#giant dragon outside what the heck

[featheredsnek]

Nothing quite like some cool cafe critters surprising you with a home baking event

Happy birthday @luzzyderay, thanks for being a great friend these 3 years

[radiance1]

Inspired by @puppetmaster13u and various dragon aus they have.

BUT! This is also a bit of a fantasy/DnD au I guess...? IDK BUT HERE WE GO-

Okay now so, I'm imagining that that Danny, Tucker, and Sam create a pocket dimension for their game via the use of reality warping (via scepter) and something given to them by Pariah Dark before he went off on that whole honey moon thing with Clockwork.

For the record, Danny isn't the ghost king here, Pariah Dark is he's just the prince.

Sam created a garden from the barren earth, that eventually grew into a great forest and spread out to the rest of the world, which technically made her the creator of life but anyways. So, she's holed up in said garden turned forest.

Tucker bestowed upon his subjects (after they were made of course) knowledge and technology and is regarded as the greatest teacher in that world's history.

Danny? Oh yea he became that one that giant dragon that everyone knows is there, is afraid of, and just sleeps all day in this one specific place. You'd have to cut him some slack though, because no one told him creating a world and its laws would be so hard even with help.

That and him, as the one with basically the most knowledge and resident fanboy of space, created the stars surrounding the place as well!

Of course, they couldn't stay there all of the time. What with work (Tucker), high-society (Sam), and studying (Why the heck did Danny decide to go to collage again?). That entire place was just made to play around in before they had to go their separate ways and be, you know, actual adults, so it was easy enough to let go of it really.

Except for Danny. Not of any great reason, really, he just needed someplace where he could quietly study in peace, nap, think or just get away from the Ghost Zone before he had to go through all that princely nonsense again. Plus, none of their creations in that pocket dimension really wanted to mess with the giant fuck off dragon who was said to created the place anyways.

For the record, Danny is more of an eastern dragon in design with a long body rather than western. So that probably just added more into his intimidation with his sheer length.

So, you know, of course he would have been none too pleased when someone actually did disturb his solitude (as stated by the dimension's residents) as soon as the world was thrown off-balance by an outside force.

Meanwhile, Klarion the Witch boy is having the time of his life coming across a whole world that somehow hasn't been affected by Order or Chaos. So he's capitalizing on that.

Then he came across a place that was said to be sacred, not that he cared, and then came across a boy who didn't look a day over his teens (which frankly doesn't say much in regards to immortals) with a frankly long tail that looked longer than he was tall and very majestic looking horns.

Danny was annoyed yet curious, Klarion was surprised yet delighted.

[harveybwabbit92]

Grocery girl: Ken Sato x reader Pt. 2

You were a delivery girl who was frequently dispatched to the famous baseball player's Ken Sato residence, you were a nobody that anyone hardly paid attention to, until you found the legendary baseball passed out on his front steps looking like hell, being a bit of worry wart you help him inside and that things took a HUGE turn when you find yourself playing mommy for a giant baby dragon....

Part 1

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It had been almost a month since that strange incident with Sato. R/n tried bury it in the back of her mind but it always seem to find it's way back to the surface, it also didn't help that he was the main topic on every news outlet or at every water cooler gossip R/n has accidentally eavesdropped on. Apparently things weren't going very well for Mr. Sato's career.

Heck, even Meimei seems to have lost her earlier admiration for the baseball player as the younger girl had stopped asking R/n about him and switched to swooning and gushing over some K-pop group she fell in love with to anyone that would listen; R/n included, but that's teenagers for you they loose interest in things too easily, not that Meimei's uncle AKA the Boss was complaining he was just happy the kid was taking her job seriously now! So was R/n cos that meant Meimei would stop following her around asking about Mr. Sato every time she got back from a delivery.

Speaking of...

R/n pulled into Mr. Sato's driveway it seemed like the usual drop off situation until R/n got out of the van and nearly dropped the box of groceries at the sight that waited for her outside, R/n had to take a minute for her brain register what she was looking at first.

She thought it was a dummy left outside, before realizing it was person passed out on the steps and not just any old person. "Mr. Sato!" R/n put the box down and ran over to the downed baseball player she rolled him over to get look at his face and winced. Cripes! he looked like he'd been dragged through hell and back again!

R/n quickly tried to rouse the knocked out Sato by shaking him but that did little other making him mumble incoherently, R/n then through great struggle managed to lift him up off the stairs and was stunned at how heavy the baseball player was as his weight damn near sent them both tumbling backwards!

But R/n managed to steady them both as she pretty much dragged his limp body up the stairs. "This would be so easy for me if you'd just wake up." R/n grunted as she readjusted Ken so she could knock on his door; Hopefully his assistant was here and she could take care of him.

However when the front door opened on it's own there was no one there waiting. R/n stared nervously into the seemingly empty house, she heard nary a creak or breeze as she reluctantly took a step inside and tried not to yelp when the door suddenly shut behind her leaving the house in almost complete darkness.

Then the thoughts started creeping in and for brief moment R/n wondered if this was all possibly all a ruse and that Mr Sato was secret serial kill and that strange noises she heard last time was screams of his last victim...After all, who would suspect the famous baseball payer?!

But then R/n's more rational side reasoned how that ridiculous that was! if there was a killer on the loose there would've been some kind of news about it. R/n calmed herself down and dragged Mr. Sato to the first couch she found before getting his abandoned groceries from outside, R/n went against policy and opened them, grabbing a bottle of water and a Melon pan from it.

She left them on the coffee table for when he wakes up and was going to leave Mr. Sato for his assistant to find, But then R/n felt something off...did the floor just vibrate? Her brows furrowed as her eyes looked up at the ceiling and saw the boxy looking chandelier was swaying around; R/n shook her head. No, it wasn't her business... She got ready to leave, but then the thoughts about Mr. Sato possibly being a covert serial killer came back with a vengeance and she thought if he was hiding someone could that vibration them calling for help?

Checking to make sure Mr. Sato was still sleeping R/n cautiously crouched down low and pressed her ear to the floor only to jumped back with a gasp when she heard the same wailing from a month ago echoing from the floor below, R/n stood up and looked around the house for a way downstairs and found her only option was the large glass elevator cos of course the rich boy's got an elevator.... R/n stepped in and looked for a control button only for the elevator start moving on it own.

R/n tried to duck down in poor attempt to hide herself as it got closer to the bottom floor when it finally stopped and the delivery girl cautiously peeked out to see; well, she expected some kind of blood soaked torture room to be waiting for her, instead her eyes widened in awe at her futuristic surroundings if this was a basement it was like one she'd never seen before! The thoughts about Mr. Sato being a serial killer were quickly replaced with him possibly being a superhero fanboy.

This whole place screamed 'Batcave' as R/n stepped out of the elevator and began to wander around she wondered how much this place cost the baseball player to build? While R/n was gawking she failed to notice the large shadow slowly rising up behind her until it was too late.

R/n looked down and slowly turned around looking up as did her awe struck face slowly contorting into fear as she stared up at the beast behind her and shuddered.

"I never knew the harbinger of death would be so... pink!" 

*hours later*

Ken is woken up to by the baby squealing and his alarms going off like crazy! He looked at the time 11 pm...Oh, he missed her 9pm feeding, he wondered Mina didn't wake him up? when he spotted the water and Melon pan on the coffee table and ate and drank those as he made his way to the elevator but it was already downstairs causing him to pause.

Ken's mind was still hazy from juggling everything he couldn't remember if he'd gone downstairs earlier and went outside through the airlock to get back up into the house? Or maybe Mina brought something downstairs for the baby to use?

The answer was the last thing Ken expected as he descended into his base to find the baby playing Daruma-san (statues/red light green light for us yanks) with Mina and...Ken choked on his food when he saw his grocery girl standing in the middle of his base in posed like Hamlet (she holding Mina in the Alas poor Yorick pose) She nearly fell over when she saw Mr. Sato gawking. "What the heck is going-Oh, nonono!" When then the baby noticed him and she immediately run up to Ken and picked him up much to his protest.

While this was going on R/n used this as her attempt to escape to the elevator only for Ken to notice her sneaking away and changed into Ultraman and block her path with his hand... R/n gasped as she looked up at the silver giant completely flabbergasted. "Okay, So not a serial killer." Now it was Ultraman's turn to be confused. "What?"

Cut to R/n trapped in her own containment chamber sitting down bored as she watches a frustrated Mr. Sato pacing around his base. "Y'know, You'll go bald if you keep tugging at your hair like that" she said with a sigh the baseball player ignored her as the delivery girl tried to readjusted herself in a more comfortable position but the tube was to narrow for her legs to properly stretch out. "Couldn't you have given me a bigger tube? this one's too cramped." Mr. Sato shot her a seething glare that shut R/n up as he walked up to her tube.

"Oh, I'm sorry, maybe you should've called ahead before breaking into my house!" He sneered The delivery just rolled her eyes. "For that last time, I didn't break in I found you outside..." Ken snorted obviously not believing her. "Hey you, floating eye lady" R/n called out to Mina who floated over to them. "Doesn't this place have cameras or something" Show this knuckle head I'm telling the truth." She said crossing her arms, while Ken barked a Mina not to listen her and wait for the cops, who were taking their sweet time getting here.

"The police are not coming because I haven't called them." Ken looked at the orb in disbelief. "What? why not?!" Mina played the footage from a few hours ago showing Ken staggering up his front steps and then dropping like a sack of potatoes 15 minutes later R/n's van pulled up showed her jumping and quickly checking Ken over before picking him carrying him inside, and showed how she got into his base.

"Told ya, if this is the thanks I get for helping; then maybe I should've left you there for the birds to crap on!"

"Okay, okay... but that still doesn't mean you're off the hook."

"Oh? what are you gonna do? keep me in this tube forever?"

"No, You going to help me...With her."

Mr. Sato points at the baby Kaiju in the tube next to R/n's who babble happily and waved when he pointed at her, R/n meanwhile got this shell shocked look on her face, she thought he was joking until R/n was free from the tube; but by the next morning found herself in a moving van with her belongs hastily stuffed inside headed back towards Mr. Sato's house.

{Bonus, how R/n ended up playing with Emi: 

R/n tried to back away from the pink dragon thing that was staring her down when it took a step near her, She gasped and instinctively covered her face...But, nothing happened? The delivery girl curiously peeked between her fingers and saw Pinky was staring at her; she put her hands down.

The monster moves again R/n throws her hands back up and the monster did the oddest thing it smiled while chirping and clapping at her. R/n was very obviously bewildered by it's strange behavior as she repeated same action a few times before something clicked in her head; Peek-a-Boo.... It's thinks R/n was playing Peek-a-boo with it . "You're just a baby, aren't you?" The Kaiju tilted it's head at R/n bemused.

*Ken Sato has a baby Kaiju in his basement...what the crap?!*

The delivery girl screamed mentally as the baby Kaju chirped and covered it's face with it's hands; R/n knew what it was doing and played along "Oh no, where'd the baby go?" The delivery girl pretended to look around while side eyeing the elevator which the baby was currently blocking, The kaiju pulled it's hands away from it's face as R/n cheered "Oop, there you are!~" the baby squealed excitedly as this floating eye-ball robot suddenly appeared and started asking questions.

R/n explained herself and promised that she wouldn't tell anyone about this if the eye would let her leave. However, as soon as R/n took a step towards the elevator... The baby started sniffling and tearing up causing the delivery girl to panic. "No, no, I'm not leaving I'm not leaving, I promise, I'll stay here!" R/n said petting it on the leg and not realizing just how true those words would end up being in a few hours.

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Cross posted on my A03/Squidgeworld/Wattpad.

[howlingday]

Why I love One Piece

An essay made at the request of @superbkryptoniteavenue

One Piece is an anime about pirates at first glance. I first found the series when I was in the third grade. When I started watching the anime, I couldn't get enough of it. Years later, I'm still watching it, and I'm finding new things to love about it. Okay, the first paragraph is filled out, now let's get to some One Piece. Now come aboard and bring along all your hopes and dreams.

When I first found One Piece, it was a manga sitting in my school library. Nowadays, I usually start a new series from either the first episode or the first volume. However, One Piece was different in that I started from Volume 3, when Luffy, our main protagonist, meets his future navigator, Nami. The volume also introduced the first major threat Luffy and his crew faced off against; The Buggy Pirates. However, the one scene that I love more than any other in this manga was something that showed me how different Luffy was from the other pirates.

Before getting into that, let me give you a basic run-down of One Piece, and I mean VERY basic, because getting any deeper can be as troublesome as diving for treasure. First, the setting of One Piece is a world that is best described as one big ocean with islands dotting here and there. The world is in what's referred to as The Great Pirate Era, starting from when Gold Roger, the most famous pirate, was executed and with his dying words, declared that he left a treasure to be found, sparking the era. Whoever finds this treasure becomes the King of the Pirates, which is the end goal of our main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, who is a rubberman with the powers of rubber, which he gained after eating the Gum-Gum Fruit, a Devil Fruit.

I'll save you the long list from there, but it all makes sense as you go along. Anyways, the part that made me understand what kind of pirate Luffy is happened in the first volume I read, where there's a dog guarding a pet store for his dead master. A pirate with a giant lion attacks it and burns it to the ground. Luffy hunts down the pirate, easily overpowers the lion, then knocks out the pirate. He then comes back to the dog, handing him what's left of the pet store; a box of dog food. It's for this reason, among others, that Luffy is my favorite protagonist.

If I could find more One Piece, I wanted to get it. Bear in mind, this was back in the day when anime was only on the internet if you were lucky enough to find it. Especially if you were living outside of Japan and the USA. So when I found the anime, I hopped into as much as I could. I remember finding a website of just One Piece, and I binge-watched it for about a week. Ever since, it's been one binge-watch after the other.

East Blue, Baroque Works, Skypeia, Enies Lobby, Thriller Bark, Saobody Archipelago- I'd seen them all and I loved everything each one of them brought! Thus far, the best arc is Enies Lobby, since I felt like everyone was fighting as hard as they could and has probably some of the best, most tear-jerking moments in the entire series. Not to say the other arcs don't have their moments, but this was the one that cemented One Piece in my heart. Heck, I'll sometimes go back and rewatch the scenes because they're so good!

I find it funny, actually, how a series about such a simple character has developed into this huge world with its own intrigues and deeper lore. And it can all be pretty much summed up as, "And then Luffy happened." There's a secret shadow plot involving the World Government; there's a pirate running around stealing other people's powers; there's a talking skeleton, a giant dragon, and a living cartoon character as a god! It's all so awesome!

So, why do I love One Piece? Well... I love it because it's fun! I love it because it brings up interesting questions! I love it because it makes me laugh with joy, clench my fists in rage, and wipe my eyes for... reasons. I won't say it's perfect because it does have its flaws, but that won't stop me from enjoying Luffy and his crew making these short pit-stops that devolve into colossal battles that reshape the islands, if not the entire ocean itself!

So... Yeah. That's why I love One Piece.

[antaresr]

So, I was rambling when my head remembered the prompt that @liberationwasboundtohappen proposed and my brain decided to do it.

So a post-canon where everyone is friends, with game nights and stuff like that, however Ryou every night has nightmares about the shadow realm, things chasing him, the hunger he went through, the hiding places he had to find.

Until he sees him, Zorc, Hunting him, chasing him, cursing him, he hides and finds some water that he drinks, and his reflection is not his pale face with soft eyes, it is a sharp face with terrified eyes, a scar running down his right cheek, large and calloused hands, Ryou is not dreaming of his memories, Ryou does not have nightmares.

Ryou is watching TKB being hunted by things and by Zorc.

He wakes up with a scream when Zorc finds TKB, and it just so happens that it had been a game night, his friends wake up because of his scream and ask him what the hell is going on.

"The spirit of the ring, the thief, he, oh god, I think he's dead."

"Well old man, it's old news, it's been years since that" Jounouchi tells him patting his shoulder, thinking Ryou is just having a breakdown from a bad dream.

"No, I just saw him, Zorc is there, with him."

"Like the giant thing with a dragon thing?" Honda shudders, remembering the past encounter with the dark god.

"I need to call Marik, I need to save him" Ryou hurriedly gets up from his bed, turns on his computer and calls Marik, when Marik answers Ryou doesn't even let him say hello. "I need to enter the shadow realm."

Everyone yells at Ryou for the stupid thing he just said, Marik who doesn't have all the information asks him if he had a screw loose.

"The spirit is in danger, Bakura is in danger."

Marik considers the information "Give me a few hours, I know what scrolls we need and I can find a quick flight there."

Marik hangs up, Ryou trembles in and drops into his desk chair, everyone looks at him like he's crazy for wanting to save the spirit that made his life miserable.

After almost 24 hours Marik arrives in Japan, he doesn't take a break, he goes straight to Ryou's house, everyone is still there, Marik takes out from his suitcase THE BOOK that started all this mess, he opens it directly to the necessary page and Ryou and Marik study the text.

And they realize that there is a problem.

For the spell they need someone who can speak ancient Egyptian and is a magic user, and only Marik can speak ancient Egyptian and only Ryou is a magic user, neither can enter the portal that will come out of the spell because they will have to stay outside to keep it open and stabilized as there are two people and not one.

They need a third one to enter.

They explain what is going on to the others, they all look at each other because why the hell would they sacrifice their life for the guy who was willing to kill them in the dark RPG? Jou and Honda refuse, Anzu apologizes but says she won't do it.

"You guys couldn't anyway, the shadow realm would kill you quickly, you weren't carriers of the sennen Items."

"I'll do it" Yugi straightens up, more serious than anyone would expect.

"You can't be serious" Jou grabs him by the shoulders and shakes him off.

"Yugi is too dangerous, you heard Ryou about the stuff in there" Anzu tries to talk some sense into him, she won't lose her best friend, she'd rather do it herself than let him go alone.

"It's just me left, I don't speak Egyptian, and I don't know how to do magic, but I used the puzzle, I'll survive."

"I won't ask you to do that, I'll find another way and bring it..."

Yugi doesn't let Ryou finish "No, I'll do it, I owe it to him".

No one understands why the heck Yugi says that, but he doesn't have to explain to them the times that The spirit of the ring, Bakura, kept him safe, Yugi will pay his debt, he will save Bakura, he will bring him back.

And if he can't save him, then at least he won't let him die alone.

[alexcutecolly]

❗️🪷🧛

Hi there! Thank you for the ask!

❗: discovering vore

Before I officially found out it was an actual thing, I 100% enjoyed (still do tbh hehehe) sections in animated movies&books where bigger creatures (giants, normal-sized humans if the cast had been shrunken, dragons, etc.) ate the main character(s) (or threatened them with it at least), who always managed to come out unscathed thankfully.

Then some years ago, a random quiz about vore popped up on quotev and I looked up what it was x3 and suddenly everything made much more sense lol. That's also basically how I joined Tumblr back in the day ^^

🪷: romantic vore (not sexual)

It's so so cute!! I love how vore adds brand new ways for a lover to express their affection and care towards the other 🥺❤️ such as the pred bringing their prey partner close to their belly, or the latter asking to be eaten so they can chill inside their beloved, getting even closer in the process and feeling so protected by them 🥺👉👈 aaaaaaaa it's so good!!

Also... Belly rubs. From either outside or inside, a tiny giving their lover massages is so adorable 🥺 it makes me melt when I read about it, aaaaaaa

One more thing: big smooches that accidentally lead to vore (with the prey being totally okay with it lol) make me blush ❤️ they're precious, I can't help it lol

🧛‍♂️: fictional characters as preds/preys (pirates, vampires, military men, cowboys etc.)

For already existing characters from games, shows, movies and book series, it's usually a hit or miss for me (mostly misses) 🤔 that said, it can work if I really really like the character (and by that they're granted the 'honorary vore badge', lol) or if I spot a lot of vore potential on them 👀

But if I come up with the characters myself, I have much more fun! Heck, I daily think about fantasy settings with pirates, cowboys, vampires, etc. actually in love with the idea of (safely) eating a smaller fellow, either to protect them from danger or to mess with them a bit.

You can also shape up an OC's personality simply based on how they would react upon stumbling across a borrower, or finding out one of their shrunken friends has mysteriously shrunk, and this is so innovatively creative to me ❤️ would they be tempted to eat them? Immediately take them to a safer place? Hold them close? Who knows 👀

[tiny-buzz]

Moving deeper into the “Casino Regis.”

***

Past the table games, past the circuitous gateway to the high-roller mezz, past the newer slots, usually placed in prominent positions, to draw the eye and the ears (you can’t close your ears), and when I say the new ones I’m talking about the glitzy ones, see, the ones with the giant 4K screens, the encircling color wheels that bring you into them, a kid in a cyclotron, a particle in a ferris wheel, making you part of the action, and don’t forget the ones with the licensable characters and celebrity likenesses, those do a good number on the daily, with voices that call out, scream, beg, flirt unknowingly, promise, and cajole — there’s one with Delicious the Alligator, from the 1970s cartoon, a favorite among Gen X, and there’s one with Samantha Boncare, a dreamy-lidded long-dead starlet from the black and white era, reanimated thanks to the miracles of language models and stock photography, watching you with an electric eye, constantly winking, and last, at the tail-end, a giant, ever-shifting dragon, female, again, and flirtatious, again, oddly — you arrive on the perimeter of the casino floor.

His voice, floating over your shoulder, sounding like a chummy backslap: “I hope you brought your appetite.”

Before you, suddenly, inevitably, opens up a pathway to flavor: Cafe R — the R stands for Regis. “The R stands for Ridiculously Good Food,” he interrupts, and he’s not wrong, but the neon says “REGIS” so you understand both to be true. You pass a Romanesque statue that does double-duty as a water feature — you hesitate to call it a fountain in the formal sense — and begin the food experience.

Cafe R is a buffet, with limited table service, mostly as an organizational imperative than a leisure. A plate is pushed, excitedly, into your hands by a passing waitress, flirting without breaking stride.

“When I was growing up in the Bronx, there were a few house rules at meal time. One, chew with your mouth closed. Jesus Mary and Joseph, the ruckus if you chewed with your mouth open, don’t get me started. Now, two, and this one is important: never pair riesling with quail. And three, you always start with soup.”

AND SO the first table is stacked with cauldrons, each bubbling, with soups you recognize by name but don’t recognize by smell, tickling you, beguiling whiffs, memories of previous soups, in simpler times, in smaller cities. You move toward it and past it, counterclockwise around the outside of the cafe.

“For our international patrons, or anyone that likes the tastes of the East, we’ve got wonton, egg drop, and more,” Regis suggests, helpfully. “There are Asian flavors throughout.”

Then the next table: the fish. Salmon, cod, catfish, flounder, carp, some still alive, some only recently departed, chopped into pieces, or fried, or baked, sushi (for the tastes of the East). “I’ve never been a fish guy — even at Notre Dame — but heck, this cafe is for everyone, and fish is cheap. Glory, it’s a cheap, cheap animal. Ever been to the ocean? Fish love the ocean.”

Again, he has a point. But onward to the mains (a demure filet that Regis advises against and so you skip), the removes (you had enough mint in your mouthwash this morning and so skip the lamb) the roasts (you take a little slice of squab then immediately drop your plate; a replacement is pushed into your hands saucily by a rapidly passing waitress), the salad (you scoop crunch kale to bed your new dish), the colds (Regis tells a story about the first time he tried fois gras, and how Kathy Lee started to cry when the waiter explained what it was), and finally, the “Chaos Course.” You espy a lovely looking carbohydrate, and snag it. “That’s a favorite of mine,” Regis pipes up, “because I invented myself. My three favorite things, mixed into one hearty bite, like a sandwich, but don’t call it a sandwich. Presenting: the Chinese bologna loaf.” It is very much what it appears to be.

The last table is a giant pit of mixed nuts. You scoop out a handful and put them in your pocket, for later. And as you step back, you feel like you’ve overlooked something. You glance at your plate: the Chinese bologna loaf sits expectantly.

“I know what you’re saying. I know what you’re saying. Regis, is there anything — anything at all — that could really put some oomph in my eats?” He chuckles. “Well, we’re two steps ahead of you. It’s been there all along. Take a look to your left. Toward where you came in.”

There, at the front, under the neon, is the gleaming — I know, I know, everything in this place gleams, but wow, it is REALLY gleaming — white Roman non-fountain from earlier. Yes, at the front, the entrance, the beginning of it all. You walk over to the fountain, almost afraid — you have strong opinions about moving water. And then (but then?) trumpets, actual trumpets, not from a sound-chip or a directional audio beam, but a waiter, multitalented, flirtatiously trumpets. And with the cue, the heavens open up, the structural cistern gurgles with life. And the water changes. Before you, now, in this world (America) and this life (2023, Regis Weekend, which by the way is extended through Thursday, August 31) you witness a miracle, the water turns to a geyser of cheese.

You are frozen. Who wouldn’t be? What eyes are prepared for this, in a casino, regardless of quality and rating? But like the horn started the change, his voice, clarion, prompts you to action. “Dip your Chinese bologna loaf in the pallid cheddar font for a fun mouth experience,” urges Regis, and you oblige him, and he’s right, he’s right he’s always right. It was what the Chinese bologna loaf was missing — a lacquering of cheezy flavor.

Giggling with satisfaction, you take things a step further. You stick your face in the font. You are born flavor, rivulets of cheese enter your ears and nose and mouth. Lifting your head up, you breathe air that smells like money. The glory (everlasting) and the promise (big prizes at the table games) and the now (Cafe R and the R stands for Cheese) converge on this function: the night still to come.

“Looking cheesy, baby!” says Regis with delight, doing his best sultry Samantha Boncare impersonation, your ear bones vibrating through the melted dairy, which arguably is a better conductor of his voice than unfilled space ever was. “Now, if you’re like me, your belly is full. But what good is a full belly if you’ve got an empty heart?”

Great question. “I promised you both dinner and show. So. Folks: it’s showtime. Onward to the theater.”

[sundanceofapache]

There was a lot of stimulation in the Tower. Too much. Too many guardians dealing with too many problems with the world, with command, and each other for Echo to even process what the heck she was hearing and feeling. Honestly, it was like being dragged into a maelstrom of feelings and very loud thoughts!

Fortunately, her Ghost was more than happy to take the lead and get the two of them on a ship and off to somewhere not nearly as crowded. That location? Mars. Nobody's on Mars except for Ikora and maybe a handful of the Hidden. Which was a perfect place for Echo to learn how to quiet her intruding thoughts.

Not that going to an actual Psion might've helped. Then again, neither of them was sure what Caiatl or her military would do if they did. So it was to meditation, mind-calming techniques, and the boring landscape of Mars. Or so they thought.

As whisper knelt in the sand, her ship shading her from the sun, a faint familiar trail nettled her curious mind. With a glance at Whisper, Echo allowed her mind to follow that trail, her thoughts slipping into the strange, dream-like world of the mindscape as she did. Where it was, she had no idea. But it felt something like the Stasis Cruxes on Europa, putting her on high alert as she ventured into this strange, dark mindscape. — @mantleoflight

The young half-awoken was himself a bit stranded on Mars. Mathafew had thought to tag along with Salem, finding the warlock to be an interesting distraction after the episode on Europa. His father, Baribus had ordered him off the planet in a no-argument manner after he began exploring what the thresher in the garden had called his "birthright". The Darkness abilities were thrilling, if a little confusing and - to his father and Stoat - terrifying. So Mathafew was on Mars as he continued to explore what he could do, far from the tundra that increased the chill in his heart and the Cruxes that brought the cold voice to him.

He was inside an old Hab from the early exploration days of the Ares missions when a slight prickling, almost like a limb had fallen asleep, started nagging at him. At first Mathafew tried shaking out his arms, then one leg at a time as he tried to find where the odd feeling was coming from. He even went outside through what used to be an airlock and checked around out there. Slowly the sensation increased even as he tried to find the source until there was something whispering in his head. Mathafew stood straight, behind his blindfold his scarlet eyes darted side to side like he could spy the intruder here in the physical world.

Never before had someone come into his mind, and certainly never had he thought they could do so uninvited. There were a lot of 'firsts' happening recently. To get out of the glaring sun he returned to the Hab and sat down on one of the bunks. The young psychic sought out the sensation again, but this time mentally. He turned his awareness inward and walked along the paths of his own thoughts until finding the source. It was one of the Guardians.

They were always blindingly bright beacons, even in the physical world. Here in the mental realm she was like starting at a small sun. She wasn't any sort of giant or really remarkable looking at all, until he realized that it wasn't armor the psion was wearing - it was made of metal. After realizing the psion was also an exo, Mathafew also realized the glow coming from it was more than the Light that guardians always had radiating from them but was also the same power he'd seen with Ashven and the Dragon from the Dreaming City.

"It's you again." He said with narrowed suspicious eyes and crossed arms.

[lesmond-sycamore]

Scavenger Hunts

Words: 1971

ao3 link Summary:  Ivor, Harper, Jack, and Nurm have been given scavenger hunt lists by Petra and Jesse, but why? Notes: LOOK I KNOW IT'S PAST 12 AM BUT IT'S TECHNICALLY 10 PM PACIFIC TIME. I HAD WORK. Anyways, enjoy!

“You know, I’m starting to get tired of this wild fox chase.” Jack groaned as he fumbled with the piece of paper that would lead him to a “secret prize, in three weeks (which was, of course, today) only” as stated by Petra in her correspondence a few weeks prior. Nurm hummed lazily in response as he continued to mark locations on his map, unaffected by the stress of figuring out the answers to the clues to the scavenger hunt Petra had created for the two. Jack sighed, “I know, I know, but it’s been months since the last time we’ve seen her, Nurmie. I’m just- I don’t know. I know I shouldn’t be worried about her, but you how I am. I miss her, we haven’t gotten to see her all day because of this stupid scavenger hunt, and I have no clue when’s the next time she’ll be in town, an-” Nurm grumbled at Jack, indicating that he needed to just calm down for a second. Jack sighed once again to calm down his nerves. He might’ve been overreacting a bit.

Jack glanced at the pumpkin and enderpearl he had already gathered. “I just don’t see the point of this. Petra’s never done anything like this before. Why today? Do you think they found something while they were out adventuring and wanted to create hype to impress us?” Jack paused, then smiled fondly at the thought. “Doesn’t she know we’re already proud of her?”

Nurm hummed in agreement, Of course she does. She might just want to shake things up, although I will say that today-, Nurm trailed off. Jack stared at his husband for a moment, waiting for him to continue, but when he went back to studying his map of Beacontown, Jack realized he had no intention of picking up where he left off. Was today special?

=========================================================================

“Ivor, seriously? You haven’t seen Jesse in months and you’re going to go dressed like you robbed a zombie villager?” Haper asked a very, very frantic Ivor who was currently wearing nothing but a (well-loved) bathrobe and hopping on one leg as he struggled to put on his shoe.

Ivor finished putting on his shoe and glanced down to his attire. “What? Both of you have already seen me in my underwear! I don’t think my bathrobe’s going to kill them considering how everything… and everyone… that’s already tried has failed. Including me. Twice.”

“Still. We have to go into town to do this… scavenger hunt? What’s that all about?” Harper asked, pulling a quill out from behind her ear in preparation, studying the list in front of her. “What the heck is a ‘block of a cheated deal?’ Does that mean anything to you?” she asked as she scrunched her face in confusion.

Ivor hummed in concentration as he collected his potions (you could never be too careful) as he mulled over the question. He planted a quick peck on Harper’s cheek as he began to walk towards the door. “I think I have an idea of what that means,” he stated with a wink as he made his way out the door, ready to solve the puzzle he had been presented.

“But you apparently still have no idea how to dress. Change into something decent if you’re going to been perceived by strangers, love,” Harper punctuated with a face palm, failing to hide the smile creeping on her lips.

=========================================================================

“Looks like we’ve got most of the items, Nurmie. I hate to say it, but I think I’m actually pretty good at this. Looks like my adventurer’s intuition still runs in my veins. That or I’m still plain awesome,” Jack boasted as they made their back to Jack and Nurm’s Adventure Emporium to have a quick break and focus on the last item on the list, items in hand. “Although… I still don’t know what we’re supposed to do with all of these things.” Jack glanced over each item: an enderpearl, a stack of snowballs, a few baked potatoes, a sponge, a couple of pieces of zombie flesh, and a pumpkin. He hoped the quantities didn’t matter too much, because he lost all of his enderpearls when his shop was ransacked during Romeo’s reign in Beacontown and the price of a stack was not cheap.

Nurm rolled his eyes at his husband’s gloating. Jack playfully nudged the cartographer in the arm and scoffed in fake offense. Jack continued to walk and study the items he was currently carrying until he realized that the villager’s footsteps had ceased. Jack turned his head to look at Nurm with confusion at the random stop, until Nurm spoke. Jack, is that…? The villager gestured in front of them and tilted his head. Jack followed his gaze to find… Ivor and Harper outside the Adventure Emporium. What were they doing here?

=========================================================================

“Ivor! Harper! Hey!” someone shouted to the couple. The two spun around to find… Jack and Nurm! Perfect timing! The retired adventurer jogged up to the two and shook their hands in greeting.

“Jack, it’s been forever!” Ivor exclaimed. “How’s Petra? I know she and Jesse are supposed to be in town today.”

Jack sighed and shook his head. “We haven’t seen her at all today. She gave us this list of items that we’ve had to find, but we’re confused on what the last one means. How’s Jesse?” “I’m afraid we’re in a similar situation ourselves,” Harper stated plainly. “We’re almost done, though. It’s weird, all of these items are so… seemingly unrelated. Do you think they have any connection?” She nodded down at her own items: a block of redstone, an assortment of stained glass, an iron axe, a block of lapis, a few fireworks, and some soul sand. “We had to solve a bunch of crazy riddles to find the items we were looking for.”

“Sounds exactly like we were doing,” Jack stated as he showed the other couple his own items. “Did Jesse put you up to this?”

Ivor studied the items in Jack’s hands for a moment and then flicked his eyes up to meet Jack’s. “Yes, that’s correct. I’m assuming Petra did the same to you?”

“Correct you are, my friend.” Jack answered. He put the items back in his inventory before gesturing to the two of them and then to the building. “I see that you’re standing outside our shop. Is there something you need?” he inquired.

Harper spoke up. “There is, actually. I’m not well-versed in anything non-mesa related, and Ivor thinks the final clue has something to do with adventuring. Do you know what item the clue ‘the big finale let you soar’ is hinting at?”

Jack grinned. “I think I have an idea.”

=========================================================================

“I appreciate your help very much, Jack,” Harper thanked the retired adventurer as he handed her the second-to-last item on her and Ivor’s list: the elytra Jesse used to fly to the tower from the Admin episode.

“It's no problem. Now if only Petra could tell us what our last clue means. Nurm and I have been trying for the past few hours to crack it, to no avail,” Jack admitted with a defeated tone.

“What is it? We might be able to help. Actually, we've been scratching our darn heads at our own final clue. I don't have the slightest idea what ‘where it all began’ could be in reference to.”

“Ours is similar. ‘The first unhelping hand?’”

Ivor crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought, lightly tapping his foot and humming. Nurm did the same, and slightly bit his lip. Harper chose to unconsciously chew on her quill, resulting in her gagging slightly when she got a mouthful of feather instead of the wood of her normal pencil and blushing, hoping no one else saw her do it. Jack opted to spread both lists and all items out on a nearby table and study them intently.

After a few minutes of silence, Nurm chirped and all eyes fell on him. Jack listened intently to what he had to say. Jack, think about our adventure all those months ago and look at the items we've gotten so far. Do you see a coincidence?

Jack glanced at the items and the lists. “Yeah... yeah! The sponge for the Sea Temple, the snowballs for the Icy Palace of Doom, the zombie flesh for the Sunshine institute, I think the pumpkin is for the golems everywhere, the enderpearl for the giant enderman, and the potatoes for that stupid password! Ugh, I cannot believe it took me this long to realize what they had in common. Harper, Ivor, are your items similar?”

Ivor dashed over to the table “Why yes! Of course! How could I have been so blind? These items line up perfectly with the many adventure I had with Jesse! Could this mean...?” Everyone watches Ivor study he and Harper’s list in anticipation. “I think I know what ‘where it all began’ is! The ender dragon egg! Without that, I would have never created the Witherstorm, and Jesse would've never saved the world and I would’ve never gone on those many adventures!”

“And I would still be in Crown Mesa, trying to avoid being chipped,” Harper commented with a sad tone in her voice.

Ivor nodded. “And I would’ve never…” he trailed off, eyes finding the floor the most interesting place to look at at the moment.

Jack gave an acknowledging grunt and closed his eyes “In that case, do you think that ‘unhelping hand’ could be the Ad- Romeo’s gauntlet Jesse found that made them and Petra seek us out in the first place?” Nurm nodded in agreement. Jack opened his eyes and grinned. “Well, I think we all know where those two items are.”

Everyone looked between each other and then spoke in unison. “The Order Hall.”

=========================================================================

“What happened to all the darn lights in this place? I thought this place was supposed to be ninety-percent windows? I’m not going crazy, right?... right?” Harper asked as the group walked inside the Order Hall, treading carefully in the unusual darkness that was only broken by the light cast through the open door.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here, Harper. Radar was left in charge after Jesse took off too seek out adventure with Petra and that llama. Maybe the man just has… peculiar taste. I did build my lab inside the Farlands myself, you know,” Ivor commented.

The group continued to trudge quietly through the Order Hall, careful not to trip over anything or anyone. After a few steps, the group heard a click, and Ivor, Harper, and Jack each drew their swords they carried for protection. Jack spoke up in a whisper “Quickly, get behind me” and the rest followed the instruction as best they could.

Everyone tensed, their breaths held, frantically glancing around the room, searching for any signs of life. It felt like an eternity, but only a few seconds after the click, the sounds of retracting pistons could be heard all around the four. Jack shuffled, preparing himself for any potential attacks, survival instincts kicking in action, ready to do what it took to protect his friends and husband, he-

The pistons finished retracting, leaving the Order Hall basked in the evening sky’s light. All four members of the group blinked at the brightness, adjusting their eyes. Once they could see again, their sight was filled with a few things: Jesse holding the ender dragon’s egg, Petra holding the Sea Temple gauntlet, a giant table full of food between the two New Order members, and Lluna in an (admittedly adorable) chef hat behind the table. Ivor, Harper, Jack, and Nurm stood in stunned confusion, until Petra and Jesse broke the silence with giant grins on their faces.

“Happy Father’s Day!”

[ramblinseahorsey]

Top 10 fandoms go

Hmm, rating fandoms as a whole can be difficult, since ppl usu think of bad things first when they think of things memorable that have happened in fandom, and I'm no different in having that bias when I think about fandom. The squeakey wheel gets the grease and all! Instead of mentioning the fandoms themself, I'll ramble and will tell u my fav shows, games, movies, and books that I am technically a part of the fandoms of! Or, am adjacent to enjoying the stuff, dunno how involved, if at all, ya gotta be to call yourself a part of a fandom, or just, an enjoyer of the media in question.

These aren't in order of how much I like them, just top ten of each. As is obvious, I am a simple basic gal who's eternally a sucker for animation, happy endings, kids content, and to be completely honest, a lot of popular stuff. Opinions and personal taste, it's ok if ya completely disagree with me on anythin!

Movies:

1 The Iron Giant-Excellent writing, excellent humor, very moving. Watched it like 7 million times as a kid, have it memorized. Will never get sick of it!

2 Cats Don't Dance-So sweet, simple and darling, great music, characters, everything. I love sappy found family, love the animation, also have the whole movie memorized, not just the songs, everything, though Tell Me Lies is what I'm most likely to sing to myself

3 Kiki's Delivery Service-Good cheer me up movie, encouraging, delightful, timeless

4 Atlantis: The Lost Empire-One of the most quotable movies ever, every character is just so dynamic for what little screen time they get

5 Raggedy Ann and Andy:A Musical Adventure-So, so so cute and innocent, and some of the best animation you'll ever see

6 Steven Universe: The Movie-YES. JUST. YES. THE WHOLE SOUNDTRACK, ONNNNN LOOOOOP!!!

7 The Cat Returns-Funny as heck, uplifting and lighthearted

8 Howl's Moving Castle-Literally every good thing anybody's ever said about it, unexaggerated, I usu don't go for romances but Ghibli just does it right

9 How to Train Your Dragon-Clever, well paced, bangin music, fun, eye pleasing, technically better than the books, but man I wish they'd kept the original plot and made it a tv series

10 The Secret of Nimh-Gorgeous, well paced, whimsical, classic Don Bluth majesty.

11 Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders-Really fun, very nice dialog, feels more "real" than a lot of scooby contents dialog ever felt, without being crass, yknow? Like, they're still the same nerdy goody two shoes meddling kids, but at the same time, it's got that same smooth, natural feel only Zombie Island, Witch's Ghost, and Where's My Mummy really shared, typical friend group banter and well meaning teasing like Daphne sticking her nose up at Velmas taste in men, Crystal trying not to sound judgey (and failing) at Shaggys name being Norville. Cute, silly romance, good pacing, I'm totally not biased by nostalgia or anything no sir

Books (I haven't read book in awhile outside of school cause no attention span, so bare with me here, lots of nostalgia skewed choices

1 Holes-Literally perfect. Blessed with one pf the few ever actually good and accurate movie adaptations, but the books still better. Such astoundingly good writing. Got me emotional. The sequel Small Steps is great too

2 How to Train Your Dragon-The whole series tbh, amazing plot and characters, better than the movie series plot honestly, but no where near as funny, very clearly set to the humor of 3rd grade boys, some poo jokes and the like, not for everybody. I like kids content, lol, will forever mumble "I'm a jellyfish in a skirt" to myself

3 A Series of Unfortunate Events-Whole series, Quirky, clever, strange, sad. Exactly what you'd expect from the pen name Lemony Snicket. I love his random tangents nsskjcsjdj

4 Bunnicula-Whole series, but especially Bunicula Strikes Again, very funny, wholesome series, very quick read, can't recommend enough. My favorite book series ever.

5 The ABC Mysteries-Gonna call myself out here, only Agatha Christie book I've ever finished, I'd usu just watch the show with my parents, lol, which is also quite good. As clever as you'd expect from the great Hercule Poirot.

6 The Hobbit-Dad read it to me when I was very very teeny so it barely even counts, IM GONNA READ LOTR ONE DAY I PROMMY I JUST GOTTA GET MY BRAIN WORKIN THOSE BOOKS INTIMIDATE ME. What I do remember was quite nice though, love the ragtag group teasing Bilbo.

7 Do dogs in general count as a fandom? Lol, I love to peruse this giant Dog Encyclopedia I got when I was 10 at Christmas, gives dog biology, histoey, care,, and breed knowledge, lists every single breed and its possible colors, needs, size, past use, whether good with kids, etc. I love Labrodoodles. They never look real, even in person.

8 Howl's Moving Castle-Everyone is extremely sassy all the time, it's awesome

9 Redwall- Really immersive, transports you to a different world well, also read Mattimeo, always liked the birds, if the old timeyness or the 5000 sequels intimidate you I suggest the show, it's more relaxed dialogue wise but despite being a kids show, it doesn't skimp on the on screen(? dang memory) deaths, so be careful.

10 Bone-Full series, Graphic Novels, quick, thrilling reads, some ducktales vibes, a beautiful fantasy epic, but most memorable for the great humor and characters. The world might end but Smiley cannot be darned.

Games

1 Undertale-One of the most amazing subversions of not just video game storytelling, but storytelling, period. Your choices have a consequence in Undertale, and it makes the characters feel real in a way many games can't. All you take for granted as instinctual game logic will be called to question in Undertale. The concepts of family, forgiveness, choice, loyalty, identity, Undertale does not let you escape anything without making you think. Nothings wrong with more relaxed games where you can just thoughtlessly be a little evildoer without much consequence, or at least not consequences emotionally, but if that's the only kind of game you'll like, Undertale isn't for you.

As powerful as the games story is, and the tension that haunts you for replaying despite its immense replay ability, the game isn't too somber, it is very, very funny, and very hopeful, depending on how you play it. Love the puzzles, but beware if bullet hell games stress you out. Also, there are themes of suicide within the game, so trigger warning for that, and child death.

2 Wandersong.-A pure delight. One of the most happy, hopeful games you'll ever play. Brightly colored and lovingly made, like Wander Over Yonder, there's a new color pallete in each area. It's gorgeous to look at, and some of the most fun gameplay ever. A very forgiving game, doesn't ever send you back very far if you mess up, not a game to cause stress. The singing and dancing is endlessly fun, the love in the details is boundless, you'll never believe it was made by only three ppl.

Very good story too, it can get serious at times, with talk of war and death, but it never pulls down the sense of hope throughout the story. The game may seem simple at first, but the story has some very interesting twists I didn't see coming. Wonderful characters, wonderful songs, wonderful everything. You get to play a bard and save the world, what's not to like? You will spend ALOT hours just dinking around in this game, it's great.

3 Hollow Knight-On the opposite end of excellence, Hollow knight is almost Wandersongs mirror, equal in enjoyment imho, but opposite in every way. It also will also give you countless hours of entertainment, and is very emotional and wonderful, but in an extremely melancholy way. While there is joy here and there, this game is very dismal, and not to be played of you are not ready for many characters to get sad ends. It also is not very forgiving, you will need to be patient to beat this game, and very skilled to see extra story bits, or willing to just youtube some cutscenes, lol. Very good atmosphere, if Wandersong feels like a joyous pop up book bring to life, Hollow Knight feels like a beautiful collection of detailed oil paintings.

4 Smile for Me-Not too difficult, not very long, nice eclectic cast of characters, very adorable, with some sprinkled in sinister. Also I'm just so in love with how the characters talk. Not just the goofy sounds they make as they speak, but the bonkers things they say, everyone's weird and I love them.

5 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky-The power of friendship man. It just never gets old. Very good writing, both in script in plot. A LOT of story too, lots of twists and turns, mysteries and revelations, and your only halfway done when the main story's done. Incredibly living, earnest story, really puts a smile on your face. The partner is the biggest sweetheart. Also, you get to be a pokemon!!! Heck yeah!!!

6 Wind Waker-Absolutely amazing, everyone knows it, lots of game play, amazing artstyle unique for a zelda game, with very expressive characters, good humor and countless side quests, your very own boat. A good time.

7 Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility-Nostalgia def coming in big time with this one, but it's just so cute man, you build rainbows ride ostriches and can get married and have 5 pets and go mining and buy a big ol rancher hat. Live off the land and say there there in a cutsey voice when you pet your cows. Makes me happy.

8 The Dog Island-Why does everyone always act so surprised that the plot of this game is so dang good?? People have been writing stories about animals dealing with the concept of death for forever, why does this one shock them? Besides, it is one of if not the most lighthearted stories on this list, you get to pick your dog breed and go on a magical adventure to save your sibling in an adorable fantasy world! Its very fun and laid back, it's got great music and characters, no gender locked items, and while sniffing will need to be done throughout the whole game, there are plenty of other game mechanics, fishing, bug catching, races, etc. Petasi is perfect in every way and we don't deserve em.

9 Portal 1 and 2-Duh! One of the best game series ever made! Despite the gloomy setting, it's not the kind of game to bring you down, Glados is the most character ever and you'll never get enough of her, great puzzles, great everything, the cake may be a lie but the hype isn't.

10 Celeste-A treasure that hits close to home to those with anxiety. A beautiful, emotional platformer game that may take you awhile, but is more than worth it. It's made perfectly for ppl with anxiety too, a very hard game at its default, but with all kinds of settings to make it easier so you don't have to be an epic gamer toplay it. Very touching, very good gameplay, homey 8 bit artstyle.

Tv shoes

1 Wander Over Yonder-My favorite show ever. EVER. The animation, the humor, the characters, there is nothing this show can do wrong. Elastic, smooth, rich movement, countless gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous backgrounds, color schemes, extremely creative background characters, complete goofballs for main characters, yet you get so attached to them, take them so seriously. And the show is constantly improving throughout! Craig McCracken being an animation beast, like always. Peepers needs anxiety meds.

2 Over The Garden Wall-Dare ya to find a flaw with this series. Dare ya. Dripping with atmosphere, gets you so in love with the cast in just 10 episodes, so many easter eggs and clever foreshadowing, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe levels of you can never watch it the same way twice. Stunning voice cast, hilarious, timeless, gorgeous, I recommend it to literally anyone and everyone. Woy is my fav, but Otgw is the best, if that makes sense? Wander is glorious, but attracts a specific audience, would not make people who don't like sillyness happy, and does make plenty of more recent references. Although it doesn't rely on them, they are often. Despite the countless cultural references such as Dantes Inferno and rubber hose and the like, Over the Garden Wall will never age.

3 Infinity Train-Insane levels of creativity, boundless opportunity in its amazing setting, and uses it to its fullest. An emotional rollercoaster, always keeping you on the edge of your train seat, amazing character designs, and even better writing. Not the funniest show on this list, but some of the most clever humor, if that makes sense. Wanders cancellation hurt a lot too, but that ending felt a lot more solid, while Infinity Train didn't leave on a cliffhanger, all the questions it left with drive me crazy, esp when Owen wanted 8 seasons. You should still watch it tho, each season can stand on its own, although the ways they connect are awesome, like that ever present darn cat. No, I shall not grace her with her The, cause even though she's amazing I'm mad at her.

4 OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes!-One of the funniest shows on this list, if not the funniest besides Wander and Gumball. Like Wander, it's very wholesome, like Gumball, it starts off just sweet, but gets way more unhinged as the series goes on, and the writers really start to realize what they can get away with, not in a dirty way, but in a, can we pull this insanity off in 11 minutes and not fry anyone's brain? Not as cynical as Gumball, just shares the memey fast paced meta humor. When a joke falls flat, which is rare, like Gravity Falls, you barely notice, cause a new better joke is already happening. Good story, good characters, the cancelation is sad, but doesn't leave you hanging or anything.

5 Sym-Bionic Titan-CANCELLATION VERY MUCH LEAVES YOU HANGING OR ANYTHING. Freaking amazing series, but get attached at your own risk, plot does NOT get resolved. Great action, characters, humor, typical awesome Genndy Tartakovsky extreme facial expressions, cute romance.

6 Gravity Falls-What can I say that hasn't already been said? Amazing characters, mystery, suspense, very rewatchable, all around loved. Had a lot more fat jokes in it than I remembered though, very disheartening.

7 The Amazing World of Gumball-Laugh your self silly humor, gets better as the series goes on, doesn't let the cynicism ruin the show or its surprisingly wholesome moments, endlessly creative and a treasure visually, right when you think there's no way they can break the 4th wall in a way they haven't already, they do, plot sneaks up on ya once in awhile. Like We Bare Bears, it's mini arcs, not a full length plot, you you can watch out of order, but I don't recommend it.

8 We Bare Bears-Charming and dear to my heart. Usually a good comfort show, but once in awhile feels come and punch you in the gut. Great characters, humor, nice rainy day show.

9 Ducktales-Francisco Angones, one of the main writers on Wander, has done it again, him and Matt Youngberg made a modern masterpiece, one of the most well rounded shows I've ever seen. No bad episodes. The writers are huge nerds for the old series and comics, esp the comics, and it shows! It's insane how many characters they're able to bring back without hurting the plot. So much happens, and it all fits so seamlessly. Constant nods to old duck artwork, a cohesive mixture of the entire Duckverse (marvel wishes), goof troop, dark wing, tailspin, the life and times of scrooge mcduck, Donald's diary, rescue rangers, gummi bears???? EVERYONE IS HERE!!!!! Amazing animation, quick, smart humor, superb plot, and as always, a great series puts its focus on its characters. Would suggest to anyone oddly enough, never strays too far into silly or serious to be for one group, like Gravity Falls or otgw.

10 and of course, as you saw coming if you've so much as glanced at my blog, STEVEN UNIVERSE!!!-Where do I even start. I can not begin to express how this show gets my emotions. How much I think about the characters every single day. Rebecca Sugar writes emotion like no one else. Everything feels so palpable, so close to your own heart, the characters are vastly interesting and complex, and the cast is just full of richly fascinating and morally grey characters, like, actually morally grey, not edgy anti hero who wants everyone to die and who's few connections are killed off for shock before you even got attached to them. Characters who's actions are understandable but not excused, characters who live a story full of hope, that declares you can break the cycle of abuse, you can find love, even for yourself.

This is gonna sound like a pretty darn crazy take, and just to remind, this is all opinions, it's okay if you disagree, but I think Steven Universe is the best written show out there besides Otgw. I mean it. The realistic writing of kids, the honest writing of trauma, the amazing pacing (which, anyone who's ever been ticked off by CNs stupid scheduling or doesn't like "filler" character development episodes will kick and scream at hearing given any praise), the natural, charming dialogue, down to the awkward pauses, dad jokes, soft humph of someone picking something up, leaves out no details that could keep you from feeling a part of Steven's Universe.

I think a lot of the hate the shows writing gets for anything other than season 5s ending (which would have felt a lot less rushed if CN let Rebecca have more seasons like they wanted, I'm still mad about the chest CN), comes from people equating not making them happy personally as written bad.

A lot of people suggest SU to friends applauding it as a space war drama, but they fail to mention its also very consistently a comedy. If you don't like comedy, if you don't like sillyness, you won't like su, I'm sorry. You can't just watch the plot episodes and feel satisfied, the characters development and drop fed foreshadowing is what makes the emotional and plot pivotal moments really hit. Episodes that seem filler besides character bonding to get you attached to them turn out to be VERY important later. A cherry picked Universe has no punch. If you don't like su season 1, it's nothing wrong with you or the show, it's just not your genre. The only problem with season 1 is Cat Fingers and Frybo being so close to the beginning of the show, quite the tonal whiplash.

I never understood people saying season 1 is bad but future is good, the whole show is an unapologetically weird lil comedy, future is the only season as crazy as season 1, as the show always follows Steven's mental state, and he's as lost as he was with his powers at s1. People don't realize it's not the humor thats the problem, the show just doesn't usually meet their preferred angst level. I hate the sentiment a shows only well written when it's sad. If you don't like sillyness, this show isn't for you, and that's fine! But if you do. Holy Moly. There will never be a show like Steven Universe. It has a depth I cannot describe, the only way you can fully take it in, is to watch.

[peach-the-owl]

Far from Home

??? & Child!Reader

Why’d this idea come to me? I don’t really know, I guess I just kinda like writing obscure things. Did I write it anyways? Yes. Absolutely. Stepping just a little out of my comfort zone for this but I think it’ll be worth it. Does it follow canon? Probably not, but I tried to keep it close.

WARNING: This goes from 0-100 pretty fast (does that count as a warning? Whatever I’ll keep it here anyways)

Caleb has been working on a spell with Essek for a while, they'd explained what it was but you got bored and stopped listening after a bit, you were pretty sure it had something to do with space and time and that’s all you knew. It was almost complete all they had to do now was a quick test run to make sure nothing would go wrong for future uses, they were very focused as magical energy began sparking to life. You were enthralled by what was happening as the energy built up stronger and stronger, too enthralled in fact to notice the looks of concern shared between the two spellcasters. That short moment of concern and hesitance was enough to send the spell haywire, bolts of magic flying every which way, one of them coming towards you and before you could react your struck by it the last thing you hear as you blackout is someone calling your name……

Slowly your eyes crack open again immediately noticing you were outside looking to the sky, strange. You get up and look around finding yourself between some unfamiliar buildings, stepping out onto the street didn’t help either as nothing looked familiar to you. There were only two solutions to this problem for you, either you were somehow sent to Rexxentrum in a area you hadn’t visited before or this was some weird dream, you quickly pinch yourself… nope not a dream. You begin to wander aimlessly in hopes of finding something even remotely familiar to you, as you’re walking you start hearing bells but they weren’t soft, happy musical bells they were big, loud warning bells and you look around confused. A loud crash directs your attention to a tall tower where perched on it was the biggest ancient white dragon you’ve ever seen, far bigger then the one you saw from Mythburrow. With a fierce roar the dragon blasts its icy breath into the tower, chaos ensues as screams of terror rip through the streets, people were rushing in every which direction but through the crowd you see the dragon push off of the tower shattering it as it falls to the streets below. You didn’t know where to go or what to do, it’s not like you weren’t used to tense situations but this felt larger then anything you’ve seen or done before. The crowd of panicking people seemed to mostly come from an area where a giant ancient green dragon now stood unleashing a cloud of poison in its wake as it was attacking something or someone but it was hard to tell for sure as you were being pushed along with the crowd. The constant pushing and shoving of people causes you to stumble to the ground, no one paying you even a glance as they try to get as far away from these dragons as possible. You can feel ever stomp on your hands and kick to your sides as your basically being trampled, you curl in on yourself for extra protection as you carefully crawl your way out of the mass of people. It dawns on you that you might not even be in Wildemount anymore, but there was a time for those questions to be answered later as you hear a loud sort of explosion in the distance. You finally make it out of the crowd a bit battered and bruised but otherwise alright and make your way though the gaps between buildings where less people were still making their way through. Another explosion of fire, this time much closer to you goes off and out of it flies an enormous ancient red dragon, instinctively you duck down and throw your arms over your head for cover as it flew over you, pieces of flaming debris falling to the street in its wake. The dragon then slams into a large structure you could only think to be some sort of palace, hearing glass shattering, then you hear its booming voice tear through the city, feeling the need to cover your ears afraid you might go deaf.

"MOVE ON UMBRASYL! I CLAIM THIS IS MY DOMAIN NOW!" Who the heck was Umbrasyl? You didn’t know and you didn’t care, none of this made any sense, all you really wanted now was go home and be in the safe embrace of anyone from the Mighty Nein. A wave of heat hits you like a wall as flames pass the exit to the side street you'd stopped in leaving your right side singed, but you figured yourself lucky as those who were once running by now lay burnt or piles of ash. You hadn’t realized you were this close to the center of this city but then again you had no sense of direction in this place either, doing everything you could to ignore the sight and smell that lingered through the streets. Screams and shouts of commands could be heard in the distance, you couldn’t make out what was being said but you used it as a guide to find any source of help. Another surge of flames comes barreling down the open streets you ducking out of the way for cover but the building was unstable from the previous hit and it starts collapsing in on itself. You hurry to get out of the way before you get crushed, a large piece of flaming roof comes falling towards you making you wonder if this was how you’d die. Apparently and thankfully that is not the case as you are yanked away mere moments from an untimely demise.

"Are you alright child?" You take a second to catch your breath and look to your mystery saviour, hoping they were someone you knew. Before you was a man with thick dark hair dressed in velvet robes, you unfortunatly didn’t know them but you were still grateful for their help.

"I-I’ll be ok, thank you for saving me." Your voice was still shaky from that scrape with death.

"Oh, don’t thank me just yet. Now tell me, where are your parents?"

"I don't know, I don’t know where I am or what’s going on." Strangely you felt more panicked about all this unfamiliarity then you did the actual danger of this dragon attack.

"It's alright, you’ll be alright. What’s your name child?" The man calmly hushes you and gives you a smile, despite the situation you found it infectious and give your own to him.

"I'm (y/n), what’s your name?"

"You may call me Gilmore, now follow me and stay close." He holds out his hand for you to take and with no other options you take it now relying on a man you hardly knew to guide you through this city. As you carefully made your way around you notice your new friend scanning each area you come across very carefully as if looking for something or someone. "Where are they." His voice sounding just above a whisper.

"Where are who?" Your innocent question pulls Gilmore from some of his thoughts.

"I’m looking for some friends of mine, a bit of a colourful bunch with the tendency to make rash decisions." You weren’t sure if he worded it that way to try and lighten up your current situation or not but it caused you to giggle a little, these people sounded kinda like Mighty Nein to you although at this point you were certain they weren’t the same people. "Oh by the gods they didn’t." A look of horrified realization comes over Gilmore as he looks to the palace. His attention then goes back to you for a moment, his gaze now darting between you and the palace as he contemplates something.

"Is everything ok?" You could feel your panic set in again as Gilmore places a hand on his head a look of uncertainty on his face.

"I’d hate to put you in harms way child, but I can’t just leave you here either."

"Oh! I’ve been in plenty of dangerous situations before with my friends, I know how to handle myself." You strangely cheerful comment earns you a raised eyebrow and half-amused expression from him.

"What sort of people raised you?"

"Trust me they’re one of a kind, but they mean well." You hear Gilmore give a slight chuckle at this.

"Alright, I’ll have to take your word for it for now but we must still tread carefully." You nod in understanding and follow his lead as you now make your way to the ruins of the palace. Once you’d reached what you assumed were the front doors you cover your nose from the heavy smoky smell that still rose from the expired flames that had raked the area. You could see people coming to the area with gold, treasures, weapons, anything really, some emotionless others fearfully placing them down before heading off again. A faint sound of distress directs your attention back to the interior of the palace hurrying in you see now the gargantuan dragon snarling at a woman and three children around your age. Everything that follows happens so fast you feel as though you’re spectating your own actions as Gilmore directs the dragons attention away from the lady and kids while you, using some tips you had learned from Nott help them sneak away from the danger. None of them seemed to comment on being helped by another kid but you had to guess that things were already stressful enough to have to worry about such small details (get it small, because kids… I’ll see myself out). Heat and flames filled the room and you see Gilmore’s body skid across the ground smoking, a pool of blood quickly forming around him.

"PATHETIC HUMAN WELP." Even when not shouting, the dragons voice felt as though it could shake the foundation of this place. Seeing the dragon now lose interest you quickly spring into action.

"Child come back here, it’s danger to run out there." The lady whisper-yelled to you.

"Someone has to help him." You simply state running over to Gilmore, perhaps you’ve been in one too many situations where you've had to drag someone from the Nein away from trouble because this pulse of adrenaline was the first familiar feeling you’ve had in awhile. When you reached him you began to pull him back towards the entrance, you try to focus on your goal to ignore the blood that was starting to cover you. You see the lady take a breath before rushing to you she places her arms in a way to act as support and continues to carry him to the entrance. With her doing that you dig through your thoughts and remember something Caduceus had taught you, so you start look for anything that could help at least slow the blood flow. Your eyes land on a torn and slightly charred piece of a flag and figure it’s the best choice for now, grabbing it you run back over and place it on the wound Gilmore immediately gives a grunt of pain and winces instinctively grabbing at the wound, at least he seemed to have more focus now.

"Are you alright?" The woman asks.

"Don’t worry about me right now, we need to get to safety." With a shaky arm Gilmore points in a random direction. "There, we'll have shelter if we can make to my shop." The woman nods and starts moving towards where he’d pointed, you and the other kids following behind.

"You were really brave back there stranger." The boy says to you.

"Uhh, thanks. I learned a lot from my friends." You replied.

"That's cool, I’m Gren by the way, Gern Tal'Dorei." Was he trying to impress you? You weren’t sure but if the last name was anything to go off of you now knew where you were. But wait… you’d read a little about the Tal'Dorei family or at least seen mentions of them in stories and they were much older then the people in front of you, did this mean you were somewhere in the past too? "So what’s your name?" Your snapped out of your thoughts.

"Oh! Sorry, my name's (y/n), just (y/n) is fine."

"Hi (y/n), I’m Illiya." The shorter of the two girls introduces herself with a sheepish wave, well maybe short wasn’t the right word since you were the same height as her.

"Hi Illiya."

"And I’m Odessa, it’s a pleasure to meet you (y/n)."

"Pleasure to meet you too." The greetings all felt a little awkward and tense, maybe if things weren’t as bleak as they were you’d all be laughing. The rest of your walk was in an uncomfortable silence as you passed destroyed buildings and hid from potentially dangerous looters. The sky was dark by the time you reached your destination, being a destroyed shop, you all approach cautionsly having seen some men wander away from the ruined buildings. Gilmore, half-supporting his own weight, shuffles over to a broken but still intact bed resting in the farther corner of the broken building.

"Please, help me move this." You all help shove the bed over revealing a trapdoor underneath and with what little strange he had Gilmore lifts the door open. Looking down you could make out about three figures in the dim light, a half-elven woman with thick glasses steps forward.

"Who-who goes there!" She holds out a wand threateningly but lowers it when she takes a better look at everyone. "I’m so sorry, please come on quickly." You all make your way down the ladder being sure to hide and close the trapdoor once you’ve all made it down. "Empress Salda, it is good to see you and your children are alright."

"Barely, but thank you." The woman, who you could now guess was this Salda nods, the half-elf lady then looks at you.

"And who’s this?"

"I found this one alone on the streets, they were actually… quite helpful with our rescue." Gilmore comments through heavy breaths, leaning against a wall still clutching onto his wound.

"Hi, my names (y/n)." You introduce yourself for like the fifth time today.

"I’m Sherri." She replies, putting a hand to her chest.

"Cherry?" You repeat her name, wondering if you’d heard her correctly.

"No no, Sherri." You mouth "oh" and nod to her, she then turns her attention to Gilmore and starts doing what she can to help patch him up while the others try to settle themselves for the rest of the night.

Night falls and while the adrenaline from the days events had worn off leaving you tired you just couldn’t bring yourself to sleep. All you had right now where your thoughts swimming around in your head. We’re you really in the past? If so then that spell really did work. But what now? How were you gonna get home? Did you have to wait for the spells effect to wear? Would the spell wear off? Could you even get home? Were you stuck in the past permenantly? The longer you thought about it the more panic of never being able to return home crept into you. You lost track of how much time had past, paying little attention to the two people Sherri was originally with opening the trapdoor leaving this little underground bunker. Odessa, Illiya and Gren tried to help by playing little made up games, you mindlessly played along not really paying attention anymore. The muffled sounds of yelling and battle could now be heard from above you. Scooting yourself into a corner you let yourself have a good look around the room seeing the other kids huddle close to their mom, who defensively pulls out a dagger and Sherri looking very nervous and concerned next to an unconscious Gilmore. You pull your legs up to meet your chest, as selfish as it may sound all you really wanted was to just leave and go home where things were familiar, where dragons weren’t destroying everything, and where strangers you hardly knew weren’t the only people you had for comfort. You just wanted to go home.

The trap door swings open…

To be continued…?

I feel a little cruel just leaving it there but that’s all I have for this right now, should I do a pt. 2?

[redhairedwolfwitch]

Child of The Galaxy - Fairy Tail x Fem!Child!Reader - Chapter 5.2 - Wendy’s First Job  - Edolas Arc

Chapter 5.1 - Rainbow Cherry Blossoms

You were sat in the guild, reading when Wendy announced her job in Onibus with the Master telling her to take Happy and Freed with her.

So of course, after they left, you were sat at the bar with Lucy and Carla as Erza began to practice her vowels, leaving you to stare at her.

“The heck is she doing? When... when did she bring all that stuff in here?” You asked as you spotted all of Erza’s luggage behind her.

“Bad news, the trains aren’t running to Onibus station today!” Mira exclaimed as she ran in, leaving you to just frown.

“She’s walking there, isn’t she?” you just deadpanned but that went unheard by everyone, leaving you to just scowl until the next thing you knew, you were sat on Erza’s luggage as she pulled it along.

“How did I get here?” you whispered, leaving Lucy to just shrug as Carla continued to talk about something, probably Wendy’s stubbornness.

///

“Is it absolutely necessary that we must squeeze ourselves into such a tiny space?” Carla grumbled as the four of you were squished inside Horologium as it chucked it down with rain outside.

“Of course it is, but you’d rather get drenched, be my guest.” Lucy growled back before Erza whined about her costumes getting wet.

“This space...is too small...” You whimpered, leaving Carla to just glare at you.

“You’re a mage specialised in spatial magic, how can you get claustrophobic?!”

///

You grimaced as you began to chew on the charred wing fish, almost spitting it out with the nastiness of the flavour before you remembered you’d left some apples in your room from when you went to the market with Mira.

“Y/n? What are you- oh thank god!” Lucy exclaimed as you threw her an apple, passing one to Erza and Carla too, using your magic to open a portal to your room big enough to put your arm through.

///

“We’re still going the right way, aren’t we?” Lucy asked before Erza and her luggage began to sink in the quicksand.

“Princess, it seems that she is too heavy for me to move!” Virgo shouted from where she was spooning Erza in the quicksand.

“Erza, requip into something lighter then I’ll just lift the two of you with my gravity magic!”

“Lucy, oh, and Carla too!” Wendy exclaimed as she, Happy and Freed ran over to the six of you.

“This weight is quite perplexing, it is not unlike a giant rock or iron!” Virgo explained, leaving you to facepalm.

“It’s the damn costumes.” You deadpanned as Erza just sweatdropped.

“I’m still holding onto all of the props and costumes.” as Happy shrieked in shock.

Barely dodging the plume of sand from Virgo holding Erza in her arms, Lucy just growled as Erza began to cry.

“Shall I punish her?” Virgo asked Lucy before the sandstorm began to approach even more.

“I’ll take care of it! SKY DRAGON ROAR!” Wendy yelled, firing a sky dragon roar blast at the sandstorm, leaving it to dissipate to everyone’s shock.

///

When Natsu finally arrived at the Onibus theatre, everyone minus Wendy and Carla were on the ground, which included you as you collapsed, hugging your knees out of exhaustion and the amount of sand in your boots.

Until the theatre owner kicked you all out for loitering.

“Ugh, I’m portalling back to Magnolia, anyone else coming?” You announced, not expecting anyone to actually move until Natsu managed to crawl over, whining about train tracks or something?

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

So the RWBY birthdays are released and its got me thinking:

Does this trash the team RWBY becomes all four Maidens theory?

I dont think so.

1. i dont think they had all the birthdays picked out. With them not releasing them till vol 8 makes me think they created them pretty recently. And weve know Ruby's was on Halloween for ages

2. This could be foreshadowing.

All four of them have birthdays during a different season, just not the ones we thought they were going to be the Maiden of

Yang's is in summer (July). Yang's name means "Sun". One Yang's allusions is the concept of Yang (think yin-yang). Yang (the allusion) represents many things including light and heat. Yang's semblance involves catching herself on fire, and fire is the main source of light and warmth. And part of her name means "dragon," you know the creature that breathes fire? All of this reinforces Yang's personality yes, but lets look a little farther. What is July known for? Being the brightest and hottest month of the year, and being the main month of summer. Summer, the season of unrestricted sun. The season of unrelenting heat. The season of wildfires. Even the season of campfires if you wanna keep stretching.

But most importantly Summer is the name of her mother. Both her chosen mother and the one who raised her. And Yang is Summer's daughter. Many of us believe Summer was the Summer Maiden, just going off the naming pattern of known Maidens. So Summer died or dies, and in her last moments she thinks of her daughters. And Yang is the one shes thinking of in the moment that she goes. Maybe theyve been dormant inside Yang since Summer's death, or maybe Summer is still alive.

Blake is Yang's opposite. Literately the Yin to her Yang. Yin represents darkness and cold, Winter's two defining features. Yin is silence as well, something that is can be heard in winter as the animals are gone. And most importantly, winter is the opposite month to summer.

So how does she get it? I hate to say it but looking at the situtaion that is Volume 8 for Penny isnt good. First you have the obvious: Penny is a robot, and Ironwood has the off switch. Secondly we know there will be several Pinocchio elements this volume (giant whale anyone?). And lastly she has a huge target on her, not just from Ironwood but also Salem's side.

Ruby is on the receiving end of a one-sided rivalry with Cinder, the Fall Maiden. Ruby has defeated Cinder twice now, and as time goes on we see Cinder slipping. Its a pretty good bet that if Cinder died itll be in battle, and if Cinder can chose itll be against Ruby. The transfer will happen via the last person you saw.

Ruby also has several things in her favor that has already been shown to us. 1) Her name. "Ruby Rose" = "Red Red". The naming pattern for Maidens is either having the exact word in your name, having a word that strongly associates with that season, or a color associated with that season. "Pyrrha" meant red, and so does "Ruby". 2) Team RNJR. Ruby quite literally replaced Pyrrha, a Fall Maiden. 3) Her colors. Red: one of the more dominant leaf colors in fall. Black: the color of death, and fall is the season of decay.

This leaves Weiss with Spring, which is her birth season. Although many think of spring as warm, the reality is its cold. It can continue to snow into June in some places. Fall on average has warmer temperature then spring. How she gets these powers from Raven I have no idea. Maybe Raven is dying in Yang's/Qrow's arms and because Yang has been taken Spring goes to Weiss, as she was in Raven's line of sight. Or maybe Weiss gets Spring from the Maiden after Raven.

3. It could be Southern Hemisphere seasons, not Northern

In the south the seasons are reveresed. January is summer, May is fall, July winter, and October is spring.

Lets start at the beginning of the year: January. Summer

First of all we have not yet met Summer, and she could be anyone. However the Summer Maiden is believed to reside in Vacuo. Outside Menagerie, Vacuo is known as a safe haven for faunus. We were told this in Volume 2. And who's a faunus? Blake, who was born in January, the second month of summer.

May: the third month of fall

As Ruby's partner Weiss also has more contact with Cinder then the others. Maybe its a two-on-one battle and Cinder happens to be thinking of Weiss when she dies. Maybe Cinder kills Winter and Weiss goes to fight Cinder for revenge, and wins

July: the second month of winter

Again we come to the subject of Penny, and how she is in close physical contact with RWBY this Volume.

October: the second month of spring

I have thought about the Raven-Ruby relationship for awhile now. Unlike most people i do not think Raven hates Ruby. Raven has complicated feeling towards Ruby no doubt. Raven may hate Taiyang and/or Summer, but her feelings for Ruby are unknown (i could actually write forever on this topic). Im 90% sure she has a portal to Ruby, the other 10% is due to the uncertainty if the bond has to go both ways. Heck, they might get one-on-one time in a future volume and we can see their actual feelings and relationship develop. Now I know what your all thinking, why wouldnt it go to Yang? Well heres one way it could go down. Raven is smart. She knows hows how these powers transfer. Raven might not want to put more burden on Yang, or maybe sees this as her last act of mercy towards Yang. In order not to transfer the Maiden power to her daughter she'll have to think of another woman. Maybe shes scrambling and is picturing young Yang and Ruby playing in the backyard, or she's thinking of Qrow and begins thinking of all the times she seen him happy in the last few years, and many of those moments are training Ruby. Maybe she's killed instantly and she happened to be looking at Ruby when she went down. Maybe she bleeds out and Ruby is the only female there as she dies. Maybe she gifts them to Ruby on purpose.

[its-pronounced-quoassoint]

Power Rangers AU-Chapter 7

Pairings: romantic Logicality, Prinxiety, Demus, Remile

This Chapter Features: Patton centric storyline, YouTuber!Patton, discussions of a fake fanfiction about Reddie

This Chapter Warnings: swearing, falling from a building, fighting, allusions to anxiety, a transphobic comment, fainting/passing out, use of the word slut(1 time), sympathetic Deceit and Remus

Credit for this AU goes to @when-day-met-the-knight (specifically this post)

If you would like to be added to the taglist for this fic please let me know in reply!

This chapter is long, I didn’t expect it to be so long and to take so long, but this quarentine is not going so good for me. I’m gonna try and get another chapter out soon, but we’ll see. Sorry it’s so long, but I don’t want to split it in half. Anyway, please all of you stay safe and virus free!

First Previous Next

Chapter 7-Blank

"Okay, this is our last shot to figure something out about Virgilius before we can't predict when he's gonna show up again!" Thomas yelled.

"Correct. We have to make this count!" Logan agreed.

Patton and the others nodded and continued running to the sight of the breach. It was a nice Wednesday afternoon and Virgilius had apparently decided to let them finish the school day before attacking. As October drawled on the nights became just a little chillier with the ocean breeze swirling through town. Patton was naturally a faster runner than the others so Logan had assigned him to racing ahead, getting to a high vantage point, and helping him assess the situation.

Patton rounded a street corner and arrived at the little crossroads in the city where many restaurants had outdoor seating and a lot of public activity. Now, the usually quiant area, had a giant rip in space and time the was pouring out monsters like an open wound. Patton summoned his bow, spotted a perfect building roof just next to him, and shot and arrow. As the arrow flew to the roof, a pink lasso type of string extended from it, and once the arrow landed, Patton was pulled into the air.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, when the heck did you get grappling hook arrows?!" Remus shouted.

"Training on Sunday. I found out I could summon them!" Patton replied.

"If you had been there you would have seen it." Roman remarked.

Patton reached the roof and climbed over the ledge, running across so he faced the square. Monsters were piling out of the breach and pedestrians were all around, cowering and screaming. Patton knocked an arrow back and began firing at the breach.

"Yeah well," Remus paused. "I was busy."

"What could you have possibly been doing?!" Logan asked.

"More like who could you have been doing." Roman mumbled.

"Heard that." Patton chastized.

"Are you slut shaming me right now?" Remus asked incredulously.

"I dunno are you being a s-"

"Shut it you two!" Dee barked.

"What do you see?" Logan asked.

"Pedestrians are everywhere, it doesn't seem like the minions are engaging with them, but if we don't hurry I think they might." Patton explained, firing another arrow.

"What's the call?" Roman asked.

The rest of the Rangers entered the square and looked to Logan expectantly.

"Are they looking to leave the square or are they staying here?" Logan asked.

"Staying here."

"Alright. Here's the plan. Green and Yellow, you two handle the minions around the outside, any of the ones that look like they're ready to attack civilians or ones that might leave the square. Black and Red, you two cover the breach. I'm going to try and direct civilians out of the square and behind the Twisters. Pink, I want you to cover my flank so the others don't have to worry." Logan explained. "Got it?"

Everyone gave an affirmative response.

"Okay." Logan nodded back.

The Rangers broke off. Remus and Dee ran in opposite directions, handling any straggling monsters that strayed from the rest. Roman and Thomas ran forward, slashing through the monsters that hoarded around the breach. Logan raced to the restaurant side of the sqaure, and began helping pedestrians up and getting them running to the alley that let out behind Twisters.

Megan's working today. Patton remembered, his stomach dropping a little. She's in that Twisters. Patton didn't want to think about her possibly getting hurt and continued to try and focus on helping Logan safely transport the pedestrians, but he found it more difficult than usual.

"Hey, so, did you ever come up with a new name for these things?" Remus asked.

"What?" Logan scoffed.

"I hate the word minions, you know that. Those yellow demons plague my nightmares. So, can we please think of something else!" He whined.

"I think just referring to them as monsters is fine." Logan replied.

"That's because you have no imagniation!" Roman, ever the one for dramatics, accompanied him saying this with a slash of his sword and triumphant stance.

"I have-" Logan stooped down to help a small child and their mother out of their hiding place and directed them to the twisters. "an adequate amount of imagination."

"Thinkin' about Patton without a shirt on, is not imagination." Remus sighed.

"Green!!" Thomas, Roman, and Dee scolded.

Patton tried his best to stay focused on helping protect the pedestrians, but he found it more and more difficult, however he didn't think the others' conversation had to do with it.

"Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier, I hate the word minion I say we call them something like, Witchlings!"

"Witchlings?" Thomas asked. "Explain."

"Well ya know, Dragon Witch, Witchlings. It sorta works." Remus shrugged.

"Can't we just stick with monsters?" Logan sighed.

"No!" Remus practically howled.

"Patton how does the breach look now?" Roman asked.

"Um," Patton turned. "Monsters are coming out much slower, and you've lessened the amount quite a bit, but I wouldn't take any chances."

"That was the last of the pedestrians." Logan informed. "Green and Yellow, join me and close in around the breach. Pink, I want you to take over for those two."

"On it!" Patton replied, lowering his bow and searching the sqaure.

He assumed the others were following Logan's orders and tried not to worry. Patton found a monster and pulled an arrow back, firing directly between its shoulder blades. The monster turned to ash. Patton looked around again and found another straggler heading for one of the restaurants.

"This looks like the last of them!" Thomas called.

"Okay, stay on your guard everyone, we all know what happens next." Roman said.

"Do your best to recall anything that happens, all of this interaction could be important." Logan reminded.

Patton affirmed the directions and turned his attention back to lookng for any monsters that left the pack. Then a chill went down his spine. Patton stiffined, the hair on his neck stood up and a bad feeling washed over him. Something is wrong.

"Heya Pink. We don't really get to talk much do we?" A dark voice said behind him.

Patton whipped his body around and came face-to-face with Virgilius. His crown even more daunting up close. The bad feeling only got worse. It was unnatural. Wrong. Patton wanted to get away as fast as he could. To his legs that apparently meant stepping back far too much, tripping on the side of the building, and falling.

He screamed. The wind rushed by him and he felt weightless as he fell. He wasn't thinking. All that ran through his mind was that feeling of uneasy wrong that hit him in the chest. It spread and overwhelmed his senses. His unfocused manner and inability to grasp the situation only made him more worried.

Then the wind stopped. He was in someone's arms so quickly he felt whiplash in his neck. His eyes were still unfocused but he could see and register Remus's green armor. Patton pulled in closer to Remus and grasped what he could.

"Pat are you okay?" Remus asked.

"I-" Patton paused. "yeah, I-I think I am."

Patton released Remus from his hug and allowed him to set him down. The feeling was lessened, but not completely gone. It was almost like phantom pains, not his feelings, but the affect someone else's feelings had on him.

"Aww Pink, why'd ya leave so soon. I was just getting started." Virgilius practically cackled from the roof.

Patton turned back up to him. His eyes caught the gaze of the six purple ones and he tried to read any emotion behind them. Nothing. Unable to see any of Virgilius's other features, Patton tried to focus on his posture. Relaxed, almost lazy.

Patton's attention was torn away. He felt a content and calming feeling push into him. It was frantic though, as if someone was trying desperately to make him feel good again. To take away the fear that Patton worried could consume him. When he registered the arms wrapped around him Patton turned to face Logan who was holding him tightly. Logan buried his head into Patton's shoulder. He wasn't used to Logan hugging him. Typically in times of distress one of the two would place a comforting hand on the other's forearm. This hug though, it was new and certainly welcomed. Patton realized he should proabably hug back, and did so with great enthusiasm. However, almost right away Logan let go.

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice level, but on edge. "I-I suppose I was scared. I'm not entirely sure why though, even if Remus didn't catch you, with your armor being so protective you would have suffered a broken bone or two at the very worst. It's illogical for me to feel so worrisome over such a fall."

"Aww." Patton reached out to hold Logan's forearm like he had done so many times before. "Guess I'm just turning you into a big ol' hugger huh?"

"I wouldn't have phrased it like that, but I guess more physical affection is something I have been growing more accomadated to. Especially with you." Logan's voice had grown more shaky as he said this, but it only made Patton's heart melt.

"That's friendship my dear Blue." Patton chuckled.

It was quiet for a little bit too long.

"I'm sorry am I too far away, or did Kirby here just friendzone this poor guy?" Virgilius yelled from his vantage point.

"What?" Patton squeaked a little more than he would have preffered. He looked over to see the other Rangers in various states of frustration.

"We don't have time for this." Logan scowled. "Red!"

"Right!" Roman let his hand fall from where he had it on his forehead. He looked up to Virglius. "Prince Virgilius! Your reign of terror ends here! You've done nothing but wreak havok. The terrorizing of these people stops today!"

"Uh-huh, okay, and what makes you think that? Hm? You haven't stopped me in the past, and nothing about today makes your odds any better. What could possibly make you think today is the day?" Virgilus yelled back.

"Well-"

"What did you think about Richie and Eddie leaving?!?" Remus called up to him.

"What are you doing?" Roman turned on his brother.

"Trust me." Remus said.

"What?! No, why would I trust-"

"Roman, trust him." Dee cut in. "We talked about this we know what we're doing."

"I'm sorry what?" Virgilius asked.

"The last chapter was posted yesterday. I'm sure you read it." Dee stated, Patton didn't like how calm he was.

"Richie and Eddie left Derry, together. With the others." Remus began explaining. "It came out of nowhere. What did you think of it though? Be real."

"I-I-" Virgilius pulled his hands to his chest and stepped back. "I don't know what you're-"

"Yes you do." Dee stopped his rebuttal. "Downright ended and we know you read it. Just tell us what you thought."

It was quiet.

"Guys, this isn't-" Roman started.

"I liked it." Virgilius said, albiet hesitantly. "I know a lot of people in the comments weren't too pleased because it seemed like leaving Derry diminished the whole point of their recovery together. If they were just going to leave anyway, why spend so long trying to regain the love for the things that they had before."

It was silent again.

"But I thought it made sense." Virgilius continued. "Richie and Eddie spent a lot of time trying to reconnect with their town, but it only really made them want to go back to the past. When things were easier. Not go forward with the new lives they wanted to start together. Being together made it different. It made them realize how moving on and away from Derry wasn't running from their past, they had already accepted the past for what it was. Instead, leaving Derry together was a way of starting a new. Not burying the past, but no longer letting it affect them."

The air was still. Patton had no idea what to do other than think, I need to read this fanfiction apparently.

"So you figured me out!" Virgilius stirred them from their dazes. "What was the point of that? You got me, good for you, what are you doing just rubbing it in?!"

"No!" Dee stopped him. "I swear we're not. We-uh-we were curious. I mean, I never read fanfiction, but the ending to that one stuck with me and I've been trying to figure out why. It just seemed like a pointless build up to some kind of half-assed epiphany. Like the writer had tossed the last six chapters out the window. I was so confused about why she went that way."

"And I thought about the same thing as you!" Remus cut in. "It made sense to me when they left, it just felt more like they were leaving becuase they didn't know how to be together in a town where they didn't feel loved. Derry didn't love them and they loved each other too much to let the town get in the way. Leaving was their best chance at being with each other, being where they wanted to be."

"They just wanted to be happy together." Virgilius seemed to agree. "It didn't make sense to stay somewhere that was training them to stay apart. Being together was what made them happy. All they really wanted was each other and the rest of the Losers' Club."

Another beat of silence.

"Virgilius!" Dee got his attention. "I know we're supposed to be fighting, but I don't want to. Whatever you've been told about us, about how we're liars and cheats, it isn't true. Uh. . . to an extent. We're not perfect, but I'm sure whatever is going on up there, we can help you with."

"He's right!" Patton decided to step in. "We aren't always the best, but we try to be. I don't know what's going on with you, but I can tell that something isn't right. He means it when he says we can help. We help each other, and we help ourselves. We'll be here to help you too."

It was still again. Patton thought he could feel the exhaustion coming off of Virgilius. The weariness grew as they talked to him. It was ridiculous though to think that, how could he sense the prince's emotions from that far away. Patton couldn't see his face, so why did he feel so tired of the fighting. It wasn't his tire though, it wasn't like Logan's exhaustion, or Roman's, or any of the other Rangers'. It was foreign, and strong.

Virgilius screamed.

It was close to hellish. All of the Rangers went to cover their ears and block it out. Patton kept his eyes trained on the prince. He tried desperately to see what was happening, only to find a thick, black, inky aura beginning to surround him. It pulsed and expanded, circling Virgilius's body. Virgilius began to rise into the air, his arms and legs limp, his face still shrouded in the shadows of his crown. His eyes were no longer a glowing purple. Virgilius's body began floating to the ground, slowly and steadily, moving with the aura.

His feet his the ground and the aura exploded. It covered the entire square, encompassing everything in a shroud of blackness. Patton could still see, but it strained his eyes as he tried to find Logan's arm to hold. The screaming stopped suddenly.

"You insufferable brats!!!"

Patton looked to the source of the voice and realized he was no longer standing. None of the Rangers were. The only one standing now was Virgilius.

"Do you know how long it has taken to perfect this thing?!! Perfect my army?!!" It was a woman's voice Patton realized. The voice was domineering and overbearing with a lower undertone that followed, like it was being echoed by a demon.

Finally Patton got the strength to look up at Virgilius. He sucked in a breath of shock as he saw the hood had falled, the crown now being the only thing on his head. He could see Virgilius's face! Patton began attempting to burn it into his memory. His jaw was round, not very defined, his cheeks were a little puffy, but not as much as his own. His cheekbones were very defined however, almost unnaturally so. The first pair of eyes were small, they sat about eye brow level, then the main set of larger eyes, and finally the smallest set right below the middle ones. The outline of his eyes was like his cheekbones, unnaturally sharp. His hair fell to the left of his crown, down to the center of his middle set of eyes.

Virgilius's eyes aren't glowing purple, Patton remembered. He stared up into Virgilius's eyes. His irises were a bright angellic white and his pupils a darker than night black. It was just as unnerving as before.

"Oh I thought I had seen the last of you but you're just so persistant aren't you! It's stupidity is what it is!! It's not human nature, it's not being good people, it's not trying to help those who can't help themselves!! It's stupidity!!!" The voice screamed. "You're all so stubborn and stupid!!!"

"Ngh-" Patton heard Thomas from just a few feet away. he was shuffling around, likely trying to get to his knees. "You're going to lose! And this boy that you're using as a little pawn isn't going to be yours much longer. He's not weak and you're not in control."

"Oh . . . you're not new." The voice replied, almost bored. "How dissappointing. You won't last very long you know. And these kids you've got as the new Rangers, they aren't going to last either. You may be stubborn enough to stay alive, but you're stupid enough to keep fighting."

"And you're weak." Dee said with a strength Patton wished he could muster for himself. He begged and pleaded for his body to do more than look on.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me you sick bitch!" He yelled. "You're using him! Forcing him to fight us because you can't do it on your own. He's going to leave the twisted hold you have on him one of these days and there's nothing you can do about it. You won't even get down here yourself to fight us!!!"

"Dee-" Patton heard Remus struggle to speak.

"Boy, do you know how many worlds I've conquered? How many civilizations I've made my own?! Believe it or not, I don't care all too much about handling this planet on my own. There are other, more important places for me to be." The voice cackled, it sounded so much like Virgilius, Patton wanted to shrink away. "I don't care about Earth enough to fight for it in person. I can leave that to my little Works-In-Progress. Like this one. This place is perfect training for things like him."

"You can't keep doing this very long." Roman grunted. "We will stop you!"

"Oh please kid. I've fought much worse than you. You're nothing! At least the last Red Ranger was something worth fighting. She was certainly an opponent for my experiments. You though, you don't even come close." She snarled in return.

"Then why are we still alive?! Why are we still here, fighting you!" Logan huffed, clearly straining.

"Now Blue, your Ranger has always been something. Never the same really. I have to say, having a level headed one is a change of pace, but being the smartest in a room means nothing if you can't command respect! You hold yourself like even you can't stand the way you are. You act like you're on a higher level of thinking than others, but really you're just as much of an indiscisive mess as everyone else on this pathetic planet! You don't understand your feelings, you pretend you care only to know deep down you would do anything to be known as the smartest in the room, and to top it all off you're not even a real boy!!"

"Shut up!!!" Patton let out the words, not even realizing they were his own, but it was how he felt.

"Now here's our fighter. Pink. Unexpected sure, but then again, the hell you put yourself through in our own mind is much worse than I could ever really do. I'll give you props for that." Her voice was drowning Patton's ears. He was so angry, he just wanted her to shut up. "In fact, I'll give all of you a little credit. I've certainly thought about going the tear-them-apart-from-the-inside route, but you all are so self-destructive, you do it on your own!"

She was going on, but her words were muddled in Patton's head. He didn't know what she was saying and didn't want to. Then an idea came to mind. Patton tried his hardest, pulling all of his strength and will, he just needed to shut her up. He needed to do something other than sit there. He felt the determination bubbling inside of him, he felt the fear but he channeled, tried to force that fear to make him fight, not run. Patton summoned his bow. It felt so heavy in his hand. Everything was heavy, pulling him down, prying to keep him down. He lifted his torso, fighting the aching it gave him. Patton pulled his arms up, summoning an arrow, and knocking it back.

"Sorry Virgilius, but you gotta go for now." He said, it felt like he was yelling but only a whisper came out.

Then he fired, straight for the crown. In the blink of Patton's eyes the crown had been knocked to the ground. The black aura was gone, Virgilius collapsed to the cement, his eyes purple once again. Patton watched as the world tilted to the side, dimming. His head hit something hard, but he barely registered it.

It was black.

Virgilius scrambling, grabbing for the crown.

Black.

Virgilius again, until the boy disappeared.

Then fuzzy black again. Not like the ink. This blackness was welcoming, not overwhelming.

Patton felt a hand on his arm. He opened his eyes again and saw Logan, his mouth was moving but there was no sound other than the ringing. When did the ringing start? Patton asked himself. Logan looked so terrified. Patton didn't like that expression. Suddenly Thomas came into view, he was also speaking, but it was nothing Patton could hear.

Then finally, the fuzzy black. Patton realized he didn't like calling it black. His world wasn't black. That black, inky terror wasn't in his vision. It was more blank. That's the word, blank. Blankness. A blank world.

Patton let a smile fall on his face. He was okay with everything being blank. Just for a bit.

Taglist:

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[forged-through-trials]

I had a package to deliver back in Skingrad, so I paid it one last visit before continuing further East. On the way back, guess who we ran into? M’aiq The Liar: “M’aiq wishes he had a stick made out of fishies to give to you. Sadly, he does not.” Trials: Realization dawned. “Like, I see what you’re saying. The ‘fishy-sticks’ are symbolic of the violence inherent in the system. It grinds down the worker just like the meat of delicious fish is ground down into an inedible stick.” M’aiq The Liar: “...” Trials: “And like a school of fishes rising from the deeps, we need to unite and rise up against the ruling class! Before they crush us into indigestible bricks of processed foodstuffs.” M’aiq The Liar: He was visibly confused. “...lady, I’m just a meme-guy!” Trials: “No, no, you’re right, it’s time for the revolution to begin! We’ll cast down the false-leaders of the empire, as I certainly didn’t vote for them! Dismantle White Gold Tower brick by brick! And when they asked who inspired this uprising, I’ll be sure to tell them it was ‘M’aiq The Liar’.” M’aiq The Liar: “Please don--” Trials: “And when they cut your head off and put your it on a pike, I will be there to salute you, sir, for your sacrif--” I look up to realize I’m speaking to a vaguely M’aiq-shaped dust cloud, as the real M’aiq had already raced down the road. Trials: “...huh. Poor guy. Couldn’t handle the burden of leading the revolution.” [ M’aiq Count: 6 ]

After a while of hiking, we spotted the dig-site in the distance. A few tents, surrounded by trees, on a small island just inside of the river that feeds Niben Bay. Ruin and I drew in closer, and inspected the site. Up close the place was a marvel to behold; the huge trilobite fossil in particular was quite eye-catching. Surely it’s... thousands of years old? Uh, how old is our world? Like, I don’t have the most extensive history background, but the First era was only about three-thousand years long, and the Second Era was only about nine-hundred, and now we’re in the Third Era, and we’re only up to the year 433... I don’t know for sure how long the Dawn and Merithic Eras were, but if the pattern holds true, they were only a few thousand years long at most. Is that even enough time for something to turn into a fossil? Besides the huge “fossil”, the other sight of note was this... cocoon in a tent, dripping some very pungent slime. The smell was enough to make one gag, and I really wondered how the Archie-Guild assistants could stand to be around it. Whatever this stuff is, the guildies seemed to be collecting it. I wonder whatever for? Well, now that we’re here, step one was to speak to the Assistants and see what they had to say.

Assistant Azim: “Don’t you just love field work? The fresh open air... the camping under the starry sky...?” Trials: “The burning smell of whatever that slime is corroding your nose.” Assistant Azim: “Now if you ask me, there’re two reasons why Tumyr is out in the sticks--” Trials: “Is one of them; ‘He’s ducking Teav’s flirtatious advances’?” Assistant Azim: “...okay, three reasons. “But also, because he is a congenital practical joker. One who happens to like pranking his boss, Rythor. Tumyr’s got something against stuffy desk-work, so he used a soul gem on Rythor’s library, which somehow got them to talk in their authors’ voices. He claimed that he’d intended to use it as a tool so that they could provide a sort of commentary to the texts, but what they actually did was to moan constantly about anything that had bothered them in life. Bad backs, pet hates, personal insults, anything.” Trials: “Huh. I wonder what would happen if someone used a soul gem on my Tumble-Scroll?” Assistant Azim: “I think it would start complaining about the glacial pace you’ve been posting at, lately.” Trials: I pouted. “Hey, I get busy sometimes!” Assistant Azim: “And the other reason is that Tumyr is a Khajiit, and he just loves big, green open space.” Trials: I frowned at him. “Hey, that sounds like Profiling. Would you just go and assume that because I’m Argonian I like walking in the rain?” Ruin: “...Trials, you do like walking the rain.” Trials: “...okay, but he shouldn’t go assuming it! “But, hey, you seem to know all the gossip, so what’s the story with your founder, Solan? You all seem to speak about him with such reverence, but I haven’t heard much in the way of details.” Assistant Azim: “You want me to tell you about Solan? Okay, but I don’t know any more than the rest of us about our great founder and pioneer. “Solan originally came from Hammerfell, where his family had been embroiled in the war of Betonys--” Trials: “Zzzzzz...!” Muttering in my sleep. “M-metal gear... grumble-grunt...” Ruin: “Uh, try to go easy on the politics. It puts her to sleep.” Assistant Azim: “...” He sighed slapped me to wake me up. Trials: My face still stinging. “L-Liquid!” Assistant Azim: He rolled his eyes before continuing. “Solan regards people as the keepers of sacred knowledge, and felt that everyone held some special part of Tamriels history in their souls. Trials: “I think my soul holds all of Cyrodiil’s memes!” Assistant Azim: “As such, he was a fanatical humanist, whose sense of charity and reverence of the people earned him the nickname of ‘Solan the Baptist’.” Trials: “...what the heck is a ‘baptist’?” Assistant Azim: “They dunk your head under water while saying prayers and blessings to the divines.” Trials: “I see! Well, next time I’ll be sure to threaten to ‘baptize’ Sova when she gets sassy.” Assistant Azim: “I don’t think she would appreciate that.” Trials: “I’ll just throw in some ancient Alyeid gods and she could call it ‘research’.”

The other assistant on duty here was “Assistant Quovi.” I spoke to her next, as she dusted grit and minerals off of the trilobite fossil. She didn’t have much to say, save to gossip about her superiors at the Archeology Guild. Did you know that Aster Cei is married to a Khajiit? Not one of the Southern city-dwellers, either, but a well-connected and hot-tempered lass from one of the nomadic tribes. Sova, meanwhile, was Born with a Silver Spoon in her mouth, as her snooty attitude might have suggested. Hailing from Skywatch in the Summnerset isles, she enraptured the court there from an early age. She saw the digs over here in Cyrodiil as beneath her, and took time to adjust to it. And she’s not too keen on Nords, Orcs, or... hired goons. Trials: “Hired Goons?” Assistant Quovi: “Don’t pay her too much mind. I hear that Rythor actually prefers the personal touch you only get with Hired Goons.” “Anyway, Sova’s not so bad. Once you get used to bowing to her every morning.”

Finally it was time to enter the big tent, and speak to the Khajiit himself. Gotta say, for someone who loves the great outdoors, his tent sure has a lot of hard-to-transport amenities. I understand that books on paleontology might be important for his work, but the mental image of him carefully arranging his bookshelf every time they make a new camp amused me. Tumyr: “Hello? And who might you be?” Trials: “Hey, I’m ‘Forged-Through-Trials,’ and he’s ‘Ruined-Tail.’ We’re new hires.” Ruin: “A pleasure.” Tumyr: “Really? So nice to meet you. I’m ‘Tumry,’ resident paleontologist.” Trials: “Anyway, we swung by because Teav needs a vial of your famous Dissolving Agent.” Tumyr: “Ah, poor timing, I’m afraid. I’ve run dry of the stuff, for the moment. Used it all to dig out that Ampryx out there.” Trials: “Oh, you mean, the trilobite?” Tumyr: “Yes. It’s a new species I just discovered, so I get to name it. I’ve dubbed it ‘Ampyx Adapsys’.” Trials: “Fascinating stuff, really, but--” Tumyr: “Slithering along the coastline, filter feeding on sand, their chitin exoskeleton and long spines helped protect them from ambush predators.” Trials: I rolled my eyes. “Listen, Tumyr The Science-Guy, we’re here about the Dissolving Agent. If you’re all out, where or when can we get more?” Tumyr: “Oh, making more? That’s easily done, so long as you’ve got the sliiiiiiiime.” Trials: I made a face at him. “Eww, I don’t like how you said ‘slime’. You make it sound vaguely carnal.” Ruin: He visibly paled. “...well, there’s a mental imagine I’m going to be trying to flush for the rest of the day.” Trials: “You and me both, bruh.” Tumyr: He pouted. “I’m just talking about the stuff that leaks from the cocoon I have outside. It’s the active ingredient in my Dissolving Agent. You just mix it with five Green Stain Cup Caps and you have one vial of the agent.” Trials: “...what a coincidence! I happen have five Green Stain Cup Caps right here.” I passed him the Cup Caps. “It’s almost like... there is someone outside of the Aubris who has experienced all of this before and is guiding my actions, or something.”

Tumyr: He blinked in confusion. “...what... is she looking at?” Ruin: He simply shrugged. Tumry: “...” He shook his head, and passed the finished Dissolving Agent to Ruin. “I think I’d better trust this to you.”

Fast forward past a short hike back toward the Archie-Guild castle, and Ruin and I were back and speaking to Teav. Ruin passed him the Dissolving Agent, which delighted Teav, who assured us that after some careful preparation, he could begin to carefully remove the contamination and corrosion obscuring the Metallic Shard’s Inner Matrix to further study the artifact. Teav: “I’ve also got some good news for you. Rythor, our Headmaster, has returned from his expedition. I’ve already put in a good word for you.” Trials: “Aww, thanks! I appreciate your doing that for me.” Teav: “You deserve it. Weird as you are sometimes, you do get the job done. Rythor has told me he’d like to meet you in person. You can find him in the Library.”

A hop, skip and jump later, and we’d found the Library. As you might imagine for the library owned by a bunch of nerds, the place was huge, and filled wall to wall with books... and a giant dragon skull. Gotta say, it’s an effective conversation-starter. Which, given the story Assistant Azim told me about Tumyr’s prank, getting a conversation started isn’t the problem. It’s getting the books to shut up! Book Written by Pelagius III: “And I’ll go into people’s houses at night and wreck up the place!” Dragon Skull: “Well, he’s lost my vote.” Rythor: Obviously irate. “Shut up, both of you! I’m going to kill Tumyr the next time I see him.” He finally noticed Ruin and I, and offered a wave, his demeanor changing immediately. “Greetings. You must be the new recruit I’ve heard so much about.” Trials: “IDidn’tDoEet! Except for the cool stuff. That I did the hell out of!” Rhythor: “...” He straightened his robes anxiously. “Well, I’ve mostly heard only the cool stuff. “I’m ‘Kal Rythor,’ Archeology Guild Headmaster. Teav tells me you’ve done a fine job clearing out that Spire. Given the decent job you did there, and our clear, dire need for some muscle, I’m making you the guild’s official ‘Enforcer.’ You’re now a permanent member, responsible for clearing any hurdles we may run into.” Trials: “Huh. ‘Enforcer’? Makes me sound like a bouncers, or like one of those Made Mer from the Camonna Tong. You’re not gonna send me to go make offers people can’t refuse, are ya?” Rythor: “...” He smiled knowingly. “Funny you should mention that...” Ruin: He frowned thoughtfully. “Oh, here we go.” Rythor: “On the expedition I just returned from, we’d found another Spire, similar to the one you just cleared. There’s more than just one!” Trials: “Well, need me to go in and clear that one out, too?” Rythor: “Not unless you’re into lawn-care. The problem there isn’t monsters, it’s that it’s overgrown with nearly impenetrable vines. There is, however, a nearby mine that burrows deep into the same mountain. “This is where you come in. I need you to speak with the Mine Foreman down there, help him see the virtue of our cause, and convince him to dig a tunnel into the Antechamber.” Trials: “...I feel like cutting through vines would be a lot easier than tunneling through solid rock.” Rythor: “You’d think that, but Cyrodiilic vines are so tough it takes a literal act of god to move them. “Now, go convince those minders to dig that tunnel for us.” Trials: “And what if they refuse?” Rythor: “Then convince your fist to make friends with their noses until they agree.” Trials: Flabbergasted. “...wow! Is that really necessary? I mean, they’re not Sova.” Rythor: “If it comes to it. Meanwhile, I’m going to lead an excavation effort at the Spire you’ve just cleared. “Godspeed, my Enforcer.”

[our-reb00t-boi]

I have some Horizon Forbidden West expectations. I can't say they're theories because I haven't checked new info and I'll eventually find out about them. So this is from what I know so far and what I feel should be incorporated, but whether or not I'm right isn't the point. So that's why. Anyway

Better world building quests and NPC engagements. Most of the Zero Dawn quests are fetch quests at its core. How about a quest that reveals a little about the people or the place/culture? Maybe about the tribe's...farming? I talked about a tribe being featured in the HFW trailer, the Utaru, and I feel that they're going to be shown in the game. And I am curious as to how they managed to cultivate the land and their relationship with the other tribes, notably with the Carja in HZD, but I think their roles on agriculture may have a big impact on the story and even on Aloy's survival. But anyway, this doesn't mean just for that tribe but on other tribes as well. I guess what I'm saying is more world building aspects than fetch quests/go-to-A-to-do-B, etc.

Speaking of the Utaru, their land is called the Plainsong but it's never revealed where. Since the sequel is going to be westward, and their main specialty is farming, I managed narrow it down to Idaho being the place where Aloy may venture, not necessarily just to feature the Utaru, but hey, representing Idaho in a post-apocalyptic/new era in Horizon would be pretty epic.

Besides Idaho, California is the biggest and most obvious contender as a major setting, what with the decrepit Golden Gate Bridge and the flowing dragon hologram featured prominently in the trailer. Just imagine Hollywood and how Aloy's gonna react to that. But moving on, I feel that we should expect more Old Ruins to explore and the rate of how it had been militarized during its campaign against the Faro Plague. I'm also expecting how some very brutal machines may compete against another, since machines are massive bio-feeders and it would be interesting to see that and how Aloy can take advantage of that.

Okay, California was featured prominently, and Idaho I'm just thinking it could happen, but Nevada is right next to the state where the Carja territory is, which is Utah. So that should be exciting to see, how Nevada would look in HFW and maybe feature more and new tribes.

I talked about interactions and I feel an Oseram relationship felt underutilized in HZD. Imagine help set up shop for an Oseram group in the new western frontier and trade with them with parts from new mechs, such as that giant turtle, that weird pterosaur or from those mech-mammoths! Heck, make a mini-game about customizing new weapons or upgrading the ones Aloy already has! And just have fun with that! Or how Aloy might bring along some new Nora who are open-minded about an adventure outside the Embrace! We can play Aloy up as a mentor and teach them about the machines, the Old Ones and tribe relationships! And have a party quest! This is an RPG after all!

So that's all I have for now. Feel free to share what you think could be featured or what you feel should be in a Horizon game