#fist of the ruby phoenix

[pandoras-proxy]

New arc means a new look. ✨️

[jellyjimjam]

Pathfinder second mark Firebrand Luth Deepstrider.

Inexorable iron magus for fist of the ruby phoenix who we all quickly decided was madly in love with the first real npc they met (Tino). Ships navigator and the only intelligence modifier in the party, 36 and super over the whole “I have to win things to prove I’m better than people” mantra. Oldest adopted child of dwarf mom, older adopted sister to the nerdiest orc and a kobold with a death wish.

[lucdrawsthings]

The Radiant Winds!

[rhiflux]

I made some fanart of Masami Takahara, from Dice Will Roll's Fists of the Ruby Phoenix campaign.

[dreadfutures]

NOOOOOOO NOT THEM NOT OUR FRIENDS

this level 19 arc is heartbreaking ;-;

[pangurbanthewhite]

Forever Climbing (4386 words) by CatKing_Catkin Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dice Will Roll (Podcast) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Implied Liang Shen/Xie Chuji Characters: Liang Shen, Tino Tung, Zumi Ran, Gig the Big Goblin, Malako, mentions of others, Brief appearance by the Radiant Winds Additional Tags: Introspection, Character Study, C03E19 - Grand Slams & Gaidens, Fictional Religion & Theology, Religious Content, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family, Friendship, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Awkward Flirting, Light Angst, Caretaking, Tino Tung can't help but be a dad, Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, Tournaments, Internal Monologue Summary:

The night after their exhibition match and securing their sponsor, Tino's Toughest returns to the Ruby Village and Tino Tung takes a little time alone to reflect on how far he's come and how far he might still be able to go.

To his surprise, he's not the only one who'd rather spend the evening introspecting instead of celebrating.

(Or, Liang Shen is fascinated despite himself by Tino's relationship to failure. Tino tries to explain it.)

[coloursfalllikesnow]

really fast doodle of my latest Pathfinder character, Neema the nagaji monk. we're doing Fist of the Ruby Phoenix and its fun!

didn't feel like colouring it proper, though. she's based on a gaboon viper.

[silversiren1101]

I want to run Prey for Death I want to run Curtain Call I want to run Fists of the Ruby Phoenix I want to run Stolen Fate--

[thryth-gaming]

Characters played in TTRPGs since 2000

I'm reposting this to my gaming blog. I'm updating it and I'm also going to mark which ones I've got Hero Forge minis of. I probably won't catch them all, there've been a few games in the last 23 years.

Definitely didn't catch all of them, but here's quite a few.

Campaign

D&D 3.5

Angwiel - snake-person (elf mechanically) Sorcerer/Cleric

Jhessail Crackstone - wererat (hengeyokai mechanically) Paladin/Rogue

Kya'Rei L'Di'Shinabon - Drow Ranger/Cleric

Yroling Xian'ri - hengeyokai cleric

Teryna - human (reincarnated fox familiar) ranger

Medora - human sorcerer/disciple of Medusa (homebrew prestige class)

Lheru - hengeyokai (spider) druid

D&D 5e

Shui Baenre - half-drow Lore Bard acolyte (child of Liriel Baenre and Fyodor of Rasheman) - Phandelver

Aisha Yethtai - tiefling knight in silver battlemaster - Storm Giant's Thunder/Dragon Heist (Hero Forge mini exists)

Weary - tiefling monster slayer - Curse of Strahd (Hero Forge mini exists)

Zihu - Yuan-ti Celestial Warlock (ancient couatl) Acolyte - homebrew (Hero Forge mini exists)

Zohuital - Yuan-ti Celestial Warlock (lillend sisters) Hermit - homebrew

Ranveig - scourge aasimar soldier valor bard - homebrew (Hero Forge mini exists)

Kanti Messner - Changeling Lore Bard/Celestial Warlock (Book of Exalted Deeds) - homebrew (Hero Forge mini exists)

Aramis Hopps - Harengon Drunken Master/Mastermind Charlatan - homebrew

Caress Melani - Yuan-ti Ancients Paladin, Courtesan of Sharess - Phandelver/Hoard of Dragon Queen (Hero Forge mini exists)

Proper Ruin - Yuan-ti Battlesmith, Lyceum Scholar - Netherdeep, (Hero Forge mini exists)

Mariah the Blue - Variant Human Draconic Sorcerer city investigator

Nesali - yuan-ti archaeologist Beast Barbarian, full of anxiety and self-esteem issues - Candlekeep (Hero Forge mini exists)

Nishan Domine - yuan-ti mercenary Totem Barbarian, tranquil fury, battlefield redecoration

Teena Valle - halfling Inquisitive rogue... died to a vampire in one session

Karen Essakye - Seattle resident githyanki law student turned scout rogue stuck in Ravenloft

Pathfinder 1e

Ide Shika - Human Fighter/Chevalier - Rise of the Runelands (Hero Forge mini exists)

Ahriah - Tiefling Witch - Homebrew

Pathfinder 2e

Sevic Rasitoria - Fetchling Beastkin (Bat) - Swashbuckler (Gymnast), Anathema Vaults

Vihra of Charity - Vishkanya Scalekeeper, Witch (Faith's Flamekeeper), Season of Phoenix - Urban Fantasy merger of Season of Ghosts and Fist of the Ruby Phoenix

Fabula Ultima

Only - Rogue/Tinkerer/Wayfarer - An uplifted harpy trying to uplift her species.

Scion 1e

Sang-Yoon Koga - The Trickster Fox, Las Vegas magician, daughter of Susano'o.

Juri Como - Daughter of Benzaitan, The Great Mangaka, "Social Ninja", Expert at Obfuscating Stupidity (Hero Forge mini exists)

Delilah Samson - Child of Loki, shapeshifter, illusionist, ex-cop, private eye, assistant to Hel (in her guise as a mortal lawyer)

Sa - Dark avenger, brutal slayer of criminals. [redacted]

Scion 2e

Lily Watson - Child of Inari, brat, tomb raider, reckless and selfish

Hilde Sifgard - Child of Sif, youtube daredevil

City of Mist

Patricia Althius - war vet, PTSD, vampire vigilante, daughter to a family of war profiteers and generations of shady dealings. Rift of Count of Monte Cristo/Lamashtu (Hero Forge mini exists)

Random - lab rat, feral teen, Rift of the Movie Monster, non-binary and ace AF (Hero Forge mini exists)

Indira Yi - Rift of Arthur Dent, streaming journalist, improbably lucky.

Fate

Katrina Stnad/Voivode Valeria Draculesti/The Wallachian - doctor, martial artist, ex-terrorist. Steampunk/Dieselpunk game.

Irene Breholm - Divine Blood game, dhampir, sidhe, born to the Breholm Sorcerer family... kinda a big civilian dork in over her head.

Jocasta - Sorceress, librarian, daughter of a Greco-Japanese crime family who just wants out. Constantly getting kidnapped. (Hero Forge mini exists)

Hero System

Megumi Morisato, aka "Greyskin" - dimensional phaser, tank, really damn hard to bring down, geeky fangirl with lots of superhero historical knowledge and trivia. (Hero Forge mini exists)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Cadynce Baker / Nya'd'cebrac - demon of blessings and protection, one sister of a paired set of demons, her sister being the spear to her shield. Professional game designer. (Hero Forge mini exists)

BESM 3rd

The Wallachian - see Fate, that campaign started in BESM and moved to Strands of Fate later.

Himura Tai-Wen - NSFW campaign, oni lady with lots of girlfirends ended up ascending to higher plane of existence.

Water Tribe Swordsman whose name I forget in Avatar game

Shadowrun

Keina Isawa - Oni shinto magician, wanted to be an idol singer, ended up a shadowrunner instead. (Hero Forge mini exists)

Lacey Chambers - human adept (social/pistol) spy, burned (Hero Forge mini exists)

Leyti - Finnish Changeling (foxlady) mystic adept, bar owner, fixer. uncertain on the name

Legend of Five Rings - 4th Edition

Moto Hotaru - born a scorpion, trained a shinobi, married a unicorn, became a diplomat, died to the Kargat, but tricked them into doing things that scuttled their operations in the area.

Chronicles of Darkness

Emma Terreal - Sin-Eater/Geist, bank accountant suffocated in a bank vault during a robbery. (Hero Forge mini exists)

Suzume Armitage - A young woman unknowingly a creation of magic.

Annika Walsh - engineer working on the space elevator

Key 13 - (Shadowrun setting with CofD rules) street samurai with experimental soul-active implants.

Monster of the Week

Niamh Miller - The Searcher, a teenager on the swim team who experienced a cosmic insight and is now eager to explore the supernatural.

One-Shots/Short-Runs

Monster of the Week

Whisp, The Libram of Whispered Prayers - The Talisman, a sentient magical book who can take human form.

Persia Mason - The Changeling, a teenaged gorgon living at a secret agency for monitoring supernatural things. (Hero Forge mini exists)

D&D 5e

Meesha Canidae - Shifter Merchant Diviner, socially awkward but unaware of it. (Hero Forge mini exists)

Valaine the Morbid - Shifter Swarmkeeper Entertainer, a bat shifter with a swarm of bats she performs shows with

Yuina Kendrick - a bitchy jurogumo (custom lineage) from Urban Arcana who got stuck in Ravenloft... and deserved it.

Kori the Storyteller - dhampir Spirit Bard, a dreaming soul animating her comatose body.

Erased - Variant Human Sage Undying Warlock (angel of death), absent-minded scholar who accidentaly got her name erased from reality.

Eve Niah - Halfling Undying Warlock (amused lich) with a bone whip, weirdly very cheerful

Cael - wood elf gorgon sorceress, former servant with memory problems.

Mutants and Masterminds

Queen Snake - doctor, martial artist, ritual mage, awakened snake-like powers when an experimental treatment mixing magic and medicine was injected into her during a hostage event. (Hero Forge mini exists)

Masks

Serpent Princess - The Beacon, daughter of Queen Snake, very eager to be a great hero and huge flirt.

One-Ring

High elf sorceress pre-gen character, forget the name

Apocalypse World

Nameless - doctor and gunfighter with snake-like mutations, seeking revenge on the one who changed and maimed her.

Fight with Spirit

Maeve Dumas - born to a martial arts family, secretly part of a competitive dance team

[pandoras-proxy]

When a short king tells you you're cute. 😳

[crimsonxe]

Spoilers under the cut (9x07) and a rant:

Y’know I’d thought I heard all the disgusting bullshit names aimed at Blake, but now after clicking a particular vid I’ve got another to add to the list. Some dumbass calling her “Yang’s chew toy”, like wtaf? And this moron actually proceeds to think he has any ground to comment about Yang daring to move in-between Blake and Ruby. How awful that is and launching into how if anyone does that their scum of the earth. And trying to sell the idea of himself being pro-BB till that made him hate it (cause yeah, I believe that like a believe I can hurl a truck into the atmosphere). And ofc the comments (which thankfully there’s only 2 of) have some of the dumbest shitlords saying how BB ruined Yang and/or that they hate Yang now. Once again all Yang did was move in-between Blake and Ruby; and likely for BOTH of their sakes; these dumbasses acting like she raised a fist against her.

That’s even diving into the attacks on Blake cause how dare she cower or show any uncomfortability at having someone raising their voice and being confrontational. “Wasn’t she part of a radical group? Blake has degraded so much”; or she’s hearing this from someone she’s close to and wouldn’t have expected to hear it from. Or that she’s y’know AN ABUSE SURVIVOR whose mind reacted to something in that gave off vibes. inb4 anyone misconstrues this, it’s NOT saying Ruby was being abusive or like Adam (there’s a whole ass list against that bullshit). It IS saying that like nostalgic things that trigger responses based on happy imprints in the brain, there’s things that do the same for trauma. Ruby is valid in having her reaction to the pressures put on her, so is Blake for having her reaction towards stressful situations that hit certain veins psychologically. Then again these types of morons would fail to grasp that as they have been doing for years now.

Then again the whole thing is just that an act, cause the reality is that it’s just them using it as a front to mask their homophobia and issue with BB. Fuck that bullshit, Yang was fine in her reaction and fuck any-damn-body trying to vilify her. As an older sibling myself, I’ll easily say that if my bro started going after my partner that I’d tell him to back the fuck off and move between them.

Just to be clear cause I saw that Phoenix/Night also put up a vid today about Ruby’s breakdown and whatnot; he isn’t the one this post is about.

[lucdrawsthings]

The Witch-Prince of the Sea!

[rhiflux]

I have drawn every day for the past week and I intend on doing so for the next three weeks.

I drew the player characters from campaign 3 of Dice Will Roll using the official art as reference.

It's very very early on, but I think I'm slowly improving.

[dreadfutures]

our stolen fate campaign is coming to a close... and I am facing the daunting fact that between all members of our group we have played a majority of Adventure Paths in both 1e and 2e.

I'm in an Extinction Curse game alongside this one, and we did a Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, and we did Night of the Gray Death and a 2e converted Reign of Winter, and we did Tyrants Grasp, and all of us have played Wrath of the Righteous, and they've done Kingmaker/Agents of Edgewatch/Age of Ashes/Strength of Thousands/all the Runelords games... none of us really want to do the Blood Lords campaign........

[stesierra]

It's 7am and I've had one hour of sleep because my baby complains every time his binkie falls out. And that means it's time to post another first chapter of a different book. As usual, tell me if you want to be added or removed from my writing tag list.

This is NA fantasy about found family and finding your own path. It's sort of a love letter to birds. Ace representation, of course.

Court Phoenix

Chapter One

In the thin twilight before dawn, the poles of my net sprang from the lake shore like dead saplings. The shadows turned my standing net invisible, hiding its intricate weaving and strong threads. If I couldn’t see it, neither could the birds. That was what I was counting on.

My shoulders slumped as I crouched in the brush, and exhaustion tried to drag my eyelids down. The wind grazed my cheeks and nipped at my exposed ears, and for a second the net appeared, rippling like a wave on the lake. I prayed for stillness, and the breeze withered. It was what I’d wanted, but the dead air stifled me as I waited for my prey to wake and wing across the water. The most boring part of fishing for birds was waiting.

A wavering shriek split the night and pierced my ears. It wasn’t human, but I couldn’t deny the anguish in that wail. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and my heart quickened. I craned my head, trying to see the source among the trees.

If not for the broken twigs biting into my knees and the muddy smell of the shore, I would have thought I dreamed. Fire danced in the sky, the sun escaping its path. It darted over the trees and swept over the lake, trailing sparks, and with another tormented scream, it dashed itself against the shore.

I jumped up, crunching fallen branches underfoot. The flames licked the ground, like an ordinary cookfire, but something lay in their midst. A bird, her wings spread and neck twisted, but not the sort of bird I had for dinner. If she had struck my net, she would have ripped it apart even without the flames. It had happened once with a golden eagle of the same size, and I still bore the scar from trying to free it.

The fire blazed brighter, but I crept towards it. At first, I thought the bird was an eagle. Her bone-white beak slashed downward, and her ivory talons clenched into human-sized fists. But her streaming tail better fit a pheasant, and no raptor bore such a curving neck. A band of gold encircled one ankle, like a bracelet.

Her blunt wings beat once as I knelt by the border of the fire. Except for the blue that painted her tail and face, her feathers glowed gold and red, echoing the flames. Her ruby eyes stared up at me. Her beak parted, and another shivering cry cut into my heart. I had never heard anything so sad.

“Are you hurt?” I asked, although I didn’t expect a reply. “How can I help you?”

She keened at me, lying limp and hopeless.

Some mad instinct drove me to lean forward into the flames. I wasn’t worried about the fire — I was fireborn — but that beak could take off my fingers, those claws gouge out my heart. But I gathered the bird onto my lap, ignoring the fact that my trousers and quilted jacket had caught fire.

She opened and closed her beak, turned her head to lie against my leg, and died.

I sighed and stroked her silky back. I was a fisher, and we caught and ate birds to survive, but I had always loved birds of prey. Whenever they hit my nets, I set them free. I supposed this bird was free now, but her loss seemed a tragedy. She was so beautiful.

In my arms, the creature’s feathers blackened and curled. The scent of roasting meat wafted up. And then, before I could decide if it would honor the bird more to eat or bury her, a pillar of flame erupted around me.

It roared like a bull, climbing into the sky and burning my clothes to ash. Smoke choked my nostrils and filled my lungs. The bird crumbled to cinders, leaving me naked and empty-handed. I scrambled to my feet. Around me, the fire was electric, calling to me, welcoming and joyful. The golden band melted in the heat, puddling on the ground.

Mother would be furious about my clothes, but it was too late for them, so I stayed bathed in flame.

It died down too soon, as though giant fingers had pinched out the fire. The wind replaced it, stinging my ashy skin. The only warmth left in the world was the embers beneath my feet.

I stared down at them. I couldn’t see what was left of the golden band anymore, but the coals cradled a golden egg the size of my two fists. I leaned down and brushed its shell with my fingertip. It was hot and smooth, almost oily. I picked it up and cupped it to my modest breasts. And, my skin sooty and bared, I walked home.

#

The sun peeked above the horizon by the time I padded across the boundaries of the village. Behind me, the little forest that curled around our lake shifted and sighed in the wind. The birds had begun to sing.

It was early, and the only people awake were out fishing, like me, so no one watched as I tiptoed through gardens that burst with flowering onions and herbs and sidestepped half-patched boats turned over in the middle of town. I snuck past square houses with thatched roofs and paper windows and walls of lacquered wood. Fish dried from the eaves, and the town cats sat like loafs beneath, hoping for one to surrender to gravity.

My small home was near the smithy at the center of town, the doorstep scattered with feathers of every color. A brace of geese hung over my neighbor’s door — either bragging or an offer to bargain. Probably both. A net wound round poles was propped up outside, wrapped in tight cloth marked with a family signature. I had left mine standing by the lake, and Mother would be furious if she found out. I wouldn’t let her find out.

I shoved my door open with a shoulder and squeezed inside, egg cuddled against my bare stomach. The twilight wasn’t strong enough to light up my paper windows, so I propped the door open. It revealed hand-me-down furniture, pressed on me by relatives when I moved out of Mother’s house. A pallet stuffed with reeds took up the far wall. In the center stood the fire pit, nothing but dead ashes, and before it my scratched little dining table and wobbly stool. If I’d had a husband or wife, like any other young woman, they’d be waiting for me with the cookfire blazing and a savory breakfast scenting the air. But I didn’t have one. My house was cold and smelled of nothing but vinegar.

I hurried inside and laid the egg down on my pillow, in the indent left by my head. Then I cleaned up as best I could with a pitcher of water and some rags. The water turned black by the time I was done, but I no longer looked like my clothes had burned off me. Just in case, I pulled on the gray trousers and tunic I used at the forge. No one would notice a few more soot stains among those already there.

I sniffed myself and then the air. The fire was dead and I was mostly clean, so why did I smell smoke?

My pillow was smoldering. The egg lay among rising curls of gray, looking harmless. I snatched it up and flipped the pillow over to smother the black patch the egg had left.

“You’re trouble,” I told it. “I should put you back in the woods.”

It shone innocently in my hand. Innocent? It had tried to light my house on fire!

I cradled it in my palms, and it radiated heat that made my fingers tingle. I asked myself, “What am I doing? I can’t raise a bird. No one would understand.”

But I had no answers for myself. I burrowed the egg into the ashes of my firepit, mounding them up around it. If it caught alight here, it wouldn’t burn the village down. And then I ran back to the forest to check on my net and whether I had caught anything.

#

I couldn’t deal with birds all day. After I had plucked and gutted my catch — two ducks and three shorebirds — I left it outside Mother’s door and followed the stink of smoke to the smithy.

The old smith was already there, prodding the fire with a long poker. “You’re late,” he told me. “Do you think you’re my apprentice to waste my time?”

I was his apprentice because he’d paid off my mother when I was still a toddler who crawled into the family cookfire. No one had ever asked me if I wanted the job. But I bit back my temper and took a hold of the bellows. I’d learned a long time ago that protesting was a waste of time. Even though I was now twenty, a woman grown, by the rules of my village, this man was my master.

By sundown, soot and sweat soiled my forehead, my black hair and clothes stank of smoke, and my arms ached. My hands hurt from holding a hammer without gloves. My master was of the opinion that since fire couldn’t burn me, I would have greater control with my bare hands. All it did was make my palms smart with each blow.

I trudged back to my house in the twilight, already planning a long nap. But the door stood open, and my mother’s voice issued out, shrill and too loud. My heart dropped down to my toes.

“What is this mess? And where are her spare clothes and shoes? And what is that?”

“I don’t know, Mother,” Eldest Brother said, his voice patient and demure as a man’s should be. “It looks like an egg.”

They’d noticed the addition to my fireplace. Of course they had. I had no privacy at all, even now that I’d moved out. I hurried inside, expecting to see the egg smashed on the floor. But it still sat snug in its ash nest, shining gold like the headwoman’s best jewelry.

My mother spun towards me, hands set on her hips. Her long quilted coat fell to mid-thigh, covering her trousers, and she’d yanked her graying black hair back into a high pony-tail. My oldest brother stood between her and the door, dressed in a similar outfit, and he frowned at my grimy face. They both looked like me: mouths too thin and wide, noses too small and upturned. None of us were beauties, myself especially.

My mother demanded, “Where were you? What is this?”

I waved a hand to my smoky clothes. “Working at the forge. Where I am every day.”

She sniffed, folding her arms. “You should have been home an hour ago, to prepare dinner.”

“Tell that to the smith,” I snapped, shoving past them both to cast my jacket down on my bed.

“Tell him yourself,” Mother said. “You’re a grown woman. Supposedly.”

I gritted my teeth and kicked off my shoes, which sailed across room. “Please leave so I can eat and go to bed.”

Eldest Brother sighed and shook his head. “We’re your guests, Kerra. Did Father teach you to show such poor hospitality?”

Father had the courtesy not to invade my house. But I said, “No. Please, make yourselves at home. I’m happy to stay up another three hours instead of getting the sleep I desperately need.”

“You get plenty of sleep, you lazy girl,” Mother chided.

I clenched my fists, and my sore fingers protested. “Not when I get up before dawn to fish for birds! Birds for you! Which you never thanked me for!”

Eldest Brother glowered at me. “Calm down, Kerra. This is unbecoming.”

I jabbed a finger at the door. “Then leave.”

“I’m not going,” Mother declared, “Until you explain the egg in your fireplace.”

I stepped around them and swiped my hand through the ashes, hiding the egg beneath. “It’s nothing.”

“Don’t lie to your mother,” my mother and brother said at the same time. I wanted to scream.

“Fine,” I said. “The spirit of fire sent it to me. So I’m going to hatch it.”

They both stared at me. Eldest Brother said, “Hatch it? When it would make an omelet enough to feed your entire family?”

Mother sniffed. “What do you mean, the spirit of fire? The spirit of fire has had nothing to do with you since it possessed your father.”

I was born to the fire, as my people said it. It was Father's fault for being a daydreamer, Mother always said. Sometimes, if a man spent too long out on the water or the cold windy plains, or in front of a fireplace, or turning over the garden, and his mind wandered, a spirit might possess him. If he went to his wife, so possessed — well, he might sire a child with some unusual abilities.

Women didn't get possessed. I guessed we were more sensible.

“Give us the egg,” my brother said. “The family’s stomach matters more than your fancies.”

“Go on,” I said unkindly. “Touch it. If it’ll let you pick it up, you can have it.”

He frowned and sank his hand into the pile of ash. And then he yelped and jerked it back out. “It burned me!”

Mother grabbed his arm and glared at me, demanding explanations.

“The spirit of fire sent it,” I repeated. “If you try to make an omelet with it, it’ll probably burn down the village.”

My mother paled, staring down at the fireplace, and her fingers tightened on my brother’s sleeve. “Then you should carry it out and throw it into the lake! Really, Kerra—”

“Goodbye,” I said, herding them outside with sweeps of my hands. “Tell Father I said goodnight.” And as soon as they were beyond the threshold, I slammed the door shut.

Barely enough light illuminated the windows for me to dig out my tinder box and start the fire. I thought about pulling the egg out first, but I had nowhere fire-safe to put it. In the end, I piled dry kindling around it, and let the flames envelop it. It shone from the heart of the fire, neither blackening nor cracking, and I had the strange sense that it was happy.

“Are you going to hatch?” I whispered to it. “And when?” But the little life curled within that shell was sleeping, and I got no answer.

#

The next morning found me out by the lake again. No firebird tumbled from the air this time, but I caught a brace of ducks. This time I kept them for myself. My mother wouldn’t appreciate them anyway.

When I returned home, ducks hung from my belt, pole and wrapped net resting against my shoulder, I paused on the footpath and stared. My paper windows glowed as if I’d left a lantern lit inside, but when I’d left, the room had been black as pitch. What on earth?

I propped my poles and net against the front wall and peeked inside. Light radiated from my fireplace, too golden to be a fire. The egg shone where it curved above the ash, and cracks crazed it, each so bright it burned white. Something within rapped, like the crackle of damp charcoal raked into the forge. And as I gaped at it, the egg rocked impatiently against its ash nest.

I slipped inside and slammed the door behind me. If I was lucky, the villagers would think I’d just left the fire lit. I didn’t want any witnesses for this unusual birth.

As I reached the hearth, the tip of a white beak punctured the shell, and light poured out of the opening. And barely a second passed before a thunderous crack split my ears. I went half-blind as the egg exploded outwards, blasting glowing shell in every direction. The shards powdered like snow before they hit my face, but I still got one in my mouth. It tasted of chalk and ash.

I'd never seen an egg hatch, but I was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to go like that. But when I saw the firebird, sprawled in my fireplace with two enormous feet sticking out from under her, I forgot all my objections.

Ash-white fluff buried her, like she'd ripped out of a down pillow instead of an egg, and fire danced about her and blushed her baby-feathers red and gold. Her half-naked head wobbled on a skinny little neck, blue as the adult's tail. I crouched in front of her and stretched a hand out. Her face was the length of my littlest finger, and her eyes were closed like a newborn kitten's.

“What on earth am I going to name you?” I asked the chick.

The baby bird bumped me gently with her beak and overbalanced. When I righted her, she felt like embers against my palms.

I said, "I think I'll call you Hes."

@anonymousfoz

@moremysteriesthantragedies

@elizababie

@sm-writes-chaos

@bellascarousel

[bulletblade]

As chosen by you, the spinoff for Challengers of Smash is Marvel vs. Capcom.

With the exception of 5 characters, every playable non-assist/boss/secret/Norimaru character will be your roster.

For Marvel: Blackheart, Black Panther, Black Widow, Cable, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Colossus, Cyclops, Deadpool, Dormammu, Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange, Gambit, Gamora, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iceman, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Jubilee, Juggernaut, Magneto, Marrow, Mephisto, Modok, Nova, Omega Red, Phoenix, Psylocke, Rocket, Rogue, Sabertooth, Sentinel, She-Hulk, Shuma Gorath, Silver Samurai, Spider-Man, Spiral, Storm, Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Thor, Ultron, U. S. Agent, Venom, War Machine, Winter Soldier, Wolverine, and X-23.

For Capcom: Akuma, Amaterasu, Amingo, Anakaris, Anita, Arthur, B. B. Hood, Cammy, Captain Commando, Chris Redfield, Chun-Li, C. Viper, Dan Hibiki, Dante, Dhalsim, Felicia, Firebrand, Frank West, Guile, Haggar, Hayato, Hsien-Ko, Jedah, Jill Valentine, Jin Saotome, Ken, Lilith, M. Bison/Vega, Mega Man, Monster Hunter, Morrigan, Nash, Nemesis, Phoenix Wright, Roll, Ruby Heart, Ryu, Sakura, Servbot, Sigma, Sonson, Spencer, Strider, Trish, Tron, Vergil, Viewtiful Joe, Wesker, X, Zangief and Zero.

See you Monday for Round 1.