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clansayeed · 4 years ago

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Bound by Destiny II, part 2 ― Chapter 9: The Arrival

PAIRING: Kamilah Sayeed x MC (Nadya Al Jamil) RATING: Mature

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Destiny II, part 2 ⥽

They fled New York with one purpose. Find, hunt down, and return with a way to kill a vampire god. They abandoned their loved ones and survived the City of Shadows; had their trust broken and darkest secrets brought to light. All that... and Gaius still won anyway. But now that they have nothing to lose, Nadya and her friends are finally ready to do whatever it takes to see the King of Vampires overthrown.

They just have to avoid a vampire population eager to gain favor with their new monarch, the ruthless Order of the Dawn, and whatever plans Gaius has that involve Nadya captured and brought to him alive. So... easy-peasy, right? The worlds of both dark and light hang in the balance. The time has come for the Bloodkeeper to embrace her destiny. So if anyone wants to clue her in on whatever that means, now would be great!

Bound by Destiny II and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing reimagining project of the Bloodbound series and spin-off Nightbound. Find out more [HERE].

TAG LIST: @googlesentmehere, @cess02, @hellyeah90sbaby, @tayab12, @saratustra4, @imnotdonewiththeelementalists, @thepotatobleh,

*join the Tag List here!

⥼ Summary ⥽

It's the night of Vlad's masquerade ball, the most prestigious social event a vampire can attend. An entire ballroom full of faces and names every vampire in Europe knows... and apparently Nadya is going to upstage them all.

content warnings: language

[READ IT ON AO3]

A pretty big chunk of their plan relies on the staff of the Tepes Estate being just as snobbish and uppity as the man they serve.

So thankfully at least something is both easily predictable and surprisingly convenient.

Staff all around, and none of them pay the pair of them much mind. Beyond the fact that they get told by more than one footman that “guests really shouldn’t be back in the staff corridors” and receive multiple warnings about how “the Count has ensured all guests for the evening, (said while looking down the biggest snooty nose in all of Prague no less) no matter their prestige, will receive adequate time to sup on the serving staff,” and that they “really shouldn’t be allowing an undisclosed human on the premises but will look the other way this time,” Nadya and Cadence are pretty much left to their own devices.

Which means scurrying out of sight before any lone particularly loyal member of the Tepes household decides to go narc and everything ends up exploding in their faces anyway.

Because there’s no way on earth these full-face masques of theirs are providing any damage cover should their plans go KABOOM!

Nadya casts another look up at Cadence as they come across their umpteenth fork in the road. Watching him decide between right or left is starting to feel as nerve-wracking as actually choosing which direction they ought to go.

“You’re sure you know where we are?” You’re sure you know we’re going the right way?

“I’m starting to feel like you have less than zero faith in me, Nadya.” He probably thinks the glance down her way is a reassuring one. But the masque over his face is almost too neutral. It’s just a mask but it feels like it’s trying too hard, you know?

“That’s not it at all. This place is just…” A lot.

He barely remembers to reach back and take her by the hand before he chooses left in a hurry. Who knows how much time they’ve wasted just trying to find their way through this seemingly endless castle.

“It takes me a moment to recall the map Serafine showed me before we left, but I’m… ninety percent sure I know exactly where we are.”

“And the other ten percent?”

“Is trying to keep an ear out for party noises. So if you’ll zip it, thank you.”

Admittedly Nadya would have a lot more faith in this plan if it wasn’t just the pair of them, proven stumbling disasters that they are, relying on the apparently flawless memory of a man who literally introduces himself as ‘the one with amnesia.’ She understands the rationale behind it, just as she understands the rationale behind everybody else going through the front door like an entourage of normal party-goers. They have three prestigious faces and what Jax and Lily lack in clout they make up for in being practically invisible as nobodies to this upper echelon of attendees.

But shoving the two bigwigs of their gang — well, the most recognizable face in any room of vampires and the obviously human girl losing her freakin’ mind amid a cluster of the heartbeat-less undead — through the staff entrance with nothing more than simple masks to disguise them and trusting them not to mess up finding their way among the rest in time for some famed big reveal they still don’t know the full-on details of…?

Well if they live through this long enough to chronicle this part of their journey, nobody is ever allowed to even so much as imply via metaphor that Nadya never trusted her friends wholly and completely.

Actually if they’re talking about chronicling stuff, better they leave these more vague and improvised parts of their master quest to the footnotes. That way they can pretend they knew what they were doing the whole time.

For example Nadya isn’t gonna let anyone write down that she got so wrapped up in her thoughts about what may or may not get written down that she walked face-first into a brick wall.

OW.

Not a brick wall, actually.

Cadence turns around and catches Nadya’s mask just before it falls and shatters on the ground. Thank you vampire super-speed.

“Are you okay?” He asks, wide-eyed and worried, hesitant to give her back her disguise to take stock of how she really looks.

That’s such a loaded question though, so Nadya ignores it and rubs the redness on her forehead instead.

“Why’d you stop?”

The vampire takes a moment to look up and down either end of the corridor and even around the next corner. When he’s satisfied they’re alone he pries his own mask off with a groan; practically peeling his flattened hair from where its been stuck to his forehead the moment he put the darn thing on.

“Because,” with pursed lips he blows his fringe out of his eyes, “I’ve been talking this entire time… and even when I ramble you usually have some two cents or other to pitch in.”

That’s fair. Nadya takes back her mask with a sheepish shrug. “Sorry, got distracted.”

“That much is obvious. Care to share?”

“Not really. Care to keep going?” Not like they’re exactly full of free time, here.

He sweeps his arm in an after you motion, but keeps pace with Nadya’s shorter stride. “I can hear the string quartet by now. We’re close, but they haven’t begun the announcements Serafine told me to wait for.” So maybe they have a bit of free time. Got it.

Only now she can’t stop thinking about what will be on the other side of the big grand ballroom doors.

And Nadya without her set of note cards to at least help her through her dumb speech all because her dumb dress has no dumb pockets.

“You know I still don’t get why they wouldn’t budge about you not being discovered.”

“You don’t see me complaining,” Cadence says with a shrug; and actually now that he points it out…

“No, I don’t.”

He doesn’t need to look at her to know exactly why she says it that way, either. It’s not the first time they’ve had this talk. Probably won’t be the last either.

His sigh sags from his shoulders to his fingertips. “‘Surprise warmonger back from the dead’ might accidentally eclipse ‘reincarnation of the vampire Goddess.’ Can’t have that, now can we.”

“Cadence.”

“Nadya.”

They turn another corner in complete silence. Nadya’s ears strain to hear this quartet of his but nope, not close enough for her poor human ears quite yet.

Finally Cadence seems to decide on something. Gathering himself up all the way to his full height while fiddling with the porcelain in his grasp. “Actually… Serafine and Kamilah gave me the option. When they talked about prestige all this week it was largely assuming I might be able to pretend just enough to add to their collective fame. But they gave me the choice as to whether or not I wanted to try.”

“And you said no.”

“Of course I said no. I don’t envy you, Nadya. You have to do this regardless of whether or not you want to. But for the first time it feels like I’m not in that position, and I want to take full advantage of it.”

His face falls, voice going somber. “Surely you can see why.”

She can. She did, in the flesh, and while he’d been useful at the time she can still close her eyes and remember how easily Cynbel had threatened Jax, hurt Adrian and Serafine; how callous he’d been with her life even though she’d agreed with him at the time… Not to mention all the implied things that come with Serafine, always calm and cool and collected, losing her freakin’ marbles every time he ended up a part of the conversation.

He continues. “I don’t think I could have pretended to be him if my life depended on it. And if you think about it, your life does depend on it in a way. I couldn’t risk you like that. Not after how kind you’ve been to me.”

Her fingers brush over his arm. Cadence either takes it the wrong way or chooses to give a purpose to something so small; he bends his elbow and lets her arm slide into his like a proper escort to a proper ball.

“A lot of people’s lives depend on me pretending to…” Nadya can’t quite say it though, so she swallows it down. “I just have no idea what I’m supposed to do when we get there.”

“Understandably.”

“Seriously,” offering him a wry and dry smile, “that’s all the advice you’ve got?”

He mulls it over for a good and proper think. The effort is more than appreciated even if it doesn’t actually yield results. At least this way she gets to vent it out before messing up royally when the time comes.

Cadence stops first — their linked arms jerk her back and to turn and face him. “I wouldn’t call it advice, per se,” gee—great, “but maybe we both suck at pretending because we ought to be accepting, instead. Accepting who we… were. Possibly, in your case. That way we still have the chance to move on.”

It’s a sweet sentiment, but Nadya can’t help the way her nose scrunches up slightly.

“I don’t think that applies to this case, Cade.”

“Fair enough. Can’t say I didn’t try.” And that makes the pair of them laugh, no matter how weakly. Something neither of them knew they needed, nor how badly they needed it.

It doesn’t last long… but it doesn’t need to.

“You’ll figure it out when the time comes Nadya. You usually do.”

Usually.

In wordless agreement she and Cadence don their pretend masques with mutual reluctance. At least he doesn’t have to breathe in his. But it’s easier this time to see what his face really says beneath that neutral doll-like expression.

She smiles at him in return. Like many things these days they can’t quite see it, but the feeling is there.

When they get close enough that Nadya’s ears no longer strain to catch the occasional tittering laughter or melodramatic voice, Cadence diverts them yet again. This time for a staircase he just so happens to catch sight of out of the corner of his eye.

He keeps her close; closer than before. Practically hovering over her like a shadow less than a step behind her the whole way up. She pauses when he pauses, she waits when he waits, and trusts him enough to know her faith isn’t misplaced but some explanation would be swell any time he’s feeling his usual chatty self.

Crouched close to the ground (which is a feat for him, for her not so much) Cadence crooks a finger at Nadya to join him in inching steps along the carpet towards the railing overlooking the main foyer below.

Nadya is, understandably, hesitant. “What if someone sees us?” What if someone smells me, hears me, all-of-the-aboves me?

“Same principle as before.”

“Keep close and your blood will cover me up?”

He nods. Not like she really has any other choice. Well, that and the more snatches of conversation she plucks from thin air the more curious she is.

And when has her curiosity ever not won out?

Cadence’s cloak comes heavy around her other shoulder and all but smothers her. She grabs the edge and pulls it tight while making sure not to jostle it from his shoulders. For some reason she can’t shake the feeling like she’s hiding behind a curtain with her feet sticking out underneath.

But they’re here, so they might as well take advantage of it. So Nadya joins him in peering through the stone balusters to the hustle and bustle happening below.

The foyer had been beautiful already during her visit with Serafine and Jax the other night — Nadya would even go so far as to assume it was nearly completed. That assumption would have been vastly incorrect.

It’s not her contacts; she’s not seeing double. Every bauble and ribbon and glittering glassy gem brought along the entire family. There’s practically no surface without something shiny added in some form or another, and in many cases that shiny thing has a shiny thing has a shiny thing of its own on top.

On their own the decorations probably look gaudy and too-much. But when you fill the room with graceful vampires all dolled up in unique fashions and splendors everything else is lost in the background. Tasteful would probably have ended up the equivalent of a fifty-buck Party Town Supply budget. So at least the Count knows his audience.

She should be looking for their friends… and she is. But Nadya tells herself it’s being a good and thorough secret agent to observe all the other guests along the way. Two birds and all that. But it’s not easy to just sweep her eyes over the assembled masses in search of a few key faces. Not when each masque is a face all its own.

You’d think there are only so many combinations of colors, designs, and styles to make before they start getting repetitive. But that couldn’t be farther from the case. She gets it now, seeing everything and everyone from way up high and afar like this. The importance of not just the masque itself, but having the right kind of masque above everything else.

Masquerade balls are about hiding and blending in; being just another face in the crowd.

Les Visages de la Gloire is the exact opposite. And even that feels like the most watered-down way to put it she can think of.

A gentle weight falls on Nadya’s back and she shudders a gasp. When had she stopped breathing? Not for fear of being caught, but at the beauty of it all that could only be described as—literally—breathtaking.

Faceless in their full face-coverings and headdresses each more ostentatious than the last; not important enough to show who they are but still in competition with each other — still with deeds to announce and reputations to uphold. Half-masks covering the left side, the right side, the top of one and the bottom of another and all of them made uniquely for a single soul and nobody else.

Some vampires have masques that match their costumes. Others clash in a way that can’t be anything other than on purpose. Even from a distance Nadya can see the difference between carefully crafted metalwork and porcelain painted with glossy lacquer; can compare wood carvings with rich varnish and contrast that with the vast rainbow of matte colors on terracotta. Most are adorned with embellishments and jewels heavy enough to make her neck hurt just by looking at them.

Nearly all take full advantage of the fact their wearers won’t end up suffocating on the other side.

And I’m supposed to show them all up without so much as a sheer ribbon over my eyes? Yeah, Nadya’s confidence takes a knife to the gut just thinking about it.

“Over there.”

Not like Cadence’s finger isn’t pointing down to a massive crowd or anything, but that’s exactly the point — forgive the pun.

Though they can’t quite see double doors leading inside the castle from the exterior from their hiding spot, the sudden hush that falls over the idle crowd offers up an equally dramatic entrance.

It’s the kind of arrival that would be filmed in slow-motion. The kind that pans up from the purposeful echo of each expensive step; dragging over the exquisite details of their costumes in one long smooth glide all the way to the big reveal. And what a reveal it is.

Kamilah’s spindly masque may be made of steel but it curls over her sharp features with all the grace of a silken thread. It’s a face covering by only the thinnest margin of definition, with too many gaps in the framework to even pretend to conceal her identity. But after taking in the rest of the crowd… it’s obvious she’s the kind of face — the kind of presence — that simply can’t go unrecognized.

Everything about Kamilah, from her posture to her raised chin to her not-at-all-faked aura of superiority, demands recognition.

On the surface she’s the woman that Nadya knows; that she trusts and cares about so so much. But look beneath, something all too easy to do — like sweeping aside a mist, it’s impossible to miss how she’s so much more.

The Bloodqueen has arrived. And the entire foyer is speechless before her.

Without even moving a muscle the closest groups stagger back several more steps. Dozens of them nearly tripping over themselves and each other in their haste.

It’s no surprise that the space is quickly taken up by the two figures flanking Kamilah’s sides.

Serafine’s masque isn’t so much a mask as it is a scrap of lace just wide enough to earn the collective approval. As if anyone here doesn’t already know who she is regardless. But that’s how she can pull the look off if Nadya is remembering her explanation right.

No one would dare partake in Les Visages without knowing—without introduction—the woman who started it all.

Some final vestiges of their psychic connection tugs Nadya towards her; not physically so much as emotionally. Even without seeing Serafine’s features up close there’s a bittersweet ache in her chest that’s definitely not Nadya’s own.

The vampiress can offer up all the scarlet-lipped smiles she wishes. They are all hollow and fake. The simple act of being here causes Serafine nothing but distress.

And then there was Adrian.

Who, in comparison to Kamilah and Serafine, makes the women nearest him seem positively giddy and gleeful to be here tonight.

He wears his tailored costume perfectly; that wasn’t in doubt. It’s the masque that leaves him stony-faced. Gold rich and dark that catches every little flame on the chandelier over his head that covers his eyes but can’t hide the tension wracking his jaw.

He and Kamilah both wear near-identical rich crimson garnets inlaid just beneath their masque’s right eye. Shared stones for a shared Maker. But along his edges are thin metal spires, short but wicked sharp, that vary from the same gold, to steel, to a coppery hue.

A second glance confirms Nadya’s suspicions; Adrian isn’t the only one with those kinds of embellishments along the edges of their masques. Scouring a few of them from the crowd, the way they carry themselves and mirror Adrian’s ramrod-straight posture answers a question she didn’t know she needed to ask.

If the garnet labels him and Kamilah both as Turned by Gaius, then the spikes are the mark of the soldier. Any soldier; but one worth recognition for their service.

Which is everything Adrian doesn’t want. Everything he had worried over, and was working now towards overcoming in the wake of his past.

Nadya ducks her head hastily to catch her tear before it falls. Thankfully she’s quick enough. If only she could wipe away the reason for it just as easily.

Pull yourself together, girl, she scolds, and it’s just enough to do the trick and pull Nadya’s focus back to everything around them. All the stillness and nothingness and the way a room full of the undead hold their collective unnecessary breath waiting for what will happen next.

Which is exactly the kind of attention-grabbing showstopper the three of them are supposed to be. All eyes turned on the prestigious trio they are together, and away from Nadya and Cadence one floor above.

All focus on who they are, why they’ve come, what they will do; and away from the practically invisible dynamic duo that slips through the crowd towards the closed ballroom doors.

Behind her, Cadence lets out an impressed little “hah” when he finally manages to pick Lily and Jax out of the crowd. “I completely missed them. Did you see them sneak in?”

“No,” answers Nadya, but that’s actually a good thing. That was the whole point.

Without a word Kamilah takes one step forward. Her aura of command acts like an invisible shield that parts the rest; holding them at a respectable distance.

But the sudden shifting of the mass of faces and their masques gets dangerous when it turns right in their direction. If even one wandering eye looks up, they’re done for!

Without a word the vampire pulls Nadya backwards, letting the force of his bulk pull them out of eyesight in the nick of time. That was a little close, huh.

Nadya doesn’t get the chance to thank him though.

The moment she opens her mouth a loud echoing clang rings out below them, followed by the distinct shuffle of something heavy being dragged achingly close to the foyer’s marble floors.

Neither of them needs to risk sneaking a look.

Right on time. The ballroom doors have finally opened, allowing the first wave of prestige to spill forth out to the grand dance floor.

And though the shuffling of boots and sharp tapping of heels fills the vacuum of stunned silence as the attendees start to move, it’s not nearly enough noise to drown out the sudden and familiar exuberant laughter of delight that echoes across every polished surface below. The kind of laughter designed to be projected across adoring crowds; and carefully rehearsed to always seem full of intriguing promise.

What Nadya wouldn’t give to borrow a little of Vlad Tepes’ seemingly endless confidence for her own performance… looming ever-closer and starting to pick up real steam.

“Remember my lovelies! Faceless and no-names, see yourselves inside. New blood and the lucky virginal attendees right beside them!”

Her full-body shiver of discomfort is more than warranted. But Nadya only wishes she could be surprised at his… unsettling word choice.

“I’m suddenly very glad to be up here.”

She snorts at the wide-eyed stare looking out from Cadence’s mask. “You and me both.”

“Yes yes darling, oh you look a treat. And you there — you must tell me the story behind that engraving later, you simply must.” It’s really to their luck and benefit that the Count likes hearing himself talk so much. They can stay far away from the railing and still keep tabs on what gauge of prestige is next to be welcomed into the bal masqué proper.

They just have to wait until everyone—Vlad included—is inside. Everyone but the most prestigious of the lot of them. And when all eyes are (once again) on the Bloodqueen herself… they’ll have no choice but to witness Nadya’s arrival.

Having Kamilah by her side might just give her the kick in the metaphorical pants to do this thing. Not the literal though. There’s no way this practically bleach-white linen getup will survive a boot print, and especially not to the rear end.

Down below there’s a momentary lull; all but shattered by Vlad’s returning laughter now pitched higher than before.

“Why there you are, Serafine! Here I worried I had somehow lost track of your arrival in the excitement.”

His words are followed by two unmistakably wet noises; which Nadya prays are just over-dramatic kisses to her cheeks.

“Surely you jest,” she teases good-naturedly; said with all the humor of someone whose smile can’t possibly reach her eyes, “I see before me you follow the old traditions quite well. Showing the prestigious their due, their arrival witnessed by all who look to them in admiration.”

“Well of course! It makes for the grandest of entrances.”

“Ah, yes,” the elder vampiress croons, “and as the illustrious host yours would be the last, non?”

“Don’t worry darling — I would never claim credit for your centuries of contribution to our dwindling community.”

“Meaning?”

Somehow Nadya just knows Vlad throws his hair back unnecessarily as he laughs again.

“You can enter just before me, of course.”

“Then when, may I ask, might you suggest my blood-kin Adrian and I make our entrance known, old friend?”

Unlike Serafine, who at least pretends to smile while enduring the torture of his conversation, Kamilah’s question is cold and clipped. It rings with all the disinterest of the Kamilah that Nadya had met so long ago — and she’d place good money on the single raised eyebrow hiked high enough to be seen over her masque, too.

But if anyone could render Vlad speechless…

Nadya struggles to hear something, anything, until she catches the faint rustle of stiff and expensive fabric moving with haste. Vlad’s gesture of greeting, no doubt.

Just like she has no doubt that Kamilah and Adrian don’t humor him as long as Serafine has. It certainly explains the flustered, hasty way his next words tumble from his tongue with practically no filter.

“All the best surprises are the ones that sweep one off his feet. My humble gathering of our kind—nay, our family—from the nearest branch to the farthest root is made absolutely resplendent by the honor of your presence!

“Your Majesty, mon cherie —” —a beat, his attention likely shifting to Adrian— “— and Sergeant Adrian Raines, just when I had resigned myself to an evening of only the old and antiquated in renown. Here you stand before me, as handsome as the day we first met.”

Nadya quickly schools her bewildered expression — too long and it might get stuck that way. But that is flirtation if she’s ever heard it. Not good flirtation, but nevertheless.

“Vlad, as… lively… as ever.” Adrian just barely recovers, but now she’s dying to know what he had almost said instead. “Hard to believe it’s been nearly seventy-five years since last we met. Time… flies so quickly.”

“Oh pish posh,” replies the Count, “you wouldn’t know it but for the calendars. My memory of those chiseled features of yours obviously needed a refresh.”

He’s barely finished speaking when he gasps, clapping his hands together delightedly. “Speaking of memory! You’ll have to forgive my fright. As you all know surely, my recollection skills are of world-renown. Yet the sight of you all almost thrust me spiraling into self-doubt.

“And not without good reason! As I could have sworn you — the both of you, that is to say — had… cast aside your former titles.”

It’s just like before. Everything that pops into his head said without a filter all the way up until what he’s saying isn’t as vapid as it was at the start.

It must be so easy to write Vlad Tepes off at first glance. Just look at the public opinion of the guy. Nadya had, she’s humble enough to admit it. But the hard truth is that he is Vlad Tepes; he is Count Dracula.

But whether he’s all the things the myths and legends claim or not it can’t go ignored that he knows what he’s doing (even if it doesn’t seem like it). He knows how to play a crowd, how to stroke an ego. He’s a master of misdirection.

Has nobody pitched a Vegas residency to this guy yet? Seriously?

But if he thinks he’s going to out-wit someone like Kamilah he must have those leather pants on just a little too tight.

She doesn’t address his comment. Brushing it aside proves a much more important point.

“Shall Adrian and I wait patiently here while you and Serafine follow through, then?”

Vlad must be used to playing the ‘host with the most’ card, because he hesitates. But Kamilah wasn’t asking — she was just being polite.

“Yes,” he finally agrees, though surprisingly less strained than Nadya would have expected. “I would not dare nor dream of presuming your prestige. Nor would I separate the grand entrance of the progeny of our King.

“The three of you will have a most celebratory announcement, I give you my word.”

Did she hear that right?

Serafine offers a gentle tittering laugh. “I see no reason why you and I should not enter together, ma puce.”

“We shall.”

Vlad’s words die to the sound of heavy heels across the foyer floor. Too many steps to be one of her friends; but certainly more than enough for them to bring a person across the length of the room to where they are gathered.

Of course something is going wrong. They should have anticipated something going wrong. They had, her brain reminds her, and probably thinks its being helpful by doing so.

She dares to inch just close enough to catch a glimpse down below and spoiler alert — it isn’t helpful at all.

With his head held high, Marc Antony makes a bold statement in taking Kamilah’s hand without it being offered. Then he goes a step further with a half-bow and a kiss pressed to the back — or the ghost of one. He barely manages it before she yanks it from his grasp — in surprise, in anger, that’s not the part that matters.

With everyone fixated on the two oldest vampires in the room, Adrian dares to steal a glance of warning up to the railing. Wide-eyed and with pursed lips, the message when he gives the tiniest shake of his head is clear.

Nadya retreats, practically crab-walking backwards.

Cadence tries to help her sudden shaking panic with an arm over her shoulders. It’s the thought that counts.

“What,” he asks worriedly, “who is it?”

“Antony,” Nadya exhales, and the man goes rigid beside her. “It’s Marc Antony.”

#bloodbound #playchoices fanfiction #playchoices #kamilah x mc #kamilah sayeed #bloodbound mc #mc: nadya al jamil #adrian raines #serafine dupont #jax matsuo #lily spencer #marc antony #oc: cadence smith #vlad tepes #fic: oblivion bound #oblv: new chapter #oblv: bound by destiny ii #; my fics

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casualexpansionthings · 5 years ago

Note

Wonka's three course gum for Ino. Let's turn the spoiling and spoiled blonde into a big blubbery blue berry!

Ino didn’t think anything about swiping gum. Ino was always chewing gum, at least when she could, because it helped her keep her mind off of food. Nothing kept you on a diet better than gum did.

That this gum tasted unique was not really a downside. In fact, while she wasn’t that into tomato soup, she couldn’t deny that it was filling. She even felt like she was being filled by it, which was unique, but not something to really question. The roast beef and mashed potatoes were way better though; she loved food like this. Years of eating meat with her boys meant that she had a soft spot inside of her for delicious beef. And every slice of beef landing in her stomach made her feel even better.

Though finally, the entree ended, which Ino was somewhat disappointed about. After all, it was so good, and she wanted gum to last a long time, that way she didn’t have to think about food. And a gum that made her feel like she was eating food was even better, so long as it didn’t lose it’s flavor too quickly.

Dessert however, took her mind off of all of that. Blueberry pie was delicious, especially when it was so very juicy. The crust was fluffy and light, the blueberries were large and juicy, and there was so much of it that it was becoming difficult to keep up with it. Ino’s mouth seemed to fill with pie as soon as she swallowed the previous bite. It was a bit worrying, but she couldn’t really worry too much, not with how delicious it was. Ino’s eyes closed, as she continued to gulp down slice after slice of delicious pie, letting the juice fill her waiting belly.

Unfortunately, Ino wasn’t paying attention to the fact that her belly was slowly pushing outward. Sure, she felt like she was getting fuller with every swallow, but there was no way that she could actually be filling up, right? No, that was impossible. In reality, her belly was slowly filling, becoming a noticeable dome atop her skirt’s waistband. At the same time, starting at her navel, a strange blue color began to spread across her skin. Every swallow made it progress further and further, covering her entire belly and disappearing beneath her crop top and skirt.

Ino continued to chew away, noting how full she was beginning to feel, completely unaware that her normally pale skin was becoming bluer with every passing second. It spread up her chest, covering each breast in a deep blue hue, before spreading down her arms and up her neck. At the same time, it spread down her legs, erasing her formerly pale complexion and replacing it was a deeper blue one.

Finally, Ino noticed the change in her skin tone. She screamed, watching in horror as the blue color spread down her arms, and across each of her fingers. Running to a mirror, ignoring the rather loud sloshing in her belly, she looking upon a rather blue version of herself. From head to toe, she was a deep blue, entirely like a blueberry. Her belly was huge, at least compared to how it normally was. And to top it off, her hair was turning blue too, the blonde follicles erased by blue hairs from root to tip.

Clearly, Ino needed to stop chewing the gum. She went to spit it out, only to find out that she wasn’t in fact chewing it anymore. She’d swallowed it in her panic about her blue skin.

Bellow, her belly gurgled ominously. Despite the fact that she wasn’t chewing the gum anymore, her belly was still swelling into her hands. It was now more than pregnant, growing large and heavy and round with every passing moment. Ino let out a rather pathetic whimper, noting that she was not likely to stop it. She was entirely at its mercy.

Suddenly, Ino felt a large amount of juice flow into her rear. She grabbed onto the wall to steady herself, as each butt cheek filled with juice. Her ass, once rather flat, now easily made her look bottom heavy; her skirt was nowhere near able to cover her, and Ino was left pathetically trying to pull it down to cover her now blue underwear.

Unfortunately, removing her hands from her belly to focus on her rear caused her belly to fall down, resulting in it bursting through her skirt. She barely spared a thought for the button, seeing as she had much bigger issues to handle. At present, she was trying to steady herself, her sense of balance thrown off by an increasingly large lower body. Her hips flared outwards, as did her thighs, resulting in her skirt looking more and more like some kind of skin tight tube stretched across her skin. Seams began to burst, revealed more and more blue flesh beneath, causing her to close her eyes, waiting for the inevitable to come...

Finally, with a bang, her skirt burst off of her, her lower body shaking almost like jello, as it swelled out freely. Her underwear was little more than a thong right now, barely able to remain attached. A second later, it snapped off, unable to resist the pressure that her massive lower body exerted upon it.

Not that she had much time to mourn. Ino’s sides and back began to swell, as did her breasts, causing her to look rather round. Her shirt, once rather loose, began to strain, as her breasts began to swell larger with every passing moment. Panicking, Ino tried to undo her bra, only barely managing to do so before her breasts swelled out, one after the other, the same way her ass had. The buttons on her shirt puckered, as large gaps began to form between them; at the moment, her shirt was the only thing able to cover any of her, and that probably wasn’t going to last much longer.

A loud creaking began to be heard, before the first button shot off, followed by another, and then another, the pressure her breasts were exerting proving too much for her shirt. In seconds, her breasts were left to rest atop her giant, round belly, while her shirt was left to stretch across her back as she began to loose her human shape.

Ino’s entire body began to bloat, unable to remain in any sort of human shape with how much juice was filling her. Her arms and legs swelled, becoming impossible to bend, while her hands and feet began to take on the form of inflated rubber gloves. Her curves slowly began to disappear, becoming one giant curve, as her body morphed into a far more spherical shape.

Breasts and belly became one curve, while butt and back became another. Her arms and legs began to get further and further apart, slowly being absorbed by her body at the same time. To Ino’s horror, she found her feet no longer touched the ground.

Her neck disappeared, while her head began to swell up; her lips and cheeks plumped up, as juice tried hard to find any place to go. Ino was no longer able to see over herself or turn her head; she was simply too large to do so.

Ino’s arms and legs vanished, before her hands and feet followed the same fate. She was now little more than a very large blue orb, marked as human only by a pair of dark spots where her nipples were, and a bloated head on top. At least her long hair showed where her head was.

Unfortunately for Ino, her growth was not done. At present, she was merely as wide as she was tall, and it appeared that there was still more juice left in the gum. Ino’s eyes widened as she felt her body stretching, her skin creaking ominously as she grew in width and height. Every passing moment worried her, as she knew she was being stretched out more and more. How big would she get? How much could she stretch?

The pressure continued to grow with every second. Ino was certain now, this was the end. She was going to pop, she was going to explode, all anyone would find was the blue juice where a girl used to be. What a way to go out! She screwed up her bloated face as she felt the pressure reaching what she knew had to be it’s maximum point; her skin creaking was so loud that there was no way she could stretch any further...

And then it stopped. There was no explosion, no earth shattering kaboom. Instead, Ino sat there, a giant blueberry, more than twelve feet wide. Occasionally, her body let out a gurgle, but it was just juice moving about inside of her. She wasn’t getting any larger.

Now, all she could do was wait. And hope that nothing caused her to explode...

#long post

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aftermathdb · 4 years ago

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DEATH BATTLE Review: She-Ra vs. Wonder Woman.

So, quick heads up: Due to computer problems that I was told would get my computer back to me by Monday (I only got it back on Tuesday), this review is going to be a bit short, and it won’t contain any mid-preview Wiz and Boomstick segments. Many apologies, please blame the Mac repair shop that decided to assign my laptop to a person who didn’t come into work.

She-Ra′s Preview.

So, the story on She-Ra starts with the war between Etheria and Eternia,with Prince Adam being the hero for Eternia as the mighty He-Man. But the hosts go over his sister, Adora, who was captured and brainwashed by the Horde. Until the magical Sword of Protection freed her, and allowed her to become the powerful princess, She-Ra.

The hosts go over a lot of her base statline, and review her arsenal. Like how the Sword of Protection has multiple different forms.

We get a brief Wiz and Boomstick segment, and the we cut back to her feats.

Among them is how she has defeated multiple foes and has pulled off some amazing feats of speed.

Like when she climbed to an airship at over mach 21 speeds, or how her horse Swiftwind moved over 400 times the speed of light.

They also go over how she’s kicked a moon, a feat worth 44 yottatons of TNT.

Going over her feats, She-Ra’s got quite a bit. But, because of my aforementioned computer problems, I can’t really go over it here. Sorry about that.

Wonder Woman′s Preview.

The hosts start off on Themyscira, Diana’s birthplace. Where the Amazons had been isolated from the outside world for millennia. Until a War plane crash landed on their humble little island. So, they sent an ambassador, Diana Prince, who would be better known as Wonder Woman.

After the hosts go over her experience levels, we go into her arsenal.

Diana’s sword in particular can slice atoms. So, it’s going to cut through just about anything.

We get more info on her other feats, like her entire arsenal being able to be summoned at anytime, and how she’s managed to block Darkseid’s near-unavoidable Omega Beams that were supposedly unblockable.

She’s tagged Speed Force users like Professor Zoom, who was punching her at beyond lightspeed, a force equivalent to 2 Billion Megatons of force.

She’s helped move the earth, putting her strength at about 2 Quintillion tons. While she does need help for some of these feats, it’s still impressive.

Regardless, Diana has proven herself to be a Wonder of a Woman.

The Battle Itself.

Kristina is maining this fight, She-Ra was voiced by Amber May and Wonder Woman was reprised by Natalie Van Sistine. , Princesses of Wonder by Therewolf, and audio led by Chris Kokkinos.

So, we open up on them… apparently agreeing that this is a battle to the bitter end? In all honesty, both of them responding to the same threat and mistaking the other for being the enemy probably would have worked just fine. But I guess this helps them back their claim that the “FIGHT” Byte shouldn’t come back.

So, after a bit of trash-talk from Diana, the fight starts. And to be honest, the swordplay is really awesome. We even get a bit of a shockwave clash near the start of it all.

A bit more later, and Diana uses her Lasso to pull down a pillar to fall on top of the Princess of Power, which is then thrown like a javelin.

I any case, Diana does the sword halt to get herself back in the fight.

I’m gonna say it: I love this technique. I don’t care what anyone says, this technique is awesome.

A bit of Swordplay later, and She-Ra eds up on WW’s invisible jet (Fun fact: This is the first time this has been shown in a death battle).

She-Ra uses her physics-defying strength to fling it towards Diana despite lacking leverage, and Diana cuts it in half.

(RIP: Invisible Jet)

Now, a bit later, She-Ra starts wailing on Wonder Woman, and it actually looks like she’s stronger. But Diana doesn’t halt her defense.

And She-Ra eventually breaks through the Bracelets of Submission, and prepares to bring down the Amazon. So finishing blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Verdict + Explanation.

So, for starters, She-Ra… actually did have strength. Moving a moon on her own is more impressive than needing to do so with help. But Diana helping to move the Earth at all means that the power difference isn’t that massive.

So, with strength out of the way, it’s onto the rest of the stats to determine the victor.

Adora’s arsenal is technically more versatile than Diana’s, but the fact that she has to swap them out makes it more of a thing that keeps WW has to look out on her toes rather than something that is an explicit threat. Especially since not a whole lot of them were combat-suited.

Wonder Woman’s experience put her ahead. While both have been fighting for their whole life, Adora is much younger than Diana by at least two thousand years. So nothing in Adora’s arsenal is anything that Diana couldn’t handle.

Let’s talk speed.

Adora riding Swiftwind and Crystal Sun Dancer implies that she does this to compensate for her own speed. So, beinng generous and applying everything to being a reaction speed, means that Adora’s speed comes out to…

Nearly 22 Billion times the speed of light.

But, as we all know, the Shattered God feat blows that out of the water. Aside from the hotly-debated “DC’s universe is bigger than our universe” thing going on (there’s a panel explicitly saying this, can we just shut up about it?), the peices of the Shattered God were all blocked and came from across the Universe.

So, accounting for how absurdly fast that the pieces would would have to be, Diana would be moving over nine billion times faster than She-Ra in terms of reaction speed.

Not only is this far greater than the strength difference, but it also means that She-Ra wouldn’t have a whole lot of opportunities to actually land a fatal blow.

Overall impression.

I’m going to be blunt: Because of my computer problems, I saw this on my phone first, and TBH, I was largely unimpressed. Like… the swordplay’s great and all, but that’s about it. The island didn’t even blow up at the end of it! At the very least, Hulk vs. Doomsday ended with the ENTIRE CITY they were fightinng in being leveled. Thor’s fight with Wonder Woman ended with a moon blowing up. Goku vs. Superman 1 had the planet going kaboom. Thanos vs. Darkseid had the ENTIRE UNIVERSE going out. I get that the quarantine probably means that they can’t get too crazy with the animations, but really? The most damage is to Wonder Woman’s invisible jet.

There’s not enough collateral damage in this fight to really signify that these two were at all on the same power level that could move moons around. Again, the island could have at least blown up.

In addition, the swordplay was really the best thing about this fight. But there are other battles that have done it just as well or better. Like Link vs. Cloud, Sasuke vs. Hiei, Zoro vs. Erza, Power Rangers vs. Voltron, Weiss vs. Mitsuru (though, admittedly that one was mainly their stand-wannabes doing the sword fighting), Virgil vs. Sephiroth, and Guts vs. Nightmare.

Also, was anyone really expecting Diana “tagged Speed Force Users” Prince to lose the speed stat? Or Wonder “Lived for 2000+ Years” Woman to lose experience as well? Like, no offense to those rooting for She-Ra, but… C’mon. This is DC. As in, “Regularly breaks all known laws of physics and reality” DC.

Hot take: This felt like filler. Which is the biggest problem with combatants that have returned for a third time. You know them well enough that you can kinda know who they could beat and who they couldn’t. Had this been She-Ra vs. Xena or some other god-like princess that wasn’t Wonder Woman, this probably would have generated more excitement.

7.1/10 Neat swordplay, but that’s kinda all that this fight has going for it.

Next Time…

None here. All we know is that it’s Beerus vs. an unknown opponent.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

Beerus vs. ???

#review #Death Battle #Deathbattle

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askmerriauthor · 5 years ago

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Soft Apoc Ideas - Zombies

Because @techmomma mentioned it before and now my brain’s been rolling it around in my head. Discussion of Zombie films below, along with some potential spoilers for certain films used as examples.

So a “Soft Apocalypse” is a narrative genre where the end of the world/fall of civilization has occurred, but it wasn’t some big cataclysm. Things just kind of... fizzled. A slow ease into the grave rather than an earth shattering kaboom. And, more often than not, the end isn’t really the end - it just marks the conclusion of one method of civilization giving rise to a new one growing atop the ruins of the old, still clinging to some ideas of that past. As far as end of the world stories go, the Soft Apoc tends to be a little more introspective, focusing on the feelings and thoughts of the survivors rather than the disaster itself. Often the actual cause of the end of the world isn’t really discussed in great detail or even at all - it might purely be an background concept that sets the stage rather than the focus of events. It’s not about what happened then, but what’s happening since.

The Zombie genre, on the other hand, is a lot more immediate and active in it’s threat. We usually see Zombie stories taking place either immediately before or immediately after an outbreak, where the presence of the undead is the primary source of danger for the cast to contend with. What Zombies represent varies wildly from story to story. They may be presented as a biblical apocalypse, the result of science gone amok, the flaws of man’s hubris, an analogy to man’s selfish consumerism, or even just an unfeeling, inevitable force of nature that can only be endured but not defeated. As @techmomma observed, it’s difficult to write a Soft Apoc concept given the two genres’ contrasting elements. But not impossible; Zombies is such a densely saturated genre in and of itself that there’s always examples to be found.

Some good examples in recent cinematic history include “Zombieland”, “Sean of the Dead”, “The Dead Don’t Die” and to some degree “Warm Bodies”. These four immediately leap to mind as being examples of the most common examples of different outcomes of a Zombie infestation.

“The Dead Don’t Die” is a quirky, fourth-wall-breaking novelty film set in a cozy little nowhere town, with the focus being on the small time sheriff and deputy pair who find themselves caught in the end of the world. The dead rise and begin killing everyone, but the characters meet the whole conflict with a weirdly passive, bemused reaction both for the situation at hand and their own behavior. The cause of the Zombies is never explained and, in the end, it’s assumed that all of mankind will die in a hopeless, slow-spreading downfall.

“Zombieland” is another comedy/action-based film where the bulk of the story is told post-outbreak, where a group of survivors is making their way through the ruins of civilization. It’s mostly a vehicle for amusing banter and gratuitous violence toward Zombies, all played for humor as everyone involved is 100% genre savvy. In this case the threat of Zombies is still active and present, but more easily contended with despite not being solvable. The cast are simply living what time they have left as best they can, knowing the world they knew is gone forever but trying to have fun on their way out.

“Warm Bodies” is the curious addition of a romance story told between Zombies and Survivors, where the primary protagonist is a Zombie himself. In this story the Zombies have the previously unknown potential to return to life and gradually re-integrate with the remnants of Human society, even joining forces with mankind to fend off undead that have gone too far beyond the point of no return. The story is firmly in the Soft Apoc style as it ends with a hopeful note of restoring both the world and the still-salvageable undead.

“Sean of the Dead” has all the trappings of your standard Zombie movie, albeit told very tongue-in-cheek. It doesn’t seem to take the outbreak seriously right up until the mid-point in the story where the shoe drops and everyone realizes “yes, this is in fact horrific” as the tone of the movie changes instantly into straight-up horror. But the rug is pulled out from us again as it’s revealed that it’s only horror because the cast we’ve been following were a bunch of idiots who put themselves into the worst situation possible. At the end of the movie the military rolls up in full force, logically wipes out the shambling hordes of Zombies in a hail of gunfire, and contains the outbreak very swiftly. Humanity at large never really collapsed and, in the last minutes of the movie, we see how mankind has adapted to the presence of remaining elements of the undead. Such as using them as mindless slave labor, for callous daytime television entertainment, and very lightly touching on what sort of social and personal impact the remaining presence of Zombies has on individuals. It leaves the audience with the understanding that all it will take is these idiots doing something dumb again for the outbreak to return and likely be quashed just as quickly, but they’ll never learn.

While I don’t have an immediate example off the top of my head, I do have my own idea for how a Soft Apoc Zombie setting might go. I’m certain I’m not the first to have this idea, so if anyone can send me some titles that already delve into this concept, I’d appreciate it.

My basic idea would be that the Zombie Outbreak, whatever may have caused it, led to the collapse of most elements of society but not all. It was also in the vaguely recent past - maybe within 100 years of the present story taking place. While there are still roving Zombies out there in the world, they’re not an active “unstoppable hordes of millions consuming all they cross” threat any longer. They did their damage, were widely defeated or just fizzled out on their own over time, and now there’s only traces of them left. Their presence is less of an overwhelming tidal wave swallowing up everything and treated more like “Yeah, we always get flooded this time of year, so we built our houses on stilts and have good water-damage insurance” sort of disaster. The real issue is that the infection rate of Zombification is 100%: it is known and completely guaranteed that every currently living person and any young that are born in generations to come, upon death, will rise as a Zombie. This is just how the Human life cycle operates now - you’re born, you grow old, you die, you come back as a Zombie. No exceptions, no cures, no way to avoid it. So then the story becomes less a matter of trying to solve Zombification and more of an exploration of how people react, how society changes, and what sort of practices come out of this known state of being. How does society change to protect itself knowing that any accidental death could potentially cascade into countless more? How do people address end-of-life preparation both in practical and spiritual aspects knowing they will shortly rise as a Zombie? How do art, culture, medicine, and science change to factor in this new facet of the life cycle? How is the nature of Zombies and the original outbreak recognized so long after the fact - is it still seen as a disaster, or has it warped into legend and taken on elements of a cultural origin tale? It can even be pushed out further to address environmental questions, such as what happens to Earth’s ecosystem when the food chain is so heavily upset, if some or any animals also became Zombified, what sort of impact there is on the environment with the shift both in population/production as well as the sudden presence of so much methane and nitrogen in the atmosphere from all the dead wandering around.

Despite all my chatter on this stuff, I actually hate the Zombie genre in general because it’s so often nothing but grim hopelessness and gratuitous suffering - same for the Disaster/End of the World genres by and large. So it should be little surprise that my personal exploration of the medium would be “Zombies, but where everything except Zombies is what’s actually important”.

#zombies #writing stuff #literature discussion

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screamingtofu · 6 years ago

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So we just had a fucking dnd session that came out of nowhere

I need to get this all written down because ... hoo, that was a session. Break down is under the gap for anyone bored enough to read it. We’re down a few people because of life, so we’re finishing off some downtime between plot hooks. The tl:dr is our wizard is too proud/racist to ask the rogue for help and attacked the paladin when he asked instead and then no one tells me what is happening and this was supposed to be a shopping episode oh my god

Characters there were:

Drackuss - dragonborn conquest paladin Ivellios - High elf evocation wizard Vieraen - Drow rogue/bard Eridol (me) - Gnomish war cleric

We're basically in a week of downtime after our 4 months real time spent in the pit. We get informed that I'm now the leader which I try to politely decline because I don't need that. I basically spend the week having tea with an old blind psychic because she'd helped up in the past and trying to find medical journals that would help me do non magical healing on everyone in the party because I didn't want to have to use the divine healing as a crutch. Our rogue put me in a situation where I either gave him 200 gold or he'd have to "go find some" which meant murder which meant he gets thrown back in super jail and the player needs to roll up a new character. So I give him some of my gold rather than the party gold and he goes to meet a contact, gets some super poison that he can try and recreate and ends up being asked out on a date in the fancy part of town which he runs away from because he runs out of money.

Our paladin goes back to the fight pits and fucking ruins everything to become one of the solo champions before spending the rest of the week meditating. Our wizard ... man, fuck our wizard. He goes out to buy some spell scrolls before realising that he's been pickpocketed for a decent chunk of gold, gets on our sending stones and asks me for half of our party funds but won't tell me what he's buying. I'm hesitant, but everyone else in the party say's it should be ok so I give him the 700 gold to buy what he needs. He buys the scrolls and a statue of a luck dragon which when a missing piece is found gives someone 1 luck point for the day before realising that he now doesn't have the gold required to copy the spells into his spell book so he asks me for an additional 300 gold which I refuse because he legit hasn't told me what he was spending the money on and I’m getting a distinct drug addict vibe from him. So he goes and badgers our sorcerer npc friend that put the group together to try and get the additional gold and bitch about the rogue because he's a drow and our wizard's a high elf so fantasy racism. The sorcerer gives him most of the gold but says he needs to get the last 50 on his own, so wizard gets the bright idea to try and find whoever pickpocketed him a few days ago and goes through the same part of town with a bag of rocks to try and get nicked again. Wouldn't you know it, he gets pickpocketed for the rocks and doesn't notice until the thief is nearly around a corner. He gives chase and notifies us all what's happened and because the paladin and the rogue and I are close we start booking it to where he thinks he is.

Drackuss, our paladin is the closest and on his new fancy horse so he's gonna get there first and decides to cast locate object on the wizard's spellbook so he can get proper directions and starts directing the rogue and I on where to go as we're across town and the rogue takes the lead because we can travel at double speed because he knows the city. The wizard follows the thief down into the sewers but loses him after a few turns before getting onto the radio and begrudgingly asking the rogue for help tracking the thief and then going radio silent as he climbed back up to the alley and the paladin just arrived. Because he also doesn't know what's happening he asks for additional information and the wizard recounts what happened. As Drackuss gets on the radio to inform the rogue and I of what the fuck is going on and confirming that the wizard was right to ask for our rogue's help the wizard decides to retract that statement by using shocking grasp on Drackuss so he couldn't finish the message. All the rogue and I hear is "Hey Veiraen, Ivellios needs your heAAAAAAAAAAA-" so we keep booking it towards them as I keep asking what the fuck is going on and the rogue mentions that whenever someone asks for his help they go radio silent.

The wizard, realising that he's just attacked the 600 pound dragonborn in platemail decides the smart thing to do is to try and run away and jumps back into the sewers as Drackuss was still paralysed. Unfortuntely for him, Drackuss still has locate object cast on Ivellios' spell book so he knows exactly where he is. Drackuss tries to cast hold person on him which drops locate object but it doesn't work, Ivellios turns invisible and darts around him and scrambles back up the alley as a crowd has started to form because of the scuffle and I finally get a response from one of them over the radio. It's Drackuss and all he says is "I'm going to kill him" and then I get nothing over the radio after that. Drackuss gets an attack on Ivellios despite him being invisible, knocks him to the ground and tries to intimidate him into yeilding. Ivellios being the prideful fucker that he is decides he doesn't appreciate that and casts fireball on the both of them. I lose my shit out of game because THIS IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED FROM A WEEK OF DOWNTIME, HOLY SHIT. Now fun fact, Ivellios being an evocation wizard can mold spells around people caught in evocation spells and have them take no damage, he does this to himself and Drackuss being a golden dragonborn is resistant to fire damage automatically.

The rogue and I are about a block away at this point as we've been following the crowd and we hear an earth shattering kaboom followed by the crowd panicking and running because explosions and round the corner to see Drackuss standing over a bloodied, unconscious Ivellios, sword at his throat with murder in his eyes. I yell at Drackuss to get off him because I legit have no idea what the fuck is going on at this point and our Rogue heals the wizard to bring him back up as I try to figure out what I can do to stop this shit. Hold person on Drackuss doesn't work, he's too angry and thinks the magic came from the now conscious Ivellios and roars and goes for another attack. Ivellios chucks up a shield spell to block the attack as Veiraen whips a dagger at Ivellios and hits him with the pommel to knock him the fuck back out. Seeing as he's out and I think Drackuss is legitimately going to murder him, I do the only thing I can at the time and start walking forward and casting Spirit Guardians so I'm encompassing Veiraen and Ivellios as these three fucking angels appear around me and a spectral hammer appears next to Drackuss' head. I am yelling at Drackuss to stand down and explain to me what the fuck is going on because I don't want to hurt him but I will if it comes to it. We have a tense couple seconds as he takes a hit from the angels and starts to calm down before picking up Ivellios' body. At this point we can hear the platoon of guards rushing to surround us and I tell our rogue to get away through the sewers because if he get's caught doing anything he's back in superjail. I dispel the angels and share a very tense stare with Drackuss and we come to the non-verbal agreement to try and talk our way out with the guards and that he needs to get Ivellios's out of here. The guards rock up and freak the fuck out at the spectral hammer hanging in the air so I dispel it and play it off as a trick of the light because I'm definitely not a holy man, no sir. The guards start on about how they know who we are from our victory in the pits and that this can all go away if we give them enough coin.

This immediately gets both of us up in arms, Drackuss because he's also a prideful son of a bitch and me because I follow the god of justice and this is an abuse of power that I do not appreciate. We bite our tongues and ask how much it would take to just let us leave, the head guard dismisses most of the guards to help wrangle the citizens as Drackuss takes the chance to step backwards and falls down the sewer to get away. By some stroke of fucking luck he rolls an 18 stealth at disadvantage and the guard doesn't notice him. Seeing as I'm also in platemail and have been rolling like hot garbage all session I don't chance running but cast thaumaturgy to make it sound like someone's scrabbling up onto one of the roofs to distract the guards. Somehow they fall for it as I proclaim I've never seen a dragonborn jump so high. The rest of the guards run off as I'm clearly too small to be a threat and I'm left with a rookie guard who nudges me towards the back of the alley to get away. I give him some gold for his troubles and run back to the barracks we're staying in.

Everyone ends up making it back and we all get to yell at everyone and make a pact to not murder each other as we're summoned urgently back to our sorcerer npc's house as more people have been going missing from the farming towns and we needed to leave urgently to figure out what's going on and put a stop to it. We end the session there and everyone basically collapses because that was the hypest character development we've had in ages and no one expected any of that to happen.

#dnd #dnd 5e #Tactyl Y'mon #finally my Rp loving heart gets some sustinence #and boy howdy it was a fucking feast

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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Mega Time Squad

“Mega Time Squad” feels as if it were made in 1981 by Empire Pictures. Had it been, the 11-year old version of your humble reviewer would have snuck into it with my cousins. We would have sat through it twice, just to pass the time, and we would have concluded that it wasn’t very good. In fact, we would have considered it “pretty damn corny.” That it made absolutely no narrative sense would not have concerned us; continuity and coherence were for critics and grown-ups. Our mission was simply to get out of the house to see something rated R.

The R-rating has long since lost its forbidden glitter, but I still retain a tween boy’s affection for movies that dare to be this goofy. Writer-director Tim van Dammen haphazardly stuffs “Mega Time Squad” with a litany of elements pulled from a genre grab bag: there’s an incompetent crew of criminals, some questionable Asian mythology, a magic time-travel bracelet, a splash of kung fu and the promise of a badass demon that likes to eat people before ultimately consuming itself. That last item really piqued my interest, though all I got for my troubles was a reminder that I haven’t outgrown my younger self’s gullibility.

More on the demon later. The aforementioned crooks are guys with names like Damage who report to a Mr. Big called Shelton (Jonny Brugh). Shelton is concerned about a Chinese gang muscling in on his territory in Thames, New Zealand, so he tasks one of his runners, Johnny (Anton Tennet) to rob and intimidate the newcomers. Shelton’s crew includes his sister, Kelly (Hetty Gaskell-Hahn), whom we first meet while she’s making a vest full of explosives. As Chekhov would have theorized, if an exploding vest is introduced in the first act, it must go off in the next act.

While we wait for that earth-shattering kaboom, Johnny and his mate decide to rob the Chinese gang, double-cross Shelton and keep the money. This goes awry as expected, with Johnny’s mate ratting him out. It looks dire but Johnny has an ace up his sleeve, or rather, a magic bracelet on his wrist. During the heist, Johnny swiped it, but not before the old Chinese man they were robbing issued a warning. The bracelet is some sort of teleporter that, if used improperly, will land the wearer in the belly of a hungry, vengeful demon. Johnny thinks it’ll make the perfect gift for Kelly, and why not? What gal can resist a hot bracelet that’ll get her killed by supernatural forces?

The bracelet is a major plot point in “Mega Time Squad,” so it’s disappointing that van Dammen’s script doesn’t concern itself too much with its time-travel mechanics. Additionally, Johnny and the other characters are way too nonchalant about the magic this piece of jewelry possesses. For example, Johnny is barely concerned when he runs into an exact copy of himself during his escape from Shelton’s henchmen. “Press the bracelet’s button,” the other Johnny tells him. “You’ll know when to do it!”

When Johnny presses the button, he hops back in time or reboots it or something, causing a new copy of himself to be created. Again, none of this seems to phase Johnny, though he uses his newfound skills to re-enact scenes that have less than pleasant original outcomes. The other characters don’t seem too bothered by Johnny’s multiplicity either. Kelly isn’t even phased when, in the film’s sole nod to fellow New Zealander Peter Jackson’s early career gorefests, she gets splattered with Johnny’s exploding head.

By the time we get five or six Johnnies, “Mega Time Squad” can’t keep them, or its logic, straight. It’s a waste of a potentially good idea, most notably when the numerous iterations of Johnny start to turn on one another. The fact that Johnny is so neurotic that he can’t even trust himself is a detail that could have been milked for maximum returns, but the script barely scratches the surface. Tennet does a good job acting opposite himself, but his work is ultimately for naught.

I can’t recommend “Mega Time Squad” but it does have a few things going for it. It moves fast enough to stave off boredom and runs a crisp 79 minutes. Mike Newport’s synth-heavy 80’s retro score is enjoyably nostalgic and catchy. The performances are decent for the most part, and the dialogue is often tasteless and funny. People get gruesomely shot, but the film’s most effective weapon is a rinky-dink slingshot. The special effects are serviceable, which leads me to that demon.

Early on, we’re treated to a flashback that explains the demon’s legend. It isn’t shown, but its bloody handiwork is alluded to from just outside the frame. I admit I was excited and couldn’t wait for it to join the current day plot. Now, I won’t tell you what happens when it shows up, nor how big a fool it made of me when it did. I’ll just say as far as demons are concerned, it’s pretty damn corny.

from All Content http://bit.ly/2V4NiRH

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thebibliomancer · 8 years ago

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #98: Let Slip the Dogs of War!

April 1972

And the A is off gleefully soaring the cosmos again.

We start this issue, dealing with fallout from the Kree/Skrull War. Because the question on presumably everyone’s lips is “where is Goliath?”

Or at least on Vision’s.

Like I said last time, there was no Earth-shattering kaboom. So Clint succeeded. And by the time of this issue, its been a whole week. So where is he? Did he die in space? Is he lost, also in space?

Oh and the Avengers apparently all have symbols on their meeting room chairs. We only see Cap’s and Iron Man’s but Iron Man’s is in fact the mars masculine symbol. Because he’s Iron Man. I’d have gone with Fe or something but whatever.

Since there’s no crime today, the Avengers will split up to consult different resources to see what they can find. Iron Man has some resources in his *ahem* employer’s townhouse. Thor will check magic and mirrors in Asgard. And the others will use the mansion’s resources.

But boy howdy, they’ll find Clint Barton and nothing will distract them!

Cap is immediately distracted by the news.

In fairness, the Avengers have been out of town for a bit. No harm in checking current events.

See there’s this guy called Mr. Tallon agitating for war against those who would destroy America, belonging to a group he calls the Warhawks. You may recognize him from the cover.

Mr. Tallon is obviously a pseudonym.

Apparently what all the hubbub is about, bub, is that there is a ... I’m guessing Chinese? Because the book doesn’t say. A Chinese delegation to the UN. The first ever indeed.

And the delegate, Mr. Wo Tong, says that the pro-war demonstrators just show how hollow American cries of peace and brotherhood are and will cause an escalation in the arms race.

Last time we had something like this happen, it turned out that racism was caused by foreigners making things up to make America look bad.

Well, that’s not not the case here.

Anyway, the police come to disperse the protest but the crowd immediately charges at them. And in the process, stampede over the journalists covering this broadcast.

The situation seems explosive enough that Vision sends Cap, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and totally still hanging around Rick Jones to deal with it. Vision will remain in the mansion to liaison with Thor and Iron Man.

By the time the Avengers and Rick arrive, the protestors are more of a mob really. In that they’re storming the hotel where the Possibly Chinese delegation is holed up.

Mr. Tallon tells the pipers to cease their melodic trilling since it will just be lost among the din of the storm and the crowd but that their time will come again very soon.

Yeah, there are some pipers piping. On pan pipes. Wearing hooded robes. Seems a bit weird for a pro-war rally, I think.

Cap and Scarlet Witch try to clear some space in front of the hotel so Quicksilver can build a barricade out of sandbags borrowed from a nearby construction site. Cap wonders if another Skrull is stirring things up for the crowd to have gone from curious onlookers to frenzied revolutionaries but dismisses the thought.

But, there’s something about that music...

Rick collapses for some reason, clutching his head, but tells Cap to talk to the crowd before they go too far.

And Cap climbs the sandbag wall and does what Cap do best. INSPIRATIONAL SPEECHES.

But the crowd is not buying what he’s selling, even though its free samples. They call him a fake. Because why would the real Cap shield commies?

And the weird music keeps playing with Mr. Tallon egging on the pipers. “If music be the food of war -- PLAY ON!” Which I’m certain is not how the quote goes.

And y’know, that music is telling Rick something. Its telling him that they’ve been fighting on the wrong side. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch hear it too. Its music with a message and the message says everyone should do their part to stir up war among the nuclear nations.

Oh, noooooow Cap hears it. Hells yeah. Lets bust some commies.

Meanwhile back at the mansion, Thor returns. When he tried to return to Asgard, he found something repelled him, some invisible barrier preventing his return. So he’s stranded on Midgard and could use some good news.

But Vision doesn’t have any. Just some new threat that they really could use a Thor on.

And an Iron Man, if available. Vision calls him but Iron Man brusquely responds he’s busy. And Vision sees that Iron Man is with some of the Warhawks.

This is really not good. At this point of time, Tony Stark is still a weapons designer. And the Warhawks were standing with Iron Man in Tony Stark’s townhouse. With a bunch of weaponry.

Thor and Vision split up. Thor will head to back up the other Avengers who have gone to face the mob (and unbeknowst to Thor, have joined it) and Vision will go to Iron Man.

But there are misgivings. Vision has to restrain himself from following after Thor because despite his best efforts, he still has feelings for the Scarlet Witch. And he wishes that those hooman emotions would just pass through him like stuff when he’s intangible. Robot angst is hard.

Thor has more practical misgivings. Goliath is missing, Thor can’t get into Asgard, and now there’s this warhawk cult. Is it a coincidence that things are happening all together or is it part of some larger scheme?

Vision arrives at Tony Stark’s townhouse and tells Iron Man that the Avengers need him.

“Well, I don’t need them -- not any more.”

Vision recognizes that this isn’t how Iron Man would act and thinks that someone is manipulating him. Maybe this weird piper playing some weird song which sounds weird to Vision’s android ears.

One of the Warhawks tells Vision to step off so Vision puts a hand through his head.

And then Iron Man attacks. And having gone partially intangible, Vision is vulnerable to Iron Man’s repulsor rays.

And dang. Its one of those accepted things in comics that Iron Man’s static helmet can appear to be expressing certain emotions based on the angle its drawn but dang.

Iron Man Kubrick stare.

Iron Man tells Vision that America needs a war and it needs a war fought with Tony Stark’s top secret weapons.

‘You’d better just kill me’ to paraphrase Vision’s reply. He’s going to do everything in his power to prevent a war.

Iron Man blasts him again but Vision has had time to crank up his density and the repulsor rays just sort of splash off.

So being a strategic and intelligent sort, Iron Man then punches Vision in his diamond hard face.

And I admit its juvenile but I smiled at Iron Man telling Vision “you can’t remain that hard for long”.

Vision sticks his hands into Iron Man’s chest but hesitates and pulls back because he doesn’t want to hurt Iron Man. Which is a scruple pipe addled Iron Man does not share and he blasts Vision in the face, sending him flying into the piper.

Which kills him. The piper I mean.

Iron Man’s head clears up and he is aghast at what he’s done. And confused. There’s a blank in his memory until Vision smooshed the piper.

And he’s not the only one. The Warhawks don’t know what they’re doing here or why they’re wearing their crazy outfits with the bird’s claw on it.

But Vision is okay so he and Iron Man fly off to join the others.

Meanwhile, Thor. When he arrives, the Avengers are nowhere in sight and the mob is pouring into the hotel, seeking blood.

And then Mr. Tallon calls out to Thor. And Thor recognizes him.

The guy with the fake name is surprisingly not what he seems. He’s actually Ares, the Greek god of war.

And then Captain America punches Thor in the face.

Thor is no dummy. Mostly. But he doesn’t need a raven to land on his shoulder to figure out what’s going on here. Cap and the Avengers are possessed by some manner of spell.

But if one god put a spell on them, then another god could take it off. Probably. But first he’s going to build a moat.

And that’s where Iron Man and Vision arrive. Just as Thor has finished using Mjolnir to dig a deep trench around the mob, cutting them off from the hotel and from escape.

That’s a lot of property damage.

Floating up in the sky, Vision and Iron Man wonder how to make the crowd come to their senses. The key has to be the music. And Thor as a god and Vision as an android are somehow immune.

YUP DEFINITELY THE MUSIC, Iron Man confirms as he shoots Vision in the back and then attacks Thor.

Thor hurls Mjolnir at Ares but Scarlet Witch intercepts it with a hex sphere.

And Thor kind of needs Mjolnir to fly so. He falls into the crowd, assisted by Iron Man. The mob leaps on Thor and tries to beat him to death as Thor refuses to strike back, merely reaching toward Mjolnir in vain.

And then an arrow explodes against the hex sphere, dropping Mjolnir into Thor’s hands.

The mob flees from Thor in fear and Thor uses the opportunity to try a speech of his own, decrying Ares.

Ares calls Thor a hypocrite. Wasn’t he once as warlike as Ares himself? Also, yeah, you’re not going to be able to sway the crowd. Ares has pipers.

And he tells them to play once more.

But they are too scared to play. They sense a terrifying presence that paralyzes them. And its the Vision. And he smashes their heads together. BKOK!

And then Vision discovers something weird. THE PIPERS WERE NAKED UNDER THEIR ROBES! And also they’re satyrs. Hah. Pan flutes played by satyrs.

Without the pipers piping, the crowd is coming to its senses and probably confused about whats going on. Also, Ares fled off-panel.

But who shot that arrow? Do the Avengers know anyone that does bow stuff?

Oh, hi Hawkeye!

That is. That is certainly a brave choice of costume.

And yeah, Clint is done being Goliath. He’s back to saving the day with archery.

And how did he escape the Skrull warship? And end up here? Time for that later. There’s some pressing business right now.

Some amnesiac Hercules business. Some amnesiac Hercules with a vague apocalyptic prophesy business.

“When opes the gate which once was lofty peak -- when slays the sword which wizard formed to save -- then worlds shall quake to hear the war-god speak -- and Earth and Asgard evermore be -- SLAVE!”

So, that’s going to be a thing.

Geez, they only just got back from a nine-part Kree/Skrull War arc and now they’re starting a three-parter Ares story that will include the 100th issue.

I wonder if Avengers get vacation days. Maybe they can get the Fantastic Four to cover for them.

#Avengers #Ares #Thor #Warhawks #Clint Barton #the Vision #Iron Man #cute evil satyrs #Essential marvel liveblogging #Essential Avengers #marvel #comics

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cannedcrabs-blog · 8 years ago

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"Damn it's hot out! What in the world are we supposed to be hunting out here? Priya?" He turned to see that she wasn't there. Again. His name was Anshel, was being the operative word. Now he is a hunter and every hunter gets a new name. Sometimes from the guild chief, sometimes from a partner, and sometimes they made their own. He wanted his name to come from Priya, his partner of almost a year. Problem was that she rarely talked to him at all. She never gave him orders, just expected him to know what to do and to do it. Which was fair because he did. He just wished she would give him a name so that he could feel like she valued him. He knew in his head that she appreciated his help but his heart still didn't seem to understand. "Damn it all where is she!?" Priya was one mile to the north wondering where her hunting partner had gotten off to this time. He always seemed to get lost on the first day of a hunt. Not that she blamed him, she never let him have the map. Not after the last seven times he lost it. "We'll never find the Rathian at this rate. Forget about hunting it!" This hunt was turning out almost as poorly as the first mission they took together, and that ended with him stuck in a barrel leaving her to fight a Cephadrome alone. 'What is with our luck with deserts?' A thought that crossed her mind more often than she would like. Isn't he from the desert? He was hot, chafing, and ready to punch the next thing he saw besides sand. Preferably Priya. Leaving him alone in a desert! He hates deserts! Almost as much as he hates not having a name, he also wanted to punch the chief for always calling him "Boyo". "It sounds like you're calling me 'Bozo'! Who's gonna take a hunter seriously with a name like that!" He had started to rant again. A much more common occurrence than he would like to admit. "This is why I became a hunter in the first place! So I could travel to new, cooler places without so much sand! Aargh!" He had left his home a little more than a year ago to finally travel out of the horrible, blistering sun. He just wasn't built for it having parents from the north. "Oh, great! Now I can't find the map. I'm just as bad as he is with our supplies." Priya was getting uncharacteristically agitated. She so wanted this mission to go well, especially because she finally came up with a name for her partner. His new name would be Nishant. It was the name of her great ancestor and she felt it fit. They both seemed to always pull through completely by accident. But that's why they're both so great! Who else could be so well accomplished in hunting by accident other than someone who was already truly amazing to begin with? Noone, that's who! And the way he can handle blades with such force and precision as to take down both nimble and durable monsters in only one encounter! "If only I was half as good as him at fighting. Maybe I wouldn't be holding us back." "I'm holding us back again. She probably already found the monster and I'm just wandering around caves, hoping that I can stave off heat stroke long enough for her to find me. I'm useless!" The cliffside echoed with his declaraton. Small rocks coming loose and falling on him. "An injury to my own insult! What a wonderful day this has been!" Some startled Aptonoth rise from their rest and shamble away at the sound of his stream of cursing, nearly as loud as the Rathian resting above the cliffs. The Rathian that had just been shouted out of its previously peaceful slumber. Priya didn't just hear the roar from directly above the cave she found herself in. She FELT it. And so did the cave apparently, as it chose that particular moment to decide it didn't want to be a cave any more. 'What a way to find our prey.' Was the first thought into her mind, the second being 'of course this is where I find him.' Well at least they were finally back together. And a bonus, they now knew where the Rathian was. "Nishant you fool! Above you! The Rathian is right above you!" "Hot damn! Priya! There's a Rathian right in front of you! Is that what we came here to hunt!?" The Rathian was quickly descending, ready to drop the full weight of her scaled body into the young man wielding a sword almost as long as he was tall. It was not, however, ready for the counterattack by means of the sword shifting into an electrifying blue axe. The blade swung down onto the beast's head, breaking away some of the horns jutting from the left jaw. With the beast properly diverted and sufficiently dazed, Nishant dashed over to catch Priya as she fell shooting at her prey's head from behind but striking a spine on its back instead. "Priya, I need you to slow it so I can set up the trap! Can you do that for me?" Without hesitation she replies with a simple "Of course." And proceeds to pelt the Rathian with three more rounds of Thunder Shot from her dazzling white Heavy Bowgun. The trap they planned to use was actually rather simple. They would set up a copious amount of bombs while distracting the Rathian, then simply lure it over, probably by provoking it, then blast the beast hard and fast. Hopefully this would kill it completely, but if not they were prepared to fight for as long as needed to slay the giant she - lizard. Ideally they wouldn't have to fight but it's always better to be prepared. Priya was no stranger to fighting with a large disadvantage, but even she felt like this may have been a bad idea. Fighting a Rathian alone with a Bowgun felt like a fool's errand. But she was too full of adrenaline to really care about the insanity of the plan, and not just because of the exercise. Thought the physical activity certainly helped, but no, it was because she had finally, finally, gotten the courage to give Nishant his name. And he responded to it so naturally from the first use! It was so exciting to give her friend a name! Next to the anticipation and joy from calling him by his new name, fighting was almost irrelevant to her. Almost. She reloaded four more thunder shot into the bowgun, narrowly dodging an attack as she did. She was behind it now, but that position was less than ideal, allowing for a swipe of a spiked, toxic tail. She would have to start paying better attention. Either that or develop a spontaneous immunity to Rathian poison. "Stupid, stupid, STUPID APTONOTH!!" The large, slow, animals were being nothing but a bother. Knocking over the barrels, milling about where bombs needed to be. If this kept on Nishant would be personally responsible for the removal of Aptonoths from bestiaries everywhere. "I'm going to count to three, and when I'm done you all better be gone or so help me, I don't know what I'll do! But it won't be good for anyone!! YOU HEAR ME!?!" And away they went, with the slowest consenting moan - bellow ever heard by mankind. "Alright! Last three and then I can back Priya up." He was muttering to himself again, but it was fine, it helped him think. "Here, here... and here!" Quickly turning at the last bomb just in time to see Priya tumble past him, flung by the now charging Rathian. 'Oh for-" He was cut off as explosions rang out from where Priya landed on a bomb and where the Rathian rammed Nishant into another. When Priya woke it was night. It took her eyes a minute to adjust but she could soon see a thoroughly singed Nishant offering her a hunk of meat. He had started a fire and cooked what no longer looked anything like an Aptonoth. "Wha. What's going on? What happened? I remember being sent flying, an earth shattering kaboom, then I think I passed out?" She was looking at error he hunting partner with the most befuddled face he had ever seen, though it had graced his facial features more than would reasonable to try counting. "Um... well that's about right. You landed on some bombs and set them off. And at the same time I got slammed into some my self... But, we did manage to kill the Rathian! My switch axe was flung into its head in the explosion, and it died. So we still technically killed it. Meaning this hunt was a great success! Exept for the fact I can't seem to find the 'axe' part of my switch axe." But it didn't really matter to him, they had completed the hunt, he got a new name, and the Aptonoths were finally keeping clear. All that was left was going home and getting paid for a job well done.

#monster hunter #rathian #fanfic #mine #mh4ultimate #i'm so tired #haven't slept in a week #pls hlp

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