#chapter: nil

[phantomguild]

Lief @Mystery Vulpix: "Don't have a name, huh? Heard that one before. More like you refuse to tell us who you actually are."

The Vulpix turned to look at the Sylveon/Ribombee hybrid. His presence did give them a bit of surprise, as up to now Mint was the only hybrid they'd interacted with. They thought a bit about his words. There was a bit of truth to them.

They did have a name, though it was more of a "designation" than a proper name like near anyone else had. After a bit of thought, they decided to humor Lief's statement by finally telling everyone.

"'Monarch Experiment 01'." They answered blankly in response to him. "That is the closest thing I have to a name. ... You can see why I do not want people to call me that, aside from being a mouthful."

"Definitely not like any name you have heard, I can assume. I am taking suggestions for an alternative name that's more... normal sounding."

Ask Hints have been updated!

Unnamed Porygon2's profile unlocked!

[fatuiharbinger11]

fell xenologue blorbos

[not-poignant]

Underline the Blue (Nate/Janusz - Omegaverse)

Title: Underline the Blue

Pairing: Nate Prince/Janusz Bodanowicz

Notes: This is another story in the Underline the Black universe! Set prior to Underline the Black.

Summary: Nate, an omega, has been sent to Hillview by his alpha partner who doesn’t believe he’s good enough to claim or bond with, and wants him trained up at an omega rehabilitation facility to be a better partner. Nate is paired up with the alpha Janusz, who soon realises Nate has been micromanaged and ‘trained’ already to the point of having his soul shattered, and a journey of slow recovery and rehabilitation begins.

Underline the Blue - Chapter 23 - Willing to Love on AO3!

In which Nate finds himself in a feral, angry mood and Janusz takes him for a drive to take his mind off things, and during a conversation about being an alpha companion, Nate learns something about Janusz’ feelings for him that stun him.

Underline the Blue (early access) - Chapter 25 - Bonded @ Patreon || Ream

In which Nate reveals he’s been wanting more from Janusz sexually, and they progress their relationship to the next level. Towards the end, Nate realises he’s bonded to Janusz – the thing he was sent to Hillview to do – and he’s not sure how he feels about that.

Early access chapters are released in the Augus & Gwyn tiers and higher on both Patreon and Ream. :D (Folks are only charged once a month on Ream, hence the slightly higher fee - that and I set my tier prices 10 years ago and cost of living has gone up a little since then! T.T)

– Thanks to all the Patreon and Ream supporters for making this (and my other writing) possible!

[sbiciolo]

A GOOD DAY TO PLAY A FINE GAME OF NONE!

I'm not usually an AU kind of guy, buuuut....

occasionally....

[rafent]

✦ 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐖𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐄 ✧

* grandmaster mastery drabble ( fell xenologue ch. 5 spoilers )

Nil was a caring brother. He picked up a weapon because he wanted to share in Nel's struggles, because two halves of a whole but one clinging to the other with hopes and prayers didn't make them equal. A glorified dragonstone warmer couldn't protect anyone, not himself and especially not her.

"It's fine, really. Like this even a failure like me can be useful."

Nil was a naughty brother. He admitted one thing to his big sister, but left out another. Left out several. He picked the axe because he'd hate being worse than Nel at anything. Festering in his heart was enough darkness, enough spots of black rotting canker, that he wouldn't dare invite one more to eat him up inside. Not an unheard of story, neither across history nor across fell kind; better that the younger forge his own way, step out of her shadow and into unclaimed skies of his own.

And of course, last but not least, 'Nil' was a right old strategist.

A vicious Child at the end of the day, who put one thought before every foot. Every Fell Dragon lost their twin eventually, and Nil would too if Nel ever found out. She'd rip him apart for daring to impersonate what was hers, she'd abandon the one who needed her more than she ever needed him. Every Fell Dragon lost their twin eventually, and one day Nil would too.

If that's what his dreams took.

"Remember, Nil. Swords break axes, and axes break lances."

...

Two halves of a whole, the Divine One had once stated with wonder, at times of the newcomers Nel and Nil with their immovable attachments at the hip, and at others of the partnered Emblems that called the bracelet of the Shepherd Exalt home. If they would only lay eyes upon all of them now, they'd be turning in their grave.

Break! Twin on twin, brutality forced upon brutality unwilling. The Fell Heir wielded his axe with vicious purpose against the thin haft of Represailles, and snapped it away from Nel's hands. He let her pick it up, then struck again.

Already he was a new person, or one might argue, the truest he’d always been; cruel and calculating, his four puny breezes cast off like jetsam on a ship that had no more room for them. Cruel; the pleas of the anguished sister ignored, as another Divine One looked on. Calculating; breaking Nel would break resistance, this could all stop once that fool agreed to cooperate.

Strike and strike again. With each brutalizing blow, a flash of gold and royal blue on his arm, well-suited on outside and strange on inside. It had seemed different on the Divine One—their Divine One—on whom there had always been some calming affectation of reassurance, and cleansed noble strength.

On Rafal, nothing of those qualities remained. Foregoing blue, Chrom hovered ominously behind him as a blood-red moon, to his new partner both a valuable weapon and the vignette of a memory; blue at blue's back, a sinuous pair of swords striking as one. He could have his pick of any bracelet in this fight, so why this one, why theirs, had his choice of Chrom been born of sentiment?

An unbecoming theory.

The hero from which this spirit was derived had slain a powerful Fell Dragon in his life, his Emblem incarnation had helped to slay even Father while perched on the Divine One's wrist, and Rafal too once possessed dragons to slay from sister to brother, now to sister again. It was a matter of mutual talents, a pairing predicated on the fang best suited to a maw.

...Nothing more, nothing less.

"Let me introduce you. This is Chrom. Together with Robin, they make up the Emblem of Bonds. Two halves of a whole—a bit like you and Nel, wouldn't you say?"

...

Across their centuries together as false brother and giving sister, Nel had never played with Nil roughly, never so much as hurt him, much less tried to kill him. She'd made the choice to hold him precious; the vestigial limb she were meant to cut away as all her kind did instead retained, her twin dragging uselessly behind her, though his weight bogged her down.

Kind, giving Nel was full of surprises, too.

“So. . .you finally struck at me in earnest.”

Something flitted across his face, genuine, on the end of a fierce strike that caused Chrom to gutter out like a flame and Rafal to hit the ground. The bars of the prison vanished in flickering prisms, letting out the Divine One, letting spill all tightly lidded hopes. Resistance hadn't broken, his prisoner freed, but even in the event of unexpected development, of seeming failure, he was still alive.

This too was his expectation, wasn't it?

In the end, he knew Nel wouldn’t be able to do it. If she truly aimed to kill her brother, that would be no more than closing those same fangs about herself. The heart was a tool and a burden, the owners of it promisingly soft. They worked their hands raw for higher purpose, abraded themselves on concessions for people higher than themselves, said yes where they ought say no, let live when they ought kill. For Nel it had been Nil, and for the Divine One it could still be Nel likewise.

Their footsteps departed. Rafal's eyes snapped open with a giggle, both mad and sane. No use wading in brine when there was still honey to be found. So long as he wasn't dead, there was always another plan.

Wiping clean the slate, the desert temple rumbled on its failing stilts. Collapsed to rubble in the wake of departed twins with matters left to finish.

"Zelestia. Please support these two going forward, no matter what happens.”

[tehmiesh]

laughing at the number of games I started over the last year (in order)

ori and the blind forest

octopath traveler ii

tears of the kingdom

octopath traveler

pikmin 4

sea of stars

the last campfire

baldur's gate 3

terra nil

versus the number of games I finished

octopath traveler ii 💀

[hana-loves-bumblebees]

Selma Lagerlöf really thought she could sneak in a greek tragedy into Nils Holgersson’s wonderful journey through Sweden and we wouldn’t notice

[lucdrawsthings]

all my life I have sought to be valued, only to discover that I am truly worthless.

[feelingsofaithless]

Oh, doomed and petrified The face of fear and doubts You see the angels fade away So one last try You look at the sky and you pray

[inkstainedhandswithrings]

um,,,, yeah… yeah, uhm

Chapter 7!!! i guess

chapter summery: Nevaeh gets Anakin and Obi-Wan out of a tough spot. But something is off about Obi-Wan‘s old friend. And more so than usually.

summery of my feelings on this chapter:

I’m not gonna lie to you guys, I don’t love this one but I hope y’all will be able to tolerate it and accept that better work is to come. This one is a bit more focused on Nevaeh and Obi-Wan and their friendship and all actually finally lead to some progress in the overarching plot BUT IT IS ACTUALLY FILLER AND IT IS LONG AND IM SORRY

anyway, if these are your thoughts after the chapter:

I’d totally get that

(but maybe just tell me this so I have motivation for the next one? you don’t have to though)

tags below cut:

@saturn-sends-hugs @phantom-of-the-501st @ihaventpickedausername @exxasperatedauthor @shahrezaad

[phantomguild]

(@shaymincafe) Shiso @ Nameless: You mentioned that your designation was "Monarch Experiment 01". What exactly was this experiment? Does it have anything to do with that crown on your head?

Nameless sat at the top of the gate to the center of the hexagon, the main base of operations for the Phantom Guild. The crystals powering the barrier gave off a blue light, ready to become active at a moment's notice. Their gaze turned down towards the purple-hued Shaymin, thinking over her question.

"It was a series of experiments to create a weapon capable of autonomously eradicating Hollow Pokémon. I was created with a unique ability: replication, of physical forms, and the power of the Aspects." They turned their gaze away to look over one of their paws, turning it over from front to back.

"This Kantonian Vulpix form is one of the forms that was pre-programmed into my being. It's the one that I personally find most comfortable, so I tend to favor this one."

"As for my butterfly symbol, the 'crown' you speak of. It's little more than a symbol of what I am. No matter what form I'm in, I always have the mark of the butterfly, since a flap of its wings is said to be capable of bringing great change."

They rolled off the backside of the gate, landing on their paws and kicking up a small puff of dirt. "Though whether or not I'll bring the good kind of change is up in the air right now."

[creativesplat]

Another sketch people! @alflearweek Day 6: Fierce/ Dragon

So this was originally going to be the other way around (eg. Alfred being rescued by Alear), but I couldn't find a moment in the story that would work, and then I played through the Fell Xenologue again, and then boy golly there was opportunity for hurt/comfort angst and rescue. Rafal out here making it easy for angst writers to put their little guys in situations (Chapter 5 be intense y'all).

[mintmentos]

The progression from kidnapper and kidnappee (kinda reversible cuz they both did it to a degree?) to human/alien queer platonic partners isn’t something I thought I needed but boy am I lapping it up

[rafent]

◜  ₊  —  𝓡  ˚  ₊   𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍

cw; decapitation.

Nil liked the Hooded Man.

His unquestioning adherence to orders so long as there was a battle to be had. His creative and violent solutions that demanded no direction or to be told what to do. His enthusiasm for all those things. For a Corrupted the circumstances of his transformation even differed from most. He had let Nil come to him, not forced, only compelled, and simply accepted the offer laid before him with relish. Never mind that it was no offer at all. That Nil would have killed him regardless.

He was, in any case, his most recent pawn. One that Nil’s hand needed. Someone able to be stretched thin, traveling over the various sectors of the chessboard where the crown royals couldn't be, simultaneously the most invisible and the most visible- which was why he wore the hood. To avoid the bevy of complications at being recognized, to avoid pulling apart a white spider's delicate web, so patiently exacted over years—

And for all that, Nil didn't even remember his name. Only that he’d been a prince once. Only that he was useful. Or perhaps it didn’t matter anymore; the lives that his Corrupted lived, when all of them served their best uses dead.

“You’ve returned with news of success, I hope. I've been waiting a long time for this,” he said softly without turning, knowing there would be nothing to see so much as hear from the obscured, hooded prince. Suspecting it. But the occasion was marked with surprise- instead of a report, a burlap sack dropped wordlessly at his feet without explanation.

Silence. Nil cocked his head, still imbued with an air of innocence, though his confusion was real.

“What's this?”

Wordless, again. It wasn't often that the talkative Corrupted feigned silence, or deigned a lack of response to his master. Some haunting note of importance accompanied this decision. Curiosity compelled the Fell Dragon prince at last to bend down, to untie the cord and peer inside upon a scene of. . .of—

He covered his face with one hand, obscuring an unknown expression. His shoulders trembled, beneath the skinny jut of his collarbone his chest heaved with scarcely contained emotion. Even the weak and spindly body doubled over at the waist in agony. It was almost as if he were crying until—

a giggle.

—no, it was laughter.

“Kaha..”

Unremitting, truly genuine laughter.

“Hahahaha!”

Years—centuries—over a millennia's worth of desire led to the sound. A harsh and gleeful peal; that high-pitched throttle only once exhausted of all fuel faded to a dying note. A driblet of saliva that he wiped away on the backside of his hand.

“.  .  .Hah.” Light-headed, Nil steadied.

Then he straightened. Like something within him had snapped back into place. Or simply, just, snapped. His kind eyes twisted into fragments of bloodied ice as he reached deep into the sack to surface the singular item that composed its contents- a decapitated head lifted from the depths into the light. Into the range of his hatred, his yearning, and his goal.

“What a sorry fool. Did you think you could run? Did you think I would not find you? Every speck of dirt belonging to this world lies within my web.”

With this final foxhunt, there was no more of them that remained. Brothers and sisters flushed out from the hinterlands of Gradlon by the Emblem bracelets. Worn on the bodies of his Corrupted, a roused-awake Emblem emitted the smell of honey- a 'revived' father's power- attracting the surviving children of Sombron like bees, leading them into ambush and annihilation. And yet—

“You called me a failure and yet look who it is that remains standing!" The mass of flesh was thrown squarely onto the ground, smashed viciously against it beneath the sole of his boot. That sole rubbed and smeared and ground any surface that it could. "None of our brothers and sisters remain. I am Father’s sole heir—me!!”

A smear lead to one stomp, then another. Then another. Another after that.

It was only when there was nothing to recognize- nothing more of a scornful expression and face to remember- that he stopped. Only then was it enough. Panting, he rose to his full height, faced with the smirking lower face of his pawn who even then didn't say a word.

“What. You’re still here?” He gave an ugly scowl, but there was no venom and no distaste in the observation. No; Rafal was in too good of a mood. One chapter closed by Rafal’s machinations, and countless others soon to begin. His tenor dropped to the pit of his chest. Deep and inky and honest.

His hand wiped on the Hooded Man's chest as he moved past.

“Clean this mess up. I have no need for it any longer—but keep close to the vicinity of Lythos Castle. Do not be caught. Should a new Divine One step foot into this world, you will know what to do.” 

And he left quickly. It was too long a time to be away from Nel’s side. Sweet Nil would never stray for long from his precious older sister or the protective enclave of the castle. Not even for 'a breath of fresh air'. Rafal made his way back to it from the grassy outskirts, his eyes wavering with anticipation. A ribbon soon to be cut, paving the way to the Divine One’s gift- whether willingness was a factor or not.

All would go according to plan.

Because Rafal’s pawns moved as he willed them to.

[steshii]

I feel like the Fell Xenologue story would’ve been much more impactful if every chapter started with an animated cutscene instead of just some narrations.

Since each nation is (mostly) a chapter, have a cutscene of the royal pairs fighting and struggling in their final battle and cut it off strategically before showing how it ends. Seeing the main characters struggle would play into the emotions of the player before the chapter starts.

The chapter could then proceed the way it currently does. The player would think the royals survived the previously shown battle when they appear, creating a false sense of hope and allowing the twist to still be pulled off down the line.

[soulcluster-moved]

also if anyone has finished fe engage's fell xenologue you have to come tell me if you liked it, I don't make the rules