#Maybe dinosaurs and birds would be better jumping off point

[esamastation]

I wanna draw some dragons but I don't know how yet so I'm learning to draw komodo dragons as a jumping off point and their skulls are... interesting

[votederpycausemufins]

another chapter of the ‘we summoned Tommy and now we found out Grian’s family” fic. this chapter is very long.

also warning, there are some references to sui//cide, but it’s never directly mentioned by name.

Phil tried to ignore the way his chest hurt at the name that had been said. Sure, biologically Grian was his son, but it had been years since they had seen each other, and he had grown up with different people who became a new family for him. And he understood that, but it still hurt that the avian thought of someone else as his dad.

“Er, not quite.”

“Oh, okay,” Grian spoke, matter of factly. The two of them stayed quiet for a few moments before he spoke again. “You found me ‘gain.”

“That I did.”

“You didn’t stop lookin’”

“Nope.” Phil replied, though he knew it was a lie. Of course he always wanted to find his son again, but he had given up actually looking a number of years ago. It wasn’t worth focusing on one child and ignoring the others. But he supposed that’s sort of what happened anyway with him and Tommy. 

“That’s what I thought. It kept me goin’ on th’ really bad days.”

“Am I allowed to know what those bad days were?”

Grian was silent before shaking his head. “Hurts too much…”

“That’s alright mate. How about you talk about some other stuff.”

And so Grian did. Talking with Phil about some of the things he had done over the years. Eventually, Stress arrived and helped out, getting the bots up there with Grian and Phil. At that point the stories stopped and Grian focused on his kids, who were glad for all the attention. Mumbo returned with Tommy shortly, also bringing Tubbo along, and soon Grian’s nest was filled, making him quite happy.

“He’s looking better.”

“Yeah, I think it was your admin who gave me the gist of things. He was tired and using his Watcher stuff which made him loopy.”

“Yeah, that would do it.” Mumbo shook his head.

“Hey, you know what that means?” Tommy asked, smirking and focusing his gaze on the bots. Jrumbot smiled and pulled out some pumpkin seeds, which Grian quickly pounced on and started eating. “That part of the bird stuff is great.”

“And what part isn’t so great?” Philza asked, though for a moment he regretted it, thinking the teen wouldn’t respond and just stay quiet or get angry.

But instead he just crossed his arms and gave an over-exaggerated pouting face. “When he gets all mother hen or whatever and is super overbearing. The other shit is fine.”

“Tommy!” Mumbo huffed but the teen just waved him off.

“Oh come on, they’ve heard me say it loads of times. Jrum won’t risk saying anything cause you’ll just take some of his diamonds away.”

“Yeah! I won’t say stuff like that!” Jrum agreed, before suddenly Phil jumped and looked to see a few of his remaining feathers now in the small robot’s hands. “How much would I get for these Tommy?”

“I’m sure if you meet the right people you can get plenty for those. He’s like, trillions of years old, and not many people have them.”

“I’m not that old!” Phil complained, trying to grab the feathers back. He managed to pull one out of Jrumbot’s hand, but the rest ended up disappearing into whatever the kid had for an inventory.

“You’re right. You’re older.” Tommy taunted. “Old as shit. Dinosaurs are younger than you and they’re all dead.”

Philza glared at Tommy before his gaze fell on Grian. The other avian was still out of it, but getting better. Then he looked at Mumbo before rolling his eyes. “Alright Tommy, maybe so. But it means I’ve got more experience.”

Tommy paused, not used to the hardcore player agreeing with him about something like this. He looked over at the bots, who shrugged. It wasn’t like they had grown up with him. “Says the guy who let two mobs get the best of him.”

“Hey that was one time! And that was also years ago!”

“I’m gonna ‘gree, that’s pretty lame.” Grian spoke up, giggling a bit still. “I’m still alive af’er uhhh…” He started counting on his fingers. “I dunno! Lotta years with Sam!”

Mumbo, Tommy and the bots immediately froze up, looking between each other nervously. Tommy moved a little closer to Grian to make sure he had the avian’s attention. “Hey G? You sure that’s okay to talk about? I know normally you-”

“Pfft, it’s fine! Not like I died! ‘Stead I just hurt a lot, killed some pipul, selled some drugs, stuff like that!” Grian looked over to Philza, who was starting to regret staying around when everyone else arrived. “Ya know, almost didn’ make it. But I didn’ wanna disappoint you by giving up. Mmm… plus Gareth freaked me out too much ‘n I didn’ wanna be like him.”

“Okay Grian! I think you should really get to sleep now! We can talk about this more later! But don’t you want to uh…” Mumbo trailed off. 

“I can get the jukebox once you’ve slept!” Tommy continued for Grian who seemed to really like that idea. He finally laid down and before long he fell asleep.

It was still quiet for a bit, no one sure how to react to all of that at first. Phil and Tubbo were the quietest since they had little to no context. Because of that, they easily jumped when Tommy finally shouted and broke the silence. “Okay Mumboli, when the fuck were you going to tell me about that part of all that shit?!”

“First off, that would be something Grian would need to tell you, not me! Second off, I didn’t even know about that!” The anger on Mumbo’s face quickly turned to some sort of melancholy. “He didn’t even tell me. I mean, he had made some jokes, but I assumed that it was just from the situation. It does make sense he would think of… but…” The redstoner became quiet, his normally pale face much paler than before.

“Daddy?” Grumbot spoke up, making Mumbo look at the bots. Jrum was shaking a bit and Grum didn’t look quite so well himself. “I think Jrum and I should leave.”

“R-Right. Let me help you down.” The redstoner picked Jrum up to help him down the ladder, Grum still well enough to go down it himself. Before he left the platform though, he got Tommy’s attention and nodded towards Tubbo and Philza. “Try to fill them in. If Grian wakes up before I’m back, tell him what he did. He deserves to know.”

Tommy nodded, waiting for Mumbo to leave before saying anything. “So… Grian kinda got stuck in a fucked up place for a number of years. He’s told Mumbo a lot of stories and me some as well, but not everything of course. Basically, he had two friends. If he was me, one of them was like you Tubbo. But uh… the other guy was like Dream. Like, Dream’s an admin and all that, but this other guy was for the most part just a fucking normal guy around my age but he went off the deep end. G and the other friend escaped, but not for a long time. That place was a hardcore world, but they didn’t have potions or healing or whatever the fuck. I mean, there weren’t any mobs either, so death wasn’t at every corner. I mean I guess it was for G because the one guy was a psycho and murderer, but whatever.”

“Wait, are you telling me that this guy just lived with someone potentially worse than Dream for years?!” Tubbo asked while Philza was trying to comprehend it all.

“Uh, well they didn’t live with each other all the time, but yeah. But ‘cause it’s probably good for you guys to know, his main triggers are wearing blue as well as rabbits. If someone else is wearing blue, it’s fine, but if he’s wearing blue it freaks him out. With the rabbits thing, some of them being around are fine, but white rabbits especially freak him out ‘cause the guy was a hybrid.”

“Alright, noted.”

“One of the people most frustrated about it is Grumbot because, well you know how he just suddenly knew who you were, right Phil? They kinda first built him to help with the election here- long story, talk about it another time- and he’s able to look into a lot of stuff, but only based on political stuff. There wasn’t really anything like that with G’s first world. I mean, he gets fragments since Grian’s been a campaign manager before, but all that really comes up is empire stuff.”

“Uh, he had an empire? Was it anything like-” Tubbo timidly asked, glancing to the unconscious avian.

“Nah, basically he just built a big thing in the middle of the ocean and decided he would become the Grian Empire. The only other member was his friend- the good one- but he went off and made his own place pretty quickly. The worst he did is the TNT there was really volatile. If you so much as touched it after placing it, it would explode. He’s told the TNT shop story a number of times where he built the shop out of it and made the stock the walls of the shop.”

“Was that the first time he did something like that, or did it never go anywhere?”

“No that’s the thing!” Tommy started laughing. “He did it so many fucking times and someone still fell for it! That’s why it’s such a great story.” 

From there, Tommy continued to mostly tell lighthearted stories Grian had shared with him. He talked about the prank war and following civil war from the Hermits’ previous world. The hippies against area 77, the time machine, the build height battle. After that he brought up the head games, which freaked Phil and Tubbo out when he suddenly pulled out what at first appeared to be a severed head but was actually a very accurate mask. From there the election was talked about like Tommy had promised, and then the following turf war and its minigame battle.

“I showed up right after the turf war which I’m really glad about because it freaked me out enough just hearing about it. I can’t imagine having to learn what wars here were actually like while in the middle of it all. Instead when Grian visited me when I was holed up in his old place, he just kept talking about the mole people. Around then’s when I really started opening up, especially when Zed showed up.”

“Who’s that?”

“Sheep hybrid that makes contraptions instead of redstone. He made me a bed that just kills me instead of what it should.” Grian spoke up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He was still slightly groggy from just waking up, but the three SMP members could tell he looked rested and more lucid than earlier. “Where’s Mumbo and the kids?”

“He had to take them away.” Tommy answered, covering Tubbo and Phil’s mouths before they could say anything, even though they weren’t going to. “Grian, you were like, super out of it earlier.”

“Oh oof, how bad was it?”

“Well,” Philza pulled Tommy’s hand away from his mouth. “You mistook me for some person named Martin and asked me to swear loyalty to your empire. Then you called me some name resembling your admin’s name.”

“X eye sooma void?”

“Exactly.”

Grian laughed a little. “Yeah, a number of the hermits call him some variation of his name so I took it to the next level when I first showed up.”

Tommy put a hand on Grian’s knee and the avian looked over, smile falling from his face when he noticed the serious look on the teen. He immediately sat up straighter, worried for his brother. “Tommy what’s wrong?”

Tommy noticed the way Grian’s hand moved like it wanted to grab a weapon, something he had seen constantly when the two of them were alone at night and the avian was being overprotective of him when he could take care of himself. Well okay there was the factor that all the mobs here seemed to be stronger, but that wasn’t too bad. Grian asking Tommy’s name again pulled him from his thoughts and he immediately stopped Grian who was now actually reaching for a weapon. “No! No it’s nothing that bad! You’re going to freak out Big T if you do that!”

“Then what’s going on?!” Grian huffed, crossing his arms, mainly so he wouldn’t try that again.

“When you were really out of it, you said some things. Specifically from your high school stories.”

Grian looked a bit uncomfortable from that, but didn’t look too worried. “Okay. I- was I screaming? Did I scare the boys from that?”

Tommy shook his head. “No. You said something new. It- god G, not even Mumbo knew about it at first.”

Now Grian looked worried, eyes flicking between Tommy and the other two and he pulled his knees up to his chest. “Wh-which thing did I say?”

Tommy stood up, being the only one standing adding to his already tall height. “You mean there’s more shit you haven’t fuckin’ told anyone about?! Grian what the fuck?!”

Tubbo tried to pull Tommy back down, but the blonde teen resisted for a bit before falling back to the ground. “Tommy please. If it’s been this long and he doesn’t want to talk, it's obviously really bad.”

“No, you don’t know some of the shit Grian’s talked about. There’s nothing that could be that bad!”

“Tommy that’s enough.” Philza spoke coldly, making him and Tubbo freeze. “Grian’s not you. He decides what he’s going to talk about. Maybe to most people the stuff he talks about is worse than the stuff he hides, but obviously it’s different for him. So you’re not going to fucking yell at him and make him even worse.”

Tommy frowned angrily, but stayed quiet and slumped back. Tubbo tried to help calm Tommy down while Phil did his best to do the same with Grian. “So… can you tell me what I said? Grian tentatively spoke up, looking to Tommy, but Phil answered instead.

“You mentioned someone named Gareth and not wanting to be like him. Obviously Tommy and Mumbo knew what you were talking about, but me and probably also Tubbo don’t know anything and are still pretty clueless. We just know that it’s something bad.”

Grian let out a quiet ‘oh’ as he pulled his knees even closer to himself. “Um, after I disappeared, I ended up in a different world and made friends with some people named Sam and Taurtis.” Philza tried not to react as he recognized the second name. “At some point in high school I moved in with them, but before that it was just the two of them. They had a teacher named Gareth. He um… his wife was found killed and a lot of people thought he did it. He… got fed up with it and uh..” Grian shook his head. “The classroom was closed up when people found his, uh, body. They took that away but left… left behind what he used. There was one time I snuck in and thought about… you know. But his ghost showed up and freaked me out so I ran.”

After that, it was quiet, no one really knowing how to respond to that. Grian just ended up letting his feathers puff up and he hid in his wings, Tommy being able to wriggle his way in there. The wings ended up muffling a conversation the two had in whispers, though Tubbo and Phil could both hear a few curses from Tommy. Mumbo finally came up the ladder while they were doing this and was greeted by the two SMP members with a finger to their lips. The redstoner wasn’t planning to be loud since he didn’t know if Grian was awake again or not, but he still of course complied. He moved closer to the avian before putting a hand on one wing, Grian moving said wing out of the way to see who was there.

“Mumbo. A- How are the bots?”

“They’ve gone to bed. They seem like they’ll be fine.” Mumbo replied in a soft voice. “You can go back to what you were doing, I just wanted to let you know so you weren’t worried.”

“N-no, it’s fine. I… Hey Tommy, why don’t you show off your base.” When Tommy looked like he might refuse, Grian spoke again. “Please?”

“Alright, but not my fault if a war starts up!”

That earned a smile from the avian. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. Remember to bring scaffolding with you. I’m sure you can find some in the chests in the basement.”

“You mean the storage system, or the fucking chest monster.” Grian smirked an evil little grin. “Fuck you. Alright come on you two. You gotta see Cobble Tower.”

The two other SMP members each gave Grian a look of sympathy before going down the ladder behind Tommy. He led them down to the fireplace that was centering the main hall, but specifically to one side of it. “Alright, this is the quick way up and down.” The teen opened some trap doors revealing some sort of donut-shaped object. “There’s one on the other side, but this is the elevator or whatever the heck Zed called it. You sort of lie down in it like this.” Tommy climbed in, lying down in the small structure. “Then you just hit that button and-“

Redstone activated and suddenly Tommy was lowering out of view. He quickly pointed towards the other side of the fireplace before pulling his arm in so it didn’t get crushed. It took a few moments, but an identical mechanism appeared there, ready for Tubbo or Phil to get into. Tubbo was the first to get in and was soon following behind Tommy. Philza, on the other hand, took more time getting situated, trying to be careful of his wings so they wouldn’t get caught or pinched on anything. He was mostly sure it would be fine since this was Grian’s place and he was an avian, but at the same time, the hardcore player could never be too sure.

When he reached the bottom, Tubbo was busy freaking out over all the items filling the chests. And there were plenty of them. There seemed to be a storage system lining the room, but also plenty of extra chests strewn about. “Hey, Philza Minecraft! Help us look for scaffolding, or at the very least some bamboo and string!”

The avian rolled his eyes before helping the pair, the three of them gathering enough for each of them to have at least two stacks. From there he led them out of the mansion’s basement and around the back of it in the direction of his own base. “Okay, so I haven’t been here as long as the other guys, so my tower is still in progress, but it’s got a couple floors. I mainly stay at the hobbit hole that’s back the other way.”

Both of the SMP members expected to just see a pillar made of cobble, but instead, standing tall in the distance, was a mostly completed tower that looked like it belonged to part of a larger castle that was nowhere in sight.

“Mate what the fuck is that?” Phil stared at the tower. There was no way that was Tommy’s. Or at the very least, he hadn’t built it. He had been close to Grian and they had all just been at Grian’s mansion which was a feat on it’s own. Obviously the avian had been building this for Tommy.

“I said we were going to my tower. And that’s it.” Tommy gestured to the tower before he continued talking. “I gathered all the cobble myself but bought a lot of the wood. Yeah some of it I got myself and I got gifts here and there, but I got a pretty good business venture so paying for it is easy.”

“Business venture?” Tubbo asked.

“Yeah. Speaking of which, I think Bdubs said the shop was empty so I’ll need to refill. Once I show you guys around, I’ll probably fly over to do that.”

“Could I come with you?”

Tommy paused to look at his friend. “I don’t think that’s a good idea Big T. Everyone’s at the shopping district like all the time, and they fly everywhere too. They aren’t all avians like Phil and Big G, and they don’t use tridents all that often, so instead it’s elytra, and those use fireworks to work. I don’t know how you’ve been since I left, but I’m guessing you and fireworks still aren’t on the best of terms.”

Tubbo crossed their arms. “I can use fireworks when I need to. You know that.”

“Yeah, you can use them fine, but you get jumpy when other people use them.”

Before Tubbo could respond, a voice from further ahead piped up. “Hey Tommy my man! Who’re your friends?”

“Hey Ren!” Tommy ran over to his neighbor. “This is my dad and my friend Tubbo. They’re sort of visiting.”

“Nice to hear.” Ren lowered his sunglasses slightly to look at the visitors. “I’m sure X knows about them?”

“Yeah, I sorta got half kidnapped while hanging with Grian and they followed us back.”

Ren inhaled sharply with a wince, his ears folding back as well. “Oof, how bad did Grian scare them?”

“Phil got freaked out cause he did some shit to piss off Watchers in the past.” Tommy smirked while Philza rolled his eyes. “He kinda tried taking me back again as well as the bots. I seriously thought Grian might kill him until Grum kinda shouted at us.”

“Yikes, how bad did it get for him to do that?”

“We kinda kept interrupting him while he was trying to tell us something important.” Ren winced again from that comment. “Fortunately it helped calm things down a little in the violence department.”

“And in the other departments?”

Tommy pulled Phil over closer to Ren. “So Phil isn’t just my dad.”

Ren nodded. “Yeah, you said you had some brothers.”

“Yeah, he’s also Grian’s dad.”

Again, Ren nodded. “Okay, yeah that-” the wolf hybrid completely froze. “Grian’s dad?! But he’s your dad!”

“Yup.”

“But also Grian’s?!”

“Yeah.”

“So the two of you are-”

“Brothers, yup.”

“You know this explains so much my dude.” Ren ran his fingers through his hair as he stared at the avian with his new knowledge. “Who else knows?”

“Right now, Xisuma and Mumbo. Haven’t really gotten the chance to tell many others.”

Ren nodded in understanding. “Does this mean you two aren’t coming to triple H?”

At this point Tubbo finally spoke up. “What’s that? And also it’s nice to meet you. Tommy said your name was Ren?”

“Yup, Ren Diggity Dawg at your service. And it’s Hermits Helping Hermits. We try to meet up once a week to help out one hermit.”

“You say that, but we haven’t even done it once yet Ren.” Tommy piped up, making Ren frown.

“Well that’s how it’s going to work. Hey, if you want, these two could come along.”

“I dunno. There would probably be lots of flying.” Tommy shrugged before slightly gesturing towards Tubbo. 

“Tommy! I don’t need you acting so concerned for me! A few fireworks aren’t going to freak me out! Plus aren’t there unlimited lives here? Even if I do die I’ll just come back!”

Before Tommy could say anything in response, Tubbo took the elytra that were on Tommy’s back and put them on their own back. Ren seemed to be on Tubbo’s side, because he handed them some blank fireworks. He immediately lit one, which made them flinch just a little, but the next one didn’t cause them to have the same reaction. The only problem was while he was using the fireworks, he wasn’t getting into the air at all. “Uh, how exactly do these work?”

Tommy looked like he wanted to shout, but Ren spoke up before the teen could. “Elytra wings open up on descent, so you have to jump first. I’d say we get you some platform to test with before you try launching from the ground itself. Not even every hermit can do that right since you need to hit the sweet spot. Tommy’s pretty good at it though, but he’s got a good teacher.”

Tommy just rolled his eyes when Tubbo and Ren looked over at him. “Grian doesn’t use elytra, he uses his fucking wings.”

“He had to relearn how to fly in season six when he was still hiding his wings.” Ren pointed out and Tommy rolled his eyes again, though the sentence had caught Phil’s attention.

“Why was he hiding his wings?”

“Someone’s in parent mode.” Ren chuckled, which caught Phil slightly off guard. “I’ve heard that same tone plenty of times from X. Usually around the full moon.”

“Wait, so are you-”

“Werewolf, yeah. I know, most people just assume hybrid, and I kinda am. Anyway, to answer your question, he had apparently already gotten used to it in his older worlds. Even hanging around other hybrids didn’t help. He just had them hidden for so long that his standard was no wings. Iskall was the one to really get him with his wings out.”

“Iskall is Mumbo’s sibling, right?”

“Nah, unless we have another case of a surprise family connection. They had a business venture with Grian and Mumbo last season and the three have been really close ever since. They’re not officially related, but at this point they’re essentially all family.”

“I see, well what did he do?”

“They made a shop for hiring them as a hitman since they did that in the past. Someone ordered one on Grian and he got a plan ready and everything, but it involved outflying Iskall.”

“Good to know. I’ll have to meet with them at some point.” Phil nodded and Ren gave a barely noticeable wink at the avian correcting himself.

“Well, I’m sure I've held you guys up enough. If Tommy gives you any more trouble with flying, just shoot me a message.” Ren looked at Tubbo with his second comment, then he waved goodbye and headed off the other way.

Over the course of the next hour and a half, Tommy briefly showed off his tower, but for the most part it was Tubbo learning how to fly with elytra. Tommy was giving out pointers, but mostly was just freaking out whenever Tubbo did something that seemed even slightly concerning. Phil was doing his best to give tips, but wasn’t completely sure how elytra worked seeing as how he was used to just his own wings and hadn’t had access to elytra since they had been damaged.

By the end of the hour, Tubbo was flying pretty well, and Tommy was following nearby. When he had first gotten into the air, it had made Tubbo jolt, but before long, he had gotten acclimated to the firework’s initial sound with no following explosion. Tommy also ended up getting out a third pair of elytra for Philza to try. It wasn’t enchanted like the ones Tubbo wore or the backups on Tommy’s back, but it would do fine for a quick trip to the shopping district.

“Alright, you can explore the place as much as you want as long as you don’t go stealing anything. Otherwise I’ll have to pay for it.”

“You? Telling us not to steal?”

Tommy crossed his arms. “Yeah, no one does that here. I did a bit at the start, but you don’t really fucking need to. Even if you could just pay for shit at the shops, if you really need something, someone’s gonna show up to help you out.”

“Got it.” And with that the three of them flew over the ocean and to the island in the middle of it all. The place was littered with builds that surprised Phil and Tubbo. “These are all just shops?!”

“Yeah. You saw how big Big G’s mansion is. Just about everyone works at that scale. Even if they don’t fucking need to. You get used to it after a bit, it’s why my place is so big. You’d lose your minds if you saw Cub’s place.”

“I don’t even want to know mate.” Phil replied as they landed, sounding slightly exasperated at the thought.

“Right, well that’s my place over there.” Tommy pointed to a shop that looked more like a skyscraper and was near a number of similar buildings. “Most of the land in the actual shopping district is claimed, but Aquwu town still has lots of property.”

“What the fuck did you just say?”

“Aquowo.”

“Stop.”

“Aquwayway.”

“What’s the place actually called?” Tubbo piped up, making Tommy stop the joke.

“Just Aqua Town, but no one pronounces it like that. Even Scar, and he built the place. He normally calls it Aque Town.”

“I’ll be using that.”

“Suit yourself.” Tommy then walked towards his building. “You guys take the diamonds out and I’ll restock the place, okay? You can even keep a few of the diamonds.”

There were some nods of agreement and the trio went inside. Tommy put down his shulker boxes filled with stock as Tubbo opened the first chest, eyes going wide at the amount of diamonds in them. “There’s twenty-seven diamonds in this chest!”

Phil looked up surprised before looking in another chest. “This one too.”

“Well they said the place was all sold out.” Tommy responded as he opened up one of the shulkers and started pulling stacks of cobble out of it.

The avian noticed just what Tommy was grabbing and stared at it. “Mate, are you actually selling cobble for diamonds?”

Tubbo’s head whipped around to look away from the chest where he too saw Tommy pulling out cobble. “Not just cobble. There’s that, normal stone, andesite and granite.”

“And they buy that?”

“Yeah, at first I thought it was out of pity, until one day I got there to stock up and Bdubs was in there and was happy I was there. They all like building, but when they mine, none of the hermits bother to pick up all the stone since they normally fill their inventories with anything else and let the rest disappear. I make sure to go down with plenty of chests and put everything away, so when they need stone and shit, I’m the one they buy from.”

From there, Tommy and the other two stocked the shop. No hermits showed while they stocked, but one did show up just as they were leaving, Tubbo jumping back a little as the two of them nearly ran into each other, the wide eyed look of the hermit adding to the surprise. “Hey Keralis. Just stocked up so you’re good to go.”

“Why spank you Tommy. Who are your friends?”

“Tubbo and my dad Phil.”

“Will they be staying long?”

“Yeah, but Big G’s got them covered with housing.”

“Ah, Brian does have a good place indeed. But if they need a place to stay, I have plenty of room.”

“Almost too much. They’d be like me the first time I saw your place.”

“All the more reason for them to visit!”

“Right, see ya later.” Tommy followed behind Tubbo and Phil who had already slowly gotten ahead. He pulled out his comm and sent a message to Grian and Mumbo about where they were and where they were heading. Mumbo sent a reply that they would be coming over there soon with the bots, and Tommy put his comm away again. “Alright, I have a bit of land on a different part of the island, but it’s not really a shop. It’s more something I sort of brought over from the SMP.”

Tommy led them through the roads before they reached another area near the shore. Sand had terraformed the nearby land and various tables and chairs and other items were all over the place. But right next to the shoreline was a familiar piece of furniture that had Tubbo tearing up just a little. “You built the bench.”

“Yeah. Made it feel more like home sometimes. The rest of it is based on the beach party I held back in exile.”

Tubbo flinched slightly and looked down at the ground. Tommy was slightly confused and looked at Philza, who just gave a slight nod and wandered off. Once he was gone, Tommy led his friend over to the bench. “What’s up Big T?”

“Your… Your beach party. I- I’m sure you had fun.”

“Not really. Didn’t go the way I planned. Especially since you weren’t there.”

“I didn’t think you wanted me there. I never-”

“I sent an invitation, Tubbo. Ghostbur was supposed to give everyone in L’Manberg an invitation. But no one came. I thought it was cause you all fucking hated me. I mean, I did kinda ruin everything. I remember how mad you were.”

“Tommy…”

“I still thought that when I got here. Starting making friends out of spite instead of because I needed them. But then they made me realize some things. I don’t… Ghostbur wasn’t the most reliable, so I thought maybe he just didn’t manage to get the invitations out. But Grian said since Dream was messing with me the whole time I was there, he probably did something. Made sure you didn’t come.”

“Really? He’s been helping out. With you gone he’s become an ally to L’manberg.”

Tommy essentially growled in response to those words. “He’s not a fucking ally to anyone. He plays mind games and fucks everything up. He lies and tries to make you trust him so he can stab you in the back later. He was trying to make it so I’d only trust him. Unless you’re saying he told the truth when you immediately burned your compass for me.”

Tubbo’s hand immediately moved to hold where he had kept his compass, but it stopped midway there. “I… No. I kept it with me all the time.”

“Kept?”

Tubbo started tearing up a little before forcing the tear back. “I sort of got killed by a creeper and the explosion or something destroyed it. Tommy… I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to lose it. I didn’t want to lose you. But-”

Tubbo was cut off from Tommy hugging him. “It’s fine Big T. We lived in a fucked up place, and now we don’t have to. It’ll be you and me again. I’ll build you a tower for yourself. I’ll-”

A loud sound suddenly rang out along with an explosion. A second and third pair of the noises quickly followed. Tommy and Tubbo jumped up from the bench and looked towards the source of the noises to find three withers in the middle of the shopping district.

“What the fuck?! Why are those there?!” Tommy was immediately pulling out his comm and sending a message in the main chat. 

Tubbo, on the other hand, squinted as something that seemed to be standing behind the boss monsters. They quickly shot open as he realized what he was seeing. “Technoblade?”

[kichimiangra]

So who else thinks that Billy Hatcher from Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg should have a 2 or 3 volume manga series where he has an edgy Shadow the Hedgehog rival who is the bird themed Magical Boy Warrior for the Crow baddies?

Like, I already figured out his backstory.

Him and Billy where friends but he moved away but they promised to stay friends. This incel friend though refused to make new friends cuz y'know, even apart he's still got Billy as his BFFFF Forever so he's fine with his self imposed loneliness but not really. Especially because him and Billy agreed to hang out once summer vacation starts and he can Visit his old home town and see Billy.

It's the first day of summer vacation and Billy and his canon friends made plans to spend it doing this tour thing where they're going to visit dynamic places (based around the levels in the game like circus park, or the frozen mountain etc) and he wakes up late completely forgetting that his Incel friend would be visiting and was suppossed to pick him up from the train station but is also going to be late to meet up with his friends to hop on the tour bus with them so he runs off to meet his canon friends. Luckily nothing's wrong with this because the readers don't know about incel friend yet!

So it's like the opening FMV cutscene. He goes to his friends, they chide him for being late, he saves a chicken and gets usekai'd to chicken world to became a chicken based magical girl and rescue the 6 Chicken Elders and find the wish granting Giant Egg and stop Dark Raven.

So plot line 1 is the Forest Village level where Billy doesn't have the chicken suit but has to find it and maybe there's some chicks who are like "why would our chicken God Menie-Fudie have an outsider don the legendary suit? Screw you outsider we'll find it first and save out own village!" And Billy has to go after them and prove he's brave protecting then from the boss and this is how he gets his first emblem of bravery, the suit, and saves the first Elder. Boom. Adapted for comic. Incel friend is not in this part of the story. If he is it's vaguely hinted at.

Next is Dino Mountain and we have Billy meeting up with Rolly in the story now who already got her suit to be the magical girl chicken guardian of the level. She's not doing a super good job combating the local Crows in the area because she's still the pure bubbly character who needs to get a quick arc where she learns sometimes you gotta FIGHT for peace and not just ask for it. She DOES defeat the area boss by being compassionate to the resurrected dinosaur who is being forced to fight for the crows and through said compassion turns on the crow boss and Rolly gets her emblem of courage for having the courage to determine when to fight and when to care, even if it seems more difficult. Unlike the game Rolly stays behind to guard Dino Mountain so the immediate cast doesn't get too big. Before facing the boss though there's the "Rolly kidnapped by the crows" plot which all the "Friends kidnapped" plots are orchestrated by Incel friend who was also brought to chicken land. Depending on how open vs hiding in the shadows he is Billy just thinks he's been kidnapped by the crows or some shit.

(Yes I am aware that Rolly's level is Pirate Isle but I really wanted her to use the power of love and friendship on the giant dinosaur skeleton and really it doesn't make much difference where his friends get picked up honestly...)

The next place is Pirate isle and I haven't decided what happens here but second verse same as the first. He meets up with Chick Poacher, Chick's gotta learn a thing. There's kidnapping involved. Incel friend shows up to cause some trouble making the readers go "Who is this Original character Donut steal??" Bull crap. Same goes for Bantam.

Billy finally gets to confront Incel friend (Who I just now decided is going to be named Rook, or Jackdaw, which are types of crows) in circus park. Maybe a Circus was important to their friendship or some shit? I dunno and this is when we finally get the rest of the OC's backstory which, yes, he is acting like a jealous girlfriend. Billy overslept for picking him up at the train so he was butthurt but going to tolerate it, only to almost be at his house when Billy goes running off. He follows him only to find him talking with his friends about all the stuff they're going to spend all summer doing and gets full dose of unreasonable butthurt and misunderstanding. Because like... How dare my friend have more friends other than myself? /I/ didn't friend cheat on HIM! I literally made ZERO friends! How DARE he not only NOT BE AS LONELY AS I WAS but now he has REPLACED ME TO THE POINT WERE HE'S DITCHING ME ON OUR PROMISED HANG OUT FOR SUMMER?! WELL FUG U TOO BILLY! And the crow from the opening brought him to Chicken Land. Maybe there was a legendary chicken suit for circus park as well and Rook would potentially be the 5th member of the chicken team, but he uses Billy to get it and corrupt it into a crow themed suit instead. He's the dark magical girl!

Billy saves the elder but doesn't get through to Rook. He gets a second emblem of courage for being brave enough to stand up to a friend when they're doing a wrong but it doesn't make Billy feel better because previously it would be his friends who did the brave and got the emblem, but this time it was his friend who was the bad. Billy vaguely insinuates to himself that he hadn't forgotten Rook but this is third person limited so we won't learn the truth until someone says it.

This moves on to sand ruins where Billy purses Rook who is also hunting down the elder to find the last peice of info about the Giant Egg or floating castle or some shit. This does result in some required team work forcing the two ex friends to stop being little bitches for like 5 minutes where Billy asks Rook why he would help the crows gain ultimate power. Rook tells him "I'm not stupid. I have no intention of actually letting the crows have the giant egg's power." And is planning to betray them and take the egg for himself. When Billy asks what he would even do with a wish granting egg we later learn it's as simple and personal as "to wish Billy's friends away" or "Wish that they can't return to Chicken land but Billy and he stay there" or "Wish that I never moved". Prolly all the above in consideration because he feels/ is acting like a betrayed jealous girlfriend.

Also let's refit the "Two chickens facing eachother" puzzle into something about these two working together and making up. Billy get's to reveal he never forgot or replaced his friend but when he slept in late he wanted to catch up to his canon friends before the tour thing started because he had wanted to bring his canon friends to the train station to meet his bffff and bring him on the fun summer tour too. Haha misunderstandings and jumping to conclusions is A+ writing! This friendship reunion doesn't last long because boss monster or main villain kidnaps Rook once the path to the giant egg is open and shit and now Billy has to go save ANOTHER friend.

Shounen power of friendship everyone shows up in the ending-ending. They get sent back to their world and miss the bus, but decide they already had their adventure and will have just as much fun chilling together and getting to know Billy's friend. Now Rook has FWENDS. Da end.

[duvetsandpillows]

Pierre Gasly Fluffy A-Z

A = Attractive: what do they find attractive about the other?

Your hair. You always did the most intricate hairstyles and it always confused and amazed him.

B = Baby: do they want a family? why/why not?

About a year after you guys got together you were looking after your nephew and you were watching Pierre play with him and it began to make you broody. Once your nephew went home you couldn't help yourself but to start looking at baby clothes on your phone. Pierre peered over you shoulder and chuckled before pressing a kiss to the top of your head.

"Little one got you thinking?" he asked sitting down next to you, putting an arm around you.

"Maybe."

"I like that one," he said pointing to a blue dinosaur onezie. "Oh and that one." He ended up taking the phone off of you and scrolled through all the clothes. You snuggled into his side, smiling as you watched him get lost in all the different tiny outfits, mumbling to himself about how adorable they are.

"Can we make one?" he asked looking at you. You chuckled and swung your leg over so you straddling his lap before giving him a kiss and nodding. He smiled and picked you up, walking towards the stairs.

"You meant right now?"

"It might take a while so we better start now."

C = Cuddle: how do they cuddle?

Pierre loves to snuggle. You two would alternate being big spoon and little spoon, both of you wanting to be little spoon and would have to compromise. In public he'll usually give you a side hug followed by a kiss to your head.

D = Dates: what are dates with them like?

Your dates were always very random. Pierre once surprised you by taking you skydiving. Each date tended to be doing something you've never done before. You loved being able to try out new things and create new memories together.

E = Everything: "you are my ____" (e.g my life, my world...)

You are my shining star.

F = Feelings: when did they know they were falling in love?

It took him a while to realise as you two had started out as friends with benefits. He slowly started to realising when he would go away for race weekends and all he could think about was you.

G = Gentle: are they gentle? If so, how?

He's a gentleman, so is of course very gentle with you but he knows you won't break. You two would muck around but he would never intentionally hurt you.

H = Hand/Hold: how do they like to hold? how do they like to hold hands?

Pierre wouldn't hold your hand often, he preferred to have an arm around you instead. If you were in a formal setting he will intertwine his fingers to yours.

I = Impression: first impression/s

You two knew each other from school. You used to share classes but you weren't the closest of friends. You two would hang out in large friend groups but never just the two of you. When he came back to visit during the summer break and bumped into you at the club. He thought you were still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

J = Joker: are they into pulling pranks?

Pranks weren't really your thing but you had the same sense of humour and were always making each other laugh.

K = Kisses: how do they kiss?

Pierre would kiss you all day if he was given the chance. Whether it was kisses to your neck, cheek forehead or lips he loved giving you affection. His kisses would always vary from gentle to apssionate depending on his mood.

L = Love: who says I love you first?

He did. he'd just gotten back from a race and he couldn't stop thinking about you the whole time. He was stood outside your door going over in his head what he planned on saying, when the door swung open causing both of you to jump.

"Pierre" you squealed wrapping your arms around him. "I didn't know you got back! You drove incredibly!" You pulled away, face beaming and everything he planned to say immediately left his brain.

"Are you busy? Can we talk for a moment?"

"Is everything okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost or something." you asked as you brought him into your living room. He watched you sit down and suddenly started to regret coming over, worried that he was about to ruin what you two had.

"I-I... I'm completely in love with you and I understand if you don't feel the same way but I just had to tell you." His eyes kept flickering between you and the floor while picking away at some dead skin on his thumb.

"I love you too Pierre." His eyes darted to you, your cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

"Wait seriously?" You burst out laughing and wrapped your arms around his neck.

"Yes seriously," you said before pulling him down for a kiss.

M = Memory: their favourite moment together

Your first christmas together. You'd woken up to Pierre pressing kisses to your neck.

"Joyeux Noël ma mignonne," he muttered against your neck.

Your morning consisted of you two cooking breakfast together and opening your presents to each other before getting ready to go to his parents for christmas dinner.

You got back from his parents late in the evening, feeling a little tipsy and a bag full of presents from his family after the completely spoiled you. The two of you got changed into christmas pyjamas and snuggled up in bed with Elf playing on the TV. Pierre ran his fingers through your hair as he fell asleep, sighing contently at the prefect day the two of you had.

N = Nickel: do they spoil? do they buy the person they love everything?

Pierre didn't tend to spoil you but that was because you didn't like to be spoiled, you would much rather the two of you spent time together.

O = Orange: what colour reminds them of their other half?

Violet. When you were in school you had the same violet backpack. Even when it broke you always made sure to buy the exact same one. Even in the years between school when you two lost contact, everytime he saw violet his thoughts would always go back to you.

P = Pet names: what pet names do they use?

Bunny, ma mignonne, honey

Q = Quaint: what is their favourite non-modern thing?

You two likes to go hiking together. It was a good way to disconnect from everything and spend some quality time together.

R = Rainy Day: what do they like to do on a rainy day?

You would always get Singstar out and have a sing along together. You guys would get so into it you managed to get a few noise complaints.

S = Sad: how do they cheer themselves/each other up

Pierre likes to workout when he gets upset, he likes to clear his mind and calm down before coming to find you and either talking it out with you and asking for advice or just looking for cuddles and comfort.

T = Talking: what do they love to talk about?

He loved talking to you about skiing and snowboarding. You'd never been but you found it fascinating and loved when he would tell you stories about the trips he's gone on. He ended up taking you to the Swiss Alps so he could teach you himself.

U = Unencumbered: What helps them relax?

He likes to listen to music and dance around the living room with you. Ususally slow music so he could hold you close and dance around the living room as if you two were Cinderella and Prince Charming.

V = Vaunt: what do they like to show off? What are they proud of?

Pierre doesn't really show off. He likes to keep most of his life private, but would occasionally post a photo of you two but preferred to keep his social media work related.

W = Wedding: when, how, where do they propose?

Further down the line you knew you two would probably marry but it wasn't a topic on either of your minds right now.

X = Xylophone: What's their song?

Flightless Bird - Iron & Wine

Y = You're the ___ to my ___ (e.g the cookies to my milk, the macaroni to my cheese)

You're the sun to my sky.

Z = Zebra: if they wanted a pet, what pet would they get?

You two don't have the time for a pet at the moment but you two kept having discussions about having a dog.

[talesofsonicasura]

Unappreciated Hunter

A Monster Hunter encounters Hat Kid and helps her out. Didn't know he was going to get dragged into her weird life.

Kokoto, the village of strong and tough Monster Hunters. The citizens can be quite pushy to traveling hunters and at higher levels when it revolves around ex guild hunters. Any hunter from Kokoto would judge and mock any fellow warrior 'not worth their salt'. Even the Felyne that runs the cafetine there is quite rude.

Yet, it was the only place to acquire certain materials or ingredients which is important for any that travels in monster infested lands. Items that couldn't be found anywhere else. After all it was also a popular merchant village, considering the village chief was a retired Legendary Hunter. Guess the high standards considering hunters was slightly justified.

"...And fuck you too! Go kiss a Congala's ass if that's how you treat your customers!" Angry swearing was also guaranteed as a white haired man stormed out of a shop in rage. Long silver locks tied into a wild ponytail, tannish skin balanced by lean yet rock hard muscle, eyes were a bright blue highlighted by black stripe outlines, and stood at an intimidating 7'2 in height.

His clothes consisted of a long beige winter coat with blue and red triangle patterned cuffs alongside large cotton ball looking buttons, beige long trousers with white puffy cuffs, black hiking boots made out of some sort of reptilian hide and white fur gloves. In his hand was a woven straw basket filled with fruit, cheeses, spices and herbs.

The man let an aggravated sigh before trying to cool his temper. "Come on Kahtal. Don't let that asshat get to you. Plus Nekona those need the ingredients and getting blacklisted from every shop went help." He or Kahtal said rubbing his hand against the side of his head. He took a deep breath and continued to the next vendor.

Well, he would if a soft sparkle of light hadn't grabbed his attention. This tinge of light was a mystifying soft blue and looked to be near the Hero Shrine by the village's oldest tree. Curiosity getting the best of him, he walked over to the odd phenomenon awarely ignorant to disapproving glances from some of the village hunters.

The Hero Shrine was essentially a tree that held the Hero's Shield and the stone before carrying the Hero's Blade. Weapons used by Kokoto's chief to defeat a powerful Elder Dragon known as Lao-Shan-Lung. What really got Kahtal's attention was what sat slightly embedded into the earth a bit far from the shrine.

This item looked like an hourglass, well a very weird hourglass. The glass was crystal clear that sparkled but held no sand in it, the rims that kept it together had two gold beads sandwiching a purple hat shaped and the soft glow that radiated from the very object. It was beautiful and incredibly well crafted from Kahtal's perspective.

"Who could make something like this and where's their owner?" Kahtal picked up the item carefully while speaking his thoughts to himself. One thing he did know was it looked to be very important and not the type of item to be trashed carelessly. Someone clearly lost it. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft 'Hey!'.

The young man looked down to see his leg was being tugged by a little girl. She had soft peach skin paired with curly brown hair in a back ponytail and topped with a purple top hat that had a gold ribbon, bright blue eyes and little nose. She wore a purple shirt with a light gold cape, white trousers and black little shoes. On her back was a light blue umbrella covered in stickers.

"Um, hi there. Sorry I didn't notice you." Kahtal said with a sheepish look on his face. The peculiar little girl let out a tiny giggle before nodding. She then pointed at the hourglass in his hand. The man took a glance at her hat and the hat beads on the hourglass. They were the exact same.

"Does this belong to you? I found it dugged a bit into the ground over there." He pointed at the little hole in the grass. The little girl nodded heavily with a polite smile on her face. Kahtal guessed she was a selective mute as the only word she spoke was 'Hey' in order to get his attention.

"Well, here you go. You're lucky I found it. I don't think any other passerby would have given it back." The young man handed the child the hourglass carefully as to not drop it. She took the peculiar item and hugged it before hugging his leg in appreciation. Kahtal let out a soft chuckle before patting her head.

"I must be going. My friend is waiting for me outside the village with these groceries. Take care." The little girl nodded at his words before whispering a soft quiet 'thank you'. Both went their separate ways and Kahtal's mood was much better after that.

The next time he saw the little girl or the fact he met her again at all was in the worst place a child should never be. There are places in this monster filled world that normal people aren't allowed to travel alone. Only ones who could were merchants, caravans and most highly monster hunters. Kahtal was the latter of this group.

A mission was sent to his personal home by a messenger Kinsect. The client wanted him to gather some Coal from an area known as the Volcanic Hollow. A large string of caverns found within a monstrous supervolcano. The intense heat in the deeper sections made it a cozy home for all sorts of deep dwelling monsters and perfect place to gather ores.

It looked like a simple quest but these types of missions usually had something dangerous causing problems in the background. A pretty accurate assumption to make as there was a Subquest at the bottom. An extra piece of mission that was optional for the Hunter but meant extra pay if taken.

This particular Subquest was asking for him to stop a Uragaan who was causing a ruckus down there. Uragaan also known as the Burst Hammer Wyvern, a large Brute Wyvern that can create powerful tremors by slamming its armored jaw into the ground and rolling over any foolish creature to aggravate it. Their diet consisting of ores made it dangerous for any miner who accidentally runs into one.

Gathering supplies to keep him properly cool in the hotter areas were necessary since having a heatstroke in a volcano was the worst way to go. Once preparations were made and gear was set, the hunter set off to Volcanic Hollow. Dealing with the Burst Hammer Wyvern was the first thing needed to be done before even thinking of digging for coal.

This definitely wasn't a place normal people should travel through. A simple thought of a little girl in purple strolling through the lava heated caverns. The interior of a volcano was less lava-y than any she had seen before. First spot to find after jumping down the mouth was a few small conjoining clifftops and some natural hot springs by them.

Only things other than two paths that didn't go deeper down and one that did were the strange green doggy faced creatures munching on whatever plants or mushrooms growing there. They gave her odd looks but just minded their business and continued to graze. Next spot had multiple small lava pools and two were branching paths with one that meant another big jump.

There were some mean reddish snake bird worm things that tried to bite or whack her with their tail. She clobbered them multiple times with her umbrella before they got the hint and ran. This time the child decided to take the side path instead of a large jump. Big mistake on her part.

The room was pretty with a huge amber column at the center that was in a beehive like formation and more smaller red ones that added extra support. Bright sapphire blue crystals and ruby red crystals sticking from the ground in a roundish rectangular form. If only she noticed that the odd growing gold stone on the ground was a monster's tail.

"Aaaaaaah!!!" Echoed the screams of a little girl through a mountainous deep section of the volcano. Tiny stream of water pouring down the cliffs to the large molten ground below shook with the tremors of heavy footsteps. The little purple hatted girl ran across the reddish dirt as a large beast followed her relentlessly.

It was a large reptilian creature that could honestly be mistaken as a dinosaur from the powerful looking legs but underdeveloped tiny arms. Its face was round dark brownish scaled except for its huge orangish color jaw, from its head to the very long rounded tail were large flat topped amber crystals that were positioned in the way tires are to leave tracks, thick muscled legs with sharp claws and bright green eyes that burned with rage.

The 25 ft tall brute looked a bit beaten up but the little girl would admit personally that she had nothing to do with it. Of course it didn't matter since the lizard monster was still angry and probably cranky for her poking its tail with an UMBRELLA. If she ever got out of here alive, she would never come back...maybe.

The giant then let out a painted cry as the ground shook hard nearly making the child lose her footing. She flipped around to understand what happened. Giant lizard thing had been slammed to the ground by someone covered in armor and holding what looked to be a sword and shield. The shield part slammed into the mean beast's head.

The armor was a bright crimson with light summer colors such as orange and gold fitted to its feudal samurai look. Chest plate had an orange triangle coming from the bottom as it pointed to two cogs on the separate sides that were connected by a thick white rope, a giant red cape with big fancy and fluffy gold rims, red shield shaped plates covering a gold rim red skilt, red armor gauntlets and boots but the cool thing was the mask.

It was faceless with eye slots but large red horns that went back and curved at the end but also orange along with a large white mane that was in the back. The shield was lustrous ruby with a gold wheel on the surface and a cog with two golden hour hands at the center. And the sword had a crystalline blade that started before ending in a reddish violet at tip and punk looking half gold claw hilt to a silver handle.

Eyes from the helmet looked at her before the masked man pulled his helmet a bit to show Kahtal's face. "You're the little girl I met in Kokoto! How did you get into the Volcanic Hollow?!" He cut off his words when the monster or Uragaan began to move underneath him. The man bashed the beast's head with his shield before getting into its face.

It immediately flinched upon the pair of eyes glaring back into its own. They weren't of a man but of a beast. Bigger, meaner and absolutely powerful. The glare of an Alpha. "You better stay down and don't try anything. So much as harm a hair on that little girl's head then consider your life forfeit. Now sit!" Voice was heavy as steel and the tone brimming with pure dominance.

Uragaan shivered violently before seating itself to the floor once Kahtal stepped off the beast's head. He gave the large brute a glance before sheathing both his blade and shield onto his back. Then the silverette turned to the most impossible thing to run around in a volcano. The little girl who had looks of awe in her eyes now lost it upon the look she was getting from the hunter.

"What are you doing here? This isn't a safe place for people much less little girls. Especially ones that somehow managed to have a Uragaan chase them. The species isn't called Burst Hammer Wyvern for no reason." Kahtal spoke pointing at the specific cowering dragon behind him.

"I wanted to see you! You gave me my Time Piece back so I thought you wanted to be my friend! And I got here from my ship since it said you were somewhere around here." There was a bunch of childish pep and cheer to her voice like it was natural despite the guilty look on her face. Or the fact she was nervously poking her fingers together.

Now he had a lot of questions but knew that the inside of a volcano wasn't the place to discuss it. "Let's talk about it once we're back at the camp on top of the volcano. And you!" The Burst Hammer Wyvern flinched upon Kahtal pointing his finger at the beast. It was still scared at the much smaller human man.

"You are being relocated to an island unreachable to human civilization. A winged companion of mine will be picking you up so stay put! Behave then I'll forget about you trying to trample a little girl and maybe add in some yummier ores than the ones down here." The knowledge of the alpha human forgiving him, a new home and chance of a tasty treat had the Uragaan positively complacent with his current position.

Kahtal took out what looked to be a signal gun before firing a green smoke round into the air. The flare spilling green smoke out into the volcano's entrance paired with a lime like scent. Once that flare was shot, Kahtal picked up the little girl and hoisted her on his back. He then took off ignoring the sound of large flapping wings or the sound of shock in the other room that he left the Uragaan in.

The volcano top had a small makeshift camp settled a good space from the mouth to the heated mountain. A simple tent that provided cover from the sun for a large mattress, two large crates with one blue and the other red, and a few makeshift fence blockades. Kahtal was now looking at the little child with a ludicrous look.

"So your name is Hat Kid, and you're an alien refugee from another world. You came here because a Timepiece, which is the fuel for your ship somehow crashlands in Kokoto village. After I returned it to you, you tried to find me again so I can be your friend and hangout with you." The hunter questioned while holding his helmet in his right hand.

The little girl or Hat Kid sat on the queen sized mattress next to Kahtal while she told him her tale. She was nodding at every inquiry he had got from the hat wearing child. "Normally I treat that kind of stuff as Congala crap if I haven't taken in consideration the evidence. A glowing hourglass with no sand isn't normal, a little girl managing to get into a place that is blacklisted to Low Rank Hunters or the fact you got to one of the deepest levels, and NOT die from lethal heatstroke."

Hat Kid looked a bit sheepish when he brought back her little volcano adventure but was glad he did believe her. Kahtal then stood up from the bed and looked at the alien child. "My friend is taking the Uragaan to a new habitat and won't be back for an hour. Might as well take me to your ship." He did think her insane attempt to find him should at least be rewarded...only this one time.

A big smile grew on her face before she ran over and took his free hand immediately. The older man would admit he didn't expect the both of them to float before shooting off into the sky. They were going up so fast that he saw the darkness of space and the shining stars. And like a light switch, Kahtal wasn't outside the volcano but now in a little girl's very odd bedroom.

The odd things being the sea of pillows a good distance from the bed, lights on the ceiling, glass screen viewing the vacuum of space, odd candles that sit by said pit or the giant burnt noodle reading at the top of the staircase by said pillow sea. "Hey! I heard that!" A sheepish look crossed his face. The last part he accidentally spoke out loud.

The offended noodle had a glowing yellow face found on children's jack o' lanterns: circular eyes and the big childish mouth with two fangs, a mane of dark purple that was the same color as his body, spindly arms that ended with two finger ovenmitts that clearly was hiding claws and a long spindly tail making his height around 20 ft long.

"You know kiddo I don't know what's worse. The fact you brought a pecking knight of all things on board or the fact he was rude to me: the all handsome, powerful and soul eating, Snatcher! It's also really rude to insult the dead." The now named specter or Snatcher said while his last bit was deadpan unlike the bolster before in his distorted echo voice.

Kathal's response to this was a raised eyebrow. "First off, I didn't mean to say that out loud so sorry for that. Second, why tell me that you are a soul eating ghost when I'm a 'knight' to you. And third, the proper term is Monster Hunter not Monster Slayer. Unless your causing trouble on my planet that make people send out a request to hunt you, then I won't stab you with my blade and relocate your hide." The mortal man listed with his fingers and pure nonchalance.

The ghost set aside his book so he wouldn't lose in the sea of bed material before slithering over to the armored man. Size difference between them was now clearer than before but Kahtal still had a passive look on his face. "And don't you have quite a snarky side to ya, kiddo." Snatcher chuckles while Kahtal glared back.

"The name is Kahtal Shinsu and I'm a 32 year old man. I am definitely not a kid because last I checked, children don't have an 7'2 body with an eight pack." The silverette's rebuttal didn't make the ghost's smile go away. It only made it more mischievous looking as the 20 ft noodle laughed.

"And I'm over 300 years old which makes ya a mere baby in comparison. An eight pack huh? Definitely the type of muscle for some dirty work back in my forest!" Snatcher said while placing an arm around the hunter's shoulder in a 'buddy' manner. Hat Kid then tugged on his leg for giving him an inquisitive look.

The 'What were you doing' look obviously wanting to know why he was in the Volcanic Hollow in the first place. "I had a job there. My client wanted me to gather 30 pieces of coal from the volcano. There was a bonus quest to deal with that Uragaan who was chasing my hatted companion here." Spotting what looked to be a chalkboard, Kahtal strolled over to it.

Taking a piece of chalk, he sketched out a fully detailed picture of the mentioned Burst Hammer Wyvern minus the injuries from before, all in the span of a minute and the word Uragaan next to it. Snatcher floated over and looked at the image with interest. "Sure looks like quite a brute! No wonder the kiddo looked ready to drop. Gave her a run for her money! Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!" He then looked at Kahtal.

"This was also an extra part of the current job description? That makes you an even better contractor for me to hire! Honestly there is some work in my domain that needs a more refined touch than Hat Brat there. She has a habit of making quite the mess." The little girl in question gave him a raspberry.

"Well, you'll need to have a request paper ready. Usually I have a Kinsect deliver me jobs to my home since I'm more of a freelance hunter." Kahtal then drew at the bottom of the board a peculiar bug of sorts. It looked like a scarab but the wings and size were wrong.

"Really now? I don't know where you live but I can mark it down if you take this back." The man didn't expect for the ghost's hand to ignite in blue fire. Or that fire to form a dark purple version of what the kinsect he drew but had the same jack o' lantern smile Snatcher has on their wings. Kahtal would mark it to be creation magic.

"This Kinsnatch here will be delivering any jobs I have for ya. And a bit more." The last bit was a whisper before Snatcher put the magic made insect in the hunter's hands. He looked at the odd insect and immediately knew this was going to be trouble.

Lucky thing was he got dropped off the same place he was before allowing his own alien abduction. And his current ride had just returned. Bad news was how damn aggravating that purple ghost was going to be in the future.

Hey everyone! Sorry not updating the blog for quite a bit. Life is crazy and honestly been trying to handle with some changes to my home.

This story is an experimental crossover using Monster Hunter and A Hat in Time. I wanted to try my hand at writing a Monster Hunter fic but also wanted that kind of vibe you get exploring in different chapters like you do for a A Hat In Time.

Hope you guys enjoyed it! Stay safe and healthy folks!

This is the armor used and the monster Uragaan!

[cantgetoutofmyheda]

Clextober 2019 - Vampires/Werewolves

Anon Prompt: “I’m not leaving this place without you.”

—

It was like clockwork. Every Wednesday at 6:45pm the quiet brunette would saunter into the quaint restaurant. It was a small town, the kind of town that if you were born there, you’d likely spend the rest of your life there. This mysterious brunette, though, she stuck out like a sore thumb. It had been short of two months of Lexa being there—her great uncle Alexander had passed away and she was his last known relative. It was supposed to be an “in and out” process—clean the house, list it for sale, box Alexander’s things up, donate them to shelters, and then be on her way, but her stay had extended far longer than anyone would have thought. The house needed some fixing before it could be listed on the market and the process of switching over the title of the house to her name ended up being more complex than it should have been.

This Wednesday was no different than the rest. Lexa walked into the small establishment and took it upon herself to walk past the host station and seat herself. She barely spoke to anyone and always kept to herself, and like every Wednesday before this one, she came alone.

“Your fan club is here,” Clarke heard Miller call from the front of house.

Clarke brushed off the teasing, “Thanks, Miller. Your food’s up for your corner table in the back, better get it out there before they stiff you a tip again.”

The blonde dropped off the tray of food she was carrying to her early-bird diners before she made her way to Lexa’s table—the brunette always sat on the same side of the same exact booth every visit, “Hey there. I’d ask if you wanted to hear the specials, but I already know the answer to that. Double whiskey, straight up and the check?

“If you don’t mind,” Lexa nodded

Clarke grinned, “Never have, won’t start now. I’ll bring it over in a few minutes, the bar shouldn’t have too many orders ‘round this time of day.”

Lexa nodded again as she watched the blonde walk off to put her order in with Octavia behind the bar. She found herself bringing her attention away from the waitress, her insides started to twist—she was hungrier than she should have been for the time of day. She looked down and laid her eyes on the gold watch that adorned her wrist, cursing at herself for skipping lunch earlier for the sake of getting a paint job done and over with.

Not even a minute had passed before the blonde reappeared, setting her drink down next to her check and joked, “Sure you don’t want to hear tonight’s specials?” She looked over her shoulder to the older couple eating their dinner, before turning back to Lexa, “Johnny and Cath over there are sure loving Murphy’s meatloaf.”

Lexa peered over Clarke’s shoulder, wincing at the sight of the meat mushed around their plates, “Never have, won’t start now.”

“Alrighty then, Lexa. Enjoy your whiskey. Maybe one of these days I can convince you to stay for dinner, too,” the blonde laughed.

Lexa took a sip, “Doubt it, the food here… It’s not really up my alley.”

Clarke nodded, though she wasn’t sure why she did. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why Lexa frequented the restaurant every week if all she wanted was a glass of cheap whiskey, “You know there are other places in town you can go to get a drink, right?”

“I can stop coming here, if that’s what you’re insinuating,” the brunette set her glass down on the table and looked straight into Clarke’s eyes.

The blonde inhaled deeply—Lexa was extremely difficult to read, but from what she gathered, the woman didn’t mean any malice behind her words. If anything, it seemed as if Lexa had taken a liking to her, especially from seeing her around town and barely speaking two words to anyone else, “Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’re an easy customer. Same day every week, same order, you leave when you’re done so you don’t hog up my tables, and you tip 100% of your check every time. I’d be an idiot to tell you to stop coming here.”

The brunette nodded, “So why the suggestion?”

“Just wasn’t sure if you’ve ventured around town. Maybe one of the bars would be more your scene, you don’t necessarily strike me as the type to be surrounded by the dinosaurs that come through this place,” Clarke shrugged.

“Well then, that’s appreciated,” Lexa let out a small smile, “I get along with dinosaurs quite well, though.”

Clarke raised a brow, “You have a sense of humor,” she pointed out. “Who woulda thought?”

“I’m an old soul, at heart,” Lexa said, bringing the glass to her lips again.

The blonde smiled, “I gathered that the second you walked in here that first time. There’s something about you. I can’t quite place it yet, but I’m sure in time I will. But that’s enough out of me, I’ll let you enjoy your evening treat.” Clarke tapped the table with her pen, “I’ll come back around to say bye before you head out—if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure,” Lexa nodded before turning her attention away from Clarke, looking back down at her watch again.

It was ten after seven—she had about fifty minutes to make it back home before her dinner would be ready. Just a few more weeks. After that, she’d be able to go back to her real home, back to the life she was used to. This short stint in Arkadia would be behind her, and so would the facade she had been having to keep up over the long few weeks.

She was jostled out her thoughts at the sound of a glass breaking. She looked up and noticed Clarke hovering over a table in the back in a heated argument with a customer, the brown-haired man was clearly inebriated, likely the cause of the glass shards lining the table. She waited a little longer, watching how her server was able to hold her own. It wasn’t until the man placed his hands around Clarke’s wrists that Lexa’s body went into overdrive.

In a matter of seconds, Lexa was standing next to Clarke, she now had a grasp on the man’s hand, “Let go.”

“Lexa?” the blonde was astonished, she hadn’t even realized the woman was standing right next to her.

“Get your hand off of me, you whack job,” the man huffed, trying to shake Lexa off as he still had a hold on the blonde.

“Now,” Lexa stated, “before I rip your hand off her myself.”

“You can’t threaten me like that,” he scoffed, still not loosening his grip, even under the brunette’s ice cold grasp.

“I believe I already did,” there was an esurient look in her eyes, her hunger pangs from before had been exponentially amplified. As the man finally let Clarke’s hand free, the small trail of blood running down her palm gave her a resolution as to why.

Lexa jumped back at the sight, looking down again at the small cut on Clarke’s hand, moving her eyes to the blonde’s, “Are you okay?”

All Clarke could do was nod—so much had happened in such a short period of time. Finn, the angry town drunk set his hands on her, Lexa appearing out of thin air and threatening the man on her behalf, and now, the brunette looked absolutely disgusted by her.

“Go home, Finn. You’re drunk,” Clarke said, tapping the man’s chair with her foot, then turned her attention to Lexa, “Thanks, I need to go get this wrapped up.”

“Yeah, okay. I should get going soon,” Lexa nodded, unable to look straight at the blonde.

Lexa made her way back to her booth to finish the rest of her drink. She watched from her seat as the man slapped a few bills and change on the table—to be frank, she was surprised he even did that. Her eyes never left the man, something he had realized on his way out. She took notice that he stood near the front door, lighting a cigarette, and she couldn’t help but wonder why he was still sticking around. The sound of someone clearing their throat brought her attention back inside the restaurant.

“You’re still here,” Clarke observed, zipping the front of her jacket.

Lexa nodded, taking the last swig of whiskey from her glass, “I am, and by the looks of it, he is too.”

“He’s drunk and he’s an idiot, but thank you again for that,” Clarke managed to smile. She brought her hand up to push a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and Lexa was glad to see that her cut had been bandaged up.

“You don’t have to thank me, I was just doing what was right.”

Clarke pursed her lips, “Right, well I’m going to head out. The boss said I could go home after all that, Octavia will be by to pick up your check. See you same time next week?”

Lexa looked out the window again, the man was still lingering near the door, “Is that the best idea? It looks like he’s waiting for you or something.”

“I’m a big girl, Lexa, I’ll be fine.”

“Let me walk you out, at least. This town is so small that we’re probably heading in the same direction,” Lexa offered, though her expression was still stoic.

“Really,” Clarke shook her head, “I’ll be okay, he’d be an idiot to try anything like that when there are people all around.”

“Clarke,” Lexa emphasized the blonde’s name, “he already grabbed you in a restaurant full of people. Not for nothing, but no one batted an eye. Let me walk you until he’s at least out of sight.”

The blonde took her bottom lip between her teeth, she knew Lexa was right, but there was also something about the woman that had her wondering if her suggested idea would be her best option—there was something about her, something that she still couldn’t quite place, and she didn’t like the feeling.

Before Clarke could respond, the brunette added, “I’m not leaving this place without you.”

“If you insist,” Clarke gave in, “but your uncle’s place is before mine, so I don’t need you to walk me the whole way.”

---

Lexa was reserved as the two walked, but that didn’t surprise Clarke one bit. Her uneasiness started to dissipate once she realized Lexa was really trying to help—Finn had still been outside the restaurant as the pair left, the drunk man screamed profanities at both women as they walked past him.

They had gone on in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Clarke spoke up, “So are you some sort of chef or something? You only eat the food you prepare yourself?”

“Huh?” Lexa looked over to the blonde, her hands were buried deep in her pockets and her head had been buried deep in her thoughts of why she insisted on walking with the woman in the first place.

“You’ve been to the restaurant every week and you’ve never ordered a thing. There aren’t many places to grab food around here and you don’t have a car, so I just assumed you preferred your own cooking to anyone else’s,” the blonde pointed out.

Lexa stopped walking, “How do you know I don’t have a car?”

Clarke shrugged, “Small town.”

“Right,” Lexa nodded, starting to walk again, “And I get my food delivered fresh every day.”

“One of those fancy farm-to-table meal services, huh? Clarke grinned, “Too rich for my blood.”

Lexa winced at the last word that left the blonde’s mouth, “Something like that.” The brunette looked around and realized that they were no longer going in the direction of Alexander’s home, “I thought you said my uncle’s place was on the way.”

“It was,” the blonde blushed, “I got kind of creeped about Finn so I kept walking, I’m sorry. I hope you don’t mind, it’ll only be a five minute walk back for you, though. We can part ways here if you’d like.”

“I didn’t know you were capable of such trickery,” Lexa smirked, “It’s fine, I have time before I have to be back,” she looked at her watch—she had about thirty minutes to get home and finally eat before her hunger would take the best of her.

“Thank you,” Clarke smiled, reaching into her purse to pull out a set of keys.

“You don’t have to keep thanking me.”

Clarke shrugged, “I know I don’t know you, but something tells me you wouldn’t have done that for just anyone.”

“I suppose you’re right about that,” Lexa stopped at the bottom of the steps leading to the front door of a modest craftsman-style house.

Clarke opened the door and walked in, turning around to see Lexa awkwardly standing at the base of the stoop, “What are you doing?”

“Well, I was going to head back now that I know you got home okay,” Lexa said, shuffling her feet.

Clarke nodded, “Well, I don’t want to be too forward, but since you want me to stop saying ‘thank you’ I figured I could do something nice for you. I have a pretty decent bottle of whiskey in here—tastes much better than what you drink at the restaurant. Stay for one?”

“Oh,” Lexa was honestly surprised. She knew she had enough time for one drink before having to be home, but something inside of her kept her at the bottom of the steps, keeping her from taking a step forward, “that does sound nice.”

Clarke arched a brow, “So what are you still standing there for?”

Lexa’s mind raced at how to tackle the conversation. There was something burning inside of her, wanting to step inside the home and be closer to Clarke—she knew it was partly because of the experience at the restaurant which fueled her hunger, but it was also partly because out of all the people in this small town, Clarke had been the only welcoming person towards her. She took a breath and cursed herself for how forward she was about to become, “I’m waiting for you to invite me in.”

The blonde was thoroughly confused, “I thought I just did.”

“I need you to say it,” Lexa sighed.

“Okay,” Clarke exhaled, still confused and now hoping she wasn’t having a lapse of judgement about inviting the woman in front of her into her home, “Lexa, would you please come inside for a drink?”

The brunette’s legs started to mindlessly move towards the door and into the house, “I only have twenty-five minutes, but I’d love to.”

****

Few notes here: I wrote this pretty hastily and didn’t have any time to proofread, so I’m sorry if there are any typos and whatnot. Secondly, I left this pretty open ended because I have a few ideas for how a larger story could pan out. If you guys are interested in that, let me know and I’ll start to post some snippets when I have time!

[always5hineee]

Hell and Back- Chapter 26: Dr. Who (Trials 40-41)

Word count: 1520

Chapter warnings: Mild language and themes

-----

       How was he meant to handle this? There wasn't a lot he could do, but he knew the outcome. Was the game going to purposely kill Y/N? It was limiting his power, so even if he wanted to break the rules, he wouldn't be able to. Once he unfroze time... It would stay that way for better or worse, until the trial was over.

       Could he make it so that the train was safe? He may be able to dismantle the cow pusher if he really tried, but tying up all the hydraulic cables? That would be a nightmare. He didn't even know how to disconnect the cars if he wanted to, and their forward momentum would push them into her anyway. He didn't know if he could even reverse any further with his power limited by the game. Not only that, but his mental state was affecting his physical one. He didn't know how strong he could actually be.

       Walking over to the train, he looked to the cow pusher. Giving it a kick, he tried to see if it would come off, but it was clearly bolted into the vehicle. Maybe there would be wrenches on the train. Walking around to the conductor booth, he tried to heave himself up to the door. Hands slipping as his grip weakened, he fell back into the rocks. Grunting in pain, he shook as he tried to pull himself up. He couldn't afford to pass out yet, he'd end up releasing time. He just had to find the tools.

       Pulling up on the bar a second time, he nearly made it, but his foot slipped, sending him sprawling to the dirt a second time bashing his head on the ground. His vision began to swim as he laid back, body giving out against his will. He tried to mutter to himself, force himself to get up, but he couldn't do anything about it. Finally, against his own volition, he fell into unwilling sleep.

       "Tao..." He heard the muffled voices in the back of his head, as if he were underwater. His breathing was labored and he felt hot, sweating in his own skin. Was this death? Was he dying? He could see their faces in front of him, bubbling and twisting like a portal. Their colors were shifting from too saturated to too monochrome, disorienting hi as they shouted.

       "Tao!" Jumping out of whatever strange realm he had found himself in, he blinked in confusion, looking around at them. Staring up, he saw all of their faces. Sehun, Kai, Kyungsoo, Kris, Chanyeol, Lay, Chen, Baekhyun, Suho, and Xiumin.

       "W-where's Luhan?" He asked, practically shaking. In that strange place he had been hot, but now he was desperately terribly cold.

       "Tao, Luhan left..." Suho put a hand on his shoulder.

       "O-oh, right..."

       "Are you okay, man?" Sehun asked, obvious concern on his face.

       "Y-yeah, I'm good, he said, shuddering involuntarily.

       "Well in that case, what the fuck is this?" Kris asked in an accusing tone, shoving something in his face.

       "Kris, come on, give him a-" Suho started, but was rudely cut off.

       "No, we deserve an explanation." Trying to focus his eyes, Tao saw that it was a phone screen.

       "Huh?"

       "Don't play stupid. What the fuck is this? We're on trial forty one. Y/N's train stunt was supposed to be trial thirty one. And this trial is for you." Grabbing onto the phone, slightly nauseous, he tried to read it. Finally, his eyes caught on the letters, brightness somewhat disorienting.

       Final Time Trial - Player Tao

       Trial 41: Tell the truth.

       Limited power: Tao

       Drop-out Fee: Not Applicable. Drop-out is not permitted.

       He looked up between each of them, searching for some form of sympathy. The best he received was the worry in Y/N's eyes. Other than that, though, everyone was accusatory, hurt, or both. No one knew what was going on. He stuttered as he tried to explain, Y/N dying, the resets, all of it. He was rambling about watching her death, having to tell the others how to save her, the amount of times he had to reverse and pause and reverse again. He sounded crazy. Kris was mostly just upset that his car was a mile down the road. Suho was the first to crack, offering him sympathy, hand still on his back.

       "It's okay Tao, everything is fine now. And you've finished a ton of our work."

       "This doesn't make sense, though." Kyungsoo pointed out, still suspicious. "He said that the fortieth trial was to let Y/N go through with it without fixing time. If she died the first time, and he passed out before he could re-model the train, how is she still alive?" Tao hadn't even thought about that. How was Y/N still alive. They all looked to her, and she shrank back from the attention.

       "Uh, I don't know. It hurt for a minute, but I think that was just my fear. It was really loud and hot. I had a few burns from the sparks, but Lay took care of them." She showed her clean arms. "I'm fine, though, we should worry about Tao-" As she was saying this, he disappeared.

       Not getting up, not leaving, nothing. One minute, he was sitting on the floor, and the next he was gone. Kris was the first to look behind them, then towards the tracks, and everywhere in between. They weren't exactly used to Tao's time traveling, but they generally knew how it worked. As long as they were moving and interacting, he was unfrozen, and he generally stayed nearby, but there was technically no basis to uphold that. At any moment, they could have been paused for hundreds of years, and they wouldn't even have known.

       "Where did he go?" Kris growled, glaring.

       "Calm down." Lay muttered to him.

       "I know you're around here somewhere!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, completely ignoring Lay's advice. Picking up the phone from where he had left it on the ground, Y/N saw that his challenge had been completed. Showing it to Suho, they read through it together.

       Congratulations! You have completed the time trials. Welcome to Round 4! Round 4 will consist of 9 trials for all players. If a player cannot continue or chooses to drop out, the trial will be null for that player and they will be penalized with the dropout fee. Other players are not affected. Round 4 will end after trial 50.

       "Guys!" He screamed out, looking around desperately. His body was tired, his mind was tired, it was impossible to think. "Where are you?" Tao was frantically spinning in search of his friends, looking to where they had been standing just moments before. The train was jumping in and out of view, flitting from where it had ben sitting, to down the track, to completely gone, then back again. The rails were changing from rusted, to shiny, back to cracked, then to nearly completely buried. Everything around him was clouded in a murky gray, as if he'd entered a black and white comic.

       Watching as everything glitched in and out around him, he sank into the ground, tears still streaming down his face from the horrors he had endured earlier. Falling backwards, he looked to the sky, where the birds overhead were growing larger and smaller, until finally, it looked less like a bird and more like a dinosaur.

       Wait... it didn't look like a dinosaur, it was a dinosaur.

       Swooping down, the thing launched itself at him, intent on catching its prey. He tried to pause time, but in doing so, everything around him shattered like glass, little realistic pieces of the scene around him separated by vivid white lines. Then it reformed, broke again, healed itself, over and over. The sound alone was driving him insane. Every time he tried to rise, he'd only be able to stay for a few seconds, before crashing once more.

       This had to have been his power. He was watching everything age and reverse, launching through the timelines at unprecedented speeds. One second he was at the opening ceremony for the railroad, the next in the jurassic era. He wasn't able to control it, and he was stuck there, looping back and forth in a dizzy vertigo spinning out of control. Then, for just a brief second, he saw his friends once more, walking down the road towards where he'd left Kris's car.

       "Stop! Wait! Wait for me, I'm right here!" He yelled desperately as their figures shakily tried to remain in view by Tao's sheer willpower. "Suho! I'm still here, can't you see me?" He was screaming, chasing after them. They were becoming less and less easy to discern.

       "Y/N! Please!" He begged, "I-" Before he could even make it to them, they completely dissipated, sending him sprawling into a new time, causing him to throw up on the ground in front of him. He wouldn't have to worry about the mess as he was tossed again. Would it ever stop?

Go to Chapter 27

[artyrogue]

Blind Date Gaming: Magical Taruruuto-kun

I figured this dating journey of mine would open the door to a great many types of games. Classics, titles new to me, boring junk, unexpected joys, and, of course, some random Japanese titles that never made it overseas for one reason or another. Luckily, today's date was both of the last points in that relatively long and pointless list of adjectives. So without further stallin', lets go have an awesome date with Magical Taruruuto-kun!

To start, this is based off of an anime, but I've never heard of it. So, if you're a fan, please excuse my absolutely idiotic take on what's actually going on or who these characters are. The menu starts showing off some sort of miniature bat boy or something? I'll call him Li'l Squeaker. He has all the hallmarks of an anime character, including a cat-shaped hat, goggles, a cape, and a boy scout belt or something? Anyway, we only have 'START' as an option, so let's go!

You start with a story and dialogue between some characters. I don't know exactly what's going on, but I grabbed a shot of what I think is a quick overview synopsis. Since I don't know Japanese, I had to resort to online translation, an absolutely bulletproof method of understanding the Japanese language that is heralded by both Japanese speakers and true translators as the height of reliability. Several translation services online gave the following output. Pick whichever you think is best!

 It's a ghostly ghost that is said to have been repatriated. The secret of the situation. Shougun’s scrounger’s sword

A tattered tattoo that is said to be small. That's the best of all. Just as I was to be given a moment's silence.

It is said that it changed to Kodai, and it is said that it is a little bit again. Chizusachi. It's like I've been able to get a piece of ginger.

So, uhh...as far as I can tell, this game is about being sneaky to reclaim some phantom sword from a tattooed Shogun. Also, we need to somehow acquire ginger along the way, possibly because he has a stomachache?

The game starts and you're given control of Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh, jumpin' around and punchin' stuff. The collectables are namely some sorta apples you get from punching the smallest friggin' powerup boxes I've ever seen. If you get enough apples, you summon Li'l Squeaker, who counts as an extra hit and can do some things sometimes when you muck around with the Select menu. I tried a few things there and got him to fly around and collect apples for me like some sort of binging fruit addict. I also found some mini-games that I think train you in stats?

The first is boxing against some fire guy on a capsized boat that's on fire -- you know, your typical stop in a training montage. All you gotta do there is crouch and punch him in the nuts; an easy win each time. Then you have a relatively simple version of Ski Free where you go super-slow down a slope collecting flags. Finally, there's some football game that I still don't know how to control. This was the roughest for me, and I usually resorts to mashing buttons and praying the ball went some direction other then straight. Beating all three raises some number on your HUD (I assume your level?) and you can keep playing the games until you get to level 8. Each time, the games get slightly harder. I really didn't see a change in gameplay, though, so I think this is optional?

Anyway, you end each level with a boss. The first was some floating lady that threw the most underwhelming fireballs I've ever had the pleasure of avoiding. Yeah, I just decked her a bunch and she told the main villain that he needs to pay her more if he expects her to really put up a fight in his stead. I don't think he took to this news too well because I immediately got a cutscene of him kicking a tree ripe with yen. He then got pummeled by the falling coins and maybe had a concussion? Not my problem! On to level 2!

I think apples and coins are somehow swapped in this universe. The fruits being the collectable only adds to this theory!

The next area is in a canyon. The enemies are slightly harder, as is the platforming. No matter! I'll just jump and punch my way through all obstacles in my way! At the end you get another cutscene, of course. This time some big-lipped guy pops up and uhh...

is that a helicopter

oh snap, this game just got wicked sweet

So yeah, you have to shoot missiles at Godzilla out of nowhere, a surprise that caught me so off guard that I just had this dumb smile on my face and rocketed this game into 'friggin AWESOME' territory. This boss is considerably harder, though he's still pretty fair if you focus more on dodging his attacks than being purely offensive. Beat him and you go to the next stage, which continues your helicopter tirade.

What is this frog? Why is he the size of a building? Why have I collected like 6 frogs up to this point? These are questions I'll never have answered, and I'm okay with that.

This stage can be brutal, namely because you can only take one hit now and there are birds kamikaze-ing all over the place. Pelicans pop by and shoot a few fish guts all over the screen, proving to me that Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds has a valid plot and that I really need to continue to be defensive. Eventually, you get to the next boss, a little pterodactyl. He goes down easy, but woah there, cowboy! Mommy pterodactyl won't take the slaying of her brood laying down!

I love the sonic boom attack. This game rocks.

After ensuring that dinosaurs STAY extinct, you have a final platforming level. This one is pretty tough in places, as the enemies have projectiles and pop up unexpectedly all over the place. Luckily there are invincibility stars supplied liberally, so you basically just speedrun the area with no sweat. Eventually you get to the final boss!

I always wondered what the damsels in distress do while the heroes quest to save them. I guess they just kinda sleep until you arrive?

He has your girlfriend! Hope you brought some ginger, 'cos this guy ain't messin' around! His indigestion makes him vomit fireballs, but if you manipulate him with positioning, he's easy to trounce. After your flurry of pot shots, you kick the Shogun to the curb and pick up your girl for that date you scheduled ages ago. Luckily, you've got enough fruit to pay for the movie and dinner, you gentleman you! Now go eat your coin dinner and lock your phantom sword up better so it stops being stolen.

Shoutout to Junk Man for being the most interesting guy in the credit sequence

Well that was a trip! I'd definitely suggest playing through this game if you've got a couple hours to burn and want to kind WTF your way through an unknown anime like I did. It's a solid game that gave me a lot of fun for sure! I'd go on a second date sometime, hands down. It might be cool if this ever got translated (like I may understand what the subscreen options actually are?), but I think not knowing and making up your own story makes this game pretty sweet, too. Speaking of pretty sweet, take this Sprite of Passage. It might just help you grow some yen trees of your own in your yard.

A walking straw-mouthed fish should be a staple in every game's bestiary.

[thenixkat]

Animorphs notes: Megamorphs 2

Megamorphs 2

Marco 1

Saw something on the news and mentioned it to the others leading to everyone in a storm trying to breathe in dolphin morph

Of course its not like sharks need to breath air and might be better in some cases

Marco uses humor to cope

Rainy day

So why are the animorphs getting involved with a sunken nuclear sub?

Marco wants to go out of his way to save people again.

Him and Rachel are like the most likely on the team to become superheros

Or they could put their stuff in a bag and bury it on the beach instead of putting things in the trash?

How exactly do these guys plan on rescuing people?

Cassie 1

Everybody morphs dolphin

They find the sub

Jake 1

Ah yes the plan to kidnap an officer. Totally would have no negative reprocussions

Can’t just act in a weird and obvious manner to direct people to the sub

Sometimes dolphins help people, sometimes dolphins kill people. Its a rulette game as to whichever a dolphin is more interested in at the moment

The writter makes a comment on war and nukes

A nuke goes off and instead of being vaporised by the light the kids get transported through time and space for some reason

Rachel 1

One of these days a kid is gonna get trapped in morph when they’re uncoincious

Cassie’s the only one who had any injuries from the fucking nuke going off

Why is there a volcano over there? There shouldn’t be volcanoes where they are

Rachel watches the Magic Schoolbus

That’s not how plesiosaurs work and you could never mistake them for a whale even with sonar

Ax is smug about those not being whales

Tobias 1

Why the hell are fucking plesiosaurs intered in them in the first place?

Tobias got vored by something big enough to swallow a 10ft at least dolphin whole

This is causing me pain

Rachel got vored by something that can fit 2 ten or so foot dolphins inside its stomach

Looked it up and yeah no, plesiosaurs were def known to not have flexible necks by the time this was written

No that can’t be an ichthyosaur b/c they’re gone by this point in the Cretaceous and the on ly ones that big were likely FILTER FUCKING FEEDERS

Random ass gulper eel dolphin sea monster

Rachel decides that morphing is the best idea in the stomach

Tobias morphs too

Jake 2

Ax doesnt get to have a turn yet what a surprise

Cassie says they should try to rescue Rachel and Tobias, Jake says thats a fucking dumb idea and he’s right

Jake is pissed at people getting themselves eaten and Cassie coming up with dumb fucking idea

There should actually be some seagull like dinosaurs but I think those were discovered much later than these were written

Kids finally put 2 and 2 together and realized that they aint in Kansas anymore

They havent actually put togther the gone back in time bit yet

Jake and the writer seem to be under the impression that dolphins have no natural defenses

They are almost there in realizing what happened

Cassie 2

Still no fucking Ax narration

THESE KIDS ARE REALLY FUCKING DUMB

Sauropods did not leave elephant like foot prints. At all

Nope not figured it out yet

Cassie, you should know that whales can’t swallow whole full gown dolphins

Cassie almost gets eaten by a crocodilian and these kids still haven’t fucking figured it out

Wait a minute. Grass doesn’t exist in this time period

Also Cassie should know better. Herbivores can and will fuck you up with little provication

They finally figured it out

I see we have movie monster Tyrannosaurs

Rachel 2

Wow Ax really doesnt have any rights does he?

...that’s not how anatomy

Bears are not herder to digest than dolphins

This is hurting ,me

Tobias everything you said aside from the hadrosaurs was pure bullshit

Rachel thinks the dinosaur angle is rediculous

Tobias 2

Tobias you have a fucking hork-bajir morph you utter dumbass

Wow Tobias is bad at morphing, he can’t even get rid of his injuries

Tobias gets to be extra useless and cause Rac hel pain by haveing to perch on her

Grass doesnt exist in this time period

There was a gradual decline in the late Cretaceous of nonavien dinosaurs, the asteroid was the last nail in the coffin

T. rex was just another animal not not much more dangerous than say a lion, just bigger

Marco 2

Ax doesnt get to narrate I guess

There is no reason for the tyrannosaur to be chasing them it just made a fucking kill

They aren’t even the right size to be worth the fucking effort either

Marco almost gets eaten and is saved by Ax who papercuts the thing to death

Ax 1

Yeaaaah Ax vs Tyrannosaur should not end in victory for Ax

I flatout don’t belive this rediculousness and my suspension of disbelife died several chapters ago

Ax is fucking shook that worked

Ok good Ax was very very fucking lucky that worked and not gonna try that again

No, Ax, no that is not scientificly possible b/c theres no fucking dna in the fucking fossiles they are bone and other shit shaped rocks

When the fuck did Cassie get any survival skills? Did she decide to brush up after the Karen incident

Well we have ‘I will survive this with or without you’!Cassie today

Yall could actually morph Ax and have your own andalite tails. Or fucking morph hork-bajir

Rachel 3

Grass still doesnt exist yet

At no point did rachel think to escue some modesty and make wraps for her feet

Rachel suggests that Tobias morph human, even perminatly

He is very shit at morphing 

I guess he expects that he’s got days to live as a wounded bird over anything else he could fucking morph

Rachel refuses to fucking make it known that she’s suffering

In what fucking world does that description matach a triceratops

Also deinonychus, not around at the end of the cretaceous

Deinonychus is about almost 3 ft tall at hip and a ft longer than that

Naked ass ones at that

Them going after them at least makes sense

Cassie 3

Camping and eating tyrannosaur meat

Gonna sleep in shifts

People keep forgetting that they have hork-bajir morphs which are amazing and also that they could just aquire Ax

Tobias 3

Nothing about the majority of large dromaeosaurs suggests that they’re fast. The opposite actually. Ambush predators not chasers.

Tobias and Rachel split up

Tobias and the writers forgot about wing assisted incline running and the fact that raptors can fucking climb if the have to

Tobias drops on one and aquires it

Tobias 4?

This is going with the not-dynonicus being diurnal for some reason

Tobias lost control of the morph and will probably attack Rachel

Jake 3

The rock that was the final nail for the dinos is estableshed bvery firmly\

Stampede

And a nother tyrannosaur

Jake trips and falls when it matters most

Rachel 4

Tobias is really serious about not identifying as human

Rachel tries to reach him over smashing the lead raptor

Jake 4

Jake gets vored by the tyrannosaur whole even tho it was already eating bigger more interesting prey

Jake aquires the thing and starts morphing imediately

That tyrannosaur broke its fucking tail

Everyone aquires the injured dinosaur

Marco 3

Marcos not happy and everyone misses Rachel

More travel

Ax says the flash of light that started the stampede was artifical

Did Ax just say he can see ultraviolet and infrared

They find an alien city

Tobias 5

Tobias is bitching about Rachel still being mad that he gutted her

Neither of them are healing their injuries for no good reason

Ew, Tobias gross.

Rachel has a raptor morph now

Rachel isn’t a coherent person when hrungy and tired

Why are there coconut trees? They dont exist yet

Rachel eats a not coconut

No. That is not a fucking spinosaurus. Spino is fucking African and didn’t live at the same time as T.rex

Tobias metally calls Rachel stupid

Rachel 5

This is really fucking poorly reserched

And lo an alien:

And that's when I noticed the other creature step smoothly out from the

bushes.

It walked on two legs. It was rough-textured, like it had really chapped

skin. It was reddish in color. It had two big eyes and a small mouth,

all of the same reddish-rust hue. It stood about eight feet tall. It was

carrying a weapon.

The creature gazed curiously at us with what seemed to be eyes, although

they were mere indentations in its face. From its head a pair of

antennae, flexible as whips, grew and began waving toward us.

The alien calls dibs on the dinosaurs and speaks Fucking English

The nesk

The nesk is a pile of antlike creatures

Anmd really Rachel just fucking escalate things to outright violence

Cassie 4

Cassie suggests that they just go see who the aliens are

And that Jake stay behind b/c she doesnt want to loose more people

The alien city:

We flew toward the shining city in the valley. With osprey eyes I could see much more clearly. I saw buildings that rose in steep, smooth sweeps, like they'd grown from the bedrock. Windows were stuck in odd locations, some aiming out, others more like skylights. And there were fields planted with green and arranged in neat circles instead of rows.

The aliens themselves:

As we got closer, I could see creatures of some sort. They looked a little like large - very large - crabs. Only with shells in a wild array of colors, deep blue, spring green, orange. And while on one side there was something very much like a large pincer, on the other side there was a pair of hands.

Crab people

TRhe kids are attacked by naked pterosaurs

Tobias 6

Wow its almost like starting a fight with an unknown party can go wrong

The ship:

The ground beside me exploded, like it had been ripped by an invisible

plow. I jumped. Another plow mark just behind me! I saw movement. And

there, racing toward us across the plain, was a gleaming, silver craft.

Maybe twice the size of a Bug fighter, but shaped like an elongated

pyramid, long end forward.

The nesk herd Rachel and Tobias away from their claimed territory

Ah they’re falling over the cliff of the mercora city

Jake 5

Daring mid air antics and the team is reunited

Also a force field wich is smart\

Ax is tired of having to be the info guy

At least its not a killer forcefield like the kind that yeerks use

The mercora introduce themselves

Ax 2

Ax and his andalite bullshit

More of the mercora:

There were three of the creatures. They moved upon seven legs. Four on

one side, three on the other. To make matters worse, the four

legs were larger than the three. So they scuttled sideways in the

direction of the small legs.

They stood about half the height of a tall human, and seven or eight

feet wide.

On the side with the four big legs, there was a sort of three-way pincer

claw. It looked very powerful. It looked like the sort of thing I would

not want to have to fight against.

On the other side, the weak side, there were two arms similar to my own,

but even stronger than human arms. The arms ended in long, tapered,

delicate fingers.

There were a lot of eyes. They kept opening and shutting, one or two or

three at a time. They were each hidden beneath tiny trap doors in the

Mercora's exoskeleton or shell. Eyes were forever appearing and

disappearing. It was very, very distracting.

Which is a cool design

They talk in thought speak

Just b/c humans in the future don’t know about the mercora doesnt mean they left or were destroy you dumb fucks

Marco 4

The mercora healed Tobias, gave everyone food, a place to stay and even offered to make them soem clothes

The crabs wear clothing or at least make it

And they have force field furniture

Also that’s not how broccli works

Marco makes a vore joke about the mecora

Really Cassie?

The mercora are herbivores

All you have is the mecoras’ word on that and they are in direct conflict with the nesk 

And so what if they’re scavengers?

Very rarely but sometimes Cassie has a valid point

Ax 3

Ax is still kinda specist

Hmm I wonder why the mercora aprove? Its not like they can have an alterior motive here

And the mercora are going to help

Ax is very lonely in genera;

Cassie 5

The writers are fucking awesomebros

And they can’t control the morphs

Cassie gets wounded by a ceratopsian

Jake 6 

What? We were just with Cassie oh forget it

Jake is suicidally confidant that Cassie wouldn’t eat him

Apparently Jake is right

Cassie freaks out

Ax 3

Tobias keeps being wrong.

The nesk have thought speak detectors

Tobias 7

They group steal an explosive and destroy the nesk ships

Rachel 6

The nesk retaliate very effectively

Ax calls for back up 

TRachel throws herself around to draw away fire from the others

The mercora attempt a rescue and loose a ship

Culture:

The Mercora saucer picked us up, us and our little nuke. But they were a

grim, depressed bunch of aliens. It was hard to tell at first. But then

I noticed that each of them was minus one of their smaller legs. There

were just oozing stumps.

"What happened to your legs?" I asked. But even as the words were out of

my mouth, I saw the limbs in the corner. They were laid out on a

brightly colored cloth which was draped over a shelf. There was

something ceremonial about it. Almost religious.

<Can you explain the meaning of this?> Ax asked politely.

<We must make the sacrifice of pain. The legs will regenerate, but those

we honor will not,> the Mercora pilot said. <This is a symbol. It speaks

to our spirit's pain, by echoing it in physical pain.>

"They did this for the Mercora who were in the other ship?" Jake asked.

<For those who were in both ships,> the pilot said. <To be killed is a

sadness. To kill is a sin.>

Jake says the they owe the mercora for saving them

Fuck you Tobias

Tobias 8

Tobias this is premeditated murder

The nesk have decided to leave the earth

The mercora claim that the nesk altered the path of the meteor

They want to use the bomb to save themselves

Cassie 6

Fuck you Tobias

You need to be held accountable for this shit

Its almost like the vast majority of things to ever live never leave any fucking fossils you nit

This bastard is really trying to justify himself like this is anyway defensible

Fuck you Tobias, you get to join Cassie and Jake in the bin of fucking terrible people

Jake 7

Oh what you little bitch babies can’t handle the consequences?

Tobias deserves his unhappines and eventual death

Cassie 7

Cassie at least decides to bear witness to their crime

CVassie saw the time pass

No good reason given why they can’t retain those morphs

Tobias needs to pay for his shit

[thefredricus]

New Year Surprise (☆▽☆)

I hope you’re all having a lovely New Year’s eve! I have something special for you all tonight: My very first Ripto fanfic! (<-- Link!)

This is the daruma doll that I made a promise to at the beginning of 2018. The promise was to write and publish a fanfiction before New Year’s. I originally planned to write for another fandom, but things happened, yet I decided that I didn’t want to break the promise I made to myself and burn the daruma doll.

However, I decided to split the story in two chapters. The first one was just published and ready for some reading! The second one is on its way and will be posted later this week. I’m so excited to share this with you all! <3 

You can either read it below the cut, or go to AO3 and read it there!

Year of the Dinosaur

The sun scorched the cloudless azure sky. Waves were seen lapping against a non-existent shore along the horizon, as non-existent trees reflected in the mirage. But the heat was real. The sand that stung their eyes and nostrils was real. The hunger, thirst and fatigue -- they were all real. The outskirts of Skelos Badlands at solar zenith showed no mercy to the broken duo. Ripto ran a sleeve over his brow to wipe off a disgusting lump of sweat and dust. He wasn’t accustomed to the feel of a new set of scars and still open wounds that ran across his face. Not only did they ache, but they made him feel hideous, even though he hadn’t dared to look at his own reflection since that night. That fateful night… He quickly shook himself out of his stupor.

“Gulp! Is that mountains I see over there? Or is it just another hallucination, like the time you tried to drink from that oasis and ended up with a mouthful of dry sand,” Ripto spat between chapped lips.

The massive quadruped grunted guiltily under Ripto’s frame as he walked and looked away, embarrassed.

“Well, it’d better be! I mean, how far could that bonehead have gone? Crush can’t go more than five minutes without food, we’d have found him dead by now-”

Ripto’s last words echoed out in rough coughs that left the small, wounded dinosaur gasp for air. He clenched his chest with both arms and bent forward in a sickly bark. Reflexively, he reached for one of Gulp’s horns for support, but he crabbed nothing but air and fell forward, rolling off his companion’s muzzle and into the sand below. He felt panic build in his stomach, climbing up his chest, oozing in his throat like acid that ate away everything.

Is this where it was all going to end? Did he escape one hell just to get flung into another?

Ripto’s thoughts were caught short when he felt a tender touch against his forehead and a breeze of warm air that brushed his skin, leaving him with momentary comfort. Gulp hummed softly and kept nuzzling his master, ever so gently. Ripto exhaled slowly, lifting his hands to his companion's face, pressing his forehead against the gentle giant.

“At least I can count on you,” he whispered, more to himself than anyone.

Struggling to get out from the molten lava and grasp whatever debris he could find was an ordeal in itself. Feeling every part of his being burn like a thousand suns on top of that would have been too much, if he wouldn’t have been so excruciatingly headstrong -- and if he wouldn’t have had some help from a certain green dinosaur who pulled him out from the burning inferno and who stayed at his side to nurture him back to as close as what health could be, given the circumstances. After Avalar was reclaimed, with the help of a filthy dragon no less, all dinosaurs were banned to the deserts and crags of Skelos. Whatever vapor Ripto ended up in there and then, finding Crush seemed like a good idea at the time. Better to reunite the trio, he thought. Better wallow in each others’ company, he though. But right now he was not sure if he could even think at all. His head was spinning, his mouth was as arid as the endless dunes surrounding him and his delusions blended seamlessly into reality.

“Are those mountains real, Gulp?” Ripto persuaded, even though they seemed to be miles away.

He could feel the big dinosaur’s snout lifting him up. Slump, the fallen king lay across his servant’s face. The weight of his heavy head and his agonies left him incapable of sitting up. His vision blurred as he faded away.

“Gulp... Take us there.”

***

Ripto’s consciousness returned along with a throbbing headache against his temples. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was seeing double when he opened his eyes, his pupils nothing but sharp slits in the brightness. The sun stood seemingly lower on the sky now, however, and with the sinking sun a cold night would follow. The thought of him staying alive for that long gave him a little bit of comfort. Just then, Gulp stopped abruptly and nodded a gesture, Ripto nearly getting flung off in the process.

“Gah! W-what are you doing, you-”

The irate dinosaur locked eyes with his servant, who now gestured enthusiastically with eyes and eyebrows for his master to turn his head. Having no choice, unless he wanted to get shook off again, he spun his horned head around, the rest of his body still laying flat on Gulp’s snout. Ripto’s eyes grew big in surprise, as his gaze met a large cavern protruding from a vertical crag in the sandy dunes. Partly because the crag was indeed not a mirage but a real, hard mineral formation, and partly because it was coated in a much familiar scent. Ripto sniffed the air. Ungraciously he slumped off Gulp’s wide muzzle and continued sleuthing, ignoring the grains of sand that got stuck in his nostrils and mouth. It smelled stale. It smelled of dinosaur. It smelled of flesh and blood. Ripto wobbled forward.

“Crush? No more hiding, we crossed this god-forsaken desert only to-”

Stale. Crush wasn’t famous for smelling of roses, that was for sure, but… this smelled wrong. It smelled of death. And when a dinosaur of Ripto’s size scented death, it ran. But there was nowhere for him to flee.

It all happened very fast when the lava lizard attacked.

All Ripto could see was a blur of sharp teeth plunging towards him, like an extension of the gaping maw in the rock itself. He wasn’t sure if it was deeply rooted survival instinct or sheer luck that made his body move on its own, throwing itself to the side and dodging his assaulter’s deadly strike. Stuck face-down in the sand, all Ripto could hear was a bone-chilling snarl that sent shivers down his thin frame. The noise eventually died out and a minute of silence followed. Or perhaps it was less than a second. Ripto couldn’t tell. Maybe it was an hour. Just as he was about to get up and shake it off as another hallucination, a heavy foot dug itself into the back of his head, forcing him harder down into the ground. One of the predator’s curved claws clicked against Ripto’s horn, once, twice. The helpless dinosaur felt the grip tighten around him. And then--

The pressure lifted in the fraction of a second, followed by a guttural roar and a blow that shook the earth around him. Yanking his head from the ground, Ripto realized that Gulp had rammed into the lava lizard head first, making use of his body mass and sharp horns to force their attacker off balance. The lava lizard scrambled back onto its feet as quickly as it had fallen, and it wasn’t quite until now that Ripto realized how massive this creature was; a monstrous biped standing a good three meters over the ground, with rough scales draped in a deep burgundy making it look like it just climbed out from the depths of hell. From its forehead grew a twisted horn, much like Ripto’s own. To complete the nightmarish image, its long jaws housed a jumbled mess of fangs and tusks. Ripto could only imagine how much of him there would have been left had the attack succeeded. Seeing Gulp and the lava lizard at a standoff was truly like witnessing a clash of giants. Ripto couldn’t help but feeling very small and insignificant. More so than usual.

Empty handed with his magic scepter long lost, he was helpless against this adversary. So he resorted to doing the only thing he was good at.

“Gulp! Finish it off! Kill it! KILL IT!”

Gulp didn’t need any second command to motivate him further. He swung his horned head into the side of the lava lizard once more, except this time the creature came prepared for his onslaught. With nimble hands, it grasped Gulp by the jaws and bit down his neck, more to catch the quadruped off guard than to do lethal harm. Gulp roared and shook his head frantically, foam flying from the edges of his mouth.

“Behind you, BEHI--!”

Ripto’s cries were in vain, as the massive red lizard shifted and chomped down on Gulp’s back, away from his victim’s reach, and sunk his hellish teeth deep into the green dinosaur’s rind. Gulp’s roars turned into howls that shattered the dead silence of the desert. Using all of its strength, the predatory dinosaur took advantage of the moment and pushed Gulp onto his side. Gulp flailed with his clumsy legs in the air, kicking someone who was out of reach, his mouth foaming and eyes tearing. The lava lizard slowly released his bite with a shrilling wheeze, fresh blood running between tusks and fangs, dripping down on Gulp’s leafy green skin.

Ripto couldn’t look away. Being a predatory dinosaur himself, he knew what was coming next. His companion’s vulnerable underbelly was dangerously exposed for the lava lizard and it would only take moments before a chunk of flesh would be pulled from his chest. Gulp would be eaten alive and Ripto would stand there and watch. Until the lava lizard wanted dessert.

There was really nothing but one option at this point. Ripto inhaled through his nose, puffing himself up like a bird ready to fend off a much bigger rival, and let out the loudest and most fearsome war cry he could ever muster. Then he leapt forward as nimbly and fast as he could, ignoring the tough resistance of sand and grain under his feet, dashing towards Gulp, up over his fallen body and jumped -- claws out, fangs bared -- against his enemy.

When Ripto fell into the pool of lava in Winter Tundra, he remembered that the impact had hurt a bit. But the actual sinking had strangely enough not been that intensely painful as one would imagine. That said, it wasn’t by any means a pleasant experience. His whole body was assaulted with what felt like a million needles that pricked him just at the surface, never truly going under the skin but still causing him plenty of discomfort. The suffocating, however, felt oddly… nice. Relieving, in a way. It felt like a warm hug that embraced him from the inside. He didn’t panic. His mind just slowly wandered off. He didn’t think of the dragon that did this to him. Nor did he think about how small and insignificant he was. Sinking into the lava, he felt bigger, somehow. Maybe even stronger. He couldn’t remember for how long he drifted, lost in oblivion, until all those millions of needles all at once decided to

PIERCE HIS SKIN.

Ripto gasped and filled his lungs with the dusty desert air. But it felt like his lungs never filled up completely. The lava lizard had seen the small dinosaur’s attack miles away, and simply snapped at Ripto, locking him shut in his jaws. Pointed teeth chewed Ripto’s skin and that warm, familiar feeling bubbled up inside of him. But that was only for a second. The lava lizard spun around and flung Ripto effortlessly, but with great force, into the crag horn first. Ripto’s mind went black the moment his head hit the rock.

***

When Ripto woke up again, the air was quite cool. So was the cavern floor he found himself laying on. The contrast from the searing heat was relieving and the air felt much easier to breathe. Ripto’s mind begun wandering back, but his body was still paralyzed, spread out in the darkness of wherever he was. After a minute or so of doing nothing, Ripto had found himself to have let out a monotonous moan ever since he woke, which he ended with a masked cough. Self-aware, but still laying flat on his back with limbs spread out, he scanned what parts he could of his surroundings with half-closed eyes. All he could see was naked rock hidden in the faint light. He slowly turned himself over in an attempt to sit, but vertigo got him immediately and the tiny dinosaur slumped back on the ground nose first. Ow. Something stung him. He opened his eyes and gently raised his head. Some sort of sticky twig was stuck to his delicate snout. He shook his head fast, but that only made him dizzier and the little branch only seemed only to attach more.

“Argh, what the-!”

Furiously, he clawed at his own face in an attempt to free himself of the nuisance. That’s when he noticed that the twig was covered in -- what he assumed to be -- tiny thorns. More enraged than his energy levels should allow, he grabbed the twig from his face with both hands and ripped it off like an old, glued up band aid. Ripto grunted out loud and grinned in anguish, his eyes tearing up. He threw the prickly branch as long as he could muster, only to notice that it was still attached to his hand after the throw.

“Oh, come ON!”

After shaking his hand frantically up and down and back and forth, the little piece of plant finally let go and soundlessly hit the cavern floor. Ripto used his free hand to rub his eyes while cussing under his breath. Blinking back his focus, still a bit wobbly, he tried to regain his balance. It was when he scanned his new home once more that he noticed something odd at the center of the room, a faint shimmer and a very familiar fragrance. Spreading his eyes wider, slit pupils dilating, he had to stare for a good moment to make sure his senses didn’t betray him. There was a smooth depression in the rock which almost looked like it was handmade, and it seemed to be filled with clear, fresh--

“Water!”

Ripto waited no longer. Endless days of thirst with nothing to quench himself but dry, rough sand caught up with him and before he knew it, he plunged himself at the water source, stuffing his whole face into the craggy bowl, not drinking but rather devouring the water inside. He even swallowed gulps through his nose, but he didn’t care, he wasn’t going to stop until every last drop was gone. He would soon find out, however, that the container was somehow refilling itself from the bottom through a pipe-like tunnel that went through the stone, where it must have originated in a freshwater spring, like an oasis. Grabbing the rocky water bowl with both hands, he pulled his head up from the much needed drink and gasped for air, as he caught up in the moment and forgot that dinosaurs can’t breathe underwater. Then he just stood there, silently staring at the water surface, watching as the liquid slowly filled up the small basin. That was the first time in a very long time he had seen his own reflection. He couldn’t tell if the reflected image looking back at him was distorted because of the bubbling water gurgling up from within the depths of the cave. Every part of him seemed to boil, bubbles rising up from under the surface, as if they tried to break free from inside of his skin. A part of his jawline had ripped open, revealing his red gum and sharp teeth beneath. His eyes looked more like dull, scratched up glass beads than real organs. The crooked tip of his horn was missing. The point where it had broken cried brown tears of dried blood.

As the water came flowing back, so did Ripto’s senses and his body woke anew, piece by piece. With it returned the aching of his head, torso and limbs, and the painful memories that accompanied every part. He could feel a distinct stabbing in his chest and with it came the memory of almost being bitten in half by a giant monster. Ripto clenched his small chest with his hand. And noticed-- that it was sticky. Blood? No, this wasn’t it. Looking at his fingers, sniffing, then carefully licking the alien substance with the tip of his forked tongue, he figured it must be some sort of sap. Gasping, he took another look into the water mirror. The tip of his horn was also clogged with the brownish glue, different from the streaks of dried blood that ran down along it. It was almost as if it had been applied there deliberately. Ripto turned around, touching all over his small frame with quick, clawed fingers. There, another lump of sap on his right shoulder, and, oh, it was even on his back too, at the place where the lava lizard’s teeth had pierced his skin. There was even some on his kneecaps and elbows, easily noticeable through his torn attires. Dancing around the room in this curious manner, Ripto misplaced his foot on something that made a cracking noise.

“Ow! What on- YEAGH!”

He had stepped on the prickly twig that was stuck in his face just before he had found the water. Skipping up and down on one foot while swearing excessively, he tried to pull off the unrelenting plant now attached to the underside of one of his feet. While doing so, he noticed that the surface of the cavern floor wasn’t all cold stone. There were leaves. Plenty of them. A pile of it was arranged as bedding, which Ripto must have woken up on. After having forced off the prickly brush and sent it flying a good few meters, Ripto brought one of the leaves up close to his nose and sniffed it. Its scent had a distinguished familiarity to the twig and sap. Could this be-

“Catbat claw?”

Ripto raised an eyebrow. He was indeed familiar with this plant. Dinosaurs, critters and humans alike had used this brushy desert plant as a medical complement since the beginning of time. It grew sparse and only in inhabitable places, but he remember that they always kept some at home when he was a child. It was named after those pesky animals because the thorns were needle sharp and slightly curved and once they got hold of you, they wouldn’t let go. The thorns of course didn’t possess any medical properties, but the leaves did wonders as pain relievers, and the sap could be used to help stop bleeding and speed up the coagulation process. Furthermore, it covered up the smell of blood which could attract other, bigger monsters.

The handmade water basin and leaf bed, the roomy cavern, the Catbat claw -- Someone had saved Ripto and brought him here. Someone was nursing him back to health. But who? Had Crush found him? Ripto looked up. The cavern was dark, but he could still make out a rugged ceiling. Had his horn not be broken off at the top, he would have barely been able to stand straight in the innermost corner of the cavity where he woke up. Past the water bowl in the center of the room, the cave widened as well as the ceiling got higher, but it was still much to small for Crush, or Gulp for that matter, to fit. Besides, Ripto though, Crush was dumb as a doornail. He would never know about the Catbat claw, or be able to apply it as delicately with those huge hands of his. Crush was good at crushing, not nursing, or cooking, or anything at all for that matter.

“And it’s all because of him I’m in this awful mess,” Ripto whispered to himself through clenched teeth.

The thought escaped him immediately as a scraping noise could be heard from the cave’s entrance. Ripto flinched and quickly looked in the sound’s direction. The light outside was dim and cold, and whatever source illuminated the outside world just barely made it possible to distinguish the outlines of the cavern mouth. He stood still for a good few moments. Then the noise stopped. Ripto’s heart pounded fast against his tiny ribcage, and despite trying to stay unnoticable with teeth tightly pressed together, heavy breathing from his nose would betray him. But silence had laid a blanket over the cave and that perked Ripto’s curiosity. Slowly, he tiptoed towards the entrance gap of the cave. He stuck his nose out first, then carefully the rest of his face, eyes deadly focused forward, as if balancing on a tightrope over a canyon. The air against his face hit him as chilly, but not freezing. He cautiously examined his surroundings. Instead of seeing desert sand or dusty, empty plains ahead and around him like he thought he would, he saw more vertical rocks to each side. His gaze climbed down the rock’s surface. There were even more rocks, and it went on for as far as his vision could reach. The air lay completely still and the silence bounced between the high cliff walls. Was he truly up in the mountains, the very mountains he thought he had seen before while on Gulp’s back? Then he looked up. It was night. He didn’t see the moon. But he saw a vast sea of stars. Ripto had always enjoyed nighttime with the twinkling and sparkling of millions and billions little stars. But this was something else entirely. The stars here were drowning the black vastness of the universe, illuminating the sky with whites and yellows, blues and reds. He could hardly even make out any common constellations, because between every zodiac there were countless tiny specks merging into one another, making the ocean of stars more like one enormous celestial body. It was mesmerizing. He may have felt very small that night, but he also felt very alive.

[the-ink-bottle]

Live Blogging “King Kong” (1933)

05:00 Why is there so much music?? I feel like this was their thing before Maria Menounos

10:00 Wow I wish a pimp would give me a job that easily 15:35 HUNNGHHH WOMEN ARE SO CONFUSING CAN’T HAVE THOSE ON BOARD MY MAN SHIP 30:10 wow look at all of those DANGEROUS and SAVAGE little HEATHENS! If only the natives were white, maybe they would understand our inherent need to colonize! 38:22 “You aren’t a female you’re a pretty blonde lady those aren’t the same” also another emphasis of “women are scary they make me FEEL THINGS” 41:01 “crazy black man on board!” w o w. Just. Wow. 41:28 The natives who wanted to BUY our female have been on the ship! And the female is missing! Where could she possibly BE?? THIS IS SO CONFUSING I SURE DO WONDER WHERE SHE IS 42:05 “me go too!” Alright listen just because he’s chinese doesn’t mean he can’t learn basic english wtf 44:41 That’s a pretty advanced tourniquet system they have on those sacrificial pillars not gonna lie 47:02 ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THESE SPECIAL EFFECTS RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD. EVERYTHING IS SO MUCH BETTER. OH MY GOD.

47:59 Why does the gorilla know how to untie a tourniquet lol

50:19 “Listen to those birds...” Denham you crazy motherfucker an actress is MISSING 50:49 Is that a fucking dinosaur 51:51 NOOOO he’s just a herbivore!!! 52:54 “Say! Just look at the length of that brute!” Am I allowed to make a dick joke? I’m gonna make a dick joke. 53:14 “If only I could bring one of these back alive...” well maybe if you hadn’t SHOT HIM 55:41 why do they keep shooting the herbivores?! @whoever directed this film a brontosaurus would never eat sailors and that is definitely a brontosaurus. 57:53 Let me just climb up a tree to escape this creature with the unusually long neck- that seems like a good plan 59:21 All of the outright misogyny aside, it comforts me that these twenty sailors were willing to infiltrate jurassic park to save their lady friend or w/e 1:01:24 and somehow the love interest survives? Lol 1:02:15 King Kong vs Godzilla (1962) That’s it Kong go for the legs!!! 1:04:33 I wonder what this movie was rated in 1933? Or did movie ratings not exist then? Gonna look that up later. Also in my head I’ve created about 36 reactions memes using this gorilla’s facial expressions alone 1:07:13 I think the directors had a fetish for killing dinosaurs. 1:09:03 wait so does this mean that Denham was psychic? He literally predicted that this would play out like Beauty and the Beast. Also why does Kong have a thing for white women? And why is Ann basically the world’s best security system? 1:12:23 The rest of the movie is just Kong trying to find a safe spot for his very Loud new thing 1:13:57 Kong, basically: “Lol tiddies” 1:15:04 LOL why is every dinosaur on this island somehow aware of Ann’s presence?? And the UPPER BODY STRENGTH jack would have to have in order to carry her down that vine is ridiculous. Why was that his plan? Oh well I guess it worked. 1:19:41 Here’s an idea: we feed the white men to Kong. 1:23:54 King Kong dying lookin like some romeo romeo type shit 1:27:00 well that was quite a time jump 1:28:57 “The bravest woman I have ever known” my ASS all she did was scream 1:30:52 lmao well now you’ve done it 1:33:17 Y E E T 1:36:04 Nobody: Kong: is that a f uc ki n g train 1:38:04 How is Ann not concussed 30 ways to hell by now 1:42:30 Girl I would not be struggling to escape when you’re that far off the ground Summary: well other than the BLATANT racism and misogyny, the story itself had a good basis. I would definitely be interested in seeing the remakes. Considering the technology of the time I won’t take off points for fake-ness. 7/10.

[braindamageforbeginners]

Jurassic Park

I just saw Jurassic Park again. I don't mean whichever version of Jurassic World is out with Chris Pratt this week, I mean the original one, which is so old that I believe it used actual footage of dinosaurs because it was filmed in the late Triassic. The one that was released in, Gods help me, 1993, and is now being rereleased in certain places. If it's your burg, I'd recommend checking it out; I went for $12 and thought it was worth it. This was a sort of experiment on my part; I've seen the film about 400 times, and reread the book more than a few times (most recently in 2010); I went based on the recommendation/idea in the von Hoffman Bros. Big Damn Book of Sheer Manliness (yes, that's a thing), that said, of Apocalypse Now, "If you get the chance, see on the big screen, with theater-quality sound, it's a real slap in the brain-pan." Now, I've gotten my brainpan slapped more than anyone should in recent years (almost literally), so I thought I'd do it wth an old familiar favorite (but remastered), and, even though I liked it, there are a few things that you notice when you're trapped in an adult's body. First off, from a cellular biology perspective (and I've known about this one for years, so it's not a revelation), they jump from "reassembling ancient DNA" to "dinosaurs are back." We know from Dolly that it'd require an ooctye (egg) to kick off the cloning process. Crichton glossed over this in the book, too, but as an adult with a background in the field (sort of), it's incredibly - almost invitingly - lazy that this would go from book to screen (actually, it's not so surprising when you know that Michael Crichton is also the credited screen writer, and he's historically good at overlooking and committing to film his errors), when, to paraphrase "Thank You for Smoking," it's an immediate and easy fix, "Thank God we invented the [whatever] device." Ellie and Alan's relationship is amazingly dysfunctional. It's one thing not to want children, and it's one thing to have incompatible long-term goals. It's another thing entirely to verbally crap on your girlfriends' aspirations at every single point. It's unsettling and a little creepy; Alan Grant will go on, at length about the evils of children even when there are no children in sight and the conversation/dialog only casually touches upon it, but I don't think you make it past the fifth date with that attitude. To be fair, the filmmakers' manage to create the world's most unbearably annoying child characters ever (and, 20 years later, it is beyond weird to know that Tim, cast as Eugene Slede, will on day say, with utmost conviction, "I hope the Japanese don't surrender. I hope we get to kill every single one of them."). Alan also gets minus Chekov points for having a giant, shiny bottle opener on his belt in every single scene (go ahead and watch the movie again) without ever using it, even though he brings his weird velociraptor claw with him to dinosaur island, and keeps it with him after learning dinosaurs are back. Speaking of enormous shiny things that are visually distracting, let's talk Jeff Goldblum (the character is Ian Grant, but I'm sure it's all Jeff). I know that we've been conditioned by years of exposure to the Internet to hold the Great Shirtless One above fault (and the entire theater erupted into applause at the start of that scene), but he is beyond creepy toward Ellie throughout the film; touchy, quick-moving, and behaving in a way I wouldn't endorse for anyone not contemplating a nomination for Supreme Court. Depite every single adult male in this film being kind of rapey or astonishingly indifferent about Ellie (that would be Alan). the film technically passes the Bechdel test. Stick with me on this one. The Bechdel Test was originally put forth by Alison Bechdel as a test of feminism in a film (or a test of not-outright sexism, as the case might be). The test - and it's fairly simple - is that a film feature two or more female characters, discussing something other than a man, in at least one scene. Back to the feature at hand, you'll remember that all the dinosaurs in the film, according to Wu, are female. Even though they later learn that the dinosaurs, thanks to frog DNA, can swap genders (actually, that's more common in chordates than you'd think). There are three adult velociraptors in the film; let's assume for the argument that two of the three identify as female. Now, go back and watch that kitchen scene where the two raptors hunt the kids in the kitchen and are clearly communicating with each other. Admittedly, one of those two kids is Tim, but he's so annoying throughout  the film that I'd really rather not categorize him as "human," much less traditionally male. Speaking of the dinosaurs hunting the kids, every single character exerts themselves far more than necessary to achieve their ends. The paleontologists get on a helicopter with a man they literally met twenty minutes before (as the Too Long, Didn't Watch guys point out, this never, ever ends well in reality) because he offers to pay them; the lawyer (Gennaro) wears a tie and button-up shirt with shorts (as someone who has lived in the tropics, it's a very, very basic intelligence test to see how you dress when you actually have time to pack and plan ahead, and, even then, putting on pants to leave the apartment will have you cursing those vile missionaries who converted everyone to linen shackles); and Newman (technically Nedry, but, again, the degree to which every actor commits to their well-known characters throughout this film is impressive) works way too hard to steal way too little. First of all, there's a reason over 99,9% of initially-promising biomedical discoveries lead to a final drug or therapy; it's enormously costly to develop and safety-test a product at each point. Even the coolest, old-timey drug companies rarely discovered drugs for themselves, they patented or investigated promising prior research. Going from "Maybe that mosquito trapped in amber has DNA in it" to "brachiosaurus" would be cost-prohibitive. Especially when you consider that this was 1993; Bill Gates would've been able to buy and sell the island ten times over just a few years later. Michael Crichton predicted that this would restrict biotech companies to entertainment-related investments (he got that hilariously wrong, as I can testify to on a personal and professional level). He also predicted that exploitative employer/employee relationships would intensify (he got that one right) in the book, by making Nedry a programmer who had underbid his peers to get Hammond's contract, which was unfairly added to and amended until the character was almost driven out of business. The book also makes it clear that, despit Hammond's claims, the park cuts every financial corner it can, including hiring only the lowest-bidding contractors or least-qualified people (in the film, the vet doesn't even look at the triceratops' mouth until Ellie does, which is something even horse owners know is important). So, they wind up with Newman. Who, instead of simply embezzling the money (I refuse to believe my Step-Mom's nonsensical claim that Newman would be able to get access to the high-tech, uber-secret Embryo Storage Lair, but not have access to the payroll programming or pension fund data), creates the world's most convoluted scheme to steal Hammond's embryos and sell them to a competitor. This film also predicted the rise of vegans. I base that on Lex's line regarding the dinosaurs eating the goat ("I happen to be a vegetarian.")(as someone from the future watching that and hearing the line, "I'm a vegan;" it's kind of chilling). I also realized something weird and kind of dispiriting wih this viewing. I'm not really sure I'd want to travel and go out of my way to go to dinosaur island, because dinosaurs aren't quite as interesting at age 95 as they were when I was young. Don't get me wrong, I still love dinosaurs far more than the average man-child, but I've learned a few things since then. So, I've kept abreast of intelligence-measuring tools developed by modern science (I know, that's a shocker). We all know of the body mass: brain mass ratio; but we've since developed the encephalization quotient (EQ) which, I believe (and I might be wrong) is a comparison of the body mass: brain ratio for a specific animal with the expected ratio of a critter with similar mass. And, when we use that as the predictor, animal rankings look more like what we'd expect, intuitively - Humans, dolphins, chimpanzees, gorillas, and parrots are the top-five scorers. Using that tool, the smartest of dinosaurs were about as intelligent as the dumbest modern birds. I love chickens, but even the most ardent fowl-owner would admit that chickens are not exactly weighted down by brains. That might not seem like an epiphany, but I now own a goldendoodle who is possibly more clever than me (on my bad days). He's a great dog, but that ability to outthink and outorganize me makes him far more troublesome than all the dogs we owned before (and we had 10 huskies at one point). Same thing with dinosaurs, every creature you see has 70 million years' of evolution on them. The critters around today are better-suited to this planet and more interesting (speaking from a biology background)  than the vast majority of dinosaurs. If given the choice between a lifetime pass at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and one or two trips to dinosaur island, I know that we're not going to have elephants for much longer, which makes one clearly more appealing. Which, come to it, may have been the entire point of "Jurassic Park."

[turtleparadise]

[ ~ One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ ]

2. Inevitable Collision

"Ahh, the laughter of children," Reeve said, watching the young ones of Gongaga run around outside from the open doors of Town Hall. They chased after each other, pretend-fought with sticks, some showing off their flips and rolls. "Such a sweet sound."

"I agree," Yuffie nodded. Their leader turned to her, having made sure he and Tifa had everything before their departure.

"So, I suppose we'll meet up at Corel next month?"

"I'm counting on you, Spikey!"

"I thought we moved past that nickname," Cloud said, giving Yuffie an annoyed glare.

"We'll be there," Nanaki said. "Until then, take care, everyone." And with that, he ran off. Everyone boarded their respective vehicles, and left Gongaga behind... All but one.

"You're not leaving, Vinnie?"

"I came here with you. Since you plan to leave now, it makes the most sense to travel with you."

"Ahh, I see. Well, I have some business once the mayor gets here, but after that, we can go."

"In that case, I'll go stock up at the shops," he nodded, stepping outside the Town Hall.

"Empress Kisaragi," a familiar voice greeted, as the mayor rushed into the office, ran behind her desk, and sat down, making sure not a single hair was out of place in the process. "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. I'm-"

"Mayor Bianca," Yuffie finished with a smile. "I remember, we met the other day. And I'm just Yuffie, to my friends, okay?"

"Ah... Yes, very well, then. So, what did you want to discuss?"

"Well... Now that the soil can be used again, and we cleared that eyesore out of the way, you guys can get a lot more farming done, right?"

"Ah... Yes, that's the plan."

"So it sounds to me like you're gonna have lots of delicious crops. I'd like a share of them."

"Oh... Of course! You can have as many as you want, and more, after what you've done for us. We have some vegetables grown at the moment-"

"Not for me. For Wutai."

"Wh... What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, I want to establish a trade route between my country and yours. I want to make Gongaga rich, Mayor Bianca."

"R... Rich?"

"I want those kids playing outside to grow up happy and healthy, with every opportunity they deserve. So... I want to make a new road, from here to the bay, if that's cool with you. I wanna send in merchants, and I want your merchants to come to Wutai. I want some of those future crops, in exchange for... I don't know. Whatever it is you guys want or need." The mayor was completely baffled by all of this. She took off her glasses and wiped away tears, and couldn't help but laugh at the casual way this young Empress worded her business propositions.

"Why are you doing all of this for us?" Yuffie made a wide grin, folding her fingers together.

"Because I can. So, what'll it be? Fish? We have plenty of fish, if you need it. Boats? We have the finest boatmakers in the world! Or so I've been told."

"No, no," she shook her head. "I think... what our people would like most from Wutai, would be your art."

"Ahh, that's right," Yuffie nodded, scribbling quickly on a piece of parchment. "You guys used to buy art from us all the time, before the war. Well, consider it done. Consider it more than done! Not only will I send merchants here to sell their specialty wares, but you'll have a boatload of paintings, poetry, music, you name it. Once a month sound good to you?"

"That sounds wonderful. Thank you, Empress..."

"Yuffie," she corrected. "To her friends."

"Thank you, Yuffie."

\\\\\

"Ahhh, Kisaragi and Valentine, off on another incredible journey! Just like the old days. Remember when we always got put in the same party because we were basically the ones left? All that walking... Well, a lot of the time I just jumped on your back and made you do the walking for me. What a lazy kid I was!"

"I didn't mind," Vincent simply said in reply, as they made their way North along the coast, toward the Corel mountain range. He was walking at a steady pace, while she ran circles around him.

"Oh hey look, birds!" She pointed skyward to where a migrating flock passed overhead. "It's so good to see reminders that the Planet is still doing okay..."

[ One Hour Later ]

"Haaaa.... Uuuuhhh... Haaaahhh... I'm sorry, Vinnie, I'm gonna have to catch a ride."

Yuffie jumped up, planted a foot in the small of his back, and threw her arms over his shoulders, her head planted atop his ebony mane.

"I don't mind."

"Is that all you can say, Vinnie? Huh? IS THAT ALL YOU CAN SAYYYYY?" She pounded her fists against his shoulders, trying not to use too much of her strength. She suddenly stopped when he grabbed her right hand, running his thumb over a small cut on her index finger.

"How did this happen? You haven't even been touched by any of the monsters we've fought today."

"Oh, whoops," she let out a loud laugh "I guess I was careless with my shuriken. Oh well, it's just a tiny scratch, nothing that can bring down the Great Yuffie! Nyuk nyuk nyuk..." She trailed off when he knelt down to take a first-aid kit from one of his pockets and administer a salve and bandage. "Vinnie..."

"All better," he said, replacing the kit.

"Now kiss it!"

"What?"

"Kiss iiiiiiiit!" She pressed the tiny injury up against his lips, and he smacked her arm away, to the peal of more delighted laughter.

"Hey Vinnie... Why do you have these cute little dinosaur bandages, huh?" Vincent visibly flinched at this question, and took his time responding.

"...I just like dinosaurs."

"Fair enough!"

"If you can joke around, you can walk."

"Oh, no time for that, we've gotta get to Corel ASAP. C'mon, Vinnie! Mush!"

"It's been... a long time since I've heard that," Vincent said as he rose to his feet and started walking once again.

"Is that... a SMILE I hear?"

"Get off."

\\\\\

"I can't-uuuuhhh... I can't remember...Oh Vinnie!"

"Is she going to be alright?"

"WAH!" The doctor jumped almost a foot and turned around, her hand clutching at her heart, to see Vincent standing there, staring at the injured and drugged-up Yuffie. "You scared me! Who.... What... Where did you come from? Do you know the patient?"

"We're traveling together. Operation Rain?"

"Oh, I see, I see."

"That's Vinnie," Yuffie said with a smile, waving at Vincent to come closer. "He tried to run away... But IIIIII CAUGHT HIM!"

"You sure did," he said, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. She wrapped her fingers around his right wrist, though there was barely any strength to the hold. He stared at her hand for a moment, before turning his attention to the doctor. "How is she?"

"Well, she had quite a gash, but the worst is over. Now she just needs to stay off her feet for a few days, maybe a week. Then come back to have the stitches removed."

"This is Vinnie," she repeated, smiling at the doctor. "He'smy rice ball. He'sgot... ahhhhh... tempura... and..."

"Horseradish," Vincent offered.

"Yeah... Horsey horsey horseradish... Honeymayo... Tunamayo... Spicytunamayo..." She seemed to be falling asleep, so he began to get up, but her grip on his wrist tightened. "Vinnie... Don'yougo runnin' away again..."

"I won't," he said, pulling her hand off of his wrist and tucking it under the thin blanket.

"Good. 'Cause ifyou try... I'll throwmy shuriken. An' it'll WHACK you onthe back o' the head! Hahaha..."

"She needs to rest," the doctor said, walking toward the door and gesturing for him to follow. "I hope you understand."

"Of course." He took one more look at her, ingraining the image into his mind, and rose to his feet, following the doctor out.

\\\\\

"Vinnie... I wanna do somethin'..."

"What is it?" She hesitated a moment before lunging at him.

"I wanna BITE YOUR NECK!" And she did.

"Yaaah! What was that for?!"

"It just looked so delicious..."

"Are you still medicated?"

"Maybe... Maybe I've always been..."

"Pardon?"

"Maybe I've... always..." She dropped her head onto his chest and began snoring loudly.

\\\\\

"You can't. Not yet."

"I'm telling you, I feel fine!"

"You feel fine now, but once you start walking around and trying to fight, you're going to collapse and make your condition worse."

"I don't 'have a condition'. I had a wound, and it healed, so let's go! We've got business to attend to!"

"And I say it's not healed enough. You need to give it a few more days."

"A few more days, while you go out there getting yourself killed? I don't think so."

"It wasn't that bad."

"You were bleeding a lot more than I did! I'm surprised you made it back by yourself."

"But my wounds heal faster... That's not the point. We're staying here until you're in top form again."

"Is this because of my old man? Did Godo make you promise to protect me or something stupid like that?"

"Yuffie... Haven't we known each other long enough by now? I have never paid any mind to what that man wants. I protect you, for you. No one else." This definitely calmed her a bit, but she wasn't about to lose this argument.

"That's... sweet, but I'm still going." She picked up her shuriken and headed for the door. Vincent moved swiftly to block her way and practically threw her back into her recliner.

"And I say we're staying. I know your strength fairly well. If I can toss you around that easily, you're clearly not ready to fight."

"You just think I'm some dumb, helpless kid, don't you?" She jumped out of the chair to confront him once again. "Too small, too weak, not ready to face the world!"

"I have never thought that of you. None of those things are true. Where is this coming from?"

"You're just such a pain, never saying what you think, you always give me those sympathetic looks and it makes me want to punch you! I'm just an annoying kid weighing you down, aren't I? Aren't I?"

"I don't understand. You're the opposite of everything you think I see in you." His calm tone just served to anger her even further.

"Get mad, damn it! Admit it, Vinnie! I annoy you, don't I? I KNOW I ANNOY YOU!"

"How do you know how I really feel?" It was the closest he had ever come to yelling at her.

He had stepped forward, grabbing her flailing arms, and before he knew it, his face was inches away from hers. He stared at her lips. His breathing grew heavy. He moved forward, ever so slightly... Then looked away, lowering his head. This seemed to make her more angry than the entire argument: she grabbed him by the shirt, turned around and slammed him against the wall. This exertion made her wound give out a spike of pain, but she rode it out, maintaining her grip on his green and brown uniform shirt.

"I'm not waiting any more." For just a second, he had thought she was continuing the argument, but that definitely wasn't what she was talking about. She relinquished her hold on his shirt to move her hands up to his face before pressing her lips against his.

It was definitely something he hadn't experienced in a very long time. It was surprisingly similar to when she made him try candy for the first time since his slumber. His jaws tingled with agonizing delight. Blood rushed up to his cheeks, his breathing complicating once again. When she finally pulled away, he licked his lips, instinctively, unintentionally, and raised his hand up to his mouth, embarrassed by the impulsive reaction.

"Well, mister Valentine, how was that?"

"...Candy..."

She raised a hand to her cheek, knowing exactly what he meant. It only took a few more seconds for Vincent to move in closer and reciprocate. He didn't remember ever being any good at this, but he couldn't be bothered to care at the moment. Everything else seemed to fade from his mind, everything but Yuffie Kisaragi. Unfortunately, he had leaned in a bit too far, and the two came tumbling down, flailing and twisting on the way, so that Vincent's back ended up hitting the floor. Yuffie laughed her maniacal laugh, and ran her fingers through his hair.

"So, a few more days, huh? I think I can manage."

\\\\\

She opened her eyes, squinting at the lamp light.

"Turn that ooooff..." There was no answer. Vincent was lying at a seemingly uncomfortable angle, most of his back leaning against the wall, and she had been lying on him, her arms wrapped around his abdomen, her head digging into his chest. She pushed against his torso now, using him as a springboard to rise to a sitting position and turn off the infernal lamp. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once they did, she marveled at the sight of Vincent illuminated only by the moon. He had shed his jacket hours ago, along with the uniform overshirt, leaving the loose black shirt beneath it. The moonlight highlighted his pale skin in all the right ways, and his sleeping face was just so divine.

Come to think of it, she could be wrong, but she felt this was the first time she had seen him sleeping! He always seemed somehow to sleep after her, and wake up before she did. She remembered, in the past, asking many times if he ever really slept at all, and of course he had answered "Yes". And look at that - he'd been telling the truth. She brushed strands of his black hair away from his eyes, and caressed the side of his face.

"Is it weird that I wanna kiss him again, already? In his sleep though? Isn't that creepy?" She debated silently with herself for a moment before shrugging and leaning closer to him. "What the hell, just one on the cheek won't hurt anybody." She pressed her lips against his right cheek, enjoying the icy cold feeling, but wasn't able to leave it simply at that. She moved lower down and kissed the side of his neck, just under his jaw. Then farther down the neck...

"Please don't do that."

"Yaaaaah!" Yuffie jumped, startled. "G... Good mornin', Vinnie... Ha... Hahaha... Aaahh..."

"Good morning," he replied, before slowly closing his eyes once more.

"Wait..." He opened them, and gave her his full attention.

"Yes?"

She gently grabbed his right hand and ran her fingers up and down his palm, thinking of what to say. This wasn't usually a problem for her, but she had so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to ask him, and it all tried to come out at once, with the result that nothing did. She opened her mouth, and... Nothing. She let out a humorless laugh and let her head fall onto his chest. She then made an agonized groan. Almost a minute that seemed much, much longer passed, before Vincent filled the silence.

"Would you like me to...?" He trailed off, rethinking his question. She couldn't see it, but his pale cheeks were turning the slightest, barely noticeable shade of pink. "Would you be okay with me... putting my arms around you?"

"Yes," she said much louder than she had meant to, letting out a laugh. "Please." And he did. Slowly, taking in every sensation, the feeling of the fabric of her uniform, the feeling of her smooth skin, the contented sigh she breathed into his heartbeat. It was something he hadn't done... Something he had wanted to do for so long now. To obtain it, now, felt as if he had reached a divine state of being. Pink cheeks intensified. And he now wanted more of that "candy", but restrained himself for the time being. If Yuffie had something to say, he would listen. Kissing her would simply make her lose her train of thought - or at least, that was the effect it had on him...

"So, Vincent..." Yuffie eventually sat back up, using his body to push against once again, but kept her eyes on him. "How do you feel about me?" His cheeks were quite visibly pink now, and she smiled at this sight, but said nothing else, waiting for his reply, which took quite a while to arrive.

"Before I answer, I just want to let you know... I... I've never been good at this sort of thing, or at least, I feel I haven't. And I'm not used to... speaking personally about my emotions."

"I never would have guessed," she said, deadpan. She thought of apologizing, but decided against it.

"I just wanted to make it known beforehand, in case anything comes out wrong, or I say something disappointing."

"Vince, you're fine. I'll be fine as long as you don't say 'This was a one-time thing, and now we have to go back to "normal" like it never happened'..." She tried her best monotone, eerily soothing Vincent Valentine impression. If he found it humorous, he showed no sign.

"I won't say this was a 'one-time thing'," he assured her. "I clearly have feelings for you."

"CLEARLY!" She couldn't resist laughing at the top of her lungs, and fell off of him, onto the pile of blankets and cushions on the floor, rolling. Well, there went that moment. "CLEARLY!"

"I'm going back to sleep," he said, closing his eyes.

"No, wait, wait-!" He opened them, and once again, gave her his full attention. "I'm sorry. Go on. Please go on. Please."

"Very well..."

He sat up, turned, brushed hair from his face, and looked into her eyes. She grabbed one of the many large cushions in the pile and held it in front of her, resting her chin on it as she stared at his face expectantly.

"Yuffie..." She beamed at the sound of her name, but nothing else was said for some time. She waited as patiently as she could, but did start tapping a familiar drumbeat with her fingers against the cushion eventually. "When I think of you, I..." Another pause, this one much shorter. "My heart hurts."

"Your heart... hurts?"

"It aches. It stretches out. It wants..."

"Yes?" She couldn't resist prompting him to go on. "It wants...?" He glanced downward for a moment, before looking into her eyes once more.

"You."

"O... Oh..." Yuffie's face turned red, and she tried very hard to pretend there was something of extreme interest on the cushion-covered floor.

"It wants to hear your voice... When you speak to me, it's a necessary music. Everything else is like a part of a film with no background track. I can hear it, I can enjoy it, but the score elevates the film, makes the important moments that much more significant."

"...Wow."

"It wants the security of having you close. Of knowing that you're around. I can't remember being able to fully relax around anyone but you." Yuffie raised an eyebrow. Vincent, relaxed? Well, she had seen him relaxed before, but completely? It was hard to imagine. "It wants... to hold you. It wants to hold onto you so tight, but at the same time, not so tight that you're suffocated, or feel the urge to run away. I don't want to hurt you..." He hesitated a moment. "Now that I've held you in my arms, I honestly don't know if I can walk that line. I want... This will no doubt sound off-putting, and I'm not sure how to say it well, but... I want to hold you tighter and tighter. I feel this need to pull you into myself. That's... Well, I tried. I suppose I talked more about what I 'want' and not what I 'feel', but... As I've said, I'm not good at this. I feel good when you're around. I feel that I'm stuck in a perpetual state of free-fall. I feel... like my heart is going to explode."

Not able to resist any longer, he threw his arms around her once again, this time kissing her, a long, drawn-out kiss that she didn't fight in the slightest. When he broke away, he lowered his head, but Yuffie grabbed him by the jaw and forced him to look into her eyes.

"I won't let you feel sorry about kissing me, Vincent Valentine. I will not."

"I thank you." He rested his head on her shoulder, breathing deeply, slowly. "I can't... I can't speak any more, I don't think I have the strength. That was so taxing. Please just let me stay like this for now."

"I'd like that," she said, caressing his cheek and running the other hand up and down his back. "In the meantime, I'll try to say how I feel about you... Though I'm tempted to just say 'Yeah, what you said'..." He scoffed at this. A barely audible, one-syllable laugh. It made her smile all over again. "I like you, Vincent. I've liked you for years. Most of my happiest moments are when we're together. I respect that you're an individual, just like me. We're our own people with our own thoughts, feelings, and dreams. But when I'm with you..." She took a moment to think. "It's like the jigsaw puzzle is complete, and everything is more... Just more. Everything is right. There's something that you have, Vinnie, that I don't. And there's something I've got, that you don't. And that's the way it should be, I guess. You're the peanut butter to my bananas. The tuna to my spicy mayo. The sake to my full moon dango... You make me feel like..." She shook her head, not sure what else to say. He raised his head from her shoulders and played absentmindedly with her hair, waiting as patiently as ever. "Like home," she finally said. He looked into her eyes and nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. "No matter where I go, if you're there, I'm home. I've liked many people in my life, but... No one else has ever felt like home."

\\\\\

Yuffie hummed happily as she shuffled playing cards in the dining room, watching Vincent work his culinary magic from over the half-wall separating it from the kitchen. She didn't know what he was making - and didn't want to spoil the surprise by asking - but it smelled like it contained eggs, tomatoes, and some of her favorite spices.

"I have more to say."

"What?" She messed up the "bridge" part of her most recent shuffle, and collected the cards with a low growl.

"About my feelings." She stared at him with a huge smile.

"It's been three hours. You're saying this now?"

"I wasn't ready."

"I get it, I get it," she said. "I'm listening, fire away."

"If I'm going to be honest, I... have wanted to do that for a long time."

"To do what?" There was a pause.

"Don't make me say it..."

"...Huh?" The stirring done for the moment, Vincent lowered the heat and set the pot to simmer before turning around, resting his elbows atop the half-wall, his face flushed pink.

"I've wanted to hold you... Kiss you... Fall asleep with you lying so close..."

"We've slept in the same tent loads of times before," she said with a lilt in her voice, trying to play coy, though her cheeks were burning.

"You know what I mean. I've wanted it... But I never did anything about it. I can't stand when anyone assumes something about me, so I didn't want to do it to you. And I... I suppose I was too afraid to ask."

"Wait wait wait... Let me backtrack here... How long?"

"..."

"How long have you liked me, Vinnie?"

"Around three years ago. We went on a journey together, to help build defenses around the smaller towns. It was just the two of us, and you had no one else to talk to, so you talked to me. A lot."

"I remember. What happened?"

"I got used to you being around..." He paused, shaking his head. "I started to notice things about you. How resourceful and determined you are. Your passion. Your energy, which could actually be useful if you channeled it productively. But even when it's not..." He laughed. "Well... Your heart that holds justice on such a high pedestal. Your bizarre way of words. There were so many things about you that had a particular charm or another. It got to the point that it was hard not to react."

"Do I... still have that charm now?"

"Even more." Cheeks burning again.

"And you've felt this way the whole time, and never said anything?"

"Exactly."

"Hmph. I see."

"I couldn't. I couldn't ask anything more of you, after all you've given me."

"...What? Vinnie, what are you TALKING about? You've never asked anything from me, and I can't recall ever doing anything special for you."

"But you have," he said, turning to his stew once again, stirring and taking a tiny taste before adding more parsley. "Ever since we met. I'm not the person I was when that happened, you know."

"I know this. You've loosened up a lot. You've healed. You can talk about your feelings, smile, laugh... sing..." The memory of his singing voice put a huge smile on her face, and she couldn't wait to hear it again.

"I was so buried in guilt and sorrow, that I couldn't see the world for what it was. I had lost the 'me' at the center of my heart." He stirred it one more time before turning the heat down even more, and walked around the half-wall to the dining room. "But then some random strangers came by and woke me up, and somehow or another, after considerable time together, I came to know them all as friends. Something I thought I could never have, something I had convinced myself I didn't deserve. But one in particular..."

"Meeee!" She raised her arm and waved it around wildly.

"Yes, you," he said, stepping closer. Instead of sitting at the table, he rested his foot on the chair next to her and leaned down, taking her hand in his and lifting it up to his mouth. He pressed his lips against the back of her hand, then ever so slowly turned it over to kiss the palm, just above the thumb. "You helped me pull myself out of that darkness. Slowly, but surely, over the years. You set a good example, and gave me good advice, and were just good for my health in general." He kissed her palm again, closer to her pinky finger this time, before curling up her fingers and kissing each knuckle, excruciatingly slowly. "Just by being yourself... Just by being with me... You helped me wake up... Truly awaken..." He took his foot from the chair and inched closer to her, now kissing her wrist, just below the palm. "And slowly, ever so slowly, I finally started shedding all that old skin..." He turned her arm just slightly and kissed again, just below her pulse. "And I was able to let myself live again..." He kissed her arm just beneath the elbow, then moved up to her shoulder. "So you see... You've given me very much."

"Uh-huh," Yuffie nodded, her face beet-red, feeling a bit light-headed. Vincent kissed her shoulder a second time, and let his breath linger against it for a moment.

"Part of my mind feels I should sit at your feet, begging for your praise, as unhealthy as that sounds," he said slowly. "But as you said, we are two equal individuals. And I don't think you'd want me to do something like put you on a pedestal. Well... let's face it, your ego would definitely enjoy it." He lifted his head to plant a kiss on her cheek, just barely grazing her skin, before dropping down to the floor and kissing her left knee, wrapping his arms around her legs. "But just this once, indulge me."

He brought his head down to rest on her knee, clinging to her as if for dear life. Some of the blood finally left Yuffie's face, and she ran her hands through his hair, smiling.

"Aw... Vinnie, that was beautiful... Now get back up here so I can eat your face."

"What a strange choice of words." But he said nothing more, as Yuffie pulled him up and covered his mouth with her own.

\\\\\

Vincent awoke much earlier than he had planned, and set to work cleaning the guest house. He didn't have any sort of plan; he simply moved from one area to another and back again, tidying up piece by piece, sometimes even forgetting about one corner of a room for more than half an hour.

"Quit that," he heard, just as he was wiping down the kitchen counter. Her voice was sleepy, strained, vowels drawn out.

"Quit what, exactly?"

"Mmmfrbf... Cleaning. Cleaning, cleaning!" She flailed her limbs weakly, not wanting to exert any effort.

"Why should I stop cleaning?" He asked, though he put down the washcloth and washed his hands in the sink, before turning toward the pillow fort. "I'd like to surprise our hosts with a clean house."

"Too bad. I want this place to be a garbage can. A dirty garbage can!"

"Do you really, or are you being contrary for the sake of it?"

"GARBAGE CAN!"

"You're ridiculous."

"Shut up! Come back to bed!" Vincent sighed and approached the fort, He knelt down and brushed his hand over her cheek, then through her brown hair. "Heehee... I win."

"You certainly do." They kissed, a short, sleepy, comfortable kiss, and she yawned into his face.

"Okay, come lay down."

"How long do you expect me to lie here doing nothing?" She let out a "Hmmm", feigning deep thought before answering.

"Until your body has a me-shaped imprint, like when you lift furniture off of carpet."

"Even if that were possible, it would take weeks, or even months."

"Well then, I guess you've got a full schedule." She yanked on his hand, and he allowed himself to be pulled back down, cascading over her like a clumsy wave, and rolling until his back hit the wall just beneath the bay window that cast light on her gorgeous frame. He settled in, squeezing between the blankets and sheets, and caressed her exposed shoulder before kissing it gently. "I love that," she sighed.

"I do, too," he said, his lips venturing upwards to press against her neck, ushering forth a long, high-pitched sound from the woman.

"Ohh no, mister, you don't get to do that," she said, rolling over and lunging at his neck with her own open lips. "Not unless I can do this!" At the slightest touch, Vincent took in a sharp breath and made what she could only guess would be a scream if he hadn't kept his mouth closed. He kissed the soft area between her neck and shoulder, exhaling heavily. "Aahhhh..." They both remained locked in a nearly paralyzed state, clinging to each other, mouths on necks, hearts beating faster, breathing heavy, blood on fire. It was Yuffie who summoned up the strength to speak first. "Considering... just how long you've been touch-starved, this has gotta be bordering on painful for you, isn't it?" Almost every breath sent him into another spasm.

"Yes." His breath grazed her neck once again, and her muscles tensed as she tried to pull him even closer, if that were possible.

"Do you... want me to stop?"

"No," he sighed, lifting his lips from her neck only to kiss her again.

"Hooo... I think my brain's gonna go dead before long..." She returned the favor, but not before biting him, agonizingly gently.

"Aahhh... I think mine already has."

\\\\\

Yuffie woke up, propped herself up on her elbow, and let out a loud yawn as she lay there playing with Vincent's hair.

"Did we fall asleep again?"

"It seems we did." Vincent slowly opened his eyes, gazing up lovingly at the ninja, who had gone from messing with his hair, to caressing his hand.

"Sucking on each other's necks, huh? What a way to pass out." The two remained silent for a moment. "But damn, that was good."

"I was afraid."

"Afraid? Vince, you did great, I promise." She switched to moving her fingers around his face.

"That's not what I meant... What are you doing?"

"Memorizing the curves of your face." Hearing this, Vincent let out a very short, high-pitched sound. It was so faint, she thought for a moment she had imagined it. "Vince... Did you just squeak?"

"I think it's the most romantic thing you've said to me so far, that's all." Her face went red, and she switched back to playing with his hair. "I didn't say you had to stop."

"So, what were you afraid of?" She asked, a bit too loudly, trying desperately to take the subject off of herself. He smiled a cunning smile, but followed the shift.

"I want to touch you so badly," he said, scooting closer and wrapping his arms around her midsection. "Ever since you kissed me and began this chain reaction, I've felt that I was given some silent permission - that we were both given some silent permission, to touch each other. And I just keep doing it. I realize I should ask more... You should ask more, too."

"Guilty," she laughed. "Are you okay with this?"

"Yes. Is it okay to put my arms here?"

"Very."

"And yet, I still want more. And I'm afraid... that I won't be able to keep convincing myself to be reasonable. But when we..." He trailed off, blushing.

"Paralyzed each other?" Yuffie offered.

"I remembered how strong you are," he nodded. "If I ever get carried away..."

"Vinnie, you're a gentleman and a half. I'm the one I'm worried about on that front. There're a lot of things I wanna do to you... er... WITH you... That I know both of us aren't ready for right now. And it's hard to fight. I mean, you're right here. You're clearly okay with me making you my personal make-out machine. So the logical temptation part of my brain says 'That means everything's on the table!'... but it's not. I think... If we're both reasonable, and talk to each other before we cross any new territory... We'll be okay."

"Thank you for that assurance." He removed his arms from around her abdomen and lazily grabbed her right hand, pulling it closer and pressing it against his cheek. "And thank you for sharing. It's good to know I'm not the only one going mad over here." She smiled and dropped back down, her head colliding with his stomach. He let out a painful groan, but otherwise didn't seem to mind. He set both hands to work brushing through her hair. They both let out content sighs and lay in silence for a while.

"So, are you okay with being a consort?" This question made Vincent raise an eyebrow.

"...What?"

\\\\\

"Ahhh... I feel so much better!" Yuffie swung her arm around in a circle and stretched before jumping back onto the cushion pile, colliding with Vincent. "Thanks for all the medicine."

"Medicine...?" Before he could ask further, she covered his lips with her own, pressing down hard, as if trying to bury him in the pillows. "Mm.."

'Mmm..."

"So, I suppose this is our last night here," he said when he could speak once more. "We should continue to North Corel in the morning."

"Yeah... Vinnie, sing to me."

"Pardon?"

"Sing me a song!"

"You want to hear me sing? My voice is..." She kissed him again, furiously this time.

"I won't let you finish that sentence," she said, brushing her fingers against his skin. "Sing. Please." He sat up, cleared his throat, took a sip of water from the glass on the windowsill, and hesitated for a moment, before beginning.

"Moon... river...

Wider than a mile.

I'm crossing you in style some day.

Oh, dream maker,

you heart breaker.

Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way.

Two drifters,

off to see the world.

There's such a lot of world to see.

We're after the same..."

His voice cracked. He cleared his throat once more before continuing.

"...Rainbow's end.

Waitin' 'round the bend.

My huckleberry friend.

Moon river... and me."

After a considerable silence, he cleared his throat one more time before saying "Something like that."

"Hmm... You're right, Vinnie. Your singing isn't all that great." He scoffed. She grasped his face in both hands. "But it's gorgeous to me." And she kissed him. Over and over and over again.

\\\\\

[ ~ One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ ]

[magic5ball]

Nature Trail to Hell Arc II: Watt Outta Hell (14)

Chapter 14: We Get on Up (Out of Hell, that is)

The way to our escape route was… odd, putting it light.Raposa took us to a corner of the cathedral, drawing out a kitchen knife tied by the hilt to a thread of dental floss.

F-Bomb, naturally, asked the real questions:

“What the fork is that?”  

“Throximundeer, the World Reaver.” 

When neither of us dignified that with a response, she went on: “I named it when I was ten, okay! But the name’s not important. THIS, on the other hand, IS!”

Wedging her knife under the corner of a wall, Raposa… well it’s hard to say, but to me it looked like she had peeled back a corner of the wall like it was paper, exposeing an inky black void under it.

“Alright guys, here’s the deal: we’re about to enter the abyssal zone. Not exactly a place for the faint of heart, even for residents of this craphole, so I’m gonna have to ask you to close your eyes and pretend not to hear anything.”

Seeing as our peepers were shut, we had no choice but to link hands, eyes shut with Raposa as she went into the void. What followed was a walk so long it made the hikes I had to do at Camp Sham seem like a trip to the bathroom (which, based on the way my camp bunk had smelled, was pretty much EVERYWHERE to the point where it was less a loo and more an omnipresent deity). Except the whole time, I felt somethings brushing up against me, whispering in my ears. Made my skin go cold, let me tell y! F-Bomb wasn’t doing much better. Guy sweated so hard I was surprised he didn’t turn into a puddle. When the Hell Princess finally let us open our eyes, it was in front of an automatic sliding door I’d recognize anywhere. Inserting Throximundeer into a keyhole and turning, she grunted. 

“Welp, here we are, guys. Welcome to Hell’s very own Goodwill.”

But instead of white shelves and the scent of day old deodorant, instead the inside held a canyon so vast it made my Dad’s buttcrack look like the Mariana Trench. . The whole time, we had to stay on this narrow path on one side of the canyon where one wrong step could potentially send us falling to… actually, I don’t know how far down we would fall. It was too deep to see the bottom. But what was most baffling of all was that, despite being so deep underground, there was a giant sun in the crimson red ‘sky’. When I asked Raposa about this, she let out a teenagery sigh.

“It’s my Moms. They always, always, always leaves that stupid light on! I try to tell them we don’t need it, Mom. We could always just use torches Mom! It’s much scarier anyways, Mom! But noooooooo! They always gotta say things like ‘No good running around in the dark like that! Wouldn’t want you to stub your toe, sweetie!’ Bad for my eyesight, she says. Sweet Porcelain God, it’s like they think I’m 15 or something!”

“Moms?”

“Nine to be exact. They’re a handful, but I love ‘em!”

F-Bomb and I gripped hands in a way that was ball-blowingly manly, trying not to lose balance. To distract myself from my newfound fear of heights, I looked at the giant red rock face opposite us. There, embedded in the sediments, were the preserved remains of forgotten treasures”

The Lighthouse Alexandria.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Shrinky-Dinks.

Greek Fire.

And the further down we went, the more ancient the hand-me-downs got, until...

“Dinosaurs!”

If it weren’t for F-Bomb grabbing my arm, I might have jumped off the cliff from sheer joy then and there. There they were, the greatest scenes from the Mesozoic, preserved in rock, just out of reach. There was even a vintage copy of ‘Dinosaur!’ (And believe me, F-Bomb really had to reel me in from that one!)

“You know kid, they weren’t all wiped out.” Corrected Raposa “Some were turned into birds.”

“Sellouts.” Muttered F-Bomb.

After that, we walked along in silence, deeper and deeper into the canyon until at last we reached the bottom, right next to a fossilized Chicago Cubs player holding a world series trophy.

“Welp.” Said Raposa “We’re here.”

And there, in the deepest, darkest part of the canyon, where the sky seemed nothing more than a sliver cracking through the midnight gloom around us, something emerged from the shadows, something…

Soft and fluffy.

Now it was F-Bomb’s turn to go nuts. “Sailor Moon!” he cried.

And it wasn’t just her, either. Lying next to her was none other than my trusty machine gun!

“SweetPorecelainGodareyouokay?!” he dashed over to her, inspecting for any torn fabric or other possible injuries.

While he had his happy little reunion, I took my gun back. Thanks to my little black hole, it fit perfectly in my pocket. All well and good, but…

“So where’s the Sex Masheen?” I asked.

Raposa pointed to a dimly lit area behind F-Bomb. A giant wall, about as high as the roof to my school’s gymnasium stood in our way. There was no door, but the thing was covered in disorganized, multi-colored squares. I couldn’t believe it.

“A wall of Rubik’s Cubes? A WALL OF STINKING RUBIK”S CUBES?! WE RISKED OUR LIVES FOR THIS?!” Though most of my irking stemmed from my past. Because for every Christmas for as long back as I could remember, I’ve always gotten one of those stupid cubes, no matter how hard I tried to be good. It was like Santa’s way of saying I’d been a bad boy instead of just giving me that baby dinosaur already! Turned out even in the darkest pits of the Underworld, those dumb toys were inescapable.

           Raposa craned a pointed index finger upward. When I followed, my jaw darn near hit the ground (I should get insurance, seeing how often that happens.) Towering above us, higher than a thousand school gymnasiums was what could only be described as some sort of snake, except it didn’t have any head and was covered in a buncha arms and legs constantly grasping for something. The only thing protecting us from this abomination was some kind of enormous red bubble the thing was constantly scratching at, kinda like those play tubes guinea pigs play with. Except it was the size of freakin’ Empire State Building and could potentially raze an entire city just by walking. (Seriously though, why can’t the pets back home ever be that awesome? Take notes, Petco!) One thing was certain: It didn’t look like a masheen at all. So while that may not have been a worst case scenario, I still kinda felt ripped off.

Raposa coughed to get our attention. “So, uh, yeah. This is Sex Masheen. Funny story about this guy. So we were hosting our annual First Circle of Hell Rabies Awareness Fun Run-“

“So can it take us to the surface or what?” Interrupted F-Bomb. “Looking at that dang thing is making Sailor Moon nervous.”

“Yeah, and why’s it called a ‘Sex Masheen if it doesn’t have anything to do with sex?”

(Granted, this was back in the days when I thought ‘sex’ was kissing a girl on the lips, but even then, I had Ben Franklin slippers back at home sexier than that... thing!)

“To answer the first question: yes, it can take you to the surface. The second: the name Sex Masheen just sounded really cool at the time, okay?! So anyways, Sexy over here hasn’t left because it’s been trapped in a bubble. But not just any bubble- a F*CKING Bubble, which has the strength of, like, a billion regular bubbles.”

“And I guess you made that, too?”

“Excellent deduction, my dear F-Bomb! And right here-“

She pulled out the longest, thinnest needle I’d ever seen from a pocket on the leg of her denim jeans. “-is the only needle in the entire universe pointy enough to pierce it. When I do, you’ll have maybe five seconds to grab on before the big guy penetrates its’ way to the surface.”

“And you know this because-“

“Look you little prick. You want to go topside or not?!”

Let me tell you, F-Bomb shut up right quick after that.

“Alright, alright!” She pointed the needle at the giant bubble “Like I said, once this thing pops, you’ve got maybe five seconds, ten tops, to hop on this thing and ride out of here! You ready?”

F-Bomb and I looked at each other, ready to go where no lost soul had gone before. We nodded.

“Righteous! Sex Masheen going live in one, a two, a one, two, three, four!”

What followed was a pop loud enough to break the sound barrier. The ground rumbled. F-Bomb and I knew we had to act fast. Bursting through the wall of cubes, we found ourselves briefly intimidated by the barrier of arms and legs just twitching around in the air in front of us. Didn’t last long, though, because one of the arms got the idea to nab Sailor Moon, and before you could say Moon Prism Power, they were all vying for a piece of the Moon pie.

“Hands off the waifu, ya creeps!” shreiked F-Bomb, holding Sailor Moon hard as he could. Naturally, I followed suit.

Have you ever been on the outside of a plane as it took off? Well, neither have I, but what I felt after Sex Masheen took off must have been pretty similar. A few seconds into flight and I worried the skin was gonna get peeled right off my body. As the abomination rose into the air, I took one last look at the pit of the Underworld below us. Looking back at me was Raposa. All well and good, until I noticed the rocket launcher in her arms. Where she got it so quick, I’ve got no idea, but the important thing was she had it pointed right at us.

“Nobody’s allowed to leave the Underworld…” she chuckled, clicking the trigger.

A speedy projectile shot right at us. F-Bomb and I tried to move, only to find Sailor Moon locked tight in the Masheen’s grasp. Even if it would make F-Bomb mad, I wanted to slam my head multiple times against the pillow. Why didn’t I see this coming!? Of course a Princess of the Underworld wouldn’t just let us waltz right out of her turf!

My griping was cut short by something hitting me in the face. Something that smelled of fresh cotton and lavender. With a free hand I unfolded it: a white t-shirt (made with 100% organic cotton, if the tag was to be believed). Printed on the front, in bold black letters, was the phrase

I ESCAPED FROM HELL AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT

“…without getting a souvenir t-shirt first!”

           I would have fainted from the craziness of it all, if the Sex Masheen hadn’t chosen that moment to pierce the surface and send twenty pounds of muscovite schist into my open mouth. Below, Hell became nothing more than an Arkansas sized hole in the ground, then a New Jersey sized hole in the ground, then a little dot in the distance. All well and good, until I realized sooner or later we had to get off this thing, especially after the thin air started making my head woozy. F-Bomb and I tugged at Sailor Moon, trying to get off before we became the first dinosaurs in space (not all it’s cracked up to be. If you’ve tried  those astronaut ice cream bars, you know space travel is overrated). It wasn’t until I started beating the hands back with the butt of my machine gun they finally let go.

           A wave of relief swept over us as we escaped a future of freeze-dried crap and no internet connection, only to be replaced with the realization we were now freefalling from a height where we could see California. You ever talk into a fan? You know, the old ones that chopped up your voice? Well, that’s what freefall felt like, except so strong you’d think the wind was trying to dismember you. As for me, I did what any ten year old would do in this situation: spread me limbs out and SCREAM!

“THIIISSSSS IISSSSS AAAWWWEEESSSOOOOMMMEEE!”

And that is how I got over my short lived fear of heights. Fortunately, F-Bomb had done some quick thinking and converted Sailor Moon into an air surfboard, otherwise we might have plummeted right through the planet and wound up on the other side in Fiji. (Wouldn’t have been so bad, now that I think about it). Anyways, we air surfed at 500 miles an hour to the ground, F-Bomb steering, me looking for a landing space. And wouldn’t you know it, right below us was a white trampoline! That could break a fall (I hoped). I had F-Bomb steer us around in circles, spread weight, anything to slow our descent. But just as we were about to land, F-Bomb noticed something.

“Hate ta break it to ya, Turd, but did you know trampolines aren’t covered in tiles?”

I didn’t even have time to answer before we crashed through the roof to wherever we were. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the Sex Machine, now just a twinkle in the distance, still charging into space.

Now, at this point, you’re probably thinking this story isn’t true. That I made all this up to get an extra hundred words on my ‘How I Spent My Summer Vacation’ report. And you’re (sorta) right, but I will say this: if you ever go to a public pool in New Jersey, you might come across a kiddie pool that smells suspiciously of fire and brimstone (well, more than usual, at least). Amazing what folks will do with giant holes they find in the ground.

And that was the last I heard of the Sex Masheen. Last I heard it was chugging along to Uranus to do Lord knows what. But that’s its’ story, not mine.

As for F-Bomb and I? Well, let’s just say our troubles were only beginning…

                          Nature Trail to Hell Part II: Watt Outta Hell: End

[travelcenter-uk]

Done with the regular holidays in 2021? Here’s where your next trip should be

Want your days and nights perfumed with obsession? Or to get stuck somewhere that makes you want to stay a little longer every time you think of leaving? Then take your adventures away from Europe. Let’s leave France, Spain, Italy and Greece behind for a moment & look toward a different region, a part of the world full of screaming colours, daydream-evoking hotspots and natural grandeur. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a sucker for all of the countries I just mentioned, and they definitely have their own version of visit-worthy attractions, but over time, I think it’s better to expand your horizons and roam into the not-so-ordinary. Translation, make sure you book a trip to the Far East.

It’s not every day you get to see something as eye-arresting as the countries of the Far East, which is why I’ve taken the liberty of setting up a list of the best places to see and things to do in the region. Now, I know for a fact that some travellers like to think that the Far East is overrated or just “not for them”, but hey, isn’t travelling all about breaking out of your comfort zone? Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a long-lasting favourite in one of the places I’ve mentioned below. So, keep reading.

Phuket

If it’s one thing Phuket does right, it’s being vibrant! Well, actually, no, I can think of two other countries on this list that do it better. But you get the point, we love Phuket and you should too! Why? Because:

Blissful beaches – The dramatic scenery of Phuket’s beaches are unparalleled. It legit looks like something out of a different world, don’t trust me? Fine. Maybe you should see for yourself by booking a beach holiday with us.

I find the beaches of Phuket to be the go-to place for just about any kind of traveller – whether you’re wandering on a budget, a lover of all things luxurious or the parent of two (usually) wonderful kids, it’s definitely for everyone. However, the best part is that each of Phuket’s beaches is different. From the mellow yet deep-blue tones of Surin to the neon-light filled coast of Patong, every beach is an experience that is not like the other, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Absorbing nightlife – Booze, booze and oh, look, more booze. Yeah, that’s not what your nightlife scene is going to be like in Phuket. I mean, it could be if you wanted it to be, but I wouldn’t recommend it because of the hangover that comes along with it. Phuket’s nightlife rams into your atmosphere with all-out nightclub action, quiet little bars for some quality alone time and lively late-night concerts and beach parties, meaning it’s incredibly varied.

I don’t necessarily think that there’s a specific place in Phuket that launches a reverberating nightlife scene, mainly because that’s what the entire island does in itself. But I will say that Bangla road, in particular, has what every party-lover looks for! Why? Because this is where you’ll find nightlife at the top of its game. As soon as the sun goes down, neon lights, upbeat music and lively chatter begin to carpet the road as locals and tourists alike swarm the many go-go bars and nightclubs that are located in the street. But is it all about taking shots & dancing? Well, technically, yes. Bangla Road has a reputation for being the most outrageously fun party hub in Asia, and I think it does deserve it but the food from street vendors deserves your time too. Solo travellers easily have the best experience and yeah, you might get the usual “I’m not that drunk!?” kind of a person but other than that it’s completely safe, with violence being a complete no-show. Trust me, all in all, this is one stop you don’t want to miss.

Taste-bud striking flavours – Isn’t this what really matters? I mean, I’m not sure about the rest of you, but when I go to a new country, I don’t immediately jump on the whole culturally curious, Dora the explorer persona. No, I’m more likely to satisfy my soul by eating something that makes me forget all of my worries (temporarily). In hindsight, I can see that it’s not the healthiest idea, but hey, you’re on holiday, so unhealthy choices are allowed. Right?

Phuket’s cuisine is influenced by a jumble of international flavours – you get hints of Chinese, Malaysian and even a little bit of Europe in their food. This influential influx then led to Phuket developing a unique blend of flavour. A flavour you’ll find to be the signature touch on their dishes – regardless of eating in high-scale restaurants or a street food stall. From hearty noodles with seafood in it to an icy dessert that looks like a brightly coloured cloud, I guess you could say Phuket really does have it all in terms of a ubiquitous flavour palate.

Bangkok

Bangkok…where do we begin with Bangkok? Mm, well, for starters, I think I speak for everyone when I say that you really haven’t eaten street food until you’ve tried the street version of Bangkok’s dishes. I also think the capital is the epitome of street life, but coming away from that for a second, I think Bangkok is bewilderingly beautiful at any time of the day. It has an active culture, a plethora of vividly wild & wow-evoking attractions and plus, it’s a full-on paradise for foodies like I’ve mentioned before, making it the full package.

Here are 3 of the places I believe you should visit in Bangkok!

The Grand Palace

With majestic spires and walls that stop you in your tracks, the Grand Palace definitely lives up to its name. Plus, they say the walls keep priceless relics hidden from the eyes of the public. I don’t know about you, but knowing that just makes this place ten times more interesting.

Chao Phraya River

You want to know what’s better than exploring this magnificent waterway? It’s that you also get to see some of the most noteworthy attractions that are on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. From Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) to Wat Arun, you’ll be able to kill three birds with one stone.

The Damneon Saduak Floating Market

This savvy tourist spot just so happens to be one of the oldest established floating markets in Bangkok. But what makes the crowd go wild isn’t exactly the history that follows the attraction, but it’s rather what they see on the market. It’s vast, lively, full of boats selling food and fruits, and it’s colourful – exactly how people imagine a floating market would look like, with the opportunity to capture the perfect photo to show off once back home.

Kuala Lumpur

Did you really think I’d leave Kuala Lumpur out of a list that talks about some of the best places to visit in the Far East? Because no, I’m not. Anyways, some things that instantly spring up in my mind when I think of this city include the historical tapestry it weaves, the sizzling street food (I know, I’ve been mentioning that a lot) and the shopping malls. As much as I’d like to be one of those people who are like “why visit a mall when you can go hiking instead??” I’m more of a “why go hiking when there’s a glitzy air-conditioned shopping mall the size of mammoth right in front of you?” type. Don’t get me wrong, I like hiking, just not in Malaysia. But hey, I guess that’s just me.

Here are the three best places that I find to be worthy of a visit.

The Batu Caves

Yes, yes, I know, I know, you can’t get any more basic than visiting the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur, but trust me, even though it’s one of those generic tourist attractions, the experience is worth visiting. The hollow limestone tower has been around for almost 400 million years, do you even realise how long that is? Plus, the caverns and crags were formed in the prehistoric era, you know? The one with dinosaurs. But history aside, I think the view alone is enough to leave you with a fly-catching gape. Therefore, you should visit it or at least try to…please?

Petronas Twin Towers

Fact: according to research conducted by a group of scientists, visiting the Petronas Twin Towers has a 90% chance of making your holiday in Kuala Lumpur better. Want to test that theory?

The Petronas Twin Towers are one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, it’s a grand spectacle for many and a pain in the gluteus maximus for people with a fear of heights.

Thean Hou Temple

Now, why in the world would you not want to visit one of the oldest and largest Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia? The Thean Hou Temple dates back all the way to 1894, and it definitely is one of those sacred spaces that you just have to visit at all cost. The architecture is nothing short of stunning and the views…well, let’s just say I don’t have to say much given that the temple sits on top of a large hill.

Kuala Lumpur’s Shopping Malls

We also have an honorary mention for Kuala Lumpur, and honestly, it’s just any shopping mall you can find. Trust me, you won’t notice time fly when you’re inside one of these cosmopolitan buildings. Plus, the air-conditioning and the designer bargains don’t hurt either. Pavilion KL, Suria KLCC and Publika are all capable of impressing the pickiest shopper. So, be sure to make time for these stops on your trip. You won’t regret it.

Bali

They don’t call Bali the island of the gods for nothing. Like damn, can you blame all those travellers for visiting the country? Who wouldn’t want to visit? I would go in a heartbeat if my bank balance didn’t look the way it did. Anyways, your trip to Bali is much more than just a cliché fun-in-the-sun retreat. It’s about 10,000 temples, soul-stirring beaches, rip-roaring traditional dance performances, dramatic volcanoes and a family-friendly culture. Plus, the people are always so joyful…like to the point where it’s borderline confusing, but I guess that’s just me again.

So, once again, here are some of the places & things to do that I think would suit everyone’s itinerary.

Visit one of Bali’s Spa-aaah!

Time to untie those knots of tension you’ve been saving up for various reasons. Plus, if you’ve been to Bali and didn’t visit any of its world-renowned spas then did you even visit Bali in the first place? I’m not going to pinpoint any specific locations, because you’re bound to find a lot of them all across Bali. Plus, it’s all equally rejuvenating no matter where you lay down for a massage.

Mount Bator Volcano

Yes. The next must-visit for me is Mount Bator Volcano – I’m fairly sure you saw that coming, it’s not like this towering rock formation is underrated or anything, but many people just pretend to forget it exists because people say it’s “active”. One thing to understand about this volcano is that it won’t begin spewing lava at the middle of the day out of nowhere, meaning that it is entirely safe and has been that way for a very long time. So, make sure you make the trek, this other-worldly spectacle deserves a little love.

Tanah Lot Temple

If it’s one thing everybody knows about me but chooses to ignore because my interests are not worth their time, it’s that I love a place that has a good view of a perfect sunset. “It’s cheesy, people who pretend to like sunsets are so cheesy” yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that one before. But if you’re like me and happen to appreciate the sheer appeal and the radiating charm of a sunset, make a stop at Tanah Lot Temple. Why? Because the one thing that accentuates the temple’s beauty even more so is the golden burst of the sun bowing down after a magnificent show, exquisitely shading the temple before turning it into a silhouette that you won’t be able to tear your eyes away from. But words don’t do it justice, make sure you check it out for yourself.

Siem Reap

Listen, I might not be the biggest fan of Siem Reap, but I have to admit, the archaeological highlights are beyond intriguing. I guess more than anything, Siem Reap really does fit the ideal set list of a traveller who’s more of an explorer; which is dumb of me to say because almost every traveller loves to explore; they wouldn’t have left the couch if they didn’t want to. But no, I’m talking about the ones who travel to explore places that they believe might be more than what meets the eye.

The Dinosaur of Ta Prohm

Is it just a mere hoax or evidence that one or two dinosaurs might have survived and lived among humans? Not many know this, but hordes of travellers visit Cambodia to see this at the temples of Angkor. How about you?

Neak Pean

Just a peaceful 12th-century temple surrounded by water folks, nothing to see here.

Yeah no, that’s where you’re wrong.

Many believe that the water happens to have curative properties and that it’s not just your usual river. It may be devastatingly old, but the serene aura is still present to this day, and it enchants countless travellers to come see its surroundings.

Bayon Temple

For me, the Bayon’s most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. Which, at first, just creeped me out but then I saw how much everyone else appreciated the detailing of the carvings, and it helped the attraction grow on me. Overall, I think it’s beautiful and if you’ve got an interest in exploring temples, this should definitely be on your list of things to see!

If you just so happen to be intrigued by any of these places, feel free to call or send us an email. We do have an offer for these places right now and it’s getting a surprising amount of attention because of the price and due to the fact that these have been characterised as some of the best places in the Far East to visit during these times, which is also another reason we chose to highlight it in this article. So, I really hope you don’t miss out on our special deal if you’re planning to take your holiday to the Far East.

Read More:- https://blog.travelcenter.uk/done-with-the-regular-holidays-in-2021-heres-where-your-next-trip-should-be/

This Article, Information & Images Source (copyright) :- https://blog.travelcenter.uk

[ssbuniverse-blog]

SUPER SMASH BROS UNIVERSE Part 1, Chapter 3: Jungle Hair

AT THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM HOT SPRINGS…

           At the brink where Peach’s Castle meets the Kongo Jungle, Yoshi and his Luma stand; they’re looking at the steaming hot spring that Bowser created. The Koopa King’s airship still flies above the castle. Yoshi can hear a rumbling from behind the castle doors. He can’t get too close or someone will hear him for sure. He circles around the rampart to find someplace more concealing. He sees the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom is flooded. This has to be because of the earthquake! It looks like Yoshi’s Island isn’t the only thing damaged by the shift. As Yoshi peers into the castle he can hear Bowser complaining and throwing things.

           “The whole Mushroom Kingdom is flooded and Mario is nowhere to be found!” Bowser screams. “This plan was useless!”

           Yoshi and Luma are relieved to hear that Mario and the others aren’t caught up in this mess. But where could they have gone? The Kongo Jungle? Or maybe his own island? He isn’t sure if either of those places are safe to be in! Yoshi tells the Luma to tell Rosalina what they saw. Luma concentrates and sends a message to one of Rosalina’s Lumas, they should hear back any second now. Yoshi’s Luma explains that Rosalina wants them to come to the Space Observatory immediately. The Luma turns into a super launch star and catapults Yoshi to the Space Observatory.

AT THE SPACE OBSERVATORY…

           Yoshi crashes into the Observatory roof! It is a small building; Rosalina’s Office, which is about half the size of Peach’s Castle. It has one long pointed roof, painted blue in resemblance to Rosalina’s dress. Surrounding the office is a circular courtyard where the rest of the Lumas can relax. There are a few buildings underneath the Observatory that act as living quarters for visitors.

           “He does get a lota height when he jumps!” Mario adds.

The Mario brothers climb onto the roof and bring Yoshi down to the ground where his Luma is there to meet him. They bring the basketball star/dinosaur and his friend to Rosalina’s office. As they navigate around the observatory, Yoshi sees toads, goombas, and other koopas wandering about. He assumes that what was left of the Mushroom Kingdom must be living here. In Rosalina’s office, there is cylinder which acts as the power source and a large computer on the far wall.

           “Welcome Yoshi, it’s good to see that you’re okay,” Rosalina greets and turns around to face the map. “Because the rest of the world isn’t.”

           “It seems that we have lost most of the world. Not cause of that earthquake.” Mario explains. “There’s something more at stake.”

           “This is the map of the world,” Rosalina starts to zoom in on aspects of the map. “This is the Mushroom Kingdom,” not too far from it Rosalina points at “the Kongo Jungle. They are right on top of each other. And Yoshi’s Island, is smashed into this other continent.”

           Yoshi coos at Mario. He makes other noises that only Mario can really decipher. “I think Yoshi is saying he lost someone,” Yoshi coos again. “Or maybe everyone!”

           “That’s uh- Sarasaland right?” Luigi points to the desert land to the west of the Kongo Jungle.

           “I believe so,” Rosalina answers.

           “S-so Daisy might be alive? She might still be here?” Luigi stammers.

           “It’s possible! However, I haven’t heard anything from her Luma.”

           “I say, w-we go find out for ourselves!” Luigi is hesitantly confident.

           “I say you’re right,” Rosalina agrees.

           “Ooh, I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” Luigi whimpers.

           “You, Yoshi, and I will go down there are try to scope everything out, alright Luigi?” Mario questions his brother.

           “Alright,” Luigi gives in.

           “I think if you are down there we can get a better look at what happened during the shift. I’ll send you to the Kongo Jungle, that way you can try and find Peach,” Rosalina instructs.

           “Sounds good!” Mario cheers.

           “And give this Luma to Donkey Kong, it is time we are all on the same page.”

           “Hey boss!” Captain Toad comes from the outer courtyard area. With him is Toadette. “If you thought we were gonna let you go on an adventure without us-“

           “Never!” Mario cheers.

           “Well it looks like you’ll have some more company,” Rosalina is pleased.

           “Let’s go!” Toadette cheers.

           Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi get their Lumas and meet near the landing dock of the Space Observatory. Captain Toad and Toadette run up to Mario with various nap sacks of supplies. Rosalina wishes them goodbye as jump off the dock and the Lumas carry them towards the Kongo Jungle. They look at the crowd of toads, goombas, and koopas as they give them good luck. The Space Observatory slowly gets smaller and smaller as they travel closer to the earth.

IN THE KONGO JUNGLE…

           Peach wakes up sweating. Her body sticks to the skirt she is wearing. As she wipes her forehead she feels her frizzy hair up in different directions. Peach looks around the treehouse and she is alone, perfect. It is nothing but her and the creaking of wood. Well, and the bugs that live in the leaves that act as bed sheets. Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong found the rest of Peach’s luggage with the other carriages: the luggage with her other clothes. She changes into something more comfortable and heads outside. While inspecting the other carriages, Diddy and Dixie didn’t find the rest of Peach’s council. Although this worries her, she is glad to see Toadsworth getting accustomed to a different way of living. Peach steps out of the treehouse to see Toadsworth eating bananas with Donkey Kong.

           Diddy and Dixie surf through the trees to the camp, they have something to show everyone. DK runs towards them, Peach looks at Toadsworth, what could it be? After the Kongs coo at each other, Diddy and Dixie jump back into the jungle. DK picks of Peach and Toadsworth again. Peach laughs at Toadsworth cringing. They glide through the trees until they meet the two other Kongs.

           There’s a whole swarm of kritters, King K. Rool’s minions! They guard a cage that binds Toadstern, The Chancellor, and Toad Minister. They stay silent in the trees, not moving an inch, but examining everything with their eyes. Peach and Toadsworth watch in amazement, then, start to focus. The horde of kritter’s are led by little Kremlings called Kip and Kass. After the Kongs memorized the camp, they silently leave the vicinity.  

           “We have to save them DK!” Peach protests. He hears her, but continues on his path to the treehouse. Donkey Kong enters the tree house and rumbles through some things. CLANK! There is a crash. DK comes out of the tree house with a barrel blaster and two peanut guns. Diddy gets giddy and runs to snatch his favorite toys. DK then pulls out a brush. Dixie complains, but DK makes her brush her hair. Peach and Toadsworth watch as Dixie takes her hat off and pulls the hair tie out. WHOOP! Dixie’s blonde mane turns into a large blonde afro so fast that it scares Toadsworth.

           Diddy Kong is at the top of the treehouse with a blue egg in his hand. Diddy throws the egg high up in the air, it falls back in his arms. Diddy looks around, nothing. He tries it again, this time an orange bird catches it! The bird, Kazooie catches the egg and lands in front of Peach and Dixie. Slowly following the bird is Banjo the bear! The Kongs clap! Banjo-Kazooie goes over to DK to discuss the plan.

           Dixie grabs Peach’s frizzy hair and puts some butter in it. Dixie manages to pat down all of the frizz in her hair. Dixie then ties it into a nice braid. DK and Diddy are fascinated, so they grab some of the gel and butter for themselves. They start to shape their body hair into different patterns; Diddy is fond of the triangles he draws on his leg. While, DK drew an entire jungle landscape on his back.

           After that little bit of fun, everyone is ready to go to the kritter camp and save the others.  

IN THE KONGO JUNGLE…

           Captain Toad leads the group throughout the jungle; he holds his compass out. Toadette stays on top of Luigi’s head to look out for potential danger, for she has the sharpest eyes in all of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Lumas roam around them to record data for Rosalina’s virtual map. They scribble on a paper map the routes of the jungle. As the gang tumbles through the jungle, Rosalina is watching with a close eye from the Space Observatory. She can track all of the Lumas from her computer.

           Yoshi stops abruptly, Mario and Captain Toad react by stopping too. Luigi does but only after he stumbles over himself. Yoshi smells something, his nose flares and rises in the air. WOOSH! Yoshi starts flying toward the scent. The others follow to try and catch Yoshi. They watch as Yoshi disappears within the rest of the green. Toad and the Lumas can’t keep up with Mario and Luigi. A large branch pokes out of the ground and trips Luigi, smashing Toadette into the ground. Mario avoids the large obstacles and finds Yoshi, who is looking at a pile of fruit in the middle of a clearing.

           “Yoshi, we gotta go!” Mario protests.

           In the clearing there are large huts, kritters come out of them and look around; they must’ve heard Mario. He pulls Yoshi away from the camp. But the shifting makes another distinct noise. The kritters lunge towards their direction while Mario and Yoshi run back to the others.

           As Mario and Yoshi run away they hear the kritters getting closer and closer. Yoshi tumbles on a root and knocks Mario down with him. The kritters are right on top of the two with their mouth’s open to strike, BAM! Captain Toad hits one of the kritters with a hammer. The three other kritters in the chase slow down and get in a defense position. Luigi throws fire balls at the other two and Toadette throws stones. The lumas body slam the one kritter still conscious and save Mario and Yoshi.

           “That isn’t happening ever again!” Luigi says as he helps Yoshi and Mario up. “We need to focus on finding the prin –er, I mean Queen”

           “Don’t look at me it was him!” Mario blames Yoshi who grins sweetly, as if it would account for the trouble he caused. They continue on their journey and hope that they don’t run into any other creepy kritters.

LATER AT THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM HOT SPRINGS…

           Bowser is redecorating the old Peach’s Castle. Well, the koopalings are redecorating the place as Bowser rests. He is adamant that the koopalings get everything together because other Koopa families are going to be living with them. Wendy is in charge of taking down the wedding decorations because Bowser hates looking at them. Larry and Iggy are in charge of making boats so people can travel outside of the castle. Morton and Roy need to clean up the debris from the flood. Ludwig is in charge of crafting a new telescope so he can see if visitors are climbing the wall. Bowser keeps Lemmy for entertainment, and Bowser Jr. has to change the flags.

None of the koopas besides Lemmy are interested in doing what they are told. Wendy ends up crying because she hasn’t been able to find a koopa who loves her. Larry and Iggy make wooden swords out of the material they were supposed to use for the row boats. Morton and Roy find the food stash. Ludwig finishes the telescope, but returns to work on his teleportation device. As Bowser Jr. starts putting up the flags, he has an idea. He goes to find Larry and Iggy then brings them to the roof. There they use the Mushroom Kingdom flags as a blanket to slide down the roof and into the water. As Larry and Iggy slide, three, four, and five times, Bowser Jr. gets the others to join them. Soon enough, Wendy, Morton, and even Ludwig are sliding down the roof and splashing into the water.

“You should really be doing what Bowser says or he will be angry with you,” Kamek screeches to the koopas.

“Buzz off!” Iggy says and continues to slide down the roof.

Kamek runs off to Bowser in the great hall, he hopes that the Koopa King will do something about the children’s terrible behavior. However, Bowser seems too occupied with Lemmy at the moment.

“Do it again! Do it again!” Bowser cheers Lemmy on, who is bouncing on a ball and doing back flips off it. Lemmy starts to jump on the ball, he is getting high into the air and then starts to flip.

“King Bowser,” Kamek starts.

“Not now Kamek, can’t you see I’m spending time with my son!”

“But Bowser!”

“Not now!” Bowser goes back to cheering on Lemmy who just did two backflips off of the ball.

AT KIP AND KASS’ KRITTER KAMP…

           Right outside the kritter camp, DK, Diddy, Dixie, Peach, Banjo-Kazooie, and Toadsworth are watching. They devise a plan to grab the keys and release the toad council from their cell. DK expects there to be some fighting and is confident that they will win.

           Toadsworth is small and maneuvers through the shrubs without being detected. He makes his way to the part that is closest to Kip and Kass’ tent. Toadsworth looks around and doesn’t see any kritters paying attention. He then looks over to see Peach giving him a thumbs up. Toadsworth rushes over and rolls into the tent. Commotion erupts immediately; growls and banging are heard within the tent, drawing kritters over to it. Dixie has already made her way to that end of the camp and sneaks behind Kip and Kass’ tent.

           In the tent, Toadsworth is wrestling with Kip, and losing. He jabs the two kritters with a scepter and manages to grab the key off of Kip’s hip. Toadsworth struggles, but then breaks free for a moment and rolls over to the backside of the tent. He slides the key under the tent and watches as Dixie snags it. Then Donkey Kong arrives to knock out the kritters that are hounding Toadsworth. Kip and Kass tell the kritters to leave DK to them.

           Dixie approaches the jail cell and it’s guarded by two kritters. Peach and Diddy appear from the bushes and knock both kritters out. The kritters start to charge toward the cell. Diddy and Dixie lunge at the crowd to fight them off. Peach unlocks the cell and frees the council. Kritters start to attack Peach. She manages to slap away a few of the kritters but they are too tough for her. A kritter cuts Peach in the face but is then hit by a blue egg.

           Suddenly, out of the sky more blue eggs come crashing down on the kritters. The blue eggs are coming from Banjo-Kazooie. As they land on the kritter camp they knock out the kritters near Peach and lead her and the council to safety. Banjo-Kazooie help the Kongs beat the rest of the kremlings. DK lets Kip and Kass run back to their boss. A bloody and bruised Toadsworth stumbles out of the tent; the council run from the bushes to his aid. Now that they rescued the council, everyone heads back to the treehouse before any kremlings come back.

           At the treehouse, everyone celebrates their victory. Banjo-Kazooie and the Kongs talk about how small the jungle is. Diddy tells them about the mysterious earthquake that changed the world. Peach thanks them for saving her. The Kongs and Banjo-Kazooie continue to reminisce about the old days while Peach brings the council to the treehouse.

           “Peach, we have to get back to the Mushroom Kingdom, we cannot live with these beasts forever,” Toad Minister says.

           “Those ‘beasts’ just saved you,” Toadsworth snaps. Peach is glad to see Toadsworth lightening up.

           “You can’t be okay with this too Toadsworth?” Toad Minister asks.

           “I am not, but we don’t have any other option.”

           “Maybe we can have Diddy and Dixie walk us back to the castle,” Peach suggests.

           “And then what?” Toadstern asks.  

           “While the rest of the Kingdom is surrounded by water?” Toad Minister adds.

           “Maybe Rosalina can keep us in the Space Observatory?” Peach is throwing any solution she can.

           “How are we supposed to govern a kingdom from space?” Toad Minister questions.

           “What Kingdom?” Peach quiets the room. “What Kingdom is left for us to govern?”

           “The one you fought for today,” Toadsworth comments. “Despite everything you’ve lost and all the things that have changed, you are still fighting for the Mushroom Kingdom.”

           “We are staying in this treehouse until we can make a decision,” Peach says. “And if no one can agree, then we are doing what I say!”

           There is a knock from the entrance, someone stands behind the curtain-door. A white glove draws back the curtain and there stands Mario. Peach rushes towards him; arms open. THUD! She rushes at him so hard that they fall from the treehouse.

           “Sorry Mario,” Peach laughs. “I’m just glad to see you.”

           “It’s alright Peach,” Mario smiles. Yoshi had smelled the bananas from miles away, that is what brought them there. Captain Toad protested the plan, but Yoshi had a feeling that the bananas meant the Kongs were nearby.

           “What happened to ya prin –Peach?” Mario asks, looking at her scars and bruises.

           “We rescued Toad Minister and the others from a horde of Kremlings!” she explains.

           “You what?”

           “With the help of the Kongs, of course. And Banjo and Kazooie. For once I had the exciting adventure.”

           “Yes, Peach, yes you did.”

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