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stargirl-writes · 1 year ago

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[chapter one] the secret history of anakin skywalker

captured

pairing : assassin! reader x anakin skywalker

word count : 1.8k

series navigation | masterlist

sypnosis

you have only known one truth about this war, the republic and the seperatists are two sides of the same coin. but now, your master count dooku has disposed of you after your consequent failures. his betrayal fueled your thirst for revenge. and in the cruel twist of fate, you have found yourself with an arrangement with the enemy. general anakin skywalker is willing to do what it takes for the republic to win, even if it meant dealing with you, his nemesis.

chapter summary

your mission to secure umbara has failed. your master, count dooku would not have asked of anyone but you to deliver success. but as you stand amongst the pile of bodies of umbaran soldiers, the horror of your failure washes over you. and in the hopelessness of events, a jedi appears amidst the ashes of your city. one that did not hesitate to kill the jedi general krell despite his jedi order's honor.

tags : enemies-to-lovers, angst, hurt/comfort, mystery, espionage.

warnings : mentions of ptsd, mentions of abuse, war, mentions of a panic attack.

notes: centers around the same time of the clone wars season 4 episode 15

also, thank you all lovely people who have supported my first anakin fic here 😭, i'm very grateful for every interaction! so thank you for taking interest in this other thingy i have in the works. so without further ado, i hope you like it ! 🪽

likes, comments, and reblogs are highly appreciated !

Your plan has failed.

You stood over the tower overlooking the ashes left in the Umbaran capital city. The Republic has won. Your plan failed.

Your breath becomes uneven, the terror lodging in your throat as the consequence of this failure starts to dawn.

Your master, Count Dooku, will not take this failure lightly. Because he swore that if you provide anything other than success, then you will be dealt with the price for it. And now you stand in horror at the sight: the smoke of what was supposed to be your defense taunted you of your imminent future.

Umbara was a crucial route to supply the Confederacy of Independent Systems. A recent attack by the Republic has made Count Dooku send you, his second. Many systems have been starving from the tight supply lines that the Alliance still held and losing Umbara would send millions into more famine.

Your hand twitches. A reaction that fails to conceal your trauma. Your body, already bracing itself for the phantom pain that was yet to be inflicted.

You blink.

Even from atop this tower, you could make out the scattered Umbaran soldiers that lay lifeless, covered in their own blood. You try to fight the guilt pushing up your heart, remembering that Umbaran people have volunteered to defend their land when you insisted that droids are more expendable than lives.

The mission was simple; to defend. Count Dooku wouldn't have asked anyone but you. You were the only one he trusted to deliver success, his second, his apprentice.

He had taken you in when Republic forces made the sky fall on your home planet of Hapes. Your resentment for the Republic began there: from witnessing your home being burned down. Then, Dooku taught you of the Republic's hypocrisy. How they are so deluded by their righteousness that they can excuse leading with violence and bloodshed in the name of maintaining peace.

He taught you how to defend yourself. He was the one that made you realize that the Republic is caters only to the people above ground. Even the capital planet of Coruscant serves as a cruel reminder of how the Republic treats the undergrounds.

Dooku took you in. And you feel indebted to his teachings. Under his care, you became familiar with his unrelenting methods. Which meant leading with ruthless, sometimes. 'What matters is the intention' He used to say. He told you that only a few can wield a saber and fight with the right intention. It made sense, then. Someone has to fight for those who cannot. And you quickly learnt that all of it would be justified because what you sacrificed yourself for was to serve a bigger purpose.

It didn't really erase the discomfort when your Master, the source of your fire, be so sardonic when winning a fight. And you still find yourself holding your breath, sometimes, when you have to watch him make decisions you wouldn't really find yourself agreeing to.

But, this was a war and he was doing it for the Alliance. You had to adapt. Dooku was once a Jedi, so he had to have known something you didn't. Saw something you didn't understand fully. He told you how the Jedi Council had lost their way when they got involved in politics. Your younger mind was more malleable in believing everything your master said. He told you many things...

Once he recognized your ability to channel the force, He handed you a lightsaber and directed you at the right targets, making you his most effective weapon.

You allowed it all because it was for the cause...

And Dooku was fierce in teaching you the price of failure. 'Many will suffer for your incompetence' he used to say before striking you down with his power, making you writhe in pain that felt like being on the brink of death but never having the release.

It was to teach you a lesson, you once believed...

Your faith has crippled since then.

Your heart was telling you it was wrong. A Master should never have to go to such extreme methods to teach you a lesson. But then again, how else can he express the severity of the consequences of your actions? There are so many people that you have allowed to get hurt. You deserve an equal measure of pain.

You have grown to know so many Allied leaders, like Mina Bonteri, who only ever swore allegiance to the cause in hopes of salvation of their people. They weren't evil. They only ever demanded a change in the Republic, and now they are branded as Seperatists.

That was what kept you from leaving. Because you have learnt that the Republic and the Alliance were two sides of the same coin; just as corrupt, just as cruel. The war will rage on until one succeeds the other. And either side seems to have been in the war enough to realize the blood being spilled. Somebody just have to do something so it all ends. You just aren't sure if you can manage that yet. Because now as you stand over the grave of the people you failed to defend, you realize that you aren't anywhere ready. People, not droids. People that fought to the end, believing in something they were willing to die for. And soon, you will have to face your Master's disappointment.

You didn't know what felt heavier.

A commando droid appears from behind. "A call from Count Dooku, General" It opens up its hand to reveal the holocommunication device. Your blood runs cold. You feel your heart thump and thwack so rapidly, you thought it was impossible it isn't bursting out of your chest. You swallowed your fear, knowing you can't delay this call. You placed the holocommunicator down and pressed it.

Count Dooku appears in front of you and you straightened your back, masking your expression. You can feel his gaze burn on your skin as he takes a moment to apprehend you. You sense his frustration despite the distance. Your fingers twitches involuntarily.

"Have I fallen short to remind you the consequence if you'd lose Umbara, my student?" His voice remained in that unnerving monotonous tone you despised.

"No, Master." You answered, your nails digging through the skin of your palms.

Dooku doesn't blink; you grow horrified. Be angry, be disappointed, show me something, anything. His composed expression was much more terrifying.

"And you thought it more important to leave the task to the Jedi General Krell?" Dooku says through gritted teeth.

"I had to find a way to reduce our losses," You defend your actions. Conspiring with General Krell had been your idea. The rogue Jedi had seemed like the most efficient way to poison the enemy. Having someone crippling the system from the inside had proved itself effective for you then. At the beginning, General Krell had met his end of the deal. You managed to tip the scales of battle, enough to let Umbaran soldiers recuperate before engaging in another battle.

"Krell is dead. Your tactic is comprimised." Dooku announces.

You felt your heart skip a beat.

Somehow, you have always believed the Jedi would never sacrifice their honor in exchange for a win. When Krell went missing, you thought maybe they only had him captured, waiting for a jurisdiction by their holy Republic. Exsanguining him sounded extreme. Perhaps having a member of the Jedi turn against them made the Council make an example out of him.

"You have failed me for the last time."

Your eyes widens at the finality of your Master's words. Before you could protest, you felt the force constrict around your throat, lifting you off the ground and cutting the air from your lungs.

"Kill her." Dooku orders the commando droid. And you felt your heart sink. The holocommunication dies. And you slump to the floor.

Adrenaline surges through you, you draw up your lightsaber, distraught, shocked, as the betrayal seeps. You swing your weapon through the commando droid and it falls down your feet. Your master... ordered for your death. Once you no longer served purpose to him, he abandoned you.

He wouldn't even do it himself.

You started panting, and you held on to the control board to support your weight— tears were flooding your vision. Your knees buckles and you stumble backwards. Your body, it betrays— it trembles, it becomes paralyzed by the fear. Your mind is no longer in control, no matter how much you will for the hyperventilation to stop.

Then you hear the elevator click. You turn to your heel and find the Jedi, Anakin Skywalker standing with his lightsaber drawn. Krell is dead. Anakin Skywalker was here. You put two and two together. It was not the first time you encountered the General, he always led with his men at the frontlines. And he'd always find a way to you.

You'd meet his agile attacks to stand your ground. Despite the short amount of time, Dooku was rigorous in training you. And it paid off when you'd barely escape Anakin Skywalker. You heard the Jedi think it was dishonorable to flee from a fight, but you knew you'd serve your cause better alive than dead.

He probably ordered Krell's death. Which would be forbidden for his Jedi Code. And before you could wrap around the thought, he was already stepping forward. Moving as if demanding your attention. If he is able to throw away his honor, then he's here to kill you too.

His eyes bore into yours— he looked like he was sizing you up. "Umbara is under the Republic's protection now, you've no choice but to surrender, Wraith" Anakin calls you by the title conducted to you by your enemies, flicking his chin to move hair away from his sight.

The Wraith. The shadow. Always lurking, but never significant enough to be acknowledged as the actual threat. The corner of his lips curled into a cajoling grin "Or run away, I seem to recall you seem to excel in that"

Your breaths leave vapor as your felt your grief transform into something more ravenous. And without hesitating, you charged forward. Anakin instinctively blocks your offense, his expression of bickering quickly replaced by seriousness. This... this was familiar. You swung relentlessly, and full of weight. Skywalker receives your attacks and finds his way around it.

The initial adrenaline depleted after Skywalker received and received, your muscles atrophy, it was breaking dawn and you haven't had a moment of sleep. Then, in a moment you were recovering from the sloppy emotion-drawn attack, He had deflected, taking offense with forceful strikes and proximity. You struggle to regain footing. The fact that he had been using his size didn't help you. Because you relied on your agility, not endurance.

In a swift movement, Anakin fiends a strike and uses his knuckle to bend your wrist, making you lose your lightsaber to the ground. You look up to the Jedi in disbelief. His torso was pressing on your chest as held up both your wrists over your head with his bionic hand. Fierce and unyielding.

His chest rises and falls, and the ghost of his breath warmed the skin on your forehead.

"It's over." He says, his grip tightening.

You saw the faint glisten of triumph in his eyes before he steps backward and clasps your wrists behind your back and cuffing them.

You had thought your Master's betrayal could be the worst thing you could face. But now, captured by this Jedi, you knew a lifetime rotting in Coruscant is... unimaginable.

Your mind caved in.

Somehow, death seemed like kindness now.

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britesparc · 1 year ago

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Weekend Top Ten #611

Top Ten Billion Dollar Movies

I remember the first time a film crossed a billion dollars at the international box office (Titanic in 1997; it’s not on this list). It was a big deal; in fact, it was a huge deal. Sure, there were films that had come very close, earning over $900m; the likes of Jurassic Park and The Lion King. But crossing that particular financial Rubicon was a watershed moment in cinema (no pun intended when discussing Titanic). Okay, sure, money isn’t everything; but this was a lot of money.

Since then, we’ve slowly become accustomed to films making crazy stupid amounts of money. It’s still pretty rare if a film hits the big Two Bil – Avatars, Avengers, oh my – and each of them feels in some way like a seismic pop-cultural event. Although I still remain slightly baffled at quite how big a deal Avatar is; more on which later. But when what feel like undersung Disney films such as Zootopia, or crap films like most of the Transformers sequels, are raking in over a billion, it has almost become commonplace.

Until it wasn’t. Because, post-Covid, there has definitely been a big box office wobble. There are many potential reasons for this: maybe people got out of the habit of going to the pictures during lockdown? The rise of streaming services, especially studio-owned ones such as Disney+ and Paramount+, have coached people into expecting films to appear on their TVs “for free” a couple of months down the line. Nowadays, you can’t simply expect your huge $250m blockbuster to earn nine figures. In fact, I’d argue that for most mainstream movies, $500m is a good figure right now. The Marvels, sadly, might struggle to reach that, despite it being thoroughly enjoyable.

So as we stand in the Year of Our Lord 2023, a film that crosses the billion-dollar-boundary is something to take note of once again. Whilst it should go without saying that financial success is no guarantee of quality, it obviously means that the film struck a chord with audiences. This year – and I really, really can’t imagine any of the films scheduled this side of January joining the club – there are only two Big Bill films, Barbie and Super Mario Bros (although Oppenheimer is only just behind, to be honest). One of those two films is tremendous. The other is, frankly, a bit shit. But which is which? Go on, take a guess. Even so, the fact that they connected with audiences to such a degree is something to be applauded; clearly there’s something to them – even if it’s something in the moment, in the zeitgeist – that films such as Elemental, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and – yes – The Marvels all, I guess, lacked.

Oh, one more thing. I’ve based this off the website boxofficemojo.com. That’s where I’ve got the financial figures for these flicks. So if they’re wrong don’t blame me. It’s global gross in US dollars, and it’s not adjusted for inflation – something I actually comment on in about two paragraphs’ time. This is a ranking of my favourite films, not by their gross, so the relatively “low earning” Jurassic Park tops the list (spoiler alert!) despite not earning nearly as much as some other films. “Much” and “low” being relative when you’re talking about squillions of dollars.

Anyway, that’s enough pointless preamble. Let’s get to the cinema and start counting coins. I hope you all got a cut of the gross!

Jurassic Park (1993), $1.11b: this one’s a cheat but I don’t care; on its original release it made only (“only”) $914m (this is in 1993 money, remember; if the website I used to calculate it is correct, that’d be $1.9b today). Anyway, subsequent re-releases nudged it over a bil, even if Titanic beat it to the billionaire punch. Anyway, that doesn’t matter; it’s Jurassic Park. It’s scary, it’s cool, it’s a sci-fi horror story monster movie adventure blockbuster romcom. It’s got a shirtless Jeff Goldblum, a T-Rex, and a big pile of shit. It’s a masterpiece. Clever girl.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), $1.16b: the whole LOTR trilogy is one enormous three-year, nine-plus-hour masterpiece. Arguably the best exercise in adaptation, it managed to bottle the lightning of a tumultuous production and a book that was “unfilmable”, with a director so theoretically unsuited for the material that only he could make the movie. The final film manages – somehow – to stick the landing in incredible fashion (multiple times!). Epic battles, tragic ends, a heroic finale. It bows to no one.

Toy Story 3 (2010), $1.07b: it can be a controversial opinion, stating which is your favourite Toy Story (anyone who says 4 can get in the bin though). I love this one, with its nuanced take on aging and obsolescence, as the toys (parents) say goodbye to the child who’s loved them. It’s a bittersweet end to a franchise that should have ended here, and it’s Paddington levels of perfect.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018), $2.05b, and Avengers: Endgame (2019), $2.8b: I’ve bunched these together partly for effect and partly because I didn’t want to bloat this list with four or five different MCU movies. I don’t even think these absolute epics are my favourite from the saga (it’s either Iron Man 3 or any one of the Captain Americas), but they represent something epochal, the culmination of a never-before-attempted multi-film saga, bringing so many different characters into play and landing it in as perfect a fashion as you could wish for. The Lord of the Rings of comic book movies, the greatest superhero saga told on screen, and did I mention there’s a bit where Steve lifts the hammer?

Frozen II (2019), $1.45b: quite a few Disney films have made a lot of money, but the runaway success of the first Frozen in 2013 took people by surprise; not many expected this girly musical about two sisters singing in the snow to blow Pixar’s box office out the water. I prefer – just – the sequel, as I think its themes are more nuanced but also more layered into the film, just like the central musical motif. It also manages to duck out of questions about Elsa’s sexuality whilst still allowing itself to be interpreted as a further queer coming out story, which is a pretty delicate needle to thread. Also: Lost in the Woods.

The Dark Knight (2008), $1b: I go back and forth over which is my favourite; the precision-tooled Dark Knight or the broader, looser, messier, but more Batman-y Rises. As a piece of crime fiction, this is great, Nolan channelling Heat to amazing effect and also showcasing one of the greatest bits of acting in superhero cinema. The Joker’s first proper scene, in the kitchen with all the mob bosses, is a thing of beauty.

Barbie (2023), $1.44b: here we go with the most recent film on the list, a surprising adaptation of a toy that manages to be not only really interesting and funny and moving, but also unique and visually sumptuous and, well, a treatise on misogyny and the damaging nature of the patriarchy. Far better than it had any right to be; much more than Kenough.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), $1.33b: there aren’t really that many Star Wars films in the Big Bil Club, as most of them I guess are just too old. Last Jedi wasn’t quite the box office juggernaut its predecessor was, but it’s still an exciting, compelling, and well-executed film, probably the best directed in Star Wars history, and willing to do interesting things with the characters and lore. We are what they grow beyond, indeed.

Avatar (2009). $2.92b: the big blue daddy of the billionaire’s boys’ club, the most successful film ever made. I do find it odd just how successful it is, as it doesn’t feel to have impacted the zeitgeist the way it has James Cameron’s pockets. All the same, it really is great, a barnstorming action movie with groundbreaking effects, showcasing just how good Jim is at this sort of stuff. The sequel’s great too. It’s got a talking whale in it.

Skyfall (2012), $1.14b: I do like a good James Bond film, even though I’m far from an afficionado. This one’s probably my favourite, despite (because?) of how it deconstructs the character. It’s also funnier than most Craig Bonds and has a hell of a song. But the quirky plot, streak of cold brutality, and fantastic Home Alone-esque finale really earns it a place here.

#top ten #films #movies #billion dollars #billion dollar gross #most successful movies #highest grossing movies #avatar #avengers #barbie #jurassic #star wars

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starshipsofstarlord · 4 years ago

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Smooth as the nine realms

loki laufeyson x reader / masterlist

summary; the midguardian lifestyle is strange, but there is an aspect of it that loki is definitely not accustomed to, and he’s conflicted about whether he likes it or not / warnings; smut, talk about pubic hair, or lack of, oral sex (female receiving)

kicking off your leggings, you abolished them to the other side of the room, straddling loki as he abandoned his book, caring not that the pair of you were in the middle of the common room, nor the fact that he had lost his page. it had been a few months since loki had been forced to join the avengers on their next quest, thor had practically dragged him towards the bifrost.

but now, he didn’t mind earth so much. sometimes it could be quiet, that was when all members of the team were away on missions, and thor allowed him to be by himself. this though, the way you, an average, world protecting midguardian straddled him, after stripping out of your top and bra, in the middle of a public sector of the domain, was something that he sure as valhalla had no mind about.

in fact, he rather enjoyed the way that your hands roughed down the points of his shoulders, and trailed down his biceps, that were underrated, especially in comparison to his brother’s. the two of you had been playing a game since he attacked the planet, it was a chase of cat and mouse.

at first, he had envisioned you to be the mouse, but you no longer seemed meek and small any longer. instead, you were the feline that was cosying herself upon the perch of his royal lap, descending her grounding hips over the throne of his pelvis.

“what is it trickster, cat got your tongue?” you seemed rather confident with the way that his eyes remained glue to your mound, he realised that must have been quite a complimentary action for a mortal man to show to his partner.

to be truthful, it felt as though all speech was parched from his mouth, he had knowingly waited for this instance where you would deliberately rut yourself against him; like heimdall, he had a vision of the future delved in the reverse side of his eyes, though, his reaction was the most unexpected thing that he could had intended to paraphrase.

he trailed his hand over your mound, through the fabric of underwear, watching mercilessly as you bucked into his hand. midguardians were something else, they weren’t as sensual as others he had been with concerning their sexuality, in fact, as it appeared, some were desperate.

you were rutting in his grip, though he applied a stern hold unto them, forcing you to stop your ravenous movements, and pose stilly for the god beneath you. he gently, which was a surprise to you with how tender and kind his eyes had become, laid you down on the couch that stark has paid a pretty penny for, exchanging your positions so that you were the one under his demeanour.

“do something.” you eagerly insisted, lacing your mortal fingers through his midnight locks, tugging gently at his dark roots. a glassy encasement covered his eyes as he stared up at you, it was a mess to place the expression that was carried within them, gods were difficult, that much was clear. though, you weren’t seeking anything particularly intimate with the company of one, this had been inevitable though.

it had been like a kettle brewing, screeching like an applause when the pair of you had finally gotten to the point of no return. this was it, there were no divine interventions or avenging interruptions to discard this moment, instead you and loki were thrown this coin toss, given your desires in the aura of a wish fountain.

“humans.” his voice prowled, making bumps appear on your skin, as he blew a swift succession of cold air across your stomach, it sending a blizzard of coolness up the paving of your chest, making your nipples undeniably hard, their stiff peaks that beaded under his breath were almost painful as they stood obediently to attention. “always so demanding, why can’t your kind beg for a change, i know that would appease my hunger?”

“oh loki, please.” your tone was severely monotone, and caused the mischievous lord to roll his gemstone eyes, rendering their spheric pupils to glare in amusedly at you, though, he tugged your panties down, the sight leaving him breathless. he was enraptured with the sight, perplexed by it as his emerald eyes stared up at you for an explanation. though, you were not sure what he was expecting from you.

his throat dry, as for once, he was not able to comprehend the situation. his silver tongue had gotten lost, obstructed as he grew distracted by the visual that he was receiving. it was a cunt, he knew that much, but there was someone uniquely different about it, he’d assume it was scalped if her were to make verbal predictions. “what is this?”

“my attempts at deflating your ego. i am not going to beg for you to do something to me, i can easily find someone else.” you rested your head back, digging the crown of it further into the end of the couch, as you parted your legs a little further to resend an invitation for him to proceed.

“not that...” loki revealed, paving his icy hands up the roads of your thighs, letting his forefinger brush over your pubic mound, it was like the bifrost, a smooth pathing to a transportation of depth, one that he wished to investigate, though he was still stricken by the eventing shock that pulsed within his golden veins. he had always been a curious child, and he remained to be as keen to know all now, at centuries upon centuries old.

“have you never seen a vagina before?” you huffed, wanting him to do nothing more than devour your cunt, stabbing you with his vigilant tongue so that he could curl crude and priceless sounds out of your mouth. if anyone knew that you were about to participate in intercourse with the destructive, slippery handed body, they would surely judge you.

but they didn’t, and even if that were not the case, you wouldn’t care. your mind was far too preoccupied with the growing inclination to jump the god’s elegantly crafted bones, bury for now you, remained still, allowing him to assert his comfort within the situation. “what’s wrong?” this time, he answered you, looking almost like a dear kitten that was plodding through the bustling streets, seeking out attention from a kind citizen, having hopes to be taken to a home, and fed well.

“why-,” he cleared his throat, he never came across as this nervous to anyone, it was as though he feared what you may think of him if he were to speak his mind. “why don’t you have hair- here?” he stroked the pad of his thumb over the flat and bare crest, finding it to be one of the most peculiar things regarding humans that he had ever witnessed.

“because i shave.” it was a simple answer, whilst all while being not as direct as the god was hoping for. “it’s kinda a thing down here, some people let it grow out, others don’t. it’s whatever picks their fancy, and a lot of people, like me, shave so intimate partners don’t get grossed out. some guys are dicks and hate everything that is natural.”

“well i’d still be reaped with great, reprised regret, if i were to reform the idea of giving you satisfaction if you were to have a natural slate sheathing around your sweet cunt.” he inhaled, making your muscles wither with succumbed arousal. the god could smell your distinct scent of attraction towards him, and he was visually compelled by the aroma that invaded his senses.

loki, without warning, placed his palm over your clean shaven mound, holding you down as his tongue worked against your tender flesh, stroking it as though he bore a hand of intricacy, sketching out every detail of your skin, plucking the outer labia into the hatch of his often deceiving mouth. he had to admit, in his mind of course, he liked the access that he was granted by this strange human lifestyle.

the idea of pubic hair was one of parts of a woman’s body that usually fuelled the immortal man, however if you didn’t want to bear its follicles on your skin, then that was to it choice. he wouldn’t judge you for it, although he happened to judge midguardians on everything. you were different from the others though, despite sometimes bickering, and making stabbing jokes towards one another, he rather enjoyed your presence.

with you nearby, he finally felt seen. he was not only the immortal that had prided himself with almost crushing an entire mortal city, no. you saw through that, understanding that he was definitely not in his own mindset, he had been controlled. it was never in his plans to venture to midguard, even if it was to cause a ruckus. but now with you, he never wanted to leave.

despite your optimal obligations regarding the team, and villains much like himself, he felt accepted. thor too appreciated him, but that was far different, there had always been a means of competition between the brother, with you, that regard was not present. he could be himself, and appreciate your side silhouette, and demand the agents that passed by with wandering eyes with threats if they did not continue walking.

now that he thought about that, as he engorged on the taste of your cunt, sliding a prying finger through the door of your entrance, fumbling your clit with his bewitched thumb, he realised something. a great surprise to himself. he indeed cared about you, but far more than he had ever anticipated to. his fingers slowed as he became mesmerised with every small noise that projected from your mouth, wanting to drag this instance out for as long as possible.

not only did his self realisation show him that he found some calm in your lasting presence, but he had feelings. usually he blocked off such things, but the heavenly expression that illustrated itself upon your face had him inwardly swooning. he felt you comb your fingers through his locks, and he hummed. he wanted this moment to last forever, in it, he was not a god, nor an infamous trickster.

he was just a man swarming with irregular emotions towards a woman, a being of optimistic resort; if things were as simple, or if he understood as well, he’d ask to take you for dinner. but he didn’t know where to start with that, not only did he have a lack of wisdom when it came to human restaurants, but he had no clue as to how you would respond. he didn’t even think that you saw him as a suitor, he was simply a deliverer of teasing and now pleasure.

“fuck loki.” the mortal swear sounded like a spell, making his body overbear itself with a proud sensation as he pushed you over the edge, removing his fingers only for you to bring them to your own mouth and clean them off. “holy shit, that was so good. maybe i should have started with gods years ago.”

inherently the mischief source growled, his mind instantly going over to the idea of you choosing his brother; everyone did, they had a strong preference. from his family to his old friends, they all liked thor more, and that was how his resentment towards his brother had originally stemmed. he felt like an outcast, and from that reminded alone, conjoined with your interest towards his brother, he felt his eyes grow glassy.

“go to him. i’m sure thor would appreciate your partnership.” yes, he was acting like a sulking toddler, and it had your brow bone raising as you took in his words. it was his clap back response, and you grasped him, stopping him from leaning the room. you felt slightly vulnerable, being in the nude after such a small lash, but you knew something was bothering loki, and it was clear to what that was.

“i do not want your brother loki, nor any other god.” your voice bit back a strain to its tone, as you stared at the man, standing in your birthday suit before him. your hands splayed on his chest, feeling his heart through his attire viscosity beating. “there is no need to be jealous, it feels like we’ve playing this game for so long, and i intend for it to be over. i will be the first to admit it, i want you, all of you. from the dark corners to the hopeful light in your eyes.”

loki was astounded, nobody had ever been so straight forward with him. despite being the god of mischief, the half of the time it was him whom was the victim of lies. “you don’t mean that.” his hands lightly traced every dip in your hips as he searched your expression for certainty. “nobody wants me, i am the monster that had tales spread to fear the children of my people of a night. there is nowhere i belong, nor anybody whom i belong with.”

“that may be your mindset, or the one that you are speaking, but you are lying to yourself. i do want you loki odinson, please accept that.” he gulped, nobody had ever had he guts to tell him how it was, and here you were, simply speaking your mind before him. it was an admirable feature, something that he deemed to be a favourable quality. “now i think i’m gonna get dressed and head to my room, i am feeling a bit cold. come find me when you feel like admitting the truth to yourself, i’ll be waiting.”

as you went to turn, loki grasped your elbow, hushing your questions with his mouth, as he clutched your cheeks, passionately endorsing you in a meaningful kiss. he walked you backwards, until the pair of you once again fell onto the furniture. “you don’t have to wait y/n, because i do not want to.” he ushered pecks down your neck, as you grew warm from the disappearance of his usual cockiness, it being replaced with true confidence, that served as a show for no one, and instead was his own admittance to all.

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wataeichis · 3 years ago

Text

@the-detectiveprince @shumaicore hope you don’t mind the tags! here is an attempted guide at all the various mechanics and details of a tour event, i hope this makes sense/doesn’t complicate it more/isn’t too hard to read (i know it’s a lot of words sorry 😭) but if you/anyone else needs anything clarified further feel free to ask!!

okay so there’s 30 “days” in a tour that you can complete over the 8 day event period, the days are just sets of 4 songs each in which you’re required to play on 3 bp minimum for each song (so minimum 12 bp per set of songs), you access the tour event route/days from the event page (where on a song event you’d find the ribbon shop and the points menu)

- throughout the 4 songs, you’ll have 3 missions to complete to give you 1 star each, at various checkpoints you’ll need certain amounts to pass further, so at points you may need to replay some days for additional stars

- if you don’t have enough stars, you can’t unlock certain days such as day 10 (10 stars needed), day 20 (30 stars needed), and day 29 (77 stars needed, in which you can only miss 7 total stars by that point) you don’t need to collect stars from day 29/30 unless you want the rewards from completing the day/completing the missions as once you’re past day 28 you can easily obtain the chosen 5* or mem coins without completing any missions

- tour missions differ for each day, but the most “difficult” ones can be fc (amount varies), pfc x1-x2, end your score in _ (can most easily be accomplished by playing on easy and stopping hitting notes near the end so you don’t lose enough voltage, but it still may take a few tries) there are also a lot more than this, so you’ll have to pay attention to the missions for each day, these are just what i find the most difficult ; you don’t need all 90 stars, just enough to unlock day 29, so if you miss some it’s okay!

-> your first mission per day will be about your team (ie, a certain attribute, event card, or character used as the centre in your song so make sure your spp is set on them), the second about something you need to do while playing (such as the ones above, and some not listed), and the third mission will be about obtaining x minimum score total for that day (gets higher the later you get in the tour, if you don’t obtain it within all 4 songs you can replay some songs in the day to add to your cumulative total before exiting out)

- tour days run on a fever gauge which can allow for more points to be obtained than in a song event. you build your fever gauge by playing songs 1-3 with the most accuracy possible and with the highest score you can, and then despite using 3bp only the last day will give you some percentage more than the amount of points you’d normally get which is why if you’re going for more points rewards than just the tour route itself it’s smart to use more bp on the last song

-> don’t push yourself to play on expert if you can’t, the rewards aren’t any different, play on the level you can do with the most success for the highest possible rewards from a) not failing b) accuracy for the fever gauge or fc/pfc missions

- it may not be ideal and if you can’t don’t push yourself, but sleeping in 5 hour intervals for bp reset is a decent tactic to get the most out of your tour event without having to spend dia with the possible occurrence that you have to replay some days or miss resets within the day to ensure that you can get the 5* within the specified timeframe, ive found i usually don’t have to spend dia if im able to be there for as many bp resets as possible

- if you’re not yet sure about rewards, tours are very generous about them. they tend to give more dia from a mixture of points reward and 3x dia for completing all the missions of each day. on day 20 and day 30, your choice is between mem coins and 2 cards (day 20 options: 2 mem coins and choice from two 4⭐️) (day 30 options: 10 mem coins and choice from two 5⭐️) tour event cards do not have an mv outfit, only a 2d room outfit. the 3D outfit becomes available with paid dia about a year later, so don’t choose a card based off what their outfit may look like in the mv, because you’ll end up disappointed

-> again, you can only miss 7 total missions before you can get to the day 30 reward, so you don’t need to push yourself to get every star! my recommended ones for accepting as a loss if you can’t obtain them are “end your score in x” and pfc missions

- if you are planning on going for a 5* from points rewards, it will still be a little easier than a normal song event. you’re steadily playing on 3bp for a quicker rank up as well as getting a points bonus from the fever gauge, in which it’s smartest to play on the highest bp for the fourth song for more points

- if youre familiar with the ss finale tour but no other tour, know that that was not what a normal tour is like! that had around ~42 days total and song event aspects with the passes, meanwhile a normal tour has 30 days and no song/ribbons attached. you can easily obtain a reward of choice from day 30 with just normal bp resets, but if you do choose to go for points rewards as well you will definitely have to spend dia

hope this helps at all!!

#enstars #ensemble stars #long post #i probably repeated a bunch of things and maybe made this more confusing I am sorry #i just remember my first tours being very confusing and want to offer help to people who haven’t yet before done one 😭😭#edit: im gonna add more onto this post later when event is actually out so ppl can see what im referring to

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anbu-legacy · 4 years ago

Note

In canon Kakashi is too unstable and morally sound for anbu. He cannot live with what is being asked of him in anbu even though he completes his missions with extreme diligence. When he is kicked out it is for his own good. legacy Kakashi has absolutely 0 problems killing even innocent civilian children and babies. I can think of few things worse than that and yet he does it almost blithely and sleeps like a rock after. I'm curious to know if you went with this diverging take as a logical consequence of the things Kakashi would be okay doing had he been doing them for Minato and not hiruzen? Or was it something else which made you deviate from his canon characterisation in this regard? (Hope i'm not overstepping by asking I'm really fascinated with the legacy universe and love the world you've built so I'm curious about the process of it all)

The simplest answer to this is that the section of canon you're talking about came out after Fallen Leaves and ANBU Legacy began.

The less simple answer is... oi, canon.

So, in canon, Kakashi's journey is thus:

Rin is kidnapped by Kirigakure at the end of the Third War, who implants the Three-Tails into her (how??) as part of a Cunning Plan to have it unleashed on Konoha when she inevitably loses control. Kakashi 'rescues' her. Rin begs Kakashi to kill her, because that is clearly the only solution to this issue, it's not like there are MULTIPLE SEAL-MASTERS at home who could unimplant the Three Tails, death is the only option. Kakashi refuses. Convenient Kiri-nin attack. Rin commits suicide-via-Raikiri by jumping in front of Kakashi. Kakashi gains the Mangekyo and we fridge yet another female character, hooray.

Kakashi becomes depressed. (In the anime, people start calling him Friend-Killer Kakashi. Wow, Konoha.)

Minato decides the fix for this is to toss Kakashi into ANBU. Because what 14-year-old wouldn't be cured of survivor's guilt by committing more murder? It's the perfect plan!

The plan does not work. Kakashi does splendidly in ANBU, becoming a captain and taking command of Team Ro, but -- and I'm quoting from Naruto wiki here -- 'his successes were owed to his cold behavior and his ruthlessness in combat, signs that he was still upset by Rin's death'.

(A little aside here: Kakashi is effectively becoming god's perfect killing machine, the blade of Konoha, the tiny angel of death; everything you want in, you know, your elite special forces, and I'm still trying to figure out what Minato's actual goal was here. Did he tell Kakashi that the point of ANBU was to make Kakashi get over Obito and Rin, or did he just say something like 'Konoha needs your services', and has been moving the secret goal posts ever since? Because it's very hard for someone to participate in their active recovery if they don't actually know they're in therapy.)

Anyway. ANBU isn't working to make Kakashi get over his death wish, so Minato decides, hey, why don't you look after my pregnant wife instead? Except that he assigns it as a mission, so Kakashi treats it like a mission, which means he stalks Kushina from the shadows like a feral cat for several months.

Which brings us to the Nine-Tails. So, Minato dies. Kushina dies (failed your mission AGAIN, Kakashi!). The Third apparently imprisons most of Kakashi's generation in a bubble of protection to stop them from helping, for which there isn't enough "what???" in the world, so we're gonna skip right on past that.

Next is a whole series of events where Danzou tries to corrupt Kakashi, Tenzou is introduced, we find out about Root, Orochimaru does his various war crime experiments and escapes, Root is destroyed (or is it??), Tenzou joins ANBU, we meet Itachi, Itachi massacres the Uchiha, and so on. This all takes place over several years. After the Uchiha massacre, the Third feels like "individuals with kind hearts" don't belong in ANBU, so he pulls Kakashi out, and instead charges him with teaching teenagers how to commit murder.

And that's canon.

So, Legacy. Here are the key differences:

Rin doesn't die

Minato doesn't die

Kakashi's mother doesn't die

The Third does die

Kakashi doesn't join ANBU until he's eighteen

The Uchiha massacre hasn't occurred

Instead of getting knocked from pillar to post and punted into ANBU, Kakashi spends the ages of 14 - 18 on (mostly solo) Jounin missions, building up his skillset. He has support from Minato and Rin, an entirely new, anchoring, and happy relationship with Naruto, and more time to grow into himself. His ties to Konoha are much, much stronger. In Legacy, Danzou would have no chance of tempting Kakashi (and knows it).

When Kakashi joins ANBU, it's a choice. He goes into it knowing exactly what's going to be asked of him, and if he wasn't sure before, Minato removes all doubt:

“The Special Assassination and Tactical Squad is neither Konoha’s oldest division nor its noblest,” Minato said, with a conversational air, and Kakashi realized this wasn’t a prepared speech. This was just Minato laying out the facts like he always did, grounding the extraordinary in regular context. “Even inside the village, ANBU are feared more than they’re respected. Citizens of our own village still call them baby-killers. Some ANBU have earned that title, under my command. You may.” He paused. “I have given those orders personally. Every order the ANBU receive comes through me. Sometimes the command is to protect the village, or to conduct a high-risk mission into enemy territory, or to assassinate an exceptionally strong ninja. Sometimes it’s to sustain the village’s lifeblood—to accept a mission so foul I can’t offer it to the regular forces, to work for a client whose motives and methods are reprehensible but whose coin will feed and protect our children. You’ve accepted that first kind of mission, and excelled. Can you accept the second?”

“Yes,” said Kakashi, without hesitation.

(From Take the Mask)

The oath Kakashi swore was this:

I am Hatake Kakashi, ANBU. I have no face but this face.

I have no heart, but the heart of Konohagakure.

I have no will, but the will of my Hokage.

Which is a little worryingly vague, when you think about it.

Kakashi knows he will be asked to kill. He knows he may be asked to commit much worse actions for Konoha. As much as he can, he's made his peace with that. There are orders he would struggle with, but ultimately his moral compass points to home.

He's a shinobi first. Personhood comes second.

-- DK

#anbu legacy #hatake kakashi #tw: violence #tw: death #tw: murder #tw: suicide #mental health discussions #of a sort

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misterewrites · 3 years ago

Text

Secret Agent Bard (Welcome to the Underground!)

Hello everyone! E here with a new chapter of the underground! Woo! I hope you are all doing good and staying safe.

So I actually have more to say today! That's a trip. I’ll have an author’s note under the line.

So that's it for now. Stay safe, take care of you and your loved ones, stay out of trouble, wash your hands, wear your mask, get vaccinated if you can and push to release the vaccine world wide cuz we're all in this together. Have a great week and thanks for reading. I appreciate it and feel free to tell your friends, reblog, drop likes and feedback i love it all. Bye for now and enjoy!

If you want an easier place to read the story cuz tumblr sucks sometimes here’s a link to the chapter https://archiveofourown.org/works/27814297/chapters/79541746

The First Chapter: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27814297/chapters/68094967

and since you made it this far here’s a link to all my stories!

https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrE42/pseuds/MrE42

Byeeeeee!

Author’s note: Today’s work will be a little different as there will be singing. The chapter with the bard is gonna have singing? Go figure haha So if you see a sentence in Italics, that means someone is singing. Bold and italics represents various people singing as a group. The song in question is called twiddles. There's different versions of it but the one I chose is from the misbehavin maidens. Great group but all their work ranges from innuendos to straight up not safe for work so listen at your peril. I have now completed my responsible adult duties haha. here’s a link to the chosen song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS1-_fKF5ug

Summary: Oliver has quite the task ahead of him as the group splits to achieve their goals. Leading Sel and Flora, the young bard will have to think quick on his feet to ensure this mission is a success. Luckily he's an old hand at this. Ironically the one person who could distract him may make a surprise appearance tonight.

-----

Oliver stood quietly, arms crossed and his mind thoughtful as the group prepared to go their separate ways. While ideally nothing would go wrong, that was a childish belief: Every person and robotic being here knew safety was not guaranteed in their line of work.

Even the old man knew the risks.

Oliver hated doing nothing. He thrived when he was busy, focused on whatever task required his attention whether it be being a better bard or upholding the Choir’s values. Too many ghosts and regrets lingered on the edges of his mind and he found the best solution was to simply keep occupied.

But that was his coping mechanism, not everyone else. He knew better than to rush his team: The party would last at least another few hours and beside the goal of getting Sel to the third floor, there was nothing else to do. No information to gather, nothing to review. Let them have their moment, it was good for morale.

Terri and Flora were sickeningly adorable: Hands clasped tightly with Terri tearfully asking her girlfriend to not poison everyone. Flora gave a halfhearted promise while as they shared a tender kiss. Terri noticed her less than enthused tone but refused to press the matter further.

Tyrell stood awkwardly to the side, his face twisted in a strange mixture of sick and excited. He fidgeted with something in his pocket, seeking comfort from whatever lay within. Given the shape of the bulge and size, Oliver guessed it was a knife.

Sel stood nearby, motionless in the shadows of the alley. They hadn’t moved in some time though he suspected the automaton was simply waiting for the next phase of the plan.

“Alright” Oliver spoke up, his voice firm yet gentle “Times up. You have your assignments?”

Uneven murmuring responded.

“Let’s go.”

Oliver, Sel and Flora went down one end of the alley, Terri and Tyrell disappearing in the opposite direction.

-----

It didn’t take long for the trio to find the main streets of the Merchant Ward and make their way towards the Brambleoak banking office. The crowds weren’t as thick as they had been during the day but Oliver knew everyone out and about did so with a purpose.

“Bard.” Flora asked without warning, breaking the awkward silence “Question.”

“Answer.” Oliver cheekily replied.

Flora glared.

Oliver coughed “Yes?”

“You are a First Chair Soprano correct?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Yet you are so young. How did you manage that? I thought First Chair ranks were only reserved for experienced or particularly skilled members. You don’t seem to be very magically powerful.”

Oliver paused for a moment, trying to best answer the question.

In a way Flora was correct in her assessment: He wasn’t particularly powerful as a spellcasting bard. Unlike Flora who clearly committed herself fully to nature and thus druidic magic, Oliver had only recently thrown himself into the magical arts.

Unless you were a wizard who studied the secrets of the universe with a very intimate and well versed knowledge of magic, most spellcasters drew their power from sources of existence: Clerics from their gods, Druids from nature, Warlocks from something beyond mortal existence yet not quite a deity, sorcerers because a family member fucked around with pure incomprehensible concepts. Magic was the fabric of the universe and the more you threw yourself into a source of power, the more the source threw itself into you, guiding your hand and your spells.

Of course each, wizards exempt, were limited in their spellcasting options. Clerics were powerful holy/unholy practitioners but couldn’t command plant life to save their lives. Druids were in tune with nature and the weather and all the lovely flora and fauna but ask them to superimpose an image onto something and they’d give you a dumbfounded look. Warlocks kinda just do whatever their sugar patrons felt like lending.

Magic bards drew their power from the arts: Drawing, singing, poetry, even witty and funny satire. Bards were in tune with life, with existence. Art could heal, could hurt, could make you feel happy and sad. It could make you feel like a whole new person or perhaps take you to a time and place you’d forgotten. Bards sung the song of life and Oliver was no exception.

However, Oliver still wasn’t sure what he could do exactly. His magical muscle was average on a good day and he could only cast a few spells before needing a good night’s rest. The basic healing spells and comprehension language he cast earlier today had taken a good chunk of his energy but he relied more on his wit than raw magical strength. He discovered creative and useful ways to cast his spells like amplifying dissonance noises to distract and disorient foes or temporarily place another person’s image over himself. Magic was as much about creativity as it was skill, pushing the limits of what you can do with your particular brand of spells.

“I’m clever.” Oliver answered honestly “The whole magic of the arts is new to me but I’ve been in the Choir for a long time now. I used to be Tenor like Sel here but more fast talking than breaking and entering. I guess they carried over my old position into my new one.”

Flora nodded, satisfied “That answers much. How long have you been a bard?”

“Few years now.” Oliver checked the street sign to ensure they were on the right path “The magic part is going on 3 years.”

“I see.” Flora scratched her chin “I’ve been a druid my whole life so it is a strange concept to be so new to the spellcasting arts yet hold such a high rank.”

Oliver gave a casual shrug “Not sure what you want me to say. We’re here by the way.”

The bank looked as unkempt as Oliver had remembered: Faded, peeling green paint with gaudy gray stone pillars. Two guards in green uniforms stood in front of the massive reddish brown doors that led into the bank.

“Lea’s mercenaries.” Sel pointed out “They are not letting anyone in.”

“Correction.” Oliver brushed off nonexistent dirt from his washed-out outfit “They’re not letting nobodies in. Luckily tonight we’re somebodies. Follow my lead.”

Oliver let out a tense breathe before strolling forward, his mannerism cocky yet unsteady. He reached the top of the steps when two sharp looking blades reached out to stop him.

“Halt” The elvish woman spoke with a hint of irritation “You lost?”

“Not at all!” Oliver beamed with a smile that was too wide to be natural “I’m here for the party. There is a party inside no?”

“No” The human man spat out.

Oliver gave a forgetful grin “Oh? I could’ve sworn Brambleoak was having some sort of charity event tonight. I’d show you my invite but I think I misplaced it.”

The elvish woman sneered “Right. How convenient for you having lost your special one of a kind invite.”

“Pfft.” Oliver scoffed “Special one of a kind invite? Reiner hands them out like candy. Probably find one in a gutter nearby.”

The guards shared an unspoken understanding with one another.

“Well.” The human began “Let’s pretend that is true.”

“It is but go on.”

The human’s eyes narrowed “Why should we let you in? You dress rather poorly for someone claiming to be in Reiner’s usual circles.”

Oliver let out an exaggerated gasp as he puffed out his chest “Do you know who I am?”

“Umm no.”

Oliver growled unhappily, his fist clenched tightly within his pocket “I am rich! I AM POWERFUL! AND I DEMAND ACCESS!”

As quick as lightning, Oliver flung a handful of gold coins towards the pair. The two reeled back in surprised as the money clanked onto the smooth marble floor. A moment hardly passed before the guards were shoving the loose coins into their tunic pockets like hungry dogs. They straightened up, eyes alive with greed.

“Of course sir” The elvish woman bowed her head in apologize “Deeply sorry for that.”

“Please go ahead.”

Oliver gave a self satisfied nod before moving past the pair only to stop as he heard the sounds of swords scraping each other. He turned backwards to see the guards barring access to Flora and Sel.

Flora looked back and forth between the guards, her eyes calculating and cold. Sel stood still but clearly at the ready for any sort of trouble.

“They’re with me.”

The Elvish woman shook her head “We said we’d let you in. These two? Definitely not Reiner’s usual prey.”

“They aren’t” Oliver admitted “But I need them.”

The human turned to him, suspicion in his eyes “Why?”

“She…” Oliver pointed lazily towards Flora “Is my street doctor.”

“Street doctor? As in….?”

Oliver gave a cheery wink “The fun kind.” And for give measure, he added a weak shiver to his act “Ugggggh I feel cold, are you cold? It’s cold.”

Before anyone could say anything, Oliver began shaking. He rubbed his hands for ‘warmth’ while swaying back and forth.

“Uh oh.” Flora spoke dully, pushing past the guards and holding Oliver steady “He’s crashing. I need to give him his umm medicine.”

“Medicine?” Oliver repeated, his voice soft yet manic “Yes medicine. I need it. I NEED IT!”

Folks began to turn their way, the guards shifting uncomfortably under the sudden attention they were receiving.

“And this one?” The Elvish woman gestured to Sel.

Oliver began to rock back and forth, his voice a harsh whisper. “Guard. Guard. Guard guard guard guard.”

The human threw up his hands in defeat “Bah! Get him in there and fixed! Any trouble and I’ll personally come over to beat your asses.”

“Thank you sir.” Flora murmured through gritted teeth. She guided Oliver and Sel through the doors and into the party within.

Flora sighed as Sel cracked the tension out of their fingers. Oliver straightened up, wiping the sweat from his brow.

True to his expectations, the bank had been altered to be suitable for a charity event: Torches lined the walls, casting the building into a bright light. The desks normally found on the floor were gone as to allow a more spacious setting. Oliver counted a handful of guards scattered about, wandering about for any sign of trouble. All except for the lone guard beyond the empty elevated platform who stood in front of the stairway to the upper floors.

“What now?” Flora asked

“Split up. Sel stay close to the door, Flora and I will figure out a distraction.”

“Sounds good.”

And without another word, Oliver was swallowed whole into the crowd.

-----

It had taken an hour for Oliver to figure out what kind of distraction he would need.

The patrols themselves hadn’t been very difficult to plan for: They would move randomly about, keeping an eye on the party and each other. He counted about 6 of them total and each one of them was easily starstruck. At the sign of any disagreement, they would swarm in groups of three and quickly threaten any troublemakers into compliance. However, upon meeting anyone with even the smallest bit of fame, they would subtly motion to each other and make their way as one to the person in question, hoping for a glance or the chance for an autograph.

So the floor guards were no problem but the one standing watch over the door was much more difficult. Evidently Lea was smart enough to give the most important job to the most responsible of his idiots. The stairway guard or Stairy as Oliver labeled him, would not budge at the sign of any trouble. Loud arguments, agitated party goers, a waiter being tripped (sorry it was for science buddy). None of these would pull him from his post. Celebrities wouldn’t either. Any time his buddies motioned to a famous person, he would shrug his shoulders and stay put.

Oliver was beginning to wonder if Flora needed to poison Stairy until he noticed something about half way into his observations: Stairy was a music lover. Specifically a cute girl music lover.

His gaze would wander every time he caught sight of a pretty girl who happened to be too close to him. Oliver wasn’t sure at first so he decided to test his theory. With his pocket change lessened, Oliver noticed how often a girl would catch Stairy’s eye. His attention didn’t shift when they fell in front of him, obviously in distress, or walked slower allowing him to enjoy the view longer but Oliver caught him smiling and tapping his foot when the odd girl would sing. He even staggered away from his door a few steps at a time before catching himself and returning to his post.

So the best distraction would be a girl who could sing and have some level of fame attached to her name.

Oddly specific and Oliver hadn’t the slightest idea how he was going to mange that. He was attempting to solve this puzzle when something caught his ear.

“Get off me you mulched dirt licker!”

That rather unique set of cursing could only mean one thing: Flora.

Oliver turned to where he last spotted her and found the young druid being hassled by a tall man in an elegant uniform.

Oliver noticed the guards were looking about, not yet spotting the commutation but aware something was going on. He needed to act first if he wanted to stop Flora deciding to kill everyone in the room.

The bard quickly slipped into the crowd, darting and weaving between any and everyone he could. He saw Flora slip a small vial into her hand as the man towered over her.

“I jus wanna dance.” the man’s words slurred out of his mouth “A pretty thing like yo shou wanna dance”

Flora’s eyes narrowed angrily “For the last time you dried poop stain, LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Flora pulled back her hand, prepared to throw the mysterious vial at the drunk’s face.

“Whoa!” Oliver cried out, tightly grasping onto Flora’s wrist “What seems to be the problem?”

“Nothing I can’t solve on my own.” Flora coldly glanced towards the drunken man.

“One sec.”

Oliver eyed the man carefully, absorbing every little detail he could.

He could see the muscles strain against the fabric of his light green tunic so this man worked in something physically laborious. The sheathed sword on his belt weight seemed to throw him off balance with every step. His gaze was unsteady and Oliver could see his pupils dilating wildly.

So this man was physically fit, armed with a sword in a charity event for the rich people and wearing light green tunic while currently drunk.

“You should leave her alone” Oliver said, sarcasm dipping from each word “You are so not her type.”

“So?” The man hiccupped “What’s the big deal?”

“So she’s got a girlfriend you idiot.” Oliver gestured with his hand “Besides you should go before your boss Lea gets here. I’m betting he won’t be happy one of his undercover mercs is currently drunk on the job. Of course I could always tell your captain what’s going on. That’s him over there right?”

Oliver gestured to the closest guard making his way towards the trio. He didn’t look any different than any guards but Oliver noticed his green was a shade darker than the rest. Lea probably used different hues to signify rank in his mercenaries.

The drunk’s face paled as he fidgeted nervously. He rose his hands in surrender, eyes darting between the two “Sorry.”

“Any trouble?” The captain approached, his hand tightly held around the hilt of his blade.

Oliver beaned cheerfully, trying his best to pull attention away from the fuming Flora “Not at all my good sir. This man simply mistook us for someone else, correct?”

The drunk nodded slowly “My bad. Forgive my intrusion.”

The captain gave a cold smirk “Apologizes. Mikey?”

The drunk flinched “Yes sir?”

“A word in private. Now.”

Oliver let out a sigh of relief as the captain dragged Mikey away..

“You should’ve let me poison them.” Flora muttered darkly.

Oliver scratched the back of his neck tiredly “Night’s still young. Still might get your chance if I can’t figure a way past Stairy.”

Flora tilted her head quizzically “Stairy?”

“The asshole at the base of the stairs.” Oliver answered absentmindedly as he spotted a familiar streak of platinum blonde hair among the crowd of strangers “And I just figured it out. Can I trust you not to poison everyone here?”

“You have an hour. I get bored easily” Flora swirled the sickly purple liquid in the vial threateningly.

“You and me both.” Oliver patted her shoulder before chasing down his perfect distraction.

-----

Oliver’s heart began to thunder loudly in his ears, a nervous and uncontrollable energy overtaking his resolve. The mission was important but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy to see Maria today.

Maria Thoreau was the daughter of a powerful, influential family. The Thoreau’s were more concerned with their standing in high society than any virtuous endeavors and thus each one of their children was trained from birth to excel in their chosen field. Maria’s older brothers were an aspiring politician and merchant respectively.

Maria’s path was to be a well famous singer and patron of the arts. She wanted nothing more than to sing for the people. Unfortunately, her father only saw a chance to further the family’s good name and tied his desire for power with her passion and dream. It was bittersweet really but nothing much could be done about it.

Yet.

Maria knew Oliver as a musical rival who thwarted her group’s attempts at winning local competitions which in turned derailed her father’s plans. So needless to say she was less than thrilled when she caught him making his way over.

“Ollie” she forced a smile while her hazel eyes narrowed, peeved “I’m surprised to see they let you into this exclusive event.”

Oliver gave a cocky shrug “Well your beauty caught my attention and I couldn’t resist trying to figure out a way in.”

Maria’s cheeks burned a pinkish hue.

Maria was the same age as Oliver with short, tastefully cut dark brown hair. A single streak of platinum blonde hair hung off the side of her face, giving her such a cute look. Her clothes were practical tonight since she wasn’t performing: A simple white blouse with a long flowing dark blue skirt that went all the way down to her feet. Her shoes were sensible dark blue flats designed for comfort over style.

Maria coughed into her hand, willing her blush away.

“So.” She cleared her throat “Is this your sad attempt to throw me off my game? You won’t win the next competition. We’ll be dealing with professional judges this time.”

Oliver’s eyes widen in false surprise “There’s a competition here? Fancy that. I hadn’t been made aware of that but since we’re both in town, why not have a round two?”

“Oliver….”

“I mean” Oliver went on, pretending not have heard “You are a much better singer solo than with those harpies you’re forced to keep around.”

Maria glanced to the side timidly “Don’t be absurd, the Melodic Maidens are a perfect, well oiled machine.”

Oliver scoffed dismissively “I suppose they’re nearby, listening in. Hardly leave you alone, don’t they?”

Maria opened her mouth to respond when a shrilly voice cut in.

“What do you know you two bit hack? How much did you bribe the judges last time?!”

Oliver gave a strained smile as the rest of the ladies forced their way into view.

“Lilly, Filly, Sally. You suck.”

The triplets snarled in unison, openly glaring at the bard.

Lilly, Filly and Sally were Maria’s chains: They were as much there to further her career as they were to report back to daddy to ensure the errant daughter stayed on course.

As triplets, they all shared the same features: Three pairs of dull green eyes and long messy black hair. Even their clothing were the same with each wearing a strapless dress that showed way too much skin and skirts that were way too short. The only reason Oliver could tell them apart was due to their preferred colors: Lilly in a shade of pink that was bright for her skin tone, Filly with a pale ugly yellow and Sally in seas of dark red.

The trio surrounded Maria, their arms embracing her in an uncomfortable hug. Maria bit her lip, trying to hide her uneasy.

“Still wearing that tacky outfit huh Ollie?” Lilly eyed his faded clothing distastefully.

Sally let out an unfriendly laugh “Ollie always looks like trash. Not even prize money could buy an ounce of class.”

“Actually” Oliver brushed his shoulder dismissively “Class is cheap. No amount of money could buy an ounce of character. You can blow hot air at me all you want but nothing in this world could ever change the fact that the three of you are bitches.”

The trio clicked their tongues disappointingly, their normally plain faces twisted into unflattering visages of rage while they screamed as one.

“HOW DARE YOU INSULT US?!”

“YOU ARE SUCH A POOR TACTLESS MAN!”

“YOU FUCKER!”

Oliver casually waved his hand “All bark and no bite. I’m supposed believe you’ve gotten any better in two months? Last time I checked I won the last competition.”

“OH YEAH?!” The triplets yelled, furious.

Maria threw a suspicious glance Oliver’s way “Girls, I don’t think…”

“Come on Maria, we don’t want to have to tell daddy you backed down from a challenge.”

A shiver ran down her spine, the fight draining out of her face. Oliver felt a tinge of guilt but said nothing as the girls took their positions.

Maria paused for a moment, her breathing slow and calm. The murmur of the crowds grew louder and louder upon the recognition that the ladies nearby were the Melodic Maidens.

Maria pivoted on her heels, a bright warm smile gracing her lips. Oliver could feel his heart skip a beat at the sound of her soft, airy voice beginning to sing

“Oh you hear a lot of stories about the sailors and their sport” Maria gave a playful wink his way. His cheeks burned brightly at her playful banter.

“About how every sailor has a girl in every port”

Maria twirled, her steps mischievous and alluring as her dark blue dress chased after her. She gracefully held two fingers aloft for everything to see, her smirk cocky and assured.

“but if you added two and two you’d figure out right quick”

Maria backed up as the triplets step forward to join her, the group made whole and ready for the chorus.

“It’s just because the girls all have a lad on every ship”

Maria turned to throw a sultry look towards her rival bard but instead of finding a dumbstruck Oliver, she found a smiling one. His gaze was gentle and loving as if he was seeing utterly beautiful. A small smile was tugging at his cheeks. Maria could feel her heart thunder in her ears as, without warning, Oliver gave a thumbs up and mouthed an appreciative “Thanks” before ducking into the growing crowd.

“And it’s twiddley idle idle idle, twiddley idle aye.”

What was once a spattering of folks formed into a massive gathering. Most of the party goers and guards had come over to catch the free show the girls inadvertently given and thus all focus shifted onto them. What was an attempt to show up Oliver ended up being a very unnecessary showcase.

“It’s often times a man will leave you broken with dismay”

Boy was Maria feeling that dismay right now.

-----

Oliver’s plan worked: Stairy hadn’t been to resist the siren call of a beautiful woman and her singing. Luckily the harpies hadn’t ruined it with their imperfect pitches. Stairy hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Sel slipped in behind and began working at the door. It took a moment but one blink later and the automaton vanished out of sight.

Oliver let out a sigh when a hand gripped his shoulder tightly.

“Hello sir.” A guff, low voice in a less than friendly voice “Might I have a word? You’ve been acting rather strange all party long.”

Well fuck.

#Welcome to the Underground #My Story #Original Work #original story

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doctorslippery · 4 years ago

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(Knowledge) Ancient tomes of sacred lore begin fading away.

(Life) All healing magic now comes at a cost to the casters own health.

(Light) The sky is darkened to a permanent twilight.

(Nature) Large swathes of wilderness are infected by a strange rot.

(Tempest) Droughts spread across the land as rain doesn’t fall as often.

(Trickery) People with normally good humor become cold and bitter.

(War) Morale is decreased and soldiers begin to mutiny against their officers.

(Death/Grave) Undead creatures have a chance to randomly rise from graves without a spell cast by a necromancer.

(Forge) The knowledge of forging mithral and adamantine armor and weapons is lost.

Nothing. Once the god is the creator of it’s own domain, but it is able to maintain itself in its absence

(Arcana) All spells now have a chance to go wild.

(Fire) The world becomes cold as it goes into a long winter

(Air) The air becomes polluted and difficult to breath. Many people die of lung related issues.

(Water) Rivers and oceans go stagnant and unmoving.

(Earth) The land becomes infertile and unusable.

(Time) Time rifts start appearing everywhere causing things from the past and the future to come into the present.

(Dragons) All dragons, dragonborn, and kobolds turn to dust

(Darkness) The world becomes filled with endless light and a never ending day

(Love) Family and friends start to hate one another and form grudges over the smallest things

(Order) Revolutions happen everywhere and anarchy reigns supreme

(Good) Empathy and altruism are no more as people are looking out for themselves

(Evil) Angels descend from the heavens to purge the world now knowing that there is no evil god to protect the wicked

(Nature) The forests run amok. Animals and plants invade cities, as every natural order accelerates out of control.

(Nature) Conversely, the forests and fields begin to die. Animals grow sickly and lethargic.

(Nature) The seasons begin to spin out of control. A day dawns with blazing heat, but snow covers the ground to a foot by lunch, and a monsoon rages that night.

(Death) Nothing may die. Nothing. Not the cattle, not the sickly, not the old, not those grievously wounded. Souls are bound to their bodies, and may never set off on their journey. Chop someone into bits, and every tiny piece still twitches in agony.

(Any) As the gods ‘body’ decomposes their essence (what they were the god of) infects the land affecting all who lived below their realm eg if the goddess of nature dies – nature explodes over the area (eventually after hundreds of years the natural green will die and become the land will become barren after the body completes decomposing). If it was the god of war or anger – every person and animal in the realm becomes driven by anger/easily angered, and plants become more dangerous, etc

(Nature) nature becomes twisted and more and more aberration like.

(Nature) herbivores turn predatory and hunt for meat

(Forge) weapons turn weak, Metal is prone to bending and it tarnishes easily.

(Weather) drought spreads across the land

(Weather) destructive “sunder storms” where lightning falls like rain destroy the landscape.

(Weather) winter never ends.

(Any) Angels, demons, fey, other gods, and spirits start competing for that gods power and worship to fill the vacuum

(Any) If the god who dies has worshippers still his corpse enters an odd undead state. He’s too week to be an actual god again or become truly alive again. However his remaining worshippers keep him from truly dying.

(Any) desecration of the area in which it died.

(Any) the nature and landscape where it died twisting to reflect the gods domain

(Any) people in the area also changing to reflect the gods domain

(Any) powerful magic soaks into the land creating powerful items. Things like spiders whose venom can only be cured by other god touched magic. Plants whose berries heal you and their juice can even raise the dead, etc.

(Knowledge) every self aware creature must succeed on a DC 10 Int saving throw or take 1D4 psychic damage and lose as many memories as the DM decides while also losing 1d4 Ing Stat.

(Any) The heavens begin to fall to earth/fuse with the material plane

(Any) Paladins will be in a huge pickle during their conquests.

(Protection) Warding and shielding spells no longer work.

(Protection) The ancient wards that kept the Elder Evils, horrible beings whose power even the gods fear, at bay fall.

(Any) People realize the gods are not immortal, and in reaction, faith in all of the gods begins to falter.

(Tempest) The entire world becomes still: no wind, no waves, not even clouds, like the world is perfectly smooth.

(Trickery) Nobody remembers that they can lie. Everyone either states the truth or is silent, ruining the world’s governments by disabling political maneuvering.

(Forge) Metal no longer melts, making all previously forged weapons exponentially more valuable, even an old rusty sword.

(Any) All of the people that were sacrificed to the gods come back (betrayed heroes, betrayed family members etc), but all of the things that gods has given to us fade away.

(Any) Outsiders from other worlds reveal themselves as the liberators, freeing us from our oppressors by killing the gods.

(Any) The god is replaced by another god that does a terrible (or better) job as the dead god temporary replacement.

(Any) The god was slain, the being that slew the god gains the gods power or becomes the god

(Any) Nothing. The god may have been responsible for creating or shaping it’s aspect, but once it was created it doesn’t need the god to maintain it.

(Any) The gods power leaks from its remains. Any magic of the gods aspect is greatly amplified for several years. The closer to the remains the greater the power is amplified

(Death) Everything that dies rises as a zombie.

(Death) Spirits of the dead are unable to move on. Everything that dies becomes a ghost.

(Death) Spirits of the dead start coming back to the living world

(Knowledge) people begin to forget things. (Names, places, history, how to do things, what they were doing, etc.)

(Life) every living thing becomes sterile (animals are unable to have children / plants cant produce seeds)

(Nature) microorganisms reproduce at an accelerated rate & every other living thing gets wiped out

(Nature) plants and animals become withered anemic versions of themselves

(Nature) plants and animals begin to die off (decay / rot / slowly crumble to dust / slowly turn to ash)

(Nature) plants and animals begin to mutate into monstrous versions of themselves

(Nature) plants experience explosive growth and begin to take over everything

(War) People begin to become more violent and warlike.

(War) People begin to become too apathetic to fight each other. Eventually, people become too apathetic to do much of anything. They just stand around in a daze until the die of starvation or thirst.

(Any) All clerics suddenly overload on divine power (as if the gods power has been divided between them). And they all start to slowly go mad, and start to lose control.

(Light) a massive and well known constellation vanishes and leaves a dark patch right in the middle of the night sky

(War) A vanquished war-god drops his enormous miles-long sword, which falls to Earth and pierces deep into the planet’s mantle

(Death) The god’s followers begin killing at random, hoping the power of their faith will resurrect him

(Light) Random people all over the realm begin to go blind

(Tempest) A whirling hurricane forms in the middle of the Ocean… and doesn’t stop growing

(Forge) The followers of this deceased god begin a pilgrimage to destroy every craft ever created and stamped with his symbol

(Arcana) The god’s death leaves a hole in the weave. Something… unwanted fills in the gap with Its body.

(Nature) The wood of the deity’s patron plant (oak) begins to disintegrate into dust all over the world. Buildings topple.

(Life) This god’s followers have a crisis at the oxymoron of their god dying. They are slowly driven insane

(Grave) The god itself rises as an undead, an anathema to its own mission

(Arcana) People start forgetting spells. (As a spell is cast, roll to see if that is the last time it is cast)

(Arcana) Everyone gains a cantrip. Now this minor power is just something everyone does, like breathing or eating.

(Any) Suddenly there is a war in the cosmos. Minor deities, greatly powerful beings like Warlock Patrons, and other generally unknown greater powers are vying for the position.

(Any) Upon the god’s death, their body is split into thousands and thousands of pieces. These rain down like meteorites but instead of being falling rock bits, it’s a new people recently awoken. Who are these newcomers and what is their memory of or connection to this lost god?

(Tempest) Ocean currents fluctuate wildly

(Earth) Widespread tremors and volcanic activity

(Tempest) Unpredictable squalls

(Light) Continuous winter sets in

(Order) Ubiquitous revolutionary sentiment arises

(Music) Instruments quickly go out of tune, and singers forget words and have their voices crack more often

(Magic) All casters and magic items are treated as one level lower

(Nature) Animals behave erratically and crops fail

(Fate) Prominent heroes begin to meet ignominious ends

(Luck) Coin tosses and dice rolls result in predictable patterns (Heads tails, heads, tails/1,2,3,4,5,6,1 etc.)

(Luck) Randomness begins to fade. The first to go are critical successes and critical fails, but very rapidly all rolls end up as 10.5’s.

(Any) Their power returns to its source where anyone could take it for themselves

(Any) When trees and plants are cut down, instead of sap, blood starts to weep from the cuts.

(Winter) Animals that hibernate don’t wake. Plants and trees stay in their winter state. Even if the weather gets warmer things affected by season act like it never ended.

(Knowledge) every creature’s INT ticks down steadily as their memories slowly disappear until all life is reduced to animalistic intelligence.

(Death) no one can die anymore. HP can’t be dropped below 0 and no one can die of old age, accumulating age bonuses and penalties until all physical stats are reduced to 0.

(Light/sun) the sun and stars go out. The temperature continuously drops until the entire world is frozen over.

(Magic) all spells, enchantments, supernatural and spell-like abilities, etc. get progressively weaker until the entire world is basically in a null-magic zone.

(Nature) plants and animals become incapable of reproducing.

(Life) healing magic no longer works. Natural healing progressively weakens until it too is no longer possible.

(Trickery) it becomes impossible for anyone to lie or mislead

(Forge) a small mountain range of metals and the occasional gem crashes into the planet in 3… 2… 1…

(Knowledge) everyone receives random revelations rather simultaneously.

(Trickery) some guy shows up three days later, wondering what all the hubbub’s about.

(Life) Every wound healed by their clerics starts to rot, and everyone reanimated becomes undead.

(Trickery) Their holy texts go blank, holy symbols turn to dust, and all knowledge of the god is ripped from mortal minds, the god is dead and forgotten in all ways. While most people feel like they’ve forgotten something, the most devout worshippers to the lost god go mad from the hole in their mind and soul.

(Trickery) The gods secrets are spread throughout the world, the common-folk learn of their rulers corruption, people discover their spouses cheating, children learn their beloved dog didn’t go to a farm, all secrets good and bad are made known and will rip families, kingdoms, and even other faiths apart.

(Any) A shockwave of power blasts through the realms, knocking everything unconscious for d10 hours

(Arcana) Spellcasters and magic items begin to “glitch”, causing them to either be completely unable to cast spells/activate items or the spells go wild.

(Any) People and clerics begin to notice that something is…missing…

(Nature) Many two headed animals are born the following day.

(Any) The god(s) start to slip away out of people’s mind, and they start questioning if they were ever thing to begin with.

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scr-ppup · 2 years ago

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day one (march 22) spiders/mind control!

› Today's special menu item ! ›› Adorioudae

( 🎡 ) Defination › A gender related to arachnids, especially to jumping spiders, darkness, adorableness, being curious and the act of jumping to get to places.

( 👾 ) Etymology › adorable(arod) + curious(iou) + Salticidae (dae)

(( .. Coined by [ The Seeker ] aka primuscapere ))

Tagging @a-quilted-milky-way | coining event

[ plain text start .. day one (march 22) spiders/mind control! .. end plain text ]

[ PT .. coined by [ the seeker ] aka primuscapere .. pt end ]

[ ID start ... Two rectangular flags both with 8 stripes; 1st top stripe is curved and reaches the 4th stripe's ends with sketched out spiderweb & a hanging spider; 2nd, 3th, 4th are smallest to largest and 5th, 6th, 7th being evenly wide. The colors go top to bottom dark blue, cream, lightly darker cream, lights even darker cream, medium light grey, soft pale brown, soft pale purple, soft dark brown .. End ID ]

#coining event #liom #mogai #mogai community #liom community #liom label #mogai label #liom safe #mogai safe #neogender #neogender flag #neogender coining #👾🎡 : coining #hope a successful mission ! : coining event #skipping queue #tw spider #spider tw #spider mention

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jadeazora · 10 months ago

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A New Message from the Masters Team is out!

A new battle feature called the Battle Rally will be added on January 31, 2024! In this content, you'll see how many Rally Points you can earn as you try to win a total of 10 battles. These points are exclusive to the Battle Rally. The key to success is using the Rally Shop, which you can visit between battles. Opponents become stronger as you progress through battles, so you'll need to purchase items at the Rally Shop to help you proceed. Since you need to spend Rally Points to purchase items, putting yourself in a position to win while still leaving as many Rally Points as possible is vital. For each battle, certain Roles can earn you bonus Rally Points, so be sure to use Sync Pairs with the specified Roles! The Rally Points you have at the end will be converted into Battle Rally Medals, which can be exchanged for a variety of items including Roll Cake Coin Vouchers, which let you acquire the Roll Cake Coin of your choice. You need a Battle Rally Pass to take on the Battle Rally. We plan to make them obtainable from weekly Battle Rally Missions and other places.

A Log-in Bonus to celebrate the arrival of the Battle Rally will begin on January 31, 2024. You can get three Battle Rally Passes that can only be used for a limited time from this Log-in Bonus, so we hope you put them to use!

The Battle Villa will be made permanent content starting Jan31.

Wally will come to the Lodge Feb1! You need to have already recruited him and his Gallade tho.

Also Feb1, new Mysterious Stones chapter!

Time Trial featuring Chase and Pikachu coming Jan31. He's a Support Pair. An event where you can team up with the Pikachu PokeKid will come Feb2:

Palentine's Event comes Feb9. They also mention the upcoming half-year Anniversary.

At the end of February, they plan to release their expansion of the Profile feature that will better allow players express themselves more. You'll be able to add new things like titles and hashtags to customize your Profile.

Announcing the addition of a new photo feature that will allow you to create photos of up to three of your favorite Trainers, which you can then display on your Profile screen! You can line up Trainers in your photos, and also can customize aspects such as their positioning, expressions, and poses. Also, by changing the background and frame, you can recreate various situations. (I feel this will be great for memes 🤔)

#pokemon masters #pokemas #trainer chase #pokemon lgpe #pokemon lets go #rival wally #pokemon oras

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pikemoreno · 4 years ago

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if you ever wanna be in love

Chapter V: Lightning Strikes

a/n: it’s startingggg. it might be good to read up on the events of the mentalist... to avoid any confusion for the next few chapters... i’ll just say that. also the lightning metaphor is a callback to chapter 1. it’s been a while so i wouldn’t blame you for not recalling

pairing: marcus pike x f!reader

word count: 4k

warnings: none, and i don’t expect there to really be any serious ones in upcoming chapters either... well actually, there’s a wee bit of angst here...

wanna join a taglist? | masterlist | series masterlist

The sun was hardly over the tree-lined horizon when you pulled up to the Elizabet Ney Museum. It was a consequence of your team being requested to come before the museum opened, allowing business hours to go on as usual during the investigation. That was making you wonder exactly how busy they thought this place was going to get on a Monday morning during the school year-- and how they expected the investigation to be successful when they had guests tramping all over the scene-- but you didn't question it.

Being a few minutes early, you took some time to traipse around the property to see if anything looked note-worthy. The sand-colored castle-like complex was bathed in soft early morning light and a haunting fog; the grass was dewy and squeaked against your shoes as you circled the grand building. The most likely entry and exit points-- the door and windows on the far side-- yielded nothing. Nothing on the wooden door nor the brassy knob was broken, and there was no sign of trampled dirt around it, nor was there anything amiss with the paned windows. However, the security camera just above the back-door threshold made you raise an eyebrow. They had full security cam coverage and couldn't determine how their stuff had been stolen? Odd.

You were far too distracted with your thoughts as you walked that you didn't hear the car pull in out front or the person getting out of it or the footsteps coming around the side of the building. So when Marcus appeared right in front of you as he rounded the corner, he had to grab your arm to steady you as you almost fell on your ass in surprise. You almost ripped your arm out of his grasp as the electricity of the touch shot through your arm, surprising you far more than his sudden appearance.

You almost did. But you didn't. It felt too nice in the end.

"Sorry," he laughed, "Didn't mean to scare you. Coffee?" He held out a drink carrier containing two travel cups. "Should be the one on the right." You took it.

"Does it have--" you took a sip before you finished your question.

It was exactly the way you liked it. You regarded Marcus with wide eyes.

"You know my coffee order?" you gaped. He shrugged nonchalantly. You followed him as he made his way back to the front of the museum.

"Yeah. What about it?" he laughed, sipping from his drink.

"How do you know it?"

"From when we were at Copper Coin last week." He looked genuinely confused as to why this was a shocking discovery.

"And you remember what I ordered?"

"Of course." His eyes shone with sincerity and just a hint of something that said, "duh."

You wanted to ask if he knew all of his co-workers' coffee orders by heart, but you were interrupted by the arrival of Adrian, followed closely by Wendy. You blinked a little.

Did they come here together?

You'd heard nothing from her since they had "gotten together" a few days ago. Now, this little scene had you wondering exactly how "together" they had gotten. You shot Wendy a questioning look around Adrian's shoulder, and she mouthed "later" with what was quite possibly the biggest grin you'd ever seen from her. Her whole demeanor had changed in the days since you'd seen her. Even if your plans for getting them together didn't work out as planned, the result was the same. Standing in front of you were two people finding at least the tiniest bit of healing in companionship. And that is all the set-up was about in the end.

Mission: success.

"Hey guys," Marcus greeted them, reaching a hand out to shake Wendy's, "You must be Wendy?"

"That's me," she shook his hand, smiling, "And you're Marcus." He nodded. "Hang on. How do you two know each other?" She studied the two of you carefully.

Oops.

"Oh well, a couple of weeks ago, we were out of coffee, so I snuck over to their break room to get some. We talked for a minute. And now I just see him everywhere, I guess," you laid out as casually as possible.

"I see." You couldn't tell if she actually sounded unconvinced or if your incredible paranoia just made her sound that way. "Well, this is Adrian, who I told you about already," she beamed, you shook his hand.

Be cool, be cool. I definitely haven't been interfering in your love life for the past two weeks.

"Nice to meet you, Adrian. You're on the Art Squad?"

Good playing dumb, me.

"I am."

"Great. Pleased to work with you."

The museum owner arriving saved you from further pleasantries. Adrian, being the one who had talked to her the most, ran ahead to greet her while the rest of you hung back. Wendy looped her arm through yours and started her quiet detailing of her night.

"So last night I went over to Adrian's place just for a little home-cooked meal and a movie," you nodded along, smiling at her excitement, "It was so great, you know? My perfect relaxed evening. Of course, then I accidentally fell asleep there-- thank God I keep an extra set of work clothes in my car. But what do I wake up to? Breakfast from Rick's!"

"Very impressive!"

"Right?" she sighed, "He made sure he was up before me and snuck out for breakfast. Ugh, what a keeper! How did he know?" You shot a quick look over to Marcus but gave a nonchalant shrug to Wendy.

"Everyone likes Rick's, I guess."

"Either way. It was very sexy of him. Find yourself someone like that." With that, she patted your shoulder and stepped over to join Adrian and the museum owner.

Marcus laughed a little as he fell into step with you. You cocked your head as you watched him

"What?"

"I'm the one that told him to do that."

"Really? Been giving him pointers, oh great love master?" He put a hand to his chest, feigning offense.

"Ouch. Of course, I have. He was with his ex for so long he doesn't remember how to date anymore. I had to tell him all of my tricks."

"Oh, is that how you charm all the women? Surprise breakfast?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes other meals. But always breakfast food." You laughed. "Seriously. It's unassuming, comforting. Anyone can go out to dinner and a movie, right? Breakfast food is both more relaxed and more intimate. No one is putting on airs or trying to impress with diner breakfast food. No one is ordering healthy to look good. No one is on their best manners. They're getting their chocolate chip waffles, and they're piling the syrup on it no matter what you say about it, and that tells you way more about someone than how they act at a fancy restaurant."

"That's… Actually, really profound."

There was an indiscernible look in his eye as you gazed at him and him back at you. Like he knew something you didn't, and he was just waiting for you to figure it out.

Remember when I took you to Rick's?

***

The case was a pretty difficult one.

The robbery occurred on one of the busiest days they'd had all year. Guests had been pouring in for one last little family day before school started back, enjoying an educational experience and the beautiful weather the day brought as they walked the grounds. The security cameras were down for the entire business day. The only lead was that the Ney family members-- a distant cousin and niece who had donated the heirloom and the bust-- had come right before closing. They would've undoubtedly noticed that their precious items were missing. Therefore, the items must've been stolen after they left, after the museum had closed.

But that's where things got tricky. The doors to the museum were locked, as were the windows, and there were, as you'd seen this morning, no signs of forced entry. The only suspects, then, were employees and volunteers who could've gotten access to the keys. That left the owner, a bunch of high school and college students keeping a summer job, and a couple of elderly art lover volunteers. Logically, you could pretty much eliminate the students immediately, though everyone would be brought in for questioning for the sake of process anyway. There was little reason for a student to steal those items. This wasn't a Monet and the Hope Diamond. They wouldn't have sold for much, certainly not enough to make it worth the risk of robbing their own workplace. Frankly, the motive was unclear all-around. The family was ready to sue the museum for their negligence, and the museum wouldn't last very long if it came down to a money battle. The owner probably wouldn't have sabotaged themselves like that, unless there was some sort of a deeper issue. And the elderly volunteers… You guessed could've done it if they were art fanatics, but, really: why? It didn't add up.

The owner told you as much as she could as she led you through the property-- she wasn't sure either. You were able to eliminate her as a suspect as she spoke. She was outright begging you to find the thief, nearly in hysterics over the prospect of losing the beloved museum and her livelihood.

"We'll do our best, Mrs. Moa," Marcus calmed her, "Do you know anyone who would want to sabotage you or the museum or the family?" She shook her head weakly.

"Not offhand. You'd have to ask them as well, though."

"We will. Don't worry, Mrs. Moa. You have four of the FBI's best here, we're gonna figure this out," Adrian beamed.

It was a blatant over-promise and gross exaggeration, but as you looked around at your new-found little crew, you almost believed him too.

You all shook Mrs. Moa's hand as you departed, telling her that forensics would be along shortly to do their thing, and you would start questioning suspects the next day. She once again gave her most gracious thanks and went back to anxiously prepping for the museum opening. The news of the theft and the subsequent lawsuit was spreading, and she was going to be getting a lot of hard questions thrown at her today. Poor thing.

"Would you all like to come over to my place later?" Adrian started as you all made your way back to your cars, "I'll order pizza, grab some drinks, and we can maybe talk about this case?" His "maybe" was not particularly convincing. This was strictly going to be a social event, and you all knew it.

You all gave your confirmation that you would be there and headed back to the office to finish out the workday.

***

Despite the in-office workday being a mere half-day by the time you made it back, it felt like it was dragging on forever. You had plenty of other files to work through and close, but you couldn't get your mind off the Ney case. There was a missing piece, and you had to get your mind off of that sinking feeling before you could do anything else. Wendy had been on the phone since she stepped foot in her office, and you frankly didn't know Adrian well enough to be comfortable going to him. So that just left Marcus to go to.

You'd been thinking about him all day. Now that Adrian and Wendy were together, was that going to change your relationship too? Would you still talk like you do now? You certainly hoped so. You'd bared your soul too much at the coffee shop for him to turn into a casual acquaintance now. And honestly? You'd gotten sort of attached to him. He really did make you feel important and wanted and cared about, just as you'd craved back at the beginning of all of this. Some sort of feeling had sprung up. Not necessarily, feeling feelings. You don't fall that fast. But there was something. Enough that you didn't want him gone. You wanted to learn more about him, experience more with him beyond just being a co-worker... Whatever that meant.

You hopped up from your desk and got into the elevator before anyone noticed you'd left, finding him where you now knew his desk to be. You leaned a hand against the front of the mahogany, and he looked up curiously, waiting for your explanation he could see forming in your brain.

"Do you feel like there's something missing in the Ney case?" You asked finally.

"Sure, a perpetrator," he responded in a deadpan.

"Alright, then. Good talk, smartass." You took two steps away from his desk before he grabbed you lightly by the forearm to bring you back.

"No, no. Come back. I'll be serious now, I promise. What are you thinking?"

"Doesn't it just seem like something's missing? I feel like there's no motive in any of the suspects we have."

"Well, that's what the interrogations are for, right?"

"Yeah, but--" you bit your lip for a moment, considering, "Do you think that the family would have anything to do with it?"

"How do you mean?" he folded his arms now. You didn't realize his hand was still on your forearm until he removed it. You felt the warmth leave as the overdone air-conditioning immediately chased the feeling away.

He did, of course. He knew his hand was still on your skin. And for every moment his hand remained there, it grew a little more difficult to not slide it down to where his fingers could fully intertwine with yours. But that would have been too much. His ex-wife-- and admittedly, multiple others-- had chided how he was too overbearing. He had been feeling that something as well, terrifying as it was. And it was taking everything in him to not fall into his usual, "overbearing" ways. Your mind towards him was completely indiscernible so far. Sure, there had been moments that it seemed that you'd be more than happy to have your hand held by him, but, more often than not, the friendly, playful banter you shared moments later completed nixed out those moments to him. He had no idea what you were thinking and was maybe a little hesitant to find out at this point. Right now, he needed to test the waters, play it cool, and maybe one day he'd feel he could do that without scaring you off.

"Well," you started, "I guess I'll have to question the family too to confirm this, but wouldn't they maybe have something to gain from the lawsuit? Money? Power over the museum?" you tapped your fingers lightly on the desk, then your eyes widened with your 'aha' moment, "Maybe I'll research if they've had any past disputes with Mrs. Moa. Thanks, Marcus, you've been a big help."

"I didn't--" you'd already run away, booking it back to your floor, "do anything."

He shook his head fondly.

You weren't at your desk trying to dig into the museum history for very long before Wendy walked up and sat across from you. She did so incredibly coolly, taking a moment to look around the office and give the chair little half-spins before she finally spoke.

"So, how do you actually know Marcus?"

You almost choked as you sucked in a too-quick breath.

"I'm sorry?"

"How do you actually know Marcus?"

"Exactly what we said earlier," you shook your head, "We met by chance in the breakroom a couple of weeks ago, I've seen him around, chatted occasionally, and now we're on this case together."

"Sure."

"You think I'm lying?"

How could she have possibly known about the set up?

"I do. But I don't know if you know you're lying." You gave her a questioning look, inviting her to continue. "I've never actually seen you truly smitten with someone. But I would imagine it'd look something like this."

"Oh come on, you've seen me with him one time." She laughed. Loudly.

"What? Do you think I don't have eyes? I've seen you two talking around the office. I've seen you laughing and looking nothing short of flustered. I've seen your phone go off with a text message when you leave it on your desk. It's from a 'Marcus' pretty damn often. Am I right in assuming you don't know two Marcuses?" It was rhetorical, but you shook your head anyway. "I saw that you were together when I came into Copper Coin the other day. I saw you both with the very same Copper Coin travel cups this morning. And I know for a fact that when you were gone from your desk right now, you were with Marcus."

"I mean, that's all true. But so what? It's not what you're probably thinking it is." She hummed, thinking for a moment.

"Do you want it to be?" That stopped you in your tracks.

What did you want from this?

"I--" you sighed, throwing your head back against the back of your chair, "Undecided."

"That's ok. Hey, it's only been two weeks. I just... I really have never seen you act like that with someone before. I had to ask." You nodded along. You had a strange feeling all of that actually meant: "You've been so ridiculously obvious that I had to make sure you knew how obvious you were being."

"It's not out of the question. I just don't know yet. It takes time. Do you think he… Feels that way about me?"

She sighed. "I can't say for sure. I'll have to keep an eye out tonight."

***

It was by total accident that you arrived to Adrian's at the same time as Marcus, but it happened nonetheless. The autumn air around you was finally cooling down. Marcus had his hands in his pockets, and you were kicking pebbles up the sidewalk as you walked down the parked-up street and up to the little yellow house. Its golden porch lights beamed brightly as the sun was falling behind the horizon so much quicker lately.

"Kind of a funny turn of events," Marcus mused. "We've been casually interfering in their lives, trying to bring them together, making sure they don't know that we know each other. And now they're together in spite of us, and we're walking into Adrian's house together."

"Yeah… Wendy kinda already knew that we knew each other."

"She did?"

"She did. She saw us together too much, I guess. But I don't think she suspects that we were up to anything."

"Oh good… So what did she say?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she obviously brought something up to you. So what was it?"

"Uh, I-- I guess she thinks there's more to it. I don't know." He laughed.

It was a nervous laugh, but you didn't hear it as such. You moved on before any of the rest of that conversation could be discussed.

"So has Adrian said anything to you about this little relationship of theirs?"

"Just that he has no idea what he's doing and needs help." You laughed. "So, I've been helping him out a bit."

"So… The pancakes are a part of that. What else have you been telling him?"

"You know, some date ideas. I remember you saying that a walk around a museum would be more her speed? I told him to do that. He knows all about the art in any art museum and could talk her ear off about any of it. Do you think she'd like that? Him telling her about the art?"

"She would love that, I think. That's very romantic."

"You think?"

"I do."

Is it something you'd love too?

There was no chance for him to ask. Wendy greeted you at the door with a raised brow. You didn't intend to arrive together, but that wouldn't convince her for a second.

***

The evening went by without a hitch. Adrian and Wendy's budding relationship was genuinely adorable. Watching them dance around the kitchen as they warmed up slices from the already-cold pizza, they looked like they'd already been doing it for months. The conversation shared was breezy and comfortable.

Until.

"Oh, Adrian, don't forget. Floor renovation starts tomorrow. We're on the 5th floor with Special Crimes for a bit," Marcus reminded as you all sat around Adrian's kitchen table-- pizza long gone, finishing the last sips of your drinks.

"Good to know," you interjected. He looked at you quizzically.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what if I wanted to come bother you after finishing the interrogations? I would've gone to the 6th floor and would've never found you. Now I know." You grinned, taking a smug sip of your drink.

"What a tragedy that would've been." His smile was fond. When you looked over to Wendy, she had a peculiar expression-- her "thinking face"-- as she looked between you and Marcus. Her expression shifted to express exasperation.

"What?" You shifted uncomfortably in your seat.

Of course, you knew what it was. Once Wendy took off your blinders, you saw everything: the way Marcus interacted with you, the way you interacted with him. Every action tonight was tinged with nervous, flirtatious energy: from the way you laughed at every terrible joke of his to the way his arm was seemingly permanently fixated to the back of your chair.

You understood now what Wendy meant earlier, but you still didn't yet understand how you felt about it.

"Will you come with me for a second?" she asked you. You got up with her, moving to the foyer, leaving Marcus and Adrian mumbling amongst themselves to figure out what the hell was happening. She didn't waste time in confronting you.

"I've been watching you two all night, and that does not look like nothing. It's clear that he is very into you. I know you said you need time on it, but if you don't feel the same way about him, you need to stop leading him on."

"I'm not leading him on."

"You are. You may not realize it, but you are. The joking and laughing, the gazing, everything."

You opened your mouth to speak, but closed it, crossing your arms.

"You can't be wishy-washy on this. I'm not letting you run from this this time. So, once and for all: what's going on in your head, and what are you going to do about it?"

"You know what? Nothing. And nothing." The words came out a little sharper than you intended, tired of this conversation and…

Scared. You were scared. You felt the distinct static tingle of lightning about to strike, and you were running from its impact once again.

"Nothing?"

"No. I know what I said earlier about needing time, but I don't. I've made up my mind. Nothing is going on here; there never will be anything going on here, alright?" You turned around to stomp back to the kitchen, but someone was standing there.

Marcus.

He heard you; there was no denying it.

His face was unmistakably downcast. You looked to the floor to avoid those ever emotion-betraying eyes of his.

He was sure the whole neighborhood could hear him swallow his hurt.

"Excuse me. I was just heading out. Have a good night." He brushed past you both coolly and stepped out through the front door behind you. You think Wendy said goodnight in return, but you couldn't hear through the fog. You said nothing.

Lightning struck.

But you ran indoors, and he was a lightning rod.

series taglist: @whiskeyslasso @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @dindjarindiaries @absurdthirst @roxypeanut @fioccodineveautunnale @dirty-dancefl00r5 @starryeyedstories @buckysalefty @wickedfrsgrl @the-feckless-wonder @buckstaposition

forever taglist: @acomplicatedprofession @hdlynn @makaela27 @space-floozy @catfishingmorales @ithinkhesgaybutwesavedmufasa @princessbatears @synystersilenceinblacknwhite @findhimfives @mistermiraclee @marydjarin @seasonschange-butpeopledont @miss-leto @spacegayofficial @winters-buck @phoenixhalliwell @ahopelessromanticwritersworld @mrpascals @aerynwrites @jigglemiwa @manda-but-not-lorian @dindjarindiaries @pancakepike @huliabitch @sammiesweet @randomness501 @king-belamy @opheliaelysia @the-silver-iris @lady-of-nightmares-and-heartache

#tw: flashing gif #marcus pike x reader #iyewbil #bri writes

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sliceofsky · 3 years ago

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introducing : cary o’hare

〔 scott foley, 49, cis male, he/him ) cary o'hare was seen listening to “ just haven’t met you yet ” by michael buble. cary is the town’s weatherman and known to be bubbly & insecure

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚜

full name ~ cary michael o’hare birthday ~ OCTOBER / 15TH / 1971 job status ~ employed as a weatherman at the local news station relationship status ~ (currently) single orientation ~ gay (closeted)

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚘

tws for : strained family relationships , homophobia , discussion of sex

cary o’hare was the first born child of the upper-middle class o’hare family, named after his mother’s favorite movie star. it was one of the rare concessions at the o’hare patriarch gave to his mother, and he’d never let her forget about it.

from a young age, cary was the picture of raw charisma. grocery store trips took forever, with his mother being halted at every aisle by enchanted older women who wanted to catch a glimpse of the adorable baby cary. his cuteness almost made up for how busy his mom was at all hours of the day, especially when his younger sister became cary’s irish twin, born a little over 9 months after cary was.

his younger sister becomes the bane of his existence as soon as they’re both conscious enough to get on each other’s nerves. they’re close enough in age that the competition is always there, fueled by the teachers, friends, and extracurriculars that they share. they found their niches soon enough: cary was good at sports, while his sister was good at dancing (which elementary-age cary would vehemently insist was the exact OPPOSITE of a sport). their father would go to cary’s games, but not his sister’s recitals, a fact that he accepted without much thought.

cary’s world, until middle school, was very small. the only people on his mind were him, his family, and his ever-shifting cast of close friends. there wasn’t much room in that world for insecurity or introspection, not when his biggest issue was the occasional fight he and his sister would get into over who’s turn it was on the remote. this all changed when cary was introduced to a fact about himself that made the world so much scarier: people were talking shit about him behind his back. it was the little things, of course- a comment about how stacy from english told someone who told someone who told someone that she thought he was short, or hearing a rumor about himself filter through the grapevine. it was startling, and cary reacted in kind, putting much more thought into his everything. he began to think about the way he dressed, and the way he smiled, and the way that when he answered questions in class, people would remember whether he got them wrong or right.

suddenly, nothing was more important than his image. he wanted to smell nice, but not too nice, or else his dad would make some mean spirited quip about his son being fruity. he also needed to date girls, but not too many girls, or else they’d think he was a jerk. it was a careful, obsessive balance that he kept, one that dictated everything about the way he acted.

against all odds, his mission was successful. he was generally well-liked. he had middling grades, and he wasn’t especially happy, but things were working. even the fact that his parents still picked his closest friends based on whether or not mr. o’hare liked their parents couldn’t break his stride. only one thing could truly break his stride, and that was the events of sleepaway camp, the summer before his sophomore year of high school.

sleepaway camp was fun. too fun. he was fast friends with jonah, who lived in a town four hours away from cary’s. over their three week stay at camp timber lake, cary and jonah ended up doing everything together. they shared secrets, snuck out of the cabin late at night to explore the woods, and on one memorable instance, went skinny dipping in the lake. near the end of their time at camp, things changed, suddenly and without warning- cary would blame the full moon. if you interrogated him, he’d insist that the only reason he kissed jonah was because the moon was full, it was the last night of camp, and they were alone in the woods in the dead of the night. he’d also insist that he didn’t mean anything by it, and that it didn’t mean he was gay. the truth, however? temporary insanity didn’t push cary to kiss jonah, and it wasn’t the reason that jonah pushed cary away with a horrified look on his face. much to cary’s relief, neither of them ever spoke about it. it became a secret just as soon as it became a memory, one that cary would agonize over for years after the fact.

cary walked into his sophomore year of high school with this secret heavy on his chest, paired with a desperate need to distract himself from it. he loaded his plate with all kinds of new activities, but the first one (aside from his regular slate of sports) to catch his fascination was learning to drive. he liked driving. he liked being the friend who knew how to do it, and he liked having jovial conversations with his dad about different types of vintage cars. he was the first of his friends to learn how to drive, and he used it to his social advantage.

3 girlfriends, 2 state championships, and 1 prom king crown later, cary was a senior in high school, choosing between two football scholarships while desperately trying not to think about the gay thing. he would ask his parents for advice, if not for the fact that his dad would kick him out for even considering “the homosexual lifestyle” while his mom would tell him to “not think about it and move on”. he picks his college based on a coin flip, and keeps his mouth shut.

college is a new beast for cary, who’s suddenly thrust into a whole new world. the only time he’d lived somewhere other than the o’hare house (lovingly referred to as the o’house) was at sleepaway camp, but uni? that was a sleepaway camp where there were no rules. his major was undecided, and his time was mostly spent juggling gen eds, the football team, and the rowdy parties that he was invited to.

the thing that made him decide his major, funnily enough, was a pregnancy scare. he’d hooked up with a cheerleader, more because she was a cheerleader while he was a football player than for any other reason, and three weeks later, she called him in tears, talking about a late period. on the drive to the doctor’s office to check, they got to talking about how they landed in this position. she admitted that she slept with him because he “reminded her of a weatherman”, and his career path was set. once his former hookup was given the clean bill of “not pregnant”, cary felt free to go along his way, rocking every public speaking class and doing pretty-okay on his meteorology courses, his road in life officially planned.

cary didn’t realize that he was capital g Gay until he actually had sex with a man. the process itself was undignified, beginning with eye contact across a dance floor and ending in a stranger’s bed. he was in a strange city, telling all of his friends that he was sick in the hotel while they were out at a bachelor party. he was paranoid at the gay bar, until he let himself get swept up in the music, and consequently, the spirit of lighthearted experimentation. even if when it happened, he’d already graduated from college, it still counted, right? either way, the end product was the same: him, in a stranger’s bed, trying to catch his breath. the guy’s name was paul, and the sex was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. it was electricity, and nerves, and magnetism, and cary was left without a doubt over the fact that he was exactly what he feared.

the years after that encounter moved in a predictable pattern, a cycle that he couldn’t break. first, he’d find some success in his career. then, he’d find a nice girl and try to make it work. then, the relationship would crash and burn. finally, he’d break again, and allow himself a weekend of gay debauchery. sometimes the cycle would take a few weeks to complete, and other times it would take a few years. this cycle filled up years, and then it filled up two decades, until he was 42 years old and truly exhausted.

his parents wanted him to get married. more than anything, they wanted him to get married. it was one of the few things his mom and his dad agreed on, and in a way, they bonded over it. the whispers about why the local weatherman was a perennial bachelor certainly didn’t help his nerves, neither did the scores of posts from his high school and college friends announcing marriages and pregnancies.

the big break from his cycle came in the form of hazel robson, a fellow member of a book club that he joined (he wasn’t super into reading, but the flow of a book club was deeply calming to him). their relationship blossomed over the book club pick of “love in the time of cholera”, following an especially insightful note from hazel. he asked her out to coffee, wanting to learn more about her opinion. their initial coffee date was legendary, their conversation lasting through two cups of coffee and an extended walk in the park. cary loved seeing the world through hazel’s eyes- she talked about literature with such a vivid intelligence that it was practically contagious. cary left that first date invigorated, like he was scores more intelligent just from having been in her vicinity.

cary couldn’t put into words exactly why it worked so well with hazel, even though he didn’t like her that way. he knew, logically, that he was gay, and that he’d never wake up and love hazel the way she deserved to be loved. emotionally, however? he still kind of hoped that that day would come. their relationship continued to progress, without the dramatic endings that he’d gotten used to. what they had wasn’t going down in flames like his attempts at romance before- it was working. when he proposed, it was at the coffee shop where they had their first date, and he refused to let his guilt show on his face.

things were exactly how his parents wanted it: he was married to a lovely woman, his career was booming, and the for-fun football team that he was a part of kept him in shape. it should’ve been perfect, but cary couldn’t help but feel restless. incomplete. not even his pre-game catchphrase (”my name is cary o’hare, and we are gonna win this thing fair and square!”) could keep that itch of the unfulfilled at bay. it only got worse when he met the living embodiment of everything he couldn’t have: liam lexington.

his father joked that a wandering eye was a normal part of being a married man, but cary suspected that his dad didn’t mean it like this. liam was bold, attractive, and shameless- cary couldn’t quite tell if he wanted to be him or be with him. he decided on the former, after some meaningful eye contact/hand on knee action at an applebee’s post-game celebration. it escalated into a torrid affair, one that he pointedly refused to talk about with liam or anyone else.

it all fell apart on his 46th birthday. hazel walked into their house, ready to deliver his birthday surprise, only to walk in on liam delivering his birthday surprise. first there was the yelling, then there was the crying, until finally there were divorce papers. right after they both signed, there was a long stretch of silence, standing across from each other. then, cary broke the silence. “you know, hazel, i know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but i think one day, you and i are going to laugh about this. i know it’ll be far off in the future, and you hate me right now, but… one day, maybe when we’re old, we’ll be sitting on a porch, and we’ll be laughing about what happened.”

the official party line for the cause of the divorce was the question of kids, leaving cary right back at the start. he was a childless divorcee, and no longer his dad’s favorite. he’s gotten back into the routine of being single and publicly straight, something helped by his now-ex wife moving away. now that she’s back in town, and cary is finding less and less reasons to stay in the closet? it’s about to be a wild year for cary o’hare.

#sero.intro #CARY O'HARE º ᴡᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ɪᴛ ᴏᴜᴛ #info : intro

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multiverseforger · 4 years ago

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This version of Kimberly Ann Hart is from the World of the Coinless who (before being freed) had served under Lord Drakkon as a brainwashed Power Ranger, known as the Ranger Slayer. She is the leader of the Promethea Rangers. She is also the pilot of the Gravezord.

After the complete defeat of Drakkon, sometimes after the storyline Beyond the Grid and Necessary Evil, Kimberly became the new leader of her restored world, restoring the peace and undone everything what Drakkon destroyed.Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer

Character History

The Fall of the Rangers

As the Pink Ranger.The history of this version of Kimberly Hart parallels the history of her counterpart from the central timeline until events which creates the World of the Coinless. Kimberly fought alongside her fellow Power Rangers against the forces of Rita Repulsa and Lord Drakkon, culminating in "The Fall of the Power Rangers" battle that saw the deaths of Jason Lee Scott, Billy Cranston, and her world's version of Zordon. As a result of the battle, Lord Drakkon claimed the Tyrannosaurus, Sabertooth Tiger, Pterodactyl, and Mastodon Power Coins. Zack Taylor and Trini Kwan would eventually escape and form the resistance movement known as The Coinless.

Kimberly was also a member of the resistance helping get people to safety and running reconnaissance missions with Bulk. On one of these missions, she witnesses the death of her universe's Matthew Cook. This, combined with the other losses she has experienced, leads her to wage an attack against Lord Drakkon on her own. While she was able to defeat many Sentries on her own, she is eventually put under mind control by Drakkon using a similar spell as the one Rita used on him as the Green Ranger.

Even though the Pterodactyl Power Coin was originally claimed with the others

Kimberly shortly after being put under mind control.and used to power Pterodactyl Sentries, the coin was returned to her and, combined with the new, evil energy of the Bow of Darkness, she is able to become the Ranger Slayer.

Shattered Grid

As the Ranger Slayer.After Lord Drakkon's defeat during the Black Dragon arc of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, he was dragged back into the present day by accident; eventually getting captured and remanded to the care of Promethea and its CEO (and Red Ranger of the 1969 Power Rangers) Grace Sterling. Meanwhile, on Drakkon's world, the power structures were under revolt as the Coinless were making strides and Scorpina and her loyalists were going rogue; a situation exacerbated by the arrival of the HyperForce Rangers. In desperation, Finster 5 gave the last shard of the Green Chaos Crystal to the Ranger Slayer with the hopes that she could use it and the Gravezord to track Lord Drakkon and bring him back.

Unfortunately for her, she arrived at a point when the Rangers were still new and long before Tommy Oliver ever arrived in Angel Grove. Desperate, she tried to contact Finster 5 but failed. It was then that Rita Repulsa arrived and offered to charge the Gravezord for her. Later the Ranger Slayer sent her Gravezord into downtown Angel Grove to draw out the Power Rangers, and while it attacked them, she sneaked into the Command Center with her Pterodactyl Power Coin. She used a Quantum Field Disruptor to disrupt Zordon’s brain and ripped off Alpha 5's arm. She then issued an ultimatum: If they cooperate and let her use the Command Center’s sub-spectrum long-range communication array, she’ll leave them all in peace. When Alpha 5 got defiant, she readied to brutally attack him but then was attacked by the main world's Kimberly Hart, who ordered her to keep her hands off of Alpha. In the ensuing fight, the main world's Kimberly managed to shatter the Ranger Slayer's Bow of Darkness and thus breaking Drakkon's hold on her.

Immediately, the elder Kimberly had PTSD flashbacks of what Drakkon made her do. To alleviate her pain, both Kimberlys went to the juice bar; whereas Kimberly's cousin Sally, she was overjoyed to see Bulk (who was a loyal comrade in the World of the Coinless), and conflicted by seeing Matthew Cook (whose counterpart in her timeline died in her arms). Eventually, Drakkon managed to contact the Ranger Slayer saying that she would be stranded a little longer as he is on the verge of breaking the Morphin Grid. When he asked where her bow was, he realized that she had broken his control and left her to rot in the past.

She returned to the Command Center to repair her bow and plot her next move by using an opportunity changing the fate of past-present Power Rangers, including that timeline's Tommy and Matthew. She uses an improved Green Crystal to revive the Gravezord to fight alongside the Mighty Morphin Megazord against two monsters, then implanted one of the crystal's fragments into her arrows to shoot past-present Tommy, giving him the vision to prevent his original future-present's fate without killing him. The Rangers managed to defeat the two monsters with Mega Gravezord's Inferno Blaster.

Final Battle Against Lord Drakkon

Immediately after the battle with the two monsters, Kimberly was recruited to the main timeline by Grace Sterling, presumably bringing the Gravezord with her, as it unmerged and dematerialized from the Mighty Morphin Megazord at the same time.

She takes part in a rescue mission to Lord Drakkon's moonbase in the World of the Coinless as the other Rangers are waging the final battle against Drakkon's forces. Ultimately, the rescue is successful, and the depowered Rangers who were being held captive are taken aboard the Promethea.

She is aboard the ship as the World of the Coinless began tearing apart as space and time were wiped away. She observes as Andros tries to command the crew to teleport the Promethea base away and while the base manages to begin a teleport, it fades away into nothing as it does so. With no space or time to exist, once the multiverse was restarted, the Promethea re-materialized into existence and exited at a random vector from the teleport stream. While the Promethea has taken damage, she is seen, as the Ranger Slayer, helping to rescue the injured and trapped aboard the ship.

Beyond the Grid

After the events of Shattered Grid and the recreation of the multiverse, Kimberly is aboard the Promethea as it drifts through what seems like a void in space. She is one of the few Rangers who still has the ability to morph, though she observes that she has few morphs left in her morpher, since where the group presumably has no access to a Morphing Grid.

She expresses a great amount of grief over her time as the possessed Ranger Slayer and contemplates leaving the ship. However, she is stopped by Grace, who insists that she is needed and cannot leave.

She is the de facto leader of the new group of Power Rangers (consisting of herself, Tanya Sloan, Cameron Watanabe, Andros, Mike Corbett, and Heckyl). She leads them on a mission to answer a distress call that is heard somewhere in the universe, though it is revealed that the call was a ploy to lure her group away from the Promethea.

Road to Redemption and New Heir

Kimberly Hart awakens after reality was reborn to find herself in a corn field on the World of the Coinless. Feeling regret from her dreadful actions as the Ranger Slayer, Kimberly regrets coming back to life in the new universe but decides to make the best of a bad situation when she hears riffle fire.

Nearby, a lieutenant Sabertooth Sentry fires her gun into the air and demands everyone get inside as part of a curfew under order of Lord Drakkon or be "re-educated" (taken away to prison). A Mastodon Sentry (with the rank of private) approaches and questions their somewhat extreme actions since they had been sent to protect the people and not recruit them with the lieutenant rebutting by stating that this amounted to insubordination and that being so sensitive would only come back to hurt him in the long run. Kimberly hid in the bushes and prepared to fire an arrow but a bunch of glowing green Red Rangers come out of the woods, attacking the Ranger Sentry patrol and killing the lieutenant. Luckily, Kimberly killed the leader with an arrow through the eye and cutting the rest down although the leader managed to escape to inform his mysterious leader of the Ranger Slayer's return. Taking command, the private unmasks and says he can escort Kimberly back to Drakkon's palace but she declined and told him to take the citizens to safety to which he agrees. Kimberly then walks into the woods before passive aggressively telling him to stay out of her way.

Later on, in the Coinless' hideout, Kimberly has arrived and reveals that she came back to help overthrow Drakkon's forces to Trini, Zack and Bulk. Considering that she had been a murderous enemy whilst controlled by Drakkon, everyone was understandably sceptical of her motives and Zack suspected that Scorpina's forces were about to attack and this was to lower their guard. Kimberly countered that she came back to answer for her mistakes but her former allies took um-bridge with her somewhat euphemistic language used since she was a war criminal. Trini even stated everyone present wished her dead and thought that they could take her Power Coin and create their own Ranger Sentries to counter Drakkon's but they'd have to take her out first. However, Bulk (ever the optimistic member of the group) came to Kimberly's defence and said he'd have to die with her much to Trini's surprise. Bulk countered that she had been brainwashed and couldn't be blamed and that they believed in second chances which made this argument somewhat hypocritical since they wanted a peaceful world but were unwilling to give their former friend a chance. by saying that they were fighting for nothing if they refused to help their friend coming to them for help since this was the opposite of the Coinless' goals. He then closed his soliloquy by saying that they needed her help anyway, revealing the mysterious Rangers to be the undead. Trini countered that they had no proof of their nature but Bulk pointed out their resemblance to "ghosts in body armor" with Kimberly stating she fought some earlier just for Zack to cut her off by saying how lucky she was to have survived that encounter.

Zack tells Kimberly that the Rangers had appeared some months ago and were so ruthless that they would attack anyone they encountered whether they were Coinless or Ranger Sentry before revealing that they had been tracked to the remains of the Command Center which Drakkon had destroyed before he took over the world. However, they had no clue what was inside since no one had ever lived to come back and report to them whilst Bulk tells them that Kimberly's presence gave them a fighting chance although Kimberly tells him that her actions had destroyed any chance of them trusting her. She then steps forward and offers her Power Coin and herself up for trial when it was all over but Trini just storms off, leaving the decision to Zack. He allows her into the organisation but reminds her that there was no way in safely but she had an idea.

That night, the so-called Spirit Sentries are patrolling the Command Center whilst the Coinless looked on and a shadowy figure wanted to go in alone which Zack refuses outright because he was done burying his friends. Before the argument could persist, call sign "Lion" told them to get ready to enter at which point the Gravezord (piloted by Kimberly and Bulk, the latter excited to finally get to pilot a Zord) flies in and bombards the Spirit Sentries. With the enemy distracted, the other Coinless enter the ruins where they notice a significantly more Gothic atmosphere to the place than before. They eventually entered what would once have been the main chamber, fully alert only to be confronted by Rita Repulsa. Zack was understandably struck dumb by her presence since Drakkon had killed her straight after the Power Chamber had been destroyed whilst Rita gloated about how they had outrun death for so long yet they had been forced to face it eventually. Zack told Trini to leave and Rita seals him inside the chamber with her to their horror. Zack tired to energy slash Rita to death but this failed since she was a ghost. She then referenced when she tried and failed to convince Zack to become her new Green Ranger which led her to recruit Tommy and eventually her death. She then threw him down, revealed that Trini was why she had returned from the dead, and declares that she will not hurt them because it would "ruin all the fun." She then turned to where the Gravezord was making mincemeat out of the undead and enlarges a resurrected Goldar who had now been reduced to a mindless snarling creature. The Gravezord mops up the last minions but is tore apart and destroyed Kimberly's Zord although her and Bulk manage to escape from it in the Firebird Thunderzord. Zack and Trini are shocked but Rita lets them go, convinced that they would no longer pose a threat to her as she prepared for the final attack after which she could then recreate the Earth to her own designs.

Later, the Coinless have regrouped at the Mastodon Warehouse where they were based but the organization had splintered since many had given up after finding out that Rita had returned. Kimberly walks over to Trini whilst revealing that Bulk was grieving over the Gravezord and Trini apologized for doubting her motives only for Zack to enter and confront Trini since Rita had revealed that his friend was responsible for her return. Kimberly was shocked but Trini rebutted that she was trying to save them all and made the assumption based on Zordon saying before that Rita wasn't truly evil. Trini had naively assumed that she could be redeemed but she was wrong and was too ashamed to admit it before. She reveals to Kimberly that, when Drakkon ruled, every alien invasion was quickly stomped out to the point of other villains such as Master Vile and Lord Zedd skipped over the Earth for fear of their own lives. With Drakkon gone, there was a massive power struggle over Drakkon's Empire and the various alien factions with Scorpina eventually coming out on top. However, the Coinless were caught in the middle of the fighting and were considered enemies of every warring factions so were getting subsequently wiped out. In the remains of the Command Center, Trini resurrected Rita as a ghost using her wand (which she stole from Drakkon's palace after the events of Shattered Grid) to try and defend Earth from the invaders. At first, she was amiable and hid them from detection but quickly turned on them and started resurrecting an army of the dead to invade and take over the world.

Understandably angry, Zack asked why she made a deal with one of their worst enemies with Trini's response hankering back to his earlier comment about hating to have to bury friends. Any further arguing was cut off by insane laughter from Kimberly who lightened the mood by wondering what Zordon would have said had Drakkon not have killed him. With the mood lightened, and Kimberly reminding them of their old days as a team, Zack wonders how they could save the world without their powers. Trini said they could destroy her connection to the mortal plain which would make her army disappear but to do that, they would need an army to distract the Spirit Sentries although Zack had a very bad solution to that. Sometime later, a Mastodon Sentry stands guard in the city when an energy arrow strikes near their head. They look at it and looks back to see the Ranger SLayer aiming her Slayer Bow at them and demanding to talk to Commander Scorpina.

Maybe an hour later, Kimberly stands before Commander Scorpina in front of the entire army of Ranger Sentries whilst the Coinless leadership stood in chains behind her. She talks about their former allegiances and saying that she wanted to save Scorpina and all of her allies from evil. Scorpina mockingly said it was inspiring but then revealed she didn't trust Kimberly's intentions since she was brainwashed whilst under Drakkon so had no actual loyalty to him so her act of having apparently captured The Coinless was just a ruse. Kimberly reminded Scorpina that she was just weakening the Drakkon Empire by being its leader and that she needed to act selfless in order to regain lost territory. She may have been Drakkon's brainwashed and unwilling slave but motivations and rivalries didn't matter because Rita Repulsa was coming and did not care about allegiances. Whether they were Drakkon's army or Coinless, Rita did not care and would butcher both in order to conquer the world and the only way to stand against her was together otherwise they would both be subsequently wiped out. Scorpina doesn't buy the "enemy of my enemy" argument and orders the Ranger Sentries to execute Kimberly for treason but they do nothing so she shrieks at them to kill the entire group. However, the Ranger Sentries apparently have more common sense than their leader and swore their allegiance to Kimberly which forces Scorpina to aid her enemy.

The next morning, Rita enters the city with Goldar and orders him to start demolishing buildings whilst ordering her right hand man to begin the attack on the city. Scorpina watches the advancing Spirit Sentry army whilst still having her misgivings about Kimberly's plan since she believes they were just prolonging the inevitable. Kimberly mockingly thanks her for the moral support before telling her army to fight with passion since this fight was for the entire planet and their loved ones before ordering her army of Putties, giant Zord like machines, and Ranger Sentries to attack. Whilst the majority of the forces clash in the remains of Angel Grove, Scorpina and Trini fight their way towards Rita whilst Scorpina reminded Kimberly that this alliance was meaningless. It was simply an alliance of convenience and they would return to being mortal enemies with their common enemy was defeated. They then spotted Rita floating in the sky and Scorpina, realising that this mighty be her final battle, admitted that the Coinless had proven to be a worthy enemy but Trini refused the backhanded insult. In the meantime, Goldar is still demolishing buildings and annihilating the Ranger Slayer's army but she calls in Finster-5's creation which turns out to be a hybrid of Lord Zedd, the Dragonzord and a lizard. The Zord is able to almost immediately overpower Goldar, taking him to the ground with an energy blast to the face and beating him to death with its bare hands. With Goldar gone, the battle begins to turn in the favor of the Ranger Sentries. Meanwhile, Scorpina confronted Rita, managing to seal her away once and for all. With their leader gone, the magic keeping the Spirit Sentries in the world of the living ceases to exist and they return to the underworld which saves the Earth for good.

Later that day, the two armies meet up inside Drakkon's palace and Trini tries to force a surrender in exchange for leniency but Scorpina refuses since she was the one supplying the soldiers who allowed for Rita's defeat. Trini then reminds her that they aren't her army which Scorpina rebuts since they were loyal only to Drakkon, not the Coinless and thus this was a means to an end for them in keeping Drakkon's empire secure. Zack tries to leave since all this arguing was just resulting in them spinning their wheels but Scorpina swears personal revenge until Bulk realizes that they needed a new common leader or they'd just tear the Earth apart in their never-ending war. Much to Kimberly's immense surprise, he suggests her as "the next Drakkon" and she tried to suggest he was joking only for the others to agree since the troops see her as Drakkon's successor and are loyal to her since she just won them a major victory. Scorpina is about to object but Finster-5 tells her it might be a good idea to have her as a placeholder of sorts until they could find a better idea. Kimberly tries to refuse it but Scorpina reminds her of her speech from earlier about the greater good and personal needs vs societal needs. However, she does say to Finster-5 that Kimberly needs to look more imperial and he has some ideas about that.

Sometime later, Kimberly was coronated as she says that they had survived an invasion by the dead and that, despite the fact that the Coinless and Ranger Sentries had different methods and allegiances, they both lost loved ones and they all had the goal of the common peace. She decides to forgive all past crimes committed and clean the proverbial slate. The Ranger Sentries now bow to her as she concludes the speech by saying that they had to fight to save the Earth together and that "today is a new beginning." The final page then shows Kimberly in the Ranger Slayer suit on Zedd's giant throne, wearing a Dragon Shield-esque chest plate and a headpiece.

After defeating The Anointed and would assist The Coinless in defeating Drakkon’s Army, that is now commanded by Scorpina. She would prove herself by successfully forming an alliance with Commander Scorpina to defeat a revived Rita Repulsa. After defeating Rita Repulsa, Kim would assume Lord Drakkon’s former role in a figurehead position. Kim’s first mission as leader would be to free all of the prisoners of Deadlock, including an unknown prison clad in armor who is eventually revealed to be Jason Lee Scott. After being ravaged by Eclipta after Jason retrieves the Power Coin and causing the Ranger Sentries to lose their powers, she gives up her own Power Coin so that the entire populace would obtain Morphin’ Grid powers to fight off Eclipta.

Video game appearances

Power Rangers Legacy Wars

Ranger Slayer in Legacy WarsKimberly, as the Ranger Slayer, is a playable character in Power Rangers Legacy Wars.

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid

Ranger Slayer in Battle for the GridRanger Slayer is one of the characters featured in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid. She primarily uses her bow as well as arrows and futuristic-looking bombs when she is fighting. She is voiced by Meghan Camarena.

Personality

Kimberly remained the same as her prime counterpart, but her story became far more tragic upon losing her world’s Jason, Billy, and Matthew at the hands of Lord Drakkon. This leads her to decide to work alone for the sake of her friends. Due to being brainwashed with the evil energy in the Bow of Darkness implanted by Drakkon, Kimberly is turned as ruthless as Drakkon. However, the only known remaining good side left in her is sparing the past-present counterpart of Matthew, to make sure he will never die as his World of the Coinless counterpart did.

After her past-present-day counterpart manages to unleash an energy blast that breaks the Bow of Darkness and clears her of her connection to Drakkon's magic and manipulations, she is left shaken and furious at herself for what she did under his influence. She is not truly the monster she was made to be, feeling an immense sense of personal accountability for the things that she was forced to do under the mad ranger's control.

Due to her world's ruined state, she has come to appreciate the small things in life. While spending time with her past alternate counterpart, Kimberly took time to remind her younger self to take time to appreciate life's small trivial pleasures, such as days at her favorite hangouts, the goofiness of her friends, and even high school, as such small things is what the larger battles are fought to protect: the chance to live one's life and not have to fight for it.

Due to having been controlled and manipulated by Drakkon for so long and having lost so many people including Jason, Billy, Matt, and many others, Kimberly defected, explicitly stating her intent to kill Drakkon herself. Due to the subtle undertones of Drakkon's conversation with her prior to the revelation that she is free from him, it is implied that Kimberly was made to be in a relationship with him against her will. Given the depths of Drakkon's madness and depravity, it is quite likely that Kimberly was coerced by him in such a manner.

Ranger Powers

Ranger CostumeThis is Kimberly's original Ranger form as given to her by Zordon through the Power Coin. Zords

Pterodactyl Dinozord

Firebird Thunderzord

Arsenal

Wrist Communicator

Power Morpher

Pterodactyl Power Coin

Blade Blaster

Power Bow

Even though she is using the same Power Coin as her original form, this form has taken on a new appearance.

Arsenal

Power Morpher

Pterodactyl Power Coin

Blade Blaster

Bow of Darkness (Sword of Darkness)

Zords

Gravezord - remains of the Power Rangers zords from the World of the Coinless

Solarix Morphin’ Energy Pterodactyl Zord - A remake of the original MMPR Pterodactyl Zord made completely of energy from the Solarix

Pink Solar RangerArsenal

Energy Bow

Zords

Solarix Morphin’ Energy Pterodactyl Zord - A recreation of her Pterodactyl Zord made completely from the energy of the Solarix

Behind the Scenes

Kyle Higgins described the Ranger as someone we have seen before, but not in this way. The clue to her identity as Kimberly was actually set up and somewhat foreshadowed early in the comics during the Black Dragon Arc.

Four out of five Rangers of the Mighty Morphin team were either dead or de-powered in the World of the Coinless as seen in the story: Jason and Billy were murdered by Lord Drakkon when he first got his fused powers, Zack and Trini had lost their Power Coins to Lord Drakkon but managed to survive as part of the resistance.

Up until the reveal at WonderCon 2018's Boom! Studios panel, readers assumed the Kimberly of the World of the Coinless was killed by Lord Drakkon due to the fact that the Ranger Sentries need the energy of specific Power Coins to be able to morph and her coin's powers were being used by the Pterodactyl Sentries. Adding to this ruse was the fact that Kimberly was never seen, except in flashbacks during "The Fall of the Power Rangers".

Kimberly's Solar Ranger suit was designed by Simone Di Meo.

Notes

This Kimberly shares some similarities as two prime counterparts of Tommy Oliver (original live-action and his 2016 comic book counterpart) (as a Green Ranger), such as being temporarily brainwashed, and began to redeem themselves in return while initially rather work alone for the sake of their friends.

Kimberly, as the Ranger Slayer, is a playable character in Power Rangers Legacy Wars.

She is one of the few rangers named by the accents in her suit instead of the main color, like the Gold Ranger from Power Rangers Zeo.

Kimberly, as the Ranger Slayer, is playable character in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid. She also has her original MMPR Outfit as a secondary skin, which ironically both as flashback suit and worn by a different counterpart who shares a same character select slot.

Appearances

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) Issue 12

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) Issue 15

Go Go Power Rangers Issue 8

Go Go Power Rangers Issue 9

Go Go Power Rangers Issue 10

Go Go Power Rangers Issue 11

Go Go Power Rangers Issue 12

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) Issue 29

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) Issue 30

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Shattered Grid Finale Issue 1