#attack on the crow pt 1

[deadsetobsessions]

Listen, I know it’s not my usual thing, but I just re-read Dark Matter by mysterycyclone (iconic, so good, incredible, I’ve reread this at least ten times) and this newer work, Help Me, I Don’t Feel Like Myself Anymore by Astra_Nova_Kat (it’s off to a really good and fleshed out, very long start- it’s like 20k for the first chapter omg).

I just. Love?? Them??? They’re both, urg, so good. The writing style, the way the story moves, the natural progression of plot and their usage of tropes are so well done that rarely does it feel awkward. Amazing. Anyways, they inspired me to put my two cents into the proverbial offering hat and while this might not ever be a realized fanfic, here it is? This will have multiple parts.

Uh, I’m basing Peter’s personality off of the really tired millennial energy Tobey Maguire gives, the awkward but well meaning disaster vibes of Andrew Garfield, and the sassy acrobatic chaos gremlin of Tom Holland. All kind of mushed together with the hyper competence and maturity of both the PS4 spidey and pretty much most spider people. He’s 22, or something but that doesn’t really matter?? Background doesn’t really matter because I’m basically making my own spider-verse. Spider… past? Eh. New Peter!

Spider in Gotham AU- Pt.1

[Pt.2]

——

Spider-Man swung through the skyscrapers of his city, enjoying the winds and sounds of New York as he kept a sharp eye out for crime.

He remembered doing this without any of the fancy tech his suit had now, when he was dressed in less protective clothing. God, 100% cotton while crime fighting? The spandex was better but god ugly.

His spider-sense blared. Spider-man quickly shot a web to the top of the building, going towards the danger instead of away from it.

He goes in feet first, years of knocking common thugs to legitimate gods to the ground making short work of the people on the roof top. He flips out of the way, dodging a blast of crackling green energy.

“Heyyyy, common robbers! What’s up with shiny lasers, huh? Breaking and entering not doing enough for ya?”

Spider-Man dodges a couple more shots, flipping again to knee a guy in the face, gently. The man goes down in one shot.

“Stay still, you motherfucker!”

“Does that actually work for you guys?? Like I’m down to get killed but, man, I’m not gonna stay still to get downed by some two bit thugs?” Spider-Man kept his words light and mocking, webbing up a laser gun and yanking it out of the woman’s hands. He punches her in the face and knocks her out, using the laser gun like a mildly bulky baton.

“Eat shit, Spider-bitch!”

“Ouch! Oh no, my feelings! You’ve hurt them!” Spider-Man shoots a web at the lady who’d shouted and yanked, before smacking her straight down to the concrete of the rooftop. His hearing picked up two people coming up the stairway and Spider-Man tossed two web bombs, the metal mechanism attached itself to the wall, waiting for their unknowing victims.

Spider-Man ducked and weaved, downing goons as they piled on him while shooting bullets, lasers, and just charging at him with a bat or a crowbar. After eight years of pretty much this exact thing, Spider-Man had gotten the science of breaking up goon dog piles without hurting them too much to an exact measurement. He quipped at them until they got annoyed, which made them sloppy. Spider-Man sighed as another guy came at him with a crow bar and a gun that he was pretty sure was still stuck on safety. He crouched, kicking out their legs and dodging a swipe of a bat where his ribs would have been and webbed the guy to the floor. Yeah, he’ll wrap this up and end patrol. Maybe he still had Mac n’ Cheese at home, or he could stop by Angelo’s for a sub?

Huh. His options for dinner was limited.

“Take this!”

Even without the forewarning of his spidey-sense, Spider-Man would have ducked out of the way regardless.

“Shouting your sneak attacks isn’t actually all that sneaky, you know!” Spider-Man kept his voice cheery and mocking.

“Get him!”

God, why were there so many people trying to break into an insurance company? This definitely doesn’t smell like a regular B&E. With the shit he’s seen in New York, if it smells like a plot, acts like a plot, then it’s probably a villain with a tragic backstory with big, annoying plans.

Great.

Oh, speak of the devil!

“Spider-Man.” His senses blared.

He couldn’t move out of the way fast enough, not without risking the life of the goon he was currently fighting, so Spider-Man took the blast the punched the breath out of his lungs. The wide eyes of the goon made up for some of the pain.

“Ugh!” Spider-Man slammed into an HVAC, denting the metal. His suit, made special polymer blend from Wakanda that he saved for months to get, absorbed some of the shock. Shit, he hoped it didn’t tear. It would be a bitch and a half to dip into the back up stock he had in his hammer space.

The goons left standing quickly rushed him and held him down to face the new boss.

“You’ve been getting on my nerves, Spider.”

“Yeah,” Spider-Man coughed out, letting the two goons think they could hold him down on his knees as he recovered his breath. “I have that effect on people.”

“But you could be an asset, if you’d join me?”

“Uh, I don’t join or sign things without knowing what I’m joining or signing, my guy. My lawyer said so.”

The villain paused, helmeted head cocking to the side.

“You have a lawyer?”

“Yeah. Kind of? He does pro-bono work for the helpless cases. You know, like, a well meaning, crime fighting vigilante?”

“…Does he do cases against insurance companies?”

“Oh man, you too? Dude, this place sucks,” Spider-Man sighed.

“You’ve had trouble too? Then you must see why I’m doing this!”

This was a bit weird, but if there’s anything that brings people together, it’d be corrupt insurance companies. He’s almost tempted to let them break in, just to be extra petty.

“Nah, my neighbor? Sweet old lady. They’re screwing her out of her entire place. I totally get it, man. Hey, if you need a referral, you can tell my lawyer that Spider sent you. He’s real good.”

“How good?” The goons release him and Spider-Man stood up, stretching his limbs.

“Like, Dare Devil good.”

“You know Matt Murdock??”

“Sure do.”

“He… he’ll take on our cases?”

“Dang, all of you?”

“Yes. We can pool enough money to pay him for one or two.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure he’ll take you guys on for free. But it wouldn’t hurt if you all went to meet him, just so he can decide which one of you has a higher chance to win in court?”

“We will. Uh.” The villain paused sheepishly. Well, not a villain, more like an unfortunately angry and poor decision making citizen. “Sorry about… you know, the blast.”

“It’s cool. I mean,” Spider-Man gestured to the rooftop, the bodies of unconscious people kind of laying around where he knocked them down. “You guys might wanna check on them, yeah? I’ll let you go for now, but if you commit a B&E again, I’ll leave you webbed up for GCPD to find.”

“Got it. Sorry.”

Feeling good about himself, and plotting corporate espionage, Spider-Man went to help pry some people from his webs.

And of course, because Parker Luck kicks in only when Spider-Man felt like life was looking up for himself, Spider-Man’s senses blared once more as he knelt down to pull at some webbing.

“Oh, shit!” He heard, right before a cold blast of something slammed right into his head, knocking him out.

And Spider-Man

F

E

L

L.

——

Larry looked at the the empty space where Spider-Man, the guy who took a hit from his boss’ blaster so he wouldn’t get hurt, used to be.

He twisted.

“Boss, what the fuck?!”

“Shit! That was accident!” Boss pulled herself up from the concrete, where she just ate dirt.

“Where did he go?”

“I don’t know, Larry! That was the experimental warped mode! Crap!” His boss scrambled with the controls, desperately trying to see if the magic gun her magician friend had handed her years ago had a reverse button. It didn’t.

“Why would you bring a test weapon into the field?!”

“I gave you all of my other ones!” She threw up her hands. “Fuck, I feel so bad.”

Larry paled. “Dude, Dare Devil’s gonna kill us.”

“He doesn’t kill!” His boss hesitated. “I think.”

Larry pointed to the empty space. “Yeah? He might start with us. Spidey was a cool guy and you just disappeared him!”

“I know!”

Larry buried his head into his hands and tried not to hate himself for the entire situation.

——

Spider-man woke up, laid flat on the grimy ground of an alleyway.

“Ugh. Just my luck.” He kept his eyes closed for just a beat longer to allow himself time before having to pull his shit together. Why was his voice high? And a bit squeaky? He pulled himself together.

“Okay.” He whispered to himself, before sitting up and taking stock of the situation.

First thing that hit him was that it stunk to high heavens. Gagging, Spider-Man looked to the right and- yeah, that’ll do it. He stood up on wobbly legs to try to move away from the overflowing dumpster.

That’s when the second, more important and decidedly more troublesome, observation hit him.

He’s short. Shorter. And his suit was hanging off of him.

He could tell he still had his normal by now physiology, with the speeding heartbeat and the feeling of super strength. But he’s shorter. With a mounting sense of equal parts dread and resignation, he pulled at the hidden seam by his nape, relying on his both his enhanced senses and spidey-sense to tell if anyone was nearby or looking at him. He pulled the Spider-Man suit off, blankly folding it neatly as he stared dumbly at his hands. They’re small too. Shit. He stumbled to a nearby mud puddle and stared down, seeing his younger face in the contaminated water. Double shit.

He’s starting to loose his composure. He’d gone through a lot of bizarre things over the last eight years. But getting accidentally Detective Conan’ed by a person he just helped was a new low.

The black under layer of his suit, a slash proof and fire resistant polymer Peter had designed himself in MIT’s lab, was in a similar state.

With one hand, Peter Parker numbly rolled up his sleeves and pant hems. Great. Okay. Now what?

Ah. Shoes. He did not want to walk around in his too-big Spider-Man boots. He looked around. Well, there’s the laces of what looked to be like a pair of dumpster shoes. “Yeah, no.”

Shit. Does he still have access to his hammer space?

Peter reached into his pocket, and tried to reach for a pair of normal sneakers. His shoulder slumped as he produced a pair. Fuck yes. He still has access! And shoes! They’re ones he took off of a power line for a well off kid who didn’t want it anymore. He was going to donate them to F. E. A. S. T. but he’s thanking the stars he procrastinated a bit on swinging by the center. He put them on. They’re a bit big, but it’s better than the giant-in-comparison ones he normally wears. You know, as an adult.

He hesitated with his mask. He should at least figure out where he is. He hoped it was still in the states. His mask blinked, the HUD in his lenses informing him that it was trying to find a connection. “That’s weird.” He paused, grimacing at the sound of his voice. But it is weird, because he had his mask automatically connected to the world wide satellites Tony Stark had sent circling the globe for citizens without internet access as a back up option. So either he was somewhere even the Stark Satellites couldn’t reach or…

Peter swallowed, his mask pinging as it found a connection to piggy back on. He clicked his tongue twice to activate the voice controls.

“Connect to the local maps. Where am I?”

His masked followed the order. [Gotham. New Jersey.]

Peter stared at the words, gut churning.

Good news, he was still in the States. Bad news? He’s shrunk, in a totally different state, and possibly in a different world because he’s not connected to the Stark Satellites he knew operated in New Jersey.

Peter Parker tilted his head back and allowed himself one verbal, panic level six and up, curse word.

“Fuck.”

He took off his mask and leaned against a slightly cleaner part of the wall before hyperventilating.

——

Half an hour later, Peter smacked himself on the cheeks and pulled himself together.

“You’re Spider-Man,” he hissed to himself. “Have a mental breakdown somewhere warm, you dumbass.”

Peter Parker was a champion, world class expert at compartmentalization.

He slipped his mask back on, and pulled up his “So You’re Stuck in an Alternate Universe” list he had made with Ned so many years ago when they were high school kids and going through comic books to make contingencies because Peter was a little idiot vigilante hero.

“I didn’t think I’d actually ever need this kind of thing.” Peter muttered. He slipped his black back up gloves on to connect to his mask’s display in order to type.

“Okay,” he glanced at the side by side screens in his lenses. “Money.”

Five things.

1) The emergency cash he’d stashed on him thankfull matched the pictures of cash he’d found on this world’s internet. Yay!

2) He had $1000 tucked away. Not yay. Not if this might be a long term stay before he got back to his own dimension. Not if he wanted a place to sleep.

3) Luckily, thanks to his earlier search of where the hell he was, Peter figured out that due to the high crime rates- “Dang, that’s worse than New York on New Year’s Eve,” he had marveled- Gotham was dirt cheap and that that meant 1k dollars could actually last him a while and he could afford a room for a month on $250. A whole ass apartment for $550. Peter seriously considered staying in this universe just for the rent prices. So what if there’s rampant crimes? He’d deal with it if the rent was that cheap.

4) Problem? He’s fucking tiny. Who would rent to a person that looked like child? Not anyone upstanding, that’s for sure. He’s more likely to get mugged. Counterpoint: he’s in a city where apparently shady people are all around. Also? He doesn’t have an identity.

5) If the fact that he couldn’t connect to the Stark Satellites didn’t convince him he was either in another universe or an alternate dimension, the visual graphics of the websites he visited would. It was like looking at Windows in the early way before Stark Co. bought them out and improved the design. Nauseating.

Okay, so, money’s not too urgent of an issue. Next on Ned’s list: Places of Interest.

Namely, libraries, homeless shelters, crime hotspots, and the like.

Peter snorted when he came across an opinions article talking about how Park Row became Crime Alley. And then he frowned, because that story was not painting this place to be even remotely nice. Then again, considering the crime rates and the various Rogues this place seemed to have in spades, that wasn’t much of a surprise. Peter marks the place in his new mental map of Gotham as a potential area he could either disappear to or get a new identity at. He then marked the libraries, Gotham City Public Library and its many branches all funded by generous donations from a Bruce Wayne, the Martha Wayne foundations’ shelters and charities, two supermarkets near the library, and a coffee shop he thought looked warm and cozy from the shitty pictures they have uploaded online. He needed coffee, dammit, and he needed it hours ago. Alas, he probably wouldn’t get to go to one until he secured his finances.

Well, it’s not like he doesn’t have practice being poor.

3) Which brings him up to Ned’s next, surprisingly reasonable for a teenager hoped up on a mountain load of sugar, point. Level of Tech.

Peter hid next to the dumpster, melding in with the shadows, as he continued his research.

Tech here was… well, he probably wouldn’t have to worry. The thought of not having a Starkphone, even his older model, was painful considering the new versions of these WaynePhones were really… behind. Peter doesn’t remember the last time he had buttons on his phone or let alone a touch screen that didn’t use facial tracking and biometrics or even have a holographic display mode.

“Ugh. Okay. Not the end of the world, Parker.” Peter muttered.

Now… People of Interest.

This was underlined three times with Ned’s red pens, with extensive subcategories.

Subcategory A? Villains, because “what if they put out a warning for a known villain and you get your butt kicked because you didn’t know about them, Peter? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”

He had replied, half focused on the list and the other on savoring the Millennium Falcon Lego set May had saved up for months to get him for his birthday, “I feel like if I was getting my butt kicked by a villain, I’d probably have better things to worry about than my utter humiliation, Ned.”

“True that,” Ned had snicked and jotted it down anyways.

And… well, Gotham had a lot of villains. The Joker (ew, that’s a crusty man in crustier face paint. This guy could learn so much from the cool mimes busking in Central Park. Like, how to do face paint. Or how not to be a massive murderous jerk. There’s Clayface, Two-Face, a bald guy in “Metropolis” (a name Peter couldn’t help but snort at because a city named city? That’s like na’an bread being bread bread. Or chai tea being tea tea) named Lex Luthor, and Scarecrow. He tabbed all of them and marked them for further perusal at a later date. From experience, he knew villains with a prominent M.O. and themes usually did more damage. Case in point: Rhino, and the million dollars of property damage the guy did everytime he escaped the Raft. Peter was seriously considering petitioning for the Raft to be placed further out just so he could have more warning the next time some assholes decided to free the prisoners and helped them escape.

He narrowed his eyes at the screen, his mask’s lenses following the movement. He’ll have to pick up a gas mask. Apparently bio-weapons are just a regular thing here and he really didn’t want to get dosed with this “fear toxin.” It’d be dangerous for everyone involved. Maybe if he gets his hands on a sample, he could build up tolerance and see how his immune system and metabolic rates affected the normal progression of the toxin. Ah, off topic. He’s gotta focus.

Subcategory B: Local celebrities.

“Why would I need to know local celebrities?” He’d asked.

“If someone came up to you and asked “Who’s Tony Stark?”, wouldn’t you clock that as super weird? You gotta blend in, Peter. Plus, you gotta keep up with the pop culture, dude. It’s important.”

“You just want alternate universe memes,” Peter grinned.

“That too. If you ever go to an alternate universe and come back, you’d better bring me a truckload of memes or I’ll never forgive you.”

Yeah. So. Wayne? Super important. Like Tony Stark levels of important. He found threads about them and the local vigilantes and their charity works. Peter’s brain instantly catalogued the info, all but memorizing the deluge of pictures he found of Bruce Wayne and his kids. Maybe the man had an adoption problem? Conspiracy threads and memes popped up alongside his research. He tabbed one on secret societies, because as Spiderman, he had fought a disturbing amount of secret societies that, on hindsight, had been theorized about on threads he’s read on his free time. Somehow, somewhere, somewhen, a conspiracy theorist could be right. Peter’s not about to dismiss that. He also saved like thirty different memes to send to Ned when he got back. If he got back.

Peter smacked that thought away. He’ll get back to his city or die trying.

Subcategory C, underlined and starred: Other Superheroes and Vigilantes.

Yeah, Peter’s excited about this one too. After Matt stopped being Dare Devil (but did he actually ever stop?) and Wade dipping in and out of NY, Peter’s gotten lonely as Spider-Man. He missed training with them. Of course, the fantastic four were still operating, but he doesn’t actually interact with them or the Avengers at all. Miles hasn’t been cleared (by his mom) to go out as Spiderman with near as many hours as Peter cleared a night. Peter stood behind that because he remembered how horrible it was to work as Spiderman and try to balance school on top of it. Also, he was terrified of Mrs. Morales and would never endanger her son more than he already does. He did wave to Black Widow from a rooftop once, spider to spider, and that was pretty much the coolest moment of his life.

So. Uh. The amount of vigilantes and heroes in this world? Amazing. In Gotham? There’s like, a whole team of them.

Batman, Nightwing (who, Username: Draken Draken had theorized, was the first iteration of Batman’s sidekick Robin), Red Hood, Black Canary, Huntress, Red Robin, Spoiler, the “day vigilante” Signal, the current Robin, and whispers of a “Black Bat.”

And their unfortunate “No Meta” rule with the singular exception of Signal. Peter figured their term of Meta was essentially the same thing as his world’s mutants. He’s not sure which term he liked more. Eh, he’ll worry about that later.

And there’s a Justice League! Which, to Peter, is just a bigger Avengers. There’s aliens on this world too. Superman. Martian Manhunter.

Peter grinned from his place crouched next to the dumpster. Yeah, this is awesome. He quickly memorized everything he could find, cross referencing posts and picking out the nuggets of truth or at least popular truth from the posts he viewed. Like, Red Hood operated in Crime Alley and was a crime boss with morals. Cool.

He’ll go down the spiral later. He mentally thanked Ned who was the best guy in the chair a teenage vigilante could ask for. He should really text his friend when he got back.

For now, he’ll head to the library and see if he could use their computers. He might need a card though… Peter quickly pulled up the search engine and found an Internet cafe. Ah, 24 hour internet cafes, the savior of his college days. There first, and then library, Peter decided. He memorized the instructions and pulled his mask off, tucking it away in the hammer space.

He walked out the alley and turned left, only to double take at his reflection in a shop window that was partially boarded up. Holy shit, he’s a baby. He’s like. 10!

Oh my god.

Peter twitched, tearing himself away from the window before the shop owner decided he was less curious and more potential mugger before promptly remembering that he looked less of a threat than ever. Mixed feelings.

Peter hurried his way to the internet cafe, paying the guy at the front a little extra so he’d ignore the obvious minor without a guardian thing Peter hasn’t gotten used to. Ugh. That was going to be annoying. He only paid for two hours and pulled up as many listings for a room as possible. By the end of it, he came out with $1 worth of fliers printed out and having funneled some billionaire’s offshore accounts into a new bank account he’d made by hacking into the bank servers. Does he feel bad about stealing? Yeah. But Peter’s a vigilante. He’s done worse than nabbing a monthly sum of a couple of hundreds from Lex Luthor’s off shore accounts. He’s not gonna get caught, and considering the guy’s rants on meta humans, Peter’s not feeling particularly guilty about it. He’ll do something good later to make up for it. Once he gets his footholds and can prepare his way back, he’ll even return to the rest of the money. Probably.

Peter left the cafe with his sheaf of flyers, stopping by an informational stand with free tourist maps and plucked one quickly from its plastic holder. He’ll pick something up from the food vendors on his way to the apartments. Peter began walking, taking in the sights of the gargoyles and-

“Nope!” He caught the wrist of a pickpocket. It’s a kid and he immediately felt bad.

“Lemme go. I ain’t done nothing to ya, ya Yorker tourist.”

“Okay,” Peter shrugged. “Don’t get caught the next time?”

The kid gaped at him. “Shi’, you must be really good at it. I’ve never been caught before.”

Peter wisely refrained from telling the kid it was due to his spidey-sense. He let go of the kid’s wrist and let a bit more of his accent out. “Why’d you need money anyways?”

“Food, duh.”

“Dude, I’m starving. Tell you what. You show me the best sub shop nearby and I’ll pay for your food. Deal?”

The kid stared at him, wide eyed. “You’re fuckin’ nuts. Why’re you being nice?”

“I’m hungry? Do we have a deal, kid?”

“… Fuck it. Fine. And don’t call me kid, shrimp. You’re like what, eight?”

Oh. Yeah. Peter’s a kid now. He shrugged.

“I’m older than you. I’m twelve.”

Peter blinked, frowning at how thin the kid’s wrists were.

“I’m Peter!”

“… Frank.”

He let Frank lead the way. Stranger danger doesn’t apply to him, he’s a grown ass man. In the body of a ten year old him, but still. A couple of minutes, four sandwiches and a load of chips later, Frank was watching wide eyed as he demolished three four dollar subs.

“Holy shit. Where are you packing that away? You’re a stick!”

Peter took a big bite of the sandwich as an answer. Frank looked down at his meal.

“Uh. Hey.”

Peter made a muffled noise of question, mouth stuffed full of steak and cheese.

“Sorry about. Uh. Trynna nick from ya.”

Peter chewed faster.

Frank continued, looking like he hated himself. “I wouldn’t… normally steal from shrimps like you but I was desperate and… really hungry, so. My bad.”

Peter finished chewing. “All good, dude. Eat your sandwich.”

Peter had the sudden urge to adopt Frank. Unlike Wayne, he’s not a billionaire, so he smacked that urge down. He could use a friend though. Now… how to be friends with a literal child!

“If you feel that bad about it, you could… be my friend?”

Peter took in the wide eyed gaze from the twelve year old in front of him. Abort! Abort! That was too direct!

“You’re fucking weird. But… okay.”

“That was easy.”

Frank scowled, kicking Peter’s shin.

“Ow!”

“Whatever, shrimp.”

Peter scowled. On his baby face, it came out as a pout.

Do not start beef with a twelve year old, Peter. You’re a grown ass adult.

“Hey, you know I’m new here, right?”

“Duh.” Frank took a bite of his food.

“Can you tell me which one of these are legit?” Peter handed Frank the flyers. He took them, an odd look passing his face.

“You’re looking for a place?”

“Yeah? Why?”

Frank stared at him. Looked back down. He instantly got rid of four listings out of the ten. “These are too close to the Alley. They’re probably traffickers.”

Peter hummed in agreement. Frank paused.

“You’re just gonna trust me on that?”

“Yeah? I can tell when people are lying.” Well, his spidey sense could, when he cared enough about the subject.

“What the fuck.” Frank shoved the rest the papers at him and guiltily munched on his food. “Are Yorkers all just like you?”

“Dunno? Probably not.”

“… Whatever. The rest of the places should work. They probably won’t ask questions.” Frank flapped a hand at Peter’s new situation. Yeah, the shortness was getting to him too.

Peter nodded. Obviously, they were the more expensive places, but considering the new found resources he’d… acquired during his time at the cafe, it doesn’t really matter.

“Cool! Wanna go see it with me?”

Frank immediately took on a suspicious glare. “Why?”

“I dunno? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just thought since you know your way around…”

“Ugh. Fine. But if there’s anything shady, I’m fucking dipping out.”

“Okay!” Peter grinned for the first time the couple of hours he’d been trapped in this new world.

——

They’d found an apartment with a landlord that got a weird, sad face when she was talking to them about the apartment. After like, an hour of walking around and Peter’s spidey sense screaming at him not to even go near the places Frank had left in the pile of maybe’s.

“We walked all the way here. Ya not even gonna go in?”

“The vibes are off. It’s a no.”

And because Peter’s a genius idiot with no self preservation, he’d marked the places to investigate later.

Frank had blinked at him, mildly offended and nonplussed. After a while of spluttering, he just gave up. Eventually, they got here.

“I don’t normally rent to kids,” the landlord lady said. Peter immediately liked her. “But I’ll make an exception if you’ve got the cash.”

“I’d like to see the unit first, please” Peter said. He’s not stupid, and Gotham’s renting scene is both easier and harder than New York.

They toured it. Peter? He’d seen worse. He’d lived worse. Also, it had two bedroom and was $620. Yeah, Peter was really considering just staying here full time and commuting to his New York when he wanted to be a vigilante.

“I’ll take it, ma’am.” The landlord and Frank both snorted, sharing a Gothamite look.

“It’s Georgie, to you, brat. You just need the first month’s rent, since I’ll wave the deposit for you shrimps. Utilities included. Your friend stayin’?”

“No-” Frank had started.

“Yep!” Peter beamed, interrupting his new friend.

“What?” Frank turned, gaping again at this weird little kid who had enough money to rent a place and then invited a whole ass street kid he just met to live with him. “Are you stupid?! What if I rob you? Huh? I don’t need charity!”

Peter slowly looked around the empty unit.

“Uh.”

“No, that’s not the point!” Frank pointed a finger at Peter. “That’s how you get yourself killed!”

“But that’s why you should stay! I don’t know my way around Gotham so…”

Peter looked up at Frank, using his shortness for maximum devastation. “Please?”

Georgie leaned back on the heels of her feet, silently laughing. It’s not every day she sees a Gothamite street kid get out stubborned by an outsider, but she knows better than anyone that Gotham is weak to genuine kindness. And this Peter kid, the one that reminds her so much of her own? He’s practically filled with it.

“Yeah, kid,” she said to Frank, snickering. “Look at him. He’s gonna get mugged two steps into the Alley. Or anywhere.”

Frank flailed, but eventually, Peter handed over the money to an amused Georgie who gave them two keys in return and a move in gift of a pot pie.

“I gotta. Uh. Go get my stuff.” Frank had mumbled, dazed at whatever the hell just happened.

“Okay! I’ll see if I can go get furniture!”

“And lift them with your shrimpy arm? You wish.”

“I can use a cart.”

And really, he could, because Gotham had a lot of abandoned carts laying around. Like a concerning amount.

“Can you even reach the handle?”

“I’m not that short!”

Frank snorted, Georgie’s own chuckles following a beat after. Peter scowled at them.

“Be right back,” Frank promised, holding the key like it was treasure. He had been homeless for two and a half years now, so in his eyes, that key was as good as gold. He had somewhere warm to stay. Trying to pickpocket Peter was the best mistake he’s ever made in his short life. But he didn’t want to take advantage of that, well, no, he did want to, but he doesn’t want to take the genuine kindness for granted so he’ll see if there’s any street furniture he could haul back on his way.

“Okay!”

Georgie watched him go and turned to Peter.

“If you need stuff, there’s a thrift store and a grocery store that way.” She gave him the directions.

——

As soon as Frank and Georgie left, Peter immediately left his new place (and holy shit, he really didn’t expect things to be this easy. In New York, he had to spend at least a week checking out places because he had to figure out whether the problem that cause subtle twinges with his spider sense was worth living with. Here? It’s too obvious.) to buy supplies. He had $400. Until his new card came in, at least. He’d put his new address into that bank account addressed to a “Anthony Benjamin” before ordering a “replacement card.”

Peter ran to the thrift store, hurrying before the last traces of the sun dipped below the smog of Gotham. A frankly absurd amount of blankets, towels, pillows, clothes, packaged boxers, socks and shoes around his size went into the cart. To his chagrin, Peter couldn’t actually see much over the cart. Why the hell was he such a short ten year old? He blasted through the store, also guesstimating Frank’s sizes. He tossed in curtains, a used set of glow in the dark stars, and a lamp.

He also grabbed mismatched mugs, bowls, a bundle of cutlery, and a dented microwave he casually pretended to struggle getting onto the bottom part of the cart. It’s like lifting grapes for him, but he looks like a ten year old so…

He, guiltily, bought a mildly fancy camera in a set, with two separate lenses, even if one was cracked.

Not bad, for $150 total. Peter is going to definitely seriously consider commuting to New York. They didn’t even care when he walked out with the cart! Well, that might be because of the cashier who gave him a pitying glance.

He stopped by a general store on the way back, parking his cart in a rapidly shadowy alleyway. He swung by the new section of the store that reminded him of a Dollar Tree and got cleaning supplies, toiletries, and two pans and a pot. He grabbed some canned food and a couple of frozen meals in the back. Seasonings, ramen, general pantry staples went in. A role of paper towel. Nice. Venom would have loved this store. With half of his budget blown for essentials, Peter quickly cut his spending off and

He quickly gathered his stuff and went back to the apartment, using his strength a bit to lift the full cart up the stairs at the front doors and into the elevator. It creaked like the first time they used it to go see the apartment, but it worked. Peter set everything up in the living room, pillow and blanket wise, and put everything in its proper place. The lamp was put up, giving more light than the old bulb in the ceiling light.

All Peter wanted to do was pass out, but since his dumbass took in a child, he couldn’t sleep until this place was relatively fit for a kid to live in. He also wanted to wait for

So, that’s what he did. Taking a sponge and the cleaning supplies he’d picked up earlier, Peter tackled the living room, scrubbing away at old stains and spraying mildew. He marked trouble spots- like that splinter worthy piece of floor next to the doorway leading to the hall between the bedrooms. Then the kitchen. By the time Frank cautiously peeked his head in from the front door, Peter had already finished scrubbing the over.

“Hey.”

Peter turned, grime on his face but grinning. “Hey!” I bought some stuff!”

Frank snorted at his face before glancing around the living room, eyeing the cart parked neatly on the side.

“So you did. Didn’t get mugged, did ya?”

“Rude. No, of course not.”

Frank gave him a… frankly… unimpressed look and dumped his bag next to the pile of blankets and pillows Peter had piled onto the floor. Sue hi’, they didn’t have beds yet.

“Got somethin’ for ya,” Frank said neutrally before dragging in…

“A coffee table!” Peter bounced towards Frank, hugging him before lugging in the heavy wooden table in. “You’re the best! Where’d you find it?!”

The tension, anxiety about Peter’s reaction, in Frank’s shoulders relaxed and the kid grinned. “Alley. Some asshole just left it there for anyone to hit with their car so I took it.”

“Nice! We can eat on this!”

——

When they were getting ready for bed, Peter insisting on showers for both of them, Frank had reared up at the clothes Peter bought for him. Peter pretended like he didn’t see anything and shove a whole tube of toothpaste and a new toothbrush at him.

“Ew. Do I have to?” Frank asked, wrinkling his nose but taking the items anyways.

“Yeah.” Peter said seriously. Frank gave a moment to wonder why he was taking orders from an eight year old before shrugging. He could brush his teeth in exchange for a roof over his head, food, and clothes. It’s not even a fair trade, for Peter, anyways. Frank was enough of an alley rat to take advantage of that.

——

When Frank passed out, Peter couldn’t sleep. He’s exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep.

So he took his new camera and climbed the fire escape to the roof top.

An hour later, he met his first vigilante.

“Hey, kiddo. I’m gonna need you to back away from the edge.”

“Woah!” Peter startled, jolting slightly off of the ledge he was balanced on. He twisted around to see Red Robin, hand outstretched and panicked look in his eyes.

“Dude. Warn a guy!” Peter said, even though his spider sense warned him of an approaching person that was actively watching him.

Red Robin held his hands up. “My bad. Would you- uh, not be on that ledge?”

“Yeah, sure. My bad, bro.” Peter obligingly stood up and stepped away from the ledge. Red Robin relaxed then did a double take. Peter frowned. Is there something on his face?

“What are you doing up here, kiddo? It’s late.”

Peter decided to scope out the vigilante. “Couldn’t sleep,” he held up his camera. “I’m taking pictures.”

“Oh. That’s cool! Can I see?” Red Robin approached warily, but relaxed when Peter didn’t spook and try to take a shortcut to ground floor.

“Sure! It’s a new, well, not new but new to me, camera so I haven’t had all that time to mess with the specs but the pictures turned out pretty good-”

“Oh, woah. This one’s great. That composition? Amazing. You caught the light perfectly,” Red Robin complimented. Peter brightened, knowing a photography fan when he hears one.

“Photography buddy!” He cheered.

They talked for an hour after that, but Red Robin quickly sent him to bed once he remembered the time.

“Ah, shi- crap. It’s like 2AM. You’ve gotta go to bed.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry if I interrupted your patrol, Mr. Red Robin!”

“No problem, kid.” Peter slipped back down the fire escape, not caring if the vigilante saw where he lived.

——

Up on the rooftop, Red Robin pressed a hand to his comm.

“Red Robin to Nightwing.”

“What’s up, Red?”

“Do you have a kid you don’t know about?” Tim said, bluntly.

“… What?”

“Oracle, can you share my cowl footage?”

“Copy. Oh, that kid…”

“Looks exactly like Wing?” Tim said, peering down at the empty fire escape. “Yeah. Talked like him too.”

“Oh my god, he’s adorable.” Oracle said. Tim agreed. That curly hair? Baby face? Adorable. A bean. “Did you get DNA?”

“Ah, shit, I knew I forgot something.”

“Do not break into his place and nab a hair,” Nightwing reprimanded, but his voice sounded distracted.

“Holy shit, you guys nerded out about camera placement and lighting for an hour?” Hood piped up.

“Get some rest, Red Robin. You’ve been working too hard,” Batman grunted through the comms. Awkward… but he’s been getting better at communicating his worry for his kids.

“Sure thing, B. Heading back to the main cave. Red Robin out.

——

Peter: lay low and get home

Also Peter: talks to a vigilante

None of them think Peter’s Nightwing’s yet. Peter will know before them… eventually. Once this world’s version of him gives up his memories to be absorbed by AU Peter.

[flametrashiraarchive]

Masterlist

Last updated 08/18/2023

~

Demon Slayer/ KNY

Kyojuro Rengoku

Fics

Solace - Kyojuro x AFAB reader

Crow's Feet - SFW fluff

Headcanons

NSFW Alphabet - Kyojuro x GN reader

Random Headcanons - SFW and NSFW GN reader.

Rengoku and Tomioka with reader who suffers from dizzy spells- SFW

Rengoku x Transmasc Reader who had top surgery- platonic and romantic headcanons

Random fluff- SFW platonic GN reader

Kyojuro x Reader’s boobs- NSFW

Kyojuro x chubby reader w/ thick thighs

Kyojuro x Big Booty reader

Kyojuro as the little spoon- SFW

Kyojuro x Depressed!reader - SFW

.

Rengoku Shinjuro

A Rekindled Flame - Shinjuro x F!reader

Dancing with the flame- Shinjuro x F!reader

Shinjuro x Chubby reader NSFW headcanons

.

Shinazugawa Sanemi

The Wind and Wisteria (ongoing) - Chapter 1 , Chapter 2, Chapter 3- Sanemi x AFAB reader

Angst- Sanemi x injured GN reader

Kimetsu Academy Sanemi - GN reader with dyscalculia

Sanemi x Reader with Big Boobs and Thick Thighs

Soft Sanemi x reader having nightmares

Sanemi x Chubby Reader headcanons

.

Tomioka Giyuu

Bathing with Giyuu- Part 1 , Part 2 - Giyuu x GN reader

Aftermath- Giyuu x f!reader

Possessive Giyuu

Closer- Needy Giyuu x f!reader

Stay With Me- childhood friends to lovers

Giyuu x chubby reader headcanons

.

Himejima Gyomei

Softer than Mochi - Gyomei x AFAB reader

Gyomei x chubby reader headcanons

.

Iguro Obanai

Iguro x chubby reader headcanons- GN!reader

.

Douma

NSFW headcanons Douma x AFAB reader.

NSFW headcanons pt 2 Douma x GN reader.

NSFW headcanons pt 3 Douma x GN reader

NSFW headcanon pt 4 Douma x GN reader

Douma x Reader with Big Boobs

.

Muzan

Muzan x reader with big boobs

Muzan tripping into your boobs- silly.

Muzan x boobs pt 3

Muzan x endowed!Reader in a maid costume.

Pussydrunk Muzan (human Muzan and demon Muzan x reader)

NSFW headcanons

Succor- Muzan x non-violent Demon Reader -GN!Reader NSFW.

Follow up drabble to Succor- NSFW.

Succor 2

In Another Life - Prologue- Muzan x F!reader

.

Hotaru Haganezuka

Unbreakable, Unquenchable- Haganezuka x F!reader.

~

ATTACK ON TITAN- SNK

Levi Ackerman

Stolen Moments - Levi x AFAB reader (ongoing- currently SFW)

Welcome Home - Levi x GN reader who walks in on him.

.

Asks are CLOSED.

Adult characters only please (please no aged-up minors either)

Right now I'm only interested in writing "x reader" stories.

I don’t want to write anything about Akaza either. Fuck him (And yes, I’ve read the gosh damn dang manga)

I'm not comfortable writing about babies or pregnancy.

NSFW or SFW prompts welcome.

I don't answer in any particular order, I answer them as ideas come to me and sometimes I just don't gel with a prompt. I'm sorry if I never get to your ask!

Characters I love to write: Kyojuro Rengoku, Sanemi Shinazugawa, Giyuu Tomioka, Douma, Hotaru Haganezuka, Muzan, Shinjuro Rengoku, Himejima Gyomei. Kimetsu Academy AU also welcome!

My Ao3 is here but I pretty much just cross post.

[redybearsent]

Pokemon x UTDR Fakemon Designs (Pt 1)

Welcome to this toxic and fake region called Undertale/Deltarune´s Community! In this vast world you can find many species based on your favorite AUs and creators. Come in and enjoy your stay here in this polemic land.

Choose your starter! You can start your adventure by choosing one of this 3 little critters:

Charseed, the weed pokemon (Based on Charkis from Chapter Rewritten)

Embora, the legacy pokemon (Based on Ceroba from Undertale Yellow)

Tadskull, the hero pokemon (Based on Crossbones from TS!Underswap)

Each one of this lovely starters will have their own evolution lines but you´ll have to be patient to find out in what they´ll turn into in the future.

In this interesting land lives an interesting species know as Crookcrow, the crow Pokémon, this small and yet not very good looking bird lives from stealing other Pokémon's foods, gaining the nickname of "The big bad rook". When it evolves it turns into Ozyrook, the villain Pokémon, this prideful bird commands small crowds of Crookcrows to bring food for him.  This big rook when it´s used for combat it can have one of this two unique abilities:

Ozymandias: When its HP drops down half percent, Ozyrook will rise its attack two stages but its defense and special defense will drop two stages down.

Castling: When its HP drops down half percent, Ozyrook will switch out itself for the pokemon next to it in the party. After this, the pokemon that was switched in will receive a power boost by one on its speed stat.

If you use this Pokémon you are in for a strategic game to not loose him in battle and use the most out of him.

Finally we would like to introduce a new form of Rotom, Rotom Cathode! This forms occurs when a Rotom inhabits a CRT TV for too long.  This form has a new and unique move tied to it: "Laugh Track" it has the chance to confuse the enemy and boost it´s speed state if the move hits the rival. Hope you enjoyed this little art concept I had. If it gets enough support it will make a part 2 in no time! 

https://www.deviantart.com/redybearsart/art/Pokemon-x-UTDR-Fakemon-Designs-Pt-1-1013803311

[shogvnate]

GODS & MONSTERS. yan! re8 ladies x reader.

general yandere headcanons + snippets pt 1.

contains; mother miranda, mia winters.

warnings; extremely toxic and unhealthy behavior, broken mindset, body mutilation on miranda's part, potentially triggering content, yandere. you've been warned.

⸻ 🐦‍⬛ mother miranda

obsessive, stalker, and training type

arguably the worst.

other than how to revive her deceased daughter, her thoughts revolve around you, you, and you. It drives her absolutely insane that she's drifting from her original plans of marking you as just another one of her failed experiments.

you can never feel alone, no, not with her being lovesick.

her crows are always watching, always listening.

she knows everything, don't try to hide anything from her, it never ends well.

she despises disobedience, no one wants a darling who's rebellious, no?

at some point she'll definitely break your mind, it's unavoidable, basically.

rarely ever affectionate, shows her love in other extreme ways such as giving gifts (eg. putting a golden bracelet still attached to a severed hand in front of your bedroom door for your 'anniversary', wrapped in the guts of the lycan who attacked you earlier that week), and of course, words of affirmation.

she truly does love you in her own sick and twisted way, but oh, darling, she's too far gone to save.

"don't deny me. worship me, acknowledge me as your one and only savior, and you shall find what you need," her smile was like a blank canvas, begging for someone to add value to it. it made you sick the more you think about it.

because she didn't want no simple mortal.

she wanted you.

miranda drowned herself in the way you gazed at her numbly, twirling a lock of your hair in her clawed fingers. "anything you could ever possibly need will be with me."

how you hated her smile.

⸻ ❄ mia winters

removal, isolating, and manipulative type.

mia doesn't like it when you smile at anyone other than her. she doesn't know why, but she loathes the feeling of being ignored for someone who clearly doesn't fit the standards for someone like you.

she goes to unhealthy measures to make you stay by her side. gaslighting, threats, guilt tripping, you name it.

someone asking you out for lunch? they didn't show up for lunch and they never talk to you again.

gets scolded by her peers due to her constantly being in your shadow and controlling everything you do but she shrugged them off.

most of the time she's not aware of how she's acting like she can't breathe without you being in the same room as her but when pointed out by you, she usually apologizes.

physically affectionate, too physically affectionate. so much so that she comes off as smothering.

unlike miranda, she can still grow and change as a person so you have hope…?

"mia, this isn't right." you pushed her away slightly. she was getting too comfortable in your personal space. it was supposed to be the only thing she'll never get a hand on but she managed to do so in the end too.

she already took too much from your life. your friends, your co-workers, your favorite florist from the subway, your bed, your house, oh the list goes on forever.

the most outrageous fact was that you were the one who actually let her do whatever she wanted. now look where that got you.

"what makes you say that?"

there it is.

her frown, something she knows you can't stand seeing.

"i thought you knew i'm only doing this because i love you?"

"it's just…" you bit the inside of your cheek, "it feels... wrong."

"tell me more about it, maybe I can help you understand how I see you," she suggested, but when you looked at her dull eyes and warm smile, you could hear something on the back of your mind telling you not to push it.

you sighed, opening your arms for her to bury herself in again.

"changed your mind?" she cooed.

"forget I said anything, mia."

‎

‎

[0vergrowngraveyard]

Ghost Crew pt 1

Miles “Sails” Prower:

While he was alive, Miles Prower was a crew member of the Westside Pearl. He was bullied relentlessly for his two tails, some crew members going as far as breaking his vocal cords and dangling him over the ocean.

At one point, the crew was experiencing a huge string of bad luck. The captain blamed the fox kit and Miles was thrown overboard and he eventually drowned.

Knuckles the Dread saw potential in him so he was invited to leave the afterlife and become the first member of the Angel’s Voyage. He helped Dread repair his ship and get her moving. Somewhere along the way, he gained the nickname “Sails”. Despite being mute, the crew know what he’s saying (most of the time)

Sails can usually be found up in the crows-nest

Black Rose:

While she was alive, Black Rose was a member of the Little Planet’s Heart. She was known for being a fearless fighter and a kind soul. She quickly made her way up to being one of the captain’s favorites, but in the process she made a lot of enemies.

While exploring an island with some of her fellow crew members, they stumbled upon a rare artifact. Before she could grab it, she was betrayed. Her fellow crew members attacked her and set off explosives, causing a cave in and starting a small fire. She lost her hearing in one ear and eventually died of asphyxiation.

Captain Dread respected her and her accomplishments so she was invited to join the Angel’s Voyage. She quickly became close with Sails and agreed to help out in any way she could. Due to her partial deafness, sneaking up on her could prove disastrous (for the person doing the sneaking).

Black Rose can usually be found at the bow, cleaning weapons or singing

random ghost crew fact: at night, they are corporeal so that’s when they work/attack the most. During the day, they spend their time messing around or just chilling (sonic is absolutely devastated that he can’t ruffle Sails’ bangs…also that his friends and little brother are dead in this world but that’s besides the point)

[fr-likes-chocolate]

The Crow and the Canary

Chapter 1: the Canary

Serinus canaria domestica

Jimmy closed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, he was all ready to go. As Jimmy stepped outside his abode, he was met with frosty blue eyes, Scott Smajor. “Hey Jimmy- uhm where are you going?” he asked, Jimmy gulped, he had forgotten to tell Scott, or anyone else for that matter.

“U-Uh… I- I have had an opportunity to leave the life series for a week to stay with some family.” Jimmy said, guilt overwhelming him for not telling his husband manifesting in him nervously messing with his feathers. “I completely spaced on telling you Scott I'm sorry-”

Scott put a finger to his lips, ”It's fine Jimmy, just tell me next time. I’ll see you later I guess.” the blue-haired elf kissed Jimmy’s head, and just like that, he was gone.

Jimmy blushed and grinned, that was a nice goodbye. He soon walked down the path that led out of the hub for the life series and into the wood that surrounded it. He had about a day or two’s walk to get to a small coastal port where someone would escort him to the island where his brother was.

“Hey Jimmy!!”

“Tim, wait up!”

“DUDE!”

Jimmy hardly had time to turn around before he was pulled into a hug by his older brother, Martyn. “Were you seriously going to just leave?” Martyn asked, releasing Jimmy, who was immediately attacked by Pearl and Grian.

Jimmy let out a disheveled squawk as he pulled free from his elder siblings, “I really need to get going if I want to make it on time, make it quick please…”

“Of course, we just wanted to say goodbye, and also for you to deliver something to Phil for us,” Martyn said, opening up his backpack and shuffling around inside it. “Ah! Here it is!” Martyn said a couple of minutes later as he pulled out a small package and handed it to Jimmy, “It's packed with letters from me, Grian, and Pearl for him. As well as two small communicators that Grian had Mumbo whip up, one is for you and the other is Phil’s since our letters don't seem to be getting to him.”

Jimmy nodded, “It will be nice to see him again. I’ll make sure to talk to him about meeting up.” he said as he put the package in his bag.

“Tell him we miss him! And that we are sorry.” Pearl added, “And tell us more about these Eggs he has.”

“I will, don't worry,” Jimmy affirmed, giving his siblings one last goodbye before starting down the path.

‘Maybe on this island I can find help for the Canary curse,’ he thought, ‘Phil seems to be skilled with magic, maybe some of the other residents could be persuaded to at least give me some more answers as to how I was cursed…’

Pt 2

[at1nys-blog]

Freedom

pt.1

Pairing: Crows x fem!reader; Pekka Rollins x daughter!reader

Summary: leaving home is not easy, not when your father is no other than Pekka Rollins but help cames in the name of Kaz Brekker.

Masterlist

Part 2

You didn't know when everything changed. Maybe it was when Alby your little brother came into the dynamics of the family and you were left on the sides. Maybe it was when you went out, not saying a word to anyone and came back way after dinner. Or it was when you spoke back to your father about your ideal future and dreams.

You wanted to see the world, you wanted to escape the golden cage you were raised in. You wanted freedom and to write your own story, away from your father's name.

You had spent three weeks, strolling around the streets of Katterdam trying to remember every turn to the Crows Club so when the time was right you would ask for help to Kaz Brekker.

"Where are you going?" asked Alby seeing you heading out the farm

"Just taking a walk. Tell mother I'll be back for dinner." you said, taking your sachet you walked out ready to walk around the market of Katterdam.

Unknown to you, the second you walked into the market, both Inej and Jesper started to follow you. The first by jumping from roof to roof, while the latter walking around the streets of the city always some miles of distance to not drag your attention into him.

It was after some time, when the sun was finally down, and you were mere blocks away from the Crows Club that you felt someone following you in the dark, and before you could phantom what was happening strong arms shoved you into a lateral hallway, hidden from curios eyes but a couple.

"Little Rollins, what are you doing here all alone?" you recognized the voice as of one of your father's underlings, you had heard his voice too many times to not recognise it.

"Out for a walk. Everyone at home knows that" you retored.

"Not your father. He got a glimpse of you in the market and asked me to follow you. For some protection, you undersatand right?" you were happy that you didn't went into Kaz's club sooner or at this point your father's men were going to let all Hell let loose. "Now, why would you take a walk here and not around your pretty farm?" you were ready, you had thought something like this would happen so you studied and memorized the best answers to give.

"I like to see what the sellers have in their stalls. I might be in need of new clothes or fabbric, but what do you understand." he lifted an arm and you were ready to get hitten, pretty sure your father gave them permission to hit you, but it never came.

"Hitting a pretty lady in a dark halley like this is not very gentlemanly, isn't now?" said a voice behind you, followed by shot of his gun. The bullet flying very close to the man's hand making him falling back and finally realising you from his grip.

"This has nothing to do with you." he said, running to get him, but the sharpshooter was faster and fired another shot at his opponents, this time hitting the man in his right shoulder blade. Another shoot, another gasp leaving your lips and this time the man that attacked you mere seconds ago was now standing on the ground, grounting for the pain, but it lasted less than a minute becuase the gunslinger ended his soffuring with yet another shoot.

"Now..." a knive was on your throat in a second, the scare making you jump out of your skin. "why Pekka Rollins' daughter is coming to town every single day?" the voice behind you asked but the only thing you said before anything else was asking if she was Inej Ghafa, Kaz's Wraith. "How do you know my name?"

"My father is obsessed with you guys, he is always like Kaz Brekker and his crows this and Kaz Brekker and his crows that. Is annoying." you said trying to light up the mood of the situation you currently were.

"I like her."

"Thanks, I like your guns' game." you complimented the man. "Now, if is not too much to ask I would like to see Kaz. I need some help" you added. Inej and Jesper looked at each other unsure of what to do next. You, Pekka Rollins' daughter, their boss' enemy, were asking to see him.

"Jesper, this is stupid. Do you know how many things could go wrong? What if Rollin's man are following us?" said Inej, once she met up with the boy inside the club.

"You would have noticed" you and Jesper said in unison, the guy smiled at you saying how much he loved all of this, the Wraith rolled her eyes and walked in the back of the club to get Kaz. "keep the wood up, people like to talk and if they see you are here with me chaos will unfold." he said, your hands fell on the table in front of you and so your head.

"I'm sorry to bother you but I really need the help. If I go somewhere else my fath-" you weren't able to finish your sentence that gloved hand gripped your wrist and dragged you away from the bar.

Entering a little studio, you managed to understand Kaz's studio, the man you were trying to reach all this time closed the door with such sstrenght you thought he broke it, but no.

"You want me dead?" he said first thing first sitting in his chair. You were about to answer but he was faster. "Coming here as nothing happened, after weeks keeping an eye on me and my club." of course he noticed, why would he? "Are you here to spy on me for your father?"

"NO" you screamed. "No, for all Saints no. I know you don't believe me, for I share his last name but please give the benefit of the doubt and..." you cleared your throat, you had to choose your words wisely, it was of no help imposing your reasoning to him. "Could you at least hear what I have to say? Why I came for your help?" he run his hand over his blonde hair, sighing but letting you talking.

After saying everything he asked you to wait there and most importantly to not touch a single thing in the room. He gave you a quick glance before leaving and locking the door behind. You thought it was for precaution, you thought too many drunk people had walked into his private room exchanging it for a bathroom or whatever else.

You were growing impatient when louds noises started to come from the other side of the door and then you heard him. Your father, asking Kaz where his daughter was. The rest of the conversation didn't reach your ears, even because the beats of your heart was audible on top of everything. You started to look around, in a desperate need of a spot where to hide in case your father were to search the studio. Nothing. You started panicking, tears forming in your eyes as nothing seemed a good option.

It was when they came to the door that you thought you were doomed. You heard the key rumbling at the door and the handle moving a few times, you thought you were done. You pictured your father's face looking at you, mad like never before. You felt your skin burning at the thought of the beating. You felt ashemed at the thought of his insults. Thankfully Inej came in and helped you climbing to the roof of the Club. She hugged you, hidding your frame, you were shaking, scared that something could go wrong.

"Don't worry. We will help you." with that you started to silently sob into her shirt, both happy and relieved that everything was going as you planned.

[ghostofacrow]

Crow plays Gubat Banwa Pt 2: The first Violence

I'll have to write this one in two parts because I briefly want to go over my setup, but I don't have time for the battle itself today, especially because I'm sure it'll take longer since I still don't know what I'm doing.

So here it is! The moon is bright tonight, watching over the Kadungganan trying to escape the forest's demon infestation. Unfortunately, they have been cornered by a riverbend - the bridge leading back to the coast has been destroyed, so now the only way out is for these three strangers to beat back the demon hoard advancing on them.

I don't normally like using Tabletop Simulator for roleplaying games - the physics can be a bit wonky and it's really bad for sheet management, but it was the easiest way I could think of to make 3D terrain. The rulebook suggests using colors for terrain height, which is very good (and actually how I do it normally for other games) but having a map in actual 3D, even if it's digital, does look pretty nice.

It helps that I'm playing alone, so sharing sheets isn't nearly as important, and that we're still at legend 0, so there isn't that much information I even need to have at hand. I also realized at this point that all the discipline information you need for a legend 0 character is contained on one page, which is very handy. So I just had to import that single page per character and their prowesses.

I probably should have at least given the drawings a flat color tint so they're easier to tell apart but I didn't think of that until later. The balancing advice in the book suggests to use the number of Kadungganan + 2 as a base, which would be 5 in this case. I settled on six - I didn't know what enemies to use so I just picked the first one in each style and added the demon warrior from the demon's unique units. This also means they're pretty easy to color coordinate since the styles already have associated colors, except for the extra demon warrior

Behold, the meeple I stole from a different game gruesome visage of the terrifying demon warrior. Finally I looked through all of the status effects I was actually going to need and made little tokens for them, and added a bowl of go pieces to use for counting things. That's the setup done so far, I think. I probably missed something, but I'll see that when the time comes. There was one other reason I decided to use tabletop simulator for this, and it's that the design feels (and I mean this as a compliment) boardgamey. The abilities generally have straightforward effects, and status effects are a binary affair - either you are poisoned, or you're not, so they're easy to track with tokens, and most of the abilities have straight forward effects like "push the enemy 1 tile" or "if the enemy is aflame, deal 1d4 extra damage". These secondary effects have no saving throw-like mechanic either, unless the enemy evades the attack outright or is immune to the effect, it's going to happen, which should make most of the effects here very easy to track visually. Last last pregame observation - I notice while writing this that demons are immune to aflame and resistant to fire attacks and uuuhm

This makes the Baril Witch situation even worse then I was worried about initially because it makes half of their abilities and their thunderbolt gain condition either not work or very bad. It's not that big of a deal since I'm playing every character, but if this was a normal game with one character per person, I'd be a bit disappointed as Nasirakna's player. It happens, not everyone is good in every fight, but that does mean I'll have to vary up the enemy factions going forward.

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

I'm back a day later, time to actually start now! Everything below this is a play by play of the first resound of combat - the next post after this one will be the after action report, if you want to skip to my general observations (this part is might be annoying to read and hard to understand, I honestly can't tell). I already rolled the divination dice when I did the setup earlier and got 1, 5, 8, 7 - the odds outnumber the evens, so the enemies go first. I'll keep the victory and defeat conditions simple for this one, the Kadungganan win if they defeat all enemies and loose if all three of them get defeated.

For some reason, the figures clip into the tiles, but only on some of the tiles. I don't know why this happens other then tabletop simulators janky physics but I also don't care. Everything is set up now, the enemy sentinel moves first.

The enemy types have these tables to determine what they do on their turn if you play without a GM/Umalagad, here's the one from the Demon Guard, the enemy sentinel (the blue enemy on the map here):

This is the first time I've seen pseudo-AI like this in a tactics ttrpg and I'm honestly a bit skeptical of how well it's going to work, but the idea is so good that I really hope I'm wrong here and it functions well. One of the benefits of this being a tabletop game is that, if you roll something silly here, you can always just ignore it and do something that makes more sense or is more fun, and the rulebook is open about this too.

I got a 6 so Rush + Shield Charge + Inflict Violence and it turns out I am proven wrong immediately because this is a solid turn (I'll put the exact riff breakdowns in the alt text)

Yes the wide open token is a door, this is because I couldn't think of something less stupid looking yesterday.

Nasirakna gets to deal 1d4 (4) Damage to the Guard from her Overwatch Aura ("While you have Thunderbolts, you have an Overwatch Aura 3. Any enemy that moves into or leaves a tile in this aura you may deal d4 DMG against, once per enemy per Riff.")

Dranreb goes next and moves around the enemy like this, allowing him to flank and ram into them from the side using his "Shield Charge" Inflict Violence, pushing the enemy one tile away and moving after them.

I get to roll 2 violence dice and pick the highest one because of the flanking here, and I got a 1 and 2, which is a dogshit result, but very useful here for demonstration purposes. The damage of my attack here is 2 (from the die) + 3 (Dranreb's Ferocity) and this gets reduced by 5 (the Demon Guard's Parry). 2+3-5 is normally 0, but damage can't fall below 1, this means the secondary effect (pushing the enemy) still happens anyway. The secondary effects are only avoided if the enemy dodges the attack completely, which usually only happens if you roll a 1. For reasons that you can probably figure out by looking at the map here, the push is more important to me in this situation then the actual damage. I really appreciate the lack of a saving throw-like mechanic here, non-damaging effects like applying poison or moving the enemies around is what you need for combos or to set up cool plays by your friends, so just letting them happen avoids a lot of frustration. You also gain a thunderbolt if your attack gets evaded or deals minimum damage, so being one point off from snakeeyes was maybe ... good? actually?? in this specific situation.

Dranreb has 1 more Beat left, and originally I was going to use his Shield Bash Inflict Violence, which also pushes the target 1 tile (and would push the enemy into the river here) and would give Dranreb d6 Block. Unfortunately, its violence die is a d6 and because this would be my second attack in this riff, I'd have to make it at 2 demerit - roll 3d6 keep the lowest one. If I land a 1 on ANY of the 3d6 here, it means the attack fails, and that's a bigger risk then I'm willing to take. Thankfully, Shove (push an adjacent fighter 1 tile) is also a basic technique that everyone has access to and doesn't require to roll anything, so I can just push the enemy into the river anyway.

Goodbye. The Guard has jump 1, so he can only move one terrain height up at a time, which means they can't get back up here and has to walk all the way around. They also take 2d6 (4+4) damage from the fall. Really fun and cool move! In retrospect, it would have been smarter to move the enemy to the tile below Haraw to make pushing them off like this slightly harder, but I genuinely didn't think about that until I started planning Dranreb's turn. The decision to combine to hit and damage rolls into one removes a lot of the more annoying randomness in tabletop games (well, in D&D and its children specifically), but I don't know how I feel about attacks with lower damage potential also having a higher chance to miss completely, especially when the attack is already at demerit. It's only a difference of about 12% at 2 demerit between d6s and d8s, which isn't that much, but worth keeping in mind if you're attacking more then once. The demon Raider (a Lancer) is going to go next and I got Rush + Inflict Violence + Rush on the Gambit table. This is pretty straight forward so I'm not going to break it down in detail, they're just going to move in and attack Haraw, who is the closest to them, and then retreat back up the hill. Nothing too complicated except

Rolling the maximum value on a melee attack means it combos and gets rolled again and added together. They also gain an extra 1d6 bonus damage to their next attack after rushing their full speed, which puts us at a whopping 8+4+1+FER(7) = 20(!) damage. Haraw's PAR is 3 so that's 17. This early and she's already at 9/30 POS.

Haraw is also going to go next and she's still taunted by the Guard that fell into the river, which means all her attacks against enemies other then the Guard suffer demerit. Thankfully, she has other options!

Not an attack, so it doesn't count towards the number of attacks per Riff, and nothing to roll here. Dropping the raider enemy into the river is going to be less effective - their jump is 2, so they could get back up easily and wouldn't take fall damage. But the map does have a dangerous terrain spike growth, so I'm going to knock him in there instead. The description for dangerous terrain says that it deals 2 damage every time you enter it. I'm not sure if multiple connected tiles of the same type of dangerous terrain count as entering it once, or if it means every tile you enter, but I'm interpreting it as the latter because it works in my favor here it makes more sense to me that continuing to move through a spiky undergrowth would keep dealing damage repeatedly.

The Corpseflower Curse is the most interesting part - its violence die is a d4, which means the chance to miss is pretty high, especially since Haraw is still taunted by the Guard and has demerit from it. But sliding the enemy down into the bramble first means Haraw is at a higher elevation now, her ranged attacks gain merit against this demon. So at least I'm rolling the d4 normally, get a 3, and put down the field. Flower Balyans gain a thunderbolt from putting down one of the flower fields, which I immediately spend on

...and end her riff. Ending a riff cleanses Wide Open too, and I'm just noticing now that I didn't remove it from Dranreb after his riff. The annoying thing about writing this down as it's happening is that I'm immortalising all the small mistakes I normally wouldn't catch or quietly fix later. The enemy Witch goes next, rushes (through the dangerous terrain) and dazes Dranreb and Nasirakna. Daze gives all of your attacks demerit and all attacks against you merit, but this could have been worse.

Nasirakna is up next and uhm. She doesn't have a lot of options here due to the enemies all being resistant to Fire and immune to the Aflame status effect

They're weak to Soul at least but that still means the ideal strategy is to get into a high position and snipe repeatedly. He's going to spend 1 beat to climb up into the tree next to him, and then use Bala Osuwang on the Raider - the height advantage nullifies the demerit from dazed. Aaand I rolled a 1. The next attack would be at 2 demerit, but at least I can spend 1 thunderbolt on Joss Reloads (see above) so my chance to hit looks slightly less bad....aaaaand I got another 1. This does at least mean I get the thunderbolt back and can use Joss Reloads again to gain 1 Merit for their next riff. I was really hoping I might be able to finish the Raider off but it wasn't meant to be.

The enemy archer gets into a tree of their own and shoots at Dranreb twice (and unlike some fighters here, hits both times). The Warrior Demon rushes twice, taking 8 damage from the dangerous terrain, and attacks Haraw, which is enough to defeat her, and also inflicts bleeding. This doesn't mean she's out of the battle, she's just debuffed until she recovered, Kadungganan don't risk death until they get 5 wounds, and you get one every time you take damage while at 0 POS. Getting knocked out and having to sit on the sidelines for half the fight sucks ass, so I appreciate not making characters drop unconscious. They only get 2 beats so their action economy is still being taxed, but they still get to do stuff, which is the important part.

I might have bitten more off more then I can chew with the enemies here, but what I've played so far already looks really promising. The random enemy behavior works surprisingly well, and the player abilities are very fun, but if I want to finish this battle in a reasonable amount of time, I'll have to stop writing down every move. The next post is going to be a highlight reel and my overall thoughts on how this battle went. It's not looking good!

[jadetheblueartist]

The Oc’s incorrect quotes (pt. 1)

@banana-pancake5

Cop: You ran a red light. 
Ivan: So did you, hypocrite. 
Cop: I was following you. 
Ivan: That was dumb, I'm a terrible driver. 
Cop: Get out.

Ivan: I came out here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now.

Megan: I like wearing oversized sweaters. Not just because they're extremely comfy and cuddly, but because whenever the sleeves are really big, I get to flop them around and smack people.

Megan: Oh, so when crows remember people who wronged them and hold grudges, its “intelligent” and “really cool”. 
Megan: But when I do it, I’m “petty” and I “need to let it go”.

Megan: Bye Talon! Bye Ivan! Bye Zenith! Bye Zoe! Bye Talon!
Ivan: You said ‘bye Talon’ twice.
Megan: I like Talon

Zoe: What’s something you guys are better than Talon at? 
Megan: Mario Kart. 
Zenith: Yeah, video gam-
Ivan: Emotional vulnerability 😐

(Hahaha someone is a bit salty)

Zoe: You kidnapped Talon? That’s illegal! 
Megan: But Zoe, what’s more illegal? Briefly inconveniencing Talon, or destroying our dreams? 
Zoe: Kidnapping Talon, Megan!!! 
Zenith: Zoe, listen, whatever I may think of you right now- these guys are counting on you to inspire them! 
Zoe: What, to kidnap people?!?! 
Zenith: To work together! 
Zoe: TO KIDNAP PEOPLE?!?!?!?! 
Ivan: Zoe, we all agreed a business guy is a not a people.

*texting*

Talon: A theif. 
Megan : Thief? 
Talon: Theif. 
Megan : I before E, except after C. 
Talon: Thceif. 
Megan: No.

Megan: I know you’re deflecting by making jokes about how hot you are.
Talon : It’s not a joke.
Talon : *sniffles*
Talon : I’m a legit snack.

Talon: Hey, random question, what are your favorite flowers?

Megan: Peonies, why?

Talon:

Megan: Were you going to get me flowers?

Talon:

Megan:

Talon: ᶦᵗ’ˢ ᵃ ᵖᵒˢˢᶦᵇᶦˡᶦᵗʸ

[rea-grimm]

The crow and the spider - London time pt 1

inspired by missions from Assassin's creed Syndicate

Finally, after a long time, you were safe in your newly renovated home. It wasn't entirely true that you were completely without servants. You just didn't need as many as the others. You just needed a servant who could take care of the whole house.

In London, you didn't think you'd run into Phantomhive and Trancy again, even though you knew they visited the city now and then. 

You chased down a few Templars who might have the information you needed. You came across as a damsel in distress, pursued by dangerous men. But you knew what you were doing, and slowly and surely, you lured them into a trap. 

With a swift step, you crossed the street and headed for the dead end where you wanted to get them to talk. They followed you like dogs. You didn't know anyone else was following you.

As you crossed the street, you didn't notice the black butler with the red eyes who hadn't missed your situation. He still hadn't let you out of his mind, and now that he had you in his grasp again he wasn't about to give you up. 

He ran after you, and in a flash, he had pacified any thugs who might have harmed you. Sebastian was satisfied with his work and wanted to make sure you were okay. 

"Why did you do that?! Now I have to start over!" you yelled at him in a flustered voice. You were angry with him. Why did he have to interfere with your work? You didn't ask for anything like this.

Angrily, you walked away with a quick step. You needed to come up with a new plan. Sebastian went back to Ciel, but he kept thinking about your reaction. He didn't expect something like this. 

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

The evening of the much-awaited ball at Alois's was finally here. You wore the dress from Ciel and also the shoes you practised in with Sebastian. 

You hid a hidden blade under your gloves for emergencies. You also hid a dagger and a small gun in your clothes just in case.

Everything was calm. Nothing suspicious was happening. That is, until Hannah, Alois's maid, started playing a strange musical instrument. You couldn't hear much of the music, since your ancestor couldn't hear certain notes. 

Therefore, you were also immune to the effect of the music. Everyone else who heard this tone lost control and started attacking each other. 

You've never seen anything like it. You've only read about the various effects of the Isu artefacts. That's why you thought the instrument was a fragment of Eden, like the Apple of Eden. 

You pulled out a gun and pointed it at the instrument. You had to prevent more casualties and prevent this madness altogether. As soon as no one was in your way, you fired and the instrument shattered into shards.

Some of the shards hit Hannah. She was outraged. How dare an ordinary person interrupt her musical performance and hurt her?

She saw you as a threat to her master that had to be eliminated. Hannah lunged at you, and you had to do everything you could to avoid her deadly attacks. You've never fought anyone this strong and fast. 

You've been mostly on the defensive and only minimally successful on the offensive. Somehow, you managed to hit Hannah with a hidden blade. The maid cried out in surprise and rolled to the ground. How could an ordinary weapon kill her?

Hannah breathed her last, and you noticed a Templar in the crowd that you had been trying to reach for some time. You weren't going to waste this opportunity and went after him. 

You passed Sebastian, who was fighting with Claude and the triplets. 

You didn't know what happened later at the mansion. 

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

You were chasing Templars across the rooftops of London one night. Or rather, it was the other way around. You were running from the Templars who were on your tail, trying to get rid of you. 

You were jumping from rooftop to rooftop and you thought you were heading for another fight. You heard the sounds of fighting and a chainsaw. You had no idea what was going on, but you didn't care. Now you couldn't jump anywhere else, so you decided to take a chance. 

On the roof, Sebastian was fighting Grell, who you had only met once, but that was enough for you. You ran between them and almost lost your head in the process. You ducked at the last moment and hid on the other side of the roof.

The fight between the two stopped for a moment, and instead, the sound of gunfire echoed through the air. Bullets were flying over your head. But that soon passed. You peeked out to see Grell and Sebastian had taken care of all the Templars that were chasing you. 

You scrambled to your feet as you barely dodged a chainsaw that missed you by mere inches from your neck. You jumped aside to get some distance. Sebastian headed towards you, wanting to make sure you were okay. Even though you were wearing a uniform and a hood that covered your face. But he recognized you. He'd recognize you anywhere. 

But just before you could properly register your surroundings, Grell pounced on you. He was angry at you for distracting Sebastian, who he wanted all to himself. 

His attack was pretty straightforward, though, so you had no problem dodging it, plus wrestling the device out of his hands. You pushed Grell aside and were about to use his own weapon on him when you were stopped by another man in a black jacket and glasses. 

He explained the situation to you briefly, took the chainsaw from you, and led Grell away. He was obviously facing some sort of punishment. 

With the situation sort of explained, you decided to go home. You didn't come out of that whole evening unscathed. Grell had hit you after all, and the wound in your side was beginning to reverberate more and more. 

The next day, you were on your rounds in London when you bumped into a butler on the high street. You wanted to get it off your chest and back home as soon as possible so the wound in your side wouldn't reopen. 

But you didn't expect to meet the butler again. He sought your presence first and you talked for a while. He took you gently around the waist and touched your wound. You were too close to cry out in pain. 

Your reaction, however, did not escape the demon and only confirmed his assumption. 

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

Sebastian and Claude met in the city when they were investigating the same thing. Their encounter first resulted in an argument and then almost a fight when they smelled the familiar scent of blood along the way. 

At that moment all their bickering ceased, and they exchanged worried expressions before they set off on the trail of blood. It led them to a remote area where fight clubs were being held. 

Once inside, they had to restrain themselves from breaking into the circle and destroying everyone there. 

Because in the middle of the circle was you. The multiple and undefeated champions of the arena. With a healed wound on your side, you fisted your way through the other fighters and it was obvious you were enjoying it. You needed to finally let off some steam. 

Just when the demons thought it was finally over, more fighters came at you. Every time you got hit, or seemed to be at a disadvantage, they nearly broke the railing and shot murderous glares at everyone. 

After a few rounds, you were finally declared the winner and went to the bookmaker to give you the promised information. However, he refused sternly, as he felt you had not kept your end of the bargain.

"You told me to play. I did and I won. The deal was not that I would lose, but that I would participate!" You fumed, as he was supposed to have important information as to your next goal.

However, the bookmaker was adamant and wasn't going to just give you the information. At least until the two butlers appeared behind you, and it was clear from their looks that if he didn't give you the information, he'd be finished. For good. 

Once you got your information, you turned towards the exit with a good feeling, noticing the demons. You didn't expect them in a place like this. Even though that's what they were asking you. They didn't think this was a place fit for a lady. They escorted you home, where they made sure you were okay before they had to bid you a gradual, reluctant farewell.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

[fernthewhimsical]

Baduhenna Deep Dive pt. 1

I have been called back to Baduhenna, and wanted to honour her by making a new, improved, longer informational piece about her. It is a beast, so it will be posted here in separate pieces. Let's begin

Epithets: (UPG)

Rootwoman

Goddess of the darkened woods

Lady of the marshland

Battle-crow

the Frisian Valkyrie

Wise Woman/White Woman (connection to Völvur and Witte Wieven)

Lady of Magic and Witchery

Faerie woman (again, connection to Witte Wieven and the Morrigan)

She of Roots and Ravens

Battle-Sister

Meaning name Baduhenna:

The first part of Baduhenna's name, Badu, probably comes from the Proto Germanic *badwa- which means "battle". Which might be connected to Badbh, one of the Morrígná, as well as Cathubodua, a Gallic Wargoddess. The second portion of the name -henna appears as-henae in the names of the matronae, Germanic Mothergoddesses often found in threes, which were widely revered in the Germanic area

Tacitus and the Annals

Tacitus is the only source we have on Baduhenna. In the Annals he describes a battle "in a wood called Baduhenna", where the Frisians fought their Roman oppressors and won. The area was being governed by Ollenius, a Roman who lived in Castellum Flavum. His predecessor had set a mild tax regime of ox-skins. However, Ollenius changed this regime so that the skins needed to be the size of an auroch, which the Frisians did not have.

Ollenius first had the cattle seized, then the farms, and eventually the daughters and wives of Frisian farmers were taken and sold into slavery.

In 28CE the Frisians had enough, and attacked Castellum Flavum. Ollenius called for aid from the fort of Noviomagus (now Nijmegen) to retaliate. The battle took place in what Tacitus calls "in a wood called Baduhenna", where the Frisians had the upper hand. They knew the area and fought with smaller weapons, earning them their victory. 900 Romans were killed in Baduhenna's Wood.

The deserters retreated to the home of one called Cruptorix, a former army man, where they turned on each other in paranoia and fear of betrayal. Perhaps because of a lot of the hirelings were Frisian who decided to seize their opportunity to overthrow their oppressors. Perhaps because of a battle-frenzy or -madness. But 400 more Romans perished. Ollenius was never heard from again, and the Frisians held their freedom from the Romans for almost 20 years.

Translation of Tacitus' Annals, from wikipedia:

Soon afterwards it was ascertained from deserters that nine hundred Romans had been cut to pieces in a wood called Baduhenna, after prolonging the fight to the next day, and that another body of four hundred, which had taken possession of the house of one Cruptorix, once a soldier in our pay, fearing betrayal, had perished by mutual slaughter.

74. The Frisian name thus became famous in Germany, and Tiberius kept our losses a secret, not wishing to entrust anyone with the war. [Deep Dive Masterpost]

[jlhynde-insanitybrilliance]

UDLTTOM WORLDBUILDING RAMBBLE: MAGICAL CREATURES & THEIR GROUP NAMES

(pt. 1, pt. 2. pt.3, pt. 4)

This is a random thought, but you know how there are different words for different groups of animals. Like horses are called herds, whales have pods, wolves have packs, crows have murders, etc.

I think it would be interesting if the same could be said for magical creatures in the Harry Potter lore:

Like a group Thestrals I think should be called a Procession (as in funeral procession) because they’re associated with death and loss and watching someone die.

And a group of Phoenixes should be a Kindling because they’re constantly bursting into flames. 😂

Hippogriffs would be called a Pride because they would accept nothing less.

Thunderbirds should be called Derecho (fast moving wind/thunderstorm that occur often in the Great Plains of North America).

Unicorns should be called a Joust because the singular horn looks like jousting stick and males charge each other during mating season. 😂

Dragons would obviously have to be a Hoard.

A Demiguise would have to be called a Hide because they’re so good at disappearing.

And a Niffler has to be called a Robbery 😂 😂

And Trolls would be called a Cesspool because of their smell (which is rude, but very on brand for Wizards)

Boggarts would be a Terror.

Fwoopers (the bird thats song drives people insane) would be called a Babble. And non-stop babbling drives people crazy!

Crups would be a Scrounge because their scavengers and basically just little hyenas that look like Jack Russell terriers and are just as vicious. (Which puts a horrible spin on the Muggle-hunting with Crups if you know anything about how violent hyenas are.)

Basilisks I don’t think can exist in groups because I feel like the second they’d make eye contact they’d just kill each other. So a group of them would be a Boneyard because of the decomposed skeletons.

Runespoors would be called a Fork because of the 3 heads (i.e. 3 prongs) and how they can predict the future and see where there is a Fork in the road of someone’s life.

A Doxy would be part of a Massacre because they swarm like insects and their venom is deadly to any witch or wizard who gets bitten. And a group of Doxies settling in an area would lead to an entire village being wiped out in a mass killing.

And I know in canon a group of Bowtruckles is called a branch. But I propose that Briar would be a better word because if you mess with their tree, they attack you and try to gouge out your eyes just like briars have thorns that cut anyone who gets too close to the plant.

And Dugbogs would be called a Snare because they are ambush hunters & wizards who get to close will have them clamp around their ankle like a bear trap.

Also, I’m going to add that Ghouls would be a Ruckus because they bang on pipes when things are too quiet a group of them would make so much noise it’d sound like your house was being remodeled.

A Glumbumble is a bee-like insect that produces a honey-like substance which causes people who eat it to be lethargic and low-energy so they would be a Gloom.

A Kneazle would be part of a Jury because of their ability to detect and identify suspicious people.

And Grindylows would be a Gallow because they strangle their prey.

These are the only ones I can come up with on the spot. But I want to think about this and come up with a crazy long list. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to reblog this with them! I’ll probably keep adding to this list as I come up with more.

[kayla-crazy-stuffs]

Two families connected

Here I come with a the new fairy au fic pt 1 :D

You can see Punz's reference here and Dream's here :]

Enjoy (Also, here you go @brick-a-doodle-do :])

WC: 1.1K :)

TW: Safe/soft vore (at the end tho), small injury and fearplay (kinda?)

It was early in the morning, you could hear the sheets moving as the young fairy changed position to a more comfortable one.

After a few minutes there were small knocks on his door followed by a soft voice. "Punz honey, it's time to get up.” The fairy gave a small grunt before stretching and getting out of bed. "Coming mom..."

He prepared himself before leaving the room and being greeted by his mother. "You have breakfast on the table and when you're done I need you to help me with some things." Punz nodded, sitting down to eat breakfast. 

He looked at the empty place at the table before looking at her mother. "Dream isn't up yet...?" He asked, a bit confused since she always woke them up together. “I am letting him sleep a little more, because he has not been able to sleep until very late.”

"But when I went to bed he was already asleep. Has he had a nightmare again?" His mother nodded before speaking. "Have you finished?" Punz nodded. "Okay, could you go pick a couple of cherries of the clearing?" Punz nodded again. 

"Sure, anything to help mom." His mother ruffled his hair, giggling when he complained that he had just done his hair. "Be careful, okay?" "I will, don't worry." he said with a smile before flying off toward the clearing.

The mother continued doing things around the house until the door to one of the rooms opened, revealing an even younger fairy. "Morning mommy…” “Good morning Dream dear, are you better?” The boy nodded, heading towards his mother, who picked him up in her arms and shortly after sat him down at the table. 

"Time for breakfast then" she said with a smile. Dream ate some of his breakfast before looking at her mother. “Mommy… where is Punz…?” "He's gone to get something for mommy, okay?" Once she said that, the boy got up from the table heading towards the entrance. "Dream, where are you going?"

"I'm going to go find Punz!" he said cheerfully before flying off like Punz had. His mother's eyes widened, quickly heading towards the entrance to try to stop him "Dream, wait!" but he was already gone. If her wings had been alright, she would have stopped him, but she was no longer able to fly, which made it impossible. She hoped nothing happened to him.

//

The green fairy flew around looking for his older brother, but was unable to find him. Maybe he should have waited at home, but… which way was home? The little boy looked around trying to remember where he had come from, but he couldn't. Suddenly a noise caught his attention, looking up, his eyes widening in fear.

A few meters above, there was a crow staring at him until it decided to go for him. Dream managed to get out of the way when it attacked him and quickly tried to fly away, but the crow was close behind. Dream managed to dodge for a while, but he started to get tired, something really normal since he was still a kid. 

In a short time the crow managed to tear a bit from one of the fairy's wings, sending him down to the floor. His wings trembled with fear and she closed her eyes,waiting what will happen soon

A minute passed and next he was gently lifted off the ground. By human hands.

By…Human…Hands…

Dream looked up in terror, coming face to face with bright orange eyes that looked at him curiously. “I have never seen a fairy! Luckily I got you before that bird did it!” said the human, who appeared to be only a couple of years older than Dream, happily. "I have to show you to my parents!" he said before holding Dream gently to his chest and running towards his house.

Dream let out a sob, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks. He wanted to go back home but surely, the human will keep him as a pet. The human soon arrived at his house, quickly heading towards where his parents were, the living room. "Dad, papa, look what I found!" he said excitedly, holding the fairy up to his parents so they could see him.

The two adults looked at him, both with different expressions. The taller and demonic looking one, looked in surprise, while the shorter one with diamond parts on his skin, looked in shock. “But, Sapnap..” 

“A bird has injured him, so I have brought him because you can help him, right?" he said, not realizing that one of his parents had left the room. "It's not that easy, Sappy... It may take a while for his wing to heal and he surely has a family to return to." Sapnap pouted.

"Please dad... Just for a few days..." He tried to convince him. The older only letting out a sigh. “Okay..- Wait, Skeppy..? Take care of the fairy for a second, I'm going to find Skeppy, okay?" Sapnap nodded looking at the fairy in his hands with a smile, not noticing his sobs.

//

Bad walked out of the living room, looking for the other around the house until he found him sitting on the bed in their shared room. "Skeppy... are you alright?" The shorter one tried to avoid the look.

"Y-Yeah, aha.. W-Why wouldn't I be?" Bad sighed approaching the other and sitting next to him. "Skeppy... what's wrong...?" he asked once more, concerned for the other. 

Skeppy let out a long breath as he ran both hands over his face before looking at Bad. "Do you know the fairy that Sapnap brought?”

Bad nodded, not understanding what the fairy had to do with this. "Yeah…? Is there something wrong with that…?" He asked. “Uh… well… He… is my son…”

“He is your what!???” He said a little surprised by the revelation. Of course he knew Skeppy's secret because he told him, but he didn't know that he had a son. “I didn't know you had a son..-”

“Two. I have two... Although the other one is a little bit older... I was planning to tell you but not yet...” he said, rubbing his arm. 

"Calm down Geppy, we'll take care of him for a bit of time and then we'll take him back to his home, okay?" Skeppy nodded.

“But please don't let anything happen to him..” Bad hugged his husband before leaving the room saying “Don't worry, okay? We will take good care of him."

He headed back to the living room, his eyes widening. "Sapnap!" The kid didn't look at him until he finished sucking the rest of the fairy into his mouth before swallowing. "Yeah?" He said to him with a smile. Oh God… They were going to be some very long days.

[vael-fire]

Who is Rook? Pt 4 - Kalle Aldwir

Using this questionnaire I made, feel free to grab it yourself. SO MANY SPOILERS BELOW and in that link.

Part 1 (Before The Veilguard)

Part 2 (During The Veilguard // Act 1: Signs and Portents)

Part 3 (During the Veilguard // Act 2: The Price of the Past)

During The Veilguard cont.

Act 3: The Wrath of Ages

Did I mention he's done? Someone hold him, plz.

Were all Rook’s allied factions at maximum strength when they launched their attack on Elgar’nan? Which ones weren’t, and why? Did Rook favor any of them? Their own? Someone else’s?

All except the Shadow Dragons, who were at medium strength… because Minrathous was tanked. Kalle tried to treat them all fairly, though the Veil Jumpers are obviously his home, and parsed out resources and time as best he could between them. 

Each of them ended up meaning something to him in the end, partly because he worked with them all so much and partly because they meant so much to the people he loved.

And, uh, the Crow’s First Talon had his heart, by the end. So there’s that.

Who did Rook choose to support the Veil Jumpers in the final battle dealing with magical wards or protecting others?

Neve had the natural facility and flair with wards, and her ice magic was clutch in protecting bystanders--and yes, Rook too, many times. He sent her to help his Veil Jumpers.

Who did Rook choose to support the Crows and the Lords of Fortune in the final battle fighting mages or attacking by surprise?

Lucanis. It hurt not to have eyes on him on Tearstone, but it was what it was, and Lucanis was the one for the job. Plus, you know, let the First Talon handle the Crows, right?

Who did Rook choose to support the Wardens and the Mourn Watch in the final battle fighting massive enemies and constructs?

Emmrich. Not only were they his people, but after Hezenkoss’s massive construct, Kalle felt sure Emmrich could handle what they threw at him.

Who did Rook choose to take with them for the final battle against Elgar’nan and why?

Somewhere along the line, Taash and Harding became Kalle’s go-to for fighting dragons. The three of them worked so well together there, and then against Ghilin’nain, he kept it going.

Did Rook plan to trick Solas with the fake dagger or did they think they better not risk it?

He absolutely planned to try and trick Solas--assuming they couldn’t talk him down first. As much as he wanted to punch the guy in the face by then, he’d seen what happened when someone got too close to one of these unhinged fake gods. His personal satisfaction had to give way to getting the job done and, you know. Saving the world.

Did Morrigan give you Felassen’s Rune? How did Rook use it?

She did! Rook used it to beat the living fuck out of Elgar’nan, best believe. Super helpful, that!

Did Rook have a lover to talk with before the final battle? How did they feel in that moment?

Hoo boy, he sure did. Kalle was wrecked after he got out of the fade--he didn’t even realize how long he’d been in there. He was super headfucked about Varric, spitting mad about Solas, and generally just felt so much of everything that he was pretty goddamn numb. He checked on his team and then went back to the meditation room to pass out. But couldn’t. He just kept thinking he’d open his eyes and be back in Solas’s prison. He kept wanting to go next door and talk to Varric. He wanted to claw the gods to pieces with his fingernails and he wanted to stay here, in this room, quietly, and ignore the rest of the world forever.

Lucanis found him like that. For the first time, Kalle admitted how overwhelmed and lost he was to someone other than Varric or Solas--because it was Lucanis who was asking. And then he showed that, just as Kalle had learned what went on in Lucanis’s mind at the worst of times, Lucanis had been paying attention to Kalle’s too. When he needed to feel something good, to feel someone good, Lucanis went above and beyond for both of them. And frankly, so did Spite.

The next day, as they headed out to confront Elgar’nan, they made their promises to each other. Kalle that he’d be there for Lucanis any way he could, Lucanis that he’d kill any god if it meant he ended up in Kalle’s arms. For Lucanis to say “I love you” was beyond unexpected--not because Kalle didn’t know it or feel the same, but because Lucanis expressing himself verbally was very, very new. But it sure as fuck was something to fight for. 

After defeating Elgar’nan, how did Rook deal with Solas and the veil? Was it different than they had planned? If so, why and how?

Kalle was absolutely ready to try the bait and switch with the knife, and then to die beating the fuck out of Solas if that failed. 

But then the Inquisitor showed up, and Morrigan brought Mythal to the party, and Solas, to everyone’s surprise, crumbled. He sobbed like a baby as they talked him down, and in spite of everything he’d done to all of them, to the elven people, to the dwarves, to the world, and to Kalle personally… he actually felt for him.

But was so, so goddamn relieved to have him go peacefully and for good.

Hopefully. He’s gone for good, right? Yeah. Totally. 

What did Rook do on the day after saving the world?

He briefly got together with Antoine and Evka to arrange the memorial for Davrin and Assan. Lucanis went with him. Bellara wanted to, but Neve convinced her to rest, considering what she’d gone through the day before was even worse than the rest of them. Everyone else convinced Kalle to rest, and at that point and he couldn't argue.

In the guest house, he and Lucanis opened that bottle of ancient port that Lucanis had been saving to celebrate with Davrin. One by one, the team found them, and they all spent a few hours and a few more bottles of wine telling stories, laughing, crying, reflecting, and celebrating.

Then they went to bed, and Kalle buried his face in Lucanis’s chest. They talked about where they’d go to look for wyverns as soon as they could get away. Then Kalle slept for 20 hours straight. When Lucanis slept, Spite held him just as tight.

Lightning Round - AFTERMATH VERSION

Favorite scent:

Coffee and Spite

Favorite food:

Rivaini Banana Bread, still.

Favorite animal:

Griffons. [Sobbing]

Favorite book or story:

He became a fan of The Randy Dowager Quarterly while in the Lighthouse. Choosing a favorite would be hard, but he and Bellara had a really good chat about “Two Telling Tails”. After his encounters with bears, this one struck Kalle as especially fun.

Favorite drink:

Antivan Port. Sometimes you just need something strong and sweet to balance out all that dark complexity in life.

Favorite item of clothing:

Gloves, sourced from Viago’s impeccable glove-maker, gifted by Lucanis.

Favorite keepsake:

Varric’s shaving mirror. [Sobbing]

Favorite place:

Still the quieter ruins of Arlathan. Always.

Favorite person:

Lucanis. And Spite. They finally got to meet his other favorite person, Henthorn.

Favorite little treat:

That thing Lucanis does with his… well, that’s another fic for another time. Someone else had clearly been reading The Randy Dowager, too.

[artsycervidae]

Moksha: Chapter 15, Danno Intermission Pt 1

A flashback chapter: Jin, Junko, and Nobutoshi set off on a quest to defeat one of the Twelve Kizuki.

Word Count: 6.2k

Be sure to check the trigger list.

FIVE YEARS AGO

     The saltwater wind stung Nobutoshi's face as he stared out towards the sea barge, the ghost town behind him. He saw a storm brewing on the horizon beyond the artificial island, and it rumbled as it headed their way. Seventeen-year-old Junko waded out a couple strides into the water, raising a hand to obscure the light glinting off its surface. "How do the ships look?" she asked.

     "Almost all of them are sunk," he told her, "but not all. It's the smaller ones." Just their luck: the Kakushi brigade already loathed inefficiency in demonic lairs. Nothing made them huffier than repetitive, unnecessary trips.

     The barge existed as a perfect square mirage in the water, never moving closer nor further, never losing itself to the current. Nobutoshi saw the island as a black hole sucking in at the space and time all around it, the color and shape of the ocean swirling around an unnatural drain. The corpses of sea crafts hung from it like morbid charms on a necklace.

   "It looks like we'll have to split up into three groups," she went on, "in the boats we have on our side. There's only a couple more for the Kakushi, and they're nowhere big enough to carry back the dead and injured."

    Nobutoshi grimaced. "Well... I suppose multiple small boats is better than sharing the three." And then, for his own sanity, he asked, "Can you sense it, too?"

     "I can." Junko sloshed her way back to land, standing in front of him. "That tugging feeling behind the naval. That's killing intent, alright... have you ever felt it call like this?"

     "Never." No wonder ships had been sent to the floating enigma, loaded with resources and explorers who figured that the trip back would take the same amount of time. "The surviving crows reported that the vessels made it out there, but that they were either attacked or sank before they returned to the mainland," Nobutoshi remembered. "The boats nearly made it halfway before the sun fell on them."

     "There's time or space distortion at work, or so it appears... I bet you that's a passive Blood Art, of the highest tier. I wonder why they didn't turn back at that point," Junko murmured. "Either way there was going to be a bloodbath. At least on the barge they had a fighting chance."

     "Maybe." The messenger birds had returned with a variety of stories: Entire nocturnal vessels would vanish, as if an angry god had simply picked it out of the water. Sometimes the ships were destroyed in the water by a single missile piercing the hull, leaving humans to sink or swim, but ultimately to drown, unable to outpace the demon's draw. Not that the battles in the village were any less gruesome...

     The two stared at the anomaly, and Nobutoshi resisted the urge to reach for her hand, somehow sensing her nerves. He worried over it too. "Do you think that they went with the first expedition team?"

     "They could have," Junko hesitated. "Maybe they went with the second team. Either way, that's thirty Slayers' worth of blood. And the demon doesn't even need to come to land for it." She sighed heavily and added, "We're only twelve Slayers, and while that includes two Hashira, morale is still pretty low. It takes time to get the people we need down here, and the damn monster has been using it like a buffet line." She muttered under her breath and slogged herself back towards town. Nobutoshi cast another glance to their destination before turning his back on it, following the woman he loved through the empty town.

   Whether the doors and windows were devastated or not, every single home was scraped empty. The only evidence that people had once inhabited this place were the belongings and blood left behind... as well as the remnants that nobody else could glimpse: the shades that wandered and meandered, lost between worlds. Nobutoshi had already seen enough during their initial inspection: now he kept his eyes down so that he couldn't recognize the fingernails glimmering like foil confetti within gauge marks, the half-eaten intestines haphazardly stretched across streets like morbid banners, the smears of bloody tracks where bodies had been picked at and dragged. He blatantly ignored the heavy atmosphere wafting from each and every building, drenched with the handprints belonging to the dead. There wasn't anything he could do about it now.

     He tried not to think of Hinata, who would have wandered into the houses for forensic reasons, who would inevitably feel attached to the house and its former inhabitants. They would have taken it personally and tried to figure out what kind of demon would do things the way they did. 'They would have been whispering it all in Junko's ear,' Nobutoshi dismissed, 'distracting her.' He kept his eyes on the Foliage Hashira's back.

     The worst part was knowing that not everyone taken had been dead, and that ships were set off in the morning to rescue stranded hostages. No matter how early sailors left, how the weather favored, or how swiftly the current carried, they would not return before the sun set. The funeral parade would all begin again. And all the Slayer Corps could do was send more people and hope their surviving crows went on to seek help, until today.

     As pitifully small as their force was, they were the reinforcements. It had to stop here, before things got worse.

     The two neared the building that had been appropriated as temporary shelter, other Slayers walking around, trading reports, checking the houses for survivors, or standing by. They bowed and nodded to the Hashira and tsuguko, their conversations trailing or softening for the superior officers to pass them by through the open doors. It was just the two of them in the war room. A map had been spread out on the table during their last meeting and it awaited them, already pinned down with little tiles and flags that decorated Japan in intricate chess patterns-- the movement of the Demon Corps, tactically investigating and eliminating potential demon hot spots. Trying to sniff out the trail of Kibutsuji Muzan: when he had been here, whether it was him or a subordinate, and where he would go next.

   Junko sat first, exhaling as she rotated her joints and rolled her head along her shoulders. Her company, meanwhile, stopped in front of the open window that framed the floating demon den. Nobutoshi could keep up appearances, but gruesome thoughts kept spilling to the forefront of his mind, filling his mind with uncertainy. So he had to ask. "Do you think--" and he caught those words behind his teeth, just barely changing his mind. 

     "Do I think what?" Junko urged, eyes lazily following him, and Nobutoshi decided to come out with it. 

     "Do you think Hinata is dead?" He dared to wonder, as unthinkable such a future would be. His heart trembled at the possibility made real; he couldn't stop thinking of the decision he made a week ago to send Hinata to the barge in place or Junko. Seven whole days. Five to four of which they had been on the barge, maybe. It felt naive not to assume the worst. The battle hadn't even begun, but the bleak fate of their friend hung over him.

     "Oniinata? Dead?" Junko cracked a smile then, as if they hadn't seen all the signs in town. "Not a chance." The lightness of their nickname made her declaration genuine, as though the third wheel were only down the road rather than missing in that isolated lair.

     "Can you feel them?"

     "No," she said carefully, "but they know better than to die on us. I'd kill them if they even considered it."

     Nobutoshi appreciated her attempts to make him laugh, but he wasn't in as malleable a mood. He settled his weight next to her and tried again for comfort. His hand reached to hers in her lap, and she turned her palm upward for him to grasp. He scooted closer so that their legs touched, tempted to graze his cheek against hers, but resisted that urge. "When we find them again, we should tell them," he suggested. "About us."

     "Maybe," she said less warmly than before. "Maybe we wait until they're in their hospital bed, so that we can outrun them if they get jealous."

     "As if they've never been jealous over you before," Nobutoshi said, and Junko looked at him as though he had missed the point entirely.

     "You can be so obtuse and cruel sometimes," she said, "and it's hard to tell if you do that intentionally."

     Before clarifications could be exchanged, the two felt an atmospheric change and drew back into their respective personal space. Hinata hadn't been told about the blossoming relationship between their peers; so it went without saying that Jin also went uninformed. The Mist Hashira rolled into the room, silent as foreboding fog, and the two were careful to seem as though they had only been waiting for him, feigning interest with much less distracting things such as the battle ahead of them.

     "No survivors," he confirmed. "We're on our own."

     "Is it that bad?" Junko asked. "Do we have any time to wait for reinforcements?"

     "Doubt it," the man said, taking his own place at the head of the table. With excruciating consideration, he went on, "Our best hope is that survivors remain on the barge." That was not what Nobutoshi wanted to hear. It wasn't what he wanted to imagine for Hinata and so many others who fought valiantly to be useful, whose final moments had to mean something. He did not want to see their bloated remains-- if anything did remain-- when he closed his eyes at night. None of this was shared with his father, who may have looked on such weakness with reconsideration. Nobu kept his mouth shut and his eyes on the map.

     "Report?" Jin asked, sighing as if the lack of living bodies were more an inconvenience than a massacre.

     "There are a handful of boats remaining," Nobutoshi informed. "Enough for us to cross and a couple more for when the second wave arrives. We've determined that there are multiple Demon Arts at work on the barge, meaning a potential Kizuki among them."

     Jin looked at Junko for this confirmation, to Nobutoshi's disappointment. But the Foliage Hashira was looking out the window to that far-off speck. Nobutoshi went on. "From the witness accounts and evidence, this is what we know: there's at least one demon with aquatic abilities capable of sinking ships. There's another that controls the demonic seabirds and destroys ships; it is probably the culprit behind the nightly raids." He glanced to Junko, still distracted, and added, "Junko thinks that the pull everyone is feeling is another Blood Demon Art. Something that changes the space between here and there, likely altering time within its reach as well. It makes it so that people are drawn in with no means of escape."

     "And what does that determine?" Jin asked, more to test Nobu's knowledge than for clarity.

    Nobutoshi didn't know what else he was supposed to say. "All signs point to Kizuki activity," he admitted, hindsight adding salt to his wounded confidence.

Jin watched Nobutoshi with an indispensable judgment. "And?"

Another nervous glance to the distracted Junko. Nobutoshi chewed the inside of his cheek in thought-- but whatever he was meant to conclude was left unsaid. His father sighed, disappointed. "Status on the storm?" Jin asked, bored with his son's assessment, but accepting it for what it was.

     "It's coming," Nobutoshi said, bereft in the mounting bad news. "If we leave now, the storm will hit us while we're out there facing the demons. But if we put off the attack, the darkness will extend night by a couple hours, ultimately giving the enemy the advantage." 

     Jin folded his arms and closed his eyes in thought. Nobutoshi tried not to read too far into this gesture: it was the typical body language of an old-timer, but he couldn't unsee the image of his father's immense dissatisfaction. If only Nobutoshi had made the right call a week ago, none of those Slayers would have died and the situation wouldn't look so bleary. 

      "Hashimoto?" Jin asked. 

      "Uh huh," Junko said, as if that were a sensible reply. "Uh huh!" She stood suddenly, looking wildly around before her eyes fell upon Nobutoshi. She reached for his sleeve almost breathlessly. "I need you."

     Both Ishikawa men sat, blinking in mutual stunned silence for a moment. Perhaps Nobu would have responded positively, "I reciprocate this sentiment, but this isn't the time, Junko," if she wasn't already pulling him to his feet, nearly stumbling over her own in that haste to drag him to the window. She pointed out and asked, "Do you see that?"

     Nobutoshi glanced to her erratically gesturing finger before he abided. He squinted and shook his head. "I don't--"

     And there, against the harsh orange sunset, was a flickering light of some reflective surface.

     "It's them." It took him seconds to realize what she meant. The pinging off of one another, a transmitter and a receiver. "It's them! Quick! Translate it, I'll write it down," she commanded, disappearing from his peripheral vision to find something to record with. 

     "Translate?" Nobutoshi echoed, just as the pattern of light struck some familiar note. An insomniac memory resurfaced to his mind.

     Jin had followed after them, a wrinkled brow and pursed lips displaying his distaste. He watched Junko as Junko watched Nobu as Nobu watched a single light stare back at them. He squinted and focused and strained. The light winked a messy, half-asleep cypher of slumber party nights; so minute a detail and from so far away. Only his family's Sight could have found it, and only a loved one could have parsed the intimate edges of its pointed message.

     "It's fast," he told her. "Really fast. I don't know if I can get it right."

     "Just give me everything," Junko requested and Nobutoshi obliged. The rhythm was like a dying heartbeat, repeating itself multiple times in rapid succession. Nobutoshi read aloud until the sun fell behind the buildings, extinguishing most of their available light. Overall, it couldn't have been more than two minutes. The message may as well have been lost in a rip tide. 

     By the time Nobutoshi turned back to the dim room, rubbing the ache away from his eyes, Junko had slapped the paper down on the table. In her messy handwriting, the message was scrawled and scratched and puzzled out. "I've got most of it!" She declared as both Jin and Nobutoshi leaned over each of her shoulders to read her work.

     Little-One. Fight. Tonight. Little-One. Four into One. Danger. Many Danger. One-many, mashed together like its own word, One Water. Big-Eat, mushed together again, Two Air. Crows die. No crows. One Island. Metal-Glass, another created word, Four into Little-One. Belly. Kill Four. Kill Little-One. Fight. Tonight, and then the message repeated until it had flickered out.

     Both Mist Breathers looked to Junko, who only stared longingly across the water. "We've kept Oniinata waiting long enough," she declared. "It's time we go help them." 

     "What does it mean?" Jin asked, unimpressed with the limited vocabulary and its repetition. Or maybe just testing them.

     "It's a report," Junko explained deliriously. "They're still alive. They've stayed alive somehow to spy on the demons! And now we have our intel. We know what's coming."

     Junko, though half the Mist Hashira's age, didn't look to him for approval or permission. She was the one who led them out to the other nine Slayers, all hopeful faces turning to their leaders. She announced the night raid: the Corps was looking for five demons total, not including the minions. "The amemasu and the flock leader are our biggest concerns," she said, seemingly pulling this information from thin air. "The sea monster will attack our boats and there are two airborne demons-- one of them being the commander of the flock. We expect they'll attack us while we're out at sea, right before the storm hits. If they slow us down, then we'll also be at the mercy of nature. But if we can force our way to the barge, we can weather out the storm while fighting the remaining demons. There's a sentry there, which makes for four lesser demons.

     "And the final demon," she concluded, "is the Lower Rank One." Many Slayers went rigid and a couple stifled noises into their hands. At this point in the body count, it was only confirmation. "We can find it at the center of the barge, furthest from sunlight. On the boats, we will be split up into three groups and reorganize once we've arrived at the barge, where our informant will better explain the situation.

     "Any questions?"

     A hand rose, belonging to a stern-faced girl with an underbite. One of the few who hadn't immediately despaired. One of the many who had a shadow clinging to her arm and a chip on her shoulder. "You just said informant," she pointed out. "What does that mean?"

     "We have a survivor on the barge," Junko stated. "All this information we have received from a trustworthy source."

     "From the barge?" the girl asked with disbelief, her obsidian eyes sharpening. "How do you know this isn't a trap?" This concern rippled through the small group. 

     "Because it's from someone I would stake my life on," Junko declared. "I would know them in this life and the next. They risked dying to get us this information, and I'll die if it means trusting them."

     The Slayers looked to Nobutoshi and his Hashira. They offered no corrections and no contradictions. Silence announced their decision: to trust the available information, though the concept chilled their followers to the bone. The enemy was powerful, gorged on The Demon King's blood, but it was a threat that one of their own kind-- a mere human-- could evade for days. Someone who their leaders would rely upon so steadily. It wasn't morale, per se, but it was a mild comfort at the very least. 

     The Hashira duo led the group to the ocean with Nobutoshi humbly taking up the caboose, all three helping organize the groups and taking position at the bow of their assigned boats. It was his father's vessel that advanced into the chopping waters first. The sky darkened as they drew closer, their only lights the glowing lanterns that one Slayer on each boat held. The stars and moon were blanketed by the coming squall, the moisture sticking just above the water and obscuring them with its hazy reach. The storm clapped its thunder in merry entertainment at the carnage to come.

     During this timeless sailing, it almost seemed that the tension was unwarranted. Every jostle of the boat was due to the sea, every bump coming from an arm or leg meant to stabilize. Nobutoshi hadn't sensed the leviathan until it breached the black, glassy surface of the water with an earth-shattering wham! closing its massive sword-toothed mouth around his father's boat and diving into the darkness. For that crystal clear moment, the Mist tsuguko saw it-- eel-like, with a long body that rippled soundlessly in the water. Where the smooth ridge of its head ought to be was an entire human torso, bare save for scales and gills, effeminate and otherworldly-- morbidly beautiful. It twisted, armless and desperate, trapped beneath its own rubbery skin. The demon's main mouth stretched across the human-esque figure's lower half, as if its narrow pelvis bones naturally transitioned into the cruel sharp-toothed maw. Then it was gone, diving into the water, spiraling and curling into inky depths.

      Jin landed soundly behind Nobutoshi in a whoosh! of mist, apparently having narrowly abandoned ship on time to save himself. Their boat rocked and swayed; Junko prevented hers from tipping by slamming her foot down on its other side, her passengers emitting a simultaneous "woah!" As expected, she jumped into action and swept her arm out, sword glistening forest-floor green. "Everyone, stay calm, be ready to defend," she announced, "Two members overboard! Coming on the port side-- you two, get off your asses, haul them out of the water before it comes back! I'll protect us!"

     On cue, two heads broke the surface of the water, reaching for their friends who provided safety. 

    "Now! Devour them! Eat them all!" a grating, crackling voice split the air. From the barge arose a swarm, which rapidly grew into a flock of demonic seabirds. Parodic gulls, pelicans, herons-- a variety of unimaginable creatures, aviary yet alien, flying faster than the wind itself, descended on the sailors. 

    Junko watched them come as a cloud of bat-like fangs, claws, and stingers. Her sword cut the atmosphere.

     "Foliage Breathing Third Form," she inhaled. In a gasping moment, Junko wove a path through and between the birds, her sword singing, thwip, shnk, shwa, thnk!, and she was suddenly on the boat again, legs akimbo to balance herself on the narrow ledge. "Falling Leaf Storm." And a good number of the minions simply fell apart into chunks and plummeted into the water. 

    Her reach, however, was still limited to her boat's proximity, and the sea beast's attack had pushed her further from her companions. The swarm fell upon the Mist boat, yanking soldiers overboard before beating and harassing their heads below the surface. Nobutoshi sliced through the demonic creatures, but the numbers of their foes never slowed. Even with his father's sword snipping past his face now and again, they were struggling. The boats were splintering from the strain of so many people moving and adjusting-- more Slayers being picked away, losing their balance and falling. Overboard victims pawed for safety, and others tried to scoop them up between assaults before any further damage could be done.

     Nobutoshi saw the sleek gliding of something far bigger behind the flittering nuisances, making out its distinctive silhouette against the night sky and estimating its height. 'Their controller.' He raised his sword to it with a flourish.

     "I see it," Jin announced. And he directed his sword down to the water. "With me. Hashimoto! The sky."

     Nobutoshi didn't need to be told what to do. It was obvious, there was no other way to reach the barge. "Keep your shit together! Direct our boat to the island," Junko bellowed as Nobutoshi rotated the sword grip in his hands. The amemasu was still coming-- he could see it circling, preparing, and then arching itself to missile up into their numbers again. As he moved into the Fifth Form, he felt his power multiply and disperse, a single powerful mass of vapor that exploded out with a single breath. His father moved in a mirror image on the other side of the bow. The beast came for them-- practically served itself on a platter. 

     The creature hefted from the water to destroy their boat and sank either side of its mouth right into their blades. Their parallel Sea of Clouds and Haze neatly sheared through its blubberous armor and stalwart bones. The demon had little opportunity to regret its mistake as it sank back into the water, its massive shadow easing into darkness. 

     At that same time, the demon-birds hailed down onto the boats, diving into the natural and artificial mist. Junko's swordplay forced another mass extinction, their ribboned bodies falling in wet plops and smacks. But their master had stayed back, and Junko landed soundly onto the boat again as the demon screeched, and though Nobu couldn't be sure, it sounded a lot like "Unagiko!" Without all the distracting bird-servants, Nobutoshi could make out the demon, even against the blackened sky. It looked significantly more human than the leviathan: its arms were feathered, its cheeks and jowls saggy as though its face had been stretched out. While its legs appeared human-like, the joints were inverted, and its toes raked the air as talons. It was as though someone made a human out of clay, and tried to turn that human into a pelican.

     "Damn cockroaches! Pests!" The pelican screeched at them as it retreated, sensing the turning tides. 

     Though the swordsmen had survived the initial assault, there was no victory to be felt. The two remaining boats docked at the barge at a steeper cost than anticipated. Three had been lost to the beast and another three to drowning. Only two of the bodies had been retrieved. Down to half their forces, with all three subordinates injured, Nobutoshi did his best to manage their pain and damage. Ever since the Final Selection, he had made a point to bring first aid and always listened to Kakushi when they diagnosed and treated; but he was by no means an alternative to proper care. He had to avert his eyes from a particular warrior-- the skeptical girl, whose sword was an electric yellow, her half-pecked eye dangled from a delicate cord. There was no saving the organ and there were no screams pried from her lips when Nobutoshi amputated it, caring for her the best he could under these circumstances. 

     "The storm is rolling in," Junko hollered over the howling. "Yuri, you should stay back and guard the bodies."

     The one-eyed skeptic-- Yuri-- jutted out her chin, further pronouncing her underbite. "With all due respect, Hashira, there is no way I'm hanging behind." And although the pain had to be excruciating and persistent, she stood with her head high. "Where's this informant?"

     An odd number of eyes settled on Junko. She didn't waver, "There's still three demons left. We haven't seen the other flying one, and there's the sentry to worry about. Our helper is probably initiating combat as we speak."

     "On their own?" Yuri voiced her doubt.

     "Yes," Junko asserted.

     Leading the charge as an untouchable beacon felt different than Nobutoshi expected. He had always revered Junko for how incredible she seemed, how she heralded victories and gratitudes and fables. But now, looking at the battered Slayers in their care, glimpsing the bodies hidden beneath a scavenged tarp... he could see the chasm that naturally existed between the common folk and the elite. He could see them hesitate and recognize how the piles of bodies gave their superiors a foot-up in the overall war. And all it would cost was their short, miserable life. 

     Junko must have sensed Nobu's apprehension: her hand pressed into the center of his back, nails digging a gentle circle of comfort. 'We can do this,' she seemed to remind him with a flickering, dampened smile. They had no choice but to continue; there was no way back, after all.

     "The maze is dangerous," Jin interrupted. "Pair up. Spread out. Watch each other's backs." Nails extracted from Nobu's back like removing shrapnel-- he wanted her to stay, but she had that jaw set, that hand cupped on her katana, and her eyes on the indigo clouds overhead. Instead, she strayed over to one of their subordinates. Jin had already selected his Slayer and set off, his nameless partner scuttling after him, leaving all others to their devices. Nobutoshi drifted toward Yuri, her remaining eye glazed with fatigue.

     "What's your name?" he asked her. 

     "Takahashi Yuri," bless her steady and formal tone. 

     "Alright, Takahashi. Let's look for survivors and those last three demons."

     They found no evidence of survivors. Not even bodies. That was the horrifying thing about a seasoned demon's territory: the simultaneous excess and lack of death. New demons left behind carcasses and bones, their newfound appetite still rudimentary if maddening. Meanwhile, the splintered corridors and rusted tunnels were littered only with shells, wharf insects, roaming crustaceans, and the occasional rat scurrying for safety. Jin had called the place a maze. Indeed, the barge seemed to hold numerous tunnels, catwalks, and metal panels. These structures held no practical importance. The tunnels fed into each other, out into the open water, and into dead ends. The catwalks were precarious, rotting, and noisy. The metal panels were bizarre, nonsensical landmarks. The walls reached up to six meters tall, and there were few routes to safely climb them. It was less a barge and more a demented vivarium, something pretending to be a barge.

     Nobutoshi paused at a fork that split into three different directions, examining the dents and scratches at about eye level on the nearest turn, recognizing it as a pattern. He wondered if anyone else had noticed it... he glanced back to Yuri, who raised an eyebrow when he gestured to their left. "This way."

     As they explored, the rain fell on them in sheets, preceded by a stampede of fat droplets sweeping overhead. Yuri grumbled, readjusting her hold on her katana. "Can't see a damn thing in this rain."

     "I can. Keep following me."

     "You're reading the walls, aren't you? Why? What's on there?"

     "I don't know." It wasn't a total lie. The markings weren't of any alphabet, but held intelligent significance to him. An arrow was too obvious a sign-- it had been Junko's idea to create a coded marking to help reinforcements from getting lost, a lesson learned in previous missions. A mindless scribble, at first glance, but it actually mapped out a path. Nobutoshi's careful eye had seen the pattern of the scratched wall, determining his way. Nobutoshi couldn't imagine Hinata broadcasting their activity so openly-- not unless they had intended for this to somehow help others. Nobutoshi didn't know where the map led... yet.

     The duo turned a corner and Nobutoshi froze. The sensation that struck him still was not unfamiliar, but manifested as a churning of the guts. Yuri bumped into his back and her free arm propped itself on him to right herself. "Wh--"

     "Stay back," Nobutoshi whispered, first pushing her gently before thumbing his sword and from its sheath again. Lightning cracked overhead, and she could see it then. The light reflected off the metal floor and wall panels-- a shadow had been cast that, if nothing were truly there, wouldn't have existed. He unsheathed his blade, Yuri followed suit--

     The creature jerked its body, charging them down and closing the distance in a fractal second. Nobutoshi warily put himself between the monster and Yuri, uncertain of her depth perception, but Yuri had been faster. 

     "Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"

     C-CRACK!

     The hall exploded with blinding brilliance, Yuri suddenly on the other side of the demon, her sword instantaneously split in two a few centimeters from the handle. Flabbergasted, she looked back with her mouth agape as the yellow nichirin spiraled through the darkness, bouncing off the wall and rattling to a rest. The demon paused and laughed at this, and it was a horribly human sound. As it stood between them, raising itself to a whopping three meter height, Nobutoshi tried to assess their foe.

     The scales that reflected its surroundings served as camouflage and armor-- it was armor, he realized, when the demon turned its helmeted head this way and that. It looked strange and moved stiffly as if there were limited flexibility above the shoulders. The dō-maru was old yet new, like a giant warrior had stepped out of the early Edo period and into their time. When the creature slouched, the armor moved with it like skin. Its claws nearly touched the ground, their hands twisted into three long naginata-like ends. These 'fingers' raked through the ground, tearing through the metal sheet like it was merely paper. 

    "I can't believe you killed Unagiko with something as weak as that," the demon bellowed, voice competing with the raging storm. "Who are we supposed to replace her with now? Some pathetic cockroaches?" It hadn't stopped watching them-- deciding whether to kill the unarmed or to handle the only remaining threat. "Hmmm... I pick... you!"

     Then the demon charged, Nobutoshi as a target. It dropped to all fours in the grotesque mimicry of a bloodthirsty pangolin, and the screeching of its claws destroying the walkway could have burst his eardrums. Nobu defended himself-- trying not to allow his sword to be hit in some unsavory angle, desperate to reunite with the Slayer he was responsible for. 

     The thing was covered in those scales, even the helmet had flap-like layers covering its neck, apparently too powerful for the likes of Yuri to behead. Nobu could try, but if he failed, that would spell their doom. He took too long to consider. The demon was pushing him back, closing in-- 

     It reared, preparing for a brutal blow, and through the onslaught of reflecting raindrops, Nobutoshi discerned the irregular dots across the demon's bust. As if something had been smudged over the skin, or imbedded through its neck and face. He recognized the shape and size of these marks. 'Nichirin swords, broken off into its head,' he realized with horror. Perhaps there was no way of slicing the demon's head off, but the armor could still be punctured. 

    And so Nobutoshi struck true with his First Form, impaling the demon right as it dared to fall on him-- through its throat, past the collarbone, into its ribcage. The beast howled, gurgling incoherent fury, and thrashed. Nobutoshi held on for all his worth-- tried to yank the sword free, but the demon suddenly barreled away. Right towards Yuri, but thankfully, she had the sense to throw herself to the side. The beast didn't slow for her and Nobutoshi lost sight of her mid-recovery, scrambling to her feet to give chase. She fell behind the endless corners as Nobutoshi held on for dear life, his vulnerable body bouncing between the floor and the demon's unyielding chest.

    The rushing rainfall numbed his face. He felt bones fracture and muscles bruise, tried to minimize the hurt by becoming weightless in his movements; his body recalled how it was to fight something much stronger and faster than him: 'Junko was right. I have such noodle arms compared to hers.' The soft recollection of her lectures struck a tonal dissonance, a warmth in the face of death by dragging. 

    The pangolin-demon screamed, energized by seemingly nothing at all. That 'nothing' struck from above and ahead, and Nobutoshi's body was nearly crushed beneath the demon's mass, saved only by instinct. He threw himself, skidding through shallow water, his drenched haori heavy on his shoulders. The abandoned sword and an anguished holler projected from the demon's neck, but its mysterious assailant had evaded its parrying jabs and slashes, leaping and skipping out of reach.

     "You," the demon accused, "Aguri! Get lost, you runt!"

     Aguri never ceased to be a blur, triangle-leaping out of reach even when the antique samurai reared up and rammed those naginata nails into their predicted path. The bipedal 'runt' landed on the demon's shoulders instead, raised a nichirin blade, and pierced it down into the creature's open mouth to the hilt. With a yank, they snapped their blade off into the creature's face.

     But then they were caught-- swiped by another wild swing of those claws. Their body flew, slammed into the wall, and slid to the ground, legs twitching, stunned. The demon stomped toward their unmoving form. "Die for me already," the samurai commanded almost fondly, its mouth healing around the imbedded blade.

     'You're the cockroach,' Nobutoshi thought. The spiteful reply brought him back to his body, which had gotten up from its sprawled position and run to assist his savior, leaning into the mist, his footfalls evanescent. With a hard jump, he flew under the demon's raised arm, snatched the protruding sword handle, and sliced hard-- the imbedded blades perforating the insides of the demon's massive throat twisted, jostled, and fell to the floor in a gush of gore. The demon collapsed, the metal walkway thrumming as the rain washed its remains away. Nobutoshi rolled away and found his footing, lifting his head to this 'Aguri'--

     -- finding the broken end of their nichirin sword pressed against his throat. Nobutoshi looked at them.

     Hinata's unfocused eyes stared back into Nobutoshi's dark face with equal disbelief, their shoulders and head twitching in shock as they waited for the full-body tremors of ego death to subside. It wasn't until Nobutoshi was eye-to-eye with them that he realized he had not really believed he would see them again: invoking their name to Junko had been akin to praying to the deceased. But here they were, a revenant, armed with broken-bladed handles tucked and tied into their uniform with strips of some scavenged cloth. They had made artificial spikes as an extra deterrent for hungry demons. The makeshift dagger in their hand certainly wasn't theirs-- it glimmered black against Nobutoshi's skin, leering and not trusting anyone but its wielder. 

    "Hinata," Nobu murmured, throat moving against the cold metal.

    The spell had broken. Hinata's mercurial eyes flashed and they exhaled, a life brought back to them by virtue of a name. They shivered again-- this time letting their wounds get the better of them, their arms fell and they leaned back against the wall to favor their left leg. "Nobu," they breathed, "It's you. It's really you."

[myths-of-fantasy]

“Go!” she snarled, watching the theurgist begin limping off frantically towards the border. She only watched long enough to see Feathertail dart out from behind the barrier once more, the brave molly grabbing Crow and started dragging him back to safety as her aunt turned on the recovering cannibal at her paws while the hoard started rushing towards her. The molly didn’t hesitate, pouncing on their attacker, who released a protesting caterwaul that was abruptly cut off by her, ripping the flesh straight from her throat and tossing the slab of flesh into the drooling mass of creatures. Two of them pounced upon the little piece, tearing and snarling at each other, while the rest focused their eyes on Kite; holding the body in her mouth.  She moved slowly, making sure the eyes of each of the creatures were focused on her. When one seemed to get bolder, ready to attack, she acted, whirling around and tossing the carcass behind her. Squirrel watched in horrified awe as the mob raced by her, seemingly blind to the living molly in face the freshly spilled blood leaving her aunt to sprint the remaining distance towards the barrier, easily tearing through the few remaining monsters that tried to attack her before stepping through the barrier herself. The molly panted for a moment in place, the fur of her chest was stained in red and her maw dripped with blood that wasn’t hers. Her claws held thick tufts of enemy fur, equally blood stained but also filthy, the cream-white of her paws barely visible beneath the dirt.

My drawing tablet is dead, but I have another 20hrs of CSP Mobile and I recently updated A Lesson Learned Pt. 1