#Mer May 40K

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Paying it Forward

Past

Author’s Note: More of the Grumpy Thousand Son who was rescued by you.

Warnings: More unsustainable fishing practices, poor astartes they get tangled in the nets :/. Some swearing, they/them pronouns for the Reader, let me know if I need to add anything please.

Summary: Imhoden, the thousand son who was rescued by you, talks about you to his pod, among other things.

Tagged: @sleepyfan-blog, @whorety-k

Imhoden had spoken to his pod-mates about the human who had helped free him from the entrapping industrial fishing nets and more than a few of them were surprised that the human had helped him, without first demanding something from him in recompense before freeing him. One of the oldest of the pod warned him that while they hadn’t asked for anything for their help, that it’s likely a debt he owes to them. On Ancient Terra the warp-craft is far more difficult, taking far more energy and cost in supplies that they have precious little of to make. He agreed with the captain that he does owe the human something, for their help, but he hadn’t a name or much of what they looked like. After all, the human had been wearing protective gear to properly swim in the oceans depths that the space marines didn’t need.

“I did set a tracking spell on the human,” Imhoden tells his pod mates, “In case they are nearby and is in need of help, I can help them as they rescued me.”

“As they helped a member of my pod,” The Captain said after a few moments of thought, “I shall help you repay the debt if I find them first.”

“Yes captain,” he says with a nod of his head.

They continue to swim in the oceans of ancient Terra, they were trying to figure out just how they got here and if there is a way to get back to where and when they were before. Swimming through the water and through the air is an ability all space marines have. However, swimming in the air of this ancient Terra takes more effort and energy for some reason, that the Apothecaries have been trying to assess. Their pod, like many of the other pods, shivers, shoals of space marines have an uneasy alliance with each other. Except for some of the more… rigid of the Imperial lines.

Imhoden had never heard of a Black Templar before, and had much to his displeasure met one of the shouty sons of Dorn and the mad bastard had tried to kill him and his pod, decrying them as Witches, Heretics, and to be Purged and slain, to return to the light of the God Emperor of Man Kind. Throne on Terra. They were nightmare-ish to deal with, so his pod-captain had deemed the best method was to avoid the shouty little shits. Ugh, they gave Imhoden a headache jus thinking of them, and they are barely any better than those horrible Space Wolves, who are by far, one of The Worst Chapters Ever. The burning of Prospero is ever something that strokes the flames of wrath and hatred within every son of The Red King.

Several months later, he heard a chiming within his head, the small tracking spell he’d placed on the human who had rescued him informed him that they were nearby. He swam swiftly, after sending out a trilling call to his Captain about what he’d sensed and his captain gestured for him to go off and find the human. He focuses on the small tracking spell that he’d placed on them and swims swiftly and peers around to see where you are and what is going on. He sees his Rescuer trying to help a few Khornate Space Marines of the World Eaters out fishing nets. Unfortunately, the World Eaters are in Frenzy and are Not Listening. Mostly just bellowing, shrieking and flailing about, getting themselves cut more deeply. The blood and pain sending the idiot meat-heads into a further spiral of Rage and bloodlust.

He lets out a trilling call for his Captain and pod, this was going to take all of them to help the Idiot Khornate World Eaters and make sure that the human didn’t become lunch for the vicious thugs. He lets out a croon to the human, to let them know he was here- and where he was. They turn around and look for the source of the noise and recognize him, seemingly perking up and using their hands and words to explain the situation. He nods exaggeratedly and tells the human in his limited handle on their language that he understands and will help free the Angry Idiots. He warns the human that they need to get to the surface, as the… space marines within the nets will not be sensible or reasonable and might harm them, the human is stubborn at first, but sees more of Imhoden’s pod arrive and reluctantly goes back up to the surface. Imhoden swims up with them and follows them to their ship, tilting his head from side to side as he hears the human speak with the other humans on the ship.

“You should leave this area, will become very dangerous soon," He warns them.

[beethereal-knight]

Mer!40k Designs: Part 1 2 3 4

Alpharius (or Omegon), an enigmatic sea serpent.

... And also the last mer design for now, at until May rolls around...

[mokosempai]

Battle Sister #1

Je l'ai déjà dit, je suis dans une période (qui semble durer) Warhammer 40K. Il y a quelques temps j'avais entendu parler du jeu Battle Sister.

Battle Sister est un jeu VR où l'on incarne une Soeur de Bataille (au cas où le nom était pas évocateur ^^). Comme j'aime beaucoup les Soeurs de Bataille (je suis en train de peindre une Kill Team de Novice de l'Adpeta Sororitas) et j'étais vraiment curieux de voir ce que peux donner un jeu VR dans l'univers de Warhammer 40K, j'ai donc acheter ce jeu.

J'ouvre ici une parenthése sur la VR. Mon métier m'a amené dans le domaine de la VR et pourtant, je n'ai pas tant joué à des jeux de ce type. Je suis très "picky" dans mes choix de jeu VR, préférant ceux qui ont été créé pour ce média, comme Space Pirate Trainer ou Beat Saber, que ceux qui sont des portages de jeux existant.

Je suis moins fan des licenses qui sont porté sur VR, car j'ai toujours la sensation que le gameplay manque d'adpatation pour la réalité virtuel. Après, pour moi l'un des meilleurs jeu VR, est justement une adaptation: Super Hot VR. Mais là, on sent que tout a été repenser pour la VR jusqu'à l'interface de jeu qui complètement diégétique. Voilà, je ferme ici la parenthèse. Donc en attendant Boltgun, pourquoi pas se retrouver dans le monde joyeux de Warhammer 40K à travers les yeux d'une Soeur de Bataille. La première scène s'ouvre sur une bataille. Vous êtes sur le front, et devant vous, deux Chevaliers s'affrontent, un pour le compte de l'Empereur, l'autre pour celui du Chaos. Après s'ensuit quelques dialogues ainsi qu'un petit tutoriel intégré dans le jeu et vous voilà avec un Bolter à tirer sur des hérétiques.

Le bolter, l'un de vos meilleurs amis dans ce monde.

Vous incarnez Ophélia. Et quand je dit "incarnez", c'est assez littérale, car son corps entier a été modélisé. Contrairement à beaucoup de jeu VR où vous n'avez que vos mains de représentées, ici vous pouvez voir tout le corps de la Soeur de Bataille comme si c'était le votre. Même si parfois cela donne des torsions peu naturelles, le faite de se voir entier renforce énormément l'impression d'être dans l'univers de ce jeu vidéo. Dans le jeu, les déplacements peuvent être de deux types, soit la téléportation courtes, soit à l'aide du joystick. Ce dernier ayant le désavantage de provoquer chez certaine personne un malaise, allant de l'étourdissement léger au vomissement. Je ne vais pas entamé ici le sujet de la VR et de ce type de malaise, pour faire cours, ce genre de sensation est similaire à ce qu'on appelle le "mal de voiture" ou "le mal de mer". N'étant pas très sensible à ce genre de sensation, je joue au joystick. 

Le premier chapitre est une mise en bouche expliquant les principes de bases du jeux: Vous avez un Bolter et vous tirez sur tout ce qui est Chaotique et qui viens sur vous. Le jeu est violent, comme on peut s'en douter, sans pour autant être gore. Quand les ennemis meurent, ils se dissolvent, ce qui fait que vous n'aurez pas une pile de cadavres à vos pieds (et aussi que la mémoire de votre appareils sera épargnée ^^). Mais vous aurez tout de même droit à la satisfaction de les démembrer ou de les décapiter, selon la précision de vos tirs.

Une fois le premier chapitre passé, à travers un réve, vous allez comprendre que Ophélia a une soeur jumelle, qu'elle la croyait morte et qui semblerait, malgré tout, être en vie. Cette soeur semble être le fil rouge qui va conduire le scénario.

Le deuxième chapitre se déroule dans une cathédrale. Si j'en crois ce que j'ai compris dans le chapitre suivant, la cathédrales est un aussi un vaisseau ou une partie d'un vaisseau.

Ambiance un peu mortuaire, très Warhammer 40K. Le décor est magnifique, je veux dire, si vous aimé l'univers de Warhammer 40K, ce jeu est un peu du bonbon pour vos yeux. Vous êtes littéralement projeté dans le lore. Les éléments du jeux font parfaitement honneur à cette univers. C'est dans le chapitre 2 que vous allez aussi recevoir votre épée énergétique. Cette dernière est très jouissive à utilisée, elle a deux fonctions: trancher (est-il besoin de le préciser) et vous protéger. En effet, vous pouvez utiliser cette dernière pour dévier les balles, pas comme un Jedi, mais pas loin. C'est très jouissifs de traverser une pièce remplie d'hérétiques et de créatures du chaos et de les trancher équipé de deux épées énergétiques.

Regardez moi comme elle est belle

En parlant de Jedi, vous recevez aussi un rosaire qui vous permet de poussez des objets à l'aide d'une force télékinétique. L'énergie de cette objet étant alimenté par les morts que vous causé autour de vous. Une sort de pouvoir de la Force, mais à la manière de Warhammer 40K. Quand vous passez d'un chapitre à un autre, vous perdez votre équipement, parfois pour de bonne raison, comme entre le chaiptre 1 et le 2 qui sont espacé de 3 jours, parfois sans raison, comme entre le 2 et le 3 où vous fuyez de la cathédrale en escape pod et visiblement Ophélia, qui est entré lourdement armée dans celui-ci, en ressort avec juste un bolter et sans munitions. ...Pourquoi?

J'ai testé le jeu sur deux support, un Oculus Rift S (qui est un casque relié à un PC) et un Meta Quest 2 (qui lui est un casque qui se suffit à lui-même). Évidemment, j'ai remarqué de petites différences. Comme le Rift S à accès à la puissance du PC, il est plus rapide lors des chargements et ne lags jamais (si vous avez un PC assez puissant bien évidemment)

Avec le Quest 2, on sent bien que la machine à l'intérieur n'est pas aussi puissante (surtout lors des chargements) et on a parfois droit à un petit lag ça et là, mais c'est sincèrement anecdotique et le faite de joué dans son salon sans être relié à votre PC par un câble rend l'expérience vraiment agréable.

Ce genre de décor me fait vraiment me sentir dans Warhammer 40K

Si je dois résumé mon expérience actuellement, je dirais que ce jeu offre une immersion dans le monde de Warhammer 40k comme j'en est rarement vue. On est vraiment plongé dedans et ça s'est cool. Même si ça reste hyper basique, il y une histoire et elle est intrigante (j'ai hâte de voir si ça va plus loin, même si je sens que je vais être déçu). La difficulté du jeu est correct. Elle laisse place aux erreurs, mais n'est pas non-plus trop facile. Donc, si on me demande, je dirais que si vous aimez le monde de Warhammer 40K, que vous n'avez rien contre les Soeurs de bataille: allez-y, ce jeu ne vous décevra pas. Je ferais un autre poste une fois que j'aurais fini ce jeu, afin d'infirmer ou de confirmer tout ça.

[ace-in-a-shopping-cart]

Mermay

Current date: May 1st, 2022

As a reminder: I'm pulling back out my mermaid WIP (Current title is Jewel of the Sea and I don't expect it to change anytime soon). This WIP is a fanfic that I'm turning into original fiction. In the original fic, the only part of canon I was using was the characters, the entire world and story was my own. Now, I've using original characters and fleshing the story out from it's roughly 35K word count to something closer to 50K (50K is my final word count goal but I'm currently hoping to hit 40K with this revision).

There is a playlist on Spotify that goes along with the story if you care to listen to that.

Summary:

Vesper had always been curious about the surface world. There had been a place he'd returned to again and again, watching a particular human go about small tasks that meant nothing to the mer. One day, he gets the chance of a lifetime to see the surface world but all he can think about is returning home. Gradually, he falls in love with the world around him and the people helping him, specifically the handsome prince Lucien. When something goes wrong and miscommunication abounds, Vesper retreats to his underwater world, leaving Lucien behind.

A retelling of The Little Mermaid (using the Disney version as a reference but drawing inspiration from other stories too) but queer.

Out of the original fic's 23 chapters, I have added 3 extra chapters for a total of 25 chapters. Of those 25, I stopped editing before the 23rd (last I touched this was in September of last year). The word count has already been increased by 8K and I expect it to be increased by another 2K at the very least before the first rewrite is complete.

If you would like to look into my previous progress on this story, you can look into the tag mermay the ace way. I will not state here nor in future updates what the original fandom for the fic was but you can probably guess it from the tag contents and if you were following my blog when I was posting the fic.

[icypantherwrites]

IcyPanther’s Mer-May Patreon Pledge Drive Event

It's May which means it's MERMAID TIME! 

Similar to last year, my Patreon is going to have a chance at a Mer!Lance themed Voltron fic based on a pledge drive ♥ AND if we reach that goal the fic will ONLY publish on Patreon. 

Let's dive in, shall we? :D

The Event

In the hopes of having some more engagement and supporters on the page and to help with increasing costs and friends/family I'm trying to help out financially, I'm once more using Mer-May as my plank (diving board) for the Patreon. Should we reach (and maintain! Both this month and going forward!) the goal by the last day of May, May 31 at 8pm CST, we'll get some treasure :D

The goal is: 

106 Patreons (currently at 91*)

AND/OR 

$467/month (currently at $407*)

*These numbers are based on supporter/pledge numbers at the end of April to account for declines and slow processed payments on Patreon's end at the start of this month.

And should the page reach the goal...

The Treasure (Reward)

There be treasure in the form of a mermaid themed Lance fic!

Also unlike last year I'll spell out a few details on it this go around (without going too crazy). Our general plot will be we have Mer!Lance who ends up captured by Pirate Captain Lotor (who is a Dark Elf here, sticking with fantasy based races :)) who aims to sell this very valuable Mer. After, of course, learning more about the Mers' magic and abilities because he's very interested in lore and legend and given that one of those abilities seems to be healing... well, he doesn't mind hurting his Mer a little bit ;) And oh, what's this? What happens when you force a Mer out of water? Hmm.... 

We'll also have two slaves aboard Lotor's ship, humans Shiro and Keith, the former who feels horrible as he inadvertently ended up helping capture Lance (as the bait and then later a trap). They're not sure how exactly they can help as Lotor has taken a far more personal interest in the Mer than anyone had anticipated, but they're doing their best to support Lance and comfort him (even if Keith doesn't really know what he's doing ;p) and they are determined to save Lance, somehow. And who knows, maybe they'll finally be able to save themselves too. 

I won't give away anything else (as I'm trying not to dive too deep into the fathoms below here) but if you enjoy how I write Lance and Lotor's relationship and also love Lance whump, some Keith and Shiro whump too, and a bunch of self-sacrificing idiots all trying to protect one another, and mer and fantasy fics,I think you'll enjoy this ;)

(In case you were wondering, I don't think the other characters will really make an appearance outside of Lance possibly mentioning a few offhand -- his best friend Hunk (Mer), Princess Allura (also Mer) and Pidge (a human he befriended))

Length wise this will definitely need to be a fleshed out AU and that means lots of world building and background for our characters, plus no rushing the developing relationships from every side (This will be gen as usual, even if Lotor likes to play with his food ;p), so... I imagine at least 40k, possibly even up to 80k or so. You can really sink your gills (er, what?) into that :D And again, it will be posted on Patreon only (although, like YBF, it might eventually go to book form for a premium price for outside readers) for Chai Tea and up with staggered updates based on tier level (PHC will be moving to its own slot this go around unlike sharing with Hot Tea for YBF).

I'll be promoting this post on my channels but your help is needed too! Share it, reblog it, Insta-story it, print it and send it via carrier pigeon to your friends or join the Patron (or if you’re already here even consider checking out a higher tier yourself (and yes, you would get all those new tier bonuses to enjoy too on top of helping reach the Mer-May goal ♥)! 

So have fun, make a splash, and let's see where the tides take us!

 Join Icy’s Patreon Here!

[anewbiegm]

Tales from Thursday RP

A new campaign, and a partially new group as we venture once more into the shit-caked universe of Warhammer 40K. Unlike the Dark Heresy campaign, these are not mere mortals, but rather members of the Adeptus Astartes, the genetically enhanced super-soldiers, created by the God-Emperor of Mankind, as we venture in the forbidden lore of Deathwatch.

At least for now, there are seven players in the group, three of them new to our Thursday group - although not new to RP, 40K or Roll20, we’ve been calling them newbies - the Kill-Team is a little homogeneous, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The break-down of Speciality, Chapter and player is;

EDIT (3rd May)

- Bannus Metalius, Tech Marine of the Iron Hands chapter, played by Strelkov, the Arbite from Dark Heresy. Scheduling conflicts have forced Strelkov to drop out of Deathwatch, but he stays with us as Rulav the Tzimisce in the Vampire game.

- Einar Fritjof, a Tactical Marine Wolf Scout of the Space Wolves chapter. Played by Grey, one of the newbies we picked up from the Roll20 LFG thread.

- Strix, Assault Marine of the Raven Guards chapter. Strix is the rebuilt version of Einar the Space Wolf Scout, sill played by Grey. The way the first mission went, and how Grey was playing his character, Raven Guard Assault Marine was a much better fit. 

- Fortem Ferrummentis, a Devastator of the Iron Hands chapter. Originally billed as being either Dark Angels or Ultramarines, Fortem is played by Kenners, another newbie we picked up. Disappeared without a trace, or word. Listed as MIA.

- Apothecary Ipos, a Ravenwing Veteran Apothecary, of the Dark Angel’s successor chapter, the Consecrators. Ipos - pronounced Ee-pos, and I swear I’m going to get this character’s name correct - is played by CommanderRenegade who played the dæmon killing Psyker, Merlinus - Mer- lie-nus, not Mer-lin-us, as I spent a year calling his charcter, in Dark Heresy.

- Librarian Varen Cordalis, a Librarian - Psyker - of the Ultramarines chapter. Originally a Salamander but asked to switch to Ultramarine when he learnt there was already a Tech Marine in the Kill-Team. Played by Galen, the last - technically the first - newbie we picked up from Roll20.

- Librarian Ferox, an Iron Hands psyker. With the loss of the Iron Hands Devastator, Galen decided to tweak his Librarian a little, so changed the Chapter - as well as a few other things around.

- Ruman Cantos, an Assault Marine of the Blood Angel’s successor chapter, Hell Bringers. Played by Buckmeister, or Claude Asmend from the Dark Heresy game. Hell Bringers are a custom chapter that he’s wanted to play for a long time, using the chapter creation rules in the supplement Honour the Chapter.

- Sergeant Skold, a Tactical Marine of the Space Wolves chapter. Skold is played by Dreadcon, also known as Haxtes the Tech-Priest from Dark Heresy - who may or may not come back as a passing villain in Deathwatch after his abrupt warp exit and betrayal at the conclusion of our Dark Heresy game. 

- Techmarine Guillermo Sanchev, a Tech Marine of the venerable Crimson Fists chapter. Sanchev is played by one of Ipos’ IRL friends, and was available, and looking for a game. 

All in all, the Kill-Team looks noticeably different from when this was originally posted back on 25th March.

The game is a mix of Errata version Deathwatch - I’m looking at you weapon stats - Only War for it’s comprehensive vehicle rules - thanks to CommanderRenegade and his ever-present Assault Bike - and Dark Heresy for updated versions of Actions, and Weapon Qualities. I realise this makes it into a little bit of a Special Snowflake game, with a bunch of annoying house-rules, but as much as I love the 40K RPGs, the early ones were clunky and messy as hell in places.

Ideally, I’d intended to write my own version of the 40K RPG, but that’s a bit of an undertaking. I’ve got two starter documents; one using the traditional 40K d100 ruleset, the other using Modiphius’ 2d20 system. Mutant Chronicles has a lot of similarities between 40K, I’ve mentioned before that it often seems to have a Rogue Trader era feel to it, but that’s a huge job, and needs some of the improvements seen in Conan fudged into, on top of a total conversion. Anyway, back to the actual Deathwatch we’re playing. 

The first scenario in the start of our campaign is the Extraction mission from the Core Rulebook, I like to run these basic scenarios first as they’re a gentle intro to the system, the setting and a new group. It gives people a chance to get to know how others work, what their characters are like, and to re-jig sections of their character if they’re unhappy with it.

Extraction has them drop-podding onto the dying world of Tantalus to rescue a Magos of the Tech-Priests of Mars, and the data-core he’s carrying, before the world is consumed by the encroaching Tyranid swarm. 

The Magos’ ship had crash-landed on the world, and he’s severely injured, complicating the rescue attempt. The Kill-Team only has a few hours to locate him, before extraction - hint, hint - becomes impossible thanks to the innumerable Tyranid bio-forms swarming the surface, atmosphere and in orbit. 

The Magos’ shuttle had crashed in the centre of a region dedicated to promethium refining, a refinery know as Pyroclast-Gamma-9. The area had been evacuated some days before at the start of the Tyranid invasion, is eerily quiet, smells of burnt promethium and an undercurrent of blood.

Some exploring later, they found the butchered remains of several local militia forces, the Tyranids having ambushed and attacked various locations, as well as well as a potential location for the Magos. Some additional good news came in the form of a Commissar and a small squad of PDF troopers who’d been unable to evacuate in time. Sending them to the highest ground, the best spot for extraction, they were confident that they had at least been able to secure their exit route - if only temporarily, knowing the Imperial Guard’s resilience against the fearsome xenos.

After a particularly dangerous fight, being ambushed by the bio-form designated as Shrike the group have had to wait a fortnight before the next session, and hopefully concluding part of Extraction.

A little slow to start with, time zones and all that, new group, new characters and a kludged ruleset, but the first session was enjoyable, and I’m confident about the new guys. Although, the Old Guard are struggling at the minute with scheduling conflicts, so I’m not 100% sure how many of them are going to be a permanent fixture in the session. Time will tell.

Up next, more Tales from Thursday RP as we venture into Eastern Europe in the late 12th century, in Vampire the Masquerade: Dark Ages campaign, Transylvania Chronicles.

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Jophiel 2

Cursed

Oceans of Change

Adopt-A-Jophiel:

Part 1 it's co-written by me and the amazing @egrets-not-regrets

Part 2 it's co-written by me and the amazing @egrets-not-regrets

Part 3 it's co-written by me and the amazing @egrets-not-regrets

Water's Deep

This Far

Oak

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Ramiel

A Little Death

Solace

Waves do Swell

Shell

Like Stone

Strongest

Unfortunate

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Claude 2

Drifting in Cold Waters

Mirrors Lie, Mirror Truth

Bonding Rituals

Claude: A Difference of Identity by @egrets-not-regrets

Seeming

Temper and Toil

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Sky May Fall

Author's notes: Alpharius in Living Water AU. Thank you to @egrets-not-regrets for letting me borrow Mara.

Past =-= Next

Warnings: Confrontations? Let me know if I need to add more.

Summary: For Orlys the Alpharius things are starting to go wrong.

Tagged: @barn-anon, @bleedingichorhearts, @c-u-c-koo-4-40k, @egrets-not-regrets, @kit-williams,

Tagged continued: @sleepyfan-blog, @whorety-k, @ms--lobotomy @bispecsual @thevoidscreams

Tagged continued: @i-am-a-dragon34, @gra93fruit-blog

There is something slightly off about the way he looks, like someone has wrapped him in a fine mist or something. He does look handsome, hopeful and earnest at least. There is something slightly green to the blue of his eyes that is almost bothering her. 

But then again, from what she's heard from the friendly, allied mer astartes that they can have a more ‘blended’ appearance of their gene-seed isn't ‘pure’ whatever that means.

She won't ask right now, as that seems like a terribly invasive question to ask someone that you just met. So she carefully starts asking him the ice breaker and light getting to know how a person questions. 

He seems to perk up a little at that, somehow, for every one question she asks, and gets an answer from him. He asks her three more and seems to get her life's Story out of her in bits and pieces over the next few months as they gradually get to know one another. During this whole thing, some of the Elders of her tribe check Zarius out and assess him and his intentions.

For a while the elders seem content with his answers and presence near their colony, if carefully watched. He never seems to be around at the same time any of Lenora's boys are over visiting, be it her kids or Erriox. Which seems to just be a coincidence, especially since she doesn't always tell him if they are coming for a visit. 

She has seen how Ramiel and Cedric Interact, with each other and the world around him. So far Zarius acts similar to them, if a bit different and part of her wonders is if that slightly offkey behavior is simply him being much older. She has occasionally mentioned her Bonded Space Marine to the fledglings, who are of course curious about him, if a tad wary of meeting him for reasons that they keep to themselves.

It takes her a while to notice it, but sometimes she feels an odd… shift in his presence, in his magic and soul. She had talked to Elder Mara about it, vaguely worried, and she's told that they were monitoring that situation as well and if things seemed… worrisome to speak up about it. Which she agreed to do as she didn't want to do something that could potentially harm her colony on purpose. 

The vaguely unsettling feeling of wrongness faded after a while had she started to feel like it was just something that had been silly or just not what Actually happened. When that strange shift happened in his Soul again. 

She spoke to the elders about it, and a closer watch was issued to him for the strangeness he exhibits, despite acting almost exactly the same, but with slightly different personality quirks.

Could mer-astartes have multiple personality disorder? It was something that she’d ask fledgling Cedric or Ramiel next time they visited. She knows that one of them has training in medicine and the body, while the other was trained in mind healing.

She’s pulled from her thoughts by her Zarius who croons at her from the water showing off his powerful frame in the water and swimming around her. He’d caught a few impressively large fish that she was helping to prepare for their meal. It would be added to the rest of the food that the Colony was going to eat.

=-=

Orlys has been tending to Lana, who’s his squad’s shared Bonded, it’s rare and mostly a very low kind of Bond. But Bonding does and can happen for Alpha legion mer-astartes. It’s just a lot more difficult for them to Bond and it’s nowhere near as strong as the bonds the other Legions and Chapters get.

He had been doing his duty shift with protecting and watching over Lana and helping out her Colony of Gannet harpies for a few weeks when something seems to have upset them.

He idly sends a message to the rest of his squad, trying to see if he can gather more information on what it is. Such things are sent so that the whole squad knows so that there are no ‘gaps’ in the memories of ‘Zarius’ the Black Templar.

They had been doing a good job making sure not to accidentally meet the whole damned squad of Primaris Space Mer-Astartes who’d got at least one of them Bonded to a different Harpy.

One was a Blood Angel Librarian with Wings (not… great for keeping things secret). Two are Black Templars, one an Apothecary in Training the other a Chaplain in  Training, which would make pretending to be a Black Templar more… difficult as they could be observant due to their specialized training.

An Ultramarine Scout and a Raven Guard Scout, the latter possibly having some latent Psykery from the way the mages fussed over him and talked about ‘lesson plans’.

They are Alpha Legion, which means tricking the other legions is easy for them to do. But with at least two of them being Psykers, and the observant natures of the other three, it was easier to try to avoid them, without seeming like they are avoiding them for best practices at the moment.

He’s glad that, despite the Harpies having increased magical ability and sensitivity that they haven’t seen him, Zarius, Zariel, and Keed have all met her. The fifth member of their squad has yet to meet her.  He notices that there seems to be a bit of a Discussion happening between some of the Harpy Elders, who seem to have determined, frowns on their faces as they head over to him.

“Did you need something?” Orlys asks them with a nod.

“Who are you?” Mara asks him sharply and he blinks at her in confusion.

“I am-,” Orlys starts to lie to her.

“Please don’t lie it, it will only make things worse for you,” Mara says warningly. “We decided to allow it when there was only one or two of you, but now it seems to be that there are at least four different ‘Zarius’ the Black Templar.”

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Creature in a Lake

Next

Author’s note: Zeth’s debut!

Summary: Zeth is doing Black Legion Things when he gets exploded into Ancient Terra, as a mer, landing in a forest is Not Great, but at least he’s not badly wounded enough to be stuck without options. Finding a lake to rest in, a family unit of humans are unaware of his presence down below. Oddly enough he doesn’t feel like hurting them.

Warnings: Black Legion being Black Legion, hints and/or threats of torture, fighting, violence, let me know if I need to tag anything else.

Tagged: @barn-anon, @bleedingichorhearts, @c-u-c-koo-4-40k, @kit-williams, @sleepyfan-blog,

Tagged Again: @sleepyfan-blog and @whorety-k

Zeth had been having a grand time fighting the loyalist dogs for the glory of the Black Legion, under the command of one of the might Captains, he's never met Abbadon the Despoiler, but he's heard his words and speeches, and he's been told if he's strong enough, and does well enough, perhaps one day he'd be mighty enough to hear words directly from the mouth of one who's the closest thing to a Primarch the BLack Legion has. One of the few who remember and fought alongside the dead Deamon Primarch, long may his memory remain, and the loyalist yet curse his name while they still draw breath, Horus.

Zeth has only ever heard stories from his older brothers about Horus, and has tried to picture the dead man who's will cast them into the Eye of Terror, and only gets a fuzzy image of a larger version of Abbadon. Eh, it's not his place to think on such things as he continues to taunt and cackle and kill the loyalist dogs and help his brothers gather the necessary supplies for their Black Crusade. He tilts his head up and to the side- as he notices something coming there way, it's bright, almost glittery and painful to look out, he bellows out a warning call as he and his brothers scatter.

One of those most wretched Saints have shown up and their 'holy' light and 'blessings of the carrion emperor' making them fucking annoying to deal with and annoyingly difficult to kill for base line humans. And they seem to rally the slowly demoralizing Astra Militarum, and bolster the weak bastards with their glowing presence. At least the fight and killing them is going to be more fun, as the strongest of his brothers are heading straight for the largest and most dangerous threat, while the rest of them go after the base line humans and the loyalist dog Space Marines.

With the luck of the Chaos Gods on their side, the tide of battle turns in their favor, as the planet succumbs to their claws. The cowardly loyalist pig-dogs flee on their ships, and that has him grin with a cackle, the population that's left, is now under their control. Such wonderful sacrifices and servants for their use. The underground resistance groups that are trying to get them to leave or kill as many as possible that they need to put down is really starting to annoy Zeth as he snarls and shakes one of the base line humans in the resistance as they glare and wriggle, ineffectively in his claws.

"To the interrogators with you, pathetic mortal," He hisses as he tosses them into a cell, lightly enough not to kill them, but most definitely enough to wound them when they land. The satisfying crunch of their bones and the stifled whimpers is music to his ears as cackles and taunts the human before heading off as he notices the interrogators approaching.

His job had been to capture and soften up some of the resistance members before the main interrogators came, and he was happy to do his job. Chasing down mortals who still fought them and tossing them to his older brothers to torment and use as they please. The explosion catches him off guard as he's sent flying through the air and swears viciously. Waking up in a strange forest he doesn't recognize has him frowning as he looks around his hands clenching and unclenching as he slowly stands up and looks around, he lashes his tail around in frustration, using his 'swim through the air' technique to not be on the ground any more.

He's glad that he's not injured enough that using this ability is difficult or inaccessible due to lack of energy. He continues to 'swim' through the air as he tries to find a source of water, or an ocean, grumbling about the grox-shit he has to deal with. It takes several hours of 'swimming' in the air before he finds a source of water- and it's fresh, that is large enough for him to flop in. It's a lake, and fresh water, but as he sighs in relief at the feeling of the water against his scales, it still feels nice to be in the water.

They were blessed with the ability to withstand the dark of space and shoal together in the Warp, but he's still injured and the fresh water will help him in recover, not as much as being in salt water, but it will do in a pinch. He heaves out another sigh, watching as the bubbles go to the surface and decides to take a nap. Once he's better recovered he'll try to see if he can vox someone to help him, and what the cost of said help could be. He'd been 'swimming' for hours, and while he'd tasted pollutants in the air and water of this planet, it's not nearly so wretched as some of the planets he has been to.

Also, while he seen in the distant, primitive looking technology, he's yet to see any people, either base line humans or Xenos. He stretches as he yawns, the nap he'd taken had last a while as he notices that the sun's position in the sky has changed, he also notice something else. A primitive boat is now near the edge of the water. Curious he heads over towards it, head tilting a little in curiosity and sees some base line humans puttering about the edge of the water and near the boat that they’d set at the edge.

The language that they speak isn't one that he recognizes. Which has him tilting his head from side to side as he tries to pick up what they are saying. From the looks of the base line humans, they look like a family unit. A couple of children, a couple of striplings, a couple of adults, and a couple of elders. Wearing bright colored clothing, the youngsters wearing some bright puffing looking vests as they clamber into the boat and start to head deeper into the water. He swims down lower as he watches them putter about on the surface of the lake above him.

One of the youngsters in the vests jumps into the water and pops up, the vest seemingly helping them float as they giggle and squeal in that language, he can't recognize seemingly egging the other youngster in the vest to come into the water. His hands twitch and his claws extend and release as he thinks about what he could do, what he might do, but these humans don't even know he's here. Besides, he's not in the mood to go after civilian base lines. For now, at least. So, he stays at the bottom of the lake, watching them splash about.

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Maybe Someday

Next

Author's note: Zaarius in Mermay, since I forgot to write about him during may. Oops.

Summary: Zaarius muses on things. Ancient Terra is *interesting*

Warnings: None, unless I need to add anything let me know.

Tagged: @barn-anon, @bleedingichorhearts, @c-u-c-koo-4-40k, @egrets-not-regrets, @kit-williams,

Tagged continued: @sleepyfan-blog, @whorety-k

'Such inelegant structures,' Zaarius muses to himself as he swims through the air in the relatively low-tech world that he doesn't remember swimming through the Void Sea to get to.

Then again, as a Chaos Marine, the Chaos Deity that he follows can be mercurial and capricious at times. However, he usually isn't sent to a planet on his lonesome, usually. He has been listening to the local base line humans talk, its not in a language that he recognizes. One of the base line humans in particular has caught his eyes. Their aesthetics are pleasing for being a base line human.

The human seems to have noticed that something is following them, but not who or what, from the way the keep looking around with an increasingly nervous dispostion. He can't stop himself from chortling at the way they are reacting. It's very cute, even if their stronger reactions are starting to tug on hearts strings that he long thought had been cut, burnt and destroyed in his long years of unceasing, unending tormented blissful agony that is being a Chaos Marine of Slaneesh.

"Hello," He coos out at the human in Gothic.

The whirl around looking side to side, and then up at him with large eyes. The noises that they made in their surprise had been utterly charming and had him lazily 'swim' closer to them through the air. His tail almost curling around them as he tilts his helmeted head from side to side. Now that he has a closer look at this human. Mine goes something deep and primmal within him, which he acknowledges with a subtle flick of one of his clawed fingers.

The human starts talking to him in one of the languages that's spoken on this planet that he can't understand, but by their tone and body language, they seem terribly curious about him. He hums in acknwoldgement of their words, even if he doesn't know what they are saying as they continue to move, he follows after them. Their voice is quite lovely to hear, and soothes something within his ragged, damned soul that he finds quite pleasing.

=-=-

So, you were terribly surprised when one of the Mer-Astartes approached you, he's a Large fellow, and from his patterns and markings you think he's a- an Emperor's Child. Whatever that means. What Emperor? None of the Mer-Astartes would tell the humans, or if they had, the humans won't, don't, or can't share it for whatever reasons they have.

Who had thought that someone had been following you, watching you. So, while you are… kind of intimidated by the Mer-Astartes, you are glad that he's here. Hopefully he will scare off who ever it was that had been following you with an intense feeling that had the hair at the back of your neck stand and had felt a lazer intense focus that felt like needles stabbing down your spine.

You had been half convinced that you were going crazy, or at least being a little paranoid. But the feeling of eyes and being watched had abated since your purple-ish companion had joined you. From the way he spoke and reacted (and from what you know about Mer-Astartes) from videos and other possibly reputable stories he might not know the langauge that you speak. Which, you have heard that some Mer-Astartes can speak English, Spanish, or whatever the prevailing language is of the region that they are near.

At least the more friendly ones do, or the more Mercenary ones. You had heard about an ugly incident with a pleasure cruise capturing mer-Astartes which had you shudder in horror. You were part of the support for that mission, you help handle the administrative details, keeping things run smoothly and handle phone calls. Make sure that the right information goes to the right people.

Mer-Astartes justice could be quite brutal. You try to talk to the purple Mer-Astartes to ask him if he needs or wants anything and all you get back his him occasionally cooing and trilling at you in whatever the language it is that the Purple Mer-Astartes speak.

One of the things that humans have figured out over time is that the different mer-astartes could have multiple languages, much to the dismay of some. You weren't entirely surprised, there were… how many languages spoken and dead littered through out history and time?

Even if they are aliens or something them having more than one language seems like it was more likely to occur than not. Just as different peoples across Earth had different languages and cultures, it wouldn't surprise you any if that is the same for Mer-Astartes. Now where they are from is a hotly debated subject that has no definitive answers.

You have sent a message off to one of your bosses and a couple of your co-workers about the Mer-Astartes that's been 'swimming' through the air, following after you like a lost puppy for- hours now to see if they can help find someone who can translate what he's saying to a language that you, or those on one of The Teams can understand.

He floats closer, seeing that you are tapping away at your cellphone, you are glad to have splurged on the security screen. He likely can't read what you are typing out, but who knows what sort of vision he has.

One of the Mer-Astartes Negotiation teams does come over, well at least one of them, who has a mer-astartes they are friendly with on the phone with them to try and talk to your new purple friend. Who trills at the other human tilting his head as he's offered the cellphone.

He looks at you, the device and your co-worker for a few moments before very gently grabbing the device and trilling into it. The mer-astartes on the other end starts speaking. You notice the way his body language changes as he hears what the other mer-astartes is saying. The way his tail lashes out in quick, sharp movements that has you slowly inching away from him. His movements slow and still, which could either be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on what he did next.

The purple mer- astartes proffers the phone back to your co-worker after trilling in it some more. Your co-worker listens to what the friendly mer-astartes is saying and you get sent a text message which reads thus:

[The purple Mer is named Zaarius and he claims he's 'bonded' to you.]

[I've just met him!] you send back in protest and surprise.

[He would like your name.] Is the response that you get, as well as a shrug. [Make sure to get your diving licensure, also learning more Negotiation skills is going to be in your future. Congratulations on getting a mer-astartes, you are going to be getting a pay bump, new job title, responsibilities and training.]

[Yay. Lucky me.] You text back glumly.

Humans who are Bonded to mer-astartes tend to be safer than those who are not bonded to mer-astartes. You turn to look at the trilling Zaarius and give him a small smile, "My name is ---."

[icypantherwrites]

Mer-May Patreon Event (Mermaid-Themed Lance Fic, what?!?!)

So, it is May. And apparently that means Mer-may, of which I have been clued in after seeing some art cross my dashboard. I don't tend to participate (or notice, although I spend most weeks going what day is it let alone what month xD) in these things but Lance and merfolk and all that good stuff do go hand in fin together, don't they?

So I'm gonna run a little event here ♥ This may or may not come to fruition, but thought it would be fun to try :)

The Event

I'd love to see some more folks joining the Patreon; not just for the financial help but because I'd really love to get a community going here and be able to do more events and contests (as right now the pool is a little limited from what I would like it to be to do so) and get even more input and engagement on the FMs and whatnot ♥

So using Mer-May as my plank (diving board) I'm going to try a pledge drive again (because the last one went so well #heavysarcasm #butalwaysoptimistic) for the Patreon and should we reach the goal by the last day of May, May 31 at 2359 hours CST, we'll get some treasure :D

The goal this go around is 50 Patreons subscribed to the page. We are currently sitting at 37. The pledge amount can be any (so we could get 13 new scalawags at $1/each or up to $10/pledges; however the sand dollar crumbles). I'm not going to do too much advertising myself other than here and posting on my Tumblr, so I encourage all of you to reblog the Tumblr post or tell a friend who you think might be interested. The more the merrier after all!

And should the page hit 50 Patreons...

The Treasure (Reward)

There be treasure! 

The reward will be a mermaid themed Lance fic -- I will leave it to my Patreon members if Lance is the merman, if someone else is and he's a pirate/drowning civilian / etc. -- with of course some whumpy, angsty elements, which will be determined based upon what Lance is in this fic.

I’m not really giving any thought to it as then I go down the rabbit hole, but assuming Lance was the merman… my plot as of right now would be he ends up captured by pirates and is going to be sold as merfolk are incredibly rare and the wealthy want them for their personal collections.

He ends up befriending a slave aboard the ship, Shiro, and his younger brother, Keith, and the two humans ultimately help him escape… with of course plenty of whump (probably of the Shiro and Keith variety for physical since the pirates don’t want to ruin the value of their mer) although I think their captain might be Lotor and given how I love to write Lotor interacting with Lance... who knows what happens to our blue boy♥ Add in some emotional angst (that’s gonna be mostly Lance ♥) and we’ve got ourselves a high seas adventure.

And back to the other parts of this xD

Given the goal this would not be a mere (it would be about mer though! ;p)  one shot either. Oh no. When we dig for treasure we get treasure. This fic would be a multi-chaptered fic somewhere from 20k - 40k words (it really depends on how crazy I go xD) for everyone to enjoy and really sink their gills (er, what?) into. 

At this time it would be posting on AO3 BUT I would offer early chapter access on Patreon a day before (which is a one time thing, only FM gets that early release honor normally ;p) but if you're a member you've earned it :D 

So, recap. Treasure is a mermaid themed Lance fic, 20k-40 words, that the lovely Patreon folk will get exclusive access to chapters for a day before it goes live on AO3 and you can join the Patreon right here for just $1/month! Sounds shiny, don't it captain? ♥ (okay, Firefly is not mermaid themed but it is shiny so shhh). 

So have fun, make a splash, and let's see where the tides take us! 

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