#alright alright this is JUST a full size version of a detail shot from the pose pack I posted

[aheathen-conceivably]

Draw the blinds, light every candle Slip off my pretty dress down my chest When I think of you... 🎶

[ceratonia-siliqua]

I saw you were open to prompts and I was wondering if you could write something with Android Peter?? (bonus points if smut is involved) Your writing is so good and I would love to see your take on it!

Thank you for waiting! I hope it delivers!!

Ship: WinterSpider (former Stucky mentioned)

Warnings: Nudity mentioned, some dehumanization due to the nature of androids, and some asshole Steve mentioned (sorry buddy)

“Bucky, come on. Just give it a shot.” 

“Tony-”

“You’ve been depressed for months, just take him for a few weeks. If you absolutely hate having him around then you can return him. I just finished designing a maternal instincts chip for Pepper, worst case she’d love to use him as baby practice.” 

“Fine, fine. Whatever, what do I need to do?” 

Tony beamed like Bucky had been the one begging rather than the other way around. The bastard put a hand on his shoulder as he led him out of the study and into the lab. It wasn’t a long walk, just a quick pop down the hall and a few stairs. The room was not a place he ever went, having heard legends of the absolute horror show it was. 

The rumors were on the fucking money but not in the way he had expected. 

It was filled with mechanical body parts, shocking realistic ones that left him staring as he tried to put together that they’re entirely creations of tech. He knew Tony built droids, fuck, the whole world did. It was his business. He’d gotten so good at the task in fact that he was facing some news shitstorms given the advancements in AI leading to a genuine conversation in what to do as the creations gained further and further sense of sentience. They’d tried to stop Stark, but when you have enough money to buy out the federal government, not much could be done on that front. 

“You’re gonna love him. He’s an absolute sweetheart, in fact, he’s got a heavily modified Gen 4 Sweetheart Build. One of a kind! Even perfected the synthetic curls working on him. Possibly one of the kindest AI’s I’ve ever constructed, little bit of a trickster when he wants to be though, couldn’t let you get away without a bit of a challenge-” Tony continued to go on as he practically shoved Bucky towards a side room. 

“Tony, please don’t tell me you made this android specifically for me.” He had been under the impression it was a match Tony had made after the fact, not something with genuine thought put into it. 

“Can’t just throw any random personality at you, Bucko! You need a specific set of traits and I am happy to deliver seeing as how nothing like this kiddo is like what we have on the market.” 

“Tony, you should have asked first. What if I can’t take care of this-” Machine? Man? How was he supposed to refer to this gift Tony was trying to give him? 

“Trust me! You will.” 

“Tony.” He stopped just before the closed door leading to the room where this now present anxiety was lurking.  “Why are you doing this?” 

There are several beats of silence before a word passes through the space. “Bucky… you haven’t been the same since Steve left. I want to help you move on from him. It doesn’t take a super genius to see that he broke your heart.” 

It would have been kinder to just have punched him in the gut. Steve had abandoned him. Left him for a woman from his youth after promising a life with him. There had been no reason, no suggestion Steve had been unhappy with him, yet one day he was there and the next there was a note on the coffee table and a gaping hole in his apartment. 

“Please, just try. I know you’re still trying to work through this but just try him out for a little while. You deserve to be happy, open yourself up to it. That asshole wins if you stay hung up on him forever.” 

He really fucking hates when Tony is right. 

Without another word he opens the door without Tony’s permission and steps into the room. The tiny form that lays on the fluffy duvet takes his breath away. 

The boy is lithe, so small Bucky is scared for a second that Tony has given him a child. Getting closer though he sees the marks of manhood, more defined muscle, raised cheekbones, a lack of true baby fat anywhere on his body. He couldn’t help but notice the way a set of small, smooth balls peek out from his pressed thighs. Yet to see his face and Bucky was already feeling the tugging connection, a need to know more. 

Rounding the bundle, he can’t help but pull a blanket off of one of the random shelves, covering the slip of a thing in front of him. Taking the opportunity to glimpse the face of the android coming home with him, he crouches in front of that seemingly sleeping face. 

It takes his breath away. Small noise, delicate cupids bow, wild and frenzied curls framing rosy cheeks. He desperately wanted to see those eyes, wanted to know if they were just as soft as the rest of him. 

“His name is Peter. One of the most high end models, he has features not even on the market. He can feel cold, heat, pain, pleasure. Both his throat and anal cavity are outfitted with the most expensive and durable stimulation sleeves we have available. I picked a version that everyone loves, top seller. He’s able to cum if you want him too. Knows how to groom himself but has preferences. I picked… something a little more dependent. He’ll keep you busy. Utter love bug is what he is. He’s had a little bit of ‘on’ time, just enough to calibrate some settings. His list of enjoyment is fairly open, he’s predisposed to certain things but since he’s never experienced anything he’s not sure what he likes quite yet. Gentle, kind hearted, and designed to form deep attachments, he should be perfect.” 

He is the opposite of Steve. Not the exact opposite, but it seems Tony worried about hitting too close to home and made something that was unfamiliar enough to be wholly new while still takinging into consideration what he might enjoy. Even size wise, where Steve had been bigger than him, Peter was much smaller and maneuverable. Peter could be a doll in his hands if Bucky wanted, put him in control. 

“He’s also the second ever android to be programmed with the ability to form connections of love and feel the full range of emotions available to humans.” 

Bucky’s head shot towards the other man. “Tony, that’s illegal.” 

The frown on that goatee ridden face shows just how aware of that fact he is. “I know, but only on market versions. If you self construct a droid or personally program and install the coding needed, which most people can’t, then it’s fine. I’m not allowed to sell people love, but I can give it to you for free.” 

Already stuck in this deal, already tender for the angelic little thing in front of him, he sighs. “We’re not gonna get in shit for this? He’s not gonna get disassembled if people find out?” 

“Most people aren’t even going to know he’s not human. Unless they get really close and study him, no one on the street is going to see him and think he’s anything but a regular young man out with his boyfriend.” 

“... Alright Tony, you win. Where do I sign?”

____

Becoming conscious, and aware of that consciousness, it is something humans were unprepared for in their creation of AI. After all, children forget the trauma of being born, but how do you prepare a being that can already understand the complexities of life for the sudden plunge into reality? Really, you don’t. 

Peter woke up and for the first time, was aware. His systems were all fine, green lit and all areas functional and ready to go. Yet, he didn’t move. Everything was sounds, shapes, colors, objects, things he knew but that were not familiar. It was something to take in, how do you even begin when there is so much? 

There is a pressure between his shoulders, and suddenly he is focused on what it is to feel. 

“You seem a little overwhelmed, sugar. Everything okay?”

The voice is smooth, registers as male in his system, compared to things he’s never heard but knew the sound of. 

“Yeah… just- trying to get my bearings.” At least speech wasn’t a difficulty. It was not comfortable on his tongue but they were still doable, something he could succeed at even as his vision is too full. He closes his eyes, sighing as the lack of input makes everything feel less chaotic within him. 

“Take all the time you need, I’ve got plenty to give.” 

“What’s your name?” A basic way of understanding, something so ingrained in his code that it was the easiest thing he’d done so far. 

“Bucky, James Buchanan Barnes if you wanna get technical but Bucky is fine.” 

“Bucky,” The name rolled across his tongue, smooth and buttery. It was new but old, as if he’d been told the name thousands of times. It felt like an old hat, a detail he would remember even if everything else in his memory failed. “I like it.” Something clicked, a sense of enjoyment, a rush of pleasant feelings across his skin and the delicate, hair thin wires underneath. 

That seemed to knock the man into silence. Peter reached out, groping for the being that was with him, showing him kindness despite their lack of previous introductions. Fingers grazing something slightly scratchy, he gasps, eyes flying open on reflex when a light pressure envelopes his wrist. 

The man is fuzz but Peter knows enough to know what beauty is and this man must be the very definition of it. Long hair, dark shadows across his upper lip and jaw. Blue, a color he had not realized had a name till he saw it here. He feels warm, a giggle escapes him, something he knows is a sign of his happiness, one he hopes Bucky will share in. 

Smiling is a sign, a good one. Something that makes Peter giddy as he flexes his fingers against that same scratchy surface on Bucky’s face. 

“What is this?” Scritching away with the tips of his digits. 

A chuckles, soothing and filled with a note that rolls slow and low across Peter’s ears. “A beard, you know what that is?”

He looks up the word, searching in his head for an answer until it pops up. “Oh! Yes, I do.” 

“Really are new to this, aren’t you?” 

His cheeks suddenly feel heated and an odd feeling curls in his belly as he glances away. 

“It’s okay darling,” There is a rustling of fabrics and a gentle set of lips pressed to his forehead. A sign of affection, and one Peter knows he loves the second he feels it. “We’ll get you all figured out.” 

[sanstropfremir]

ok alright alright alright kingdom episode two

kinda disappointed that they only showed half the stages, but that's just an editing thing to draw out the content so you can air for longer, i'm not super surprised about that. i would have liked to evaluate them all at the same time, but at least this gives me time to go more in depth for all of them since they're full stages this time and I wrote 3000 words for last episode when they only had 100 secs. so this format will probably keep me sane for longer, i think. 

solid stages all round for them, none had especially glaring flaws on the whole. i'm not gonna do a full ranking for this episode since we haven't seen them all, but i will say that btob’s was my favourite from this set and both ikon’s and tbz’s stages were about equal; they both had things i liked and disliked in equal measure so i'm tentatively giving them the same ranking. full opinions and analysis on each stage below the cut, plus another section of general notes because hey what the fuck did you do to that stage mnet???

and for anyone that’s wondering yes i do have the qualifications. also seriously grab a drink or something because this is LONG.

some general notes

and here i thought this section wouldn't be as big as it was last time because mnet was going to get their shit together about the stage design, but noooooooooooo they had to go and make it worse! thanks mnet i hate it! remember how i said you shot yourself in the foot last time? well ya fuckin kneecapped yourself AND all your idols with this one ya dumb fuckin idiots. alright folks welcome back to stage design 101, my recurring segment where i explain the different types of stage layouts and their effectiveness for kpop idol survival shows, i guess.

ok so last week i covered the basics on theatre in the round and traverse staging, which i’ll link here if there’s anyone new or just wants a refresher. i mentioned that its likely that mnet will switch to an in the round style staging because it offers a lot more freedom for camera movement and also for directional blocking. well, i was wrong. so i'm gonna give you a quick rundown of prosceniums. a proscenium, proscenium arch, or just prosc, is an architectural feature that sits around the front ‘opening’ of the stage that delineates the stage from the audience. if you've ever been in or seen any pictures of old european style theatres it can be quite ornately decorated with scrolling, but it's almost always there in most western theatres. it basically provides your ‘wings,’ which are where you exit off into to get offstage, they provide cover from the audience sitelines. pretty much any theatre where the audience is directly opposing the stage across the 180 degree line is a proscenium stage, even if it doesn't physically have the arch. hell, movie theatres are prosc stages. now, there's a secondary architectural feature/device called a false proscenium, where you set a second, smaller archway inside the first prosc, usually done for a specific effect. think of it like a literal framing device; it's often used to visually signify that ‘this is a play, we are telling a story, please be aware that this is a play thank you.’ but sometimes, it can be a semi-permanent structure that’s set in place to narrow the prosc opening. we had this at my university, there was a false prosc set just inside the actual prosc because the stage had a hilariously big prosc opening for a university that never had casts larger than 24 people. so they set false prosc in to make the stage slightly narrower and to widen the wings, because it doesn't matter what size theatre you're in, you always need more wingspace. makes sense? ok, now here’s a very quick drawing of what i'm pretty sure the kingdom stage looks like:

before you get lost: stage directions are oriented to a person standing on the stage, hence SL and SR being reversed. a quick tip for remembering which way is upstage and which is downstage: if you go too far downstage you fall down (most stages are raised between 2-4’ from the floor, so if you step off the end you will actually fall.) the arrows on here signify the entrances i observed during the performances, which is not necessary in this explanation but i just thought it was interesting to note. still not entirely sure what the surrounding architecture is but it appears that the stage is a raised platform inside a room, and not actually built as part of the building. the ‘house’ is just a technical term for where the audience is, and in this case it's where it looks like most of the film crew and the producers/staff are. there’s pretty clearly a platform upstage centre, and i think there may be some others but i don't care about those right now. what i want to talk about is this dumbass false prosc they set IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE. now i suspect that they did this to solve some problems that they could have had that i don't know about, since i don't know who the stage designer was and what the actual limitations of the space are. but basically they've built two stages and stacked them on top of each other to create one very deep stage, and then separated it off with a false prosc in order to control the size of the space a little better, and possibly to add some visual interest. this stage is functional for its purpose, absolutely, and i think, if mnet actually gave a shit about point of view and camerawork, it could produce some really interesting performances. however, because this stage is so deep, it kind of has the same properties as the traverse stage from before, but just with some big led screens in the middle for reasons. you extra have to pay attention to the directionality because you have all the staff and cameras concentrated in one specific cardinal point, so you have to get creative if you want to crossover between the two sides frequently. again, this is not necessarily bad; restrictions often produce some of the most creative decisions.  but! we have not seen a lot of consideration for camera and sightlines and audience pov, hence why i think this setup is dumb: it’s not facilitating the best performances it could.

ok now to the actual performances

btob

this is my favourite of the group because it's very clean lined and utilizes a few simple devices to pretty good effect. i realize these reviews are making me sound like i only like simple performances but i promise this is not at all true i'm just very critical and very picky. let’s start with the costumes, because why not. 

costumes

i like these very much, i love modernized traditional clothing in all forms, and these are very well tailored and well coordinated. they do the bulk of the work establishing the theme for the performance, along with the costumes on the backup dancers. personally i would have liked them to be a bit more colourful, à la the teal detailing that was on minhyuk’s final look. i'm getting a bit tired of the whole trend of having groups only wear all dark or all white, or maybe sometimes red if they're feeling spicy. obviously uniform colour is the easiest way to tie a group together visually, but on a show like this i think the groups would actually benefit more from looking distinct from each other internally rather than establishing the group as whole.

i liked that minhyuk had a costume change but i didn't really care for how it was how it was broken down. this is a very personal quibble because i literally have spent years prepping quickchanges but the method it broke down wasn’t the most visually compatible with the garment and felt kinda clunky. please ignore this anecdote it's just me being picky.

set

i loved the forest! a very excellent way to divide the stage area and obscure the weird stage lines/architecture that mnet has made. plus the snow, flowers, and fog? makes a really sharp and immediately indicative atmosphere, a very good use of visual shorthand to establish place.

i didnt love the screens, they reminded me a bit too much of rolling whiteboards from grade school, but they are thematically relevant. also, i feel like we didnt actually get to see about half the choreo for them? fuckin mnet and idiocy again. fun use of rear projection with the dancers’ shadows, and also good use of them to direct traffic, if you will. 

personally i think that the sheet gimmick from tbz’s performance would have been a better fit here instead of the screens, especially since the fabric motif was already established at the very beginning of the performance. plus you can do some really fun shadow work with a stretch fabric screen. 

personally i think there could have been a little bit more integration between the forest area and the screen area, or they could have done the whole thing in the forest space, but that would require a bit more consideration of camera and choreo maneuverability

sound

really liked this arrangement, obviously the song is iconic but they added a more traditional instrument sound. has good structure for the loose narrative that they had and they were well to label this as ‘theatre’ version because this did follow very closely to a traditional musical theatre sound and style

lighting

no complaints. the overall theme for this episode is apparently blue and red? again with them i like their dedication to a limited colour palette and i especially like the blossoms at the climax

staging

there was pretty clear camera choreo and a minimum of nausea inducing moves. i think some of the effectiveness of the staging got chopped by the editing but that’s not really btob’s fault.

i was just saying i wanted them to give minhyuk some time to shine, i was not expecting to get it so soon! this is a very smart choreo that proves you can be interesting without doing a lot of tricking. minhyuk obviously did a lot of practice and work with that sword, his movements are very fluid and he knows how to handle it. and it looks like its either a blunted proper blade or a correctly weighted replica. a lot of the times when sword choreo looks fake it's because the person either hasn't had enough practice or the weapon is not weighted/weighted incorrectly. only complaints are that you would never hold your fingers/palm that close and un-anchored over the edge of the blade, which is just a safety thing. also you would never scrape your blade on the ground like that, nor toss the thing like dead fish but that's a respect thing with a live blade and this is clearly done for dramatic effect so i’ll forgive it. please ignore this anecdote also it’s just my third dan getting uppity.

ikon

costume/set

smart thematically to go with the sort of miscellaneous 30s-40s (western) aesthetic because it's the fastest way to make it look like you built a theme with mnet’s weird pseudo art deco nonsense they've inexplicably got going on in the set dec. however, they should have stuck the theme all the way through, it would have been more visually cohesive and more interesting. we expect more hiphop/electronic sounding songs to come with these kinds of 4th gen costumes, it would have been anachronistic in a fun way to have them do that second half in 40s style suits. here’s a performance from sdc3 that uses that kind of anachronistic play (this was a combo stage with two ballroom dancers and it has a 20s aesthetic but close enough.) also here’s another routine from sdc3 that does a similar effect on a much more abstract scale, and also it’s a fucking incredible performance and it got slept on by the captains. also yes i know these are incredibly experienced career dancers but they way they construct narrative within their routines and their stage presence is SO GOOD. 

do not speak to me about the backup dancers costumes, holy shit i hate them. i hate them so much. how do you manage to hit too shapeless AND too fitted in the same fell swoop? i'm so mad at these. i'm neutral on bodycon dresses on the best of days but these were absolutely the wrong choice for this stage. generally kpop has abysmal costuming for female backup dancers on the whole but this is just like.....especially lazy. the point of the costume are to help give an indication of where and when you set your performance. they started off with a vaguely 40s theme and then jumped abruptly modern. why? also skirts like that are the literal worst choice for dancing in, hello?? the men’s looks are just sloppy, when you have a garment that big you want it to serve a purpose within the choreo, whereas with this it's just hiding the dancers’ movements.

as for ikon themselves, see everything ive said about black on black on black styling in the previous two reviews. 

the actual set is minimal and that's tragic. i mentioned mnet’s weird art deco theme and it was smart of them to try and play off that with a lack of stuff. definitely a mismatch of stuff pulled from yg’s prop storage, but they made it work as well as they could. no other meaningful comments i’m just kinda sad about it.

sound

the arrangement is fine, no complaints from me. they keyed up the old hollywood style musical theatre sound in the beginning which i really liked. i didn't mind the song/tone switch, i think they pulled it off.

staging

same as btob they learned more towards a theatrical style, which is smart for this particular format of show. i think this was the smartest staging of these three, and also i think the only ones to not get the crew in shot.

despite seemingly leaning into a more old hollywood style the narrative was a bit too loose for my taste. i'm not sure what i would have done to make it clearer at this moment since they had so little to work with, but i did get by on my previous knowledge of the songs. that shouldn’t be the only indication of narrative though! all elements need to support it!!

also like btob they had a pretty intentional point of direction and there weren't a crazy amount of spins. they also used the camera cuts the most effectively that i've seen so far. the first half is actually all in one take!!! incredible!!! thank you!!!! this is how you do it!!

the lighter flick gimmick was well pulled off and a good example of how to use a couple of simple tricks to good effect.

ikon as a whole has really great stage chemistry with each other, and they're extremely cohesive performers. this is a really strong physical performance from them, the dance was very solid and clean. good use of levels without verging into acrobatics. this might be the best group choreo i've seen so far, but we’re not very far so that's not a very high bar to clear.

it's a shame they had the budget of 1 banana.

tbz

i liked this stage better than their intro stage, but i still think they have a long way to go and they're still over ambitious. personally i find stages based on specific pop culture properties to be kind of twee and ineffectual, because it requires a specific knowledge of that pop culture property to work. sometimes the specificity can help with a narrative but you're at risk of alienating a larger portion of your audience out of sheer non-knowledge than anything else. 

costumes

again, interesting garments physically, but not much clarity of relation to the theme other than the colour. also the backup dancers???? another case of backup dancers being from an entirely different stage, what is up with those coats/dresses? looked more like they belonged in either sweeney todd or a vampire movie. 

hands in front of the camera again, but these were used much more effectively.  i'm not the biggest fan of mixing metals and i’m partial to silver on the whole so i didn't love the jewelry, but at least it was vague and stereotypical enough to denote ‘fire magic’ even if it does rely on a derivative middle eastern shorthand.

set

the stage set itself is fine, although definitely feels a bit haphazard to me. doric columns and frozen rocks and whatever that cover for the pyrotechnics was at the front, combined with the candles and the chaise lounge? like ikon, it felt a bit like they were pulling out of the props/set storage. not that all these things do not work together, it's just that you need a thread to tie them together, and this didn't have that for me.

sound

it's a crime they have a song called ‘no air’ and its not a jordin sparks cover. just saying.

i didnt really like this arrangement, again like their intro stage it didn't have a strong structure that suited the narrative, because they were pretty clearly trying a narrative on this one. also were most of the adlibs playback? they were singing live but there were so few shots of anyone specific singing. 

lighting

probably the weakest of the three. the projection design was a bit too tacky for me, and although i appreciated the small amount of variety in colour, it felt way too concert-lighting for me.

staging

the editing on this stage is wack and did no one any good. the hands leading/pov was a really smart device and they should have stuck out the one takes like ikon did, it would have made the whole stage feel a bit more cohesive. a lot better directional camerawork from them this time around, well done. again with the hands in front of the camera gimmick which i actually preferred this time, since they were a part of the narrative. the stretch/silhouette fabric i think they pulled off quite well, even if it didn't really fit thematically with the piece. i actually worked on a show a very long time ago that used this exact same effect with dancers and also rear shadow projection, and it requires a lot of rehearsal and trust to pull off well, so props to them. i think it was the wrong choice because there isn't an established motif for the fabric, so it kind of appears out of nowhere for one specific visual moment and then disappears, and i think that time could have been better served for something else narratively relevant.

again, these 4th gen groups are overly focussed on gimmicks as a way to make up for the lack of experience. personally i think this will be detrimental in the long run, and a reliance on gimmicks means that you don't trust your performers. tbz have the manpower to be doing some pretty cool collective dance work and i dont think its being trained or utilized correctly. they are suffering from a lack of cohesive stage presence right now and that can be fixed with training and time.

this might be because the group sizes are so different between these three but this choreo is very directionless. mnet is also providing to be absolute garbage at editing and i feel like i can't see the choreo at all.

this is a thing i've noticed with kpop camerawork in general, there’s very little regard for actually viewing the choreo as a singular work. and for some reason the camera always needs to be moving???? people do actually want to see what’s happening on the stage. the choreographer can only see from one spot, so from that spot is how they are intending it to look. you wouldn't need to upload full cams of every music stage if you just filmed the choreo properly in the first place. if you watch the two sdc3 clips i linked you can see a clear difference in maintaining the integrity of the choreo, even though both shows use several cameras and a lot of cuts.  obviously for kpop you want the money shots of idols’ faces but i definitely think there’s a healthier middle ground than what we have now.

ill wait for full subs but i want to know where in the fuck in sk you can rent a tank thas clearly been custom made for underwater photography, because that’s extremely cool even if it was absolutely unnecessary to the actual stage itself. i can think of several ways off the top of my head that would have achieved that same freezing effect without any of that wasted time and effort.

mnet decided to drop full cams while i was writing this and despite watching those my opinions are the same.

in conclusion, some more general thoughts:

i think ikon and btob got it right by leaning more into the theatrical than the cinematic, if that makes sense. i might be talking up my own ass here but these are theatre performances, and they should be treated as such. trying to do things that you can do on film isn't going to do you any favours in the long run, and it makes it harder to make a cohesive performance. i’m harping a lot about narrative but it is so important to performance. although it is not technically necessary, when doing big theatrical performance stages like this it does help with clarity of intent and general success. humans have brains structured around storytelling, it is literally the way our history has been passed down for tens of thousands of years. the atlantic published an article recently on narrative and memory, and it's a really excellent read for maybe after you've taken a break from this behemoth, oh dear god. 

tldr: the stages were good but disappointing in their own ways. mnet continues to sabotage via weird stage design decisions and bad editing. see you next week! (or in my ask box if you have questions)

[mahou-furbies]

I actually really liked those insight posts about Precure brooches, items, and fairies. I was wondering if you could do one about their weapons?

The Precure rankings take quite a lot of time to write so it’s nice that someone reads them!

But yes, the weapons. I haven’t made it a secret that I dislike the toy ad-like weapon designs so I don’t really care for many of these (common complaints: looks ugly and cheap, too much pink even for non-pink characters, rainbow buttons where they don’t belong, buttons or lights that don’t seem to serve any purpose, too much detail), but reading about me complaining about that for dozens of paragraphs probably wouldn’t be very fun. So I won’t put that everywhere and this will be more about judging the items in relation to each other than how they’d fare against all fantasy item designs I know.

Especially with the season I haven’t seen it was a bit bothersome to see if an item was weapon or not, so I just made some quick judgements. I’ll do the other items that aren’t in this or the other precure item posts later.

Futari wa Precure

Not a huge fan of these kind of items where the design philosophy seems to have been “it doesn’t have to resemble a weapon in any way, a pink plastic thing with buttons will do”. I’m not against all weapons looking incredibly impractical (like I love Mew Ichigo’s Strawberry Bell) but here these just look incredibly bland and cynical to me (I mean cynical in a different way than me). 

I was going to be more generous with this since I thought it was a bow and bows are always elegant weapons and I’m always happy to have those regardless of how dumb the design looks, but reading the wiki I guess this is a baton instead. Boo! Still I like how it can be both a heart and also be bent open. The design makes me think of a baby toy though with all the round corners.

Futari wa Precure Splash Star

I like how the girls wear their items differently and the way the heart is framed is nice. But apart from that I don’t find these particularly aesthetically appealing, and they also look a bit too busy compared to the rest of the costume. Busy item designs are less of a problem if its a handheld item that’s clearly not a part of the base design, but when the characters are supposed to wear the item it often looks very out of place, as if it was just tacked on because the marketing team demanded it. Okay I’ll stop with this now

Not pictured: the versions with a star instead of heart, but they look otherwise the same and I like the heart better.

Yes! Precure 5

We now reach weapons I actually like! They’re pleasantly simple without unnecessary buttons everywhere, but with the tulip-like design with the cute little swirl there’s actually some point to it and it’s not just haphazardly placed buttons and lights and jewels. And as a fan of customisation I really like how everyone has their own take on the item. The pink girl apparently doesn’t feel the need to fit the theme though and hers is a lot less interesting to me, but at least it can sort of look like a flower (more like a butterfly though) so it’s not completely out of place.

Laser swors? That is a good idea. The flower is pretty too but I’d prefer it if it was a bit smaller, now it looks a bit unbalanced, and also why does everyone have to have a pink one again? Meanwhile the powerup version looks a lot more cheap, busy and gaudy.

Not a fan of this one, it feels like a portable lottery wheel, which would be a fun idea if Milky Rose had to work around with an item that gives her random powers, but I’m guessing that’s not the case. Another option would be that she’d use this to cut pizza. The blue roses and purple handle would make for a pleasant colour scheme, but then there’s the rainbow mini roses which break that, I think this would look more appealing if the roses were detachable and she’d attach the one she wants to use, but I guess the spinning wheel is supposed to be the Thing here.

Fresh Precure!

Pretty standard magical girl wands, white with obligatory pink for everyone and rainbow lights. At least everyone gets a crystal thingy at the tip in their own colour and card suit and it’s nice that they use their items differently (though Berry this is not a sword no matter how you try to slice it) but otherwise I’m not really interested.

Nice colours and the wing is cute, and I actually like the bizarre idea here. Like you could add power to the harp with the heart while playing it, or attach different attacks or whatever. But this exemplifies my main issue with the Precure items: okay, you can’t sell an actual harp with actual strings to kids so you sell this instead, ok. But why does the item in the show have to be a 1:1 replica? Disney can sell Elsa’s castle legos or inaccurate cheap-looking dolls but the counterparts in the movies look perfectly serviceable, so why can’t Passion have actual strings in her harp instead of these huge led lights?

Heartcatch Precure!

I like the metallic or glassy sheen at least in this shot and the shape of the handle. What I don’t like is the middle heavy design, I’d rather have the rainbow thing in the middle (which I’d prefer not be rainbow) either be smaller and moved to the tip, or the end part being longer so it’d look a bit like a sword.

This one is rather basic, like it’s just a circle with hearts around it. But at least it doesn’t do anything stupid and the colour palette checks out.

Suite Precure

I like the idea of being able to split the item in two but especially Rhythm’s looks a bit silly when it’s not in two parts, like now it’s not a baton or staff or really anything I could describe. But somehow I still like Melody and Rhythm’s items, at least they have consistent colour schemes and despite initially looking very different actually use the same base so that’s nice customisation. But how come the pink girl didn’t get the more ornate one? The guitar looks more on the cheap side, this is a toy guitar, not a magic guitar. And are those multicoloured buttons I spy again? But thanks to the more calm colour palette it’s not the worst toy guitar ever at least.

Smile Precure!

My first impression on this was “wow this is so dumb”, but the horse’s sleeping eye with the glamorous eyelashes makes it loop back to awesome. This is girly fairy tale magical girl design cranked up to eleven and I can only marvel the boldness. However like with the Heartcatch wand this one feels a bit unbalanced, the bottom and middle are pretty big so I’d prefer if the “blade” part was a bit longer and again the rainbow hears feel unnecessary.

Based on design alone this is a contender for my least favourite battle item, but I’ll have to hold my full judgement until I see it in action. But this has it all, there’s obligatory pink and rainbow, overdesigned, looks very cheap and gaudy. 

Doki Doki! Precure

This is some seriously extreme lipstick. I guess this is a serviceable design if you want to make a lipstick based weapon, it’d probably not look very impressive if it was regular size. I like the twist-able red jewel, and the fact  that while she can use different lipstick colours, the item sticks to just red and yellow.

Here we have the collapsible bow I was hoping we’d get with Shiny Luminous. Apart from the obligatory pink palette for everyone I really like these, again bow makes for a great weapon, and I also like its collapsed form, that thing just invites you to press a button and have it open up. Though holding the bow looks kind of awkward. And is this the largest Precure weapon we have? Where are the huge staffs?

For starters, I find there’s something absolutely hilarious about the name “Magical Lovely Pad”. Story-wise it has the baggage of belonging to an attack where the other characters send their power to Mana (of course) so she can take all the spotlight, but as far as the design goes I guess it’s alright for a magical tablet. And I thought this was one of the items where it just floats in the air awkwardly but apparently the Cures do hold it in their hands, so points for that.

The harp is kind of silly looking but i have to commend it for at least having the strings not be thick as a straw.

Happiness Charge Precure!

A pretty straightforward item, nice colour palette and the heart ribbon things at the ends are the same as the bracelet and resemble the brooch too so it’s consistent with the reset of the items in the season. I also like how it can be split into maracas too.

I think the idea of a star-shaped tambourine is perfectly serviceable, but this one just looks kind of cheap, like we’re in the baby chew toy category again. But I feel this could be salvaged if you gave it a more harmonious colour palette, made the heart look more like a crystal and the jingles metal (i.e. not so plastic-y).

This one always felt hilarious in that you have a grown man character showing interest in this thing. But as a weapon it’s one of my least favourites. The makeup pens that come with this are fine I guess (though the makeup the girls put on themselves looks like the “this character doesn’t know how to use makeup” kind) but the main item is very unappealing to me. I guess it boils down to the fact that this kind of items feel more like that the Cures just push a button and then the item does its magic light blast of goodness and love on its own, while with the wands and musical instruments and such the Cures feel more like they’re actively using the weapon.

Go! Princess Precure!

An alright wand, even if the tip feels a bit too heavy. The mostly white-and-goldd design is a lot more preferable to the usual pink, the dress up keys get to take a part, and the tip looks a bit like a crown.

This is in the same category as Passion’s harp, nice colour palette and a musical instruments make for a great magical girl weapon in theory, but here the result is just too cheap and toylike. No way I can imagine a violin sound coming out of this, the only thing I hear is two pieces of plastic rubbing together.

This is it, the worst item. Magical girl weapons don’t all need to resemble actual weapons, but there are some limits to how far you should go. Out of all the Precure items this feels the most like the toy department just said “we want to sell a toy castle, so have the main characters play with one in every episode after its introduction”. Can’t they use a less awkward item to conjure this castle around them and sell a miniature version of that as a dollhouse or something?

As a toy this is fine, like I had a similar little castle (it was semi-transparent blue and you could turn on a pink light in it) and sure I could imagine placing some Pikachu toys on it and have them dance, but as a weapon in a story I hate it. 

Mahou Tsukai Precure!

These look pretty nondescript and forgettable. At least they don’t have multicoloured beads running down the staff, but there’s not much to talk about.

This one is cute but kind of basic too; the gold butterfly feels a bit unnecessary but if you remove it the whole thing would be pretty bland. Still, there’s nothing overly stupid and I like that the flower bud doesn’t miss the obvious that it should open in an attack.

Kira Kira Precure A La Mode

This one is a bit too bulky, but at least it makes it stand out a bit more. It also helps the item not look so unbalanced with the huge glass (?) ball in the middle. And it’s nice how you can see the Kira Kiraru in it; it makes the item feel more real when you get to see the resource it uses. The cream like decorations are cute and appropriate and the walking cane shape reminds me of the candy filled plastic canes I used to get from the summer market as a kid.

I got nothing on this, it’s another magical girl wand that doesn’t particularly stand out in any way. At least the rainbow buttons fit the theme this time?

Google tells me it’s an actual product, but to me ‘creamer’ still sounds like a Wrong kind of name to use in a kids’ show. That aside the idea of piping cream on the enemy is fun, but I don’t think they do that in the attack... But for the potential I like the design; unsurprisingly I’d remove the multicoloured decorations on the handle but otherwise it’s alright.

Hugtto! Precure

This one feels really generic, white staff with pink accents and rainbow jewel thingies. Not interested, next!

These look a bit too bulky for my taste, I think they’d look better if the neck was longer. The colours are also a bit too gaudy for my taste (and the guitar totally disappears in Macherie’s dress), though in their defense in better pictures you can see they have more white so the result isn’t quite so stuffy. But still magical guitars make for a good weapon for idol themed characters.

This feels really generic, like it’s just a bunch of hearts glued together. Next!

Star Twinkle Precure

The wand is pretty basic, but there’s something in its simpleness that I like. If you removed the pink and purple crown thingy it would be better, like only neutral white and gold, and everyone’s theme colours equally in the shooting star (or I guess the star is also yellow for Soleil but it still feels more neutral than the usual pink). With its many colours and short tail the shooting star feels like something from a baby nursery but I guess if the tail was longer it’d start feeling more like a sickle.

As for the prefume bottle, I don’t find the design particularly attractive, and it also feels like yet another case where pink has been shoehorned in. And the little ribbon feels very unnecessary.

Healin’ Good Precure

My criticism on Passion’s harp also applies here, and this time I also find the overall design less appealing with several of the details feeling a bit tacked on.

(the wands have already been bitched at in the henshin item post)

[yandere-wishes]

Genie and the Savanclaw boys

So this was someting I wrote to get me out of my sour mood. Latly I haven’t been feeling to great. So I decided to wrote some platonic scenarios between my persona Genie and Jack, Ruggie and Leona, please let me know what you thought of this, I spent roughly six hours on it.

A quick recap of Genie's powers

Vision--  Genie can see small glimpses of a person's past. "Past Vision 2/4" occurs when Genie comes into direct contact with a person's possession (it could be inanimate or their darlings), this allows her to see a quick "video" of their past which can last up to 2 minutes. "Past Vision 4/4" is a longer version of the previous power. For her to be able to view an in detailed vision of a person's past, she must first have experienced a "Past Vision 2/4" of them and this power can only be unlocked while she's in her lamp. Think of it as downloading a video and only being able to watch the first two minutes until you're in "a room with a sort of significance to you." Due to this power also affecting her, Genie is sometimes forced to relive traumatizing events that have occurred to her in the past one thousand years.

Maniacal File-- Note that all of Genie's powers are based on manipulating the "yandere side" of people and or events. Maniacal file lets Genie create multiple scenarios or events for how a person under a yandere influence may act. Think of this as someone having a multitude of one-shots or stories about one particular "character". Now, these "files" allow her to do two different things. One being able to manipulate the person to commit various acts, such as murder, kidnapping amongst other macabre deeds. Two, she's able to mimic almost anything a that a person who's file she "owns" can do. Of course for this to work, the files first have to be shrunk to the size of a USB and inserted into her encephalon manually (or with the use of a bit of magic). The more files she has on someone the better she understands them and the better she can help them with their "wishes", there is also a sentimental viewpoint to these "files". Since Genie is very anti-social and withdrawn these fils are sorta like her "friends". For her to obtain a person "files" she will need to either see them perform a sort of "yandere like" act, stalk them to better understand them or/and have a very in-depth and detailed conversation with them.

Bloody Background-- Certain environments (like the entirety of the Savanclaw dormitory) trigger "bloody background" which always Genie to see multiple "escape routs" or "attack routs". These routes can be used for hiding, stalking and multiple other things.

Jack Howl

Genie’s eyes landed on the warn out beat up door. Scratch marks ranging in size, were left on the wooden entrance, each one a declaration of war. The purple-haired Jinn traced her long slender fingers over a random set of claw marks, debating whether or not to enter the Jackel’s den. For a split second her vision flashed, the ground morphed from marble to rough rock, bones of wild animals littered the ground, the door had disappeared and in its place was the mouth of a pitch-black cave. Screams of terror scorched the air followed by maniacal laughter… She'd seen this place before, stood on the very same flooring and heard the same disparate cries o despair.  “Ten more seconds and then the roar” she whispered. But the visions never last that long, it shattered into a thousand tiny shards and scattered away. Genie once again stood in front of the battered door. Inside she could hear the low grunts and huffed breaths of the ill-tempered first year that resided within. There was no reason for her to enter, she had no need nor business to invaded his privacy like this, her intentions boarded on plain rude…but the curiosity of the matter was eating her alive. She had to know!

Jack Howl first year Savanclaw student with a knack for getting into fights. He had no friends, never showed interest in a darling and the only words he ever spoke where curses and threats. Due to his harsh and brutish manner, Genie had never been able to receive a type three profile on him. Sure she knew all his attack moves and strategies by heart and could predict any action he would partake before he even knew it himself. But that left the biggest question unanswered...what kind of darling did he desire?

Based on pure analysis she could take an educated guess and say a darling whose temper was even shorter than his and who would beat up a defenseless person for kicks. But there were so many "what ifs.." maybe he liked a girl who was the opposite of him. Or maybe someone brave enough to stand in his way and tell him to stop his meaningless fits of rage. All these questions made the young girl's mind race with potential suiter for the boy.

Hesitantly the Jinn pushed on the door, it creaked as it was shoved out of her path. "Um...J-Jack", she counted her heartbeats a thing most Genii tend to do to pass the time. One heartbeat, two--

"GET OUT!" A water bottle flew in her direction, hitting the left side of her face. Ok so maybe she didn't know every move as confidentially as she had thought. "Ow!!" a court whine came after, followed by a stream of tears. Before Genie knew it she had fallen to the floor legs splayed to either side of her and loud sobs escaping from her mouth. The bruise on her head where to waterbottle had hit her pulsed with pain each time her heart beated. She frantically tried to dry the tears with her wrists to no avail. This was not what was suppose to happen, but then again had she expected anything better?

"Hey cut that out" Jack kneeled next to her frame, roughly grabbing both her wrists in one large callused hand. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp for a second debating wheater to kick or headbutt him. Slowly her white hair aggressor lifted his other hand to her face and wiped away her tears. "hey hey no more crying ok? You're going to be alright got it?" His voice was rough and demanding but it held a gentle undertone.

It took a while but eventually, Genie's tears stopped and her sobs died down. When the room had fallen into a semi-comfortable silence jack spoke again. "What the hell was up with barging into my room? Are you trying to get beat up?"

Genie casted her gaze downwards and took in a shack breath. 1 heartbeat, 2 heartbeats, 3 heartbeats...

"I wanted to...to-to talk to you..." Her voice shook with uncertainty and cracked from the strain the crying fit had left on her vocal cords.

"What for?" Jack glared at her, a snarl spread across his lips and his grip on her wrists tightened. "Don't tell me a useless pipsqueak like you want to pick a fight with me?"

In that second a strategy started to map out in her brain, Millian old gears turning and formulating words, tailoring them together to generate sentences. She swiftly lifted her eyes and locked her blood-red orbs with his golden ones.

"I-I've seen you fight, multiple times actually and I...I um came up with some strategies and suggestions for how you can improve...not that you're not tremendous I mean sorta good, already but...but um I can help you improve...if if you want that um that is."

Jack's eyes bore into her soul for a solid moment, he tossed her hands aside savagely. Getting up he stomped in the opposite direction, his bushy snow-white tail smacked her beauty in the face. He paused for when he reached his punch bag, grabbing the role of hand wrap, reapplying it to his bloody bruised knuckles. Finally, he barked out an answer "Meet me by the elephant skull at twelve am sharp, got it!"

feebly Genie stood up, using the wall as a support. "S-sure thing" she replied, surprise evident in her tone "You g-got" a large triumph smile graced her tanned face.

"Oh and bitch?"

Too happy to register the insult Genie cheerfully responded with a chirpy "yes".

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!"

Ruggie Bucchi

Booted feet pounded on the rough uneven ground. Heavy breathing filled the air. Behind her, Genie could hear footsteps chasing after her. Panic crawled into her mind, stretching its self thinly over her mind. It's ok she mumbled to herself, just realize you've done this a billion of times before.

"Bloody Background" she whispered under her breath. Genie blinked, hundreds of tiny blue circles appeared in her red orbs. A full layout of the land before he appeared in the far left side of her sight, multiple little notes flashed in bright shades of blue and red. navigating through the notes and maps, Genie finally made heads and tails of the situation. Quickly mapping out the most deceitful rout.

--Run 10 meters then take a left, lean to the right there is a 16 cm deep pothole in the middle of the path.--

Accelerating her pace she took a sharp turn, behind her she heard the squeaky raw sound of shows scrapping rock. followed by a few curses. She kept running, watching as a blue circle highlighted the promised pothole. She aimed right, hissing as the rock wall bite into her skin. when she was a good few feet away she heard a scream and 'thump', her pursuer had hit the fallen that should give her a head start of approximately three minutes.

--with a three-minute head start run straight ahead, you'll come to a cliff jump and role down. The current calculations do not predict any major damages to be inflicted, fractures and momentary body shutdowns are not guaranteed to be avoidable.--

Her body was feeling numb, blood rushing to her fingertips. A warm dusty wind hit her face, small bits of sand sticking in her eyeballs. "Thank you Arabian desserts" she mumbled, there really were some benefits of being born in the 8th-century middle east. In front of her the earth seemed to disappear, she braced her self for the jump. Leaping into the air she curled her body into a semi-oval like shape. Upon impact, with the rugged ground, she curls her self further. She finally used the tip of her boot to dig a slow her down. Getting up again she started to run trying her best to ignore the immense pain in her right arms and the various bruises and blooding scratches over her body.

--The skull on an elephant in approaching, hid in the inside of its hollow cranium.--

No, no hiding Genie thought to herself. This whole chase -although exhilarating- was starting to get boring. She scanned the ground, reading the comments trying to find something that might help. The blue comments kept highlighting potentially useful objects and hideouts. Swiftly Genie picked up two rock shards. Holding them tight she switched her path and dashed for the elephant skull in the far right.

She entering through the mouth, quickly taking in her surroundings. Using the jagged bone matter, Genie pulled her self up climbing until she reached the window of the empty eye socket. Looking out she could see Jamil, so he'd been her mysterious stalker. Racking her brain for a second Genie tried to find a reason why Jamil of all people would be after her. Did he need something? Was he having trouble with his darling? Or did he need her for something else?

The second-year Scarabia student was only a few meters away from the skull, his back turned eyes darting every which way trying to find the Jinn girl. Swiftly Genie positioned her self, one foot resting on the opening of the eye, the other ready to push her forward. One arm held her still while the other gripped one of the shards.

One heartbeat, two heartbeats, three heartbeats...

She leaped forward, crashing into Jamil's back. The third dorm's vice president landed face first in the dirt, Genie straddling his back. She raised her hand with the rock, balling it into a fist and slamming it down on Jamil's head.

"Ouch, cut that out you rouge Jinn!"

Genie didn't respond she struck him again and again. A sickly smile spreading on her face.

"Aw look at you little bunny, trying to beat a man to death."

Turning her head Genie glared at the source of the voice. Her eyes immediately widened. They're on top of an elephant spin sat the savage gluten of savanclaw Ruggi Buchi the vice dorm leader.

He leaned his head onto his hand and smirked down at the two. At that moment Genie noticed just how dark the sky had gotten and how many glowing eyes were watching her. She gulped and rolled off of the boy. Landing on the ground in a w sitting position. Jamil also got up, he placed a hand on the back of his head covering the bleeding wound. With his free hand, he grabbed Genie's wrist. "Listen here you useless genie.." Before he could finish Ruggie had landed next to him, claws leaving deep scratches in his arm. With a painful hiss, Jamil retracted his injured arm. Ruggie walked behind Genie placing a protective hand over her shoulder. "Get off our territory before Leona arrives."

Jamile sent one last glare towards the duo before returning from which he came.

"thanks" Genie mumbles

"Don't mention it, that's what a pack is for" Ruggie flashes her a predatory smirk

Leona Kingschalor

Genie leans over Leona's shoulder, arms loosely wrapped around his shoulders. A few centimeters in front of them a blue port screen is floating in the air. pictures of multiple girls rotating with their bios on the side.

"We really need to find you a darling big brother" Genie mutters as she nuzzles the crook of his neck. Leona simply takes another bite of the beef jerky in his hands, he chews slowly, relishing the feeling of his beloved "sister's" warm breath over his exposed skin. "Why are you in such a rush? Despreat to have me occupied with someone else so you're all alone and abandoned again?" He could feel her body tense, her breath hitch, and the nervous tick as she dug her long nails into his shoulder.

"N-no you're just getting older and we need to find the future king his queen. That-that's all"

Leona huffed and glared at the screen, there was something rather monotonous about these girls, they all lacked a certain "spunk" to them. Plus how did she expect him to concentrate when she was right there.

Leona didn't know when the entirety of Nightraven had decided that the naive little psycho jinn would become his "little sister" or even why for that matter. If it had been up to him he'd declare her as his darling the moment her lamp had been tossed through that magic mirror in the director's office. But something had happended, some choices, something! What that something was he did not know...only that it kept them apart.

Genie straightened and walked over to Leona plumping down on his lap and grabbing the screen, scrolling through some names and articles mindlessly. Automatically Leona's hands when to her head patting her softs then braiding a section of their hair to match his own. It was the brotherly thing to do, but when had it become so natural? "Look big brother.." Genie turned the screen and showed Leona the "file" of a round-faced hyena girl. She looked cute, maybe even try worthy...just not right now. "She's cute," he mutters turning his emerald eyes to Genie's face. No, he though her Genie's cheeks where come how rounder and puffier.

"I could set up a date if you--"

"NO!" Leona flinched he hadn't meant for it to come out so harsh. He cleared his throat and gently caressed the "young" girl's face, started pulling both her cheeks. "Why don't you give me her number and I'll give her a call after my nap...how's that?" The purple-haired girl tried to nod despite her flesh being pulled in opposite directions. "Good" Leona let go of her face and got up, lifting Genie up in the process. He walked over to the door of his room kicking it open and letting her fall on the bed, not a second later he plumped down on top of her. Genie let out a giggle and squirmed under him until she had some breathing room. "Get some rest  Ruggi tells me you haven't slept in a week." This was concern, it was how an "older brother was supposed to feel for his "little sister". "But I'm not sleepy-" she tried to protest. "Don't care, do that counting thing you do sometimes maybe that'll bore you enough to drift off."

She obeyed like the good little sister she was supposed to be. As sleep took over his sense Leona heard her tiny voice barely above a whisper.

one heartbeat, two heartbeats, three heartbeats, four heart--

[diogenescamus]

How The JRY/Ace Ops + Winter Scene In RWBY V8E7 Could've Been Done Better

From the RWBY Volume 8 Midseason Trailer: ......................................................................... Winter and the Ace Ops are, presumably, heading towards the whale with that bomb. It looks ridiculous to me considering she’s all “CHARGE!!” and they’re shuffling along with this massive thing. But the size does tell us that no, this can’t be a quick in-and-out mission like some of us hypothesized before, nor will it be an easy stealth mission (which is perhaps off the table entirely given Winter’s yell). Whether Team JRY has gotten Oscar out yet, given the Ace Ops information about the whale layout, or if they’re still inside is unknown.

. In regards to the JRY and Winter + Ace Ops scene from RWBY Volume 8 Episode 7 "War", I think it could've been done better. Like, what we got was alright, but a little more thought could've made the whole scene a whole LOT better. This is what I mean. . I think it's cool that Ren's Semblance is evolving to where he can sense emotions in general. It fits. Plus, it gives him some more versatility with his Semblance. . My real issue with the whole Ren's speech scene is that I easily thought up of an obvious way that whole scene could've been improved. Like, it's so freaking obvious, so why didn't the writers think of it? The components are right there. Anyways, here's how that whole scene could've been improved. . I kind of like Ren's whole "no one is replaceable" speech, so I think keeping the "muh feelings" aspect is fine but it can be improved by adding some rationality and strategy to it. If the writers would allow Jaune to be competent (for once instead of always relegating him to inept cringy comic relief) , he could've come up with a brilliant plan that could've turned the tide like this. He could first ask Winter to patch him to Ironwood, saying that he has a plan that could save all of them. Winter reluctantly agrees and gets Ironwood on the line. Jaune explains his brilliant plan that could turn the tide: . Jaune: "General Ironwood, I've come to make a bargain, so that we can both get what we want. We want to save Oscar who's in that Grimm Whale and retrieve the Lamp but you're not going to let us go without a good reason. Ace Ops' mission is to get into that huge Grimm Whale and deliver a bomb so that it can hopefully kill it and save Atlas. But how are they going to get through the hundreds of Grimm surrounding the Whale while also carrying the heavy Bomb? And even if they could get past all of them and make it inside the Whale, we don't know what type of Grimm or who else could be inside the Whale or if the Whale could be able to sense them inside it. They don't have any clear shot of going through those Grimm undetected while carrying the Bomb. That's where we come in. Ren here has a Semblance that allows him to mask negative emotions, allowing him and those under his Semblance to be completely invisible to Grimm, walk right past them. Thing is, he can only use it on 2 people by himself. That's where I come in. My Semblance allows me to amplify Aura and you know that I can do a whole lot from there. I have lots of Aura and you know how strong my Amps are. I've tanked a hit from a Colossus mecha head on and kept on walking. I healed Weiss from nearly dying to a flaming spear to the liver and lungs from Cinder during the Battle of Haven. Ren, Yang, and I are low on Aura but with a few minutes of intense concentration, I can regenerate my Aura and subsequently their's as well. From there, I can Amp Ren and his Semblance, allowing him to mask dozens, even over a hundred. With Ren and I, we can mask the Ace Ops and get them through the Grimm and into the Whale undetected. With Ace Ops backing us, we can fight our way through Salem's forces inside the Whale, retrieve Oscar and the Lamp of Knowledge, and plant the Bomb with some boosting on my end for good measure. In order to get what we both want, we have to work together, in order to save Atlas and Mantle. So do we have a deal?" . There is some silence on the other end as Ironwood contemplates on Jaune's deal before making a decision. . Ironwood: "Very well Mr. Arc, we have a deal. Ace Ops, coordinate with Arc, Ren, and Xiao-Long for the Payload Mission. Ren and Arc are the only real vital assets we need to pull this off but Xiao-Long should be useful as extra muscle, provided she doesn't just betray us like last time. But keep this in mind. Whether you escape from the Whale with Oscar and the Relic or not in time, this Bomb WILL go off. I will not put the lives of thousands of Atlesians at risk for the sake of 4 people. So be prepared to take responsibility for your own lives." . Jaune: "Understood." . From there, everyone gets to work, preparing for the Mission. Ren uses his Semblance "Tranquility" on himself and Jaune so that Jaune can intensely focus on meditating and utilizing his extremely fast Hazel-level Aura Regeneration Factor. The other Ace Ops don't put up a fuss, because they've been there during training with Jaune and his friends, so they know that he's being truthful and accurate in his and Ren's capabilities and how they can help make their suicidal mission an actual success. I may have been a bit overly detailed with all that Jaune said in that but I wanted to avoid CRWBY’s tendency towards annoying vagueness and not have Jaune repeat his stupidly vague "Hit them harder" thing, so I kept it a bit detailed so that both Ironwood AND the audience can know exactly what Jaune is proposing and how it's plausible enough to be effective. So in that scene, Jaune was persuading not only Ironwood but the audience as well. Ironwood and Ace Ops know that they would need the help of Ren and Jaune in order to make the Bomb Mission a success and if that means helping them with finding Oscar and the Lamp, then it's an acceptable risk/compromise that works for both sides' favor. Given that the Grimm Whale "Monstra" (that's the official name for it by the way) is several times bigger than the previously largest shown Grimm, the Leviathan, there's not a strong possibility that whatever Dust Nuke that Ironwood and the Atlas Army was able to cook up at the last minute would be powerful enough to take out the Grimm Whale. Jaune using his Semblance to drastically Amplify the Dust inside the Dust Nuke would act as a logical action to take as his Semblance can be the lynchpin to making sure the Dust Nuke would be powerful enough to destroy a colossal size Grimm like the Monstra. Plus, this serves as payoff to all the set up with the Training Scenes in Volume 7, especially the one in RWBY Volume 7 Episode 6 "A Night Off" which showed Jaune training his extremely fast Hazel-level Aura Regeneration rate. Not only that but it more logically connects JRY's goal and Winter + Ace Ops goals together, which also helps from a screentime perspective. . Anyways, after Jaune has fully regenerated his Aura, he uses his Semblance to Amplify the Aura Regeneration rates of Ren, Yang, and even Winter and the other Ace Ops so that their Auras are more than full. From there, they pick up the large heavy Whale Killing Bomb and then disembark from the Bullhead when they reached the closest they could come. From there, they get out. Jaune touches the shoulders of Marrow and Winter, Amplifying them. Marrow uses his Amplified "Stay!" to freeze the Grimm Horde attacking Atlas, with hundreds of avian Grimm dropping from the skies due to paralysis. An Amplified Winter Summons hundreds of full sized and Giant sized Beowolves, Ursi, Goliaths, Gryphons, and Nevermores, with her army of Summons tearing through the paralyzed Grimm Horde. This serves as reinforcements to the frontlines of Atlas soldiers and Mechas who were struggling against the Grimm, with several of the avian Summons entering the city to tear through the Grimm that made it through. This continues for a few minutes before Jaune, Marrow, and Winter have to stop, with Winter's Summon Army dissipating. Tearing through those Grimm would only be good so far as the Grimm Whale wouldn't stop producing more and more Grimm. By this time, the reinforcements have given the frontlines enough breathing room that they can relaunch the offensive with a second wind. . From there, Yang, Elm Ederne, and Vine Zeki (with his Aura Vines) lift and carry the large, heavy Whale Killing Dust Bomb while Jaune stands with Marrow and Ren in front, touching their shoulders and using his Semblance to Amplify the both of them, so that Marrow could Paralyze any enemies they face and Ren could mask everyone's negative emotions along with using his new Emotion Sensing ability to keep track of Grimm and even provide some protective fire with StormFlower. Jaune, Ren, and Marrow act as vanguard while Yang, Elm, and Vine act as middleguard with carrying the Bomb, and Harriet Bree and Winter Schnee cover the rear, with each using their Semblances to quickly and stealthily take down any paralyzed Grimm or enemies that they encounter, both in the front and rear. With this formation, the group ventures forward through the belly of the beast. Anyways, other stuff happens, blah blah blah, Oscar and the Lamp are retrieved and the Bomb is planted and Jaune uses his Semblance on the Bomb itself, Amplifying the Dust inside. (If he can Amplify Aura and Semblances, then it only makes sense that he can also Amplify Dust which can enhance both Aura and Semblance as well, with the function of Jaune's Amps being akin to a more potent version of Coco's Semblance "Hype") . Meanwhile, Ruby somehow arrives inside the Whale as well. Salem is pissed and is ready to dish out her 5-Maidens-worth of Magic against them but Ruby uses her Silver Eye Burst. It doesn't really hurt or kill Salem, as she's probably faced hundreds of Silver Eyed Warriors in the past who were much stronger than Ruby, but it does succeed in distracting Salem enough to prevent her from instantly annihilating them all with her Magic. Using that distraction, Jaune grabs on to Ruby and Amplifies her Semblance, with Ruby using it to grab all of their allies and very quickly flies out of the Whale at Mach speeds, before depositing everyone outside near the frontlines. We then see Salem watch the Bomb detonate at ground zero, with the Amplified Dust Bomb utterly destroying the Whale and causing a massive shockwave to spread throughout the air. And that's how they could turn the tide. . Anyways, I'm not the only one who was thinking something as obvious as this, right? . To conclude, these are the reasons why this rewritten scenario of how the JRY and Winter + Ace Ops scene in RWBY Volume 8 Episode 7 "War" would've been a logical and obvious improvement over what we've got in the show...... FIRST, the additions here make it clear that JRY, Winter, and Ace Ops are teaming up together. This not only gets around splitting the screentime between JRY and Winter + Ace Ops by having it so that they're both together instead of splitting off. SECOND, it gives a logical reason for why JRY and Winter + Ace Ops would both try to go inside the Grimm Whale and more naturally facilitates a team up rather than them going separately. Also, in my scenario, I had it where Ironwood is actually contacted (instead of being kept in the dark) and is offered a logical plan that allows JRY and Winter + Ace Ops to team up so that they can both get what they want. Even with saving Atlas and Mantle being his foremost priority, Ironwood could recognize the importance of retrieving Oscar and the Lamp of Knowledge, and the fact that Jaune's offer of an alliance is not only logical and beneficial but also is one that is being offered to him straight rather than being done behind his back, makes the offer all the more enticing. Not only that but Ironwood and Ace Ops would already know that Jaune's claims are true and accurate because they've spent weeks training together. THIRD, everything I've pretty much outlined in the scenario not only payoffs what's been set up before in Volume 7 and 8 but also serves as a natural and logical solution  for the Good Guys to net out a victory and save Atlas and Mantle without requiring an Ass Pull or Deus Ex Machina. All the components are there to make it happen. FOURTH and finally, this would show JRY and Ironwood/Winter/Ace Ops putting aside their differences and working together to save Atlas and Mantle, which is a FAR contrast to Ruby "Sipping Tea While The Apocalypse Is Happening" Rose and her compatriots'' irrational irascible refusal to work together with Ironwood which only makes things worse for everyone.

   . What do you all think?

[tiaragqueen]

Ferae Naturae

✂ Pairing: Yandere! Bakeneko! Sakuya x Reader

✂ Word Count: 1,4k+

✂ Trigger Warnings: Death, arson, possessiveness, implied abuse

[Edited]

***

If you like my writing, please support me on ko-fi!

A longer version of my old story, Get Even, with a lot few tweaks here and there. And I finally got to use my favorite word here. I present to you my favorite darling, Sakuya! Above is his human form.

“I promise you're safe with me. You're not alone. You're safe with me. Your heart is home. Now and forever, I'll be your shelter.” - Safe With Me [Megan Nicole]

Sakuya never really understood why most humans always stayed or returned to the person who had hurt them, even when the said person had blatantly displayed no sign of repentance. Irrefutable matters such as consanguinity must’ve played a huge factor in their so-called ‘loyalty’, he supposed, but it still didn’t justify their self-destructive actions. The way they behaved as though nothing was wrong and deliberately allowed their pain to fester under a veneer of tolerance was exasperating and absurd at best, even for him who tended to observe from the distance.

Then again, Sakuya wasn’t born in a human family, anyway. There was only so much he could learn from their lives without actually experiencing them.

But he knew enough to know that hitting his owner was an unforgivable sin; one that deserved an equal punishment.

“You never do anything right!”

A sturdy man, whom Sakuya learned his name was Araki, shouted. He had been doing this ever since he came home and found that you hadn’t cooked dinner because you were exhausted from cleaning the house all day. Granted, it was a humble cabin in the middle of a forest, but for someone to clean all the nooks and crannies while doing other tasks proved to be taxing. Sakuya knew it, too, because he’d seen just how tirelessly you worked every day with little rest and appreciation. All you’d gotten was more and more complaints from that bastard of a husband, sometimes elevating to verbal abuse. Sakuya wondered why and how you bore such an attitude for a long time and stuck with him when you could have someone better.

If it were him, he’d surely leave without a second thought. Better yet, kill him.

But, alas, you were too meek. Under the pretense of loyalty, you accepted everything from him – every word, every beating, every overt manipulation – and toiled even harder. However, Sakuya wasn’t a fool. He was fully aware of your insecurities and fears; of being incompetent, of being abandoned, of being lonely. Although you already had him, a cat that had been spending time with you more than your own husband, you remained hopelessly in love with the latter.

And, honestly, Sakuya couldn’t fault you. It wasn’t easy to separate a wife from her husband due to the finality of marriage, and the only way would be death.

Would it be worth the effort, though? It wasn’t as if you were blind to Araki's vices, anyway. Rather, you accepted them wholeheartedly and believed he’d change someday despite the lack of progress. You loved and married him, knowing full well you’d plunge yourself into a turbulent life. Heck, you’d even confessed it to Sakuya! You weren’t naïve and acknowledged that your love story was far from perfect or even good.

You comprehended the result of marrying such a rough man, which meant, you also comprehended his treatment towards you.

However, wrath defenestrated every understanding and sense the moment Araki raised a hand to slap you. Normally, Sakuya wouldn’t bother much with domestic violence because he wasn’t attached to either of them. But you were his owner – no, belonging – and he protected what was his, regardless of the consequences.

Sakuya hissed and leaped to Araki’s face, swiping the delicate skin ferociously. He didn’t even use his real claws, but the current ones were enough to provoke a stream of curses and groans from Araki.

Your eyes swelled, torn between intervening and doing nothing. Should you help him? You didn’t want to get scratched too, but your cat was clearly and purposefully harming him for unknown reasons. Maru usually left whenever an argument arose and returned when Araki had exited the room. It’d become such a pattern until you believed that he’d recognized human quarrel and learned to avoid it to maintain his peace.

Cats weren’t entirely stupid, after all. Although his constant, almost acrid, glare towards Araki was a little strange, to begin with.

Finally, Araki was able to yank Sakuya from his bleeding visage and flung him against the wall. You gasped and rushed to his aid, examining his tiny body for any sign of grievous injuries. Araki was enraged with the way you prioritized him than your husband who clearly displayed raw gashes, and grabbed you by the collar of your kimono.

“Oh, so you care about that dumb cat more than me, huh?” he snarled through ground teeth, his glower intensified when you shook your head frantically. “What? You’re in love with it or something? Well, why don’t you live with it then?”

Araki seized Sakuya by the scruff of his neck and dragged you both to the porch. “This is where disobedient wife sleeps!” he declared, dropping Sakuya on to your lap carelessly. “Hope you enjoy your stay.”

You watched his retreating back helplessly and flinched when he slammed the door shut. Pursing your trembling lips, you looked down and caressed Sakuya’s dark fur as a poor attempt of solace.

“It’s alright, now. You’re safe,” you whispered, trying to ignore the slight quiver within your voice. “He’ll be in a better mood tomorrow, and then we can go back inside. We just have to endure sleeping here for tonight.”

‘He’ll be in a better mood tomorrow’. Did that mean he’d locked you out before? Did that mean he’d slapped you before? Sakuya had only met you around a month ago, but it was enough to show him everything he needed to know regarding your daily life.

And with this new information, came another surge of fury strong enough to shapeshifted him into a human.

You could only gape at the sight of his dainty body burst to reveal a leaner, paler one underneath. His hair remained its raven sheen, but the cat ears were probably the sole thing to pinpoint his genuine form. Had the latter weren’t present, you would’ve thought this was his true appearance instead. His eyes were yellow with black slits, smoldering under the tranquil moonlight. He had a boyish face, but his aura suggested otherworldliness and ancient. You averted your gaze from traveling lower, noticing the lack of… fur to cover his private area.

“Are you… my cat?” Would it be foolish of you to ask that? No. That was just natural, wasn’t it? It wasn’t as though you knew what else to say after witnessing what would be a staggering transformation in your whole life.

“Duh,” he retorted. “I’m human. Can you see?”

Yes, you could recognize it perfectly; every detail, except his ears and irises, that just screamed a human throughout. And you didn’t know how to respond to his quip or react.

Then, you spotted it. A large tail, flicking behind him and left a trail of flame in the air. A cat’s tail. How you didn’t notice it before, especially with its substantial size, was beyond your perception.

“Maru, why are there fire on your tail?” you asked shakily.

“I wonder…” he drawled lazily, much to your chagrin. There was a spark of panic that ignited within you when the tail shot up and flared in the sky. “Oh, the name’s Sakuya, by the way.”

His name breezed past your ears at the same speed of his tail that swept your house. The fire kindled your dilated eyes and parched your throat from screaming or uttering anything. You listened to the frenzied screams of your husband and the constant tugging at the front door. The desperation wrenched your heart, but there was nothing you could do than standing and let the blaze engulfed the cabin you once called ‘home’.

You just realized how powerful Maru, no, Sakuya was. Even his grasp on your arms and flinty stare rendered you immobile throughout the arson.

Once the smoke cleared up and exposed the soot and chars littering the ground, you wilted against his grip. Sakuya instinctively kneeled to free your body from its invisible pressure and hugged you, whispering sweet nothings. You stared blankly at the debris despite his solace to break your composure, the shock hindered you from processing the situation properly. It wasn’t long before you broke down, however, and wailed on his shoulder.

“It’s alright, now. You’re safe.” Sakuya mimicked the words you’d spoken to comfort him earlier. It was excruciating to remember how fast the tables had turned, and how your lovely pet soon became your killer.

Sakuya buried his face on your shoulder and smiled, relishing the proximity now that the bastard was no longer exist to separate you both.

Because that was how it should be the moment he encountered you in that riverside; a diligent yet fatigued woman who kept washing the clothes despite the setting sun.

“… I’m here now, [Name], and I’ll always be.”

Sakuya: 昨夜

Araki: 荒木

Maru: まる

[sailor-cresselia]

Kamen Rider Zi-O 49: Finale

…You know what? No preamble this time. Let’s just do this.

Kamen Rider Zi-O episode 49: Season Finale.

Let’s go.

––––

We re-open with Tsukuyomi’s transformation into Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi!

Geiz is surprised, he didn’t see this coming. Woz and Sougo are both impressed, and Tsukuyomi… throws her hand forward… and… pauses everything…

Except Swartz.

Um.

She goes up to him, and.

Um.

Bows. To him. Dropping her transformation.

And says that she has obtained the powers of a Kamen Rider, and that she will be useful to her brother. That she’s royalty, too, and will do whatever it takes to save the world.

Um. Tsukuyomi? You are pretending, right? This is part of a plot to catch him off guard, right?

Because, uh, your expression isn’t one of, you know, devotion or satisfaction, or even resignation. You look like you don’t want to do this, so. Uh.

Please be faking?

Please?!

––––

If she’s not, and if she doesn’t transform again, this is the shortest Female Rider stint we’ve had. Didn’t think anything would beat Alia’s ‘literally one fight before becoming a prisoner’ run as Necrom-P, but…

––––

Woz’s recap – Oh HELLO.

The recap vault? You know how it has an appearance in the opening, with burning pages falling from the ceiling?

Guess what’s starting to fall around Woz right now.

The contents of his recap are simple. Thanks to Sougo’s efforts, Tsukuyomi’s become a Kamen Rider. And then she defected, which nobody saw coming. This is the last page until the end of the world.

––––

There are no opening credits today. We go right from Woz’s vault to the show title, to the sponsor segment, and to the episode itself.

––––

Tsukuyomi and Swartz stand on a rooftop at night, under a blood-red moon. He asks why they had her become a Kamen Rider.

Her answer? It was part of Tsukasa’s plan, because, according to him, her and Swartz’s world is trying to end because there are no Riders.

Swartz looks… I don’t know if that’s confused, frustrated, or ‘oh shit, I didn’t think of that.’

––––

It actually kind of works with Decade’s lore, too. If a world enters a Kamen Rider season, it has to have Kamen Riders, or it will start to collapse in on itself… even if that world isn’t supposed to have Kamen Riders. The Sentai-verse got a bit screwy when he crossed over with Shinkenger, to the point of the monster-of-the-day becoming Another Diend.

I wish I were kidding about that, but that MOTW was the OG Another Rider.

And we’ve only ever really visited one world that doesn’t, technically speaking, have Kamen Riders in the series that I can remember – during Heisei Generations FOREVER. At which point, Futaros’s actions in bringing Riders there started to mess with the fabric of space-time, to the point of old monsters just showing up, uncontrollably, with nobody there to stop them.

You know.

Like has been happening here.

––––

Okay, so I don’t think they told Geiz about this plan, but Woz and Sougo both knew.

Can… can Geiz just not lie? I mean, he’s super blunt about everything, and Tsukasa did say that his acting was horrible… Did they realize that he would somehow spill the Rider Tsukuyomi part of the plan, and not tell him that part? Because that’s the only reason I can think of for him to not know.

It does also allow us our exposition, though, so that’s something.

Tsukasa starts to detail the plan. By making Tsukuyomi into a Rider, her world could be restored. Thus, as Geiz points out, creating a ‘World of Tsukuyomi,’ not unlike the AR worlds in Decade, that they could use as a refuge from the currently-ending world they’re on now.

Woz says that she’s become a rider, so that means the plan is a success, isn’t it?

Tsukasa isn’t so sure. There are billions of people here. How could they all make it to another world?

(Sougo sort of slumps back at that. Geiz and Woz are still rigid, but Sougo seems resigned.)

Tsukasa continues. Right now, they’re in what could be called the ‘World of Zi-O.’ With Zi-O on one end, and Tsukuyomi on the other, the two powers could resonate, and create a bridge.

(Sougo draws in on himself. My ‘someone has to be there to close the door behind them’ theory is looking increasingly likely.)

There’s a visual of the plan, too. Two Earths, side by side, with a beam of light coming from each and meeting in the middle.

––––

Tsukuyomi is describing the plan to Swartz at the same time, saying that for it to work, both worlds would need ‘many Riders.’

––––

However, according to Woz, it’s all for nothing, because Tsukuyomi betrayed them.

Geiz wants to know why she would do that.

…Sougo looks like he’s thinking of something.

If they need one of them on each end, and the only people we know who can go between the two worlds are Tsukasa, Daiki, and Swartz…

They need some way to get Tsukuyomi to her World without Swartz constantly trying to kill her, now don’t they? What better way to do that then have her working on the inside?

––––

Swartz asks if she will acknowledge him as king, to which Tsukuyomi replies that his ascending to the throne is divine foretelling.

Toki No Ouja’s orchestral version starts to play as she kneels, while she has that same wide-eyed, almost hollow look as before.

––––

The music continues as Sougo stands up, and says that they’ll just have to hold them off, even if breifly.

Tsukasa points out that they’re speeding up the destruction of the world. Is he ready for that?

We cut briefly to the outside of the shop, and then to Junichiro working on cleaning a small gear of some sort. We don’t get to see what it goes to when the shot draws back, showing that he’s working at the front counter, with only the lights above him on. Whatever he’s fixing, it’s hidden behind the box he was holding last episode.

The music hits its final note as that shot closes.

––––

It’s daytime, now. There’s monsters everywhere.

I have no idea who this guy is that’s summoning a smoky cloud over a valley, but he’s got to be someone’s final boss… hang on… I have an idea… I saw this sort of cloud in Decade, during the World of Kuuga arc, so…

Yeah. Yeah, this is Kuuga’s final villain, N-Daguva-Zeba. This is fine. The world-destroying has progressed to end-bosses now.

That’s made all the more apparent by Evolt summoning a black hole and destroying three buildings in the process.

Geiz, in his Time Mazine’s mecha form, is beating up a giant crab…. YUP, same one from Hibiki that they fought off in Decade, a Bakegani.

Geiz is pissed, shouting that none of them are going to get away with this.

As he literally kicks the Bakegani away, those dragonfly like monsters start to swarm him, but he’s just shooting them down with… uh, okay, apparently the Time Mazines have missiles. This is fine.

Ah, and looks like I was right earlier, those dragonfly things are the swarm of mirror monsters that showed up at the end of Ryuki, Hydragoons.

––––

Woz and Decade are fighting against a plethora of mooks and named enemies, including Revol, the Katana Ganma (y’know, the one what did the thing in episode one), a Lion Inves, and Argus, one of the Phantoms.

They use a pair of finishers to defeat the mooks, but it doesn’t do any good – the larger enemies survived, and the mooks just respawned immediately.

A hail of gunfire comes from the other direction. Sup, Diend?

He’s all smiles right now, since he and Tsukasa get to ‘enjoy’ the end of the world together. Now that’s the greatest treasure he can imagine.

…

Rider-Time. Rider-Time, did. Did Tsukasa actually say ‘Enough flirting, and fight!’?!

Because. Uh. I don’t think he actually said that, but my Japanese isn’t good enough to pick up that sort of thing, but oh dear lord if this is how we get confirmation in-show that Daiki and Tsukasa are a thing…

He doesn’t reply to Tsukasa telling him off, and everyone just keeps fighting.

(But seriously, Daiki, this is not the time to flirt. I get that it’s kind of a ‘now or never’ situation, but come on, read the room!)

––––

At 9-to-5… Sougo’s almost finished a meal that Junichiro’s barely started. (Oh no.)

He’s not… taking his time, but he’s getting all that he can out of it.

Junichiro asks if everyone is fighting, and Sougo nods.

He finishes, and thanks his uncle, formally, in a way that he usually doesn’t do.

… oh shit. Junichiro picked up on it, too.

Shit.

“Sougo, you weren’t planning on this being your final meal, were you?” The shot switches from a very justifiably scared uncle to Sougo. “First off, you still need breakfast.” Sougo nods, making an affirmative noise.

He’s definitely agreeing to the first part.

Sougo gets up, and starts heading out – but Junichiro gets him to wait for a moment, and goes behind the counter to get something.

…You know how Junichiro was looking at the broken Build Watch a few episodes ago? And how the stand was empty when everyone headed out last episode? And how I said that the box he was carrying was about the right size for a pile of broken watches? And how he fixes clocks for a living?

Tokiwa Junichiro pulls out a tray, with a soft velvety fabric as a cushion… and eighteen disks, with the mask of eighteen different heroes.

All in full color.

Sougo’s astonished – how?

His uncle is tense. Why wouldn’t he be? His nephew is going off to fight, and potentially die, and there isn’t anything he can do about that. But these are Sougo’s and his friends’ precious watches, and there is no clock that he can’t fix.

“Ask everyone what they’d like for dinner, alright?”

Sougo pauses, smiling. “Got it. I’ll be back.” He looks up at Junichiro, determined.

Sougo may or may not be planning to make it out himself, but… he’s going to make sure that his friends do, at least.

(Seriously, my ‘he’d hoped that they would all keep each other company after he was gone’ line from the 22nd wasn’t supposed to happen, come on…)

––––

With Decade and Diend, Woz starts a Ginga Planet finisher, which starts to rain mini-planets down- and everything freezes.

Tsukuyomi emerges from behind them, hand outstretched, telling them that they can’t avoid the worlds destruction.

Swartz, as Another Decade, comes on scene, calling Woz disappointing. Or calling what he’s doing disappointing, it’s a little unclear. Either way, he blasts all three riders; Decade and Diend being thrown off screen, and Woz being frozen mid-air.

There’s no background music what-so-ever.

Swartz readies an energy blast, the same type he killed Tsukasa with, saying that he’ll make sure that Woz dies.

A second hand ticks, and a golden gate opens to the side, labeled 2017.

Build!

Swartz gets blasted by the Fullbottle buster, as wielded by Build in his TankTank form.

Drive!

He gets triple-struck by Drive: Type Formula running past.

Ghost!

He takes an Omega Drive Rider Kick from Ghost, in his base form.

Ex-Aid!

Five hits from Ex-Aid in Maximum Mighty X.

“Impossible! The history of Riders is supposed to be gone!”

The four summoned riders pose in a line, before turning to light and being de-spawned, the lights going back to the newly-recreated Grand Zi-O Ridewatch.

Sougo, untransformed, wearing his Ziku Driver, strides forward. “It’s not gone.” He holds up the watch. “Erase history all you want, but Kamen Riders are forever!”

There’s one big ol flaw in Swartz’s plan. Well, aside from Sougo’s determinator status. He had all of the riders coalesced into one, saying that it took away their histories. But even Grand still didn’t, since Sougo summons them out of their shows. We could see one of the canyons behind Build when he was summoned just now, and there’s the ‘OOO being summoned along with the column’ from Grands debut.

They’re not gone. They’re just tucked away, nice and safe in a little pocket of time.

Slowly, Sougo activates his two watches, places them in his driver, and, after what feels like a slight hesitation, starts his transformation.

I can’t complain about them using the full Grand transformation. Not in the last episode, not when it counts this much. It’s not nearly as bad as Decade Complete, it gets to the point way faster. This? This is good.

“One last showdown.”

––––

The orchestral battle version of Toki no Ouja plays. I specify that, because it feels… important, this time. Toki no Ouja is used as a battle theme with the higher level Zi-O forms a lot, but here it feels… more significant than usual.

Grand Zi-O and Another Decade trade punches, and knock each other back. Furious, Sougo tells Swartz to feel the power of the Riders.

OOO!

OOO Tajador swoops in, taken directly from an episode. I think it’s the episode Tajador debuted in, too – they’re definitely using archival footage, with OOO flying down and using the medal shield to block energy blasts, before he uses a Scanning Charge and claws Swartz with the Condor talons.

Sougo goes in for a quick sword attack against Swartz, moving him into the path of-

Wizard!

Wizard Infinity delivers a Shining Strike, which I think comes from that forms debut, too. He gets some damage in, but the giant fucking axe is still shoved away.

Gaim!

Gaim Pineapple Arms (this is fine) delivers a kick, but since he’s not anything more than a mode change, it’s easily deflected.

Grand Zi-O and Double CycloneJokerXtreme team up for another, powered, pair of energy slashes, which break through the shielding that Another Decade raised, throwing him to the ground.

(Okay, that’s almost all of the phase two’s accounted for, now where’s our Fourze appearance?)

Two can play at this ‘summoning the past’ game, though! They’re not just fighting Swartz, they can feast their eyes on the… Rider’s Rogues gallery.

Okay, Rider-Time, I really don’t think that’s what he called the endbosses that he just summoned, but it’s accurate enough.

So he’s opened a wall, and pulled through… uh. Not sure who that first one is, then N-Daguva-Zeba, Gamdeus, someone else, and Evolt.

Oh, wait, hang on. Still can’t tell who the first one is, but the person between Gamedeus and Evolt is Saggitarius. I couldn’t tell until he started moving, and I could see the zodiac symbols on his belt.

So, everyone charges forward. Evolt versus Wizard, Saggitarius versus Double, N-Daguva-Zeba versus OOO, and whomstever the fuck that guy is against Gaim.

And it seems that the Riders summoned by Grand can stick around as long as they need to, since they’re actively fighting now. Not that it’s a surprise, we saw this happen with Drive sticking around during the Grand vs Oma fight a while ago, but it’s good to have confirmation.

Swartz and Gamedeus team up against Sougo, and start promptly kicking his ass, knocking his sowrd away. We cut to Kuuga end-boss and whomstever taking out OOO and Gaim, and then to Saggitarius and Evolt doing the same to Wizard and Double.

(Seriously,who is this guy?! Is he one of the Lords from Agito? Because I can’t find a picture of him there, but the belt and weapon style says he would be…)

All six villains start charging attacks, which merge into one huge purple fireball, which strikes Zi-O. He’s tossed back, to the ground, where his transformation breaks and he lays gasping in pain.

Swartz charges a sickly green-and-purple fireball. “Now, die!”

He fires, and Sougo curls in on himself, bracing.

Typhoon!

Geiz Revive Typhoon blocks the blast, holding it off for a moment, before it overpowers him and flings him backward… his visor breaks as he’s thrown back, before the armor dissolves.

I don’t know if his armor broke before or after he hit the wall in an explosion.

But either way… Sougo runs to an untransformed Geiz, who’s lying on the ground, and pulls him into his arms, begging Geiz to stay with him.

Geiz is having trouble speaking, but he’s still managing, somehow, even as he’s in obvious agony. “Zi-O...” (Use his name god damn it) Geiz forces himself to grab Sougo by the shirt, as the piano version of Toki no Ouja starts. “Become Oma Zi-O… become the king of time. You have what it takes… to become the most beloved overlord.”

Sougo shakes his head, barely holding back tears, begging Geiz not to die. (Rider-Time translated this as ‘don’t leave me,’ but he’s straight up saying ‘don’t die,’ come on, guys.)

“I was so happy… to have come to this time…” While Sougo is sobbing, Geiz is staying as stoic as he can, he doesn’t have the energy to have emotions and give his last words.

“Sougo…” (We see the first tear actually fall from Sougo’s eyes, and I start crying in full as well.)

“I’m happy to have been… your comrade… and friend.”

As Sougo (and myself) beg for this to not be happening, Geiz’s hand drops from it’s deathgrip on Sougo’s shirt.

Miyokoin Geiz dies in Tokiwa Sougo’s arms.

Sougo sobs, his whole body shuddering. He turns a cold, hateful gaze in Swartz’s direction…

As sparks envelop his belt, turning the white and black driver into gold.

––––

Another Decade watches as Sougo emerges from the smoke.

Glaring, Sougo crosses his arms, and screams in rage as he throws them down. A clock emblem appears on the ground, dark golds and reds and black, seeming to crack the pavement as magma surges around.

Oh, or maybe it’s not magma, or lava. Maybe it’s molten metal. It would be appropriate for the metallic armor, after all.

The haze of the heat can be seen rising up as Sougo growls the word. “Henshin.”

The transformation is dark metal circles, and shadows and smoke. A deep gong rings out when it completes, and the sheer force of the energy pushes all the villains back a few steps.

Woz runs up, just saying ‘my overlord...’

I don’t think Woz thought that Sougo would ever actually do this. Not this Sougo, the one he’s come to know.

Especially given his shock when Sougo… when Oma Zi-O orders him to rejoice.

It’s the voice of Tokiwa Sougo, but he’s cold and empty, there’s nothing there but a calm fury. And he ordered Woz to make his speech.

The final line of which is “We are now within the moment of history’s final chapter!”

Swartz starts to laugh. (Also, in the background, Evolt’s posing it up, one hand on his hip, and whomstever the heck that unidentifiable guy is tucks his staff under his arm, and is briefly clapping sarcastically.)

Swartz laughs, saying that he’s cornered Tokiwa Sougo for all this time, for this moment. Now he can claim the power of Oma Zi-O for himself. Sending out those energy waves, he starts to draw the powers to himself.

Woz runs back, the energy there is way too much for him, but Oma Zi-O… doesn’t move. He’s standing stock still, not reacting as Swartz drains him.

Swartz is gleeful as he does this, the golden light coursing over him, eventually glowing in the gaps between the ‘cards’ of his Another Decade form. Now, he can finally surpass his sister, now, he can take the throne for himself!

The power stops flowing to him, suddenly, with a burst of fire at his chest as it cuts off.

Oma Zi-O is fine, not even having to really shake anything off. “you think someone like you can take on my power?” Ridewatches start appearing in the air – Build, Ex-Aid, Fourze, Faiz, Wizard. “i have the power of every single rider!”

And he means it. OOO, Gaim, Beast, Decade, Ghost, Kiva, Necrom, Ouja, Drive, Baron, Blade, Zeronos, Kuuga, Agito, Double, Den-O… Kabuto, Mach, Eternal, Cross-Z, OOO Tajador, Genm, Knight, G-3… Sasword, Proto-Drive, Garren, Kaixa, Rogue… and even more that I can’t identify, and more that aren’t any more than multicolored lights in the background.

And each and every one of these Ridewatches turns to pure light and draws into him.

Oma Sougo has not moved a step.

Evolt and Mystery Villain charge him, but are immediately taken out with firey punches. He turns, and a swarm of bats from OG Oma Zi-O’s Kiva attack takes out the swarm of Hydragoons that tried to divebomb him.

Kuuga’s kick takes out N-Daguva-Zeba, and a single burning punch dissolves Dragblacker as it tries to bite him.

Gamedeus gets the ‘ticking golden ball of pain’ treatment that Sougo received from OG Oma Zi-O when they met, and Sagittarius gets punched into the sky, where he promptly explodes.

Oma Sougo has only turned in order to attack. He still has not moved from his spot.

Just like when he fought himself the first time.

Swartz is impressed. But he’s gotten some of Oma Sougo’s powers, at least. He’ll go back to his world, and rule as king. He summons a wall to escape-

“HYA!”

A white blade of energy pierces him in the gut from behind, running him through.

Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi is the one wielding it.

Oma Sougo makes a small sound of surprise, as Swartz makes little choked sounds of dying.

Furious, Tsukuyomi shouts. No one needs a king like him!

“You little wench. You’ve been after my blind spot…”

Swartz turns, shoves her into the air, and blasts her, point blank, sending her flying into the far wall.

Sougo screams her name, and, furious and shaking, activates a finisher.

Demise Hour

An ominious ticking noise accompanies him as he rises into the air. Not jumps. Rises, surrounded by gold light and black swirls of smoke.

Another Decade activates his own finisher, as Oma Sougo descends, screaming in rage and despair, the clock-hand cape spreading like wings as he attacks.

The Overlord’s Decimation

Gold light from Oma Sougo’s kick meets the purple light from Another Decade’s punch, and we circle the balanced attack twice, while the deep gonging of an old bell sounds in the background.

Oma Sougo’s kick breaks through, sending Another Decade flying back, and leaving a torn ring in the air just behind where they connected.

The scene freezes, cast in the green light of the usual freeze.

––––

Tsukuyomi, with her original outfit glowing a bright white, and Swartz, in his black-and-white outfit, smoke rising from him and staggering in pain, appear.

Tsukuyomi steps forward. “This world… is already mine. Brother…”

“Sister… Spare me your words!” He’s barely able to talk, as he’s slowly dropping to his knees, juxtaposed in his human form behind the face of his paused, soon-to-be-defeated Another Rider self.

She turns to face Oma Sougo, frozen in time, as she starts to fade to transparency, pink lights rising from her. “Sougo… the two worlds are now in your hands.” She smiles, sadly and fondly, as the two Earths pictured before are shown again, and merge into one.

The royal siblings both fade. Her by quietly turning to lights as she looks at her friend. Him by crying in pain as he is turned to smoke and what looks like ash.

––––

Time resumes, and the explosion of Swartz’s destruction creates a wave of time energy that engulfs the area, spreading outward and erasing the monsters that filled the sky.

Oma Sougo stands up, and Woz approaches, arms wide. “You’ve done it, my overlord. The world is saved, and you may now reign over it for eternity.”

“No. That won’t be happening.” Oma Sougo’s tone is just shy of despondent. “Because I’m going to be tearing down space and time.”

––––

“So, this is the path you choose.”

Tokiwa Sougo, bruised, bloodied, and burned, stands in a black void in front of his future self, whos face is still obscured in light.

“You have the right to rule the world, you’re the one who saved it.”

Sougo disagrees. It wasn’t him. We cut from the wide shot of the two, to just Sougo’s face. He’s absolutely dead inside, trying not to break down. “The ones who saved the world are Geiz and Tsukuyomi, and the powers of every rider.”

Shots from throughout the show, of their lives together at 9-to-5 – of Sougo, his uncle, Geiz, Tsukuyomi, and Woz. Not as heroes or soldiers, but as people. As themselves.

Tokiwa Sougo, who was so lonely before these three time travelers came into his life, won’t accept living in a world where he rules as king, but none of them are around.

He asks his future self again. “Can the powers of Oma Zi-O only be used to destroy?”

Oma folds his hands. “Destruction… must come before creation.”

(Sir, either you’re trying to give yourself a clue, or you’ve been reading too much Fullmetal Alchemist lately. Just saying.)

Sougo firms his resolve. He’s going to bring about creation, and rewrite history.

Leaning forward, Oma has one last point to make. “You’ll never be a king again.”

Sougo disagrees. “I think it’ll work out, somehow. After all, the hands of time can only move toward the future.”

Over Quartzer starts to play.

“It may seem to move back, but time only goes forward.”

Sougo smiles, real and true, as he reminds his future self of the advice his uncle gave him, way, way back at the earliest points of the show. You can move a clock backward, but it still advances.

Oma chuckles. It’s been a priveldge to see his younger self.

Oma Zi-O, his face still obscured by blinding light, fades into golden motes and disappears.

––––

In the real world, Oma Sougo raises his arms out, and a pale gold wave of light, encircles the planet, little golden clock faces accompanying it.

Tsukasa and Daiki stand on a hilltop, as the Fuuto and Yggdrasil towers, and the Skywall, dissolve.

Daiki comments that time’s being rewritten.

Tsukasa says that it looks like a new journeys starting, and they both smirk as he opens the viewfinder of his camera and takes a picture.

The one Earth is shown glowing, before diverging into 21 separate Earths.

(It’s still only one reality, Toei, nice try. But also nice nod to the fact that there’s a new rider in town. … oh my god is the World of Zero One also the World of Tsukuyomi nah i’m just kidding but that’d be hilarious)

The worlds glow, and the TV-size version of Over Quartzer ends on a shot of the outside of 9-to-5.

––––

There’s a sign saying ‘Rooms to let’ on the door.

Tokiwa Junichiro calls upstairs. “Sougo! You’re going to be late for school!”

…wait, what?

Sougo narrates. “September, 2018. Summer vacation’s over, and the boring school days have begun.”

Wait. What?

Sougo’s on his way, walking his bike down the stairs, when some of his classmates pester him about saying he’s going to be a king, as he always does. Three of them jog past, and the fourth…

Wait. What.

The fourth says he’ll wake Sougo up, just like the anonymous one from the first episode, and flips Sougo onto his back, just like in the first episode.

Except it’s not the student from the first episode.

It’s Geiz.

Or, as schoolgirl Tsukuyomi calls him, Miyokoin-kun. Please note that they do not use her name at all. Thanks.

She tells him that he’s always too rough, grabs him by the collar, and yells at him to just be nice… before flipping him onto his back. She didn’t have to get back up like he did, and flipped him over her, as opposed to how he sent Sougo below where he was.

Sougo is recovering a whole lot faster than Geiz, who is on the ground in pain as Tsukuyomi dusts off her hands and walks away.

Schoolgirl Hora – wait what – comments that they’re always like this, and schoolboy Heure – who looks happy and that makes me happy – says that he sure admires ‘Ou-sama-sempai.’ Or, as Rider-time translates it, ‘Upperclass King.’

Hora asks what that names all about. Heure replies that well, he’s always said he’s going to be a king, right? He’s kinda dumb, but Heure thinks he can do it.

“…Whatever.” Hora checks her watch, and incidentally reveals that she’s got a little toy rabbit keychan hanging from her bag. “I’ve got some bad news for you.”

“Eh?!”

“We’re going to be late.”

All five of them start taking off – and nobody helps Geiz up, because being Geiz is suffering.

––––

They’re all running into the courtyard, and Woz watches from on top of the building. Regular, brown coat, book-carrying Woz.

He says that for Ordinary High School Student, Tokiwa Sougo, a future where he becomes Oma Zi-O is waiting for him. …Or, maybe it isn’t. Time will tell. From here on, a different history from the one in his book will have to be written.

He closes the Oma Advent Calendar decisively.

Our closing shots are of Hora and Tsukuyomi laughing to each other, Heure smiling, and Sougo and Geiz running together.

The end screen has the Zi-O and Geiz watches… and the Zero One watch in the center.

––––

So. That. Sure was an ending.

It was going great up until that world-changing maneuver.

I’ll have to try and write up some proper thoughts on this eventually, but for now…

I’ve never been a fan of the ‘it never happened’ ending for stories. It cheapens the struggles, for me. I’ll have to find a way around this when I finally get there in ReUnited, but that’s beside the point.

This is… I don’t know if I like the decision of how to save everything that Sougo came to. But the others – Geiz, Tsukuyomi, Heure, and Hora – get to have normal lives now. That’s… that’s good. They never had a chance for that before. So I’m happy for them. But…

It still feels hollow. It feels wrong that they don’t remember what happened, that nobody but Woz is around who remembers, and that he can’t even interact with them. They aren’t the same people anymore, anyway. They may be better off, they have the same quirks, but… it’s not the same.

And time even reset back to before Sougo met any of them, so this entire year may as well have never happened for the World of Zi-O.

Hm.

That’s Kamen Rider Zi-O. 49 episodes. A metric boatload of cameos from previous seasons. Two metric boatloads of re-used monster suits. A second season for Decade, and possible confirmation that Tsukasa and Daiki are a cou- okay, sorry, disregard that last bit, it’s not relevant.

But this has been the 29th season of Kamen Rider. On to season 30, Kamen Rider Zero One.

(Toei, I am begging you, find a better naming scheme, and stop using hyphens in your season names. Please.)

EDIT, MANY HOURS LATER: UTOPIA. THE VILLAIN I COULDN’T FIGURE OUT IS THE UTOPIA DOPANT. IT’S KAZU FUCKING JUN. SCREW THAT GUY.

[salmonthestoryteller]

Would You Like Fries With That?

Prompts from @roswellprompts

outsider pov of liz and michael’s budding friendship

when liz won’t stop calling michael ‘mikey’ he retaliates by calling her elizabeth

Would You Like Fries With That?

A Roswell: New Mexico Fanfic

The first time Arturo ever saw Michael Guerin he was an underfed preteen sharing a table with Max and Isobel Evans.  He only ordered a side of fries the first time, and paid in all change. If Arturo had made sure the side of fries was bigger than it would normally be, no one was the wiser.  In the years that followed, Max Evans would make sure he ordered first and buy two meals. The other boy never looked happy about it, and insisted he would pay him back later. It wasn’t until his teens that he ever ordered a full meal for himself  - after he’d been hired by Sanders’ Auto. If his best cooks all knew to make the size of the meal slightly bigger when they saw the teen’s name on the ticket, it was a shared secret.

In the years that followed Rosa’s death, Arturo didn’t see the young man as often.  Nor did he ever seem to be with the Evans anymore. He’d come in, always alone, and always order to go.  Roswell was a town that loved to talk, and Michael had two different reputations. There was the drunk with the speeding tickets and the gambling charges.  Then there was the young man the ranchers and Sanders talked about. The mechanic who could fix anything, and never missed a day’s work. Of course, among the ranchers and ranch hands all three listed offenses were more par for the course than a shocking example of poor behaviour.  Despite holding a better reputation among his co-workers than the townsfolk, Arturo still always saw the sullen young man alone.

The first time he saw Liz talking with Michael after she returned to Roswell was an afternoon - right before she headed into work at the hospital.  They stopped outside the Crashdown Cafe to talk. He couldn’t hear a word they were saying, and at first he wondered if it wasn’t about Max Evans. Liz had admitted to feeling conflicted over her feelings for Max, seeing as they knew so little about each other’s lives in the years apart.  If she wanted to know more about Max’s life in Roswell, he supposed she could be talking to his friends. However, the conversation went on a far longer than he expected, and they both seemed to be very animated about whatever the subject was. Liz suddenly looked at the time on her watch, and it was clear she was cutting the conversation short as she went to her car.  MIchael came in to order his meal to go as if nothing new had just happened. If he still slipped him extra fries, Michael didn’t catch on.

The next time he saw Liz with Michael together, it was when he’d come in to order his usual meal to go. Liz had taken his bag to him, but ten minutes later he was still at the counter, nibbling fries out of his to-go container and talking to her. This time he heard enough of their conversation to know they were discussing chemicals, which was definitely not the conversation topic he’d expected.  Nor was it a topic he expected two people to seem to enjoy so much or have such strong opinions on. Apparently he was wrong on both accounts, though, because Liz and Michael seemed to have very strong opinions on chemicals and were able to discuss them for another fifteen minutes until Liz had to get back to the counter. Of all the people to suddenly break the bubble of solitude around the young man, the last person he’d expected was his daughter.  Especially when Liz seemed determined to live in a bubble of solitude of her own.

Apparently Liz’s bubble was breaking, though.  She went with Maria on a trip to Texas, and upon her return was smiling like he hadn’t seen her smile in a long time.  The next morning, over another batch of her frankly terrible healthy version of churro pancakes, she told him that she was thinking of pursuing a relationship with Max.  Arturo would be lying if he said he didn’t approve. Max Evans was a good man, and he knew he’d always had a soft spot for his daughter.

When Michael showed up in the afternoon to pick up a late lunch, Liz’s eyes lit up the same way they would have if Maria or Alex had walked in the door.  “Look what the cat dragged in from Texas.”

“I’d say something witty about my truck making it back in one piece, but that would only be if you got to drive, cuz Max drives like an old lady.”  Michael told her.

“Yah, he obeyed the speed limit.”  Liz admitted readily. “Even on the rural highway where everyone else was driving over a hundred.”

“Told ya.”

“I’ll work on it.”

“Yah, I don’t want details when it comes to you and Max.”  MIchael shook his head.

“Should I be insulted?  Cuz I’ve been told I’m pretty hot.”  She gestured to herself, despite being dressed in the cafe uniform.

“It’s not you, it’s Max.”  Michael assured her. “Or possibly the antenna.”

“So if it was me and Kyle you’d want details?” Liz tormented.

“Gross, I was hungry, Ortecho.”

“You just don’t have any taste, Mikey.”

“Okay, seriously?  Mikey? I thought that was a drunk Liz moment. Nobody calls me that.”

“Well, I think it fits.”

“No.”

“I’m going to call you that from here on out.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Look on the bright side, you’ll always know when it’s me calling you.”

“So I can run the other way?”  MIchael gestured to one side in exaggeration of the idea.

Liz only smiled at his teasing.  “How’s Maria? I have to stop by still.”

“Oh, as delightful as always.”

“You seemed into it in Texas.”

“I was drunk in Texas.”

“Aw, did you get shot down, Mikey?”

“Did you and Max seriously get separate rooms, Elizabeth?”

“Elizabeth?”  LIz repeated. “Okay, no.  No bueno.”

“I think it fits.”

“Okay, Mikey, we’ll see how long you can last at this.”

“Sure thing, Elizabeth.  Anyhow, I’m here for lunch.”

“Oh, you’re buying me lunch?”  Liz grinned. “That’s so sweet.”

“Why would I buy you lunch at your family’s cafe?”

“So you’re buying me lunch elsewhere?”

“You aren’t getting a free lunch out of me.”

“I’m hurt, I thought we were closer than that.”

Friendship, Arturo decided, looked good on both of them. And if he still added extra fries, only Liz gave him a speculative glance over it.

Fini

I needed something fun and light, and not angsty.  

The timeline from the return from Texas actually has me confused.  Cuz somehow Liz gets back from Texas, goes to the lab, then to the cave.  They leave the cave for some reason - basically so their kiss is scenic and not in the pod cave and so Noah can find Isboel - but then they go back into the cave to give Isobel the serum.  Then take Isobel to Max’s, but Liz somehow needs to go to work, again, even though she seemed to just come from there. Somewhere, sometime, Michael found out Isobel was awake cuz he goes to the hospital to make sure she’s alright.  And he’s wearing different clothes than he and Alex’s initial face off in the junkyard - because then he was in his clothes from Texas. Wait, isn’t he in different clothes when he and Alex talk and he shows him the bunker? Did Alex just hang around outside while he showered or something?  The bottom line is, I have no idea if their scene at the Crashdown can believably occur cuz I’m super confused how much time passed. LOL But for the fic's sake I’m saying somewhere a day passed and it happened.

[creativenicocorner]

78 Stricklake

Thank you so much for being so patient! AAAH! This ended up being MUCH longer than I anticipated. And yet, it was an idea I kept circling back to as a concept. I’ve always wanted to explore Barbara taking responsibility for being a bit reckless sometimes, and what that could mean for not only others but herself as well. 

There were so many many drafts, but honestly sometimes you just got to walk away. And that’s okay. 

I like how the scene turned out, there are moments I think I can explore and flesh out more, but like I said, I gotta walk away a bit.I hope I stuck the landing though

78) Where is the first aid kit?

Rated: MatureFeaturing: Hurt/Comfort, Blood, Mature Language Japanese language translations used with this engine (EDITED with the lovely help and guidance of @illahmae Thank you again for reaching out to me!!)Please read responsibly, & enjoy!

//

Anna was expecting a lot of things that night. A quiet evening, a well written finale for her favorite fantasy tv show, and her package finally arriving were on that list of things.

It was a list that never came to be.

The instant the local coroner, and occasional forensic analysis for the Arcadia Police Department, heard her doorbell ring there was trouble. A trouble that arrived unannounced. 

Anna groaned as she made her way to the door, and checked if her armpits smelled before opening the door. 

It felt like a morbid set up to a joke. Except there was no chest to cut open. 

Not yet at least. 

For in her doorway was her best friend, her (supposed?) ex, and his friend. All of whom looked as though they went through a VIP tour through a slaughter house. 

“Hey Anna,” said Barbara feebly through a busted lip. The good doctor winced through her attempted smile “we…ah, well, first I can explain..but um-”

“That’s not corn syrup, is it.” Anna’s question rang like a statement. “Hello again by the way.” she added dryly to the badly bruised Nomura who carried an even worse off Walter Strickler. 

The strength of Nomura’s arms to carry a full grown man was duly noted.  

Nomura looked away, and readjusted her hold Walter. Clicking her tongue when she noticed the amount of blood on her dress. Human, and changeling. Which gave a surreal effect to the fabric of her dress. Nomura didn’t even want to begin to think about the clean up job she’ll eventually have to do for her car seats. 

Walter’s attempt at a salutation made it as far as turning his head. 

“You’ve met??” asked Barbara, adjusting her dangerously cracked glasses.

“Looks like we all have some explaining to do.” Anna said rubbing a hand over her recently washed face. She sidestepped to give Nomura more room. 

“At this rate Strickler’s going to bleed out.” mumbled Nomura. She made no effort to hide her impatience as she passed Anna’s threshold. 

Anna’s brows furrowed, and quickly looked Barbara over again. Her eyes analyzing her best friend. To see if she was in a worse off state than Anna initially looked over. 

Barbara’s lip was swollen, her hand clutched at her side that might have a broken rib, and there were cuts along her collar bone and arms and legs. 

“I’m fine.” assured Barbara. Able to catch Anna’s analyzing eyes. “Fine enough to be sure Walter was patched for transport. Nomura’s worried. Then again, they’re like family-”

“Did he do this to you?” steeled Anna, remorselessly. 

“What? No. Nooo-”

“I’m not touching anyone until I know he didn’t do this to you. And so help me God if he did. Cause I have no obligation to help the living Barb. And I can make that shit look like an accident.” 

“I love you too Anna.” Barbara shuffled forward to hug her, wincing all the while. “I promise you he didn’t do this. I’ll…” Barbara tightened her hug with a guilty exhale. “I’ll explain as you patch me up. Please Anna. We can’t take this case to a normal hospital…and I need an extra steady hand if Walt’s going to make it past stable.” 

“Alright. I believe you. Still stand by my statement though.”

“Terrifying as always. You’re going to be the primary suspect to so many of my ex’s.” 

“Better believe it.” said Anna, kissing her best friend’s hairline. 

“Hey, uh DOCTORS, he’s bleeding again!” called out Nomura from Anna’s living room. 

Barbara frowned, and rubbed her eyebrow, smearing some of the drying blood, “We need to hurry Anna. Where’s the first aid kit?”

“I’ll get it. Can you walk to the kitchen?”

“I was able to walk to your door, wasn’t I?” snarked Barbara, trying to ignore the rising panic Nomura’s pacing over Walter was inspiring.

Barbara tried not to look into Anna’s living room. At how Walter’s hand hung off the couch. The way his breathing looked shallow. How Nomura’s pacing would slow to a stop to gently, and fearfully, adjust Walter’s hand. 

All the same, Barbara’s frown deepened. 

Bravely she tried to scrub her hands clean in Anna’s sink. Ignoring the pain in her side as much as she could. Barbara couldn’t tell if her shaking hands was from potential unchecked nerve damage, or the still lingering adrenaline. 

“Okay.” went Anna, popping open the first aid kit on her kitchen island. “Spill.”

Barbara continued to examine her own arms as she turned to Anna. “It happened on the outskirts of the VONS’s parking lot. Wait…how much do you already know?”

“Changelings and trolls are a thing. There’s a million year war that’s been going on.” shrugged Anna. She motioned for Barbara to sit “I don’t know all the details, but Nomura there gave me a decent enough cliff-notes version last time.”

“Last time??” exclaimed Barbara with a wince. She wanted very badly to rub her eyebrow. “What do you mean last time??”

“One story at a time Barbara.”

“I can’t believe you kept this from me.”

“It happened before you started, remembering…”

“Oh.”

Anna grasped one of Barbara’s shaky hands. “I didn’t know how to bring it up, and…I’m sorry.”

“It’s a shit theme that’s been happening with me Anna…I’m not happy.”

“I can imagine.”

Barbara kissed Anna’s cheek. “Still not happy, but I’ll forgive you.”

Anna gave a sheepish smile, and nodded. Awkwardly Anna returned to the first aid kit. “He didn’t mention it?”

“We’ve been…slow catching up. I’ve been distant, if it wasn’t for Jim I’d probably be even more distant than I am now…”

“That’s understandable.” Nodded Anna as she sat a utensil down. “Shirt.”

Barbara obliged, and struggled with lifting her shirt as she continued, “And he’s been…hard to read, as always. One second looking like a wounded puppy following me, the next,” Barbara grunted and felt her eyes tear up as a searing pain shot through her side, “Shying away parts of himself..sometimes disappearing. But then I see him with Jim. Talking, explaining, and I feel myself relieved to sigh ‘Oh there’s Walter’. There’s my son’s favorite history teacher. The principal I dated. But he’s more than that now. I know he isn’t human…” a realization crept over Barbara. Slowly she vocalized it, “You know since remembering, Walter hasn’t been in his troll form around me..” her eyes grew broodier, “not if he can help it.”

Anna frowned as she helped Barbara lift her shirt up. Gently she pressed her fingers against the skin. “..I’m not liking what I’m seeing here Barb.”

Barbara sucked air through her teeth, her nose crinkling with a cringe “Your bedside manner sucks as always.”

“Quit squirming. My last patient didn’t complain.”

“Your last patient has a TOD.”

“The dead don’t have much to fidget over anymore.” 

Barbara grew still, and looked down at Anna’s bloody work. “Jim told me about what happened to the other changelings…how they’re viewed..do you think-?”

Anna cursed under her breath and threw some blood speckled gauze on her floor. “I’m still waiting on your explanation as to what happened! That could have been you on my couch! Not some half stone near immortal person who can blast through molecular reconstruction with a single fucking magical thought!”

Barbara winced again, and wheezed a cough under Anna’s more passionate application of antiseptic. If Barbara’s nails weren’t as well groomed as they were, they’d be digging into her own palms. 

“He’s not immortal.”

“And neither are you! Jesus, you look like someone dragged you down the road for fuck’s sake.” 

“It was my fault.”

Anna gave Barbara a harsh disbelieving look. 

“I was…Okay…Jim’s off doing some sort of scavenger hunt…and I haven’t heard from him in a while. Jim’s explained this can happen but, I was worried…like frustratingly worried. All the same I went to Vons, tried to get groceries, normal…mom things…and then the power went out.”

Anna looked up from her work. Watched as Barbara’s eyes looked around as she re-lived the play by play of what happened. 

“I was in the car when it happened. At the edge of the parking lot I saw them, those…green Gumm-Gumm trolls? There were like…two of them. And thank goodness the parking lot was nearly empty for a Thursday. Cause, fuck, Anna. What if they attacked people? And so…so for the four other people in the parking lot. I..I tried to ram my car against one of them. To…do something. Slow them down I guess.” 

“Barbara.” Anna stood up to get more gauze. “You’re the dumbest smart person I know. That must have been like driving your car into a wall.” 

“My son is out there fighting these things all the time. I, I couldn’t just do nothing!”

“A. WALL.”

Barbara winced her eyes shut, her lips becoming a thin line. “Well..it didn’t work.”

“No shit.”

“Things…got dangerous…”

“Again. No shit Darkwing Duck.”

“Luckily Walter was shopping there too. He stepped in..and kept putting me out of harms way while taking on these two trolls. They’re like twice our size put together!” Barbara held back a sob. “But..but stubbornly I kept trying to help. I…I pulled a baseball bat from my trunk..and…all I did was put him in more danger than necessary. I mean it was kind of fun at first,” Barbara exhaled a strained bitter laugh into her hand, “It made me think about if Jim has as much fun with danger as we were having. 

“There was even banter Anna! Christ, it was the most he talked to me since Merlin came back. And together we were able to take one troll down!…but..then when Walter wasn’t looking I..I tried to push him out of the way of a blow. I..my body acted on its own, and I, I didn’t want to see him hurt” Barbara shamefully covered her face, “If Walter didn’t bounce back and shield me when he did I’d be a pile of putty, never able to walk again, and stuck to a car with a Barbara shaped cartoon indent. It only got worse from there.” She shook her head, and her hands dropped away from her saddened face, “The other troll got back up, and, and Walter’s shoulder…” Doctor Barbara Lake winced. “Nomura said it’s a wound that has never fully healed.”

Anna nodded, “Guess we’ll see that callus soon.”

“I shouldn’t have tried to play hero without knowing what I was doing. Not like that. Not by risking his life and the lives of others.”

“And your own.” underlined Anna while she guided her pair of scissors to cut a stitch. 

“If Nomura hadn’t called…if I hadn’t narrowly been able to answer that phone…”

Barbara winced again, though this time it wasn’t due because of any physical pain, but from remembering when Nomura arrived. 

How hopeless the situation seemed. How ghastly Walter’s arm and shoulder looked. How his limp worsened with every step. 

The sheer wave of relief when Nomura arrived. The way Nomura cursed after her initial surprise attack. The back and forth between Nomura and Strickler about poisoned blades. 

Until Walter Strickler couldn’t speak anymore, and collapsed. 

How in that moment of collapse Nomura became distracted. Looking so much like that lost young girl Barbara had seen in an old 1800’s photo displayed at the museum. And the backdraft of rage that followed. 

“I don’t know what would have happened.” came Barbara’s voice, hoarse and hushed.

“I’d be cashing my service as Jim’s godmother is what.” roughly Anna pulled down Barbara’s shirt over her newly dressed side. “You’re going to need X-rays after this.”

Barbara’s hand floated to her side, gently pressing her fingers against Anna’s work. Slowly, she nodded. “Thanks Anna.”

Anna kissed into Barbara’s hair as she moved towards her sink. 

Steadily, Barbara moved to join Anna to scrub their hands. 

The water matched the static whirlwind of Barbara’s thoughts. Of how this was essentially all avoidable if it hadn’t been for her brashness to intervene. 

“Hey.” went Anna after several glances into Barbara’s darkened face, “Just cause you’re a klutz of a hero one way, doesn’t mean you’re not a hero in other ways.” with a little hip check Anna smiled, “Doctor.”

Barbara managed a smile, her lip still swollen, “Doctor.”

“Now save the pity party for after we operate on your ex.”

Barbara snorted a chuckle and nodded, “Alright.”

The two doctors re-entered Anna’s living room to find Nomura sitting beside Walter. Her hand slid into his. Her face despondent, lost in another time that was similarly too close for comfort. If it wasn’t for the way Nomura’s eyes shifted with each new panicked thought, Barbara would have thought she was a statue.  

Barbara gave herself a moment to breathe with one long exhale. Something she tended to do before any operation. Level heads were needed now. 

“It’s going to be alright Nomura.” 

Nomura didn’t seem to hear her.  

Barbara crouched down beside the changeling, leaning to catch Nomura’s shifting eyes. “Hey, Nomura?”

The changeling’s eyes snapped predatorily. 

Barbara had to gulp to re-find her bearings. “I need you to show me where you saw him bleeding again.”

Nomura silently nodded, and lifted Walter’s shirt. Seams from from his already torn turtle neck snagged on to a protruding bit of stone that stuck out of his abdomen. The remains of a broken off spear tip. 

Barbara squinted. As bloody as the ghastly sight already was, she struggled to find any new openings or ways her impromptu stitches might have opened. 

“Anna, can we get some more light in here?”

“Yeah, I can up the brightness.”

“Max it please.”

“Copy.”

Nomura winced at the sudden brightness. And Barbara was able to see the bleeding Nomura managed to see in such a dim light. It was minimal. Small beaded bulbs of blood that grew like poppies between the stitches. 

“Thank you for bringing that up Nomura.”

Nomura didn’t answer, and stared as Anna placed a cloth over her coffee table. With the changeling’s help they were able to move Walter to lay on top of it. 

That way both doctors could work on opposite sides, and not be obstructed by the limitations of just one side.  

The air conditioning started to kick off, its setting now lower than the usual comfortable 75°F (24°C), and now a 43°F (7°C). It was the best they could do to imitate the cool air of a Hospital. 

“Should..I go?” Nomura asked tentatively as Barbara started her first incision. 

“We’re going to need your help still.” said Anna. “Incase we need to change out the water. Dab our foreheads now and then. You’ve seen Gray’s Anatomy. Maybe keep your eyes on the clock.”

“What for?”

“So we’ll have an accurate time of death.” said Anna with monotonous mirth. 

Nomura stared for the longest time. Her chest started to rise and fall rapidly.

“She’s joking.” Barbara said finally. Distantly. “But we will need your help again. Anna? Suction.” 

Nomura marveled at the improvised use of a turkey baster.

“Can you keep track of his pulse for us?” 

Nomura nodded and sat on the floor, pulling her legs up and wrapping an arm around them. Trying to make herself as small as possible. Nomura placed a shaky hand at Walter’s neck, and counted with her eyes on the clock. “So far normal.”

Barbara nodded as she worked.

“Thank goodness for little miracles.” went Anna dryly, squeezing the turkey baster to spew blood into a basin. 

Nomura watched holding her breath. Fearful any wrong breathing on her part might ruin the two doctors’s work. 

The changeling expected the rest of the operation would pass on quietly. With the occasional, “Hold that.” or “Do you see what I see?” “Suction.” 

The last time Walter and Nomura had to visit Anna (that time with the help of Jim), Anna was exceptionally talkative. She didn’t expect the same level of distant talkative-ness from Barbara as well. But it helped keep the doctors’s own pulses low. 

“So the finale.”

“Don’t get me started.” 

Barbara laughed. “Alright. We’ll save the passionate rant for later.”

“You guys are so lucky I have that on pre-record.”

“Otherwise you’d watch it while we operate?”

“Hell yeah.” snarked Anna.

Barbara glanced at Nomura, and noticed her serious furrowed brows. “She’s joking.” explained the doctor. 

“Oh Nomura should know that by now.” smiled Anna.

“Well while we’re here…”

“What? We give him a vasectomy? Harvest a few organs?”

Barbara jokingly paused and pretend to consider the options. “Nah. My black market organ dealings are done.” 

“Ah well.” shrugged Anna, using the turkey baster again. She grinned towards Walter’s unconscious face. “Better luck next time, bud.”

“I actually want to know about how you guys already know each other.”

Nomura tensed, pressing her forehead against her knees. “Strickler got hurt. Jim mentioned Anna. So we operated at the morgue.”

Barbara glanced between Nomura and Anna. Then frowned into her work. 

“It was a difficult night.” Anna started to explain. 

“And that’s that on that.” Snapped Nomura. Finalizing any further discussion. Fearful any deviation might distract the very well trained doctors. 

Nomura hated feeling this helpless. But then, one couldn’t punch a wound better. Not realistically speaking. 

The silence grew thick. Barbara took a long breath “Another time then.”

The silence continued for a short while. And to the surprise of no one, it was Anna who spoke again. “So is he still smoking?”

Barbara chuckled, “Oh boy.”

“No I’m serious.”

“Yes.” said Nomura, resting her chin on her knees.

“You can’t traumatize a, what, 800 year old man?”

“Older maybe.” shrugged Nomura, looking at Strickler’s face. She knew his age. But age was always something a changeling either generalized or poked fun of. 

“Not with that attitude.” snarked Anna.

“Good gravy. You know what she did to my son?”

Nomura shook her head ‘no’. Then remembered neither of the doctors were looking at her, and said, “No, what?”

“At a tender young age of six, Anna showed my son pictures of smoker lungs, and lung cancer.”

“Has he ever thought of smoking?” leaned Anna with a smirk. She didn’t have to wait for Barbara’s answer to continue, “No. He hasn’t. And you’re welcome.” 

Nomura found herself able to gently chuckle at that. But the smile didn’t last long when she noticed the beads of sweat on Strickler’s face. “I…uh…he’s sweating? His face is really warm.”

“Ice.” went Barbara with a detached medical calm. “Nomura go get ice. Stat.” 

Anna lifted her eyes to see Barbara’s expressionless face, and Nomura still as death, staring. It was as if everything shut down around the changeling. Her irises thin cat like slits. Her lips a tense thin line. 

“Nomura.”

“Why isn’t she moving?”

“Anna hold this. Clamp it tight.” Barbara turned and stared straight into Nomura’s face. “Hey. Hey…look at me. He’s going to be fine. You spotted the sweating, now we can do something about it right?”

Nomura’s eyes fluttered, jerkily the changeling nodded. 

“Look, it’s not a battlefield, I know. But I know what I’m doing here.”

Nomura inhaled deeply, and slowly her legs became less stiff. Less rooted to the spot. 

“Right now Walter needs ice before things get feverishly dangerous. You’re with me?”

“I..”

“Nomura. We can do this. It’s going to be okay. And it’ll be better with ice.”

“Ice…right.” Nomura gradually got to her feet, and forced her eyes to look away. 

“There’s already a bucket by the freezer.” Anna said without looking up. 

Barbara leaned back into Nomura’s line of sight, “He’s going to be okay.”

Nomura nodded, and headed towards the kitchen. When she retuned with a hefty load of ice the changeling was directed to place it on him. It would have been better with bags, but (like the turkey baster) they had to work with what they had with the time they had.

For the rest of the operation Nomura returned to her detached state. Speaking only when asked about Walter Strickler’s pulse. 

Barbara and Anna returned to their detached conversations.  

They worked well into the night.

With a final sigh, and a cut of a stitch, Barbara sat back on her legs. Anna groaned and rolled her arms. 

“That’s it?” Nomura asked. 

Barbara gave an exhausted smile. She adjusted her glasses with a nod, smudging them with blood in the process. “That’s it. All he needs is some sleep.”

“More than this?” snarked Anna. For Strickler was unconscious for the majority of the whole ordeal. “It’d be eternal.”

“Not yet I’m afraid.” went Barbara looking into Walter’s slacked face. Most of the ice were now puddles. “Come on. Lets dry him off and get him on the couch.” the air conditioner went off for the millionth time that night. Roaring in the silence in that intrusive buzzing sort of way. Tiredly Barbara rubbed her eyebrow. “Anna?”

“On it.”

Barbara moved for one of the clean hand towels, “I..Oh, I need to wash my hands.”

“That’d be great. Less blood on the furniture is, essentially, ideal.” went Anna from the thermostat.

Nomura quietly dabbed Strickler’s brow, neck and chin, as the doctors walked off to scrub the blood off and disinfect their tools. 

By the time the doctors were done, Strickler was on the couch. 

His return to consciousness was gradual. The first thing the changeling felt was pain in his shoulder, his head, and then his stomach. But what caught Strickler’s attention first, was the feeling of warmth around his hand. And the sensation of someone’s hair on his already hairy arm. 

With slow blinking eyes he saw the source of warmth, and feebly squeezed Nomura’s hand. 

Nomura, still sitting on the ground, gradually lifted her head from beside Walter. And exhaled a breath she felt like she was holding the whole night. 

At Strickler’s attempt at a smile she clicked her tongue and punched a pillow, “Oi, Jiji!” (Hey you old geezer!) sternly Nomura wagged her finger. Her red eyes burning with the attempt to not cry, “Kowagarashinaide! Buchinomesu yo.” (scare me like that again and I’ll kill you.) With the smallest sniffle Nomura muttered, “Taku.” (damnit) though it was obstructed with the way Nomura rubbed her damp cheek. 

Strickler’s shallow laugh turned into a shallow grunted cough. “Douzo, yatte minasai.” (I’d like to see you try.) he gave her hand a paternal squeeze, thumbing her bloody knuckles. His neck giving him a double chin like affect as he looked down at Nomura’s lowering head. Coyly Strickler continued,“Shiranai no? Gokiburi mitai. Ganbare yo.” (Don’t you know? I am like a cockroach. Good luck.)

Nomura clicked her tongue again with a little sniff. Rubbing her eyes before lifting her head again, “Baka.” (Idiot.)

“Dan da heddo.” (Dunderhead.) Strickler feebly attempted to flick Nomura’s forehead. She laughed at his pathetic attempt, and lowered his hand away.

Barbara entered on the tail end of their conversation, and breathed a sigh of relief seeing the two changelings interact. Even if she didn’t understand a word they were saying. Yet It was clear they saw each other as family. 

Only for Barbara to realize, Walter being awake meant having to face Walter as well. 

This time it was Barbara’s turn to freeze where she stood. She bit her lip then winced when she remembered how swollen it still was. 

It caught Strickler’s eye, and slowly the changeling blinked his eyes her way. 

“Hey Barb, Nomura, you want some wine?” Went Anna walking over from the kitchen, “Lord knows I need some. We can watch Game of- oh!” Anna stopped in her tracks lowering the bottle of red. “He’s up.” 

“He is.” went Walter with a painful smirk. 

An unsettling frozen silence set. No one really moved aside from Barbara who fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. Walter licked his lips, wincing as he pointed to Nomura, “Anna, can you see if you can get her to eat?”

“Uh…sure.”

Nomura clicked her tongue indignantly. 

Strickler stared at her knowingly. And, as if on cue, Nomura’s stomach grumbled. 

The changeling hissed and thumbed her nose. Strickler gave her hand a final squeeze before she got up to follow Anna.

Nomura nodded her head at Barbara, “Thank you.”

Feebly Barbara nodded back a lip swollen smile. She winced, and Nomura nudged her arm in a good natured way. 

And then it was just Barbara and Walter alone. 

Barbara never noticed just how loud Anna’s living room clock was. It was practically cacophonous in that shared silence. 

“We found the rest of the spear. Three guesses as to where we found it.” blabbed Barbara like a bubble of nerves. Immediately cursing at herself for the poor attempt at a joke. 

“Can I have a hint?” 

“Look down.” went Barbara inching closer to the changeling. 

Walter did so, and made a ghastly comical face.

“Not that far down.” smirked Barbara rolling her eyes. 

“Can I still get that appendectomy?”

“It might be a bit harder for you now. Seeing as you,” Barbara started to frown as she spoke “don’t.. have an appendix.”

“Ah well. Who needs them anyways. Thank you for saving my life.” 

Barbara removed her glasses and tried to wipe them on her shirt. Sniffling while doing so. “I wish you’d yell at me.”

Strickler, on instinct, tried to sit upright to earnestly say his rebuttal and winced with a groan. “What on earth for?”

“For..for this!” she gestured wildly at him, then around Anna’s living room, and herself “All of this! This is my fault!”

“You didn’t know those Gumm-Gumms would be there.” 

“I kept getting in your way. You, you told me to hide-”

“You wanted to help. And in some moments you did.” Walter smiled. 

“Aren’t you mad? I, I don’t understand.”

Walter closed his eyes tight and exhaled through his nose. Silently counting. When he was done, he motioned Barbara to sit a little closer. “I am mad. Yes. Furious at your lack of self perception for your own safety when it comes to moments of danger like this.”

“Oh God.” went Barbara lowering her head into her hands. Her hands didn’t hide the wince from her side as she leaned forward. “I know-”

“But much more than that, Barbara,” Walter stretched to meekly lower Barbara’s hands from her face, “I was afraid. I’m still afraid. Afraid what that selfless impulse you have could cost you.” 

Barbara’s shoulders started to jerk. Her voice cracking as she voiced the horror that had been lingering heavily in her heart. “I could have gotten you killed.”

“Instead you saved my life.”

“You wouldn’t need your life saved if I’d just…just listened.”

“Perhaps. And if you did run when I told you to, and things still ended up as bad as it did, who would have answered my phone? How would Nomura know where to find us?”“I’m sure I would have tried to call her.”

Walter smiled again and nodded slowly, “I know you would have. This is just how the dice fell.”

“It’s not okay though.”

Walter sighed, but nodded yet again. “You’re right. It isn’t okay.” an encouraging warm grin spread over Walter’s face, “But how can I forget I’m dealing with Doctor Barbara ‘I’m going to hit an un-dead troll with a broom to save my son’ Lake?”

Barbara threw her head back with a groan, then doubled over with a painful wince grasping at her side. Forgetting her own stitches. “Uugh if I’d known about the freezing barrier thing.” 

Cautiously Walter said “Barbara I think you’re missing the point.”

“Oh I get the point loud and clear!” she snapped with a small spark of anger. Futility staring back at her from the reflection of Anna’s television. “How can I help my son when I..I’m useless when fighting-”

Strickler groaned, and an arch of green electricity illuminated the couch and living room. “Barbara.” came a voice of low velveteen gravel. Calm like a hidden spring in a dark cave. “Look at me.”

Barbara held her breath, her eyes sliding towards him first before the rest of her body followed. 

She wasn’t sure how, but the bandages carried over from his human to troll form. A troll form that manifested without the bladed cape. They were going to have to pay Anna for a new pillow set as one of Strickler’s horns pierced through it. 

“Barbara, what am I made of? What do you see?”

Barbara lowered her hand. A finger hesitantly hovering over Walter’s stoney forearm. An urging curiosity to touch.

Though as Walter’s questions registered more in her head, her brows furrowed. And a defensive insecure response was born. “Don’t patronize me. Stone, Walt. You’re made of stone.”

“I’m not trying to patronize. I didn’t mean for it to come across that way.” The changeling pushed himself to sit up, ignoring the pain that carried over from form to form. It felt like tectonic plates raking against him inside. And before Barbara could pull her hand away completely, Walter caught it. “I’m sorry.” he rasped, “I’m trying, my best, to explain.”

“Explain what? You’re part stone? I’ve grasped that.”

“I’m part stone. Nomura is part stone. Yes. And we can take more damage because of it. We can anticipate heavier hits because of it. But you’re not Barbara. You’re..” Walter looked over his bloody friend. The nicks, the bruises to be, the bloodied lip. The cut above the brow that may or may not turn into a scar. How fidgety she could get. How, because of her side, she favored leaning and nursing it with an arm. His eyes looked wishful and forlorn.“Flesh, bone- carbon, blood. Incredibly breakable. With a will so fearfully strong I’m scared to learn what your iron levels are in your blood. 

“But will isn’t everything Barbara. You could have the strongest will in all the land. But that doesn’t change the fact that,” Walter lifted her hand in his for her to draw attention to it. His eyes piercing and glowing just above the knuckles. “if I squeeze your hand hard enough like this, I could break your bones. Fracture them to say the least.”

Barbara gasped on instinct. Like an impulsive flinch when hearing a dog’s bark close enough that made someone blink. Even if that dog was one you knew would never hurt you. It struck at something primal. Life preserving.

Yet Walter continued to hold her hand like the brittlest of crystal. After resting her hand back down, he retracted his own clawed hand carefully away. Not wanting to risk so much as a scratch on her already scratched up hands. 

“The point I’m…I’m struggling to make, Doctor Lake, is…you’re terrifying. Terrifying with how, when other people’s lives are on the line, you’re not even minimally self aware of your own mortality.”

“I’m not going to do nothing. Not when my son is facing those dangers every. single. day.” she steeled. 

“I’m not asking you to do nothing. I’m begging you to be more self aware. And Barbara,” Walter leaned to the side with a wince of his own. His arm close enough to just barely graze hers. “I know you know better than to say healing others is doing nothing. Saving my life was certainly not nothing. If I didn’t know any better I’d think I was in a M*A*S*H tent.”

Barbara screwed her eyes shut, and nodded. Wringing her hands together, she continued to nod. “You’re right…” she sighed and released her hands, “you’re right. It’s just, in the face of everything else that’s been happening it feels so passive. I can patch Jim up for sure, but…I want to fight too.” 

Suddenly she gasped as an idea struck her. She turned towards Walter who had a fearful look on his face. Struck speechless.

The changeling shook his head, already anticipating the question Barbara was about to ask. A low “no, no, no,” rumbling in his throat.

“You can teach me! You’ve been teaching Jim. Can’t you teach me?”

Walter looked into the good doctor’s eyes, how they twinkled hopefully. “Do you know what you’re asking me? The gravity-?”

“Jim’s been trying to keep me out of this for so long. But I want to be part of this. I want to help.”

“Why?”

“Why? Walt, that’s my son out there.”

“No, I mean…why would you want to learn how to fight?” 

Barbara quirked her head to the side. Feeling her reason was obvious. Not understanding why the changeling looked so downtrodden. With a frown so heavy it was nearly sinking off his green face. 

“Why?” he asked again almost on the verge of tears. Just unable to grasp Doctor Lake’s request. “Why would you want such healing hands to learn how to fight? After years of learning how to save lives. Why would you want to start learning how to take it?”

“Take..?” Barbara looked into the pained expression on Walter’s face. 

“You’re under oath, Barbara.”

And finally, it hit her. She was talking with a trained assassin after all. An assassin who knew the best way to fight was until there was only one person standing. Gently she explained, “No. Walt. I want to be able to protect. To defend myself, and others.” She moved to push the hanging lock of hair from Strickler’s forehead, “I’m not asking you to help me break my oath. I’m not planning on breaking it anytime soon.” 

Walter gazed at Barbara, and felt his lungs fill with air and relief. He exhaled a smile, which turned into a winced wheeze, and sniffed a few times before saying. “Right. Of course. Very,” he shook his head with a self scrutinizing smile, “very foolish of me.”

Barbara hummed her head side to side, thoughtfully.

“You have an orange belt in Krav Maga for Pete’s sake.” his voice sounded drawn. A mirth like rumble in his throat as he repeated, “Very foolish.”

Barbara cupped his stoney cheek. A show of tenderness so unexpected Walter nearly flinched. Instead he practically melted into the warmth of Barbara’s fleshy palm. “Maybe. Though, you are still recovering. But I’d say that’s, very kind of you to worry about.”

“I…have my moments.” Walter’s eyes fluttered. His face feeling very warm.

When did their faces get so close?

“Will you help me?”

“I’d move heaven and earth for you if I could.” 

“A bit dramatic. But I’ll take it.” Barbara smiled.

When did the distance between their lips become so small? The changeling’s breath hitched at the feel of her other hand on him. 

“If I didn’t know any better, Doctor. I’d say you’re trying to seduce me into helping you.”

“Is it working?” she asked sultrily. Playing off Walter’s mirth. 

“It’d work better if your hand wasn’t on my stomach.”

“What?!” She looked down at the bandages wrapped over his green stoney body. Her blood pressure spiked. “I, oh, Walt I’m sorry.”

Walter exhaled a sound that was more rubber chicken than troll. Tried as he might to power through the pain just before a potential kiss. His wound was still incredibly tender. In a way, the changeling thought it was for the best. For now. 

“Does it hurt? Even like that?”

“Well it’s no tickle I’ll tell you that.” Walter tried to undermine bravely over Barbara’s worried rambling. 

“I mean you were going on about being made of stone. I didn’t think.”

“Stone. Yes. But still living stone. And recently cut into.”

Barbara leaned, and winced at her side as she tried to check under the bandages without fully undoing them “God, I can’t tell if the stitches opened.”

“Hang on.” Walter steadied himself and grasped the nearest pillow. Trying to think past the pain, and the anticipated pain to come. “You’ll want to close your eyes for this.” he offered before grunting into a shine of green electricity. 

Steam billowed off him slightly as the human form of Walter Strickler slumped into the couch. 

“Walter?” went Barbara waving her hand, “Geeze, if you didn’t have a fever before.” 

“I’m fine.” he tried to assure, despite looking far paler than before. “Changing, when wounded, can be, a, tiring affair.” 

“THen wHY-”

“You wanted to check my stitches. I thought it’d be, easier, as a human.”

“At the cost of exhausting yourself!? You’re still recovering.” Barbara shook her head at him, and brushed back some of Walter’s spongy hair, “And then you say I don’t think. Honestly.” 

Walter gave a haggard laugh, “I suppose we have quite a bit to learn from each other.”

Barbara snorted a laugh. She pressed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Only to sigh. “We’re going to have to re-do a few stitches.”

“Bugger.”

Barbara apologized with a quick, almost chaste, soft kiss against his cheek. A kiss that caused a goofy curly smile to grow on the changeling’s face. He rubbed it as he watched Barbara push herself off the couch to wash her hands and fetch the first aid kit again. 

When she came back Barbara guided Walter to sit up, and untie the gauzy bandage that was wrapped around his stomach. Now speckled with beads of blood. 

As Barbara tended to the changeling, yet another realization among many came over the doctor. It wasn’t as though they were working with morphine this whole time. And although conscious this time, the most Walter made as a sound was a grunt or a wince.  

“Should I be worried about your high tolerance to pain?”

“Probably? But-” Walter exhaled slowly. He bit his lower lip as he felt the needle pass through his healing skin tissue, “-not today. Please. I wouldn’t mind a- ah- conversational distraction.” 

A pause of silence followed. And then, in unison, they both spoke over the other. 

“Do you want to continue our question game?” asked Barbara, referring to the long night when Jim, while away, found Merlin. To reconcile over not fully knowing all of Walter, the question game was invented. 

“Have you ever learned how to fight with a bow staff?” asked Walter, referring to the moments he saw Barbara fight, rather well, with a broom. 

They both laughed for a short while. The air filled with bubbly nerves. Until Barbara, with a deadpan, said, “No laughing while I’m stitching. Or you’ll lose your bellybutton.”

As much as the changeling wanted to, Walter knew better than to contradict Barbara. “Doctor’s orders.” he tried to say seriously. 

In the end, with Walter’s stomach patched again and re-dressed, and Barbara’s hands cleaned with the aid-kit put away, the two shared the couch. 

They were found by a glowing Nomura and Anna. But that’s another story, for another time. 

//

Thank you so much for reading!! 

[askthelittleassistant]

You Got A Friend In Me

((At long last, I’m finally posting this properly! I just wanna say thanks to everyone who’s waited around for this, just keep in mind, this will actually be part 1 of this particular story, so I hope you enjoy!))

Shop was finally on her way to the septic’s house to see what was taking Dark so long. She knew it was impatient of her to assume that they would be done in a snap, but she had a pretty good idea of who and what they were talking about, and she wanted a say in it all. There was a sense of admiration towards Dark for taking charge and wanting to prevent any harm from befalling the shifter, but she also did not enjoy being tucked away like some priceless heirloom.

Shoving her hands into the pouch of her hoodie, Shop trudged along down the now rather familiar path, making sure she was the usual ego size; she’d rather not have to be so worried about being grabbed and tossed around, further proving to the others to be able to take care of herself, not that anyone doubted it. Shop was staring hard into her own footfalls that she almost passed by the cabin, stopping swiftly in her tracks as she turned towards the front door. She would have knocked immediately, but as she grew closer to the front door, she could hear the distinct sound of multiple people yelling over each other. Hesitantly, she lifted her fist, and knocked.

---

It was complete chaos inside the cabin. How in the hell did a simple meeting turn into an insane rendition of search and rescue?

-about an hour earlier-

“Thank You For The Coffee Henrik, You Didn’t Have To Make Any Food Though.” Dark swirled the near pitch black liquid in his mug before gesturing to the sandwiches that had been placed out before him as the septic’s doctor pulled a seat out for himself to sit with Dark, his brows knit as tightly as the sweater he wore. “It is no problem, and do not worry about the food, I figure it would be good since you have been in here for a while now, but I digress, where were we? How are ah- how are you and Shop doing after eh…” Henrik, still not sure what to call their previous experience with the fusion Shark, simply waved his hand in uncertainty before Dark raised a hand with an uncharacteristically kind smile on his face, chuckling. “We Are Doing Just Fine, Shop Is Back To Her Usual Chipper Self Thankfully…” His expression darkened as his hands gripped the steaming mug, glaring down the doctor from his seat, forcing his aura out just a small bit in a show of control. “But You Know Full Well That Was Not What We Were Talking About. We Need To Talk About… Him.” Henrik sighed, his shoulders lowering. “Ja- We all know Anti can be… intense. At times…”

“When Is He Ever NOT Intense, Doctor?”

Henrik twiddled his thumbs, seemingly deep in thought. “Well, we tend to just. Deal with it, as it were… I am sure you know how it can be, what with the company you share within your own walls.”

“At Least My Company Does Not Intentionally Attack Humans For Sport.” Dark spat aggressively, growing defensive.

Henrik almost choked on his coffee at the statement, the silent confusion enough for Dark to see that he might’ve gone too far, and needed to reel it back in, not to mention that Henrik seemed to be out of the loop of what happened, so he assumed that Doctor Iplier had not told him everything. He took a deep breath, his aura and ringing coming back down as he calmly explained what had happened, only glancing from the doctor as others came past the dining room to get to the kitchen.

At the same time, the magician known as Marvin was in his room, his corner of the house, practicing some new, and remembering some old spells, muttering to himself, so he didn’t quite notice when Anti slunk into his room. The glitch knew no sense of personal boundaries, so the others of the household just learned to tolerate his presence, even when he was spewing threats and the like. Everyone was aware that Dark was in the house talking with Henrik about… well, Anti, so when he giggled, threatening to knock over some bottles with his knife, Marvin sighed and just continued reading and muttering to himself.

“ O͟h c̶o̢m̡e̢ ͠o͜n҉ ͟M͟a̕r̡v͜,͜ ̷ḑon̷’͏t ҉yo͜u̸ c͟a̵re͟ ab̕out͘ these̵ ̨bot͢tles̀ ̨of…. ̶S̵t̢uf̴f͜?̧ ”

“Not enough to pay attention to you-”

“ Àẃ͢͠!͢ ̴͠Y͡͞a͏ ́͘D̀́Ó ͏̛͞c͟a̛re̴ ̵abǫu̷t͘ ̵m͢e!͟!̢͜”

“You didn’t let me finish-!!” Marvin was given no time to react as Anti mockingly hugged the magician from behind, making him yelp in surprise.

“What Was That?” Dark sat up at the distance cry.

“Hm? Oh that must have been Marvin, he said he would be practicing some things today, I suppose Anti saw that as an invitation to go bother him. I am sure he is fine.” Henrik explained rather bluntly as Chase and Jackie peeked into the room at the cry.

“That Did Not Sound Like Being Fine To Me Doctor…”

“Oh no no, Anti doesn’t really do much around here aside pull pranks and be a general nuisance-” Henrik is cut off by Chase letting out a ‘HAH!’ in response to the explanation, the hero ego smacking his shoulder lightly before pulling him out of view. “Sometimes he has a habit of slipping into Jack’s videos in the form of random glitches, just to mess with the community, we try to tell him to stop that and wait until he’s needed for a proper video, but he never seems to listen.” He clears his throat and waves his hand, as though to clear his thoughts, knowing Dark would want to continue discussing the issue at hand.

“Anti for the last time, let me be!” Marvin was starting to get real agitated with Anti, swatting him away like a fly buzzing around his ears. The glitch cackled and continued to lean in closer and closer to Marvin, bothering him with all sorts of questions and annoying sounds.

“Alright, I’ve had ENOUGH of you!!” Marvin shouted as his hands glowed, preparing a spell, any spell at this point, that would shut the glitch up, flinging his now glowing green hands towards Anti, who glitched out of the way with a maniacal giggle as the manifested spell ricocheted off the walls and out the open door that Anti had oh so courteously opened, watching the wad of magic bounce around before entering the next room, cheering to himself as he heard a rather frantic ‘Scheiße!’ from Henrik, running into the dining room with a wild grin plastered on his face to witness the magic’s effect on the afflicted, quite surprised to see Henrik unaffected, sauntering with a sneer.

“ S҉hi̷t, ҉t̢ha̸t’s ҉n͡o̸ ̴fun͠, Ma͏rv͝’̢s ҉m͠a͞ǵi͢c ́didn’̸t͝ ̡do͞ ͞an̴yt̕h̡i͜ng ta y̴á.”

“It-it did not hit me…”

“ W͢ell̨ ́w̡h̀o̴ e͡lse c͟o̷uld́ ͞it͏ have-̸ ͝o̧h ͞h̨o,̷ oh h̵òhơ̸̴h̢̕ho͘͟͠h͘͟oḩ̵͢o̡o̶h̴̢̡o͘͡҉h̸h̸h̢̨̢o̴̕o̷̴͜ó̶̕Ó͝!!!” Anti melted into a cackle when he sees a lifeless little crocheted version of dark laying on his chair, picking him up as Marvin ran into the room.

“ M͠a҉rv̀, ͝y͘o͟u͏ ͟w͢e̛re ̧goǹna̧ d͏o t̴his̷ ̡to ͟me̵?͝ ̧I’m̛ ͘húr̀t̨,҉ t̨ru̶l͟y Ì ͘am̀!͝” he giggled more as he rolled Dark in the palm of his hand, eyeing the details he exhibited. “ I҉ c̶òu͞l̡d̀ ùs҉e h͘i͢m͘ as̵ a ͟l͢ítţle̢ p͝in͘ ͠cush̛ion!̀”

Henrik recoiled at that statement and shot up, snatching Dark out the glitch’s hands. “You will do no such thing! Marvin! You need to change him back this instance!”

“W-what?! B-but, I dunno how!”

“If you cast it there must be some way to reverse it, no?”

“Well, o-of course, I just-” Marvin rubbed his hands nervously, he hated being put on the spot like this, but even he knew the importance of getting the ego back to normal, especially if that curious human of his got worried and tried to come to them on her own.

“Alright, alright I’ll try-” Marvin managed to get out as he shook out the nerves from his hands, taking the crocheted ego from the doctor and giving Anti the stink eye; mumbling some words to try to think through a plethora of spells, he doesn’t notice the bubbly Jackie popping out from a nearby corridor with a excited greeting, making Marvin lose his concentration and accidently cast a reduction spell, making the already small doll start to shrink in his hands as he jumps, sending Dark flying.

“J-jackie!! I was trying to focus!”

“Yeah, on that doll you were holding; what was it for anyway?”

“THAT WAS DARKIPLIER!!”

It took the hero a moment to process that, Anti breaking down in a mess of glitches and giggles, Henrik already on his knees, looking for the ego.

“OH FUCK.”

The three were on the floor in a matter of moments, yelling over each other as Anti cackled before they heard a few solid knocks on the front door.

-----

Shop grew more worried as all the noise stopped, she went to knock again after hearing rustling and laughter, all followed by silence, but it was unneeded was the door squeaked open, as if scared to welcome her inside as Henrik’s face drained of color. That wasn’t a good sign.

“A-ah! Hallo Shop! You seem to have grown since the last time I saw you! H-how are you!”

“I uh… I’m fine, is Dark inside? I came to check on him since y’all seemed to be having a rather lengthy chat, ha…” She fidgeted with her hands she spoke, a bit nervous.

“Ah! Ah… er… He is! Just… taking a break at the moment, please, feel free to come in!” Henrik ushered Shop inside, biting his lip as she walked past him before leading her into the dining room to sit, where everything was in its place, except Dark. She glanced at the mug that she presumed to be his as Henrik excused himself to the next room, assuring Shop that he would be right back.

Shop exhaled slowly as soon as she was alone; something didn’t sit well with her; she knew Dark wouldn’t just up and leave, so where was he? There was that, along with the fact that last time she was here, she was unconscious and still in a bit of pain. Shop drummed her fingers on the table, fidgeting. She couldn’t wait, so she tucked her head between her arms to try and calm herself, looking at the little details on the floor below, her eyes following the dark patterns of grain in the floorboards before her eyes fell on something… odd. Shop tilted her head, curious as she tried to see what it was from her seat, but it was just too small to make out. Glancing around, seeing as the doctor wasn’t back yet, and the house seemed quiet and devoid of activity for the most part, Shop stood up and crouched down, shrinking back down to her normal size before walking towards the object, still cautious as she approached.

“A doll?...” Shop reached out to pick Dark up, looking him over. “You look like Dark, heh… but what are you doing down here? And why are you so small?...” She rubbed the little crocheted hand gently between her fingers, not thinking anything of the action. “I wish he’d just show up already… I’m really worried about him…” Shop scoffed at herself. “Tsk, look at me, sitting under a table talking to a do-” Shop froze, she could’ve sworn she felt the hand she was holding… grip her hand back? But that was impossible… wasn’t it? Then again she was a magic cabin in the woods full of giant egos, so who was to say what was impossible?

“I- um…” Shop blushed bashfully, lifting the toy up more towards her face. “Dark? Buddy?... can you hear me?...” She waited patiently, worried she was actually going insane before the little hand moved again, wrapping itself around her thumb before the other hand slowly twitched to life, the crocheted brows on his face seemingly breaking out of place to emote a scowl, as though it was taking an immense amount of effort to move.

Henrik walked back into a seemingly empty room, a bit surprised as he quietly called out for Shop. “Ah, erm, hallo?... Shop?...”

The shifter jumped as she heard her name, clutching Dark close to herself before she peeked out from behind a table leg. “Still here! Just uh… found something… or rather, someone.” She walked out with the doll in her hands, barely visible, even as Henrik knelt down and adjusted his glasses, his eyes going wide as he realized what she was holding. This was enough for Shop to confirm that this was, in fact, Dark, and so she puffed out her chest and stood tall as she spoke. “What’s going on Doc? How’d this happen hm?” She wasn’t gonna leave without a proper answer and-

“Marvin was practicing his spells when things got a little out of control and well. This happened!”

Well that was easy.

[scourgefrontiers]

updated commission post, including a new option! please consider buying or spreading the word by reblogging!

im taking four slots per batch!

PLEASE read all the rules !!

im only allowing one order per slot because it would be confusing to take multiple ones in this case !!  you may order one option per slot, but im only allowing at most two slots per person so ppl have a better chance of grabbing one !!  if you want to order two things, you must request two slots !!

i work on a first-come-first-served basis !!  though your slot may be before someone else’s, if they pay first, then i will work on theirs first !!

I ONLY ACCEPT PAYPAL !!  all prices are in USD and some are ranged; if your character is detailed, i’ll charge the higher price !!

rules, details, slots, and T.O.S. under the cut !!!

T.O.S. (also stated on the form) ((updated october 14th, 2018))

i will post all commissions with a watermark to reduce the risk of theft; if you do not want me to post your commission and want me to instead just send it to you, please specify !!

i will NOT share your email; i will only use it for sending you your commission and invoice

i am not a machine !!  please be patient; i WILL finish your commission, whether it be the same day or the week after !!

i have the right to decline or cancel any commission if it makes me uncomfortable or if i am unable to do it.  in the event that your commission is cancelled after you have paid, you will receive a full refund

i sometimes send wips of the commissions and possibly stream while i work to both help me focus and also to make sure things are looking alright with your commission; if you have any issues with this, please tell me !!

i will send a watermarked and unwatermarked version of your commission (excluding icons).  ONLY POST THE WATERMARKED VERSION IF YOU PLAN ON REPOSTING IT–this is to prevent illegal usage and theft !!  the exception to this is for toyhou.se, but please credit my toyhou.se (DanPhantom) for the art! in addition, i’d appreciate if you simply reblogged/retweeted your commission instead of reposting it, except on websites where i do not post such as instagram

you may NOT reproduce the commissioned work for monetary gain in any way, shape, or form

ICON DETAILS:

200x200 px

solid, pattern, or transparent bgs

border or no border

square, rounded square, circle, or other shape

*i can do joint icons! but this requires two slots because its technically two icons. just say you want this before i give you the form!*

CHARA DOLL DETAILS:

400x400 px

transparent bgs

flat colors only; no shading

multiple characters are allowed; they’ll be + $20

characters will be simplified !!  if your character has details you want me to include, you must specify so i wont exclude them from simplification !!

FULL BODY DETAILS:

sketches or full color

sizes vary (i work at 100% zoom but i increase the size)

*pls note that the brush i use for sketches changes constantly*

multiple characters allowed; they’ll be + $40-$50 depending on complexity

SIMPLE bgs (such as shapes or gradients) are allowed but nothing i’ll actually have to draw out

REF SHEET DETAILS:

white bg

color palette

single full body*

sizes vary (i work at 100% zoom but i increase the size)

*extras (such as extra shots of the head for hair styles or something) will be available for at least $5 more!  anything more complicated than that will cost more!

CUSTOM DETAILS:

i’ll start out by sketching out concepts for your design and you help me pick out what works best for you

i’ll then go through the coloring process, again getting your feedback on what you like best

the final product will be a simple ref sheet of your design [read: a full body + color palette], but you may add extra details just like with the simple ref sheets!

+extra head shot (for maybe a different angle) = +$10

+extra body shot (for multiple outfits or body scar/tattoo/marking references) = +$20

+anything else can be discussed!  some things (such as paw pad refs or extra eye colors) will be free

**THIS TYPE OF COMMISSION WILL TAKE A WHILE AND WILL INVOLVE A LOT OF TALKING WITH ME!  character design is a process, so please be patient with me!  i’ll probably ask a lot of questions, too, so be ready for that!**

THINGS I WILL DO:

furries

humanoids

animals

canon characters (danny phantom and dragon ball characters are easiest for me !!)

refs from 3d models or real photos (i’m not very confident in my ability to do these, so fair warning on that)

THINGS I WILL NOT DO:

text-only references (i can only work with pictures!)

nsfw/fetish/kink stuff (although i MIGHT be willing to do slightly suggestive stuff. i like drawing butts)

mechas/armored characters (UNLESS the armor/tech is simple and cartoony, like skulker or fright knight) ((also possible exceptions for icons)) (((we can discuss exceptions if i really like the characters, like junkrat)))

shippy stuff (i may make exceptions if we’re friends and im comfortable with it but just to be safe no shippy stuff) ((exceptions for your ocs!))

genderbends (im just not comfortable w/ these sorry)

nazis/nazi imagery

racist caricatures

etc. characters that promote harmful or bigoted views

please ask me if youre unsure whether or not your character fits any of these !!  i reserve the right to decline a commission if i feel uncomfortable with it or feel as if i can’t do it

HOW TO ORDER:

send me an IM (preferred), ask, twitter dm, discord message (if we’re contacts), dA note, OR an email to doodlysketch@gmail.com to reserve a slot

once you have a slot, i will send you a link to a form you need to fill out with all your details

once you’ve filled out the form, you’ll be in my queue !!

i will then send an invoice asking for payment (i dont require you to pay immediately, but i WILL NOT start your commission until i receive payment !!  i allow 10 days for payment but if you can’t pay by then i’ll assume you no longer want the commission and your slot will be reopened)

SLOTS (crossed out is finished):

1. finn

2. jaxon

3. 

4. 

[belvera]

[Lively 4 1/2 Tatami Room] Yuika Mitsumine Full Card Story

Mitsumine’s recent Halloween support SSR was not only a cute seasonal story, but also represented a step forward for Mitsumine and her relationship with the other members of L’Antica. I think it’s also a story many will find relatable -- Don’t we all get a little nervous when invite people over for the first time? I hope you enjoy! 

(Some background: At the time of this card’s release (10/20/19), the fact Yuika is an idol otaku is something she hides from the other idols at 283 Production, including the rest of L’Antica. Also, while not particularly significant to the story, this card’s title reveals the size of Yuika’s apartment. 4 1/2 tatami is equivalent to just under 9 x 9 feet. Her place is tiny!)

Here is a video version of this card story if you’d like to follow along! Timestamps: Commu #1, Commu #2 , and Commu #3

Commu #1: “Not as bad as I thought.”

Location: Yuika’s Apartment

Yuika: ......Let’s see............?

Yuika: This area should be all safe, now......? I hid my idol merch away over there already......

Yuika: What to do with my camera......

Yuika: ......That should be fine to leave out, right......? Photography isn’t a hobby they’d judge me for......?

Yuika: ......Yes, I can do this! It’ll all be okay, Mitsumine, have confidence! 

Yuika: ──...... 

Yuika: ......Fufu, man.

Yuika: How did it end up like this.

(Flashback.)

Yuika: ......So, these are the reference materials Producer wants us to watch to prepare for acting in that horror mini-drama.

Kogane: Ack......!

Kiriko: Wah......!

Kogane: Hmmm~......! I don’ know if I'm strong enough for this...... 

Kiriko: Kogane-chan......

Yuika: Whew, man...... We're getting spooked just from seeing the covers of the DVDs.

Kogane: It's really required that we watch all these horror movies an' dramas......!? 

Yuika: Yup. They’re our reference material, so. 

Kogane: Hweh~......!

Kogane: I’ll jus', hafta push through it.....

Kogane: Well, I that's what I’d been thinkin’...... But...... ──!

Kogane: Nobody tol' me it was gonna be stuff this scary~!

Yuika: Nfufu......!

Yuika: (They gave Kogatan this job even though she said she’s no good with scary stuff...... The poor thing......)

Yuika: (......Though, she’s still going through with watching everything. That Kogatan’s really got guts......)

Yuika: ──Crap!

Yuika: (Need to hide this stuff away too.)

Yuika: (......So, what’s left...... I still need to clean, and I guess I should buy some guest cups for Kogatan and Kiririn to use, too......?)

Yuika: Hmmm......

Yuika: (......This would be a good opportunity to get a set for all five of us...... It probably won’t be long before I’m inviting the entire unit over, anyway──)

Yuika: ──Uh-oh.

Yuika: Oh, no no no...... Not so fast, Mitsumine...... Let’s not get ahead of ourselves......

Yuika: ......Whew.

Yuika: This really wasn’t what I intended to happen, y’know.

Kogane: I know we gotta watch ‘em...... ! I know we gotta, but......

Kogane: I couldn’t handle watchin’ stuff like this if I’m at home all alone!

Yuika: Ahahah, I feel you there.

Kiriko: ......

Kiriko: Maybe we could all...... Watch them together......

Kogane: ...! Y’all’d be willin’ to watch ‘em with me!?

Yuika: All of us need to watch them anyway. So it just makes sense to watch them together! 

Kiriko:  Fufu...... Yes......

Kogane: Yuika......! Kiriko......! Thanks, y’all~......!

(Kiriko and Yuika both nod.)

Yuika: ──So, where should we host our little horror screening? Here at the office?

Kiriko: Um, well...... If we do it here at the office.....

Kiriko: ──Other people here might..... Get scared......

Kogane: Kiriko’s got a point.........

Kogane: Imagine if someone came into the office totally unaware an' saw horror on the TV. If that happened to me I'd probably start screamin’......

Yuika: Yeah.....

Yuika: (...... But, in that case, we don’t have a place......)

Kogane: ......

Kogane: ......Well, I guess, we could do it at my place then, like we usually do......

Yuika: Ah──

Yuika: (With Kogatan being so scared, we probably shouldn't watch them at her place if it can be avoided......)

Kiriko: If we can’t do it at Kogane’s place...... Maybe, I could......──

Yuika: (......Then Kiririn lives with her family...... And we’re probably gonna be really loud......)

Yuika: (............)

Yuika: ......Hey, I know! Why don’t we change it up!

Yuika: How about it, you two── Wouldn’t you like to pay your first-ever visit to my humble abode?

Kiriko & Kogane: !

Yuika: Halloween is almost here, too.

Yuika: I don’t think it’ll be anything fancier than us all snacking on candy together, but we could try and make our get-together a bit more festive──

Yuika: How’s a cozy little viewing party at my place sound?

Yuika: (Instead of “Wouldn’t you like to”, I should have said “Would you like to”.)

Yuika: (I just want to keep up my image, is all──)

Yuika: ──Alright, that looks much better! Now, there's no need to worry about them thinking I’m a freak!

Yuika: Be it Kogatan or Kiririn, my apartment’s all ready for you now! 

Yuika: ──I sure hope Halloween gets here soon~.

———– Commu #1 END ———–

Commu #2: “I know I’ll be lonely after they leave.”

Kogane: ......Why are they goin’ that way!? There’s clearly somethin' scary over there...... !

Yuika: No doubt about it~.

Yuika: But unless “something scary” shows up, the plot can’t go anywhere.

Kogane: These people are too eager to go places!

Kogane: They gotta be more careful.....! Value their lives some.....!

(Clatter from the TV.)

Kogane: ......*gasp*!

(Door creak from the TV .)

Kogane: No! Don’ open it! That doors gotta have somethin' scary behind it, I jus’ know somethin’s gonna jump out~!

Kogane & Yuika & Kiriko: ......*gasp*......!

Kogane: ......H-Huh...... I guess not......?

Kiriko: Y-Yes...... It looks like we were mistaken......

Kiriko: Thank goodness......

Yuika: No, it’s behind──

(Screams from the TV.)

Kogane: GYAAAAAAAAAAAA~!?!?

Kiriko: ......Awah!

Kogane: Trickin’ us like that ain’t fair! It jus’ ain’t faaair~~~!

Yuika: A-Ahahah...... ! That was real scary, huh......

Yuika: I thought I'd prepared myself, but it still got me......

Kiriko: Yuika-chan...... You’re amazing......

Kiriko: You could tell it was coming......

Yuika: Well yeah, the flags were obvio--......

Kiriko: ......Huh?

Yuika: Oh, nothing!

Yuika: Anyway, it still really surprised me. Even though I saw it coming!

Kiriko: Fufu...... Yes......

Kogane: ──Augh! There they go again, headin’ right into another dangerous-lookin’ room...... !

Kiriko: Ah......

Yuika: Ahhh......

Yuika: ......Horror sure is a lot, huh......

(Transition.)

Kogane: ......Phew~......! Horror really wears ya out, don’ it...... !

Yuika: It sure does...... I guess that’s one way watching these movies is helping us prepare for the drama shoot.

Kiriko: In the drama...... We’ll just have to do our best......

Yuika: Uh-huh.

Yuika: We’ve gotta make like in those movies and run right into all the dangerous-looking rooms -- Or maybe try carrying around an obviously haunted doll!

Kogane: Yuika~! Don’ go sayin’ stuff like that!

Yuika: Ahahah, sooorry.

Kogane: When yer dealin’ with ghosts the best thing to do is try an’ fool ‘em...... ! Or even better, hit ‘em with the ol’ “Trick-or-Treat”!

Kiriko: Yes......!

Yuika: Uh? But why?

Kogane: I hear sayin’ "Trick or Treat” is also a way of wardin’ off evil durin’ Halloween. So I bet it works jus’ as well for wardin’ off ghosts!

Kiriko: It’s the first time...... You’ve ever invited us over......

Kiriko: So we thought it’d be nice...... If we brought you something......

Kogane: Me an’ Kiriko thought of it together!

Kogane: An' if one of them ghosts from the movies tries to pay us a visit, we’ll make ‘em go away with a “Trick or Treat”!

Kogane: Anyhow! Trick or Treat, Yuika~!

Kiriko: Trick or Treat...... Yuika-chan......

Kogane: Here’s the candy we brought, so now it’s yer turn, Yuika~!

Kiriko: Fufu...... Yes......

Kiriko: We tell Mr. Ghost...... See you another time......

Yuika: Oh, you two......

Yuika: ......Heh, thanks a lot.

Yuika: ──I guess it’s time to get out the candy I'd secretly prepared for my treasured guests, then!

Kogane: Nfufu~! That’s our Yuika~!

Kiriko: Fufufu...... Secret...... Candy...... ♪ 

Yuika: Fufuuun! Happy Halloween... Kogatan, Kiririn!

———– Commu #2 END ———–

Commu #3: “This is a conversation we’ve never had before, isn't it.”

Mamimi: That reminds me... How did the drama shoot this morning go?

Kogane & Yuika & Kiriko: !

Sakuya: Oh, yes. I’m quite curious to know the details as well.

Sakuya: Please, do tell.

Yuika: ......I’ll tell you what happened, but......

Yuika: Can you both promise that no matter what I say...... You won’t freak out...... ?

Mamimi & Sakuya: ......!

Kogane: Oh c’mon, Yuika~! Don' start talkin’ all weird!

Yuika: Ahahah, I figured you wouldn’t like that.

Sakuya: Yuika......?

Yuika: I’m sorry, Sakuyan! Anyway, it went well! No issues at all!

Yuika: In the studio hallway there were people dressed up as ghosts who'd pop out and try to scare us. Kogatan screamed the whole time. That kinda thing.

Yuika: After the shoot they brought us snacks shaped like ghosts for refreshments, and Kogatan even got freaked by those......

Kogane: Why're ya only talkin’ about what I did!?

Yuika: Well, your reactions were what left the biggest impression......

Kiriko: Fufu...... Yes......

Kiriko: The drama...... Was a scary story......

Kiriko: But the whole time...... I was having so much fun.....

Mamimi: Well isn't that a shame.

Mamimi: Considering I’ve heard that studio is haunted.

Kogane: Hweh~!?

Mamimi: There’s been a lot of ghost sightings there, don’t you know?

Kogane: H-Hweh~~~......?

Kiriko: ......!

Mamimi: Maybe what you saw in the shoot were--

Kiriko: Mamimi-chan......!

Yuika: That’s enough, Mamimin. Kogatan is probably gonna pass out if you keep going. Knock it off.

Mamimi:  Boo.

Yuika: Look, you’re making Kiririn worry too.

Yuika: While I do apologize that our experience didn’t meet your expectations!

Yuika: The three of us have never encountered any actual ghosts, and we didn’t see any during today’s shoot either!

Yuika: Right, Kogatan! Kiririn!

Kogane: T-that’s right!

Kiriko: Yes......!

Mamimi: Well, that’s just too bad.

Sakuya: Fufu. How about this then, Mamimi.

Sakuya: While it won’t be the same as real ghosts, there’s still something spooky we could do.

Mamimi: ......You’re saying we should watch the drama they were in, right?

Sakuya: Ah, it’s as if you read my mind, Mamimi.

Sakuya: What do you think? We can look forward to seeing what they shot today when it airs.

Mamimi: ......Sounds pretty good.

Mamimi: And if I record it, I can have everyone’s terrified faces preserved on my TV forever.

Yuika: Oh hush, just how weak do you think we were?

Mamimi:  Fufu, I guess we’re gonna find out.

Sakuya: Although it will hurt my heart deeply to watch the three of you in peril......

Sakuya: I am really looking forward to seeing the fruits of your hard work.

Kogane: Me too!

Kogane: Though, watchin’ it on my own...... Might be a bit too scary~......

Kiriko: Then......

Kiriko: When it airs...... Let’s watch it together......

Yuika: Ah!

Yuika: Oh hey, in that case! How about this!

Yuika: If it’s cool with everyone, why don’t we watch it at my place──

(Everyone nods.)

———– Commu #3 END ———–

Thanks for reading! While Mitsumine is still hiding her hobbies from L’Antica, It makes me so happy to see her slowly opening herself up to them more and more. I hope that in the near future Mitsumine will be able to invite over her friends without hiding away all the things she’s passionate about. (Just gotta wait for that Mitsumine-focus scenario event...)

If anyone would be interested in using this script (with credit of course) to make a subbed version of this card, please contact me here or on Twitter!

[artificialqueens]

Flowers in Bloom, Part 1 - Daisy (Shinkx) - Albatross

AN: The sequel to ‘The Language of Flowers’ - This will feature the Shinkx and Trixya dates that follow immediately where their last chapters left off.

So this didn’t end up being as long as I thought it was going to be at first but that’s alright. I’m trying to learn not set imaginary pressures or deadlines on myself and just enjoy the process of writing. Not sure when the Trixya date will be posted, I haven’t started it yet but I’ve got a lot planned. The next piece to be posted is very likely to be Biadore (because that seemed to be the overwhelming want from the little mini poll on AQ) and then Trixya. I’m also torn between starting on the magical girl AU right away or jumping into Rajalaskam. Might just start both and see which one is finished first. Quick little side note for the chapter names - the flower that I pick as the title is going to be how I feel best describes the date. In this case the Daisy represents innocence and simplicity.

In a matter of seconds, Sharon had followed Jinkx beyond the shop’s door and stepped onto the sidewalk beside her. In the short amount of time it took her to lock up the building for the night, Jinkx found herself suddenly slapped with the reality that she was about to go on a date with her boss. Her heart began racing in her chest as an overwhelming smile threatened to break out across her lips. She just couldn’t believe this was really about to happen!

In a strange way she was glad it was all decided so suddenly; if there had been any lapse of time between her subtle confession and the date itself she was sure she would have gone into a full-blown panic mode. As for right now the immense joy coupled with a heavy dose of shock was the perfect thing to keep her from freaking out entirely. The only thing she hoped for right now was that her expression didn’t betray just how nervous she actually was beneath her relatively composed exterior. However, the smile Sharon shot towards her once she was finished securing the shop threatened to override that thought completely.

As they walked down the moderately busy street, Jinkx found herself toying with the hem of her sleeves. It offered a small bit of distraction but she longed to be able to clasp onto Sharon’s hand. She probably would have tried had the blonde not already shoved them into her pockets. To anyone else she probably would have looked like the picture of perfect composure but Jinkx noticed all of the little tics that betrayed her true feelings; the slightly higher pitch of her voice, the twiddling of her fingers with the items in her pockets, and of course her struggle to maintain eye contact between the frequent breaks to watch where they were going.

Their conversation remained idle but natural as Sharon led the way to the restaurant she had in mind. To both women’s surprise neither fell into the old classic of discussing work as a safety net. Although shortly after arriving at the cafe that was intended for their date, they were reminded all too quickly of the night’s earlier activities. Jinkx hadn’t noticed the issue at first, she was more concerned with trying to dodge the miscellaneous clusters of patrons loitering outside the cafe’s entrance, but Sharon’s less than quiet call of “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” soon caught her attention.

Following the blonde’s line of sight, Jinkx quickly spotted the problem; it seemed that Katya and Trixie had also decided to take their impromptu date here as well. They had been seated at a raised table out in the enclosed patio section and were eagerly chatting away about some random topic Jinkx couldn’t quite make out.

Sharon’s face as she took in the scene was a study of indecisiveness. She didn’t want to risk being exposed to Katya’s unique talent of effortlessly annoying her, especially in front of Jinkx when she could easily lose her cool…but even more so, she didn’t want to delay her date with the redhead any longer. She’d spent so much time simply pining after her from afar, she just couldn’t handle pushing it off for another night now that it was finally within her reach!

Bracing herself, Sharon began to push herself towards the hostess’s stand to request a table but Jinkx catching her arm stopped her dead in her tracks. Sharon’s heart stalled for a moment until she saw the reassuring smile resting upon Jinkx’s lips.

“I know another place we can go,” she offered politely, “If you don’t mind walking a little further.”

Very much relieved, Sharon replied that it wasn’t a problem in the slightest all while making a mental note to herself that’d she probably walk the length of the city just to keep her date with Jinkx tonight. Thankfully the substitute cafe Jinkx had in mind was only an extra ten minutes away. It was a bit more quiet than the bustling restaurant they had just left but there was still a moderate flow of foot traffic coming into the shop. Given that the weather outside was still pleasantly warm, it seems the majority of the customers decided to take their orders to go or at the very least enjoy them at the open air tables and benches. This particular cafe seemed to specialize with coffee and smoothies rather than prepared food, which probably helped to account for the transient stream of customers.

Once inside the first thing Sharon noticed was that it was rather homey instead of strictly a place for business. There was a relaxed atmosphere that seemed to contradict just how busy the shop actually was. The decor was a bit odd to her mind; a lot of the space had been filled with various knickknacks that anywhere else would have probably been very out of place. Before Sharon could truly take in the sights around her, Jinkx was already guiding them towards the small line at the counter. A number of the people waiting for their drinks seemed to be part of one group in particular and as soon as their orders were filled they took their leave and the majority of the shop’s background noise as well. Sharon had just begun to let out a sigh of relief at the newfound peace when she heard a delighted squeal emanating from behind the register.

“Jinkx!” the brunette exclaimed in excitement. “I haven’t seen you all week! Where have you been?”

“Sorry, we got really busy at the shop. We…kinda messed something up and spent the last couple of days fixing everything,” Jinkx admitted with a sheepish grin and quick glance towards the blonde.

Amused, the brunette inquired, “Oh? And just what have you been getting up to? Not starting any trouble at your new job, were you?”

Placing a comforting hand in the small of the redhead’s back, Sharon replied with a proud smile, “No, she’s been an amazing worker and she’s definitely learned her lesson with all that went on this week.”

The barista cocked her head to the side as she sized up the blonde in vague confusion. The realization that they hadn’t yet met dawned on Jinkx and with a polite interruption she introduced the pair to one another, “Sharon, this is Dela, my old coworker and Dela, this is Sharon…my new boss.”

Scanning her eyes around the shop with a new appreciation for the atmosphere, Sharon mused, “So this is where you used to work? I’ve driven by a few times but never stopped in. If I knew this was where I’d find you I’d have wandered in here sooner.”

At the statement made by the older blonde, Dela’s lips curled into something of a teasing smirk and immediately she began nosily asking, “You’re the one Jinkx asked me to order those coffee beans for? Glad to see you’ve got good taste…”

Darting her eyes back to Jinkx, she threw a quick wink and added in, “Both of you.”

Almost immediately Jinkx felt herself taking a heavy swallow in a pointless attempt to will away the growing blush on her cheeks. To her utter relief, Dela didn’t feel the need to make any further comments on the subject and fell back into her usual customer service mode to brightly ask the redhead, “Your usual?”

“Please,” Jinkx replied with a grateful smile.

Turning towards the blonde, she inquired, “And for you?”

Sharon’s eyes raked over the menu hung up behind the counter before ultimately settling on a large cup of the house brew. Dela gave an approving nod of her head and turned to make the drinks but was quickly stopped by both of the women. Each wanted to pay for the order but the brunette assured them, “It’s on me…”

Jinkx was in the midst of a very appreciative word of thanks to her friend until she heard Dela add in, “So long as Jinkx tells every little detail of how your date goes!”

Eyes narrowing at the proposal, the redhead quickly shot back, “I’d rather pay for the drinks then!”

Smiling away, Dela refused any form of payment and informed her huffy friend, “No choice, I already closed the sale in the register. You’ll have to tell me everything later!”

Shaking her head in disbelief, Jinkx muttered, “I hate you so much.”

A final proud grin was shot her way before Dela spun around to continue her work. Jinkx honestly couldn’t believe just how persistent Dela was being…It’s not like she wouldn’t have told her a quick version of it afterwards…She probably just wants something extra to talk about when she compares notes with Ivy….Jinkx really wouldn’t put it past her not to provide real-time updates to their mutual friend anyway. Oh, well. She can’t stop it so she might as well just resign herself to the fact that Ivy was likely to know the majority of her date before Jinkx gets a chance to tell her on her own…

In a matter of minutes, Sharon and Jinkx’s drinks handed back to them in cute little To-Go cups with their names scribbled along the sides in some of Dela’s best handwriting. Jinkx for one couldn’t wait to take the first sip. She hadn’t had a chance to stop in for her regular pick-me-up since Sunday thanks in large part to the fiasco with Katya and Trixie. Her overly sweetened latte would be a welcomed treat after successfully cleaning up the mess that she and the other assistants helped to create.

Almost as if she were walking on air, she led Sharon towards her favorite table in the back of the shop and sat down to enjoy the first very satisfying taste of her drink. Dela was one of the few employees here that she trusted make her coffee exactly right. Try as she might, Jinkx couldn’t hold back the soft sigh of pleasure that escaped from her lips after the nearly too hot drink finished washing across her tongue. Very much intrigued, Sharon asked, “Mind if I try some?”

Jinkx faltered for a moment before sliding her cup across what little empty space remained between them. With a noticeable amount of hesitation in her voice, she warned, “You can but I don’t think you’ll-”

The face Sharon made as soon as the drink passed her lips was truly a sight. Her eyes went wide with disbelief and something akin to fear that someone would willingly drink something as sugary as what she had just tasted. If she hadn’t seen Dela preparing it herself, she would have sworn that no coffee at all had been used while making that drink. Quickly pushing the cup back in front of Jinkx and washing away the after-taste with her own coffee, Sharon commented shakily, “That was very…sweet.”

Jinkx gave her an apologetic grin and took a long sip of her latte in order not to have to say anything more for the time being. Swallowing away the lingering taste of caramel and sugar, Sharon further questioned her, “I’m a bit surprised though…I thought you always took it black?”

The redhead felt a light blush returning to her cheeks and finally admitted in a sheepish voice, “Actually, I only started doing that because of you…I’ve never seen you add anything to yours so I didn’t either as long as you were around…”

Sharon’s eyes widened and just vaguely it looked like a hint of pink was rising to her face. Deciding it was now or never, Jinkx continued on as she toyed with a lock of stray hair, “I just kinda wanted to impress you, I guess. You always made it look so cool and sophisticated…adding my usual amount of sugar and creamer just felt…childish sometimes.”

With the final confession, Sharon’s shocked expression immediately softened and her hand came to rest on Jinkx’s drawn in shoulder. Scooting their chairs closer until their legs were almost touching, the blonde assured her, “Jinkx, never worry about impressing me. You’ve done that already…you still do actually.”

The pair shared a fond smile before the intimacy of the situation became too much and each broke away with an embarrassed smile. They drank in further silence for another minute or so before a new topic was cautiously proposed by the older woman. It felt like the hours slipped by unnoticed as countless customers came and left the shop while the two remained close and cozy in their hidden corner. Around half an hour before the cafe was due to close, Jinkx asked with more than a fair amount of trepidation, “So this…us, I mean. What do we do at the shop?”

Her gaze was curious but also concerned and fearful. She didn’t want this to be a one time thing but it was also a bit of unfamiliar territory to be potentially dating her boss. She didn’t want anything to mess up her personal or business life but if she would have to pick now, she wasn’t sure which she would chose to pursue. Luckily, Sharon had no intention of forcing her to make that choice. Enclosing her hand around one of Jinkx’s fiddling ones, she consoled her employee in a simple but gentle voice, “We’ll do the same thing we’ve been doing; we remain professional with each other while at work.”

“And then after work?” Jinkx questioned in a meek yet hopeful tone.

Smirking just a tad, the blonde gave a comforting squeeze of her hand and stated confidently, “After work…we’ll be anything but.”

Jinkx felt a smile of previously unknown size growing across her lips as she beamed up at her boss. Her heart felt like it would soon flutter out of her chest but she could hardly care about that. Everything felt like a dream at this point and no part of her wanted to wake up any time soon.

She was almost finished with her drink when Sharon placed her empty cup next Jinkx’s. Leaving their hands resting on the table, Sharon worked her phone out her pocket and opened the camera app. She jutted her head towards the pair of cups with a silent request for permission to take a picture yet left the option open for Jinkx to refuse. Vaguely wondering who she’d send the image to before ultimately deciding that she didn’t care, Jinkx nodded her head with a gleeful grin settled on her lips. She found that she wanted everyone to know; both at the shop and the rest of the world.

Crossing the last few inches of space that remained between their bodies, Jinkx let her head fall onto Sharon’s shoulder as the blonde snapped a quick picture. Just at the very edge of the image, Jinkx could see their interlocking fingers making a small cameo while the cups with their names scrawled up the side took up the majority of the screen. With one click, Sharon forwarded the picture off to probably every employee at the shop.

Following the subtle announcement of their relationship to their coworkers, the pair quickly drank what little remained in their cups and bid Dela a short ‘Goodbye’ and word of thanks as they exited the cafe. The walk back to the flower shop was quiet and peaceful, yet over all too quickly to both of the women’s displeasure. Pausing outside the door to Sharon’s apartment, Jinkx stood on her tip toes to press a soft kiss to Sharon’s cheek as she whispered sincerely, “I had a really good time tonight.”

Before the redhead even had a chance to try and disentangle her hand from Sharon’s, the older woman carefully pulled her in closer and offered up hopefully, “Well the night’s not over yet…want to come inside for another cup?…I still have have those coffee beans you gave me…”

Jinkx’s face lit up and without a second thought, she dare to place a brief peck to Sharon’s lips and replied, “I’d love to.”

[thedistantstorm]

Through The Stomach

03: Sharing

Zavala x Hawthorne (Steelponcho) | A Love Story told through Food | Hawthorne is a foodie | Zavala can’t cook to save his life | Begrudging Allies to Friends to Lovers | The Farm, The Red War, The City, and everything in-between | the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach | Eventual NSFW (will be tagged)

Previously

-/

She drops next to him, large plate in her hands. He's in the middle of discussing the tactical advantages and disadvantages of a multi-front battle, complete with examples, with some of her men. Many of the militiamen, who do not have ages of battle to recall, relish in hearing him recant any of the battles they'd only read about in intimate detail.

He pauses only for a brief moment to take the second bun from her plate, dipping it in some of the gravy on the other side before taking a bite.

She doesn't react. It's why her plate is so full, after all.

Across the fire, however, a set cyan-blue optics refocus and an elbow is nudged against a fuschia-violet clothed forearm.

The woman who belongs to that forearm swats at the owner of the optics and elbow, but it's short-lived. Back on the other side, their third takes the fork from the newcomer's hands with a delicate touch and a glowing look. Their knees bump against each other in a subtly obvious display.

“Holliday has a pool on now long it takes for them to get together,” Cayde whispers into Ikora's ear - and he actually whispers. He doesn't want to make it common knowledge.

Ikora frowns and maintains her steely yellow gaze on the flickering orange-red-whites of the fire.

There isn't time for this. They're at war.

-/

“And if we die tomorrow?” Comes the heavy baritone of Shaxx, when Ikora makes her feelings known, days later. Cayde lingers nearby, above them, pretending like he doesn't care though he's eavesdropping hard.

Of all people, she expected Shaxx to understand.

He gleans that from her deadpan reaction. “She's not a Guardian,” Ikora replies. “Even if we do live through this, she'll die.”

“Eventually.”

Ikora crosses her arms. “You're not concerned.”

“No, I am not.” Shaxx stares her down through his impassive helm. “They are the two people here least likely to put their happiness before the greater good. I wish they'd quit dancing around each other already.”

-/

She sits to his right, with Cayde to their left when the patrol group returns: hours late and worse for wear. The sharp-eyed falconer is helping to carry someone more wounded. Ikora hears the tiniest gap between breaths, sees Zavala's fingers curl into fists that make the leather of his gloves scratch and scrape.

Hawthorne promises to report off to him once she sees her men to triage. Zavala acquiesces. He excuses himself twenty minutes later.

Not much longer after that, from where they sit on the porch that Tyra occupies during the day, Cayde and Ikora hear the hushed beginnings of a fight.

“It was fine.”

“You'd say that if you got shot,” Zavala's voice doesn't quite carry as well as the hiss that Hawthorne makes.

There's no reply to that.

The sound of heavy footfalls headed back the way the duo came from stop after three or four steps. “Is that why you're limping, Suraya?”

She growls at how tender his voice is, at the hurt - on her behalf - that laces through it. “You already know.”

“You're covered in blood, and your men were quite distressed that you saw to them before yourself...” His voice drops too low for them to hear the rest of it, save for the scathing, worried tone of his voice.

“If I wasn’t fine, I wouldn’t be walking - or standing, for that matter,” Hawthorne eventually replies, loud enough for others to hear who aren’t eavesdropping.

After a few silent moments, the footsteps start again, but slower and uneven. Zavala is helping her like she'd been helping her scout earlier, one of her arms slung over his shoulders and a hand splayed on her hip, arm behind her back. He leads her into the farmhouse across the way.

Cayde casts his gaze to Ikora. “See, I'm not sure if they're the same person, or if they just deserve each other.”

The Commander exits the building not too long after, when the sounds of an old shower hissing and creaking pipes disrupt the natural quiet. Ikora shifts and rises. Cayde grabs her wrist and indicates she should sit back down.

“I don't like this.”

“Yeah, I get that. If it were you or me - and it has been, if the ol' memory banks recall - he'd roll his eyes and tell us not to lose focus.” Cyan optics blink light onto his friend, and his hand slides from her wrist to cover her hand. “It’s never him.”

She flips her palm and squeezes. “That's why I worry.”

“Have you ever talked with her? Hawthorne? Poncho?” Their eyes are momentarily redirected to the flickering light that's turned on in the upstairs window of the dilapidated pre-collapse construct. Cayde shakes his head. The angle is too steep to see what's happening unless someone is standing right against the window.

Ikora shakes her head.

“Girl can handle herself. She's like a less academic, more outdoorsy version of you, with a moral code like Big Blue.”

“I assure you, Cayde, we have very little in common.”

“Fine,” He relents. “But both of you scare me a little, so you at least share that much.”

-/

She's propped herself up against the headboard, data-pad in one palm while she uses the opposite hand to scroll through reports. Her right leg is splayed out in front of her, dark skin flushed and angry, tiny rivulets of blood running down the toned flesh and onto the towel pooled beneath it.

On the bedside table that's actually an old milk crate atop a cinder block, rests a decent sized slug that she'd pulled from the wound.

Zavala seems to see it first when he returns, a wrapped container in one hand and a case of medical supplies in the other. “What if it had hit an artery?”

“It didn't. I would've bled out before we made it back to camp.”

“You could have bled out right now,” He insists.

She shifts when he sets what absolutely smells like food all the way at the foot of the bed, purposefully out of reach. Frowning, she asks, “How many times do I have to tell you I'm fine?”

He presses down gently around the wound, one eyebrow arching like an elegant question. She bites back a cry.

“Your conviction might fool others,” He muses, ethereal blue eyes locked on her dark ones, “But you do not fool me.”

She swallows hard and looks away when he pours an antiseptic over the wound, the angry fizz indicative of potential infection to be stopped cut by the sweetness of wide fingers rubbing her knee.

Lower, he breathes, “I don't want anything to happen to you.”

When she looks back at him, he is engrossed with evaluating her injury, making sure she can move her leg - really, it's a flesh wound and the bruising will hurt more than anything else - and also not holding eye contact.

It's why she puts a hand on his cheek, and his eyes slip closed. “Neither of us are the type to sit back and watch our people fight a war - not when we can help it.”

“You have more freedom in that than I,” He comments.

“But you understand.”

“I do, I just-”

“I try to be careful,” She reasons, with just the hint of a smile.

He shakes his head. “Funny, they were telling me that you charged a Captain to get this-” She winces when he wipes the wound and lifts her bare leg easily, moving to sit at the edge of the bed. He rests her calf on his right shoulder and winds the bandage around and around.

“They would have killed half my squad.” She's not defensive about it, simply matter of fact.

“That's what they told me, as well.” He adjusts her leg when finished, returning it carefully back to the bed. “Alright?”

“Mhmm.” His eyes seem to lighten up when she squirms over toward him, making room on the other side of the meager bed. “Stay a while?”

He reaches for the other, cloth-wrapped container at the end of the bed. “I do suspect I was given enough for you to share.” He lowers himself beside her, not bothering to doff his armor and unwraps what is to be their dinner.

“I don’t know,” She smirks, teasingly, “I’m pretty hungry.”

His laugh is quiet, “I think you’ll make due.”

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Caramel Skin Under a Vanilla Sky prt 12 draft

Hitching a ride on a tourist shuttle out the Garrison, it was another hop skip and a jump over to Erathus. The ship docking station above the planet was something else. The sheer size putting the castle ship to shame as he was swept along with the visiting masses. Pulling out his communicator, he snapped a few shots before sending the photos though to his mother. She'd cried all morning as they triple checked he had everything. Rachel turning up at the very last moment with silly tourist trinkets so he wouldn't forget home. It would have been a nice sentiment if she hadn't followed up by informing him that she'd called Ronnie and told her he was heading out and to lock up all eligible women in the universe. Laughing at his sister, they missed the pain that flashed through his deep blue eyes. Lance fazing out for half a moment to come back in as Luis complained that Veronica should hurry up and ask Acxa out, suggesting Lance give the pair a push if needed. The pair had grown close. Lance was also silently hoping Veronica would ask Acxa out, purely so everyone else would leave his lack of relationship alone... that and Veronica needed to get laid. Not that he had experience in that. He'd never slept with Allura and as pathetic as it sounded, he was saving his first time for someone special. He'd wanted a future with Allura. He wanted the huge white wedding, children, growing old together. Yet as he looked back on his relationship with her, he could see all the ways it'd been lacking. Allura was still hung up on Lotor. It didn't matter to her that months had passed. He'd been her first great love. Her first choice. If he hadn't turned out to be such an evil dick Lance would never had a chance. It's fucking hurt. There hadn't been enough hours in the day to transfer the pain that weighed him down. He'd surrounded himself in junipers like a fool, and was forced to face the result each time he looked out the window of his families home. "Former Paladin Lance?" Lost in his own little world of sending photos through to his family, Lance blinked in confusion at someone calling for him. Dressed in black, three burly Galra were waiting for him. Lance swallowing hard as a lump of fear rose in his throat "Yep. Yeah. That's me" "We have come to collect you. The ambassador is most anxious to meet you" Oooooh. So these guys were also working security? They all looked hardy enough to handle anything thrown at the ambassador "Sweet. Thanks for coming to collect me. You can just call me..." He didn't want to be Lance. Lance was the loser on Earth who couldn't go without screaming nightmare more than few weeks at a time "Leandro. Leandro is fine" "Very well, Leandro. If you'll please come with us" The lack of introduction should have been Lance's first clue that something wasn't quite right. Taking the grav-elevator down to planet level, Lance tried not to gawk at the buildings so reminiscent of the "golden age of Hollywood". Even the cars were fashioned on long gone models. Keith would have had a field say. Especially when he saw the bikes. "Everything alright, Leandro?" "Yeah. I mean... yes. Just taking it all in, my dudes" Why did his anxieties have to flare up to make him sound like an absolute moron. "My dudes"?!? Seriously. What was that? God. He wanted this job so badly he could taste it, now he probably making the Galra wonder why their boss had ever hired anyone like him. His awkward sentence was only made worse when no one made any sort of reply. His mouth was urging his brain to keep talking, to somehow talk his way out of the situation. Lance would do that. But Leandro. Leandro was cool and sophisticated. Leandro would hold his tongue and not get them into any more trouble, or get them fired before he'd even met the ambassador. Waiting at the station at the bottom of the grav elevator, was a long slick black limousine with tinted windows. A forth alien also dressed in black gave a small bow as they approached "It's a pleasure to meet you. Please make yourself comfortable" Opening the door for them, Lance climbed inside first. Feeling incredibly small and grotty when compared to luxurious white leather seats, and flawlessly polished gold accents of the space "It's magnificent, isn't it?" Nearly jumping on fright, Allura popped into view across from him. Her form hovering for a second or two, before one of the Galra of the party took the seat she'd been occupying "Everything ok, Agent Leandro?" "Agent Leandro" he liked the sound of that. It was better than "former Paladin", or "Lance, the boy from Cuba" "Yes, thank you" "Excellent" Again, trying not to appear too eager, Lance watched the world outside the window as the limousine silently weaved it was through the traffic. It was both jarring and mesmerising to see this version of Earth, where they'd even put up large clocks all over the place with various Earth times and cities displayed underneath. Arriving at spacious mansion, it took everything Lance had not to gape as the door of the limousine was opened. A whole crowd of staff stood to order as their group made their way towards the front doors. Gripping the strap of his backpack nervously, Lance was mentally reciting every single prayer his mother had drummed into him in Spanish. He loved his mother, yet even at 21, he still feared her pink slipper that used to come out of nowhere when he'd stumble with his prayers. Many a time he'd dived into bed with Luis or Marco for protection from his mother's tough love. Walking through the group, he was blind to the looks and whispers cast his way, just as he was blind to the effect his trailing scent left in some of those. All he wanted to do was make a good impression, and you only had one shot at making a great first impression... The ambassador was a mammoth. Not a literal mammoth, though he would definitely rival one in size. He was huge. Bigger than Zarkon. Bigger than Sendak. He hesitated to use the word grizzled as his mind still associated it with Keith and ridiculously ripped physique. Buuut damn. He was one solid unit "Red Paladin Lance! Welcome, welcome! I am Klearo. Please come in" He was already inside. Though he was sure that if he was outside he would have heard him as clearly "He's loud, isn't he?" Goddamn Allura. He wasn't doing this "Thank you. I'm Leandro, Lance is my former name" Laughing, the large alien walked over and clamped a hand on his shoulder "It is most nice to meet you Leandro. Come let us talk. You drink, yes?" It was way too early in the morning for drinking... and he would have said "no" if he wasn't still working on creating a great impression "I do on occasion" "Then we drink! I fill you in on your mission details right? There are those out there who think they can kill the great Klearo! I laugh. Then they shoot at Klearo, so I call back the one they call the greatest shooter of Voltron!" Lance had to wonder if Klearo hadn't already started drinking before his arrival. It'd explain why the alien was so bloody loud. With his overly hairy appearance, he seemed like some kind of semi-intelligent ape rather than a diplomat. Having given his own peace talks, the kind of vibe he was picking up Klearo didn't match with what was expected. None the less. He'd come to do a job, and that he was exactly what he intended to do. * Klearo was awkward on stage. His jokes falling so flat that Lance felt a twinge of sympathy for the huge alien. He'd also learned that his presence at these kinds of things proved a hinderance more than a help. Totally not copying Keith or the Blades, Lance started employing the use of a full face mask, allowing the crowd to concentrate on Klearo rather than him. Not that Klearo seemed to care. The "warm" reception had faded the first time a person in the crowd called out of him to speak instead. He was on the outside of the rest of the team, leading to his anxieties only worsening. Part of him wanted to throw it all, go back home and play farmer, but the bigger part of him wanted to actually be useful. He didn't want go home as a failure all over again. He'd only been there for a movement before everything went quiznakking wrong. Forced to drink with an angry Klearo, it wasn't until his third of forth drink that he noticed something strange. His tongue was tingling, as were the tips of his fingers and toes. Standing beside the chair he was lounging in, Allura leaned in "Its drugged" Ignoring her, he drained the rest of his drink. What reason would they have to drug him? He was doing his job, even if he wasn't making friends. Struggling up, the world started to spin "Leandro?" "I think that's it for me" His words were slurred. Climbing to his feet, his legs wouldn't hold resulting in him landing ungainly on the floor "Did you drug me? Guys... come on..." Placing down his glass, Klearo rose "Bring him through. Don't damage him too badly" Hauled up by the arms, Lance tried to struggle against the drugs coursing through his system. Spluttering and mumbling weak objections, he was dragged along the hallway to Klearo's personal chambers. That's when Lance knew he was well and truly fucked. Thrown down on the bed in the middle of the room, Lance was flipped onto his back. His arms pulled upwards to be bound "No... let me go..." His slurred repeated utterances went ignored. The thin cloth of his casual shirt torn to pieces by a human-sized alien with four eerily green eyes. Blinking at him with his top two eyes, the alien didn't stop "Leave us!" Flinching at how loud Klearo's voice was, Lance "struggled" against his bindings. His eyelids drooping despite how hard he tried to hold open them. When the bed dipped under Klearo's weight, he screamed "Someone shut him up. His voice irritates my ears" Above him came a set of thick Galra arms, a gag shoved into his mouth causing his eyes to water. This... if this was a joke, he wasn't laughing "Do you have any idea how annoying you are? All we had to go through to get you? And you weren't even worth it in the end" That stung. Shouldn't it be a good thing if he didn't actually have to use the blaster he'd been provided with? Didn't that mean that the threats Klearo had received amounted to nothing? Feeling the aliens large hands on his hips, Lance whimpered as they were unzipped "You smell amazing. I've wanted to do this ever since I smelt you..." "Ngh!" That was the best no he could get out "And now I have my very own Paladin beneath me. I wanted your lion, but they say the lions left" He what now? What... oh... fuck. This was bad... twisting, he fought the numbness weighing him down. Trying his hardest to kick, he couldn't raise his legs off the bed "The Red Paladin. Affiliated with Fire. Show me why the people like you, instead of me!" The pain was nothing Lance could describe. The dull feeling of thick fingertips against his opening. The sharp rip as Klearo shoved a nailed finger inside, the swelling instinct to repel the foreign digit. The laughing goes Klearo as he shoved a second finger in. The moment of relief when the fingers slid out, the silent scream as his eyes shot wide when Klearo buried himself brutally between his legs in one sharp thrust. Screaming around the gag, his body rocked without his permission with each thrust Klearo gave, the haired alien taking his hips in his hands so hard Lance thought the bones were going to snap. Beside him Allura sat looking prim, a frown on her face the only sign that she felt something wrong with the situation. Vomiting into his mouth, Lance was torn a little further. Blood oozing over the blue sheets beneath him as turned red, spreading across his inner thighs as it smeared into Klearo's hair. The smell driving him into further hysteria. The sounds of wet slaps echoed in his ears. Picking up his pace, Klearo grabbed him by the hair as he grunted hard, tearing out a thick chunk as the man's dick pulsed, Klearo coming with enough force he felt as if the man was flooding him with a hose. Screaming in despair, choking on vomit and accidentally locking eyes with Allura, his body betrayed him. Dry orgasm from having his prostate pounded against incessantly rolled through him. The degree of shame was something he'd never thought possible. His employer had just raped him... and he'd come. Pulling out of him, Klearo hushed him as Lance's lower half spasmed with pain uncontrollably "My own Red Paladin painted with his own red blood... what a masterpiece" Clicking his fingers, a servant came forth. The moment the gag was removed, vomit spilt from his lips as he wretched and heaved "Pack him up. We leave tonight as planned. Make sure you don't let him die. We're getting that Red lion, and he's the key to it" The same arms came over his vision, Lance staring up at the ceiling as he was untied and gathered up onto the shoulder of a Galra. Carried out the bedroom, he could feel the cum and blood running down his thighs, the cold air of the manor slowly drying it into a crust as he bounced like a rag doll. He'd raped him and he'd come. Why?! Why did he come? He didn't want this... he didn't want any of this! Reaching a waiting vehicle, another hand came down to grab his hair, forcing his head up. Unable to raise his gaze, he stared at the red "y" shape on the arm. Was it a brand or a tattoo? He couldn't tell... he didn't know. Dropping his head, Lance's nose smacked against the fabric of his suit... a weird feeling bubbling up inside... he almost... wanted to laugh? Was it laugh? He didn't know what he wanted, his mind was foggy, slowly joining the uselessness his body held "He's still conscious. We can't have kicking up a fuss when drugs wear off. Put him under and keep him under until we arrive" "Yes, sir" * Stabled naked on the floor of a dingy room, Lance hovered in and out of consciousness as he huddled in the furtherest corner. Every few vargas someone would come in and he'd been dosed with a glowing yellow liquid. With each passing dose, a moment of euphoria would pass through him. A taste of life he'd never felt before. And one he was anxious to feel again and again, despite that with each passing dose, the effects would wear off faster and faster. On the quintants it felt like they'd forgotten him, when the doses were further apart, the feeling of satisfaction they supplied lasted longer when they did finally remember him. After he'd been initially transferred, Klearo had forced him to show his face as he gave another speech. His voice was too ruined to ask for help. His employer had promised to reveal him to the world for the disgusting pervert he was, if he didn't keep his mouth shut. How he was supposed to keep his mouth shut, and be tortured for information on the Red lion, he didn't know. When they'd realised he'd ruined his throat they finally locked him away. Left alone in the dark, Lance had all the time in the world to think. Shiro would have found a way out of here by name, his trade mark "patience yields focus" staying first and foremost in his mind. He was biding his time. Keith too would have found a way free by now. Hunk... Hunk was too fucking pure, the same went for his favourite Gremlin. If they'd gone after the other lions... god... he was almost grateful to be the one captured. He was the one stupid enough to leap right in. Hunk would have declined so he could spend more time with Shay. Pidge had never loved the limelight. Keith would have been asking questions from the get go... and Shiro.... Shiro was finally in a good place. No. He was the goddamn useless idiot who'd jumped at the job. He'd walked right into the stupid trap, and deserved all he got. Smacking his head against the wall over and over, he was so fucking done waiting for the right moment. Waiting until the drug doses came on the back of other. Waiting until they believed him too far out of it fight back. What did it all really matter anyway? Allura stood there and watched each time he was taken. She'd be there to sit beside him in the dark after they'd deposit his body back in the cold. He couldn't give them Red. He was long gone with the rest of the Lions. Lance was aware of how much Red had done to hold him together. How he'd shouldered Lance's burdens when Allura had died. How he soothed Lance with a gentle rumbling purr on the nights he woke up with no idea where he was. He didn't have Red anymore. Allura had brought him back wrong. His body was less and less his as the quintants passed, leaving him with a never ending boiling anger he could only direct inwards. Pain was the only thing that made things real. But whatever they shot him up with took away that pain... It could have movements. It could have even been phoebs, but as he'd expected his body adapted to the frequent injections. Lance now strong enough to hide the failings of their workings as he was escorted from his cell. He knew others were there somewhere. He'd heard screams night after night that attested to such. Dragged into Klearo's chambers, he stumbled as he was released and nudged towards the bed. Klearo insisted on taking him first, after him, the order didn't matter. Not moving fast enough, Lance was taken by the arm and forcible pulled across the space before being pushed down. His fingers itched to grab the blaster on his tormentors hip, yet he had to wait. He had to wait until Klearo was there, or none of this meant anything. Sitting like a doll at the end of the bed, he no longer flinched as the Galra by his side ran his hand down Lance's bare back. He no longer flinched when the beasts nails tore at his skin, adding to the already disturbing collection across his skin. Tucking a stray strand of hair back behind his ear, the Galra leaning in to sniff deeply "You smell so fucking good" Grinding his teeth together, Lance forced himself not to act. Patience yielded focus "Klearo wants you placid. Open your mouth" This was new. This wasn't in his plans. He couldn't let them force other drugs down his throat. Opening his mouth, the Galra pushed a hand flat against it, forcing tablets inside as he'd feared. They tasted as nice as the liquid they poured down his throat before they'd start whipping him for not being able to call back the Red lion. He couldn't keep waiting. He couldn't go through that again. The pain between his legs that never truly left. Biting the webbing between the thumb and pointer, Lance tore the flesh between his teeth. Howling in anger, the made it worse by tearing his hand way. Spitting out the flesh and tablets, blood ran down Lance's chin. His teeth and lips red as he smiled "You bastard!" Scrambling for his blaster, Lance snatched it up first. He felt nothing a he pulled the trigger. Nothing as he blood spurted from the shot to the neck. Firing again, he aimed for the groin, firing over and over until the Galra was dead on the floor. The piece of shit deserved it. They all fucking deserved it. Laughter bubbled up at the sight before him. The Galra's genitals shot to hell, a bloodied mess that couldn't even been called genitals. Stalking the halls of the ship Lance shot indiscriminately. He'd thought himself planet side due to the lack of the sounds of engines, and the constant streams of guests Klearo entertained. He knew the difference by now. Klearo's underlings all bore the same "y" like tattoo, Red in respect to their goal of taking the Red Lion. Despite being a largely Galra force, not all that followed Klearo were Galra. Lance's stomach had dropped when he'd learned the faction was made up of those who Voltron had failed. Klearo was indeed an ambassador. He was the ambassador of Voltron's failures. Lance no longer cared. He couldn't care. As he limped those halls, he was Leandro. Leandro got things done. Everyone associated with this fucked up... group deserved to die. So they did. It was that simple. Hunting them down as they ran, the ship's alarms blared dying the world red from the ship's flashing lights. Everything surrounding him was Red. Along the way he took clothes of smaller aliens closer to his size, at Allura's begging. Slipping them into place on his tender and bruised frame, his body was his. He was done with sharing his body without permission. It didn't matter that the clothes were bloodied, nor did it matter that the fabric was rough against his skin. They were best clothes he'd ever worn. Clearing all those he could find, Klearo had already left. Allura trailing behind him as he walked, pleading with him to take a pod and leave. Pleading with him to let those left live. He couldn't. If there was no trace of what had been done to him left, then it never happened. If it'd never happened to him, then he was just Leandro. Bodyguard and sharpshooter extraordinaire. Yeah. Lance was weak. Lance had been tricked. Leandro wouldn't be tricked. He wouldn't take mercy. He was going to track down Klearo and he was going to make sure that no one who knew what happened lived. His blue eyes were filled with humour as he strode through the bloodied halls. Laughter bubbled out his lips over how some bodies had slumped. Making his way to the control room, he strode over to the main computer, to find it locked. That wasn't very nice. He'd shown them such a good time with his body. Oh well. He was just going to have shoot the damn thing into submission. So he did. Destroying the control room with his blaster, thick acrid smoke rolled off the twisted metal as fire started to lick at the floor. It was tempting to stay, to let himself be consumed, but his mission wasn't done. His boss was out there unprotected and in need of his skills.