#and when she got out she had shards of those dimensions stuck in her and merlon had to fuse her body with those to save her life

[hopeaterart]

Ooooaaaeoouuuugh I'm having coherent PMTOK Horror AU ideas again. I'm rebooting the whole thing by the way.

[redrum-alice]

[OC stuff] I like to ramble about my OCs, so ignore this

Thinking about that trope where the villain tries to convince the protag that "humanity isnt worth saving, so why do you have to sacrifice yourself for them?" (+ spoilers i guess?) + this is corny, so really...ignore this--

!!Some potentially triggering stuff about s*icide and ab*se of power, so CW!!

So like CJ isnt very lucky in life and in the beginning of whatever tf i wrote, its implied she wanted to "end" herself by overworking once she repaid her foster family (they loved her unconditionally, but she sees herself as a burden bc they never asked to care for a child) + she had a survivors guilt over the fact that "she couldnt save whats left of her friends" when she was around 8 years old, stuck in a facility (slaughterhouse).

So when she escaped and was given another chance (in her teens, shes trying to adjust, angst ensues etc.) and met Arthur the ghost who convinces her "its not so bad to have some people in your life", so she does. She ends up having a few friends, but shes skeptical. Basically Arthur was there trying to support her to go out and have a life (because he wanted her to have a good life- something he unfortunately could not have since he died when he was 14 yrs old in the 1930s-40s)

Bonus: Arthur helped her find a job from another dimension where she delivers letters/memoirs to spirits who have stayed too long and wandering about in limbo that never got closure. She is responsible for preventing them in turning to demons that spread despair (along with other postmen/mailmen)

Yes...she and arthur made a deal that if he got her a job, shell help him reunite with his family (but he doesnt remember them bc he was wandering too much)

In comes Poppy, a lonely girl who was well off- and heiress. While she may not flaunt her wealth, she has that intimidating aura that alarms CJ despite Poppy wanting to have friends. Weirdly enough, she has a deep fascination with CJ, all because she sensed that she has the ability to see ghosts, something that Poppy was jealous of. Poppy practiced dark magic all her life, and was aware of what her father does- running the facility for harvest eyes from people.

CJ couldnt figure out what was bothering her about Poppy, because she have sworn the blonde girl was familiar somewhere. It turns out Poppy was that one girl she saw at the facility who was walking with her father right after he ordered the staff to put them in the operating table to sedate them and harvest their eyes. CJ, at that time, looked drastically different from what she looks today, even down to her legal name which was now stripped from her and was turned into numbers.

Poppy was brainwashed into thinking that her life's purpose is to complete her father's work, and in order to do so, she has to collect any potential candidates for the cult's experiment to complete the giant homunculous resting beneath the earth for thousands of years (she still has no idea what they would use the giant for, since she herself doesnt have the gift of sight or "eye shard" like CJ does).

Poppy also knew what she and CJ were made of- they were made from that same material and genes as those of synthetic flesh of homunculi only that they were conceived, but without a soul or memory once theyre done with their work.

Homunculi don't have adequate expressions, and it was why it was hard for them to relate or react in certain situations.

She knew that once her time is up, she'll be discarded, so shes working hard to help the cult.

CJ discovered her origins later on-- that she wasnt her mother's daughter, but a clone of her brother to store the eye shard, since it favors female hosts. After uncovering everything, she felt devastated because all of the memories she had made with her found family and friends are all worthless since she herself isnt a human. Not an ounce of humanity is present within her, so why does she have to commit?

Poppy adds that theres really nothing in store for her sibce the world and its time will end at one point. CJ wont be remembered or reincarnated just like Poppy bc they were never and will never a spirit- a negative sentiment that eats Poppy's heart and making her unable to have meaningful connections unless it was with a condition.

Arthur rebuts this and says that shes more human that she could ever be. If he were alive and living in the same timeline and dimension, they wouldve been great friends. He was willing to stay so she would be happy, even though it would result with him turning into a demon.

In short: Looking back, her life wasnt meaningless at all. Her desire to end it all was a cry for help, and Arthur helped her through it. He gave her a reason to love people, even though it was hard at first.

Ending: Im not sure how this personal project ends since there are more characters i have to work on and polish.

Lmao, the story is a mix of Madoka Magica, Silent Hill, and Gumball. Make that of what you will 💀🔫

[five-rivers]

Tales from the Edge: Mail Run

First Edge Institute short story!  I hope you like it.  :D

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“Where are you going?” Deer asked, looking up from her soup to glare at Johannsson with suspicion.  

“Mail just came in,” said Johannsson, gesturing at the mail light.  The Institute’s driveway was long, and the mailbox was at the very end of it, so, to prevent extraneous trips, they had a sensor in it that sent a signal when the mailbox was full.  It was a recent addition.  “I’m going to go get it.”

“No, you’re not,” said Deer.  

“What?  Why?”

“Johannsson, when was the mail light put in?  I can tell you right now that it wasn’t forty years ago.”

“I’m not going to touch the sensor!” protested Johannsson.  

“Don’t want to risk it.  Besides, this is why we have interns.”

Zoe, on the other side of the break room, looked up with an expression of betrayal on her face.  “What?”

“Mail,” said Deer.  “Go get it.”

“I work for Research.”

“You’re an intern.  You work for everyone.  Besides, half of our mail is for research in the first place.”

Zoe scowled and spitefully shoved the rest of her sandwich into her mouth.  “Fine,” she said, spraying crumbs.  “I will. But if I get kidnapped on the way there, it’s your fault.”

“You’re just walking down the driveway,” said Deer. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“Your fault,” repeated Zoe, stabbing a finger at Deer as she walked through the door.  

A few seconds later, she was back.  She strode across the room to steal a loaf of bread and left again.  

“What was that about?” asked Deer.

“I think bread is supposed to help against fairies,” said Johannsson.  

“Really?  Why don’t we use that?”

“Some fairies,” amended Johannsson.

“That makes sense,” said Deer.  

.

It was a beautiful day.  Really.  

Unfortunately, kidnappings tended to happen on beautiful days. Zoe squared her shoulders before stepping from the nice, air-conditioned lobby into the scorching outdoor heat.  She sighed and trudged out into the parking lot.

Her palms sweated where they touched the plastic bread bag, and she kept switching it back and forth between her hands in an attempt to make it less uncomfortable to hold.  There was a breeze, but it was only barely strong enough to make the wheat planted on either side of the driveway rustle and whisper.  

Stupid grass.  Stupid internship.

She reached the mailbox and groaned as she saw the package shoved in it.  Packages were supposed to be driven all the way up to the front door. Especially packages that didn’t fit completely in the mailbox.  What if it had started raining?

The sun beat down on her, indicating exactly how likely that was.  

Okay, so this was more about the inconvenience to her, personally, than anything else.  If Johannsson had come back complaining about having to carry one measly package, she’d have teased him.  A lot.

With some effort, she yanked the box free and frowned at the places the cardboard had been pinched and warped by being squeezed into the mailbox.  Hopefully, there wasn’t anything fragile inside.  

The box was heavier than expected.  

She shifted the mail, bread, and box around in her hands, trying to find a comfortable way to hold the items, before giving up.  The driveway wasn’t that long.  

About halfway back, she adjusted the box in her hands.  If she didn’t know better, she’d say that it was getting heavier.  Maybe she should start weight training again.  But it took so long.  Ugh.  

Speaking of long…  She looked over her shoulder, back at the mailbox.  The unpleasant heat really was drawing this out, wasn’t it?

Yeah.  No. This had gone on for too long.  She broke into an awkward jog, her eyes staying steady on the front of the building.  

It wasn’t getting closer.  She stopped and pulled out her phone.  No service.  Not even wifi.  Typical. She turned around and walked back to the mailbox.  

At least, she tried to go back to the mailbox. It wasn’t getting any closer, either. So much for messing with the mailbox sensor to send an SOS.  

The box was heavy.  

Okay.  She wanted words with whoever had gotten the obviously cursed thing sent through their regular mail.  That had to be against Institute regulations.  

She knelt, settling the box on her lap.  She could open the box, but direct contact tended to be contraindicated in the case of most cursed things.  So.  Time to try to figure out what it could be and how to get rid of it.  

Yay.  

Well.  She did work for the Research Department.  

Something that grew heavier the more you carried it… The only thing that came to mind were the false children of the ubume, a Japanese yokai.  But those usually looked like children until you stopped, and, to the best of her knowledge, they didn’t have any space-warping properties.

Going at this from the other data point… Ugh.  Too many things warped space.  She didn’t even know where to start.  

Good thing she wasn’t planning on putting this on her resume.  

Question:  Would it be safe to just yeet the thing into the wheat?  

She made a face.  It would probably be better to avoid the yeeting for now.  She didn’t want to lose the thing, in case she had to kick the hell out of it or something to get it to stop trapping her. Chucking it as far away from herself as possible would come later.  She put it down on the side of the driveway, where some weeds were starting to come up. Hopefully, this wouldn’t turn out to be one of those cursed objects that punish the victim for trying to get rid of them.  

She walked away, towards the Institute.  

Ten minutes later, she almost walked by the package.  She groaned and glared at the offending object.  Great.

Another option she had was just waiting until someone sent out search parties, but she might be in a pocket dimension or something stupid like that.  There were too many incidents out there where a person disappeared, only to reappear in their last known location but dead from exposure.  

Andi, her parent, could probably find her despite that.  They always managed to find her in faerie, which was…  Not anything like a pocket dimension, once she got down to particulars, but still.  On the other hand, Andi would definitely give her grief for getting stuck in a pocket dimension on a mail run.

No, wait, there were other things she could do first.  Like walking into the wheat.  

Stupid grass was going to poke her so much.  She’d probably wind up with half a ton of seeds in her socks.  

This whole thing was so inconvenient.  She could be doing so many more useful things.

She renewed her promise to have a discussion with whoever had put this stupid thing in with the regular mail.  She turned ninety degrees and stepped off the road.

Ten minutes of walking through grass later, she stepped back onto the driveway.  Honestly, she hadn’t expected that to work.  Whatever.  

Time to peel this baby.  

… She was actively cursed.  If she wanted to make fun of the unboxing event from hell, she very well could.  

She knelt again, asphalt hot under her knees. She brushed away a bit of gravel that pressed against her skin.  

Why was there so much tape on this?  

Some old person packaged this.  She just knew.  

Finally, she tore the cardboard open to reveal—

Newspaper.  

She rolled her eyes and pulled it back aaaaaaand okiedokie.  That was creepy.  That was a freaking stone baby.  A… What was it called?  A lithopedion.  Calcified unborn fetus.  

Totally haunted.  Yep.   A ghost this close would normally set off the alarms in the Detection Department, but they missed things, sometimes.  Like the Great Fae that kidnapped her last month.

Provisionally, she decided to blame Mark, the Institute’s ghost expert and a member of the Containment Department, for this.  

“I’m not your mom,” she said, hoping that would settle this.  “Or your dad. I’m not old enough.  Well—” she rolled her eyes “—technically, physically I’m old enough, but I’m not, like.  Emotionally ready for a kid.  Or to die trapped in the driveway at the place I work on a mail run.  I mean, really.  That would be a sucky way to go.  I mean, I’ve been in sword duels with faeries.”

She stood up.  

“Let’s try this again.”

Ten minutes later she saw the creepy stone baby on the ground in front of her.  Stubborn thing.  

“Like, I’m more than willing to stomp the hell out of you if you don’t uncurse me,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.

That wasn’t one hundred percent true.  If this was a ghost, breaking its vessel might break its power, or it might free it.  Ghosts tended not to know that, though.

“One more try,” she said.  

Ten minutes later, she was in exactly the same place as she was before.  

Time for stomping.  She raised her foot.

A fairy dove out of the grass to fight her. He had a sword.  She smacked him with the loaf of bread, which did nothing, and glared with disgust at the stone baby.  It was just delaying.  This whole thing was an illusion.  Stupid illusion rock baby thing.  She’d probably break it and find out that she’d bypassed the Institute entirely and was standing in a stupid field somewhere.  Or maybe she’d been going in a loop, considering that she was still near the thing.  

The fight with the ‘fairy’ turned into rolling on the ground and hair pulling.  This was by design.  Eventually she got within grabbing distance of the stone baby, grabbed it, and brained the ‘fairy’ with it.  Then she slammed it on the ground.  It splintered, shards cutting into her hand.

The ‘fairy’ vanished.

Zoe took a deep breath.  Cool.  That was over then.  Yay.  

Now she’d—

Oh, no.  

The mail.  

.

Deer looked up from her desk as the door opened, saw it was Zoe, and looked back at her email before doing a double-take.  

“What happened to you?” she asked, standing.  “Are you okay?”

Zoe raised a single finger.  “I want to know,” she said, “who is sending cursed stone babies through the regular mail.”  She dumped a bunch of rock on Deer’s desk.  

For several long moments, Deer stared at it. “We’re going to need another session on our shipping policy for hazardous objects.”

“You think?”

[autistic-voices]

I used to play Toram Online like a madwoman, but then I got stuck on this stupid grass dragon out passed the Ethos fortress. I kept playing for a while even then, but there are only so many times you can take the same side quests before you get tired of it. Then, recently, I decided to give it a go again, and I won! TAKE THAT, DRAGON.

So anyway, I'm back to playing this game like a madwomen apparently because I just spent about four hours getting event-exclusive materials for an event-exclusive bow that's twice as good as my old one (and looks totally BA too, lol).

Because I'm back on my crap about this game and since coincidentally today's 30 Days question is about SpIns anyway, ya'll get to be subjected to it too. #thanksautism

Infodump about my character and (kinda) the game in general, too, under the cut.

First of all, this game is gorgeous, okay? Everything about it is gorgeous. The art, the music, the super simple controls. (I played Iruna Online for a very short time and very quickly gave up because the controls were such crap. These. These are lovely. I didn't play for months, and when I got back on, I picked it back up perfectly within a minute.)

Second, I've played mobile games that are "free to play" but in reality are "pay to win". Those are no fun, really, because you can only get so far. (Lookin' at you Age of Ishtaria. You were fun at the start until I couldn't keep up with the whales anymore.) This is NOT one of those games. Have I been tempted to drop real money on the in-game currency (Orbs) so I could open chests? Yeah. But do you even need to open chests to succeed in the game? NOPE. It's all very small stat bonuses from the gear so you can succeed without ever opening even one chest, and on top of that, they give away free Orbs and Avatar Tickets all the frickin time. I currently have 3 Orbs and 80 shards (collect 100 to make an Orb), as well as 2 Avatar Tickets and ~90 pieces (again, 100 makes a Ticket), and I didn't pay for any of that. And if you don't waste those free Orbs and tickets on chests that aren't "Guaranteed Avatar," then you can amass some really cool stuff. My above character is proof of that (but I'll talk about her gear later on). That's not even mentioning the New Player bonus chests: 30 free chests, 11 items each chest. Not all of the items are gear, but I have gotten a ton of good stuff from it.

Anyway, on to my character. (Is what comes below "cringe"? Yeah. Do I care? Nope.)

Fay is an almost level 80 archer. Gear consists of an assortment of pieces. She has three different skill sets: shot skills, survival skills, and hunting skills.

She's from a noble line (overused, I know, but the alternative was "back woods farm girl" which...is also overused, lol). She wanted more from life than the simple pleasures and ease that came from nobility, so she left under the cover of darkness to become a Straye Adventurer. Her mother actually caught her in the act of leaving but understood and didn't stop her and is, in fact, the only reason her father didn't send someone after her to bring her home. While he didn't approve initially, he came to respect her wishes to travel and help people -- and to find her true self. (He did, in fact, send another Straye after her early on, but Fay ended up befriending him, and when they eventually parted ways, he promised to not return to her father. When her father later came to terms with her choice of profession, she made sure the Straye got his rightful pay; he did find her, after all.)

Before she left, she had already been proficient with a bow, so she stuck with those skills and made them work for her, even though it proved to be less than optimal in close-combat situations. To make up for that, she learned battle survival skills and increased her bow skills through hunting. She also learned how to infuse her attacks with elements and magic -- something she hadn't known was possible before leaving home.

Before she left, she had already been proficient with a bow, so she stuck with those skills and made them work for her, even though it proved to be less than optimal in close-combat situations. To make up for that, she learned battle survival skills. She also learned how to infuse her attacks with elements and magic -- something she hadn't known was possible before leaving home.

Her gear was chosen as strategically as her skills. The Necromancer Mask to shield her eyes from harsh light (because she's autistic because I'm autistic, ha). Her clothing is a combination of Shadow and Nocturn Assassin: light-weight, cool, comes with protection for her forearm from the bowstring. (Admittedly, the Fallen Angel Wings are just there to look pretty.) Current bow of choice is Dia equipped with a split arrow.

She never thought she'd find herself at the World's End or falling into another dimension, but that's just par for the course now.

[rhodochrosite-love]

WOW everyone who commented on my Wirt birthday post are amazing!

Here’s the au I’ve been working on where it started off as just a Ford Pines self insert, but turned into very interesting idea!

Stanley is kicked out and Ford goes to Backupsmore, while Penny stays in Jersey to help pay off her childhood home’s mortgage. All in the early 1970s.

Ford is awarded a doctorate 3 years ahead of schedule, and prepares to move to Gravity Falls, Oregon in 1973.

In the same instant, Ford gets a call from his parents and after he tells them he’s moving to the northwest, they inform him of Penny living with them. Shocked, Ford is conflicted. Should he go to his sweetheart? He couldn’t imagine what could’ve happened that made her stay in his parents home… After consulting with Fiddleford, he quickly travelled back to Jersey to confront Penny.

Penny explains that she couldn’t take care of the house like she thought she could, what with her book-keeping job as well as her secretary position AND the pressure from it all really weighing her down. She couldn’t help her home anymore so she turned to the only people she knew left in Glass Shard-- Filbrick and Caryn Pines. She had been pulling her weight with buying food, despite Caryn’s pleas to rest whenever she could and her job offers.

Ford listened and took her side. He said he was moving out West to Oregon and had wanted her to come with him. He missed her dearly and could clearly see she needed to get away-- Jersey is no place for a princess.

She accepts in a heartbeat at the thought of living out there, alone with her sweetheart amongst the wood.

1972-1979 Penny and Ford start a life of adventure in Gravity Falls up in their cabin in the woods, catalouging new anomalies every day! After such a hard time, Penny adores the relaxing atmosphere and spending time with her boyfriend after 3(ish) years.

C. 1976 Penny can’t help but begin to think about the future with Ford, and tries to decide whether or not they should marry. In her heart she knows she wants to, but in her mind she feels as though Ford wouldn’t be as on board for whatever reason. After speaking with Susan (Lazy Susan) and Lana (Wendy’s mom), her newfound friends, she decides she has to speak with Ford!

After being avoided most of the day by her beloved (due to him being very distracted by the mystery of the Hide-Behind, and eventually their unavoidable run-in with it. emotional scenes with Penny’s annoyed tone) At the end of the day, Ford admits over dinner that he was avoiding her for the whole day due to his nervousness. After being asked why, he tells her that… “I’ve been fascinated by anomalies my whole life-- the Hide-Behind, the Gnomes, the Eyebats, that UFO theory I’ve still got stuck in my head--” “Stanford, please.” “--Even I, as normal as I may seem, my six fingers made me who I am today! … But… “ Ford reaches in his coat’s pocket, and pulls something from it and places it on the dinner table. “You, Penelope Wright, have been the one thing that’s done both for me-- Fascinated me, baffled me, cherished me, twirled me ‘round and ‘round again ‘til I was dizzy with delight.” “Ford, what’re ya sayin’?” “Penny, dearest... “ He reveals the item, it being a ring with the sweetest red gem in its center shaped like a rounded heart. Penny sniffled, “The apple… Stanford, you’re such a prince!” Before he could utter those four simple words, Penny kissed him breathless. When she pulled away, he was flushed from his ears to his nose and asked her then, whispered against her lips. She said yes, and then many times that night.

C. 1977 Bill realizes his plan is being challenged by this engagment! He had never thought of Penny to be a true problem until now, what with the now foretold probability of the wedding and children as a distraction! Bill makes a deal with Lana to guide Ford to the cave in which Bill was scribed by the natives in exchange for a long life. Ford summons Bill and to no avail, nothing happens until Ford falls asleep.

It was then Ford dreams about Bill and begins to work with him to open his dimension to study the weirdness of Gravity Falls and beyond.

With the new development in the mysteries, the wedding is delayed and Ford and Penny become very busy in their new findings with Bill’s help.

C. 1978 Fiddleford McGucket is employed as the head engineer in building the Portal to the other dimension. Upon hearing the news of Stanford’s engagment, he hoorah’d and congradulated his old roommate.

C. 1978-1979 The portal has been built, as well as the bunker and the second level of the basement. Fiddleford begins to despise his creation and begs Ford not to follow through with his plans and instead publish his findings and settle down properly with Penny. Ford declines and they move to test the portal the next day, Jan 18th 1979.

Jan 19th 1979. Fiddleford gets sucked into the portal, but then gets rescued by Penny and quits the whole she-bang.

Jan 20th, 1979. Bill sees that he has to manipulate Penny, too. She’d been taking Fidds’ side, and since she’s very close with Ford, it’s necessary. He enters her dreams and states that if she make a deal with him, he can make him see reality again. To Penny’s knowledge, Ford’s been driven to madness with his paranoia and struggles to see the light. Bill says that he can fix everything. If he ensconced a baby in Penny’s womb, one that’s both her’s and Ford’s completely, he will see the light again. In return, she has to take a hike. She makes the deal, and he ultimately sends her away. Confused, she cries. But when Bill explains that he basically makes her pregnant with a baby of a man that ‘doesn’t love her anymore’, and literally told her to ‘take a hike’. Embarrassed and humiliated, she flees into town and stays there, leaving Bill to torment Ford to his isoceles heart’s delight.

Sometime in October, before the 22nd, 1979. Penny gives birth to little Walter in Sacred Hirsch Community Hospital. At this point in time, Ford has been thrown into the portal by accident and Stanley has taken his place, in the process of making money for the new Murder Hut.

1980. Penny interrogates this new so-called Mr. Mystery, thinking he’s Ford. She rips at him, accusing him of neglecting her and hurting her. A lot of anger comes out, as well as sadness and despair and raw misery when she says that he no longer cared about her, and she doubted he ever had in the first place. When Stan pulls her to the side and finally looks her in the face clearly (before he was frantically looking around the room, his hut full of customers), he recognizes her faintly as Penelope Wright, the girl Sixer was in kahoots with back in Jersey. He sees her and the now crying baby she’s holding and connects the dots, and is flabbergasted that he’s an uncle! Well, he was already an uncle but that was for Shermie! Penny argues that it was a mistake. Little Walter was the making of a demon named Bill Cipher, and she never should have trusted him. Stan then takes her down to the basement and shows her what he’s done.

1981. Penny gets a job as a waitress at Greasy’s Diner with a little help from Lazy Susan.

1982. Penny needs to start fresh. Despite the fact that she’s got a job and is living with Stanley with a 3 year old Wirt (despite being named Walter, his first word was an attempt at ‘squirt’, which was a nickname given to him by Stanley. Everyone simply calls him Wirt now), she misses all the adventure from when she had Ford. Realizing she’s missing Ford, that son of a bitch that fell into a hole so deep he couldn’t climb out, she needs to get away. She saves up money from her Greasy’s job and now the Mystery Shack (unofficially hired. Stan just says that she’s always rearranging and flipping stuff over and it happens to look nice so he gives her some funds. She’s tried to refuse the money before, but he intensly insisted that she take it.) and moves to Arizona. Teary goodbyes are made and she hugs Stan the tightest of all, telling him to keep in touch.

1983-1994. Walter “Wirt” Wright is living in Arizona with his mother, Penelope Wright.

C. 1985. Greg Universe visits town and performs a live gig and seduces Penny. After a couple of succesful dates, they end up having unprotected sex. Not long after, he leaves town for another gig in Delmarva, doing gigs along the way. She ends up falling pregnant and struggles to comprehend the consequences.

C. 1986. Gregory Wright is born.

C. 1994. Halloween night, Wirt and Greg experience an adventure in The Unknown.

1999. Mason and Mabel Pines are born from Randy Pines and Kathy Pines

(2003. Steven Universe is born from Gregory “Universe” DeMayo and Pink “Rose Quartz” Diamond. Everything that happens with Steven is seperate from Dipper, Mabel, Wirt, and Greg.)

Update - Summer 2012. Penny takes a vacation to Gravity Falls and visits the Mystery Shack. She marvels at Dipper and Mabel and exclaims their cuteness. Mabel likes her when she’s given a butterscotch, but Dipper can’t help but question her motives. She seems awfully close with Stan and gets along well with everyone! Is she hiding something?

All is well until Dipper catches Penny trying to steal Journal #3, and he fights with her over it in his bedroom. Penny falls down and cracks something, making her scream. Stan rushes upstairs and takes Penny away, giving Dipper a nasty stinkeye. He tries to argue that she was trying to take his Journal, and Stan reacts by taking it himself.

Stan and Penny argue in the basement, saying that Dipper should have the Journal back. Stan tries to argue that he shouldn’t, but gives in. After making photocopies, Penny gives it back to Dipper. At first Dipper is skeptical, but awes when she tears up in front of him about it.

“Wow… You really care about the author, don’t you?” “Yeah, we were close…” She sits down beside him, opening the Journal to the Gnomes. “I remember the first time we saw the gnomes together… They tried to take me as queen!” “No way! They took Mabel as queen two weeks ago!” DIpper interjected, to which Penny laughed. “That explains this, then!” She pointed her crooked finger to the words; “Weakness: LEAFBLOWERS!” They both laughed.

At the end of it all, Dipper trusted Penny infineitly more. He was also more curious, as she knew the author. She wouldn’t give him a straight answer, however. Just saying he reminded her of her own son, Walter.

Penny stays in Gravity Falls until the Twins’ Birthday is over and they’re heading off to California.

August 22-25 2012. Weirdmageddon takes place. Penny serves as a scavenger and is found by McGucket and taken back to the Mystery Shack to be protected. She joins in the fight to defeat Bill Cipher, and when everyone’s in the Fearamid, it’s the first time Penny’s seen Stanford in nearly 33 years. He begins by saying hello, and saying he missed her. Before he can say anything further, she hugs him tightly, saying that he can apologize later. He prepares to retort, but when seeing Fidds’ face in response, he quietly hushes and hugs her back.

August 28 2012. Ford apologizes for how he acted and what he had done to her, like he always should have. She tells him about their son Wirt and he’s shocked. She tells him the deal she made and how she moved out of the state. After that conversation he hugs her tight and says she never should have gone through that. If he were a better man back then, she wouldn’t have had to make a deal to have a baby.

The same day, Mabel secretly arranges a wedding for her Grunkle Ford and new ‘Grauntie Penny’. Stan is on the sidelines for the whole occassion, but finally takes his brothers side as the Best Man. Mabel is the flower girl and Dipper bares the rings, while Susan is her maid of honor. Stanford promises to protect and cherish her for as long as he lives. Penny promises to care for him and heal him when the times arise. They smooch after some crazy heartfelt vows, thus they are married.

October 15 2012. Penny and Ford celebrate Wirt’s 33rd birthday. Wirt still isn’t used to his dad but comes around when he sees just how quizzical he is. They’re so alike it’s crazy!

November 2012. Penny joins Stan and Ford on the Stan ‘O War II.

(just to keep track-- in 2020 Wirt is 41, Dip and Mabs are 21, Greg is 34, and Steven is 17)

Mans that’s what I have! I’d love to hear anything from y’all about this!

[shayde-n-friends]

So what's the "and friends" bit? I know Hotwire and Shard are here, but I don't know about anyone else -Evalin

Shayde: Oh boy... Well. Let’s see...

At first, this was just the blog that Me and Ghost used to talk to other RH folks. And then...Vega decided to help me with it, because she’s good with people. (And is the best girlfriend ever.)

Then, Stake joined in. We thought it would be fun, and it was. He wanted to post a bunch of his mission logs, but the staff said it wasn’t a good idea because...”Classified?” 

Then Xavis and Roulette found me and enrolled. Xavis uses it more often than Roulette does, and mostly spends her time commentating Brawl Hall exhibition matches. She’s a good announcer! Roulette...Well she kinda just looks at pictures of Capybaras, Otters and Cats. I can’t blame her.

Revar jumped in a while after our first month here, after Stake and Vega. He likes posting about his family’s military work out routine, his weird Dextro-Amino diet and the history of these...Armiger Legion guys. I think it’s cool, even if I don’t get it.

His sister, Alleria joined up this year and now all she talks about is gossip. She especially likes digging up dirty secrets about people who bother Revar. She’s...very protective and petty of her brother.

The Assassins all joined in right after Revar. It’s mostly Shiho, but from what I understand they’re a package deal. Russell doesn’t post at all, and the one time he did it was a picture of his Harley-Davidson. Volker either posts tips about Fashion, or talks shit about Brit Krust. Even though...they’re kinda...dating? I dunno. Their relationship is somehow weirder than Blossom and Jack’s. Shiho posts these CRAZY ramen recipes, and even records herself making it and it’s just... WOW. IT’S WICKED GOOD.

Things got REALLY crazy when Stake’s brothers showed up. Suddenly we had 12 more people on this blog and...boy they’re all really different.

Hotwire loves vehicles. He posts Tanks, Planes, Helicopters, Pick-Ups...things like that. He also posts suits of armor of varying type. From his home dimension, from others...doesn’t matter. If it goes, he will post it.

Dreamer runs a dream journal, and somehow it’s less surreal than half the stuff that happens at this school.

Notch is basically a PSA machine. I think my favorite one is the dangers of getting your hand stuck in one of the quantum vending machines in the cafeteria.

Sweep...actually isn’t allowed to post on the blog anymore, because the first time he got the chance, we went on this MASSIVE Anti-Robot Tirade, and Stake literally had to kick his ass to get him to stop.

Wingnut posts helmet camera footage of him jumping of stupidly high places and flying around on his jetpack...he only posts every once in a while because people started getting motion sick from the footage.

I’m half convinced that Stag doesn’t actually post. I’m pretty sure that it’s actually Phantasma that does it. That, or it’s weird cryptic stuff that’s an in-joke between them. Either way, I don’t understand it.

Bulk doesn’t really understand what the point is, and...well spends his time talking to anyone that will interact with him. Thankfully no one tries to take advantage of him.

Cliff takes pictures of mountain ranges or sky-views. He just likes hiking and mountain climbing. Pretty simple honestly, though i’m afraid he posts them because he thinks they’re potential Sniper’s Nests...

Heater posts videos about creative Camp-Fire builds, how to safely put them out, and what foods are best to roast on them. For being a pyromaniac, he’s very dedicated to practicing and advocating fire safety.

Blizzard...um...well...Jack described their posting as “a classic case of Moody Mid-2000′s Scene Kid”. I have no clue what that means but...I’m guessing it’s...bad?

That’s pretty much everyone. I don’t know if I’d consider Marsh and that Thaea 'Natan chick as members of the blog, because they don’t actually hang out with us, and hack into the blog to challenge people and each other to fights.

So, um... yeah. Those are all of my friends and...acquaintances. This place is pretty crowded...

[strawberrysolitude]

Plafonner or The Art of Introspection

Pairing: Kim Namjoon x overthinking

Rating: G

Length: 1.2k

Description: Namjoon goes for a bike ride. Philosophical shenanigans ensue.

So I made a little something for my dear friend @monojoons​ . Taylor, I hope you like it 💜

Some days Namjoon feels like somebody has split him up into tiny, colorful shards and stuffed him into a kaleidoscope. He might make a pretty pattern when the light shines through him, but he feels fragmented and unsure of himself. He needs to be an idol, a leader, a friend, and a brother, and a son, and a musician. But some days, he just wants to be himself.

So today, instead of spending his evening off writing with Yoongi, or tutoring Jungkook in English, or cooking with Jin (or rather, cheering Jin on while he cooks and Namjoon sits at the kitchen table and tries to cause as little mayhem as possible) – today, Namjoon packs his headphones and his notebook and heads out on his bike.

It’s good for him to try and pull himself together again, collect all the tiny shards and make him a whole person. Watch time slow and stretch and flow past him like the stream of cars and pedestrians and other bikers. Everything is always flowing, and it feels good to lean back and watch other people go about their lives. They’re busy, too, having their hopes and dreams and worries about what to make for dinner or how to reconcile with a friend.

That woman with the bright red face mask is carrying a huge bag of groceries – how big is her family? Or maybe she’s having friends over tonight. The man passing him by on his own bike is holding his phone instead of the handlebars which – yes, it’s dangerous, but then he’s also smiling down at a text and Namjoon can’t help but be happy for him.

People-watching helps. Even though he’s just a spectator, it makes Namjoon feel connected to the people around him. They’re people, he’s people. They all have something in common, while at the same time living their own lives separately from one another, and that thought crystallizes the longer he watches. A woman walking a Golden Retriever. A group of teenagers loitering and smoking, laughingly passing around their shared cigarette. Life flows on. Always has, always will. And Namjoon, no matter how many responsibilities are loaded onto his back, will always be caught in the flow, as well.

He reaches Hannam bridge. It’s always a bit colder up over the river, the gusts of wind strengthened by the cars rushing by. He pedals faster. No thinking, just biking. Can he keep up with that white Hyundai? Probably not. Doesn’t mean he’s not going to try. Namjoon leans down over his handlebars and grins. What will the people in the car think of him if they happen to look over and see him pedaling like a maniac? He probably just looks like a lanky guy with a goofy grin who thinks he can win the Tour de France.

The bikelane swirls off and down the bridge, and Namjoon follows the spiral towards the river bank. His heart is beating faster, and not just because of the exercise. He’s nearing Jamwon park, a small patch of grass and happiness on the south side of Han river. It’s nothing too fancy, no flowerbeds or artfully arranged ponds and streams, but it’s in a nice neighborhood and there’s enough tall trees and shrubbery to provide shady patches sheltered from curious eyes.

There’s a bikestand nearby, and Namjoon locks up his loyal steed of steel, pats it on the seat and promises to be back soon. The sun is almost setting, the orange rays making the river glitter and glisten and almost blind him along with the glass fronts of the tall buildings on the north river bank. He takes out his notebook and a blanket and finds a nice spot in the shade for himself. Rummages around for his headphones in his backpack, then decides that the chattering and murmuring of people enjoying their free time, the rustling of the leaves and the sounds of the big city are soundtrack enough.

He lays back on his blanket and stares up at the canopy of swaying green above him. There’s so many different shades of color, and the movement makes him feel like he’s rocking on a boat. Just floating, floating along, giving himself over to his drifting thoughts. He smiles as one particular memory rises closer to the surface of his consciousness.

In a bout of hybris, Namjoon had once tried to learn French. He’d picked up English just by watching a TV show, so how hard could another language be? Especially if he had a real teacher and a textbook and stuff. Overexcited, he’d even bought his own copies of “The Little Prince”, one in French and one in Korean.

And then, after an embarrassingly short time struggling with pronunciation and grammar, his ambitions had come crashing down like Icarus, having aimed too high and overestimated his own skills. English was nice, was somewhat logical, but French he just couldn’t wrap his head around.

The only thing that had stuck was a very obscure piece of vocabulary: plafonner. It means to fly at a steady height, just as high as the peaks of the mountains, and Namjoon has always wondered why the French language needs a whole verb just for this. He imagines it must be a calm feeling, keeping the delicate balance on the line right between the earth and sky, the mountain peaks almost scratching the airplane’s metal belly. Always on the edge, between safety and danger, life and death; but serene with his head in the clouds.

In a way, his time with Bangtan has been a lot like his misguided attempt at learning French. He’d aimed high, started with a lot of enthusiasm, got in way over his head way too fast, and now he’s gliding at peak’s height, right on the edge, keeping a careful balance between earth and sky, between crashing and soaring. But somewhere along the way, he has found himself with his head in the clouds, enjoying the journey, the steady, gentle glide along the mountaintops. When the setting sun hits the snowy peaks just right, coating them in a flaming peach color, he feels like he can touch the top of the world.

Life flows on, the plane keeps gliding. Sometimes you’re alone among the clouds. Sometimes you get to share magical moments with your favorite people. But all the time, every second, every heartbeat of your life, you’re part of something bigger, something serene that you can’t fully grasp yet. You get glimpses of bright mountaintops in the distance from time to time, in your calmest moments. And in his best and calmest moments, Namjoon takes those glimpses, puts words to the mountaintops and music to the sunlight.

And then, he has six people who, in a magical way he doesn’t understand but is grateful for, are connected to him. On his best days, he can take them flying along with him. He can show them his loneliest mountaintops, and they will say, hey, I understand this. I get how you feel. Here, I’ll show you the landscape of my soul.

Rather than feeling like he has to split himself up, in those moments, he feels how those connections make him grow, give him more dimensions. He feels stronger because of the people by his side. And this feeling that he shares with his brothers, he won’t ever trade for anything in the world.

The last warm rays of sunlight paint the fresh grass in a golden hue. Namjoon wiggles his toes. Packs up his notebook, unused for today, but a welcome companion to his thinking. He smiles at the setting sun, bidding it goodnight, and gets back on his bike. His family is waiting for him at the dorm.

[randomfandomfamily]

Idk if your currently doing requests or not, but... Sheryl comforting Little Cato??? Can be from a nightmare, panic attack, whatever your up for. :) 🧡🍪

---

Not gonna lie, this one was fun to write. I love writing Sheryl slowly getting better at people-ing, whether she knows it or not.

“So we just left Clarence there because he’s a total crapwad,” Little Cato said, in the process of catching Sheryl up on what had happened with Clarence, “And then we remembered that we never actually returned Chucky and he was still just hanging out on the ship.”

Sheryl raised an eyebrow. “So...what happened to Chucky?” She took a screwdriver and started replacing the metal plating they had taken off. They were making great strides with the repairs, and she was getting caught up on things she missed between her betrayals.

Little Cato shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. We kinda just… let him go? He probably flew back to his owner. Maybe. I hope.”

“Well, I’m glad you guys managed to ditch Clarence, anyway.” Sheryl frowned. “Disgusting little man, wasn’t he?”

Little Cato hummed. “That’s a nice word for him, I guess. I’ve got about a thousand others I’d like to-"

‘Promximity alert!’ AVA’s voice boomed, ‘Unidentifiable debris is headed for the ship!’

Sheryl and Little Cato were, luckily, already on the bridge with their repairs. “What do you mean ‘unidentifiable debris’?!” Sheryl asked while Little Cato headed for the controls.

‘We’re in an unexplored nightmare dimension,’ AVA said snidely, ‘Everything in here is unidentifiable.’

“Thank you, AVA!” Little Cato said, gripping the back of the captain’s chair. “Where is everyone else?”

‘On their way to the bridge to meet you,’ AVA replied, ‘But they won’t make it before we reach the debris.’

Little Cato exhaled slowly, jumping into the pilot’s seat. “Alright… I got this.”

Sheryl merely stood at Little Cato’s side. Yeah, she was probably the better pilot of the two of them, but only by a slim margin. She prepared to assist where she could, but she knew the kid could handle it.

She had been doing repairs with this kid for weeks. They’d grown… close? Which was almost foreign to her. She wasn’t sure if there was anyone else on the ship she trusted this much, aside from maybe Gary, and even that trust was a little touch-and-go. But she’d spent enough time with Little Cato to know he was honest about his abilities. If he said he could do it, then he could.

So Sheryl watched as Little Cato reached for the controls, gripping them tightly. She held the back of the chair, prepared for the sharp turns he was going to have to take to avoid the hazardous obstacles outisde.

Then she realized the ship wasn’t turning, still heading directly for the ominous black masses in the distance. “What are you doing?” She looked down and saw Little Cato staring down at the controls. “Kid, you have to steer the ship.”

“I… I can’t…” He sounded almost as shocked as she felt.

“What?” Sheryl asked. “Why-” She halted mid-sentence when he noticed Little Cato’s hands start to shake. “Whoa whoa whoa, hey.” Sheryl put a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “What’s goin’ on with ya?”

Little Cato shook his head. “I can’t do this. Not again, I can’t. It’s…” The shock was starting to sound a lot like fear the more he talked. “I- no. I can’t do it, I can’t…”

They were getting close to hitting those things. Much closer than Sheryl was comfortable with. “Kid, tell me what’s wrong.” They just barely glided past a dark mass. “Little Cato!” Sheryl put her hands over his and turned the ship away from another incoming threat. “Come on, talk to me!”

She took a moment to scoop the young Ventrexian out of the pilot’s seat. He didn’t protest, but he didn’t exactly make it easy either, his hands practically glued to the controls.

But she managed to get him detached, setting him beside her. “Alright, now just stand here and-” The ship jerked violently, alarms blaring and red lights flashing. “Crikey!”

Little Cato seemed to momentarily snap out of his trance. “W-what happened?”

“We hit one of the damn things.” Sheryl hopped into the pilot’s seat and turned the ship. “AVA! Status update on the ship!”

‘There are no major damages to the ship, but the impact has triggered a lockdown sequence.’

“What?” Little Cato asked. “Lock… lockdown?” Sheryl spared a glance at him. It was a normal protocol. The ship hits a thing, the ship has to make sure no one goes flying about, so the ship locks the doors. Why was he freaking out so bad? The doors would open up again just as soon as the ship was out of danger.

Her two seconds of distraction cost her, the side of the ship clipping another black mass. “Ah, shit!” A startled shout from Little Cato made her panic momentarily. “Kid, are you alright?” The lack of an answer made her worry. “Say somethin’, mate!” Another long string of curses left her mouth as she steered. She didn’t have eyes on the kid, but he was quiet, wherever he was.

“Bloody hell, will these buggers never end?!” She pulled up to avoid the last of the strange debris. “AVA, is that the last of it?”

‘All clear.’ AVA confirmed.

Sheryl sighed. “Thank Christ.” She stood and glanced around. “Oi, kid! Where’d you go?”

A faint sound made her look to the weapons’ control panel. She walked over and knocked on the top of it. “You alright there? I know it was a bumpy ride, but-” The sound of crying made her pause. “Oh… um…”

She knelt on the floor and peered under the control panel. Little Cato, if at all possible, seemed to scramble back farther into the small space. “Don’t-”

“Whoa, easy there mate, I’m not gonna do nothing.” Sheryl sat back, scooting away from Little Cato a bit to give him space.

She didn’t know what to do about this. Little Cato was always so upbeat. Optimistic. He took on anything, and he had the drive to see it through. This, however, was a very different side of Little Cato. This was unfamiliar territory, and almost kind of scary. It made her wish somebody else was here to help him.

But nobody else was there. Which meant she was going to have to try. “Um… the ship’s safe now. We’re gonna be on lockdown for just a few more minutes, though. But we can find your dads when the doors open up, yeah?”

Little Cato shook his head. “But I- the… the shards.”

Sheryl frowned. “What shards?”

“The time shards! I-I saw…” Little Cato shook his head violently, like he was trying to erase something. “No, nothing. It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

He certainly wasn’t fine. Sheryl was pretty sure he was very far away from fine. “There’s no time shards,” she said, “I dunno what they were exactly, but they weren’t time shards.” She held out a hand. “Come on outta there, alright? We’re in the clear now.”

Little Cato took her hand shakily, slowly emerging out from under the panel. “Is it… really all clear?”

“AVA said it was.”

“That’s what she said last time too,” Little Cato whispered.

Sheryl put an arm around his shoulders. That was a reassuring thing, right? “Last time? What do you mean ‘last time’?” She started putting pieces together slowly. “Did you… have a run in with some time shards?”

Little Cato’s breathing picked up and he started shaking. “Hey, whoa, calm down there, mate. I’m sorry I asked.”

He scrubbed at his eyes. “We’re gonna get out of here, right?”

She was a little taken aback. The kid knew the lockdown protocol would time out in a few minutes. Was he really that scared? “‘Course we are,” Sheryl said, “Just a few minutes.”

“I don’t wanna be stuck in here. I can’t… I can’t do this again…” Little Cato pulled his knees up to his chest. “I want my dads.”

Sheryl sometimes forgot that Little Cato was just a kid. In fact, she was sure damn near everyone on the ship forgot it at some point. It was easy to forget, what with him running around doing repairs and fighting Titans.

“I hope this won’t send ya panickin’ again, but I am kinda curious about this last time you keep going on about.” Little Cato stiffened. “It’s okay if you can’t talk about it. I’m not gonna make ya.”

Little Cato took a breath. “It’s not… it’s not much to talk about, really. I was steering the ship through some time shards. AVA said I missed them all. But I didn’t.”

“You hit one of ‘em?”

“Yeah… I got stuck.” Little Cato hugged his knees tighter. “A-and I guess I should just be thankful Gary didn’t get stuck in there with me, but it still kinda sucked… being all by myself.”

Sheryl was almost afraid to ask but, “Do you remember any of it?”

“All sixty years of it,” Little Cato muttered. He tugged at his hair anxiously. “Kinda stupid, huh? You’d figure after sixty years of being alone, I’d be used to it. I should be able to handle a few minutes of being locked in here.”

“Well, I think that’s just dumb.” Sheryl pulled the kid closer to her. “I don’t think anyone should have to be used to being alone. Hell, I was drifting about for ages trying to get John back. All because I couldn’t stand the thought of being by myself.”

He sighed. “That’s different.”

“Well, of course it’s bloody different,” Sheryl said, “I’m a grown woman who was dumb enough to believe a Titan could give me my husband back. I made my own loneliness, you never asked for yours.”

“I guess.” He rested his forehead against his knees. “Still feels like- I don’t know… like I should be better.”

That’s when it really hit Sheryl for the first time. Literally everyone on the ship forgot Little Cato was a kid. Even Little Cato. No, especially Little Cato.

Everyone else had the luxury of giving Little Cato a good long look and remembering that, despite his capability, the spunky small fry was a kid. Little Cato didn’t have that luxury. Because unlike everyone else aboard the Crimson Light, he had the memories.

“I think you should be a little easier on yourself,” Sheryl said, “I know your dads wouldn’t want to hear you talking like this.”

Little Cato laughed half-heartedly. “You’re probably right.” He dragged his hands down his face. “Okay, I can do this. Everything is fine.”

Sheryl ruffled his hair. “You can be fine when Gary and Avocato get here. You can be not fine for another minute or two, alright? There’s no rush.”

He smiled reluctantly and leaned into her side. “Okay… but only for a minute or two.”

“Only for a minute or two,” Sheryl agreed. Though she would have gladly sat with him longer if he needed her to.

[adustierstar]

Lawblr Book Club

Hello naughty children, it’s time for Nissa’s Opinions

Coming in RIGHT under the wire for October book club, but still. I have read the reboggles I could find on T’s tag (bc tumblr search is what it is), and now it’s my turn.

General Questions:

1 - What did you like best / least?

I liked the worldbuilding a lot - I want to know more about the Reaches and the Travelers and why everything is made of wood in Kolonya?? Least... we will get to lol

2 - Would you read more by this author?

mmmmmmmmmmaybe. Like I want to know wtf happened, but I’m also still pretty mad about the ending. We shall see.

3 (a) - If this story followed a different character’s POV, who would you pick and why?

tbh the last thing this book needs is more POVs

3 (b) - Did you like how the three different sister’s POV was used to push the narrative forward? Did it make your reading experience more or less enjoyable?

idk, it was a little slow for my tastes. I did like that the girls all had different perspectives, but I wish they’d had more different personalities. Like Ren and Akeylah are the same person, just brought up with different abuse. And if Zofi has a personality beyond anger, she’s probably the same, too.

4 - What scene stuck with you the most?

I really liked the first time Ren and Zofi confronted Akeylah in the library - it was kinda “did we just become best friends?! YUP!” but also FINALLY gave them a team vibe and distinct specialties.

5 - What kind of lingering questions were you left with (besides the obvious cliffhanger WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO ME ELLEN)

literally what was the point of this being its own book if the single main conflict wasn’t actually resolved???

6 (a) - Could you relate to the characters & their story arcs?

Meh. I mean, a little bit? But overall I didn’t find them terribly relatable.

6 (b) - How do you feel about each character’s ending?

WHAT. ENDING.

7 - Were there times you disagreed with a character’s actions / would have done something different in their shoes?

YES MANY.

8 - Were you rooting for any character or pairing in particular?

I wanted to like Akeylah best bc she seems really sincere and genuine, BUT then suddenly all of her “I’m a secret genius” calculating stuff comes up and it’s a little tough to reconcile those things. I liked each of the girls okay, but I didn’t feel like there was a clear answer to who should rule (aside from Ren’s musing about all 3 of them, maybe).

9 - Do you picture any specific fancasts when reading the book?

The only one I have any clear idea what she looks like is Akeylah, but I can’t think of anyone who looks like that, you know? I think of Zofi as looking like an angry Ice Climber from Smash Bros. And like...idk maybe Letitia Wright for Ren? Maybe Lupita Nyong’o or Gugu Raw for Rozalind, unless she’s supposed to be the girls’ age, then somebody younger, I guess? Idk.

Story Specific Questions:

11 - Did you enjoy how each girl’s secret was teased out? Do you like when authors slow-roll this kind of information?

I do like a slow rollout (”who taught him ‘rollout’?!”), I think there’s a lot to be said for setting readers loose in medias res, BUT I also think it wasn’t handled amazingly here - idk maybe it’s just me, but I felt like it was sort of stage-whispering. Like “oh no I hope no one guesses my TERRIBLE SECRET!!! I would be in SO MUCH trouble!!” It just felt very obvious to me, although the secrets themselves weren’t obvious (the first time we learned about them).

12 - Do you think each character was fleshed out sufficiently, such that you had a sense of the different personality for each sister?

Not really? Kind of. An attempt was made with the girls, but basically no one else got any dimension whatsoever.

13 - Do you have guesses on who the blackmailer is?

Not really, bc this book broke every rule of how to write an engaging mystery. Like literally the only people who could POSSIBLY be it from the information we have are Rozalind, Vidal, and Andros, none of which really make sense given everything else, but like???? I guess Rozalind is my best guess bc she was acting kinda sus re: the acolyte etc. But I think that would be a bad choice unless a lot of other things change between now and that reveal.

14 - Was Yasmin a believable antagonist to you?

Like. I thought she was SCREAMINGLY obviously a red herring the entire book. She was brusque with the girls, and there was some weirdness in the first scene where the girls meet the king where I thought maybe she was possessing him, but that’s obviously just the weird mind link thing they did, and that’s it. Like being a bitch isn’t illegal.

15 - Do you think the daughters’ secrets were defensible actions?

Kinda? Like, definitely understandable, but like, is murder ever defensible? Ren had no reason to suspect her information would be used the way it was (whether or not Danton knew is something I’m not convinced on either way), Akeylah had no reason to believe she wasn’t cursing the man she fully expected to kill her (although MAYBE she should have paid closer attention during the cursing itself?? Like, the distance seems like it should have played a role in how hard it was to find “her father”), and Zofi perhaps overreacted, but used what seemed like appropriate force at the time in defense of another’s life (or rather she couldn’t/didn’t want to  think of a way to simply restrain or incapacitate Nicolen, so stabby stabby). Was it stupid? Yes, for all of them. But they’re children (are they 18? I forget how old they’re supposed to be. Also, why are they the same age, if they are? was that just Andros’s Good Fuckin Year?)

16 - How do you feel about this unique system of magic?

WEIRD. I NEED MORE INFORMATION. WHY does the blood have to be drawn? Where does it go? What is the scarring situation with these people? What about the SHARDS OF GLASS permanently embedded in Zofi’s legs? Speaking of which, how the FUCK are Travelers out here hand-blowing glass in a mobile way??? That’s not a pick-up-and-carry craft! What’s the cooldown period for tithing? Why is it CALLED tithing? Who are you tithing TO? What negative effects are there for tithing for too long? Zofi mentions that they exist, but this is never explained. I feel like after all her reading, Akeylah should be able to answer these questions for me. BUT SHE DIDN’T.

17 - Was the theme of racism sufficiently handled?

Handled..??? If by that you mean vaguely suggested as existing and occasionally seems to have affected some characters’ lives, sure. Like, the closest we got was “Vidal’s not as racist as some other people yay!”

18 - Do you have any theories about the poem found in the library?

tbh I don’t even remember a poem in the library, just the notes about the weird echo situation.

19 - How did you feel about the cliffhanger ending?

BAD. VERY BAD. It was like the ending of Cars in that it retroactively ruined a lot of the book for me. NOTHING was accomplished in this ENTIRE book WHY

[get-rammed]

Beasttale

I'M TALKING ABOUT THE ORIGINAL BEASTTALE THAT I CREATED A FEW YEARS AGO, AND STOPPED DOING A YEAR AGO. This is aimed at the Beasttale tag, as I know a few have cropped up since I iced mine. So I don't want anyone to think I'm attacking them or the AU they like

A lot of my stuff has been removed from the Beasttale tag making it harder to find me and the things I made. It's annoying. Or been buried. So if this does go into the tag and anyone checking it out sees this, hi. I'm Ram and once upon a time I created a Beasttale and it used to terrorize the tag. It was the most popular version of Beasttale at the time and since has been laid to rest allowing different beasts to grow.

Anyone who grows curious about my AU. It isn't like the current popular one. Mine is unkind and violent. It has its soft moments with my boys. But for the most part it's not for the faint of heart. Don't go in looking for a gentle but scary Sans. You'll come out scarred 😂 Bomber was gentle at times, but he would 100% eat your guts.

I know the 4 of you left from my reign of terror are asking me, "Ram, why the f*ck are you doing this now??" Because I'm bored as f*ck and it's always bothered me that the story I wanted to tell, never came about.

So I'm going to basically explain what the story I had planned was. This will be confusing as I'm going to go over ideas I teased and or introduced, but either didn't explain well enough, or did nothing. Also some ideas I never talked about. I'll do some fun facts at the bottom about Boys that I designed, but never implemented, and some other odd ideas I had.

Tldr; Bomberboy (Sans), was an experiment of Gasters. He had a human soul shard (Perseverance) along with 4 other monsters in his soul and brain, which is why he's a mess. BB shoved Gaster into the CORE, which corrupted the dimension. It made everyone big and a little meaner. But not too far as at the time I was too scared to go too far on anyone but Sans and Alphys. After that it's just basic Undertale plot. I'd do it all differently now. Tone down the violence and edge a bit…but increase the beast design a bit. But not too much. I'll explain later. 

I’m just going to warn everyone now that is about as professional as literally anything else I have ever written. Sorry. It goes from explaining sh*t to like, almost storytelling and whoops. I'm not very good at this. Imagine a lot of hand motions as you read. This is years of story that I've been sitting on. Just. Work with me here. A lot of these ideas are very very old. The original name for Beasttale was Testtale. Name got changed because me and a friend couldn't stop laughing because testicle. We're adults I promise. 

This whole thing takes place over nine years in universe. So I condensed the sh*t out of my ideas and it's all very rushed and bad. Forgive me. This isn't supposed to be written like a story. It's supposed to be written like I'm explaining things at him point 😂

Alright, alright, alright. So to start off. After reading the entries you can find in the hidden lab, and the idea that Gaster wrote them, I came to the conclusion that he was a massive asshole. As you do. Which is why Bomber hates him, and why I personally made him a massive prick. I like the idea of Dadster, but like, I had edgy designs, I had to have a reason for them. I had to have a reason for the scars Bomber had.

After an unknown helicopter pilot crashed ((this character does not exist in the universe of Undertale. She was made for this AU)), and subsequently went into a cave for safety, only to fall into the Underground, she was killed by Asgore. She fought as hard as she could, but she could do nothing against the powerful monster. Her soul was safely harvested and stored.

Asgore made the lie about needing 7 souls, which Gaster said he would corroborate if he was allowed access to one of the souls as they had 6 at the time. ((Another perseverance SOUL bearer falls shortly after. Which is how there are 6 SOULs by the time Frisk rolls around)) Asgore had two choices. He could deny access, in which case, Gaster tells everyone that any boss monster could easily open the way. Or allow him access. Of course Gaster reminded him that if the soul goes missing, then Monsters are trapped longer, which is what Asgore wants. Soul goes “missing”, Asgore claims it’s due to a small leak in the container, Gaster gets his soul and his plan goes into action.

A lot of Monster children just wander freely around the Underground because it’s safe! Monsters wouldn’t hurt other Monsters. Right? Well. Gaster is his own kind of breed. He’s very jaded from the war. Mentally broken. Saw a lot of good Monsters slaughtered. Has no empathy left for anyone. He casually snatches two kids that wander too close to his lab. A little skeleton, Sans, and a small lizard with no arms, Alphys. Something of note. I liked the idea of Alphys being Monster Kids older sister. So she lacks arms for this first bit. This was literally never mentioned at any point and if I do DeltaBeast stuff, Alphys will lack arms. It was a mistake on my part to give them to her in the singular piece of art that exists at this time.

Alphys is locked away as Gaster focuses on the mouthy little skeleton. Experiments on the kid. See how much he can handle before he needs a break. Then push him further the next time. Gaster is trying to make a monster that can break the barrier, and destroy humans. Sans, or J-5, as he was called in those years trapped with gaster, was hopefully going to be that monster.

Basic details for this as the actual details of the experiments were never really thought out. But I guess they could include. Breaking his bones and seeing how long magic took to heal them. Forcing him to fight rabid animals and see what he would do (mind you Sans would have been 10 when Gaster traps him). He fights them to protect himself. Physical attacks hurt. He's got a lot of tiny scars from them. Force him to fight for his life against half melted monsters. These he doesn't fight. Mentally and physically beat it into the kid that he fights or Gaster will hurt Alphys ((Which during this time she was just subject to SOUL testing as Sans always offered himself for the harder stuff)). All to get him to a fallen state so he can alter his SOUL. Things get worse later.

Sans isn't considered a boss monster here, and Gaster knows this. Giving Sans a full human soul would just kill him. Can't have that. Gaster has put too much time and effort into this experiment at this point. It's been a good three year of nonstop tests and beatdowns for Sans. He's ready. Gaster pulls out Sans soul and tears part of it away, slowly, carefully. Then wedges the human soul in its place. The piece doesn't fit right, but Sans also isn't dead yet. But blah blah blah, he's not strong enough to hold it and he starts melting down. Perfect. Time for phase 2.

Experiments J-1-4 were all failures. Note. It varies on AU on how many extra monsters were added to the boys. The monsters inside is what defines their heat form. Anyone remember that post with their forms that had some floating heads around them? Yeah. Extra note. The four monsters in Sans do not have names. They have designs, but any personality or names do not exist. Nor will ever exist. None could hold a shard of the human soul. But. Five monsters together trying to hold a soul? It might just work. Which it does obviously. He's kept all the failures in a state of falling down but not dead. Similar to the abominations in the lab currently. Alphys followed Gaster on accident. Just in a nicer way.

Sans is unconscious the whole time and remains as such for a few days. Gaster now waits as the tiny skeleton is reformed. It's boring. He's going to start up experiments on him when Alphys basically tells him to f*ck off and leave Sans alone. Which is when he turns his attention to her. 

Now he wants a fair fight for Sans when's out and about. Sans needs a watcher or guardian ot some form to regulate his ideas. So now it's Alphys' turn for the f*ckery. Beat the snot out of her. Pitch her against other monsters. See how well she fights. Similar to Sans, she refuses to fight. When she can't take anymore Gaster stops the fight. Casually pops her soul out and just as casually slices it up and wedges the little piece of Sans in. Forcibly bonding the two in a way no one else understands. It's not like a mated bond kinda thing. It's a connection akin to siblings on the same wavelength.

This finally wakes Sans up. The whole time he was stuck in a dream with the new voices in his head. They're all super unhappy and they all want to use Sans to get back at Gaster. The sudden added weight of Alphys' fear and anxiety gets him on his feet. Alphys can feel the terror and confusion from Sans. She can't feel the others, just him. Gaster f*cks about with her soul and essentially her DNA. She's got arms now. They're painful and new. She hates them. Gaster did what he set out to do that day and tosses Alphys back in with Sans. Mostly to see what happens.

Sans is on his feet, but he's lost and with so many trying to fight for control right now, he's basically stuck where he stands. He wants to move to comfort Alphys, his friend is crying and needs comfort. The way she comforted him every day. Every voice in his head is screaming to attack. But he doesn't. He's stronger than them. It's his body dang it. Comfort that crying lizard. It's like a mutual thing. She feels better, so now he does. Gasters happy. Alphys can still be used as a safety shield then. He lets them rest. The coming years have a lot in store.

Honestly he lets them rest for a few days. But when he thinks they've had enough, barges in. At this point Sans is halfway to his Meltdown form. A form that has never been posted or ever mentioned. So don't go looking. I might post art of old concepts if enough people are curious. Teeth growing out of his head, fur and slime showing up all over his body. He's beautiful to Gaster. It worked perfectly. Keep in mind a lot of ideas for SOULs I made on my own. SOULs would kind of be like their whole genetic code, but you can easily alter it if you know how. Which is what he was testing on Alphys for. 

Alphys sprouted feathers where her spikes used to be down the back of her head. Sans is now considered a Boss monster and Alphys a significantly stronger monster.

Sans has the strength to pull out of Gasters grip. Which gets him chained up. Which is how he got the scars on his wrists and ankles. Sans can't really do much besides pull away or mutter. Too much noise in his head. He can barely walk and is basically dragged. Alphys is trying her best to break out of Gasters grip because she has no idea what the plan is. But she knows it's not going to be good. Both her and Sans are different now. She's terrified. Sans just kinda stops and this causes Gaster to basically trip and nearly fall. Loses his grip for less than a second and Alphys tries to take off. Gets her new much longer tall grabbed. Scars from that.

Yay finally testing room. Seat them both in separate halves of the room. They can see one another, but can't hear the other or get to them. Answer some basic questions. How are you feeling and sh*t like that. Alphys is currently mortified and can't speak. Sans just can't speak. He can't even focus on anything. The person asking the questions is told to be ruder, ask more invasive questions. Things to rile up either of them. Nothing. "What would your parents think of you now?" Alphys starts crying. Gaster is testing for something specific right now. 

"Do you think they would recognize you?" Crying harder. "What do you think your little brother would say?" Now she's mad. Looks through the mirrored glass and tells Gaster to leave him out of this. Ranting. Years of pent up anger and frustration. Guards are coming in as she threatens the scientists and guards with her chair. Sans starts purring and chattering on his side. The panic is evident on what remains of his face. Alphys calms down out of her rant as Sans continues to calm himself. Gaster is mentally fist bumping himself. Perfect SOUL bond.

"They're both calm. Go back in and do what you have to, to get number five to break containment." Guards go back in and well. Sorry Alphys. Few more scars and another beat down. 

Sans is pretty quick to get up. Easily nudging his scientist down out of his way. He realizes he can't break the glass or break the wall with physical attacks. But magic. He got that good burn in his gut and zoop. He's got the ability to teleport now. Not what he was aiming for but it works. Gaster is so excited he might just do a little dance.

Easily knock the guards out of the way and hiss at them. Then comfort friend. Gather her into his arms and scooch into a corner where no one can touch her. Gaster is pleased with the results found, but he wants to do some physical testing with J-5. Instead of like, asking him to come along, Gaster goes the harder route. Uses a hook he's used before to move experiments. Hook it on their mouth and  pull them along. Well. J-5 is a little...soft inside right now. The hook slides through the roof of his mouth and just knocks right through his right lateral incisor. Which is how Bomber lost that tooth :) also why he's not keen on it being touched. It still hurts him a lot.

To the absolute horror of everyone in the room, including Gaster. J-5 starts bleeding. Blood just pouring from his mouth. Everyone is a gangster until a magic monster starts bleeding red blood. No one wants to touch him or the blood. Gaster basically grabs the broken tooth and acts like he didn't just internally scream. "Recontain them. Quarantine J-five. Decontaminate J-six and quarantine it as well."

Gaster does some testing and yeah, the blood is human and Sans' bone is partially human. So now he can survive at least some physical attacks from a human. Which funny enough. One just fell the other day. ((This Human has no name, and isn't important outside of the thing coming up))  The Guards are having issues locating the Human as they seemingly "vanished". Gaster literally just stood outside of Toriel's door and waited till it closed to grab them before the guards got there.

Sans is just tied to a bed. Chilling. Left alone with the new guys in his head. They want to dust everyone. They just keep chanting at him to kill. Kid is thirteen. He doesn't know what to do here. Maybe he should do as they're saying. Human in his head is like "dude. f*ck those guys. If you wanted to kill everyone you'd have done it. Just hang tight. We're all in this together now whether we wanted to be or not. We'll get out of this." Thanks dead human lady :D

Others don't listen. They're J-1,2,3,4. They've all lost it. They over power Sans internally and now he enters Meltdown mode. Full Meltdown. So he's an abomination of parts and teeth. He's f*cking strong. I mean, come on. Scientists had him held down with some cheap rope. Should be happy it held him down as long as it did.

Meltdown can't walk to save their lives. So they crawl. Large sticky arms that drag the dead weight of the legs and tail. Someone is trying to figure out how to leg while everyone else focuses on crawling to the door. Legs are moving. They use the door as leverage to help them up to their feet. Wobbly but they can move and attack efficiently.

First scientist spotted is blindsided. Meltdown crashes through them and immediately dusts them upon contact. Some others see this and the laboratory enters shut down. Gaster is alerted. Meltdown has killed a few more and is shambling around trying to find more to kill. There are thick plates going up their back. The ones near the tail are glowing purple. It's slowly traveling up their back through the spikes. I'm sorry but the effect looked really good in the most recent Godzilla movie.

Gaster finds and corners them when the glow is at the base of their neck. He immediately recognizes this is going to be bad and ducks out of the hall. Glow is all the way up and a purple laser beam shoots down the hall where Gaster had been standing. It hits a few people further down the hall and kills them. Melts through the metal at the end of the hall. This attack tires Meltdown out and brings Sans back to pilot his own body.

After that incident Sans is muzzled, chained, and monitored at all times. He's kept sedated until Gaster needs him. Like literally the day after the incident he throws Sans into a cage with the Human they had nabbed. Gaster tells the Human if they want to live, they have to fight the abomination in front of them. Sans tries to convey that he doesn't want to fight, but you know how people can be. Hits Sans pretty good in the head with a metal bar. The attack incites Meltdown. Which leads to a big laser beam, a very dead Human, and very shattered SOUL. 

Three years later, Sans is 16, and is basically stuck in the back seat of his own body. The other four have had the controls basically since the Human test subject. Gaster just wakes Meltdown up to test the laser, and take some notes. Then knocks them out again. Notes have been used to make the Gaster Blasters. They're not ready to be used. Get to that in a minute.

While Meltdown is unconscious, Gaster has been teaching Alphys her duties. She's basically there to make sure Meltdown doesn't have another, well, meltdown. There to offer energy and help if needed. There to keep the beast under control. She can be replaced is what he always told her. Reality is, she couldn't have been, because any more chunks of SOUL taken from Sans would have killed him. 

With Alphys finally brainwashed, she had no moral support the last three years, he moves onto Meltdown. Alphys is the only person Meltdown will listen to and the only one they will not attack on site. She can easily get them in and out of testing chambers. Get them to cooperate and not hurt anyone. To Gaster they're almost ready. He just needs to finish up his weapons. 

Next three years, both are 19, and are a lot calmer. With the both of them listening and cooperating at all times, Gaster is able to focus on his Gaster Blasters. He's got an ego. It took the past three years to build the shells and make sure the laser function worked. Once he was ready he did a test. Added what remained of J-2's SOUL to the machine. It worked, J-2 was within the Balster, and was awaiting commands. Perfect. But they didn't listen to Gaster. Instead stared at him until he gave up. Muzzled the massive skull and went to find Alphys.

The skull acknowledged her, but wouldn't respond to her commands. J-2 doesn't acknowledge or respond to Meltdown. It's highly annoying to Gaster as part of who is controlling Meltdown is literally in the Blaster. J-2 won't acknowledge anyone in the laboratory. Even tried a few civilians under the guise of it being to open the barrier. Nothing. King? Nope. His guards? Nada.  Gives up for now. He has to do something else. These Blasters were supposed to be his weapons of mass destruction, but they listen to no one. 

Except for when one little badger skeleton walks in. He heard about the big skull and he wanted to see what the fuss was about. Says his name is Papyrus, who is 17. J-2 responds to the name and acknowledges Papyrus. Doesn't listen to him, but it's something.

Gaster is very friendly with Papyrus. Trying a different tactic. J-2 follows Papyrus around, sniffing him, but still won't listen to him. Gaster decides to ask around. Having two little animal skeletons can't be just a coincidence. Asks around, and no one knows where they came from, and a lot of people have just been taking care of Papyrus when Sans went missing. Papyrus is treated like a guest not an experiment. Even helps Gaster produce three more Gaster Blasters.

Gaster takes a few more months to figure out that maybe he needs Sans, not Meltdown. Tries a kind tactic to help Sans become himself again. Both physically and mentally. Doesn't work real well. Sans has been just existing for the last 3 years. He's not strong enough to fight the other 4. Gaster figures maybe they want some revenge. Some dust. Gathers up some poor monsters and throws masks on them that match his own. Let's Meltdown loose. *jazz hands* lots of innocent monsters die in a pretty bad way. But Meltdown calms downs a lot after.

A lot of the extra monster bits melt back down and Sans looks like a human skeleton now. He's kept the sharp teeth, little tail and claws. Sans doesn't remember how to walk or talk anymore. It takes a few weeks to get him to walk again, and a lot more to talk normally. Alphys is very happy to see him and helps out where she can. She can feel that Sans is just playing along with what Gaster wants, waiting for his moment. She says nothing to Gaster. 

Sans is very very unhappy when he finds out about Papyrus being there now too. Gaster of course has been very kind to Papyrus. Which helps keep Sans calmer. But now he really wants out. Gaster tries out the Blasters with Sans.

The Blasters listened to him. They did everything he asked. Gaster isn't an idiot, he's in a different part of the lab, and Sans is down in the CORE. It takes a few weeks, but Sans can control the Blasters almost perfectly. Power cuts out because another Human has fallen. Gaster of course books it down into the CORE. Bad move.

Sans is ready for him and ambushes him. Shoves Gaster to the edge of the magma, but he manages to save himself from falling. All the skulls are pointed at Gaster. Gaster taunts Sans and tells him he never had it in him to kill someone. It was never him who hurt anyone. He's too weak to finish this now. Well. Sans has had a lot of time, he has no issue shoving Gaster into the CORE. Gaster's claws just hit Sans' right cheek as he falls. Earning him his other facial scars. Very sensitive ones that hurt on cold days. 

Gaster fell right as the human did. It f*cked with the code of the world. Gaster couldn't actually die. He's stuck in a forever melting loop. His hostility and actual monstrous form infected the code of the world. Everyone gets much bigger, much more edgy, and a whole lot more aggressive. Gaster is forgotten and the history of the world has changed. Since Sans was the one there the whole time, he forgot nothing.

Sans wakes up in Snowdin. Wearing a sweater he's never seen and pants he didn't like. He tries to find Alphys. He's terrified. She can tell and makes her way to Snowdin. He asks what's going on and she's very confused. Walks him back to the lab. It looks nothing like it just did for him. It looked so small from the outside. Inside was so tiny. There was nothing there but some robot parts.

He has a breakdown and Alphys hugs him close. When he's feeling better he explains what's going on. She stares at him for a few minutes just blankly. Her eyes saying she's reliving everything, but eventually she smiles at him and says she doesn't know what he's talking about. She can't explain her scars. What are you talking about, she's always had her arms. She offers for him to stay the night and have dinner with her. To see if he feels better in the morning.

Mettaton comes by. He's a super early model and has a few issues. Mettaton is offended Sans is there, but ignores him to whine to Alphys. Sans mumbles out what Alphys can fix to make the weight lessened. Everyone is surprised. Sans most of all. He's literally never worked in robotics. Mettaton laughs because everyone knows Sans is a lazy f*cker. No way he does robotics. Alphys shoos Mettaton away.

For the first time since he first ended up in the lab. He cried. Cried for all the years he was stuck inside his head as a passenger. Cried for everything that happened. Cried because he doesn't know where he is. Almost doesn't even know who he is. Alphys held him tightly the whole time. She doesn't know what's going on. He's never had a fit like this before. Small ones, but never this bad. 

He ends up crying himself to sleep and Alphys makes him some food for when he wakes up. Checks his numbers while he sleeps. Yeah, what he said could actually lessen the weight a lot. Crazy dude. 

To Alphys this is strange. Sans was his normal hostile and idiot self yesterday. Today he's intelligent and an emotional mess. She can't explain it, and just leaves it how it is. Reality is that Gaster is chilling behind her muttering things she can't hear out loud so she thinks a certain way. 

He stays a few days until Papyrus comes and finds him. Sans doesn't feel much for Papyrus as for Sans, it's been years since he saw Papyrus. It's only been a few days for the tall now human looking skeleton. 

Sans starts to realize over a few weeks that some days and moments seem to repeat. But he's still fine the whole time. Papyrus doing the same exact thing every morning. The people of Snowdin doing the same thing. He doesn't think anything of it until a big f*cking plant attacks Snowdin, killing everyone but him. He manages to keep the roots away with a stick when a little sh*tty flower pops out.

"Who in the sandy f*ck are you?" Flowey isn't super happy because everything is supposed to always be the same. There is no way in heck this guy has ever once been outside of his house during this attack. Flowey knows something is wrong. This guy isn't normal. Even when the world is paused, this skeleton is moving away from him. Time to f*ck with him.

Sans ends up dying a lot to Flowey over the next few months, which is just the same week on loop. Until Sans figures out, well sh*t. This guy has time powers or something. He's also had enough. He can't watch his friends die anymore. He has to teach this little brat that he's not the only one who can do neat tricks. Flowey pops up to greet him only to get laser blasted and the world resets back to the start of the week. Sans starts keeping a journal after that. Things he notices, things that don't change, things that do. Also starts seeing just how powerful he is. He's got plenty of time as Flowey keeps away from him now and is messing about with someone else now. 

Sans figures out he can teleport on accident. He trips and accidentally teleports to the waterfall area. He thinks it's activated by severe panic. Until he starts experimenting a bit and realizes he can activate it whenever. First time was when he encounters the void. The dark space between areas. The stink of wet earth and whatever else I said the void smelled like. That's the first time he sees Gaster again. But the guy is now a pile of goop with a mask melted to it.

Gaster has nothing worry to say. So he just watches. Then in his left eye hole is a bunch of tiny eyes that open to stare. Which scared the ever loving sh*t out of Sans. More Gasters appear in the void over time and he starts seeing different versions of himself. He tried talking to one once, but the Gasters started shrieking. He doesn't stay too long in the void space after that.

Sans finds out about his gravity powers on accident as well. Papyrus falls and Sans tries to catch him, but misses. His power activates obviously. Papyrus is confused but also super excited because yoU CAN DO THAT TOO?! Papyrus teaches Sans how to properly use the ability. Sans finds out through this that Papyrus has anomalous abilities as well. Papyrus is able to defy gravity entirely and walk on air. But the biggest punch to the gut is that Papyrus can summon and use the Gaster Blasters. He doesn't like to because they're so devastating, but he will if he absolutely has to. Papyrus has no soul damage at all, so he just befriended the Blasters so they come to his aide.

Sans is unable to defy gravity as Papyrus does, but he can float just a bit. It tires him out pretty quickly. He finds that a lot of things do. Sleeps a lot of days. Finds out the hard way that he only has 1 HP left after everything that's happened to him.

Sans has been living for five years in this crazy loop thing. But it's only been 2 years in reality. He's 20 now. Going to be 21 soon. But he's tired. Broken down to the skeleton we know. He's got no fight left in him. Flowey is bored of him and bored of everything, so he finally let's time move normally.

It's September 15th and a human has just fallen. Word spreads pretty quickly. Sans is curious. He wants to meet this one. Mostly because he's never seen Flowey panic before. He wants to go inside the old ruins, but he's never met Toriel and from his understanding it's her home. It would be weird.

So he just hangs out in some trees outside the door, waiting. He finds out that his sense of smell is crazy strong pretty early on, but he didn't know he could smell humans so strongly. He recognized another scent on the human before they even made it to the door. Dust. This human had killed monsters on their way here. Now he's worried. 

This human seems off somehow. Like they're not in control of themselves. He accidentally falls out of the tree making a fair bit of noise. Now he feels like he has to introduce himself because they're 100% staring at him rn. 

He's super friendly and tries to be nice. But this kid is weird. Stares through him and doesn't take his offer at a hand shake. He sees them pull out a knife and easily dodges the attack. In a panic he attacks back. Which yeah. That early on a Blaster shot would kill Frisk. 

He's reset to his home. It's the same moment from when the Human fell. Which it doesn't take much for him to figure out the kid has the time powers now. 

And after a few attempted Genocide runs, a few attempted Passive runs, Frisk finally does the good ending correctly. Sans is pretty friendly through the whole thing as he doesn't fully grasp that Frisk can reset to the starting point whenever they want. Flowey only did week or month loops. Frisk does years. He can't remember exact things like he could in Flowey's days. He can only remember ideas and some people. He writes a lot of things down after that. Important information. Dangerous people and things like that. 

He's happy and everything's fine until he wakes up standing on his porch in Snowdin one day. Frisk is doing a Genocide run and that's when Sans learns that there's nothing he can do. So he gets into a routine. Figures out how each possible ending goes. Sticks to a script. Gets a lot more aggressive and starts to lack empathy with each passing run.

Until he meets you on an off chance in a good run. It's random locations. Never the same. But something about you always draws him. Like you're something that can make him happy again. He's not excited about it though. It won't last. Frisk will just take it from him one day. Yet he still runs into you every good run somehow. He does get excited for good runs after a time just because he wants to see you.

And that's essentially the story I wanted to tell. The messy slapped down quick version anyhow. It's confusing sorry, but ahhhhhhhhh. 

FUN FACTS (Aka I ramble about sh*t that is not actually fun)

Unorganized because that's my life.

The monsters that become J-1, J-2, J-3, and J-4 I'm aware I said this up top just hush do not have names or personalities. They have designs made up, but they weren't ever properly introduced literally at any point. GG me. Honestly at this point they're just aggressive blobs anyhow so….

Hi

So all the Beasttale's I saw in the tag have the Gaster Blaster heads. An now I know none of you care, but I'm telling you anyways on why I personally didn't do it. Keep in mind my Beasttale was created a few months after Undertale came out. At the time, there were no Gaster Blaster head AUs or if there were, they weren't popular yet or I didn't know about them. Bomberboy was originally a bara Sans. Which is why he was never beasty looking outside of the claws, teeth, and tail. Plus this bit*h couldn't draw animal heads at the time. For me now it seems like a cop out. Slap an animal head on and bam. It's a beast. That's no fun. For me it seems lazy but I understand why with beast in the name. I personally like the idea of beast being a more metaphorical thing.

Bombers design came about in an art trade. I didn't like the idea of just scaling Sans up to make a bara version, so I made my own. Used the design until I figured out his name and an arbitrary AU name to slap on him. At the time Beasttale was nothing more than a place to stick my own bara Sans. People started asking about him and the others, and so it expanded from there :’)

Bomberboy got his name from an unused AU idea I had about planes. Don't talk about it. He got his name from a bomber jacket...anyways I dropped the AU in favor of drawing large monsters. Bara Sans was popular at the time which is how I started.

I have literally no memory of why he was ever drawn with scars. I think to make him more intense maybe? Idk??? Either way they spawned the story I was aiming for but never got to.

The g*re/hard v*re aspect was never originally intended. I posted art saying something like ‘you have a 50/50 chance of dying when f*cking him’. I honestly don't remember why I added that comment, but either way everyone immediately hit me with that ‘OwO what's this?’ and it went downhill from there. 

I never meant for Bomber to be as violent as he got. Again it kinda went downhill really f*cking fast. It'd be something that if I made him right now, I'd have scaled back on. I just wanted him to be an a*shole and he shot past that marker 😂 I did however make sure he was never r*pey, or physically abusive. He was a horny boy, but never super forceful. He was however mentally manipulative as at the time I had a lot going on. He's gross and he was designed that way.

There was a Glitchboy, who would be a BeastBoy of Error. His design was finished, and I fully intended on introducing him, but by the time I was going to, I found I didn't really care for the original, which made it hard to love my version. I think I was just going to do it to show how the power works in my Beast AUs. Which is why I was never attached. First to last created is how it works. First being strongest, last being weakest. Cherryboy (Beastfell), Bomberboy (Beasttale), Hotboi (Beastlust), Canine (Beastswap) and Loverboy (Horrorbeast) ((Canine and Lover were made too close together for me or Sil to remember who came first, so they are tied for power)), and finally Towelboy (Dancebeast).

I liked Alphys, and the idea of her and Sans being friends. Which is why she is featured heavily in the ideas for the AU, and why I've drawn the two together so often

Bombers distaste for other AUs comes from me. Some AUs I take a liking to, but after seeing some content I don’t really agree with coming out of most AUs, I kinda dipped on them. Which is why he can tolerate Beast versions, but not their normal OG counterparts.

I had started a comic for the origins of Bomber and Alphys, but if you’ve been here a while, you know I’m f*cking lazy when it comes to my art >:'D

At some point there were like, ancient versions of the main crew. They were Gasters friends and upon their death he turned them into Alphys, Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne. The idea was scrapped and the designs were reused for Beastswapfell. 

Speaking of which. Beastswapfell was always intended to be an unstable weird AU. The regular fellswap or swapfell never appealed to me. Plus cross too many AUs and things get unfocused. 

Frisk always in any Beast AU has red eyes and Chara has brown. Why? The one time we see Chara up close, they have brown eyes. When Frisk opens their eyes in the bad version of the good end, they have red eyes. I know it's to show them being evil or whatever. But it's more fun to imagine them always having red eyes

It annoys me to no end that Sans got the cool beast thing going but no one else did. But, no one came to me for a beasty Alphys or Toriel did they. We're all here for the chunky skeleton. It's actually why I had to create a reason for Sans being how he is. He's the only one like himself. Which wasn't the original plan, but by the time the heat form rolled around, I had so many different designs for so many different characters that I wasn't about to do that to myself…

A lot of stuff was created while listening to Lauren Bousfield and Andrew Jackson Jihad (AJJ for the newer fans). So like. Yeah.

Sans and Papyrus would have been animal skeletons as kids. Sans a cat and Papyrus a badger. Magic just kinda, gave some skeletons life. This plotline was scrapped forever ago. I don't remember why. 

Bomber doesn't drink ketchup. He did it to f*ck with Frisk. Across multiple timelines because he's f*cking bored. 

I made it canon at one point that Bomber can snap and will kill everyone before Frisk does if certain requirements are met. His fight is unbeatable then. He's LOVE 20. Frisk is 0. Fight doesn't go well.

The boys heat forms all vary because drawing 6 giant pointy skeletons is f*cking boring. Go big or go home.

Canine when in heat would have sounded like  OG King Ghidorah. Love me some f*cking BIDIDIDIDI

When Sans or Papyrus die, the Gaster Blaster eye that correlates to them, will have an X in it. When looking directly at the Blasters, Gasters eye is in the center, Sans on the left, and Papyrus on the right. Gaster's eye has a pointy oval shape with a dot in the center at all times.

Monsters in this AU are incredibly lightweight. Sans would weigh all of 50 pounds. Monsters are made of magic, which has little weight. They have to eat physical things to gain some mass. Before the underground the monsters ate humans as a retaliation and because humans contained magic nutrition and physical nutrition. Older monsters still have cravings, but almost all current Monsters don't have any interest in humans for food. Sans is just ravenous and always hungry. He won't go out of his way to eat a human, but if the opportunity presents itself well...yeah.

Papyrus can and will use the Gaster Blasters if Frisk does at least three genocide runs in a row. He doesn't know why, but he just knows he has to stop them before they hit him. So he lasers their a*s the second they enter his fight. Beasttale has unfair moves in the fights 😂

The world can glitch and you are able to fall down at the same time as Frisk. Because of plot, you override Frisk and their abilities. Which forces them to tag along you and your choices. Bomber is always hurt seeing you coming out of the ruins with dust on your pants. You don't encounter him until you're at the castle if you hurt Monsters on your way. No dust means he basically glued himself to your side. Partly to keep an eye on you, partly to get close to you.

Bomber and Frisk have a rocky relationship. He knows they've done bad sh*t, but he can never remember what. This distrust can be overridden with a few good runs in a row. He forgets. Or acts like he does. He's got his journal. Says on one page that Frisk aggressively ran in circles until Monsters checked to see if they were okay. Only to be attacked by Frisk.

The picture in that you can find in the game doesn't have whatever the speculation was. I think people thought it was the good end picture that Sans has. For Beasttale it's the four monsters that now reside in Sans, posing with Gaster. They're happy. Don't know what they're about to go through. There's an old picture on my blog somewhere that looks like this, but the picture isn't canon anymore as it has Sans and Papyrus. It follows a different plot point that was scrapped shortly after the art was made.

Less of a fun fact and more of a flex. I never got any hate or flak for my choices with my AUs. Which I mean, is super surprising. Seriously. Not once was I sent a hateful message in my whole time of having this blog. I feel like that says something about my followers then and now. So thank you for suffering through my AU with me 💕 I'm sure after reading this whole thing you'll feel like you wasted your time and you're welcome. I'm glad I can still waste people's time 😂

You know who's cute? The girl I forced to beta read this 👀

[phantomphangphucker]

My Little Box Of Secrets - Phanniemay day 2 - Secrets

“What you doing tonight sweetie?”

“Oh just playing Doom with Tuck and Sam”

“I’m glad you kids manage to have such normal lives, in such a ghost infested town”

I only smile at mom as I head up to my room, I’d really rather lie to her as little as possible.

Kneeling on the floor, I can’t help but chuckle as I phase out my, not so small anymore, collection box, “let’s take a list of inventory”.

* Basically mummified steak - Tuck would probably be pissed that I didn’t eat this but I’m definitely not now.

* A corsage petal - I doubt I’m ever going to be giving one of these to a dragon ever again.

* Purple back gorilla fur - probably illegal to have, but my very existence is illegal so...

* The hat from that stupid expensive cool guy outfit - this thing is sill hideous.

* Shard of a mirror - the last thing I need is someone putting that damn thing back together.

* A wishing well coin - I mean, it’s not technically stealing.

* Vlads’ prized football - just to be a dick to him really, though he probably knows I’m the one who took it.

* A gift ribbon - that stupid thing basically got me thrown in jail, so clearly it’s not as innocent as it looks.

* A burnt domino - my sister was almost fried by dominos, that would honestly be a dumb way to die. I’d rather go by something epic, and I thing getting electrocuted by an entire dimension to half-death counts as epic.

* Cujo’s collar - I really have no clue how this hasn’t disintegrated. My gloves do if they come off, so?

* A broken, burnt guitar pick - pretty sure lots of people have one but none of them remember the singer, suck on that Ember.

* Picture of Mr. Lancer in a dress - did I notice? Yes. Is it weird? Yes. But I’m the definition of weird so I wasn’t gonna call him on it.

* Petrified pumkin cube - definitely gross but effectively useful to scare folks with. Sure, they’re mostly disgusted but still.

* Tuck’s goth phase collar - I like to wear it sometimes just to bug him.

* The mayors tie - hey, if the town’s going to accuse me of assaulting the mayor, I doubt they’d be focused on his missing tie.

* A broken bit of a mini portal maker - can’t have Johnny trying to rebuild the thing.

* The entirety of Vlads’ gift basket - nope, never opening that.

* A burnt, cut and stained empty flour sack - is it cheesy that playing pretend parent is what got me to start liking her?

* Tiger fur - maybe illegal? Don’t really know. I’d think it’s more illegal to have one as a pet and use it to hunt ghosts though.

* Gold crown - everyone thinks I stole it, so might as well keep it. I’ll get in more shit for returning it anyway.

* Replica of DP symbol patch - not sure why she even made multiples. Maybe I should copyright it? Stick it on merch or something.

* Scratch and sniff of Foley by Tucker Foley - still smells awful, no clue how he even got the resources to make this shit. Highly doubt Sam helped.

* Pirate hat feather - it’s fluffy. Too bad the sword disintegrated.

* Ring of rage - no way in hell I was letting Vlad keep that. Still trying to find the damn crown though.

* A tattered bed sheet - that was beyond embarrassing and I can’t help but cringe at any childhood photos where I wear a bedsheet as a cape now.

* Some teddy bear stuffing - had to make room for the fart box after all.

* A chunk of a time medallion - from the one Dan fused inside my chest. It’s a good reminder of what I must never be.

* A burnt, stained and torn up copy of The Fright Before Christmas 2 - because I like to hit it.

* The power cell to the Fenton super suit - funny enough, just the cell alone super charges me. Who knows when that’ll come in useful.

* Space helmet - guess who did get to become an astronaut? This halfa ass did. Probably completely illegal though.

* Replica black T-shirt with DP symbol - I mean, it did look good, even if I didn’t want to being stuck in that with Dash.

* Sams’ tiara - I wasn’t about to let her throw it out. Wore it once just to mock Aragon, so worth it.

* Gladiator shoulder pad - still looks pretty cool honestly.

* Picture of Halfa Jack - I couldn’t resist when ClockWork turned a blind eye. He probably just wanted to piss off the Observants, which I’m down for.

* Orange Danny jello - was it safe to take a bit of jello me? Probably not. But it was the weirdest state my bodies ever been in so...

* Gregor’s jacket - black and white is my colour dude, stick to the shitty red letterman. And yes, I, as Phantom, did cosplay the guy for Halloween once. Just to piss off the GIW.

* Vial of clone goo - disturbing? Definitely. But if Dani ever has some issues, it could be useful.

* The other “mayors” tie - because fuck you Vlad, might as well make this tradition. I pretty much have to steal the next mayors tie now, so long as Vlad doesn’t keep buying the votes.

* Sealed bloodblossom leaf - am I stupid for keeping this? Absolutely. But I’m the kind of dumb ass that will forget what those stupid plants look like.

* Ghost sea monster scale - weirdly sharp and again with the not dissolving thing.

* Vlad head eyeball - damaging the thing was the only way to get dad to stop wearing the thing.

* Fenton wig - stupidly useful, almost concerningly so.

* My first ice crystal - this is probably why there’s never any bugs in here. Keeps everything nice and cold.

* Milkshake glass with Hobsin’s signature - I put that man through Hell, but asking for this was probably weirder to him than my tastebuds.

* Box Ghosts’ Not Wanted poster - it really is just too funny not to have.

* Chunk of Nocturn’s sleep helmet - one thing I wanted to blow up but yet blew up on accident. Even my sleep is destructive.

* A vial of oatmeal - it may be horrendously expired but it was just too funny to not keep.

* A freaking apology letter from Red to Phantom - I’m still completely weirded out by this honestly. I really do need the reminder that it’s actually real.

Sealing the box back up, before I head out for a patrol. It sure says something that every episode of my life is just another secret. And amongst all the pennies for my ponderings, are souvenirs for my secrets.

End.

[sp4c3-0ddity]

Hello! If you take requests for fanfics I have an idea! If you don’t just ignore this. I would write it myself but i suck at writing. It is based off of an episode of avatar the last airbender so if you haven’t watched this show, just ignore this. I couldn’t fit it all in so there is going to be maybe two parts. The cave of two lovers AU pt 1 The team have to go in the cave as a “shortcut” and Pidge and Lance get separated from the team in the tunnels due to some reasons. Continue in part two.

Pt 2 The cave of two lovers AU And the communicators don’t work. In the episode, you have to let love guide you out of the tunnels So, Pidge and Lance confess their love to eachother, because they think they’re gonna die in there, and as as the torch goes out they kiss! Thank you for reading this! I hope you like the idea!

i tried, and it’s ~2600 words and i hope you like it!! (no familiarity with ATLA required)

“We’vebeen through this tunnel already,” Lance said, peeking over Pidge’s shoulderand at the projection from her cuff.

She glanced up at him, a slight frown onher very close face, and said, “Notaccording to my map.”

Lance scanned their surroundings - a narrowtunnel deep under the surface of a dying Balmera, the walls where the lightfrom their armor fell glittering with tiny blue-white crystals. But tremorsshook the walls, dust raining down on them from the low ceiling, and every fewticks a the ground rumbled as if from thunder from a powerful storm.

“Well,”Lance said, carefully because he knew how testy Pidge could get about beingcorrected, “the Balmera’s alive, right?”

“Right…”Pidge agreed.

“Sowho’s to say the tunnels don’t change sometimes?”

Pidge turned to face him with her armscrossed. “Okay,first of all, the Balmera may be alive, but it’s also dying. Second of all, it’salso huge, so if the tunnels are changing, then it would probably be very slowly.” She nodded, apparently satisfied with herexplanation, and added, “Sure, it probably changes more rapidly than thesurface of a nonliving planet only subjected to its own erosion, but—” Shegasped, her eyes catching on something overhead, and blurted, “Lance, watchout!”

“Wha—”

Pidge shoved him, hard, her hands plantedagainst his chest. He stumbled backwards, heart in his throat and flailing hisarms as his visor snapped shut. Dust filled the tunnel and his vision, and whenthe particles settled a giant shard lay where he’d just stood, silhouetted in the gloom.

But he couldn’t see Pidge.

“Pidge!”Lance said, his voice echoing eerily around the tunnel. “Are you—”

“I’mfine.” Pidge emerged from behind the fallen boulder, her steps rapid as sheapproached him. “What about you?” She grabbed his arms, staring wide-eyed athim and looking more frightened than he’d seen her.

Lance laughed, her concern cheering himalmost as much as seeing her upright and uncrushed, and gestured at himself. “I’mgreat, thanks to you.”

Pidge smiled, and when she didn’tlet go, he prompted, “Uh, Pidge? You know we’re not down here to sightsee,right?”

Pidge let go of him and cleared her throat.She raised her wrist, their makeshift map projected, and muttered, “IfI wanted to see you I wouldn’t have to go underground.”

Lance’s eyes narrowed, unsure what she meant bythe statement - only that he justcaught a hint of red in her cheeks, even in the dim glow of the projected map.

With so little light, their shadows stretchedlong, walking alongside them as they traveled deeper underground. The air grewstale, but not so unclean they had to rely on the life support in their armor.

But the ground still shook, each tremormore powerful than the last, and Lance stuck as close to Pidge as he could -close enough that his heart skipped a beat every time her arm brushed againsthis.

(That had been happening more and morearound her lately…)

“Ifyou were a small child whose planet was literally crumbling around you, wherewould you hide?” Lance posed, tapping his chin.

“Notunderground,” Pidge said. “You’re supposed to hide under something sturdy whenthere’s an earthquake.”

“Thisis like a doomsday quake, Pidge,” Lance pointed out, craning his neck to peerinto a shadowed crevice. “I don’t think a desk would help.”

Pidge admitted, “Iguess not…”

“Plus…well,underground is all these Balmerans really know. The sky’s got to be kind ofscary to them if the Galra have been keeping them underground.”

Pidge snorted and observed, “Thatsounds verbatim like something Hunk said.”

“Ver-bait-what?”Lance rubbed the back of his neck and frowned, confused.

Pidge sighed. “Itmeans word-for-word.” She grabbed his wrist - in time for Lance to realize hewalked a step behind her - and said, “Keep up, Lance.”

“Withyour pace or with your big words?”he retorted, though he sped up so he could trek beside her again.

But not before she halted at a fork in thetunnel, so suddenly he bumped into her, holding onto her shoulders so shewouldn’tpitch forward.

Pidge shrugged his hands off - for somereason disappointment filled him at how quickly she pushed him away - andconsulted her map. “Which way do you think?”

Lance glanced down the tunnel to his right,holding his breath. This far underground, in this deep dark, his sight was allbut useless. But if he could hearsomething—

A rumble filled the tunnel, and Lancestepped closer to Pidge on reflex. Rocks fell from the ceiling, and Lancewrapped an arm around Pidge, tucking her into his side, and put up his shieldand his head down.

Pebbles ricocheted off the energy shield,rattling to the ground. Bigger stones dropped around them, and Pidge pressedcloser.

Dust tickled his nose, making him sneeze,but when the latest collapse stilled - when the dust cleared - he stayedfrozen.

Lance looked down.

Pidge’s eyes were pinched shut, long lashescasting shadows across her cheeks. But they fluttered as she opened her eyesand met his. “Th-that was—”

“Yeah,”Lance agreed, his heart hammering out of fear or…something else.

His breath caught in his throat when Pidgebrushed her gloved thumb under his eye. “You got a little…dirt there,” shemuttered.

“Thanks,”he said.

“I-Ithink that collapse made our decision for us,” Pidge said without removing herhand.

Lance’s sluggish mind couldn’t comprehend whatshe meant. “Decision?”

“Oneof the forks is blocked.”

“O-oh,”Lance said, chuckling sheepishly as he remembered. He disengaged his shield andstood, offering Pidge a hand once he was on his feet again.

She took it, letting him pull her upright,only for her to immediately get back to business, directing them down thetunnel entrance not blockaded by boulders glittering with minerals.

They’d barely traveled down it when the soundof their footsteps changed, echoing slightly as if the tunnel widened ahead ofthem. Lance’s foot splashed, and when he glanced down, a puddle of waterreflected the glow from his helmet.

“Isthere an underground river here?” he wondered, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

But his pulse rushed in excitement; theidea of an underground river reminded him of discovering the Blue Lion onEarth!

Lance took Pidge’shand and tugged her along. But she didn’t protest, instead following almosteagerly.

This time she didn’tpull away, not even when they emerged into a cavern so wide its outerdimensions disappeared into shadow.

A lake filled the cavern, its surfaceglowing softly and its banks gently lapping at their feet.

Lance’s jaw dropped, awe overcoming him, and agasp even escaped Pidge.

“Holycrow,” he breathed, taking in the gleaming lake.

“Yeah,”Pidge said, her fingers tightening around his.

But the wonder proved short-lived.

Distant splashes echoed throughout thecavern as the ceiling crumbled, water from a nearby collision soaking into theground at his feet. And the longer they stood there, the more the lake’ssurface rippled, both with ground tremors and with boulders falling through it.

Its glow faded until all Lance could makeout was the nearest bank, faintly illuminated by his armor’slight.

“Lance,we need to move,” Pidge reminded him with a nudge. “We—this might be a deadend. We’ll have to head back.”

“Whycan’t we go around the lake?” he asked, nodding towards the unseen shore. “Ormaybe it’s shallow and we can wade across?”

“Wedon’t know how big it is,” Pidge pointed out tersely, “and the longer we stayhere arguing about it, the more—”

The loudest and nearest splash yet cut her off, a spurt of water shooting at themand across their visors. Lance wiped the drops away with his glove andreluctantly admitted, “Point taken.”

But the lake wasn’ttheir greatest obstacle.

Rubble blocked the tunnel that led into thecavern, and even as Lance, with a growing and breathless desperation, crouchedto dig through the debris, he knew they were running out of time.

Quakes hit more often, the biggest tremorsticks rather than doboshes apart, and larger and larger boulders plummeted fromabove, striking the ground with a small rumble of their own. And despite Pidgekneeling beside him and helping push rocks aside, it was useless.

This would take too long.

“Quiznak,”he hissed, standing and resting his hands on his hips. “This is useless, Pidge.”

“Whatelse do you suggest we do?” she demanded, eyes flashing. “Our only way out is—”

“Aroundthe lake!” Lance cut her off, gesturing at the disappearing path behind her. “Orbetter yet, throughthe lake.”

“Wedon’t know where eitherof those places lead!” Pidge protested. “And going around the lake? Can’t you see thepath slopes down?”

Lance peeked over her, scarcely interestedin that excuse even when he saw that she was right. But his heart poundedpainfully loudly in his ears, drowning out all reason - nothing but the need tosee both of them survive existed.

“Pidge,we have to try something!”

“I-Iknow,” she said, sighing, “but…”

A deafening crack erupted from overhead,drowning out the rest of Pidge’s argument. And Lance acted withoutthinking.

He darted at Pidge, pressing her against awall and shielding her with his body as more dirt and dust showered them. Hepinched his eyes closed, waiting until the latest tremor faded before openingthem again.

To be met with Pidge’s,with her brow furrowed and her hands resting on his chest.

Lance then recognized the compromisingposition, that she was yet again flush against him, only this time he’d…pinnedher to a wall.

His cheeks filling with heat, he said, “Areyou o—”

She kissed him.

His eyes shot open, heart skipping at thepress of her lips. Pidge kissed clumsily but with enthusiasm, their nosesbumping until Lance tilted his head and returned the pressure.

One of her arm’swrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, and Lance grasped her hand,pressing it to the wall while an almost delirious happiness filled him.

Warmth spread through his chest and bodyand seemed to concentrate in the hand that held Pidge’s,but when they parted to catch their breath, he remembered where they were.

Lance’s automatic smile faltered, his heartsinking where ticks ago it floated.

Pidge wore a frown that matched his,despite the pink in her cheeks, and said, “Lance, I’m—” She cut herself off, shakingher head and sighing. “We’re still quiznak knows how deep underground.”

“Y-yeah,”Lance said, but before he could step away from Pidge, something caught hisattention.

Where their linked hands touched the wall,it emitted a soft teal glow - and a trail of ignited crystals led from thatpoint along the rock, pushing away the shadows.

“Pidge,”Lance breathed, half-worried his voice would diminish the light, “do you seethat too?”

“Seewhat?” she asked, but her eyes widened when she followed his gaze to theirjoined hands. “What the quiznak?”

“Shouldwe follow where it goes?” he suggested, raising an eyebrow. When Pidgehesitated, he added, “We have nothing else to lose, Pidge.”

“Nothingbut our lives,” she said, then shrugged. “Let’s go.”

They followed their trail of glowingbreadcrumbs, and this time Pidge didn’t complain about the ground slopingsteadily down. But she lingered close to Lance, still holding tight to hishand, both of theirs pressed to the wall as the crystals behind them faded backinto darkness.

They hiked in silence, not even mentioningthe kiss, but when their breath grew short from the ground rising in elevation,Pidge said, “Thankquiznak.”

“We’llbe back on the Balmera’s surface before you know it,” Lance reassured her,squeezing her hand and glancing over his shoulder at her. “Allura will wrap upthat rejuvenation ceremony, and we can be on our merry—”

“Wehaven’t found the kid yet, Lance.”

His heart dropped into his stomach, and hesaid, “Oh,quiznak.”

A shadow danced across their path, catchinghis eye and making him stop, about to reach for his bayard. But when a smallfigure stepped into view, he sagged and told Pidge, “Thatwas…easier than I thought it would be.”

“Lance,we’ve almost been crushed three times!”

“Yeah,well…” Lance inhaled and cautiously withdrew his hand from Pidge’s - relaxingslightly when the crystals still lit the path ahead - to approach the Balmeranchild. “Hey,” he said, extending an arm towards them. “Your parents sent us toget you; they’re very worried about you.”

The child stared at his offered hand withgleaming eyes. Lance resisted the urge to grab them and go, declaring theirmission accomplished. Stopping renewed his sense of urgency, made his feet itchto be on the move lest the whole tunnel collapse on them.

The child took his hand.

The sound of Pidge’srelieved laughter filled his ears, but with the child occupying him, he couldn’thold her hand the whole hike up.

A new tension sat in the air, heavy overLance’sand Pidge’s heads, in the wake of the rescue.

In the wake of the kiss.

Lance didn’t understand why Pidge avoided himafterward, once they were safe on Earth again, but his mind supplied him withone conclusion:

Pidge kissed him out of desperation,because she thought they wouldn’t escape the Balmera’s tunnels alive.

Not because she felt something for him.

But he still cornered her after a meetingat the Garrison one evening, finding her in the hallway outside the conferenceroom.

Lance cleared his throat, seeking composuredespite the pounding of his heart, and asked, “Pidge, can we talk?”

Pidge froze, her posture stiff, and turnedto face him. “Wewere talking earlier,” she said, crossing her arms and meeting his eyes inchallenge.

“Wewere in a meeting and around other people,” Lance said, waving a dismissivehand. “That doesn’t count.”

“Okay,fine.” Pidge frowned. “What do you want?”

Lance ran his fingers through his hair -pressing his lips together to keep from smirking when he spotted Pidge trackingthe motion with her eyes - and decided to skip to the point:

“Whydid you kiss me?”

Pidge tore her gaze away from him, bitingher lip, and admitted, “I thought we were going to die down there.”

“O-oh,”Lance said, disappointment sitting heavily in his stomach at having hissuspicion confirmed. “But would you…do it again?”

“I—”Her eyes lifted, and she muttered, “If you wanted me to.”

His breath caught, hope reigniting withinhim, and he said, “I do. Want you to, I mean.” He smiled and rubbed the back ofhis neck.

“Why?”

Lance blinked, surprised by her question. “Whatdo you mean why?”

“Whydo you want meto kiss you?”Pidge squinted at him, as if he was something she didn’t understand.

The look made his skin crawl, but he pushedthat discomfort aside - if he couldn’t find the courage to speak frankly to thegirl of his dreams then why bother standing before her at all? - and said, “BecauseI love you.”

Pidge’s face turned red, her eyes wideningbehind her glasses, and she exclaimed, “Since when?”

Lance tried to shove aside his ownembarrassment with a shrug. “I’m not sure,” he admitted, “but for awhile now.” He smiled, taking her small hands in his, and when she didn’t pullaway, it emboldened him to step towards her, close enough that her warm breathcaressed his face. “So…I really dowant you to kiss me again.”

A wild grin finally overtook Pidge’sface. She tilted her head back, leaning slightly into him as she stood on hertoes so that their noses brushed.

Shestepped back, and when Lance’s face fell, she laughedand promised, “Later. I think this time I want to do it somewhere nothing likea cave-in or nosy friend can interrupt.”

[radiantcutice-blog]

No Honor Among Thieves

Len doesn’t know where it went wrong.

Maybe- Maybe it’s because he was distracted. Preoccupied by things back home, by Thawne and Barry and how the kids are- maybe that’s why things failed.

But even that isn’t right. Distraction doesn’t account for this mayhem, not when this plan has been in the works for months. Hell, it hadn’t even been Barry- if he had showed up, plans B through L are reserved for him, depending on when he arrived and who he’d gone after first.

It’s the damn Feds. Again, shouldn’t be a problem- except they know. They know every single move the Rogues make, every strategy in their arsenal, every single weakness. Things they shouldn’t know about this job in particular.

They go after Hartley first, taking out the ears of the operation, their early warning system, as well as the danger of his mind control. He goes down with a sonic blast targeted at his implants, flute forgotten as he scrambles to try and shut them off, fingers fumbling in his pain. It gives the Feds just enough time to slap cuffs on him, confiscate his gloves and his flute, and hustle him off. They leave the sonic device on to keep him in too much pain to pick his cuffs, twisting and writhing in the grip of the two agents that drag him along as he tries to escape the noise.

Rosa gets the Boot, fired off before she can even react, the hook clamping around her ankle and anchoring her to the ground in an instant. He snarls, reaching for his belt and the offensive tops within, but another squeeze of the trigger sends 90 thousand volts through him and he drops to his knees. The second the pulse lays them out flat, and the agents don’t even give Roscoe’s muscles the chance to relax before yanking their arms behind their back, making her cry out in pain as they cuff her wrists and begin confiscating her gear.

Mick they corner with a gun not unlike Len’s, bringing the temperature in the room down and meeting the gout of flame he sends at them with a blast of cold, causing the same explosion of steam that Mick and Len crossing streams usually does. It knocks Mick back, growling low as he struggles to his feet, but they’ve frozen the floor, too, like he’s a damn speedster they’re trying to keep off balance, and there’s a crackling crunch of snow cleats breaking through the thin layer of ice as they rush him. He manages a good few swings, clocks one with his gun and sets another’s gear on fire, but his teeth are chattering and he can feel the panic creeping up, and it distracts Mick just enough for a Fed to shove a cattle prod in the back of his knee to bring him down, leg muscles spasming painfully and losing any footing he had on the frozen floor. Crashing down, the Feds pile onto Mick even as he struggles against them, getting him restrained and his gun taken away before some asshole cracks him in the back of the head with their own weapon, and the blunt force head trauma on top of years of it makes Mick’s vision swim almost immediately.

They drag him into the hall where Lisa stands, looking frantic at first but then cold and hard, just like Len, teeth bared as she skates her way towards them, fists clenched. Mick tries to shout a hoarse warning, but Lisa’s too set on her icy rage and doesn’t realize one of the agents is brandishing Mick’s gun until the flames melt the ice from under her blades and send her hurtling ungracefully to the floor. The same cattle prod used on Mick gets jabbed into Lisa’s gut, making her convulse until they decide she’s had enough, cuffing her before one of the agents tosses her over his shoulder.

Another two agents drag Roy into the procession, the Rainbow Raider hanging unconscious between them, his glasses in one of their fists. His tech might be formidable, but Roy’s never been a physical fighter, and a flash-bang to overwhelm his hardlight constructs was all the Feds needed to get to the man himself and knock him out.

Len would have to be an idiot to ignore the explosions, breaking into a jog with his safety off as he heads towards the nearest Rogue- safety in numbers, they’ve got this down- only to find Digger backed into a corner and swaying, swearing up a storm as he clutches his head, his boomerangs scattered across the floor or stuck in the walls.

It feels like being whisked by Barry- going so fast that, for a moment, the world sometimes seems like it’s at a standstill- before Digger’s head swells and bursts outward, a splatter of blood and gray matter painting the walls and the ceiling, and Len hears a sound- is that his voice? Is he screaming?- before he fires his cold gun into the room, icing the four agents who’d surrounded Digger and watched as he-

As he-

In a burst of rage, he smashes his gun down against the forearm of the man holding the detonator, breaking it off from the elbow down to shatter against the floor as Len moves past them, reeling it all until there’s just a shard of ice where his heart should be. He’s calm. He’s rational. He can make this work, even with the plan gone to hell.

First priority is Digger’s body. Len is methodical as he ices it, like he would a patch of ground or a particularly tough safe; his eyes are vacant, unwilling to really look at the body of one of his best friends, the man who was a brother to him, fucking de-

Shaking off the thought physically, he releases the trigger and turns away from the flash-frozen corpse, shouting for Sam and finding him in the reflection off an iced Fed not a few seconds later, looking absolutely haggard.

“Cold, what the fuck’s- oh, Christ.” Even in the reflection, even behind his helmet, Len sees Sam’s eyes go wide at the sight of Digger. “Is he…?”

“Get him outta here, Scudder.” There’s no room for argument and Sam knows it, leaving the relatively safety of the Mirror World to collect Digger’s frozen body from the floor as Len ices over a large patch of the wall to make a larger surface for them to pass through.

There’s a plan in place for this, as much as Len hates to admit it. It’s been haunting him for years, the thought that they’re all mortal, and he’d hoped to never use Avernus for anything more than someone dying of old age in their sleep. Wishful thinking, he supposes, but who wouldn’t want their family to live their longest and fullest lives? Hell, nobody deserves to die like this, not even a miserable bastard like Digger, not even after he’d killed that Gotham capitalist.

Sam fires his gun into the ice and it ripples for a moment before settling, the younger man adjusting his grip on the body before looking back at Len. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

“You don’t give orders,” he growls, but Scudder doesn’t relent, baring his teeth back at Len.

“Job’s gone to hell, Snart, you’ll stay fuckin’ put while I get everyone I can into the goddamn mirror, not go running around to get yourself offed by more Feds.”

Len’s hand flexes around the grip of his gun and then loosens as he nods curtly. “I’m last through.”

“I know, Len,” Sam assures him before stepping into his reflection with Digger’s body.

He can’t help pacing while he waits- part of Len wants to smash the frozen agents to snow, part of him wants to run to find his sister, his husband- but Scudder’s right. Damn him, but he is. They need to get out of here, and Len running off half-cocked and angry, so angry, no matter how he’s tried to freeze it out, will just get him killed.

Like Digger.

Sam’s hand emerges from the ice a few long minutes later and Len takes it, stepping through the reflection, used to the way it clings to him, like emerging from being underwater until the surface tension finally breaks. The Mirror World is never pleasant, and he’s glad for Scudder’s hustle to the next bright spot in the murky and imbalanced dimension, dragging Len through the floor-length mirror in the front hall of the den and then firing his gun again to shut the portal down entirely.

It’s a good thing, too, because Len takes a few deep breaths before turning on his heel and slamming his fist into the mirror.

The way it shatters is utterly unsatisfying, the ugly way his knuckles pop bringing him no catharsis, and the voices that call out in response-

“Len!”

“¡Dios!”

“Cold!”

Only three. Three plus Digger, dead, headless, frozen, and neither Lisa nor Mick among them-

He turns back around to see Sam, Marc, and James staring at him in concern. Marc’s hair is more of a windswept mess than usual, Sam’s helmet is discarded to show the furrows in his brow, and James looks almost green, lips pressed in a thin line as he watches Len from behind his domino.

“What the fuck was that,” he asks aloud, and none of them answer, so he raises his voice. “What the fuck was that? That wasn’t Flash, or Icon, or Rocket- those were the damn Feds, and they nabbed half of us. They m-” The words stick in his throat, if only because he sees a bright puff of red hair around the corner.

“Uncle Len?” Owen.

Len wants nothing more in this moment than to have died in Digger’s place.

“Hey, kid,” he says softly. “Didn’t mean to wake ya.”

“Is everything okay?”

Swallowing back the shake in his voice, Len nods. “Just job stuff, Owen. You need somethin’?”

The boy almost shakes his head, then shrugs instead, looking at his feet.

“How ‘bout Marc comes and reads you one of his boring old books to help you get back to sleep,” he suggests gently, and Owen looks up again to shoot Mardon a hopeful glance.

“Can we keep going with Connecticut Yankee?”

At a loss for words for a brief moment, Marc spares Len a helpless look before smiling gently at Owen. “Of course, niño.”

Marc reaches out to squeeze Len’s arm before following Owen back through the house to the boy’s room, leaving him with Scudder and Jesse, the latter looking ready to squirm out of his skin as he glances at the hallway and then back down, not looking at Len or Sam.

Len watches James until Marc and Owen’s footsteps fade and Owen’s door clicks shut, a chill crawling across Len’s skin as his blood freezes in his veins.

“Trix. Look at me.” James lifts his head and Len sees his Adam’s apple bob, hands curling into fists as he holds himself back from drawing the cold gun once more. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Snart, we don’t know it was an inside job-”

“Don’t fuckin’ gimme that, Scudder, we know damn well it was. No way the Feds would get the drop on us otherwise.” He steps closer to Trickster and the young Rogue flinches. “James. Answer me.”

A soft wheeze escapes him before he musters words. “Cold, I swear to God, I didn’t think-”

“You didn’t think what, Jesse? You didn’t think they’d really catch us? You didn’t think they’d get so many?” It takes everything in Len not to grab James by the front of his uniform and shake him. “You didn’t think they’d murder one of us?”

“No! No, I didn’t, I just thought-”

“They’re the fucking Feds, not the CCPD! They’re competent, especially when some meshugenah hands them all the intel they need because he thinks- what, exactly? What were you thinking, you fucking idiot?”

James shoves Len back, shame turning to something ugly and defiant in the face of Len’s anger, and Len has to put a hand up to keep Sam from stepping in.

“I was thinking about this, Cold! The way you treat me, the way the Rogues fucking treat me- how I never get the chance to prove myself-”

”Prove yourself?” Len cuts in, “Kid, what the hell are ya talkin’ about? You haven’t needed to prove yourself since you first joined up! You made it through the trial period, you showed us you had the skills- that was all we needed! You’re a Rogue! End of story!”

“But it’s not! You all still treat me like a child-”

“You’re second-youngest!”

“-and like you don’t want me around-”

“Because you’re an ass, James, not ‘cause you’re not capable!”

Jesse makes a disgusted noise. “Like everyone in this group isn’t an ass sometimes!”

“Not everyone’s a navel-gazin’ homophobic jerk, James, and you know it damn well,” Len snaps back. “You, you were a pain in my ass, in everyone’s asses, and I stood up for you. I played the leader card, more’n once, because you were family, James. You were my fucking son, and I wasn’t about to put you out.”

A hush falls as James stares at Len, the oh-so-clever Trickster finally at a loss for words. His breath shudders, and Len watches him struggle through his emotions as the words sink in. Sam shifts uncomfortably in Len’s peripheral vision.

“Cold- Len. I’m sorry. I don’t-” His voice falters. “I dunno what I was thinking.”

Len wants to forgive. He does. He didn’t spend years handpicking a team with the intention of giving up on them, or leaving them behind. He didn’t cultivate a family just to turn his back when things got rough, but this-

This is beyond rough.

He hadn’t brought James in, young and scared and alone but so, so brilliant, just to drop him on his ass again. It’s been years of Len trying to help James, make him a better man as well as a better criminal, and to see he learned nothing- to see him betray the family, to see him orphan Owen-

“You broke my heart, kid,” Len admits quietly, raising his hand to halt any answer and talking over James when he doesn’t take the visual cue. “You broke my damn heart, but if you’re out, you’re out.”

His eyes are steely even as Jesse tries to reason with him. “Len, come on-”

“That’s enough.” The words hurt, but Len gets them out, even if his voice is hushed. “Go tell your Fed buddies that James Jesse’s all theirs. The Trickster’s dead.”

James recoils, brows drawn together. “You can’t do that.”

“I can, and I am,” Len assures him. “Trickster’s dead. And if Jesse sets foot in the Gem Cities again, he’ll be dead, too.”

Stepping out of the way, Len gestures from James to the front door. “You know the way.”

The silence draws out between them as Jesse stands there, a tremor in his frame as he stares at Len, as if the look will change his mind, but Len is set. His hand drops to his gun when it starts getting too long for his tastes, and only then does James look away, eyes on the ground as he hustles past Len and Sam, leaving without another word.

Len watches him go and allows himself one shuddering breath once the door shuts behind James, covering his eyes for a long moment before he gets it together.

Cold. Hard. Calm. He’s fine. They’re all gonna be fine.

Everyone but Digger, that is.

He pulls his phone from an inside pocket of his parka, turning it on and dialing a number he knows by heart, eyes distant as he listens to it ring.

“Hey. Yeah. Yeah, I know what time it is. Listen, Flash. I need your help.”

[whispersafterdusk]

Raven Among Wolves - ch 6

He woke in his own bed, stripped to his undershirt and pants; with a start he jerked upright, head swimming, and as he was swinging his legs free of his bed a movement in the corner drew his attention.

"What do you think you're doing?" came Farkas's voice as he stood up from his seat at the corner table.

"Where is Aela?"

"You're in no shape to be getting out of bed.  What were you even doing?"

"I said, where is Aela?" Vilkas growled.  He rose up from the bed and let his gaze roam around the room, looking for his armor; it was piled in a heap near the table where Farkas stood, and when he went to grab the chest piece Farkas reached out to grab him by the wrist and yank him away from it.

"Get back into bed." ((Continued below cut))

"Let go."  He tried to pull his wrist free; the exhaustion was still present and every little movement he made was agonizing -- he simply did not have the strength to pull free of his brother's grip.  "I mean it, brother.  Let go."

With a grunt Farkas obeyed; Vilkas swayed a bit, huffing, and went to slowly strap his armor on.

"Find Aela and tell her to meet us in the Underforge."

"Why?"

"Just do it," Vilkas snapped.  His brother's expression flickered to one of mild annoyance coupled with confusion but after a pause he turned and left.

It was a struggle to get his armor on; his fingers were numb, his limbs so heavy...everything hurt so badly.

'How long was I out?' he wondered, feeling a deep fear like a shard of ice impaled through his stomach.  'What have they done to her by now?'  He didn't want to think about it.

No one else was awake as he dragged himself upstairs and out into the night - at the very least he assumed he'd been asleep half a day and he hoped it was no longer than that; the hidden door to the Underforge opened easily beneath his hand and he fell inside.  At the sight of the basin in its center his stomach lurched with the memory of his worst nightmare but he quickly shoved it down and wearily leaned on the nearest circular stone table - one of three that had been carved from the rock of the Underforge itself.  A few minutes later the door groaned open again to let Aela and Farkas inside; Vilkas remained silent as the door slid shut and they moved passed him into the hidden chamber.

"What's this about, Vilkas?" Aela asked into the silence.  "You ran yourself to death to get back here, you shouldn't even be out of bed right now -- you look like you could keel over at any moment."

"I don't care," he growled.  "I need your help.  The Silver Hand have Tormlia."

Both Aela's and Farkas's eyes widened in surprise.

"How?" his brother asked.  "We killed every one of them that came in here."

Aela nodded at Farkas.  "-and I know I cleared out the camps."

Vilkas's expression darkened as he looked to Aela, fixing her with a glare.   "Yes.  I know you did.  That's why we are even in this situation."

Now it was her turn to glare at him.  "What?  You are blaming ME for the Silver Hand's attack?"

"Yes, I am.  Skjor's death was an unfortunate mistake, and we avenged him as is proper.  But you kept going.  You kept hunting.  You took more lives than was right.  And that provoked them to attack us here and it cost us Kodlak and the shards of Wuuthrad.  And you weren't even thorough enough to notice them gathering to the west."  Aela's expression was growing angrier with each word but Vilkas could not bring himself to care.  "The morning after Kodlak's funeral Tormlia left Whiterun.  She was supposed to be going home...the Silver Hand took her off the road.  I witnessed it.  And I followed them to their stronghold, far to the northeast of here in the mountains.  She's being held captive -- as bait, to lure us in. Your provocations may well cost us her life, too."

The severity of the situation was gradually reaching Aela through her anger; she blew out a steadying breath and the rage went with it, leaving behind a grim and thoughtful look.  "They knew she was associated with us, and knows we'll come to rescue her."  She leaned forward on the basin, resting the heels of her palms on its edge and staring down into the bowl.  "-where did you say they went?"

"Northeast.  There was a fort out there - short, close to the ground, likely extending deep into the mountain.  I followed thirteen of them back and there were three at the door."  His shoulders slumped at the memory and the gut wrenching feeling of helplessness.  "...how long was I out?"

"Four days," came Farkas's quiet answer.

Vilkas looked up sharply.  "You lie."

"I'm not.  You scared the hell out of that guard."

Four days...no, no no.  That was four wasted days, damn it.  He shoved himself to his feet, keeping a hand on the stone beneath him to steady himself.  "Grab your weapons and lets go.  We cannot let them hold one of our own."

-------------------------------------------------------

As his return run had been a frenzied sprint and was a jumbled memory Vilkas had little choice but to lead Farkas and Aela around the long way, on the path he'd stalked the Silver Hand from.  They found Tormlia's dropped bag that he'd missed the first time and took it with them; Vilkas rested as much as he could (and as much as his mind would allow) each time they stopped for the night but it was difficult to find any rest when he knew the Silver Hand could be doing gods knew what to Tormlia now.

Then finally, a week after they'd left Jorrvaskr, they could spy the faint orange glow of a torch ahead that highlighted the forms of four figures standing outside the squat little fort's entrance.

The twins held back as Aela crept forward - between the three of them she was the least likely to be spotted - as the snow blew in gusts around them.  She was gone for some time then they heard the whisper of her boots in the snow and there she was, climbing back over the rock outcrop to drop between them.

"Well?"

"There's just four at the front and the building is solid - no windows bigger than a slit, no other doors, nothing on the roof.  And no way of telling how many are inside."  

Vilkas could see her turn toward him; the wind was howling but moonlight was peeking through a break in the clouds, lighting where they stood just enough that he could make out her shape in general but couldn't read her face.  "We haven't much choice.  We cannot allow them to hold her captive or kill her."

"Then how do you want to go about this?"

"Can you take the guards at the front without alerting them too much?"

Aela tilted her head toward the top of the outcrop, staring off in the direction of the guards that weren't visible from here.  "I could, technically.  But the moment the first one drops the other three are going to know something's wrong."

"We have to risk it.  If Farkas and I come out of the woods they will immediately know we've come for her...but if an arrow from the darkness takes them there is a chance - however small - that they might come out to us."

"If that's how you want to try it."

Vilkas nodded grimly.  "There is no possible way to get inside without alerting anyone -- our best chance is to strike quickly here without revealing ourselves."

With another nod Aela went back over the rocks and disappeared into the gloom and swirling snow; Vilkas gestured for Farkas to stay put and very, very carefully edged around the rocks and stuck his head out just enough to keep the guard on the far left in view -- he didn't dare move out further or he'd be spotted against the snow.  Time passed, the guards didn't really mill about idly but they didn't remain completely still either; Vilkas remained still and kept his eyes on the guard he could see so he immediately noticed when that guard stiffened and quickly stepped from his line of sight.

"Kovlen?"

"We're under-"

With the wind blowing it was difficult to hear anything but those were the only sounds from the guards that Vilkas heard; after several moments of silence and without any guards moving back into his view Vilkas stepped out from behind the rocks and surveyed the four dead guards -- Aela's shots were eerily precise and each of them had a arrow in the heart or in the throat.  He nodded back to Farkas and his brother stood to follow him to where Aela was rummaging through the pockets of the dead guards, eventually producing a large iron key with irregular teeth that unlocked the fort's door.

Just inside the door was a square room approximately the same dimensions the building had appeared to be from the outside; there was only firewood and straw, and a single burning brazier, as well as a pair of spikes that had severed werewolf heads impaled on them -- the grisly trophies stood to either side of a door beyond which was a set of stairs leading down that then took a hard left, then another right.  They were cramped and crumbling, and offered no visibility or hint as to what was around their corners.

Vilkas eyed them warily, then took a breath of the stinking air and pulled his shield from his back.  "Mind your shots and stay quiet.  Let's go."

The narrow staircase led down to a landing in a wide, open room, at the top of yet another set of stairs that led down to a hallway directly ahead as well as one to the left; there were a pair of tables to either side of the hallway ahead of them and sitting one to each was a pair of Silver Hand.  Farkas gestured at Aela and got a nod in return; he shuffled around Vilkas and dropped off the left side of the landing with a purposeful, heavy, rattling thud -- he landed out of the view of the two at the tables.  The two Silver Hand stood and looked in that direction, their gazes completely skipping over where Vilkas and Aela crouched at the top of the stairs; Aela put an arrow into each of them and they dropped to the ground dead.

"Can't keep doing that for much longer," she whispered, reaching a hand to her quiver and counting by touch the remaining arrows there.

"Understood."  Vilkas carefully but quickly descended the stairs; to his left Farkas was keeping an eye on the hallway and he left him there, moving over to the door that was down a short hallway facing the stairs.  When he tried to push or pull it it wouldn't budge -- there didn't seem to be a lock that he could see so it was likely barred from the other side.

"Damn it," he muttered, retreating back to where Aela and Farkas waited.  "This is the only way forward."

"Let's not keep them waiting," Farkas grunted as he took the lead.

Vilkas swapped his shield and short sword for his great sword and walked shoulder to shoulder with his brother with Aela guarding their backs; the hallway took them through rooms filled with rotting and burnt furniture and in several places the ceiling had partially caved in.

They didn't encounter many as they made their way forward which left Vilkas suspicious about what they would find ahead of them; the orc that had given the orders before had said to put the entire fort on alert and yet the ones they'd encountered hadn't seemed very...

Something felt off but there wasn't time to consider it.  They would have to take whatever came at them and hope they made it out alive.

There were piked werewolf heads in nearly every room; the entire lower level of the fort stank of rotting flesh and made it impossible to smell anything else.  They kept moving steadily forward, only meeting the Silver Hand in groups of three or four - well within their ability to handle - and finally, after clearing out a large room that looked to be some kind of dining hall and larder, they found at the back a doorway that was blocked off with thick iron rods; beside the doorway was a lever that they assumed would unlock and let the rods drop down into the floor, but it was chained to the wall with a heavy lock.

"Start looking around, we need to get through this door," Aela said as she moved to the nearest corpse.  "I'm betting they stuck their worst, most expendable members up here to slow us down while they fortify whatever's below us. And I doubt they'd lock themselves down there with no way back up here."

They quickly searched through the belongings on each dead Silver Hand - none of those in this room had any sort of key on them so they backtracked through the halls checking rooms and corpses and didn't find one until they'd gone nearly all the way back to where they'd come in.

Once they'd unlocked the lever and thrown it, and the iron rods had slid down into the floor and out of the way, they cautiously inched their way down another set of stairs only to find a door at its bottom...and audible voices on the other side.

Vilkas gestured to his brother, indicating they should burst through together, side by side; Farkas nodded, weapon at the ready.  With a deep breath, knowing they were finally to the thick of it, Vilkas charged the door -- he and Farkas knocked it completely off its hinges as they surged forward and into the startled group of Silver Hand beyond it.

------------------------------------

The area beyond the door was mostly storage based on all the barrels, crates, and bookshelves they found crammed into the rooms and hallways; the Silver Hand had chosen their hold out position well -- the halls were too narrow for Farkas and Vilkas to stand side by side, the crates and barrels provided ample cover for the enemy to shoot behind, and Aela couldn't get a proper shot off without a high risk of putting her arrow into the back of one of the twins' heads.

Seeing no alternative Vilkas had pushed to the front to lead with his shield; this left Farkas mostly useless, sandwiched between him and Aela but there wasn't much that could be done in such tight quarters.  The constant fighting was starting to wear on them too -- the Silver Hand seemed endless down here...this had to be a major stronghold of theirs, there was no other explanation for the sheer numbers they had present.  At the very least the cramped surroundings kept them from taking full advantage of the fact they outnumbered the Circle (there was no possible way to get around to flank or surround them) so while they had slowed to a near crawl in the fighting they were still able to slowly push forward.

After one particularly nasty skirmish (with the survivors retreating back further into the fort's dim tunnels) Farkas suddenly slapped a hand to Vilkas's belt and yanked him backward.

"What?" he snapped, looking around expecting some enemy he hadn't noticed lurking in a corner or something.  Farkas instead pointed down to their feet; not three feet in front of them was an iron plate painted to resemble the stone floor -- Farkas had stopped him from tripping some kind of trap.  He nodded in gratitude and his brother returned the nod.

The pressure plate trap was at the point of a corner, in front of a cage that had been fitted into a space that Vilkas assumed had once held more of the same barrels they had been pushing by all this time; inside of the cage was the rotting remains of a transformed werewolf and now, the further they went, the more cages they began to find.  Some were full of werewolf corpses, some with just "pieces" of them, and some filled with bloodstained straw that hinted at what had once been held within it.

'And they call us the monsters,' he found himself thinking grimly as he stared in at a rotten carcass.

They rounded the corner and kept going, avoiding a wall covered in spikes that looked like it was rigged to swing outward (likely what the pressure plate was for) and, frustratingly, came to another corner that led to yet another set of stairs going down.  A bitterly cold draft was coming up those stairs and it froze the sweat on his face; at the bottom of the stairs was, at last, a much larger, wider room that looked to be some kind of fancy wine cellar back when it was intact.  There were barrels here along with gigantic wooden and iron vats with taps and the wall to the left had caved inward but been cleared away to reveal a rough hewed, icy tunnel leading elsewhere.

'It's freezing in here...gods, don't let her be dead of cold.'

The ice tunnel led into a natural cavern - the ceiling was high above their heads and icicles hung thickly, and the room was roughly circular.  A ramp had been built of dirt, rock, and ice up to a natural shelf where yet more cages had been installed; one cage held the remains of a werewolf along with bits of...he guessed it was elk, or a large deer, and there were human remains in there too.  The other cage had the carcass of a horse inside it and of course there were more heads on pikes in here.  Strangely there were no Silver Hand in this room... They paused for a moment to catch their breath, looking wordlessly to one another -- Vilkas couldn't help but notice the grim look that passed between his brother and Aela...as though they had already resigned themselves to rescuing a corpse rather than a woman.

They continued through the icy tunnel and, surprisingly, found themselves stepping through another caved in wall and back into the fort proper; they had smelled nothing but death and rot all this time so the sudden smell of alarmingly fresh blood immediately set Vilkas on edge, and beyond the short hallway they'd emerged into they found what could only be a torture chamber.

Shackles were hammered into the walls and several still held long dead werewolves; there was a table upon which a werewolf was laid out -- its pelt and skin were peeled back to reveal the bare muscles, pinned in place to the table beneath it with daggers and a few tools whose purpose could only be for inflicting torment.  The chest had been cracked open, the ribs discarded on the floor, and all the entrails pulled free and laid out in a macabre display, and there in the back corners of the room were a pair of racks that were soaked in blood and had considerable bloodstains on the stone beneath them.

It was enough to make Vilkas shudder, sick to his stomach and sick at heart.

There was a door to their left and they could hear voices echoing up ahead...a lot of them.  Vilkas gestured for silence and moved as silently as he could down yet another cramped hallway, stopping to listen at each corner; the voices grew louder and the closer they got the clearer they became without the echo interfering too much - he could hear a man's voice giving orders, directing people by name on where to stand and what to do once the Circle poked their heads out into the room.  It was impossible to determine by voices along how many were in the room ahead but he knew it was an alarming number...he didn't want to believe it was more than they could handle but he had a sinking feeling that this fight would be the worst they'd encountered so far: here was the final stand of the Silver Hand, and somewhere beyond here they had a hostage to use as leverage as well.

At the final corner before the hallway spilled into the room where the Silver Hand had gathered there was a wooden beam - a ceiling support - that had a large gap between it and the wall behind it where the stone had crumbled away.   Vilkas was able to press his eye to the gap and see around the corner without revealing himself and growled in frustration when he saw there was yet another landing ahead of them that led down into a room he couldn't see from here - all that was within his view was the vaulted ceiling, some rusted chandeliers, and what he assumed was a wide chimney based on the shape of the stonework set against the wall and how the shadows on the walls flickered with firelight.

"How many are there?" Aela asked when he pulled back from the corner.

"I can't tell," he answered quietly.  "They are on a level below us."

Aela huffed out a noise of irritation.  "Of course."  She looked between the twins.  "Plans?"

"We aren't going to know what's in there until we step into the room," Vilkas warned.

Farkas glanced between them and then moved to the corner himself.  "You can smell the fear on the air...they're not expecting to win.  I don't think there's as many as we're picturing."

"What are you suggesting then?"

As Farkas was turning around Vilkas missed whatever he was about to say as he was suddenly bounced off the wall by a dark blur; his head struck the stone and he saw stars, and nearby he heard Farkas grunt in pain.

"Aela-"

There was a roar from the room ahead, and then screams; letting out a noise that was halfway between a growl and a hiss Vilkas straightened -- Farkas too had been bowled over and was getting to his feet.

"Hurry - follow her!" Vilkas snapped.  A deep anger at Aela's reckless charge hit him as he rounded the corner on his brother's heels but once he laid eyes on the total chaos she'd spread he had to admit to himself that maybe this time recklessness might have been what was needed.

Aela was a whirlwind of teeth and claws and none of the Silver Hand nearest her could get close enough to strike without being brutally bloodied; as he had earlier Farkas simply dropped off the side of the landing, immediately springing forward as his feet hit the ground to impale the nearest man on his sword and swing him mercilessly aside.  Vilkas surveyed the room quickly, noting a handful of Silver Hand that were backing up with bows in hand -- he sprinted halfway down the stairs then leapt at the nearest one, swinging his shield ahead of him and hearing a dull crack as the woman's head snapped backward and she dropped to the floor.  The three that had been standing with her scrambled to draw their swords and daggers; Vilkas rushed into their midst and dropped a second woman before she had the chance to get her bow out of her hands.

The remaining man and woman in front of him managed to get their weapons in hand - her with a short sword, him with a great sword - and they started to separate to try and flank him; Vilkas shuffled to stay in close quarters with the man, keeping too close for him to get a proper strike in with his large weapon and leaving the woman constantly facing his shield.  For a time they circled in the tight grouping with Vilkas either blocking or parrying their attacks -- he waited for an opening but then, as they had shifted around to place his back to the wall, he got a full view of the room.

What they had feared was a full room of Silver Hand actually numbered maybe twelve, if that; Aela was tearing anything that got near her to shreds and Farkas was easily keeping three men at bay with artful blade work, carefully maneuvering them to push them back into Aela's reach.

His momentary scan of the room left the tiniest opening that the man with the great sword darted forward to exploit; Vilkas felt a searing pain across his left cheek -- he'd seen the flash of the blade angling in and had jerked back but not quite enough to avoid the tip of the blade slicing into his face from cheekbone to chin, continuing on to scrape down the front of his breast plate.

The attack sparked off an anger -- at himself for the lapse in focus, at these Silver Hand for hunting them for so long, for them daring to steal Tormlia away, for taking Skjor...  It fueled his counter attack with an almost unnatural strength; he battered the sword-wielding man, furious, striking again and again -- he was only slightly aware of the slip in the man's parry, of the fingers that landed on the ground at his feet and the man's cry of agony, of how the great sword slipped in the man's maimed grip which allowed him to bring his own weapon in at shoulder height and gouge a deep cut completely across him.  Even as the man fell to the ground at his feet Vilkas kept at him, cutting him to pieces as the woman snarled at him and rained blows against his shield.

When the man was a raw, bloody mess on the ground he turned his attention to the woman and cut her apart in short order as well - neither had been heavily armored and they had paid for it; he jumped over the woman's corpse and charged up behind a man who was menacing Aela.  He brought his sword around with as much strength behind it as he could muster and took it nearly completely through the man's neck -- it was not a clean cut and didn't sever his head entirely but it hardly mattered now.

At last there was only five men left standing and Farkas repelled their blades as Aela dove into their midst...then, finally, silence.

Well, not entirely silent -- Vilkas's blood was roaring in his ears and at the sight of so much blood and meat he felt the beast rearing up inside him.  He dropped to one knee, shaking as the rage and adrenaline released him from its grip and left him to grapple with the nigh overwhelming desire to feast on the corpses splayed out in front of him.  Slowly he pushed himself to his feet, re-sheathed his weapon and put his shield to his back, then staggered from the room to lean against the wall in a hallway he'd noticed to the left of a large fireplace.

The air here was stale and a draft blew into his face, carrying away the scent of gore; it helped calm the beast blood and slowly he clawed control back, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.  When he felt fully...well, stable again, he turned back to look into the room but did not step back inside it.

Aela had let her form fall away and was covered in cuts and blood but despite the injuries she wore a wolfish grin of satisfaction as she surveyed the carnage; his brother was wrapping a bandage over a puncture in his arm just above the elbow but otherwise seemed unhurt, just tired.  Nowhere did Vilkas see any sign of cages or shackles and with a determination turned back to the hallway and strode down it -- he was well beyond any fears of ambush or attack, not after so many dead...any Silver Hand that remained within this fort were either stupid or suicidally overconfident.

The hallway led to a long stairway up to a warped wooden door and spilled him into another straw and firewood filled room that had yet another stairway up into a room that, to either side, had a raised stone platform.  On the one to his left was a table and benches, a fireplace, and what looked like a meal abandoned halfway through preparing it...and to the right...

There, at the back wall -- an iron cage hung from the ceiling on a thick, heavy chain, and within that cage was a pale figure curled up into a ball.

He tripped in his haste to get up the stairs and onto the platform, rushing by a shelf full of weapons and a grindstone.  "Tormlia!"

The woman was stripped to her undergarments and as white as chalk; she didn't stir when he reached the cage and reached in to touch her arm and he gritted his teeth when he saw her wrists and ankles were tied together -- not that she had room to stretch out in the cage as it was barely big enough to hold a skeever.  

"Tormlia..."  He yanked his gauntlet off and went to gently shake her shoulder; she was cold to the touch but he could tell she was still breathing...he needed to find some way to get her down.  The cage had a lock on it but thankfully he found the key sitting on the shelf among the swords, and once the door had swung open he gently lifted her free and cradled her in his arms, grinding his teeth together as he hurried over to the fireplace and carefully cut the ropes that held her.

Her face was a mass of purple bruises, her lip and left eyebrow split; as he carefully stretched her out he found a partially scabbed over, jagged gouge down her side that was ringed with red and stank of infection.  She didn't stir, not even when he accidentally nudged a purple, swollen knee and in a mild panic he'd double checked for her pulse and found it slow and faint but present.

"Cowards tortured her."

Vilkas flinched and looked over his shoulder - Aela and Farkas had finally caught up with him and were staring over his head down at the injured woman.  "We need to get her out of here and back to Whiterun.  Find something we can wrap her in so she does not freeze."

He heard their footsteps retreating; his attention was fully on Tormlia -- thankfully her injuries seemed limited to what he'd seen immediately: the bruising and busted lip, the cut, what he hoped was just a sprain and not a shattered knee.  Her hands and feet were slightly purple from loss of circulation and he rubbed his hands over hers to coax some warmth back into them.

She was feeling warmer to the touch by the time Aela and Farkas returned; Aela passed him first a rough linen cover, then a larger horse hide blanket - together the two would be enough to cover her head to toe and keep her warm as they traveled down the mountains in the snow and wind.

Aela knelt beside him to help spread the blankets out and lift Tormlia into them (the woman still did not stir) then jerked her head back toward Farkas.  "And look what else we found."

Vilkas spared his brother a glance and saw him standing with a sack in hand; he reached inside it and pulled out a shard of-

"Wuuthrad," he murmured, feeling a tiny sense of relief at having recovered the shards of the weapon alongside finding Tormlia alive.

He bundled the blankets around Tormlia and stood - she weighed so little... - then gave the room a much closer look.  "-must we walk all the way back the way we came, or does that door I see there lead somewhere?"

Farkas moved over to it and, after a few minutes of struggling to pull it free, ripped the warped wooden bar from its hooks and pushed the door open; the hinges squealed as though the door hadn't been opened in the last century and once they'd walked through it they couldn't get the door to close properly behind them either.

But it didn't matter.   To hell with this place and to the Silver Hand. He shifted Tormlia in his arms, pulling her closer and angling her up to tuck her forehead in against his neck so he could more clearly see where he was walking.  

Or so he told himself.

[titleknown]

Underrated 4E-Original D&D Monsters!

While Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition had many flaws when it came to integrating narrative and gameplay; on some pretty fundamental levels; one advantage of the system was that the simplified monster-creation allowed for a dickton of really interesting brand-new monsters to appear in a small space.

Sadly, due to both a lack of art for many of them and a fundamentally fluff-lite narrative approach for most of its run, almost nobody remembers them.

And that’s what we’re here to talk about today, with the name, a brief description, and the book they come from! So, in no particular order:

Banderhobbs- A horrible vore-frog that lives in the plane of Shadows. They take people away to work in their horrible shadow-mines until they turn into more Banderhobbs! [Monster Manual 3, tho they did come back in 5e’s Volo’s Guide]

Dreambreath Dracoliches- Dragon liches who root their immortality in the plane of Dreams and generally look like something that should be painted on the side of a van [Draconomicon: Chromatics]

Star Spawn- Horrible eldritch monster-avatars of the Stars, summoned by a giant planet that got fucked up by spending too long in the Cthulhu-dimension passing in front of them. They have stats so you can fight the giant planet. [Monster Manuals 2 & 3]

Filth Hags- A type of hag who always comes accompanied by a son she made out of poop. Yes I know they just give it as nonspecific “filth,” but we all know it’s poop [The Book of Vile Darkness. Yes there was a 4e version.]

Accipitridae- A centipede-thing made of grave-dirt and bone, part of a series of undead monsters created from grave-detritus known as Dethritus. There is also the Offalian who is a snake-thing made out of guts. [Open Grave]

Voracia- A giant starfish that eats fairies. Made as one of the edition’s Abominations; giant living weapons designed to fight in the war between the Gods and the jotun-like elemental Primordials. [The Plane Above]

Astral Renders- Another abomination, this giant silver/gold blob monster that doesn’t just eat flesh, but also the barriers between dimensions. To teleport.  [The Plane Above]

Bonewretch Skeletons- Literal dead-baby skeletons [Open Grave]

Orium Dragons- Metallic dragons obsessed with ancient civilizations, their history and lore, and with an obsession with bringing said ancient civilizations back. They breathe acid which turns into snake-vapor monsters. Which then stay around to keep attacking you. [Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons]

Apocalypse Spells- The remnants of apocalyptically deadly/powerful spells that have gained sentience, like shards of the chains of a trapped god or colorless fire from a massive war-ending spell [Monster Manual 3]

Larval Snipers/Larval Assassins/Larval Warmasters- Variants on the basic worm-that-walks monster including snipers made of wasps, assassins made of centipedes, and warlords made of beetles [Open Grave]

Chillfire Destroyers- 4e had this thing where they condensed the Elemental Planes into one big Elemental Chaos, and one of the byproducts of that was that all the elementals (at least at first) were combinations of elements. The Chillfire Destroyer; which is literally an elemental made of ice with fire inside; was one of the cooler; more iconic (In my eyes at least) manifestations of the idea. [Monster Manual 2]

Dragonscale Sloughs- Piles of dead skin and shed scales from dragons that’ve come to undead life. The dragon doesn’t even have to be dead for it to happen, as it mentions they tend to form naturally in the lairs of elder dragons [Open Grave]

Consumptive Swarm- A “demon” that’s actually a swarm of Slaad/chaos-frog larvae mutated into demons by the energy from shard of evil that formed The Abyss (Basically Chaotic Evil Hell). There’s also versions for Efreet and Djinn and a weird thing called a Writhing Crag supposedly made from Ropers and Xorn with a great design and the ability to embed you in stone. [The Plane Below]

Unrisen- People who came back very, very wrong after a Raise Dead spell. You know Pet Sematery? It’s basically Pet Sematery. [Open Grave]

Swarmtongue Worms- While the old gold-coin-mimicking Hoard Scarab came back, they also added another parasite for draconic hordes, grotesque stomachlike wormy-tongued parasites the size of a dwarf. They come in multi-headed versions called Swarmtongue Hydras and are implied to be either relatives of Carrion Crawlers or the result of what happens when the parasites feeding on a dead dragon’s body get bathed in energy from the Cthulhu dimension [Draconomicon: Chromatic]

Dragonclaw Swarms- An “advanced” version of the Crawling Claw enemy that is literally hundreds of severed dragon feet coming to attack you. D&D is silly sometimes [Open Grave]

Quom- Bald-headed two-faced people who were pretty chill until their goddess got exploded by the God/Primordial war. Now they’re searching for all the shards of their Goddess, which is a problem given how many of those have wormed their way into magic weapons or sometimes even people. [The PlaneAbove]

Flesh Cults- One of the coolest new ideas that got only one entry, they’re basically a cult not dedicated to immortality like most undead cults but rather to ˆephemerality, being in the here and the now and that everything ends eventually, with their rituals giving themselves regeneration that makes too much flesh, with it being described as a “perpetual cascade of flesh and organs,” which they then use as weapons and reanimate as temporary quickly-decaying undead servants. Because waste not want not I suppose [Open Grave]

Oubliviae- A new demon lord who looks bland at first, basically a pretty lady with an HR Geiger-armor-body, but her backstory is fascinating. Basically she is the lord of the end of all civilizations; with her layer made from a platonic “perfect” city that she ruined to turn into a reflection of the ruins of every civilization there ever was or will be; and she’s implied to come directly from the Shard of Evil at the heart of the Abyss rather than just being mutated Primordials/other creatures like the rest of the Demon Lords [Demonomicon]

Solkara- One of the few Primordials statted up that isn’t an Elder Elemental Evil with a new coat of paint, she’s suitably honked-up looking; given she’s a humanoid eel-monster with amongst other things three arms attached to two torsos connected at the shoulder and hips, which have two necks that connect to a singular four-eyestalked head. She’s stuck in an iceberg and really, really wants out. [The Plane Below]

This probably isn’t near all of them, so if I missed some, please tell me!

Man I ‘d love to see @bogleech do an article on some of these...

[god-hunter]

Secret Empire #9

This event is almost done.  Or in my case, I am almost caught up to the ‘New Now’ if you will.  It was a very enjoyable issue.  These frustrating, prolonged events always seem to come together by the end.  I remember being very excited and curious on what was to come in #10.

[Spoilers]

But first, came this issue.  Where everything was finally coming together at the 11th hour.  And I do mean everything.  Suddenly people like the U.S Avengers came in with an assist mid-battle, who I think didn’t even matter at all at this point.  [They were off doing something in France I think, last I checked.]

Anyway, Consciousness Steve definitely gets answers from Kobik in this issue, which made me very happy.

Bucky is back, and he had a plan to get Black Panther back in the game, which was cool to see.

It was also really cool to see our Space guys back on the ground, helping out with the New York group that was equally eager to fight Hydra.

Even the Champions made a comeback in this issue.

Spider-man also came back [finally flying back from his battle with Doc Ock in Shanghai, I believe.]

The Hydra “Avengers” fought back of course, but Viv was able to deal with Vision’s virus.  [I’m sure Champions went into way further detail on this front, which I’m gonna have to miss.  Sorry guys.]  Doctor Strange seemed to deal with Scarlet Witch or should I say Cthon, who was possessing her.  But really all he did was bring back Thor from whatever dimension she was stuck in.

Jane got in a good punch to Scarlet Witch, before she transformed back into her normal Cancer-afflicted state.  This took Sam Wilson out of the game, who immediately flew her to safety.

Odinson had had enough though, and I’m not sure, but I think he finally lifted Mjolnir!

There was some decent X-Men stuff in here too.  Emma tried to actually do a last minute deal with Steve, who told her that her only option was Surrender at this point.  So she said ‘fuck that’ and the X-Men fought back.  Magneto brought down plenty of those Hydra ships.  

Sharon Carter did the same, having a pretty awesome comeback moment against Doctor Faustus behind the scenes.

Black Ant & Task Master had a wonderful Mercenary moment where they switched sides and decided to let the Champions go from a holding cell.  They were webbed up by Miles, but still, I very much enjoyed their motives here.

I almost covered everything.

On the Hydra front, Zemo unleashed “the Army that sleeps.”

Apparently, older Masters of Evil and members of the Wrecking Crew were put to sleep by Steve Rogers, for fear that they might wreak too much havoc.  But now is a time when they need that kind of thing to stay ahead of the fight.

I think I mentioned that Bucky fought against Zemo, which ended up giving Black Panther the freedom to bash him from behind and break out of his cuffs.

Arnim Zola arms Steve with a new armor that apparently Tony Stark worked on(?).  It’s a green and gold Captain America armor [which could have easily been repainted by Hydra.]  But yeah.  Basically it’s a Cap themed, Iron Man suit, colored in green and gold.  And in the middle star, there is a place to install the Cosmic Cube, which is only 1 shard away from being complete.  Regardless, it’s powerful enough to make Steve God-like.

And it more than concerns Black Panther, who witnesses this from a corner.

Meanwhile, Consciousness Steve walks with Kobik as he remembers who he is.  At the very beginning of this issue, it’s revealed that they’re at Pleasant Hill, which I thought was amazing.  Late in the issue, now he remembers that he fought against Cross Bones here.  But then the next thing he remembers is waking up, lost in the woods.  [That’s interesting.]

He realizes that he is nothing more than a “memory of someone you knew.  Someone you changed.  But you can make me real again, can’t you?”

And this is kind of what I was worried about/expecting.

In the actual World, the Hydra ships were coming down, and our heroes were finally Winning against Hydra.  The narrations got more and more hopeful.

Until Hydra Cap comes out decked out in his new Green and Gold armor.  And a new shield to go with it and everything.

“We had beaten his armies. Defeated his allies. But we had not defeated him.”

-To Be Concluded!-

Now that’s what I like to see.

Tomorrow, I will look forward to concluding this event with you.