#first time drawing a bipedal cat too

[edwardpinestar]

A little design wip of SoLM!Puss. Just a few ideas I have for how he'll dress in the future. Don't mind the shitty quality, I took the photo on my phone

[tropicalcontinental]

The Art Fissure

[canisalbus]

Long time follower and enjoyer of your art here. Just out of curiosity - what got you into drawing anthro art? Was it a certain movie/show? Seeing art on dA? for me it was Disney’s Robin Hood adaptation, lol.

I think I've been drawing bipedal, humanized anthro animals just as long as I've been drawing regular animals, and I've been drawing animals since I could hold a pen. I loved Redwall and Beatrix Potter, The Cat Returns altered my brain chemistry when it came out in 2002 (correction: in Finland it was released in 2004) and there was just a lot of childrens' tv shows featuring animal people that I watched every day without thinking too much about it (like that aforementioned Franklin, and dozens of others like it). I can't really pinpoint a single initial incident.

If we're talking about when I first found out about the furry fandom and the terms that came with it, I think it might've been around 2007 or so? It's when I got my first (hand-me-down) laptop and started cautiously poking around in the English speaking side of the internet.

[raintailed]

rain rain rain rain how do you draw iterators and slugcats btw like all your gyus are so shaped its so fun to look at theyre just little guys...

i'm gonna start with slugcats! my old guide from 2023 is here.

Note: "slugcat" refers to multiple species (slugcats are in a species complex). It can be hard to differentiate slugcat species, since some are very similar and hybridization between them is common where their ranges overlap. The species that Monk and Survivor are members of is called the "common slugcat."

Slugcats are weird sorta-feline creatures that walk bipedally and have little hands. Their average height is 3'3" or about 1 meter tall.

Their basic body shape is a round head on top of a trapezoidal body. Their legs are digitigrade, they have human-like arms (that are often skinny lol), and their tails are thick and tapering. Slugcats also have retractable arms ig??? I have no idea how that would work

In terms of head shape, it's similar to a cat's, but with a somewhat taller forehead (bigger brain! more room for being Smart!). Slugcats usually have short muzzles, big eyes, and long ears.

Note: slugcat arms usually rest in front of the body (think meerkats) rather than to the sides like a human.

Uhhh I like giving slugcats dewlaps (rabbit dewlaps are a good reference)!

And for fat slugcats, fat is usually stored in the tail (and dewlap) first. So naturally my gourmand has a big tail and a big dewlap :]

And!! I like to think that some slugcats have fur, and some don't. Hairless slugcats are slimy; furred slugcats have oily, waterproof coats. Some shorthaired slugcats have smooth fur like otters and seals do.

TEEFS!!! Except technically, slugcats don't have teeth. Rather, they have sharp, jagged beaks (think cephalopods). Their beaks continually grow and they are self-sharpening. Because their beaks are really sharp, slugcat bites are always serious injuries.

The length of their "fangs" varies by species. Some carnivorous species have long fangs, for example.

And! They have bristly tongues like cats (and kinda like the radula of a gastropod).

For their paws, slugcats have 3-fingered hands and feet. Their claws vary; some individuals have blunt claws, some have sharp claws, others have retractable claws, etc.

The inner toe of a slugcat's foot is opposable, making it easy for them to grab onto poles with their feet. (Compare to scavengers, who mostly use their arms to climb.)

SLUPPIES!!!!!! (don't worry about the fluffy one, they're just eepy)

Slugpups have different proportions than adults! Including having a bigger head, chubbier body, etc. Fluffy slugpups can also be a bit scraggly like longhaired kittens are.

My slugcats are basically egg-laying marsupials. They lay eggs, store them in their pouch, and then the eggs hatch into itty bitty babies. The babies stay in the pouch, feeding on milk until they're big enough to venture outside.

When pups are too big for the pouch, they ride on their parent's head or back. They also begin the process of weaning around this time, since by then they've started growing a sharp beak (i guess before that, their beak is dull and too small to self-sharpen?).

Note: some slugcat species are unisex and others are trioecious (having male, female, and unisex individuals).

For expressions, ears are important!!

Neutral: ears relaxed. The relaxed position varies by individual; some slugcats have their ears rest slightly tilted back, for example.

Alert/interested: ears perked up.

Angry: ears pinned back. Very angry slugcats have their ears positioned so they're almost in line with the top of the head.

Afraid: ears pinned down (sometimes slightly to the sides, too).

Sad: ears droop to the sides.

Slugcats mostly use their tails for balance, but they're used for some emotes too.

Upwards-curled tail is an excited or enthusiastic hello! Kinda like how some cats raise their tail when they see their human.

When upset, annoyed, or grumpy, slugcats may thump their tail against the ground (kinda like how rabbits stomp).

Some slugcats wag their tails when playing or excited. This isn't a universal thing, though.

Slugcats with fur may puff up their tail when startled or scared. They may also puff their tail when excited or playing, too.

[jekyll-doodles]

For Wakey Wakey Au Rubedo in "The After":

Rose 🌹 What does your Oc find attractive in other people? Are these traits found in their friends and/or romantic partners? Are they found in themselves?

Kiss 💋  Is your Oc a good kisser? Have they ever kissed anyone before? Do they even enjoy kissing? What was their first kiss like in comparison to their most recent?

Lipstick 💄 What does your Oc think of their face? Do they have a positive or negative opinion? Do they wear makeup? Do they have a skincare routine? What traits do they like most about their face?

Scarf 🧣 What comforts or Oc? Is it an item? An action? A person? Whatever it is, how and why does it comfort them?

He's a very fascinating, entertaining (and handsome) character. It's the highlight of my day when you post about your wakey wakey au, and even more so when it's about Rubedo!

Rose 🌹 What does your Oc find attractive in other people? Are these traits found in their friends and/or romantic partners? Are they found in themselves?

Good sense of humor, free-spirited, kind-hearted.

It wasn’t intentional but he also seems to have a type (at least you know before The Everything) for those with long, dark hair that could definitely pick him up and throw him if they wanted. That's not a requirement by any means of course but its kinda funny in retrospect.

Lipstick 💄 What does your Oc think of their face? Do they have a positive or negative opinion? Do they wear makeup? Do they have a skincare routine? What traits do they like most about their face?

I haven’t been able to draw it yet, but those unraveled forms can have their “normal” faces (one set of eyes, nose, mouth) but can also get Funky. Very fluid forms, after all. They can change to fit needs (ex. Citrinitas and Rubedo have bipedal forms too).

You know this man has messed with his face a little, not to mention whole body. You know this man has a face that looks like a lion/cat ( hard to be mad at someone when they " :3 " ya know).

As for his human face, he likes his freckles. Also probably tries makeup some, just to Try it.

Kiss 💋  Is your Oc a good kisser? Have they ever kissed anyone before? Do they even enjoy kissing? What was their first kiss like in comparison to their most recent? (rearranged this question due to related topic)

Ok. So Big Yes to those first three questions. But he’s silly sometimes via the above section’s mention of him Messing With His Face.

As for his "first kiss" he probably doesn't actually remember it, but likes to think of when he first kissed Olivia to be his First Kiss. Very special to him. Also was probably doing something "scandalous" at the time so Yeah He Remembers. More recent smooches would probably either be a friendly smooch with one of the others lords, or if he has a lover at the time then them.

Scarf 🧣 What comforts or Oc? Is it an item? An action? A person? Whatever it is, how and why does it comfort them?

Being around his loved ones for the most part; comfort in their company, whether they are actually interacting with him or not. When alone, he'll find comfort in his soft bed. Very comfy cozy.

[falling-stars-project]

Concepts, Sketches, and WIPs

It's been a while so here's a little update of some things I've been working on! There's not a whole lot here since most of this time has been spent on world building and writing, but I do have some stuff to show.

First up is what was ORIGINALLY part of Inktober, but it slipped through the cracks pretty much immediately lmao. Using this mainly to start getting a stronger idea of Ridgeland's territory but also drawing characters I haven't drawn in a long time. From closest to farthest you have Echo, Cinder, Shrew, and Maple. Echo and Shrew are long time hiking buddies and opted to bring their daughters with them on this outing. HOPEFULLY I'll have this one finished soon.

These are the warmups I did of Echo(left) and Shrew(right) before starting on the hiking sketch. I'm still in the stage of trying to figure out effective ways to translate designs I made intended for quadrapedal characters into bipedal designs so any warmups of this nature are also experimental. I do think when I made these, I just about hit a stride I like, though!

Next up are these character concepts. These were drawn up several months apart. The first is a character named Yucca who lived LONG before the current time Falling Stars takes place in. Her background is pretty important to the lore, so I can't get much into it at the moment, unfortunately. The next is named Peach, and she's a cat of Pluoca. She was the first character I had drawn in the current style, and so this sketch laid the groundwork going forward. I'll get more into her story when I get around to doing proper character sheets later on.

Now onto two flag designs/sketches that are bound to change a bit, one for Ridgeland(left) and one for Rusland(right). I was thinking of having hairly consistent flag designs between the different nations, but I'm not sure if I'll be sticking to that in the end. Not TOO fond of Ridgeland's flag, honestly, but I do like Rusland's sketch a lot.

And finally, some sketches from when I just started reworking Falling Stars! The first is a set of sketches I made trying to figure out how I wanted to draw the cats upright, VERY trial and error. Peach's sketch came from this page. The second is an idea I had for what animals the cats may have domesticated, but I ended up scrapping it for something else. Still kinda like it, considering I hadn't drawn a Pronghorn before then.

[danganronpa96]

what was your inspiration behind monotora?

Since Rexx was the one to create Monotora, I've asked him to answer this question (everything below is what she's written):

When it came to replacing Monokuma for DR96 it took a lot of thought and planning on how we could have a character that can stand out to be a threat rather than something that's passive aggressive like Monokuma himself. Throughout the months of production they went through so many design ideas it was tough to find one where it wasn't too complex or it didn't fit in with the setting DR96 was taking place.

First one was done in around the end of September 2021, and originally they were going to be blue/dark grey - but I did not want to get any comparisons to Sans so I immediately changed them to a very desaturated orange/dark grey with blue eyes. It didn't really last long though since their colours felt like they weren't really popping out enough and were bland. I also went overboard with their markings so they needed to be simplified. (I would've shown what they'd be if they were blue but unfortunately it's been lost </3)

Second concept was a little after in around early October 2021 for a reference sheet, they were still going to be bipedal and had a lot more scars on their body (except those were done as a deliberate design choice rather than something you'll receive in a fight.) They were more scruffy with an ear notch included and had an overbite, but this didn't really last long until I did another concept design for them. Around this period I struggled a lot when it came to designing them without stepping into the complex design boundaries.

Third concept was originally going to be used for their splash art but I wasn't really fond of that pose and the yellow scars were so icky to me so then they were edited to be more fleshy coloured (as in a shade of red you'd get from freshly opened wounds) which leads to their splash art we used to reveal Monotora to the discord server during the announcement (which was drawn in November 2021 time) I was going through the period of learning to draw a lot of sharp teeth so the anatomy looked really rough.

A lot of these are really old and outdated but the most up to date version is what they currently look up to chapter 3, they have a more animalistic look and they're no longer bipedal. Generally they're really fun to draw and goof around with and it's been fun using them for DR96 :)

I do have a list of characters/creatures that are main inspirations to fleshing out Monotora's personality and traits here:

Monokuma + Monokid; these two were mainly a guideline to starting off with designing a mascot for the killing game.

Doraemon; at the very beginning his design was Monotora's main inspiration but overtime things would've been changed or scrapped, however a few traits are still there such as Monotora being able to hid things in their stomach like how Doraemon can hide things in his little pocket on his stomach.

Nightmare Fredbear + Montgomery (FNAF); these two characters helped flesh out that 'threatening robot' kind of thing (Fredbears off-putting dialogue in UCN and Montgomery's temperament and determination to hunt you down in SB). A fun fact is that Monty's voice is my personal HC voice for Monotora lol

The indoraptor (Jurassic World); a pretty obvious thing from the indoraptor is it being built to be used as a weapon, Monotora has the capability of killing just like the indoraptor (only differences is that Monotora doesn't have the laser targeting system and they're smaller than the indoraptor). But generally Monotora gets their animalistic behaviour from this dinosaur. I've also seen a few people mention how Monotora looks similar to Mapleshade from Warrior Cats but she was never ever used for inspiration (which is surprising considering I have the books) LMAOOOO

[ideas-on-paper]

Monster Hunter Tri Diary, Part 3: Cave exploration & Swimming lessons

For previous entries, search for #monster hunter tri diary

Disclaimer: Text is paraphrased from my localization and might slightly deviate from the English version.

Moga Woods (day)

Village Chief: "Looking for Iron Ore, aren't you? Good thing I don’t have to bother with that task anymore. It's nice to be the Chief..." Look, I know I'm the one who's doing the dirty work here, but you don't have to make it that obvious, okay?

"You're not going to see much inside the cave unless you have the eyes of a Felyne." So, Felynes have night vision - logical enough, since they're basically bipedal cats. (With a trait like this, I’m willing to bet there are Felyne mineworkers in the MH universe. Not that job prospects for Felynes are already bad enough…)

"You can't bring torches into the city. Fire regulations." Well, I guess that's understandable considering the village consists pretty much entirely of wooden huts. (But then again, there literally are large torches in the village, so…)

"Infusions of powdered Kelbi Horn work wonders on tummy-aches. It's a local secret!" A miracle cure for stomach aches? Why can't this exist in real life... (Still, if they can administer infusions, that must mean medicine is quite advanced in the MH universe...)

Village Chief when entering the cave: "What did I tell you? Pitch-dark." No kidding. I was kind of forewarned about this, but the caves in MH Tri are very dark. (I imagine fighting Gigginox is going to be really fun in this game...)

You know what’s an absolute bane? If you’re in a dark cave, it's a very bright day, and your completely blinded by the light coming through the window. Even with almost completely closed blinds, I can see absolutely nothing, despite using a torch.

Well, at least I managed to find the Felyne encampment in the cave (or rather, I accidentally stumbled upon it xD).

Yaaay, Giggis... I'm so NOT happy to see you... (Well, at least it's a good opportunity to get some Giggi materials.)

Fighting and carrying a torch at the same time is kinda tricky. You can draw your weapon while carrying a torch, but when you press the button for putting it away, you extinguish the torch first, and then sheath your weapon after pressing again. Might be easier to handle if it was the other way around (sheath weapon -> extinguish torch).

I guess this is why they adjusted the brightness of the caves in 3U so you can see without torches. (Although this makes the torches kinda pointless.) The atmosphere is nice, but fighting while carrying torches is a bit troublesome.

After blindly running in circles for five minutes, I finally found a single ore deposit to mine. (Man, exploring caves in Tri is hardcore...)

Following the relief of finally seeing daylight again, I took a short detour to the base camp. I was interested to see if things looked better by now, but nope - the camp is still in the same-run down state as before. Well, I guess the villagers are just people too - you can't expect everything to repair itself as soon as you hand over the materials (like, you know, in a video game).

Also, another REALLY handy feature I just discovered is that you can display additional information on the status screens. If you press B on the Wiimote while opening the status menu, little question marks pop up in front of every skill, and you can hover over them to get a more detailed description of what that skill does and how many points you need to unlock the different tiers. (I don't think Freedom Unite had this; I always wished you could somehow display that info.)

Chief: "My wise ancestors said: The life of the village is tied to the land around it. They were right." Well, I have to agree on that - it’s easy to forget in our modern world, but ultimately, our survival is dependent on the environment.

Moga Village (day)

Chief's Son: "I used to break all my bones to get ore for the smith!" I suppose I should count myself lucky that I'm still in one piece, then... ^^' (But given how dark these caves are, I can imagine there's a lot of potential to fall flat on your face.)

Blacksmith: "Now, look at this Iron Ore. That's quality! Maybe not the best quality, but no rookie dug this up." Well, they did say he was hard to please. xD I reckon this is probably the closest thing to a compliment we're gonna get from him.

Chief's Son: "The smith liked you? Well, that’s surprising! Normally, the old geezer has trouble getting used to new faces." That's one more reason to feel honored, I guess...

Village Chief: "Well, if this isn’t a story to tell your grandkids! Of all ores in the region... you were able to find the exact kind that the smith LIKES?!" Man, you're almost making it sound like I'm the chosen one or something. ^^'

"We're making good progress rebuilding the base camp." Really? Last time I checked, it didn't really look like that to me.

"You're more stubborn than a Kelbi in heat!" Not sure if that says more about me or the Kelbi's mating behavior... ^^'

And now he just tells me to go take swimming lessons and thrusts a few harpoons into my hands. Well, I guess that's what we're doing, then.

Guild Sweetheart: "You're already back with the ore? You machine! What are they feeding you with?" Well, I told I'd be right back, didn't I? ^^

"Speaking of which, the Guild machine has a few loose screws. You'll never guess what they sent me this time. Absolutely NOTHING! Who would've thought?" Truly, wonders of bureaucracy...

"I'm burning for the hunt. Not that I can hunt. Not even beans. But I'm good at cheering!" Well, you have the spot as my No. 1 emotional supporter, I can tell you that much. ^^

The shy kid just gave me a free bug net he made himself, saying "I think I did a pretty good job with the net". And then he just hands me a Mega Bugnet. Kid, that's more than just a pretty good job - that's literally the best bug net in the game.

And the first of the Felynes is back on the farm! Nice - now we can finally cultivate stuff. (You have no idea how much I appreciate that feature after playing MH1.)

Felyne: "Veggies! Veggies! VEGGIES!! Food is more than just meat!" Well, you're not wrong about that. (The contrast is kinda funny, though - on one hand, we have the Chief’s Son and the Holy Grail of the barbecue, and then there’s this kitty who literally says “meat isn’t everything”. xD)

Still, I'm a bit surprised that Felynes are even able to eat vegetables (since they're basically cats, which are pure carnivores). And they apparently even need it to stay healthy, given that the Felyne says a lot of them switched to organic during the "health surge" a while back. Makes me wonder if they evolved differently...

"We're not using any chemicals or additives on the Moga Village farm! We would NEVER use pesticides made from Giggi extract!" Interesting fact that Giggi extract is used to make pesticides. (Also, sounds like the food industry in MH has much of the same issues as ours.)

Also, it's super cute that the Felyne calls the Chief's Son his "cub". xD

And then the Felyne just asks me "Would you like to give me a new name?" Like... Don't you have a name? Why do you want me to give you a new one? Are Felynes just fine with their employer changing their name to whatever they wish? Is it normal for them to be treated like pets? (Man, the implications are starting to get REALLY unpleasant...)

Btw, one of the names you can choose for the Felyne is Uber. Like, the company? I mean, Uber was founded in 2009, which is the same year MH Tri was released, so... ^^'

Also, the Felyne names are all male, as opposed to the Poogie where you could choose between male and female names. I take it the Felyne is canonically male, then.

"Felynes like to be clean, but I feel young digging in the dirt." Well, at least he seems to like his job...

Head Farmer: "The farm belongs to the village, but I can leave some land to you since you're protecting us and all that." I guess that means the farm is a bit bigger than what you see of it in the game (after all, the rice fields have to be somewhere).

"It's nice on the farm if you don't have to work." Yeah, I thought you’re not gonna do much of the heavy lifting, old man. You better don't exploit your farm hands, though - if you do, you bet I’m gonna call the Felyne Workers Rights Agency.

Moga Woods (night)

Anyway, returning to the Moga Woods, we're in for a nighttime swimming lesson with Juni-- I mean, the Chief's Son. As practice for underwater hunting, he wants us to catch a Molid. (Fun fact, btw: The common mola is literally called moonfish in most European languages. Get it? Catching a moonfish in the moonlight?)

Also, he is of the opinion that it would make "a great gift for the quest gal". I... believe there was something about the sea people bringing their lovers shells and other sea items as gifts, but I'm not exactly sure how he got the idea that the two of us are dating. xD (Also, since I'm playing a female hunter, does that mean the Moga Sweetheart likes women, too?)

At night, there are Melynx in Area 3. That reminds me of an interesting theory I once read about these kleptomaniac kitties - or rather, supposedly kleptomaniac. Kleptomania is a compulsive disorder to steal things, but in the Felyne camps, the Melynx are just as peaceful as the normal Felynes. Therefore, the author of the old MH Lore blog assumed that the Melynx were essentially organized raiding parties of the Felynes living in the wild. Considering that the stolen goods are brought to the Felyne camps where you can pick them up again, I think that's quite plausible.

On my way, I took a quick detour to the cave of everlasting darkness to collect some more ore. I'm not sure why, but I seem to have a bit of trouble with mining while carrying a torch. I know I pulled it off before, but for some reason, I'm just putting the torch out first despite holding R. Eh...

Also, I found out what happens if you hit monsters with a torch. If you hit the Giggis a few times, they'll bury themselves into the floor and disappear. If you give the Jaggis a bonk on the head, they'll leave the area. Of course, that means you'll be missing out on any potential carves, but at least you can keep the small monsters at bay if you just want to gather stuff. (Now, if I could actually use my pickaxe while carrying a torch...)

One thing that's kind of hilarious in Monster Hunter is that no matter how far you fall down, you never take a single point of fall damage. It’s part of the “normal craziness” you just get used to over time, but thinking about it, I wonder if there's any kind of in-lore explanation for it. Do the hunters wear inlays made from some kind of special material that softens the fall or something?

You know what's funny? That the underwater areas are actually brighter at night than anything above the surface. (I guess that's because they only made one 3D model for the underwater areas, including lighting and everything.)

The Molids actually look a bit different from our real-world common mola (the main difference being the longer fins). Makes me wonder if this is the general rule in the MH universe - all of our real world animals also exist there, but they look a bit different from what we’re used to.

Chief's Son: "If you keep going like this, you may have the honor of calling me Junior one day." Ahhh... So Junior is his nickname among friends and family... I see, I see.

There's this cave in area 12 that you can only access from underwater, where Bnahabras are swarming around a carcass. Their monster list entry says that they lay their eggs in carrion. So, given their lore, that’s actually quite a neat detail.

Also, you can gather bones from the carcass - although there's still rotten skin and flesh on it. Gross! You might wanna wash that stuff...

I've been using Iron Pickaxes so far because I didn't want to waste the Mega Pickaxe the smith gave me, but turns out that all I got to mine with the Mega Pickaxe were two ore deposits (not even that, since it broke before I could gather everything from the second). A bit disappointing, but the smith did say this was his old pickaxe - no wonder it gave out so soon.

Luckily, I remembered that you can make an Iron Pickaxe out of iron ore and a bone, which I happened to have on me.

I like how much effort they put into the physics of underwater combat. The blood effects appear blurred underwater, and if you kill a monster close to the surface, the body will actually float around. Really nice details!

Alright, let's get back to the village and see what the Guild Sweetheart thinks about our little "gift". (Not sure what's so attractive about Big Fins, but I guess we'll soon find out...)

To be continued

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

The four eyes were a fun decision I made to their fauna and for them specifically, I made the higher eyes dominant with the clearest color vision and focus and stuff. The secondary eyes heave become kind of like light sensors and are much better at catching movement.

The antennae looking things were my version of like, whiskers.

The reddish marks on their upper chest are kind of like secondary nostrils inspired by me choking on water bc I was startled and breathed in at the wrong time.

I kept more non-primate breasts too so they're flat-chested until nursing

I also made them like previously aboreal.

Alright, I love these designs. the extra eyes and little antennae are so fun!

If you want to redesign them in a way that references african painted dogs, there's really only a few changes you need to make.

(image description: in the first image, several simple drawings of african painted dogs that have been color blocked to show their fur patterns. They have big ears, a fluffy tail, lanky limbs, and their fur patterns differ between individuals in irregular splotches of color.

the second image shows the alien designs with a trace line to help break down their simple shapes. they are bipedal and humanoid with small ears, a long thin tail, and more regular color patterns that resemble the spots of a leopard or other big cat. They also have four eyes, small antennae, and two holes by their collarbones.

In the final image, the more cat-like original alien design stands next to a redesign. the new look is basically the same in body structure, but now the ears are larger, the tail is short and fluffy, and the coloration is splotchy. end description.)

In your own style, you'll probably make those color splotches look smoother than what I did, since I went for a sort of rough fur texture by default lol. With the painted dog style of coloration, every individual will have their own pattern, which could be a fun little bonus detail to work into their culture.

Hope this is helpful!

[actress4him]

Could you do "I know youre in there somewhere. Fight." For Shiro I and Keith for the Had Things Happen Bingo? Much love!

Got another one done!

@badthingshappenbingo

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Prompt: “I know you’re in there somewhere” fight

Warnings: burns, memory loss/wipe, mild blood

.

.

This Galra isn’t like any they’ve ever encountered before. Every other Galra has been towering, muscular, dressed in armor and a stoic expression that rarely changes other than to sometimes show anger.

But this one… Shiro watches carefully, prosthetic activated, as it slinks across the floor. Despite being bipedal there’s something almost cat-like in the way it moves, yellow eyes flashing in the dim light. It’s biding its time - watching, waiting. They’ve already tangled twice, and Shiro learned very quickly that he’d underestimated its strength when he’d first seen its size. It’s the smallest Galra he’s ever seen, probably somewhere around Lance’s size, and it fights with only its fists and claws, but Shiro has barely been able to hold it off.

There’s no indication whatsoever that it's about to attack again, no matter how closely he watches it. One second it’s across the room, the next it’s coming at his face, hissing with sharp teeth bared. Eyes widening, Shiro takes quick steps backwards, swiping with his arm to knock the Galra away. It ducks under the swing and comes after him with its claws, snarling. Feral, he thinks as he dodges and spins away. That’s the only word he can think of to describe this thing. 

It kicks his knee hard and he stumbles, barely rolling out of the way in time to avoid the creature jumping on his head. The team is close by. He knows he can call them in if he needs it. But they need to be out there, searching the facility, finding out if the rumors were true and Keith really is being held prisoner here. He can handle one tiny Galra until then, even if it is feral. 

He manages to land a good hit with his prosthetic, finally, hearing the too-familiar sound of skin sizzling for an instant. The Galra doesn’t have on any armor, is only dressed in a thin tank and baggy pants, and the swipe made contact with its bare arm. It yelps, faltering slightly. There’s a brief flash of pain on its face, replaced almost instantly with fury. And Shiro almost falters himself, almost falls prey to the renewed frenzy of attacks, because…

No, it couldn’t be. Doesn’t matter how familiar those two expressions looked. He’s just projecting onto this scrawny Galra that happens to be similar in size to Keith, who he’s been searching for for weeks.

Claws rip into the unarmored section of his waist, drawing blood immediately. Hissing in pain, Shiro forces his mind back onto the fight, dodging kicks and blows and trying to get in a few of his own in between the flurry. This fight is exhausting. He can hear the team in his ear, reporting to each other from each section of the facility they check, and it sounds like they’re almost done.

They’ve almost checked the whole place, and no one has found Keith.

His frustration lends strength to his next strike, and it lands square in the center of the Galra’s chest, sending it to the floor and sliding backwards with a darkened handprint seared into its shirt. He knocked the air from its lungs, apparently, because now it’s staring up at him with wide eyes and gasping for breath that won’t come, one hand clutching at the burn. The longer fur on top of its head falls down over one eye like too-long bangs. 

And suddenly Shiro can’t move, can barely breathe himself, because…the body type, the hair, the facial expressions…

It can’t be. The thought is so far-fetched it’s ridiculous. But…

“Keith?”

There’s no response at first. The Galra is too busy choking on the oxygen that’s rushed back down its throat and slowly pushing itself backwards away from Shiro to pay attention. 

But he has to know. Has to be sure. He crouches down, eyes darting all over, trying to see past the purple fur and yellow eyes and fangs. 

“Is…is it you? Keith?”

This time, there’s an immediate reaction. His head jerks up, fear and confusion warring for precedence in eyes that shouldn’t be so expressive. An instant later he’s on his feet, scrambling away to press himself against the far wall.

“Hey, hey it’s okay, you’re okay.” Shiro stands, slowly, unweaponized hand held out in front of him as if calming a wild animal. It doesn’t seem like too bad a comparison, actually. “It’s me, Shiro. You know me, right?” 

Keith - he’s sure it’s Keith now, somehow, everything about his body language now that he’s not trying to kill Shiro screams Keith - shakes his head, gripping it with his hands on each side and tugging at the fur there. His chest rises and falls rapidly. Shiro winces at the reddened skin he can see through the holes in his shirt.

“Keith…”

The third time incites an entirely different response. Shiro gets the tiniest glimpse of fangs flashing in the light before a body slams into him, knocking him flat on his back. His helmet keeps his skull from cracking too harshly against the floor, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t stunned. Keith is on top of him, snarling, scratching, not doing as much damage as he could be in his desperation, but in real danger of prying off Shiro’s helmet any second. 

“Hey! It’s me, it’s Shiro! You’re just confused right now, but you don’t want to do this!” He tries to grab onto his wrists but they’re moving too fast. He doesn’t want to hurt him anymore than he already has, but he’s running out of options.

Thankfully, that’s the moment the rest of the team tumbles into the room. The bad news about that is, they don’t know it’s Keith, and Lance is already aiming his gun.

“Don’t shoot!” Shiro screams, fending off Keith’s claws with his deactivated prosthetic. An idea comes to mind, and he glances to the side to make sure it’ll work. With a commanding shout of, “Pidge!” he grabs Keith suddenly around the waist and heaves him off, tossing him toward the team as far as he can and rolling over onto his stomach with the momentum.

Pidge, smart girl that she is, immediately does exactly what he wanted and uses her bayard to tie him up. It’s not a clean wrap, one arm is still out and swiping at the line and the floor, trying to break away, but it’s holding him for now, especially once Hunk grabs onto Pidge to keep her from being yanked across the room.

“Don’t hurt him!” Shiro blurts, panting. “Just…just keep him there.”

The team stares at him inquisitively as he levers himself up off the floor, still trying to catch his breath, and walks over to the irate Galra. Crouching down in front of him, he catches the clawed hand that immediately comes at his face and pulls it down safely between them. Keith growls again, teeth bared, but Shiro can tell from this close that it’s less angry now and more desperate. He’s scared. Somehow, somebody - and Shiro would bet his last dollar on Haggar - has changed him so completely that he doesn’t even remember who they are.

“What did they do to you?” he whispers, rubbing his thumb back and forth through the short purple hairs covering his arm. Keith startles at the motion, jerking his arm back, but Shiro keeps a firm grip on it. The utter confusion on the boy’s face is just more confirmation that this is, in fact, his little brother. He looks now just like he did the first time Shiro had put a friendly arm around his shoulder, back at the Garrison. Like he has no idea how to process gentle touch.

It makes his heart hurt. All these weeks that they’ve been searching, he’s known that nothing good could have been happening to Keith. But this…this blatant evidence that he’s been hurt, that for now, at least, he’s back to the scared, hurting boy he was when they first met… Shiro doesn’t even care about the fact that he looks like a Galra. He just wants him to be happy again.

“It’s okay.” He longs to put a hand on his shoulder or ruffle his hair, but knows he’ll just get bitten, so he settles for continuing to stroke his arm. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna help you.” Somehow. He’d get his little brother back, somehow, no matter what it took.

“You’re safe now, Keith.”

[riflesniper-a]

[to the tune of YMCA] OLD MAN. HE JUST WANTS TO CALM DOWN. I SAY OLD MAN. GOT CAT EARS ON HIS CROWN

i’ve been lowkey deep in reading abt @nagunkgunk‘s warmind au and of course that also means Gotta Put My Own OCs In Here Too!!!!! so here is One of my boys

his name is keylime-3 and he’s one of charlemange’s boys. he’s a stalker commander and the first officer to a starship/huge orbital cannon that’s captained by his father rocket-4 (who i will Also draw soon enough) that goes and blows up cabal hive nests like nbd. hes a deepstone exo made during the terran golden age and lived thru the collapse as just a little guy and now he’s like.. 11 feet tall and at least a millennia old. 2 millennia? no idea for that timeframe but im leaning towards 2 millennia

his legs let him go supre speedy and he’s got devices all over his armour that weave lightning for deadly close range attacks as well as a zappy telescopic thunderstick to match with how he’s an arcstrider in actual destiny canon. he’s also got a HYOOG fuckin sniper rifle that’s basically a sized and souped up version of what canon keylime uses as well as a bipedal mecha not too unlike a metal gear rex that he breaks out for real messy work. oh and he can still screech really fuckin loud that’s why his helm doesnt cover his mouth

he doesn’t like fighting the bugs! and he’s glad that charles is also ‘bro wtf’ at rasputin’s murder time all the time. at first he can show up by himself or with a squadron of smaller frames and warlords and while he will never attack first he WILL get aggro’d and turn into a boss if you hit him or someone in his squad too much. however if u help kill an enemy he’s going after or whatever he’ll start showing up as an ally 

maybe if you emote in front of him he’ll do a little dance with u :)

[im-fairly-whitty]

The Witcher Wolf: In Plain Sight

Two years have passed since Geralt was cursed with the ability to turn into a wolf whenever his medallion is removed, a curse that's turned into a blessing now that he and Jaskier are partners in everything they do.

It's no exception when they discover a Nilfgaardian army bearing down on Cintra, headed straight toward a certain child surprise. With Jaskier's help and Geralt's enchanted medallion they must find a way to get into the palace, make sure Princess Cirilla is safe, and get out with her in tow if needed, regardless of Queen Calanthe's orders.

[Chapter 1: Into the Fire]  [Chapter 2: Old Friend] [Chapter 3: Bad Luck] [Chapter 4: So Much for Being Smart] [Chapter 5: Secrets] [Chapter 6: The Beginning of the End]

Chapter 7: Out of Time

As night fell, Geralt could do nothing as the siege began on the castle of Cintra.

As Nilfgaardian troops swarmed the city, burning everything in sight he could only sit by quietly. When Ciri was brought to Queen Calanthe’s deathbed (because Geralt could smell the death on her, it would be her deathbed) he could only stick by Ciri’s side as the girl cried over the news of Eist’s death.

He likewise stayed with her as they watched Mousesack’s doomed attempt to hold the castle gates with a wall of magic by himself at the queen’s orders, listening attentively to every nervous story Ciri told him in an effort to distract them, her distressed over-petting of his fur getting nearly painful as the night crept by. Not that he made any effort to dissuade her. 

When Mousesack’s magic barrier finally fell in the dead of night and the three of them made their way back to the queen’s room Geralt was nearly shaking with furious impatience that they weren’t already all safely out of the city.  

So when only Ciri was let inside the queen’s room, leaving Geralt and Mousesack outside the closed door with Calanthe’s spymaster who was reeking of Jaskier’s fear scent, Geralt could perhaps be forgiven for bodily lunging at the man with a rabid snarl.

“Has the queen given her permission or not?” Mousesack asked shortly, barely managing to haul Geralt back by his collar rather than allowing the wolf to sink his teeth into the royal spymaster.

“She has. She is saying her goodbyes to the princess as we speak.” Wilhelm said, looking altogether far too calm for a man in a burning city, despite the clearly evident exhaustion in his eyes. “The queen has given her official approval to have Princess Cirilla taken by Geralt of Rivia of Rivia. Please tell me that he is in the castle Mousesack, I haven’t been able to find him anywhere and we don’t even have seconds to spare now.”

“He is.” Mousesack said, releasing Geralt’s collar with an ironic flourish, letting Geralt’s front paws hit the ground again.

Geralt shook himself hard, then huffed a sigh as he collected himself, stepping forward and looking up at the spymaster sans snarl. Wilhelm looked down at him for a long moment, then up at Mousesack.

“He’s the Wolf.” Wilhelm said, his voice full of the kind of flat irritated weariness that only comes from solving a particularly complicated pun. “Geralt of Rivia is the wolf that the princess has had at her side for a week now underneath my very nose. Which you of course knew, and kept from me.”

Mousesack grimaced, shrugging.

“Well...all things considered I suppose it ended up being for the best.” Wilhelm said, shaking his head as he looked down at Geralt, already recovering from his shock. “Bravo getting past me Sir Witcher, I only regret the fact that I don’t have the time to hear the story of how you managed it.” He looked back up to Mousesack. “Am I right in assuming his Witcher medallion is what changes him back? Jaskier indicated that keeping the medallion safe was of utmost importance if I were to rely on his help tonight.”

“It is, he’ll also need any gear you seized from the bard. He’s not a Doppler, he won’t already have his armor and swords when he shifts back.” Mousesack said.

“Now there’s a pity.” Wilhelm said, his gaze focusing past the druid, looking as if he were making several calculations in his head before he snapped back to the moment, looking at Geralt.

“The castle has already been breached, we have only minutes to react properly and we will only get one chance.” Wilhelm said, as calmly as if he were explaining the rules of a tournament. He took a key from a hidden pocket in his doublet and handed it to the druid. “Mousesack you will accompany Geralt, Cirilla and Captain Cordova to my office to retrieve everything that was taken from Jaskier when he was arrested. You will find it all in a basket beside my desk, medallion included.

“Once you have retrieved everything you need, get to the back gates of the castle. I will meet you there with Jaskier as soon as I have retrieved him from the dungeon. It’s on the other side of the castle and I am the only one authorized to remove him from his cell, so splitting up accordingly will save us the most time with the most safety for the princess.” Wilhelm said.

They all paused as a distant soldier’s scream echoed down the stone hallway of the castle. Wilhelm looked back to them, drawing his sword from its sheath, a steel beauty Geralt recognized as having igni runestones set in the hilt, a rare sight indeed outside of a witcher’s weapon kit.

“If Jaskier and I are not there when you arrive you are to continue on without us,” Wilhelm continued. “Follow the sewers out of the city and into the forests. Three horses and a handler will be waiting for you. If there are no further questions I suggest we split up immediately. The princess’s safety is the highest priority any of us have and all of us will act in a way that protects her first. Is that understood?”

Geralt nodded grimly, not liking it one bit but seeing no other choice. His ears pricked forward as the door was opened and Ciri was brought into the hallway by a soldier that was presumably Captain Cordova. The girl was crying and threw her arms around Geralt’s neck, burying her face in his fur. Geralt whined softly, knowing all too well the pain of being separated from a parent, despite his relief at Calanthe finally giving in to reason. He only had to hope that she hadn’t given in too late.

“Come princess, we must move quickly.” Mousesack said, nodding to Wilhelm as the spymaster took his leave, moving quickly down the hall in the opposite direction, sword at the ready. “We have to get Geralt’s things, we don’t have much time.”

 ***

 “This is the one.” Mousesack said when they’d reached the door Wilhelm had directed them to. “Captain Cordova, stand guard out here while we get what we need inside.”

The soldier nodded, allowed Mousesack, Ciri, and Geralt into the room behind him. Geralt was glad to hear the druid lock the office door behind them again after they were inside, the last thing they needed was an interruption by enemies halfway through his transformation.

Looking around Geralt saw that Wilhelm’s office was somehow full to the brim with enough fascinating artifacts to impress even Vesemir, while also being so strictly organized that it took only moments to find Jaskier’s packs in the basket by his desk, just like he’d promised. Jaskier’s lute in its case however sat on top of the desk, evidently where it would be safest, a detail that made Geralt dislike Wilhelm just a shred less.

Geralt grabbed the side of the basket in his teeth and knocked it over, spilling the loose contents of their packs onto the ground. He pawed through all his clothes and armor pieces checking if everything was still there, which they were. Even both his swords were still in their sheaths.

He huffed in relief when he found his Witcher medallion, snagged the silver chain in his teeth and bounding over to Mousesack with it. Bit of help, please?

“Ciri, turn away.” Mousesack instructed, checking to make sure the girl was obediently facing the corner before he slipped the medallion chain over Geralt’s head.

There was a flash of light and Geralt was sitting on the floor, restored to his regular form again after days spent otherwise. He groaned as he pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his human hands roughly across his human face as he tried to physically recalibrate to bipedal motion as quickly as he could, reaching for his clothing and armor almost before he was balanced. They didn’t have a second to lose.

“That really is an impressive piece of magic, isn’t it.” Mousesack said, whistling in appreciation as Geralt tugged on his socks and pants, helpfully tossing him his boots next. “When you transform can you actually feel your skeletal structure adjusting, or do-“

“Not the time, Mousesack.” Geralt said, pulling on his shirt. “Questions after escaping the burning city.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Mousesack relented, ducking around behind Geralt to help him with the buckles of his armor as Geralt started tugging all the pieces into place across his body as quickly as nearly a century of practice let him.

“Geralt?”

Geralt looked over to see Ciri staring at him, her eyes wide as she watched him buckle his double swords across his back once his armor was in place. He grimaced as he braced himself for whatever her reaction to his imposing Witcher form might be.

“You’ve still got your wolf eyes!” Ciri said, despite everything a bit of a smile making it through her worry and panic as she came right up to him, one hand absently taking hold of a strap on his armor as she craned her neck to look up at his face.

She wasn’t the least bit afraid of him at all. Utterly fascinated, if anything. Geralt couldn’t help the feeling of warmth and relief it kindled in his chest.

“Closer to a cat’s when I’m like this.” Geralt said, consciously narrowing his pupils a bit and smiling at the impressed gasp it got him as he pulled on his leather gauntlets and reached up to tie back his hair into its usual ponytail. “They’ll help me get us out of here in one piece, so stick right next to me, alright?”

Ciri nodded intently, her small hand latching onto his large one as he drew his steel sword with the other, the blade slipping out of its sheath with practiced ease.

“I’ll carry the rest.” Mousesack said, moving to pack up what was left of Jaskier and Geralt’s things scattered across the floor.

“Just take the lute case, leave the rest.” Geralt said, pulling Ciri along as he made for the door. “We’ve already used enough time. We have to move quickly to-”

He froze, pulling Ciri behind him as his hearing picked up commotion on the other side of the heavy soundproof door.

“What is it?” Mousesack whispered, following his stare, evidently unable to hear the sound of the struggle in the hallway, the clash of metal, or the unmistakable fall of a body.

Geralt shook his head, staying silent as he raised his sword.

He felt Ciri jump as the locked doorknob rattled, but she stayed quiet, even as a heavy armored fist pounded on the reinforced wood. There was some more fussing and slamming at the door for several heartstopping moments, but evidently the spymaster had spared no expense in security when his office had been made, the locked door not budging an inch. After a long minute whoever was on the other side seemed to grow bored and Geralt heard them moving on, doubtlessly in search of easier prey.

When the clanking footsteps were gone Geralt took a steadying breath.

“The castle has fallen.” Mousesack said soberly. “We’ll need to take the servant’s passages to the back gate, it will be our best chance at avoiding as many soldiers as we can.”

“Ciri I’m going to carry you so we can go as fast as possible.” Geralt said, crouching down to be at her eye level. “And I need you to keep your eyes closed, alright? We’re going to be moving quickly and passing a lot of things someone your age doesn’t need to be seeing.”

She was going to have nightmares aplenty for years to come after this, no use in adding more if they could help it. Certainly not starting with the sight of whatever was left of Captain Cordova on the other side of the door.

He half expected her to protest, but to his relief she instead threw her arms around his neck and hid her face against him as he picked her up, carrying her in one arm. He took a moment to marvel at how much she trusted him, a trust he would do everything in his power to deserve.

“Alright, to the back gates.” Geralt said, adjusting his grip on his sword and nodding for Mousesack to unlock the door. “We get Jaskier and then we get out of this blasted city.”

 ***

 The castle was already crawling with Nilfgaardian soldiers, but Mousesack had been right in guessing the servants passages would keep them mostly out of the way. They only encountered a few lone enemy soldiers on their way out, all of whom had all been more or less easily slain, even with Geralt fighting one handed.

But once they made it outside the castle and into the night air there was no spymaster or bard to be seen.

“Are you sure this is the back gate?” Geralt demanded, the dark pit in his stomach already knowing the answer as he looked around him.

“It is.” Mousesack said grimly, wiping at the blood that was trickling down his face, the result of a cut he’d gotten above his eye from the last soldier they’d run into. “Wilhelm said to keep going if he wasn’t here by now Geralt, I’m sorry but we can’t stay.”

Geralt felt a snarl rising in his chest as he hesitated, feeling helplessly torn and knowing he had only moments to decide.

The night air around them was dark with the smoke billowing from the burning city beyond the castle walls and yells and shrieks echoed through the night from all sides. The dark corner against the castle that the three were currently tucked into wouldn’t shield them for long from the eyes of the Nilfgaardian soldiers that were hurrying past.

They still had to cross the wrecked courtyard and get to the sewers that would lead them out of the city. The longer they waited the worse their chances got of getting Ciri to safety.

“We can wait for Jaskier.” Ciri said, loosening her terrified grip around Geralt’s neck just enough to look at him. The smell of her fear was nearly overwhelming, despite the brave face she was putting on. “We have to stay to make sure he’s okay too, right?”

Geralt looked at Mousesack but the druid merely looked back at him, waiting for him to decide.

In the near distance there was the booming crash of a battlement falling, followed by the piercing screams of both horses and men. The smoky sky lit up brighter for a moment, as if a burst of flame had grabbed on to new fuel on the other side of the castle wall.

“We’re going on.” Geralt decided, casting a shielding quen sign over himself and Ciri as he raised his sword. “Mousesack stay close, I’ll get you both out safely and then come back for Jaskier after.”

The druid looked as though he wanted to add something, but instead nodded silently, adjusting the strap of the lute case over his shoulder to keep his hands free, sparks of chaos shimmering over his fingertips as he looked warily across the courtyard.

“But what about Jaskier?” Ciri asked, voice shaking.

“He can handle himself.” Geralt said, gritting his teeth against the ill feeling inside him.

He shifted to hold her more securely against him as he started forward, ducking them behind an overturned supply cart, hiding momentarily in the deep shadow it cast in the light of the fires all around them. He grimaced as the sight of what used to be a Cintrian soldier at his feet.

“Ciri, close your eyes again until I say so, alright?” He said, rebalancing himself and checking for Mousesack beside them before moving again.

And she hadn’t closed her eyes a moment too soon, Geralt realized as he darted from behind the cart toward a shadowed corner along the city wall. He muffled a curse as he spotted the crumpled form of what could only be the queen of Cintra on the dusty ground. He glanced up. She must have flung herself from her own bedroom window when enemy soldiers got too close.

Geralt traded a hurried silent look with Mousesack who looked stricken, but to his credit stuck by Geralt as they pressed on. It couldn’t have taken them longer than a few minutes to weave their way across the courtyard—Geralt’s senses and timing keeping them hidden from the scattered troops left ranging about the courtyard, torching everything they could reach—but it was a relief unlike any other when they finally reached the dislodged sewer grate that would lead out of the city.

Geralt heaved the grate aside and nimbly dropped down into the darkness, quickly swapping his steel sword for silver to hold at the ready as he started down the tunnel. Cintra wasn’t known for having monster infested sewers, but for their own safety he had to assume they’d come across at least a few before they reached the outlet on the other side of the city.

“Lead the way.” Mousesack said, voice hoarse from smoke and grief as he rejoined them, conjuring a ball of light tonight their way down the tunnels.

Geralt nodded, trying his very best not to think about where Jaskier was at that very moment, afraid that if he did he’d go rushing right back into the flames after him before the others were safe.

 ***

 Wilhelm had promised three horses and a handler, but when they emerged from the sewers two easily slain drowners later there was only one saddled gelding to be seen. Geralt cast a hurried axii on the nervous animal to calm it, grimly noting the blood stains on its hocks. Human blood. There was no time to figure out exactly what had happened to its handler and the other horses, but Geralt had a pretty good guess.

“Mousesack, take Ciri and head due south for two miles.” Geralt said, grabbing the dazed gelding’s reins and setting Ciri down. “You‘ll hit a crossroads with a hanging tree on either side, and after that a clearing by a stream where I’ve hidden my mare. Get to the clearing and wait for me for twenty minutes. If I’m not there by then take Ciri and ride hard for the Morhen mountains, keep off the main roads and use false names at inns, the empire can’t know you’re heading to Kaer Morhen.”

The druid nodded. “I’ve only been up your mountain once years ago, but I should be able to track the path with summer weather instead of snows. What shall I tell Vesimir if we arrive without you?”

“Geralt, you can’t leave!” Ciri said, clinging to his side. “Please, don’t go back!”

“The truth.” Geralt said, giving the gelding’s tack a quick once over as Mousesack heaved himself up into the saddle. “Tell him everything starting with Pavetta, he can’t turn away a child surprise owed to the Wolf school.”

“Geralt! You can’t go, don’t leave me, please!” Ciri cried, her hands latching onto his armor. Geralt’s eyes widened as the desperation in the distressed girl’s voice edged with enough chaos to make his medallion shiver.

Geralt looked up at Mousesack as memories of Ciri’s mother flashed through his mind, of a scream laced with enough elder blood magic to level the very castle that was now burning in Nilfgaardian flame. Mousesack looked back with a grim silence.

Well, that would have to be discussed later. What mattered now was that Geralt had a twelve year old girl to protect and comfort in a situation that made comfort near impossible, and that he would still try anyway.

“Ciri, Mousesack will take care of you.” Geralt said, his voice softening just a bit as he dropped to one knee in front of her, gently loosening her grip on his armor. “I have to go back for Jaskier, but we’ll catch up with you as soon as we can.”

“Promise you’ll be okay?” Ciri demanded, wiping at the tears on her face.

“Witchers don’t make promises like that Ciri, but I can promise you I’ll do everything I can.” Geralt said solemnly, resting a steadying hand on her shoulder. “I need you to promise me that you’ll obey Mousesack so that he can protect you, alright?”

“I can try.” Ciri said, making a valiant effort to keep her voice from shaking as she threw her arms around Geralt’s neck, just like she did when he was a wolf.

This time however Geralt was able to hug her back, holding her just as tightly for a long moment while she buried her face against his neck. He could feel her trembling.

She had lost so much so quickly. Her grandparents, her home, her city. Of course she would be terrified of Geralt too disappearing forever in the smoke of Cintra if he went back into it, and just when she’d gotten him too. Geralt could still remember the pain of losing his mother and home centuries later, he couldn’t imagine how much worse it must be for Ciri in this moment, but he could guess.

Geralt pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers, looking her in the eye, a gentle hand on the back of her head. “I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can, but you have to leave now. I need you to be strong and fast and brave, alright?”

Ciri swallowed and scrubbed tears from her eyes, but nodded.

“Good.” Geralt said, standing and helping her up into the saddle in front of Mousesack who had watched their exchange in sober silence. He knew as well as Geralt did that every passing second lowered the chance of him coming back alive, let alone with Jaskier.

The men nodded to each other and then Mousesack took the reins, pulling the horse around and digging his heels into its flanks. Geralt watched the horse disappear into the night, then turned back to the sewer entrance. He pulled a bottle of swallow and a vial of cat from his alchemy pouch, downing them both in quick succession as he dropped back into the darkness with his blade drawn. Without Mousesack’s enchanted light he’d have to see in the pitch darkness on his own.

He growled as he felt the toxins course through his veins, already sharpening his night vision and eating away at any fatigue he’d already collected that night as he started moving back toward the burning city as quickly as he could.

He’d gotten his child surprise to safety, but he wasn’t going any farther without Jaskier.

And if he didn’t find him alive and well, he was going to find out how to burn a city down twice.

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

For whatever reason my brain was really squirrelly getting this chapter written and decided to write the final chapter before this one, then made me hopscotch backward to write the rest out of order. Regardless of the chaotic approach it's gotten the job done, so I can't complain too much at having been broken out of my usual start-at-the-beginning-then-write-to-the-end writing style.

This also means that I will be publishing the final chapter one week from today, next Tuesday evening. I look forward to seeing you all then, and until then I look forward to reading your comments and tags! Re-reading them between chapters always helps me get back in the writing mood, so thank you all for every one of them. :)

[xdreamer45x]

A recent situation has left me insanely pissed off, so I’m gonna lay down a few things about ink fam au before I lose my damn mind

Before I get into that tho, if you’re not gonna respect the established lore of ink fam au in the media you create, then make up your own fucking au. Don’t use the same goddamn names and ideas as me, come up with your own shit >:(

With that out of the way, let’s dive in:

1.) Mama is NOT a female

This is such a pet peeve of mine; Mama’s a fucking ink demon, he doesn’t conform to human biology, he can do whatever he damn well pleases. He wants to yeet out beans?? He’s gonna fuckin yeet out some gotdamn beans. I mean he conceived his first child by himself, no second party involved. And just because I draw him with his weight carried in his hips rather than a pot belly like the actual beta model doesn’t make him female either.

His name is Mama because in established lore I never actually posted here yet but did discuss with others, Shawn Flynn is the one who named him cuz Mama hoarded defective Bendy dolls like his own children. Shawn is one of the two humans Mama was actually friendly to while the studio was still open (Wally Franks being the second); Bean isn’t born until long after the studio has already fallen into ruin.

tl;dr - if you refer to Mama as a “she”, I’m drop kicking you into the sun

2.) The demons in the family CANNOT speak in the human tongue

Even though I make a lot of gags and the like with them talking (like my animatics), in the core of the au, they’re unable to communicate in English. They have their own language that friends and I conveniently refer to as “demon speak”; the audio clip I threw together a good while ago is a good indication of how they sound when speaking, but the range of sounds they’re capable of can be boiled down to:

- canon ink demon audio from the games

- Toothless from httyd

- baby goats

- birds

- dogs/cats (to a degree)

- guinea pigs

The only exception would be Inky mimicking human words much like a bird can, but you wouldn’t be able to have a fluent, coherent, meaningful conversation with him in English; Inky’s vocabulary is extremely limited.

Delving more into “demon speak”, Henry is the only one who can understand them fluently, seeing as he’s their creator and has that special connection with them. When translated, “demon speak” is a short, clipped sort of language. Their sentences aren’t as complex and they cut out unnecessary words, leaving in only the important stuff.

3.) Mama and Inky DID NOT fuck to make beans

This au is staying wholesome, y’all. When it comes to conceiving beans with a partner, Mama is bitten in the neck/shoulder area by Inky, and Inky transfers his ink through the bite, which he then grooms afterward to close up the wound. The transferred ink flows down and pools in Mama’s belly, where it begins to form into a bean. The ink starts out as a comfortable warmth that makes Mama drowsy, then the next day is when the bean really starts to grow and takes a toll on Mama. Gestation only lasts a month, so the bean grows rapidly and the pregnancy is rough to get through due to amplified symptoms.

4.) The beans are capable of both quadrupedal and bipedal movement

Despite me frequently drawing them as blobby lil baby loafs, the beans can shift smoothly between forms. Granted, they’re wobblier/less coordinated on two limbs since they’re babies, but they can still get around. The only exception is Alpha; he was born limbless, so he has to exert effort to form his lil nubbies in loaf mode, and nubs are the closest he can get to having any sort of limbs. He’s unable to keep them out if he’s expended too much energy. Alpha spends the most time as a turbo loaf out of all the beans since it’s the most effective way for him to get around; otherwise he has to struggle to push himself around or get someone to carry him.

5.) Early artwork from the original ink mama au- specifically Mama’s body type- does not correlate to current ink fam au content

It’s gonna be difficult to properly explain why this set me off without getting too lengthy, but all I can say is that part of this recent situation that prompted this post got super weird because it seemed to take body type into account when it came to character roles (aka Inky was pegged as Mama when Mama was just drawn skinny when I was first starting out).

I started off with the current Bendy model when I first came up with the original ink mama au because that was the canon, finalized version of him in the game. For anyone who’s followed the progression, you can see how I shifted to a chunkier build for him; it wasn’t until ink fam au kicked off did I start moving away from “canon ink demon but chunkier” and settle on basing Mama off of the beta model while keeping Inky with the current model. Mama has always been Mama, it’s just that his appearance has changed the more I got comfortable with how I wanted to handle the au. Ink mama au doesn’t exist on its own anymore, it’s been assimilated into ink fam lore as a stepping stone for current content.

I feel like there’s more I wanna add, but it’s almost 3am as I wrap up and I’m fading fast lmao

[kbmercer]

Ch.1, Part 2: Encounter

My Heroic Pokemon Squad (A Pokemon/My Hero Academia Crossover)

Summary:

After receiving an emergency call to assist in sedating the legendary pokémon of time and space, Top Ranger (Y/n) (L/n) gets caught in the crossfire of their rampage. Sent barreling into a world unknown, (L/n) must now navigate her new surroundings and somehow find a way home. Yet, the aftermath of a momentary rift between dimensions carries drastic repercussions, especially considering that pokémon had never existed in this place to begin with. Not only that, but it seems humanity here have powers of their own, not unlike that of the creatures she has grown to love.

Arrival at the police department was a quiet one. (Y/n) had relegated herself to sticking closes to Midnight and avoiding any further conversation as they walked. It was the middle of the night, indicated by how the white moon shined over the industrious buildings they passed. The girl was already nervous about what her future held, and the darkened city scape was not helping at all. (Y/n) could feel the pokéballs secured in her bag rumbling in response to her racing heart and quickly pats the duffel in response as to console them. The effort was rather lackluster, but they seemed to get a clue as the movement dwindled. Please wait just a little bit longer.

             (Y/n) would have collided into the back of Midnight if the drafty officers’ facility hadn’t pulled her from her subconscious. She halts just in time and takes a clumsy step backward before realigning herself. Bringing her eyes up to look up at the purple-haired woman. She was peering back at her with a hardened look in her blue eyes – not out of any suspicion or reluctance but reassurance.

“Here we are.” There’s a brief moment of silence between the two before she continues.

“Don’t worry yourself too much. I’ll be with you until we can get the problem sorted, m’kay?”

(Y/n) didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, having the support of somebody who is familiar with the area was a blessing, but the (e/c)-eyed girl couldn’t help but feel like this was too good to be true. Midnight notices her hesitance.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” (Y/n) huffs.

“I’m just some random stranger to you. I’d understand if you directed me here and left about your day but…” Midnight raises an eyebrow at the deduction. What an astute kid (Y/n) was. She gives a small laugh.

“Maybe so but helping people in need is part of my job as a pro-hero. This is par of the course.”

Pro-hero? Was that this world’s equivalent to pokémon rangers?

Midnight was particularly grateful about how easy to read (Y/n) is. While the young teen didn’t have much to say, the words unspoken were capable of being interpreted all by analyzing her stance and facial expressions. The Top Ranger’s body was as rigid as ever, as if any simple movement could cause issue. Yet, in her eyes – the mention of being a pro-hero garnered her interest, but the scrunched brow and head-tilt of curiosity suggested inquisitiveness. Either she didn’t know that Midnight was a pro-hero, or she didn’t know about pro-heroes altogether. Strange. The R-Rated Hero decides to keep these thoughts to herself for the time being and continues to walk through Musutafu’s police division before eventually stopping at a reception desk. A tired looking lady with light blue hair pinned in a messy bun was sat behind the desk; a thick glass panel separated them from her. Glancing from her work on the computer screen, the woman’s plum-colored eyes brighten in recognition.

             “Fancy seeing you here Midnight. To what do I have the pleasure of helping you with?”

(Y/n) inadvertently releases a small sound of distaste. The shift in formality was making the girl second guess herself. Kayama doesn’t allow her to even consider backing out, patting her on the shoulder as if telling her to snap out of it. The receptionist has since noticed (Y/N)’s presence putting two and two together.

             “I see you’ve bought a guest. Is everything alright?”

             “Unfortunately, not. This young lady here says that she washed up on the beach and doesn’t know of her whereabouts.” Desk lady lets out a hum of sympathy.

             “Well. First things first, we’re currently located in Musutafu, Japan. Is that ringing any bells?” (Y/n) shakes her head ‘no’.

Both women were mildly shocked. Musutafu isn’t by any means a small area. The business done here specifically concerning work with pro-heroes makes the area well-known not only domestically but internationally. Given the leeway, Midnight proceeds to ask her own question.

             “The only beach closest to here is Takoba. Even so, that’s pretty far. How long have you been here since that point?” This inquiry was a big one and (Y/n)’s eyes widened at the realization of that. If anyone were to be the most up-to-date with recent affairs it’d be governments and the powers in place. The ranger had ended up on the municipal beach around the same time. Telling her the truth would immediately draw correlation. (Y/n) wouldn’t be so naïve as to think that this information wouldn’t eventually come to light, but everything seemed to be moving so fast. She had to think quickly.

Yet, before she could give a false answer, a rather large assembly door some distance away had flew open. A squadron of officers march into the corridor of the department building causing (Y/n) to jump. Her mind raced with fear. Had they found her out??? She promptly took a few seconds of time to access the uniform-clad group before concluding that they were clearly not out to get her. On the contrary, they were headed out of the building in hurry. An emergency situation no doubt…

Midnight dismisses the question. She can receive (Y/n)’s answer at another time. The dispatch was more important.

             “What’s going on here?” An officer which appears to be a bipedal cat (?), hears the R-Rated Hero and swiftly turns before assuming a square stance.

             “We’ve received a call about a quirked animal terrorizing the locals to the west, Ms. Midnight! So far, we’ve had Kamui Woods, Gang Orca, and Eraserhead answer the call.

             “And I’m gonna join them,” her decision was resolute. The cat officer makes no move to reject the offer, though why would he? There’s strength in numbers and any help that can be given to rid of  any threat is much appreciated. Plus, as soon as these quirked animals were discovered, Midnight has wanted to know what she was working with. She was sure every hero did, because dealing with these creatures was a new problem that they’d have to get accustomed to. Just like similar events that have happened prior…

Kayama turns to (Y/n), her demeanor taking a 180° from the lax attitude she held previously.

             “Stay here,” she says before moving to depart with her comrade.

As the young ranger watched Midnight leave (Y/n)’s face appeared blank; indecipherable. She was caught in her head after having listened to what the officer had said. A pokémon terrorizing civilians? While the creatures could get themselves into petty trouble with humans, it’s not very often that situations will escalate any further, especially in such a heavily populated area like a city. Nevertheless, the word “terrorize” is a rather brazen term to use. Is this pokémon rather large and capable of great damage or is it simply scary looking with the emergency being reported in exaggeration?

Regardless of what the answer was, all (Y/n) wanted to do was go and see for herself. Just because she was told to stay doesn’t mean that she was going to. Though, before she was going to follow after them, she needed to prep—a task that is kind of hard if she has no idea what kind of pokémon she’d be going up against. This is a big chance for the girl to prove herself and she wasn’t going to let it slip. So, (Y/n)’s attention whips to the blue-haired receptionist swiftly and passionately. The woman jolts at the teen’s spike in enthusiasm.

“Hey, I’m curious. I’ve seen shows on TV that follow the heroes while they do their thing? Ya know, fighting their enemies or whatever. Yeah, do they broadcast cast at night? ‘Cause I wanna watch!”

[jean-and-ali-liveblogs]

Ali: tl;dr: Somebody draw it for me, and since it was kinda my OC, I decided to use it.

And now the full story - that I told here like 3-4 times so far prompted by asks, so sorry to those who remember it. But this is really full story now. A FULL STORY. ALL THE DETAILS, ALL THE LOGO’S LORE. INCLUDING INFO YOU DON’T NEED AT ALL. BRACE YOURSELF.

Some years ago there was this fan project going on called Overtale, which was supposed to be sequel of Undertale following the plot of monster and humans living together on the surface. Since then the project got cancelled due to various issues and all that’s left of it is amazing music (seriously, listen to it, it’s great), some voice acting sneak peeks with very snarky Asriel and full 3D alpha-demo somewhere.

But when the project was still going on I really fallen in love with it and since I was also deeply in love with Papyrus - and still Am - I started a bit obnoxiously roleplaying him on the game project page in comments. Soon that helped me made friends with other fans of the project and then we gathered in this little group on Skype (oh, those times before Discord existed) with plans to make some kind of a video gift for the developers. And then developers themselves noticed us, and since the game was going to be in open world, we got an opportunity to create a little side town filled with characters made by us and with a short side plot line for a player to complete. 

And that let to creation of Ali, red haired, green eyed cat monster, who was  troubled with extreme case of double personality. She was supposed to be one of the shopkeepers in the town. But the town itself was in the midst of a conflict. Split in half, one side supporting beliefs of Sans-like scientist human and other side supporting beliefs of spirtual and kind dog monster. The problem was that Ali loved everybody and wanted to be friends with everybody. She just could not pick one side, it was too hard for her. She ended up developing a second personality, who she claimed was her sister named Ila. And then Ali supported one side of the conflict and Ila the other one. When you would interact with her in the shop, she would try to trick you, ducking under the counter and slightly changing outfits, trying to convince you that one time you talk with her and the other time with her sister, but it was all quite easy to look through. 

I even did some digging around now and found old files with dialogue ideas, I think they fit the humour of Undertale quite well, why not share some of them (the stuff in brackets are comments in the shop’s window or random notes made when this was wrote):

1. (conversation)

(talk)

Ali: “Alright, what would you like to know?”

Ila: “Oh, meme-ingful conversation's your thing, huh?” heavy emphasis on the pun

2. (on sister) 

Ali: “My sister thinks she's hilarious. I think she's nuts.” 

Ila: “My sister thinks I'm nuts. Isn't that hilarious?”

3.  (random) “There's a good reason you never see monsters with guns. A really good reason. Maybe humans use them to kill things, and some humans don't like killing things, and that's why they don't use guns, but our reason is way better, and way more important than that. Gunpowder smells weird.”

4.  (on FKDK versus UFOP - town’s groups conflict) “People have been shouting at each other in the street a lot, lately. I'm pretty sure it's a new sport someone came up with.”

5.  (on Tree of Threes) “Some say that one of the trees just outside town is actually a were-man! It used to be a normal tree, but then one day a human bit it, and now it transforms into a man under the full moon.”

6.  (on Zwelf) “Zwelf once accidentally ingested a plastic donut while absentmindedly working out a problem. I didn't believe it at first. It was a lot to swallow.”

7.  "[talk][new] “Sir Mallow of Marsh... Bit of a mouthful, if you ask me. Why doesn't he just call himself Sir Marshmallow?”

8. (organisations)

 Ali: “I support the FDKD, of course. That's the (I forgot the acronym ). They (I don't know the answer to this question ). I suppose you wanna hear about the UFOP too? My sister knows more, I'll go get her.” exits to back room to change to Ila 

Ila: “Oh, the UFOP! That's the United Federation of Puns! It's so much pun being a member, we hang out and tell jokes all day, it's great! (idk wtf the UFOP goals are, she woud mention this now). Ugh. There's also the FDKD, but they're lame. No sense of humor whatsoever! Like my sister. Hang on, I'll get her for you, she can tell you more.” exits to back room to change to Ali

So yea, I have much more of those, but that’s probably enough and that was the kind of person Ali was supposed to be!

But then the project got sadly canceled due to personal reasons of the developers. I became quite fond of Ali though. There was more to the whole town idea, eventually it was dropped, then we were supposed to just made OC characters wandering the game world, so Ali changed into wandering merchant you could meet on the road. 

And then, since I had a very detailed desctription of how she was supposed to look like:

“Ali/Ila Appearance: Monster. Short-haired bipedal feline, the base colour of the coat being a concrete grey(#95A5A6), with patches of near-white(#ECF0F1), silver(#BDC3C7) and dark grey(#7F8C8D) which have defined edges, mimicking a tabby-blotchy khaki pattern. The face is intersected by a stripe of silver grey(#BDC3C7), running diagonally from just above the right-eye brow ridge, to the edge of the jaw just below the left side of the mouth. She has a narrow face and jaw; a longer muzzle with her pointed eye-teeth showing whenever she smiles; short ears sticking up through her hair; slitted emerald-green eyes(#00FF33) which are an average depth; and a windswept-styled pixie haircut about 5 inches long, dyed pomegranate red (#C0392B). Ali's body is slightly large, with some muscle present but not obvious. Ali wears a close-fitting scarlet(#FB0012) tee-shirt with a high v-neckline and short sleeves about ¼ the length from shoulder to elbow which has a skeleton's skull printed on it to symbolise her admiration for Papyrus, with a sleeveless green-and-brown khaki vest which is unzipped over the top, plain mid-blue jeans, red(#FB0012) canvas tennis shoes with white laces, and a FDKD pin displayed prominently on her vest. When changing to Ila she swaps her khaki vest for a blue hoodie, zipped up to hide the skull-printed shirt, but with a small skull pendant attached to the zipper tag to demonstrate her admiration for Sans. She also wears a UFOP pin prominently on the front of her hoodie. Ali/Ila's tail is tipped with a fluffed tuft of hair, which she dyes the same shade of red as the hair on her head.“

One of my friends took that and comissioned somebody else to draw her for me. This way I ended up with this lovely and amazing thing:

At first it was all production secret, none of us was allowed to share any of it. But once Overtale got cancelled, the whole project stopped being secret, the main developer even published whole long document with all the plot.

And then I came up with this idea to make a liveblog with Jean and I found myself being extremely lost as to what I should use as the logo. I didn’t want to just grab some picture from the Internet, it just felt wrong to kinda “steal” somebody’s else work. And I wanted it to be something more personal too. 

And then I reminded myself of Ali, the cat monster with personality, hair style and color, and fashion choices modeled after me. It felt like a perfect choice. 

The time of hanging out with other Undertale fans, coming up with creative ideas, chatting about random stuff and chilling together was one of the greatest time of my life. So having Ali here brings me warm and nostalgic emotions. Maybe she never got to be a character in the game, but I could not just let her fade away. So I took her along for this new project.

The End. 

[honeylikewords]

Poe being the one to introduce Rey and Finn to something like chocolate, or cartoons or something.

GOSH IS THAT EVER CUTE SO HERE I GO

 All three of them are having to lead such pragmatist lives, such life-or-death, survivalist lives that pleasures have been far and few between, but of them, Poe has been the one who has seen enough of the galaxy and lived in peace long enough to be familiar with friendlier, happier things.

So I like to imagine them sitting in the Falcon, around that goofy chessboard table, as Poe unpacks a bag and sets several bars of chocolate down in front of them. He lets them pick them up and inspect them, Finn reading the wrapper and Rey picking at the foil to see what’s inside, always so curious. 

Neither of them have ever really had sweets, given that Rey was living on starvation portions for her entire life and Finn was on a strict trooper diet, which meant absolutely no frills or sweets. But Poe, while never having been exactly rich or spoiled, has encountered such little luxuries before, and wants to share that with his friends.

“Seriously, guys,” he laughs, watching them as they study the bars so intimately, “It’s okay. They’re for you. You can eat ‘em. And there’s plenty more of them, so don’t worry about rationing every last scrap. Just enjoy it.”

Rey grins wide, nodding appreciatively as she breaks off a small chunk of the bar. Finn hesitates a little, leaning over to Poe.

“Do you want me to pay you back for them?”

“No, man. They’re a gift. I can afford it. They’re, like, only a couple credits on this planet. You’re fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Finn is always a little bit of a gift-horse-mouth-looker, if only in the sense that he’s never received a gift horse without it being some kind of trap. Poe pats his shoulder affectionately and gives him a warm, reassuring smile. 

“Finn. Buddy. My guy. I want you to have them. When you care about someone, you want to make sure they feel good, right?”

Finn nods, a serious, thoughtful look on his sweet face.

“So, giving them a gift they’d like would make them feel good, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Ergo, me giving you this is a way for me to make sure you feel good and that I’m doing my part as someone who cares about you. So go ahead, buddy. Just try it. And if you don’t like it, Rey can finish it for you, right?”

Rey gives an excited thumbs up, beaming around her mouthful of chocolate. She’s already halfway through her bar and has scooped a handful of the bars closer to her like a pile of dragon-hoarded gold.

Relaxing a little, Finn unpeels his chocolate bar with a reverence usually reserved for the unveiling of a bride at a wedding. He’s slow and methodical, but Poe can see that held-back excitement glimmering just under the controlled surface Finn is putting up. Finn glances over and meets Poe’s gaze, and Poe rolls his eyes with a smile, giving Finn permission to rip off the rest of the packaging and bite into the bar enthusiastically.

Both Finn and Rey don’t speak for the next few moments as they just devour the chocolate, grinning at one another and exchanging bites of bars with different flavors or pieces of fruit in them, sharing with the giddiness of children.

Once they seem comfortable with the indulgence, Poe takes a bar of his own out and wanders over to a panel of nearby screens in the Falcon’s lounge area, tapping through some menus and finding a few files that match what he’s looking for. He programs the files to project through the holo system of the chessboard, and looks over to see a cartoon show pop up on the table where normally the projected chess pieces would go.

Finn and Rey watch the shapes move with confusion. Those don’t look like normal holo projections; they’re not even real people or creatures! They’re so… colorful. And they move weirdly, so fluidly and rubber-like. Finn squints, and Rey passes her hand through the projection, as if trying to compare her own realistic body to the unrealistic images before her.

“This,” Poe says, pointing his half-eaten chocolate bar at the projections on the table, “Is entertainment.”

“Like at the casino?,” Finn asks.

“Uh, not really,” Poe replies. “That’s a different kind of entertainment. This is kinda like drawings that people put together to so that they seem like they’re moving. The goal is to make something that people like watching, that tells a story, and is usually just about having fun. These are normally for kids, but lots of adult people– like yours truly– have fun watching them, too. It’s like a play, but if all the actors were drawings instead of real actors. Get it?”

Finn and Rey both nod half-heartedly, more interested in watching this strange bipedal cat chase around what seems like a bipedal womp-rat, wielding a giant hammer. When the cat smashes the hammer down on the womp-rat, Rey and Finn both jump in shock, and when the womp-rat survives and then grabs the hammer and chases the cat, they laugh confusedly, but keep watching nevertheless.

It takes a good few episodes for them to adjust to the concept of the cartoons, but they come around, and soon enough all three of them sit around the table eating their chocolate and watching episodes of “Bom And Therry”, the aforementioned cat and womp-rat show. Rey and Finn both like Therry, the womp-rat, more than Bom, the cat, since Therry is the scrappy, rambunctious underdog of the stories. Also, it is very funny to watch a womp-rat tie the cat’s tail around a thermal detonator, in their opinions.

From there, Poe shows them other cartoons, and they find that they really like them. They’re simple and silly and relaxing, and all three of them have good laughs watching the goofiness unfold.

When Poe looks over at his friends and sees them smiling, so at ease for the first time in so long, he feels proud to have been able to bring such joy to people he loves so much. They deserve it.