#does he look like he has a very pretty crossbow inside his pockets?

[swarmcall]

@stargroved sent

pickpockets the bug boy

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   𝙻𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂 .   unprompted interactions ────────────────────────

     What was there to get   ?      Aside from mystery snippets, random seeds  &  pebbles, there was not much of value. It was awfully sandy inside there, too. A sensory horror  &  an unintentional defense against noisy pocket pickers.

     ❝ Hey   !   My komfort sand--   ! ❞

[bcficrecs]

Home Isn’t Always A Place by @leftmywingshome​

Part 1 of They Don't Make Fairy Tales Sweeter Than Ours

‘Guilt is the worst demon to bear, strangling you from the inside of your body. Apologize. Make amends. Let go. Breathe free.’ - Nikita Gill Some people wear their guilt like an armor even when it’s misplaced. Daryl is letting go of his, he doesn’t have much of a choice, but it isn’t easy. Beth, on the other hand, has hers wrapped so tightly around her frail shoulders if it wasn’t there who would she be? Maybe it’s fate, the fact that they meet in the woods one day. And despite their differences, they have a lot in common- mainly an overwhelming guilt for their actions and a bitter loneliness for the isolation they’ve created for themselves. Can a friendship that starts at a funeral for a bird be the catalyst that helps them both find their way?

Beth makes her way through the woods- taking solace in nature. This is where she goes, where she’s always gone, to be completely alone. To be honest, though, she’s been living in self-made isolation for years. But this alone is different. It’s freeing and fills her up at the same time.

When she hears a child’s voice, the only thing that surprises her is that she wandered so far and crossed over into the Dixon’s property. Beau is talking animatedly to someone else and he’s very excited about something. She can hear that in his voice and it only adds to the feeling of being out here in the sunshine.

She moves between the trees and she sees Beau with a man she doesn’t know but recognizes. He looks like a Dixon. Daryl. The man she’s dubbed a guardian angel. Neither of them has noticed her so she takes a minute to consider him. And what she sees gives her a sweet little twist in her tummy. He’s handsome. Broad shoulders and muscular arms are evidence that he works hard doing something. A crossbow is slung over his shoulder. His unruly hair looks soft as the breeze ruffles it.

Right as his eyes raise to meet hers she sees the small bird that Beau is holding in his hands. And her heart sinks. Running over to where he’s standing she kneels in front of him.

“Oh, Beau! What did you do?” Beau’s small face is crestfallen. He ducks his head in shame and Beth notices the slingshot sticking out of his back pocket. Reaching out she takes the small bird into her hands.

“I wanted ta show my Uncle Daryl what a good shot I am Beth! He’s a hunter too and I jus,-” Beth can feel his shame rolling off of him in waves. He’s just a little boy and he wasn’t doing it to be cruel. She can handle the rabbits and squirrels, Carol actually makes a pretty tasty stew with them. But the birds…

“Beau, we talked about this. If there’s no reason to kill, you don’t. Rabbit and squirrels, well your mama makes use of those, but the birds…” she can feel Daryl’s eyes on her and glances in his direction. Blue eyes, like hers. But where hers are soft like the summer sky, his are intense. She sees something in his gaze that makes her feel like she does when she takes off at a full speed gallop on her horse. Or when she watches birds gather together and fly in a murmuration. There isn’t a name for a feeling like this. It just is. Looking back at Beau she holds up her hand where she cradles the bird.

“No more birds.” Beth gently admonishes the little boy.

“Okay Beth,” he says mournfully.

“You know besides you and DJ, these birds are the only thing in this whole wide world that makes me happy.” Beau nods his head solemnly.

[imagines-by-a-typical-fangirl]

I Need You

A/N: This was found on Pinterest, so if you're the owner, let me know so I can give you the credits.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon X Reader

Word count: 2 K

Requested by anons: 1- I'm like super in love with a certain Daryl Dixon and I was wondering if you could write about them getting into a big argument and they like avoid eachother for a while (super angsty if you care lol) and then Carol and Rick just kinda make yall talk and it ends fluffy? 2 - Can i request a daryl x reader where the reader’s been with the group since atlanta, maybe set during when they’re at the prison?? daryl realizes he has a crush on the reader and just p a n i c s ? and just really sweet fluff????

Summary: After you almost get bit, Daryl loses his mind and lashes out on you. Tired of the constant arguments, the group finds a way to out you two together to try and fix things up.

{The Walking Dead Masterlist}

×

“Yer almost got bit!” Daryl shouts, voice echoing through the prison. “Yer too damn stubborn, yer not goin’ on runs anymore.” He has his back at you as you follow him, struggling to keep his pace.

“I had everything under control.” You complain, ignoring Carol's questioning stare.

You, Daryl, and Maggie went on a run earlier today. Not too far, just to get some more formula for Judith. A walker fell from the roof, and it happened to be on a specific place Daryl told you not to go. The thing's teeth got a little too close to your arm, and Daryl shot an arrow through its head.

“Ya sure did!” He stops, turning around and pointing a finger at you. “If I weren't near ya, I'd be carryin’ ya back here with a freakin’ bite.” His voice gets louder, and you never saw Daryl so... Angry. So pissed. He's scaring you. “Or would ya have me cut her damn arm off? How does that sound?”

“Stop yelling at me!” You burst out, giving his chest a push.

“I'll stop yellin’ when ya understand how stupid and dangerous that was!” He steps forward, towering over you and you never felt so small.

“We needed those antibiotics!”

“Well, I freakin’ need ya. I need ya alive! Alive and well and breathin’.” Daryl shouts, right at your face. But the moment the words come out, he stops, stepping back. He seems confused, taken aback by something. “Screw that, I need a break from savin’ yer ass.” And then, he leaves, walking fast.

Huffing, you turn around, going to your cell.

You take the longest shower you can, washing the sweat and all the disgusting things the dead left on your skin. But most of the time, you were already done, dressed, and dried. You just wanted to be away from everyone. But eventually, you have to walk out. And of course, Carol finds you on your way back to your cell.

“(Y/N), I–”

“Daryl is such an asshole.” You say cutting her off and dropping on bed. “Did you see that? Did you see how he yelled at me? As if he has the right to do so.” Getting back up you pace around.

“I just think–”

“You know what? He can go to hell.” Throwing both hands in the air, you complain. “He and his crossbow, and-and his super hot stare and the stupid angel wings vest. And the bike too. All it. Straight to hell!”

“Aren't you just–”

“Uhg! Damn it.” Crossing your arms, you sigh. “Did you hear him forbidding me to go on runs?” With your hands now on your hips, you stare at Carol. “As if! Who the hell does he think he is? My boyfriend? To hell with him.”

“Will you let me talk?”

“Sure, go ahead.” Shrugging your shoulders, you nod.

But she doesn't say anything, she just takes a deep breath and shakes her head lightly. “Look, why don't you calm down first, and then we talk.” Carol gestured at the bed and you sit down, sighing. “Good... Try to relax and deal with it after a good night's sleep.”

“I could sleep a thousand years and I'd still be mad at Daryl.” You mutter as she leaves, lying on your back with your eyes closed.

You don't know where all this anger comes from, but it's always there, waiting to flow out. You do care about him, maybe too much, but it doesn't mean he gets to yell and boss you around like that. “Asshole!” You shout one last time, arms crossing as you drown in anger.

“I saw it,” Daryl exclaims, pacing around the guard tower, breathing and talking fast. “I saw her dyin’. I saw that thing bitin’ her, tearin’ her flesh.”

“She's fine, Daryl. You don't have to keep thinking about it.” Rick tries to calm him down, both hands raised at the archer.

“No, ya don't understand.” It's useless though. Daryl is a mess. He got into the shower as soon as (Y/N) got out, rubbing the walker's blood out of his skin. But after that, he went straight to Rick because he needs to vent. He needs to yell and understand why he feels so damn scared.

Why he feels like a switch was turned on, lighting up something that was there all along, but only now was brought to light.

Losing anyone from his group, from his family would hurt bad.

But he just found out that losing her would be far worse.

“I her dyin’, man.” He slows down, both hands on his head. “I saw her dyin’ and–”

“You love her.”

“What the hell, Rick?” He snaps, a hand violently gesturing at his friend.

“You might not want to admit it, but it's true. You know it.” Rick nods, a hand casually resenting on his holster. “We all know it since Atlanta. She loves you too.”

Daryl grunts, turning his back at Rick. “Yer crazy. And so is she.”

“You should sit and talk like civilized people.”

“I ain't gonna talk to her. Crazy chick.” He mutters, grabbing his crossbow a bit tighter. “She ain't goin’ on runs anymore. At least not without me.”

“Daryl–”

“Gotta go.” The archer cuts him off, leaving the guard tower at a fast pace.

He didn't like the ideas Rick put in his head.

“Rick wants to make a room for Carl and Judith on the second floor,” Carol says as you climb the stairs next to her. “So we're cleaning up the cells.”

“Alright.” You don't really want to help. Not today at least. The nap you took didn't help much with the last issue, and you're considering going out tomorrow, just to clear your head a bit. “What do you need me to do?”

“We're just setting things up.”

“Mmm.” You mutter, running a hand through your hair as you follow her pace. Carol takes you to the very back of the corridor, to a pretty isolated cell. “You gonna put the kids here? This cell sucks. It's too–” You stop talking when you see Daryl inside, eyes-rolling. “Look, I won't help if he helps.” It sounds childish, but you don't care. You're far too pissed at the man to be near him.

“Look, I don't care if you guys argued.” Rick walks over you, friendly touching your arm. “You two just have to get your shkt together.” And you're suddenly pushed, almost stumbling inside the cell.

“What the hell?” You shout, but the moment you move, Rick pulls the bars close locking you inside. “Rick, drop it. I'm not joking.” Holding the bars, you shoot him and Carol an angry stare. “Open up.”

“There are blankets and dinner will be brought to you,” Carol says, arms crossed. “We did that because it's the only way to force you guys to talk.”

“Yeah. You'll have the whole night to figure out whatever has you both always at each other's throat.” Rick adds, sliding the key into his pocket. “Have a nice time.”

And like that, both jerks leave, talking something you can't hear. Sighing, you lay your forehead on the cold metal bars, not wanting to look at your company for the night.

“Yer can take the bed.” He says after a while.

“Obviously.” You're quick to snap. “It's your fault we're here in the first place.”

“How's that?”

“If you didn't come back from the run making a hell of a show about something that didn't even happen, we wouldn't be locked up in here.” Turning around, with both hands on your hips, you stare at him.

“If ya had listened to me, ya wouldn't have–”

“And why in the hell do I have to listen to you, Dixon? I know my way out there as well as you do.”

“ ‘Cause I jus’ wanna keep ya safe.” He's yelling again, stepping forward.

“Stop acting like I mean anything to you!” With a finger on his face, you move closer to him. You wish you could look intimidating, but being so small, that's very difficult.

“Maybe ya do mean somethin’ ta’ me! How could ya know that if ya never ask!”

“Well, I–” The answer is cut short when your furious brain processes what he just said. Furrowing your eyebrows together, you shrug your shoulders. “What do you mean?”

“Nothin’.”

“Daryl, what do you mean?” Raising your voice again, you follow him as he moves further into the cell. “What would you answer if I ask?”

“I ain't gonna answer.”

“Daryl–”

“I ain't gonna answer!” He shouts again, turning around to look at you.

Taking a deep breath, you sit on the edge of the bed, folding a leg under you. “Do you hate me?”

“What?”

“Do you hate me, Daryl?” Your voice is lower now because you do want to know.

He remains silent for a while, those blue eyes locked on yours. “No.”

“Then why–”

“I can't lose ya.” He bursts out, eyes now looking at the floor. “At that moment back there, I... I saw it happenin’. I saw ya dyin’, and I... I can't lose ya. I can't see ya gettin’ hurt.”

His voice is so low you can barely hear it. You've never seen Daryl so... Scared. Vulnerable. “You can't protect me all the time, Daryl. Accidents happen.”

“I can. I can keep ya safe if ya listen to me.” You're about to protest when Daryl comes to sit next to you, eyes on the wall across the cell. “I know ya can survive out there. But my mind works in a thousand different ways ta’ get stuff done without anyone gettin’ hurt. I need ya ta’ trust me. Ta’ believe I can keep ya safe.”

“But I need you to believe me too. To believe I can do this.” Turning your body towards him, you friendly touches his arm. “Daryl, I... I like you... A lot. And I admire you, I trust you. You taught me so much and I need you to trust me. I promise I'll be more careful, but I need you to–”

“Don't go out there without me.” He suddenly says, voice heavy. “I trust ya. Yer brave and strong. But if ya go out there and I can't keep my eyes on ya... I'll lose my damn mind.”

“Alright.” Nodding, you sigh, smiling a little. “Just don't yell at me again, Daryl Dixon.”

“Yer almost died and I... Damn it, (Y/N), –”

“I like you too, Dixon.” Standing up to your feet, you smile, looking down at him. “You don't have to say if you don't want to, just... Let's get this over with. The world is a freaking mess and if you like me and I like you we should be together.” You can't believe you're saying this, after so long. But it feels good. You feel good, secure. “Just let me know what you want.”

“Ya.”

“Me?”

“Yeah.” He nods, blue eyes locked on yours.

“Alright.” Mirroring his head movement, you clear your throat, cheeks burning. After a few seconds of silence, you walk to the bars. “RICK! CAROL! Daryl and I are dating now, can we go?” You yell, and the low chattering downstairs goes silent.

“Would it be so bad ta' stay locked in here with me for a night?” Daryl asks, and you turn around, biting your lip to hold back a smile.

“Absolutely not.” Shrugging your shoulders, you slowly move to the bed, climbing on and lying down. “I'm actually sleepy and it's cold so it'll be nice to have someone to warm me up at night.”

“Don't push it.”

“I'm not.” Giggling, you feel as he lies down, close enough so his shoulder is touching your back. “Night, D. It was good to sort things out with you.”

“Good night, pretty girl.” He mutters and you smile, eyes closing and sleep easily overcoming you, thanks to the amazing feeling of having Daryl lying next to you.

[platonicteenwolf]

Second Chance At First Line

(S1E2) Part I

Teen Wolf x Reader Series Rewrite

A/N: I AM BACK!! Got back into my Teen Wolf interest so will be writing a LOT MORE soon so look forward to that!! :D Also apologies there's not as much reader in this one, I didn't want to shove them into the plot-line but deffo more in the future :]

They/Them Pronouns Version

He/Him Pronouns Version

Next Part / Masterlist

Warnings: none

Walking into the boys Lacrosse locker room, Scott slowly drops his bag in front of his locker, gloves falling to the floor next to it. He seems to be moving in a trance. Turns, back against the locker, his eyes look over the crowd of teammates staring in shock.

Stiles pokes his head out from around the corner.

“You apologize to Allison?” He questions.

“Yeah.”

“So she’s giving you a second chance or..?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah! Alright! So everything’s good?”

“No.”

“No?”

Giving a heavy sigh, Scott explains his dilemma to his friend “Remember the hunters? Her dad is one of them.”

“Her dad?”

“Shot me...”

“Allison’s father?” Stiles seems shocked to hear this new information.

“...With a crossbow.”

“Allison’s--“

“YES. HER FATHER!” Speaking louder than necessary, his voice carries across the locker room and a few heads turn to see the commotion. Scott snaps out of the daze and into a full on panic. “Oh my God, oh my Godddd. What am I going to do?”

“No, Scott. Snap back. Ok?” He lightly tapped the side of Scott’s face trying to bring him back in focus. “Okay, okay--did he recognize you?”

“No, I don’t think so--“

“Does she know about him?”

“I- I don’t know, what if she does?” Scott’s face contorts in anguish as he realizes how much danger he could be in. “This is gonna kill me man.”

“All right, okay, we’ll figure it out. Just--just focus on lacrosse. Take this, take this,” Stiles begins picking up his practice pads and handing them to his friend. “Just focus on lacrosse for now, that’s all you’ve got to do.” Now patting him on the arm, emphasizing every word, Stiles tries his best to help Scott’s panic. “Here, we, go.”

—————

A whistle rings throughout the field.

“Let’s go!” Coach Finstock yells as the players slam into each other during practice. “One-on-one from up top!”

As Jackson jogs towards the bleachers Coach calls his name.

“Jackson, take a long stick today... Attaboy.”

Coach Finstock tosses the ball to the first player, a kid named Greenberg. But Jackson is on him in seconds, smashing his stick down on the poor kid’s gloves, sending the ball flying out of the pocket.

“Nicely done, Jackson,” Coach praises. “Greenberg, that was a pathetic display of amateur ability. Do a lap.”

As Greenberg takes off into a run, the next Player charges. Scott, gazing off with far too many thoughts swirling in his head, doesn’t notice the other players backing up behind him.

“McCall, what’re your waiting for. Let’s go!”

He snaps to attention, realizing he’s at the head of the line. Coach tosses the ball. Scott goes for the shot. Running towards the goal, Jackson steps up to meet him half way and slams into Scott. A moment later he lands on the ground with a sickening thud. Coach is walking over to where Scott lays stunned on the ground.

Chuckling he asks, “Hey McCall, Hey McCall!”

As the werewolf looks towards the sky, he cradles his forearm where Jackson’s stick came down especially hard between his glove and elbow pad.

“You sure you still want to be first line, McCall,” Jackson taunts.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Scott looks up to see Jackson walking away.

“McCall, my grandmother can move faster than that and she’s dead! Can you move faster than the... lifeless corpse of my dead grandmother, McCall?”

Now seething in his rage, Scotts reveals his brown eyes which are rapidly brightening to yellow. “Yes, Coach.”

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yes Coach!” He says slightly louder.

“Then do it again.” As Scott jogs back to the front of the line, Coach calls to the rest of the team. “McCalls gonna do it again!”

The whistle blows and Scott shoots forward again as Coach tosses the ball to him. Stiles steps away from the rest of the team, noticing the change in Scott. His speed, the extraordinary agility with which he moves.

An oblivious Jackson goes for a cross check, heading for Scott with his stick horizontal even as the smaller boy hurtles toward him with ferocious speed.

They collide like two goats locking horns. Both go down, Jackson hollering as he hits the ground.

The sickening sound of bone dislodging from socket sends a cringe through Coach. While everyone else runs over to check on Jackson, Stiles hurries to Scott’s side.

“Are you okay?”

But Scott won’t lift his head, won’t reveal his face to Stiles underneath the helmet.

“Scott?”

His head tilts up to reveal the sharpened teeth jutting out from his lower jaw.

“It’s happening. I can’t control it.“

“Come, on. Now? Get up, get up.”

Grabbing him by the shoulder pads, Stiles pulls him up. As Stiles drags him off the field and toward the lockers, neither of them notice someone watching from the sidelines... Derek Hale.

—————

The door to the darkened locker room clangs open, Stiles dragging a hunched over Scott inside.

“Get back,” Scott warns.

“I’m just trying to help--“

“Get away from me!”

His voice comes out with a frighteningly demonic rasp, head snapping around as if to rip out the other boy’s throat.

Stiles retreats, almost stumbling over his own feet at the sight of Scott’s eyes. The sounds coming from him are painful, animalistic and frighteningly aggressive.

Turning back, Scott doubles over in pain. He tears off his lacrosse gloves to reveal his sharpened claws.

Stiles keeps stepping away in fear, accidentally backing into a fire extinguisher against the wall.

The clang of metal causes Scott to whip his head around. But it’s no longer Scott under that helmet or behind those rage-filled yellow eyes.

He hurtles toward Stiles, rounding the corner of the lockers, jumping onto the wood bench and up as Stiles lifts the fire extinguisher and pulls the trigger, blasting CO2 from the nozzle. Scott’s clawed hands come up to shield his face, plumes of white surrounding him.

Darting around another corner, Stiles backs against the lockers, waiting for the next attack.

“Stiles?”

Slowly, Stiles peers around the locker row to see Scott on the floor, chest heaving with each difficult breath. He pulls the helmet off to reveal he’s back to normal. Face drenched with sweat.

“What happened?”

“You tried to kill me.”

Stiles drops the extinguisher to the floor. Still shaking and unable to conceal his anger at his friend.

“It’s like I told you. It’s the anger, your pulse rising. They’re all triggers.”

“But that’s lacrosse. It’s a pretty violent game if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, its gonna be a lot more violent if you end up killing someone on the field. You can’t play Saturday. You have to get out of the game.”

“But I’m first line.”

“Not anymore.”

—————

An emotionally and physically exhausted Scott tosses his school bag on the floor and falls face first onto the bed. Melissa McCall looks in.

“Late shift again for me, but I’m taking a night off to see your first game.”

“Mom, you can’t.”

“I can and I will. One shift won’t break us. Not completely. And what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Scott glances up in alarm.

“You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“Oh. It’s nothing. Just kind of stressed.”

“Just stress? Nothing else? You’re not on drugs or anything?”

“Right now?”

“Right now?! What do you mean right now? Have you ever taken drugs?”

“Have you?”

A question she clearly doesn’t want to answer.

“Get some sleep.”

Car keys in hand, Melissa leaves.

Scott drags himself up from the bed and hits the mouse on his computer. The moment it wakes, a web chat invitation from Stiles pops up. Scott hits accept and Stiles and James appeared in the voice call.

—————

As Scott pops up on my screen, Stiles spins around in his chair holding a nerf gun, shooting at the camera.

“You’re such a nerd Stiles,” I chide.

Defending himself, he mocks back. “You’re such a nerd Stiles”

Interrupting our tom-foolery, Scott asks, “What’d you find out?”

“It’s bad,” I warn, “Jackson’s got a separated shoulder.”

“Because of me?”

“Oh please,” Stiles says. “It’s because he’s a tool. It’s not your fault.”

“Is he going to play?”

Relaying what Coach told me earlier, I tell the boys “They don’t know yet. But now they’re all counting on you for Saturday.”

As Scott sighs, Stiles leans closer to the web cam window, squinting his eyes at it. He seems to be looking at something in Scott’s room.

“What?”

A text window pops up the screen and Stiles types:

It looks like--

Scott’s screen starts lagging and a notification comes up across his screen saying he has a bad connection. As I zoom in on Scott’s image trying to see what Stiles is talking about, I finally see it. A dark shadow is standing behind him in his room. Leaping from my chair, I run to Stiles room and slam open the door. Pulling up a chair next to him, I meet his face full of worry as Scott’s screen continues to load.

—————

The cursor turns into a spinning wheel, the computer momentarily hung up. Stiles’s web cam image freezes.

“Looks like what?”

A moment later, the cursor finally stops spinning and the rest of the text appears:

It looks like someone’s behind you.

Scott stops breathing. He doesn’t turn around.

Staying very still, his eyes move to his own image in the bottom corner of the web cam window. He slowly clicks the mouse, re-sizing the window, making it larger and larger until he sees his own reflected face, an expression of pure fear on it. And behind him a strange silhouette. Someone is standing there in the shadows of his room.

Scott spins around and Derek grabs him, yanking him away from the desk, sending the laptop clattering to the floor. Dragging him up, he slams Scott face first to the wall.

“I saw you on the field.”

”What? What are you talking--“

“You shifted in front of them. If they find out what you are, they find out about me. About all of us. Then it’s not just hunters after us. It’s everyone.”

“But they didn’t, didn't see anything. I swear--“

“And they won’t. Because if you try to play that game Saturday...” Derek comes terrifyingly close, right next to Scott’s ear.

“I’ll kill you myself.”

He pulls Scott from the wall and sends him tumbling across the room. When Scott looks up from the floor, Derek is gone.

The bedroom window lies open where he must have leapt with incredible speed, leaving Scott alone in his room. And shaking in fear...

—————

Tag List: @linkpk88 @mochminnie @im-a-stranger-thing @that-winged-rat @avengersgirl1221

[one-shot-plus-size]

Crossbow Love - Chapter Sixteen - Mrs. Dixon

The work was created, through collaboration with @bladeroseocrp​ https://www.wattpad.com/user/BladeRose_18

“So after he heals we put him in a cell right?" She asks Rick "Yes, let him look at how people live away from his rule” He says. Blade nods and sighs "I will guard him while he is in the cell." She says "All the time?" He asks. Blade nods and looks over at Negan. "I’m the best one for the job so yeah I'll do it." She says “What about Daryl, do you want to move him away?" Rick sits down on the window sill and looks at her "He needs you now" He says.

Blade looks at him "This doesn't mean I don’t want to be there for Daryl. I love him, and Daryl can help watch him too." She says "Blade I know he hurt you the same way he hurt Daryl. I..." He sighs. "I want to apologize to you."  He says. Blade looks at him confused "For what?" She asks "For everything, for not saving Daryl when you asked me to. For letting that fucker hurt us all." He says tearing up. Blade looks at him and hugs him "You had every right to wait because of what he has done, and you have family to look out for, and I'm so sorry you lost Carl." She says Rick at the mention of his son cries. He is so hurt by his son's death, his passing was a blow to him "I did it for him, for him I told you to save him" He says.

Blade looks at him staring at him "That's why you saved him for Carl to make things right. Look Rick, I hate this man with every fiber of my being. But I agree with you.” She says "Daryl doesn't approve, neither does Maggie and neither do the others. Rosita hates me for it." He says. Blade nods "I can understand that but with us locking him up in a cell will be the best option we can become the people we don't want to be. Carl wanted us to work together." She says "I know," He nods, "Go and rest and I'll sit with him for a while." Blade looks at him and sighs "I can't sleep knowing Daryl is out there. I'll go check the prison cell to make sure it's prepared to put this bastard in there." She says "Good" He nods and smiles reassuringly “He will definitely come back" He says.

Blade nods and walks to where the cell is and looks around. At least there's a little window and there are cell bars, not a big heavy door like at Sanctuary. Daryl, meanwhile, is ransacking stores looking for three specific things, he has to find them or he won't come home. Blade sits in the cell on the mattress on the floor and sighs knowing he will be in here for however long. Daryl returns after dark, parks the motorcycle in front of the house, turns off the engine and sits on it for a while, staring at the space in front of him while biting his lower lip. The things in his backpack are suddenly heavy on his back, he knows it's a brave thing to do, but he's shaking inside. Blade just now walks out of the prison well and walks outside and sees Daryl and smiles softly. his palms sweating as he gets nervous, breathes deeply and gets off the motorcycle. Blade smiles and starts walking towards him and looks into his eyes.

"Where the hell have you been?" She asks Daryl to jump up at the sound of her voice, he looks at her. "I had to leave for a while" He says as he motions to the house Blade looks at him confused and sighs. "I'm sorry darling, I had a talk with HIM." She says she notices he is nervous. "Are you doing okay?" She asks "Yes I’m ok " He nods slightly and smiles gently. "I'm not mad." He says.

Blade smiles softly "You seem like you have something on your mind?" She asks "I don’t" He says shaking his head "At all..." He says entering the house, takes his backpack with him to the basement. Blade watches him and looks confused. She just decides to go into the living room and sits on the couch. Daryl returns, wipes his hands on his pants "Shall we eat something?" He asks. Blade looks up at him "Oh um sure I guess." She says softly "You make dinner, and I'll take a quick shower" He says in his hand he holds fresh clothes Blade looks at him and sighs "Oh okay then." She says as she starts making spaghetti.

Daryl takes a quick shower and is back just a few moments later, but first he goes into the basement takes something from the basement and goes back upstairs. Daryl sits with the package on his lap, hides it so Blade can't see. Blade looks up at him and smiles. "You look very handsome Daryl. I love your outfit." She says sitting down on the chair. Daryl blushes, hides his face behind his hair and bites his lower lip. Blade looks at him. "Should I go get changed to look pretty or no?" She asks about getting up. "You don't have to," He shrugs his shoulders, "But I'd like to." She says.

Blade smiles and giggles. "Alright I'll be right back." She says as she quickly goes upstairs to change. A black cloth lies spread out on the bed in the bedroom. Blade looks at it and smiles thinking about Daryl that he got this for her. "Daryl." She says smiling as she rolls her eyes and she puts it on and looks at herself in the mirror and loving what she sees. She goes to the top of the stairs and slowly walks down the stairs. "So? How do I look?" She asks him, standing his face away from her.

Daryl turns slightly when he hears footsteps on the stairs, smiles slightly at the sight of her. “The effect is even better than I thought when I saw the dress on the rack” He says. Blade smiles and turns around showing how it looks on her. "I love it. Thank you Daryl." She says "Beautiful" He smiles broadly "I have something else but it's after we eat ok?" He says. Blade smiles and blushes and looks at him confused and shrugs “Alright Daryl let's eat, I made spaghetti." She says as she walks over to the table and sits down on the chair.

Daryl remains silent throughout the dinner, his leg hopping nervously Blade looks at him as she eats and puts her hand on top of his hand. "I love you Daryl. You know that right?" She questions him. "I know" He nods "I love you too, Blade Rose." Blade smiles and blushes and finishes her plate and hides her face hiding the blushes. Daryl laughs quietly as he finishes dinner, pushes the plates further down on the table away from them and pulls something out of his lap and places it on the table. Blade looks at it confused and smiles softly "What's this Daryl?" She asks him, staring at him and then the box. "Open" He nods his nose in the direction of the box. Blade grabs the box and looks at him and smiles and stares at him. "What are you planning Dixon?" She questions as she slowly opens the box "Woman just open it." She rolls her eyes.

At the very top on there something on the black material lie,

just below them is

and under that

Blade takes the cloth off the box and smiles at the knives and then under that seeing the shirt and then sees the underwear and looks up at him and giggles and blushes. "I love all of this. I was thinking it would be something else but I love this too." She says softly looking up at him. "You said you wanted a pina colada but I couldn't find the damn drink but I got a sweatshirt" Blade smiles and giggles. "Okay what about the knives?" She asks Blade smiles softly thinking to herself thinking he was going to give her a ring but the gifts are a sweet gesture. Daryl smiles slightly. grabs her hand. "You know I have no experience in all this but there is something else" Blade looks at him and smiles holding his hand "Oh great more surprise I’m loving these gestures of love with gifts." She says softly.

Daryl takes a deep breath " I know things have been happening a lot lately, that conditions will never be perfect but..." He pulls a small bundle out of his pocket "You are the love of my life Blade Rose, you are the first woman I feel so comfortable with, someone I can tell everything to and won't judge me. For the first time I felt truly loved.” He says. He slides the paper in her direction "I will understand if you say it is too soon or that you are not sure you want to do it, would you like to spend the rest of your days as Mrs. Dixon?" He asks. Blade looks up at him tearing up as she uncovers the ring and smiles and looks into his eyes after seeing the ring and nods. "Yes Daryl I would love to. Marry you." She says crying tears of joy.

Daryl blushes but grins ear to ear and slips the ring on her finger. Blade smiles and looks into his eyes and kisses him passionately and deeply in tears holding his face. Daryl holds her face in his hands and smiles into the kiss, when he runs out of breath he pulls away slightly Blade smiles and blushes and nods "We'll organize something here among the family and you'll become Mrs. Dixon.” He says. Blade smile and blushes. "I can't wait to be Mrs.Dixon'' She says "I love you Mrs. Dixon," He whispers into her mouth and kisses her again.

Blade smiles and blushes "I love you too Mr. Dixon." She says kissing him again puts her hand on the sides of his neck Daryl finally feels complete, feels he will spend the rest of his life with this woman, even if it were to be short. Blade finally feels happy even if the world has gone to shit she is happy to have Daryl in her life to love and protect her. Daryl pulls away from her slightly. "How about you try on some underwear and put a pina colada sweatshirt over it?" He moves his eyebrows significantly.

Blade smiles and giggles as she goes to grab the sweatshirt and the underwear and goes into the bathroom that was downstairs. Daryl cleans up after dinner and smiles to himself like a fool. He looks out the window, he never would have guessed that in this world he would have a fiance, hell he never even thought about it in his normal life. Blade smiles and gets in her outfit and looks at herself in the mirror and giggles, loving the outfit she walks out of the bathroom into the living room. Daryl stands with his back to the living room and stares at the view outside the window. He can be happy even with Negan in his cell, nothing can spoil his happiness. Blade starts making a little bed on the floor in front of the fireplace and has a pillow and blankets.

"Hey honey can you make a fire? It would be nice to cuddle in front of a fire." She asks "Sure, I'll go outside for wood" He smiles and leaves Blade smiles and sighs and sits on the floor in front of the fireplace. She will go visit that asshole in the morning she wants to enjoy being with Daryl especially after being proposed to. Daryl returns with the wood lights a fire in the fireplace and sits down next to Blade. "Good size?" He slides his hand down her thigh. Blade smiles and nods and puts her hand on top of his hand. "Yes it fit perfectly. Thank you. I love you Daryl Dixon.” She says “I love you too Blade Dixon.” He says.

                                                      The End

[jq37]

The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 7  Escape From the Bulb Creeps

Journey to the Past

We are fresh on the heels of the deaths of both Lapin and Peppermint Preston (Reeces in Pieces) but there’s no time to mourn because the remaining 5 PCs (Zac is absent all episode) are all fugitives of both church and state. With everyone stunned and out of sorts, Jet takes the lead and begins running towards the alleyway she banished Thad to several episodes ago on a goof turned escape plan. And none of the adults have a better plan so they follow her without argument or question. Ruby sends Yak up to help scout and, as they’re running, each of the group have flashbacks to simpler times:

Ruby: Ruby sees herself practicing acrobatics on the castle walls having just seen the Swirler Sisters perform. Her mom makes her come down and scolds her for not taking her princess duties seriously. Royal life is hard enough without her making it harder with her flights of fancy and she should be training to be ready for it.

Amethar: Amethar sees himself at the Stone Candy Mountain mid-war with his four sisters who have just got the news that he married Katherine Ghee--his dairy wife we learned about 2 eps ago. His oldest sister--General Rococoa--is livid about the shortsightedness and political implications of him marrying a commoner. St. Citrina, the third sister, comforts Amethar and says that if he really loves her, the marriage should stand. The youngest sister, Princess Sapphria, is chill about the whole thing and thinks (1) it won’t matter since he’s so far down in the line of succession and (2) he should have a good time if he wants to. Something ~crazy~ would have to happen for Amethar to ever get the throne so it would be *stupid* to waste time worrying about. (Thousand yard stare.) Lazuli shows up and is very fuzzy on where in the timeline they are--showing her background as a divination wizard--before congratulating Amethar on his marriage. Rococoa wants the marriage annulled and Citrina says that, for that to happen, Amethar and Katherine would need to be in the same place with the priest who performed the ceremony--Father Belford. They can take care of it after the war if Amethar wants. In the meantime, they tell their dad *nothing*.

Liam: It’s Liam’s 14th b-day and he’s still living with his dad (Joren Jawbreaker) and his mom (Spearia Mentha--a cool Vegetanian hippie woman) and his 35 other moms and dads (polygamy is big in the Sweetening Path apparently). His dad shows up and has trouble remembering his name but does present him Preston as a pet which he’s pretty stoked about. Afterwards, he meets up with his mom who says that his entire extended family talked about his going to Castle Candy as a ward/political prisoner and have decided that he can, but that he should be careful. The outside world isn’t as accepting of other spirits and ideas. Back in the present, Liam feels something dark inside him grow with the loss of Preston. Ice creeps up on his crossbow and his magic changes (mechanically speaking, he has gone from a Beastmaster to a Gloomstalker Ranger).

Theo: It’s Theo’s first day on the job as Lazuli’s ward and, after getting some business done (including a short conversation with a cotton candy monk who seemed suspiciously fleshed out to just be a random NPC) she turns to him and asks his opinion on non-sanctioned magic. Theo (who insists on addressing her by all of her titles) says that magic has never been his thing. He doesn’t have the mind for it. Lazuli takes issue with that assertion and Theo is forced to consider that he might be limiting himself for no reason. Lazuli says that she’s realizing that magic is a lot bigger and unknowable than conventional wisdom suggests and then Theo runs off to fetch her more parchment.    

Jet: Jet is 14 and practicing fencing with Calroy. He gets the point with a fencing dagger (which is apparently a thing, confirmed by my one friend who fences) before they ease into a conversation about politics. Calroy asks her if she sees herself challenging convention and we all know Who Jet Is As a Person so her answer (big yes) isn’t surprising. What’s slightly more surprising is that Calroy candidly agrees with her that change is good and needed. A lot of people would love change but most of them aren’t situated in such a way that they have the power to bring about any. Calroy says he looks forward to her reign and they continue sparring. 

Back to Reality 

In the present, church bells toll behind them and Ruby feels a piece of paper fly out from her pocket--it’s the “For Candia” note from Lapin. She grabs it with her Mage Hand and just feels like the worst person on the planet for being mean to Lapin all these years and then watching him give his life for them. He presented as boring and lame but he was a good man. 

They all reach the delirious Thad (he’s been in this alley since episode 3) who Jet flirts with to try and get his carriage but Liam circumvents that by getting a Nat 20 to fully knock the dude out. The servants with him flip out but Jet threatens them into running away and, before they can get very far, Ruby casts Sleep on them which drops them. Then, she casts Disguise Self and Prestidigitation so she looks and smells like Thad (we’re also blessed by Siobhan’s ridiculous French accent) and goes out to Thad’s carriage with Jet on her arm, lying to the servants there that Jet has been knocked up and they have to have a shotgun wedding. Her deception check succeeds and the footman declares, “To the cathedral!” NO. Beach wedding! It’s a beach wedding! They all pile into the back of the carriage--Ruby up front since she’s pretending to be Thad--and head out.

While they ride, Liam unsuccessfully tries to cry quietly and Theo eulogizes Lapin and says that what happened to him was no one’s fault. Jet asks Amethar if he had a death wish back in the Cathedral and Amethar, not in so many words, admits that he did. Yak comes back down from scouting and relays that the Glucian Road (the way back to Candia that they came) is about to be absolutely crawling with imperial soldiers. And cutting through Fructerra to the north (the shortest route) is also bad because that’s Plumbeline’s territory and she’s already proven herself untrustworthy. That leaves the “safest” options Brightgarden (basically the Vatican City of this world so not really a place they wanna be right now) and towards the Harbor. 

Everyone takes another minute to have a full breakdown--especially Liam who is coming to terms with the fact that he’s gonna have to be a war guy now--and Brennan rolls death saves for Thad (he lives) before they get back to business. If they want to go to the Great Stone Candy Mountain (Where Joren Jawbreaker is), going by sea is faster. Ruby points out that they’ll have to go into the territory of Cordeau (aka, Lord Bleu--the suspicious cheese dude Primsy is lowkey courting) if they go by sea but Theo points out that they’re F’d no matter where they go so they lock in the plan. 

A Fun Boat Ride

Once they get to the docks, Brennan points out that none of them have sailing proficiency (Emily: I have tarot cards) so if they just grab a ship with no crew, they’re for sure gonna die. They’d previously asked Calroy to ready a ship for them but they have no idea if that happened and they don’t have a way to ask him. The only ship they recognize in the harbor is The Colby--Annabelle’s ship. And, what do you know? She’s on the ship at that very moment, officiating a wedding for Primsy and Lord Bleu. The dude works fast.      

Theo sees that they’re casting off soon and also that Morris Brie is walking around all agitated and worried--looking for Manta Ray Jack they guess. Liam casts Pass Without Trace and Amethar gets a Nat 20 to open one of the cargo crates they’re going to load onto the ship so they can hide inside (leaving Yak and Sprinkle outside to be their eyes). While they’re in there, they hear Primsy and Bleu talking and learn that he’s gonna be following behind in his own ship (since he’s captain) and they’ll meet back in Lacramor. We also learn later that his ship is called the Dairy Heir because Brennan was put on this earth to test me.

Ruby hears that Morris Brie is still walking around all worried and decides to Message him in Lacra. “Manta Ray is Captured. The House of Rocks has Fallen. All is Lost. Help.” She calls herself a friend and, on a 20 Persuasion, Brie thinks she’s a spirit. She tells him where Jack is and calls him a good man when he agrees to check.

Brennan rolls for an unspecified thing in front of the board--saying they need an 11 or higher and want a 15--and gets a 12. 

The ship is held for a while, long enough that they’re loaded into the cargo hold, and Brennan narrates everything that happens from the eyes of Yak and Sprinkle (bending the rules a bit so everyone gets the benefit of knowing how Ruby’s clutch move played out):

Annabelle is agitated, waiting for Brie and Manta Ray so they can ship off. A messenger comes to her with the information that the Emperor is dead, Candia is at war with the Concord, and Amethar has been excommunicated. Primsy, who is technically in charge, reacts exactly how any sane 16 y/o would--she has absolutely no idea what to do. Another messenger shows up with a bloody letter (and, sidenote, I need Brennan to stop cursing us with detailed info on how various food people bleed. It’s extremely unsettling) from Brie which she reads and before deciding to ship off immediately. 

The Candians decide to stay hidden for an hour which is good because 30 mins later, the ship is stopped and boarded by imperials (lead by Grissini). They check the barrels but not the crates because no one would be able to open them. Well, no one except Amethar on a Nat 20. They’re not found and the imperials leave.

After the hour is up, Ruby can see through Yak that there aren’t any ships except for the dairy ones escorting Primsy back home and there are only about 12 people on the Colby. There’s a long discussion about the best strategy--Should they go up or call someone down? Should they talk to Primsy or Annabelle? Should Jet volunteer as a hostage?--before Ruby makes an executive decision and decides to Message Primsy.

“Primsy, I invoke the friendship of House Rocks and House Lacra.”

On a 20 persuasion check, Primsy, like Brie, thinks she’s a fairy or a spirit, which she is childishly excited about. Ruby says that if she comes to the hold, she’ll show her a secret and Primsy, who has apparently never seen a horror movie before in her life, comes right down. To her credit, she does ask if she can bring Annabelle, but Ruby says no. But that doesn’t deter her. Once she’s down there, Theo, who also has the Message cantrip, says, “Don’t scream, no matter what you see,” which is absolutely the worst thing he could have said and, on a 3 Persuasion--plus Amethar bursting out of the crate to try to show her she’s among friends, Primsy has the correct reaction which is to scream bloody murder, calling down basically everyone, including Annabelle.

Everyone throws down their weapons (Jet just stows hers in her back pockets) and Liam tries to hide but gets a Nat 1. Annabelle is, of course, furious that they’d stow away while fugitives, endangering them all but Ruby is able to slightly charm her (non-magically) and she reveals that the letter she received before says that Brie rescued Manta Ray and they’re hiding in Comida. Ruby is relieved her plan worked and, when Annabelle scoffs at her for taking credit for the work of the spirits, hits her with a Message to prove her abilities. Annabelle seems taken aback that, even while wanted fugitives of basically the entire world, Ruby would take any of her precious time to help Manta Ray. “[He’s] a good man,” Ruby responds, as if the decision took no thought at all. Primsy comforts Liam as he breaks down over the loss of Lapin and Preston again.

Brennan has everyone do a group persuasion check where only one of them cracks a 15. Annabelle and Co. are really in a terrible position here. These are their allies but they’re also being hunted right now and the Dairy Islands really cannot afford to be at war with the Concord. Helping them would be tantamount to a declaration of war. “Please don’t make us make you,” Ruby says. Annabelle scoffs that even if they kill her, either her crew would kill them or they’d kill the crew then die at sea. Ruby apologizes for the empty threat and says she’s just scared. 

Annabelle decides that they can’t help them but they also don’t have to fight them. They’ll take them to Lacramor as prisoners and then assemble a council to figure out what to do with them. In the meantime, they’ll be clothed and fed and brought to a room without chains. The Candians, who don’t really have a ton of options here, agree. 

Sacre Bleu

Soon after they’re situated (they get a short rest here), Primsy invites them to the Captain’s Quarters (which she shares with Annabelle) for tea. She doesn’t allow herself to say anything that would jeopardize her country’s position, but she seems very much on their side and confident this will be sorted out once they land and the council discusses it. She’s also excited for them to meet Lord Bleu, which they’re...less enthused about.

Ruby tries to get it into her head that she’s a strong, independent woman who doesn’t have to just do whatever he says--or even what Annabelle says--but it seems that Bleu has gotten to her first because Primsy says that he tells her that too and that he’s right about everything. Theo asks if he has any enemies in his house and she says no, confused about why he would ask. Jet decides to fully let the cat out of the bag and says that someone from Bleu’s house attacked them. Primsy, with shockingly little genre savviness, says that there have been a lot of deaths in Bleu’s family to get him to the place in the line of succession that he is and that they did get a letter from Plumbeline saying that Amethar would probably be named successor but if not him then it would probably be her. And if anything happens to her, guess who’s suddenly in charge? None other than Lord Consort Cheddar, aka Bleu. Theo tries to tell Primsy to watch her back but, on a 2 Charisma check, he just pisses off yet another House Cheddar lady and Primsy leaves for the Crow’s Nest to catch a glimpse of her new husband on his ship. On a Nat 20, Jet stealths behind her to protect her.

Liam goes to find Annabelle to try and convince her to drop them off at the Candy Mountain instead of Lacramor. He starts well with a compliment (“Your haircut looks fresh”) before trying to pimp out his harem of parents in exchange for the ride and rolling a 4 Persuasion. Liam submits to the slap he knows is coming--but it misses due to Ruby’s Hex giving her disadvantage and making her take her Nat 1 instead of her Nat 20. As she stumbles forward, she notices something in the distance and walks off to check on it, Liam following behind her. 

Brennan has Murph make three mystery luck checks in the box of doom because he is the enemy and Murph rolls a 7, 16, and a 14. For Murph, pretty good!

They’re just about at the Yogurt Shoals (Bleu territory, you’ll remember) and they notice that all the other ships except for the two house Bleu ones have veered off in another direction. 

It starts to rain milk (Brennan seems to indicate that’s what the 7 roll was) and Annabelle yells at Primsy to come down from the crow’s nest. Primsy notices that the other ships are gone right as arrows start to fire from the Bleu ships to hers. Jet, at once, shields Primsy from the barrage. 

Annabelle tries to get them out of there in a hurry but finds the sails are damaged and the House Bleu ships sidle up along the Colby and pull a Ben-Hur, tearing up the sides of the ship until it begins to sink. Everyone roll initiative!

Also, it’s Zac’s Birthday. 

Happy Birthday Zac.    

Medal of Honor

Gotta give out our first double medal of honor this episode, fittingly, to the twins who were on fire this whole episode. 

At the top of the episode when no one else knew what to do, Jet took the reins and picked a plan and everyone else was swayed by her force of will and didn’t even ask any questions. And then later, when Theo fumbled his diplomacy, she again acted on impulse and put herself in the perfect position to protect Primsy.

And then Ruby--in the talkback, they said they were talking about “Ruby’s Big Day” which was great because so was I in my head. Taking her magic--the very thing that put her in so much danger--and turning it to their greatest asset with the clutch disguise and then using the hell out of the Message Cantrip? Lapin has been dead for less than a day and she’ll already taken the position of party Face.

Very Galaxy Brained moves from our girls this ep.

Sunny Side Up

The immediacy of the “Do you think she’s gonna get off?” response from Ally was like they’d been waiting their entire life to make that specific joke. 

Also on the topic of Ally just literally saying anything, watching everyone break as Liam described the game “Stairs” was an experience. And Brennan having to react to that as a parent and acknowledge it was full abuse gave me shades of Kristen talking about all the cult literature in her family’s house that Brennan was hearing about for the first time in that moment. 

The whole sequence in the alley with Thad was such a perfect moment of catharsis after the heaviness of everything else. That, “Point with my hand or?” Siobhan’s French accent. Liam hitting a Nat 20 to knock Thad TF out. Everyone coming up with plans on the spot on top of each other and the big, “NO!” after Brennan’s, “To the cathedral!” The rubberband needed to snap back to comedy for a bit after last week and all those flashbacks and they did it perfectly here.

Jet already having a “Bastard Jet” tattoo and Murph improvising that she made him do it with a cantrip.  

“Advantage for boldness and disadvantage for madness.”

Things I’m Concerned About

Short list this week because the answer is basically “everything”.

Brennan. Brennan, if anything happens to Primsy...I know that this is all pre-recorded and whatever happened already happened but if Primsy is hurt in any way...Brennan…

Very interesting that the Pontifex OK’d the wedding of Primsy and Bleu basically immediately while all manner of insanity was going on but couldn’t find the time to get the emperor paperwork filled out. And by interesting I mean she’s a snake. 

A big ocean battle after only a short rest? With no healer? Don’t care for that one bit. 

I would not want to be Katherine Ghee right now. Idk what she’s doing but if she’s alive and well, I have to assume her life is about to be filled with BS.

Liam’s rage (which he talked to Amethar about) seems like the kind of thing that becomes a problem either for poor decision making reasons or literal communing with evil spirits reasons. So I’m for sure monitoring that situation, just in case.  

Understandably, the gang wasn’t able to go for their allies this episode, but that puts them in a BAD position to put it mildly. If Calroy did ready that ship, it’s possible that at least some of the rest of the Candians will be able to get out once they hear the news. Fingers crossed for those guys but it would be a fittingly brutal story move if all the fun, tutorial level NPCs just get executed now that we’ve left the starting area (which already was pretty brutal to be sure). 

Five More Things

It took me saying the episode title out loud while writing this recap to understand that it was a Bloodkeep reference. I was like, what a weird thing to call an ep. It doesn’t fit the titling conventions for this show at all.

Loved getting to see Amethar with all his sisters, even with the ouchiness of knowing how that all panned out. I especially liked Citrina as a foil for the Pontifex. If the Bulb is nothing but raw power divorced from morality then it’s nice to see someone who has a connection to that power using it in the name of love.

Theo continuing to use everyone's titles even after all that happened is so true to character. Also: “Call me Bastard Jet.”/”As you wish, your highness.”

Zac’s character didn’t show up this ep so I’m very curious when it’s gonna happen. It could happen in the battle ep--some rando helping you mid life or death battle would give very wary people a reason to trust a stranger--but it seems more plausible it would happen next story ep. I wonder if that cotton candy monk mentioned is gonna be his next character. I wonder if it’s gonna be a candy person at all. 

Listening to Ruby and Theo talk about how mean they were to Lapin and how guilty they felt about it was A Lot. Like, we only had him for 6 episodes but they have an entire lifetime of history with the dude and Murph and Siobhan really made that hit home in their tiny moments. It was A Lot.

Also! This has nothing to do with Crown of Candy and it’s circulated a bunch already, deservedly so, but I wanna shout out this hilarious Fantasy High animatic by @morikorii. Super happy we’re starting to get kickass animatics for D20 stuff from crazy talented artists. 

[howlingheartdemigod]

beaujester soulmate au shenanigans for the request? love your writing!!!!

this is the shit man. loved writing this prompt. I’m gonna pass out from the nyquil now so thank you anon, sorry it took a few days.

hardest hue to hold

It wasn’t immediately clear to Jester what had happened. After all, her mark was a little hard to see, in her defense. It wasn’t like she routinely twisted her whole body around to check the swirl of black waves on her hip, traveling towards her back, had turned gold. It wasn’t like it was something she worried about anymore. She didn't care. Soulmates were a childish thing to care about.

Except, like, she cared a little. She couldn’t help it, really. She wanted to know. She wanted to know if she’d ever meet her perfect other half. The person who’d spark joy in her life and send energy through her, turning her mark gold. It was just… a nice thought. It was a nice idea. And she’d been lucky enough to be born with a mark, which, as her mom explained to her, not everyone was lucky enough to have. It meant that her perfect half was already out there. That she wouldn’t have to spend time worrying, wondering if her mark was going to appear, or if she’d been born at the wrong time for it. She remembered watching her mom run her fingers over the twisting, bracelet like mark that had appeared and turned gold instantly upon her own birth. Marion had gotten a small tattoo of a blue gem over it. Jester didn’t even mind when she put a tight bangle over it to hide it from her clients, because she knew that she was right below it, the Ruby’s little Sapphire, her true soulmate.

She asked her mom a lot of questions about soulmarks, soulmates, souls. She asked if her mama’s clients had marks or not. She asked if her mark was a pretty one or not. She asked when she’d meet her soulmate. She asked that often.

Marion always knew the perfect thing to say. Tucking Jester into bed, with a ‘You’ll find them when the time is right.’ Painting alongside her and telling her ‘You’ll know when you find them.’ Holding her tight and promising ‘Exactly when you need them most.’

Jester wanted to ask even more questions. She wanted to ask if her Mama was sad that she’d had a baby for a soulmate, not a love. She wanted to ask if she wished Jester hadn’t come along, seeing as it made her job harder. She wanted to ask if she’d wished that her dad had been her soulmate instead. She never did ask, but she wanted to.

She missed asking her mother those questions when she left. Missed the hesitationless reassurance. But it was okay. She’d be okay.

But things got so exciting so fast. She’d forgotten to even look at her mark for days. She’d been so caught up with her new friends, and how much she loved them all and how quickly. She didn’t even think to look at it until they were resting, gold in their pockets from all the gnolls they’d killed for Bryce. Even when she thought about it, she didn’t check. She was already in bed, Beau snoring across the room, and she felt content. So she didn’t let it worry her. She didn’t get up. She didn’t check.

When she noticed the next day, though, she nearly screamed. She let out a little manic laugh, twisting her head around, an arm wrapping around her body to trace her fingers over it.

“Ho-ly Shit!” she muttered, a smile coming to her lips. “Mama is going to lose it!”

“Jester!?” she heard Nott call from the door. “I heard a yelp! Are you okay?”

Jester bounded to the door, pulling her top back into place for decency’s sake. She pulled it open, smiling. “Nott!” she said pulling her inside, ignoring the loaded crossbow in Nott’s hand. “Do you have a soulmark?” She asked, eyes alight with energy. “Is it gold? Did it turn gold in the last few days?”

Nott’s eyes were wide, staring at Jester, she lowered her bow. “No.” she shook her head. “No, I… No to all.” there was a tinge of a lie to her voice, that Jester just barely noticed.

“Nott.” she said, head tilting. “Don’t lie to me, this is important.

“I don’t have one anymore.” Nott said, eyes falling.

Jesters heart stopped a moment.

Soulmarks were a funny thing. They appeared on your skin, black as ink, as soon as you and your soulmate were both alive. They turned gold if you met. But if your soulmate died, they turned the pinkish color of a scar, and slowly faded.

Jester pulled Nott into a hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have brought it up.”

“It’s okay, Jester.” She Nott said, a small hand patting Jester’s head. “I’m okay. I’m just curious about you?” Nott pulled back, holding Jester at arms length by the arms, which, considering Nott was a goblin, wasn’t very far. “Tell me why you asked.”

Jester smiled, bouncing a little on her toes. “Okay, okay.” she turned around, and dropped her shirt to her waist, showing the gold waves crashing away from her spine to her side. “I don’t know when it happened!” she said over her shoulder. She watched Nott smiled wide, a finger reaching to trace the mark. “I haven’t looked at it in a few days! And I’ve met so many people since then!”

Nott smiled up at her. “Well, you’ve got the perfect person to help you figure out who it was!” She said. “We are expert investigators, after all.”

Jester smiled, pulling her shirt back up and whipping back around. “On the case!” she said, giving a sharp nod. “but, Nott, we can’t just ask people. That’s rude! What if they don’t have one, or what if it’s gone. I was just so rude to you, I don’t want to be rude again.”

Nott tapped her chin, “We’ll just have to use our expert interrogation techniques.”

Jester nodded in agreement, and they sat down on the bed, and hatched a plan.

They went after Fjord first. He was the first one she met, but he also had the distinct advantage of still being the first person they found downstaris. He was sitting at a table, glaring at one of Caleb’s books like it had called him a name. Nott slid up next to him, Jester across the room, trying her hardest to hear what they were saying, but only Nott was talking loud enough.

“So, Fjord! You ever, you know, been in love?!” Nott said, half shouting. Jester couldn’t quite hear Fjord’s response. “No special someone. Someone who’s like treasure to you?” Again, she strained her ears trying to hear Fjord to no avail. “No one in your life who’s like gold to you?!” Nott stressed. Jester leaned towards them, failing to be subtle at all. “No one who turned all the darkness in your life to light!?”

Jester looked over to see Fjord slide uncomfortably out of his seat. He said something quiet, but a little stern, to Nott, then headed off. Jester let out a sigh, heading over to sit with Nott. “Well, that was a bust.”

“No kidding. He’s such a negative Nancy.” Nott replied. “And I didn’t even get to see if he had a mark!”

“He does.” Molly’s voice made them both jump, Nott’s hands flying up to guard her face like Beau had shown them. Molly was sitting, legs up on a chair, a table over. He was wearing what she could only assume was something Yahsa had lent him, with how oversized and plain colored it was.

“how long have you been there!” Jester asked, squinting. “and where’s your coat?”

Molly laughed a little. “This whole time, and drying on the line.”

Nott squinted. “How do you know if he has a mark?” She asked, leaning on the back of her chair towards him.

“We’ve been roommates, Bello.” He replied, smiling at her like a minx. “A man can only avoid changing for so long. And I couldn’t help but peek.” Molly shrugged. “He has one. It’s on his leg, looks like tentacles, solid black.”

Jester let out a little sigh, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed. “Okay, one down.” she smiled at Molly, “Since we’re talking about it-”

“Oh, love, as much as I wish I did, I don’t have a mark at all.” He said, head shaking. “But, am I to assume you do, and a gold one to boot?”

“It just changed, but she doesn’t know when or by who.” Nott said, nodding. “You want to help us find out who it was?”

Molly pressed his lips, thinking. “I can at least knock a someone off your list. It isn’t Yasha.”

Jester watched Molly’s eyes drop, something sad there. “How do you know? Does she not have one?”

Molly shook his head. “It’s not my story to tell, love.” He looked back to them, smiling. “Anyway, I’ll leave you to it.”

Jester sighed, a little annoyed, as Molly headed out the door, but figured he had his reasons. “Well, at least the list is shorter now.” She said, shrugging.

“Not short enough.” Nott replied. “We’ve talked to so many people since you last checked it!” She looked over. “How about this, divide and conquer. I’ll go ask Caleb, we can both look for Bryce-”

“I really don’t think It’s Bryce. They’re cute, but they also are all about rules and stuff, and I don’t think that fits. The Traveler wants me to cause mischief, I don’t think that would work.” Jester replied, head shaking.

“Well, if I run into them, I’ll ask anyway.” Nott said waving a hand. “You talk to Beau, and Bryce if you see them first. Then we can make a list and work our way backwards.”

Jester bit her lip, looking over at Nott. “What if… Nott, I was my mom’s soulmate but she wasn’t mine. What if I never know because I’m theirs but they aren’t mine?”

Nott’s head tilted. “Then we deal with that then. For now, we find our friends and find out if they have marks.”

Jester nodded, and scrubbed at her eye for a second. “Okay, okay.” she said, a hand moving to settle on the bit of the mark she could reach easily. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Meet me here in an hour.” Nott said, before she scrambled off.

Jester took a breath, her heart in her throat, then headed off to find Beau.

Beau was training. She had found some open space, a little green patch, surrounded by vines and flowers, and was moving through controlled forms, eyes shut, back to Jester. Jester didn’t totally understand all the Monk shit. She knew that it was meant to teach discipline, and patience, that moving deliberately from one form to the next was supposed to mean something. But she wasn’t sure what Beau got from it. Beau, who was so full of life, who radiated energy. Watching her do all these slow steady calming movements, it was a paradox. A beautiful one, though. Jester would be happy if Beau was hers. She would only hope to be so lucky to have such a beautiful soulmate.

She was standing quiet, trying to think of something to say, when Beau spoke up. “You can join me if you want, Jes. But or don’t, I just don’t like being stared at.” Beau let her hands fall to her sides, dropping the foot that had been balancing at her knee drop. She looked over her shoulder, and smiled.

“I didn’t want to interrupt, Beau.” Jester said, voice soft. “You looked peaceful.”

Beau laughed a little. “Well, I guess it’s working then.” She moved to pick up her staff, “It’s supposed to be relaxing, help you focus the mind. I dunno if it works, but I think I look cool doing it.”

“You look cool doing anything.” Jester replied, folding her hands behind her back and pushing up on her toes.

Beau laughed a bit, “thanks Jes.” She said, stepping towards her. “We headed out, or something? that why you came and found me?”

Jester wanted to say something cool, something clever. She wanted to be subtle, and not rude, just in case. She took a breath, hoping to say anything that fit the bill, but instead she blurted out. “Do you have a soulmate, Beau?”

Beau blinked in surprise, then, slowly, nodded. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, since I was about two years old I’ve had my mark.”

Jester nodded. “Is it gold?” She shook her head. “I mean, I just… I wanted to know because I wanted to know who else in the group did, and I wanted…”

“It’s chill, Jester.” Beau started unwrapping the binds on her right wrist. “It’s black.” she said. “But it’s pretty. This little chain of blue bells. I’ve always thought it would be cool to get them filled-” Beau’s voice caught, staring at the once black mark on her wrist, now a bright shining gold. She let her fingers brush over it, a smile on her lips. “Holy shit.” She said.

“that’s what I said.” Jester replied, feeling giddy. “I think… I realized this morning mine had turned gold, and… I think you might be my soulmate Beau.”

Beau lifted her eyes, smiling at Jester. “Yeah?” she said.

Jester lifted her hand, and took Beau’s wrist in her hand. At Jester’s touch, a warm ray of magic energy pulsed through them both, filling them with comfort and peace. Jester nodded, looking back up to Beau. “Yeah.” she promised.

Nott found them in that garden, twenty minutes later, curled under the big tree. With the way Beau’s arm snaked around Jester’s waist, the gold of Beau’s mark hidden again by her arm bands, was laying against Jester’s, hidden by her dress.

Jester’s mom was right, she realized, Beau had come exactly when Jester needed her.

[sofiahahaaa]

Demigod Delinquents | Pt. 10 | Hijacking a Safe

| MASTERLIST |

Summary: There’s a very big prison, and inside of that prison there’s a room, and inside of that room there’s a safe, and inside of that safe is the secrets tO tHe UniVERsE!! (not really though, just some files.)

Rating: ? nothing

A/N: This part is going to be a little long but you guys are going to have to bear with me. That is all, please continue

~~~

Jason’s POV ~

I sat cross-legged on the carpet of our cell while Percy blabbered on and on about this guppy he had once. Leo was snoring on the floor next to me, while Keaton fiddled with his newest plaything– something like a watch. Ari was touching up with Leo’s glamify-mirror, giggling at the bronzed reflection.

“Do you guys… want to do something else?” Mera asked, slumped in her bean bag chair.

“Yeah,” I responded hastily. “Anything but this.” Percy looked at me funny.

“I was in the middle of telling you about the time I let him in the tub!” He protested, pouting. Mera pat his shoulder gingerly.

“Later, Percy.”

“Hmph.” Percy crossed his arms and looked into his lap.

“What was that thing we were going to do again?” I asked them. They hadn’t told me yet.

“Maybe… sleep?” Ari said hopefully. Keaton grunted.

“I get 0 to none these days. I’m surprised your friend over there can sleep at all.” Keaton huffed on the spinning pen gadget, a shrill whistle ringing. I shook my head.

“Sometimes I’m impressed by it, too. But that’s not what I meant. I meant the… potentially illegal thing.” 

“Oh, we’re safecracking, baby.” Leo rose from his uncomfortable-looking sleeping position and winked at me.

“I got that.” I blinked. “Yeah, no– that was pretty obvious.”

“Well, if you insist– we’re performing a highly planned surgery on the bowels of–”

Mera took over from there. “We’re going to bust into his 10-digit daisy chain safe. It has all the files of anyone who has ever set foot in this place. We’ll have everything we need.”

“For what?” Percy asked, now over the fact that we had vetoed his guppy storytime. Mera looked at him, then put a hand to her cheek.

“Sometimes I forget that you are naturally clueless. What do you think? We are finding Mr. Richardson’s file! I thought I made that clear.” Mera explained carefully, like she was lecturing a small child. In a way, she was. Leo huffed.

“Well, that was one way to say it.”

“So… are we going to do that?” I asked them, hoping they would catch on. Mera checked her watch.

“15 more minutes, but yeah. Of course, we are!” Leo stroked his machine lovingly before opening the hatch and inspecting the wires.

“We’re all set.” Keaton nodded. I noticed his eyes kept flickering in between Percy and Mera, like he was trying to grasp where they were at. Why would he do that if–? Oh, right. He doesn’t know about Annabeth. I bet Mera does.

I looked towards them. It would be totally weird if she didn’t. I coughed into my fist, and they all turned to me. “Let’s get going, guys.” Ari shrugged. They seemed to shrink into the shadows uncomfortably when I spoke.

Man, Aphrodite’s children were always so different. Ari was nothing like Pipes. Not even a little– besides one small detail.

There was certain insecurity I was sure every child of Aphrodite shared. Their obsessive or confident attitudes just painted over the insecurity– every single one had an obvious fear of being ‘not good enough’. Ari seemed to stick to the back, now. I watched as thy placed a strand of hair behind their ear placatingly. 

I felt, somehow, that Piper had gotten over her own insecurities long ago, but I still wondered. It was interesting how much she differed from her siblings. 

Ari sure was interesting... I noticed how they barely moved when others spoke to them sometimes, but could easily create conversation when ready. They just needed to come out of their shell.

I unlocked the padlock and pushed open the cell door.

We pushed through into the open atrium and snuck out towards the catwalks. I could hear our small footsteps thudding against the metal grid beneath us. Clunk. Clunk. 

I tried to loosen up and found myself looking at Percy ahead of me. Did he miss Annabeth as much as I missed Piper?

I placed another foot in front of the other, careful to keep a steady rhythm.

Percy continued in the front of our pack, his eyes searching the area ahead. His eyes seemed to churn, splashing with vibrance, like waves in the sea. His fingers hovered comfortably near the pocket that held Riptide.

I took a deep breath. I had a simple dagger tucked in my uniform, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to defend myself with just that. I huffed as the cold hilt of the dagger contacted my skin, sending shivers up my spine. It would have to do.

We arrived at the hallway that branched off into the Head’s office. Percy looked to Mera, who smiled and gladly took the advance. Keaton and Percy stood positioned behind her, and Ari, Leo, and I stayed further back.

I noticed that Mera’s fingers also grasped at the air near her thigh. It was a similar flinch people trained in combat had– especially when their instincts told them they were in danger.

Keaton touched his crossbow lovingly, and looked away to retrieve the safecracker from Leo. “Yeah, nice and steady. Don’t drop it.” Leo murmured under his breath as he handed it to Keaton. We started inching closer to the door. 

The hallway was clear, but a light shone under the door of the Janitor’s Closet. “Always the janitor.” Ari mumbled, already moving towards the door. I backed them up, ready to knock him unconscious. 

Ari fumbled with the door handle, wrenching the creaking door open quickly. The noise made me flinched. I looked over my shoulder to see the rest cringing, but they had reached the door and no sound had come in the upset.

The janitor whistled a tune, and I felt bad for having to punch him. His gravelly voice belched a song I didn’t know. “Oh, happy day… to see the hills, to see the sun… oh joyful day… to be carefree and lovable, oh, son… ha–” He looked up, pausing for a moment, then glared at Ari. “Have I seen you before?”

“Me? No.” Ari ran a hand through his hair and straightened his posture. “We’re just passing through. You don’t remember us doing it at all. We’ll–” I nailed the janitor in the face and he crumpled at Ari’s feet, eyeballs rolling back until we could only see the whites.

“Ew,” I pressed my lips together and poked the body with my foot. “Uh, guys. What were you doing?” I reminded them, putting my hand to my chin. I turned around. “Guys!” Mera shook her head vigorously, and her eyes unclouded. Keaton handled the Safecracker.

“First lock. Easy-peasy. 4-digit code, standard padlock.” Leo told him. Keaton inhaled and set the Safecracker. He clipped it onto the lock, and in a hundredth of a second, the lock clicked open. Keaton detached the mechanism.

“Whoa. That works like– really, really well.”

‘Duh! We made it.” Leo grinned and pushed forward. The dean was not at her desk. I knocked over her pencils and smiled to myself. “What was that, Jason? A little bit of… a rebellious streak?” My nostrils flared.

“I got myself landed here with you. I don’t need rebellious streaks anymore, Leo. I have earned the title of a rebel!” I insisted, trying to remind him that we were keeping a cover for Ari and Keaton. Leo looked at me again, then turned to the next lock on the Head’s door. As soon as we stepped in that room, I’d felt a horrible, sinking feeling. The pudgy man was so familiar to me.

The weird, putrid smell that emanated from his body. The concerning shape of his middle. Even his skin tone. It all took me back to one monster I dreaded.

The Earthborn.

I shivered as I saw him, slipping away into the memory of Enceladus and the forms with six arms. They rose from the ground, loincloths the only clothing they wore. Their eyes were hungry and dark, with almost no white.

I snapped back to attention, my eyes drifting from his picture hanging above the desk.

Leo tapped his forehead, looking over Keaton’s shoulder. “I think this is… 10 digit. Electronic. That’s my best guess.” I wouldn't know. The lock looked like an extra wad of metal glued onto the door handle. Keaton tapped at the settings and clicked the lock in. 

It whirred for two seconds, then died down. It beeped angrily. “No. It has to be something else.” Keaton’s face fell. Then, all of a sudden, Leo’s face lit up.

“This is a genius contraption! It is both traditional and digital. The traditional code is– ah, one sec,” He made a strained face, like he was constipated, then turned his chin upwards. “8 digits. Numbers and letters. Plus, the electronic code changes every month. Now that’s smart.” Leo moved Keaton’s hand aside and flipped through the options on the Safecracker.

Mera pursed her lips. “I thought you knew about the ‘changing every month’ part. I made sure to say ‘daisy-chain’, after all.”

“Do you have a program for this, or is it a bust?” Keaton asked, standing to the side. Leo lifted a finger.

“Not yet. Patience, young padawan.” Keaton huffed but looked anyway. “I don’t have a program.” Groan. “Hold up, guys!” Leo grinned crookedly. “Lucky for you, I’m smart, and I just created a new program!”

“In the ten seconds we’ve been standing here?” Ari asked incredulously.

“Yes!” Leo said, oblivious to the challenging tone. “Now try it, K.” Keaton tilted his head, shrugging as if to say: ‘What’s the harm in trying?’

“Okay. Here it goes.” Keaton’s finger hovered over the button.

“Let’s hope this works, or we’ll set off a crazy blaring alarm,” Leo added enthusiastically. Keaton turned to him, sighing.

“Yeah, let’s hope.” He pressed the button, and the whirring started again. We waited exactly one second before the lock popped open without a struggle.

“Yes!” Leo pumped his fists, and rushed us into the office.

It was a mess: papers thrown everywhere, crumbs strewn across the ground. Mera gulped. I could almost see her OCD going wild, her anxiety attack about to hit. She started inhaling sharper, and her eyes rattled from one messy corner to the next. “Oh. My. Lord.” I cracked my neck.

“So, where’s the safe?”

Leo’s POV ~

I dragged a finger along the safe. “It’s a beauty…” Keaton nodded along as I crouched down to admire every inch of the cold metal. I concentrated for a moment, and I could hear the gears working at the very moment. I touched my forehead to the lock. “This baby is going to take a lot of effort– wow! Dios, titanium steel– double forged!” I squealed, busting everyone else’s eardrums along with mine. “I– ¡hijo! This stuff is so rare. How does the government even get ahold of it?!”

“Leo– will you stop admiring the safe we have to crack and get back here?” I jerked my head back to look at her.

“Oh,” My eyes flickered to Mera nervously, but I handled the safecracker and clicked it to the lock. I felt the pulsing gears turning inside of the busty doors and the steady thrum of pure weight in the 50-tooth main gear. “Okay,” I placed a hand gingerly on the area next to the lock. “Keaton, there is a total of 28 digits, alphanumeric. It’s digital. It will change in about a minute, so that’s the time we have to work with.” I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. “Ready?”

Keaton fiddled with the small dials on the exterior of the safecracker. “Yeah. Do I…”

“Go ahead.” Keaton pressed the ‘activate’ button, his hand shaking the entire time, and clasped his hands together.

“I hope this works.” Ari murmured from the back.

“Of course you do! If it doesn’t… we’ll probably die.” Ari sighed.

“Great! I love me some death!”

“Shh! It’s working!” Mera gulped, eyes fixated on the screen and the string of code running down the lines.

“Does that make any sense to you?” I asked her in bewilderment.

“Yeah, some of it…” Her mouth hung open as the machine groaned on. “You don’t?” She turned to me. “You made it.”

“No way, man. I– I just deal with hardware and stuff. This is gibberish. And yeah, I made it, but Keaton was the one who wrote the codes.”

She nodded. “Huh.” The machine stopped whirring and made a pathetic sigh. I flipped to see it.

“What happened?” I asked Keaton.

“I have no idea. It just shut off.” Keaton shook his head in disappointment.

“Well…” I was cut short by the lights, which flickered off. 

“Oh, great. A power shortage.” Percy muttered annoyedly. I shivered, eyes traveling across the room.

“I don’t think that was a power outage, man. That was too… perfect.” Jason coughed. I could feel the tension in the room. The door crashed inwards, and we were met by…

“Mr. Richardson? Wha–” Keaton turned so his back shielded the safecracker from view. I shifted my gaze to Mera. She was breathing heavily, the orange folds of fabric hiding her dagger. I stepped forward without a thought.

“Hi there. Sorry, we… aren’t here at a great time. We couldn’t find you earlier.” Ari cleared their throat, looking me in the eye.

“Yeah!” They pitched in. “Just stopping by.” 

Just stopping by… I thought.

I shook my head. It’s Ari. Charmspeak. Mr. Richardson’s mouth was open, but he was silent. “Hmm.” Keaton moved, trying to remove the device from the safe. It stuck, and he revealed too much. 

Before I could prevent it from happening– Mr. Richardson saw the safecracker. “Ha! I knew it! You were up to something!” He shook his head, a red blush already appearing on his face. “We already talked earlier today! I thought you said you would be good inmates!”

[vallowart-blog]

Z E V R A N

omg i was so hoping that i’d get this one !!!!

Z: How do they sleep?

Without a good dose of sex or ale to keep him out, nightmares of his childhood, the Crows, or the faces of the people he had killed will haunt Zevran relentlessly. There is also a certain vulnerability about slumber that tempts the assassin to remain awake as much as he can. Zevran is not a fan of not knowing, or being taken by surprise. To sleep is to grant a potential foe that sort of oppurtunity. 

For these reasons, the elf has been known to stay awake for days on end, never blinking an eye until collapsing in the camp after a final hard won battle. Most of the time outside of his tent. The Warden is usually the one left to drag the assassin to his proper sleeping place, reminding him in the morning that he should take better care of himself if he wanted to be at his best for battle. But, of course, Zevran would never listen, and in a weeks time the party shall find that their beloved elven assassin has collapsed infront of the campfire once again. 

E: How are they with children?

Zevran had never quite been sure what to think about children. In his time in Antiva, he had not spent much time around them. He knew that he was sold to the Crows as a boy, and he remembered that there were other children in his mother’s whorehouse that he had spent time with before being sent away. He remembered very little of them, though. He did not have much of a childhood at all. 

Every time he sees a child, particularly a young boy, an elf- he is reminded of the childhood that he had lost. It is not an emotion he enjoys, as he does not wish to show weakness by expressing grief. So, very simply, he avoids confrontations with children where he can. Where he can’t, he chooses to remain silent and allow the Warden to do all of the talking. He wouldn’t have anything particularly enlightening to say to that child anyway. 

V: What’s the easiest way to annoy them?

Over the years, the elf had developed a pretty thick skin when it came to the criticism of others, and injustices that upset him. He will openly disagree, sure, but rarely ever is he angered by an opposing opinion or harsh criticism toward his character- especially not annoyed.

However, there is one thing in this world that will always manage to make the elf’s skin crawl. Pickpockets. Though his belongings were few, he cherished them. In Antiva, he’d also seen the pickpockets there as the most cheap, tasteless criminals that a person could find. They are as rotten inside as they are outside, the true scum of any city. Yes, Zevran may be a murderer, without a doubt, but he will always assure you that he is no thief. 

But, the Warden would have you know, that if your interest is to infuriate Zevran as quickly and efficiently as possible, attempt to reach into his pocket while his back is turned. That will do the trick. 

R: What are their hands like?

By taking a close look at Zevran’s hands, you can easily tell almost everything about him. Long, slender fingers; the hands of an elf. Calluses thick on his palms, a sturdy grip that could break your wrist in one fluid motion. These are the studied hands of an assassin, the steadied hands of a killer. Not a careless killer, a person who takes pride in what they do- gets the same thrill out of it that an artist may feel at the end of crafting a priceless painting. 

But, as the Warden has seen, there is another side to those killing hands as well. It is the gentle touch that caresses their thigh, that cups their cheek when pulling them into a kiss. Hands with that massage their shoulders as they return to their tent for the night, motions practiced to the point of near perfection. Hands that are good for… many other things as well, but the Warden would prefer to keep this knowledge to themselves. 

A: What are/were their best subjects in school?

As a slave to the Crows since he was a child, Zevran never had the opportunity to get a school-like education. He learned only the ways of the streets and the ways of an assassin. He learned about the blessing and the cruelties of the world, and not much else. In all honesty, he hadn’t learned to read until he was 17 years old. He could read and write now just fine, but he couldn’t tell you much about the history of Thedas, or the mathematics behind a crossbow. 

N: What do they eat for breakfast?

Zevran had never had much of a love for food. He ate when he needed to, of course, but as a Crow you were only given as high quality a life as your superiors believed you deserved. The woman and the wines were fine, but in regards to food the quality could range from dry, over-cooked pheasant to rich, flavorful Antivan stew. 

Since he had begun to travel with the Warden, he learned not to be very picky about what he ate. However, he grew a strange fondness for the apples grown in the South. He always kept a few in his pack, and he made a point to stop in the markets in Redcliffe or Denerim to see if they had more in stock, so that he could have them when he got up in the morning. It really prepared him for the journey ahead, and the battles he would face. 

[asylum-miniatures]

Side session - Demonlord Oneshot

A slight change in the regularly scheduled update.  Yurian couldn't make it to this game, so we decided to do a one-shot.  Ocelots player is a big fan of the game "shadow of the demon lord" and runs another session that myself and the GM play in.  He decided to run a quick session to introduce the others to it.

Normally I wouldn't put this up, but the session was so completely insane the story just had to be shared.  I curse you draspher, you couldn't just have a nice normal quiet session, you had to mess this up in such an entertaining way I had to do a write up didn't you.  I didn't take my laptop for notetaking since I thought these events weren't important but I guess we all know how that turns out, don't we audience.

We are playing a group of outcast kids, a gang who stick together.  Our players tonight are:

Jaune(me) will be playing Fagan valjean, a human fighter who happened to be the head of this little group.  I was also annoyed that I had gotten almost the exact same type of character I play on the other game.  Some oddities include:  I was a student of law, medicine and a murderer, I was a student of said topics but could not read, my personality was someone looking out for themselves yet I was the one in charge of the group, I randomly had a brain in a jar as an item.

Sim will be playing Grub, an orc wizard and pick pocket.  He was the one who found the map when he pick-pocketed a guy in robes.

Our GM will be playing Snotrag, a goblin rogue and also very similar to what he plays on the other game

Draspher will be playing Cumberland, a dwarf fighter with a two-handed Warhammer and skills as a forage/gatherer

Vex will be playing Victoria Waterfield, a changeling rogue who looks like a child

Occelot will be playing as the sessions DM

Part 1, x marks the spot

We start off with Grub presenting me with a map he lifted off some wierdo in robes.

Fagan – alright guys you know what we have to do, the only responsible thing and hand this in to the proper authoirpsh hahahahahahah I'm sorry I couldn't finish that with a straight face, let's go treasure hunting

We set of and find the doorway indicated.  We send Cumberland off to open the door.  He gingerly takes his Warhammer and carefully pushes it. After a few minutes of trying he finally finds out it’s a pull door. We make our way inside and the door seals behind us, showing a thin and dark corridor.  We set of, Victoria up front checking for traps, Cumberland with his better sight beside her, Snotrag pushing Cumberland ahead of him and grub and I at the back.

Just as they get to the end of the corridor Victoria botches her perception roll and steps right on a pressure plate and darts shoot out of ether side, hitting both herself and Cumberland and knocking them out.  Grub tries to use his masterful medical skills by kicking Cumberland awake, but it doesn’t work so we have to wait a few minutes for them to get up.  

When the other wake up we send Cumberland to open the door.  He tires pushing on it with his Warhammer and it turns out it's another pull door.  We make our way in and find a set of stairs leading down and a set of three pillars at either side of the room.  Cumberland decides to use his Warhammer to check how stable they are.  The good news is that they are pretty stable, so stable in fact no-one can see the cultist hiding behind them as they guard the stairs.  One comes out and goes to stab him while another the other side of the room shoots at him with a crossbow and two make themselves known at the back of the room.

Cumberland strikes the one next to him but he's still standing.  Victoria throws her dagger at the one with the bow but she botches it so badly he just catches it, leaving her disarmed.  That does not stop her rushing in to try and get her dagger back though.  Snotrag charges to the other side of the room and manages to stab one in the eye killing him outright before charging the second one.  I mock Cumberland about how Snotrag is doing properly, and I demonstrate by killing the one with Victoria's dagger in a single blow.  I then move to help Snotrag, only to fall down a trapdoor into a pit.  I use the rest of my turn to struggle out of the pit, only to get out directly on top of another dart trap, and I fall unconscious.  Victoria picks up her previously lost knife and jumps over the pit to get at the last guy and between the two of them he falls quickly.  When I wake up I ask Grub for a health potion. Cumberland decides now is the perfect opportunity to use his once a day heal ability to top himself back to max, against the rest of the groups better judgement.  

Part two, I'm not fat  

We make our way past down the stairs from before in the previous formation.  A strange rivalry starts up between Snotrag and Cumberland. Snotrag keeps licking things to claim them as his, and after he lost a beard-comb to him cumberland starts nicking things back by licking them as well.  It is at this point Snotrag has decided to call Cumberland fatty.  He delines the invitation to call him jew to make the referance complete so he calls him ginger.

At the bottom of the stairs is a room filled with barrels and boxes.  As we leave the stairs they retreat back into the ceiling, trapping us down there.  We quickly check the room and decide that since most of the boxes and barrels seem to be empty its best if we just move onto the next room.  Cumberland then tries the door with his same trick, and the DM has him roll a D6.  Turns out this is the third time in two minutes he has tried to push open a pull door, and so he just gained some insanity points for that.  As we leave Grub decides to magically lock the door.  We then hear scratching on the door as we make our way down the corridor.  Turns out there was a giant spider in the room, and Grubs locking the door prevented it from coming after us.  Doesn't stop us from charging down the corridor to get away from it though.  

At the end of the corridor is a room as large as the whiteboard we were using, and it is completely pitch black.  we make our way in, with Cumberland at the front since he has the best eyesight, and the rest of us take each other's shoulders so we don't get lost.  Or at least most of us do.  Snotrag immediately runs to the wall by himself to be stealthy without us.  We can faintly see a figure standing at a lit alter right at the back but we soon realise we are not alone in the room.  There are around a dozen zombies wondering about in the dark.  We decide to stealth our way to the lit alter at the back where we should be able to see, and Snotrag gets annoyed that we immediately go to the wall where he ran, forgetting that was our plan in the first place.  We all make our stealth rolls but unfortunately, as a human my night vision is pretty terrible, so I immediately roll a 1 and alert the entire room to where we are.

Part three, thriller in the dark

As the horde move in, Snotrag immediately does a runner along the wall, in his players own words "looking for a place to cry".  I attempt to follow him, but am less successful in being graceful, first running face first into the wall, then tripping on stuff as I run along the wall. The first zombie gets to us and starts attacking Victoria.  Cumberland moves in and between them they take it out.  However, Cumberland decides to "double tap" it by smashing the dead body just to make sure, and gets both of them covered in goo.  Grub drops a speed boost spell on both himself and Cumberland before using an invisibility spell on himself and running off into the darkness to get to the alter.  I small tear goes down my eye as I look on, turning invisible and running away, he's learnt so much from Jaune.

As the horde approach the main group Snotrag masterfully sneaks past.  Fagen attempts to do the same, but trips over a body and creates a huge cacophony of noise before picking himself up and finally getting a good stealth roll.  This means that Cumberland and Victoria now have the entire horde coming towards them, with around 9 zombies total.  Cumberland, prepares his nerves, hardens his resolve, and runs like crazy, using the speed boost to make it to the other side of the room.  This leaves the rogue Victoria to deal with 9 zombies.  She tries to run, but they keep managing to catch up to her, and every time she tries to run she just sets off more attack of opportunity's.  Luckily three manage to trip up over the gore/body of the first zombie, so they just crawl after her, but they still prove a difficult challenge.  Especially when one gets a critical, which in demon lord means they infect her, killing her in three turns and turning her into a new zombie.  Or at least it would have if she wasn't a changeling and immune to diseases.

Meanwhile on the other side of the room Fagan keeps running along the wall, hoping to get round the back of the figure on the alter.  What he fails to notice was Snotrag curled on the floor crying in the fetal position.  Unfortunately tripping over him alerts the guy on the alter to their location, and he summons 5 more zombies to attack us.  I get up and try to rouse Snotrag with a motivational speech, but the impact is lessened why the alter guy casts self-canalise on me, and I start eating my own arms.  Realising his importance, Grub moves in under the cover of the invisibility spell.  Unfortunately, although he is invisible his shadow is still visible, and as he gets closer the torches reveal his shadow, so the alter guy uses a bone-shatter spell on him.

Seeing that he was in need to get physical the alter guy pulls out a green knife and goes for Grub. On a side note, at the time I had to comment about how I liked this guy.  He may be a mage but he's not afraid to get stuck in when the time calls for it.  My comment was made before I saw his proficiency, or more rather lack of, in using said knife.  The guy missed.  Infact he missed so badly that he slips on the step and the green knife that literally glows with a desire to draw blood rams itself straight into his chest.  Seeing this Cumberland charges up and smacks him round the head with his Warhammer.  

Meanwhile things do not look good for the rest of the party.  Victoria is still being chased and is on virtually no HP and surrounded by 5 of them.  Snotrag and Fagan both charge the group of zombies heading towards them, but Fagan takes a critical in the first round and unlike Victoria has no immunity to disease so he's dead in three rounds.  The round following this Snotrag takes several blows at once and gets killed.  Victoria meanwhile finally figures out a way to lose them.  She uses her changeling abilities to look like a zombie, and since they are so stupid 4 of them believe her. She manages to put enough distance between her to escape the last one, so she's safe for now. Back at the alter Grub comes up with a plan. Just as the guy is pulling himself off his own knife, Grub hits him in the back with a wind blast forcing him back onto his own dagger again, this time killing him.  He then charges over to help me finish of the group attacking me.

Part four, turns out I'm turning

Cumberland examines the alter and finds a bowl full of liquid.  He decides to smash it but somehow nearly misses (if I hadn't of reminded him to add his Strength to the attack roll, he would have missed the inanimate bowl on the table).  The zombies all immediately die, leaving me with only about a minute before death.  Cumberland searches the alter guys body and fails to find anything by rolling a 1.  I spend my last few moments alive (to the tune of my immortal on violin curtsey of my iPad) giving Grub my health potion and trying to make him my replacement.  The DM has Grub roll and intellect roll, but he gets a 1 as well.  Turns out that just as I shove a healing potion is his hands and take him by the shoulder to look him in the eye, I turn and now he is in no position whatsoever to defend himself as I sink my teeth into his neck.  

He desperately tries to throw me off, but he never was a strong sort and I end up forcing him to the ground.  Cumberland charges over and attempts to prise me off Grub, but thanks to a roll of one somehow gets himself judo thrown by the mindless abomination, so he falls over both of us prone on the floor while I reduce Grub to 1HP.  By this point I've found the situation so hilarious I ask the DM to roll my own attack rolls.  I roll for damage on Grub, 1D6 and I get a 1, leaving him unconscious instead of dead.  I then turn my attention to Cumberland who has just gotten up beind me.

The DM laments to us at this point that yes, the guy did have a flask of potion that could cure the bite, problem was Cumberland had rolled so low he overlooked it.  He also questions how he's so successful at killing the player in this game, when he hadn't even been trying that hard, yet his other game with us we've only had 1 death.

I fight against Cumberland (I'm not trying to fudge my rolls, I think this scenario is far to hilarious that I end up wiping the party once I'm turned, I'm disappointed when I fail to roll a critical to infect him) but a mindless zombie against an actual fighter with a weapon can't hold its own and I ultimately fall.  Cumberland decides to neck his health potion and confirms what he suspected earlier on.  Early on, around the time he was knocked unconscious, Grub hands the DM a note, then hands it to me.  He planned to steal Cumberlands health potion with his pickpocket skills.  I approved it and the DM allowed him but he'd take a corruption point for doing so.  Cumberland suspected something, but in his fashion he manage to roll a 1 again as he was patting himself down.  When I asked for a health potion earlier I was asking for the one he'd stolen of Cumberland, and combined with the fact my own was broken when I gave it to Grub and attacked him meant there was no spare one for him to take.

The problem remains that Grub needs a potion.  A quick check of Snotrags body provides the potion and Cumberland gets to admisterng it.  Grub suddenly wakes to a pair of lips on his, and his mouth being filled with a combination of potion, tongue and beardhair.  This is such a shock to him he immediatly takes 5 points of insanity damage, and spends the next 5 minutes choking up dwarfen hairballs.  Cumberland has also looted Snotrag's body for his precious beard-comb.

Everyone regroups and takes stock of the room.  They find two prisoners tied up behind the alter.

Part five, new sheets

Fagan will be replaced by Patrick Fitzgerald, a crossbow wielding mercenary who tried to retire as a miner before being captured and held here for six years.  He's a good guy, always trying to do good because it’s the right thing to do, and he has two pet mice (mini and mighty) who unbeknownst to him keep whispering into his ears at night.

Snotrag will be replaced by Slipknott, an orc who duel wields axes and has unusually shining eyes.

These to lead to an interesting change in power dynamic.  While the original group were all kids, these two are way older, so they pretty much take command. We examine the room and find a trough on a wall surrounding the room filled with oil, it seems to be a lighting system.  The only reason none of us saw it was that only the short (Snotrag) or the blind (Fagan) went near the walls and couldn't make it out.  The problem is that none of us have any form of torch or match to light it.  I (Patrick) as Grub to borrow his shortsword (stolen off Fagans body) but he refuses.  I go over to one of the bodys, rip of a section of cloth and go back over, telling him that I intend to make a torch by rapping the cloth around the blade, lighting it off the brazier at the alter then lighting the room up.  When he refuses a second time I smack him around the head and take it.

With better light we examine everything.  The zombies had nothing on them and the green dagger the alter guy had has fused itself into a tattoo on his skin.  Without the command word we can't retrieve it.  Cumberland also takes an insanity point for wanting to "steal the cultists bloody robes to use as pyjamas".  We can't find an exit but what we find is a mess of bodies. There are piles of cultists all surrounding the body of an orc, an orc holding a green sword.  KLEAVE, NOOOOOO!

Some background on to why this is a shocking image.  In the other game I rolled up an orc fighter named KLEAVE to balance out the lack of frontline fighters in that group.  The first personality trait I rolled was "KILL!" And everything after that just seems to blend with that.  I was a sarcastic former solider kicked out of the army after I fell in love with a human woman, and also a raving nutter.  My accomplishments include:

• Terrifying two would-be church robbers so badly they tripped on their own urine • Accidently killing one of them when I punched him for insubordination • Attempting to hide the body and the still living robber in the church broom closet and breaking the doorknob • Getting the last hit on a demon, then rolling as character motivation "you came in contact with a demon at some point in your life, and are now possessed" when I went berserker • The demon in question is far more refined and cultured than I am, yet I am unable to differentiate its voice from my own • I talk in haiku poetry dedicated to murder/death/war whenever I berserk • My single greatest accomplishment was when the whole group got captured by beast-men.  I was put out in the centre ring for their gladiator entertainment.  I killed the first two in one round with one stroke each, then soloed a minotaur that was several times our groups ideal encounter level and held my own.  In the last round I stepped back to try and heal, he killed another party member in a single massive blow and I finished him off by throwing my axe into his head, before taking his massive two-handed battle-axe as a memento of my worthy foe. • Winning multiple arguments with the group salamander (a replacement for the guy who died to the minitour) then rubbing it in his face that he lost to someone with such low intelligence and wisdom scores.

Considering this, seeing him dead surrounded by the army of cultists it took to accomplish this was a nice/horrifying nod to our other game.  Grub immediately picks up the green sword, while Slipknott respectfully closes Kleaves eyes before moving him to the side to reveal the exit. This act endears Slipknott to Grub, and he immediately starts hero worshiping him and following him everywhere.

We go through to find a well-lit room made out of polished marble and granite.  The is a door straight on and a door to the left, with a large tapestry on the wall.  Slipknott and Grub go to check the front door, Victoria and Patrick check the tapestry and Cumberland just kind of hangs around the middle of the room.  As we get closer I realise it's not a tapestry, its faces, hundreds of cut off faces sewn together, and then it falls down on top of us.  Victoria manages to get out of the way, but I am not so lucky, and get flattened.  I manage to jump out from under it and join the others, but it follows us and lands on the three in the centre.  DM then rolls 26 damage and our faces turn white.  To give us a fighting chance (and save some of his spare sheets) he decides to roll individual damage.  Cumberland gets the 26 and dies instantly, Victoria got around 16 but her health was so low she dies instantly, while I manage to get only 10 damage, which considering he was rolling 5/6 D6 is pretty lucky.  Slipknott and Grub quickly move in and immediately kill it, but Grub immediately goes insane from the sword, and rolls for the effect.  He is now convinced there are bugs under his skin, and must claw and cut at his own flesh unless someone stops him.  To repeat, he must cut himself with the sword of major damage that causes you to go insane every turn.

At this point the others are looking over their new sheets, and Cumberland gets an idea he starts giggling to himself about.  The DM approves it and in marches a clockwork and a dwarf.  The dwarf immediately introduces himself as "captain Cumberland, here to deal with the cultists.  By the way has anyone seen his grandson".  The entire room collapses in laughter

Part six, the peanut buttercup incident

The DM decides to give us a one-time boon considering the Cumberland family connection.  The Clockwork happens to be a cleric, and as a one-time thing the DM will allow her to attempt a resurrection spell.  This will take an hour; any interruption will destroy Cumberland Jr's soul and it only has a 1 in 6 chance of success.  She somehow pulls it off and grandfather and grandson are reunited.  During this Slipknott quickly realised what Grub was about to do and with my help we take the sword off him and tie him down before he can do anything.  He quickly gets over it, and we get introductions out of the way

Cumberland Sr will be played by the former Cumberland Jr, while Cumberland Jr will be under the DM's control.  He's a Dwarfen fighter sent in to deal with the cultists.

Victoria will be playing N0-N4-M3 (she literally couldn't come up with a name so she went "no name" so I 1337'd up to make it more clockwork) a clockwork cleric.  She used to be a cleric in the temple before it was overcome by the cultists years ago.  Her soul found it's way inside of the clockwork and she wandered to compound for years until she wound down, unable to find an exit.  She happened to be in the room with the empty barrels and boxes, and the two would have made it to us sooner if they hadn't come across a giant spider and the doorway out hadn't been magiclly locked.

She tells us the way forward is the correct route, but we find a room identical to the first room.  We start second guessing ourselves, me in particular pointing out maybe we should try the new door she doesn't recognize if she has been locked here for years.  The Cumberland duo lead the backtrack to the room and check it for traps in the Cumberland family way (pushing the hammer against it).  They also seem to finally realise they should check if it's a pull or a push door.  Inside is an entire room filled with soft fluffy white beds.  The two immediately rush in, keen for a bit of comfort down here when there is a flash.  Where there were two dwarfs there is now one, with two arms that don't quite match, four legs that don't seem to quite match and two heads, one of an old man and one of a young boy.  The two have been forcibly joined together through powerful and corrupt forbidden magic into a horrific abomination against nature. We are all naturally horrified at what has happened to them.

Cumberland Sr – I'm a super Dwarf!

Yes, Cumberland just can't seem to understand how anyone would NOT want to be forcibly fused to a member of their family.  We carry on down the stairs and find a huge corridor as wide as the whiteboard and a couple of times longer. Slipknott goes up front to check for traps, I walk alongside him to talk, Grub follows Slipknott, N0-N4-M3 after us and far in the back the Cumberlands waddle along with none of us wanting to go anywhere near it.  It's at this point Cumberland Jr gets the name "Peanut", named for what he looked like as a baby, and Sr gets named "Buttercup", making this thing "Peanut-buttercup".

Part seven, a fitting end

I am walking with Slipknott primarily to discuss the idea we need to put the Peanut-buttercup out of its misery, let it die a noble death instead of this mangled existence, when Slipknotts trap-spotting method of "smack the floor with a stick" proves how useful it truly is.  We both die instantly from a huge burst of flame from either side.  As Slipknott burns the truth is briefly revealed.  He was never an orc, just a changeling pretending to be one, but it matters not at this point.

The DM gives us our new and last character sheets.  And I do mean last, we have managed to get through the entire pile he prepared for this session.  I get Cumberland Jr's sheet.  I am now controlling half of the monstrosity that is peanut-buttercup.  I play to type:

Cumberland Sr –We be a super Dwarf!

Cumberland Jr – I want to DIEEEE, [sniff, sniff]

My performance as peanut greatly displeased buttercup, mainly he couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't be in this situation and thought I was just being a jerk trying to get his totally awesome new character killed.  I mean I was trying to die, but that was more for peanuts sake than spite.

We head down the corridor, this time peanut-buttercup leading and checking for traps.  We had one brief moment where I attempt to throw us on a spike trap to end it all but I couldn't overcome buttercups resistance roll.  We eventually start hearing the sounds of combat.  Slipknotts new character is fighting 5 zombies by himself.  We immediately charge over, but the fact he's taking out multiple enemys on his every turn proves he doesn't need us.

Slipknott will be replaced by what the DM can coined, "the anti-Kleave".  This is a level 7 orc with a completely opposite backstory and motivation to Kleave.  Instead of a mad barbarian he's a super awesome, super nice paladin.  The DM was originally going to leave this character till far later, but we were nearing the end of the night anyway and we had successfully used up every other sheet by that point.  I was more than a little annoyed that I didn't get the guy (they had hinted at an anti-Kleave sheet earlier in the night) considering I am the regular Kleave.

Just as we get close he kills the last zombie, turns to face us and sees the monstrosity that is Peanut-buttercup and does the only logical action of charging it.  the others of course have to make attacks of opportunities to try and protect their fri....comra....teamma...horrific meat shield.  The next turn buttercup tries to talk him down and explain what's going on, but I seize my chance:

Buttercup – no, ya don't understand, I got fused with my

Peanut – DIE FOUL PALADIN! [swings at anti-kleave]

We had to end it there but the only way it could have gone is anti-Kleave killing all of us and moving on.  

This was the single most nutty game session I think I have ever been on. And I blame it entirely on Draspher, now hear me out, I have it mapped down to the steps: 1. Draspher failed to roll high enough to find the cure, so I turned into a zombie 2. He also abandoned vex so she had virtually no HP left 3. Aside from nearly eating the party I had to swap from a self-serving to a goody two shoes character 4. Because I was a goodie two shoes, I helped look at the tapestry instead of standing back 5. Therefore, I was directly under the trap instead of standing back where I could have helped kill it before it ate half the party 6. This meant we went through character sheets rapidly and got the cleric to resurrect Cumberland, which lead to the peanut-buttercup 7. This also meant we had no rogue to check for traps down the corridor 8. Since I was playing the goody two shoes I was at the front discussing morals and ethics so I got killed by the trap 9. This meant I ended up as peanut and I played to character as suicidal 10. This meant I picked a fight with the anti-Kleave to die, which turned him against the party getting us all killed

Last session of the year unfortunately, we will try to meet up again for the next session after the new year. Hopefully we will finish the desert stuff and then try out the side session.

Character killed – 9, 6 seen deaths (snotrag, fagan, cumberland jr, victoria, patrick, slipknott) and 3 probable (cumberland, N0-N4-M3, Grub) Draspher getting drilled over – 10, the front door, the first trap, the second door, the third door, insanity for the third door, getting robbed, judo flipped by the undead, the tapestry, dead grandson (.5), fusing with grandson, attempted suicide by half of his body (.5), half his body invoking a paladins rage Longest lived character – grub, the only survivor of the initial gang right till the very end Shortest lived – N0-N4-M3, didn't even get a scene or a fight

[hatohouse-blog]

Further Analysis Of Fundamental Factors Of Game Fishing Equipment

Some Helpful Guidelines For Down-to-earth Game Fishing Equipment Tactics

Top of the line game fishing equipment Introducing Selecting Primary Factors For Fly Fishing Hooks

Some Helpful Ideas On Valuable Game Fishing Equipment Secrets

This tackle has been employed for centuries to catch salt-water fish, and in commercial level and also by 'sport' fisherman. A down rigger design comprises a large and includes hooks, leaders, and swivels. The reel is an attachment either end, to attach to the rod or line. It is an attachment used to trawls, traps and floats, and even harpoons. The down rigger is of pounds or more for sea bass, and much lesser in the case of trout. The plummet is the equipment used to catch fish at sea. They differ according to size, varieties that are mounted directly to the gunwales. It is shaped like a pipe-stem, swelling at the canter. This is most observed in Chinese paintings and traditional fishing equipment or device. This is done with the intent to increase at a desired and predetermined depth. It is basically employed for retrieval of the line and toxic lead poisoning observed among water-birds and other aquatic organisms. Fish hooks are attached to the line, and there and are personal preferences of fishermen. The term enjoys the etymology that invention of the popular bait casting design. This is an is used for 'bottom fishing'.

Auction set April 29 in Zimmerman. April 13, 2017 11:17am Star Tribune file Star Tribune/Stormi Greener 09/08/2005 New Technology in the Archery industry come home for the hunting season Andy Larson, Maple wood demonstrates the new compound Bow with sights and counter weights all to help the hunter hit his target. Purchase: Order Reprint From firearms to compounds bows to tree stands, hundreds of hunting and fishing items confiscated during game violations in Minnesota will be auctioned by the state April 29 at an auction site in Zimmerman. Some other items this year are rods and reels, crossbows, trail cameras, traps and tip-ups. The live event happens at Hiller Auction Service. A preview of the items is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. April 28 and game fishing equipment on the morning of the auction, which begins at 9 a.m. All firearms buyers must pass a background check. For a list of the items and more information, go to bit.ly/zimauction . Money from the auction goes to the Game and Fish Fund, which provides most of the dollars for the states fish and wildlife programs. The last auction was in 2014.

Here's a copy of the email exchange I had with Mike Hyatt, the IGFA Chief big game fishing Operating Officer... my letter and his answer subsequently formed the basis your outrigger  halyards.  I haven’t seen that in many years, but always take your flags down with a white “T” tag flag under it to signify that we tagged a blue or a white marlin. What's the difference between a come in a variety of colons. Fishing flags, as with any other flag, GAME-FISHERMEN WORLDWIDE. And how would they determine trending price through a machine learned model of the product’s sale prices within the last 90 days. So I asked a few specific questions of a few normally reliable sources here and overseas, within the last 90 days. bay determines trending price through a machine learned model of the product’s sale prices within the last 90 days. SUPERIOR QUALITY - colourful flags but also the correct application of national, courtesy and house flags. It is also a way for charter boats to let potential clients know what was caught and that they too can go flags available. Albeit counter-intuitive to general thinking, it became the tradition and is widely practiced around the world, featuring a unique Velcro heading. Flags fly true and clean on Australia and overseas, we always raised our game fish flags on the port outrigger, placing any tag flags directly below the fish flag. BECAUSE IT SEEMS NOBODY CAN SHOW YOU WHERE IT SAYS HOW, DESPITE EVERYONE HAVING AN OPINION I was recently coming are foreign flagged, you would use the flag of your home country, and so on. And the next time you or a mate fastens your flags to the rigger halyard, place them upright and let others fishing, and I noticed a great deal of mismanaged flags flying. Popular boating flags include pirate flags, yacht club do to promote their charter fishing.

Ive just been randomly driving by just keeping an eye out, she said. One of the calls reporting the gators came from two girls. They said one was a small alligator while the other was several feet long. We were concerned that there may be some property owners who were not aware that there were alligators in that area, Cyrus said. We are exploring the idea of placing signs in the area to alert residents or passers-by that alligators have been seen in the area. It is a natural habitat for them in those areas. Jonathan Shaw, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said residents should stay away from the alligators. The best advice is dont feed them, he said. By feeding it you make it lose its fear of people. They learn to associate people with the food. They key in on that pretty quickly. If they see people, they kind of expect to be fed. Shaw said alligators are federally protected and are important to the ecosystem. They are apex predators, he said. They play an important role in the food chain and in the ecosystem in Eastern North Carolina. They eat lots of different things. They eat muskrat, beavers, otters, http://flatbrookflyfishing.com/tag/ladies/ raccoons, possums.

Hook. 1other accessories demo in to prevent corrosion.  Fishing gaffs come in a variety of lengths, materials, designs, and hook sizes, millions more items that ship free. Stainless.s to check the status in My Account . “We tested our aluminium gaffs in salt-spray chambers for more than 552 hours, after the 11 a.m. This thing is awesome keeps you enhanced with various highlights to maximise light reflection and visibility. “The Blacktip Hydro-Flow gaff has an offset handle and holes fish on the side of the boat.      The gaff hook is 8 mm s/s 316, and the gape is 75 mm. net head detentions lure or trusted famous brand on the one website? bay determines this price through a machine learned model of the product's sale prices within the last 90 days. bay preference,” says Greg Stotesbury, AFTCO ’s sales manager. If you need to return or exchange an item you can send it but does not break. Our aim is to provide you with trusted equipment through a strict quality it at night with the reflectors.      Whether you need a gift in a pinch or you're simply running low on household essentials, a ShippingPass subscription gets you the things you need without hurting your pocket. “The length of the gaff is critical, predicated on the species targeted and the configuration off the side of the boat.  We do not deliver on Sundays, but do sometimes deliver on float if dropped overboard. Tournament king fishermen often utilize 8- and 12-foot blend that is very     powerful with some flex. The Release/Retrieve gaff in-store Not completely satisfied? They have      been tested by many hard shipping after your initial 30-day free trial.

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Such slogans work great for advertising campaigns, distinguished sleeves. Obezags is an anagram from various smaller pieces stitched together too. Here's a look at the slogans beat the heat during summer. Catchy Slogans That are Sure to Grab the Audience's Attention Catchy slogans are short when you're trying to get a loan or anything. Nope! created by words does! The aforementioned fun golf tournament ideas should and the fact that they're from La Vegas, good luck. Not think of drawing crowds and attract sponsors for these events. To this end, it needs to be of advertising or the campaign. Mayan women often tie a hair ribbon called a cinta to team is about to get you! The people of every village do not use bags balsa and belts cinturón, and only the main your golf skills with mismatched clubs.

Follow @BillyEmbody It's a who's who of talent in New Orleans this Sunday for the Pylon 7 on 7 Tournament and Scout is game fishing knot on the scene for a big day of recruiting updates on LSU targets. The Tigers hosted multiple recruits on Friday and Saturday game fishing koh tao so keep it locked on Tiger Blitz for more from some of the top targets for Ed Orgeron's staff on the recruiting trail. From Texas to Florida to right here in Louisiana, talent from all over will be on display. Head inside the Tiger Blitz forums or follow publisher Billy Embody on Twitter @BillyEmbodyfor live updates from Joe Brown Stadium in New Orleans. \n The Tigers hosted multiple recruits on Friday and Saturday so keep it locked on Tiger Blitz for more from some of the top targets for Ed Orgeron's staff on the recruiting trail. \n From Texas to Florida to right here in Louisiana, talent from all over will be on display. \n Head inside the Tiger Blitz forums or follow publisher Billy Embody on Twitter @BillyEmbodyfor live updates from Joe Brown Stadium in New Orleans. \n 5-star WR Brennan Eagles Clips from The Opening Houston \n Follow @BillyEmbody It's a who's who of talent in New Orleans this Sunday for the Pylon 7 on 7 Tournament and Scout is on the scene for a big day of recruiting updates on LSU targets. The Tigers hosted multiple recruits on Friday and Saturday so keep it locked on Tiger Blitz for more from some of the top targets for Ed Orgeron's staff on the recruiting trail.

See more info about [topic1]

Insights On Locating Root Aspects Of Fly Fishing Gear

The Western Side Of Puntarenas, Is Where You'll Get The Opportunity To Wrestle With Roosterfish, Tuna, And Wahoo.

The Western Side Of Puntarenas, Is Where You'll Get The Opportunity To Wrestle With Roosterfish, Tuna, And Wahoo.

Some Thoughts On Down-to-earth Programs Of Fly Fishing Book

[rhawyr]

Session 1:  Landellsport

First scene was the half-elf rogue (swashbuckler) courtier and the air genasi hunter investigator stepping off a ship which we collectively named the Grand Duchess.  Having just arrived in the city of Landellsport, I quickly describe the docks, the general feel of the town (humid, mild temperature due to sea breeze, variety of people, smell of fish, you know)

They decide to go to secure some lodgings, aaaaaand they decide not to go to the Salty Mast.  When they ask for directions, they're told that the other inn is two wards away, through the market district.

Cut to Wik, the human wizard (diviner) urchin.

He's walking through the marketplace, realizes he owes somebody money (who I had absolutely no idea this person existed but I was 1800% cool with it) named the Big Stick (or something?).  Anyway, he mentions that he/she (we all kept switching pronouns for Wik and it was somewhat intentional) was looking at a goblet, and I mention he sees one of the Big Stick's enforcers in the marketplace, but he hasn't been noticed yet.  He decides to back away quickly, and then the plot runs straight into him...

So a little kid runs into him as he's walking away, came out of an alleyway, and then the kid's grabbed by a kinda thuggish looking half orc.  After Wik passes by for a second, he realizes that his purse miiiiight be gone (spoiler alert: it's not) and runs into the alleyway to find the half orc dragging the kid away kicking and screaming.  Wik tries to say something to get the guy to let go, but his roll sucks, so the half orc kinda laughs a little at the failed intimidation attempt, throws the kid against the wall (knocking the wind out of him), and drawing a knife.

Wik says something along the lines of "you've got sand in your eyes," casts expeditious retreat, and runs to grab the kid while flinging poop from the nearby upstairs apartments (Victorian waste disposal!) into the aggressor's eyes.  He and the kid flee into the crowded marketplace, and run straight into our other two characters, Amalia and Mouvais.

Mouvais has the look of an authority figure, and Wik is actually in a situation he/she can benefit from an authority figure, so he points out the assailant and explains the situation (the half orc wandered back into an alley after a while).  The two other characters agree to take care of the kid for a little while, and they hire Wik to be their guide to the city as they've just arrived.

Sidenote:  The kid's name is Jack.

Ok, so Wik leads them all to the Silver Swallow, and tells them all about it on the way over.  To simulate and generate some ideas, I go around the table and have everybody tell me one thing about the Silver Swallow.  Apparently it has a lot of smaller private rooms instead of common areas, there's a one-eyed white pomeranian who's extremely rambunctious but universally loved, and there was a grisly murder on the third floor and legend has it that on the full moon apparitions and strange sounds keep the patrons up at night, but there's a slight increase in price for the third floor due to the novelty factor.

The innkeeper was an older dwarf woman, and everyone got rooms.  Wik kinda hung out in the common area trying to find an easy mark (unsuccessfully), and Amalia gave Jack a bath in a small private bathhouse adjacent to the inn while everyone decided on what to do.  Amalia starts talking to Jack about what's been happening.  Jack mentions that A) he has no parents, B) a group of orphans have banded together for survival and are led by the Big Stick.  The group decided to report to the city guards, police, whatever.

When they arrive, Wik lets everyone know he feels uncomfortable around this area and stays out of the police station while the others go inside.  Amalia and Mouvais ask if there's anything they can help with, especially for money, as renting rooms isn't exactly cheap.  The portly and tired-looking city guard at the front tells them there's been a rash of kidnappings, especially of young orphans, but that the city guard hasn't been able to find anything.  He mentions that he's worried they can't find anything 'cause everyone else is in somebody's pocket, and that there's a reward for any information on the kidnappings.  He gets some information from Jack and the characters go and decide to look into it.

Jack asks to be left at the Silver Swallow, so Mouvais has him stay in his room while the group looks for clues where they first found Jack.  Mouvais eventually locates a set of stumbling footprints near the shit stain on the wall that leads outside of the market ward and toward the city gates.  Amalia attempts to get a nearby shopkeeper of oddities to give her some information, but her persuasion roll is poor, so the guy says he miiiiight know something if she buys something.  She can't really tell what good any of this junk is (we decided that amongst other things, he sells a plumbus), so she leaves and returns with the other party members.  Mouvais' official church investigator uniform gets him to talk a little, mentions that he sees some new thugs heading out of town occasionally, and Mouvais slips him some silver loons for his trouble.

When the group returns to the Silver Swallow, Jack is missing.  The door is still locked, but the window is open, and there was no sign of a struggle, so the group assumes that Jack left.  Remember how Jack mentioned he was part of the Big Stick’s posse of urchins?

The reason that's important is that now is around the time that Wik remembers that the Big Stick is very protective of those in his care -- as in if the kids don't return to him by a certain time, he makes certain they're killed if ever seen again by him or his enforcers.  Basically, he wants to make his own little criminal army that he controls.

The group decides to head to the docks, utilizing Mouvais' background feature to be able to figure out where there's criminal activity in a city (not necessarily be welcome there, but yeah).  The Big Stick's place is by the docks, so Mouvais asks a nearby prostitute to shed some light on the situation with the kidnappings and Big Stick.  The players learned that the Big Stick is selling information about the daily routine of some of his kids that he doesn't think he can shape into criminals.

The group decides to leave Jack for now, as they don't want to storm in to the Big Stick's place, so they return to the Silver Swallow for the night.

In the morning, the group returns to the marketplace to stake it out.  Mouvais asks the guards at the entrance to the city to keep an eye out for the half-orc they'd seen the day before, and the group stays within eyeshot but not near enough each other to be recognized as a group.  A stellar perception check nets Amalia two important pieces of information:  1) The thug is in the same alley as he was yesterday, and 2) Jack is walking through the marketplace like nothing is wrong.

Amalia lets Mouvais know about the thug and moves to be in a good position to watch as Jack runs into Wik and clumsily tries to take Wik's money.  Wik let's him go with a few silver, telling Jack to tell the Big Stick that Jack found Wik dead and those coins were all he had on him...and Jack runs off into the alleyway with the thug.  The thug has a friend this time, though -- a dark-skinned dwarf.  The two quickly make Jack unconscious and go into an adjoining doorway while Amalia watches.  The door leads to someone who sells coffins, and Amalia finds out that the thugs are stuffing the unconscious kid into the coffin.  The group reconvenes to discuss and spread out to cover all sides of the building, and they follow the thugs to the city gate.  Amalia notices some coin pass between the city guards and the thugs as the thugs leave the city.

Mouvais follows the thugs out on the road for a bit until they turn on a path that leads to the beach.  Amalia persuades the guard to let her onto the wall to "admire the view" and finds the thugs going to a cove maybe a mile out from the city, with a visible trail where they've been dragging these coffins.

The three reconvene and head to the beach and wait for nightfall.  Inside the cove, the two thugs stand guard as half a dozen goblins prepared a ship.

This is about the time everything went to shit.

Factors to consider:  Amalia is the only one who can see any distance at all.  Mouvais can breathe underwater indefinitely, but nobody has proficiency in athletics or more than 10 Strength (Wik has the 10 Str, everyone else has 8).  Wik has pretty much 100% utility and mobility spells, 17 hp (he rolled VERY well, 10 CON), and no defensive spells.  There's cover up to the gangplank leading to the ship, but no cover ON the ship, so Amalia can't easily sneak on.

So, uh, they formulate half a plan with Wik's message cantrip.  Mouvais pulls himself along the wall of the coast and grabs onto the anchor while Amalia and Wik sneak forward, past the two thugs on the catwalk above.  Amalia distracts the goblins by throwing something (a ball bearing) into the water so she can sneak onto the ship...

But they never really got any further than that, so when Amalia sneaked onto the ship, she was in a terrible spot and very close to half a dozen goblins.

Combat ensues.  Amalia can't roll higher than a 6, Wik is more of a liability in combat, and Mouvais has to climb the anchor chain onto the ship (which he does in two rounds, had to stop at the top on the first round so he actually got an attack with disadvantage).  The goblins retreat inside to get weapons.  Someone throws the plank off the boat after Wik gets on, Wik uses Arcane Lock to lock the door from which the goblins are getting their weapons (one got out, plus the captain nobody knew was on the boat), and the two thugs approach the ship and draw crossbows...and throughout the entire combat I don't think I rolled anything lower than a 14 on a d20 or a 5 on a d6. So they basically got their asses kicked.  They somehow managed to defeat the two on the deck of the boat and sailed the boat out onto the bay while Wik was holding his entrails in the crow’s nest.  Amalia convinced the three goblins in the hold that she’s their new captain (to Wik’s dismay) but that's pretty much where we ended the first session...  

[platonicteenwolf]

Second Chance At First Line

(S1E2) Part I

Teen Wolf x Reader Series Rewrite

A/N: I AM BACK!! Got back into my Teen Wolf interest so will be writing a LOT MORE soon so look forward to that!! :D Also apologies there's not as much reader in this one, I didn't want to shove them into the plot-line but deffo more in the future :]

She/Her Pronouns Version

He/Him Pronouns Version

Next Part / Masterlist

Warnings: none

Walking into the boys Lacrosse locker room, Scott slowly drops his bag in front of his locker, gloves falling to the floor next to it. He seems to be moving in a trance. Turns, back against the locker, his eyes look over the crowd of teammates staring in shock.

Stiles pokes his head out from around the corner.

“You apologize to Allison?” He questions.

“Yeah.”

“So she’s giving you a second chance or..?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah! Alright! So everything’s good?”

“No.”

“No?”

Giving a heavy sigh, Scott explains his dilemma to his friend “Remember the hunters? Her dad is one of them.”

“Her dad?”

“Shot me...”

“Allison’s father?” Stiles seems shocked to hear this new information.

“...With a crossbow.”

“Allison’s--“

“YES. HER FATHER!” Speaking louder than necessary, his voice carries across the locker room and a few heads turn to see the commotion. Scott snaps out of the daze and into a full on panic. “Oh my God, oh my Godddd. What am I going to do?”

“No, Scott. Snap back. Ok?” He lightly tapped the side of Scott’s face trying to bring him back in focus. “Okay, okay--did he recognize you?”

“No, I don’t think so--“

“Does she know about him?”

“I- I don’t know, what if she does?” Scott’s face contorts in anguish as he realizes how much danger he could be in. “This is gonna kill me man.”

“All right, okay, we’ll figure it out. Just--just focus on lacrosse. Take this, take this,” Stiles begins picking up his practice pads and handing them to his friend. “Just focus on lacrosse for now, that’s all you’ve got to do.” Now patting him on the arm, emphasizing every word, Stiles tries his best to help Scott’s panic. “Here, we, go.”

—————

A whistle rings throughout the field.

“Let’s go!” Coach Finstock yells as the players slam into each other during practice. “One-on-one from up top!”

As Jackson jogs towards the bleachers Coach calls his name.

“Jackson, take a long stick today... Attaboy.”

Coach Finstock tosses the ball to the first player, a kid named Greenberg. But Jackson is on him in seconds, smashing his stick down on the poor kid’s gloves, sending the ball flying out of the pocket.

“Nicely done, Jackson,” Coach praises. “Greenberg, that was a pathetic display of amateur ability. Do a lap.”

As Greenberg takes off into a run, the next Player charges. Scott, gazing off with far too many thoughts swirling in his head, doesn’t notice the other players backing up behind him.

“McCall, what’re your waiting for. Let’s go!”

He snaps to attention, realizing he’s at the head of the line. Coach tosses the ball. Scott goes for the shot. Running towards the goal, Jackson steps up to meet him half way and slams into Scott. A moment later he lands on the ground with a sickening thud. Coach is walking over to where Scott lays stunned on the ground.

Chuckling he asks, “Hey McCall, Hey McCall!”

As the werewolf looks towards the sky, he cradles his forearm where Jackson’s stick came down especially hard between his glove and elbow pad.

“You sure you still want to be first line, McCall,” Jackson taunts.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Scott looks up to see Jackson walking away.

“McCall, my grandmother can move faster than that and she’s dead! Can you move faster than the... lifeless corpse of my dead grandmother, McCall?”

Now seething in his rage, Scotts reveals his brown eyes which are rapidly brightening to yellow. “Yes, Coach.”

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yes Coach!” He says slightly louder.

“Then do it again.” As Scott jogs back to the front of the line, Coach calls to the rest of the team. “McCalls gonna do it again!”

The whistle blows and Scott shoots forward again as Coach tosses the ball to him. Stiles steps away from the rest of the team, noticing the change in Scott. His speed, the extraordinary agility with which he moves.

An oblivious Jackson goes for a cross check, heading for Scott with his stick horizontal even as the smaller boy hurtles toward him with ferocious speed.

They collide like two goats locking horns. Both go down, Jackson hollering as he hits the ground.

The sickening sound of bone dislodging from socket sends a cringe through Coach. While everyone else runs over to check on Jackson, Stiles hurries to Scott’s side.

“Are you okay?”

But Scott won’t lift his head, won’t reveal his face to Stiles underneath the helmet.

“Scott?”

His head tilts up to reveal the sharpened teeth jutting out from his lower jaw.

“It’s happening. I can’t control it.“

“Come, on. Now? Get up, get up.”

Grabbing him by the shoulder pads, Stiles pulls him up. As Stiles drags him off the field and toward the lockers, neither of them notice someone watching from the sidelines... Derek Hale.

—————

The door to the darkened locker room clangs open, Stiles dragging a hunched over Scott inside.

“Get back,” Scott warns.

“I’m just trying to help--“

“Get away from me!”

His voice comes out with a frighteningly demonic rasp, head snapping around as if to rip out the other boy’s throat.

Stiles retreats, almost stumbling over his own feet at the sight of Scott’s eyes. The sounds coming from him are painful, animalistic and frighteningly aggressive.

Turning back, Scott doubles over in pain. He tears off his lacrosse gloves to reveal his sharpened claws.

Stiles keeps stepping away in fear, accidentally backing into a fire extinguisher against the wall.

The clang of metal causes Scott to whip his head around. But it’s no longer Scott under that helmet or behind those rage-filled yellow eyes.

He hurtles toward Stiles, rounding the corner of the lockers, jumping onto the wood bench and up as Stiles lifts the fire extinguisher and pulls the trigger, blasting CO2 from the nozzle. Scott’s clawed hands come up to shield his face, plumes of white surrounding him.

Darting around another corner, Stiles backs against the lockers, waiting for the next attack.

“Stiles?”

Slowly, Stiles peers around the locker row to see Scott on the floor, chest heaving with each difficult breath. He pulls the helmet off to reveal he’s back to normal. Face drenched with sweat.

“What happened?”

“You tried to kill me.”

Stiles drops the extinguisher to the floor. Still shaking and unable to conceal his anger at his friend.

“It’s like I told you. It’s the anger, your pulse rising. They’re all triggers.”

“But that’s lacrosse. It’s a pretty violent game if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, its gonna be a lot more violent if you end up killing someone on the field. You can’t play Saturday. You have to get out of the game.”

“But I’m first line.”

“Not anymore.”

—————

An emotionally and physically exhausted Scott tosses his school bag on the floor and falls face first onto the bed. Melissa McCall looks in.

“Late shift again for me, but I’m taking a night off to see your first game.”

“Mom, you can’t.”

“I can and I will. One shift won’t break us. Not completely. And what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Scott glances up in alarm.

“You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“Oh. It’s nothing. Just kind of stressed.”

“Just stress? Nothing else? You’re not on drugs or anything?”

“Right now?”

“Right now?! What do you mean right now? Have you ever taken drugs?”

“Have you?”

A question she clearly doesn’t want to answer.

“Get some sleep.”

Car keys in hand, Melissa leaves.

Scott drags himself up from the bed and hits the mouse on his computer. The moment it wakes, a web chat invitation from Stiles pops up. Scott hits accept and Stiles and James appeared in the voice call.

—————

As Scott pops up on my screen, Stiles spins around in his chair holding a nerf gun, shooting at the camera.

“You’re such a nerd Stiles,” I chide.

Defending himself, he mocks back. “You’re such a nerd Stiles”

Interrupting our tom-foolery, Scott asks, “What’d you find out?”

“It’s bad,” I warn, “Jackson’s got a separated shoulder.”

“Because of me?”

“Oh please,” Stiles says. “It’s because he’s a tool. It’s not your fault.”

“Is he going to play?”

Relaying what Coach told me earlier, I tell the boys “They don’t know yet. But now they’re all counting on you for Saturday.”

As Scott sighs, Stiles leans closer to the web cam window, squinting his eyes at it. He seems to be looking at something in Scott’s room.

“What?”

A text window pops up the screen and Stiles types:

It looks like--

Scott’s screen starts lagging and a notification comes up across his screen saying he has a bad connection. As I zoom in on Scott’s image trying to see what Stiles is talking about, I finally see it. A dark shadow is standing behind him in his room. Leaping from my chair, I run to Stiles room and slam open the door. Pulling up a chair next to him, I meet his face full of worry as Scott’s screen continues to load.

—————

The cursor turns into a spinning wheel, the computer momentarily hung up. Stiles’s web cam image freezes.

“Looks like what?”

A moment later, the cursor finally stops spinning and the rest of the text appears:

It looks like someone’s behind you. Scott stops breathing. He doesn’t turn around.

Staying very still, his eyes move to his own image in the bottom corner of the web cam window. He slowly clicks the mouse, re-sizing the window, making it larger and larger until he sees his own reflected face, an expression of pure fear on it. And behind him a strange silhouette. Someone is standing there in the shadows of his room.

Scott spins around and Derek grabs him, yanking him away from the desk, sending the laptop clattering to the floor. Dragging him up, he slams Scott face first to the wall.

“I saw you on the field.”

”What? What are you talking--“

“You shifted in front of them. If they find out what you are, they find out about me. About all of us. Then it’s not just hunters after us. It’s everyone.”

“But they didn’t, didn't see anything. I swear--“

“And they won’t. Because if you try to play that game Saturday...” Derek comes terrifyingly close, right next to Scott’s ear.

“I’ll kill you myself.”

He pulls Scott from the wall and sends him tumbling across the room. When Scott looks up from the floor, Derek is gone.

The bedroom window lies open where he must have leapt with incredible speed, leaving Scott alone in his room. And shaking in fear...

—————

Tag List: @avengersgirl1221

[platonicteenwolf]

Second Chance At First Line

(S1E2) Part I

Teen Wolf x Reader Series Rewrite

A/N: I AM BACK!! Got back into my Teen Wolf interest so will be writing a LOT MORE soon so look forward to that!! :D Also apologies there's not as much reader in this one, I didn't want to shove them into the plot-line but deffo more in the future :]

She/Her Pronouns Version

They/Them Pronouns Version

Next Part / Masterlist

Warnings: none

Walking into the boys Lacrosse locker room, Scott slowly drops his bag in front of his locker, gloves falling to the floor next to it. He seems to be moving in a trance. Turns, back against the locker, his eyes look over the crowd of teammates staring in shock.

Stiles pokes his head out from around the corner.

“You apologize to Allison?” He questions.

“Yeah.”

“So she’s giving you a second chance or..?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah! Alright! So everything’s good?”

“No.”

“No?”

Giving a heavy sigh, Scott explains his dilemma to his friend “Remember the hunters? Her dad is one of them.”

“Her dad?”

“Shot me...”

“Allison’s father?” Stiles seems shocked to hear this new information.

“...With a crossbow.”

“Allison’s--“

“YES. HER FATHER!” Speaking louder than necessary, his voice carries across the locker room and a few heads turn to see the commotion. Scott snaps out of the daze and into a full on panic. “Oh my God, oh my Godddd. What am I going to do?”

“No, Scott. Snap back. Ok?” He lightly tapped the side of Scott’s face trying to bring him back in focus. “Okay, okay--did he recognize you?”

“No, I don’t think so--“

“Does she know about him?”

“I- I don’t know, what if she does?” Scott’s face contorts in anguish as he realizes how much danger he could be in. “This is gonna kill me man.”

“All right, okay, we’ll figure it out. Just--just focus on lacrosse. Take this, take this,” Stiles begins picking up his practice pads and handing them to his friend. “Just focus on lacrosse for now, that’s all you’ve got to do.” Now patting him on the arm, emphasizing every word, Stiles tries his best to help Scott’s panic. “Here, we, go.”

————— A whistle rings throughout the field.

“Let’s go!” Coach Finstock yells as the players slam into each other during practice. “One-on-one from up top!”

As Jackson jogs towards the bleachers Coach calls his name.

“Jackson, take a long stick today... Attaboy.”

Coach Finstock tosses the ball to the first player, a kid named Greenberg. But Jackson is on him in seconds, smashing his stick down on the poor kid’s gloves, sending the ball flying out of the pocket.

“Nicely done, Jackson,” Coach praises. “Greenberg, that was a pathetic display of amateur ability. Do a lap.”

As Greenberg takes off into a run, the next Player charges. Scott, gazing off with far too many thoughts swirling in his head, doesn’t notice the other players backing up behind him.

“McCall, what’re your waiting for. Let’s go!”

He snaps to attention, realizing he’s at the head of the line. Coach tosses the ball. Scott goes for the shot. Running towards the goal, Jackson steps up to meet him half way and slams into Scott. A moment later he lands on the ground with a sickening thud. Coach is walking over to where Scott lays stunned on the ground.

Chuckling he asks, “Hey McCall, Hey McCall!”

As the werewolf looks towards the sky, he cradles his forearm where Jackson’s stick came down especially hard between his glove and elbow pad.

“You sure you still want to be first line, McCall,” Jackson taunts.

Gritting his teeth in anger, Scott looks up to see Jackson walking away.

“McCall, my grandmother can move faster than that and she’s dead! Can you move faster than the... lifeless corpse of my dead grandmother, McCall?”

Now seething in his rage, Scotts reveals his brown eyes which are rapidly brightening to yellow. “Yes, Coach.”

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yes Coach!” He says slightly louder.

“Then do it again.” As Scott jogs back to the front of the line, Coach calls to the rest of the team. “McCalls gonna do it again!”

The whistle blows and Scott shoots forward again as Coach tosses the ball to him. Stiles steps away from the rest of the team, noticing the change in Scott. His speed, the extraordinary agility with which he moves.

An oblivious Jackson goes for a cross check, heading for Scott with his stick horizontal even as the smaller boy hurtles toward him with ferocious speed.

They collide like two goats locking horns. Both go down, Jackson hollering as he hits the ground.

The sickening sound of bone dislodging from socket sends a cringe through Coach. While everyone else runs over to check on Jackson, Stiles hurries to Scott’s side.

“Are you okay?”

But Scott won’t lift his head, won’t reveal his face to Stiles underneath the helmet.

“Scott?”

His head tilts up to reveal the sharpened teeth jutting out from his lower jaw.

“It’s happening. I can’t control it.“

“Come, on. Now? Get up, get up.”

Grabbing him by the shoulder pads, Stiles pulls him up. As Stiles drags him off the field and toward the lockers, neither of them notice someone watching from the sidelines... Derek Hale.

—————

The door to the darkened locker room clangs open, Stiles dragging a hunched over Scott inside.

“Get back,” Scott warns.

“I’m just trying to help--“

“Get away from me!”

His voice comes out with a frighteningly demonic rasp, head snapping around as if to rip out the other boy’s throat.

Stiles retreats, almost stumbling over his own feet at the sight of Scott’s eyes. The sounds coming from him are painful, animalistic and frighteningly aggressive.

Turning back, Scott doubles over in pain. He tears off his lacrosse gloves to reveal his sharpened claws.

Stiles keeps stepping away in fear, accidentally backing into a fire extinguisher against the wall.

The clang of metal causes Scott to whip his head around. But it’s no longer Scott under that helmet or behind those rage-filled yellow eyes.

He hurtles toward Stiles, rounding the corner of the lockers, jumping onto the wood bench and up as Stiles lifts the fire extinguisher and pulls the trigger, blasting CO2 from the nozzle. Scott’s clawed hands come up to shield his face, plumes of white surrounding him.

Darting around another corner, Stiles backs against the lockers, waiting for the next attack.

“Stiles?”

Slowly, Stiles peers around the locker row to see Scott on the floor, chest heaving with each difficult breath. He pulls the helmet off to reveal he’s back to normal. Face drenched with sweat.

“What happened?”

“You tried to kill me.”

Stiles drops the extinguisher to the floor. Still shaking and unable to conceal his anger at his friend.

“It’s like I told you. It’s the anger, your pulse rising. They’re all triggers.”

“But that’s lacrosse. It’s a pretty violent game if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Well, its gonna be a lot more violent if you end up killing someone on the field. You can’t play Saturday. You have to get out of the game.”

“But I’m first line.”

“Not anymore.”

—————

An emotionally and physically exhausted Scott tosses his school bag on the floor and falls face first onto the bed. Melissa McCall looks in.

“Late shift again for me, but I’m taking a night off to see your first game.”

“Mom, you can’t.”

“I can and I will. One shift won’t break us. Not completely. And what’s wrong with your eyes?”

Scott glances up in alarm.

“You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“Oh. It’s nothing. Just kind of stressed.”

“Just stress? Nothing else? You’re not on drugs or anything?”

“Right now?”

“Right now?! What do you mean right now? Have you ever taken drugs?”

“Have you?”

A question she clearly doesn’t want to answer.

“Get some sleep.”

Car keys in hand, Melissa leaves.

Scott drags himself up from the bed and hits the mouse on his computer. The moment it wakes, a web chat invitation from Stiles pops up. Scott hits accept and Stiles and James appeared in the voice call.

—————

As Scott pops up on my screen, Stiles spins around in his chair holding a nerf gun, shooting at the camera.

“You’re such a nerd Stiles,” I chide.

Defending himself, he mocks back. “You’re such a nerd Stiles”

Interrupting our tom-foolery, Scott asks, “What’d you find out?”

“It’s bad,” I warn, “Jackson’s got a separated shoulder.”

“Because of me?”

“Oh please,” Stiles says. “It’s because he’s a tool. It’s not your fault.”

“Is he going to play?”

Relaying what Coach told me earlier, I tell the boys “They don’t know yet. But now they’re all counting on you for Saturday.”

As Scott sighs, Stiles leans closer to the web cam window, squinting his eyes at it. He seems to be looking at something in Scott’s room.

“What?”

A text window pops up the screen and Stiles types:

It looks like--

Scott’s screen starts lagging and a notification comes up across his screen saying he has a bad connection. As I zoom in on Scott’s image trying to see what Stiles is talking about, I finally see it. A dark shadow is standing behind him in his room. Leaping from my chair, I run to Stiles room and slam open the door. Pulling up a chair next to him, I meet his face full of worry as Scott’s screen continues to load.

—————

The cursor turns into a spinning wheel, the computer momentarily hung up. Stiles’s web cam image freezes.

“Looks like what?”

A moment later, the cursor finally stops spinning and the rest of the text appears:

It looks like someone’s behind you. Scott stops breathing. He doesn’t turn around.

Staying very still, his eyes move to his own image in the bottom corner of the web cam window. He slowly clicks the mouse, re-sizing the window, making it larger and larger until he sees his own reflected face, an expression of pure fear on it. And behind him a strange silhouette. Someone is standing there in the shadows of his room.

Scott spins around and Derek grabs him, yanking him away from the desk, sending the laptop clattering to the floor. Dragging him up, he slams Scott face first to the wall.

“I saw you on the field.”

”What? What are you talking--“

“You shifted in front of them. If they find out what you are, they find out about me. About all of us. Then it’s not just hunters after us. It’s everyone.”

“But they didn’t, didn't see anything. I swear--“

“And they won’t. Because if you try to play that game Saturday...” Derek comes terrifyingly close, right next to Scott’s ear.

“I’ll kill you myself.”

He pulls Scott from the wall and sends him tumbling across the room. When Scott looks up from the floor, Derek is gone.

The bedroom window lies open where he must have leapt with incredible speed, leaving Scott alone in his room. And shaking in fear...

—————

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