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em0zombie · 2 years ago

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the emperor reversed

Onceler X F!reader

MAIN STORY MASTERLIST

(also posted on Wattpad: @-beachboy !)

1. Fresh Start

It was a quiet ride to truffula forest, "Sorry about my mother back there.." Onceler apologized for his mother's actions. You wanted to smack him in the face for apologizing for his mother's behaviors, but you couldn't do that. His mother never liked you either, maybe she was scared of her son getting all successful and you stealing it- like you'd ever steal anything. "It's fine, Isabella needs to grow up and see that we both hold success in our future!" you place an arm around his, right arm up in the air, "Thneeds and Candyality!" He certainly was glad someone had trust in him. "Yeah, exactly!" Onceler responds and you grab both of yours blueprints from the back to look over them.

...

"Are we there yet?" You groan while laying in the back. No response, "Oncie- I asked are we there-" siting up straight you see the view that you're in. All of the trees with pink and orange hues sway in the wind, you couldn't believe your eyes. "They're all, something alright..." your crus- friend speaks aloud. "Yeah!" You get out of the wagon and so does he.

"Good job, Mellie..." you hand the mule a carrot while your friend watches. "Why are you staring at me like that! He needs to be given another treat!" "You're gonna make him gain weight that he doesn't need!" Once yells from the back. You roll your eyes and feed the mule another carrot, he deserves it after having to deal with the two of y'all this whole trip.

...

The house was pulled out and held the two of you perfectly fine, until it came to the bed situation. There was only one.

"It's fine we can share no big deal!" Once said as you tried to hold in your excitement. "Better than when then the bar-bo-loots tried attacking us..." you mumbled while bringing your luggage inside. "Wait what?" Once yelled out, no response. Sighing, you sit on the bed wishing he was right next to you. God that stupid crush of yours was something dumb, you didn't mean to have it- it just happened? Growing up with the guy you saw how tall he was compared to other kids and how he had a kind heart to...some people?

Outside you can hear Once cutting down a tree which means he's starting to make more thneeds. From one of the windows you can see him dragging the tree, damn was he strong. He turned to see you staring at him, sent a smile your way that you returned back. You got off of the bed and took out your plans for your idea, Candyality.

The idea was basically a candy brand; lollipops, marshmallows, chocolate you name it! Your sweet tooth showed which Onceler would crack a joke about sometimes.

As you're going through your plans you heard bickering outside, Oncie and another man? Standing up you start to see a part of the house falling inward which causes you to scream while running out the door.

...

"What the hell was that?" The Lorax asks, Once almost yells at him again. "That was Y/N!" You hear the two yelling at each other from the back and you walk around to see the commotion.

"That damn wall almost fell onto me! Once, I thought you tied the foundation down-" you're cut off by seeing the short orange figure. "Who's this?" You point in confusion, the figure is appalled by finger pointing. "He calls him self the Lorax, he speaks for the trees." Once mocks. You bend over to see the man, "What an interesting species..." "Why didn't you tell me you had your girlfriend in there! I would never hurt a woman!" Lorax points at you, your eyes in shock. "Woah woah woah!" The two of you say in sync, "We're just friends!" Once states placing a hand on your shoulder. You nodded replying yet the Lorax sees otherwise.

"This man right here tried hammering pipsqueak into the ground!" You look at Once with frowned eyebrows, he doesn't like the sense of judgment coming from you. "Woah woah! You tied him to it!" he defends himself, "I would never hit this little guy! You however, I would gladly pound you and your mustache into the ground!" You couldn't help but giggle, he could never hold his temper. "For shame..." Lorax states, the other animals agree with him. "Look here I'm gonna chop as many trees I need to and you can't stop me!" You realized how bad this may start to get, "And replant them to help the forest stay as it is!" You lean onto Once's side, "Yeah!- what?" He replies.

"Yes! If we cut down trees we have to replant the same amount to keep the balance, and cut only a certain amount each time!" The Lorax becomes skeptical of this idea, but at least he keeps his trees. "I've done research and truffula trees only take 10 years to grow compared to any other tree that takes about 20!" Once is confused, "Are you on his side or mine?" he points to the orange man with his hammer. "Both." you state placing a hand on his shoulder with a mocking smile, you walk over to the Lorax.

"Believe me, I'll help replant them, I can see how much they mean to you." He still seems hesitant, crossing his arms you stand up and drag Once inside to have a talk with him.

...

Closing the door as you're about to have serious discussion with him, he yelps. "Oh what is it now? A spider again- Woah!" You turn around to see Lorax on the desk. "You've left me no choice..." he falls onto the ground, "If you do not replant those trees, all the forces of nature will be released upon you!" Once seems scared yet you're just confused. "You have been warned..." finally ending his monologue. You grab the door to open it for him as he struggled. "You have been warned..." closing it you turned back to Once. "Pound him and his mustache into the ground, really?" He places his hands into the air, "What else was I gonna say?!" You let out a small laugh and go over to the fridge, "What do ya' wanna eat?" You ask leaning and grabbing some stuff out.

...

"It was one tree, Y/N," Once sits down on the bed with his food stuffed mouth, "One tree! Not like I'm gonna cause chaos..." That's what you were most worried about, if it all went down hill. "Don't worry, if I'm by your side nothing will go wrong." Sitting by his side you eat some spaghetti, "And if you help me with my project as well!" Giving him a soft punch on the arm he looks back at you, "I'm glad to have someone like you by my side, you keep all of that hope inside of me..." You chuckle and eat, "Okay no need to get all sappy now..".

___________________________________________

Hi! Sorry if this chapter was pretty short, I'm busy with graduation and college stuff right now so yea 💀 I'll make a new chapter soon!! - Val

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asvterias · 5 months ago

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𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝟧: 𝖶𝖾𝗅𝖼𝗈𝗆𝖾 𝖳𝗈 𝖢𝖺𝗆𝗉 𝖧𝖺𝗅𝖿-𝖡𝗅𝗈𝗈𝖽

the cast // series masterlist

chap. 1 || chap. 2 || chap. 3 || chap. 4 || chap. 5 || chap. 6 || chap. 7 || chap. 8

‼️ DISCLAIMERS FOR THIS CHAPTER ‼️

Foreshadowing, Reader is once again pulling bitches 😏, Adrianna and Reader are 100% besties!, Reader kinda being naive, Luke trying to flirt with a lesbian but she’s clueless as hell about it 😭

Bold alone are the Dreams

Italics alone are the Reader’s thoughts.

word count: 5.1k+

author’s note: anyways, i hope you liked this chapter! please don’t be a silent reader and interact within the chapter.

tag list: @s0r0ws @starvviss @kjisbae17 @lov3rgiiirl @starless-nightz @random-girls-loves @coolgirl458

🌊 🐚 ✘ 🔥🗡️

CHAPTER 5, EPISODE TWO

Chiron toured the siblings throughout the outskirts of the camp. “This is a sacred valley. Humans can’t see it, monsters can’t enter it. The world can’t touch it. Great care was taken to bring you two here, and great sacrifice.”

Your eyes traveled to a group of boys, tending to a flower bed, goat legs for humans, the same ones as Grover’s, so they must be the same species.

The three of you ventured into the forest, lantern posts every few feet away, directing the journey. Two owls landed on the tree branches above you, staring down at you as you continued to walk through the forest.

“So, there’s something I gotta tell you. I lost your pen-sword thingy,” Percy remembers.

“Oh, yeah, me too,”

“Hopefully those weren’t your only ones,”

“Check your pocket.”

“No, we lost it the other night, on the hill.”

“Check your pocket,” Chiron repeats.

Sharing a glance with your brother, you two checked your pocket, pulling it an object…the same pen.

“Unless you surrender it, it will always find its way back to you. Magical objects don’t obey the physical laws of the ordinary world. Your pen, my wheelchair, they’re all a part of your father’s world, as are the two of you now.”

“Speaking of our father, do you know where he is or who he is?”

Just like that, someone else dismisses your statement. “I have something to show you,” It was really starting to get annoying at this point. Why couldn’t someone be honest and straightforward at this camp?!

Stopping at a clearing, you observed the scenery ahead of you. It was beautiful, you’d admit that, but this wasn’t a vacation, it was a sanctuary for fellow demigods like you.

“Twelve cabins, for twelve Olympian gods.” He gestured to the specific cabins.

Children walked and ran around the vicinity, an arrow arranged at the front, guiding the different cabins with the gods’ names on them. “Each cabin is home to the children that god has claimed.”

“Great, which ones are we?”

Chiron pauses, looking down as a frown overtook his face. “You have not been claimed, neither of you.”

“What? Do we need to get a blood test or something to find out? It can be done, but my brother gets squeamish at the sight of needles…and blood, but no worries, I’ll hold him down or we can knock him out for a while.” You suggested your insight. “Unlike him, I have self-control,”

“No, no, no, that’s not how it works around here, Y/N,” he chuckles at your thought process.

“Well, when do we get claimed?”

“The gods reveal their design in their own time, not before. Your father might claim you tomorrow, it might be next week, it might be–“

“Never,” You cut him off with an unconvinced yet dejected expression.

“Even now, he still wants nothing to do with us. What are we even doing here? There’s no place for us here.”

“There is a place for you two.” He points to the nearby cabin behind you, “Here…Hermes, gods of travelers.”

“His cabin is home to both his own children and the unclaimed.”

“No, what is needed is for another Hermes cabin to be constructed and built another one.”

Finally walking into the cabin, Chiron looks around at the busy campers. “Everyone. Everyone.”

Percy reaches out to stop Chiron. “Wait– wait a minute.” It was no use, Chiron didn’t hear him.

“Everyone.” He claps his hands together, silencing down their conversations and gaining all their attention. “This is Percy Jackson and Y/N Matthews. I trust you will see to whatever he needs.” He introduced the two siblings.

“I know you feel powerless, but you’re not. All will reveal itself in time.” After that, he left the cabin.

You nudged Percy forward, quickly sauntering over to the two sleeping bags on the floor with your belongings. Sending a hard scowl to everyone who shared a weird glance at your brother, forcefully breaking their eyes off of you two.

Once you approached your belongings on the floor, you groaned in annoyance. Kneeling down on one knee, and opening your bag, you searched for the mini clear bag of seashells your mom gave you a few days ago. You smiled in appreciation, tightening your grip on the object.

“That’s them. I think that’s the girl who killed the Minotaur and her brother.” Your ears perked up at a boy's voice who seemed to be looking your way.

You glared at the boys, dropping your item back in your bag, standing up to your feet, and keeping Percy behind you as the main boy walked up to you.

He was cute, but not your type.

“Listen here, Prince Charming and his goonies, I don’t have the energy for this and neither does my brother. Try again tomorrow, maybe we’ll be prepared for this bullshit of being a bully, got it?”

He had curly black hair, a notable scar on his right cheek, and a toned body.

“Heard what happened to you on the hill. And I just…wanted to say I’m really sorry. I know what you’re going through, believe me.”

Wait a damn minute. He’s good-looking and has a nice personality, oh something’s definitely wrong with him. Either the universe is being too nice or he isn’t what he pretends to be.

You nodded in surprise at his empathy, “Uh, thanks for that, I guess.”

“I’m Luke.” He held his hand out, wanting you to shake it.

“Y/N,” you shook his hand, warningly of the boy’s true intentions.

“Great name.”

“Thanks, you have a basic name.”

He laughs slightly. “So, I’ve been told,”

“My name is Percy, she’s my older sister,”

“Cool, I’m Luke,”

“…I know, I heard you the first time,”

You were sitting at a mini campfire beside Percy in the middle of the desert as the night sky peaked. He watched as the sand slipped between his fingers and you smiled in contentment.

It was the same voice from your previous daydream, coming from a binding light in the far distance. “Ah, he left you two here, left you with nothing. I know how you feel. You want what’s been taken from you. You two want justice…” A sudden sandstorm crawls at your feet, shaking you back into reality and startling you awake from your sleep.

You shoot up from your bed, gasping in heavy breaths as you remember your surroundings. Looking down at your brother, who slept peacefully, you exhaled a breath of relief with your hand resting on your chest.

Your hand rummages through your hair cloth, scratching the braids underneath the fabric.

“You okay?” Luke asks, arising from his bed.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just nightmares.” You breathed out.

“We all have them, you know. Intense, recurring nightmares. That’s normal here. And the daydreams, and the ADHD, and dyslexia.” He explains to you, “Demigods just process reality differently than humans do. For the first time in your life, you’re just like everyone else.”

“Do you also have a sleeping pill to reduce these nightmares or are those nonexistent with decent fashion sense here too?”

“Sorry to say we don’t,” He chuckles, “But there are other ways to cope,”

“Oh, yeah, like what? Take a walk around the camp. Or maybe, a late-night swim should ease it up,” You feigned interest, unwrapping your hair cloth and tossing it in your bag.

“I like you, you’re funny.”

“I’ve been told sarcasm is my greatest quality,” You smiled, getting up out of your sleeping bag, and yawning as you stood up.

“Do you wanna take a walk?”

“Sure, I’ll wake Percy up.” You shuffled over to wake him up but Luke’s calm voice stopped you.

“No. No, perhaps maybe just you and me. You should let your brother get some more sleep.”

You furrowed your eyebrows and shrugged at his explanation, standing upright and retreating back to him.

“Really? What’s there to talk about?”

Before he could admit it, your brother Percy stirred awake, a tired groan escaping his lips.

“Looks like you owe me a walk and talk, later,” You wink at him, giggling slightly as your brother groans again.

“Sure,” he blushes, “I’ll hold you to that.”

Percy stood up, walking over to the two of you, groggily wiping away the exhaustion out of his eyes.

“How’d you guys sleep?”

“Like a baby,” You sarcastically respond.

“Decent enough,”

“So, Luke, are you also…do you not know who your–“

“Am I unclaimed? No, Hermes is my father.”

“That’s good…right?” You gave him a shrug.

“Not as great as you think.”

“Right, sorry, Luke.”

“That doesn’t matter, we’re all on the same team here.” He brushes off the topic of his father.

Are we really though? Your intuition disagrees with the dark-haired boy, but you decide to give him the benefit of the doubt. You just met him anyway, no need for judgment so early.

“Why is that okay? Why do they get to bring us here to just ignore some of us?”

“Spend too much time trying to figure out why the gods do whatever it is they do, you’ll drive yourself crazy. Sooner you stop worrying about that, the sooner you can enjoy what this place actually does offer,”

“And what’s that?” You inquired, fixing your braids.

“Glory,” He tilts his head, glancing at you. Percy noticed the interaction between the two and scrunched in disgust.

You walk ahead of the two, excitedly cheering upon seeing Adrianna by the door.

“Don’t gain a crush on my sister, she isn’t into you like that.”

“What?” He splutters, astonishment written all over his face. “I don’t have a crush on your sister!” He hastily defends the assumption.

“Hmmmm…well whether you do or don’t, a word to the wise, she loves girls, like absolutely loves girls, and completely despises the majority of the male population.”

“Okay…thanks for the heads up,”

“It wasn’t meant to put you at ease, it was meant for you to back off my sister completely.” Percy implied, “So no more weird longing looks at her, or subtle flirting either. She loves girls and is definitely a 100% girl kisser. Stop searching for something that isn’t there, it’ll only affect you here, got it dude?” He insists, raising an eyebrow.

“Totally, got it.”

“Good,” he huffs, “That’s all I wanted to say,”

The two boys catch up as you all walk around to explore the camp. Luke was accompanied by one of his many half-siblings, Chris Rodriguez, and a dear friend, Adrianna Smith who shared the same kindness to the Jackson siblings.

“Demigods have always fought for glory. They used to call it kleos. It’s like this stuff that attaches itself to your name.”

“What if I don’t want any more friends?”

“Then you have me,” He smiles down at you.

“And space,” Percy shoves Luke aside, bringing you closer to him.

“Personal space is very important too and it seems Luke forgot about it. Don’t you worry either, dear sister, I’ll always be here to remind him.”

“Good, I guess,” You agreed, oblivious to his statement.

“At first this place can be really shitty,” Adrianna starts, keeping her arms looped with yours, “But I trust you’re gonna love it..or tolerate it in the end,” the blonde shrugs her shoulders, “It’s really up to you,”

“Stop being such a debbie downer, Adrianna,” Luke rolls his eyes.

“Can’t do that, it’s my passion,”

He continues, “Glory makes you bigger, scarier, more important. People listen closer when you talk, they work harder to be you and they think twice about messing with you.”

All of a sudden, a girl bumps into Percy and exclaims in protest causing the random girl to turn her head, now facing you.

Sparing one glance at the boy, and pushing against his chest, easily shoving him to the ground. Percy lands on the ground with a grunt, as the girl sizes you up, standing beside Chris.

“Give him a break, Clarisse, it’s like his first day,” Luke tells the curly-haired girl.

She briefly looked at Percy and then shifted her gaze onto you.

“Yeah, I bet…” she jeers, cockiness and sarcasm in her tone. “So these are the two newbies, huh?”

Her dark brown eyes flicker from you to Percy, a malicious intent as she smirks. “We’ve met before, right? You’re the same cute clueless girl with the annoying brother I talked to at the infirmary cabin.”

She was nice to you earlier, but now she’s being mean? Probably uses that as a defense mechanism to put her walls up, you could see right through her.

Your face remained stoic, currently incapable of displaying any emotion of gratitude to the girl. This was not the time to approach a bully, much less a self-appointed popular girl at this camp.

You were tired, your body was exhausted and your stomach grumbled in irritation or hunger, possibly even both. This familiar girl bullying your brother wasn’t what you had in store for today, out of all days. Why couldn’t today, out of all days, be peaceful?

You shove her back, using much force to have her stumble back, “What’s your problem?”

Clarisse looks at you in bewilderment and scoffs, “Excuse me?”

“Did I stutter? You bothered my brother first so it’s only fair! Do you feel entitled to bully my brother?”

The curly-haired girl glares at you, stepping up closer, “If I were you, I’d watch my tone when talking to me.”

You step closer to her, “My tone’s staying the same, you got a problem with it, use all that pent-up anger for something good and prove me wrong but if you’re all talk, pipe the fuck down and stay out of my way.”

“Here I was thinking you were nice and quiet, guess I was wrong. So how you doing, clueless?!”

“Fine until I saw you.”

“I doubt that, clueless girl,”

Yeah, you highly doubted that yourself.

“Stop calling me that!”

“No! I like that nickname for you so I’m keeping it!” Taking two firm steps closer to you, she looks you up and down, “If you want me to stop, then make me, Matthews.”

“Another time, I suppose.”

“No, no, no! Do it now, Matthews, unless you’re too much of a pussy to put me back in my place,” She got closer to your face, noses touching and lips barely hovering over the other.

“Well, you are what you eat.” You retorted back, “Does that apply to you too, LaRue?”

She scoffs, ignoring your remark.

“Never in a million years would I ever kiss you.”

“I never specified which girl you would kiss. Which meant I was on your mind for you to be thinking of kissing me.” You teased her. “Never say never, LaRue,”

Her eyes flickered briefly towards your lips, she looked flustered, immediately covering up her blush. She nods her head, feigning to be understanding, and distances herself a few inches away. Considering her impressed by your assertive tone she changed the subject almost immediately.

“Wait, so you’re the siblings who killed the Minotaur, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Hmmm…I don’t believe it.”

“We’re not asking you to nor do we really care if you believe us, it already happened, we have the proof as well.”

Clarisse partially smiles, eyes trailing down your figure, checking you out as she clicks her tongue, “I like you, you’re quite bitchy, just my type.”

“I’m surprised you’re capable of having a crush on someone,”

“Me too,” she confidently admits, “But I guess someone might change that.”

“Keep on dreaming La Rue.” You scoffed at her flirty remarks.

“You never know, pretty girl.” the nickname rolls off her tongue smoothly.

You hate to admit how sultry her voice was, hanging off that nickname made you flustered. And with that, Clarisse and her posse of half-siblings left as Percy got up from the forest ground.

“Wow, no one’s really stood up to Clarisse like that before,” Luke admits, blowing out a breath of surprise.

“She seems nice.”

“I’m taking it that she’s this camp’s bully.”

“Ares kids, they come by it honestly.”

“She’s not gonna let you live this down,” Chris informs you, observing how your eyes still follow Clarisse’s figure.

“Yeah, I know,” you glance at Clarisse walking off in the distance and drift your attention to your younger brother, “But no one bullies my brother, that’s my job.” you ruffle with Percy’s blonde hair as he rolls his eyes at you.

“Haha, very funny…” Percy sarcastically replies, swatting your head away from his head.

“You’re right, I am the funnier sibling.”

“Says who?”

“Says you. You just said it!”

Luke chuckles at your sibling banter, “C’mon guys, let’s finish the tour.”

“Why don’t they mess with you?”

“They know better.”

“Luke’s the strongest swordsman at camp,” Chris boasts.

“To which I still doubt to this very day,” Adrianna interjects.

“How would you know, you’re always in your father’s workshop all the time,”

“So they leave you alone because of ‘glory’?” Luke nods his head, allowing Percy to continue, “So if I get glory, Clarisse wouldn’t mess with me either,”

“Exactly.”

“And people think I’m a big deal?”

“Well…” Adrianna trails off, “They think Y/N is a big deal, considering she actually killed the Minotaur, but it’s good to have hope.”

“So that means, our dad has no choice but to claim us,” he assumes, looking at you.

Luke and Adrianna shared a skeptical glance.

“Listen here, little dude, you can’t force the gods to do anything,” The blonde girl advised.

“Well yeah, but it would make it harder for him to pretend that me and my sister don’t exist, right?”

“Or our dad could be really great at ignoring his biggest responsibilities and many years of child support.” You commented.

“Maybe,” Luke squints his eyes.

“To which one?”

“To which one what?”

“Were you responding to me or Percy?”

“Umm…” he blew a breath of uncertainty, “I don’t…Adri knows who I was referring to…”

“Firstly, Adri is reserved for Y/N only, not anyone else. Secondly, yeah dude you weren’t being specific,” Adrianna adds.

“Traitor,” Luke scoffs playfully.

“I think that’s you!” Adrianna remarked.

You saw him tense up at the remark and your curiosity got the better of you. Why did he tense up like that? Is there more to the story Luke is letting on? Does he truly seek good intentions for you and your brother, Percy?

It took him a while to finally answer the question.

“Maybe for both,”

“And the world may never know,”

“Great, right back where we started,” You sighed.

“Nevermind, Luke, guys.” Chris clears his throat, sending the awkward atmosphere, “Let’s put your skills to the test, see if you’re really deserving of glory,”

“Well, great. Where do we start?” Your little brother’s eagerness was clear as day.

You can never figure out if Percy’s pessimistic or optimistic, however, you were a more ‘go with the flow’ kinda of girl.

You witnessed the girl in the wheelchair, using a bow and flaming arrow, aiming her weapon at the practice target, smiling when it landed the bullseye.

“A good source of glory are feats of skill,” Luke states, handing you a bow and arrow. “So, we gotta figure out what you’re good at.”

“Well, I don’t have it anymore, guess my glory was fun while it lasted,” You shrugged, turning to walk away, patting Luke’s chest, “I’ll see you around,”

Luke reached out his hand to grab you but Percy’s unimpressed gaze stopped him. Percy shoots him that ‘Don’t even think about it!’ stare. Adrianna found it funny how oblivious you were to this current situation and relished the boys’ tactics. So to taunt Luke even further, she grabs hold of your hand, smirking when you accept the kind gesture.

Adrianna tugs on your arm, dragging you back to her, “It doesn’t hurt to try,”

“It may hurt for the bystanders,”

“Stop being such a worry wart, it promotes wrinkles and you can’t have that on a pretty face.”

“You think I have a pretty face?”

“How could I not?!”

“I do have a pretty face, don’t I?”

“Dare I say the most gorgeous one at this camp,” She winks.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, Adri,” you playfully reprimand.

“I’m quite certain I can handle things firsthand, I’m a hands-on learner,”

“Oh really?”

“Wanna find out?” She checks you out. You’d be lying right now if your cheeks weren’t so flustered, and tiny butterflies didn’t erupt in your stomach.

Luckily, your brown skin diminished any sight of blushing, only others to assume, just the way you’d prefer it to be. For others to be unsuspecting and unaware.

This was how best friends act all the time anyway so you played along, just for the fun of it.

“Are we here to flirt or are we here to train?!”

“I can do both at the same time,” Adrianna tilts her head at the Castellan boy, enjoying his torment to the fullest, much to his dismay. She glanced at you, a smirk appearing, “How, Y/N, what about you?”

“I’ll need some practice,”

“And I’ll be happy to teach you,” She smugly states, moving closer to you, and settling beside the wheelchair girl.

You shuffled with the bow in your hand, feeling uneasy with the weapon placed in your care. Adrianna hands you an arrow, and the wheelchair girl lights up the tip of the arrow with a generic gas lighter.

“Is this safe?”

“Probably not,” The girl shrugs.

“So you decide to put us all at risk because of your uncertainty?” You asked incredulously, “Oh I’m loving this camp!” You stepped closer to the target, aiming your weapon at the target, closing one eye for better perception, pulling back the arrow, and releasing it toward the target. You held your breath, watching the arrow hurl towards the target, smiling when it landed, missing the bullseyes by a few inches.

“Told you that you’ll love it!”

“Not bad for your first try,”

“Told you,” Adrianna grins.

“Your turn, Percy!” You shoved the two-pieced weapon in his arms.

“I wanna be very clear about this. I’ve never done anything like this, and it looks super dangerous.”

“Ehh and you and Y/N never double-teamed killing a Minotaur before either, ‘til you did,”

“Y/N did all the work,” Percy mumbles, “Why does everyone keep forgetting that?”

The girl moved to light the tip of the arrow on fire, but he pulled away, “I wouldn’t,” He warned the girl.

“Trust me, he wouldn’t,” You stared at the girl who chuckled in your direction, backing away from Percy a bit.

He stepped forward, fixing his posture on the arrow, stretching the arrow back, and releasing it into the air. Too bad his aim was horrible making it fly over to the group of spectator campers. Scaring everyone else, they ducked down, trying to dodge the flying arrow and Percy tripped onto the grass himself.

Your brother blinked once, staring at the distressed faces of the campers, and hesitantly asked; “Should I try again?”

There were many clamors of disagreements after that, earning boisterous laughs from you and Adrianna. Obviously, Percy is now a safety hazard towards bows and arrows, so hopefully he will become more resourceful with another weapon soon.

Next, you two ended up in the camp’s workshop, bustling with sweating eager kids rushing around to create variations of weapons for later use.

“Now we’re in my domain,” Adrianna laughs, ushering you and Percy to wear aprons, gloves, and safety glasses.

“I’ll handle Y/N, Luke you got Percy,”

Luke agreed, disappearing further into the workshop with Percy.

“So your godly parent is…”

“Hephaestus, god of forgery. None of those titles matter anyway if you’re just gonna be a shit dad to your children.” She mutters, eyes lingering on the ground. You could hear the hurt in her voice as she strained to maintain an emotionless tone.

“Adri…” You longed to comfort your friend but refrained from doing so.

“Don’t know why I said that, but continue.”

“Adri…”

She hums, encouraging you to continue.

“Everything isn’t okay, you can tell me anything. I know we just met but–“

“Maybe another time,”

“Whenever you feel comfortable,” You rubbed a hand over her shoulder.

“Great, now back to figuring out your skills.” She points to the inflamed metal.

“I don’t deal with melting shit of any kind, I’m barely even trusted to cook on the stove by myself,”

“Relax, Y/N. Just follow after me,”

You place the safety glasses over your eyes, grabbing the hammer. The melted metal was already in place as you repeatedly hit the hammer against it, hoping to mold the heated metal. It was going well for a while, until you lost control and the heated piece of steel flew across the air, landing on heaps of bags.

Your eyes widened when those bags caught on fire and Adrianna grabbed your hand, pulling you away from the disaster.

That was an epic fail!

Apparently, when you reunited with Luke and Percy, the same occurrence happened with your brother. Now some Hephaestus’ kids were currently disposing of fires, accidentally created by the two siblings.

Great minds think alike, you guessed.

“When’s lunch, I’m starving,”

Chris laughed at your question.

“What’s so funny about that? I was serious.” You deadpanned, glaring at him. “I never joke about food, keep that in mind.”

His laughs came to a halt at your seriousness as he cleared his throat, dismissing the slight embarrassment he felt.

“Oh, I love you already, I don’t fuck about my food either,” Adrianna laughs, skipping over to wrap an arm around your shoulder. “C’mon let’s ditch the boys, I have a hoard of snacks to keep you occupied until lunch,”

You giggled at her suggestion, instantly agreeing, allowing her to drag you away to her cabin.

“Seems like Y/N and Adrianna are getting along pretty well,” Chris comments.

“Yep, that’s good.” Percy smiles in recognition, pleased to see you content and not in a gloomy depressed state, troubled by your losses.

He knows you’re burying the pain and suffering, at least for his sake. Regardless if you were putting on a mask to protect him, your brother was highly aware that certainly, you admired having a friend of your own and the happiness it came with.

The siblings meet up at the dining pavilion, Percy sits in between you and Adrianna with Luke and Chris across from them.

“Is there a Greek god of disappointment?” Percy asks, letting his question linger in the air before resuming, “Maybe someone should ask him if he’s missing a kid.”

“I think they should, you know,”

Percy turns to you, “Oh, gee, dear sister, you sure know how to brighten my mood,” He sarcastically replies.

“I know,” You giggle, ��You’re blessed to have me, all of you are, but my future girlfriend will be the most blessed to be dating me,”

“No doubt about it.” Adrianna winks.

“Are you two flirting?” Percy squints his eyes.

“Yes, but in a platonic way,”

Luke attempted to encourage the blonde boy, but Chirs beat him to it as he stared at his brother in confusion.

“Oizys…but she’s a goddess, and her whole thing isn’t really a disappointment, it’s more like a failure,” Chris stated blankly, playing with his food, obviously not reading the room.

“Now I know who never comes to me when I need consolation,” you shake your head, chewing your food.

His brother, Luke blinked incredulously, rolling his eyes at him, and turned to Percy.

“We’re gonna find the thing that you’re good at. I know it.” He reassures the blonde boy.

“Yeah, but do you… like truly? Don’t give him false hope,” You reinstated.

A chiming bell cuts the conversation short, confusing you and Percy.

“Our turn.”

“Our turn for what?”

“Burnt offerings,”

“The gods like the smell, so it gets their attention before you say a prayer,” Luke confirms.

“They like the smell of burnt mac and cheese?”

“You telling me that I must waste my blessed food on deadbeat immortal gods?! Nah, fuck that, Imma eat every ounce of my food. What did those gods do to earn my leftovers, nothing at all,” You exclaimed, raising an eyebrow.

“They like the smell of begging,” Adrianna includes, standing up with her plate.

“That’s believable, but it’s not worth the sacrifice of my food, it’s too precious,” You defended your food, “And also…I ate everything from my plate,” You trailed off, staring down at your empty plate.

“It’s fine, I’ll share with you,” Adrianna suggested.

“You’ll burn what you’ll miss the most, then they know you really mean what you’re about to say, so they listen.” Luke finishes, leaving with his plate alongside Adrianna.

Later that night, you headed to bed early, exhaustion deep in your bones. Adrianna had spent the entire day with you, departing from you with a comforting hug, and going to her own cabin.

You felt Percy shuffled against his sleeping bag, causing you to groan and stir slowly awake.

“Where do you think you’re going?” You whispered to him, rubbing out the tiredness away from your eyes with concern written all over your face.

“Just gonna talk to my mom,” he clarifies, holding his bag of blue candies in the air.

“Do you want me to come with you?” You began to remove your blanket.

“No, no, I’ll be fine, stay here.”

“Be safe,” you whispered to him with a small grin.

“I will,” he reassures you with a small smile and he snuck out past the many campers in the cabin.

Reassured by his disappearance, you laid back in your bed, snuggling into the cover sheets as sleep peacefully claimed you once again.

Day 1 at Camp Half-Blood seemed to be decent at least.

likes, comments, and reblogs are highly appreciated!

#her pretty girl series #clarisse la rue series #dior goodjohn #dior goodjohn x reader #clarisse la rue #clarisse la rue x reader #clarisse la rue x fem!reader #clarisse la rue x black!reader #clarisse la rue x black!fem!reader #daughter of poseidon

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swollenbabyfat · 4 months ago

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Could you tell us more about bloody Dia? I know in her MLP version she mentions she cannibalized a corpse. Is something like that the case in her story? Is she just a carnivorous unicorn? Interested lol.

I guess I’ve never really like done a encompassing lore post about Dia so I will here.

Unicorns are an ancient species that held a powerful place in the magic world. In their world it was customary to cannibalize one another during a holy day once a century, in which they would be able to regenerate and in their eyes, keep their powers close. However many began hunting each other outside of this day in the pursuit of power and therefor ending the lives of many unicorn, to the point of extinction.

Long after the general population has begun to think of unicorns as myth, Dia is found by a wizard on the brink of death. The wizard, skilled enough to heal her but not powerful enough to preform it on a creature so great, changes her form to something more human. After hiding her away until she can awaken, they are never seen again.

Dia awakens with no memory of her past and little idea of what she is. She stumbles around the forest, close to death, before a lord on a hunting trip captures her. Deeming her to valuable to kill, he decides to keep her as a living trophy, and brings her back to his home.

His wife shows her kindness she feels like she’s never experienced, they fall in love secretly and try to find a solution to her diet over many years, as their are no other unicorns to preform the proper rituals with. She is on a strict diet of raw venison in the meantime, which sustains her enough, but she is rather frail on top of already having lupus.

Getting tired of his overbearing cruelty towards everyone in her life, Dia discreetly murders the lord of the castle and her now wife, Laverne , inherits everything. With more efforts being put towards finding solutions for Dia’s appetite, they finally land on her eating a piece of her own liver once a year, as it’s able to regenerate.

Dia and Laverne spend happy years together until Laverne’s death in her 60’s. Dia leaves the estate and wonders for a decade, eventually Seraphim, her friend and caretaker and Laverne’s previous guard, picks her up and they move to a city.

Dia spends the next century mourning and trying to uncover more unicorn history.

Currently, she is a depressed neet who feels lost in many ways.

#Dia #cramoisie #ask #cannibalism mention #violence mention #faq

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aceptical · 5 months ago

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Honestly I would love a Splatoon game geared at a 13+ / older audience- or even one still aimed at the same audience that really addresses the topics it brings up.

Splatoon covers darker / more mature topics. Child soldiers shooting each other, invading the land of another species for profit, suppressing another species for over a literal century, how extreme fame affects people, being ostracized / “found out” for being different, being terrified of change, etc. but it never really covers them.

They are there: especially when you look into things like the sunken scrolls or resources outside of the game, but that’s kind of it. And that’s fine!! You don’t have to address them more obviously if you don’t want to. It’s a kids game first and foremost (and even if that isn’t really a great excuse, whatever).

But I would love a game that delves more into these topics, or just getting into these characters heads more. Using outside information and reasoning stuff, we can analyze basically every character well, but we never really see any confirmation in the game for most of it. We know from the relationship chart and the squid sisters stories and whatnot that Callie willingly went to the Octarians, likely due to the pressure of fame and being on her own, but this is never really explored in the game which sucks because there’s so much potential there! Comments on how fame affects people, escapism, and Callie’s, essentially inability, to be alone (since she’s able to step back into the spotlight again once she has Marie with her, both with the squid sisters performances obv but also the news/map announcement thing). And I get that that’s not the story they were trying to tell, but it would be so nice to have a game that delves into this stuff rather than leaving it off to the side where most of the playerbase probably doesn’t know about it.

Splatoon has a really big problem with exploring character’s darker parts of them / adding complexity to characters. Take Callie again: hypnosis cannot make you do anything that you don’t want to do, so hypno Callie’s personality was still Callie, just those darker parts. And that’s just- kind of ignored, past a few one liners (deep cut’s introduction scene.) Then the same exact thing happens with Marina, except we don’t even get to delve into it as much because it is literal brainwashing or mind control or something where she very obviously has her free will taken away. Which sucks!! Because it would have been so interesting to delve into that desperation that comes with wanting things to stay the same, unintentionally hurting the people you’re trying to help / protect, all of that kind of stuff, and then it’s just shrugged off for the rest of the DLC. Which, again, it’s fine that they didn’t want to tell that story: but it’s still missed potential regarding Marina.

This even affects antagonists, too: mainly Octavio. This is kind of remedied by him helping us in Splatoon 3, but it’s never really explored. He does what he does to help his people because they are literally dying from a lack of resources + power. I like the fact that the Splatoon 1 story doesn’t address this, but it could have been really interesting to see- even just a bit of this- in Splatoon 2, especially since it’s the introduction of giving the player that mentality shift from “Inklings good Octolings bad” to “Well, it’s more complicated than that.” This one is explored in the sunken scrolls a bit, but it would be nice to get a little something more regarding Octavio’s motivations (beyond just steal the Zapfish to help his people)

I really hope that, come Splatoon 4, whichever characters it focuses on (since the inkling / octoling conflict is over at this point), it really focuses on: give us more of their flaws, that complexity, and do it in game instead of through easily ignorable twitter posts.

#Splatoon #text post #ramblings #dj octavio #callie cuttlefish #callie splatoon #marina ida #marina splatoon #this got much longer than I was expecting tbh #i’m bad at words i’m sorry #so sorry if this doesn’t make any sense lmao

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piko-power · 9 months ago

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It wasn't until the Knuckles Series trailer when I realized how much I love Sonic and Knuckles' dynamic.

Honestly, I'm just excited to see these two interact. I know the show's probably not gonna focus more on these two and more on Knuckles and Wade, but them interacting is something I NEED.

Especially since this is after Sonic 2 and they've become (brothers) friends after their confrontation and after Sonic finds out that what Knuckles been through as a child is the same as what Sonic himself went through.

I just wanted to talk about Sonic and Knuckles' growth in their friendship and in themselves and how it makes me feel at the moment because their relationship and brotherhood is gonna drive me crazy and I need to tell EVERYTHING.

Everything will be under the cut since it's gonna be one hell of a ramble post. (btw if you tag this as ship I'll sell your kneecaps to the dark web)

At the beginning of the movie, Sonic suddenly got a visit from his worst enemy that he thought was banished to the dreaded Mushroom hellscape. He didn't expect him to bring any company, however.

An Echidna. The same species who nearly took Sonic's life and took Longclaw's.

Sonic only knew these Echidna best from the day where he lost everything. He couldn't save Longclaw in time from the Echidna tribe. He did blame himself, but deep down he was also mad at the Echidna.

So it was understandable that Sonic wouldn't be so pleased to see an Echidna in his house.

It's one thing if Robotnik came back, but a random Echidna who swore to destroy Sonic at any cost? Sonic ain't having none of that.

The Echidna took away something dear to him once, he won't let it happen again.

There's just one problem: Knuckles is WAY too strong for Sonic. He may have the speed, but he didn't have the punches like Knuckles.

Clearly it was quite a terrifying moment for Sonic. He couldn't fight back against the Echidna and he even knew about Longclaw.

From his POV, it was all shocking. Of course later on in the movie, he finds out that the Owls and Echidna were at war for the longest time over the Master Emerald.

So it's no wonder that Knuckles is after Sonic, who was raised by Longclaw.

So the fact that Sonic and Knuckles thought they were both bad guys is actually pretty messed up, since the Owls were the bad guys to the Echidna as well, so Knuckles thought that Sonic was the bad guy too.

MAN-

And after learning more about the Master Emerald, it was Sonic (and Tails') mission to make sure the Emerald is safe and make sure Robotnik BUT ESPECIALLY KNUCKLES don't get their hands on it.

Everything about Knuckles is a mystery to Sonic. He doesn't know a lot about him. All he knows is that he's after a giant gemstone full of ultimate power.

The power to turn thoughts into reality.

And since Sonic knows that Echidna only want power to themselves and other selfish needs, at least according to him, he knew Knuckles has to be stopped. Robotnik included, but now there is a new threat.

A threat Sonic wished would never come back to his life.

Meanwhile with Knuckles himself...

Knuckles never really thought about sticking around with Robotnik. He only needed his help to find the hedgehog. But after overhearing about ultimate power, Robotnik insists to join Knuckles on his journey.

Knuckles doesn't know a lot about Robotnik and was a first skeptical, but he seemed to be trustworthy. If he wanted to help Knuckles restore power to his people, then he would have to believe that maybe forming an alliance with this man won't be so bad.

After all,

When was the last time Knuckles had a friend? When was the last time Knuckles trusted someone? When was the last time someone liked him, or looked after him?

After what happened to his people?

The closest family member he had was his father, who he and his tribe never came back after their battle. Knuckles was left there, waiting for them to come back.

It eventually dawned on him that they'll never come back.

For the longest time, he went off on his own to find this hedgehog, for vengeance. And to find the Master Emerald in time before he does. (I think he believed he was searching for the Emerald as well.)

Throughout his journey in the galaxy, he came across some trouble along the way. Some scavengers straight up take him away and put him in a Rise of the TMNT ass arena. (You know the one I'm talking about. 😉)

Apparently word goes around about how Echidna are, and Knuckles didn't like this at all. (He won against the beast in case you're curious.)

He did gain some assistance on helping him find the hedgehog, but he wouldn't call them his friends. They are only there to help him without a choice after all.

What caught his and the scavengers' attention was the energy surge that spread through the galaxy from this planet invested with mushrooms.

The first thing he finds is this bald man with weird clothes and a blue quill that looked awfully familiar. This man knows where the hedgehog is and where to find him.

For a while, Knuckles been on his adventure alone after loosing his family. He thought he was better off alone on his journey, but after meeting Robotnik, he never knew that he would befriend this man.

He seems to be smart and makes all kinds of machines, and even has a goat milker. (The king of Bi Men, Agent Stone) If Robotnik can help him find the hedgehog, and the Master Emerald, then Knuckles is fine with being friends with this man.

He never had a friend before, he only had a father. A friend sounds nice. Who wouldn't be friends with Robotnik?

Sonic and Knuckles' view of each other shifted slightly during this scene, in Siberia.

Knuckles is tired of Sonic messing around, saying that he knows nothing about him. All Sonic knows is that his tribe is most famous for ruining his life. (Ouch)

Knuckles didn't take that kindly, stating that he lost everything because of you. His people, his father.

The reason why Knuckles' journey is important to him right now, was his father's last words to him:

"Your moment to honor our tribe will come, but it was not this moment."

Hmmm... That's sound really familiar...

Wait a minute...

WAIT A MINUTE...

"There will come a time where your powers will be needed... But you don't choose that moment. That moment chooses you."

Tom Wachowski said that. Sonic's father.

Those words were similar to what Knuckles' father told him... before he died.

Sonic really didn't know Knuckles. At all.

Yes, what Knuckles is doing is pretty bad. He still assume that Knuckles is gonna use the Emerald for something awful.

But after hearing Knuckles' story on what happened to his people and his father... After what happened to all those Echidna and Longclaw... After figuring out that him and Knuckles' trauma share similarities... After figuring out that they both lost something so important to them...

Sonic just felt... devastated. (The second image even looked like he's on the verge of tears finding out this information. 🥺)

He had zero clue Knuckles went through all that, and just trash talked his tribe right there. Hearing his story just... broke his heart.

He, too, lost everything that day. They both lost everything that day.

Knuckles didn't have to hunt down Sonic because of all that but he did, because since he was technically on the Owl's side, Sonic was also "responsible" for the demise of his tribe.

Knowing that Knuckles believes this just hurts Sonic more. To make things worse, Tails attacked at the wrong time, giving Knuckles the belief that Sonic was tricking him.

At this point of the fight, I believe Sonic doesn't want to fight this guy. Yes, he's on Robotnik's side, but he wished he wasn't.

He knows Robotnik and Knuckles doesn't. Robotnik might mess with the Echidna and just make things worse for him. If he is his ally, the first one he had maybe, then it won't be pretty if Robotnik does something stupid.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens next.

The next time they meet was in the Labyrinth, right where the Master Emerald is. Knuckles is done with Sonic's crap, and Sonic is going to stop him.

Sonic really didn't wanted to fight him anymore, and just wanted him and Robotnik to leave the Master Emerald...

But he's not given much choice.

A big fight broke off between two powerful critters over the Emerald, meanwhile Robotnik sneaks off to get the Master Emerald into his grasp.

Thankfully, before things got messy, Sonic pointed out that Robotnik was stealing the Emerald, and this infuriates Knuckles.

This man. This deceiving man, wished to join his side to take out the hedgehog just to take the Emerald for himself.

Robotnik himself even mocked at the fact that Knuckles believed that he and Robotnik were friends. The first friend he ever had, and he straight up betrayed him.

And just like that, he takes the Emerald and leaves. (or Chaos Controlled I think...?)

The place begins to flood and Knuckles gets trapped underwater. Sonic, not okay with the fact he has to go in the water, AGAIN, jumps in anyways to save him.

He cannot let this guy drown. He went through too much crap and he can't let this happen to him. He doesn't care that they fought, he wanted to save him.

Eventually he did, but...

Sonic couldn't swim. He tried to reach out for Knuckles who was getting further and further away from him. He nearly drowned but at the right moment, Knuckles came back down to save him.

They both have a moment together on the beach, throwing sand at each other. XD

Knuckles was confused on why Sonic saved him, despite the fact he tried to destroy him. He says that being a hero isn't about taking care of yourself, instead it's about taking responsibility for other people. Words from his own father.

While Tails was on his way to save Sonic, Knuckles mentions how he and Sonic lost everything and wonders how despite that and failing, how did he kept going?

Simple. He found a new family. New friends. And he can too.

Learning about Knuckles' childhood, and knowing what he been through, and witnessing Robotnik's betrayal to him, it's clear that he need to do something for Knuckles.

He knows that Knuckles isn't the bad guy, he was just used for Robotnik's deeds. Knuckles only wanted what was best for him and his people.

But Sonic knows now what Knuckles really needs.

A family.

Knuckles lost his and so did Sonic. He doesn't want Knuckles to be alone again. He's been alone for too long just like Sonic. He offers Knuckles to join him on his adventure.

But he also wanted him to join his family.

Knuckles is quite surprised about the offer. It's understandable.

All they've been doing whenever they meet is fight, but after learning about themselves, after a small quiet talk with each other, Sonic just...

Smiles and offers his hand. He doesn't want him to be alone anymore.

Knuckles just looks at him. It look liked he was unsure about the offer for a split second. But he's thinking about it, as Sonic smiled at him.

After everything they've done to each other, Sonic is willing to help him out and give him everything he truly needed without even knowing what he truly needed.

Sonic, according to Knuckles, is a strange hedgehog, but has a heart of gold. He seems to be strong too after all this time. He lost everything, but he never gave up. Not even once, even when things get tough.

He gained a new family because of that.

Knuckles respects that. Mentally anyway.

It will take some time to process and adjust everything, but if what Sonic's saying is true, about not being alone anymore...

Then Knuckles believes him.

After taking the offer, a lot happened afterwards.

Him and Sonic and Tails fight against a giant Eggman Mech.

He gave Robotnik a taste of his medicine and retrieve the Master Emerald before him and Tails fall to the ground.

He and Tails witnessed Tom, Maddie and Sonic getting crushed by Robotnik, before seeing that Sonic absorbed the power of the Emeralds.

Tries to protect Tom and Maddie from a possible corrupted Sonic, but then gets slapped by a chili dog.

He and his newfound friends made a vow to protect the Master Emerald.

And plays baseball for the first time with his friends and goes out for victory ice cream.

It's safe to say that Sonic and Knuckles' friendship means a lot to me than I thought. With the Knuckles series coming out, I am excited to see what will happen between them.

It's clear that it will be just older and younger brother shenanigans and I am all here for it.

I love their dynamic a lot, but now I'm a little obsessed with them at the moment. Their origins and their differences and how they grew together is really special to me.

I love Sonic and Tails' dynamic but Sonic and Knuckles' is something I never really thought of a lot until now.

Every time I watch Sonic 2, I just feel so happy for Knuckles now that he's got friends and family who love him and look out for him.

In fact, after watching Sonic 2 for the first time, almost two years ago, I loved Knuckles a lot. I used to think he was a fine character. I enjoy his character, but after watching the movie, he became one of my top 10 favorite characters.

I love him so much and I cannot wait to see more of my favorite version of Knuckles, and more of Sonic and Knuckles' interactions.

#piko rambles #sonic wachowski #miles tails wachowski #knuckles wachowski #movie robotnik #sonic movie 2020 #sonic movie 2 #knuckles series

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friendly-alien-fucker · 2 years ago

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A Fire Which You Can't Put Out (1/?)

Warnings: NSFW, mentions of blood, roughhousing turns into gentle meaningful sex, non-conish, Yautja in heat, angst, this post is an emotional trainwreck, Mating season isn't as easy as it sounds, may not be canonically accurate

Pairing: Yautja x gender neutral! reader

_______________________________

"Love" you called out, standing waiting outside their door. "Please, let me in."

There was quiet as your pleas were ignored once again. They didn't usually act this way.

Usually, they left their door unlocked so you could get in whenever you wanted. They knew how much you liked their giant bed, how you loved to go over the rough textures of their trophies with your hand and arrange them by size and species. So your worry was understandable when they locked themself up, not responding to any of your calls, no matter how desperate they got.

You shook your head. They hadn't even told you when they'd come home.

In fact, you only noticed once you'd made food for the two of you and went to bring theirs into their room and the door wouldn't open. You'd heard a whimper then. Painful, like a wounded animal, and not at all like your mate. And yet the low growl that followed seconds after told you that it was.

You'd tried prying their door open, guessing the access code, tried convincing them to come out on their own with sweet promises of love and comfort, but nothing worked. They simply stayed quiet. And your worry grew.

Defeated, you finally backed away from their door after the tenth attempt to get them to answer. Perhaps they simply needed some alone time. You sighed.

"It's late, I should go to bed now. If...if there's any way I can help you, please... let me know." you waited a few seconds, hoping for any indication that they had heard you, or that they were still alive, anything. But as none came, you swallowed the lump in your throat and turned around "...I love you."

And after you left, the ship went quiet once again.

You had begun going about your business as usual, cleaning and showering and making yourself dinner. And with each task the strings of your heart tried pulling you to their room again, your brain yelling at you- just to check up on them. Just to see if they need me now. Just for a second.

But you tried to forget your pain and went to bed without them in your arms, almost letting a tear escape your eye as you put the blanket over you. Usually, you never had to use it. Their body was so warm that it was almost completely decorative. But now, you were so so cold.

You put it over your body completely, curling up fetal position and tried to even your breath. Maybe you'd wake up and see that they had joined you while you slept. The thought brought a little peace to your aching heart, and you closed your eyes. But the second you entered a dreaming state, you suddenly heard a loud crash.

Eyes still closed, you almost fell as you instinctively bolted out of bed. You felt your way around, moving along the familiar walls until you reached the hall your mate's room was located in.

And as your eyes adjusted to the darkness, you saw that it wasn't so dark after all. The light in their room was on and, most importantly, their door was open.

Without thinking, you ran towards it, almost tripping over something in the dark, but catching yourself before you hit the ground. You looked behind you in confusion. There should be nothing in this hall for you to trip over, so why?

But as a hand weakly grabbed at your ankle, realization hit you, and you instantly turned around to embrace the towering body that was laying on the floor.

"thank God, you're here!" you let your body drop on theirs and threw your arms around their neck. "Why are you on the ground? Are you alright? Do you need something, anything? Did you hurt yourself?"

But your worried babbling got cut off by the sudden sound of whining. Their voice distorted and shaking as they kept reverting to their own language, moaning a mixture of "please" and "can't wait"

It was such a strange sound, you almost couldn't believe it was coming from your mate. But as they continued and you could feel the vibrating of their chest below you, there was no way to deny it. You leaned back to get a better look and what you saw disturbed you deeply.

Their eyes, they were fixated on you completely. And they were oh so very.... desperate. Like they were asking for something, something only you could give them. Almost like a puppy, but way less innocent.

Like they were in pain, but as you trailed your hands gently over their body, you couldn't find a single scratch on them. You furrowed your brows as you felt them shiver against your fingertips.

Their chest heaved shakily against your body and their breath formed a slight fog in the air. It made you realize just how cold it was here. Had they lowered the temperature? But Yautja disliked the cold, didn't they?

You felt along their neck to discover their body didn't seem phased by the cold at all, instead it was practically burning. They leaned into your touch, purring louder than you knew they were capable of.

Their hips slowly but roughly grinded up against yours and you put a hand over your mouth to keep yourself from reacting. Something was very wrong here. You tried to push yourself up from their lap, wanting to search up on this behavior, try to find a way to help them, but they dug their fingernails into the flesh of your thighs to keep you in place, not flinching when you hissed in pain.

"y-you're hurting me" you breathed out, but they held you tighter, blood forming at your new wounds. "Let me go, you're hurting me!" you yelled now, only stopping as you got cut off by their own plea for release.

"you're - you're hurting me" they croaked weakly, imitating you before letting their hands drop from your body and to the ground with a loud thud.

You shuffled away from them to run your fingers over your legs and the sensitive wounds that were now coloring your pants a deep red. They...had never hurt you before. You looked up to find not regret or fear in their eyes but determination.

Like suddenly you were prey, bound and gagged in front of a predator ten times your strength, with no means to fight or escape. Like your fate was already sealed. And with a poorly repressed whimper, you became eerily aware of the small skulls decorating their hips.

You're going to join them soon the voice in your head commented drily this is what you get for mating a monster

You almost slapped yourself as soon as the thought entered your mind. They weren't a monster, you knew this better than anyone. You had braided flowers into their dreadlocks not too long ago, watched them try to make a flower crown with their big hands and being impossibly proud when they finished making one- you'd seen them weep over their fallen comrades, saw them swell with pride at their brother's younglings.

But as their hands shot forward, gentle hands now nothing but big razor sharp claws to you, and they took hold of your arms before you could even realize what was happening, it became harder and harder to convince yourself. And the cold of the ship's floor pressed against your back as they towered above you was making you all the more aware of your situation.

It was quiet for a few seconds. But not the kind of quiet you had come to find comfort in, the kind of quiet the dark emptiness of space offered, the eternal peace that the stars brought with them- but the quiet in which you were being suffocated by your own breathing. By your heartbeat. By the sweat running down your temple and mixing together with your tears on the ground.

It was a sort of tension you had only known of a battlefield, right before someone strikes. The few seconds between life and death, the moment history is written, the moment fate picks up her golden feather. And the more seconds passed, the surer you were that you needed to act if you were to survive this.

Consciously shoving your fear together with your common sense into the back of your mind and allowing instict to take complete hold of you, you lurched forward. Your canines were meant for tearing meat, but you'd always fancied yourself a vegan. Still, the green seeping from your mouth made sure you'd never forget your true nature.

It was a moment of complete loss of self. Followed quickly by deep, frantic fear. Of them, of yourself, of the taste on your tongue.

They roared above you, pupils shooting big enough that you could see your shaking reflection in them. They clutched you tighter, shoving you into them as their mandibles secured themselves at the spot between your neck and your shoulder.

And before you could scream for forgiveness, glowing green was replaced with metallic red. It was almost poetic how your blood mixed together. How you somehow chose the same place to leave your marks. Only that yours were a crude attempt at survival while theirs was-

What were they doing?

Their fangs were still buried in your pulsing flesh, soaking in the wet heat of your bruised body, but you could hear the low rumbling of their voice still. "Please" it was difficult to hear if it was a question or a demand, either way it sounded too sweet for the way they were behaving. Too innocent, too kind, too much like your mate.

"Please- I'm scared - I'm scaring you" they strung together sentences, and your hand moved to draw circles on their back in an ironic display of human stupidity. Always loving, always giving, always soft. Soft is what they loved about you, soft is what they swore they weren't. Soft is what they were right now. With their teeth rammed into your neck.

"I need thi- you"

They purred rythmically with every word, their hips rutting slowly against your inner thigh

"You, you, you"

and you slowly began feeling less like prey and more like devine medicine, like a cure-it-all. But in this position you were nevertheless still terrified.

One of your legs carefully wrapped itself around their outer thigh, helping you in pulling yourself up. And surprisingly, they actually let you.

Their grip faltered ever so slightly and their mandibles released from your flesh with a goosebump-inducing squelching sound. You let out a low groan and bit your tongue trying to ignore the pain, instead focusing on dealing with the issue at hand.

Your mate was in front of you, eyeing you like their last meal and waiting for another opportunity to pounce. An opportunity you were not going to give them.

"Can... C-can you lay down?" You ask with a shake in your voice, gaze looking for any sudden movements, yet none came. They moved not an inch, eyes still focused on you and you could practically see their control slipping away slowly.

Swallowing, you repeat yourself with a lot more (albeit fake) confidence. Something which seemed to work.

"My love, please- will you lay down for me?"

You almost let out a laugh of relief when they did as you said. But you kept yourself from cheering just yet.

Your legs wobbled slightly as you moved to sit on their lap once again. It was hard to put your full weight on them, they were like a furnace, burning your skin with every touch. But this was more important than your comfort, or your fear- you'd sworn to stay by their side no matter how dangerous it'd get.

Tracing your hands over their stomach and up to their chest, you reminded yourself of this. Memories of your first time getting to know them grounded you. Their patience with a species far more primitive than theirs, their courage to choose peace over violence whilst coming from a race that worshipped death and the bringers of it.

Their purring started slowly reminding you more of your own heartbeat. This was not a monster. This was not a monster.

Your eyes, which had involuntarily closed now opened, looking down at your mate with more rationality. Their upper body was bare and littered with fresh scratch wounds that you hadn't noticed before.

Their lower body was bare as well, with only a small cloth covering what was in between. Something which it was not doing well, since the outline of their erection was just as visible as the natural lubrication running down their thighs.

It had been obvious before, but with them laying underneath you now, begging for release, for salvation... Why they'd barely eaten the past weeks, why they'd forfeited their training, why they suddenly avoided touching you, you realized now with horror-

They had been preparing for mating season.

"Why didn't you tell me?" you whispered, leaning down to put a kiss to their shaking form, your fear dissipating and replacing itself with love and understanding.

Their claws reached up to your hips to hold you gently, painfully gently, like they were trying their best not to crush you in their embrace. Your mouth moved up to their face to place a kiss between their eyes, which they closed in response, leaving them completely vulnerable.

It was a strange form of power you felt in that moment. The power of being a warm meal in front of a starving man, but you didn't let yourself delight in in too long. Your hands trailed over their torso, down to where their throbbing member strained against their abs, and took it into your hands.

You jumped when they grunted underneath you, their lubrication becoming stronger as you rythmically stroked them. The rutting of their hips breaking that rythm, almost throwing you off them with how brutal it was.

Oh, you tried hard to keep yourself from tearing up, they must be in so much pain.

In any other scenario you would've found the sight erotic, but there was nothing erotic about it now.

You knew the risks of mating an alien, knew there was a difference in anatomy. They had been so self conscious about it once they trusted you enough to see them unsheathed, and it completely shattered your views on their species.

Overly confident, arrogant, beastly- those were the words most humans would use to describe them. And though you always tried to be open and understanding, even you had your biases.

Yet growing out of those wasn't hard once you'd met them. They were everything you didn't expect. Intelligent, helpful, kind and so adorably sweet against your tongue.

Their eyes that told you they wanted to devour you whole then averted, timidly glancing between the ground and your body. Their hands trembling as you guided them to lay above your chest, letting them know that the heartbeat they were feeling was for them, only.

#only making this a two parter because I've been sitting on this so long #the hard part of making smut? the smut lol #the build up is my favorite part im sorry but im asexual l #yautja #alien vs predator #alien #💚original post💚#slasher #yautja x reader #the predator #yautja x human #let me just remind y'all im still alive and working on things im just #tired

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felixcloud6288 · 8 days ago

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Dungeon Meshi Chapter 19

So my beautiful angel is named Namari.

AND SHE GETS KILLED!?!

Why do you do this to me Kui?

Going back to the start of the chapter.

So it's been about a week since the start of the series? Since they're underground, it's not entirely possible to track the flow of time.

I hope Namari's comment on Kaka and Kiki is more of a "They're always together and I've never heard them addressed individually" and not a "I can't tell humans apart" thing.

Namari's justification for leaving the party after they lost to the red dragon brings a very different question to mind: Why did Chilchuck stay in the party?

Laios is going on a rescue mission with zero promises of getting any valuables and no offers to pay for the journey. I understand Marcille going with him because she and Falin are long-time friends. But Chilchuck has neither told us why stuck around nor do we have any information about him that would imply why he stuck around.

And gnomes are a race in this story. There was a guy in that party that got wiped by treasure insects and piscines who I thought was a half-foot until I saw how tall he was. I guess he was also a gnome.

Mr Tansu is a powerful healer able to resurrect the dead, but it looks like there is some degree of physical stress casting the spell. Mr Tansu's head was popping a vein when he cast the spell on Namari.

So the whole thing about people's souls being bound to the dungeon is specific to this dungeon rather than being a trait common in dungeons in general.

Like Mr Tansu put it, it's not that the dead can be brought back to life. Death itself is forbidden. I'm going to through that into the pile of evidence to my speculation that the mage behind the dungeon is trying to resurrect Delgal and preserve the kingdom.

I wonder if this also applies to the monsters. Maybe monster populations are kept stable because their souls stay in the dungeon and the dungeon spawns new bodies for them.

Is Namari a dwarf? She's way shorter than everyone else and she's talking a lot of hype about dwarf craftsmanship.

That interaction between Namari and Laios about choosing and maintaining their weapons makes me super bummed that she's not part of the cast. I've seen plenty of posts about people having an inner Senshi telling them to eat healthy and having an inner Chilchuck telling them to know their rights as workers and not let themselves be taken advantage of. People should also have an inner Namari telling them to take care of the tools they rely on.

Laios taking in Kensuke has been paying dividends. Monster ambushes haven't been nearly as much of a concern since it warns Laios of danger.

Okay, so the sister is Kiki and the brother is Kaka.

Once again, the story is showing that Laios's party managing to get through the dungeon without heavy struggle is not the normal experience. The Tansu party has probably only gotten as far as it has because Mr Tansu is such a powerful healer that they can brute-force their way through the dungeon.

Tentacles was brought up in chapter 15. So it's a grabbing vine. We're not told anything about them though. I' guess it's a species of man-eating plant based on the 'm gonna guess it's a derivative of the fertilizer-type plants like baraselia.

The environment tentacles grow in would be naturally nutrient-poor. The baraselia's method of killing victims close to its root to make them into compost is likely too inefficient for the tentacles. It probably paralyzes its prey to keep the body from rotting for as long as possible while it wraps its roots around them to digest them.

The tentacles attacked Kiki and Laios in response to being attacked. If Kensuke hadn't warned Laios, would the plant have left the party alone? Probably not honestly. Maybe it was more like a sound or touch reaction than an aggressive response.

Some of the vines in the tower are probably just regular vines. Laios and Namari cut them without issue. Tentacles probably blend into the environment and react when it detects anything that could be prey.

I haven't the slightest clue what happened during the fight with the tentacle. Laios's plan was definitely to retrieve Kiki's crossbow so they'd have some ranged combat, but I don't know why it let Laios and Kiki go when Namari shot at it. Maybe tentacles have a release reaction if they detect they're being cut. It wouldn't do to grab something with sharp edges that could cut through it even if the plant manages to paralyze it.

Here's where Senshi grabbed the vine and got stung.

Two whole pages waiting to see what happened to Laios and it was worth it.

After seeing the pictures in Laios's book, I've changed my mind on what tentacles are. This is a specific type called an ivy tentacle. He also called it nematocystic when he explained how the monster paralyzes its prey. I looked it up and that is a trait shared by corals, anemones, and jellyfish. So rather than being a plant, tentacles are probably more akin to jellyfish and the vines were dragging prey toward its main body. Rinsing the stung area with vinegar is also recommended as part of immediate treatment for some jellyfish stings.

Namari is very clearly unnerved by Laios and Senshi casually eating and discussing cooking monster in front of them. This is the first time someone outside the party has actually seen them do this. There was the cockatrice in chapter 3, but that's a giant chicken so it wasn't nearly as strange. Also, the people in chapter 3 were more concerned with the guy who was dying from poison.

Senshi has never ventured past the start of F4 so he doesn't have any experience cooking new monsters going forward.

Marcille is annoyed that Namari works for money and not because they're all a family who help each other.

back

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi readthrough

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spectrechosts · 1 month ago

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Mermay

Short mermaid story I uploaded to Cohost back in May. I think it was prompted by one of my friends positing that mermaids would have leg fetishes.

Mara lurks, in the shade of the pier.

She likes to listen to the humans, to peer at them from behind the posts, between the slats.

"Hello!" One of them says, hanging upside-down off the edge to intrude upon her hideaway, and she dives beneath the surface and swims away.

"I feel we got off on the wrong foot-" She says, another day, before Mara darts away again.

The third time, she's treading water beneath the pier. She has been since sunrise- Mara knows, she's been watching from the depths the whole time. Watching her- her weird legs, move back and forth.

"Listen, I don't mean any harm-" The human says, when Mara finally swims under the pier and lets her head breach the surface. "There's a certain type of kelp, I need it for a potion but I can't get it myself, see?"

She gestures to an illustration of the plant, carefully held above the waves by her human magic. Mara is familiar with the species.

"And then in return I could get you, uh, surface stuff." She says. "Whatever you'd like."

"Fish." Mara hisses, her lips barely above the water.

"Oh! Well, I can get you other things, things you might not have-?" The witch starts, but Mara is already swimming away.

Anything to get her out of her hideaway. She glances back, watches how the witch's legs move as she swims out from under the pier and climbs up.

When she returns the witch has a basket of fish, which she gladly hands over for a bouquet of kelp.

"Thank you!" Says the witch. "Seriously, I never could have gotten these without your help."

Mara just nods, lurking with all but her eyes submerged.

Leave already, she thinks. She comes here to watch humans, not interact with them.

"I'm Lexi, by the way." The witch offers unprompted, and Mara just watches her silently until she retreats back onto dry land.

She returns to intrude upon Mara's spot once again about a week later, thankfully just dangling off the pier again. Mara doesn't need even more looks at her weird, shapely legs- they already occupy her mind strangely often.

"Heyyyyy!" Lexi says. "Need more kelp."

Mara grumbles, again half-submerged, her discontentment rising to the surface in a stream of bubbles.

"I can bring you more fish?" Lexi offers, and Mara grimaces.

The fish were… bad. Already dead, out of the water for too long, she doesn't know how humans can stand them like that.

"No fish." She says. "Bring me… something of yours."

"Ooh!" Lexi coos. "You'd make a good witch, asking for payments like that. Here!"

She drops down a long, thin, silk scarf.

"You wrap it around yourself. Or whatever you want, I suppose. Yours now after all."

Mara swims down into the depths, nuzzling her face into the scarf until she returns with Lexi's reagents and briskly hands them off and leaves again.

Weeks pass, and Mara itches for the next appearance of the witch.

She sees her, sometimes, perusing the seaside market stalls. Watches her walk around on her, her feet. Wearing one of those human skirts, her legs just out there.

"Heya!" Lexi says, dangling from the pier again. "I need more kelp, what do you want for it?"

She wants to drown the witch, watch the air bubble from her lungs, have her sink down into her domain and keep her forever.

She wants to touch her, feel if her skin is as soft as the scarf, if it smells as nice, if it comforts her as much.

She wants to drag her under the pier and pepper her with salty kisses, dip below the water and feel her human legs wrap around her in ecstasy as her tongue-

"Fish." She blurts out, hoping the shadow of the pier hides her blush. "Fresher ones this time."

And then she darts away again.

#Spectre Writes #mermaid #mermay

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new-tella-us · 6 months ago

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The Mothers Part 1

Alright! The way this post will work is, I’ll go over each mom and discuss a brief “before the Demon Lord” section, what happened to get them into the bastard’s harem, what they did when they had their son and how that affected their kid. Then I’ll mention some extra people they either liked or hated. I am doing this two at a time as usual.

Starting with-

Istorae The Overthrown Queen

Istorae, as a young woman, was known to be a hopeless romantic and an impossibly talented woman. She was her kingdom’s prettiest gem. She, of course, had her faults. She could be ridiculously devoted, jealous and thought herself better than most by default. Eventually, she would meet an interesting young man. A brute whose name she’d never learn. Despite seeing herself as greater, she couldn’t help but be interested in this man. The brute wasn’t the prime of his kind, but he had ambitions that most didn’t have. His ambitions and dedication to them made him admirable to her. And slowly, she started to fall in love with him.

To prove that he deserved her hand in marriage, Istorae’s parents sent this brute off into a war for a neighboring kingdom’s land, despite her protests. If he lived, their army won, and he could bring back proof that he personally defeated the current monarch, he would earn Istorae’s hand. And despite getting captured, the brute succeeded. The war was won, the kingdom was defeated, and the mad monarch’s head was brought back as proof. The brute became the new queen’s consort, only to then stab his wife in the back. He dethroned Istorae, killed her parents and proceeded to amass a harem, truly becoming the Demon Lord. This broke Istorae and the once lively and bubbly queen became solemn and hateful.

When Raestrao was born, three wives and a secret harem girl were already amassed. Istorae couldn’t show much love towards her son. Her heart was already corroded over. She only focused on training and education.

Istorae and Raestrao grew a distant, cold and formal relationship. She was more of another commander than she was a mother, facilitating the importance of perfection. In her eyes, she should never have given anyone “lower” a chance, so she raised Raestrao to be perfect and never give anyone less than perfection any leeway. They deserved judgement of the highest degree.

She also would partake in teaching Raestrao to master magic both from their species and general magic from books. She expected nothing less than excellence from her son in the hopes that he would, one day, overpower his father and take the throne.

The consequence was that Raestrao grew up with little to no warmth in his life. He was only seen as “good enough” by either parent if he obtained perfection. He grew up judgmental, terrified of failure, and replacing genuine warmth and care with politeness and formality. Luckily for him, his brothers showed him the love his parents never did so he had some reference of care. Who knows how cold Raestrao would have become if he didn’t have his brothers?

When Raestrao disappeared without a trace, it felt like Istorae’s heart was broken all over again. And while she was distraught about losing her heir and claim to her throne, she also was torn apart about losing her only child. In James’s Demon War Route, she would make her decision to sacrifice her own life to create a Stone Destiny. If there was even a chance that her son was alive and able to take the throne, she would force it to happen. She wished for him to be the next Demon Lord...

Be careful what you wish for.

As for extra people Istorae liked or hated.

Istorae has one servant that she genuinely sees as a friend. She still has her guard up around the servant, but she can hold a very pleasant conversation with them.

Istorae does enjoy Raestro’s company. She sometimes can be uncomfortable with how similar he looks to the Demon Lord but, she does genuinely love her son, no matter how little she shows it.

She flat out hates the “harem girl” the Demon Lord has. Remember, she has a major jealousy issue (most succubi do) so the implication that the husband she once loved and still holds some remanence of love for loving another woman hurt. Similarly, she despises Izroul. She‘s never done anything to the boy, but she can’t stand to even be in the same room as him. It doesn’t help that Izroul also looks a whole lot like the Demon Lord.

She isn’t on speaking terms with Aezera. The first and last wives envy each other’s positions.

Next is

Kalipo The Siren of the Scalloped Seas.

Kalipo has always been diplomatic. It’s how she was raised, it’s who she is. She always believed that anything could be solved with a talk. Now, this doesn’t mean she was lenient. She believed in punishing the insolent and foolish and tight rules so specific that you would be pressed to weasel your way out of them. She believed in the “devil of the details” basically. However, she saw that and negotiation as a way to prevent danger and aggression rather than as a response to it.

When the Demon Lord wanted control of the sea, he would take to using the very strategy of the mad monarch he once opposed. He would storm Kalipo’s underwater kingdom without warning or mercy. He had his greatest mages use “Spells of the Fins” on mass to make his land army almost as effective underwater as they were on land. The sheer numbers and foreign diseases brought to Kalipo’s kingdom wiped out her numbers quickly. Even her parents fell. Kalipo attempted to offer peace, negotiation and deals as she always did but the Demon Lord didn’t care about that. He would only accept pure domination or total annihilation. Kalipo was forced to agree to the former.

When Uzaeris was born, the fourth and final wife was being... “obtained”. The kingdom was tense and the birth of a second heir that was both not Istorae’s and part animal demon didn’t help. Kalipo saw the uptake in violence in the streets of the kingdom she was now a part of and couldn’t help but be saddened and disgusted by it. The kingdom was tainted with blood that Kalipo was determined to correct. She would raise her son strictly on diplomacy. From mediation, to manipulation, to flirtatious advances to debate, every type of verbal communication would be mastered by Uzaeris whether he liked it or not.

Kalipo and Uzaeris gained a mentor/student relationship. It was warmer than Istorae and Raestro’s but that isn’t saying much. Uzaeris was still more a student/heir than he was her son.

In the beginning, Uzaeris was not compliant. He wanted to do other things with his time and wished to get into his own hobbies. He even gained a small violent streak in his childhood. This was unacceptable, Kalipo had to change that. She had to change him. So, she used her own, far superior, manipulative behavior to force a bond between Uzaeris and the newest ‘member’ of the family, Izroul. She, with her infinite patience, would slowly craft scenarios where Uzaeris would see Izroul at his lowest, hungriest and most pathetic moments; slowly, she forged a bond between them and used that as her manipulation. And it worked. Uzaeris gained the motivation to try his hardest to learn politics, diplomacy and the art of manipulation to become the next Demon Lord. He even learnt magic and basic fighting skills to defend himself if needed.

The consequence was that Uzaeris had no identity outside of his flirtatious persona. His free time was spent either wooing any poor soul that would fall for it or with his brothers, the only time he felt like he could be someone else. He was the perfect manipulator but nothing else. Uzaeris would also become extremely protective of Izroul and distrusting of Raestro. His mother poisoned his mind about his elder brother that persisted even into the human world. He was convinced that if Raestro stayed under their father’s thumb, he would become as bad. Though as he got to know Raestro during their stay in the human world, he would realize that Raestro wasn’t anything like his mother told him.

When Uzaeris left, Kalipo already knew. She was the only one to witness it. No one, not even the boys, knew that she saw them leave. Why did she let them go? Because she realized there was no point. They had their out and Izroul, her only leverage against Uzaeris, had freedom shown to him. If she took that away, Uzaeris would not only hate her and be aware that she was only manipulating him but would also be set on finding an alternative to escaping with his brothers. She was smart enough to know when she lost. Of course, she was hurt by his instant willingness to abandon her, but his mentality was a monster of her making. She made him care more about his brothers than her. And she knew that.

In Erik’s Demon War Route, Kalipo is nowhere to be found. She was the first wife to escape as soon as had the chance. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

She didn't particularly like or dislike many people. Except her son. But even then, there wasn't much "family love", it was more "I tolerate you more than I tolerate most people." She doesn't even really hate Damien's mom all that much. She can be jealous but there wasn't someone to be jealous for.

She does despise her husband for all the bloodshed he caused. They had the most "distant" marriage of all the wives. TL:DR- Istorae's raising mentality- "Be perfect. Anything less is trash. Also don't be anything like my scum of a husband, you already look too much like him."

Kalipo's raising mentality- "You see this sad, pathetic, wet dog of a bastard child? Feel bad for him and take over the throne so that you can help him. 'What about Raestro?' What about him? He's probably evil."

#seduce me the otome #seduce me demon war #seduce me the complete story #seduce me james #seduce me erik #rewrite

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ten-cent-sleuth · 1 year ago

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A Galling Yoke, Part 2

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for the “That actually hurt” square on my July Break Bingo card

See this post for main info, including a masterlist and synopsis. See this post for warnings.

Word Count: 2.8k

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes x f!Reader

Rating: Teen

DO NOT TRY AT HOME THE EXPERIMENT DEPICTED BELOW.

For days, you had successfully avoided Sherlock. There had, admittedly, been close calls: once, you had been about to exit the library when you heard the floorboards creak in the corridor and decided to wait until silence had again fallen, and upon peeking out the door, you glimpsed Sherlock’s coattails as he rounded the corner; ereyesterday, you had been walking down the stairs when you spotted a familiar silhouette coming your way, and you had had just enough time to turn around and act like you had been going above-stairs instead, though your bad knee had protested at the rough reversal.

Such measures were necessary evils—necessary embarrassments. You did not want to see Sherlock. You did not want to talk to Sherlock. You could not talk to Sherlock. Too much was unsaid; too much was unknown; too little was unfelt.

So it was that you crept down the hallway in your own home, your ears tuned to Sherlock’s indelible timbre, your eyes cut on what was before you. Indeed, such focus served you well as you stepped back in time to avoid the kitchen door swinging open.

“Oh! Madam! I’m heartily sorry, I—”

“Fret not, Cook,” you reassured the scrawny woman in front of you. “You could not have seen me behind all those dishes—or, indeed, behind the wooden door. Would you have me call a maid for assistance?”

“No, no.” Cook craned her neck around the tower of plates in her arms and smiled. “Thanking you, ma’am.”

“Make no mention of it.” Gesturing to the door behind her, you asked, “Is Mrs Rogers in there?”

“The kitchen? ’Fraid not, ma’am, she be straightening out that new laundress.”

“I see. I had hoped to share my afternoon tea with her, but—”

“Oh! Well, I can have Lucy bring you a tray in your sitting-room if you wish it, ma’am.”

“Nonsense; Lucy must have plenty of chores to take care of. Since I am already here, I do not mind preparing my own tray. Although…if you wish it, Cook, feel free to join me once you have put those away.”

Cook’s eyes lowered almost as soon as they lit up. “Oh, ma’am, I couldn’t possibly—”

“Of course you could.” This time, you craned your neck to make sure she saw your smile. “If you are busy, then never you mind for today; we may have tea another time. However, if you would like to join me, please do.”

Finally, Cook met your gaze. “I would like to, ma’am. Tha— I thank you. I’ll return in a trice.”

With a nod, you let her pass before opening the door and slipping in. The pleased thrum in your veins that always arose after an auspicious social interaction vanished as you locked eyes with Sherlock across the kitchen.

“Wha—?”

“Your ladyship,” he greeted in a rush, bowing and straightening almost as quickly as he could, as though he did not want to let you out of his sight any longer than necessary. You barely had time to curtsy before he blurted out, “Do you always take your meals with your servants?”

You blinked, then you glowered. “Do you always eavesdrop on conversations in others’ private homes?”

“Not always, but sometimes a case does necessitate more underhanded methods…”

Scoffing, you turned away from him to begin preparing a tray of refreshments. “I hope, sir,” you bit out, “your now knowing that I do not treat those in my employ as a separate species is helpful to your investigation of my husband.”

A teacup rattled on its saucer as you placed it down, and you paused to take a steadying breath. How had so much bitterness seeped into your voice?

“I apologise that you thought I meant I was suspicious of you, when I had only overheard your conversation by accident, and the words I spoke were uttered out of confusion, not judgement.” Why does he sound so close? “I did not intend to offend you. In fact… Well, in fact, I had intended to thank you.”

You whirled around, but the “What do you mean?” on your lips broke into a gasp as you realised Sherlock was standing right there, right in front of you.

Holding your gaze, he said, “On my first day here without Lord Coltidge, your butler—Rogers, if I am not mistaken—told me that I had free rein to conduct my experiments if I wished to. That was kind of you.”

“Yes, well…” You adjusted your sleeves. “I recalled how those experiments helped you clear your mind when we were young, and I—” You bit down on your tongue before more bitter words about getting him out of your hair as quickly as possible could trip over it. “I wanted to save you the trouble of going between Baker Street and Grosvenor Square if I could, sir.”

Sherlock’s smile was as sudden and as dazzling as fireworks. “Would you like to…see what I am working on?”

You blinked again. “Er…” This time, you did not have it in you to glower.

“Excellent!” He grabbed your hand, effectively silencing any protest from you with the abrupt dryness of your mouth, and pulled you to the counter at which he had been standing when you entered. “I have wanted to do an experiment such as this for a while now, but my flat does not have electricity. When did your house get outfitted with it?”

You shook yourself from staring at your and Sherlock’s clasped hands to answer, “Ah, ’82, perhaps? Not too long ago.”

“Brilliant!” he exclaimed, letting go of you to fiddle with whatever needed fiddling with. You bit your lip as you watched; his excitement was unnerving, not because you disliked it, but because it reminded you of the times when you shared his excitement.

You couldn’t possibly do so now.

“Since I did not want to waste an arc lamp, this contraption here shall inform us of a successful electrical current: if one is made, these tin cans shall have opposite charges, which shall make this metal earring essentially bounce between the cans.”

“Akin to a ringing bell?” you asked, not quite understanding Sherlock’s sparse simplification but managing to visualise the described results.

“Indeed! Now, see these two bowls? The first one I filled from over there—standard pump water. This one, I filled with deionised water; I had to buy that for a few florins.”

Your eyes bulged. “A few fl— For water?”

He chuckled at you, not in the way your brother did at times, but…you shook your head and paid attention to his explanation: “’Tis worth it, I assure you, at least if you are curious-minded as I am or you are”—confound the heat rising in your cheeks at how easily he grouped himself with you!—“and I shall prove it to you. Electricity does not traverse all matter equally. That is why these wires”—he pointed to the couple of cords resting on the counter, each attached to the bell-to-be contraption—“are made of copper but wrapped in rubber.”

Gently, he took your hand again and laid your fingertips on top of the wire. “The rubber is safe to touch, see? No electrical shock.”

“But the copper is not?” you couldn’t help but ask, shifting towards the naked end of the wire. Before you could make contact though, Sherlock snatched your wrist away.

“Do not—!”

You stared up at him. “Mr Holmes?”

Eyes darting away, he cleared his throat. “It would not permanently injure you, but it would…it would hurt. A little. I suppose.” He blushed with the weakness of his argument, and you chuckled, which seemed to bolster him. “If you would truly like to touch the water, I believe I know how you may do so in a safe but curiosity-satiating way. Do you trust me?”

Your heart stuttered in your chest. “In matters of science? Unreservedly.”

He hesitated, as though he could hear the chained beast struggling in the cage of your ribs, before nodding and picking up one wire. “This bowl has the deionised water,” he said. “Ions are rather permissive of electrical charges, so do you believe this water will be safer or riskier than the pump water?”

After thinking it over, you replied, “Safer?”

“Have a little confidence in your hypothesis, my lady.” Were his smiles always so soft? “Now, I shall wrap this wire around your middle finger…”

As you watched him do so, you sluggishly wondered whether he had truly been holding your wrist this whole time—and how you had not noticed before this moment.

“I shall let go of you now, then you may dip in your index finger, but you must not touch anything besides the water. Your dress must not even skim the table. Oh—you are wearing rubber-soled shoes, are you not?”

Your lips twitched; he really had not changed. “Yes, Mr Holmes, luckily for you the Harding Street cordwainer recently made the first batch for ladies. They are quite put out that the Americas fashioned them first.”

Chuckling, Sherlock placed the second wire into the bowl, then jerked his head at you. On an inhale, you dipped your finger into the water.

You felt nothing, yet the contraption rang as Sherlock described, the earring slamming into one tin can then flying into the other then back into the first and so on.

“My!” you breathed. “Am I playing a part in this? I feel naught! Yet how could I be uninvolved?”

As he explained open and closed circuits, a cold numbness spread across you, the realisation that your resolve to resist his enthusiasm and his intimacy had crumbled so soon and so easily. But dash it all, of course restraint was difficult when Sherlock was so…was so…was so unrestrained. You had been marvelling at how familiar he was after all these years, but now, that familiarity soured in your mouth. Did he truly not feel the need, as you did, to avoid a renewed attachment? Was he truly unaffected, then, by how you two had parted ways?

“Why do you not do something, too?” you asked before you could think better of it, cutting into his spiel as sharply as you wished to cut out his disruptive presence in your perfectly contented life.

Oblivious to the edge in your voice, Sherlock smiled, and guilt sprouted in your stomach. “Why not, indeed,” he answered as he gestured for you to lift your hand out of the water. Taking both wires and submerging them in the other bowl, he said, “Electricity shall move more easily through the pump water, but it always takes the most direct path. Hence, when the wires are beside each other like this, I can put my hand in on the other end of the bowl and be unharmed.”

He did so, and shrugged at you to show he felt nothing.

“However, the closer I drift, the more I shall feel.” When his hand moved into the middle of the bowl, he added, “Ah, here, it begins: something feels off.” When his hand was nearly at the wires, he cried out, “The current is certainly passing through me now. Is this not thrilling, your ladyship? Do you not miss my experiments?”

His words struck you in the chest, knocking the breath out of you. What questions! With every inhale to regain your equilibrium, you seemed to breathe in poisonous anger as well. What questions! “Why do you stop there?” you asked. “Would it be unsafe to pass directly between the wires?”

Sherlock blinked. “Er—no, I do not believe it would be. When I first tried this earlier, I was tempted to do so even, but I had second thoughts.”

You did not speak, focused on calming yourself. You were normally quite good at controlling your words of frustration and offence—having a viscount for a baby brother and a pompous old earl for a father would do that to a lady. What about Sherlock made you speak out of pain that you didn’t even acknowledge to yourself?

Before you realised how he might take your silence, Sherlock moved his hand between the wires. The next instant, he yanked it out of the water and yelped, “Bloody hell!”

Shaking his hand at the wrist, he gave you a sheepish look. “Pardon my language, your ladyship. I did not expect… I shall have to note down that doing that actually hurts…”

He glanced around for his notebook, and for both your and his sakes, you tried to joke, “Have I aught to pardon? You shall remember that you and I learned that language side by side at Ferndell.”

Turning to you, Sherlock was most certainly not laughing. Bemusement rent the smoothness of his brow, and what typically gave you a boost of pride—how often did one befuddle the great Sherlock Holmes, after all?—only sickened you now, as hurt clouded his expression. “There is bitterness in your tone and mien,” he remarked. “Have I done something?”

The guilt that had sprouted in your stomach took strangling root in your hip, in your knee, in your ankles, and you suddenly had to lean on the counter for support. “Mr Holmes…” How could you answer that question, so simple yet so complex? You had thought avoiding him would protect you, but maybe it would be more effective to face your muddled emotions head-on. “Perhaps it is time we talk.”

“I would like nothing more”—he hesitated—“my lady.”

You took a deep breath. “Why did you take this case?”

He took the wires out of the bowl, to all appearances to stop the contraption’s dinging but, you knew, truthfully to occupy his hands. “I…wanted to see you.”

Your eyebrows shot up. Of all answers, you had not expected that.

Seeing your face, he rushed out, “When your father came to me, I saw it as my opportunity. It has been years, I know, but I never stopped—”

“Why did you not write?” you burst out. “Or call on me? You knew the Voss London address! If you had somehow forgotten it, the walk from Ferndell Hall to Jotyard Manor so you could ask my brother is very little time compared to fifteen years!”

Sherlock grimaced. “Petal, you know how I struggle with…with… See, it was always you who could explain to me which social avenues are permitted and which are disallowed! I had never visited your house in Town, nor had I visited your estate, come to think of it—you always came to Ferndell. How was I to know I could simply call on you?”

Incredulous, you stood with your mouth agape.

He rubbed his face. “I see now that I…maybe I ought not to have taken the case after all,” he sighed. “You do not seem to want to see me, although I have been struggling to understand why.”

The guilt flowered, its blossoms stuffing your lungs.

“At first,” he mused, “I thought you were being distant because the years had cleaved you to your station. You seemed to look down on my work—my ‘exploits’, as you called it. You acted the part of an earl’s daughter more dutifully than I think your governess would have thought possible. You revoked the permission you had happily given me to call you your Christian name. I was displeased but satisfied with these findings, then today, I…”

He looked at the door behind you, and you remembered the conversation with Cook he had overheard.

“No. Evidently, you are the same girl I knew who does not think she is better than everyone else for simply being born a Voss.” Turning back to you, his eyes pierced you. “Why then do you sneer at me, your ladyship?”

Sneer? “Do you— Do you seriously not understand why the very sight of you hurts me?”

Loathsome tears stung the backs of your eyes, but even through your blurry vision, you could make out the surprise on Sherlock’s face.

The guilt withered.

“So it is then,” you said. “In that case, I can only imagine how little regard you have for the battered vessel in my chest.”

The door behind you opened. “Ma’am, I—”

“Cook, I have prepared the sandwiches and the cups, but I fear I have forgotten to boil the tea.” Brusquely, you went towards the door. “Would you please prepare that, then bring the tray to the… Oh, I do not know, how do you like the yellow room?”

“I never been,” she replied, eyeing something over your shoulder, “but I’ll ask Lucy for directions. Everything all right, ma’am?”

“Certainly,” you said as you blinked away your tears. At the threshold, you turned back briefly and curtsied, but did not dare lift your gaze.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for updates. :) Feedback is always welcome! Nota bene that I totally screwed with scientific history in London here though; I tried to stay true to the timeline of electrical and deionisation technology, but yeah no, parts of Sherlock’s experiment would not have been possible for at least a couple of decades. Sorry! 😂

#sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock holmes x you #henry cavill sherlock x reader #enola holmes #a galling yoke #the dimensions of fandom

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bloodgulchblog · 6 months ago

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In light of what others have asked about the Banished, do you ever feel like the narrative writers (not all, but by-and-large) haven’t been interested in telling stories about morally complex aliens—writing them as people, in other words?

After years spent waiting for the post-war setting, for me the Kilo Five trilogy’s messaging signaled that 343 weren’t interested in telling that kind of story, especially after more years of alien terrorists who really want to kill humans again constantly being centered (while seemingly ignoring that the Great Schism was A Thing) and with the Swords of Sanghelios being deemphasized to the point where only a paragraph in the 2022 Encyclopedia’s “Splinter Factions” section was dedicated to them while the Banished got three dozen.

With some of the new story shards and Halo: Outcasts I feel like things are starting to turn around, but I do worry that they’ll shift back.

I don't know anything about anything for real but I think what's going on is this:

First and foremost, before it is anything else, Halo is an investment Microsoft is trying to make money on. The way it does this is primarily by selling purchases in a live services video game where you compete at running around shooting other players and (only recently) sometimes computers. They do make money on merch and things like books and such, but it's not remotely as much as they make on shootman video game.

They have a huge incentive to continue telling stories where running around shooting is the main action. Ergo, the stories Halo's writers tell need to create excuses to have this action and to make that part seem fun and enticing.

(The fact that Halo's pvp has never really had anything to do with events occurring in the lore doesn't really matter, once they have the campaign story excuse game for the multiplayer. "It's a training exercise for Spartan-IVs" was a very late addition, and oldschool Halo didn't bother framing it at all because nobody cared. Frankly, I think most people who play Halo PVP still don't really care.)

So, Halo's not interested in post-war and anything that amounts to recovery because it doesn't do a lot to contribute to Halo's core goal of making shootgame money that keeps convincing Microsoft that the people who make Halo should get the paychecks they need to afford to live indoors and eat food.

I do think there are people working on Halo who are interested in and curious about these ideas, and I really do think the Arbiter and the Swords of Sanghelios and the Sangheili in general are house favorites. (Why else would they be finding excuses to continue bringing the Sangheili into the games even if they can only fit them in as part of the Banished now, when the Sangheili are the species the Jiralhanae probably hate the most?)

Honestly, Halo isn't good at deep or complex characters of any species most of the time and when things are good it's because someone managed to give them some extra love somewhere. Halo has never needed a watertight, emotionally intelligent narrative. It just sometimes skates close on things like the Arbiter, and even though the Arbiter's arc is easily the strongest part of Halo 2's story the gamers hated it and that's why it was so curtailed in Halo 3.

They gotta make shootman games, and sell the shootman games, and that requires an acceptable enemy. For a while they were pivoting toward having Forerunner enemies, but now those are associated with an unpopular time in Halo (especially Halo 5). And Halo is at an age where it feels like every new thing about it is "trying to return to the roots" so... shooting familiar-looking aliens that people have nostalgia for.

Frankly, this is the biggest reason why I'm sighing and waiting for them to bring back the Flood again even though I'm really just not looking forward to that. It feels inevitable.

#asks

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dededaio · 11 months ago

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Does Kirby's extended cast get underutilized?

This i something I heard a lot of Kirby fans bring up in recent years. That despite big cast of memorable characters, Kirby tends to shove them to the side in favor of introducing new ones and putting the older ones on the back burner never to be used again. But just how true this is?

Warning, rather big post ahead!

Let's take a look at almost all modern Kirby games (including spin-offs) and summarize how each of them treated the extended cast.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - re-established King Dedede and Meta Knight as the part of the "main four" of the franchise, introduced Bandana Waddle Dee into the main cast after his role in Super Star Ultra. Introduced Magolor. Referenced Wham Bam Rock, Dragoon from Air Ride and Marx via stone transformations. Galacta Knight returns from Super Star Ultra as a surprise boss in the True Arena.

Kirby's Dream Collection: New Challenge Stages (yes, i'm going to count it, since Kumazaki confirmed that Magolor moved to Dream Land when he reformed and this is so far the only game to actually show it), - but, yeah, we see Magolor again in a fairly major role, the first time he appears as a good guy with a bit of a trickster streak to him, suggested that he stayed in Dream Land after he gifted Kirby and co a theme park.

Kirby Triple Deluxe - cameos of a lot of characters from sprite-based games via keychains (of note, Magolor and Yin Yarn got special keychains with exclusive 8-bit sprite artwork), animal trio from Dream Land 2 appear as stage hazards in Kirby Fighters, Shadow Kirby appears as the final boss of Kirby Fighters, Magolor cameos as a painting in the haunted mansion level of the Wild World, the dimensional mirror and Dark Meta Knight return after the long absence. Introduced people of the sky, Taranza and Queen Sectonia.

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - Taranza is featured as one of Dedede's friends and supporters on the trophies and on the title screen. It was confirmed that the game itself is set in a theme park Magolor created for Dedede, Magolor himself appears in the final, most difficult, stage.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse - Bandana Dee is reinforced as Kirby's true P2 character, Drawcia is referenced and got a special collectible in a figurine, being one of the few spin-off characters to appear more than once alongside Yin-Yarn. Animal buddies are referenced in Kirby transformation sequences. Pon and Con get a cameo in Elline's diary as comedy show hosts.

Kirby Planet Robobot - Oh boy. This one. Well, we of course have a LOT of returning bosses from the past games, such as clones of Dark Matter and Queen Sectonia (giving us a glimpse as her original body before she transformed, adding a major lore revelation past her introduction), people of the sky and floralia are mentioned on numerous occasions in the pause screen descriptions, quite a few characters got brand new artwork via stickers (such as daroach, magolor and taranza). And the last but certainly not least, we have Star Dream which is one of the clockwork stars like Galactic Nova. While not exact same as Nova, it's meant to be of the same species as Nova and the reveal banks on you knowing that, so it's one of the most direct continuity nods in the franchise.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe - this game features, although AU versions, but still, of Susie and Taranza, and, unknowingly at the time, the same Magolor we already know and love in a different role entirely. Although it's technically different versions of the characters, I still count it, because it's still new game and new story that uses familiar faces.

Kirby Star Allies - i will die if i try to list everything this game has. but let's just say pretty much every mainline kirby game (and a lot of spin-offs) were referenced in some capacity, and 90% of major characters of all mainline kirby games are accounted for and PLAYABLE in this one.

Super Kirby Clash - Magolor is once again is the shopkeeper, AU Taranza and Susie have major roles once again, au version of NIGHTMARE of all characters is the main villain, technically making him the first antagonist since Dark Matter to appear in more than one game, King D-Mind returns by the virtue of this game being a sequel to the original Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, Galacta Knight re-appears as Aeon Hero, hinting at his origins.

Kirby Fighters 2 - Magolor and Gooey are playable characters, implied to be a part of Kirby's inner friend circle on the level of Bandana Dee, Meta Knight and King Dedede. The first spin-off to include playable characters outside of the primary main cast. Several newer characters such as Flamberge were referenced via unlockable costumes, as well as appearing (alongside her sisters) as stage hazards on the Jambastion stage.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - this is perhaps the first Kirby game on this list where I can't say they concerned themselves with referencing the past much. But that's kind of the point, Shinya Kumazaki described Star Allies and Forgotten Land as "sister games" and in this sense, you can say that SA got all the unsubtle continuity and references, while FL is definite step towards new original direction. However, it's still got a lot of subtle connections AND UNEXPECTED canonization of Morpho Knight. A character that was literally introduced a GAME AGO. It's also been heavily alluded that the civilization formerly inhabiting the New World is heavily related to the (eventually) Halcandran ancients, giving us a genuine glimpse at their culture. Even then, this game is the exception that proves the point. Lack of references and fanservice, or major character comebacks is this game's specific weird factor, not the rule.

Kirby's Dream Buffet - this is similar to Star Allies where there's a LOT of references to past games. You can pretty much dress up Kirby as almost every character in the series, including the likes of the Mage Sisters and newly introduced Elfilin from Forgotten Land.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe - Merry Magoland introduces masks which not only make it so all of the dream friends and helpers from Star Allies cameo in this game, as well as new characters from the Forgotten Land, they also make it so this isn't exclusive to purely playable characters. Giving us masks of Hyness, Queen Sectonia and Leongar. Magolor Epilogue is one huge mode focused on Magolor specifically, the first time such luxury been given to someone outside of the primary main cast. Said mode also references and alludes to a lot of games (including Dream Collection), as well as tying it towards Kirby Clash games in another unexpected continuity moment.

As you can see, not a lot of these roles are major, but it's not the main point I'm trying to come across. HAL remembers about these characters and definitely knows that fans love them and want more of them. It's simply the matter of building up the series from ground up after what essentially amounted to big hiatus in the 00s. Returning characters in another mainline game just right after they were introduced would be a tacky move that would be way too safe and complacent. Building up the cast was the right move and they are slowly but surely started embracing it more and more over time. Forgotten Land is distinctly only game in this list that mostly avoided direct returns and callbacks and it still got Morpho Knight.

#kirby

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