkod could become a challenge to any hunter, and they weren't ready to deal with another one. However, an Ekon was a very different story, a very different fight, and they all were aware of which one of the two creatures posed a greater threat.

The fight ended in a couple of seconds with the monster falling to the ground, blood oozing out from its wounds. No one could tell who was it before it got turned.

No one moved from the Guard of Priwen, they have never had a chance to see an Ekon fighting against a lesser-vuklod this close, not without attacking them at the end.

Jim's fingers tightened around the barrel of his pistol, waiting for an attack against them, against McCullum, however, it never happened. The Ekon didn't even glance at them, instead he put away his weapon, then teleported next to the leader of the Priwen. "Can you hear me, McCullum?"

And just like that, he seemed like an average human being - a good doctor who cared for people, for his patient.

"You --" Geoffrey's body winced, in his right he still held into his sword, but he knew he wasn't able to fight anymore. He exhausted himself to the extreme.

"You have a head trauma; however, I can't see any internal-bleeding, which is a very good news for you." Jonathan blinked and examined every inch of the man's body. He knew that he won't have too much time before --

"Oi, ger away from him!"

That.

"Gentlemen, your leader will be all right, if he gets medical help in the next hour. He has a deep cut on his chest, but lucky for him that creature didn't hit any arteries, however I can see a crack on his collarbone. The bone can wait, but that cut needs to be cleaned and stitched up."

Geoffrey glanced at the vampire as he was talking, and the doctor-vampire was look right at him. Question after question popped up in his mind, but he didn't have the strength to ask them. He only knew, that he felt like shit, and for some reasons he didn't want to look away.

"What he needs is to you get the he away from him, leech!" Jim scoffed. This was new for all of them. A leech that was trying to help not just them, but their leader. They were hunters, the Ekon should be fighting them until only they or he remained standing.

"As you wish," But Jonathan didn't move yet, only glanced around; a few bruises, and broken bones that didn't heal up completely correctly. However, they weren't in immediate danger. "But first."

Geoffrey took a sharp inhale as he felt the cold fingers against his skin, he didn't even realize when his body got took over the suffocating warmth. And he couldn't stop himself from slightly leaning closer to the touch.

"A weak fewer, here take this." Jonathan threw a bottle to the loudest Priwen member. "It will help with the infection."

"Why should we trust you?" Jim spat the question, but still caught the medicine.

"For that I cannot answer, but maybe the mere fact that I'm the only doctor who's running around to help people, even in an epidemic."

"Doctor-leech." Someone scoffed and laugh, but the others didn't join.

"Call me that if you like, but I took an oath to heal the sick."

For one last time McCullum looked into those blue eyes.

"And that what I'm going to do for as long as I can."

Without another word the Ekon vanished into the shadows. Geoffrey was able to take out his silhouette on one of the rooftops before the vampire teleported again.

"You all right, Geoffrey?"

"Yeah." His voice was hesitant for a second, his mind still stuck with the vampire.

"Geoffrey?"

Then finally he pulled himself together. "Let's burn this beast, then we can finally go back to the quarters." He accepted Jim's hand, and found the floor under his feet.

The other hunters started to drag the lesser-vulkod's body away. The average humans didn't need to see something like that at the light of day. They were hunters, they kill any monster, and then get rid of their bodies.

"Maybe, you could take one." Jim said, the medicine bottle was still in his hand.

Doctor-leech. What an absurd thought.

"Maybe." McCullum quickly he took the bottle and shoved it into his pocket.

Neither of them said another word about the medicine or the encounter with the Ekon.

[accidentalsoravoice]

Update on my Left 4 Dead 2 Mods

This time I'll throw in a whole comprehensive list (it's under the cut so it doesn't take up your entire feed, because I installed an obscene amount of mods)

Characters

Nick - Shadow the Hedgehog

Rochelle - Makoto Nijima (Persona 5)

Ellis - Sora

Coach - Master Chief

Bill - Simon "Ghost" Riley (Call of Duty)

Francis - Walter White

Louis - a Minecraft version of Benny from The Lego Movie

Zoey - Mipha (Zelda: BotW)

Zombies

Common Infected - monkeys

Hunter - Senator Armstrong (Metal Gear Rising)

Spitter - Shrek

Boomer - Otis (Barnyard)

Smoker - Fred Jones (Scooby Doo)

Charger - Terry Crews (yes, the Old Spice guy)

Jockey - Glen Quagmire

Witch - SCP-096

Tank - Bowser

Weapons

Guns

M16 - ACR (Call of Duty)

AK - FN SCAR-17

SCAR - FAMAS

MAC10 (silenced SMG) - silenced UMP-45

Uzi - Kriss Vector

MP5 - PPSH-41

SG 552 - MG42 (Far Cry)

Pump Shotgun - Pump Shotgun (but from GTA)

Chrome Shotgun - random shotgun from Counter-Strike, but with Asiimov

Tactical Shotgun - Tactical Shotgun (Fortnite)

SPAS-12 - AA12

Military Sniper - Barrett M82

Hunting Rifle - M1 Garand

Steyr Scout - M1903 Springfield

AWP - Bow (Minecraft)

Pistol - FN Five Seven

Magnum - Smith & Wesson .500 (Resident Evil 4)

Grenade Launcher - Mentos-powered Pepsi launcher

2. Melee

Fire axe - Axe (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

Baseball Bat - Naofumi's Shield (Rising of the Shield Hero)

Cricket Bat - Shield of Wrath (Rising of the Shield Hero)

Crowbar - Nokia hammer (I am not kidding it's literally just a Nokia on a stick)

Frying Pan - Frying pan with Kirby's face on it

Golf Club - just a sword

Guitar - none

Katana - Murasama (Metal Gear Rising)

Machete - random sword and shield from Dark Souls

Nightstick - Kylo Ren's lightsaber

Pitchfork - plastic fork

Knife - Butterfly Knife (TF2)

Shovel - squeaky hammer

Chainsaw - Pochita

3. Throwables

Pipe bomb - Electrode (Pokemon)

Boomer bile - Jarate (TF2)

Molotov - literally just the Autism creature

Music/Sounds

Horde alert sound - Prowler meme sound (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)

Healing sound - "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler

Getting hit by a Tank sound - metalpipe.mp3

Shoving zombies sound - various Super Mario World sound effects

Saferoom fanfare - Final Fantasy VIII victory fanfare

Saferoom music - File Select (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Ridden by a Jockey music - Gas Gas Gas (Initial D)

Pummeled by a Hunter music - It Has to be This Way (Metal Gear Rising)

Horde battle theme - Bowser battle theme (Super Mario World)

Tank battle theme - Bellumbeck battle (Zelda: Phantom Hourglass)

Escape music - Finn McMissile's theme (Cars 2)

Credits music - Jump Up, Super Star (Super Mario Odyssey)

Dark Carnival concert music

Live & Learn - Sonic Adventure 2

Won't Stop, Just Go! (Green Forest theme) - Sonic Adventure 2

Live & Learn (30th Anniversary symphony ver.) - Sonic Adventure 2

That's the Way I Like It (Metal Harbor theme) - Sonic Adventure 2

Animations

Healing animation - breakdancing (doesn't work with Shadow/Nick for some reason)

Hunter pummel animation - rapid punching (now you see why that song from MGR plays and why it's Senator Armstrong)

Items

Medkit - Drip Goku body pillow

Pain Pills - crystal meth (I'm not joking, it's just Heisenburg blue crystal meth)

Adrenaline - coffee

Propane tank - Bowser Bomb (Mario Party 2)

Miscellaneous

The Ferris Wheel in Dark Carnival is now a giant statue of Garfield t-posing

Jimmy Gibbs Jr.'s car from Dead Center is now the magic carpet from Aladdin

Explosions have the "MY LEG" soundbite from Spongebob in them

[mahougotham]

Mahou Drabble 2 (electric boogaloo)

“Yeah I’m really sorry I can’t make it… no no I know I just still feel bad about it you know,” The Riddler paced back and forth in an abandoned warehouse while he was on the phone with his work, “Oh yeah that giant lizard is really tearing up the city… Of course I’ll send the schedule to you later today! Okay bye!”

He finally hangs up and looked over at the open door, waiting for a certain red headed hero. After a while, there he was running onto the scene, umbrella in tow and no doubt ready to go off on a long speech about justice or something.

“Your villainous schemes are coming to an end Riddler for Gotham City is under the protective umbrella-“

“Riddle Barrier,” Ed pointed to the warehouse roof and immediately glowing green chains wrapped the walls and met at the door, joined together by a large lock.

“Of the Pen-the Penguin. Why would you do that in the middle of my monologue!?”

“We meet again Penguin!”

“Hey don’t ignore me!”

“You must solve my riddle to earn your freedom and save the city from the giant monster devastating Gotham as we speak! Simple enough right? Wrong!”

Oswald pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling a migraine coming on just thinking about what a pain in the ass solving the riddle will be.

“You must solve the riddle while locked in combat with me, THE RIDDLER.”

It can’t get any worse.

“And the longer it takes for you to solve the longer we’ll be stuck here!”

It got worse.

Oswald cleared his throat and braces himself for combat, his umbrella turning into a katana.

“Give me your riddle, Riddler. You monologue interrupting son of a bitch. You’re so damn lucky you’re so damn pretty. With your stupid pretty hair and your beautiful eyes,” Oswald threw his hands up, waving his sword at his opponent, “Riddle me up you gorgeous green jackass!”

Ed couldn’t quite wrap his head around the… insult? Compliment? A threat maybe? If it’s a threat it’s a weird one.

“Fuck you for being so damn hot!”

Edward just dropped his pose completely at that and just watched one of the city’s heroes pelted him with aggressive compliments.

[actuallycassidyiambusy]

Totally cool if you don't want to share, buuuuut could we get a chapter of your book posted with Aeshma in it? I wanna REEEEEAD him lmao. I'm the one who asked to see more and sent you that DM about buying your book lmao

Lol hello again😂 I'm more than happy to share some of my story. Here's a partial chapter from book four. It was extremely difficult for me to find a chapter with Aeshma in it that didn't contain major spoilers 🥹 but here you go.

Blake is sitting in deafening silence. Freshly bandaged up, but emotionally torn to shreds. The sclera of his eyes have turned black during the heavy conversation. He’s leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees, playing with the silver chain around his neck. He’s been deathly silent for several minutes now, taking in all the information that was given to him. Processing it. Resenting it.

Talon and Spade are standing side by side. Relaying the news to Blake was beyond painful. The air in the room is thick with anger and confusion. Blake has always been a time bomb, so dropping something like this in him is dangerous for everyone in the room.

Zeke is in a chair a little further away. He’s watching Blake closely, trying to read the man’s face. Asmodeus posed as Serpent, befriended Blake, and ultimately used him to get to Talon. Blake was the executioner. The one who put Talon down and set this whole thing in motion. He was a pawn. Just like everyone else.

Talon’s pretty green eyes stare at Blake affectionately. He doesn’t feel a shred of resentment towards him. None. “Blake…” He takes a small, hesitant step forward, but recoils when Blake suddenly stands up. He blinks and gasps when the taller man shoves past him. He won’t take it personally. He understands Blake is just as much a victim as he is.

“I should have fuckin’ known.” Blake growls as he throws on his shirt. “How the fuck did I not see that?” He runs his tattooed fingers through his messy mohawk and scoffs, his eyes glinting. "How could I be so fuckin' stupid!" He kicks a nearby chair, sending it slamming against the wall.

Talon flinches, his heart breaking for the man.

“It’s not very hard for a demon of his caliber to pull a stunt like that.” Aeshma says, walking into the room with a dark look on his face. He dips down so he can fit through the doorway. "He has pulled the wool over the eyes of thousands."

“Holy shit.” Zeke stands up as the demon steps into view. His wide eyes are locked on him. He's still not used to this absolute giant being on their side.

Talon and Spade also can’t help but stare. Blake is looking at Aeshma over his shoulder. He’s seen the demon look like this before, so it’s less if a shock to him. However, it’s no less eye pleasing.

“Is that so?” Blake asks, almost distrustfully.

“It is.” Aeshma stands tall, his head lifted proudly. He has on a large, long coat. It’s black with tan fur lining the inside and the collar is high. Much to contrary belief, the fourth circle of Hell is extremely cold. Spiked metal armlets are around each of Aeshma’s wrists. He has on black tactical boots and black pants. His broad shoulders are adorned with deadly looking spiked pouldrons. Black leather straps with glistening buckles hold his impressive sword in place. Also strapped to him is a massive battle axe, freshly sharpened and stained with blood. Daggers are resting in holders on his belt and chest straps and strapped to each leg. A few other things are hanging from the demon’s belt. Two skulls stand out the most. One that looks human, and the other looks like it came from some strange animal.

“What is that?” Zeke is closer now, pointing to the strange skull. His eyes narrow curiously. “Some kind of deer?” He leans in to get a better look.

Aeshma looks down at his belt and then looks at Zeke. “Wendigo.” His rich voice carries even when he speaks softly.

“Oh, fuck…” Zeke breathes nervously, drawing his hand back. “Those actually exist?” Really, he shouldn’t be surprised. Not after everything that’s happened these past few months.

Blake moves Zeke to the side so he can face Aeshma. “They told me ya brought me here. Said ya gave ‘em what they needed to save me.”

Aeshma’s expression doesn’t change. “I did.” He confirms.

Blake meets the demon’s gaze, not saying anything. He nods gratefully. Years of respect are shared between the two.

Aeshma nods back. “Good to see you’re finally awake, Stahller.” He says lowly.

Zeke steps up again, displaying his lack of boundaries. A glimmer catches his curious eye. “What’s this?” His fingertips brush over what appears to be a bracelet hooked onto Aeshma’s belt. Near the buckle. Rose gold and diamond studded. Some of the diamonds are missing.

Aeshma grabs Zeke’s wrist with enough force to make the blond shout in pain. He leans in, growling deep in his throat. “Don’t. Touch. That.” His razor sharp canines are bared as he squeezes harder.

“AH! AH!” Zeke’s knees buckle and he hisses in pain, trembling slightly. He blinks away agonized tears and gasps. “I- I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Aeshma doesn’t let go or even loosen his hold. His eyes are trained on Zeke, a dangerous look in them. “It’s rude to touch another man’s things, you know.” He tilts his head to the side, his black hair falling away from his eyes.

“Aeshma.” Talon speaks gently. Seeing Zeke getting hurt is upsetting, however Talon doesn’t want to yell. Whatever or whoever that bracelet is from, it’s obviously something the demon deeply cares about. Maybe it was his sister’s. He thinks, biting his lip subtly. It’s strange to see Aeshma act so sentimental. However, Talon would be lying if he said it wasn’t compelling.

Aeshma’s grip tightens even more, his touch searing Zeke’s skin. He twists the boy’s wrist, bringing Zeke to his knees. He’s ready to break it. He refuses to let Talon’s soft voice weaken him. He can’t. Not again.

Zeke grunts loudly, his eyes widening when he sees the smoke coming off of Aeshma’s large hand. Pain is ripping through his whole arm now. He grits his teeth. “F-fuck..!” He whimpers.

“Aeshma.” Talon says just as gently as before. He decides to test the waters, and he steps over to the large demon, resting his delicate hand on Aeshma’s forearm. “Please.” He lifts his gaze, glimmers of pink revealing themselves to the older man.

Aeshma accidentally meets Talon’s gaze, and he closes his eyes tightly. ‘Dammit.’ He relaxes his muscles and releases Zeke’s wrist with a deep, rumbling sigh. He stands up straight and looks right at Talon. “Do you have an answer for me?” He asks, deciding to move on from Zeke’s behavior.

Talon knows he can relax now. He’s surprised speaking softly actually worked with this brute. “No, but I promise I’ll have an answer when you come back.” He smiles playfully, letting his hand slip from the man’s arm. “So make sure you come back.”

Aeshma pauses for a moment before a smirk plays on his lips. “Very well.” He rolls his shoulders and turns his attention to Blake. “My soldiers are everywhere now. There isn’t a state in his god forsaken country that doesn’t have a warrior of Khadah in it. Nothing will happen that won’t get back to me. I would prefer you all to stay here, where it’s safe.”

Blake nods. “I have no problem wit’ that. I just have to make sure some things are still in order. I was out for two weeks. I also have some shit to set straight.”

“If you’re speaking of Samael, I strongly suggest you hold off, Stahller.” Aeshma says calmly but firmly, adjusting his heavy coat. “Hunting him down right now will only bring unnecessary attention to you and your friends.”

‘Fuck, he’s right.’ Blake thinks with a frustrated scoff. “Fine. I’ll let him live. For now.”

Aeshma chuckles and smiles at the man. “I understand the allure of vengeance. You are more than welcome to join me today.”

Spade adjusts his glasses nervously. “I really don’t think—”

“Where are ya goin’?” Blake leans back against the wall, crossing his arms. He can feel Spade’s disapproving glare burning into him.

“I’m leading an attack on Mammon.” Aeshma notices Mahrem coming into the room. “He has stepped out of the lines of our treaty one too many times. I need to make an example of him.”

“As fun as that sounds, big guy, I’m in no state for war.” Blake declines with a chuckle. Gesturing to the bandages covering most of his torso. “Still recoverin’ from bein’ stabbed by an angel. And I really don’t want to face the wrath of the princess over there.” He cocks his head to a visibly disgruntled Spade.

Aeshma smiles at that, amused. “I understand.” He says simply.

“H-How long will you be gone?” Talon asks, slightly nervous. Isn’t Mammon one of the seven princes? And Aeshma is going to just march on him? Does he have any fear at all? He can feel his heart pounding in his chest, but he doesn’t understand why he’s so concerned. It’s just Aeshma.

“It shouldn’t take long.” Aeshma assures Talon with a subtle nod. He can hear the hybrid’s heartbeat. His eyes narrow and a sly smile forms on his face. “Are you worried about me, bunny?” He crosses his arms and arches one scarred eyebrow.

Talon’s face turns a deep shade of red when suddenly all eyes are on him. “Of course not!” He spits out anxiously, his heart beating faster. “I just don’t want to wait all day. You’ve got so much going on, I don’t really have that many chances to speak with you.” He pushes some of his hair behind his ear and looks down.

Aeshma’s deep chuckle flusters Talon further. “I’ll be sure to make room for you on my agenda.” He uses the knuckle of his index finger to turn Talon’s chin up. “So you don’t feel neglected.” He rumbles smoothly.

Zeke and Spade glance at each other with wide eyes and red cheeks, wondering what the hell they missed.

Talon yanks his face away from the demon’s touch, face burning even redder. “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t feel neglected. Impatient more than anything.” He mutters dryly.

“Of course.” Aeshma says, his smile remaining for a moment. “Maher.” He looks at his second in command now, expression serious. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.” Mahrem says, fixing his posture as he’s addressed by his commander. “As are the others.”

“Good.” Aeshma says approvingly. “Let’s get going.” He nods to the others before walking out with Mahrem.

“Jesus Christ…” Zeke grumbles, snapping out of his haze and rubbing his wrist. “That psycho almost took my hand off.”

“Let me have a look.” Spade adjusts his glasses again as he steps over to examine Zeke’s wrist. “You really need to stop touching people.” He mutters.

“Nice job calmin’ him down, snowflake.” Blake crosses his arms as he speaks. Part of him still feels the sharp knife of guilt in his chest. The weight of the news about Asmodeus is heavy on him. “Where’d ya learn that trick?”

Talon shrugs and closes his eyes lightly as he pulls his hair up into a ponytail. He feels hot all over and it’s irritating. “Yelling doesn’t solve everything.” He says simply. He smiles a little, proud of himself for calming the demon.

“Talon! Oh, my gosh! You’ll never believe what Rachelle just told me!” Matt comes rushing into the room, his excitement making him momentarily unaware of Blake. “She—” He stops cold, his eyes finally spotting the man over by the wall. “Blake!? Blake! You’re up!” He rushes over and wraps his arms around the man. His eyes are watery and his chest aches with joyful relief. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re awake!” He exclaims emotionally.

Blake hugs Matt briefly, rubbing the boy’s back. “Yeah, so am I, dollface. Didn’t plan on comin’ back, but someone kept buggin’ me.” He glances up at Zeke and winks.

Zeke scoffs and looks away. “Jackass…” The blond grumbles.

“This is fantastic! I’ll go get Zayne!” Matt turns away to walk back out the door, way to excited about Blake to remember what he even came into the room for.

“Matt wait! What did you want to tell me about Rachelle!?” Talon calls after him, taking one step forward. He needs the distraction.

“Oh! I’ll tell you later!” Matt calls back, his voice fading as he disappears up the staircase.

[brainyxbat]

Chapter 7: A Hex on Luffy! Colors Trap

(episode 75)

"Broggy-san!"

"Now, then! Accelerate, Candle Service! Turn these people into wax figures!"

"My hands won't move! I don't wanna die this way! Can't we do something?!"

"Hey, old man. Whadya say we crush these guys together?"

"I'll fight alongside you, and your fighting spirit!"

"Don't be stupid! What can you possibly do?!"

"I'm gonna kick your asses, just so you know!"

"What?"

"These guys spoiled the old giant guys' duel!"

"Master Broggy! We've taken on your frustration!"

"Usopp..."

"For now, could you bust this pillar for us, Luffy? I leave the rest to you."

"Alright, no problem!"

"I wouldn't be so sure."

"Break the pillar, Luffy!"

-

As Luffy, Usopp and Venus tried to think of a plan, Zoro stood with his left hand on his hip, and his right holding one of his swords up. "Zoro!" Nami turned to him, stuck with holding her left elbow. "What are you doing?!"

"If I'm gonna be solidified, I prefer this pose."

"This is no time to be playing around!" Vivi protested, her arms simply dangling.

"I'm not playing."

"Anyways, do something about your leg!" Nami complained. "It's painful just looking at it!"

"Then quit looking at it."

"You're the idiot who suggested cutting our legs off in this situation, so we could escape!" Vivi stayed quiet during the argument.

"That ain't true! I was gonna cut 'em off, so we could fight."

"That's even stupider! Get serious!"

"Just shut up!"

"Honestly! You have no common sense!"

'We still haven't even escaped from this situation, yet neither of them seems to sense the danger at all,' Vivi thought.

"Hey, runt," Broggy addressed the swordsman with a grin, "Is that all the struggling you got?"

"Yeah. Looks like it's someone else's turn now."

"I see..."

Ms. Golden Week watched calmly from the picnic. "Mr. 3, those people don't seem concerned at all."

"I could say the same about you, Ms. Golden Week!"

"Hey," Zoro turned to the girls, "If you're gonna do a pose, now's your chance."

"Don't put me on your level," Nami refused.

"Mr. Bushido! Please be more serious about this!"

"I'm always serious."

"More like stupid," Nami snarked.

"Like you're one to talk!"

"It seems we're being mocked!" Mr. 3 glared. "This is truly displeasing! Ever since he showed up, they've been- it couldn't be!"

Luffy. "Alright!" He punched his fists together, ready to fight.

"He hardly seems to be that reliable of a man."

"Mr. 3!" Mr. 5 approached him with Ms. Valentine. "We'll finish him off."

"Finish him off? Don't be silly. Just look! He showed up here alive, and well because your attacks don't work. At the very least, he's at a level that's too much for you to handle." Mr. 3 prepared to battle. "You two take care of the others! I think I'll add Straw Hat Luffy to my wax figure collection."

"You guys are too damn annoying!" Usopp glared. "You've gone a bit too far! Give yourselves up!" Karoo quacked in agreement.

Mr. 3 smirked pridefully. "Small fry." He started forming some wax from his hand.

"Let's do it!" At Usopp's command, Karoo ran... backwards, into the jungle with him. "Alright! Preparations are complete! We got your backs, guys!"

"Hm?" Luffy turned around. "Did you say something?"

"Now you're mine! Candle Lock!" The captain's ankles were trapped in a waxy restraint.

"Luffy!" Venus' eye widened.

"What is that?!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Lufy-san!"

"Damn, he's already gotten caught?!" Zoro griped.

"Idiot!" Nami complained.

Luffy looked at his stocks in confusion. "What is this? It's heavy, like a mallet!"

"How simple. Now, for your hands!"

Luffy knocked on the wax, and had an idea. "Oh! This is perfect!"

"Candle Lock!"

"Whoa!" Luffy jumped away in time to avoid the attack, and pushed himself in the air. "Old giant guy!" He started wrapping his stretchy arms around one of the spikes on Broggy's Viking helmet. "Sorry to bother you!"

Mr. 3 watched in shock. "What?! What's he up to?!"

"Gum-Gum... Mallet!" Using his stocks, he sent the pumpkin topper collapsing.

"He did it!" Nami and Vivi cheered.

"Yahoo!"

However, their joy turned to terror when it started falling towards them... only for it to land on the next tier.

Luffy held onto the spike, his ankles now free. "Lucky! The mallet on my legs broke too!"

"Luffy!" Venus yelled out. "It's spinning again!"

He turned around, and realized she was right. "Huh? Huh?!"

Nami panted from the scare. "I'm alive."

"We survived," Vivi sighed in relief.

"That didn't help things at all!" Zoro complained.

"Whew, that was dangerous! Why didn't you guys run?" Luffy asked obliviously.

"We can't move! Isn't it obvious?!" Nami and Vivi raged simultaneously.

"Oh? Really? But you guys told me to break the pillar! Were you lying?"

"Is it really a good idea to put our lives in his hands, Mr. Bushido?!"

"Don't look at me. That's the only choice we got here. Plus it looks like my arms are stuck now."

"Please be serious about this!"

"Hold on... it feels like my body is hardening more and more now," Nami realized, and her breath shuddered, "I can't move at all now."

Mr. 3 laughed evilly. "Fools! With the candles closer, your hardening has sped up! Now you can become wax figures even quicker!"

Usopp watched angrily from the sidelines. "That guy thinks he can act all smug and arrogant!"

"Hey! You guys are gonna be wax figures?"

"That's what we've been trying to tell you!" Nami shouted.

"Just destroy this set, Luffy-san!"

"R-right! Okay!"

"I told you, I won't let you interfere! Wax-Wax Arts! Harpoon!"

"Exploding Star!" Usopp shot an explosive in Mr. 3's direction... only for Mr. 5 to eat it himself, as Luffy managed to dodge the wax weapon, and jumped down to the ground.

Mr. 5 belched out a ring of smoke. "That was rather bland. You don't use very good gunpowder."

"He ate the Exploding Star!" Usopp gaped in shock, alongside Karoo.

On the structure, Zoro was starting to feel stiff himself. "This is bad. It really is fast. Good thing I posed beforehand."

"You idiot!" Nami raged.

"Luffy-san! Please hurry!"

Luffy sent his fisted hands reeling behind his back. "Alright! That pumpkin's the bad thing, right?! Hang on! Gum-Gum..."

"It's no use! Candle Wall!" Mr. 3 formed a large wall in front of him.

"Bazooka!" To his dismay, he hit the wall instead of the pumpkin. "Hey, you! Don't get in my way!"

"That would be my line," He smirked, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't interfere with my creative abilities. Candle Lock!"

Luffy grinned when his right hand was encased in wax. Just as he was hoping for. "I got a mallet! Gum-Gum..."

"Oh no! Candle Wall!"

"Mallet!" He hit another wall... but it crumbled, along with the mallet, so he was hit.

"Hurray! Hurray!" Usopp cheered with Karoo.

"Yeah, Luffy!" Venus pumped her fist.

"Mr. 3," Mr. 5 watched him fly away.

"Impossible!"

"Luffy! Hurry, and break this set while there's still time!" Nami pleaded.

He was suddenly very calm. "No."

"Quit joking around, and hurry!"

"No."

"This is no time to be acting stupid!" Zoro scolded.

"Luffy-san! Please!"

"Luffy!" Venus exclaimed. "What's gotten into you?!"

He kept standing in place, almost like he was in a trance. "What should I do? I don't feel like saving you guys."

Nami stared on in horror. "What are you saying?"

"Colors Trap." Turned out, Ms. Golden Week had interfered in some way.

"Hey! Luffy!" Zoro shouted. "There's no time! Do something about this thing already!"

"Yeah... I know."

"Then hurry!" Vivi ordered.

"Yeah, Luffy!"

He was standing on a strange, black circle painted in the grass. "I know, but... but I don't feel like saving you."

"Why do you keep saying that?!" Nami yelled angrily. "We're the ones about to be wax figures! Understand?! We're about to die!"

"Yeah. But for some reason, I just can't get motivated."

"This isn't a motivation problem!" The trio shouted all at once.

"Venus-san!" Vivi called for the witch. "Can you use your magic energy balls to break this thing?!"

"I'll try!" A determined Venus prepared an attack. "Witchy-Witchy... Ball!" She shot an energy ball at the pumpkin... only for the spinning to not cease one bit. It left barely a dent. "No good! It's too hard!"

"Try to make a bigger one!" Nami ordered. "And hurry!"

"Alright! Mm..." Venus started to try willing the energy ball to grow between her hands. It was working!

"Oh no, you don't! Candle Lock!" Mr. 3 restrained her wrists in front of her, sending her attack flying away uselessly. She toppled to the ground, unable to handle the heavy weight.

"Venus!" Zoro's eyes widened.

"Venus-chan!" Usopp watched from afar, as Luffy still didn't move. "D-dammit! What's happened to him?! Our friends're gonna die if he doesn't hurry! I'll bring him back to his senses! Let's go, Karoo!" Before they could go in, Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine suddenly appeared in front of them. "W-when did you-?!"

"Give it up," Mr. 5 ordered, "He's already fallen into a trap."

"That's right. See where he's standing?"

"Where's he standing? Let's see here." Usopp flipped up the lenses of his goggles, and noticed the paint under his feet. "What's that? There's a strange, black pattern; what's so important about that?!"

"You're right, it's nothing. It's just paint." Ms. Valentine laughed evilly.

"Paint?"

"In other words, both of you are goners!" Mr. 5 went to swing am explosive kick at Usopp and Karoo, but they managed to fly away.

"Karoo!" Usopp grabbed his reins. "Let's just run for now!"

"He's planning to escape on the bird!" Ms. Valentine glared.

"Let's get 'em."

"Sprint at full speed!" Usopp ordered, but it was given too soon; Karoo ran even faster, leaving him behind. "Hey, you! Wait! I haven't gotten on yet! Karoo!" He looked back, and realized he was trying to catch up. "Hey! Alright! Stop! Let me get on!" He only ran faster. "What's the point of being scared of me?!"

From the structure, Vivi noticed a certain someone standing behind Luffy. "Ms. Golden Week! This is your doing!"

"Colors Trap: Betrayal Black." Venus' eye widened from her place on the ground. "Touch the black paint, and you'll want to betray your friends, no matter what they say."

"What does she mean?!" Nami asked. "What happened?! Explain!"

"She's a realist painter, who can even create real colors of emotion!" Vivi replied.

"Eh?!"

"Her refined sense of color can manipulate people's minds through the use of her paints."

Zoro glared down at the ground. "Manipulate?! That's not good! That simpleminded idiot is already easy enough to manipulate!"

"Then doesn't he just need to get away from that paint?" Nami suggested. "Luffy! Get away from there!"

"No, don't!" Vivi protested. She had a plan up her sleeve, "Luffy-san! Whatever you do, do not move from that black circle! I'm begging you!"

"Vivi! Why?!" Nami exclaimed.

"We don't want you to save us at all!" Vivi continued.

Venus listened in surprise. What was she doing? "No," Luffy said bluntly after a beat of silence, and stepped out of the paint.

"I get it," Zoro commented, "You made him do the exact opposite of what you said."

Luffy's head snapped up, now out of the hex. "Huh? I-I was kinda weird just now."

"Luffy-san! Hurry!"

"Alright! I'll save you right now!" He started winding up for an attack, only for him to burst into hysterical laughter. "But never mind, you guys! I just wanna laugh!"

The trio gaped in horror. "Why?!" Nami glared.

"Why, you...!" Zoro raged.

"Now what?!" Vivi shouted.

There was now a yellow patterned circle painted on the back of Luffy's red vest. "Colors Trap: Laughter Yellow." He was on his stomach in the grass, punching and kicking. "You know you're not supposed to move." He just continued laughing.

"Now it's on his clothes!" Nami fussed.

"Luffy! Take off your vest!" Venus ordered.

"N-never mind that!" He sat up, and hugged himself. "I just feel like laughing!"

"Not good!" Zoro complained. "If it keeps raining down at this pace, we won't last one more minute!" From above, he saw Usopp on Karoo's back, running away from Mr. 5, and Ms. Valentine. "Did you guys come here to play?!"

They sprinted all around the area, soon bumping into Luffy. "Look! When Usopp ran into him, the paint on his back smudged!" Nami pointed out.

Luffy was out of his trance. "Did I wind up doing something again?" He then turned to glare at the artist. "Hey, you! Knock it off, you jerk!"

"Was Laughter Yellow funny?"

"Shut up! Are you stupid?! Stupid!" He then averted his attention to his friends. "Anyways, I gotta break that pumpkin! Gum-Gum...!"

"Colors Trap: Bullfight Red."

"Bazooka!" To his confusion, his hands laid on the new, red mark.

"Where are you aiming?!" Zoro exclaimed.

"You're not allowed to break it!" Ms. Golden Week ordered. "You'll make Mr. 3 angry!"

"What is this?!" Luffy shouted. He couldn't move his hands away!

"Just as bulls rush at red capes, you feel the urge to attack that Bullfight Red mark. Too bad."

Luffy let out a scream of frustration. "I can't stand you anymore! Get out of here! Gum-Gum Bazooka!" He tried again, but still wound up on the mark.

"Having fun?"

Nami watched the exchange hopelessly. "It's no good. This isn't his kind of fight. All his power is useless!"

"Now to finish it with this! I'll mix the Laughter Yellow on your back with Sadness Blue. Colors Trap: Tranquil Green!"

Luffy seethed in rage, before he relaxed, and joined the picnic. "Such nice tea."

"You idiot!" The trio shouted.

"So, what happens now?" Nami asked.

"See?" Zoro smirked. "I told you, you should've posed! Too bad for you!"

"How can you still be so calm about this?!" Vivi exclaimed.

Meanwhile, Usopp and Karoo were still dashing through the jungle, with Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine hot on their heels. "Damn, they run away fast!" The former griped, then leaped into the air. "Nose Fancy Double Cannon!"

They managed to dodge, and ran out of the smoke. "You missed! Way to go, Karoo!" Mr. 5 landed back next to Ms. Valentine. "My turn! Special Attack: Lead Star!" He shot a bullet, but it was easily dodged. "We gotta go back to Luffy, and the others again!" They soon disappeared into the trees.

"We're getting nowhere, chasing them all around," Mr. 5 remarked.

"Yeah," Ms. Valentine agreed.

He took a revolver out of his jacket. "I didn't want to use it on such small fries, but there's no dodging this. A.44-caliber, 6-shot flintlock revolver. A new South Blue model; it can fire continuously, and if I use it, the bullets are invisible."

'Luffy's acting that way, because of that paint the bad guys mentioned!' Usopp thought through the sprint. 'They're related somehow! There was also some on his back when I crashed into him earlier! No doubt about it! If I can just do something about the paint!' "Hurry!" When Karoo ran faster, they made it back to the clearing. But he could only gape in horror; Zoro, Nami, Vivi, and Broggy were wax statues!

"Ahh, such nice tea." He turned around, and saw Luffy having a picnic with Ms. Golden Week. "Such nice..."

"Luffy! What're you doing?!"

"He was hit with Tranquil Green!" Venus replied.

Despite his calmness, Luffy was deeply frustrated, and feeling helpless. "Such... nice... tea."

"What are you doing, you idiot?!"

[darksaiyangoku]

RWBY Winter Tales

Kamen Rider Oz

VPD Officer, Glynda Goodwitch, was in hot pursuit on her motorbike as a large, bat-like creature flew into the air. She had never seen anything like this in her life. Earlier that night, she witnessed monster attempt to attack a group of people as they were leaving a party, severely injuring one of the girls. Her muscles tensed up as she grabbed a hold of her pistol, aiming to clip its wings. However, her helmet was obsucring her vision and made it difficult to get a clear shot.

Glynda: Damn it!

Suddenly, another motorbike leaped out of nowhere and slammed into the giant bat, knocking it to the ground. Glynda halted the break firmly and turned to see the incident. The other motorbike was completely unarmed, along with the rider. The bat-creature screeched in fury, but he seemed to be unfazed. Glynda's eyes shrank as she recognised him from the back. It was Ozpin.

Glynda: Ozpin, get out of the way! It's dangerous! *raises pistol*

Ozpin: *turns around* So am I.

He took out a small, rectangular metal device from his belt, posing dramatically.

Ozpin: Transform!

In a flash of green light, Ozpin switched from his jacket and jeans to a dark geen suit, with black armoured chest, gloves, boots and a black helmet with a light green visor. The bat lunged at him to attack, but he simply leaped into the air.

Ozpin: Oz Kick!

His light leg became a stream of fire as struck the bat's head, causing it to scream in pain. It tried to bite at Ozpin, but he retaliated with a strong uppercut.

Ozpin: Oz Fist!

From his holster, he drew a collapsable sword and charged towards the bat. It flew down to try and grab him with his talons, but Ozpin was just in time and sliced them off. He then placed his hand over the blade and it began to glow green.

Ozpin: Today justice shall prevail! Emerald Blade Attack!

Ozpin leaped into the air once more and slashed at the beast furiously. As he landed, the beast had crumbled into ash. Ozpin looked at Glynda and pushed a button on his belt, reverting to normal. She absolutely stunned.

Ozpin: I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I never meant to lie to you.

Glynda: Y-You're a... you're a superhero?

Ozpin: *nods* Yes. I'm a Kamen Rider, protector of Vale City.

Glynda: How did this happen? When did this happen? Why didn'f you-

Ozpin: Sweetheart, why don't we pick up this conversation when we get my place? It's starting to snow.

Glynda looked up and realised he was right. Small snowflakes started falling and tickled her skin with their cold touch.

Glynda: O-Okay. Shall I put on a coffee for us?

Ozpin: *smiles* Coffee sounds lovely.

[the-wayward-snowflake]

Lucifer VS. Isolde

“Lucifer, sir, I have brought her. She came willingly and didn’t pose a problem.” A tall red-haired man says as he escorts a young lady up to the throne. Her hair is white as snow with blue ends, owl-ish eyes, wings, and talons. The wings have dark spots on the edge of the feathers. Some say she is elegant while others think some of her features are rather odd. 

She was quick to notice a child standing near her, looking up at her in bewilderment. “Hey, pretty lady. I wanted you to know, Lucifer is dumb. He can take him.” She little girl smiles and skips away to sit near a group that was already in the room. Isolde lets out a chuckle. 

The man on the throne looks up at her, his cold eyes looking at her with disappointment. Actually, he appeared rather irritated. Especially after the child talked to her. “Is this the one who wishes to be called ‘Isolde’?” He asks. Everyone hears a sigh in the background as one of the men with a hat covering his eyes in the background closes a file and mutters a “yes.” 

“Isolde, do you know why you’re here?” Lucifer asks. 

With a straight face, she says “no, I do not.” She crosses her arms and looks directly at Lucifer. 

Lucifer leans back in his chair, “oh really? You don’t? Heh. Isolde, you do realize being a rogue angel isn’t a good thing right?” He taps his fingers on his knee. 

Isolde lets out a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? Do you really think I am an angel?”

Lucifer, getting annoyed, “cut the bullshit. I can very clearly see your wings. How about you make it official and show me your halo.” 

The one holding the file sighs and shakes them in the air, “Sir, I tried telling you this. She doesn’t have-” 

“Shut the fuck up, Azerial.” Lucifer growls. Azerial shakes his head and continues reading the file. 

“Even if I had one, I wouldn’t show it to someone like you.” Isolde gives the man a cold look. 

Lucifer bolts up, his single wing shooting out. He grabs Isolde’s neck and hoists her up to force her to maintain eye contact with him. “Has anyone ever taught you to respect your elders?” His grip tightens. 

“Yes.” She licks his knee, forcing him to drop her back to the ground. “But you are not one of them.” Her sword manifests from fluttering snowflakes around her hand. 

Lucifer angrily makes his broken claymore appear in his hands, he then bolts at Isolde. She puts her sword up and blocks his incoming attack. He was coming at her with such force that they both slid across the room. “Do you know what happens when a rogue angel doesn't comply with either heaven or hell?” 

“Oh please enlighten me.” Her eyes narrow in on him. 

He puts a little more force into his blade, “they die.”

With the aid of her wings, she uses force to push him away. The man skids back a couple of feet. She waves her arm and casts a blizzard around them. She hides in the blizzard and launches herself at Lucifer. The blizzard starts slashing into his skin, then she attacks with her sword. Lucifer notices her for a split second and grabs her sword-fighting arm by the bicep. Suddenly a giant cuff appears around where he was gripping her and a tight chain intertwines around her arm, attaching itself to her sword. She lets out a scream of pain. 

Her wings and talons suddenly vanish. Little did she know her eyes were changed and she had normal irises and pupils. The pain in her arm nearly immobilized it. She tried to turn into an owl, but it failed. A slight panic starts to sit in. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” She holds her right arm. 

Lucifer laughs softly, “I thought it wasn’t fair that you had both your wings and could fly. How unfair is it that I only have one wing and can’t fly? Exactly. Though, I do have to say how fascinating it is that you seem to be an angel that can turn into an owl. How does it feel not to be a little birdie?” He smiles creepily. 

Isolde’s arm shakes from pain, thinking to herself that she doesn’t actually need her sword to win. When she had gotten there, she noticed there was an everlasting blizzard outside. She could use that to her advantage. 

“What’s the matter little birdie? Can’t fight with your soul bound to hell?” He continues chuckling, then sees the amount of pain his opponent is in. “Oh? Are your chains a little tight? Oopsie.” He holds up his claymore and tries to smash it down at her, but she hops onto her feet and backs away. The claymore shatters the floor and pieces fly everywhere. 

“For a skinny man, you sure have a lot of strength.” She says, admiring the damage to the floor. “I know a lot of claymore fighters. They seem to be more in control of their weapons than you are. You seem to stand in one place, you lack movement. Are you clumsy or something? Or is it the lack of wings holding you back?” She then glances at his weapon. “Your blade is broken. The fact that you never repaired it proves to me you are weak of mind.” 

She then casts another blizzard into the room, hiding within it. With the chain around her arm, she can be spotted easier. She sends some snowflakes in his direction and it slices into him. He starts to get annoyed with his opponent.

“You’re not the only one who can use ice, little birdie.” He raises his arm, trying to summon some ice, but it fails. He didn’t realize that she had taken control of the blizzard and snow in hell. He breathes heavily, getting angry with her. “You’re really getting on my nerves, little birdie.” 

Still in her snow, “Let me ask you something about your claymore. Could it be you don’t move much because that weapon of yours is sooo heavy that it is making you slow?” 

Lucifer, getting super agitated, loses track of her in the blizzard. “SHUT UP!” He screams at her. He then spots her chains again, “I can see you, little birdie. It’s a mistake thing you can try this one me again.” 

Isolde, still hiding within her blizzard. “I am warning you. Stop calling me a LITTLE BIRDIE!” She yells, finding herself getting a bit more aggressive than usual. 

Lucifer is still following her gaze. “If you continue to get worked up like this, I’ll have to perma freeze you. That’s what happens to the aggressive souls who can’t calm down.” 

Isolde takes a deep breath, “No. I will not let that happen to me again. I will not lose this fight either. I will not lose a pointless battle again.” 

Lucifer snickers, “oh? Did you lose a fight before? Did you end up frozen for a long time? Little birdie, you should let this be a wake-up call. What do you say, little birdie? Be a good little angel and let me put you out of your misery already.” 

Time stands still a second, Isolde raises her left arm up. She senses a great force of wind and snow and forces it to crash into the wall. It blasts a hole into the wall, making a wicked storm enter the room. It helps her hide better from her opponent. “First off, I told you not to call me little birdie.” She sneaks up behind him, slamming her left elbow into his back. It causes him to lose balance. “Second, I am not an angel.” Isolde gets back behind him, then supports her right arm with her left, and thrusts her sword into Lucifer’s back. “I AM A GOD!” Ice starts to appear around Lucifer’s body. The chain and cuff around her arm shattered, leaving her in immense pain. She then yanks the sword out of him with her left arm, the ice has covered him completely. 

Isolde collapses to the floor, clutching her right arm, screaming out in pain. The man with red hair and the other with a hat walked over and got her up on her feet. They moved her away from Lucifer and placed her on his throne, having her sore lay on the armrest. 

The little girl runs up, practically vibrating. “WE FINALLY HAVE A QUEEN!”

“Hey, my name Azerial.” The main in the hat says, “I’m going to be healing your arm. But it will take a couple of days. If you’re worried about being a missing person any longer, you can leave. I will find you and continue treating you.” 

She doesn’t answer. For the first time in a long time, she found herself completely exhausted. 

“Isolde… Do you know what it means now that you defeated him?” Azerial asks as he hovers his hands over her arm, reducing the pain from the hell chains shattering. 

“No, I don’t.” 

“It technically makes you our queen. But since you’re the god of snow in your world, it means you’re the god of hell.” He says. 

Isolde leans back in the seat, taking a moment to think. She then has a major realization, a revelation really. She grins, “You know, I could take advantage of this.”

[i-am-vita]

A promise is a promise! (even if it wasn't a promise but a suggestion XD). I'm still newbie in the NSFW writing department but working on it 👀

Beckman at the Bathhouse

Getting the shift at the front desk of the bathhouse may be boring to most of your coworkers but for you it never gets old. You never know what kind of people may visit and you have to be on your best to deal with the unexpected.

Like the scary man with the giant sword and resting bitch face from the morning who booked a room for the weekend. Or the beautiful woman from an hour ago who came looking like she hadn't slept for a week, no luggage but a small hip bag, paid in cash for a room and a bath "as soon as possible, please" and didn’t wait for you to give the protocol speech.

And now a whole crew of sailors asking for rooms with direct access to the hot springs and your best sake.

This group looked like trouble, not the evil but the mischief one. Especially the redhead with the strawhat and the wide grin. But it was a calm dark haired man who approached your desk to ask for the accommodations.

You couldn't help but admire his tall, dark and serious countenance and the tense pose of his broad shoulders that speak of tension as much as the lines of concern in his face.

Poor man looks like he may need the rest the most out of the group.

You called through the Den Den Mushi Comms for more staff to host the group and guide them to his rooms.

While his crewmates were distracted, and after paying for the week, the dark haired man discreetly passed you an extra little wad of berries in the highest denomination.

“For the inconveniences…”

“Oh, sir, there’s no need.” You add in a low voice since the man seems to want to be discreet. “We are fully prepared to attend big groups…”

“Believe me, miss, you’re going to need it.” He explained with a pained expression on his handsome features.

“That bad, uh?”

“You have no idea. I may double it by the end of the week.”

You couldn’t hide a small chuckle. One way or another, big groups always cause a certain amount of trouble. You wish all of them had at least one person this thoughtful.

“How considerate of you, mister…”

“Beckman… Benn Beckman, miss.”

“Mr. Beckman… One last thing.” You called him, recovering your professional manners. “If you have a Portable Den Den Mushi with you, it may not send or receive any outside signal at the island but the tower at the beach does if you need to make a call.”

He gave you a little nod and followed his crewmates to their designated room, some of them not even waiting to start getting rid of their shirts, including Beckman giving you a full view of his muscular back.

A little gasp escaped your mouth before he disappeared through the hallway.

.

Five minutes later you heard the very telling sound of a delicate wood wall being torn down.

That was fast.

The junior staff looked at you like their savior (you being the only senior staff currently on shift) while you walked down the hallway to the current room of the group and knocked on the door.

The sliding door was opened by Beckman who seems to be the designated manager of the group. The movement left his arm up, the posture making his bathrobe open and stretch over all the right places of his well built torso and you were at eye level of most of them.

It took you a certain amount of seconds to look up.

Eyes up, woman. Do not drool on the guests during your shift. You chastised yourself.

You work at a bathhouse. He wasn’t the first half naked man you were in front of. In fact, the room was full of men in different states of undress, as you could see over Beckman’s shoulder. Along with the destroyed wall through which you saw the redhead embracing the woman from an hour ago like some lost lovers who find each other again.

As far as you knew, that could be the case.

“Ehm… Apologies, miss. It has started.” Said the man with a little grin that contrasted with his previous serious countenance.

That small gesture on his lips turned the lonely butterfly flying in your stomach into a full swarm.

“So it seems. Was there another damage or some injury?” You tried to recover your professionalism by assessing the situation.

“No, miss.”

“Then you seem to be doing better than most of the usual incidents.”

“Aye, I hope that cash is enough for this one.”

“Oh, do you happen to have more taken into consideration?”

“You have no idea.”

Much later, Beckman would confide in you that he has an unusual amount of savings prepared for any sudden incident and property destruction.

“Then I’ll leave you to it, mr. Beckman.”

“Just Beck, please. We'll be seeing each other quite often in the coming days.” He said, widening his grin.

For business, he means business. Do not read into that!

“Of course, mr… Beck. Have a nice day. We’ll deal with the wall while you are at the springs.” You answered before walking away from the door without noticing the man’s eyes fixated on your retiring form.

You may think you controlled your facial features well enough but you couldn’t hide the soft blush on your cheeks or that little gasp from the interested gaze of the Redhead’s First Mate.

.

Ten minutes later, a very flustered junior staff member was at your desk mumbling something about having been retiring the pieces of the wall from the crew’s room when something came up.

You took pity on the kid and walked to the empty room to seek the problem just to find two other staff standing at the entrance equally flustered. Your unspoken question was answered by a feminine moan coming from the other side of the slightly ajar door that led to the hot springs through which you could peek at the bright red hair of a man in a passionate embrace with a woman.

With all the composure you always have as a hospitality professional (tall, dark and serious aside), you walked to the door, closed it properly and prompted the staff to take out the rubbish and stop fussing like newbies.

.

That evening you were in much need of a break. Your shift finally ended with the return of the rest of the staff from their time off out of the island. Because of course you would have a mischievous group of sailors when you were short staffed.

Wall aside, they were just the usual big group troubles: extra moping, taking out the spare supply of towels and making an inventory of the food and drink a little earlier than usual so you were well stocked for their week. Even the drunk shenanigans were tamed in comparison to others. Guys were polite drunks if a little noisy but that was normal.

Judging by Beckman’s behavior, you expected some kind of catastrophe.

The worst was one of the guys falling and hurting his forehead a little, not enough to draw blood but Beck seemed concerned and went directly to you to ask for an ice pack…like getting out of the hot springs with just a towel at his hips kind of directly.

Eyes up, woman, eyes up!

But it was all in naught, your eyes having already made a path throughout his long legs and muscular thighs.

That he was in full dad mode making sure that his crewmate got the proper attention didn’t help either.

And that he thanked you wholeheartedly and apologized again for inconvenience by taking your hand and kissing your knuckles almost got you as flustered as the poor juniors from some hours ago.

The shift change couldn’t arrive soon enough but when they did you briefed them into the day’s events and walked away to your favorite spot on the beach, lying on a towel to unwind and enjoy the last sun rays.

The sounds of heavy steps on the sand alerted you of the presence of a person. You turned to find Beckman walking towards you, though he was coming from the phone tower. The loose yukata courtesy of the bathhouse wide opened over his chest showing off his prominent pecs and abs all the way down to his belly button…

Why on all the Blues does he have to be that effortlessly attractive?

“Apologies, miss, I didn’t mean to startle you.” He said, smiling widely. Whatever tension in him from earlier has evaporated entirely.

“No need, sir. Feeling better?” You can’t help pointing it out.

“Just Beck, please. Sir or mister makes me feel older.” He reminded you of his nickname. “Did I look so bad earlier?” He made a little gesture to the spot beside you that you answered with a little nod of your head as an invitation to accompany you.

“Right, Beck.” You relished in pronouncing his nickname for the first time while he sat next to you. “Let’s say you looked quite preoccupied when you arrived.”

“Yeah, vacation time it’s normally when I need to be more focused instead of relaxed.”

“Oh, what changed this time?”

“Captain got back his babysitter and I can finally take time for myself.” He explained lying on the sand with his arms crossed behind his head.

That had to be the redhead and the woman from earlier.

“May I inform you that your captain and his girlfriend have already traumatized half of my junior staff.”

“And I’m thoroughly sorry for that.” Beck answered not sounding sorry at all with a wide grin on his lips.

“And I’m afraid he would have to pay the toll for frolicking in public spaces.”

Beck gave you a scandalized look.

“Is that a thing?”

You gave him a mischievous one.

“Maybe…”

“One way or another, we always have to pay for something.” He added with a resigned sigh.

“Does he give you a hard time regularly?”

“You have no idea.”

“So you keep saying.” You moved to rest on your side in a manner that you know enhances the curve of your waist and hips. Thanking past you for deciding to wear your favorite bikini.

Normally it wasn’t frowned upon to get close to a guest if one was discreet and out of their shift. It wasn’t a common occurrence for you but you couldn’t deny Beckman’s appeal and that it had been some time since you found yourself this attracted to a man this fast.

“I would like to get the idea…” You whispered in a sultry voice.

Beckman’s eyes went back to your face after having traveled through your figure. Him lying on his side, one hand supporting his head, mimicking your own pose. It really has been a while since he had time for himself and he wasn’t going to reject an advance from a beautiful woman. Afer all, he had spent most of the day assessing your reactions to him, even blessing poor Roux for giving him a reason to look for you after his little fall earlier.

“Oh… And how much of an… idea would you like to get?” He asked, bringing his face closer to yours.

“As much as you’re willing to share…” You answered before closing the space between your lips.

Beck’s free hand went to your waist to get you closer to him. Your own went directly to his wide chest, finally feeling the hardness of his muscles after being subjected to their sight all day.

He interrupted the kiss to gently place you on your towel. You took advantage of having both hands free to slide his yukata over his broad shoulders and roam over his skin, feeling the muscles of his back.

“Won’t we have to pay the frolic toll, too?” Beck joked while getting his arms out of the sleeves and letting you lead him to another passionate kiss.

“I got a pass… and may be persuaded… to give you one too…” You said between kisses while guiding Beck’s strong body over yours. Man was built like a fridge and his weight over yourself felt divine. His big hands fondled your thighs and guided your legs around his hips.

“Just one?” He asked, kissing down your neck to your cleavage and starting to slided the straps of your bikini with his mouth.

“As much as you can persuade me to give you.”

Benn Beckman was set to show how convincing he could be.

.

.

.

A request from the snail:

If anyone ever feels so inclined to ever write me a little gift...

...I have been feeling some kind of way about Benn Beckmann lately.

@sordidmusings @gingernut1314 @i-am-vita @writingmysanity @feral-artistry thoughts?

[theveryworstthing]

more Carot cards, this time from the Traveler’s Suite. Carot is a simple ttrpg where you and your opponent play as the travelers you pull from the deck as well as the world that wants to absolutely wreck them.  each side represents a different rabbit family and each family has a litter of 4 kits. the game is a journey of a year where both litters go out traveling, and the goal is to get as many of your siblings back home as possible while trying to use nature and circumstance to merc your opponent’s bloodline. you play 4 seasons, a season for each rabbit, and these seasons are like short stories of what happens when you and your opponent’s traveler meet on the road.

games can also be totally friendly collaborative stories, but y’know. rabbits.

even though you play with 4 traveler cards each, there are 10 in all to choose from in a deck. here are 6 of those cards because i still need to finish the rest but i really wanted to post something for the first day of spooky month. these are like the standard/classic designs you’d see on cards but there are variations all over the place because rabbits sometimes make personal decks to play with.

if you were into shady divination stuff these are the ones you would use though.

not that anyone on the island is doing that.

ahem.

here are some rough descriptions of each one:

The Wanderer: usually depicted as a cloaked rabbit carrying various bags and maps with dandelion seeds floating around them. their footprints are chaotic and distorted in reference to the fact that they never truly settle down and they face another, frighteningly familiar, traveler heading towards them on the road ahead who is smeared with blood. after all, those that wander all their lives have same destination as everyone else eventually. associated with dandelions.

The Orchid: the Orchid is usually depicted reclining on a tree stump by the roadside while flowering branches from other trees dote on them. their fur is lavishly dyed and wasp orchid flowers sit on their laps or are tucked between their legs (rabbits aren’t very subtle). nearby sits a book and a large bottle of refreshing liquid in reference to the knowledge, entertainment, cultural enrichment, and uh...hypothetical thirst quenching abilities of the trade. also usually some rocks shaped like butts or something in the background. rabbits. are not. subtle. and this is an indulgent card. associated with wasp orchids.

The Struggler: the Struggler is usually depicted as a rabbit covered in black armor studded with thorns and wearing a wolf-like mask. they carry a sword made of a giant wolf’s tooth and are being chased or nearly consumed by some shadowy thing with sharp teeth. they are always positioned between this thing and a field of small delicate flowers with swords lodged into the ground. this is a card of protection, strength, love, loss, having the universe try to literally bite you in the ass constantly, and is commonly linked to guard rabbits. associated with venus flytraps and wildflowers.

The Asshole: this fuckin’ guy. usually depicted as a punchable rabbit with blades pointed at them, posing as if performing for a crowd. they’re covered in wounds and falling apart but still going strong much to their enemy's’ annoyance. at least one hand is always covered in blood and held out proudly because they def did something to deserve this and they want everybody to see. just the worst. associated with burrs that get caught on everything you love and fuck you.

The Naturalist: the Naturalist is usually depicted standing in a clearing full of fruit, some rotted, some perfect. their clothes and horns blend into/resemble the plant life around them and they carry herbs, poisons, and teeth from other animals with them. a two headed worm eats fruit from their hand and chomps off a bit of them, usually a thumb. this is the card for rabbits who love nature with their whole heart but are also fully aware that it’s super gross and painful. like, really gross and really painful. but also? nice sometimes :) . an educational card. associated with various fruit in various states of decay.

The Mage: the Mage is...doin’ fine. this card is usually depicted as a rabbit standing under a fig tree full of black figs. their staff also has a halved fig with an eye in the center on top of it. they’ve got a few side effects from magical experiments and the tree is a little odd, but they’re doin’ fiiiiiiiiiine. mages are just freaky like that. associated with figs.

[powdermelonkeg]

So, BO2W Breakdown

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

Here we’ve got Ganon’s...energy taking over Link’s arm. Ordinarily, I’d call it Malice, but based on what it turns into, I’m just going to be calling it corruption. We don’t get much information from this scene besides this expression:

Link’s grabbing the corruption with his other hand, and wincing. It looks painful. I personally think it’s for cinematic effect that it was included, but it COULD be a gateway into a Phantom Hourglass sort of mechanic--Link has to function on a time limit, or using the corruption’s power could drain his life.

Next we’ve got a closeup of Ganondorf. F in chat to the rehydration theorists.

And the closeups of his jewelry. The only significant thing I can see is his necklace, which looks like a cross between the Gerudo symbol and a Fleur de Lis:

But what I’M most interested in is this tie on his belt:

For one, it’s WAY bigger than it needs to be, and that’s deliberate. Ganondorf’s got a jewelry aesthetic he’s already hit above; everything else is gold, why not this bit?

Most importantly, you can barely make it out, but the designs either look Sheikah or Zonai--they’ve got that same kind of swirly busy pattern to them. The red tint and tan-ish lines in it makes me think it’s possessed Sheikah tech.

Next, we’re shown Zelda falling. This looks like it happens right after these two caps from the first trailer:

So we reach for her as the ground collapses, and evidently, we fail to pull her back up. So my next question for that scene is going to be what the in-game reason is for us not diving in right after her. Maybe we won’t get one, since the appeal of the original BOTW was that you could fight Ganon whenever you wanted.

Up next, we’ve got a skydiving shot:

The first thing to notice is that Link’s pose while skydiving is just about identical to his pose in Skyward Sword:

Second is that, yes, he’s falling towards a floating island, and that in itself is noteworthy, but he’s FALLING. There’s something either above him that he jumped off of, or a force that carried him high enough TO fall, and I doubt Nintendo’s encouraging magnesis flying.

So, there’s a few options: Loftwings making a return (which is unlikely, but a hope I have), something like Revali’s Gale boosting Link up for a cinematic shot, indicating that the corruption arm has that kind of power, or islands higher than the one shown here.

Now the island itself:

In Skyward Sword, Skyloft looks like this:

And (spoiler alert) we loose this island here over the course of the game:

Now, it’s not a PERFECT 1:1 match, as most things between games aren’t, but a quick rotate and overlay shows it’s got the same kinds of shapes between the two. The same “W” shape along the eastern side, the same tiny island off the northeast point, the same relative edges.

Now, I don’t know what happened to the plaza at South Skyloft, or the Knight’s Academy isle, but it could very easily be drift away from the central island.

The presence of other islands through the clouds seems to support that theory. Now let’s look at Link here:

The outfit is new. We haven’t, to my knowledge, seen one of this design in other games. My gut reaction to this image was “oh, we go back in time and we’re the first hero now!” because it’s vaguely reminiscent of Tapestry Hero.

But upon closer inspection, that theory’s null and void. Under Link’s tunic in the image above, you can see that he’s still wearing the shorts he woke up in in the first game. So either Sheikah boxers haven’t changed in 10,000 years, or it’s taking place in present day. Jokes aside, I’m curious to know if the outfit he’s wearing is modeled after Tapestry Hero.

Next thing to point out is the obvious:

Link’s arm here looks less prosthetic and more...withered, I almost want to say. The corruption here’s made his hand look frailer, and armored them up with Zonai patterns before it fades out at his shoulder. Based on how the tattoos look, I think they’re an artifact of the corruption taking hold.

Also, the belt here:

Aesthetic purposes, or specific function? The presence of the second, smaller one on the side reminds me of Skyward Sword’s adventure pouch, which could be how the new game handles inventory size:

Next we’ve got another flying shot:

It seems like he’s flying towards Ruined Skyloft, and you can see the bottoms of islands above it, possibly meaning that the sky serves as more than just a hub world like it did in Skyward.

Now let’s look at the paraglider he’s using. It’s new.

This is how the paraglider looks in the original BOTW. It looks like we still have the Rito symbol in the center, but other than that, there’s a LOT of changes here.

First off is the color. We’re now blue and gold. The shade of blue makes me think of the Kochi Dye Shop’s navy blue:

So, possibly a dyeable paraglider?

The new pattern surrounding the Rito symbol makes me think that it’s combining the paraglider with Skyward Sword’s sailcloth:

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about the paraglider besides the handles looking like they’re made of bone. Craftable paragliders? God, I hope not.

Back to Link:

Here we have him in different gear than the last shot. He’s wearing the snow boots, he has a shield with a stylized Eye of Truth looking upwards, and he looks like he’s carrying a traveler’s sword and an unknown bow. The presence of the bow makes me think that the shield here is a lower tier item, rather than this game’s Hylian Shield equivalent.

Now, let’s get a better look at the horizon:

The trees here look a lot like the smaller trees you can find in Akkala, but there’s a distinct lack of red among them.

Then it looks like we’ve got some ruins at the furthest isle.

Whatever the rock formations are over there, they don’t LOOK natural.

Another thing I noticed is the bottoms of the islands.

These look a little too geometric to be natural, too. Now, this one, I’m a little muddy on, because it COULD be a stylistic choice. But it also reminds me of the Shrines if you clip out of bounds:

And a little bit of the dormant Gate of Time from Skyward:

My money’s on the cube-like nature of the islands’ undersides being deliberate, rather than just a far-off render.

And then there’s this thing!

What is it? It doesn’t look broken at all; look how nicely the roof(?) is kept. The ribbing on the sides makes me think it might be a Zonai thing, but the shape makes it difficult to figure out. A giant temple? An airship? A sloped coliseum? This thing haunts and vexes me.

Our next shot is presumably from one of the islands, based on the color. Here we can see that there are definitely ruins all over the place. Link is in the same gear as before, so I won’t touch on him.

This, however, has my interest. The design here has more geometric patterns--Zonai ruins?

We’ve got another one off in the distance here. Sky checkpoints, like Sheikah towers?

Now this guy here. There’s a LOT to look at. First off is the eye design, it’s the same sort of upward looking one that Link has on his shield in the previous shots.

The energy that’s pulling this thing towards its base looks like the same green energy that surrounds the arm holding Gan in place in Trailer One:

This stuff. That, plus the fact that the robot has to be pulled into its base rather than just existing, implies that either A: Link activates it himself, like a trial thing, or B: that the green energy here functions in the same way Malice does in the original BOTW.

This pattern at its base is intriguing, too. I don’t recognize the gold symbol in the center, but the green around it reminds me of the portals from Twilight Princess.

Which, yes, everyone’s already said that the Twilight Princess patterns look like Zonai things. But another thing this weird dial thing reminds me of is from Lanayru Desert:

On top of that, the color palette of this guy looks like that of the Lanayru Robots from Skyward:

BO2W robot on the left, Lanayru robot on the right. Given that Skyward is a lot more vibrant than other non-Toon Zelda games, I think this is a fair enough comparison to draw similarities from.

And then we get a closer view of the sky ruins from the last shot. I don’t know if the geometric pattern in the corner is a deliberate carving, or wear from time, but since the pattern looks ALMOST mirrored around the corner, I’m going to go with the former.

A better shot a few frames later. The robot has HANDS, which I do not like in any way shape or form. However, we get a better look at the sky ruins.

We haven’t seen this style of stairs before, to my knowledge. The pedestal out front looks like a light source, and it has the same floral egg thing the robot above has on each shoulder; the eggs could easily be a power source for Zonai tech. And at the top of the stairs, we see a pedestal, backing up the theory that these ruins function as our new Sheikah towers.

This is our next shot. Which...

Unikoblins. Can we talk about that? UNIKOBLINS.

Anyways, Link is here again in his old clothes. This is a very early game shot, because his right arm isn’t corrupted yet; this means we get to explore Hyrule before we embark on the main quest. Which gives rise to a question: Where’s Zelda?

The hopeful side of me wants to say that she’s a tutorial companion, like Navi or Tatl, at least for the beginning here. The pessimistic side of me thinks that she’s waiting for us at a predetermined location, and this is just part of getting to her.

Now the unikoblin structure itself is built on a Talus, meaning that the dev team at least intends to have more inter-monster interactions. But if you kill the Talus, does that mean that the base falls apart, or does it just drop down as a separate entity?

Also, what are these background ruins? The one on the left looks like it’s a distinctly different style than the one on the right. It looks almost like a giant guardian arm.

Our next shot is Link’s arm getting corrupted. Which, first of all, the effects look beautiful.

Now, we can see a corner of Link’s hip here, and we know that this is his right arm. So Link’s lying down here. Unconscious? Knowing how Zelda games like to start with Link waking up, probably. Although it looks like at least part of his shorts got an update.

We can see what looks like circuits here. It looks a bit like the electricity puzzles you can find in the Divine Beasts and Shrines in the original.

Then we’ve got these strange symbols.

Whatever this circular stone he’s lying on is, it looks a lot like the Zonai puzzle from the “A Fragmented Monument” sidequest.

This one that everyone thought was the Mirror of Twilight for years.

Our next shot is Link using the corruption powers against enemies:

The spike ball itself looks solid; the question is, is this a duplication power, or a visualization of how the spike ball is set into motion?

We see it barreling over a poor Unikoblin or two, but I’d like to turn your attention to the Moblin and the background.

The moblins here have helmets, and the bases, while they carry the same design, look like they have more cause and effect in mind. The left base’s rock, for instance; that’s a lot bigger than the rocks we got to play with in the last game, and it looks like we can barrel anything in the screen over with it.

The helmet, though, concerns me a little bit. It looks natural rather than forged; like it’s the moblin’s horn, just very much deformed. Does it mean a harder enemy, or is it just for flavor?

Our next shot is this strange flower thing. Note that Link’s right arm is perfectly fine in this shot, meaning that it’s still early game.

This is what Link’s flamethrower looks like. And this:

Is Zonai art.

So the question is, what IS the flamethrower? My first thought was that it’s either a new item in its own, or it’s a Sheikah Slate upgrade. The latter might sound a little far fetched, but Link in this game is right-handed, and in BOTW, he always held the slate in his LEFT hand when using it.

We have more of the weird faded designs that we saw on the Sky ruins:

And we’ve got some kind of pedestal or stage behind the ground flower thing:

It looks like it’s either an altar or a grave, from what I can tell. The stairs aren’t the same design as the ones in the sky, and there aren’t any patterns on it.

More importantly, though, is that this place is underground. This could be a part of the game you’re required to go through, in order to get to Raisin Gan.

A few seconds later, though, we get our answer to what the flamethrower is!

It’s a shield!

Off to the left side, we can see pillars with more weird scribblings towards the top. These match the Sky ruins’ pillar shape, with a narrow base and a wider top.

Our next scene is...weird.

We see a puddle splash in reverse. It’s hard to tell if it’s actually water or not, but the design on the ground implies that it’s either been there for a long time, or that that’s a dedicated splash spot. And the quality and zoom makes me think that this is part of a cutscene. Return of the timeshift stones?

We then see Link...surfacing out of the island? I don’t know how else to describe it. However, his arm is changed again, and glowing, meaning that this is a corruption power. And the “water” he rises out of here looks a lot like the puddle in the last clip.

We get a good look at the Zonai Lights:

A Sky ruin that looks like it contains a room:

And a glimpse of other isles’ ruins in the far distance.

And then as the camera zooms out...

We can place a location!

We’re right over Thundra Plateau!

We also get a mildly better look at the back wall of the sky ruin, which looks to be some kind of table:

The next scene is Hyrule Castle:

The ground shakes and it starts to rise up. However, notice that the columns surrounding the castle are now missing.

We’ve also got red sparks in the air, like we would have in a blood moon. However, due to the sky color, we can assume that this is a conscious decision by Gan himself, and that he isn’t drawing power from his surroundings.

We then see that power bleeding out of the ground. It’s MUCH more red than Malice is, which has always been a kind of burnt pink-ish color.

However, even though Ganon lifts the castle up, he doesn’t lift it very high.

The castle’s about triple the height it was. But since we’re talking Skyloft levels of floating islands, this is still pretty ground-level. What’s interesting to me, though, is that in this shot, despite the game now being about sky islands that we should be able to see from ground level...there aren’t any here. This, to me, means that there’s going to be a sudden appearance of the isles in the sky, rather than them simply being accessible now.

And that’s the whole trailer! I have many questions.

My blog! If you have any opnions/questions/theories, feel free to drop an ask!

Part 2 is up! We missed a lot!

[tooweirdforyou]

Mihawk Having A Strained Relationship With His Masculine! Daughter

Request : sorry if this is VERY specific but can i request a scenario or headcanons where mihawk has a daughter who is very masculine and dresses very princely that people often mistake her for a boy. (bonus if she has a pet raven🥺) and she acts like mihawk but she hates being compared to him because their relationship is strained because mihawk was always busy with other things when she was growing up. but mihawk tries his best to get back on his daughter's good side and so they can be close again ??

A/N : tried something different- do you prefer me posting fics this way or the way I had prior? - thanks for requesting, I hope I did this right. ;-;

I deeply apologize if this seems offensive somehow. It isn’t my intention at all.

Summary : Mihawk attempting to fix his relationship with his masculine! daughter.

-

“So strong-looking and stoic. As expected of Hawkeye Mihawk’s son.”

“Son? I recall him having a daughter.”

“Is it a daughter? He doesn’t look like a female..”

Hearing the many whispers among the crows, you tilt your head to the left to eye them, your sharp, empty and intimidating eyes startling them.

Immediately the two strangers kept their mouths shut and strolled off before you could do anything to them.

Exhaling out in annoyance, you turn back to your teacup, handle gripped between your fingers.

Karasu, your raven, sat on the edge of the table in front of you, standing still and waiting for you, whilst basking in the shade given by the umbrella hung up.

You sat outside alone, hoping to be given the peace of quietness on this island you passed by,

but of course, being the only child of the strongest swordsman in the world and a Warlord, you definitely weren’t going to be allowed that.

Dracule Mihawk..

Dracule [Name]..

You despised the name.

You absolutely hated everything that made you related to the infamous swordsman.

It seemed obvious to you as well, that Mihawk despised being related to you. Being your father.

There was never a time where Mihawk would venture away from his castle and not be questioned about you. About his thoughts on your growing strength and fame in the New World.

Same with you. You weren’t sure how news even came out that you were related to him, considering the amount of effort you put to cut ties with him.

Yet people knew, and people asked questions. Lots and lots of questions. Irritation grew easily with you when Mihawk’s name was heard at all.

Even Marines were getting involved with you, even if you weren’t a pirate.

Just merely a traveler, attacking both pirates and marines that stood in your way and to cure boredom.

You never were and never will be given a normal life.

“... Let’s get going, Karasu. Before we get kicked out for scaring customers away.”

The caw of your raven was heard and you smile slightly, the corner of your lip twitching upward as you let him rest on your shoulder before standing up.

Glancing down at your reflection in the small teacup, your lips curl back down into a slight frown, seeing the resemblance indeed, to your father.

“Tch.”

You poured the tea onto the ground and slammed the cup on the table, sucessfully shattering it.

The mutterings didn’t stop. Not that you expected them to. But it was irritating.

Didn’t these people have anything better to do then constantly talk and gossip about you, right in front of you no less?

“Should we get going to our next trip?” You mumble, walking around the coast of the island you were on, needing some peace from the citizens in town.

Mindlessly wandering, your thoughts were interrupting by a messenger bird.

( I forgot what it’s called— it’s not a news coo right? )

Karasu cawed at it, the messenger bird cawing back as it flew down towards you, and dropped an item into your hands.

“A delivery? From who?”

It was a letter, along with a eternal pose.

To Kuraigana Island.

Immediately recognizing the name, your grip tightened on the item, frustration and even anger quickly building up at you at the sight of it.

Leaving it alone for the moment, your eyes turn to the letter.

No signature or anything of the sorts. Just your name.

“[Name].”

Scoffing slightly, you carefully held the eternal pose and opened the letter and read it, the smallest part of your praying it wasn’t what you thought.

-

“[Name].

I heard you were in the area. I apologize that I cannot come see you in person, as I am occupied with other matters. However, I’d like to speak with you. Come to my castle and we shall discuss matters. I’ve sent you an eternal pose to guide you. Expect to see you soon.

Best Regards, Mihawk”

-

You then turn to the eternal pose, the engraving of the island name across it. You wanted to break it, destroy it completely from your sight but you couldn’t. You didn’t know why.

After disregarding you, throwing you off and pushing you aside to focus on himself, always neglecting you, why.. why did he want to patch things up now?

The whites of your knuckles were seen from how hard you were gripping the letter, nearly crumpling it.

“Tch. All these years, why now?... doesn’t even have the decency to come see me himself.. ‘other matters’..”

No matter how much you wanted to ignore the letter, to shatter the eternal pose and completely ignore your father forever.. you just couldn’t.

Something in you was demanding to see him one last time.

Either, to hear what he has to say, to finally ask him why he even had you if he wasn’t going to care for you, or perhaps shout at him for all the pain and misery you’ve been given being his child, you weren’t quite sure.

“Damn it.”

Crushing up the letter into a ball, you shove it into your pocket and glance down at the eternal pose.

You were going to visit him.

“Holy..shit..”

Admittedly, you were in awe.

Perhaps it was because you didn’t remember much, but the island was probably one of the best things you’ve ever seen.

The appearance seemed gloomy and dark, but it was just your style. The many trees that surrounded the center of the island and the giant castle with a beautiful view, you were sure of it.

Forcing yourself to ignore the actually really cool place, you trudge forward to look at the letter in your hands, Karasu resting on your shoulder.

“It’s not that cool.. we’ll take a look around after we see what the hell he wants from me..” you could only scoff so you wouldn’t give in to the aesthetic.

But it looked really cool.

Sighing, you continue forward and finally made it to the gate fo the castle, just to find someone sitting there on the step, holding three swords.

He was laying down, panting heavily. His green hair and forehead was soaked with sweat.

Though, it seemed as if he heard you because he snapped up within seconds and held out one of his swords towards you.

“Who the hell are you?”

Your brows furrowed at the male. He seemed around your age, or maybe a bit younger. Either way, he was weird.

“Uh.. I’m here for Mihawk.” You mutter, clearly not threatened nor intimidated by him. In actuality, the swordsman was a bit taken back.

To him, you were just some guy with weird tastes in clothes, since they seem so fancy and royal, and had such a dark aura, resembling Mihawk.

“What’s your business with Hawkeye Mihawk?”

“Are you his guard dog or something?”

The swordsman only scowls are your retorted question and clicks his tongue. “I’m his apprentice, dumbass.”

It made him even more annoyed at your stupid raven constantly staring at him with its sharp eyes and cawing every few seconds towards him.

“Like I’d know that, you stupid...green-hair weirdo.” You stare at him weirdly before walking past him before he could say anything.

He started to shout a few profanities but you simply ignore him, passing a pink-haired female with an umbrella and a teddy-bear along the way, but you paid no mind to her or her stares and calls.

Rubbing your temple, you started to question your choice of coming, and your ‘father’s’ choice of apprentice and his pink-haired girlfriend, you were assuming.

Looking around the hall as you walk, you just sigh and admired the interior design whilst muttering on how the hell you were supposed to know which room he was in.

Feeling lost, you groan a bit, turning to Karasu. “Karasu, should we just go? I have no idea where the hell I am.”

Finding a door, you walk over to it and open it abruptly, pushing it open just to find the person you were looking for.

The noise made Mihawk look up from his book in his hand and he stands up almost immediately when he realizes who it was.

“...”

“...”

You two just stared at each other, unable to say anything. Unable to handle the silence, you just turned and went to walk out, until he spoke.

“[Name].”

It nearly made you jump but you, fortunately, didn’t.

Slowly turning back, Mihawk gestures to the couch with the tilt of his head, before going over to a table drawer.

Whatever he was doing, you ignored as you reluctantly close the door behind you but let Karasu outside of the room to wait.

Slowly and cautiously, you went over to the couch and just stood beside it, not really feeling the need to sit down.

Mihawk returns, clutching a small wrapped box in his hand.

“...how was the journey? Did you come across any unwanted miscreants?”

“..naturally. It was handled with ease.. the journey was fine.” You mutter, forming your lips into a tight line as you frown.

Mihawk nods once at you and eyes your form, while you eye the box, wonder what it could be.

Then, he spoke up again. “Thank you for coming.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, I’m not expecting any good news to result from this. Whatever you want, just say it so I can leave.”

You turn away from him, establishing the harshness and bitter feeling you felt towards him which he understood. He didn’t deserve any kindness you had to offer.

Though he didn’t voice it aloud, he was a bit impressed with how you grew up. You truly did seem like one powerful force to be reckon with, almost on the same level as himself. You had potential.

There was regret building up in him seeing you though. The fact that you grew up to be someone so strong like you were now..

.. but he didn’t aid in any of that. He wasn’t there and he couldn’t help raise you be the person you were now.

“Are you going to keep staring or start speaking?”

Though he didn’t appreciate your sass, he understood it. “I’ll get straight to the point then.”

“..I.. have no excuse for neglecting you.”

Mihawk admits, slowly taking a seat in his chair. He closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them.

“Other than that I’ve kept myself busy and away from you. I’ve been losing focus, settling matters on the side than focusing my attention on you.” He stood up again, gripping the box.

Your fists clenched at his words, mind recalling painful memories you’ve suppressed.

“But, before I could realize that I should be caring for you, you were already distant from me. I’ve became someone you despised even at such a young age.”

He continues, slowly stepping towards you as he holds out the wrapped box in his hand, which you slowly took.

“..You dress nice.” He nods at the outfit, appreciating the look. “I’ve had Shanks ask me if I had a son, since he’s also seen you on the news lately. I made sure he’d remember that you are my daughter.”

He didn’t judge you for looking so masculine. He accepted who you are as a person.

Finally stepping in front of you, gently placing a hand onto your shoulder.

“...Mi hija...I don’t expect you to forgive me.” He states firmly, looking down at you. You look up at him, trying to stay calm but it wasn’t working.

“But I’d like to be back into your life, a different way than the first time. However, I understand if you refuse it. Whatever you choose, I shall respect and go with you. I just want you happy.”

You weren’t the sentimental, emotional or sensitive type, but, tears slowly brimmed your eyes hearing him.

You hated the familiar ache in your chest, it pounding inside you and felt like it was ripping you to pieces..., yet, you weren’t angry.

Happy? He wanted you to be happy?... what did feeling happy feel like? Was the thought of finally having this father figure back into your life after missing it for so long, a reason to be happy?

Quietly, you just look down at the box that has your name written over it.

Opening it, you lift the top up and saw the all too familiar necklace inside. A gasp escaped your lips as you look up at Mihawk, realizing what it was and you whispered out.

“You’re giving this to me?” There was a hint of confusion and skepticism in your tone.

Mihawk nods. “I’m handing it down to you.”

Carefully, you lift up the mini cross and pull out the blade inside it and poked your finger, seeing it pricking the skin with ease and blood trickling down.

It was the real thing. And it was just as amazing as you always expected.

You close it back up and set it down onto the table beside you, forcing yourself to contain your excitement.

Though you hated him, you often saw photos of him and saw his familiar cross. Even when you were younger, his mini blade in his cross was extremely cool to you and you always wanted it.

And now he was giving it to you.

“Father, I..”

“I’m aware I may not have been the best father. But I plan on being a good one from now on.. if you’ll allow me to.” Seeing how serious and stoic his expression was, made your tears start to stream down your cheeks.

You were silent for a minute.

“..why now?”

It was all you could ask, you wiping your tear-stained cheeks as you look down, uncertain of how you should react.

How could you react?

Were you willing to give this man a second chance into your life, after he blatantly ignored you the first time?

Or were you going to reject the opportunity of finally experiencing what having a father was like?

Mihawk stares at you for a moment, an unreadable expression across his face before he closed his eyes. “..I’ve been watching you through the news, watching your bounty grow.. I.. I’m proud of how far you’ve come and how much you’ve grown.”

Your eyes widened.

Proud?

Tears streamed down your cheeks faster, your shutting your eyes tightly. You’ve never had someone say they were proud of you for something.

And even if Mihawk was barely in your life, the fact that he was your real father and trying to get back into your life... hearing him say he was proud of you just hit different. It snapped something in you.

“I hate you...”

Mihawk was a bit taken back but showed no emotion, slowly closing his eyes as he accepted your decision.

“I hate you for not being there for me. For not being my father when I needed you.. for leaving me alone for [—] years. For focusing more on yourself than your own child.”

He listened to every word, feeling a small pang in his heart with each statement but remained silent for you.

“But..”

You stare at him with teary eyes and a strained expression. “I’m so happy.. I’m so happy you’re changing.. to bring yourself back into my life.”

Mihawk widens his eyes just slightly, feeling an unknown heavy weight lifting off of his shoulders.

And he certainly didn’t expect you to wrap your arms around his waist tightly and hug him.

Though he was a bit uncomfortable since it was so sudden, and he wasn’t the affectionate type all too much, he quickly relaxed and wrapped his arms back around you.

“Thank you..father..”

“I should be thanking you, [Name].. for giving me a chance to be your father once more.”

His comment only made you lean closer into his touch as you shut your eyes tightly, sniffles being heard from you and staining his shirt.

But he didn’t care. Mihawk was happy. Happy to have you back into his life, and getting a second chance at fatherhood.

bonus :

Perona and Zoro peek into the room from the door and watch the two hugging in the center of the room. On top of Zoro’s head sat your raven, using his hair as a nest.

“So who the hell is that?” Zoro bluntly questions and Perona flicked his head and hissed to shut him up, successfully making him quiet.

“That’s his kid, you moron!” She whispers out harshly to him as she turns back to the two.

“Why the hell is his kid here?” Zoro mutters quietly, rubbing his head, but he only received a smack.

A/N : ooc~ also wth, this is so much longer than intended— and ugh I told myself to keep it short and do headcannons so I have more time to post but ahhhhhhh ;-; this is a little rushed too~ TuT

Also let me know which way is better for posting fics. Answering it in a ask or posting it as a separate post and copying / pasting the request like so? ^ thank you!

god, I’m so soft for some platonic relationships right now, like, I’m thinking about making an event for that, when it’s near March. But I’m already doing an event for my birthday AND White Day, in March so idk :((

[unproduciblesmackdown]

this isn’t the most straightforward interpretation of “why a giant swan made of light appears to rue before mytho kind of casually phases out of that swan” but i choose to hc that, actually, yes he Can choose to assume the form of a giant swan made of light at his convenience/discretion

like, not like we didn’t have the instance (twice, now) that one of tutu’s sort of like, alternate forms is A Giant Swan Made Of Light, so who knows maybe it’s meant more like “here you go, riding the wave of hope magic to transport you here for this moment” or just that he has to magically get from point A to B somehow and why not have some extra detail about it looking cool and throwing in another Swan visual to do so....etc etc. but also we do know that mytho and tutu Share Powers so why can’t he also be a giant swan made of light voluntarily like he can choose to use the plant/flower magic himself. and the whole implication that [at least some original tutu Essence] is legitimately contained in his physical magical gem heart which sorta goes hand in hand with them sharing powers. i choose to interpret all this as “mytho can also be a giant magic light swan” because that would be sick and i want that (and also b/c 4 min ago i was like “gee it’d be cool if he could bust out some like Special Power to drive off the raven when it kills lohengrin b/c what are you gonna do, Not?” and Hmm)

couple more [fond pairs of screenshots] b/c where else would i put them

thank you to a buffering pause like hell yes. epic (only now did i finally pick up on his cape being secured behind one shoulder and at the waist....big shoutout to practical rhombus swan battle dance outfit. panache)

love whoever designed his sword like Sniff it’s so beautiful w/the Wings Outstretched Swans guard and the heart formed by the necks/heads and the tiny crown detail and it’s Such a pain to draw lmfaooo.....cherish this v nicely dramatically executed moment, joke’s on anyone not actively appreciating pt’s music selection And how it uses that soundtrack......also always a bonus for me when the Milo Expression shows up in the wild, the one i am always drawing. you know like (8o as it were. raised eyebrows / wide eyes / mouth slightly open. :o and bless the ballet posture completely unironically (why would it be ironic i watched this series B/c of the ballet) like sob looks great....imagine if he was just standing there Not striking this pose, where’s the dramatic impact. thank u king