#and bow blessing was an aura but i changed it because green so i wanted to name the new version differently

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than 3D models

I haven't made any 3D models in months, but I have made 3 Differentcolorsofcommoncards! Here's the greens

I renamed a few that I showed previously because I think I've figured out the flavor I want to go with. Still placeholder names obviously, but slightly more fitting placeholder names

[bontenten]

The Choosing

Pairing: Daichi x f!reader (ft. Captain Squad <3 and Sakusa)

WC: 3.2k

Genre/Warnings: Crack/Bad Humor, Smut, Romance, Reverse Harem, Royalty AU!, mention or hints of size kink, exhibitionism, creampie, breeding kink, dick and ball worship, you’re perverted and gross

Summary: You are the Princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym and you need to choose a husband.

Repost from my main because I say so. Lee... :gru: i miss u

Also, no beta we die like Daichi.

It’s a tradition carried through many, many generations that the daughters of nobility from the Kingdom of YoreNaym must choose a suitor from the eligible bachelors from the neighboring kingdoms. It’s a show of kinship to the other kingdoms and also a means of securing peace.

At some point, everyone’s sister’s cousin’s second uncle’s sworn brother’s adopted daughter’s nephew twice-removed will be related and connect back to the Kingdom of YoreNaym. In short, the blood of this kingdom’s daughters unite the lands. No incest, there’s enough genetic diversity, if you will. And because you are also a princess of this kingdom, it’s your turn. Yay.

While growing up, you hear the elders say that the youngsters should be grateful that they have the agency to at least pick a suitor. They spin their looms and cackle, reminiscing that, “Back in our days, we didn’t get to have a choice. Our elders appointed a spouse for us from whichever kingdom had a suitor. Unlike you girls who get to choose, ungrateful wenches…”

Does it really matter? It’s just the false pretense of choice, isn’t it? At the end of the day the selection of eligible bachelors are all chosen ahead of time, deemed worthy, and then after the initial picking, you are just allowed to pick. It doesn’t matter who you choose, any one of them will fit the criteria. Maybe you’ll just close your eyes and pick one randomly. Can you actually say, “I’ll choose my own hand and marry myself.”

That’s pretty brave, hell yea that’s a main character move right there. Speaking of which, who are the eligible bachelors you can choose from today? It’s practically your engagement day, yet you really haven’t been paying any attention at all.

“Hey,” you whisper, lifting the curtain of the palanquin. A maid quickly answers to your beckon.

“Yes, my lady?”

“Who are the candidates today again? You have a...list or brochure of sorts?”

“Just a moment, my lady, I’ll retrieve the scroll for you.”

You open the scroll and peruse the contents. Huh, all the neighboring kingdoms are going all out this year. There’s the Kingdoms of Nekoma, Inarizaki, Fukurodani, Aoba Johsai, Shiratorizawa...Wow, even Johzenji and Nohebi have candidates? Funny, all of these are all presenting their crown princes too. As they should, you are the most beloved princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym, and the suitor you choose will bring you back as a blessing to his kingdom. It’s a total bummer that the Kingdom of Itachiyama isn’t participating this year. Sakusa’s crown prince succession is next year! You have heard so many swoon worthy stories about that princeling, even paid handsome amounts of money for paparazzi paintings of the beautiful man. No one will find out that the princess of YoreNaym actually hoards little pictures of Prince Sakusa in her panties drawers. It’s a shame you aren’t picking your husband next year.

There’s one more Kingdom on the list that surprises you. Kingdom of Karasuno, or more commonly referred to as the Kingdom of “Fallen Crows”. According to legends, they used to be quite a prosperous kingdom, but after a few generations of inept leadership, a drought, and poor trade economy...the Kingdom has mostly faded into obscurity. It’s been years since a suitor candidate has been offered. So who is it?

“Sawamura Daichi,” you whisper to yourself, “Interesting.”

The festival ground outdoors is especially grand. There are a huge number of tables prepared off to the side for guests. Trays of food, fruits and wine are provided for every single guest in attendance. You are led by the attendants to the temporary throne seat as the guest of honor. As you make your way to the throne, all the guests stand up to acknowledge your entrance. It’s so pressuring and a part of you wishes you can just dig a hole and bury yourself on the spot. You don’t even want to think about how many eyes are on you. They are all just jealous because, really. Take my word for it, I’m the narrator.

When you take a seat, the guests reseat themselves. A shaman comes to the center stage and bows to you.

“My lady, the time is auspicious, let us commence the Festival of Unity. At this time, I’ll be introducing the eligible bachelors from neighboring kingdoms near and far. They have passed the arduous tests and come as the best to offer in asking for your hand. Each of the suitors will present to you with a talent or skill, as to show you their excellence. After the demonstrations, you will be allowed to take your pick. Whereupon you will—”

“Okay, I get it! They will participate in a talent show, we clap, and I choose a husband, I got it!” You snap, cutting the shaman’s words off. Your patience is wearing thin.

A number of guests can be heard mumbling in the crowds, probably commenting on your behavior. Your eyes scan the guests, you can care less. Judgmental eyes, scheming eyes, lecherous eyes, disgusting eyes....Your gaze meeting with a pair of eyes that are absolutely blank. Wait, not blank as in emotionless. Non-judgemental? The opposite of unkind? Dare you say, polite? He gives you a smile and returns to taking a sip from his goblet. You scan his clothing up and down to look for his family crest. Black and orange. A crow. Karasuno.

Your thoughts are jumbled as an increasing amount of questions fill your mind. He? Karasuno? That Kingdom of Fallen Crows? You barely hear the shaman announce the first candidate.

“Bokuto Koutarou from Kingdom of Fukurodani.” Bokuto is a very large, very well built man. He is wearing his family crest of an owl across his back proudly. You can tell his chest is incredibly broad, the bulge of his big tiddies stretch the tight shirt he’s in. If you squint hard enough, you can maybe see the outline of his nipples through the training shirt, but maybe that’s just your perverted imagination too. Bokuto comes to the center stage and greets you.

“Hey! I’ll uh, demonstrate my strength to you, my lady.” He easily picks up a huge hunk of metal and lifts it with ease above his head. Damn beefiness, those arms of his. Seeing the bulges flex when he flexes has you dreaming of mouth along that delicious flesh. And when he pins you down under his massive body? Ooh, if this is the first demonstration, you’re excited to see the whole lineup today. Gasps and murmurs can be heard in the crowd. Bokuto grins and drops the load on the ground. You can almost feel the tremors beneath your feet. Truly, a herculean feat.

“Thank you, Bokuto, I have seen your demonstration and all those here are witnesses.”

Bokuto’s demonstration is a showy start of the competition for your hand. The shaman announces the next candidate. “Ushijima Wakatoshi from the Kingdom of Shiratorizawa.”

Ushijima walks up to the stage exuding the regal aura of nobility; a byproduct of his strict upbringing. The twin crests of an eagle decorate his shoulder pads. His expression is quite cold, but there’s a saying, “it’s always the quiet ones.” You lick your lips and study him some more.

“Greeting to the princess,” he says with a deep bow. “I also bring a demonstration of my martial prowess.” Ushijima takes off the bow and quiver of arrows from his back and nods at his attendant who then catapults three apples high up into the air. Everyone’s eyes follow the  trajectory of the objects, squinting to see what’s happening. No way.

Ushijima draws the bow back and calmly shoots one arrow, perfectly spearing the three fruits along the shaft. The crowd bursts into cheers. You also find your tight grip on armrest loosening, the tension from the scene dissipating in a moment. Ushijima’s calmness, accuracy, decision-making...he would make a very suitable partner for sure. Co-workers of sorts, that is.

You know your marriage carries a lot of weight politically and the fate of the whole universe will rest on your decision. Maybe not the whole universe, but close enough. But, marital bliss is important too right? Is Ushijima the right choice? There are still many more candidates, it’ll be best not to make a rash decision. Your gaze wanders over back to the Karasuno prince who is clapping earnestly for Ushijima’s performance. He’s acknowledging a rival’s strength, you think to yourself. Well, that’s certainly a rare but admirable trait. A confident man, he is.

After Ushijima’s demonstration, Oikawa Tooru’s enchanting musical performance offers a much desired change of pace. The rhythm and melody from his zither carries both the energy of fortitude as well as a graceful spirit. Quite stunning, but just not quite the musical vibe you’re feeling at the moment. Bummer, maybe a different day, really. Could be friends?

Kuroo Tetsurou from the Kingdom of Nekoma offers a particularly memorable performance too. Kuroo comes to the center stage with a trough filled with flames. Everyone is at a loss as to what is going on. Kuroo flashes you a grin before taking out a few pouches containing some powders. In a poof, the flames burst alive with colors blending blues and purples. And moments later yellows and greens, even reds. No one has ever seen fire change color like so.

“Witchcraft!” someone gasps.

“No it must be alchemy. Dangerous craft,” another adds.

Kuroo bows to you. “My lady, this is called chemistry, a discipline of science.”

Kuroo’s smiles teeter on the edge of flirtations and you cannot deny that your heart flutters just slightly when you see his crooked grin. He’s intelligent, humorous, and attractive. Definitely also a contender. A union with him might be fun. And especially when you see Kuroo run a hand through his messy, black locks and give you a piercing gaze, you almost wonder if this is the feeling of chemistry. It feels like you are naked under his seductive, golden eyes, completely submitted to his will and absolutely drugged. And you fear that if he sends you another one of his grins, you’ll come untouched. Dangerous, send him off immediately.

“Thank you, Kuroo, I have seen your demonstration and all those here are witnesses.”

After Kuroo, many more candidates also come to the center stage for their demonstrations. Kita Shinsuke from the Kingdom of Inarizaki composes and recites poetry on the spot. His literary talents and mastery of public speech move a very large crowd of the literati officials. Kita is a charismatic leader and commands confidence. But he doesn’t seem to be the best fit. Your brain says ‘yes’, but your coochie just isn’t feeling it. The nerve signals say no.

Terushima Yuuji demonstrates a one-man comedy show, but his storytelling skills, although humorous, fall just a little short after Kita’s. Had Terushima been slotted for a different position, perhaps he would make a stronger impact.

Daishou Suguru. Interesting. But tongue itself will eventually get boring too.

A few more candidates demonstrate their talents to you. Most of them fail to impress you at all. Your blank expression is more than enough to make a few almost shit their pants or cry on the way they exit the stage. It’s really not their fault, you’re just a bit tired after seeing so many performances and demonstrations. You are just trying to find the best fit after all. It’s your duty and responsibility as the muthereffing princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym.

“Sawamura Daichi from the Kingdom of Karasuno.”

The crowd is silent as Daichi stands up from his seat and makes his way to the center. His shoulder is relaxed and his head is held high. He doesn’t have the large build of Bokuto nor is he decked out in regal fabrics like Ushijima. His hair is simple and clean. His expression is polite and pleasant. Amongst the sea of beautiful and talented men, Daichi is like an ordinary seashell buried in the sand. But like how too many bites of dessert beckon the simplicity of water, Daichi’s humble presence makes him stand out in particular.

Daichi bows deeply. “I send my deepest regards to the princess. I am Sawamura Daichi from the Kingdom of Karasuno.”

“Please rise, Sawamura. What demonstration do you bring to me today?”

“My lady, I have nothing showy in particular. I only bring myself. And please feel free to call me Daichi.” You can feel his piercing gaze on you, confident and assertive. So he has some guts. It beckons you to submit, but you bite back. Grrrrr.

“Just yourself? That’s quite cocky of you Daichi. Others bring talents and demonstrations of qualities that make them fit as my suitor. What do you have to offer for me to choose you? Or is that something you are not looking for at all?”

“Karasuno,” Daichi begins, “Karasuno is a good kingdom. For many years long ago, our people have suffered greatly and we have gained a poor moniker. However, for the last few years, the kingdom has made significant progress and improvements. Alongside my brethren and officers of my court,” Daichi gestures to his entourage sitting off to the side, “We have come a long way. ”

“You tell me much about your home, Daichi, but what about you?”

Daichi pauses for a moment to collect his thoughts. He is well aware of the pressures you are putting on him, testing his convictions to the limit. You are a princess after all, so it’s only natural that you test his qualifications. Diachi swallows his nerves and faces your confrontation head on.

“I come to tell you the truth, my lady. I cannot hide these facts about myself or my kingdom. I am truthful, honest, but I have an unshaken belief that my kingdom will prosper because I have my closest and trusted with me. Each of them have their talents and strengths. Karasuno is a band with a bit of everything, and we’re family.”

You inwardly sigh. It seems like Daichi won’t be completely living up your hopes. At first you thought that his confident yet humble demeanor must hide something. Something incredible, because he can sit back and freely applaud other men for their talents. Something remarkable because he doesn’t feel the need to jump out in front of others. Something big. Very big.

“I don’t doubt your family’s bond or strength, but I am here to choose a suitor, a husband in layman's terms. So, I suppose that—”

“Wait,” Daichi cries out, and gestures towards his Karasuno brethren.

A tangerine head jumps up and brings out a scroll. He skips a few steps towards you and passes the document over to the shaman who brings it to you.

“My resume, if you will, my lady. I have no other talents but what is shown there.”

You glance at Daichi, studying him closely. From his clenched fist, you can tell that even in this moment, he’s a bit shaken and nervous. You undo the ties on the scroll and unravel the contents.

All eyes are fixed on you, trying to decipher every microexpression you make. The slight widened eyes, the twitch of the brow. The slight part of the lips and the deep breathes from you trying to calm the invisible fire that’s building in your core. It’s big. If the resume is accurate, Daichi’s demeanor truly is hiding a beast. A massive, humongous, schlong. Finer than any specimen you have seen in banned pictorial books you read and hide under your massive princess bed.

The sheer size and girth of the XL 2d image is rendered in X-TRA fine detail. You brush a finger onto the parchment, tracing the lines depicting the veins running along the shaft. You gulp, rubbing your finger down what is drawn as a big, swollen tip that’s glistening. Artists these days are so detail-oriented, it looks as if precum is just dripping from the tip and shimmering. So realistic, you just want to take it all into your mouth. To gag or to choke. Neither are a question.

The balls, those massive balls that are the storehouses for an endless supply of fresh cum. Organics from the finest the kingdom has to offer. Precious jewels hanging at the base, ripe for your licking. It looks so juicy and plump and you want nothing more than to rub your cheeks, cooing at how cute they are.

You know it’s good. It better be good if the painting is depicting something this sumptuous. If this is the real deal, then you really have nailed the jackpot and secured a brilliant future for yourself. Marital bliss. Bedroom adventures. Bedroom adventures where he’ll fulfill every nightmarish fantasy you ever have. It’ll be hard at first, your cunt’s so tight and he’s so big! But it’s okay, you’ll take him like the royal princess you are because the Kingdom of YoreNaym raises whores and sluts only!

No scratch that. Coital activities can take place anywhere. Maybe you’ll cockwarm him while the two of you hear what the morning court has to say about the affairs of the kingdom. Maybe you’ll find yourself tumbling around in the garden after a cute game of hide and seek, skirt hiked up, as he fucks a grass stain into your back! Okay. That might not be the best idea. Perhaps just once. For novelty’s sake.

But hear me out, when you are sneaking into the kitchen for some snacks, he’ll pin you on the large baker’s table and just take you right there to fuck his babies into your womb. His cock pumping into you as the table creaks and shakes from his thunderous movements. He’ll fill you to the brim with copious amounts of his hot cum, heaps and heaps of them, just like the baker fills the buns with cream custard in the most obscene fashion ever. Watch your belly rise and bulge up like pastries in the oven. Oooh cummies.

You sigh and squirm in the seats as you continue examining the masterpiece of a dick. You feel your heartbeat racing wildly as if you are caught tinkling in the castle fountain. It’s unknown if you ever did that, by the way. Just saying, your memory is failing you just a tad. But oh gosh, you’re wet already. The slick pooling between your folds is just soaking through your princess panties; the ones in the drawer where you keep all your secret prince Sakusa drawings heehee. But Sakusa’s pretty face aside, you are now face to face with the most magnificent dick pic you’ll ever receive. Not really unsolicited, but damn work of art. Literally.

The crowd is silent when you clear your throat and roll up the scroll, taking extra care to not let anyone else touch your new precious treasure. You lean forward and perceive Daichi. Daichi gives you a cocky grin, showing his teeth. Slightly stained with the wine, but it’s just temporary. It doesn’t matter as long as the real deal is...well, real.

Daichi catches your eyes wandering to the outline of the bulge between his legs. The glorious dickprint that he’s casually showing to everyone present. It puts Herculean Bokuto to shame, Ushijima into a blushing mess. Kuroo nearly snorts his colored powders. Daishou’s tongue hangs out and dries. Oikawa is sent to the medics. Kita no longer waxes poetry about the weather. Terushima leaves the party early.

Daichi is smug and casually asks, “My lady, would you like to examine the goods? I am a pure man and would not carelessly offer tastes to anyone. But you are a princess of the Kingdom of YoreNaym. You can have a sampling before you commit. Satisfaction guaranteed.”

[maomao-words]

Here is another self-indulgent piece of writing!  (✿´‿`)

I binged Blue Lock’s manga in 3 days and I am now left with an empty void that I’m trying to fill by writing about my favorite characters in it.

On a side-note, I always seem to think of them as 18-19 years old. 

Contains few spoilers on some characters’ ranks after the Third Selection!

Being their Personal Manager at Blue Lock: (Itoshi Rin, Seishiro Nagi, Hyoma Chigiri)

Rin Itoshi:

Being assigned to the 1st ranker in all of Blue Lock immediately after your adaptability test barely shocked anyone. At this point in time where the whole existence of Blue Lock centered around Itoshi Rin, it was more than obvious that Rin would only receive the utmost care and the very best of the candidates as his manager.

Ranking first in the agonizingly harsh Entrance Exam and managing to out best all 600 other candidates from over the country, you were always the sole choice for Itoshi Rin’s personal manager.

You were already familiar with Rin’s character, preferences, weaknesses, strengths, diet and overall living style. You even had his body measurements down to the millimeter engraved in your brain. You thought yourself as perfectly ready to assist him in his endeavor, but reality soon proved you slightly wrong.

Meeting the genius called Itoshi Rin for the first time, you swore your blood ran cold within your veins the minute his eyes locked with yours. An oppressive aura, suffocating enough to send shivers down your back, surrounded you immediately the minute you stepped into his room. It took all of your willpower not to tremble in front of him.

Rin’s gaze did not move from yours for what seemed like an eternity, but noticing no visible signs of fear or submission on you, his lips slightly curved in a smirk and he finally stood up from his chair, discarding your test results on the table nearby.

“Not bad. She’ll do for now.”

Once you gained Rin’s initial approval, you started your mission as his closest aid. From the moment Rin opened his eyes to the minute he closed his door at night to sleep, you never left his side. You calculated his calories intake and planned his meals accordingly. You carefully reserved the training field and machines to Rin’s own wishes, making absolute sure they are available for Rin to use without any interruption or interference from other players. You planned, ran around, filled up water bottles and picked up emergency kits more quickly than you have ever did back in your own school’s competitive soccer club. You did that over and over again, to the point that you felt like dying. Until you finally broke down.

But being Itoshi Rin’s personal aid did not even offer you the privilege of breaking down in public. You waited until the day’s clamor and chaos was over. You meticulously prepared Rin’s lunch and reminded him to take the few tablets of vitamins afterwards before finally excusing yourself.

Rin raised a brow in faint confusion, as you have never willingly separated yourself from his side, even during meals. But the wound within your chest has finally festered to the point of no return, and you were unable to provide him with a convincing explanation before you gathered your papers and left.

The empty hallway located far from the center cafeteria soon echoed with your faint sobs. You gathered up your knees close to your chest and slowly rocked yourself in hopes of easing your pain. Weeks of harsh labor, zero communication with the outside world as well as the stress that came with handling all of Rin’s demanding responsibilities finally bled over.

You were not giving up. ‘Make no mistake,’ you whispered to yourself between sobs. You were just taking a much earned break before drying up your tears and returning to work.

But just as you began to feel frustrated at the tears still falling on your cheeks, you felt a heavy cloth fall on top of your head accompanied with an extremely familiar fragrance.

You jolted, hand coming up to clutch at Rin’s jacket before glancing up at the tall figure standing by your side. You opened your mouth but a round package slammed into your face next, leaving you to wince in pain.

“Eat that and let’s hurry back. I can’t find my black cleats.”

Rin’s voice echoed in the empty hall, forcing you to bring your attention to the melon bread he threw at you. Sounds of clothes rustling beside you made you look up again, only to find that Rin has sat down beside you, hand coming up to tug you closer to him.

Placing his palm on top of your eyes, Rin’s voice sounded as soft as ever as he whispered.

“Rest. I’m here.”

Seishiro Nagi:

As you stared down at your test results that have finally arrived after a long wait, you suddenly had the urge to cry out. 

Why him of all people?

Having extensively studied all of Blue Lock’s key players prior to passing the Entrance Exam as a manager, you were filled with admiration and respect to them and thus felt ready to be assigned to any of them. Any of them but Nagi Seishiro.

A beginning who did not even know the most basic of the basics on football yet somehow blessed enough to be labeled as a genius even among Blue Lock’s outstanding participants. That was Nagi Seichiro.

You abhorred geniuses. You abhorred how easily they reached their goals, how effortlessly they achieved their desires and how the entire world seemed to bow down in front of them. Becoming the personal manager of a hard working individual, like Isagi Yoichi for example, would have made you the happiest woman on the planet. To watch that individual sweat and toil, think and plan all of his minor actions in order to reach the pinnacle of his dreams through both talent and hard work and get to assist him in that process was the reason behind your entrance to Blue Lock.

So when the day where the eleven chosen managers entered the isolated towering building to meet the elite players ranking at the top of the whole project came, all you could taste was bitterness and rage in your mouth.

After Ego finished the basic introductions between managers and players, he gave the green light for you all to start performing your duties. As you began to collect your belongings that were delivered to you by the staff, you could see the tall figure of a young man approaching you from behind.

Without allowing Nagi the faintest chance to offer his help, you hoisted your luggage up with both hands and started walking towards the managers’’ sleeping quarters with only “I will be back shortly” thrown behind your back at the frozen Nagi.

A job was a job after all and you had no intention to slack off because of your personal dislikes. But you will be sure to maintain a professional distance from Blue Lock’s 6th ranker to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

Being Nagi’s personal manager was as hard as you have expected. Having to support a monster who does not cease to evolve with each passing day at a frightening pace would be considered had by anyone’s standards. But you were already aware of the heavy duties imposed on you from the start so you grinded your teeth and bared the pain. The only issue you seemed to have was, unsurprisingly, Nagi himself.

You have intended for your cold treatment the day you both met to be enough warning for the player. You wanted to perform your duties. Nothing less, nothing more. But Nagi seemed to have another idea on the relationship between you. 

He did not hinder your tasks nor act difficult on purpose to harm you, but he also made sure to greet you warmly each morning before plopping his large hand on top of your head and gently pat your hair for a few minutes before leaving.

He made sure to stick close to you during meal time, pushing off whatever he deemed not-tasty to your own plate, and innocently smiling when your try to scold him. He always shared his dessert with you, no matter how many times you tried to lie and tell him you disliked sweets. He constantly tried his best not to overburden you with questions on players and tactics and carefully chose the times where you were free enough to answer him.

In short, Nagi Seichiro was a weirdo. A weirdo you wanted to choke.

As the time went by, your perspective on Nagi was entirely transformed, despite yourself. You started to put extra care into his meals, go beyond what is required of you when it came to taking care of his training schedule and treatment and even sacrifice some of your free time in order to answer as much of his questions as you can.

One morning, as Nagi stepped in the room and smiled brightly at you, you found yourself moving in closer to him before raising your arms and catching him in a tight hug. Nagi almost stumbled in surprise, but managed to stable you both as he wrapped his hands behind your back. But before he could even utter a word, your mouth opened and a joyful, “Good morning Sei-chan!” came out.

Hyoma Chigiri:

“Are you sure you wish to be assigned to Chigiri?” Ego’s detached voice echoed in the almost empty hall, stopping you in your tracks. The results of the Blue Lock Entrance Exam for managers were just announced and the chosen eleven were asked to pack up and be ready to leave in a two-hours frame.

“You do realize that your rank actually qualifies you to become Itoshi’s Rin support, don’t you?” Ego’s fingers tapped on the table in a rhythmic manner, not stopping even as you glared at him.

“Yes, sir, I am well aware of that fact. But my decision will not change.” Your voice, calm and steady, caused Blue Lock’s host to grin, his raven locks falling to the side as he tilted his head to inspect you closely. “A calculative, rational and logical tactician as you, who managed to outrank all 600 other participants in a six hour long exam, is moved by mere personal emotions?”

It was hard for any regular person to detect the mockery dripping from each of Ego’s words and not feel their blood boiling within their veins. Only you slightly smirked at Ego, eyes curving in genuine mirth as you joyfully answered: “Yes! Is there any problem?”

All the struggles you have faced so far in order to reach this point were, after all, done for the sake of one person: Hyoma Chigiri. Specializing in medical treatment and athletic injuries as a manager was not a coincidence. You have long became aware of your intense desire to support Chigiri and aid him in his journey to achieve his dreams. No matter how many people laughed at you both, no matter how many criticized your choices and claimed you could do much, much better than an injured boy, playing on borrowed time, your resolve never shook.

As you finally locked eyes with Chigiri after your arrival at Blue Lock, you saw how his shoulders slightly trembled and his eyes widened, and your resolve was instantly renewed. Not many words were needed as you playfully extended your hand to shake Chigiri’s own. He was aware that you were there for him and that you will not change your mind no matter what he says or does.

Your duties at Blue Lock were slightly easier than your fellow managers simply due to the fact that you were already familiar with Chigiri’s routine. Needing no time to adjust, you dove head first into taking care of Chigiri, putting the well-being of his knee as your utmost priority. You tried your best not to bite your lips each time you bent down to take a look at the previously injured area, fully knowing that Chigiri has made his peace with the incident and was now focusing on moving on with no regrets.

Your favorite task to perform was, and still is, taking care of Chigiri’s silky hair. You were faced with his slightly damaged locks the day you arrived at Blue Lock’s building and Chigiri had to apologize a couple of times for ruining the hair you treasured the most. Ever since then, you returned to your usual task of picking hair products for him, drying and styling his hair depending on Chigiri’s schedule for the day. Braids were your go-to style but you also enjoyed changing things up, knowing that it made Chigiri happy each time you tried to come up with a new hairdo.

Now that you were finally reunited with your childhood friend and lover, you were ready to give it your all and see it all to its final end.

[alchemabotana]

Horoscopes for the Full Moon in Capricorn June 24th 2021

Antonina “Little Thunder” Whaples

@whaplesantonina

If you enjoy these horoscopes, please consider supporting by voting for me as Ms. Health and Fitness 2021 for Muscle & Fitness Hers Magazine. You can vote once every 24 hours for free. If I win, I am donating the proceeds to herbal medicine school scholarships. To vote: https://mshealthandfitness.com/2021/antonina

Strawberry Moon - Pen & Ink Sketch by Antonina Whaples 

Horoscopes for the Full Moon in Capricorn June 24th 2021

Strawberry Moon

This lunar Opening in Capricorn June 24th 2021 is a cry of righteousness on the hilly planes of our spiritual landscapes. With this meregoat’s lunation, we will experience the inherent benefits of the systematic work we’ve done since 2018, with a special emphasis on decisions made to change personal system errors. The Gods of karma are smiling at our intentions and efforts, and rewards will be reaped by those who invest in self discovery. Our ritual work has been seen and blessed in the Summer Solstice shifts by the spirits of the Land. If you listen closely on this strawberry moon, you may just hear the call of the Cosmic tricksters as they work their mojo on the psychopomp of Earthly frustrations. When you’re feeling the pull of your natal oppositions this moon, tune into the tendons of your actions and see where the motion stems from. You may be relieved to find that the strings that once pulled your puppet are made of finer ancestral threads and your permission to be free was always there. When you check into the Cosmic Chess Board you may find something of a rubix cube has emerged in your new dimensional awarenesses. Instead of throwing yourself into the equations necessary to unlock this next level, revel in the achievements that brought you to this very moment. In a cosmic landscape where the processes of life and death have been hyper focused in our collective consciousness it feels rebellious to change the font and type settings of the ancestral notepads in our minds. Representing the waters that run deeply within the Earth, Capricorn’s fullness in the night sky will illuminate various Spirits whose presence have been well established, but not necessarily recognized. A sign of the power of mental affirmation, your thoughts and words will hold a special magic in this moment. Remember that your Guides, Spirit Animals, Power Totems, Good Medicine Ancestors, and the Spirits of the Land are excellent translators, and with Mercury about to pop out of retrograde (watch out for its shadow til June 30th), its final lesson is one of the personal spiritual variety. When what we seek is Truth & Justice, we allow our souls to attune to protective forces that help us autocorrect, fold into origami, and transcend with temperance.

Aries:

It’s no surprise that an old tune holds the secret code from that earlier recording of the master tape your memory has been searching for in the old filing system. In these moments you realize just how deep and densely tracked the highways and byways of your mental system are. You’re the original wayfinder of your own uncharted territory of the mind. This state of curiosity opens you up to spiritual healing that aligns your personal ideals and values with the actions a person desires to embody. When your actions meet your words, you tend to feel the most at home in the grander machinations of Spaceship Earth.

I’m not sure if I’m feeling funky or groovy, jazzy or bluesy? Does it jive with you? Is it feeling all right? What songs have got you buzzed on this full moon night? I’m enjoying the humour of the human experience, and I find ways to incorporate positive sources of enjoyment into my daily routine. I recognize that I can be sensitive to the frequencies I consume mentally, and I’m manifesting sources of comedic gold into my awareness. I can be my own clown, and enjoy an inside-inside joke anytime my mind decides that laughter is the best medicine. I love to laugh, and allow myself this simple pleasure in life. 

Taurus: 

Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus has been creating a nuanced ping-pong table in your mind. This influence has been upon your daily life for sometime, and shall continue on through the rest of the year, with another exact square in December 2021. Accept the exactness of this T-squared engineer level measurement on the corners of your ascension blueprints. It’s ok to look at the world from your own angles, and you may be happily surprised by the moments that unfold joyously when you use your sharpness to hone the hedges of your self doubt. There’s a special magic in this moon for you, as the meregoat lights a part of the puzzle we wanted to get done anyway. This refocused energy gives you the internal resources to wait to make your next move, even though the ones you’ve planned are quite clever already, when mercury rx clears you’ll have fine tuned your intel.

I give in to the epic bonestructure of my cosmic face in the universe. I know that on these edges are where the hedgerows grow. In these sanctuaries of my boundaries, I give spaces for things I truly want to cultivate to be engendered. I find which spaceships are allowed to dock at my intergalactic port of plenty, and make sure that my shields are up when psychic frequencies intend to disrupt my qi. When I breathe, I give space to the energy around myself, and I feel permission to let go. When I let go, I allow myself to accept instructions in the forms of feelings and intuitions. I do not allow the opinions or voices of others to upset my internal compass. I feel centered and grounded and know I will continue to make positive choices and believe in myself. I choose to honor myself, and that makes me feel good. 

Gemini: 

You’ve been carefully funneling resources into a variety of investments. Financial and interpersonal projects and alliances deepen, although it is not a time to throw caution to the wind. Caution and planning is what has allowed you to learn to trust the ebb and flow of the cosmic money winds, and you’re trying to siphon your own renewable sources, not steal from the Gods. When you place yourself in alignment with your internal resources, you can learn to embody compassion to provide yourself when feelings of self worth or insecurities prod you to feel guilty about the ways you regenerate. Let your conscience be your guide, and allow others to do the same. The path of self acceptance is most rich for you at this juncture, and it would be wise to use the Full moon to clear the psychic debris of your aura through ritual bathing, sound healing, and aromatics. 

I can sometimes turn my mirrors askance to the equations I cannot seem to readily solve. But, in doing so I lose reflections that empower me. I accept that it's time to look at some of those patterns again and see if they even deserve a place on the chalkboard of my mind. When I make space to use my memory card to run programs that make me have feelings I actually enjoy, I look into my secret box of fantasies and realize I may have already realized many of those experiences. In these moments of clarity, I hold a space for myself to enjoy what I may not have allowed myself to in the past. In this way, I take back my energy and transform myself in the present. 

Cancer:

In this moon you are finally able to feel that rebound-snap! Ka-bow! sh-zing! of Mars’ exit from your cozy airbnb. You’re reminded that you should be charging premiums for your ability to stay level-headed when the Gods and Goddesses war in the Heavens, and on Earth. You enjoy a good ritual bath, but to stay out of hot waters, this crab needs a cool-down. This Capricorn Moon is just what the doctor ordered, and something about the good medicine flowing through you can’t help but seep into certain streams where the mojo is most needed. This is an excellent time for you to pause in your personal space and take a moment to feel the beauty of your domain.

My soundtrack of life is a high luxury five star bathhouse of the Spirits. I’ve been Spirited Away to lands of emotional remembrance. The roots of my ancestors have spoken to me, and I have heard their instructions. I need not fear the judgments of others, because I am a sacred part of creation. I will not allow negative voices to infiltrate my consciousness, but instead, I will choose to believe that my work has been blessed by the Cosmic Super Computer and shall continue to have its content prioritized. In this space of trust, I allow myself to turn my consciousness to what I’ve relegated as “frivolous artistic pursuits”. I find the time and space to make something just because. When I experience this energy releasing through the act of creation, I realize why it mattered in the first place. 

Leo: 

The grass is pretty green in your patch. Both career aspirations and spiritual wealth appear to be presenting itself to you in all new fashions. You may literally be feeling called to new ways to express yourself externally, and this exploration of your presentation to the world helps you heal. You’ve been feeling called to healing in general, feeling like it may be a good time to start a new way of moving, or to add a healing ritual to your daily experience. If you happen to use stone medicine, Turquoise will be especially healing in nature during the transit of Mars through Leo, and can be just the cooling mechanism you need to keep your Roar without the bite.

Sometimes I’m just feeling high octane. When I find the right stomping grounds to release my charge I am able to do so safely through friendly communication strategies, good topics of conversation, interesting objects within my spacial periphery, and calming colors. It’s ok to turn the volume all the way up, but when the outside world adjusts its tone to match, I can switch to a different groove. I’m in awe of my co-creative power to engage my environment and use my influence therein to bring forth collective healing experiences.

Virgo: 

Something about this moon in Capricorn feels familiar to you, and perhaps it's the quiet watch you’ve held & the prayers of your heart being answered. Your physical being is finding ways to heal through your insights to your movements in daily life. As your mind/body/spirit awareness grows, you find new ways of expressing yourself. This ability to shift and transform might seem like deja vu, but it's your memories finding their way to the surface. When our minds give us abstract feelings and visions, we can move mountainous emotions safely within our systems, without harming ourselves or others. Breathe deeply and find a place to scream loudly if you need that release.

I have crossed some barren deserts, but I have not died of thirst. I am blessed with the life I have co-created in the spiritual planes of my intelligent manifestations. My awareness of the barren corners of life have given me compassionate reflective capacity and a recognition of my gifts by those whose opinions matter to me. I am enjoying the small moments of joy and call them precious to me. I forgive myself for any moments where I’ve expected too much of myself while I was grieving a loss. My heart is tender, and my spirit gentle. I wish to live in harmony with myself and others. 

Libra:

This Capricorn moon you are more annoyed than usual at laundry, other people’s messes, and scapegoating. Your sensitivity to physical objects is heightened under this Full Moon and it may feel overwhelming to be in the midst of the messes others leave for you to clean up. It’s more than frustrating when you acknowledge how your time/energy has been appropriated. Instead of letting loose the fire brigade when the bridge seems to be burning, walk away from the moments today that feel like a temptation. Make sure to find objects that reflect healthy energy back to you, and sit amidst a tiny oasis of your creation, and pay no attention to chaos of the Gods. You deserve a Full Battery, and the spirits are conspiring to recharge your battery banks this lunation.

I gather strength from my service to my community. When I have been unbalanced in the past, I allow my weight to ground in all directions through the sacred communions of my own secret tabernacles of the human experience. I make new covenants with myself and the way I speak and treat myself, so that I no longer need to suffer under the weight of the past. I don’t need to feel any guilt in laying down my load, and don’t need any permission to do so. When I feel safe, I will allow those who I trust to provide the respite necessary for me to heal my visions of my life and expand into an abundant awareness of how truly loved I am for being myself, and how needed my cosmic ray of intellect is to this world. 

Scorpio:

Known for your secrets and depth, you’ve been hiding like the Cosmic Sphinx between the pillars of the temple gates. You’ve been allowed to watch the clashes of the Giants unscathed, and your insight will outlast this passing phase of planetary tensions. You’ve been sending alien text messages to Neptune’s work phone, and the intel has been legit. Your attraction to Art, Color, Shape, Form, Music, and Theatre are encouraging you to make insightful investments in your own dreams. This Full Moon beckons you to create with abandon and let the waves of inspiration quench your desire for pleasure. 

I feel like the whole choir singing in one unison. I weave through the soundwaves, key changes, and rhythm switch-ups as I keep time with the sacred union of celestial sounds. I am aware that the tunes of the planet herself offer me a sacred respite from the cacophony of the cosmic movements. When I ground myself into the soothing waters of my spiritual essence I define for myself how my energy is used for the goodness of my own healing. 

Sagittarius: 

It feels like you’ve been getting along pretty well with the planetary forces, and everyone secretly enjoys the protection that your bow provides for the tribe. You may be feeling a bit cramped in the yellow submarine of the pandemic, dare we say you could have cabin fever? The Trines, Sextiles, and satellite signals of the skies indicate that you can find a special type of relief from the feelings of squished with mandalas, botanical drawings, and spirographs. When you take the time to let your mind journey in these ways, it lets your hunter’s mind relax for the next best chance. And no worries, you’ve got plenty of chances ahead, Sagittarius. 

Life is good. I do my hair toss, check my nails - baby how you doing? Hey, life is good. He’s got his eye on the sparrow and I guess that’s me? I’m playing with the chemistry... cause that’s how I be? When I look into the mirror I see a babe, a real dude of the neighborhood - my sister, mothers, daddy, and the community. I guess when I see you, I see me. And when I’m in that light in me, and you are in that light in you. There is only one of us: namaste my bissssssch 

Capricorn: 

This Full Moon in Capricorn you endeavour to ask outloud: “What Giant’s Bones Have We Built Ourselves Upon?” Your Full Lunation is opposing the Sun in Cancer, shining a shadow on our collective exoskeleton. This Full Moon feels like an archeological discovery when proverbial bones rattle out of the closet to give us a hoodoo prayer’s chance for self liberation. You’ve been waiting for a moment like this, and it's OK if you’re not ready to take that leap of faith. But should you choose, the moon lights up an emotional healing around the concept of “home”. You really want to know if you’re believing the right thing from one moment to the next, but keeping your head out of the secret sauce is key to giving your subconscious the space it needs right now to send out signals to the future. Soon enough you’ll be receiving confirmations of cosmic flavors right into your spiritual inbox.

I called Stephen Hawking and he called me back. My voicemail said: “Hey friend. I know this is a hard time on planet earth. I think people are doing better than they believe they are. It’s hard to be a human. I remember the constraints of the body, and I understand when you want to just fly away somewhere. I believe in you. Capricorns get a bad rap sometimes. I can see your progress, and I hope you take the time to see it too. By the way, we always have the time to say how much we matter to each other. Thanks for being, and enjoy this life, you deserve it”. 

Aquarius: 

There have been a lot of light bulbs going off in your spiritual laboratory. This Full Moon when the light shifts, your awareness of the dimensionality of the objects and purpose of your life is heightened. You may be experiencing some grief and loss around feelings of closeness with others. Recently you’ve been asked to hold a deep stability for the collective’s growth. Your actions haven’t gone unnoticed, and you’ve been receiving opportunities for advancement in your career. However, you are feeling uncomfortable with commitment while under a deep pressure to perform. These archetypal struggles are up for healing on the altar of the Full Moon. Your magic fairy dust works the best when you sprinkle it on yourself. You are learning the ways of Illuminated Prosperity.

My voice is a symphony of grace within a cacophony of sound. I breathe in the knowledge that my very existence is a miracle of my own embracing. I find myself at home in my surroundings and know I belong. Whoever “They” are, I know I can be myself around “Them”. I trust that my instincts are perfected beyond doubt. I’ve taken all the tests and quizzes and my insights are showing precision on whichever experiments have survived my tests of time and spirit. When I tune into my highest self it's because I’m recognizing my ability to be in that place no matter what surrounds me. Even when my circumstances deny me, I do not deny myself. I believe that I am worthy of the life I am living, and anticipate my surroundings shifting to match the unique vibrational fingerprint that I offer planet Earth. 

Pisces: 

You’ve been holding down some major spiritual territory during the recent seasonal shifts. The light of the meregoat acts as a lighthouse beacon for the whales and whistleblowers of your waters. You’re not particularly interested in that island, and prefer to spend this Lunation in Capricorn Gardening, Cleaning Out the Car, Writing about your art, Feeding the fairies, Calling in positivity, Releasing the Past, Testing New Grounds, and let’s just say it: looking pretty guuuuuuud while doing it. So good. You might want to tune into some whale call noises, or turn on a beachy video. The seas are definitely calling your name, and your inner explorer could watch Moana a few times through the eyes of the grandmother, the eyes of Moana, and the eyes of Te Fiti. 

I am a sound rising on the waves of creation. I turn my eyes to the heavens and I’m in the medicine nation. I forgive myself for all my wavering, I know my power lies in my cravings. I can wish upon the starry skies, and watch the birds where e’er they fly. I’m curious to know the names of all the fairies, and their games. I want to know what games I’ll win when I’m laughing with a cheshire grin. I know what gods have sent me here, I know which path I’m meant to clear. And when the waters run to quickly, or the bushes get too prickly - I can lay my spirit down. My minds’a palace, my head a crown. You could call me king or queen, but my magics’still unseen. I’m so much bigger than my titles, or whichever ones I didn’t get. I’ve given all at my recitals, and I’m my own best bet. 

[midnightmoonkiss]

Evermore.

 Idol!Izuku Midoriya X Reader

Summary: Strangers brought together by music, fueling each others dream. You truly were living the life.

Category: Fluff

Word Count: 5.5k

A/N: Day 30 of the Izumonth Collab!

P.S. I have a very small grasp on what an idol truly is so ples kpop stans dont come for me ahhh,,,, i tried fdgbhhj

Just To Clarify:

Reader and Izu meet in a cafe years prior!

They built themselves from the ground up!

Lord help me i dunno what’s going on

Perm. Tag List:

@coupsieddori​ @desia2​ @strwbrry-lia​

The roaring of screaming fans, the inconsistent flashing of blinding lights, music making the ground shake and heart jump, stealing your breath away and intoxicating your being with every lyric sung from the bottom of their hearts.

To some, every concert could be classified as the same, the pattern repeating itself until it becomes nothing but a chore instead of a passion.

To some, music becomes something to pass time with, something to hug yourself with in the early hours of the morning after a night filled with tears and no sleep, eyes burning with exhaustion.

Every person has a different answer to the same question, 

“What is music to you?”

A question asked to you one calm, summer night in a run-down cafe by a handsome stranger with green hair, eyes unforgettably curious and brimming with fascination, sparkling with moon dust as their silver beams shine down on him through that freshly polished window.

He stood there, an enigma to you and all those present in the place at the time.

It was unexpected, not something you would count on being asked by someone you didnt even know.

But yet, your heart had lurched forward, captivated by the determination and child-like curiosity resting on his soft, freckled face.

The words slipped from your lips parted by astonishment before you had the chance to think as if they were being dragged from the dream buried deep within yourself.

“My life..” you had whispered so quietly you had sworn he couldn’t hear you, but a smile lit up his face, the first of many you’d unknowingly see on him in your lifetime.

“So live it.” Such a cheery response had caught you off guard back then, making confusion swirl in your gut as to just what he meant, dreams resurfacing to hopeful fingertips.

Ever since then, a day in the back of your head but never one you forgot, you gave your dream your all once more, letting lyrics fly across the page as you scribbled them down in the heat of passion, inspired by random things and editing until the words flowed smoothly enough for him to sing.

And by God could he sing.

He had told you at the time he was nothing but a mere hopeful kid, fighting his way to the top with some friends, wanting to make a difference in the world with his own words and his own voice, but it was a true miracle that your minds intertwined similarly to the way your hands often did, finishing thoughts before the words even slipped out, conversations from addictingly familiar eye contact alone.

A match made in heaven as some had described it, two peas in a pod, yin and yang, Complimenting each other and yet being polar opposites, swimming harmoniously together in the vast sea of life.

One who shined brightest in a crowd, and the other who thrived on the sidelines.

But perhaps that’s just what made your bond stronger, for together, you were grey. Not suffocatingly bright, and not depressingly blue.

Just yourselves, the truest form of love there could be.

It didn’t take long for their group to be known, emerging from the dark waves like water crashing on a rock breaching the oceans stormy surface, a breath of fresh air as lyrics and ideology comforted thousands.

Evermore was their name, bred from the desire to inspire people, remind all who listen that there was more to life than what they can see alone.

Everyday you were blessed to have met that man when you did, lucky that he was willing to embrace your flaws and help you step over your self-doubt and thrive where you thrived best, smiling happily backstage as you watched the people you adore sing songs you helped create and continue to encourage all who listened.

It was your dream come true, to create music.

A dream you often feared you would one day wake from, blinking through tear-filled eyes at that old red booth sitting across from you at that cafe.

Those were the nights you would always awake in your lover’s arms, him fast asleep with drool running down the opened corner of his mouth, but yet somehow providing reassurance in that relaxed face of his, messy green curls hugging his cheeks in the sweetest way possible.

You’d always kiss his chin in those moments, letting yourself melt like ice on a hot, sunny day all over again.

Years had passed since your first encounter with him, years you would always treasure, for how could you not?

He was a ray of light in the darkest years of your life, and you never would have succeeded if it hadnt been for his firm, helping hand.

Together, you were whole.

Even now, as he’s on stage, singing his heart out in the way he always had with that same look of enthusiasm and boyish glee.

The stage boomed with each beat drop or thump of the drums, the screaming fans a mere buzz from the soundproofed backroom where you and a few others watched the performance from a flat-screen television.

Cameras never fully captured his true beauty, despite being in HD.

No, though they captured the glow of his soft skin under the shifting lights, they never could quite catch the aura of enthusiasm he gave off or the twinkle of hope in those deep green eyes you always found yourself getting hopelessly lost in. An endless forest, no, a jungle of harmonious greens. Dewy, doe-like eyes always providing comfort to all those who are able to peer into them.

Its almost as if that’s why people are entranced with him the moment they meet them beyond the screen concealing his soul.

Some could easily say he was open to the world, large arms ready to embrace its flaws wholly, but in truth, he already has. Accepting the world as it is and seeking change little by little in ways he prays could help aid in making a difference, but one human could only ever do so much. That’s the part that wasn’t easy for him to understand about all of this, about his life and others.

He can’t always help everyone, and even he has limits. But no one wants to accept the boundaries put in place by something you cannot comprehend.

It would anger him sometimes, and inspire a new song of heartbreak he would write alone in the back of the tour bus or his office at the home you shared, mindlessly chewing his pen out of frustration until the ink would splatter on his cheek.

He always tried so hard, and most people could see that.

They admired him, wanted to be like him, singing the very essence of his being out loud every chance he could.

He and his group members made music that provided the saying ‘it’ll be okay, one day. Until then, I’ll hold your hand,’ even despite it at times being aggressive and borderline rock instead of pop.

They all worked hard, and it paid off.

You were just lucky to be able to help in any way you could, simultaneously living your dream and aiding others in their own.

It truly was a blissful life you now experienced, all thanks to him, Izuku Midoriya, the man you swore held your heart oh-so gentle in the palms of his scarred hands.

Little do most know, but you held his heart just as gently.

“Looks like they’re finishing up.” Tenya Iida, their manager, pointed out whilst adjusting his glasses in that way he always did when the hours of music streaming through speakers was coming to a close.

He was right, they had just performed their last number for the night. You smiled automatically, knowing just what was to come next.

At the end of every concert, Izuku would always give a passionate speech composed entirely on the spot after observations he made throughout the show in the back of his mind. His fans knew this, and they all immediately quieted down to the point where you couldnt even hear them.

Most of the time he would say the same things at the shows because most crowds are the same- but sometimes something strange and completely unique would catch his perceptive eye, and he would always point it out with a cheery laugh as sweat poured down his face.

It would always cause a roar of screams and laughter before he and his friends signed off for the night, leaving blissful memories in those who watched the performance.

As they all bowed on the television, you were quick to hop up, waiting in front of the couch for them to file into the place.

And soon enough, he came in, sighing happily as he wiped at his face with a towel given to him before entering.

His eyes easily found your own in the suddenly crowded room, almost as if they were pulled together by magnetism, and just like it, your feet began to move on instinct.

Arms wrapping around his torso, your lips brushed over his own parted ones before molding together in a sweet, congratulatory kiss.

A tradition, if you will.

One that you had skipped once and ended up with a pouty Izuku all night.

But you typically remembered, seeing as you usually wanted a kiss as well.

He always smiled against you during these, one hand resting on your hip as the other cupped your jaw, the pad of his thumb brushing against your cheek.

Ignoring the chorus of disgusted ‘ew’s’, you repeatedly kissed his addicting mouth with a smile of your own.

Pulling away, you slowly opened your eyes just in time to see him swipe a tongue over his reddened lips.

“Cotton candy lip gloss?” he guessed the flavor you wore breathlessly, voice hoarse from exaggerated use as his eyes met yours once more, relaxed and filled with nothing but unyielding love for you and you alone.

“Mm~ not quite.” you teased, moving your arms up so they wrapped around his neck instead, not caring that he was sweaty and warm.

You knew he loved these games, though. He enjoyed figuring out things on his own, putting puzzle pieces together in that mind that of his ran at ninety miles per hour.

Leaning in, he pecked your lips once more, smacking his lips together as he tried to figure out the taste.

“Bubblegum?” 

“Yep!” you giggled as his arms dropped to wrap around your own waist, his forehead coming down to rest on your readily awaiting shoulder.

His dampened green curls tickled at your cheeks, the delirious smell of honey from his shampoo and natural musky scent of sweat overtaking your senses for a mere moment as your fingers combed through his locks.

You were hooked on having him in your arms.

You wanted to stay like this forever, wrapped up in your own worlds as the love you held for each other sparkled around you like stardust.

It was just you and him, no one else.

You sighed contently, his own hum of approval immediately following as he pulled your body flushed against his own.

“This is highly unprofessional!”

You were slowly brought out of your world as the words reached your ears, not bothering to look behind you to see a fuming Iida.

Izuku, on the other hand, shot his head up, frantically waving his arms around as you clung to him like a sloth, “S-sorry!” He apologized, knowing full well this would happen again at the next concert, just as it always does.

Truly, you couldnt help it.

It was hard not to be wrapped up in his strong arms at all points of the day.

A loud sigh sounded behind you, the tapping of what could only be Iida’s pen on his clipboard whilst thinking.

“I’ll get everything wrapped up, you all look exhausted.”

“You could say that again.” Todoroki huffed, the thump of him scuffing his boots against the carpeted floor just barely reaching your ears.

“That crowd sure was enthusiastic, but matching it definitely drained me… ahh..” Uraraka murmured, the distinguishable sound of someone plopping onto a couch being heard with the squeak of leather.

“Oh, it wasn’t that bad, you guys!” Came Izuku’s signature enthusiastic reply, grip on you tightening as his own adrenaline began to pump in his veins again, “There were so many coordinated groups wearing the same thing! And, and those dances they kept doing! I’ve never seen an entire crowd successfully do the wave before! I mean, did you guys see that! They did it!! All for us no less.. I’m so happy~” Izukus cheek rubbed against your own as he sighed blissfully, no doubt amazed by the dedication of his fans.

“I guess that was.. kinda awesome.” Ochaco giggles tiredly.

“Well, I’ve set up four-star hotel rooms nearby for you all. Two to a room. You all may choose who you bunk with, of course, but try not to wreck the rooms.. Again.” He was more than likely glaring at Kaminari who was in the back of the room, considering he did have a little after party of sorts last time and ended up destroying a dresser.

Thank goodness for the shared rooms, though, you knew with complete certainty that the other bed in your room would go unused. It’s gotten to the point where it was impossible to sleep without Izuku’s arms wrapped around you, and you him, as he relented one night over a phone call. Hell, it was the entire reason you were even brought along on the world tour, which he tried to convince wasnt the only reason.

‘You’re apart of the team!’, ‘We can’t function without you!’, ‘You make better soba than they do.’

Supposedly there were more reasons, but for now, you just wanted to indulge in reason number one. 

A chorus of thanks followed, and suddenly you were being dragged out of the room by a hyper Midoriya.

That adrenaline typically ran through his body for a short ten minutes after a show, so you had no doubts that he would be crashing soon, but it was adorable to see him so energetic like a little puppy.

You lived for this, to see him smile at his well-earned success.

The walk to the tour bus out back was frantic, rushed, and definitely panic-driven as all the members not only tried to blend in with the shadows but also avoid fans that could easily start a rampage, especially since the bodyguards were lagging a bit behind.

But it was the fault of the lively and desperate twenty-year-olds, and not their own.

It certainly did bring a hint of rebellious glee thrumming in your soul, making you nearly choke on a laugh.

After successfully avoiding the press and fans after getting off the bus at the hotel, you were quick to retrieve the key from the front desk to your two-bed hotel room four floors up, stepping into the elevator with relieved hums.

“Good show tonight, guys!” Izuku pumped his fist in the air, other hand holding your own as he gave his exhausted team members his signature, award-winning smile.

They returned the gesture with significantly less enthusiasm, but it still made the skin around his brilliant eyes crinkle with joy.

With a final ‘goodnight’, he swiftly opened the door for you both, shutting and double locking it- a slight paranoid habit he had, before glancing over at you with tired eyes.

It was always so strange to you how he could always feign energy until completely alone with you.

It was nice to see him let his guard down in a way he didnt typically do, even if they were all his best friends.

He trudged over to you, having sat yourself down on the bed, just to collapse beside you with a thwump, his legs giving out beneath him as he slumped down onto his knees.

“Tired?” you questioned playfully, petting at his head and untangling locks here and there.

He hummed in contentment, voice muffled by the bed as he spoke, “nah..”

He clearly was, but you could only roll your eyes half-heartedly.

“I need to bathe.. I stink..”

“You stink.” you agreed with a nod, despite not truly believing it, only for him to whine loudly.

“How about a bath, stinky boy? You seem too tired for a shower.” You feared he would collapse in a shower from standing for hours already, and no doubt his feet were killing him, even if he didn’t audibly say so, which he never really did.

Perhaps it was a downfall of sorts, how he never let the attention go on him for too long, or ever really talked about problems unless brought up and forced out.

He certainly was stubborn from a childhood of being forced to keep quiet, but luckily enough, you could always see through that mask he wore.

It was a blessing he trusted you enough to do so, and you could say with complete certainty that that thought only made your heart yearn for him even more.

“A bath sounds good..” he flopped his head on its side so he could stare up at you, “Do you think they have bubble bath?”

“If not, a regular one will do you just fine. Either way, you’ll get clean.”

“Just me? Oh no. You’re joining me!” he shot back, not giving you time to protest, not that you would have, as he pounced on your being, shoving you down to the bed as he nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck.

“S-stop it~ that tickles!” you giggled, squirming beneath him as he purposefully began to blow on your ticklish neck, fingers even coming up to tickle at your sides. You couldnt help but squeal out as he tickled you relentlessly with a mischievous smile on his handsome face.

“I-Izuku!! S-stop! Gaha! Ahhhh! N-no nonon!” you could barely breathe you were laughing so much, tears spilling from the corner of your eyes as you fought to push his larger frame away.

Snorts began to tear through your nose, much to his own bemusement and your utter horror at the atrocious sounds, and yet he smiled so sincerely at you.

Having enough, and knowing you needed to get things done, you quickly put all your strength into your back and arms, successfully catching him off guard and flipping him over so that you straddled his waist and he stared up at you in shock.

A blush burned at his cheeks upon noticing your victorious smirk, his lips pressing into a thin line as he concealed the gasp he was sure to let out.

“Now now, baby, stop messing around. The stinky boy needs a bath.” and just like that, his head popped back onto the bed with a groan, cheeks still rosey.

“Alright, alright... I’ll run the bath.” He decided, already using his arms to try and push his upper body up, to which you quickly pushed him down again, hands against his chest.

“Ah, ah, ah~ I’m doing it. Rest here for a minute. I know your feet hurt, so let me, okay?” even if you could be tough and playful sometimes, or distant and cold, you always had a very warm, caring heart. And he definitely could see that in the way you interact with others and how you were so much more with him.

He treasured it in a way that could be hard to understand to some.

Was it so wrong to be completely and utterly in love?

It was hard not to be when at times it seemed like you were the only tame thing in his life these days.

He was sure he would struggle to find one, similar to his groupmates, had he not stumbled across you that one summer night.

You were certainly one to blend in, conveniently sitting under a light that didnt work, just to hide in the shadows with your dark hoodie as you lazily ate some greasy fries.

He was tempted to pass you, grab the food that he had ordered via phone call and get out and back to his training session, but there was something about you that made it feel as though he couldn’t leave without saying something. Almost as if his very being was being pulled towards you in a way he couldn’t understand.

And so, he walked past you again, glancing down at the notebook you had wide open and noticing the lyrics you had scribbled down, along with the messages beside them.

‘Thats stupid.’ ‘Oh what a failure you are,’ ‘What type of song even is this?’ and many more harsh words you had clearly written yourself, smudged with black ink and what could only be tears as you stared off out the window.

You were a songwriter, no doubt, and it seemed as if you were close to giving up on your dreams, if you hadn’t already.

Or perhaps he was making a huge mistake by guessing, but he couldn’t help but want to intervene, it was in his nature to be nosy, and he was forever grateful he did.

Because now, you’re by his side, stuck together like glue you made yourselves.

Time had passed so quickly as he laid there on the bed, letting his sore body relax as he listened to you fumble around and the water splashing into the tub.

To some, taking a bath in a hotel was a strange thing to do, but with a hotel as nice and clearly clean as this, there wasn’t too much to worry about. Besides, your own anxiety always made you wash the tub real quick yourself.

Which is why he wanted to run the bath, knowing full well you would do this. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing.

But alas, he was too tired to truly complain.

He just wanted to relax, get clean, and then snuggle with his beloved in a bed that was far too soft for him not to think about stealing if just for a moment.

Eventually, you emerged from the bathroom, only in a tank top and undies, and he couldn’t help but eye you up, too delicious not to. My, he was sure lucky.

“Bath’s ready! Fortunately, this place had some bubble bath. I think you’ll like the scent, Zuzuku.” Walking over to in front of his damn near lifeless body, you grabbed his hands, wheezing as you struggled to pull his muscular torso up.

His arms instantly wrapped around you again, face nuzzling itself on your chest, inhaling your sweet scent.

He was tempted to just pull you onto his lap and fall asleep, but alas..

“Up.” you sternly stated, gently pushing his head back just to lean down and peck his nose.

 Pulling away, you walked back to the bathroom, stopping just at the door.

Fingers gripping the hem of your shirt, you swiftly pulled it up and over, looking back to the flushed boy with an amused grin, “Come join me.”

Seeing him promptly jump up, you giggled to yourself as you waited for him, arms crossed over your bare chest.

He jumped into the bathroom on one foot, trying to pull his pants off whilst fumbling around like a headless chicken.

“Well aren’t you desperate.”

“I just want to hold you in my arms as soon as possible,” he admitted, looking over at you with a pouty face so innocent you couldn’t help but squeal on the inside.

You watched as he shed himself of all his clothes, not feeling the least bit shy at his nude self, having seen it enough times for it to not be sexual in such a domestic setting.

He hummed approvingly as foot stepped into the tub, hands gripping the sides as he lowered himself into the relaxing, warm waters filled with iridescent bubbles.

Looking over at you, he outstretched his hand, waiting.

And so, shedding your underwear, you grabbed his hand, him helping you not slip and fall as you settled in between his legs, back to chest as your head leaned on his broad shoulder, exhaling.

Kissing your cheek, he whispered “Thank you,” appreciatively.

“Mhm~” you hummed, letting your eyes slip closed as you took in this moment.

Him, the smell of the delicious vanilla cake bubble bath, and the soft lofi-hop you had playing from your phone on the counter wrapping the room in a sweet melody.

He too took this moment to relax again, letting the warm water soothe his aching joints and muscles, hands rubbing up and down your arm, the suds in the bath making you both slippery. He always enjoyed feeling your skin whenever given the chance, it was such an intimate act he cherished, seeing how he was the only one who could do it. 

Time was so easy to slip by whenever he was with you, soaking in the moment of feeling you against him.

It brought a sense of normality back to his life, despite it now being barely normal at all.

And so is the life of an idol as they call it, though he wasnt quite sure how that word sat in his stomach.

He always thought of it as a figure to worship, and not him by any means.

Apparently, it’s what they called Asian band members these days, or at least that’s what he presumed.

Even if he spent nights researching the word, he was still met with loopholes and gaps he couldnt fill in.

Such a confusing term.

Nonetheless, he didnt say he wasn’t one since he didn’t exactly have the best grasp on what it is.

Regardless, it felt nice to not have to keep a forced smile on his face, but instead a genuine and relaxed one.

He found that most days he could only relax fully around you.

You always had something about you that calmed his nerves and cured any storm built from stress raging in his head.

Who knew being an ‘idol’ could be so vexing?

Strict schedules, a fairly controlled life, tight budgets, always having to be on his feet, but he had to admit it, it wasn’t nearly as hard as he heard what most groups went through.

He was lucky his friend from high school was willing to invest in this group, and it truly did pay off, seeing as they were quite popular these days.

Though he technically was loaded with money, he never bothered to spend the majority of it on himself, always putting it back into the band or donating it to charities he believed in. The fraction he had left allowed him to buy just what he needed, and some gifts he buys throughout the year just to surprise you with on anniversaries or birthdays or holidays, much to your own dismay.

And though he may be this figure others look up to, you never thought of him in such a way, out of reach and someone to scream at with joy whenever you saw him. You saw him as an average joe, a regular human with emotions. It could have been because you met him before he became a sensation, but you never got blinded by his success like he had seen before on television.

There were so many things to love about you, but most of all, he adored how you grounded him.

Even now, as his arms hold you against him and water softens your skin, he feels at home in a way he didn’t feel very often before. Home was just.. always with you. He couldn’t have a home without you in it anymore.

“I love you..” he breathed out, lips pressing against the damp skin of your neck.

You turned to stare deeply into his intense eyes filled with nothing but love, nose brushing against his own, “I love you, too.”

And so, you finished up the relaxing bath, knowing if you stayed too long you’d both fall asleep and never wake until the morning with pruney skin. It wouldn’t be the first time.

You offered to wash him, and he offered to wash you, giving you both the excuse to run your hands over each other’s body in a sensual way without it being lewd. Besides, you adored feeling his muscles and warm skin, something seemingly common in modern-day bands, but he had always said it was for himself and not just to appeal to fans or any contracts.

It was never about that.

Just a personal goal to help love himself, though you always assured he would look handsome to you no matter what, you understood his need to do this for himself.

After rinsing off, you carefully stood from the tub, offering him a hand before drying the both of yourselves off just to use as an excuse to hug. Seeing as how you both had forgotten to get a change of clothes from the bus, rooky mistake, you were doomed to spend the night in hotel robes, which wasn’t too bad either. Waddling out the room, Izuku nose-dived headfirst into the sheets as you grabbed a glass of water.

Upon him deciding you were taking too long, despite it not even being a minute, he made grabby hands at you, pouting and whining for “(Y/N)’s famous cuddles” which only brought another blush to your face that never seemed to stop smiling when around this absolute angel of a man.

Sipping at the glass of cold water, you slowly made your way to the bed, just to tease him.

“Can’t you move faster.” Izuku groaned, tossing an arm dramatically over his eyes as if watching you move so slowly was killing him

A knife to his frail heart.

He is dead

R.I.P. famous singer and songwriter, Izuku Midoriya.

Killed because his girlfriend was being too slow.

A tragedy in four parts-

His breath was suddenly squeezed from his lungs as you flopped down on him like a fish, his arm flying off his face just to be met with your damp hair tickling his nose, causing the poor fellow to sneeze.

“Ewww! Izukuuuu!” you whined, pulling your head back to mess with your hair with a look of dissatisfaction etched on your features as he just breathily chuckles.

“Aww~ Don’t be mad at me, princess! That was your own fault, you know my nose is ticklish!” though his argument did outweigh your own, you refused to accept it with a humph as you turned your head, puffing your cheeks up and crossing your arms over your robe covered chest.

Surprisingly, the robes were quite comfortable, almost like sleepwear themselves despite being meant for something different than sleeping in. They were white and prone to stains, but they sure were fuzzy and warm.

You had no doubts they would be gone in the morning from the downfall of two humans who are both personal body heaters sleeping together.

Oh, if only you had brought your light sleepwear. Nothing wrong with waking up naked, is there?

“I’ve waited long enough, cuddle me!” Izuku’s arms were outstretched, waiting for you to collapse in his arms instead of sitting on top of his belly, far too far away!

Amused, you nodded, reaching over to the nightstand, switching off the light. The room would’ve fallen into complete darkness had the moon not been shining through a sliver of a crack in the curtains on the far side of the quiet room.

Settling down, you rested your body on top of his own, letting his arms wrap loosely around your waist as he nuzzled his cheek against your own once more. Such a cuddle bug.

It only took a minute before you decided this was uncomfortable and shifted so you were both facing eachother on your sides, your own body close to the curtains, and his close to the door.

He always liked to be closest to the door, so in case of a break-in, he could protect you.

It was endearing in the sweetest of ways, though it made you wonder what went on inside his head sometimes.

Though you prided yourself on being able to understand him completely, you accepted the fact that some things you will never know about him, and some things he will never know about you.

But then again, everyone is entitled to their own secrets, right?

“I’m so glad I met you..” he sighed out dreamily, voice growing husky as drowsiness seeped in. His warm fingers traced over your cheek as the lights of the moon reflected in his eyes, giving you just enough brightness that you could see his content smile.

“I’m really glad you decided to stalk me.”

“I- I didnt-!”

“Hahaha!” you cut him off with laughter, his own following suit.

His breath was suddenly fanning across your lips, and you felt his own soft pair brush against your own, lip-gloss free ones before fully connecting them.

Kissing him had to be one of the best parts about dating him because boy did he know how to make you swoon by his lips alone.

“Goodnight.” you pulled away, pecking his nose as he giggled.

“Goodnight.” he repeated, arms wound around your body and head tucked under his chin.

Oh how sweet life could be if you took a chance.

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time Ch15 Poppy’s Spaceship Tour and Meeting Cooking Cat

(Warning: Poppy cries near the end.)

The pour woman was shaking all the way to the small clearing looking around her with newfound fear as she did so from the scare. But at least now they could take off and get her to a warmer place with food now....Or at least they would've if Bow hadn't grabbed her hand and jumped when Poppy flinched and yanked her hand away from the girl. The poor flesh still tender and sore from the rope suddenly yanking her up. She gave the girls an apologetic look and it occured to Hattie they couldn't teleport her together now if they couldn't hold her hands. Not to mention she was shaking and she didn't want to risk accidentally letting her go in the middle of teleportation again. So what did she usually do in these kind of situations? Go back and bother Snatcher for help of course! The purple ghost was NOT happy when the small girl yanked on his tail and told him about their situation. PECK NAB IT!! Couldn't he get one moment of peace around here?....Then again, it was rather responsible of her to come to him instead of trying something reckless with Poppy, and he didn't really want a repeat of Poppy crashlanding from space somewhere. She was VERY lucky the first time as it was. So, that's how the ghost was talked into coming over and transporting all four of them back to the ship. Wasn't anything like Poppy expected at all. Much to Poppy's still shocked state, he held the girls in one arm while grabbing her good arm in the other and asked her to close her eyes while the spell took place to keep her from freaking out anymore than she already had to which she gladly did so. Curling into him and pressing her face into the fluff around his shoulders. The movement made him stop and stare for a moment...before he cleared his throat and looked away slightly flustered. The teleporting worked as quickly as any other time he did it. Purple energy completely took over the world around them like the many times he's done this before and swallowed them all whole. He's donw this plenty of times before teleporting himself places or taking the girls home against his will when they fell asleep in his forest. But what was one more trip anyways? Especially since it'd help ease the nerves of his beloved-...beloved FRIEND. Just friend. One moment of dark black-purple later the four of them ended up inside of the kid's ship. The control room to be more precise. The controls to the ship were there as well as her Tv and the giant vault of those menacing time pieces.So imagine Poppy's surprise when she reopened her eyes and blinked at the foreign home to her. But was put back down on the ground by Snatcher again before the spook mumbles something about wanting to take a break and to not be bothered again as he gave a firm look at the girls.

"Stay HERE and do NOT bother me again unless it's actually a real emergency until I say so. I mean it."

"AH! But why?"

"Because Im the pecking adult! That's why!" Was all he said before purple energy oozed from his being like living fog and wrapped itself around him. Poppy watching in almost horror as it shrank in size until it was either too small to see or actually disppeared from the ship entirely.

Well.....That was a fast one way trip wasn't it? She was just SO so glad to be out of that nightmare forest she was happy to welcome this.....Space ship. Where was she in here anyways? Looking around she found herself sitting upon a giant pink round rug and a the rest of the floor was covered in green carpeting. Around her were all kinds of strange gadgets and gizmos she'd never seen before. Looking over she was the strangest thing. A child's toy train set and landscape. The cute little engine was making circles around some plastic mountains, a few mountains, and fake plants. WHich for some reason was on a giant metal pillar and blocked off by rope and pillars. An odd television set sat in the corner where a puppy wearing overralls was trotting across the screen. ....She blinked and looked over to her other side where another similar pillar was there but it had some kind of plush??.......Something. It was a hamburger but she didn't know what the heck that was. Beyond that was brick like walls a yellow thing sticking out of the wall, and a couple doors here and there-

"oW!"

Something poked against her foot and she looked down. Immediately a small spooked squeal came out of the woman and she scrambeld back and onto her feet as she stared down the little roomba as it continued to just sweet harmlessly past her. But the woman had never seen a robot vacum so her fear was understandable as she pointed at it.

"W-W-WHAT IS THAT CREATURE!?"

"It's ok. He's perfectly safe." Hattie smiled at Rumbi as he harmlessly swept past them towards the ramp near the far wall.

She didn't look convinced but silently watched him sweep away before looking around her more...before slowly looking behind her to the gigantic windows behind her. And. Her. Jaw. DROPPED!! As she looked out the giant windows, she could seethe darkened purple land of Snatcher's forest and A giant chunk of white which was vanessa's frozen abyss of the planet. Placing a cold hand to the cool glass and watching as it slowly ticked by and just....watched it. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of thousands of stars twinkling....The world! Her world! It was right there! Big, bold and wonderful! The round planet seemed to have an aura of it's own and glowed perfectly. The perfect gentle blue of the sea, the bright tan yellows of the desert. Many islands. The highest mountains surrounded by pure white clouds even looked as if she could reach out and grasp it almost. It was so much more peaceful and beautiful looking when she wasn't falling through space that was. A sense of being so small came over her and she let out a shaky sigh as she did so. So this was really reality huh?

"It's pretty isn't it?," Bow asked walking up next to her and smiling down at the world too and pointing at one small place on the planet. "That's Nyakuza City! I used to live there."

".....Yeah. I-I heard about the Nyakuza Kingdom," Poppy stated softly, "It was supposed to be inhabited by a whole race of cat people."

"It is!" Bow smiled brightly at her that she knew that. "Kitties are the best! They're so soft, and fluffy and really, really cute!!"

Despite herself, Poppy smiled at the cute smile the little girl had on her face. Children always had the ability to make her smile with their adorable nature and innocence. It was just to precious, turning back to the window and staring out she sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. She was really feeling .......confused? Right now. There were too many emotions going through her right now and not enough of it was ok..She didn't have a feeling of being ok. Not after what just happened. She looked back to her slightly scrapped arm. She guessed that's what she got after not listening to a ghost's warnings-

"ACHOO!" Bow flinched and looked up to Poppy who shook her head and looked back to the window sniffing.

"Bless you!"

"T-Thank you." She shivered from her body's still cold feeling. She almost forgot she was still from falling in swamp water and she had been running around all soaked for who knows how long now. She should change out of these soggy rags and warmed up before she caught a cold. So she turned around to ask where the bathroom was so she could scrub the dirt off herself- BAM!! She jumped at least a foot back smacking into the glass window and all three of them looked up towards the ramp area where the pair of swinging doors to the kitchen had been pushed open and small soft footsteps like a child's came scattering out. Another child?? She couldn't see anything past the banister. But all of that was answered when a chef hat and pointy cat ears came into view. All of that was attached to a small plump cat standing on two feet with calico patterns and orange fur.

What the WHAT?!

"COOKIE!!", both girls shouted and rushed towards the cat who giggled and held her arms open wide for the two to go skittering into her embrace as she did so. The giggling of the cat and girls filled the air as Poppy watched and then blinked at the small cat in chef wear-

"Oh how are you girls? It's been so long since I've been up here!," she cooed at the little children her size. By the voice it was easy to tell it was a lady and had a slight country accent. She smiled as she leaned back and examined the girls before her. "I thought I heard a pair of hungry little tykes scampering around hungry."

"We missed you," Bow answered honestly as she smiled at the cat with adoration.

"Did you make cookies?," Hattie asked practically sparkly eyed as she looked hopefully at her making the small cat laugh.

"Well you two haven't changed a bit. Always so sweet and hungry for sugar." She shook her head. "No. But I did make some roasted bird and mashed potatoes! Perfect for two little adventures! Now which one of you sneezed? It sounded like you caught a whopper of a cold." Both girls looked at each other for a moment, before looking behind them at Poppy who still watched silently as they all stood there, as soon as 'Cookie' saw her, the cat gasped and one paw came to cover her mouth as she caught sight of the messy grown, shivering woman in front of her. In a blink of an eye the plump cat carefully pushed past the girls and walked right up to Poppy. The red head could only blink and again feel kinda awkward seeing a giant talking talk on two legs......Wait. Was she a Nyakuza citizen? Was she one of those cat people she heard so much about? Well she didn't have much time to wonder until she stopped right in front of her and grabbed a part of her dress and pulled the material heavy and wet from dirty swamp water into her paws to examine. Sniffing at it before snorting and shaking her head, scowling up at her. She felt oddly small under the scowl of the small cat in front of her but still didn't move besides her shivering. "You look absolutely aweful! Look at this!'' She held up the material to her. "Look at your hair! You look like you went rolling around in the mud during a thunderstorm!"

She blinked stunned by the cat's bold and blunt move only responding with, "Uuuhhh....It's....Swamp water??"

"Swamp water?" She eyed the human up and down before shaking her head and dropping her dress, hands....uh..paws coming to stay on her hips. "I've seen plenty of country folk in my time for sure that don't mind to get a lil dirty, but you're the first one I've seen soaked romping through a swamp."

"It...wasn't really my intention to be soaked by gross water, but I crashlanded in some when I landed." She gave a small look to the little hat girl behind her who smiled nervously at her words. But was soon looking back to the cat when she made a small hum.

"So you landed here to? Does that mean you're another alien?"

"W-What? N-no. I'm from here I promise! I just....happen to be visiting their space ship is all," she clarified.

"Oh!" The small cat lady finally smiled at her like she had come to some brilliant conclusion. "Oh now I see. You must be one of their little friends! They have a lot you know."

"You could say t-that- ACHOO!!" Poppy turned her head to the side before sneezing again and sniffing. Her body still fairly chilly. Which didn't go unnoticed by the cat.

"Bless you! By the temperature of your dress, you must be soaked n cold right down to the fur." Her light scowl came back, "Didn't you ever think to change into a dry pair of clothes?"

"I g-guess it must've slipped my mind."

She was cut short when the small cat jumped up and grabbed her hand yanking her into a leaning over position when she pulled her back a few steps. "Well. There's no sense in you staying like this any longer than needed. You all go get cleaned up before you eat a single bite." She made a grimace looking back over Poppy's soaked self and taking in all the dirt covering her body and how tangled her hair was. "And YOU definately go bathe and get a good change of clothes." One of her paws ungrabbed Poppy to shoo the girls off towards the right side of the control room as she lead Poppy towards it-

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!

Poppy Jumped and they all snapped in the direction of the ramp leading up somewhere and the cat let go of her hands. "OH!! The oven timer. Bird's done." She looked to the girls. "Now you go show her where the bathroom is and wash up. I gotta go make sure that birdy doesn't over cook. You know how much I despise burnt food." The girls nodded and the cat smiled again before running to a small green ladder right below the vault and climbed up it, running back through the double doors with another light slam to them as Poppy blinked.

"Who..was that?"

"Hattie grabbed her still extending hand a smile on her face. "Cookie! She's like a REALLY good chef! The best in the world!" Her steps were jumpy and happy like any child making a small smile come to her face as she was lead over to a small door next to the green ladder Cookie climbed. "She visits a lot and makes a lot of food for my fridge!" She licked her lips. "Her cookies are they best! But she's been really busy with her cooking show after finally leaving Mafia Town."

"Mafia.....town?"

Hattie nodded. "I met Mustache Girl there!"...She frowned a little bit. "She's not very nice.....HEY!" Her face brightened again as she got an exciting idea. "Now I can show you how COOL my ship is!"

"But Cookie said she needs a bath." Bow leaned sideways from behind her and blinked.

"But Snatcher said to show her my ship! We're still going to the bathroom, but exploring too!" Bow rolled her eyes as Hattie tugged Poppy over towards the small blue glowing door. A small blue rug with a wave patterned on it stood before the door and to the older woman's surprise it opened automatically by itself giving her a little jump. Technology had really advanced since she was a little girl didn't it? "Come on, come on! I wanna show you the potion room!" She went through the kid sized door no problem....but Poppy had to literally lean down to look down the long mini hallway.

Bow also looked down it with a worried look. "Hattieeeeeeee!! We're gonna get in more trouble! Knock it off and lets go wash!"

"Y'know we can show her the metro room too," came the sing song voice from down the hallway and an instant Bow's expression change.

"FINE!! But then we wash our hands! I'm hungry!" She called back before also bounding down the hall and poppy lowered more to look in "......Come on Ms Poppy!"

.......She hesitated but braced herself. It couldn't get any more worse than it already was, and she doubted there was any headless statues or dangerous stuff here on a child's chip. Coming down to her knees she went to start crawling as she couldn't stand to walk through these small halls- Which ended with her doing a yelp and leaning back up onto her knees to clutch her sore wrist which throbbed out a course of pain when she put the slightest bit of pressure on, still pretty sore from the giant yank the noose gave her- Poppy shivered from remembering that encounter. One of the children called out to her again sounding impatient..and if this was indeed the direction to getting cleaned up, then she might as well not complain anymore and suck it up. That's what she always did growing up in a poor farming community. Sucking it up and being grateful for what you're given. Even if it means crawling down a hallway with only one hand, which she did. It was....Kinda embarrassing and time consuming, but a couple little children probably weren't going to judge her for having no choice but to squeeze through these blasted tunnels. As she crawled along she took in the details of the walls and especially the carpet. There was some very impressive details in the blue carpet, they were so beautiful. Some grand weaver must've put a lot of work creating these wave patterns and she briefly wondered how many pons it cost the little girl to buy and put in here. In her day it would've cost a pretty penny. It took a bit more but before she knew it. The other door opened and she was allowed to crawl on through and stand to her feet again. Shivering as a blast of cold air hit her freezing body and opening her eyes to a-.....Very strange sight.

"What IS this place?" The air was chilly, and down below was a dark blue water which could've been mistaken for water on first glance and a few things like random barrels and chests, with some furniture. A tall closet like space with the words saying Dirty Laundry Cleaner 3000, And a ladder leading up to a different doorway above them there.

"The storage room," Hattie replied before regrabbing her none hurt hand and tugging her towards the left, making her blink down as the two girls excitedly pointed towards another small door to the left. Unlike the one she just came through, this one glowed purple and had a bottle like shape on it. "I wanna show you around!" She wasn't sure what to do but didn't fight against her as she pulled her towards the door which opened with another Whoosh like noise and Hattie disappeared within it's hallway excitedly. Poppy didn't feel like arguing anymore than she already did today, and again leaned down to look down the hall. Unlike the first one, with one has a lighter blue rug with dark blue gear patterns when she looked down it. The children waving at her from the other side of the tunnel as well, excited grins still on their faces as she blinked. "Come on! Don't be a slowpoke!"

With another sigh, guess who did more slow crawling down another cramped hallway, but she'd be lying if she wasn't curious about an alien space ship. I mean who else from her time would've gotten the honor of being given a tour of a real flying space craft by a real alien no less? She was curious to see what mechanics and insides made up this thing, and besides it'd be rude to say no to someone who's offering to show you they're home so excitedly and if it meant she was going to be staying here for a little while then she might as well know where things were. By the time she got to the other side and was finally able to stand back up, she sighed at the feeling of warmer air at least. Warming up was definately on her to do list. But the almost emptiness of this room compared to all the other rooms Surprised her to say the least. This one was much more open and tidy looking with more stone walls, a couple metal pillars, and equipment you'd see inside a labratory. Right dead center of it all was another metal table thing blocked off by rope like in the control room, but this time it had a giant box of crayons sitting on it. The crayons were a simple green, blue, and red color.

"This is my potion room!," Hattie announced proudly pointing at the room itself, "But don't touch anything. Snatcher dropped one of those pink potions once and it turned him pink for days. He said we shouldn't mess with weird potions."

"Potion room?" Poppy gave the children another curious look. "Are you sure you're not a witch?"

"No. Only when I wear my brewing hat! But I don't know any magic."

.......That only confused Poppy more so why would a child have a potion room? But she again didn't get the chance to relax before Bow ran over towards the other side of the room and towards a small door like hatch on the floor, the small girl grabbing one side of hatch and pushing. Bow strained and after a few seconds a metalic screeching noise rang out as it opened, both women wincing, cringing back at the fingers on chalk bourd noise, and clapping their hands over their ears in some attempt to block out the screeching noise. Poppy was SURE the creaking, screeching noise could be heard everywhere on the planet from their place in space from how loud it was. Up, up, up the hatch went and one giant push Bow managed to push it over. With a giant metal banging sound, the hatch's round metal door SLAMMED and I do mean slammed against the floor with enough sound to be mistaken for a cannon going off. For a moment nothing happened and both Poppy and Hattie stood there still hands clamped over their ears and eyes shut closed.......before slowly reopening their eyes and after a moment of silence, uncovering their ears to the smiling curly haired girl standing there pointing at the the now open hole in the floor.

"Geez, Kid! I think you were loud enough to wake the dead all over space!......ACHOO!!" She sniffed again at the third sneeze.

Bow's smiling didn't waver, instead pointing to it. "Come on! You'll like it promise!" With another smile the tiny curly haired girl turned and jumped down the hole.

"HEY!! KID!!" Poppy ran down the small set of stairs and ran over to the hole in the floor, the fear of the child getting hurt randomly jumping into a hole taking over and immediately looking down the opening. At first she saw nothing. Nothing but a ladder leading down it and some kind of wooden circle thing....but she could definately hear giggling and someone shouting for her to come down as well. ......DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD AND UNSAFE IT IS TO CLIMB DOWN A LADDER WITH A SORE HAND?! Poppy wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the fear of just seeing Bow dive down here and the looming presence of an angry ghost made her do the crazy thing and start to decend the ladder to her uneasy feeling. Which doubled MORE when Hattie fell past her making her cry out for the child only to watch the hatted kid bounce on the round wood circle and catapult herself like a spring out of eye sight. Panic coursed through her as she went down as fast as a sore bodied woman with one good hand could and paused on the ladder when she could actually see the inside of the room. To her relief, Bow wasn't hurt at all but giggling and laying face up at the opening in a pile of weird green paper. The small girl giggled as she made a snow angel in the pile, and Hattie was luckily safe as well looking through another telescope on top of the weird gigantic pile of green paper. Poppy sighed and noticed breifly another small metal table with another small item on it. This time some kind of white dummy and pretty looking gold necklace. With a shake of her head the frazzled woman slowly climbed the last of the steps down and stood by the ladder leading back up. Looking around the room she noticed it looked at it she was on one of the town's busy streets, with plants along the wall behind the metal table, glowing eletric things she was sure only an alien would have mysterious shaped like a blue cat, and behind her by the wooden circle on a spring was a rack with newspapers of all things. .......She blinked. "What is this strange place?" She paused seeing more in color tv screens on fans hovering about and jumped as something rumbled past the window on the far side of the wall flashing yellow making her scramble back. "W-WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THAT?!"

"That's the illusion created by the monitor," Bow happily replied sitting up now and smiling around the room with a bigger grin, "Hattie said the time pieces add stuff to the rooms on the ship to help show where most are located. *sigh* It....reminds me of home...Without all the crime and bad things. I like it here."

At that little sentence Poppy paused. Before looking away with a guilty look, feeling bad over being about to scold the little girl for scaring her like that being so excited to show her home and the place that reminded her of it. Taking a second look around the weird room, she couldn't understand any of it. Were the Nyakuzian people technicalogically advanced too? Or did all this technology form as she slept? She may never know but the face of longer on the little girl's face hit home almost immediately at her. As far as Poppy knew Bow's home still existed just with 'crime and bad stuff' as she put it. Has she fled the country under a war or something? So many questions buzzed about her skull it was starting to give her a headache as she leaned into the cool metal of the ladder next to her. This was all too much too soon. And she wasn't sure how much more she could take at this pace-

"What are y'all doing down here?!" Poppy yelped and ended up accidentally hitting her forehead against the ladder. Instantly her good hand came to clamp at the sore area as she hissed and looked up above her and saw a pretty familiar orange calico face scowling down at them all, one dark orange paw holding onto the chef hat as she did so. "I thought I asked you all to go get cleaned up. I could hear all that ruckus right through the kitchen floor!"

Instantly the children had froze at the annoyed cat's voice and now sported a pair of guilty looks at one another. "We were just showing her!" Hattie's voice answered back for them.

"Well then. The next room she sees is the bathroom! Now you all get up here before I take my cooking back for Conductor to eat."

At the threat of their delicious dinner being taken away both children scrambled for the spring pad kicking up more dollar bills in their way. And Poppy watched with slight surprise as both jumped onto the spring pad one by one catapulting themselves all the way back up as Cookie leaned back to not get knocked over by the two shooting girls. ....Poppy briefly looked down to the spring pad then back up the hole.....Yeah. She was taking her chance with the ladder. The slow climb back up was agonizing but by the time she poked her head at the top she witnessed the older cat lightly scolding the girls for taking so long, but as soon as she saw the head of Poppy, Cookie turned and grabbed her good hand. Pulling with surprising strength of a small plump cat and helping her crawl the rest of the way out, sighing when she was able to climb to her knees.

"Are you alright, Pumpkin?," Cookie asked placing a paw on her shoulder before letting go quickly. "Goodness! You're colder than my home made ice cream!"

"ACHOO!!" Poppy sniffed again and looked up to the tiny cat giving a tired smile. "Y-Yeah. I guess I am a little chilly...And tired...and sore. And now that you mention food-" Her stomach gave out a rumble and she winced. She didn't even know she was hungry."

Cookie gave her a sorry look before sighing and looking back towards the watching children. "Ok you two. I think this young lady's had enough exploring for now. You two go wash your hands in the kitchen and eat your plates I placed in the fridge. I'm going to show your friend here to a room where she can get tidied up and warm." The two girls gave excited smiles at the mention of food and with an excited cheer they scampered off towards the hallway with another sigh from the cat who turned her attention back to Poppy. "I'm so sorry. They can be a little over excited sometimes."

Poppy smiled back and waved a hand. "Oh. No, no. It's ok. I should've expected that from children.....ACHOO!!''

"Well, I expect we need to get you all better before you catch a cold instead of just sneezing." Cookie gestured her up at Poppy slowly stood and made a grab to her hand- Fur suddenly bristling when the human yelped and pulled her still sore hand away from the grip of the cat....Which was immediately pulled back with a pained whimper from Poppy as Cookie frowned and held up the sore limb to her eyes. "....You're hurt."

"J-Just a few scrapes. I-I'll be fine."

"That's no excuse young lady. You should get this under some ice!"

"Yeah...That Snatcher ghost told me too."

Cookie hummed before tugging her and walking towards the small hallway with her in tow. "So I see you met this ghostly friend of theirs too."

Poppy blinked at the small cat. "Wait. You know who he is?"

"I stumbled across him a few times coming up here to visit. Hmph! He's very rude and always steals any dish I make with bacon when he's around me cooking. Quite the oddball out if ya'll ask me." The door whooshed open as soon as they were close enough and she walked on through gesturing for her to follow. "But never fear! Cooking Cat is here! I'll have you all better in no time flat. We'll just get you a change of clothing, a hot meal, and some ice then you'll be good to go!"

Poppy could feel her stomach drop a little as she bent down and proceeded to slowly crawl through the hallway after the cat. "Uh...About that. I-I don't have any clothing for myself really."

Cookie stopped mid step in the middle of the hallway before looking over her shoulder at the slowly crawling woman behind her and reached a paw up to rub to her head. "Well aren't you more forgettful than a penguin on the sun? *sigh* Alright then. I suppose I'll just have to borrow the girls' washer and dryer."

"What? Oh n-no! You don't have to go through all that trouble for me, Ma'am! It's fine."

"Nonsense! I'd be ashamed of myself if I didn't offer a hungry person like you some help and this wouldn't be the first time I helped a person get better...OH! That reminds me. You never told me ya'll's name."

"Oh..I-Im Poppy. Poppy Rooo- ACHOO!!....Rose Bloomington, Ma'am."

Cookie smiled at her. "No need to call me ma'am. Just Cookie. Cooking Cat's only mah stage name you know. Nice you meet ya." She smiled and turned to continue walking down the hallway with Poppy right behind her.

A curious question bubbling in the young lady's head and she blurted out, "So...Since you're a..cat. Does that mean you're a Nyakuzian?"

Cookie didn't stop walking or smiling but her tone shifted a little bit to the sad side. "Well, yes...But not anymore I suppose. The city became too crowded for my liking and too many crimes were comitted. Mostly theivery."

"Yes, I think Bow might've said something about that."

"Poor girl. No child should have to grow up in a place like that."

"So ....you two fled the country?"

Cookie chuckled as the door back to the storage room opened up and she walked out. "You could say that. No. I moved to Mafia town persuing my own dreams of being a master chef a long time ago. You see where ah'm from there's lots and lots of food carts and cafe's so I knew I wouldn't stand much of a chance if I just stayed, and even if I did I would've just become another small store in the piles of stores around myself." She stopped a little aways from the door just as Poppy was nearing the exit staring at the ground. "No. I never wanted to be just like the crowd. I knew I wanted more for my nine lives, so after saving as many pons as I could, I moved far away to Mafia town. I heard it was a big fishing community and they sold most of the city's fish to us. There were rumors about their leader being a chef too. So I thought it was the purrrrfect oportunity for me......I wasn't too right about that though."

Poppy was all wars by now as she slowly climbed out at last and rose to her feet. Giving Cookie a sympathetic look as the cat looked back up to her, her body shivering from the cold air again. "I-I'm....I'm so sorry. What happened if you don't mind me asking?"

Cookie chuckled again. "Don't mind a bit. The mafia hired me on bourd straight away in their kitchen....But it turns out they only did so because they wanted me to chase down all the mice they were having a problem with." Poppy made a scowl and Cookie waved her off. "I know. I was disappointed too. You see usually us cats don't have a very good reputation because of all the theives who happen to coincidentally be cats, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to become an under dog hero of cooking if that made sense. I thought I would be doing a good thing if I switched all their bad food for my good food and maybe spare a few taste buds, but I knew I was wasting my talents there." She turned and began to walk again with Poppy following politely listening interested. "Eventually I did grow tired especially after meeting the cute lil alien. And I just couldn't help myself with all the questions. Was alien food really better than ours? Was there advanced tools to better cook with? My curiousity got the better of me and before I knew it I had so rudely snuck into her bridge using some moon penguin's teleporter to get themselves to and from the moon."

"So....Does that mean Bow fled with you?" They had both reached the ladder that lead down to the storage room floor that would let anyone get to the washer and dryer to use and upon reaching it Cookie turned around and descended the ladder. Poppy slowly doing the same but with her sore arm it was still a little slower. "What happened?"

"No. Honestly I have no idea how she ended up in mafia town herself, but that's a different story. Turns out an alien's kitchen is exactly like mine. In the long run I guess I was hoping for some kind of miracle to help me out of my rut but it didn't matter. I got fired by the head boss as soon as I came back for comspiring with traitorious aliens."

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry." Poppy's foot touch the ground and she watched as the calico waved her and made her way towards the Laundry Cleaner 3000.

"No. I was sick of working for those brutes anyways."

"So...What did you do next?," she asked as she followed.

"Well....I stayed home and felt pretty bad for a long time, but then I found an ad in the newspaper for a cruise ship needing a cook! So obviously I took the chance. It was....not better than the mafia to be honest. Those seals were decent cooks but they were so accident prone and their kitchen was so dangerous. I'm almost glad the ship sank, but it just meant I was back to square one again.....I was so about to give up and go back home. Better a small cook like the rest than not being a cook at all anywhere." Her smile grew as she just waltzed right into the closet like space and turned to poppy. "That little alien is more resourceful than you might think."

"Why? What did she do?"

"Why?...She introduced me to the man....or penguin that made all my dreams come true. We met up again by chance when she was on the same cruise, talk about coincidence. She saw how unhappy I was and wanted to help. But I didn't beleive she could do anything about my situation having already had so many set backs." She made almost a happy purr as Poppy finally walked in next to her after gesturing for her to stand next to herself. "So imagine my surprise when one day Mr. DJ Grooves himself arrived on my doorstep and asked ME of all people to star in a cooking show series! He said his little star told him all about the delicious food his staff received on their vacation and my cute face was absolutely perfect for it! IT WAS A HUGE HIT!! Turns out those moon penguins LOVED all my fish recipes and tips! Next thing I knew I signed a business contract and finally saw my dream take off right before my own eyes. I'll NEVER be able to thank them all enough for making it come true."

"A...cooking show? I didn't know they made those."

"Really? I guess swamp people wouldn't have tv. Oh. Push the red button there to take us down." Her paw pointed to a red button on the inside of the machine they were in.

"A-Actually...I grew up on a farm. W-We were pretty poor." She frowned and reached over to push the button like Cookie had asked. Wobbling a little when the ground beneath them suddenly lowered and she looked up to watch as the light disappeard.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I had no idea," Cookie apologized with a paw placed gently on Poppy's arm. "You poor thing."

"Uh...N-No. It's ok.....You can't change the past." Her frown saddened even more at that.

Cookie's smile came back as she looked at her. "That's true. I can't change how said and how much I struggled then, but that don't mean we can't have a happy future."

".....Heh. Y-Y'know...Y-You're the second person to r-really....t-t-tell me that." When light came back up Cookie's smile vanished seeing the older woman starting to cry but quickly trying to stop once light hit her face." I-I'm sorry. I s-shouldn't get so emotional. I-It's just that so many big bad things have happened recently a-and I.....I-.."

She stopped when a paw grabbed her and Cookie gave her a slightly stern and determined look. "Honey, there is no reason not to cry if you feel like you want or need to cry about it. Now you go on right ahead and don't mind me. Because I'm not gonna stop someone if they need to cry out their emtions. It's unhealthy to keep that bottled up."

That's just what she needed to hear. With watery blue eyes Poppy stared at this little cat for a long silent moment before she sniffed again and finally small little tears began to drip down that face one after another and before she knew it she was on her knees sobbing harder and louder than a baby. Cookie shushing her and rubbing the poor sobbing gal's back as all the pent up emotions finally came out as she cried and cried.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!!," she wailed out to no one between chokes. Her good fist coming down to hit the floor in frustration and anger. "IT'S NOT FAIR!! IT'S NOT FAIR!! WHY DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!? I WANT TO GO H-HOME!!" She hiccuped hard and reached her arm up to wipe at her heated face. "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!! B-B-BUT I C-CAN'T B-BECAUSE EVERYTHING'S GONE!! *hic* AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!!"

"Shh. There, there. I know it must be tough not having a home. Feeling so lost and scared having no one around. But it'll be ok. You just let it all out, Sugar."

"H-How do y-you know?," she hiccuped again and looked to the cat in question with tears blurring her vision.

Cookie smiled sadly. "Because I have a little blonde girl living with me who felt the same way. Sometimes these things happen and we just need a little help." The paw came up to her shoulder as Cookie pulled a small hankerchief from her chef's pocket and offered it to her to which Poppy was rather grateful. "Feel better?" She hiccuped and nodded wiping her face with that small tissue. A little relief coming to her from letting all the emotions out. "There, there. Come on. I bet you'll feel even better after getting all this dirt off your pretty self and getting a bite to eat."

Her stomach rumbled again at the mention of food and Cookie chuckled. Slightly pushing her body upwards to help motivate the sniffing gal to her wobbly feet once again and have a look around the room once those tears were dried away. ....Oh. This must've been the bathroom they were talking about it was all very clean with sea themed things everywhere. Starfish shaped handles on the drawers, sea shell covers for the lights, towels, a sink, mirror, bottles of soap, laudry soap, and shampoo on the shelves along with the towels, bath toys, and anything and everything else a bathroom would have including what looked like an extra set of washing machines with one right open with what looked like warm water and a stepping stool in front of it. There was even another metal table like thing with a tray of fake cakes on it. But funnily no showers or a bathtub in sight. Perhaps she was supposed to use the sink to wash her face but was surprised when Cookie lead her over to the full washing machine.

"Alright. Here. I'll get you a nice herbal shampoo, those work wonders for silky, soft hair."

"I-.....B-But this is a-

"Washing machine? Oh heavens no. It was recycled into a bathtub. Something the aliens call recycling. Fascinating isn't it? Now go on. Wash up. You don't want to be filthy forever do you?"

Well......She was in really no position to argue about anything anymore was she?

[stormtide-leviathan]

Kaldheim Booster Challenge

I posted this on reddit, if you’d rather check it out there, but I wanted to share it here too b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶'̶m̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶t̶a̶n̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶p̶e̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶f̶f̶i̶r̶m̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶.

In the third great designer search, there was a challenge to pick a set and make a booster pack full of custom cards that fit in that set. I’ve started doing this for sets since Zendikar rising, and wanted to continue that tradition here. Why am I doing this so late after the release of Kaldheim? Cause shuttup, that’s why >:(

Here’s the link to the full imgur album. There are also individual imgur links even though there are images, cause reddit doesn’t allow images directly and I’m copy/pasting from there.

Anyway, let’s get started! (Long post ahead)

Common #1:

Divine Goat 3W

Creature- Goat

W, Sacrifice ~: You gain 3 life.

Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, return ~ from your graveyard to your hand.

Here’s a top down design, based on Thor’s goats that pulled his chariot and were sacrificed for food every night and reborn in the morning. Originally the recursion triggered based on Vehicles, but with two other vehicle cards in the booster including the other white common, one had to go and this was the best option, but I still liked the flavor so I went with another of white’s themes.

Common #2:

Dwarven Elder 2W

Creature- Dwarf Warrior

Whenever ~ crews a Vehicle, draw a card.

2/2

The fabled white card draw. Yes, I am your savior. Your messiah. Bow before my wisdom. I could technically see this design in either white or blue, but I liked white better and white cares more about vehicles anyway. I based the costing off Stealer of Secrets. This doesn’t put itself in danger, but relies much more on deck building to activate.

Common #3:

Ambusher Giant 5U

Creature- Giant Warrior

Flash

Foretell 3U (During your turn, you may pay 2 and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)

4/4

Foretell works really well with instant speed, so I thought a big instant speed creature would be a good fit. Since blue has a giant tribal theme, and is one of the main colors for foretell, it was an obvious fit.

Common #4:

Heated Rebuttal 1U

Instant

Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. They can’t spend S to pay this cost. (S is mana from a snow source.)

Here’s another snow hate card. What I really wanted to do with this was discourage running snow basics where you don’t have to, and though we have the god in the set that does this I think this is an issue that’s solved with both quality and quantity. I wasn’t sure on the power level of this for standard purposes, but I’d rather this more pushed version than be too weak and have it not do anything against snow.

Common #5:

Shapeshifter’s Trickery 1U

Enchantment- Aura

Enchant Creature

Enchanted creature gets +1/+0, is every creature type, and can’t be blocked.

Not too much to say here really. This is good for the tribal synergies in the set, and is just an innocuous little aura for limited. Not everything is gonna be pushing boundaries.

Common #6:

Draugr Fleshchewer 1B

Snow Creature- Zombie Berserker

Whenever Draugr Fleshchewer attacks, mill two cards. If a snow card was milled this way, Draugr Fleshchewer gains menace until end of turn.

2/2

This originally worked with the “exile a creature card from your graveyard” subtheme, but I had to change this to snow and I couldn’t get a good snowy design that used that mechanic. So instead, it fuels it. I also wanted to have another card that cares about the existence of snow instants/sorceries because they were introduced this set and the number of cards that only work with snow permanent cards when they don’t have to is strange.

Common #7:

Arrogant Stand 3R

Sorcery

Creatures without a boast ability can’t block this turn.

Here’s a simple little card that plays around with the flavorful space of boast. You have to be very full of yourself to stand up to the oncoming attack.

Common #8:

Winterdark Ritual 2R

Snow Instant

Add three mana of any one color.

Foretell R (During your turn, you may pay 2 and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)

Is the name completely on the nose? Absolutely. And I find that hilarious. This is taking advantage of the fact that foretell is payed in multiple payments to turn that into mana storage. And it’s snow, because snow rituals are new to the set, play well, and I don’t think it makes it too powerful, though this has a lot of little factors to it that might push it over the edge. Any number of them could easily be tweaked though.

Common #9:

Blessing of Koma G

Enchantment- Aura

Enchant creature

Enchanted creature has “T: Add one mana of any color.”

2, Sacrifice ~: Draw a card.

This card is secretly also a snow card. The intention is, you can enchant snow creatures with it to get extra snow mana. However, it’s not snow itself because a) I thought that made for a cool moment of discovery and b) If it was snow, a lot of players would mistakenly think the mana is snow whether or not the creature it enchants is.

Common #10:

Boulderskin Troll 3G

Creature- Troll Warrior

When ~ dies, search your library for a Forest or Mountain card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library.

3/2

I really wanted this card to be red. See, the legend goes that when a troll goes out in the sun it turns into rock and I thought tutoring for a Mountain when it died would be a good way to do that. However, I just couldn’t find a good way to do that which felt red, so I had to make this green. Luckily red/green are the troll colors so it could still find a mountain. I specifically chose nonbasic so that it could synergize with the snow duals at common.

Uncommon #1:

Immerstrum Berserker 3BB

Creature- Demon Berserker

Boast- 2B: ~ gains lifelink until end of turn. (Activate this ability only once each turn and only if this creature attacked this turn.)

Boast- 1B: Each opponent discards a card. (You may activate both boasts in a single turn.)

5/3

It has two boasts. Ya know how most creatures only have one boast, if any? Well not this, it has two. That’s it. That’s the design.

Uncommon #2:

Master Shipcrafter 1R

Creature- Dwarf Artificer

1R: ~ gets +2/+0 until end of turn.

Whenever a creature you control crews a Vehicle for the first time each turn, that Vehicle gains that creature’s activated abilities until end of turn.

0/2

There’s this weird tension in the set where R/W both encourages you to play a lot of vehicles, and has a lot of boast creatures, which do not work well at all together. This card is an attempt to fix that. Originally it just worked with boast, #notallactivatedabilities, but that was an extremely narrow card so I widened the scope. There’s certainly some weird combos you can do with this, but nothing too bad in limited though.

Uncommon #3:

Ring of Kinship 2

Artifact- Equipment

Equipped creature gets +1/+1

Creature spells you cast that share a creature type with equipped creature cost 1 less to cast.

Equip 1

I’m a big fan of equipment and auras that have a universal effect that cares about a quality of the equipped creature. I dunno why, but it tickles me. Creature type is a good thing to care about on designs like this though, and I wanted both an equipment and a tribal reward in the booster, so it was a good fit.

Rare:

Kvasha, God of Magic 3UU

Legendary Creature- God

Flying

When ~ enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying for each enchantment you control and each enchantment card in your graveyard.

Sacrifice a Spirit: You may cast spells as though they have flash this turn.

Kvasha’s Birth 2GW

Enchantment- Saga

I, II: Until your next turn, whenever ~ or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

III: Mill six cards. Exile ~ then return it to the battlefield face-up.

I’m genuinely really sad they didn’t do a god with a saga as its backside, it could have been really cool. So I made one myself!! I wanted it to at least be feasible as a commander for a Saga deck, and since Kaldheim has a lot of enchantments running around I figured it could use an enchantress like this. The tricky part was, I had to make a blue card that could also feasibly be a selesnya card, since the saga turns into it. It also works well with the tribal themes and the spirit subtype in the set, though that’s more of a bonus than anything else. If you’re wondering why this card looks different, that’s for two reasons. One, I can’t make Sagas on MSE. And two, this overlapped nicely with the Inventor’s Fair contest of the week on tumblr, which I use mtg.design for since it’s easier to get links that way. (Check them out! @inventors-fair​ That contest is what finally pushed me to finish this booster).

Basic:

Snow-Covered Swamp

Snow Land- Swamp

T: Add B.

Look, it's a snow-covered swamp. I needed a snasic in here. I dunno what else you want from me.

So there we go!! Finally!! The booster challenge that took weeks longer than it should have. What do you think of the designs? Do you think they would fit well within Kaldheim? If not, how could I fix them? Also I probably made a formatting mistake somewhere in here so if you notice like, a wrong link or something let me know. Also, if you want me to tackle an old set feel free to request it, though since this took me weeks for some reason I can’t make any promises lol.

Here’s boosters I’ve done before:

- Zendikar Rising: Reddit

- Commander Legends: Reddit // Tumblr

[ener-chi]

Cassie O, blue eyes and Aquarius, a general intuitive reading involving what to do for my magick/spiritual practice please.

Hi Cassie!

I could've sworn that I've done a reading for you before, but I couldn't find it anywhere in my previous notes. Oh well, no big deal. Let's get started:

I see… a girl… brown hair… she's hunched over a desk… on the far side of the room… she's scribbling something down, I think… she sits up to look… she catches a glimpse of me in the corner of her eye… she turns and greets me with a warm smile…

Hmm… I'm having a hard time getting a hold of her energy for some reason… her visage is a little bit blurry… I do something I've never done before… actually go there… I appear in the room… I walk up to her… she's actually not moving… stunned… shocked to see me… haha I smile and bow pretentiously… I hold out my hand… she takes it and stands up…

Woah…

So cold…

Her form is still blurry… changing… I can't get a read on her face or figure… she takes my hand as I help her up… our hands linger for a moment as I process it… I let go… such a weird sensation… I look at her, curiously… she stares, blankly… I walk around her… t-shirt and hrmm pj pants?? Long cozy fuzzy pants… I… I'm at a loss of what to do here…

I focus… we go up in vibration… energy forms…

Transition…

My energy body… no outlines to my figure… but… I am a blob of pulsating green energy… surrounded by a pink aura… that shimmers and glows… slight shades of blow surround and intermix… also, I note that my green energy looks dull… which I take to be a side effect of my cold…

I turn and look at the girl…

Also, no outlines or features to her figure… what do I see… once again, so hard to get through… I see… faint glimpses of light… but it is obscured…

I approach…

My hands glow with golden energy… I lace it with some green… I send it around her… surrounding her in the light… spiraling around and down… coat and pulse… I see the outline of her form… but… the energy I put on her begins to fade… I feel it being repulsed… I withdraw it… I focus…

Transition

We appear back in her bedroom… she sits on the bed and smiles, chuckling… alright, fine…

What do you need to do for your spiritual practice??

She thinks… for a while… she holds out her hands… tries to put energy out, like I did… but there is nothing… she looks up at me…

I hold out my hand and form some energy between hers… she looks at it, interested… tries to interact with it… I pull it back… she rests her hands… looks at me… shrugs…

I sigh… do another bow… this time genuine… I thank her for her time…

Transition…

Holy wow! Okay! This was actually a crazy reading.

Sooo this is the first time that I've just been straight up blocked from seeing your energy. I was having a hard time getting a feel for it, so I actually sent out my astral self there to try and get better clarity; I've never done that before! That was the first time. Very cool.

Obviously, it didn't work, though. You must be very protected! I definitely was running into some wards. The "cold" that I sensed was definitely part of it. I've never had to deal with them before, and I kindaa wanted to try and see if I could get past them, but 1 . I'd need to do a little bit of research and protection before I do that, and more importantly, 2 . I didn't do it because I didn't have permission from you to try and bust into your wards. Even though I have permission from you to do a reading, I don't have permission to enter your wards, and I know better than to try and break in lol.

Despite the difficulties, I don't think that it was a total waste. At the end, it seemed like you showed some interest in energy work, which you currently struggle with?? I think that energy work is a great tool that all witches and practitioners should try to include, or at least have some basics in. I'd recommend doing some research and trying to cultivate the ability a little bit, if you don't already know how. If you do, I'd recommend maybe trying to do a little bit more advanced energy work.

Sorry I couldn't give you a more detailed reading! I hope that what I could give you resonates. But regardless, I'm grateful for the new experience and the opportunity to learn and try something new.

Blessings!

[ficstogo]

Bless Thee

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader

Word Count: 2512

Summaries: (S3) During dinner, an outburst leads to some hurtful things to be said and Daryl tries to comfort you in your distress.

Warnings: None

A/N: I didn’t know if I wanted to give this extra character a name or not but if I decide if I ever wanted to progress this particular one shot, I will. Hopefully it’s not too confusing with seeing so many pronouns.

The sun began to set as everyone entered the house. You helped set the dinner table happy to see a fresh meal that you could actually enjoy instead of eating either beans or corn out of a can. The last one to come in the house had an aura of irritation surrounding her. You worried about her. Your sister seemed to always be in a bad mood and everytime you tried talking to her about it always ends with her either blowing you off or yelling things you try to recover from.

You seated yourself at the head of the table, your sister to your right next to Andrea and Lori. Everyone felt weary as the turn of events of the passed few days worn all of you out. Sophia was found and yet taken, everyone was at odds as to what to do with the boy in the barn, the entire Greene family was trying to recover from the previous event. All you wished for was a small break, a win if anything instead of having a giant boulder of problems weighing everyone down.

“Y/n, would you please start the prayer?” Hershel asked as he was seated next to you on the left.

“Of course.” Heads bowed and hands together, you began the prayer. “Dear Lord, thank you for blessing us with a fine meal that these sweet women of the farm had made for us. Thank you for having shown us that good people are still out there in this cruel world and for having all of us still together-” A low chuckle came out from the table. Everyone slowly raised their heads to see who it came from and as you feared, it came from your sister. “Is there something funny?” you said with a stern look on your face. You knew what was coming and you had to get things under control.

“All of us together? Really? I can count that there are more than five people who should be here missing.” She said with an attitude you recognized all too well. It was something normal but lately she had a chip on her shoulder. She was more angry all the time, waiting to pick a fight.

“You know well enough what I mean. Do not do this now.”

“What? Make you look bad? Make you look stupid? You would hate that wouldn’t you?” She said with eyes squinting at you. “I bet you were overjoyed when she died.” The last bit came out quieter, like a deadly predator.

“Stop. We will talk about this later.” You said in a stern voice once more.

“No I don’t want later I want now! I want everyone to see how fake you are. Pretending to be some sort of saint. That you weren’t in the wrong for leaving mom like that. For them to eat! And everytime we talk about her you always gotta make her to be the bad guy.” You looked down at your plate with guilt in your eyes. You felt your face heat up and took a deep breath.

“You don’t know her the way I did. I sheltered you from her and maybe that’s my fault for doing that. She was a drunk and remember that the only reason you ever gotten a decent life was because of me.” You took a peek back at her and then look down at your dinner.

“Oh my god! When are you going to stop hanging that over my head?!” She said exasperated. She had heard you made this speech several times whenever the both of you argued beginning when she was a teenager. She got what you were saying, so why do you constantly bring it up?

“When you start to understand that all we got is each other and that you need to start respecting me. And not because of that but because I am trying.”

“And like I don’t deserve some respect! All my life you’ve treated me like a baby.”

“I had to become a mother at the age of 12 because your real mom didn’t want nothing to do with being one! The only reason you remember her in such a positive way was because I hid the real her from you as long as I can! And I know you’re grown but I can’t help look at you more than my baby!” You tried hard to contain your composure as you felt that you were about to cry., You swallowed the lump in your throat. You needed her to understand but each time, she just refused to let what you say sink in. “Until you show me that you’re more than that then I will start treating you like the woman you can be but right now, your attitude and your actions show that you are still a child.”

“Oh, and what do you want? An award?” Your sister said sarcastically.  “And me! Being a child?! You treating me like a baby is the entire reason she died! If you treated me like the adult that I am, I could’ve fought them off and gotten her back!”

“If I had lettin you go you would’ve been just as dead as her or worse and then what would I have to live for!?” The sentence came out firm, declaring the reason why you did what you did back when everything went into frenzy. When the world finally cracked and everyone went into hysteria.

“Well sometimes I wish you were the one they got instead of her! Then you wouldn’t be living for much anymore now would you?!” your sister shouted across the dinner table.  Everything went silent. You whipped your head to her with wide eyes. You swallowed the lump in your throat again and kept yourself composed. As soon as she realized what came out of her mouth she instantly felt regret and went to say her apologies only for you to stand up with small bit of silence to follow. “I’m sorry everyone for disrupting dinner.” You then look towards her, trying hard to not let any tears spill, to keep yourself looking strong. “And I’m sorry that God decided for her to go and not me but understand that all that I do, I do for you.”  and then you left as your sisters eyes followed you out with a horrified stunned look on her face.

“I gotta-” your sister said as she rose herself from her seat.

“Naw, let me. She’ll need some space.” Daryl said as he headed towards the door. Andrea wrapped an arm around your sister as she told her things would be alright and to give you some time. That these kind of things happened. Everything was now uneasy in the house as no one knew how to go on with the night. As they all thought to who they lost. Although they knew it was out of anger, they knew your sister was right. There were people that should still be here but they also knew that they wouldn’t have gone if God didn’t intend for them to go.

You headed into the RV and took a seat at the table. You tried to hold off the tears for a little longer but you couldn’t do it anymore. Keeping up the facade of being strong only made you breakdown each time and the worst part was breaking down by yourself. It only made you feel more alone as you made sure for your sister to see you put together and not like this. If she saw you like this, she might’ve taken joy, or worse, she would lose the hope that things would be alright. If she saw that you didn’t believe it then all hope would really be lost. You couldn’t do that. Some days you felt as if things would be alright but most of the time you felt that there was no end and if there was, it wasn’t an ending anyone would want.

As Daryl walked towards the RV, he could hear you quietly sobbing. He stood there for a minute, not really knowing what to do. Feelings were not his forte but he couldn’t help but want to stop the pain. They’ve all been through enough and he knew there was more mud and blood to get through but if he could help with this kind of pain, hell, he’ll do it. Slowly he came inside the RV, waiting by the entrance. He’ll do what he can. You had your head against the glass, looking out towards the unforsaken world with the idea that maybe there really isn’t much hope left.

“Ya alright?” His voice startled you. You sniffed and looked towards the window trying to discreetly wipe away your tears.

“Uh, yeah I’m fine. Just needed some space to think and all.” You said as you turned and gave a weak smile.

“You know she don’t mean that though, right?” you looked down at your hands on your lap and gave yourself a thought.

“Yeah…Still hurts though.” Daryl came a little closer standing by the seat across from you. “I know it’s wrong of me to tell her things about our mom to change how she views her. In my head I thought it was a good idea after she got taken. Tell her and maybe she wouldn’t cry every night about her. I shoulda known it wouldn’t since I’d catch myself crying about her too.”

“I know what ya mean. Merle, he’s a total asshole to me and everyone he knew. Treated me like shit but he’s still my brother ya know? I try to either think that he’s alright somewhere and other times I just think of how much of an asshole he is… Blood is blood. They’re always gonna be apart of ya.” You then look at Daryl. For someone so quiet, you should of known that he has a lot to say. You just didn’t know they’d be wise.

“She thinks I hated her and I did at times but like you said, blood is blood and no matter what, she’s still my mom and I love her…I only want her to understand instead of getting so angry all the time. I know I gotta treat like an adult but it’s so hard to admit it. She’s always gonna be my baby girl…” you looked down at your fidgeting fingers feeling more tears slide down your cheeks. “Maybe it was wrong of me to not show her who her real mom is but I couldn’t let her grow up the way I did…” a choked sob came out of you. “I use to make her sleep either in my bed or go over to one of her better off friends for the night whenever mama brought over a man. I wouldn’t sleep the whole night…” your shoulders shook as you lowered your head even more. Crying at the memories. Daryl felt for you. You both grew up with a shitty childhood and he could understand your reasoning for sheltering your sister from it. If he had a youngling himself, he’d do the same.

“Hey…” Daryl reached over having his hand on top of yours. “You’re a good woman and you’re sister’s lucky to have ya. Hell, I wish I had someone like you growin’ up. Tryna make my life easy while she’s doin’ the heavy liftin’…” You looked up at him, his blue eyes full of emotion and truth. It was strange of him to be meddling in someone’s family affairs since he was busy with his own but what he witnessed at the dinner table, he realized that these people are his family and he couldn’t stand by the sidelines without doing something about it. “You n yer sister, you got some things to work through. You gotta drop this lil act of yours and show her yer hurtin’ too. Show her she ain’t alone with those emotions. That’s probably why she thinks yer so okay with your mom gone.” You closed your eyes letting more tears fall and then nodded in agreement.

Your hand gripped onto Daryl’s giving it a squeeze. This side of him you’ve never saw but it was a side of him that somehow managed to pull you back together. “Thank you. For this…for a second I was starting to lose myself.” You closed your eyes and took a deep breath. Then both of your heads whipped to the entrance of the RV.

Your sister stood with a look of uneasiness, Andrea behind her with a worried one. You stood up from your seat and moved towards her. Her eyes swelled as she couldn’t hold in the floodgates. She lunged towards, you arms wrapped around you tight, head digging into your shoulder. You wrapped your arms around her as well crying into her. “I’m so sorry…Everything I said, I’m sorry…” You two continued crying into each others arms not noticing that Daryl and Andrea had left, leaving you two to sort your differences alone.

Time had passed and the two of you entered the still quiet house arms around each others waist. Glenn was the first to see you two. “H-hey…How’re you guys?” A smirk rose to your face as you answered Glenns question. “We’re fine. Just finally figured some things out. I’m sorry everyone for that.” You said apologetically. During all the ruckus you didn’t realize that you left everyone in discomfort.

“Don’t be. We’re just glad to see you two alright again. Just reminded me of thanksgiving with the in-laws.” Rick said with care in his eyes. Both you and your sister chuckled at this only thankful that all of them understood.

“Right, well how about we all get back to dinner.” Moving to your seats, everyone pushed in their chairs and ready themselves to dig in. “Hershell, do you mind if we try that prayer again?” You asked.

“By all means, please.” Everyone grabbed ahold of each others hands once more that night. With everyone’s heads bowed and eyes closed you looked up to see a pair of blue eyes staring at you. You gave him a nod as a thank you for what he done, him doing the same with you not noticing the small smile crossing his face, and then the both of you went to bowing your heads.

“Dear Lord, thank you for the wonderful yet cold meal provided to us tonight.” Everyone lightly laughed at this now feeling the atmosphere shifting to calmness. “Thank you for blessing us with good people watching over us everyday. Bless those that we have lost and those that we sit with tonight. Thank you for bringing us all together creating a family during these troublesome times and bless us on our journey as we do not plan to stop on living. Amen.”

Everyone dug in. Jokes were cracked, laughter played like a cherished song. Stories were told and by the end of the night everyone felt content and at home.

[innaminitus]

I should stay

A/N: I’m sorry this took so long to write. I’m just being plain lazy. And tired. 

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Request:  16. Imagine being Asgardian nature goddess lost on Earth but not wanting to leave because of Steve Rogers. I'm so excited, thank you!😍 (anon)

Warnings: smut, the word “energy” appearing 16 times

Word count: 2898

masterlist / prompt list

Pain was all you felt when you opened your eyes and tried to breathe. The air was odd, different, toxic. You had a fit of coughing when strange particles attacked your lungs, oxygen was heavy, thick, plastered your insides with unknown pollution. You tried to move, pieces of dirt fell on your face and hair. One look at your surroundings and you were sure you were at your planet. It had to be created by you – your creations were everywhere; trees, grass, birds on the sky. But which world was it?

When you fell you created a large hole and getting out of it was a challenge, but you managed to do it. It was then when you realised you were naked. You weren’t sure whether residents of this planet were using clothes or not, but you weren’t really able to find any piece of clothing or plant that could be useful.

The forest you were in was big and untamed. Bushes were scratching your legs, little ants and bugs were climbing your feet, carving your energy. Wind was gently caressing your body, sun warmed your naked self from behind the trees. It would be so good and pure if only the poisons in the air wouldn’t try to settle themselves in your body.

After a long, lonely walk, when you almost lost hope for finding a being you could ask for guidance, you saw it – a deer. You slowly walked to it, knowing it would not run away from you, its maker.

‘It’s so good to see a friendly face over here,’ you said, laying your hand on its head. ‘I don’t know why am I here. I was a star for almost four thousand years…’ The deer didn’t seem to be a talkative one, so you continued, ‘A planet next to me… Ego’s planet… Exploded. I must’ve gone off with it. My star form was destroyed and next thing I remember is falling down and hitting the ground on this planet. I need to find a passage to another worlds, I am too weak to create one myself… Can you help me?’

You were kneeling now, looking the deer into his eye, but the only respond you got was a nose bump and silent snort. Apparently it didn’t understand a word you said. It must’ve been one of the older worlds you created. The deer was only waiting for your blessing and energy. Sighing you traced your fingers along its head and whispered blessings. Deer’s eyes shone with white and gold and you let it go. You were once again all alone.

You were so weak. So tired, naked and confused you felt it in your bones. It was your world. Why did it seem to be so unwelcoming and plain ugly? You didn’t create pollution, you didn’t create unbelievable dullness surrounding everything. Energy of plants and even animals was… blunt. It wasn’t radiating with colours and wildness. All you could feel was fear and desperate will to survive. No wonder the bugs were all over you. Little legs crawled up your face and curly, bushy hair waiting for your blessings.

All of the sudden you felt new, unknown energy.

‘Since when are we taking care of comets?’

‘It was not a comet. I’m telling you, it was-‘

This planet was inhabited by humans. Two men stopped when they saw you. It probably was a strange view; a woman with mess on her head, naked, radiating an energy and glow of the star, covered in insects.

‘Do you need help, ma’am?’ One of them asked you. His energy was… Odd. Manipulated. He wasn’t looking at you. His sight wandered everywhere but never landed on your body.

‘I need passage. To another realms.’

‘Passage to another realms?’ Another one asked ironically. He wasn’t looking away. He had strange vest and red goggles on. ‘Did you hit your head hard?’

You looked him in the eye. Did humans have no respect? Were they so ignorant?

‘I’m sorry, I just realised you have no idea who you’re talking to,’ You said, slowly walking up to him. You weren’t taller, but he suddenly felt small and irrelevant under your burning sight. ‘For I am Y/N, daughter of Ymir, creator of this and many more worlds, maker of the stars and moons. And you will show your respect.’

He was speechless for a minute, just as his companion. You knew that they must’ve felt inner instincts waking up, respect and fear before nature and wildness.

‘Steve… I think we are dealing with some Thor shit here.’

***

They took you to their base and promised to help you. You felt humiliated. You, a goddess had to ask humans to help you. It filled you with disgust to yourself. Where did your power go? You shouldn’t have fallen asleep for that long… Your whole power was once again untamed and submerged.

They had you dressed up in a silk-like robe. There reportedly were women in the compound, but none of them was willing to borrow you their clothes as there were still insects hiding in your hair. You were getting impatient, waiting was never your strongest suit. Apparently none of your hosts knew anything about passages and were waiting for someone more familiar with the subject.

You were told that there is usually more people at the compound, but they were on a mission, whatever that meant. The two men in the forest and someone who introduced himself as Tony Stark were the only ones you’ve met. Two of them were quite basic, just plain normal, but the one who was previously called Steve was different. Someone manipulated his energy, probably as well as his body. You could tell he wasn’t exactly real. But he wasn’t pretending either. It was like… joining fire and sun together. You wanted to touch it. To feel the heat for yourself.

‘Why are you different?’ You asked, reaching out to the warm aura surrounding the man.

‘I- I don’t know what you mean?’ He blushed slightly and looked unsurely at our hand.

‘You weren’t… Created this way,’ Your tongue was still tasting foreign words you didn’t know you knew. Their language reminded you of waterfalls. ‘Someone changed your being.’

‘How do you-‘

‘I created the core of this planet, but I didn’t create you.’

You were interrupted by sudden sound. You soon learned that it came from a device Tony kept in his pocket. He touched it few times and put back.

‘Government problems again… I have to go,’ He said and got up. ‘Sam, you’re going with me. Capsicle, you stay and take care of our guest until Thor arrives.’

Sam patted Steve’s arm and left after Tony. You made yourself a little more comfortable on the couch. The pillows were so soft you literally sunk in them.

‘What happened to you, Steve?’ You asked, tucking yourself tighter in robe.

He sighed.

‘I took part in experiment. Long story short, I was turned into super-solider.’

‘Why? Were you not perfect the way you were created?’

‘I was very far from being perfect,’ He laughed. ‘I suffered from severe diseases, was pretty weak and skinny.’

You frowned and felt heavy on your chest.

‘Are people… often ill on this planet?’

He looked you in the eye, not sure whether you were serious.

‘Well… Yes. Sicknesses, infections, disabilities, they all are everydayness.’

You had to take a moment to digest that information. You were aware that this world wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t Asgard or any other realm made by your father or with his help. It was one of your first attempts to finding out what you actually can do. And it wasn’t good.

‘This is all my fault,’ You sighed. ‘I didn’t know that anything can actually live here, not to mention developing life so advanced. I’ve left you all here to die.’

‘That’s not true-‘

‘It is. I never visited this planet, or any other I created. Not even once. And my creations are dying, they are vulnerable, weak, imperfect… That’s not what I ever wanted or meant to do.’

‘People do worse things than you. The planet is dying not because you made it weak, but because humanity is testing its strength to the point where it can’t deal with damage. It’s not you who created sicknesses and diseases. It’s us. So don’t blame yourself, because you created beautiful world and we are wasting the chance you’ve given us.’

Your eyes started to water.

‘Why are you being so nice to me?’

He opened his mouth but no words left them. He shrugged.

‘I guess that’s just who I am. The nice guy.’

You leaned to him and put your hand on his.

‘I hope that there are more people like you on this planet.’

You were interrupted by someone’s arrival. It must’ve been the person you were waiting for. The man was tall and muscly, his hair was reaching his shoulders. As soon as he stepped through the door and saw you, his knees met the ground in a greeting. Finally someone was bowing to his goddess. You slowly got up and walked to him, your intimidating posture made him bow his head and whisper.

‘Y/N, daughter of Ymir, goddess of nature and all creation, my lady. It is the greatest honour to meet you.’

You caught his chin and raised it to see his face. He wasn’t human. He was much more, almost as powerful as you.

‘Who are you to greet me so kindly?’

‘I am Thor, son of Odin, god of thunder and your humble servant.’

‘Rise, son of Odin.’

He did as you said, but was still looking at you like lost animal, seeking for truth of creation and meaning in this Universe.

‘Could you… Possibly…’ He was searching for right words, but they got lost somewhere in the back of his mind.

You smiled softly and put your hand on his forehead. When silent blessings escaped your lips, his eyes shone in all the shades of blue and green, he inhaled deeply and was floated by sudden calmness.

‘What just happened?’ Steve whispered somewhere behind you.

You turned to him and smiled softly.

‘Just a simple blessing.’ His confused face made you laugh, and your laughter made him blush. ‘It gives energy, calms your soul and banishes any negative energy.’

‘Basically it’s kick without drugs and with some galaxy twist,’ Said son of Odin, smiling. ‘Now please, tell me how can I help you, Lady Y/N?’

You sat at the couch again and thought for a minute.

‘At first I wanted to find a passage to at least go back to Asgard, but now… I think I should spend some time here. I want to get to know…’ Your sight laid at Steve for half of a second and got back to Thor. ‘…this planet a bit.’

***

They gave you your own room, comfortable bed and dozens of pillows, but sleep was not coming to hold you in its warm arms. You were tired after whole, confusing day, but your thoughts were far from settling in and giving up to sleep. This man… Steve. His energy was calling you. It was so raw and disturbing, you wanted, no, you needed to taste it. It wasn’t even similar to anything you saw across the universe. You weren’t unfamiliar with the galaxy and energies floating around it, you’ve seen them all, but this? It was like volcano waiting to erupt. Like a promise of rain after months of drought. That spirit made you shiver. You shouldn’t feel that way, not towards human. But you couldn’t help it, you could smell that he was more than just a human. Whatever someone did to him, it was too similar to god’s creation. Could they made him godlike and not even know about it? Was this genius possible on earth?

You got up and put silky robe on, then peeked through the door to check if anyone else wasn’t asleep. The hall was empty, so you went out and followed sweet scent of wild energy. It was calling you like a drug, like some inner voice asking you to get to know it, taste it, touch and play with it. Though still you hesitated when you reached the soldier’s door. Humans were still unknown for you, so you had no idea how would he react to your entrance. You didn’t want to harm him.

Slowly you opened the door and immediately was overwhelmed with the intensity of Steve’s flavour in the room. He wasn’t asleep. He was reading a book in the bed, but dropped it when he saw you.

‘Y/N, is something wrong?’ As always his sight was avoiding your body.

‘I can’t sleep,’ You said, walking up to him. ‘And something about you just… messes with my mind.’

You kneeled near his head and he slowly moved away.

‘I’m sorry if I’m a cause of… inconveniences… But how can I help you?’

‘Just don’t move.’

Within mere seconds you finally could ease your need and feel the energy for yourself. You pressed your lips against his, ready for instant flow of spirit, but that wasn’t the thing that made your stomach twirl and jump. It was the feeling of his soft lips touching yours, smell of his skin, the way his posture changed from shocked to willing. He kissed you back, his hand got lost in your locks and pulled you closer. Suddenly your heart was beating faster, his tongue was in your mouth, he was dragging you onto the bed. You held him tightly, new sensations were bursting in your brain, you never felt this way. His thumb caressed your plump cheek, travelled through every freckle and beauty mark which created constellations on your skin. You bit his lower lip, subtle groan vibrated inside his throat, his hands were now under your robe, rubbing and circling your curves. He wasn’t so shy now, his red cheeks were burning with arousal, harsh fingertips found themselves on the skin of your breasts. Needy lips were sucking your neck, collarbone, chest, soon his tongue teased your nipple, other one was being taken care of with his fingers and you didn’t know how to deal with all the feelings inside you. He was human and you were a goddess. This body was acting strange, it was needy, begging for touch and this man was more than willing to fulfil your need.

You weren’t sure how to act, but he seemed to know exactly what to do to you. He took his shirt off and exposed his muscular chest to you. Your robe quickly followed the shirt and met it on the floor.

‘You are so beautiful…’ He sighed, looking down on you. ‘Is this… A trick? Or a spell?’

You were breathing heavily.

‘Do you mean this body?’

‘I mean you. Here.’

You licked your dry lips and rose on your elbows.

‘I came because your energy drives me crazy,’ You said, reaching your fingers to trace lines of muscles on his chest. ‘I wanted to try it. Steal, eventually. But this? It’s better.’

It was all he needed. His lips found yours again, tongue was once again dancing with yours. You tried to take his shorts off, but struggled with shaky hands, so he helped. His warm, dripping erection touched your stomach, and flowers began to bloom inside you. He rubbed your skin, leaving trace of wet precum. You collected it with your finger and brought up to your lips. You sucked it clean, pure energy spilled on your tongue and you held back a moan. Steve was watching you with his lips parted, mesmerised by your actions. You felt as if he wanted to read form you all the knowledge of the world, secrets of galaxy and the universe itself. And you would let him.

He lowered himself a bit and parted your legs even more. His tip was caressing your soaking folds and you wanted to force him inside of you, your body was aching for more, more and more. You could destroy any star, create any planet now. You would do anything to feel him.

Painfully slowly he slid into you, stretching your walls and making you moan. He kissed you softly and started to move. Slow at first, he was getting impatient and fast. The energy he was giving you with each thrust was dazing you, blood in your veins was rushing at unbelievable speed, adrenaline forced you to buck your hips against Steve’s in wild pace. His eyes were all over you and you knew exactly why; you were glistening and your eyes were all white now, but you didn’t care. All that mattered was the feeling of his body attached to yours, how you were one now.

Sudden warmth started to build up in your stomach, untamed, raw feeling of pleasure made you feel like a ticking bomb.

‘Fuck… Y/N…’ Steve moaned, his thrusts were getting more sloppy and wild, his lips attacked yours.

And then you felt it. It came to you like erupting volcano, flowers bloomed on your palms, in your hair, you screamed with flowers and butterflies, the bed was all in grass, hot cum, energy, vitality burst into you, heavy breathing near your ear caused tornados. And you never felt more alive.

[caffeineivore]

Spirits part next

R, Z, hints of R/J, A/Z, U/M.

**

The place they’d gone to had been reasonably priced and boasted a decent bottle selection. It was not the first time that Ember had seen Angela Schein since The Incident, but these girls’ nights out, such as they were, did not happen with great frequency either. Angela, married now and all but glowing with newlywed bliss, had been just as incandescently kind and pure-souled as ever, and they’d whiled away a happy enough hour over some small plates and small talk and wine-- an Argentinian Malbec for her, a Napa Valley Rosé for the blonde. Ember had then conscientiously seen Angela safely to her home, remembering the circumstances of their first meeting, before heading in the direction of Brooklyn herself.

Nothing is out of the ordinary until she is all but three blocks away from her building, but when it comes, the darkness rose with the speed and force of an eruption. She takes off at a run perhaps a split-second before the soft, ominous sounds of a scuffle even reached her ears.

Remember, little Firebird, bad things can happen to people on a quiet street anywhere in this city. It had been a lesson imparted upon her by her grandfather many decades ago, well before 9-11, or the Central Park Jogger case, or even the Son of Sam attacks. It had been cold comfort in the aftermath of some of the tragedies that she’d seen, and even now, though she knows, realistically, that there is no way to cheat fate, the black-fly buzz of impending catastrophe still fills her with knee-jerk anger and sorrow that will never be easy to shake. 

She hears a muffled argument in gutter Spanish-- no less furious for all it’s quiet-- before she even turns the corner, and then the unmistakable sound of a pistol being cocked, and her heart makes an uncomfortable leap to her throat. Nothing she has on her is powerful enough to stop death in its tracks.

But then, as though out of nowhere, not one but three police vehicles barrel down the street, flashing lights and blaring sirens as they head directly towards where the argument started off. Two cruisers, followed by a burly SUV from the K-9 unit, converge onto the alley, and perhaps in fear or perhaps in a pragmatic desire for survival, two dark-clad figures run off from the scene before any shots can be fired. 

She cautiously makes her way down the street, towards the cluster of police vehicles, and much to her surprise, the door of the K-9 vehicle opens, something sleek and sharp-muzzled jumping out. But where she might have expected a brawny Malinois or German Shepherd on a leash, she gets the immediate impression of something smaller but wilder-- vulpine, before it morphs right in front of her eyes into a man, sleekly handsome with long, curling hair the dusky blonde of old gold. Ember is sure her shock is registered on her face, but the man smiles, peridot-green eyes lighting up in friendly recognition. “Well met at long last, milady.” Silent and fleet, he crosses the street in a blink, and takes her hand in both of his, laying a kiss on the knuckles in a gesture that should have by all rights been sleazy rather than gracious. “I’m Zhen. A friend of Jareth’s, if you will.”

“Oh.” Ember relaxes, looking up into the man’s stunning face. All fox spirits, regardless of gender or clan or alignment, are known for their beauty, and this one is no exception. She knows of him-- a finance wizard, as befits his kin’s affinity for acquisition and illusion-- but had she not known his chosen vocation, she would have expected a visage such as his to grace a Milan runway. “Well. Thanks for the...” She gestures vaguely at the alley where the cluster of police cars had been parked, only to realize, belatedly, that they’d disappeared without a trace. Her eyes narrow-- even distracted, she should have noticed them vanishing into thin air.

His smile morphs into a grin full of fun and mischief. “I could be a hell of a stage magician, don’t you think? Like Harry Houdini and David Copperfield and Criss Angel all rolled into one but better-looking.” The statement incites a scoff and an eye-roll, as it is meant to, and he lets go of her hand, and a bit of the animal hypnotism lets off with the release of skin on skin contact. 

“What were you doing here?” It’s the question that she finally settles on asking first. It is perhaps just a coincidence that they were both present when the shooting would have gone down. Or perhaps not. His aura is colourful and chaotic like an abstract pop art on a spiritual canvas, but she senses no malevolence. 

“My lovely one is working late tonight, leaving me to my own devices, so I was visiting one of my favourite places, earlier.” He names a quaint little 24-hour cafe within walking distance that had been opened only six months ago but was already quite popular with the locals for their buttery scones and their exquisitely smooth espresso. “And then I decided to take a walk. And I happened upon that situation just at the same time as you, so I think I deserve another scone. Or six. You should come. My treat.”

He reaches for her hand again, gives it a tug, and now more aware of it, she feels the whisper of suggestion like the glide of cashmere against her skin, warm and with just the slightest bit of friction. More to make a better acquaintance of this adroit creature than for the promise of treats, she lets herself be guided towards the cafe. Within short order, they’re seated at one of the tiny round tables, with a plate of scones glossy with butter and flecked with orange zest in front of them next to a traditional duo of strawberry preserves and clotted cream. Zhen buys himself an espresso but Ember opts for jasmine green tea. It’s good-quality and gently fragrant, not steeped too long or hot. Zhen helps himself to a scone, then another, with an almost-childlike enthusiasm, and she leaves him to it. An illusion the scope of which he’d conjured takes more than a little skill, a little energy. 

Three scones in, he takes a luxuriant sip of espresso and wipes his lips with a napkin. “Ah. So much deliciousness. I do hate being hungry, don’t you?” Not waiting in particular for her to respond, he leans back in his chair, eyes sharp and alert. “I suppose you’ll want to know what I’m doing here, in a more grand scheme of things than just Brooklyn at half-past ten at night.”

“I can figure that out on my own, but it wouldn’t be polite to pry without your knowledge and consent,” Ember answers, glancing at his hands for a moment before looking back up into his face. “I don’t really like to-- intrude, if you will-- unless I have to, or I am invited.”

“I can see why Jareth adores you so,” Zhen beams with the power of a high-powered halogen lamp. “But in answer to your question, I followed a man here. He did me a good turn once, and I have guarded him, since. We might be a mischievous and occasionally temperamental lot, but we’re loyal to those who come to our aid. And he did just get married-- to a lovely young lady. I blessed them with long life and prosperity, of course. As one does.”

“So you’re here to inquire about a wedding.”

“She’s like a sister to me.”

Another beautiful, long-lived man. Another inquiry about a wedding over a cup of tea. It’s like a puzzle piece which has fallen into place, and she can see the implications like spider-silk outlined in dew, reaching elusively out in all directions. The thoughts of what this portends for the future, though, fills her with trepidation. Where there is great good, there will always be great evil to challenge it. Despair follows triumph like night follows day...

Zhen must sense something of her distress, because he reaches over, pours her another cup of tea. His hypnotic eyes meet hers over the curling steam. “They’re safe, you know.” He does not clarify whether he is talking about the mortal couple, Adam and Angela, or the rest of the world as they know it, and the oblivious people who inhabit it. “Why, we would never have met, otherwise. And you seem almost as fabulous a personage as me, so wouldn’t that be a pity?”

The remark is flippant and designed to make her chuckle, and works as it is intended to do. But it also reminds Ember of the last part of that fateful Tarot card reading she’d done for Jareth, only a few months ago-- had it been less than a mere year that she’d known him?-- and the last few cards he’d pulled. The King and Queen of Wands, the High Priestess and the Magician. She’d known, in some sense, that he’d become important to her, but not the depth and scope of it. In a mere change of seasons, she’d entrusted more of herself and her heart into another’s hands for safekeeping than she ever had in several centuries of living. She glances again at the man across from the table, with his clever hands and mesmerizing gaze. His illusions and charms. Jareth’s agility and bow, the support of his kin. The primordial nature magic of the Iele and the strength of the Stone-Hewn. There were bound to be others she’d yet to meet. It would be the most powerful, diverse convergence of immortals that she-- and perhaps they, too-- had ever seen. 

She lets out a breath in a long, shaky exhale and picks up her tea. Life and fate came with no guarantees, but she could always hope. And whatever battles may come, she’d never have to face alone, again. 

[experimentalfrenzy]

Sigarda Spellslinger

@sigardaa, @sigardas-herons-blog​, @asksigarda​ thought you might enjoy this unique take on Selesnya from someone who’s an Izzet mage at heart.

Deck Tech under the cut, full deck list at Sigarda Spellslinger on Tappedout.

Hello and welcome to Experimental Frenzy. Let’s get right to it. This week’s deck tech is Sigarda, Heron’s Grace, AKA the bad one. I’d considered building her on and off over the years, but I’d already typecast her as a Human Tribal commander, and I was never sufficiently motivated to build her because of it. When I was browsing through someone’s trades trying to even up a trade for a prerelease foil Assassin’s Trophy and saw her in foil, I knew it was finally time. I’ve had Sigarda together for about six weeks, and in that time, she’s grown to be one of my favorite decks to play, win or lose. Before we get into the deck tech proper, let’s take a look at our fearless leader, and talk a bit about the direction I decided to take her.

             It’s worth noting that I was and still am, deep in my “Quirky” deckbuilding phase. The past year and change had been an exciting journey that started with trying to make cool limited playable mechanics work in commander. From Bant Morphs (still together) to Meren Explore (untested), to Kolaghan Dash Tribal (since reformed into Squee, The Immortal), and Hallar, the Firefletcher (untested), I’d developed a strong fascination with off the wall  strategies in commander. Which brings us to the epiphany that made Sigarda an irresistible brew. What if we built around her activated ability instead of her static?

I’m a spellslinger at heart, which is why the Human Tribal angle never really scratched my brewer’s itch. But spellslinging put tons of card in the graveyard and came a lot more naturally to both my playstyle and the color pair than self-mill. Since a lot of good green and white instants and sorceries were removal, we leaned into that. Today’s deck tech will be broken down into Ramp, Card Draw, Spot Removal, Mass Removal, Token Makers, Recursion, and Synergy. So without further ado, I bring you the Selesnya Control list, Sigarda Slinger.

STATS

Budget; $375-400

Creatures: 6

Artifacts: 7

Sorceries: 15

Instants: 21

Enchantments: 8

Planeswalkers: 5

Lands: 37

RAMP/FIXING: 11/4

             The most notable cards in the ramp and fixing category are MIrari’s Wake, for it’s mana doubling and anthem effects, Pir’s Whim, for it’s X for 1 and political capabilities, and Sylvan Reclamation, whose basic land cycling is easily forgotten. Krosan Verge and Myriad Landscape are inexpensive fetches that grab two lands for the price of one, while putting a card in the graveyard for token creation. The deck also runs Windswept Heath.

CARD DRAW/ADVANTAGE; 14/5

             Notable cards in the card draw and advantage section include Mentor of the Meek and Tireless Tracker, for beings humans that enhance the benefits of ramp and token creation, Hualti, Radiant Champion and Nissa, Vital Force for generating emblems, and Abundance for it’s selection and quite frankly obnoxious interaction with Sylvan Library.

For those who don’t know, Sylvan Library lets you draw two additional cards in your draw step, on the condition that you either put two cards you’ve drawn this turn back on top of your library, or pay 4 life per card to keep it in your hand.

Abundance has a replacement effect that you can apply when you would draw a card, allowing you to name either land or nonland, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card of the chosen type, putting the rest on the bottom in any order. Bonus move, if you run out of lands in your deck and name land to replace a draw, the any order clause allows you to literally stack your deck, making any future draws exactly what you need.

Because Sylvan Library only requires you to put back or pay life specifically for cards you’ve drawn this turn, using Abundance’s replacement effect not only let’s you keep your extra “draws” free of charge, it helps push through to help you see new cards. It’s worth noting that you have to use Abundance’s replacement for every draw that turn, even those in your upkeep, since Sylvan Library references any card you’ve drawn that turn.

SPOT REMOVAL: 14

Unexpectedly Absent is probably my favorite of these removal spells, for it’s flexibility, tempo, and occasional “Gotcha!” factor, when you use it to put an important threat or engine on top of your opponent’s library in response to any spell or effect that will force them to shuffle on resolution. Beast Within is easily the most versatile, being able to destroy any permanent, even lands, at the cost of them getting a 3/3 beast token. Field of Ruin is notable as a Strip Mine effect that doesn’t leave you down a land. Aura Shards is repeatable, and adds extra spice to our board-in-a-box instant speed token makers, Oblation can serve as removal or a form of recursion, shuffling it’s target into it’s owners library and allowing the owner to draw two cards. Tormod’s Crypt is an absolute must, a staple in nearly every deck I own. Dramoka’s command and Wing Shards are the only spot removals that don’t always hit exactly hit what you want, but the versatility and storm respectively make up for it.

MASS REMOVAL: 6

This boardwipe suite is cultivated to leave SIgarda in play as often as possible, from Slaughter the Strong, which most notably requires the other creatures to be sacrificed, Divine Reckoning, which has flashback, Rout, which can be cast at instant speed, Tragic Arrogance, which has the added benefit of leaving you with the best of each of your nonland permanents, and each opponent with their worst. Most importantly, Tragic Arrogance doesn’t target. (Pro tip: If an opponent has a card that is multiple permanent types, usually artifact creature, but occasionally artifact enchantment, you can select it for both types, helping clear away an extra permanent.) Settle the Wreckage is a brutal Fog, affectionately nicknamed “Wrath to Exile”. And while Elspeth, Sun’s Champion doesn’t leave our commander in play when she boardwipes, her versatility and power make her worth it.

(CREATURE) TOKEN MAKERS: 9

Monastery Mentor is not only a human, and thus protected under our Commander’s protective wing, but it aided by the 56 noncreature spells in the deck on his quest to get friends and get #Swole. Tendershoot Dryad is an overperformer in any deck it’s ever in, generating a 1/1 Saproling token every single upkeep, and also giving Saprolings you control +2/+2 as long as you have the city’s blessing, Three of our planeswalkers can generate tokens, Elspeth generates three 1/1 soldiers, Gideon can make a 2/2 Knight Ally, but is generally best used as an overcosted anthem effect. Garruk can make a 3/3 beast, but usually dies to draw us cards equal to the greatest power among creatures we control. Our haymakers are the three instant speed X-spells, Secure the Wastes, which makes the most tokens per mana, March of the Multitudes, which has not only convoke, but makes lifelink tokens, and White Sun’s Zenith, which makes the biggest tokens of the three and also shuffles itself back into our deck.

RECURSION: 5

Because this deck seeks to use it’s graveyard a little differently than most, recursion, like graveyard hate, is a pillar of any EDH deck. This deck uses Regrowth, Mistviel Plains, Elixir of Immortality, Bow of Nylea, and occasionally Nissa, Vital Force. Elixir of Immortality, another staple of my lists, is an even better card than it usually is, since our commander often exiles the early game ramp cards and other less useful chaff for token fodder. Bow of Nylea also has the added utility of giving our dinky little 1/1s deathtouch on offense, helping them in combat.

SYNERGY: 4

While a lot of the cards previously mentioned have cross synergy and utility, this section is for cards that synergize the most with our commander and strategy, or are just cool but didn’t neatly fit into our other categories. Mirror Entity is not only a human (as well as every other creature type), but it’s activated ability plays well with large boards, allowing our team to become X/Xs for X mana. Primal Amulet is one of the best cards for spellslinger lists, transforming into Primal Wellspring, making every spell at least twice as good. Intangible Virtue and Divine Visitation add beef and relevant keywords to our tokens.

Closing Remarks

On the whole, Sigarda, Heron’s Grace offers us the unique ability to play an interactive, reactive, and instant speed game while still being able to make use of green’s often creature reliant card draw to great effect.  The deck is surprisingly resilient, and an absolute blast to play, shifting between control and aggro without missing a step.

[chocobroing]

A New World Chapter 5~Gladio/OFC, Ignis/OFC SFW

Chapter 5: A Christmas Surprise Tagging: @ridingchocobros, @rubyphilomela, @dirtyffxvconfession, @louisvuittontrashbags, @lady-asuka, @themissimmortal, @ignis-scientia-estrogen-brigade, @itshaejinju, @diabolik-trash-heap, @hypaalicious, @cupnoodle-queen, @blindbae, @nifwrites Christmas was in a few days and Gladio was freaking out. In a box that was wrapped under a tree, was an engagement ring that he intended to give to Ella. He knew how she felt about marriage and that it scared her but he was ready to take that next step in their relationship. Maybe that was why he was having a hard time sleeping those past few days. He was so worried on how Ella would respond. Would she say no? Would she turn away from him? He didn’t know how she would react and it scared the hell out of him. He finally got some sleep on Christmas Eve, ironically. Most people were too excited to sleep on Christmas Eve because they couldn’t wait to see what gifts they got. He slept so soundly in those warm sheets with Ella tangled up in him. They were both naked from having Christmas Eve sex and they both felt warm and comfortable. Everyone was sleeping in heavenly peace, until it was six o’clock in the morning. Gladio and Ella were shaken awake by a certain excitable blond guy. Ella hung on to Gladio, groaning and making whining noises as she snuggled into him. Gladio wrapped his arms around her and tried to fall back asleep, but there was no chance they were getting sleep. “Come on!” yelled Prompto, his mouth right next to Gladio’s ear. “Wake up! Wake up! It’s Christmas!” “Come back in the spring,” mumbled Ella, hiding her face in a pillow. Prompto unceremoniously threw the covers back and got an eyeful of something he never wanted to see. He’d seen Gladio in the nude before back when they were traveling and never thought about it, but right now, he was seeing his good buddy and his girl naked from a night of sex. The mere thought of Gladio and Ella having sex made him want to heave. “Ew!” cried Prompto immaturely, covering them back up. “Why aren’t you wearing jammies?” Gladio opened his eyes to glare at the blond man. “Gee, I don’t know, Prompto,” he replied mockingly, very close to snapping and beating the hell out of the blonde annoyance. “Maybe because we get tired after sex and have no energy to put our pajamas on. Ever think of that?” Normally, any person would run from the look Gladio was giving but Prompto was used to his aura. “Well, whatever,” he said, brushing it off. “Hurry up and get dressed. Ignis is making breakfast.” “You probably woke that poor bastard up too,” guessed Gladio, arching an eyebrow. “Yup.” Prompto looked proud of himself. “But Freya threatened to grab that shotgun that was in the closet and shoot me.” “Not that I blame her,” snorted Gladio, shaking his head. “Prompto, just give us a few minutes. We’ll be out in a sec.” “Okay,” he replied, sounding very enthusiastic and full of energy. Gladio envied that boundless energy Prompto seemed to have. He could use half of it right now. “I’m gonna go wake up Noct and Luna. See you two later.” With that, Prompto was out the door, leaving the couple be. Ella was still half-asleep when she sat up and mumbled incoherent things under her breath. When Gladio looked at her, he took in her beauty. Even though her hair was tangled like crazy and her skin was sticky with sweat, he still thought she was beautiful. He was just captivated by her. In that cute, half-asleep state, Gladio wanted to take her and give her a nice wake up call, but he knew Prompto wasn’t patient. Speaking of which, Gladio wondered how Prompto was doing in waking up Noctis, the heaviest sleeper out of everyone. The poor king was probably even more tired because Luna had pregnancy cravings that interfered with Noct’s sleep. Gladio smiled and got up, putting on a pair of fuzzy sleep pants and a loose short-sleeved shirt. When he looked over, he noticed that Ella had fallen back asleep. She looked so adorable all bundled up in the covers. She looked like a butterfly in its cocoon. However, he knew that she had to get up or Prompto would drag her out of bed. Bending down, Gladio placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly. “Ella,” he said softly, smiling at her. “It’s time to get up.” “I don’t hafta work today,” she mumbled, her brain still not awake. “My store’s closed on holidays.” It took all of Gladio’s will power to not laugh at her. “It’s Christmas, Ella,” he told her, barely able to keep the laughter out of his tone. Ella let out a long, drawn-out groan and her eyes opened slightly. She looked around, as if remembering where she was, and slowly started to wake up. She blinked a few times and opened her eyes fully. She gazed at Gladio, who gave her a soft smile, and mumbled things under her breath. He seemed highly amused at how cranky Ella seemed. She was usually okay with waking up early but right now, all she wanted to do was sleep. “Baby,” purred Gladio, knowing that there was one way to get her up. “If you get up, I’ll take a bath with you and then we can have some fun in bed.” “I’m up,” she said, perking up. “Let’s just unwrap the presents and get this over with. I wanna get in the tub with you.” Gladio took her hand and helped her up, getting her out of bed. Ella pulled on a pair of panties, a nightgown, and a robe to keep her warm. She brushed her tangled hair with her fingers and stumbled out of the room with Gladio, feeling the soreness from the exertion last night. He took her so many times that she lost count how many times they did it. “You okay?” he asked quietly so no one could hear him. “You look a little sore.” Ella let out a growling moan. “Damn you and your marathon penis with its superhuman capabilities,” she whimpered, subtly touching her crotch, feeling it scream in protest every time she walked. “Sorry,” said Gladio, not looking sorry one bit. “You seemed to enjoy it last night. You kept screaming and crying for more. I’m sorry that I hurt you.” “Whatever,” she groused, walking down the hall with him. “You’re not sorry. Don’t even say it.” Gladio smirked and looked a little too proud of himself, wrapping his arm around Ella’s waist. They both walked into the family room where the green fir tree was and sat in front of it, where the presents were. Noct and Luna were sitting on the couch and the king was still half-asleep with Luna resting her head on his shoulder, her hand in front of her growing stomach. Prompto was bouncing like a Golden Retriever puppy and Cindy was resting in his arms wearing a sexy slip of a robe. Freya was still half-asleep on Ignis and the bespectacled man looked a little weary from being disturbed from his rest. “Before we start anything,” said Luna, placing a hand on her large belly, “there is something I need to do for Ignis, something I wasn’t sure I could do in this world until now.” “What’s that, Your Highness?” asked Ignis, moving his head in her direction. With a gentle smile, Luna placed both her hands on either side of Ignis’s face and rested her forehead against his. “I can’t heal the one eye because it was surgically removed, but I may be able to help with the other one.” “Lady Lunafreya…” Ignis trailed off, unable to say any more. Suddenly, Luna’s forehead and hands lit up with an ethereal glow and she began speaking words that sounded memorized. “Blessed Stars of life and light, deliver us from darkness’ blight.” When she spoke again, these words sounded more natural. “Please, give my friend back his sight, so he may see the blessed daylight.” The light traveled to Ignis and he let out a sound of pain, grimacing slightly. Freya looked like she wanted to speak but Noctis interrupted her. “Luna is a healer,” he explained kindly, placing a gentle hand on Freya’s to calm her. “She was the Oracle of our world and when she passed, the darkness grew unabated. Had she lived when Ignis went blind, he would have been healed by her.” “I wasn’t aware I still had my powers until my baby entered the eighth month,” elaborated Luna, removing her hands from Ignis’s face and backed off from him. “In the third trimester, I noticed that I was able to do little things like cuts and burns, but in the past few months, my powers have gotten stronger.” Ignis’s closed eye opened and he was immediately assaulted by colors and people. The very little vision he had in that eye was restored. He could see everything—his friends, Ella, his beloved Freya—and the emotion that overcame him was immense. He looked over his shoulder and saw a redheaded angel with concerned brown eyes staring at him. He could see the emotions on her delicate face. She was more beautiful than any woman he ever laid eyes on. “Freya,” he spoke to her, and her face lit up with joy and recognition. “Yes,” she said in a trembling voice, and she took his hand and placed it on her cheek. “It’s me.” “My beautiful woman,” he murmured, pulling her in to press a kiss to her lips. Freya wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, tears running down her cheeks. Ignis held her in his arms and ran his hands up and down her back, feeling her shudder under his touch. She was more beautiful than Ella described and he never wanted to let her go. When Ignis loathingly pulled back, he was attacked by hugs from everyone. He could barely breathe when he was squeezed by Noctis, Prompto, and Gladio. All the women were crying happy tears and ambushed Ignis in hugs too. As Luna wiped her eyes, she spoke in a shaky tone. “I know that it’s a bit disorienting, Ignis, but in a few days, it will feel natural again.” “Thank you…” The words were simple but laced with so much emotion and genuineness. Luna gave him a nod and bowed slightly, straining with her big belly. “You are very welcome, Ignis,” she said kindly. Everyone hugged Ignis and he looked at all of his friends, noting that while they looked different, they hadn’t changed a bit. Noctis was still a sleepyhead but he looked more regal even with his weariness, Prompto was still his bouncing sunshine, and Gladio was still the devoted Shield that loved every one of his friends. It was about thirty minutes before everyone situated on the couch again and waited for presents to be passed around. “Let’s open presents,” said Prompto, glowing, now very enthusiastic. “Gladio has one for Ella. Give it to her, Gladio!” Gladio knew what he was referring to and he scrambled to shut Prompto up. “Shut up, blondie!” he hissed, clapping a hand over Prompto’s mouth. “What present?” asked Ella, looking a bit confused. “Gladio, I don’t need any presents from you. You being with me is enough. I know work has been hard on you, so you don’t need to get me anything.” In this small town, Gladio was a police officer. With his past training and experience, he was offered the job on the spot. It made Ella proud that her lover was doing something he genuinely enjoyed. Prompto was working at tech store that had the newest phones and computers and he was enthusiastic in helping others, especially the elderly. Cindy, of course, was working in the garage. Luna was a volunteer nurse at the hospital. She loved doing volunteer work, whether it was the hospital or the church. Ignis was a cook at a fancy restaurant and he loved that job. Noctis was working with Freya, who was now a vet, at the pet clinic because he loved working with animals. Gladio sighed in exasperation and shook his head. “Well, secret’s out,” he grumbled. “I was hoping to do this a little more romantic, but here it is.” He reached under the tree and pulled out a small box wrapped in dark red paper. Ella’s face was priceless. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped in an almost comical way. Prompto pulled his camera out and took a picture of her shocked face. With shaking fingers, Ella unwrapped the gift and saw the box was made of rosewood. She opened it up and saw a sparkling engagement ring with a beautiful diamond in the middle. “Oh, my God,” she gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth. “Gladiolus, is this what I think it is?” She only said his full name when she was serious or mad. “Yeah,” he replied, nodding. “It is. Eleanor Stevens, you are my light. You are the one that makes everything better and I love you with all that I am and all that I will ever be. You are the one that keeps me going. My heart, body, and soul are yours. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with them. I know how you feel about marriages and serious commitments, but I’m ready for this. I won’t hurt you. I would never break your heart. I will love you even when we have arguments and even when we hate each other.” He smiled at her with tears in his amber eyes. “Ella, will you marry me?” Tears poured down Ella’s cheeks and her face fell into her hands. Everyone looked alarmed, especially Gladio, who looked ready to shit bricks. He wrapped his arms around Ella’s trembling body and kissed her head. He whispered soothing words into her ear and rocked her like a baby. She was so small that it was like he was holding a child. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said gently, feeling absolutely awful. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” “No,” wept Ella, shaking her head. “No. Gladio…” She looked up at him and smiled shakily. “I would love to marry you. I love you, Gladio.” She squeezed him in a tight hug, weeping into his shirtfront. Gladio smiled widely and tightened his embrace around her, kissing her hair and face. He could taste the salt of her tears and could feel wetness on his own cheeks. He wiped his face and realized he was also crying. The last time he cried this hard was when Noctis announced that he was going to sacrifice himself to save Eos. Of course, these were happy tears and Gladio couldn’t hold the joy back. He had never been so happy before in his life. The woman he loved more than air said yes! Eleanor Amicitia had a good ring to it. “I love you, baby,” he told her in a voice choked with emotion. “I love you too,” she replied in a voice equally emotional, burying her face into his shoulder. Everyone smiled and whooped in joy, celebrating that Gladio and Ella were going to be wed. This was what everyone waited for. Noctis was smiling ear to ear, ecstatic that his friend was going to be married. Gladio had always wanted a wife and family and now he was doing it. Prompto pulled out his camera and took many shots of the couple embracing and kissing. This was going into a memory book. Ignis smiled and tears came from his one healthy eye. Freya wiped a tear from her cheek and her smile was wavering. “It truly is a Christmas miracle,” said Freya, snuggling up against Ignis. “What is, dearest?” asked Ignis, gazing down at her lovingly. “You can see again and Ella is finally an engaged woman,” she replied, her smile now content. “I love you, Ignis. Blind or not, you are my one true love.” Ignis caressed her face with a gentle hand and kissed her softly. “I love you too,” he said in a loving tone. “My Freya…” He bent and tenderly kissed her again. “My Ignis,” she sighed into the kiss, holding him tightly. Everyone was truly happy and it seemed that this wasn’t a happy ending, but a joyful beginning. This was the start of something new and wondrous and they couldn’t wait to be a part of it. Gifts were opened and everyone was smiling and joyful. Ignis got some more cookbooks; Gladio got some new books; Noctis got a new pillow that would guarantee a good night’s sleep and he got some baby books that would help him cope when the baby came; Luna got some baby clothes and new lingerie for after the baby was born; Prompto got a new camera; and Cindy got a new tool kit. This Christmas was the most memorable one they would have and they would never forget it. This truly was the Christmas they would never forget. It was one of love, peace, and joy, just as the season intended.

[psychobenderstories]

Mehine - The Call of Gaia

It was a specially foggy day. Those days when no one wants to hunt because you can’t see a thing farther than 100 meters of distance and the up close visibility is not all that well too. Kids are not playing outside as they usually do and everything around the village is oddly quiet. Not even the animals want to risk going out this day.

Mehine gets up from his hammock, grabs some grains and throws it outside the window for the birds to eat but only one small bird closes in. Probably the smaller bird of the group. Looks like a bird cub. 

He walks into the kitchen in the tree-house and says while yawning “Morning mom”. His mother’s face saddens as she looks at his son and she replies “Do you really need to go today? We can make it through this little food shortage...They always happen and we always make it!”. Mehine lifts her shirt, showing her weakened starving body with ribs almost popping out of her skin. “Mom, we have been hunting inside the forest for weeks and we found no food. Everyone is afraid of going to the extremes of the forest because the elders said it would be our demise but the situation we’re in looks more like a demise to me than whatever lurks out there in the free world. I had enough. I’m leaving. Don’t you worry mother, I will be back in a week with food enough for us to last a year.” His mother breaks down and starts crying without tears due to dehydration. Mehine just ignores her and packs his things, grabs his arrows, his venoms and potions, tools for trap and roped arrow. As he leaves the house he says “Mom... In a week, this crying will be of happiness”. Mehine smiles and leaves his house.

As he is about to leave the village, Ehinem, a bosmer he hates since he was a teenager, passes by and says “So much for the old ways. Did you finally learn your lesson cousin?” Mehine takes a deep breath and naturally replies “Someday you’re gonna die and I’ll be the first to trap your soul and use it to enchant the sole of my boots” Ehinem laughs and answers in disbelief “Yeah right. Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you”.

As Mehine bounces through the extremities of the foggy forest he spots a suspiscious movement going down the trees. His confident smile immediately changes to a focused look. He gets down from the trees and readies his bow silently while looking for any unnatural movement. 

Smoke spots and the sound of metal being grinded with some background gibberish come to the hunter’s senses. Imperials all around the forest. Mehine whispers to himself: “But what are they doing here? How did they find this place?” as he approaches one of the the imperial scouts.

The bosmer flanks his enemies but he soon notices the whole forest is surrounded on its extremities. A strategy used to cut the supply of food and commerce in a town, so when the attack happens, it will be weakened. Probably a planned attack on the village since they had lived in secrecy, therefore paying no taxes for the empire. “That explains the food shortage...Fucking lowlifes!” Mehine then proceeds to get up on the trees using his climbing arrow only to be surprised by Ehinem who comes jumping and sprinting from tree to tree yelling “Oh no you won’t” as he sprints into Mehine at a blinding speed. 

Mehine sees his opponent coming and pulls himself up with abnormal strength jumping over his adversary who slashes the wind in circular motion resembling a hurricane passing right below Mehine, missing his leg by an inch. Mehine sheathes his bow while in mid-air, falls on a strong branch and balances himself while grabbing his double knives upside down adopting a defensive stance, then he says “YOU. ARE. DEAD”. At the same time Ehinem swiftly changes directions running once again towards Mehine who stands his ground. In a split second, Ehinem attacks Mehine with a circular left to right slash, which Mehine blocks with both his knives, to be able to withstand the force of the strike Ehinem has but then gets stabbed by Ehinem’s right blade. Mehine steps away in pain but stumbles and enters a 60 meters free fall from the tree they were fighting on. Mehine knows he has time to recover so while falling he manages to draw 2 arrows at once and shoot them upwards. When Ehinem peeks to see where his enemy has fallen he is surprised by one arrow to the chest, still, he manages to slightly dodge the second shot which only scratches his face, leaving behind a deep cut. Meanwhile, Mehine turns around mid-air at around 30 meters from his death, falling in what feels like terminal-velocity and grabs a vine with both his hands, the vine stretches while bending its own branch but the branch snaps and Mehine falls for 19 meters more on his back.

The air is taken out of his lungs and his vision is almost blacking out. Mehine rolls sideways in pain and with the little vision he has, he sees a group of imperial hunters walking towards his position to investigate. Tears start to fall from the bosmer’s eyes both from the pain and the knowledge that his family and friends are there to be slaughtered by the imperials and there is nothing he can do at the moment to stop it. Mehine sees himself forced to hide inside the closest tree and wait until he regains his strength, in hopes that nobody finds him.

A few hours passed by and Mehine’s vision is completely back. He can only hear the screams of despair and the sound of a battle being fought between the imperials and the weakened and outnumbered bosmers he called family. Mehine suffers as he pictures the images of this war.

After a few minutes Mehine’s hearing also dissipates and he falls unconscious only to wake up probably hours later at the aftermath of the massacre of his own people. The pain of his broken ribs is still pretty strong, he can’t breathe properly, his legs are weak, he lost a lot of blood and his hearing is muffled. Mehine stumbles out of his hiding spot, staggering around and using his bow to help him move. Mehine then sees the image of a woman growing out of a tree and saying with a soft and god-like voice “You are not done yet. Nature will prevail.”

The elf steps back and rubs his eyes thinking it might be some sort of illusion but the woman extends her arm and lends him a bow while saying “With this weapon, you shall destroy the ones who destroy me” The woman puts her hand on his chest where his heart is and continues “With this blessing you will feel the life pulsing inside every creation of mine”, she then reaches her hand inside her chest, pulls one on her seven hearts,

Pushes it into Mehine’s chest and says “Whenever you feel you are in danger, borrow my spirit...” She takes her arm out of his chest as Mehine is now surrounded by a green aura

 and finishes her monolog with a warning “But beware. The greater the power..The greater the price” and her body sinks back into the tree. Mehine kneels down, closes his eyes, swallows his pain and says with anger in his heart

“Gaia, protector of life, guardian of nature and saint of all bosmers. I accept the honor of being your champion. But make no mistake. I am not here to bring peace. I will slaughter the empire as they slaughtered my people.”

Mehine then opens his eyes fueled with green energy and says

“And I will have No Mercy”

[abloomntime]

A Bloom In Time P15

(Warning: Poppy cries near the end.)

The pour woman was shaking all the way to the small clearing looking around her with newfound fear as she did so from the scare. But at least now they could take off and get her to a warmer place with food now....Or at least they would've if Bow hadn't grabbed her hand and jumped when Poppy flinched and yanked her hand away from the girl. The poor flesh still tender and sore from the rope suddenly yanking her up. She gave the girls an apologetic look and it occured to Hattie they couldn't teleport her together now if they couldn't hold her hands. Not to mention she was shaking and she didn't want to risk accidentally letting her go in the middle of teleportation again. So what did she usually do in these kind of situations? Go back and bother Snatcher for help of course! The purple ghost was NOT happy when the small girl yanked on his tail and told him about their situation. PECK NAB IT!! Couldn't he get one moment of peace around here?....Then again, it was rather responsible of her to come to him instead of trying something reckless with Poppy, and he didn't really want a repeat of Poppy crashlanding from space somewhere. She was VERY lucky the first time as it was. So, that's how the ghost was talked into coming over and transporting all four of them back to the ship. Wasn't anything like Poppy expected at all. Much to Poppy's still shocked state, he held the girls in one arm while grabbing her good arm in the other and asked her to close her eyes while the spell took place to keep her from freaking out anymore than she already had to which she gladly did so. Curling into him and pressing her face into the fluff around his shoulders. The movement made him stop and stare for a moment...before he cleared his throat and looked away slightly flustered. The teleporting worked as quickly as any other time he did it. Purple energy completely took over the world around them like the many times he's done this before and swallowed them all whole. He's donw this plenty of times before teleporting himself places or taking the girls home against his will when they fell asleep in his forest. But what was one more trip anyways? Especially since it'd help ease the nerves of his beloved-...beloved FRIEND. Just friend. One moment of dark black-purple later the four of them ended up inside of the kid's ship. The control room to be more precise. The controls to the ship were there as well as her Tv and the giant vault of those menacing time pieces.So imagine Poppy's surprise when she reopened her eyes and blinked at the foreign home to her. But was put back down on the ground by Snatcher again before the spook mumbles something about wanting to take a break and to not be bothered again as he gave a firm look at the girls.

"Stay HERE and do NOT bother me again unless it's actually a real emergency until I say so. I mean it."

"AH! But why?"

"Because Im the pecking adult! That's why!" Was all he said before purple energy oozed from his being like living fog and wrapped itself around him. Poppy watching in almost horror as it shrank in size until it was either too small to see or actually disppeared from the ship entirely.

Well.....That was a fast one way trip wasn't it? She was just SO so glad to be out of that nightmare forest she was happy to welcome this.....Space ship. Where was she in here anyways? Looking around she found herself sitting upon a giant pink round rug and a the rest of the floor was covered in green carpeting. Around her were all kinds of strange gadgets and gizmos she'd never seen before. Looking over she was the strangest thing. A child's toy train set and landscape. The cute little engine was making circles around some plastic mountains, a few mountains, and fake plants.  WHich for some reason was on a giant metal pillar and blocked off by rope and pillars. An odd television set sat in the corner where a puppy wearing overralls was trotting across the screen. ....She blinked and looked over to her other side where another similar pillar was there but it had some kind of plush??.......Something. It was a hamburger but she didn't know what the heck that was. Beyond that was brick like walls a yellow thing sticking out of the wall, and a couple doors here and there-

"oW!"

Something poked against her foot and she looked down. Immediately a small spooked squeal came out of the woman and she scrambeld back and onto her feet as she stared down the little roomba as it continued to just sweet harmlessly past her. But the woman had never seen a robot vacum so her fear was understandable as she pointed at it.

"W-W-WHAT IS THAT CREATURE!?"

"It's ok. He's perfectly safe." Hattie smiled at Rumbi as he harmlessly swept past them towards the ramp near the far wall.

She didn't look convinced but silently watched him sweep away before looking around her more...before slowly looking behind her to the gigantic windows behind her. And. Her. Jaw. DROPPED!!  As she looked out the giant windows,  she could seethe darkened purple land of Snatcher's forest and A giant chunk of white which was vanessa's frozen abyss of the planet. Placing a cold hand to the cool glass and watching as it slowly ticked by and just....watched it. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of thousands of stars twinkling....The world! Her world! It was right there! Big, bold and wonderful! The round planet seemed to have an aura of it's own and glowed perfectly. The perfect gentle blue of the sea, the bright tan yellows of the desert. Many islands. The highest mountains surrounded by pure white clouds even looked as if she could reach out and grasp it almost. It was so much more peaceful and beautiful looking when she wasn't falling through space that was. A sense of being so small came over her and she let out a shaky sigh as she did so.  So this was really reality huh?

"It's pretty isn't it?," Bow asked walking up next to her and smiling down at the world too and pointing at one small place on the planet. "That's Nyakuza City! I used to live there."

".....Yeah. I-I heard about the Nyakuza Kingdom," Poppy stated softly, "It was supposed to be inhabited by a whole race of cat people."

"It is!" Bow smiled brightly at her that she knew that. "Kitties are the best! They're so soft, and fluffy and really, really cute!!"

Despite herself, Poppy smiled at the cute smile the little girl had on her face. Children always had the ability to make her smile with their adorable nature and innocence. It was just to precious, turning back to the window and staring out she sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. She was really feeling .......confused? Right now. There were too many emotions going through her right now and not enough of it was ok..She didn't have a feeling of being ok. Not after what just happened. She looked back to her slightly scrapped arm. She guessed that's what she got after not listening to a ghost's warnings-

"ACHOO!" Bow flinched and looked up to Poppy who shook her head and looked back to the window sniffing.

"Bless you!"

"T-Thank you." She shivered from her body's still cold feeling. She almost forgot she was still from falling in swamp water and she had been running around all soaked for who knows how long now. She should change out of these soggy rags and warmed up before she caught a cold. So she turned around to ask where the bathroom was so she could scrub the dirt off herself- BAM!! She jumped at least a foot back smacking into the glass window and all three of them looked up towards the ramp area where the pair of swinging doors to the kitchen had been pushed open and small soft footsteps like a child's came scattering out. Another child?? She couldn't see anything past the banister. But all of that was answered when a chef hat and pointy cat ears came into view. All of that was attached to a small plump cat standing on two feet with calico patterns and orange fur.

What the WHAT?!

"COOKIE!!", both girls shouted and rushed towards the cat who giggled and held her arms open wide for the two to go skittering into her embrace as she did so. The giggling of the cat and girls filled the air as Poppy watched and then blinked at the small cat in chef wear-

"Oh how are you girls? It's been so long since I've been up here!," she cooed at the little children her size. By the voice it was easy to tell it was a lady and had a slight country accent. She smiled as she leaned back and examined the girls before her. "I thought I heard a pair of hungry little tykes scampering around hungry."

"We missed you," Bow answered honestly as she smiled at the cat with adoration.

"Did you make cookies?," Hattie asked practically sparkly eyed as she looked hopefully at her making the small cat laugh.

"Well you two haven't changed a bit. Always so sweet and hungry for sugar." She shook her head. "No. But I did make some roasted bird and mashed potatoes! Perfect for two little adventures! Now which one of you sneezed? It sounded like you caught a whopper of a cold." Both girls looked at each other for a moment, before looking behind them at Poppy who still watched silently as they all stood there, as soon as 'Cookie' saw her, the cat gasped and one paw came to cover her mouth as she caught sight of the messy grown, shivering woman in front of her. In a blink of an eye the plump cat carefully pushed past the girls and walked right up to Poppy. The red head could only blink and again feel kinda awkward seeing a giant talking talk on two legs......Wait. Was she a Nyakuza citizen? Was she one of those cat people she heard so much about? Well she didn't have much time to wonder until she stopped right in front of her and grabbed a part of her dress and pulled the material heavy and wet from dirty swamp water into her paws to examine. Sniffing at it before snorting and shaking her head, scowling up at her. She felt oddly small under the scowl of the small cat in front of her but still didn't move besides her shivering. "You look absolutely aweful! Look at this!'' She held up the material to her. "Look at your hair! You look like you went rolling around in the mud during a thunderstorm!"

She blinked stunned by the cat's bold and blunt move only responding with, "Uuuhhh....It's....Swamp water??"

"Swamp water?" She eyed the human up and down before shaking her head and dropping her dress, hands....uh..paws coming to stay on her hips. "I've seen plenty of country folk in my time for sure that don't mind to get a lil dirty, but you're the first one I've seen soaked romping through a swamp."

"It...wasn't really my intention to be soaked by gross water, but I crashlanded in some when I landed." She gave a small look to the little hat girl behind her who smiled nervously at her words. But was soon looking back to the cat when she made a small hum.

"So you landed here to? Does that mean you're another alien?"

"W-What? N-no. I'm from here I promise! I just....happen to be visiting their space ship is all," she clarified.

"Oh!" The small cat lady finally smiled at her like she had come to some brilliant conclusion. "Oh now I see. You must be one of their little friends! They have a lot you know."

"You could say t-that- ACHOO!!" Poppy turned her head to the side before sneezing again and sniffing. Her body still fairly chilly. Which didn't go unnoticed by the cat.

"Bless you! By the temperature of your dress, you must be soaked n cold right down to the fur." Her light scowl came back, "Didn't you ever think to change into a dry pair of clothes?"

"I g-guess it must've slipped my mind."

She was cut short when the small cat jumped up and grabbed her hand yanking her into a leaning over position when she pulled her back a few steps. "Well. There's no sense in you staying like this any longer than needed. You all go get cleaned up before you eat a single bite." She made a grimace looking back over Poppy's soaked self and taking in all the dirt covering her body and how tangled her hair was. "And YOU definately go bathe and get a good change of clothes." One of her paws ungrabbed Poppy to shoo the girls off towards the right side of the control room as she lead Poppy towards it-

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!

Poppy Jumped and they all snapped in the direction of the ramp leading up somewhere and the cat let go of her hands. "OH!! The oven timer. Bird's done." She looked to the girls. "Now you go show her where the bathroom is and wash up. I gotta go make sure that birdy doesn't over cook. You know how much I despise burnt food." The girls nodded and the cat smiled again before running to a small green ladder right below the vault and climbed up it, running back through the double doors with another light slam to them as Poppy blinked.

"Who..was that?"

"Hattie grabbed her still extending hand a smile on her face. "Cookie! She's like a REALLY good chef! The best in the world!" Her steps were jumpy and happy like any child making a small smile come to her face as she was lead over to a small door next to the green ladder Cookie climbed. "She visits a lot and makes a lot of food for my fridge!" She licked her lips. "Her cookies are they best! But she's been really busy with her cooking show after finally leaving Mafia Town."

"Mafia.....town?"

Hattie nodded. "I met Mustache Girl there!"...She frowned a little bit. "She's not very nice.....HEY!" Her face brightened again as she got an exciting idea. "Now I can show you how COOL my ship is!"

"But Cookie said she needs a bath." Bow leaned sideways from behind her and blinked.

"But Snatcher said to show her my ship! We're still going to the bathroom, but exploring too!" Bow rolled her eyes as Hattie tugged Poppy over towards the small blue glowing door. A small blue rug with a wave patterned on it stood before the door and to the older woman's surprise it opened automatically by itself giving her a little jump. Technology had really advanced since she was a little girl didn't it? "Come on, come on! I wanna show you the potion room!" She went through the kid sized door no problem....but Poppy had to literally lean down to look down the long mini hallway.

Bow also looked down it with a worried look. "Hattieeeeeeee!! We're gonna get in more trouble! Knock it off and lets go wash!"

"Y'know we can show her the metro room too," came the sing song voice from down the hallway and an instant Bow's expression change.

"FINE!! But then we wash our hands! I'm hungry!" She called back before also bounding down the hall and poppy lowered more to look in "......Come on Ms Poppy!"

.......She hesitated but braced herself. It couldn't get any more worse than it already was, and she doubted there was any headless statues or dangerous stuff here on a child's chip. Coming down to her knees she went to start crawling as she couldn't stand to walk  through these small halls- Which ended with her doing a yelp and leaning back up onto her knees to clutch her sore wrist which throbbed out a course of pain when she put the slightest bit of pressure on, still pretty sore from the giant yank the noose gave her- Poppy shivered from remembering that encounter. One of the children called out to her again sounding impatient..and if this was indeed the direction to getting cleaned up, then she might as well not complain anymore and suck it up. That's what she always did growing up in a poor farming community. Sucking it up and being grateful for what you're given. Even if it means crawling down a hallway with only one hand, which she did. It was....Kinda embarrassing and time consuming, but a couple little children probably weren't going to judge her for having no choice but to squeeze through these blasted tunnels. As she crawled along she took in the details of the walls and especially the carpet. There was some very impressive details in the blue carpet, they were so beautiful. Some grand weaver must've put a lot of work creating these wave patterns and she briefly wondered how many pons it cost the little girl to buy and put in here. In her day it would've cost a pretty penny. It took a bit more but before she knew it. The other door opened and she was allowed to crawl on through and stand to her feet again. Shivering as a blast of cold air hit her freezing body and opening her eyes to a-.....Very strange sight.

"What IS this place?" The air was chilly, and down below was a dark blue water which could've been mistaken for water on first glance and a few things like random barrels and chests, with some furniture. A tall closet like space with the words saying Dirty Laundry Cleaner 3000, And a ladder leading up to a different doorway above them there.

"The storage room," Hattie replied before regrabbing her none hurt hand and tugging her towards the left, making her blink down as the two girls excitedly pointed towards another small door to the left. Unlike the one she just came through, this one glowed purple and had a bottle like shape on it. "I wanna show you around!" She wasn't sure what to do but didn't fight against her as she pulled her towards the door which opened with another Whoosh like noise and Hattie disappeared within it's hallway excitedly. Poppy didn't feel like arguing anymore than she already did today, and again leaned down to look down the hall. Unlike the first one, with one has a lighter blue rug with dark blue gear patterns when she looked down it. The children waving at her from the other side of the tunnel as well, excited grins still on their faces as she blinked. "Come on! Don't be a slowpoke!"

With another sigh, guess who did more slow crawling down another cramped hallway, but she'd be lying if she wasn't curious about an alien space ship. I mean who else from her time would've gotten the honor of being given a tour of a real flying space craft by a real alien no less? She was curious to see what mechanics and insides made up this thing, and besides it'd be rude to say no to someone who's offering to show you they're home so excitedly and if it meant she was going to be staying here for a little while then she might as well know where things were. By the time she got to the other side and was finally able to stand back up, she sighed at the feeling of warmer air at least. Warming up was definately on her to do list. But the almost emptiness of this room compared to all the other rooms Surprised her to say the least. This one was much more open and tidy looking with more stone walls, a couple metal pillars, and equipment you'd see inside a labratory. Right dead center of it all was another metal table thing blocked off by rope like in the control room, but this time it had a giant box of crayons sitting on it. The crayons were a simple green, blue, and red color.

"This is my potion room!," Hattie announced proudly pointing at the room itself, "But don't touch anything. Snatcher dropped one of those pink potions once and it turned him pink for days. He said we shouldn't mess with weird potions."

"Potion room?" Poppy gave the children another curious look. "Are you sure you're not a witch?"

"No. Only when I wear my brewing hat! But I don't know any magic."

.......That only confused Poppy more so why would a child have a potion room? But she again didn't get the chance to relax before Bow ran over towards the other side of the room and towards a small door like hatch on the floor, the small girl grabbing one side of hatch and pushing. Bow strained and after a few seconds a metalic screeching noise rang out as it opened, both women wincing, cringing back at the fingers on chalk bourd noise, and clapping their hands over their ears in some attempt to block out the screeching noise. Poppy was SURE the creaking, screeching noise could be heard everywhere on the planet from their place in space from how loud it was. Up, up, up the hatch went and one giant push Bow managed to push it over. With a giant metal banging sound, the hatch's round metal door SLAMMED and I do mean slammed against the floor with enough sound to be mistaken for a cannon going off. For a moment nothing happened and both Poppy and Hattie stood there still hands clamped over their ears and eyes shut closed.......before slowly reopening their eyes and after a moment of silence, uncovering their ears to the smiling curly haired girl standing there pointing at the the now open hole in the floor.

"Geez, Kid! I think you were loud enough to wake the dead all over space!......ACHOO!!" She sniffed again at the third sneeze.

Bow's smiling didn't waver, instead pointing to it. "Come on! You'll like it promise!" With another smile the tiny curly haired girl turned and jumped down the hole.

"HEY!! KID!!" Poppy ran down the small set of stairs and ran over to the hole in the floor, the fear of the child getting hurt randomly jumping into a hole taking over and immediately looking down the opening. At first she saw nothing. Nothing but a ladder leading down it and some kind of wooden circle thing....but she could definately hear giggling and someone shouting for her to come down as well. ......DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD AND UNSAFE IT IS TO CLIMB DOWN A LADDER WITH A SORE HAND?! Poppy wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the fear of just seeing Bow dive down here and the looming presence of an angry ghost made her do the crazy thing and start to decend the ladder to her uneasy feeling. Which doubled MORE when Hattie fell past her making her cry out for the child only to watch the hatted kid bounce on the round wood circle and catapult herself like a spring out of eye sight. Panic coursed through her as she went down as fast as a sore bodied woman with one good hand could and paused on the ladder when she could actually see the inside of the room. To her relief, Bow wasn't hurt at all but giggling and laying face up at the opening in a pile of weird green paper. The small girl giggled as she made a snow angel in the pile, and Hattie was luckily safe as well looking through another telescope on top of the weird gigantic pile of green paper. Poppy sighed and noticed breifly another small metal table with another small item on it. This time some kind of white dummy and pretty looking gold necklace. With a shake of her head the frazzled woman slowly climbed the last of the steps down and stood by the ladder leading back up. Looking around the room she noticed it looked at it she was on one of the town's busy streets, with plants along the wall behind the metal table, glowing eletric things she was sure only an alien would have mysterious shaped like a blue cat, and behind her by the wooden circle on a spring was a rack with newspapers of all things. .......She blinked. "What is this strange place?" She paused seeing more in color tv screens on fans hovering about and jumped as something rumbled past the window on the far side of the wall flashing yellow making her scramble back. "W-WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THAT?!"

"That's the illusion created by the monitor," Bow happily replied sitting up now and smiling around the room with a bigger grin, "Hattie said the time pieces add stuff to the rooms on the ship to help show where most are located. *sigh* It....reminds me of home...Without all the crime and bad things. I like it here."

At that little sentence Poppy paused. Before looking away with a guilty look, feeling bad over being about to scold the little girl for scaring her like that being so excited to show her home and the place that reminded her of it. Taking a second look around the weird room, she couldn't understand any of it. Were the Nyakuzian people technicalogically advanced too? Or did all this technology form as she slept? She may never know but the face of longer on the little girl's face hit home almost immediately at her. As far as Poppy knew Bow's home still existed just with 'crime and bad stuff' as she put it. Has she fled the country under a war or something? So many questions buzzed about her skull it was starting to give her a headache as she leaned into the cool metal of the ladder next to her. This was all too much too soon. And she wasn't sure how much more she could take at this pace-

"What are y'all doing down here?!" Poppy yelped and ended up accidentally hitting her forehead against the ladder. Instantly her good hand came to clamp at the sore area as she hissed and looked up above her and saw a pretty familiar orange calico face scowling down at them all, one dark orange paw holding onto the chef hat as she did so. "I thought I asked you all to go get cleaned up. I could hear all that ruckus right through the kitchen floor!"

Instantly the children had froze at the annoyed cat's voice and now sported a pair of guilty looks at one another. "We were just showing her!" Hattie's voice answered back for them.

"Well then. The next room she sees is the bathroom! Now you all get up here before I take my cooking back for Conductor to eat."

At the threat of their delicious dinner being taken away both children scrambled for the spring pad kicking up more dollar bills in their way. And Poppy watched with slight surprise as both jumped onto the spring pad one by one catapulting themselves all the way back up as Cookie leaned back to not get knocked over by the two shooting girls. ....Poppy briefly looked down to the spring pad then back up the hole.....Yeah. She was taking her chance with the ladder. The slow climb back up was agonizing but by the time she poked her head at the top she witnessed the older cat lightly scolding the girls for taking so long, but as soon as she saw the head of Poppy, Cookie turned and grabbed her good hand. Pulling with surprising strength of a small plump cat and helping her crawl the rest of the way out, sighing when she was able to climb to her knees.

"Are you alright, Pumpkin?," Cookie asked placing a paw on her shoulder before letting go quickly. "Goodness! You're colder than my home made ice cream!"

"ACHOO!!" Poppy sniffed again and looked up to the tiny cat giving a tired smile. "Y-Yeah. I guess I am a little chilly...And tired...and sore. And now that you mention food-" Her stomach gave out a rumble and she winced. She didn't even know she was hungry."

Cookie gave her a sorry look before sighing and looking back towards the watching children. "Ok you two. I think this young lady's had enough exploring for now. You two go wash your hands in the kitchen and eat your plates I placed in the fridge. I'm going to show your friend here to a room where she can get tidied up and warm." The two girls gave excited smiles at the mention of food and with an excited cheer they scampered off towards the hallway with another sigh from the cat who turned her attention back to Poppy. "I'm so sorry. They can be a little over excited sometimes."

Poppy smiled back and waved a hand. "Oh. No, no. It's ok. I should've expected that from children.....ACHOO!!''

"Well, I expect we need to get you all better before you catch a cold instead of just sneezing." Cookie gestured her up at Poppy slowly stood and made a grab to her hand- Fur suddenly bristling when the human yelped and pulled her still sore hand away from the grip of the cat....Which was immediately pulled back with a pained whimper from Poppy as Cookie frowned and held up the sore limb to her eyes. "....You're hurt."

"J-Just a few scrapes. I-I'll be fine."

"That's no excuse young lady. You should get this under some ice!"

"Yeah...That Snatcher ghost told me too."

Cookie hummed before tugging her and walking towards the small hallway with her in tow. "So I see you met this ghostly friend of theirs too."

Poppy blinked at the small cat. "Wait. You know who he is?"

"I stumbled across him a few times coming up here to visit. Hmph! He's very rude and always steals any dish I make with bacon when he's around me cooking. Quite the oddball out if ya'll ask me." The door whooshed open as soon as they were close enough and she walked on through gesturing for her to follow. "But never fear! Cooking Cat is here! I'll have you all better in no time flat. We'll just get you a change of clothing, a hot meal, and some ice then you'll be good to go!"

Poppy could feel her stomach drop a little as she bent down and proceeded to slowly crawl through the hallway after the cat. "Uh...About that. I-I don't have any clothing for myself really."

Cookie stopped mid step in the middle of the hallway before looking over her shoulder at the slowly crawling woman behind her and reached a paw up to rub to her head. "Well aren't you more forgettful than a penguin on the sun? *sigh* Alright then. I suppose I'll just have to borrow the girls' washer and dryer."

"What? Oh n-no! You don't have to go through all that trouble for me, Ma'am! It's fine."

"Nonsense! I'd be ashamed of myself if I didn't offer a hungry person like you some help and this wouldn't be the first time I helped a person get better...OH! That reminds me. You never told me ya'll's name."

"Oh..I-Im Poppy. Poppy Rooo- ACHOO!!....Rose Bloomington, Ma'am."

Cookie smiled at her. "No need to call me ma'am. Just Cookie. Cooking Cat's only mah stage name you know. Nice you meet ya." She smiled and turned to continue walking down the hallway with Poppy right behind her.

A curious question bubbling in the young lady's head and she blurted out, "So...Since you're a..cat. Does that mean you're a Nyakuzian?"

Cookie didn't stop walking or smiling but her tone shifted a little bit to the sad side. "Well, yes...But not anymore I suppose. The city became too crowded for my liking and too many crimes were comitted. Mostly theivery."

"Yes, I think Bow might've said something about that."

"Poor girl. No child should have to grow up in a place like that."

"So ....you two fled the country?"

Cookie chuckled as the door back to the storage room opened up and she walked out. "You could say that. No. I moved to Mafia town persuing my own dreams of being a master chef a long time ago. You see where ah'm from there's lots and lots of food carts and cafe's so I knew I wouldn't stand much of a chance if I just stayed, and even if I did I would've just become another small store in the piles of stores around myself." She stopped a little aways from the door just as Poppy was nearing the exit staring at the ground. "No. I never wanted to be just like the crowd. I knew I wanted more for my nine lives, so after saving as many pons as I could, I moved far away to Mafia town. I heard it was a big fishing community and they sold most of the city's fish to us. There were rumors about their leader being a chef too. So I thought it was the purrrrfect oportunity for me......I wasn't too right about that though."

Poppy was all wars by now as she slowly climbed out at last and rose to her feet. Giving Cookie a sympathetic look as the cat looked back up to her, her body shivering from the cold air again. "I-I'm....I'm so sorry. What happened if you don't mind me asking?"

Cookie chuckled again. "Don't mind a bit. The mafia hired me on bourd straight away in their kitchen....But it turns out they only did so because they wanted me to chase down all the mice they were having a problem with." Poppy made a scowl and Cookie waved her off. "I know. I was disappointed too. You see usually us cats don't have a very good reputation because of all the theives who happen to coincidentally be cats, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to become an under dog hero of cooking if that made sense. I thought I would be doing a good thing if I switched all their bad food for my good food and maybe spare a few taste buds, but I knew I was wasting my talents there." She turned and began to walk again with Poppy following politely listening interested. "Eventually I did grow tired especially after meeting the cute lil alien. And I just couldn't help myself with all the questions. Was alien food really better than ours? Was there advanced tools to better cook with? My curiousity got the better of me and before I knew it I had so rudely snuck into her bridge using some moon penguin's teleporter to get themselves to and from the moon."

"So....Does that mean Bow fled with you?" They had both reached the ladder that lead down to the storage room floor that would let anyone get to the washer and dryer to use and upon reaching it Cookie turned around and descended the ladder. Poppy slowly doing the same but with her sore arm it was still a little slower. "What happened?"

"No. Honestly I have no idea how she ended up in mafia town herself, but that's a different story. Turns out an alien's kitchen is exactly like mine. In the long run I guess I was hoping for some kind of miracle to help me out of my rut but it didn't matter. I got fired by the head boss as soon as I came back for comspiring with traitorious aliens."

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry." Poppy's foot touch the ground and she watched as the calico waved her and made her way towards the Laundry Cleaner 3000.

"No. I was sick of working for those brutes anyways."

"So...What did you do next?," she asked as she followed.

"Well....I stayed home and felt pretty bad for a long time, but then I found an ad in the newspaper for a cruise ship needing a cook! So obviously I took the chance. It was....not better than the mafia to be honest. Those seals were decent cooks but they were so accident prone and their kitchen was so dangerous. I'm almost glad the ship sank, but it just meant I was back to square one again.....I was so about to give up and go back home. Better a small cook like the rest than not being a cook at all anywhere." Her smile grew as she just waltzed right into the closet like space and turned to poppy. "That little alien is more resourceful than you might think."

"Why? What did she do?"

"Why?...She introduced me to the man....or penguin that made all my dreams come true. We met up again by chance when she was on the same cruise, talk about coincidence. She saw how unhappy I was and wanted to help. But I didn't beleive she could do anything about my situation having already had so many set backs." She made almost a happy purr as Poppy finally walked in next to her after gesturing for her to stand next to herself. "So imagine my surprise when one day Mr. DJ Grooves himself arrived on my doorstep and asked ME of all people to star in a cooking show series! He said his little star told him all about the delicious food his staff received on their vacation and my cute face was absolutely perfect for it! IT WAS A HUGE HIT!! Turns out those moon penguins LOVED all my fish recipes and tips! Next thing I knew I signed a business contract and finally saw my dream take off right before my own eyes. I'll NEVER be able to thank them all enough for making it come true."

"A...cooking show? I didn't know they made those."

"Really? I guess swamp people wouldn't have tv. Oh. Push the red button there to take us down." Her paw pointed to a red button on the inside of the machine they were in.

"A-Actually...I grew up on a farm. W-We were pretty poor." She frowned and reached over to push the button like Cookie had asked. Wobbling a little when the ground beneath them suddenly lowered and she looked up to watch as the light disappeard.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I had no idea," Cookie apologized with a paw placed gently on Poppy's arm. "You poor thing."

"Uh...N-No. It's ok.....You can't change the past." Her frown saddened even more at that.

Cookie's smile came back as she looked at her. "That's true. I can't change how said and how much I struggled then, but that don't mean we can't have a happy future."

".....Heh. Y-Y'know...Y-You're the second person to r-really....t-t-tell me that." When light came back up Cookie's smile vanished seeing the older woman starting to cry but quickly trying to stop once light hit her face." I-I'm sorry. I s-shouldn't get so emotional. I-It's just that so many big bad things have happened recently a-and I.....I-.."

She stopped when a paw grabbed her and Cookie gave her a slightly stern and determined look. "Honey, there is no reason not to cry if you feel like you want or need to cry about it. Now you go on right ahead and don't mind me. Because I'm not gonna stop someone if they need to cry out their emtions. It's unhealthy to keep that bottled up."

That's just what she needed to hear. With watery blue eyes Poppy stared at this little cat for a long silent moment before she sniffed again and finally small little tears began to drip down that face one after another and before she knew it she was on her knees sobbing harder and louder than a baby. Cookie shushing her and rubbing the poor sobbing gal's back as all the pent up emotions finally came out as she cried and cried.

"IT'S NOT FAIR!!," she wailed out to no one between chokes. Her good fist coming down to hit the floor in frustration and anger. "IT'S NOT FAIR!! IT'S NOT FAIR!! WHY DID IT HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME!? I WANT TO GO H-HOME!!" She hiccuped hard and reached her arm up to wipe at her heated face. "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!! B-B-BUT I C-CAN'T B-BECAUSE EVERYTHING'S GONE!! *hic* AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO!!"

"Shh. There, there. I know it must be tough not having a home. Feeling so lost and scared having no one around. But it'll be ok. You just let it all out, Sugar."

"H-How do y-you know?," she hiccuped again and looked to the cat in question with tears blurring her vision.

Cookie smiled sadly. "Because I have a little blonde girl living with me who felt the same way. Sometimes these things happen and we just need a little help." The paw came up to her shoulder as Cookie pulled a small hankerchief from her chef's pocket and offered it to her to which Poppy was rather grateful. "Feel better?" She hiccuped and nodded wiping her face with that small tissue. A little relief coming to her from letting all the emotions out. "There, there. Come on. I bet you'll feel even better after getting all this dirt off your pretty self and getting a bite to eat."

Her stomach rumbled again at the mention of food and Cookie chuckled. Slightly pushing her body upwards to help motivate the sniffing gal to her wobbly feet once again and have a look around the room once those tears were dried away. ....Oh. This must've been the bathroom they were talking about it was all very clean with sea themed things everywhere. Starfish shaped handles on the drawers, sea shell covers for the lights, towels, a sink, mirror, bottles of soap, laudry soap, and shampoo on the shelves along with the towels, bath toys, and anything and everything else a bathroom would have including what looked like an extra set of washing machines with one right open with what looked like warm water and a stepping stool in front of it. There was even another metal table like thing with a tray of fake cakes on it. But funnily no showers or a bathtub in sight. Perhaps she was supposed to use the sink to wash her face but was surprised when Cookie lead her over to the full washing machine.

"Alright. Here. I'll get you a nice herbal shampoo, those work wonders for silky, soft hair."

"I-.....B-But this is a-

"Washing machine? Oh heavens no. It was recycled into a bathtub. Something the aliens call recycling. Fascinating isn't it? Now go on. Wash up. You don't want to be filthy forever do you?"

Well......She was in really no position to argue about anything anymore was she?

[michelleloc17]

Saitama x Female!Reader part 5

There was a slight fear that sparked in (Name's) chest that being asked about Saitama wouldn't be surprising to her anymore. Why? Because everyone asked about him. Due to all the commotion from gossiping and stories, there was hardly anyone in the Association who didn't know about the new couple. Like I said. It spreads. For (Name), it had begun subtly. After a week back from the hospital, the female was making her usual rounds through corridors in HQ and greeting some heroes she had befriended since her time here. Saitama had begged her to move in with him, but felt a bit self conscious about it. Politely, she declined her awesome boyfriend, who would plaster on a pouty face whenever she denied his request. On her way back to her quarters, (Name) had picked up a small snack accompanied by a bottle of (fav. Drink), one of her favorite beverages. Upon walking back to her room though, she found her feet dragging a bit and her body tip forward in a slight trip, her drink and the snack falling to the floor with a thud. Cursing to herself, (Name) struggled to pick it up, due to the pain in her shoulder but was stopped by a shorter lady with bright green hair. The (h/c) haired female gazed down at the shorter one as she bent down to pick it up, and handed it to her. This stranger was very pretty, with a toned slightly muscular body and a form fitting black dress that flowed out at her legs but were cut into thick slits. Her green hair matched her equally dashing green eyes and her face even though looking stern held a slight hint of mischievousness within them. Taking the drink and snack from her, (Name) immediately thanked her, as the other female nodded. "Don't mention it. You're the Caped Baldy's girl, correct?" The shorter female pointed up to her, and upon that mention, (Name) flushed a tad, smiling. "Y-Yes. Saitama is my boyfriend. I'm (First Name) (Last Name)." She replied, bowing politely as the green haired lady nodded, a slightly impressed smirk on her face. "Hm, you may call me Tornado. I'm a bit shocked though." The female, or Tornado commented, placing a finger on her chin as she literally looked (Name) down from head to toe. (Name) blinked at her, confusion etched in her expression. "Shocked? Why?" The female asked, as Tornado folded her arms across her chest. "How did Saitama end up with a girl like you? You're too pretty for him. Unless it's out of pity you're dating him." The green haired female exclaimed, making it seem like (Name) was completely out of Saitama's league to be with her. The comments honestly hurt the (h/c) haired female, but she controlled herself, trying to be positive. "Oh, well we've been friends since we were children. I've had feelings for him for quite a while, and he's very good to me." (Name) smiled at the ground, recollecting on their first week officially as a couple. He was still the same, but his actions did change slightly. He was always flustered with her, and when other men where around them, sometimes Saitama would keep her closer or claim he was cold just so he could receive a hug from her in front of other men just to say: hey, she's mine. When it got late after she had spent most of her day with him and Genos, Saitama would walk her home and cuddle with her till she fell asleep, then would walk back to his room his mood light and giddy. Tornado took note to her expression and nodded. "Well, alright. But if he gives you any trouble I will not hesitate to kick him in the ass." She huffed, softly pounding her left palm with her right fist. Those words made (Name) smile more genuinely, and she as well felt her head nod. "Thank you for that. Girls have to look out for each other, right?" (Name) commented, earning a soft laugh from the shorter one. "If you need anything," Tornado spoke, waving as (Name) stepped in her room, gazing back at the green haired female. "You can come to me." As the female shut the door to her room, Tornado found herself quickly turning a corridor and sighing. Reaching up, she pressed a button on sometime of head gear she had hidden from sight with her hair, and soft static rang through her ears. "Yes, it's Tornado." "No! She's not with me you idiot!" "No...she seems really nice. I don't think she's a threat." "You do anything to her, I'll fuck your shit up." "Why do I care? Don't ask me why, because I don't care." After that, (Name) was constantly bombarded with questions about her darling boyfriend and herself, and it seemed she had gained a new friend at the Association. After meeting Tornado, despite others talking bad about her, had become good friends with the green haired female. Tornado was glad there was another female that had a seemingly good head on her shoulders, and wasn't a weirdo like most of the female heroes or staff members at the Association. She was just a normal person, which sometimes Tornado wished to be, and was glad she wasn't some crazy fan-girl or something. (Name) was also introduced to the fact that Tornado was blessed with amazing psychokinetic powers, meaning she could move anything and carry things with only her mind. The female had realized Tornado had these powers when the green haired female literally flung a man all the way across the room after he did something (Name) could only assume Tornado was not pleased with. It had been roughly two weeks after meeting Tornado when (Name) was literally dragged one day out of HQ to go someplace that the green haired female called, "A Sacred Place." (Name) was uneasy at the fact she was doing this, but hesitantly complied, following her. Going to a location where she had no idea where it was at was not the only thing that made the (h/c) colored female uncomfortable. Living in the Association, there were a set of rules that every hero who lived there had to live and abide by. (Name) residing in the living spaces of HQ also had to follow these rules, and there was one important one she and Tornado were about to break. Leaving HQ without Authorization. Heroes were upon strict orders to report when and where they were leaving to, if it be fighting a villain or just to visit family, everything had to be recorded. This is to prevent a possible emergency if certain heroes were needed to defeat a monster. If they failed to locate a needed hero, then that may lead to mass destruction and more casualties that could've been prevented. Running quickly behind her, they turned a corner to see a guard at the end of the road leading into the main entrance of the Association. Upon seeing the two coming, he stepped in front of the barricade that prevented easy passing and blew noisily on a whistle. "Stop! I need authorization before you pass!" The guard called out, as the two females got closer. "Tornado? I don't think we can go--" "Here! Leave it to me." The green haired female raised her hand still running with (Name) following, and a bright green aura began to form around her palm, lacing through her hair and making her eyes glow. The guard suddenly froze still, standing with his eyes blank and his expression dull as the two easily passed by him. After reaching a good distance away from him, Tornado's glow disappeared and she slowed her running to a stop. Huffing slightly, (Name) stopped behind her, still at shock at what she had just witnessed. "What...what did you do to that guy?" The female gasped for air, her shoulders heaving as her heart thumped violently in her chest. Tornado's breathing was also ragged, because she usually didn't run, she would just fly everywhere. Swallowing a lump in her dried out mouth, she lazily pointed to the guard far off from them and coughed. "He's okay. I just..." she had to let herself breath for a second. "I just erased his memory of seeing us. I knew if we just left without authorization he would definitely tell higher ups, and we'd get in trouble." She felt her breathing slowly go normal again and she stood straight, placing her hands proudly on her hips. (Name) gazed back to see the man now going about his business like they had never passed through, and turned back to smile brightly at Tornado. "That's amazing! That could really come in handy someday!" The location Tornado was wanting to take (Name) was a place that (Name) was not really expecting. The two had to take a train and use some flying to reach a small town accompanied by a range of mountains and a beautiful body of water. Gazing down at the scenery below her, (Name's) eyes brightened. "It's so pretty, Tornado! What is this place?" She asked as Tornado held her easily with her psychokinesis. Gazing down at the town herself, Tornado felt a small smile grace her lips and her eyes held, nostalgia. "This is the town where my sister and I grew up." (Name) sat quietly in the grass with her bare feet dunked from her mid calfs in the lake. The water was absolutely refreshing, and the breeze was nice to feel. Tornado was sitting beside her, her legs tucked close to her with her chin resting on her knees. Her eyes were gazing at the water, and from time to time she would fling some rocks with her powers to skid on the water. "I'm assuming this is that Sacred Place you were going on about." (Name) hummed slightly as she spoke, tilting her head back to bask in the slowly setting sun over the mountain side. Not a lot of people lived in this town as (Name) was informed by Tornado, who seemed more happy as she talked about her past and childhood. "Yes, this is my Sacred Place. If anything were to happen to this place, I don't know what I'd do." Tornado sighed, turning her head for her cheek to rest on her knees. The female beside her nodded, reaching to gently touch her injured shoulder that was resting on its sling. "You care about this place a lot...why'd you take me here?" (Name) asked, her head now turned to Tornado, who's calm face tensed. "Well...you've been getting a lot of pestering from a lot of people in the Association about you and Saitama...and I thought you'd appreciate a breather." Tornado huffed slightly, a tint of pink dusting her cheeks. (Name) giggled watching as the S hero pouted slightly, and nodded. "I appreciate your concern...but I really miss Saitama. Can we start to head back?" The (h/c) female gently took her feet out of the water and shook off some water from them to sip on her shoes again. She really did miss Saitama. This was the first time in weeks they hadn't seen each other at least once everyday. She had been gone all day. Tornado nodded softly, standing up and stretching. "Yeah, we can leave. But there's another reason why I've brought you here." "Another reason?" Tornado nodded, glancing from the lake then back to (Name) who's (e/c) eyes were intent on her. "You know your boyfriend has immense power." "Right." "And you know he can basically defeat anyone with one punch." "Correct." "Well...the Association picked up something when you came back to Japan." "When I came to the Association for the first time? That was like 7 months ago." (Name) was slightly alarmed that the Association was extremely nosy in her business, but stayed silent as Tornado explained. "They noticed his strength falter a bit, and their first assumption was that you for some reason was draining his power. That made the Association suspicious of you." Tornado gazed up for a second to see (Name's) expression. The look on her face held many emotions, some that Tornado couldn't quite make out, but she continued. "They wanted me to spy on you. To see if you had any bad intentions on the Association. But clearly you do not. I actually consider you to be a friend, and you have to be very special to be my friend!" The green haired female exclaimed, a hand placed on her chest as she spoke. "...Let's just go back, Tornado." (Name) whispered with her gaze glued to the ground. "Take me back." Returning to the Association, (Name) went to the first place that came into mind. Saitama's quarters. Having a spare key to the room, she slipped into the room and passed the living room, kitchen and bathroom and toward Saitama's own room. By the time Tornado and (Name) had gotten back from their little adventure it was already night, and barely managed to escape getting caught. Walking into the dark bedroom, she saw Saitama's sleeping figure sprawled on his bed with the pillows and blankets all askew. (Name) let out a yawn, taking off her jacket and shoes to crawl to Saitama's side. The movement on the mattress caused Saitama to stir slightly, and slowly his eyes peeled open to see a figure laying right beside him. As usual, he didn't think much of it. But he turned slightly to flick on the bedside lamp to show his beautiful girlfriend, who had her eyes closed. "(Name)!" Saitama exclaimed, but not too loud as to be considerate. (Name) opened her eyes once again to smile up at her excited boyfriend, and leaned in to greet him with a kiss. The bald man returned the kiss, hugging her tight but keeping mind to her hurt shoulder. "I missed you so much..." Saitama admitted, nuzzling her close. (Name) reached up and placed her hand on Saitama's cheek, apologizing. Saitama didn't want to make a big deal of it, but he noticed her demeanor. Something was eating at her, but he didn't know what. He understood from experience that if someone was upset, it was in the best interest to not bug them to admit why their upset. How would he go about doing this? After the female apologized it was quiet for a moment, with just the two of them cuddling together in bed. Suddenly, (Name) felt cold finger tips crawl under her shirt and touching her stomach. The sensation made the female yelp slightly, and she held onto Saitama's shoulders in panic. "Saitama, what are you doing? You're hands are fucking cold!" (Name) hissed, as the bald mans mouth placed itself on her jaw, sucking on her skin softly. His hands went higher on her torso and placed themselves on her breast, gently reaching to unclasp her bra. "Sai, a-answer me! What's gotten into you??" She squealed when she felt his tongue lap on her neck and travel to her collarbone, causing her to let out a soft moan. Saitama had successfully unclasped the bra and it now hung loosely on (Name's) shoulders. The females cheeks were flushed a bright red, her eyes half lidded gazing up at her boyfriend, who was now on his knees with his body caged around her. "As long as you trust me, there's no need to worry." He whispered, tucking some strands of (h/c) behind (Name's) ear, and smiling. "But I want you to know I respect you, so I'm asking for your consent. All I want to do is please you." His face was gentle, unlike his usual bored expression or the occasional serious expression. He sound and looked contempt and happy. (Name) look back at him, feeling a smile perk up on her lips, and she reached out to wrap her arms around his neck. "You have my consent. Please me..." she whispered, before leaning into a more loving and passionate kiss. As morning hit the the windows and showed through the cracks of the blinds, it's light shines brightly on the sleeping face of (Name) who awoke to find herself cuddled tightly in the bare arms of her hero Saitama, who was still peacefully asleep. The female smiled lightly, placing her hands on his bare chest and she laid quietly in his arms, watching his sleeping face. It was when she realized both herself and Saitama were completely naked when she remembered the events of last night. Whoo, she'd be sore for a couple of days.