#after Tom turns back to normal hes taller because when hes Monster Tom

[tw33k-tucker]

Have a shitty Eddsworld 4th of July drawing I made that took me like an hour and 20 minutes or an hour and 30 minutes 👍

Anyways, Happy 4th ‼️

(also sorry for my very shitty anatomy)

[shushiyuii]

Subject T0M au

This is an Au I’ve had stockpiled for a while wkakdnknak. It’s going to multiple parts too, once I get to working on those. If you have any questions you’re welcome to ask!

I hope you guys enjoy it (Also gimme your fucking requests UwU /lh)

Warnings: Experimentation, injury? And Horror elements (It’s mainly fluff i promise :3)

Words: 3K

Document – T0MMY1NN1T

Assigned to: Doctor Wilbur Soot Watson

Description: Subject T0M was once a [REDACTED] by the name of [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. His age is of kin to an elder teen, probably around the age of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED].

The appearance of Subject T0M is like a human, they have blonde hair and pale skin. Their most common height is 6’3 on average but can change depending on the form. Their face, arms and legs are covered in a black substance of unknown origin, it mainly takes on half of their body and appears to be almost liquid.

Their face is completely black, the only thing apparent is their fangs like a wolf when they open their mouth to feed, multiple fangs, the only other feature on Subject T0M’s face is their light blue eyes that glow in the dark.

Subject T0M isn’t very intelligent, they have some semblance of human intelligence, understanding simple language and commands.

They’re quite approachable as well but Subject T0M is to be approached with caution, as they could be quite dangerous. If angered there’s no knowing what Subject T0M is capable of.

Their abilities consist of being able to manipulate the material of their body, being able to change shape and size, their favourite is to mimic those around them. It is not an exact copy; it is apparent that Subject T0M is themselves because the material of their body will still be there even if they changed forms.

They can also create weaponry and different things from their material but again not exact copies, they’re quite harmless usually.

Subject T0M is to be assigned to Rookie Doctor Wilbur Soot. Under the watch of Philza Watson.

 Entry 01 – 02/09/20—

So today was my first-day researching Subject T0M, from what I can say so far is that they’re quite interesting but so far besides the examinations, they haven’t shown much behaviour. Only staring at me from a distance.

Also, I’m not used to this sort of thing like writing documents and reports, not my favourite thing in the world but it’s not the worst thing either. So, Subject T0M already has a lot of his abilities recorded, I’m just here to see if he develops any noteworthy changes and watch over the guy.

Currently, there is no change in behaviour, he just stares down at me at a distance, like I’m the most interesting thing he’s ever seen, perhaps that’s the case?

He seems so lonely in that containment cell, it’s just an empty white box surrounded by glass, perhaps at some point I could request an upgrade to higher-ups for the lil’ fella? That way he can have a more comfortable place. Rather than a highly lit, bland, cold box.

 Entry 02 – 05/09/20—

So Today, Subject T0M did something quite interesting, it’s a drastic difference from the last few days by just staring at me through the windows of the cells.

You see, instead of just watching me from the other side of the office, as usual, it can get quite boring in the office once you finish the days' assignments of reports, schedules, contracts and more and having to watch this guy and do the usual routine gets quite boring so I decided to work on some personal things and bring my guitar, so I could work on my songs, practising the guitar and stuff.

So, I played some things, the next thing I know is that one moment I’m singing, the next in shock as I look over in disbelief. Subject T0M had moved over towards the window, his hands and face on the glass, dead staring me in my eyes, they were filled with curiosity and interest like an infant listening to music for the first time.

A way to describe it would be that Subject T0M seemed so much happier, but when I stopped, he looked almost disappointed, I stared at him in amazement for a moment and I started to play again, and his expression went back to being amazed.

My music seems to interest Subject T0M so perhaps I should do more research and experiments with different kinds of music to see which they prefer?

Not only that but it’s nice to have someone rather than my dad that enjoys my music. They’re almost my second biggest fan. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this kid.

Entry 03 – 06/09/20—

As of now, I have started the experimentation of music with Subject T0M, he seems to prefer rather upbeat, pop music and general music.

I also played him some songs from popular games, one of them being The Able Sister’s from Animal Crossing, he really seemed to enjoy that one.

Besides the experiments, I’ve started to talk to Subject T0M as it does get lonely here, plus he’s the only other guy here in the department. Although he doesn’t talk, he’s a great listener, nodding whenever I state my opinion and even trying to communicate verbally from time to time, even though he doesn’t seem to have the ability to speak.

And I’ve also seemed to have started a habit of calling Tom or Tommy, it suits him! He’s also been showing more personality, he seems more aggressive like a gremlin but not in a bad way, he’s just displaying more emotion it seems.

Entry 04 – 09/09/20—

So, the experiments and communication of Tommy have made significant progress. He’s become feistier and more vocal, he’s not aggressive in a physical sense, just annoyingly loud. He’s like a fucking child.

And today was another experiment with Tom, with the test subject being myself since it seems safe enough, so need to gather others or security over it.

I entered his containment cell, and the moment I did, Tommy showed no difference in behaviour, to begin with, just a somewhat surprised expression on his face. Probably because this was the first time, he had seen me so close.

I carefully approached at first but then a thought came to me. So far I’ve been treating him like a human so maybe treating him the same way now would have the same effects?

I sat down next to him and started talking to him as usual, and he slowly started to move closer to me, cautiously. He seemed almost nervous, but his focus was on me, rather than himself. I found it rather odd, maybe something is wrong?

Again, he tried talking back but of course, it sounded like a fucking crack pipe, so it didn’t quite work. But he was talking and for some reason, it just brought a smile to my face.

I felt like an older brother would be a way to describe it, I made a promise in my head to protect him. We even tried singing together, it was a lot of fun, I look forward to spending more time with him.

Entry 05 – 12/09/20—

The past couple of days have been a lot of fun with Tommy like I’ve gained a friend. You see, growing up I was always a bit lonely, I was social, but I never found myself clicking with anyone because nobody had the same interests as me, so I turned to focus more on my studies, science in fact like my father told me too. And look at me now!

I’m a training researcher in the same facility as my dad, as this place is one of a kind opportunity, so I guess I got pretty lucky. And it seems Tommy agrees maybe, he reminds me of well me, I don’t want him to be lonely like I was, maybe I could arrange a meeting between other monsters?

Entry 06 – 14/09/20—

Tommy and I have been bonding a lot more lately and I’ve also improved a lot myself with finishing work sooner and taking up more assignments.

Speaking of which my father said if I keep this up, I may get more recognition in the facility, maybe even a promotion which I’m happy about. I’ve sent in a request to the higher-ups to allow Tommy communication of other monsters to which I hope they approve.

Besides that, I was talking to Tommy as per usual and he displayed a different emotion, excitement. He seemed eager to show me something and when I asked, “What is it?”. His form changed to be slightly taller and more of his black substance covered his body but after a while, his form changed to be similar to my own, he tried copying me.

Like physically. It was quite surprising if I’m honest, my shocked expression to Tommy made him realise the situation and immediately changed back and tried to reassure me, I felt bad and tried to reassure him it was okay. It’s funny to look back on.

Entry 07 – 15/09/20—

I got approval from the higher-ups, probably getting special treatment since my dad is one of the higher-ups, others aren’t normally so lucky. Dad, or should I say Doctor Philza? He said we could have a meeting between Tommy and his subject, R4NB00 or as he says Ranboo.

 Dad said that his subject Ranboo does need to socialise more since he appears to have symptoms of social anxiety so maybe this will do them both some good since they both seem to be around the same age. Like Tommy, Ranboo only socialises with him and another subject T3chn0, or the blade, blood god. He’s got quite a reputation around here.

Anyways, I’ll say what I know about Subject R4NB00 as of his report, so I know to look over it in case of emergency.

R4NB00 is a tall humanoid standing above 8 ft tall. They have a black and white fur coat, a thin fur coat to be described as silky. Their coat is black on one side and white on the other, their hair is the same but in the opposite way to his fur.

They have heterochromia in their eyes, one being green and the other a bright red. They also have horns of small height; they aren’t sharp and rather small so they wouldn’t hurt anybody with them. They also have a thin tail, with it being fluffy at the end.

Subject R4NB00 isn’t the biggest fan of the regular attire assigned to all subjects, they rather wear a tuxedo embedded with the facility’s logos. They are also timid, avoiding conflict whenever possible. They also can speak but prefer not to due to being shy, they will only communicate with a select few.

Their abilities consist of having the ability to teleport at will and communicate in an unknown language. They also have weaknesses being unable to touch the water and having a state of mind of when they aren’t in control of themselves, they talk in their unknown language in this state and teleport randomly, they are to be awoken as soon as possible unless they are in this state for a test.

Report 16/09/20-- - Meeting of Subject T0M and Subject R4NB00

Today was the meeting of Subject T0M and R4NB00. Both were properly secured successfully and safely in transportation cells with the required security of 5 guards each in each truck and successfully transported to the meeting facility without stress or failure.

Both researchers were safely secured behind the required monitoring window.

The meeting was rather successful between the two creatures. To begin with, when the two saw each other they both maintained distance, for Subject R4NB00 it was because they were anxious about meeting another creature and for Subject T0M, meeting somebody else rather than their researcher.

Subject T0M was the first to contact Subject R4NB00 by trying to communicate verbally with them, it was unsuccessful and resulted in Subject R4NB00 being confused. The two sat in silence for a moment longer until Subject T0M attempted another move of contact by cautiously approaching Subject R4NB00, which resulted in them backing up into a nearby wall and trying to get away from Subject T0M.

Subject T0M then backed off and changed their form to mimic R4NB00, this is theorised to be Subject T0M trying to either comfort or entertain Subject R4NB00, they then changed back into their regular form.

Despite being confused, Subject R4NB00 seemed to notice that Subject T0M meant no harm and then tried to approach subject T0M. Subject T0M did not move.

When Subject R4NB00 approached, there was approximately 1 meter between the two, Subject R4NB00 looked at the two researchers to look for approval to which he got from Doctor Philza via a thumbs up.

Subject T0M curious looked to where R4NB00 was looking and noticed the two researchers and made a noise of happiness towards his researcher, to which Doctor Soot responded with a smile and a thumbs up.

Both Subjects looked back at each other and sat down beside each other. Subject R4NB00 began to communicate with Subject T0M, Subject R4NB00 introduced themselves and made small communication, to which Subject T0M responded positively too, as they couldn’t communicate back. After that, the meeting was concluded.

After their meeting, when asked about the meeting by their researchers. Subject R4NB00 responded positively to seeing Subject T0M again and talked positively about them despite not being able to communicate.

Subject T0M appeared upset a few moments after the meeting, scratching at the windows of his cell, whining. When asked if he wished to see Subject R4NB00 again, he responded positively. Another meeting between the two has been arranged.

Entry 08 – 17/09/20—

Tommy seems to miss his new friend quite a bit but it’ll be a while before the next meeting between them as it has to be approved again and it’ll be a while.

Doing our normal routine keeps him happy for a while but if I leave him for more than 15 minutes he begins to whine again. I wasn’t quite sure what to do as I couldn’t keep him company all day.

On my lunch break I talked to my co-worker Doctor Puffy about the matter, she’s a smart gal and rather motherly, she reminds me of my mom at times. She suggested that I give Tommy a gift, like a plush bear to befriend so he wouldn’t feel so lonely while I was gone.

So, I quickly made my way to a store, it was rather odd to see myself, an adult in a toy aisle but I found a decent plush. It’s a Minecraft spider plushie. I gave Tommy the plushie and introduced him to the plush, when I asked him what he wanted to name the plush he responded with a sound, it honestly sounded like he said shroud, so I suggested it. He responded happily so I guess we now have Shroud the spider.

Now I’ve got the peril of getting medication for my father as he’s somehow gotten sick.

Incident Report  #19283 – 18/09/20-- -

No staff or other creatures were harmed during the containment breach, minor damages to the building, broken walls and broken windows within the cell. All to be fixed within a minimum of 3 hours. Subject T3CHN0 was successfully contained in a holding cell as we interviewed him as to why he breached containment, to which he responded that “Nobody told me where Phil was.”.

Doctor Philza was then contacted to talk to Subject T3CHN0 to explain his current predicament of being sick, to which Subject T3CHN0 huffed in response and refused to cooperate with us further.

Subject T3CHN0 escaped containment in a rampage, the reasoning being as he was not informed of his researchers’ location, as Doctor Philza was sick for the past two days before the incident. Both researcher and creature are rather close with each other, as to why the Subject was upset.

Prior to the incident (recorded by security cameras), Both Subjects of Doctor Philza were speaking to each other about the current location of their researcher, both concluded that neither of them had any idea of where the Doctor was, both subjects ask their temporary carer as to where their researchers’ location was, to which the carer wouldn’t respond so Subject T3CHN0 decided to find his answers.

Subject T3CHN0 broke through his containment cell’s window and then proceeded to break through multiple walls trying to find his researcher.

(The document then goes into detail about what T3CHN0 did during his rampage before he was contained)

During the rampage, Subject T3CHN0 broke through the walls of Doctor Soot’s office and his creature, Subject T0M. As Subject T3CHN0 entered the office, Doctor Soot was frightened at the unexpected visitor as tried to get away from the approaching Subject T3CHN0, Doctor Soot demanded that he get away, to which T3CHN0 huffed in response.

Subject T0M took some time to register that his researcher was in danger, but when he heard he did, he sprang into the action of defending his researcher.

His form changed into one of being described as fearsome, they changed heights to one over 15 ft tall, his hands turned into claws, long sharp fangs became visible, a sharp tail and pair of horns after appeared with this form. (Doctor Soot has been requested to do further research into this form)

Subject T0M roared in warning towards the other, then proceeded to pounce through their containment cells window, shards of glass scattered throughout the room.

They then ran towards their researcher and in a crouched position, picked up his fallen researcher and held him close to his chest, growling furiously at T3CHN0.

The two Subjects stared at each other for a moment until T3CHN0 began to communicate verbally by asking where his researcher was, Doctor Soot was too much in a state of shock to respond.

Subject T0M held his researcher closer and tried to comfort him in a way of purring, even nuzzling his researcher for a response, to which Subject T3CHN0 left due to being impatient.

Subject T0M continued to hold onto his researcher and eventually Doctor Soot snapped out of his state to stare in awe of Subject T0M, When Subject T0M saw their researcher responding he made worried sounds to them, to which Doctor Soot responded with a laugh and said: “I’m fine buddy”.

Subject T3CHN0 was then contained shortly afterwards.

[k-marie-lagesse]

Fairy Chasers: One

I am posting this for fun and am not sure if I will ever finish it - I probably will. I hope whoever reads this enjoys it and shares it with others. :-)

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I ran out of that house as fast as I could, but being as bulky as I am that is a hard task to accomplish when running from the slender and gangly Thomas. I trip on my exit – damn my clumsiness! – and trip over my feet to slide on my chest over the dirt path of the Thumb Mansion.

Thomas leaps over me and lands in front of me. His golden hair is dripping in blue-black ink and his eyes are ablaze in anger with Henry’s little prank. Me…? Well, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and now Thomas is likely to dish it out at me instead of his twin brother, Henry.

“Katone!” he reaches down and catches my shoulder. I’m too heavy for him to lift so he mostly just pinches my shoulder until I start to stand on my own. As men we should fight it out, but as a guilty-conscience human I can’t bring myself to beat-up someone half my size.

“It was not my prank, Tom!” I defend before he even begins to chastise me.

Thomas Thumb is twenty-one this spring, I’ve just turned seventeen. Our mutual party, Henry, is expected to marry some Grand Lady of the Court almost twice his age this summer. He will be leaving us soon and I do not get along with Thomas very well.

“I do not care if it was not yours! You likely had a hand in it!” Thomas gripes. Seeing as how Henry is nowhere in sight he has no other person to yell at other than me.

Yes, I did have a ‘hand’ in it, but in my defense this little town is a bore to be in. Little Hampshire is a small village with many guards since the Minor Royals take residence here.

Minor Royals they are called, there are about fifty across all of Catherdus. Each Minor Royal is in charge of a district of Catherdus under the call of the Royal Court, since there is no longer a royal family. The Thumb family had been elected to take place of the original Minor Royal after it was discovered that the previous family were neglecting their power over the people.

I was born here, in Hampshire of the Gornen District. My family died a long time ago. I don’t rightly have any memories of them. The people who took me in afterwards were old and passed by the time I was nine. I then began my work as a stable boy for the Thumb family, right before they were made into Minor Royals of Gornen.

I now work as a head trainer in the stables of Hampshire – this little town is mostly known for their fine steeds and small farming community. The finest house in all of Gornen is this very mansion I am trying to escape.

I see Henry over Thomas’s small shoulders and narrow my eyes at the rich pest. I look at Thomas as he continues, now more at a ramble than a shout. This is only stage two of his five-stage ranting. He starts at a full-blown shout to a soft ramble in which it sounds like he is forgiving one only to suddenly get very quiet. Stage four is when he starts to stare one down only to end with a severe punishment in stage five.

I step back, preparing for a full run to Henry who is crawling under the shrubbery of the fine mansion. Thomas narrows his eyes on me – holy crap! I missed stage three… I run.

Thomas starts to shout at me and I leap, tackling the shrubs and knocking Henry out of them. Once Henry combat rolls out of my grip and lands on his butt a shadow falls on him. Thomas is tapping his foot – oh it’s worse when he starts with a foot-tapping.

I race out of the yard before Thomas even begins. I stop running the moment I exit the open gates of the mansion grounds and then just walk. Henry is a sneaky guy, but we’re good friends. I walk through the town and can feel the judgmental glances thrown at me as I pass.

Not many people like me. They think I am talented with horses, but lack in knowledge, intelligence and charms. I don’t live my life to be likeable, much like Henry.

He lives his life at the fullest. He dishes out lies to get what he wants like a child will pester their mother for more cake as long as there is some. He’ll sleep with just about any woman he meets if it promises a good time without worry or concern for the consequences.

I live differently from most villagers and Henry.

I am not one to take risks or get involved with people in any way. I like to live my life safely, which is odd to most people seeing the size of me. Some believe I am half-giant, but I am almost certain that if I were I would be even taller.

I am six feet with five inches, which makes me the tallest person in all of Gornen. I am broadly built, but not at all fat. I am a healthy person, though I suppose feeding myself takes a chunk from my paychecks.

I look like a warrior, and though I can hold a weapon of almost any weight I don’t know how to wield any instrument of brute force. I can fight with my fists, but I only know how to street brawl due to living on the roads for so long.

People around here will buy the horses I train because I promise quality, but they don’t ever take time to meet with me. I’m fine with that. I don’t want them getting to know me either. I’m fine with just Henry and Saxon talking to me.

Saxon is also a monster in size, though… not as big as me. He is six feet tall and is actually a warrior. He’s trained in many different kinds of combat and keeps trying to get me to join him as a gladiator in Torekin’s arena south of here.

Torekin is a city I sometimes travel to in order to deliver my steeds. It is also a part of Gornen, but the size of it is massive in comparison to our little village. There are markets and inns, Torekin is so large they have what they call ‘parks’ and even gardens for the public. They are well-known for their gladiator ring, The Archrival.

Saxon is a seasoned gladiator with a good standing, though he has never arrived to the final round. That is more due to the age requirements to compete in the finals than his skill level. To compete for the championship one must fight to the death with their opponent, so there is an age requirement. One must be at least thirty years of age to compete, and Saxon is only twenty-three.

I enter my shabby home and remove my shoes to drop into my cot. My house doesn’t have much, but I can say with complete honesty that it is mine and I earned it through my hard labors.

I know that Henry is going to come by – he always does once he’s been caught. I am also expecting Saxon over. He visits me at the start of the week since he works only over weekends. He has no home here and only an apartment in Torekin, so when he comes to Hampshire he stays with me.

I suppose one can say that the three of us have created a bit of a pseudo family together. Though Henry has family he does not seem to get along with them other than his brother, Thomas. Saxon is the same, after the death of his mother his father remarried and he has not gone home since.

Saxon left only a week after his father’s marriage five years ago and now we’re sort of a family. The village is weary of us when all three start to hang around town together. We’re a dangerous group… well, we’re a lively group.

My door opens and I sit up to see Saxon entering with his weapon sack slung over his shoulder. He places the long and thick satchel against the wall before removing his coat and saying, “This past week was hectic.” He has a new bandage on his arm.

I don’t ask about it – if I ask him about every wound he gets working at that damned arena I’d sound like a panicking mother. Instead I ask, “Why are you here so early?” normally he does not arrive until well past midnight.

He snorts, which means the reason is an annoying one. “Martha came to the arena and took one look at my bandages and sent me home. She said she didn’t need me to come in tonight looking like that seeing as how the reason I’m even there is to bring in the women customers.”

Martha is sort of the owner of the arena. I say sort of because she is the daughter of the owner and she pretty much runs the place now. She has been trying to change the ‘look’ of the arena by hiring ‘prettier’ fighters. Saxon was hired due to his good looks and has since proven his skills in battle.

Saxon pushes the golden locks that fall over his eyes – he use to have his hair cut short so they would not be a bother to him as he fights, yet Martha has it written in his contract that only the stylist she hires may touch his hair. He messily combs his hair into his hand and then ties it up in a weird bun. He hates his long hair.

I frown at the flop on his head. “I’m sorry?” mostly I’m sorry he isn’t allowed to even manage his own hair. The one time I went to the arena she started writing up a contract and tried to get me to sign it. Like hell I was going to sign something she whipped up on the spur.

“Yeah, me too.” he had arrived to the arena to fight, not to blow kisses at the fawning maidens. Yet that was in his contract as well, he is to blow a kiss at least once within the three days of the fighting. I warned him to look it over closely before signing it – he said he could handle the fine print.

We leave the hut to the market to buy the groceries for the week. Once we’re finished with that we return to find Henry leaning against the door of the hut. He stands and mutters, “Man, Tom really gave it to me this time. He says I have to go to the Mountain Spring and collect a bucket of water and bring it back to him… twice.”

The Mountain Spring is not that far if one goes straight to it, but the climb is hard so most take the long route which is not only less steep but less dangerous. The Mountain Spring sits near the old enchanted castle that has been boarded up due to the old Briar Curse.

Saxon chuckles at Henry’s disdain, “I don’t know what you did this time, but whatever it was… you probably deserved the punishment.” Saxon is a firm believer of ‘you do the crime you better prepare to do the time’. I am not.

I get too bored of this little town to not do some kind of crime – yet I am also nowhere near as bad as Henry. Saxon, on the other hand, is a saint… until he comes home and we coax him into something deceitful.

“Yeah, yeah… want to join me?” Henry waves his hand and changes the subject back to his actual punishment. “It’s a long trek to go on my own, besides… didn’t you guys say you wanted a closer peek at the old castle?”

We see it often since the village is rather close, but we live on the flat surface the mountain rests by. I shake my head and look at Saxon, “Did you ever say you wanted to see it?” I’m pretty sure the one who said they wished to see the castle closer was Henry.

Saxon shakes his head, “No. Warriors do not like things with the word ‘magic’ ‘enchanted’ or ‘cursed’ in the title. We are taught to fight physical things, not something invisible.”

Henry groans again, “Come on! I don’t want to go alone!”

Every time we’ve ever gotten in trouble in our lives it always starts with that: “I don’t want to go alone!” and it is always leaving Henry’s mouth, as it is this time as well.

Saxon sighs, “I suppose I can spare the time. I did get home early this time.” He looks at the sun as it is sailing slowly across the blue sky. He looks at me and says, “We have time for him to go up once and come back.”

I would say no, except I hear that the Mountain Spring grants wishes and I am a sucker for any chance of asking for some extra gold. While Saxon is a little vain and Henry is a liar I am definitely greedy.

We pack a small lunch and then start our trek through the forest to the mountain pass. If it were Saxon and I we would have taken the side that is more difficult to climb – we like challenges. Yet since we are walking this way with Henry it is better to go the long way and not hear him gripe about it – though he is likely to gripe about the sweat, heat and walk… so why do we even bother?

As we walk about an hour I hear him begin his song of wails, “Gross, I’m sweating.” All hard work comes with a little bit of sweat, yet Henry never has to work. “It’s so damn hot!” Saxon works in an arena of hot sand and the hard sun hitting his back – this is nothing to him. Henry then whines, “How much further?”

Saxon spins on his heels to face him, “The more you complain the longer this walk will take. So shut your loud trap for another hour and we will graciously get there!” ah, there it is – classic Saxon answer.

We continue on through Henry’s side whines and arrive to the side of a deep spring. The water is crystal blue and there are small fishes swimming in the silver of it. “I’m a little underwhelmed.” I admit as I put the satchel on the ground.

Saxon nods, “Yeah… I always sort of thought the spring would look… a little mystical-.”

“It’s deep enough for a dive!” Henry jumps in before either of us can stop him. The water splashes and soaks Saxon with Henry’s momentum. He resurfaces and sighs in pleasure, “It’s cool too.”

Saxon on the other hand is patting at the wet spots on his clothing and shivering as he mutters, “Too damn cold.” He looks past the spring to where a thin waterfall is falling down from the grates of the castle walls. “Water is likely cursed.”

Henry stops splashing around and looks at him with some alarm, “What?”

Saxon points to the waterfall, “Yes, you are surely to lose all of your hair now.” He nods to confirm his thoughts.

Henry drags his feet through the water as quickly as he can and climbs out. “No! I can’t lose my hair!” he digs his fingers into his burnet strands of stray hair and holds it tight.

I shake my head at them, “Come on, fill up your bucket and lets go.” I get a strange feeling like we’re being watched. I don’t like it. I never felt this way before and only started to feel like it the moment Henry stirred up the spring water.

“Right, but… how about we take a look?” Henry points through the grates of the castle walls. He starts to scale the cliff side by the grate, his foot slipping in the moist dirt. He pokes his head in through the grate bars and mumbles, “I see thorny vines.”

Saxon climbs up with more grace than Henry and follows suit of poking his head over the trickles of water. “That place looks unnerving.” He glances at me, but I stand rooted to my spot. “Come on, there is no one here.” He says, but I still feel the eyes on me.

I sigh in defeat before trying to climb the moist slope. I’m clumsy so it proves tricky. My boot slips into the wall of mud and I struggle to loosen my boot of it. When I finally do something pokes out.

Saxon looks at me, “What is it?”

I reach into the new crevice of the cliff, the trickles of water falling onto my hair. I pull at the muddy trinket until it loosens and I lose my grip from the force. I fall back and land in the spring. The mud detaches from the trinket and I am holding what looks like a dirty sword hilt.

I surface and try to shine the mud off and reveal the ruby studded hilt to Saxon who jumps down to join me in the freezing water. He rubs at the little mud left behind and lets out a low whistle, “This is nice.”

“What is it?” Henry asks as he climbs down to join us, now refusing to near the water too much until Saxon deems it safe. Saxon wouldn’t know if it were cursed water or not, but teasing Henry is a rare chance and Saxon isn’t going to give it up that easily.

Saxon evaluates the finery of the markings and style of the item before saying, “It appears to be a hilt. I wonder what happened to the blade?”

“Maybe it broke off?” Henry asks, but the hilt end is too smooth for that to be true.

Saxon shakes his head, “No, it doesn’t actually look like it ever had a blade. Or… it somehow got removed without tarnishing the hilt or even leaving behind a mark.” He hands it back to me, “You found it, so you should keep it.”

I accept the hilt and then look at the place in muddy wall where the hilt had been and see a hole into the castle courtyard. I see briars with hundreds of thorns enclosing around the stone, but then I see feet scurry past. A golden anklet with a rose hangs off of her right leg.

I race to the hole and climb through, “Katone!” Saxon shouts at me as I climb onto the courtyard to look around, but the person is gone. For some reason I… sensed that she was scared. For some reason I am sure it was a she as well.

“Katone, you cannot go in there. It is against about ten different laws!” Saxon enters after me, but stops as he looks around the courtyard. “Holy, we’re in the old enchanted castle.” There are so many enchanted castles in Catherdus that I am not at all bewildered by it.

Henry enters and smiles all too cheekily, “Let’s explore-.”

“No. We will get caught-.” Saxon begins, but Henry is already running off ahead. “Henry!”

I whisper to Saxon, “I saw someone here.”

Saxon glances at me again. “Really?” he looks unnerved by the castle. Yet again I think that his excuse for warriors not liking magic is because he fears magic. Whenever a magician arrives to town to show some magic off for a profit Saxon would refuse to join us for the show.

I nod, “Yes, come on.” I follow after Henry who is running up the stairs that encircle a tower, “Don’t fall!” I shout at him as he continues to run at a speed I would not think safe.

I follow up at a slower pace. Looking at my track record when it comes to stairs I know better than to run up on without safety rails. Saxon is behind me, only going at my pace because there is no space to pass me. We enter the tower through the door at the top, “Henry?” I call, but he isn’t here.

“Where did he go?” Saxon asks as he looks around the room. There are a few thin briars over the table and chairs, but the room looks like a guard tower. There is a door across the way that is open a little.

“My guess is that he got bored of waiting for us and continued on.” I reach the door and open it to be in a wide hall that passes over the courtyard below us. I see Henry racing ahead of me down this hall and into the door ahead.

The hallway has no walls, just a few pillars to hold up the roof. If I wanted to jump I could and I would most definitely die from this height. I walk in a brisk pace to the door and open it with Saxon on my heel.

“We really shouldn’t be here.” Saxon warns me.

I don’t answer – he’s right. We shouldn’t be here. This place is boarded up and has guards at the front gates at all times. There must be a reason for that. If we are found here we could be in serious trouble. Henry would have a pass from the issue due to being a Minor Royal, but Saxon and I… we’d get the full brunt of the crime.

We enter what appears to be an armory and Saxon’s eyes glaze over as he starts to take in the beauty of the weaponry hidden here. He touches a few and begins to examine others – he looks like a child in a toy store. He is excitedly looking things over and no longer fussing over the detail that we shouldn’t be here.

I leave him to his treasury and continue searching for Henry. Saxon is right about this, we should leave. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me because there is no trace of life anywhere within this castle.

I enter into a hall with ten-foot statues on either side of me. The vines are curled around most of them, but I can still tell what they are. They are statues of former kings, or so is my guess with the crowns on the heads of the men. Not a single one is the same.

Then I arrive to the end of the hall where a long red curtain hangs over an archway, much like the decorative ones that hold the statues. The end of the curtain is torn and slashed so I can see the boots of another statue. This arch is taller, about fifteen feet tall, so my guess is the statue is just as tall. I pull on the curtain to move it, but the old curtain is stiff and doesn’t move.

I yank on the fabric and it tears off. I drop the end I am holding to see… me? There is no crown on this statue, and the inscription at his feet is a little worn and dusty. I rub my arm and sleeve on it and try to make out the ancient script.

This script was before the Turnover though and I can’t really make out most of the writing. Some of it hasn’t changed, but with time the language has become new. “Anakastes,” that must be his name. Yet what follows is harder to read. I am called stupid for the fact that I cannot seem to learn our current form of language, but I can read ancient texts – sometimes.

“Es Scholates de Miagyk.” In smaller it reads, “Serker.” I believe that translates to ‘Is Scholar of Magic’, but Serker has no meaning to me. He is holding the king’s scepter in his hand, but not bearing his crown. This man was no king, but he was highly respected.

“Anakastes.” I repeat – why does that sound familiar?

“Over here.” Someone whispers, so I turn to face the right hall, since the foot of Anakastes is a split in the hall. Down the right there is a hall of portraits and a large set of doors. I glance to the left and the hall ends at a decorative fountain.

I walk down the right hallway and take quick glances at the portraits. The kings and queens stare at me as I pass their forgotten memories. I push on the door to find myself in what appears to be a library. I never fancied books, yet reading has always been a difficult task for me.

Yet I find that the names written on the binds of these books are easy to read. “These are all ancient textbooks.” I peruse through the collection passing through the shelves until I come to an old table with drawing and markings carved into the surface.

“An alchemy table.” Alchemy has been restricted to only those who have a license to practice magic. To get such a license one has to take exams and practice mystic arts in an academy. There is a book sitting on the table that I approach.

The sigils of the page are vexing, even in their messy state. Someone had written this page by hand, so I reach for the book to see if it is all handwritten. I flip towards the front and see that each page is written by hand. It appears to be a magic diary – a book in which magicians keep track of their studies and researches.

The writing is crude so I can’t very well understand much. The first page is a page that merely reads the owner’s name, the date in which they began their practice with this diary and what practices in magic they have at that point.

The owner was Anakastes himself. The practice in magic seems arcane and most of it would be illegal these days. He was, as many people would classify these days, a necromancer of a sort. He was not one that transferred his own life essence – no, he just happens to be able to raise the dead. He had other practices, yes, but just being able to disturb the dead was considered the act of necromancy and death was the punishment.

The next page is a simple spell that nurse mothers use to soothe babes, nothing like what his former practices appear to have been. I read on, skipping the pages until I find something darker. Mystic experiments, those are nearly illegal to do. One must have years of magical experimentation before they are allowed to attempt creating something with the mystic powers.

Magic is more natural and less harmful, while mystic practices are unnatural and tend to come from heaven or hell, depending on the types of practices. This practice was an attempt to merge both heaven and hell arts together.

I skim the diary until the end of the practice – which is the page the book had been open to. Chaos is formed, was this truly the root of chaos magic? Was Anakastes the one to discover such a dark art? I start to set the book down when the page turns slowly to the next one.

It is written in Anakastes’s hand. “Forgive me my king and my queen, for not even my practices can waken your daughter. I will now take my leave, may the kingdom of Gornen be safe under the Keeper’s gaze. Anakastes.”

“There you are!” someone shouts from behind me and I jump in my spot. “Whoa, calm down.” It is Saxon who approaches me. He nears me and says, “When I finally caught up to Henry we went searching for you. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone in this place?”

I hadn’t wandered far, “No, sorry.” I close the book and follow Saxon out, but as we make our way through the hall I look out the windows between the statues to see a garden.

“What is a garden doing up here?” I press my face against the dirty pane to see the front gates of the castle across from there. Wait – what?

“Up here?” Saxon repeats, “This is the ground floor, Katone.”

He opens the door that should lead to the armory to reveal a wide throne room. Henry is sitting in the dusty throne looking like he belonged there. He looks at us and says, “Where was he?”

“He was reading in the library-.” Saxon begins.

Henry flinches, “No offense, Katone, but… I thought you couldn’t read?”

“I can read ancient texts…” it was what my parents taught me before their demise. By the time I was taken in by the elderly couple all I knew was ancient text. They tried to teach me the new language, but… it never stuck.

“What a strange skill.” Henry says rather bluntly. He stands from the throne room, “Come on! While we were looking for you I found something interesting!” he races off.

“Henry! We need to go, it will get dark-!” Saxon begins, but Henry had run down the hall past the throne room already.

We follow him to a dead end, “What is it?” I ask as we stand by a suit of armor.

“Notice how there are no vines here?” Henry asks us all too determined to show off some interesting secret.

Saxon shrugs, “Sure.” He knows that delaying the answer or being sarcastic will only make leaving this place all that much harder.

Henry reaches towards the wall, but the moment he nears a violet streak of light flashes like lightning at him and lightly burns his hand. He giggles, “That hurts a shit, but isn’t that weird!?”

Saxon catches Henry’s hand to assess the damage, but the marking begins to fade away, “Magic.” Saxon growls, since Henry was blessed by a wise women at his birth to be resilient to magic and its effects.

Saxon was blessed to be handsome, but I was too poor to meet with a wise woman. What I am is all natural, though I cannot say I am all that much. Each wise woman has a different gift they are likely to give, for a great fee. Depending on which wise woman one takes their child depends on the gift given to them.

Henry’s parents took him to meet Ashara because he was born weakly due the pain tonic his mother took made of magical substance and they hoped she would make him resilient to magic and its effects. Saxon’s parents took him to Maraga in hopes of granting him more beauty.

Henry pulls his hand free and says, “Cool, right?”

“It hardly is.” Saxon mutters.

“Say ‘shereed’.” A girl whispers. I turn to look over my shoulder, but there is no one there. It was the same voice that had spoken earlier – who is it? “Did you hear that?” I ask my companions.

They look at me, “Hear what?” Saxon asks.

“A girl.” I answer.

“Did you say a girl?” Henry perks up.

“Yes. She said… say shereed-.” The moment the word leaves my lips there is a soft crackling on the enchanted wall and the surface shimmers to reveal a door. We stare at it.

“Oh shit.” Henry falls to his knees and crosses his arms over his chest before beginning to recite the Keeper prayer, “Behest they Keeper, for thee is Kept. Forgive the doings of wrong I have done-.”

“Henry, cut that out. You aren’t even an avid follower.” Saxon chastises the teasing. He is an avid follower so he finds the act rather insulting. “Besides, you are saying it all wrong.”

I reach out to the door and touch the knob without any magic stopping me. I swallow hard before pulling it open to see a staircase leading up towards the top of the tower. I look at Saxon who nods at me, “Might as well see.”

Henry jumps to his feet, “This is going to be awesome!”

I lead the way, placing my left hand on the wall as we climb to keep my balance. We arrive to a wooden door without a doorknob. Henry pushes on it, but it doesn’t heave. “Locked?”

I shake my head as I reach out to where the doorknob should be and I feel it. I clasp it in my hand – how did I know it was there? I just… knew it. I open the door and within there is a canopy bed untouched by the years of time. “All of that for a bed?” Henry gripes. “I suppose after a climb like that I’d need a bed…”

“Sh.” I hiss as I hear a soft breathing, “Someone…?” I reach out for the long curtain around the mattress and open it to reveal a maiden. Her hair is golden and curled around her pretty face. “There’s… a girl.”

Henry perks up again and nears, “Oh, a pretty girl-!”

Saxon pulls us both back, “Do you realize who we just found?”

“No.” Henry says having skipped every history lesson he ever had.

“No, that can’t be-.” I point towards the girl as the puzzle pieces begin to come together, “Aurora?” I ask, “Princess Aurora?” I repeat with obvious disbelief.

Henry crosses his arms over his chest and shakes his head, “No, Aurora was turned into a swan.”

“That was Odette-.” I correct. I was the one who went to our history lessons. I should know better than him.

“No, no, Odette was the one turned to stone with that whole slipper after midnight thing.” Henry says firmly.

“That was Elena-.”

“No, Elena was the one that traded her body-form to become sea foam to release the Celestial City of the sea and is now in the sky.” Henry says with complete certainty.

I gawk at him, “What?! No, the Celestial City has forever been in the sky. She traded her life for the freedom of Atlantis-.”

“No because Atlantis is a myth.” Henry is serious right now.

I try again, “Elena was not the sea foam princess. Serena was-.”

“No, Serena was the one with all of the hair.”

I bite my knuckles in frustration – I give up!

Saxon is silent the whole time and I look at him for help. What he says isn’t much better, “I thought Atlantis was the forbidden city of the mountainside?”

My jaw loosens, “No, that…” I shake my head, “Did you ever go to school?”

Saxon shrugs, “Most of the days, but I did tend to sleep during a few of the history lessons.” He admits.

“The forbidden city is The Forbidden City.”

Henry shakes his head, “No, that doesn’t sound right.”

I sigh in defeat, “You guys suck.” I face the maiden again, “Uh, one of you shake her… or something.” I wave at her – I don’t do well around the other sex. They laugh a lot, talk a lot – muse too much. Henry is the one with most practice with the female kind.

Saxon reaches his hand out, but Henry catches his wrist and says, “NO!” his eyes are wide and he is quite frightened. “Never wake a girl – they’re crazy mean when you wake them.”

He would know.

Saxon shakes his head, “I don’t care. If this is the cursed princess we need to wake her up.” He pulls loose to try again, but just as his hand nears her he pulls back and literally jumps three feet away from the bed. His eyes are wide and sweat drips down his forehead.

“That was sudden.” Henry mutters before leaning against the bed and saying soothingly, “Hey, Princess Odette-.”

I flick him in his ear, “Aurora.” He’d get his own mother’s name wrong.

Henry sighs, “Are you sure, Katone?” he asks before finally resigning and agreeing. “Princess Aurora, it’s time to get up. If you’re here past six people will notice-. No, wait. That’s one night stands.”

I groan – idiots, the both of them. I pull him away before saying, “Why don’t we just get someone of authority up here?”

“We are not supposed to be here.” Saxon reminds us.

“Yeah, and Thomas’ll kick my ass.” Henry adds.

Damn it. I look at her before asking, “Why did you stop, Saxon?” it was just so sudden.

Saxon shivers, “I was reaching out and suddenly spiders were crawling everywhere and-.” spider? There weren’t any spiders anywhere. That bothers me though, because I know just how freaked out Saxon gets with a single one. He continues to rant and spew his fears and shiver, but I don’t hear him anymore.

My eyes are focused on the girl. Wait… she’s the one I saw in the courtyard. She is lying on the covers, not under them. I see her bare feet and the gold chain anklet that hangs round her right ankle. I saw her earlier. She was awake.

I reach out, but stop when her body changes into that of a bear and she roars at me and goes for me. I jump back, much like Saxon, but once I finally calm my breathing she is back to normal.

Henry is resilient, right? Maybe he should near her? I grab him without turning to see him and throw him towards her. “You do it.” I am not playing with bears and magic today.

Henry slides on the floor before falling on top of her. “Oh-!” he tries to scramble up, but Saxon kicks his foot into Henry’s lower back, causing him to fall forward once again. This time his lips lands on the edge of hers. He flies up and starts shouting, “Stop! This isn’t fun anymore!”

Saxon doesn’t kick him again as he sprawls from the bed and literally crawls on the floor to get away. “You’re the one who made us come in here to begin with!” Saxon shouts angrily, “If I get punished I better get you back!”

Saxon has a clean record, after all. If this tarnishes it then he will never forgive Henry for it. He will probably go the Keeper to pray that he strike down his foolish friend-.

“He… hello?” a feminine voice calls from behind us as we glower at Henry and his dramatic show of hurt.

My body tenses and from the looks of it so does Saxon’s. We turn to face the pretty maiden with violet eyes sitting in the bed. She looks at Saxon, then at Henry and finally at me.

Her eyes stay on me and they fill with tears before she says, “Anakastes! I was so scared!”

Ana… kastes?

I stumble back – what the hell did we just do?!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Forgive any grammar mistakes - I'm just trying to get myself to start publishing things I write. :-) And thanks for the support if your enjoy this! <3

[pnf-lover98]

SVTFOE - Haunted by the Past

Song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNl4GF… I had this fict laying around in my room for ages, but now I finally found some time to copy it on the computer, to grammar-check it and post it. This is the one-shot I had announced in this intro: www.deviantart.com/pnflover98/…. I put some extra effort in it, because it was my first ghost story, and I really wanted it to have that special atmosphere and depth ghost stories have. Let me know what you think. 

Before the "Battle for Mewni" movie came out, I was trying (like most of us on the fandom did, after all) to imagine what the great "epic battle" between the heroes and Toffee would have been like. That scene would have opened this fanfict, and I imagined it to be set in the abandoned castle we saw in "Starcrushed"; While River, Tom, Pony Head and various other allies would take care of the evil minions and the rats, Moon, together with Star and Marco, would face Ludo/Toffee, still in their "fused" form with the wand hand. And this is where my fict starts. The super-badass villain who had such an epic battle with Moon during the episode "Starcrushed", surely knows how to resist against our heroes; he knows that Star learned the spell to split Ludo and Toffee, so he keeps her so busy that she can't even manage to cast it. He also knows that only Moon's magic is strong enough to beat him, so he hits her with a magic beam, knocking the woman out. Marco catches the queen when she falls unconscious to the ground and tries to wake her up. Eventually, Star manages to cast the spell, but it doesn't work because she's not focused enough. Toffee tells her that there's only one spell that could kill him forever, but that Star would have never been able to perform it. Challenging him, the girl replies that her powers are very strong, and that she would have made that spell work, but Toffee tells her that the spell wouldn't kill just him, but also the body that was hosting his spirit. Star, already trembling, is then told that she will have to personally ask Ludo's consent. Then, Toffee leaves the control to Ludo, who immediately asks Star what's happening and why was he having all those blackouts. Star explains the situation to him, and what Toffee said. Ludo looks at Moon, laying defeated on the ground, then he looks at Marco and Star's expressions, and eventually at his wand hand. Star is asking him something impossible; there has to be another way to solve that situation! But if the princess who's never scared of anything now has that terrified look on her face... The awareness of not even having the control on his own actions (Toffee can take the control back whenever he wants), and having seen how much damage Toffee can do to the kingdom and its inhabitants, make Ludo give his consent to "The darkest spell". When Star, surprised, tells him once again what would have happened, he replies that he has nothing left to lose and that it's the only way to save Mewni. Star, starting to cry, points her wand toward the monster and starts casting the spell. Toffee was wrong; Star actually found the strenght to do it.

"Come on! Come on! Don't leave me like this! I thought I had you figured out. Something's gone terribly wrong"  - - - - - - - 

The funeral is surrounded by a grey atmosphere, as grey as the clouds that cover the sky. Marco is late, Moon is busy talking with Mrs Avarius and Star finds herself alone. The princess feels uneasy; even if no one there actually knows yet how the things went, Star feels like everyone is staring at her, judging her guilt. On one side, she would like to leave, but on the other she knows that being there is a sign of respect toward her ex-enemy, to which she never showed any when he was alive. A bird-like girl gets close to Star and introduces herself as Leah Avarius, one of Ludo's sisters. Talking with Leah, Star learns that the girl was feeling uneasy as much as the princess was; Leah is one of those relatives that never cared about Ludo and overlooked him, and as his sister it is painful for her to admit she doesn't know him at all. Leah barely knows a few things about her brother, and she never cared to get closer to him. Star then tells her something about her own bad relationship with Ludo and about how even her, after all, never got to know much about him. This shared feeling of "being out of place" helps both Leah and Star to feel a little more at ease. Then, Leah leaves to reach Dennis and her mother. By that time, Marco has arrived, in the middle of Moon's speech, and is standing by Star's side. The princess stares at her mother speaking, but she's not listening to the woman's words. And, lost in her thoughts, the girl doesn't notice she's reached for Marco's hand and is now holding it tightly. - - - - - - - - 

Marco and Star's lives comes back to the normal routines; the mewmans fix the damages around their kingdom, Star and Marco talk out the things they left in half (after Star suddenly left him after confessing her feelings to him) and the princess goes back to Earth to live at Diazes' house. Every once in a while, the girl has nightmares about what happened just a few days before. Some times, she feels a thin cold wind blowing apparently out of nowhere, but she ignores it. As this phenomenon starts to happen more often, Star decides not to tell Marco about it; what is this "mysterious wind blows" thing? Marco would surely think she's crazy. A month later, an interdimentional gang of thieves starts to rob several dimentions, eventually reaching Earth. Led by an antropomorphic purple hedgehog, the gang faces Star and marco. The two teens are ready to fight; Star points her wand toward two monsters, but when she's about to cast the spell, she sees in that gang of odd-looking monters something familiar. Noticing Star frozen in place without attacking, the thieves make fun of her and Marco faces them with his karate skills, forcing them to retreat. A few days later, another monster, hairy and much taller than the two teens, comes out of a portal and starts to misbehave. Again, Star refuses to fight and Marco sends the monster away, confiscating its scissors. Marco is worried by his friend's behaviour; where did the Star that's always ready to fight go? It's not like her to stand still and watch who behaves badly! Another thing strikes the boy; some times, while the two of them walk around the town, Star suddenly stops in front of apparently random places and stays like that for a few moments. So, Marco tries to talk with Star, but the girl doesn't want to answer his questions, or she waves them away saying that everything is fine and that there's nothing to worry about. But deep within, Star suffers because she feels the differernce between the present and the life she was used to live; the usual attacks of the monters that she and marco fought against now suddenly stopped happening. Buff Frog is now one of the princess' friends, Boo Fly retired from his criminal activities, and, most importantly, Ludo is dead and he won't come back. When after a month spent without ever meeting a creature, Star and Marco are faced by the gang of thieves, the girl sees in them a group of desperate creatures, trying to make a living out of small robberies. None of them is a real menace; they're just lost boys in need of help. Just like the gang that used to be led by Ludo.

"He will try to take away my pain, and he just might make me smile, but the whole time I'm wishing he was you instead"  - - - - - - - - - - 

One night Star is abruptly waken up by a particularly bad nightmare: at age 21 her mother passed the throne on to her, but the new queen, during the coronation ceremony, is assaulted by her subjects. Mewmans don't accept her as a queen and, shouting she's a murderer and similar things, several people attack the royal family and kidnap Star, throwing her in a bottomless pitt. The young woman tries to halt her fall with her wings, but it doesn't work and she falls to the ground. In front of her, a massive shape of a green half-star towers over the queen, showering her with its green light. A voice comes out of the star shape, starting as a whisper for help and growing louder and louder to the point it's a shout. Star Butterlfy, crying, replies she doesn't know how to help the voice and she covers her ears trying not to hear that sound anymore. When she wakes up, Star feels again that cold wind blow and runs to Marco's room, waking the boy up. After listening to Star's nightmare, Marco undertands that it was the result of the strong guilt feeling the girl still feels inside of her. When the mewman princess confesses about the mysterious wind, Marco doesn't believe her, but to calm Star down he decides to talk with Janna in the morning; if those wind blows are actually a sign of something paranormal, their friend will know what to do. - - - - - - - 

After consulting her book about magical creatures, Janna suggests it might be a ghost. But because Star never witnessed big ghostly happenings (just a coulpe of "flying objects" moving by themselves, that Star thought were hallucinations), Janna tells her friends that the spirit is not necessarily evil; it could be just looking for Star's attention. Star and Marco go to Quest Buy, where they find a magic necklace that, once worn, allows people to see ghosts. Once home, in Star's room, the two teenagers activate the necklace with a spell. After a deep breath, Star wears the jewel and clutches her hand around the charm. Immediately, the girl gasps in surprise and takes a step back, but she trips and falls to the ground. Marco, worried by his friend's reaction, kneels down next to Star and grabs the magical charm, gasping in turn. In front of them, floating about a meter above the ground, stands a little creature with blank white eyes and a blue aura surrounding its shape. It's Ludo's ghost, and it's telling Star he needs to talk with her. In disbelief, Star stands up from the ground and tries to reach Ludo with her hand, in order to touch him, but her fingers pass through the ghost's thin body, and the princess feels a shiver running down her spine. It's real. It's actually happening; she's talking to an intangible ghost. Starting to cry, Star begs Ludo for forgiveness, repeating over and over how she never meant to kill him. Ludo, understanding, replies that he already knew and that he's not mad at her; instead, he's even grateful to the girl for freeing him from that oppressive control Toffee had over him. Star, for the first time, admits her biggest regret is that she didn't help the little creature when there was still time. In reply, Ludo tells her she can help him now with his "ghost mission"; he must apologize to everyone for the evil actions he did during his life. They will travel together through Mewni, and Star will have to deliver the messages.

"I know. I know. I just know; you're not gone. You can't be gone, no!"  - - - - - - - -

The first two steps of the journey are relatively easy; first, the mewman princess talks with moon and River, bringing them Ludo's apologies for having stolen the book, for having repeatedly tried to steal the magic wand and for the damages he caused to the Butterfly kingdom during his gang's various attacks. River is still not pleased by what the little monster did, but he accepts the apologies anyway. Moon remembers about Dennis, about how the boy asked her to help Ludo, and tells Star she has something to say to the ghost in turn; the queen regrets how she didn't take seriously Dennis' beg for help. And heaven knows, the woman thinks, that maybe all of that disaster Toffee caused could have been avoided. The second step of the mission brings Star in front of Buff Frog's house. The princess, warmly welcomed by Evgenij, tells thim that Ludo is sorry for having always been a terrible boss, and a terrible friend, and for having eventually fired (under Toffee's instructions) the frog man, that Ludo considered his best soldier. Buff frog replies that everithing is fine, and that thanks to what happened, now he has a better life, both on the working and on the family side. But right when the princess is strating to think the mission it's going to be easy... ...the girl finds herself standing in front of a worn-out house in the middle of nowhere in the Forest of Certain Death. And as if the place alone isn't enough to make Star feel uneasy, when the door opens, the girl meets a tall woman with a thin but impressive shape, white hair, and a big grey beak, that is staring at her with a visibly annoyed glare. It's Lady Avarius, former queen of the Avarian people and mother of the little monter that Star was forced to kill. The woman asks Star what brought the girl to that place, but right as the princess starts to explain she has a message from Ludo, Mrs Avarius halts her saying that it's impossible to talk with the dead. But when the young Butterfly refers the object of the ghost's message, that asked her to tell his mother he was sorry for the many mistakes he did in his life, the woman changes her expression for a moment, lets Star in the house and asks her how did she manage to contact the little monster. Star, nervous, instinctively touches the magic necklace's charm. Figuring out that the charm was the answer, Lady Avarius orders the girl to give her the jewel, and Star accomplishes with a nod. And so, the monster queen wears the necklace. Immediately, seeing her son's spirit, the woman gasps and covers her beak with her hands, both surprised and scared by what she sees. But what hits her the most is Ludo's appearance; he looks very different from the last time his mother saw him. He's much thinner and looks pretty older. How many years must have been passed, since the day the woman had completely burnt bridges with him, one of her own children? Lady Avarius' instinct moves her toward the little bird to hug him, but as she passes through him, the woman shivers. With a cold empty tone, Ludo tells her it's a little too late for hugs. Meanwhile, drawn in by his wife's and Star's voices in the living room, Lord Brudo enters the room and finds the bird-woman talking to the air. When the man asks her what's going on, mrs Avarius, still wearing the necklace, puts the charm in her husband's hands, in order for him to be able to communicate with Ludo. The latter repeats what Star had earlier started to say; the little monster wanted to tell his parents and his siblings that he was sorry for everything he did. For never following the rules, for kicking them out of their home, for never having been able to prove he could make it on his own, that he wasn't just a "runt", and for never having been the son his parents wanted him to be. Lord Brudo is at a loss of words, surprised by what he sees and hears. His wife, in tears, says that they are the ones who did it all wrong. They were bad parents to him, says mrs Avarius, and now it's too late to fix their relationship with Ludo, now that he's dead. In spite of his being prideful, that made him hate his parents, the ghost finally forgives them. Then, the little bird thinks about his younger siblings, and tells his mother that it's not too late for her; she still has a chance to become a good mother, and to form with Dennis and the other kids that bond she never built with him. Meanwhile Star has left the house to leave some privacy to the Avarius family, and is now sitting on the front porch's steps, waiting. Feeling a cold blow of wind, the princess suddenly stands up, and notices the magic necklace, that Ludo was holding, floating towards her. Now that they can communicate again, Ludo warns her that the mission is almost completed. The story closes with princess Star opening another interdimentional portal, off to the next step of the journey.

"You and I walk a fragile line; I have known it all this time. Never ever thought I'd see it break, never thought I'd see it..."

[headoverhiddles]

Make It Double

So @mywhataguy and I liked the idea of Vlad being Gaston’s twin brother. This happened. 

Lefou came in from the market, whistling to himself as he set a basket of blueberries and a couple baguettes down on the wooden dinner table Gaston had built them. Picking out a few nice ones to eat, he popped a few berries into his mouth and wiped his lips before heading over to the sink, and-

His attention was diverted as he noticed his companion sitting on the couch, reading.

"Oh! You're up early," Lefou smiled. He was the morning person around here, not Gaston-- but anyway, it was nice to see him up, and even nicer to see the dishes in the sink had been polished and put away. "Well, this is a treat." He smirked to himself. Gaston probably wanted to get laid, that was honestly the only time he...

Wait, wait, hold on. Lefou's smile faltered, and his nose scrunched up. Was he reading?!

"You've... got a book?" Lefou went over, rubbing Gaston's shoulders and peering down over them, "That looks..." He squinted at the tiny words on what looked like very ancient paper, "Um... elaborate." His companion just hummed.

"It's a religious scroll I nabbed from home before coming over. Still got the blood of the Turkish prince on the last few pages." Lefou hesitated, and frowned.

"Yeah, alright. Anyway, I got some fresh eggs, so I'll get those cooking for y-"

"Eggs?" The man on the couch scowled, "Vile. I hate eggs. I'd much prefer sheep sausage with some lemon pudding, if you'd be so kind as to prepare it."

"Are you out of your mind?" Lefou blurted, crossing his arms, "I get up at the crack of dawn every morning to gather all the stupid eggs in our yard to make you your favourite stupid breakfast, and now it's suddenly "oh, I hate eggs, eggs are vile!" as you sit there on your ass asking me to prepare a three course meal?" He whipped back to finish washing the berries, but turned again to glower some more. "And where am I supposed to get lemons around here, Gaston?! Should I go ask that Enchantress out in the woods for some, and get turned into a fucking wheelbarrow while I'm at it?!"  The tall man cocked his head, and turned, getting up to face the chubby man in the kitchen. Lefou frowned. "Did you cut your hair?"

A slow smirk developed on the taller's face, and he shook his head, sighing.

"The idiot didn't tell you, did he?"

Lefou inclined his head expectantly.

"GASTON!"

The sleeping hunter roused at the shrill scream, and scowled. The sun was up, but it wasn't up enough, and this was way too early for him. Was that Lefou screeching? It had sounded like a rooster.

"GASTON, YOU BETTER GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Gaston heaved a sigh, forcing himself up. He probably left his socks on the rug again or something.

As he rose, he realized he wasn't wearing any pants- oh right, he and Lefou had had a late one at the tavern last night and ended up shagging until the small hours- so he tugged on some breeches and shambled his way out to the living room of their little cottage.

"Lefou, what's got you-"

He turned to the other man standing there, and blinked. "Oh. Vlad. You came early." Lefou raised his eyebrows so high they looked like they were about to jump off his forehead, and Vlad crossed his arms. Gaston laughed. "Lefou did that too, last night."

"THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR SEX JOKES!" Lefou shouted, and Gaston flinched. Yes, it was true he neglected to tell his love that he... well...

"I have a twin brother," Gaston told Lefou, refusing to look him in the eye in fear of the fire he would find there. "This is Vlad Tepes. He's... from very far from here. I haven't seen him in years!"

"Tepes... is that a ma-ri-tal name?" Lefou sounded it out shortly, tapping his foot.

"Nope," Gaston grimaced.

Lefou glared. "So you're telling me, that your last name isn't Deveneaux-- it's Tepes?! Gaston Tepes?! Therefore, if we ever got married, I'd be LEFOU TEPES?!"

"What's wrong with Tepes? It means appetizer in your culture," Vlad muttered.

"No, that's tapas," Gaston informed him under his breath.

"Would you two shut up?!" Lefou growled. "When were you going to tell me this, Gaston?" he demanded.

"Well, I thought it would be best not to," Gaston tried, "In case there ever came a situation where I didn't want to be there, and I could use him-"

"Gaston."

"Look, I just didn't feel the need to, alright?!" Gaston muttered, flopping down on the couch and sticking his arms behind his head, "My brother's..."

"He didn't tell you, because he's worried you'll think I'm hotter," Vlad flashed a grin.

"Excuse me?!" Gaston bellowed, getting up again and clenching his jaw, "I know for certain my beloved Lefou would never be unfaithful to me!"

"Unless he couldn't tell us apart, dear brother," Vlad chuckled, and Gaston grabbed him by the shirt.

"You touch him-"

"I don't want to touch him," Vlad shoved Gaston off him with such ridiculously superhuman strength the hunter went flying into the wall with a crash, "Although... you did always have impeccable taste in men."

Gaston smirked, forgetting his rage. "And you always had wonderful taste in women. How's Mina, by the way?"

"Dead," Vlad murmured, "Pity I couldn't save her-- but that's another long story."

Lefou squeaked. So this was happening. "Well, if you're staying for a while, I'll get breakfast on. You don't like egg, do you? Got it. Blueberries then, Vlad?"

"Actually, have you got any red meat? Preferably uncooked."

"What the f-"

"Lefou!" Gaston swallowed, and tugged his lover's sleeve as he began to notice his brother stirring at the idea of red meat, "I believe we actually have some unfinished business from l-last night, don't we, darling?!"

Lefou blushed. "Gaston..." The hunter grimaced as Vlad took out some carved up deer meat they had kept on some ice, opened his mouth, and-

"To the bedroom!" Gaston shouted, whirling him around, and Lefou frowned.

"But-"

"I just can't wait any longer, I must have you," Gaston gulped, and shut the door. He began to kiss Lefou, but the shorter man just pushed him off.

"Why is he here?" Lefou hissed once they were alone.

"I don't know," Gaston confessed, running a hand through his hair. "I invited him in the spring, so you could finally meet him... properly."

"Uh huh," Lefou shook his head. After a minute, he sat down on their bed, and sighed. "Gaston... I'm sorry for making a big deal out of it." He sighed, "I just would've liked a little notice."

"I..." Gaston seemed as if he was about to apologize, but got distracted as he caught his reflection in their mirror, smirking and making a kissy face.

"For the love of god," Lefou muttered, and suddenly, there was a crash outside. Lefou got up instantly, but Gaston grabbed his wrist.

"Wait."

"Wait? Why?" Lefou snatched his hand back, and opened the door. "....Oh my god."

There was blood all over the table, Vlad feeding on whatever was left of that deer they had. He looked up, sharp incisors in plain sight, and Lefou fainted.

Gaston looked down at his companion, and let out a growl. "You get to explain this."

"Fine," Vlad shrugged, "Are there any more deer in your area, brother? That one was sweet."

When Lefou woke up, it took about an hour for him to accept the story.

"So... you became a vampire because you wanted to save your people from the... Turks?" Lefou asked slowly, raising the bottle of brandy his mother had given them when they had visited Provence.

"Essentially, yes," Vlad nodded. Lefou turned to Gaston incredulously.

"So... so you led an entire raid on a castle to kill a Beast because that was 'dark magic', yet you sit here, across from a vampire, as if he's the most normal thing on this planet?!"

"Well, I grew up with him," Gaston shrugged.

"Is it true you led a raid driven by hatred?" Vlad asked, frowning, and Gaston rolled his eyes.

"One has to keep up appearances! I can't just announce to everyone in the village, 'oh, you can all relax. My brother is a vampire, so there's no need to worry over a hideous monster living in the woods!'" Lefou huffed at that, and Vlad crossed his arms.

"I'm telling mum."

"You told me your mother was dead!" Lefou shrieked at Gaston.

"She is," Vlad and Gaston both answered in sync. Lefou's eyes widened, and he would've fainted again if Gaston didn't toss cold water at his face. The dripping Lefou blinked.

"So, Vlad," he croaked, "How long are you staying?"

It was a poor decision on Lefou's part to let his companion's twin stay.  Gaston being Gaston, he couldn't keep a secret for longer than two days, and soon the entire village was acquainted with Vlad.

One day, Lefou took them both out to get some more jam. Stanley walked by, tipping his hat.

"Morning, Monsieur Lefou. Morning, Monsieur Vlad."

"That's Gaston," Lefou sighed.

"Morning Gaston!" Tom shouted with a large smile from the cheese monger at the man standing by the tapestries, and Lefou whipped around.

"That's Vlad."

"Oh," Dick muttered, and tipped his hat. "Bonjour, Gaston," he smiled at Vlad, and Lefou smacked his forehead. Vlad just laughed, and Lefou dragged him over to where Gaston was buying flowers.

"You were never the romantic type, what's changed?" Vlad frowned at his brother.

"I've learned how to please my love," Gaston retorted defensively, "Lefou likes flowers, so I buy him new ones for the table every morning." Lefou snuggled up to his arm in appreciation, and they shared a kiss.

Vlad looked from Lefou, to Gaston, to the bouquets of cardamoms... and picked out a bunch, paying for it.

And so the rivalry began.

Lefou would come home every day, and Vlad and Gaston would both be at the door, waiting to take his coat. Vlad would have a glass of fine wine waiting for him, and Gaston would have his latest kill roasting on the fire.

When they went on hunting trips, Vlad insisted he was a better hunter than Gaston, which Gaston laughed into oblivion at, so they spent the entire time bitterly fighting to show off in front of Lefou.

Gaston was so close to claiming the winning kill with his crossbow as Lefou looked on in reverie, but Vlad transformed into a colony of bats, practically eating the prey alive where they waited. Gaston clenched his fists.

"You cheated."

Eventually, it reached a point where they would argue in public.

"I'm more impressive than you in every way," Vlad told Gaston with that smug look (Lefou guessed where Gaston got it from), "Mina used to rave for days about how the muscles in my back rippled so."

"Please, I could lift two people on my shoulders!" Gaston spat back, "I'm this town's hero. I don't remember you being a war hero!"

"Oh, that's incredibly low," Vlad growled, "I fought off 25,000 Turks on my own, but you saving your quaint little town from a couple dozen Portuguese Marauders ultimately conquers my battle glory." He took a breath. "And on top of being a hero, Gaston, I am a Prince! I don't believe you have such a title to your name, do you?"

"Oh, you're a prince," Gaston scoffed, "The very thing I tried to kill."

"Tried being the key word," Vlad muttered. "But I'm glad you didn't That's all you knew how to do, was kill," he argued, "I know how to deal with things diplomatically. I wouldn't have gone to war if I could have avoided it- you thirsted for it!"

"This war left me with mental scars," Gaston seethed.

"I can't show you all my scars," Vlad bit back, "It would take days."

"Oh, you got hurt a lot," Gaston pouted, "My poor, royal brother. Would you like me to fetch your palace hands to help you treat them?"

"You know... I'm twenty seconds older than you," Vlad hissed.

"Well, I've probably got a bigger dick than you!" Gaston said a little too loudly, "Right Lefou?!" In the seats in front of them, Stanley choked.

"Is everything alright?" Père Robert asked apprehensively, pausing his sermon.

"Oh yes, everything is fine, sir," Vlad smiled cordially.

"HE'S A VAMPIRE!" Gaston shouted petulantly, and stood Lefou up, storming out with him as everyone turned to glance at a very pale Vlad.

That night, Lefou made some roast ham and served it with fresh veggies from their garden and mulled blackberry wine in an effort to make things better with everyone.

"Mmm," Gaston smiled, rubbing Lefou's back and taking his hand, "This wine is sweet, darling."

"I bet Lefou tastes sweeter," Vlad winked.

"I can't tell if that's an advance or an offer to suck my blood," Lefou quirked his head.

Gaston got up from the table, chair flying back as he rolled up his sleeves and regarded his brother. "Fight me for him. Right now." Vlad got up too, baring his fangs, and under normal circumstances, Lefou would either a), hide under the table as his precious vases and ham got destroyed in TepesBowl 1743, or b), finish his green beans in blissful ignorance, pretending to ignore the egg Gaston just hurled across his house.

But no. These were no normal circumstances.

"That. Is. It!" Lefou shouted, and got up as well. "For god's sake, you're brothers! I get that I'm hot, okay, and I know I'm cute as a goddamn button, but frankly, neither of you deserve me right now!"

"But, Lefou-" Gaston began to protest weakly.

"You can share! Please. Just share! Gaston, I love you more than anything, dear. But Vlad- you're really sexy too, okay?!"

"You wound me, Lefou," Gaston breathed, and Lefou pranced over to press five kisses to his face, finally to his lips.

"You'll always be my love. But... don't you think you two can simply take turns?"

"Never," Vlad sneered, fangs already glinting.

"Then I'm going to march my little ass right down the street and put a ring on Stanley's finger," Lefou snapped at both men.

"Wait!"

"No, wait, we can share."

Lefou rolled his eyes, and plunked back down as Gaston and Vlad looked across the table at each other.

"Well... we are brothers," Vlad mumbled, looking down.

"Yes," Gaston sighed, "We are."

"You... you may not have been the romantic type, but you helped me get my first girlfriend by failing to woo her," Vlad attempted, managing a smile.

"You... may not have been the fighting type, but you helped me kill my first soldier by missing his heart," Gaston offered.

"Now..." Vlad smiled.

"Now, we're both masters of fucking and fighting!" Gaston finished, a smile blossoming. Vlad nodded cheerfully, and they both raised a glass, gulping the wine down. Then Gaston shrugged. "Of course, Lefou... my infamous biting skills run in the family." Both brothers turned to stare at Lefou, ravenous expressions upon their faces. Lefou swallowed, dropping his fork.

What had he gotten himself into?  

Needless to say, the townspeople were more than a little worried when Lefou not only had a stomach bite to show off at the tavern the next night, but alongside his two proud boyfriends, ten more all over his properly worshipped body.

Read on ao3.

[itsasif007-blog]

10 exceedingly strange great buildings from around the globe

New Post has been published on http://liststories.com/10-exceedingly-strange-great-buildings-from-around-the-globe/

10 exceedingly strange great buildings from around the globe

There is no doubt that art and architecture can depict the unusual. And when artistic licence meets the concrete world of construction, the results can be nothing short of mind-boggling. In this account, we take a tour in which we discover a horizontal skyscraper, a circular skyscraper, a robot building, a bizarre towering castle of wood, and the world’s largest bread basket, among other constructions that will expand your mind and even end up on your travel itineraries.

10. Horizontal Skyscraper – Vanke Center (Shenzen, China)

When is a skyscraper a skyscraper in name and shape, but not in behavior and function? When it is a fairly typical looking skyscraper that has been painstakingly constructed to lie on its side! The building logically would look totally typical if you were to turn your head 90 degrees to the side when you examine it, for the building’s position is what makes it weird. Why? Because the structure is an eerie sideways skyscraper, built horizontally along the ground but in the form of a skyscraper. Strange and thought provoking. The brainchild of Steven Holl Architects, the Horizontal Skyscraper – Vanke Center in Shenzhen, China may look normal in shape, in sharp contrast to the oddity of its physical position

Standing on supporting pillars, the building is actually the length of the height of the Empire State Building, while its physical location is stretched along an immaculately landscaped garden with grass, woody plants and pools of water. The construction of the building extended from 2006 to 2009. While bizarre, the building has both ample glass and ample class. It serves its purposes including office and conference centre functions plus apartments and hotel suites, creating both a distinctive place to work and live while providing a modern and iconic place to visit. Considered a winner, the project was recognized with a 2010 Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects, showcased as an example of excellence.

9. The Wooden Skyscraper (Archangelsk, Russia)

A house of cards may not stand well, but a wooden skyscraper? If one is creative enough to think out of the box and crazy enough to construct a monster castle of boards, then one may well be on their way to scraping the heavens with a tower of mere timber. A work of a madman, a convict, and a potential mad genius, albeit one flouting building regulations in a concerning way, the Wooden Skyscraper of Archangelsk in Russia is a towering monstrosity that is best described as a monument to one man’s personal journey to Babel in the sometimes frozen North.

Known as Sutyagin House, the 144-foot building was begun in 1992 by underworld lord Nikolai Petrovich Sutyagin in defiance of both building regulations and architectural challenges. Impressive in stature, massive but clearly rickety upon close inspection, the giant building stood in the face of all imaginable building regulations before its reign of rebellion was brought to a close. Rising spire-like but resembling a skyscraper merged with a supervillain’s castle, the massive wood structure dominated the local region for years before deteriorating during his time in prison. After his release, city authorities finally succeeded in having the structure, which had been built based on inspiration from Japanese and Norwegian wooden structures and intended as a status symbol and as accommodation, to be demolished.

8. Robot Building (Bangkok, Thailand)

Technology and state of the art buildings often go hand in hand, but it is almost unheard of for a full size skyscraper to actually look like a robot. Technologically advanced buildings may boast their advancement with the right materials, shapes, and structural elements, but simply being constructed to look like artificially intelligent, non-living humanoids is a brave mechanical step in a radically novel direction. Built with an array of superficial features added on to a body, torso and head like structure, the high tech United Overseas Bank headquarters in the form of a robot building in Bangkok, Thailand forms a globally unprecedented and exceptionally striking project.

While looking just like a robot might seem laughable as a merging of architectural and technological oddity, the construction also constitutes a spectacular and unique example of creating a building with “robo-morphic” architecture. The idea was to reflect the high-tech nature of the bank through architecture and the work certainly did its job. The half window, half wall bump out eyes, antennae and ears combine nicely with the abdomen, torso and head to make a pretty cute, albeit huge and stationary robot headquarters. And where did Thai architect and genius Sumet Jumsai get his inspiration? He created the vision for the building based on the idea he developed by seeing his son’s toy robot after the Bank of Asia commissioned him to design them a new headquarters building.

7. Genex Tower (Belgrade, Serbia)

Eastern European architecture can gain the look of science fiction constructions, sometimes merging the modern and the castle-like in one building. Strange, awkward-looking in the eyes of some but also undeniably impressive in sheer size, the Genex Tower of Belgrade is an architectural monstrosity dating back to times of great conflict. Looking like a bizarre cross between the CN Tower and the Brandenburg Gate on steroids, the structure is extraordinary for its gate-like shape coupled with its narrowness and sheer height.

Built as the novel and daring planned creation of architect Mihajlo Mitrovic forms a massive arch built with two skyscrapers, the taller reaching a height of 377 feet, further distinguished with a huge yet remarkably incongruous revolving restaurant perched 459 feet above the ground. The restaurant’s circular shape is a prime example of the irregularity and incongruity of the different structural components of the tower’s form and strange spatial layout. The connecting section of the building that creates the arch shape consists of a two story bridge walkway extending between the unified towers. Walking between the two towers is a startling experience, with nothing below for hundreds of feet as you boldly walk the relatively short distance bridging the giant towers.

6. Burj Khalifa (Dubai)

Acclaimed as the tallest building on the planet, the Burj Khalifa is remarkable not only for its sheer size and height at 2,716.5 feet and more than 160 stories. The building holds a multitude of world records, including tallest building in the world, highest occupied floor, most stories of any building globally, highest outdoor observation deck, tallest service elevator, and tallest free-standing structure. (Oh, and there was also that time Tom Cruise climbed up the side.) Constructed of the gigantic building was started in 2004, while the exterior of the building reached completion in 2009 prior to the opening of the structure in 2010.

Built in part to increase tourism revenue, the construction was supported by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a bid to create an extraordinarily striking creation that would garner a significantly greater global recognition of Dubai. Containing hundreds of apartment and hotel suites, the building also boasts swimming pools and elevators that include equipment that can reach speeds of 33-feet-per-second. Constructed primarily from reinforced concrete with significant quantities of steel structural elements, the tower has both a stepped appearance and narrow spires that reflect Islamic architectural styles characteristic of Dubai.

5. Goldin Finance Tower (Tianjin, China)

Remarkable for its incredibly ordinariness and simplicity in shape coupled with impossible height and slenderness, the Goldin Finance Tower of Tianjin, China reaches an astonishing height of 1,957 feet but is essentially cube shaped and remarkably spindly. Almost a third of a mile high, the building has been likened to a huge walking stick due to its spindly appearance and supertall design as it nears completion. With 117 stories contained within its vertical rise, the Tianjin central business district landmark is deceptively ordinary in its almost stereotypically skyscraper shape. However, the sheer height of the building combined with its relatively narrow and square base shape in fact accentuates the dramatic appearance of the building, giving it the incredibly striking appearance of a giant square stick.

Unlike more bulbous or spire adorned tall buildings, the Goldin Finance Tower is at its heart a functional building that devotes the bulk of its construction to practical usage thanks to its continuous square shape that rises to great heights without being reduced to narrow spires and vanity constructions. With four prominent corner reinforcements rising vertically, the building contains finely designed, rectangle-shaped window patterns that add to the meticulous and functional look of the building’s construction. Inside, the construction includes sky lobbies and the world’s highest swimming pool, adding more distinctive elements to the already dramatic looking tower.

4. AlDar Headquarters (Abu Dhabi)

Built in Abu Dhabi, the bizarre AlDar Headquarters might shock first time visitors or lead to a false UFO crash report. Why? Because the enormous but beautiful structure is in fact the world’s first circular skyscraper. Towering at 360 feet tall, the building represents unity, stability and rationality as well as infinity and was completed in 2010. The structure resembles a gigantic plate that has been stuck into the desert ground, widened slightly and then packed with office space. The two sides of the building are interspersed with a continuous edge of windows that resembles a band that has been used to join two halves, but further increases the sideways landed UFO appearance of the structure.

Reinforcing beams crisscross the outsides of the building, creating the appearance of a myriad of diamond shape structures on the sides. On a smaller scale, within each diamond like face section, multitudes of diamond like lines define the shapes of multiple window panels grouped together. The result is the convex outer shape the building, which resembles two plates put together in form. While many buildings have been constructed with rounded foundation, the creation of a towering circle that is actually placed to stand upon its side like a UFO or a giant wheel is in fact unprecedented in architectural achievements.

3. Dancing House (Prague, Czech Republic)

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is remarkable, but its lean was certainly not intended and apart from the lean, its architecture is normal. Conversely, the Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic was purposely built in such a manner that it may look at first glance to be in a state of collapse. Started in 1994 and finished in 1996, the structure consists of two leaning figures that represent dancers Fred Astair, depicted by the concrete tower, and Ginger Rogers, intended to be represented by the leaning glass tower that stands on concrete legs. The combination of the two indeed looks just like a man and a women in the moment of embrace while enjoying a graceful and intimate dance.

The result of architectural collaboration between American architect Frank Gehry and Croatian architect Vlado Milunic, who recruited Gehry to work with him in fulfilling the request of Dutch company Nationale Nederlanden to build an iconic headquarters building. The building where the Ginger Rogers structure stands had been destroyed during WWII by Allied bombing, while the structure that represents Astair, which survived largely intact, was the home since childhood of Václav Havel, who later served as Czech president and commissioned a study of the site by Milunic after Milunic shared his vision.

2. Longaberger Headquarters Basket Building (Newark, Ohio)

Is it bigger than a breadbasket? Well, this turn of phrase may be less useful as a generalization of measure when the breadbasket in question is not just over a foot long, but is an entire office building. Not a full skyscraper, but a building so remarkable in scale for what it represents and as a subject, we have to take our hats off to the Longaberger Company Headquarters building in Ohio. Why? Because the entire building is not only constructed as a gigantic bread basket but it actually looks like one, built to include even a textured exterior design that replicates the look of a woven basket.

The building is fully realistic, complete with metal handles weighing nearly 150 tons that are specially heated to keep them in good condition. The 7-story building was able to accommodate 500 employees, with a intricate and remarkable authentic macroscale weaving design. The spaces in between the replicated weaves formed the windows of the remarkably distinctive building. After facing financial challenges, the company, which specializes in baskets, pottery, and other home décor relocated to a “normal” building in 2016, to the disappointment of some and the satisfaction of others who expressed a preference for working in a more practical building.

1. Fake Hills (Beihai, China)

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The hills may be said to have eyes in horror films, but in Beihai, China, those hills that you see may definitely be filled with human eyes as people go about their business in a bizarre but awesome building complex that has been fashioned in the form of a hilly skyline. The Fake Hills represent a very bold expression of the urban planning concept of harmonizing building form and character with the surrounding environment. Extending lengthwise and paralleling the beach except for one unit at right angles, the fake hills form a silhouette of foothill like appearance that are accompanied by lush gardens interspersed with lower individual buildings in between the structures and the beach.

The main structure is unified and narrow, with a curving outline but having a straight across edge that is intended to contain numerous amenities and access points, allowing people to walk along the width of the laterally compressed hills as they undulate up and down. In December 2016, Beijing based MAD completed the first phase of the project as the fake hills get up and running toward being able to accommodate a rich diversity of uses. The towering hills are intended to reflect the hilly coastal scenery of the southern Chinese port city in which they stand, adding depth and character in a dramatic manifestation of economic development efforts compared to the more mundane form of standard apartments.