#huh I guess i can draw people not floating in color fields huh

[faorism]

so that the walk in the woods job huh

[overlyimmersed]

Nightmares and Daydreams

A Gravity Falls AU.

Hi @verysorrytobother​ Stanticore anon, revealing my true identity to share this with you! I wasn’t sure how a post this long would go over as an ask, so I decided to do it this way. I hope this is ok.

I’ve been working on this for a while and I hope it goes over well enough. The artwork took me the most time.

As a car crash victim is slowly dying, her mental self panics in the mindscape. She's offered a deal to save her life. Let the game begin.

(Content warnings: Blood. Descriptions of serious injuries.)

"What..." she whispered to herself, staring at the other in disbelief.

"Yep!" he confirms, in a high-pitched, grating, inappropriately upbeat tone, "Dead as a doornail, kid!- Well technically you still have a few more seconds till you brain totally ceases to function. Better make up your mind while you still have one!"

She's still staring dumbly at him. How can he be this nonchalant about it?! A half second ago she was sitting in the front seat of the family truck, a totally routine trip to the store- she never liked trucks but her dad's a carpenter so they need the hauling space. At least it's a pretty shade of blue- and the next she's here, laying face down in a black void with this prick this- this...All Seeing Eye? He's like the Illuminati symbol, but with arms and legs and a top hat. Caution sign yellow and talking to her- or at her. Bill. Freaking. Cipher. Every time he 'speaks' he flashes with light- no mouth so does it really count as speaking? More like his voice is being projected right into her mind- ... And he's telling her that she freakin died! Can't he see how messed up this is?! Can't he sympathize at all!? Then again, it's Bill. She ought to know better.

She ought to know better. She's seen this show a hundred times, she knows nothing good comes from dealing with Cipher. But she doesn't have time to be careful, she doesn't have the luxury of weighing options.

"Tick-tock, Car Wreck!" The obnoxious voice insists again, forcing her out of her stupor, his outstretched hand now alight with blue fire.

Her face scrunches up in a loud cringe, eyes screwed shut and teeth bared, and she swings her hand till it lands solidly in his. Crazed cackling resounds as the deal is struck, but it falls to simple soundtrack as her senses try to sort out what's going on.

She'd expected the blue fire to burn, or at least feel like something, but it didn't. Instead her entire being is flung into a...whirl? Free fall? Something that makes her stomach jump into her throat, and gives her vertigo.

The sensation stops suddenly, only to be replaced by a cacophony of new perceptions. She isn't sure which strikes her first, the sounds or the smell. Shrieks of agony and terror make up the next track of this bizarre playlist, punctuated by the reek of burnt hair. When her eyes fly open to try and make sense of it all, they have no luck. The sight that meets her is a sky of surreal, swirling, bastardized ribbons of every hue, like being inside a filthy bubble. Floating strewn about the space are pockmarked asteroids, and little else.

"So what'd ya think?" The grating voice rejoins the discord, drawing her shell-shocked gaze. "Home-sweet-home, huh? Well don't worry, you won't be here for very long. A deal's a deal, Car Wreck." With that que, and a snap of his fingers, she's falling again. This time untethered and unaccompanied. It takes her a moment to realize the scream ripping though the void is coming from her own throat. Once it hits her, so does something else, and the world goes black.

She wakes some time later, maybe moments maybe days. She has no way of knowing. She pushes herself onto her hands and knees, groggy and disoriented. It takes her a moment to notice the texture under her hands and focus her vision on it. It's grass. She sits up and looks around. "oh..." she says to herself, taking in the scenery. It's lovely, a grassy, sun soaked field. The sky made of churning colors like the last place she'd been, but they're pastel and much prettier. A warm breeze brushes past her face and she takes a deep breath of it, it smells sweet and warm, heavy with the scent of growing things, and for the first time since this started she finds some peace. Peace which is quickly shattered by a familiar, grating voice.

She jumps and whirls around so quick she falls onto her butt. There, floating just inches from where her head had been, is Bill. Laughing at her of course.

"Whoops! Didn't mean to scare you there, Car Wreck!" he claims, moving through the air to look around, then turning back around to look at her. "So how do you like the new digs?"

There's a beat of silence where she just stares at him again, but quickly she shakes off the shock and tries to respond. "Uh...It's nice." She lets her eyes roam around for a second, before returning to Bill, "Where are we?"

"This is the Realm of Daydreams! Your new HQ!" he answers, floating around behind her and making a grand gesture with his arms.

She turns her head to follow him, "Daydreams? HQ?"

"Yep! This is where you'll hang out when you're not puppeting your little pawns." He turns around to look at the scenery more himself. "Kinda dull if you ask me. Maybe you can do something about that!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh you know, some pillars of anguish, an alter of unholy fire, maybe a blood fountain or a couple of-" he gestures with each suggestion, like a landscaper creating a vision, until she cuts him off.

"No I mean," she finally pushes herself to a stand, teetering a little till she finds her balance. "Pawns?"

He turns back to her, "Oh yeah, which ones do you want anyway?" he waits a beat for an answer, but she just stares back at him, clearly not following. "Ugh, our deal?"

He hadn't really told her what the deal was, just mentioned a game and a second chance. "Uhh, I don't think you-"

"Oh right, you flesh bags need everything explained to you." he groans, rolling his eye, "Alright, here's the deal. We're gonna play a little game," he holds out his hand and a little hologram like projection appears showing an aerial view of a town. "and the people of this hick town are gonna be the pieces." ten little blue stick figures appear in the center of town, each with a little symbol above it's head. "If you win, you rejoin the land of the living!" a little magenta stick figure pops into existence next to the others and they all do a little happy dance. "If I win..." suddenly the whole projection goes up in flames, and she jerks her head back instinctively, "You burn with rest of those worthless mortals!" He bursts into a fit of maniacal laughter, which actually gives her some times to recover.

After a second of shocked staring, she blinks a few times then puts on as neutral an expression as she can. "Ok. So what are the rules?"

"Simple!" he answers, cutting off his laughter "We can't directly manipulate each other's pawns, and we can't interfere with the other's powers."

"That's it?"

"Yep. Everything else is fair game"

"Ok...What are my powers?"

"Same as mine! Except you don't have to wait till someone falls asleep to get in their head."

"I see..." her eyes wander to the ground as she contemplates the information, and her hand reaches for the longest of her three necklaces to idly play with the spiked pendant. "So you can talk to them in dreams, and I can talk to them in daydreams."

"Bingo!"

She scrunches her nose a little, thinking of a few ways that could end up being annoying. "Alright, anything else I need to know?"

"Hmm, nope! That just about covers it. All that's left is to pick our pawns, I'll even let you go first!" And with that ten, glowing, blue symbols appear between them. She looks them over carefully, she knows who each symbol corresponds to- supposing the cartoon from her world is accurate. She considers the six-fingered hand, if she takes him out of Bill's control from the start that derails his whole plan as she knows it. But, then she'll have no clue what's up to at all, at least by letting Bill have the pawns she's familiar with she has a chance at guessing his moves. She reaches forward and touches the shooting star, it turns magenta and floats to hover closer to her.

"Interesting." Bill comments, though his tone doesn't sound very interested, as he makes a simple motion with his eye and the six-fingered hand settles beside him. She chooses the fish looking symbol next, and Bill's second choice in the pine tree. They go back and forth till they have five symbols each, Bill having the the six-fingered hand, the pine tree, the llama, the stitched heart, and the pentagram. While she has the shooting star, the fish, the bag of ice, the spectacles, and the question mark.

"Welp, that settles that. Nice picks you made there, lets hope they work out for ya, Car Wreck"

"Could you not call me that?" though it hardly sounds like a request.

"And what else should I call you?" Bill asks, collecting his symbols into one hand and placing the other on his...hip?

"How about my name? It's Maranwe."

"But Car Wreck fits you so much better! Just take a look!" he quips, snapping a full-length mirror into existence. Maranwe turns to look and gasps in horror. Bill breaks out into more cackling, "Well my work here is done! I'll let you get cleaned up, see ya around Car Wreck!" And with that he fades from existence.

Maranwe just stares, even as Bill disappears from 'her' realm, she can only stare at her destroyed refection. Her hair is messy- and she almost laughs that that's what her brain zeros in on first-, It's also dirty, some of the mess is actual dirt but several spots are matted with half-dry blood. Her face is in a similar condition, smeared with dirt and blood but she can see the wounds there. Scrapes and still oozing cuts, bruises forming on one cheek bone and under her eyes. Her nose isn't quite right...broken probably. Her vision skims over her whole body for a second, making note of similar injuries where tears in her clothes reveal them. It's not as bad as she would expect a car crash victim to look- "except for that" Her mind screams suddenly while all her mouth can do is gasp, as her attention lands dizzyingly on her neck. It's...purple, but also red? There's no spilled blood but it still looks ugly, and the worst part is the...bump. It's not hard to figure out that it's a misaligned bone. Without the pain to tell her she never would have noticed, her neck is broken. Very broken. How is she holding her head up right... Probably because this isn't actually a physical body. She wonders if this is what killed her, or if there's something inside, something she can't see, that did the trick.

Whatever it is, she can't be seen like this. And she really really doesn't want to look like this for her own sake. Bill said she could 'clean herself up'? How exactly... She thinks about how Bill's powers tend to work and tries to concentrate on a cleaner, less beat up mental image of herself. She lifts her hand to her cheek and grazes her finger tips across it, a trail of sparkles follow the touch and the skin underneath returns to normal. She relaxes a little, watching the disaster wipe off her face like cheap make-up. She keeps the image in her mind and closes her eyes, cupping her hands in front of herself and imagining the sparkles pooling in them. Then she splashes the sparkles over he face, like a girl in a face wash commercial, and imagines the glittering dust washing over her entire body, cleaning away the mess and injuries. And when she opens her eyes, that's exactly what's happened. Her reflection shows her whole and unwounded, even her clothes are fixed.

The next thing she does is smooth her hair down, mostly an instinct since it's still messy, and the sparkles trail after her hands, tidying the strands as if she'd just brushed them. She watches her reflection's mouth quirk up a little in a small smirk. So she can just change what she looks like by imagining it? That figures, this is a place of daydreams that's kind of how they work. She knows exactly what to do with this, she's known since she was a kid what she's change if she could. She places the backs of her hands next to her ears and flicks up, sparkles spray up with the motion and her normal human ears, turn to wolf ears the fur the same chocolate brown as her hair. Her smirk blooms into a full blown smile, and she tilts her head to get a better look at them, watching them move as she tests them. It's like they're real! Next is the tail of course, it's mostly brown, with some silver down the top and a black tip. Then she looks down, and taps the toe of each of her shoes against the ground in turn, as she does they become the compressed paws of her own design.

"That's insane..." she laughs to herself. She's actually turning herself into something else, her own made up alien species. And she just can! With the big changes out of the way she works out the details; pupil shape, fang length, and straightens out a few asymmetries and insecurities she's always had about her body- after all why not? When she's done, she can't help admiring herself a little, turning this way and that in front of the mirror, her perfect image of herself. Well- almost perfect. She snaps her fingers and in the same dusting of glitter, her shirt changes. What was before a loose grey t-shirt with the word "nope" written across it in cursive, as been replaced by a cropped sweater, banded in 3 colors; white at the top, then light blue, then dark blue. She lifts it to look at the crop top under neither, it's just plain white. She decides she doesn't like it that way, so it changes to a cropped version of the t-shirt she'd had before. With that taken care of she lifts her arm so the over-sized sleeve falls down and she can see her forearm, which is covered by a light blue arm warmer with white lace around the edges. Perfect. At least for now. She can change later if she decides she doesn't like the arm warmers.

She giggles to herself, invigorated by the makeover and the sense of control she has now. She turns from the mirror and skips a few feet across the grass, the symbols she'd chosen follow her, floating loosely like beads suspended in gel. She laughs a little as she watches them, and idly reaches for her necklace again, but this time her hand just meets the soft knit of her sweater. She'd forgotten to add them into this new look, so she just wills them into place; three different necklaces of three different lengths. Her hand finds the middle length first, the pendant is designed to spin so she plays with it while her mind starts to wander. She starts thinking of plans for winning this game, what she might say to each other 'pawns' and who to use where and how, even letter her thoughts wonder about the new life she'll have. Cipher's hologram suggested she'll stay in Gravity Falls, which would be cool but what about-

The sound of screeching tires and twisting metal cuts her thoughts off clean and she whips around to find the source of the noise, but her fear turns to confusion when she sees...nothing. She stands stock still, her mind running over only vague impressions of thoughts relating to what she just heard, until another loud sound whips her back around. This time she actually sees something, like a huge firework in the pastel oil-slick sky, accompanied by Bill's obnoxious voice echoing through the space.

"Let the game begin!"

[allstarsstorymode867]

All-Stars -Story Mode- CHAPTER 15 Pt. 4

Part 3      Part 5

It’s been a rough typing and editing here and there on the fanfiction story, with patience and perseverance, I can finally post part 4 here.

I want you guys to give credit to @sampoststuff and @nan14bread for the artwork for Pt. 4 so give them love and follow them. Anyways, enjoy the part.

[Meanwhile with Primis Richtofen…]

“HELLO?!” P!Richtofen screamed as he ran around the area while looking around for his teammates, he is in an unknown place, a void of sunlight and the only surface is a water-like ground as it’s colored is in a crimson shade of red.

“Dempsey?! Takeo?! Nikolai!?” He called out as he looked around, water splashing around him and as much as he doesn’t want to admit it, he’s scared…. He’s afraid.

“But… B-but…” he babbled before hearing a female voice laughed, he knew that voice doesn’t belong to Samantha or anyone else but he knew this was not good.

“Enjoying yourself, Doctor?~ Are you feeling it now?~” the voice taunted while P!Richtofen looked around frequently, taking a couple steps back while doing so. The voice taunted him again saying “Those blood vials you’ve and your allies got, the qoute-unqoute “insurance policy” that you called it now, is it? You knew that “Doctor” Monty was going to bring it up and too bad for him, I am too powerful and smarter nerd than he is. I am on no one’s side but mine!~”

“J-Just…. Vho are you?!” he jabbed as he looked around the area, he’s helpless, weaponless and hopeless to stand against whoever’s behind all of this. Behind all of the chaos that has been going on.

“Who am I? Who am I??” the voice cried, sounded offended when he asked her, “Why “Minster” Richtofen! You sound feel honored to meet someone as broken and hopeless as you!” as Richtofen was obvious to the danger that is coming from behind him from within the water.

“I am beyond pain and ruin, above all else, I am Broken but I swear for the unspoken: I may be broken as a porcelain doll but I am still here!" she declared as Richtofen turned to see a little too late and saw tentacles made out of strange types of fabric had suddenly attacked. Richtofen tried to squirm his way out of them but they are much stronger than he thought.

He let out a scream as he is pulled downward into the raging water and babbles are popping out of his mouth, he tried struggling to get out when he felt something hit his head very hard, knocking him out cold.

Tentacles then dissolves into nothing as he floated downward towards the dark unknown below, his clothes began to change as well. The straps that are secured tightly around his torso had broken off and floated upwards with his blood vials.

[Drawn a while ago by Meaghan “Iceifr” Halter]

His clothes had changed color, his pants had turned from blue to red, his vest into teal green, his dress shirt into gray navy blue, he had even a long trench coat with two new straps and he even wore gloves. One more addition had appeared around his neck and a greek symbol, Delta is then linked on the chain string, forming a necklace as it glowed purple.

A song is playing softly in the background, it had sing:

Drowning in silence gasping and violent Crying and cold I know you never knew me I'm thinking all the way down In darker, deeper, freezing water

As he floated down backwards, making it look like he is falling from the sky head first into the abyss when a hand had reached out, a human hand, not a zombie, not Hallow. Just a normal human hand reaching from below him and then dragged him deeper into the water to which it’s started to turn from red to blue slowly as the song reaches to it’s fated end as everything is turning to white.

It's colder even now...

He then woke up, just like that, he found himself looking at the nighttime sky from where he’s at, it’s beautiful with all the stars and the moon out but that feeling that was there had short lived when he felt a sharp pain from his left arm.

He hissed in pain and then sat up to look at it and saw that his hand and arm are covered in cuts and thorns are still stuck in it. He reached for one thorn and then pulled it out and then recoiled back in pain.

“G-Guys?” Miss Pauling groaned as she rolled over, Diego is starting to wake up and then realized that he is on top of Scarlett, shocked by this revelation, he froze in place when Scarlett begins to wake up as well and noticed that she is under him.

Silence has filled around them for a moment as they looked at each other, “Well… This is a familiar situation.” he finally said as he looked at her, earning a sigh from her in return.

“What, you falling asleep on top of me?” she scolded as she gently pushes him off of her, Diego landed onto his back with a groan of pain as others around him began to wake up from their slumber.

“Oh… Mah head…” Engineer mumbled as he rubbed his head in aching pain, he looked around and noticed Pyro is about an itch far from him, “Pyro…” he muttered as he is surprised to see them lying on the ground before stumbling onto his feet and then ran to their side as he slid onto his knee-protecting caps he had strapped on.

“Pyro!” Engineer maintained from yelling, shaking them gently as he looked at them and noticed a crack on one of their eye lenses of their gas mask. “Aw hell, what happened when we’re out?” he demanded as he looked at them.

A muffed groan came out from them, Engineer looked at Pyro with relief and said “Thank god, you’re alright, Pyro.” just when Medic had awoken with a splitting headache.

Pyro looks at the Engineer and must’ve noticed they had a crack on the len of their mask, they must've panicked when they saw it when they saw Engineer so they had called out “Medic!”

“H-Huh…?” Medic said confused, looking over as he picked up his Medigun while Primis Nikolai and Shaw begins to wake up as well. He stumbled over to the two and kneels down to Pyro and asked “Are you hurt?” when he noticed a crack in the len, he rolled his eyes and then activated the Medigun right away without a word for a little bit for the len to be repaired.

P!Richtofen turned his head to the field and called out “Medic!” as he happened to use a cloth he had for the wounds on his arm to briefly stopped the bleeding, Medic looked over to the Primis Doctor after he finished fixing Pyro’s len. He ran over to him and then healed him with a medical beam with a usual pace and annoyed expression that Richtofen had acknowledged. “Does this happened often, Doctor?” he asked, the fellow German looked at the doctor with a confused look, “Hm? Oh… I had often gotten used to zhis routine, if you had discovered this type of healing medicine und zhen solution becomes a daily routine in zhe Gravel Wars.” he answered with honestly as he leaned a hand for the doctor, Edward then grabbed and then was pulled up onto his feet with Medic’s help. “It must’ve been a problem type zhan solution.” he said as he dusted himself off as Medic chuckled.

“It may be annoying problem but do not vorry mein friend, you’ll get used to it.” Medic humored with a smile, the way he talked reminds Richtofen of his friend and companion, Dr. Ludwig Maxis and looked up to him as a father figure when his parents passed away unexpectedly.

Nikolai is the one who noticed that they are no longer in the Caves but somewhere else they had never been.

“Where are we?” Nikolai groaned as he looked over to see Ultimis Dempsey and Takeo there as well, “Seems like an unfamiliar place,” Shaw stated as he surveyed the area and as well hearing sounds of a town going through some type of riot, “An unfamiliar place that is surrounding a park. How strange.”

“What the…” U!Dempsey muttered as he looked around with his Takeo who are astonished to see a place surrounding the natural park. “Guys… I think we’re in a mall.” Miss Pauling answered as the members of Primis, Chaos and Ultimis looked at her with even more confusion about the mall.

“The what?” Takeo questioned as he and Dempsey are suspecting about this place, “She said you are in a mall, what are you; deaf?” another new voice had suddenly chirped up with seriousness tone sharpen it.

They turned to look who had said that and see a very pale skin man wearing three layers of clothes: on his upper body, a button-up white shirt with a protruding collar kept partially buttoned, a plain gray hoodie, and a black leather jacket with a red interior, two horizontal white lines on each sleeve, and a red tribal design on the back. On his lower body, he wears plain blue jeans and black shoes.

He is standing with his back against a tree, his arms crossed together as he looked at them with his eyes are light blue and had constantly have a sickly gray tinting around them while he was wearing a hood over his head.

“Are you people lost or something?” the man said in an ominous tone, Takeo gently placed his hand on the handle of his katana sword as he felt a grim araroa coming off of him, Shaw swiftly held his arm out to stop him before he could draw it out.

The man seemed to have noticed this and said “I guess this outbreak had you guys on edge too, did it?” as he tilted his head to aside before walking towards them.

“Outbreak?” Nikolai said in shock, “What kind of outbreak is it?” he questioned as he took a couple of steps back away from this man approaching him. “Well, it’s a zombie-related outbreak and from what I can tell that this town is infested with them by now.” he answered as he stopped in his tracks.

Everyone looked at each other in shock and overwhelmed while the man watched, Pyro did turn their head back at him to look at, they are wasn't so sure if they all should trust him after since they had just meet him tonight and also… He was almost not human-like at all.

“How bad was it?” Dempsey ordered, feeling his marine side kicking in as he looked at the man, he had an almost expressionless look and he answered “I think it’s best that you should see it for yourselves but be careful, there are people that are still ass-shaken with all the hell happened.”

“Gotcha.” Dempsey nodded and looked over to everyone, waves his hand for them to follow him and then looks at the man before saying “I’m Dempsey, thanks for the help.” “The name’s Alex Mercer by the way, and you’re welcome.” the now-named man said before turning around and then walking away with Dempsey protesting “Hey, where ya going?”

Alex only turned around and looked at him, “Going for a place to hide like other survivors here and if we ever meet up again, I will be generous to help you guys out.” he cautioned as he turned and then continued walking away.

Ultimis Dempsey shook his head as he turned to everyone and said, “Alright, let’s go see the damages.” then walking ahead of the group and others did so.

[45 minutes later]

They all got there and they saw townspeople screaming, crying and panicking as they held their loved ones close, their confused and don’t know what to do, one hispanic man in a black dress shirt had got up with a bat, the woman, presumingly his girlfriend or wife had got up and asked “H-Hey! Where are you going?!”

“Stay alive! I’m getting help!” he answered as he headed for the direction of the zombie’s groans, “With those f*&^ing things out there, are you insane?!” she yelled as she stood there after she stopped following him.

“Yeah!”

“But it’s not safe!” Black african man with a yellow dress shirt with a tie and brown pants and leather shoes yelled, putting his hand on his shoulder to stop him, making him look at him in anger and disbelief.

“Brad!” another female voice called out, a white caucasian woman wearing grey formal clothing, under shirt, necklace, skirt and black shoes is kneeling down to one of the townies and that he was injured, making Brad let go of the bat-helding man to go over to her.

They are seeing them trying to treat the person as Brad said “How bad is it, Jesse?” as he looked at him and seeing a bite mark on his left wrist. Jesse can only answer “Pretty bad, Brad.”

Miss Pauling wasn’t sure what to make out of this chaos that is undergoing as she looked over to other group of survivors. One woman with a cellphone that she had never seen before and it looked brand new as she is trying to get out a call but couldn’t as she said “I… I can’t get a signal… Why- Why can’t I get a signal?”

Man who was traumatized then begins to babble things such as this “I-I was holding onto her and t-they had her, she was there for a minute then suddenly she went down with those things without a sound a-and I don’t know what to do, I-I just ran!” while he moved around constantly.

Richtofen was busy as he looked at the survivors until he looked at a young woman, the only one that doesn’t look modern as everyone else.

Her skin is sickly pale with disheveled shoulder-length dull brown hair, which looked like it was growing back after it had been once cut off against her will. Her cheeks are gaunt and she looks even more borderline anorexic and exhausted. Her eyes have darkened skin around them, giving the impression that she is tired or has been crying. He noticed that the cuts were her suicide cuts on her once-bloody wrists appear to have been healed.

She looked like was suffering from poverty and couldn't afford basic clothing, someone must have given her clothes. For what she wears, she wears a filthy black-and-white dress with a striped, long-sleeved top and black skirt, complete with black stockings, ankle-high boots, and a dirty white apron.

Young woman was underweight and fragile figure; she is borderline anorexic with a dangerously small waist, implying malnourishment. She has dark hair, a long oval-shaped face and large eyes with a shade of emerald-green. She is of average height for a woman, possibly slightly under average.

She was looking at the situation they are in before noticing Richtofen was looking at her as she looked back, looking at him with a look that can only say “We need to get out of here.” with her hand close to her face.

Richtofen was heading to her but another african man had cut in front of him, one thing the Doctor had noticed that his man is in his mid-50s, around 6 feet tall (1.83 m), mark on his neck is his thickly scar on his neck and he appeared to be wearing a normal civilian’s clothing; he is wearing a dress shirt with a black coat, black jeans and casual black shoes.

“Hey!” he said, “You can go around flirting around women later but can’t you see the situation we are in?!” as he points at the see-through doors with zombies that are… Confusing.

They looked like they were eaten, their eyes are glowing red as they are scratching their arms and necks like they had an itch. Their injuries are usual as their zombies are, with open wounds and guts spilled out but one thing that stands out the most is that they are not trying to get in or banging their hands on the glass.

Engineer and Richtofen looked at where the man had pointed in awe, “Dang it.” Engineer said, “I know, it’s already gotten worse for everything here in a small town called “Willamette” and I can tell…” the man growled, like he was mad at someone he knows.

“I can tell he did this! Jigsaw did this! This is another of his twisted games!” he yelled as he holds his head with his hands, everyone around looked at him confused. “Who is Jigsaw?” Richtofen’s thought said through his skull.

“This Jigsaw fellow behind this zombie outbreak, son?” Engineer said as he continued to look at doors with the dead being on the other side of it, avoiding the gazes of other people who were surprised to hear it.

“Those things have a name?” one man asked, another man who gave him a glare and then answered “Told ‘cha! Like in the George A. Romero’s zombie movies about them!”

“True.” Brad said, “But we already know killing them in the head is possible.” he continued, Nikolai nodded and said “True, comrade.”

“But still, it’s sure to block this one of all entrances here to keep them all out for sure until help arrives.” an old man added, “If we all do that; then we sure as dog on a stool we will be safe.”

He was standing beside Dempsey when he nudged him a little as he reassured others, “But hey! Best parts that we had already known about these “zombies” is that when we ran away, they’re too slow and dumb.”

“Good to know.” Miss Pauling said as she raised an eyebrow to this, the friendly old man clapped his hands together and then said, “Alright, time to seacure the mall. As long as all of you know what is going on, check every nook and cranny here for any stuff heavy enough for you can find then meet us back here. Now get!” as he clapped his hands like a referee, “Move ‘er out! Go!” before ushering them away.

Unsure with what’s happened, other that they are receiving stares from the people around them, most of them are looking at them with suspicions, some of them are looking at them like their prayers had been answered.

“Like one zombie situation after another.” Richtofen had thought to himself, looking around him and to the survivors around them. He noticed that this man he had stopped him earlier is now walking with them.

“Um… Do ve help you?” he asked, trying not to sound too weirded out by this behavior. “Going with you, not to know what is going on but to find Jigsaw.” he said like it explains everything behind his reason.

“Alright then…?” he said, “Zhen you tell us vhy you vant to help.” Richtofen soon asked the man beside him. “It’s my own reason but I want to help to make sure everyone is safe. Police had the idea that goes with the Serve and Protect mottos when I had once go by as an officer.” “Wait, you’re a cop?” Miss Pauling asked, looking at him with scared and surprised with the fear of one police officer to find out about the Gravel Wars in her world. “I am a detective,” he answered, looking at her as he walked ahead. “I’m David Tapp, I work as a detective and I am working on the case of the killer named''Jigsaw ``. You?”

“Miss Pauling,” she introduced to herself, “And these people is my team are with me.” she continued as she jesters everyone to him. “Hello” Nikolai greeted the detective but David only turned away from him to look at Richtofen with suspicion to winch Nikolai is quite familiar with.

He had his suspicions with his Richtofen, Primis version of the original for all he had done and had always doubts about plans of saving their future but this man is somewhat different, reasons behind it was something that person is truly obsessed with something or someone.

*Something like this fills you with… *Worry for David Tapp’s obsession and his sanity.

“Yet, earlier you had said that this “Jigsaw” had done this, is it true?” Nikolai questioned, making Tapp look right at him with a glare and then answered “I didn’t but if I’d find evidence that he did this then I couldn’t wait until I get my hands on him and then make him pay for all of this.”

Others began getting to work with the job of barricading as they listened to David’s story.

[Drawn by SamPostsStuff on Tumblr]

“Oookay?” Scarlett said as she listened to the conversion, David could only say to her, “You had no idea what he is capable off, he would make- no, force you to play his sick game like a puzzle or a riddle until you will “appreite” life and be “reformed” but I know that he is killing druggies and innocent people.”

Scarlett is a bit intrigued by his determination and she noticed that he had an obsession with this Jigsaw so she had decided to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t become something possibly dangerous if it had gotten to the point of insanity after not catching the killer he had explained, but they had another objective to get it done first; Barricade the mall.

“Winch one entrance should we start off first?”  Scarlett asked over her shoulder, looking for a map of the mall as U!Takeo had said while looking at one map he had found “Entrance Plaza?” making others turned and looked at him who is still looking at the map confused.

[From Dead Rising Fandom Wiki, the map from the First Dead Rising Video Game]

They looked at the map and they are both amazed and confused to see the map, except for Engineer, Pyro, Medic, Spy and Miss Pauling who knew what this map had meant and she noticed a promment that had the same map on it. With all the names of each store and everything that is useful to their advantage.

Miss Pauling looked at it for a moment as she knew this could be useful later and she did think about that Alex Mercer who had meet them earlier and would try to join them to face against whatever threat is to them, she then hurryingly stuffed it in her pouch for later.

*You had gotten the map of Willamette Shopping Mall! *It could be useful for future use. *That or just kill time in a mall like this.

Miss Pauling looked at the text below her and made a mental note to acknowledge it in the future, looking over to the entrance as well with her teammates before saying “Alright, Entrance Plaza it is. Best to work.” to everyone around her.

“Then let’s get started barricading.” U!Dempsey said as he walked over to a pile of thin-ish wood planks and picked them up. P!Richtofen and Scarlett looked at each other and then going over to the wooden beam and then them working together, picked it up with their hands, Scarlett’s being gloved and Richtofen’s bare handed, he didn’t complain since they are in the middle of another zombie outbreak but he had hoped this couldn’t be worse than the one back in Northern France.

Spy stood there, presiding as he took another drag of smoke and then said “Best to do what she said, gentlemen.” as he looked over to the Engineer and Med who nodded as the Texen picked up a few scattered wooden boards and a hammer.

Diego ad been watching them from the stairs been watching when he noticed Pyro had started up the stairs and he didn’t mind it since this is another time he had during the heist that went wrong and started an outbreak on the Titanic, the ship that had sunk into the ocean’s cold embrace of water. But he had remembered that everyone that had turned into zombies had returned to normal after they finished the trial and seeing the gateway that Shaw had identified Delphi, Greece and… He hardly remembered what happened next. He knew that he needs to try harder on remembering how they all got there.

“I wonder who that victorian girl is, she seemed familiar…” Richtofen thought as he and Scarlett made their way to the entrance, he looked at it once again and made note of it mentally if they break the glass of the door and grabbed him, he will not hesitate to fight back when needed.

They then placed it when Engineer walked over as well and with Shaw’s help, they hold the board up on one of the doors and then hammered the nails in with each hit. Diego and Medic had picked up a bench and moved it at the doors.

People of the small town of Willamette simply watched before deciding to not to stand around being victims and then be survivors like they were in a movie set or something. Then much like clockwork; they helped them barricade the entrance after their group had spent seven minutes to warm up the barricading for the townsfolk.

Feeling a bit tired, Richtofen decided to rest easy as he pressed against a pillar and then slid down as Medic and Scarlett looked over their shoulders to see this. They go over to him to see if he is alright but he relented “Don’t vorry, I’ll be alright, I’m just tired.” as they kneel down to his level.

“Are you sure?” Scarlett asked, Richtofen nodded as he looked at her. “I am sure, I zhink vith me staying up for so long fighting zhese zhings had me sleep deprived.” he continued as he rubbed his eye out of tiredness, Medic places his hand on his shoulder after he told him this and said softly “I understand, it had been tiring on our mission und being brought here. Rest easily mein friend.” with a smile, what he said softly is to make sure no one around them wasn’t able to year.

Richtofen wasn’t sure about but he nodded, he wasn’t used to sleeping like this with his bear as he watched them go off, possibly going back to barricading the entrance as he thought it that way. He felt too tired, he wanted to fight it, fight it ro stay awake before he knew that he’s losing as his eyes fluttered closed for a moment and then…

He snapped his eyes back open as he muttered “Nein! Nien… I can’t sleep now! Zhe entrance must be…” but then he looked around his surrounds as he finished “Closed off…?”

There were people here before, his teammates, the survivors, zombies… Everyone. But now, it was completely deserted, empty, like they had been erased from existence as Richtofen got back on his feet and then looked around. “Hello? Scarlett? Miss Pauling? David?” he called out as he walked around the area, the barricade is still up to winch it was a relief to him.

“Vhere is everyone?” he questioned to himself, “Edward… Please, keep yourself together, zhey must’ve gone someplace else, getting more zhings for zhe barricade.” he reassured himself as he noticed something in his eyesight.

A white rabbit with a top hat and a pocket watch, it’s eyes seemed familiar, one eye is green yet the other eye was white, it clicked in his mind that it is blind in one eye. He found himself in a staring contest with the white rabbit as it- as he looked back at him.

Then finally, he said with Stanton Shaw’s voice; “Come quickly, Eddie, we must go to her. We must not be late.” before he taps on his watch to the puzzled Doctor before turning around and then runs off as the gate opens up for him.

Richtofen then found himself running off to go after the white rabbit as he called out “Wait! Stant- I mean Rabbit! Wait!” as he ran as fast as his legs can carry him, hoping to gain some speed on him. He was surprised that the White Rabbit had been around Shaw’s height and he can run and then hopped every now and then as they run across the mall.

“Wait! Rabbit! Wait for me! Vhat do you mean by “Her”?” he yelled out after him as the White Rabbit slid on the floor and then went into another section of the mall: Paradise Plaza.

“Wait!” he called out again as he enters the plaza but he was shocked to see that the White Rabbit had disappeared, he looked around the plaza as he looked around for him but he can’t see him. “Vhere did he go…? Und vhy does he sound like Shaw?” he thought as he continued to look around. He then heard a crack and then felt a jolt from before.

He looked at his feet and his eyes widen when he saw that the floor he is standing on is breaking, another cranked and he was about to run off the breaking floor but it was too late for him to do that as the floor gave way and he fell through it with a yell.

A voice he heard was a man’s voice, it sang:

I invite you to a world where there is no such thing as time.

He listened to that voice closely as he felt some comfort from it strangely as he fell down the hole, the Rabbit Hole he had fallen into.

And every creature lends themselves to change your state of mind. And the girl that chase the rabbit, drank the wine and took the pill. Has locked herself in limbo to see how it truly feels.

Wonderland, that answer to that riddle is Wonderland but Richtofen is confused yet continued to listen as he felt a cool wind wrapping around him.

To stand outside your virtue, no one can never hurt you. Or so they say…

Her name is Alice.

She crawls through the window, shaped in shadows.

Alice Alice

And even though she’s dreaming, she knows.

Richtofen was lost in the song before everything around him had gone black, he can’t see through the pitch black darkness and he couldn’t feel anything but a cool wind around him and his body.

He then see a clearing from below him as he found himself floating down gently, a cyan blue glow had revealed that he is wearing different clothing, he looked at his gloved hands and then at the trench coat as he landed on his feet softly on the sand.

[Reference sheet of P!Richtofen’s Wonderland costume “Dead Wonderer” by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter”]

“How unusual…” he spoke softly, dumbfounded, he then noticed on his side it was a holder and it meant to be a knife. “It seemed to be empty.” he said as he looked around and slowly realized…

He is under water, literally, there’s seaweed, coloral, fish and crabs anywhere and everywhere. At first, he panicked, he began swimming but then realized that he wasn’t drowning as he thought as he slowed down the pace while he breathed in water and air bubbles coming out.

“How… How is zhis possible?” He asked as he looked at his hands in disbelief, “How can I breath underwater vhen I don’t have gills as fishes do?” he questioned, he looked down at his feet as he placed his hands on his head as he breathed more in hopes of calming down his heart rate but something shiny hits his eye. He blinked and then looked at object that is reflecting the light.

There, in the rock was a knife, a Vorpal Knife wedged into it and his reflection had his attention. He wasn’t sure why but he was mesmerized by it and walked towards it with a calming pace, he walked towards the rock and then gently grabs the knife by the handle and then… Pulled it out of its place.

He examined the knife and each detail of it, his fingers had touched the blade and felt it’s smooth touch. “Vhat is zhis knife? It had a different metal from vhat I remembered.” he asked internally to himself.

“It is the Vorpal blade you had in your hands.” a voice echoed out, he turned around with the verbal knife in his right hand, ready to fight as he looked around for the voice. “Is there someone there?” he caugtion, as he kept his eyes open for anyone who will appear.

“Or something?” a voice cooed out, it sounded close in his ear and that made him jump at the voice and slashed in thin air. He looked around for the voice with his feet having a mind of their own as he walked around and then questioned “Who are you?”

“Who am I?” it answered, sounded offended, “You should know me, Edward Richtofen. You know my tricks and my stripes in stories. Ticks and fruits are often ripes for each taking.” it continued, he was surprised that the voice knew his name but left out the “Doctor” from it. “I must be losing it but…” He muttered to himself before letting out another question.

“Vhere are you?”

“Follow the grin I wore, so you will be krin to know who I am as you are sore.” the voice said softly as Richtofen clearly felt the voice is actually grinning when it spoke out a hint, hint within a riddle.

He then looked around with caution as he held tightly on the knife in his hands as he walked around in a swordsman's pace. His eyes scanned the area for anyone or anything but didn’t see who the voice belongs to but then thought about the riddle for a moment and then it clicked in his head; Find the grin.

He then continued to look around for anyone who had a grin and then noticed a wall of the cave he’s in, he realized that it had a very defying detail on it; a grin and it’s eyes opened up. Richtofen gasped at the sight in disbelief.

Then the rest of hit’s body appeared, his body in detail that is very familiar to him yet at the same time; it was unfamiliar at the same time.

It was the Cheshire Cat but vaguely resembles a Sphinx cat, with its very thin coat of fur and thin body shape. The Cheshire Cat has taken an emaciated, almost skeletal appearance; his bones can be seen through his fur-less, gray skin. His decaying starved appearance is suggestive of a cat carcass that has been rotting for years.

He has a large head and paws, a disturbingly human-like smile which is sometimes seen spattered with blood, a long neck, sharp claws, big pointed ears, and a long tail with a tuft of fur on the end. He wears a gold hoop earring in his right ear, and his skin is covered with black markings similar to tribal tattoos. His smile looks maniacal, and he appears to have under-grown yellow incisors that are covered in blood. His eyes are also green, and glow with a bright, illuminating light.

“Congrations, Edward, you had found me.” he said as he walked over to him as he looked at the cat with confusion and disbelief. “It can’t be… You can’t be real…” He uttered as Cheshire Cat stops with a constant smile. “I can be, I can not be but here, it’s either winch.” he said in a rhyme and cryptic tongue, “As much you prefer me to be but I prefer my own choices, much to an ice on a cake much as your mind would rake.” he continued as he hopped onto a broken old beam that was once a part of an old world ship.

Richtofen seemed annoyed at this but watching the cat walking as he said “If you are real, then do such things so I can confirm that I am losing mein mind.”

Cheshire Cat seemed to like the idea and then said “Persistent one, are you Richtofen?” as he stopped near a rusted flag pole before finishing “Since you had offered, I do insist.” and then walking but didn’t come out on the other side of the flagpole. He had disappeared once again, Richtofen was surprised to see this and walked over to the flagpole to see if he had used a flag to disappeared but he realized quickly that the pole is missing the flag.

Richtofen didn’t realized that Cheshire had reappeared again but this time, from behind him as he looked at him.

[Drawn traditionally by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter]

“Is this proof that you are needed, Edward?” he spoke up, making Richtofen turned around in shock, he then shook his head and then walked back to the rock where he had picked up the Verbal Knife and then placing it back in place.

“Zhis is enough, vhen I placed zhis back you will just disappear.” Richtofen said as he did this but Cheshire is still in fact there, in the full view of Edward’s, he floated upwards in the air/water and padding around him as he said “When you do that, and who are you be?”

Richtofen sneered a glare at the cat and said in a confrontal yet calm voice he can muster, “I am not insane, I am a doctor und I vill leave zhis nonsense including you behind und forget zhat zhis had happened!” as he began to walk away but Cheshire Cat stops him “Alright, be on your way then. I can not stop you but she would be disappointed that you’re not coming.” he relented that made Richtofen stopped in his tracks.

“Vho is she?” Richtofen asked under his breath, sensing the Cat is walking over to him and gone in front of him with the same grin he wore. “Alice, her name is Alice Liddel, I believe to an ace that you know her.” he answered, as he disappears and then reappears next to the Vorpal blade as he said this next.

“As for the Vorpal blade in hand,” as the knife has widge itself free from its place, then floated over to him as Richtofen turned around to see the Cheshire Cat but to see a floating knife coming towards him. He yelled out in surprise but watched at the knife had lends itself a handle for him to grab.

“It’s your and Alice’s only weapon in Londerland, a mix of London and Wonderland been put together as one. It is your only weapon to ensure your sanity, if you manage to get to her with it then you will be brought back to your realm that is reality to you. Shall you take this deal or not?” he spoke again with his paw gestures for him to take the Vorpal blade.

Richtofen was thinking about it for a moment as he spoke on his mind, “If I refuse, I will go… Gone insane as my original self but if I do….” He then cursed under his breath as he had made his choice and then grabbed the Vorpal Blade.

*You have gotten the Vorpal Blade! *The knife made from the metal that had slayed the Jabberwocky in one of Alice’s stories. *Best to hold onto it for now.

“I am now more insane than myself.” Richtofen sighed in defeat, “Now,” Cheshire Cat began with the same grin but it felt like it was satificanified, “we must go to meet her now, when and how then again I will lead the way.” he said then he hopped off and walked off, before P!Richtofen could walk off after him, he noticed something at his point of view, a small purple 4 pointed star, just flickering softly of it’s own light as it had rested on top of a treasure chest.

He wasn’t sure why but he was once again curious and then walked over to it, he was hesitant to let his hand touch it as thoughts about the star; was it a 115 star? Was the Apothicans doing this? Was Dr. Monty doing this?

His hand had neared the star when the Delta pendent glowed purple once again, he looked at it with looks of bewilderment, he lightly touched with his other hand and then turned to the star again. Then a text appeared before him, it said:

[Dead Wonderland (P!Richtofen’s Mental World)]

*First we are taken from our respective universe and now this?

*If I want to know more, I must persevere.

[Drawn by Nan14Bread on Tumblr]

[ED. RICHTOFEN  LV 45  11:52]

[Dead Wonderland - Mental Realm]

>Save           Return

Richtofen holds his hand as he looked at the text as the necklace continued to glow, he then looked at the word “Save” that is glowing yellow, he once again reaches his hand out to the text and then accidentally pressed it.

[ED. RICHTOFEN  LV 45  11:54]

[Dead Wonderland - Mental Realm]

[File saved]

[HP restored]

“Incredible…” Richtofen muttered in amazement as he saw a swirl of purple magic surrounded him and felt the same warm feeling deep down, he felt new and resurrected for a strange reason. He was thinking about it for barely a minute when Cheshire Cat reappeared once more and called out “Are you coming, Edward?”

He snapped his head up again before running over to the cat to catch up, he looked back at the star one last time before turning his attention to the pendent he’s wearing, he recognized the greek symbol due to the shape of it like this “Δ” and was confused on why he is wearing.

“I hope for your sake zhat Alice is here, isn’t she?” Richtofen said as he placed the knife in its sheath while he walked along the sandy road with Cheshire Cat walking beside him. “Eye of the storm is often to stream of voices along the path to your Otherland.”

“Otherland?” he asked, looking at him with curiosity as he tried to avoid the fish heading their way. “Mental states of mind, Edward, her ability to travel into their worlds freely whenever she pleases. With yours is quite…. Starting to say the least or the rather of it is quite lasting nightmares.” the Cat had explained as Richtofen listened to him while he looked around.

“Do you think that I had-” he was beginning to say but Cheshire had used his paw to halt him, looking alerted and said “Best to get out your weapon, we had unexpected company.” before disappearing.

Richtofen looked around as he got the knife out and readied himself for anything that can fight back, then he saw the same creatures, the Hallows but they all looked…. Different than before.

(Two types: Alpha Hallow and Omega Hallow, created by Broken yet drawn by Meaghan “Icefir” Halter)

It was as tall as a velociraptor as it nearly looked like one but with dog bones mixed, fur had covered it’s neck as it gone from its head all the way back to the tip of its tall, more cracks are all over its body, antennas are longer and almost instinct like.

He readies himself for the fight against this different type of Hallow.

[shadowofthelamp]

Mysteries and Memories

Summary:  Other Yugi is curious about his past, and Ryou is interested in both the history of the Items and the fact that he’s a ghost. They decide to talk.

Would you believe I’ve been floating around an idea like this for more than a year? And then I just wrote it out in like an hour at 2am last night and edited it up now. Just go for it, kids. I really like how this came out- I feel actually pretty confident about the characterization, which is nice.

Comments/reblogs//replies/tags are super appreciated!

AO3 Link

Wordcount: 1903

Warnings: None

Ship: Light Other Yugi/Ryou.

“Hello?”

Ryou straightened up as he heard a voice.

“Yugi?”

“It’s… me.”

“Oh, other Yugi then.” Ryou hurried over to unlock the door. “So you wanted to take my offer?”

When he was flustered and glancing away, it was remarkable how little you one could tell him and Yugi apart. They shared a body, of course, but usually Ryou had seen him in duels- confident, ramrod straight, with a barking voice and a confident smirk. Now, he didn’t seem to know what to do. Other than a slight correction of the slouch Yugi always had (really, didn’t he hate being seen as short, why would he slouch, Ryou wondered) the only difference was the way his bangs stuck up like static electricity and how the Puzzle hummed like static from a TV.

“Yes, I… if there’s anything you can do to help, it would be appreciated.”

“Come on in.” Ryou nudged the house slippers towards him with his toe. “I left the Ring in my closet- he didn’t like you being here, but as long as you don’t rob me blind, he’ll just have to deal.”

“I would never-!”

Ryou waved a hand. “Joking, joking. I made some tea so we can talk.” Other Yugi just blinked at that.

“…Okay.” He untied his shoes, then slid the slippers on, plodding into Ryou’s apartment. “It’s kind of a mess in here.”

“I’d say it usually isn’t like this, but it is. It’s livable.” Ryou shrugged. “He doesn’t exactly care about keeping tidy, but as long as he doesn’t cause any more trouble, I’ll let a few dirty dishes slide. Didn’t he help Yugi the other day, when I woke up at the Black Clown?”

“The experience is… fuzzy, but he did.” Other Yugi confirmed.

“See? He’s getting better.” Ryou poured the tea into two glasses. “Sugar?”

“I’ll have one.” Other Yugi sat down, and Ryou plopped a little cube into his drink, before adding two to his own, stirring it around.

“So. You want answers.”

“The Spirit of the Ring seems to have some and I… we don’t exactly get along.” He said slowly.

“I’ve noticed.” Ryou said dryly. “But that puts us on the same playing field- I keep wearing the Ring both because he’s starting to be a bit less of an ass after I helped beat him in the Monster World game, and because I want answers. About who you two are, where the Items came from, anything either of you can give me. If I help you find out who and what you are, then I get what I want.” He leaned forward across the table. “So. Is there anything you remember? Anything at all?”

“I thought I was Yugi for… six months, was it? There was always an itching feeling in the back of my neck that something was off, but he called me out in moments of stress, so all I wanted to do was solve the problem. I had access to his memories, and I assumed any confusion was just due to the fact that I was close to being hurt or something was hurting my friends.” He fiddled with the chain of the Puzzle, links clicking against each other.

“I’m pretty sure he mine knew he was different- he seemed to know you existed, anyways.” Ryou said. “He was trying to impress me, in some weird way. I would have preferred chocolates instead of people in comas, but eh. Live and learn.” Ryou cleared his throat.

“So, he had some idea that he was a separate consciousness, a different soul. He still hasn’t given me a name to call him, though, so although he pretends he’s just holding it back, he doesn’t remember everything either.” He took a sip of his tea. “Let’s lay out what we know. The Items are from Egypt. He’s said he was a robber, stealing valuables like them, and that you were… some kind of protector of them, maybe?”

“That would make sense, but Shadi seems to have that part covered.” He Other Yugi stirred the cubes of sugar, watching them dissolve as heat radiated from the tea. “Sometimes, when the light hit my hands wrong, Yugi’s bracelets and pale skin looked wrong off , like I was wearing a costume. I’m fairly certain I had dark skin.”

Ryou pulled out a small notepad and scribbled that down. “Is there anything else?”

He drummed the nail of his index finger against the table in a sharp staccato. “If there is anything, it’s as if it disappears as soon as I’m aware of it. My soul room is a giant maze, and if I ever find anything, it’s locked away the next time I turn around. It’s frustrating, to say the least.”

“I can imagine.” Ryou said, scratching his pen against the paper. It was something, at least- he’d never seen any soul rooms besides his own. Were they all different or was that something to do with being inside of an Item? Goodness knew that he’d never gotten past the black hole that was the Ring Spirit’s front door, and he’d lost more than a few pieces of soul room that he’d prodded at it with trying. “Your room’s a maze- have you ever tried changing it?”

He nodded. “A few times, but it’s stubborn. I’m in a Puzzle, after all, and it doesn’t like trying to change the rules. What little I can do is always set back once Yugi and I switch, and it’s never more than the entrance.”

“All right, I’m going to try something.” Ryou stood up, walking over to his room and nudging a tall basket full of laundry with his hip on the way. Other Yugi sipped at his tea, looking around the apartment.

Ryou had a video game system set up, as well as notebooks open everywhere. From what he could see, they all had either writings or drawings, probably of Monster World campaigns. He still had the transparent glass cube that had all of them together in it, with Other Yugi holding up a die.

Huh. Either Ryou had fought to keep it or the Ring spirit didn’t care to throw it away. Either one was probably a good sign.

“Found it!” Ryou came out waving a small device that looked sort of like a remote control. It had some colors on the top, set up like piano keys.

“What’s that?”

“An EMF detector. Really, this is more for curiosity’s sake than anything- it helps detect electromagnetic field radiation.”

He just stared blankly at him.

“You can use it to sense a lot of stuff, but right now, it’s useful because it can sense ghosts. I’m just curious how strongly it will detect you, since you’re technically a ghost possessing Yugi right now. The Ring makes it go off even when I’m not wearing it.”

“Huh.” He tilted his head as Ryou approached, and he heard a crackling noise.

“Yep, it’s going to yellow, it can definitely- oh.” He was right in front of Other Yugi now, and the needle strained at red, making an angry buzzing noise. “Huh. I guess it’s stronger when it’s an active possession.”

“I’m not possessing- ”

“I know, I know, you both consented and all that. Still, it was at the edge of pink with the Ring, it’s definitely deep in the red with you. I’ve never tried it when the Ring was on. Maybe this thing isn’t used to active shadow magic?” Ryou hit the side of it, and it started smoking. “Oh. Guess so.” He started walking backwards, and nearly tripped over a chunk of solid foam. Other Yugi jumped up, moving to grab him, when Ryou backed up. “I’m fine! I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I do really need to clean up in here one of these days…” He blew up at his bangs , to get them out of his eyes, turning to walk a few steps and then tossing the EMF meter onto his bed. “Is Yugi watching? I usually don’t,   the Ring spirit gets prickly sometimes if I get in on his time.”

“Not today, but usually.” Other Yugi said. “He said he’d like me to have my space about this.”

“Oh. Well, that was nice of him.” Ryou looked around. “I don’t exactly have much else to offer… want to play a round of duel monsters? No death games or anything, but I didn’t get to play at all during Duelist Kingdom.”

Other Yugi felt around in his pockets. “Let me- ah!” He pulled out his deck. “Yugi usually keeps it in his jacket.”

“Dork.” Ryou said, as if he wasn’t grinning and two feet away from a half-built scale model of a medieval castle.

As it turned out, Ryou was just as ruthless in gaming as the Ring Spirit- if his reckless bravery during the Monster World incident hadn’t convinced Other Yugi of it, this would have done it. He played innocent at first, but used Dark Necrofear to turn his Dark Magician against him. That caused another twinge in his chest, but he wasn’t quite sure why.

“And with dark magic burning, I take out the rest of your life points.” He grinned, shifting the Dark Magician card with the pad of his thumb.

“That was well-played.”

“Well, I got lucky- you had a bad hand at the end there. But yeah, I did pretty well.” He beamed, clearly proud. “Did you get a time limit?”

He glanced at his watch. “Yugi said just be back at the shop by dinner.”

“You should probably go, then.” Ryou handed back the Dark Magician and started collecting his cards.

“I noticed something. When you took the Dark Magician, I… I felt something. I think there’s something with that card.”

Ryou nodded. “I’ll add it to my notes. Just tell me if you come up with anything.” He sighed. “He has a card like that too. Whatever I know, he’ll know, but I don’t think there’s anything you told me that he’d really be able to get much use out of.”

“I appreciate your help anyhow.” He bowed his head, and Ryou reciprocated. “Besides, it was… nice, to not have to deal with life-or-death situations.”

“Don’t I know the feeling. Tell Yugi that either of you are welcome, as long as you call first.” Ryou said, sliding his deck back into its case.

He smiled, setting his own deck back into place. “I’ll be sure to pass it along.”

Ryou rubbed the back of his neck. “And… it was kind of nice, hanging out. After everything with people falling into comas, I kind of backed down on casual friends. This wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

Other Yugi laughed at that. “I’ll take ‘not a disaster’. We’ll see you at school.”

Ryou smiled, and it was a little crooked but a lot charming. Somehow, in the back of his mind, he saw how girls flocked to him. He had a kind of effortless charm that he buried under a quick dark wit and a tendency to get lost in his own head, if the times he’d showed up late for class due to ‘campaign planning’ was any indication. “See you.”

Other Yugi was caught up in thought enough that he almost forgot his sneakers at the door and left in the slippers, which made Ryou laugh.

He liked the sound.

[trickstersantana]

[Para] SantanART Contest Duel

Who: Santana, @ellnaturae @shiftingdani Location: Park of Florence Farr School Time: 25 February 2019 Summary: Santana gets Free Art from artist Ell and Dani also monster discussions.  Triggers/Notes: Violence, death, corpses, body horror

Santana called Elliott and Dani to hang out next to the park of Florence Farr School of Magical Performing Arts. Because it has Art at the end, wich obviously means it gives strenght to artist to do a better job. It was all well thought. "Well, well, artist. You are here to Battle. With your pencils because the pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is broken and the pen is very pointy. This is..." She makes an illusion of confettig and sounds effect of people cheering and clapping to reveal in floating neon lights. "SantanART CONTEST DUEL: Who is the better artist?" She dissiped the illusion. "So, are you guys ready?"

Dani wasn´t quite sure what exactly they were doing, but she enjoyed the opportunity to get out of her room and away from studying and if that meant she got to spend some time with her friends. What she hadn´t expected, however, was some sort of art duel. "Huh?" Dani couldn´t quite hide the smile on her face as she watched the confetti illusion fall. She was a good artist, but she was definitely a little out of practice. "Okay. But I do have a pretty cool sword," she pointed out with a laugh. "What are we drawing?"

Elliott arrives with his bag full of notebooks and art supplies, if he wasn't wrong Santana wanted him to draw something but he saw Dani was there too and then the confetti. He chuckles "An art competition? Sounds fun" he winks at Dani "What's the prize though?" he teases Santana.

Santana looks at Dani, very interested. "Oh, my my, a sword? Did you studied the blade when everyone was busy being heterosexual?" She joked. "Since when do you have a sword and why I haven't seen it?" Elliott mentioned prizes. "Aw, don't artist want to enjoy art for the art or something like that? What about the pleasure of victory?" She complained. "I have some useful items if you want them, thought. Potions, bear plushies who make you stronger, you know it." She comments. Dani already had 1 point for asking what they should draw instead of the prize. "Anyway. I'll show you an illusion of a woman I saw. I want a realistic portrait of her. I don't have any pictures and I can't share illusions over the internet. I want to find if someone knows her."

Dani put down her bag and pulled out a sketch pad and a couple of pens. "I haven´t had it for very long, St. Pierre gave it to me for apparently not killing anyone with the net gun," she joked and settled down, giving Elliott another smile. She wasn´t going to complain about getting a prize, though Dani really would enjoy spending time with her friends. "Any other special requests? Colored portrait? Charcoal?" It did seem like Santana was definitely up to something, but for now Dani was just going to let it go and focus on the drawing.

Elliott narrows his eyes, even though he isn't really upset, he is serious about what he is going to say "Hey, art is a job like any other, artists should be paid for their work" he says getting his sketchbook out of his bag "but I was joking anyway" he then realizes they are talking about a sword "wait what? really? we are not really fighting are we" he raises his eyebrow looking at Santana.

"Don´t worry. I won´t stab you with a pen." Dani comments with a grin, in case that wasn´t clear.

Elliott blinks and then chuckles "You would be wasting a very nice pen"

Santana says a "Mmmh..." somehow worried. Remembering certain conversations about LN slayers. With the collar on, Dani was basically a common, so, why not, right? "Be careful with what St. Pierre is doing. But, well, enjoy the sword!" Santana also aproved taking advange of whatever if you could. "I want it to be more recognizable than artistic, so, what you think would be better? I guess color would help." Santana also approved asking money for doing things, but not so much when she was the one paying for it. She made an illusion of a woman in front of them. She looked dead. A grotesque, frozen dead woman, with mottled feathers clinging to her. Her eyes are piercing blue, glaring angrily. Her body was transparent, you could see her veins through it. "Can you draw her alive?"

"Yeah...I´m not sure what exactly to make of it, the course I took with him was helpful though and I need a way to defend myself. And you guys," Dani nodded, she didn´t want to go into a detailed conversation now so instead picked out a couple of pens. "Depends on what kind of woman we´re looking at," she picked up a pen and then, for a moment and then waited for the illusion, eyebrows furrowing together. "What the...?" Dani glanced over at Elliott for a moment. "What I wouldn´t give for The Angelator now..." she muttered before looking at the illusion a little more, trying to remember every detail. "You mean...draw her how she´d look as if she was alive? Before she turned into...whatever the hell that is." It wasn´t really a question. Dani outlined the face first before glancing up at Santana. "Where did you see her?"

Elliott listens to Dani's explanation and wonders what St. Pierre is up to, he was glad Dani had something to protect herself anyway, but something about it felt suspicious. He doesn't have time to voice his worry when an illusion of a dead woman appears in front of them, he shares a look with Dani. "Where did you see this woman?" he exclaims too almost at the same time as her. He can't stop looking at the illusion, her piercing blue eyes without any life in them. She vaguely resemblence an immortui but there was something else there. He grabs a normal pen, and a notebook, maybe doing too much would take away from her being recognizable "Are you hoping to find her again?"

Santana laughs at Dani's hilarous joke of her, a normie who couldn't use her magic, protecting someone as fucking strong as her. And Elliott. But specially her. "Oh my, Dani, you're so fucking funny." She keeps laughing for a bit until she notices. "Oh wait, you were serious. Aw, that's adorable." She looked back at her own amazing illusion. "I don't know what the hell an Angelator is." She nods and shakes her head at Elliott asking her if she wants to find her, doubting."I want to know if someone knows her when she was alive. Me and Kittycat saw her at the last field mission. I think she is like the undead monsters we keep encountering. I mean, she is clearly undead, she said it herself." She says, non challant. Illusion still up. "But you know, they are all connected. Probably."

Dani doesn´t even roll her eyes. It´s Santana after all. Instead she laughs, poking her tongue out at the other for a moment. And she doesn´t even explain the Bones reference. Just thinks "Muggles" and looks back at the outline she´s drawn of the woman so far. There´s something...haunting about her eyes. Sometimes that makes her seem alive even though she´s clearly dead. Like she´s ready to stare down into their soul. "The dragon was like...hundreds of years old, maybe she is too?" She then asked, making sure to pay extra attention to the eyes as she keeps drawing before reaching for another pen. "Maybe we´ll find a picture of her in a book..."

Elliott stares at Santana for a while as she laughs, he isn't sure what is so funny, but is sort of contagious and he laughs a bit too. He looks down at the drawing a couple of times, but mostly observes the face of the woman trying to notice whatever detail would be important to represent her as she was. He nods at Dani's suggestion "Maybe that would be a good idea, compare her to old photographs too, look in book, a google search?" he asks making another line to mark where her eyes should be in the face "Are those feathers?" he asks pointing out at the illusion.

@Elliott 😈 Karin:  

1d6

 = (4) = 4

@Dani Harper 🐈44/44 Fiyero Lv.2:  

1d6

 = (3) = 3

Santana thinks about it. It made sense. Maybe this bitch was super mega old like the dragon. "Do you think those things were like, alive a super long time ago and now they are back? You are right. Maybe she is soooo old no one knows anything." She shrugs. "It's worth a try, thought. I was planning on putting your drawings on the aethernet and around campus to see if anyone knew anything about her." Santana nods and makes an illusion of a white bird with blue eyes. Matching her. "Yeah! She had feathers. And before we saw this fucking ugly bird." It was important to catch up. "It talked, so at first I though it was some kind of trickster. But she was clearly not, ha..." She laughs, bitterly, glancing at her own illusion of the bitch's corpse.

Dani picks up the blue pen to devote some time to the eyes. Something tells her she has to get them right, whether Santana would be using her drawing or not. This is weird. Somehow. But if it´s going to help stopping those monsters that are trying to kill them then she´s happy to help. Or well. Glad. Maybe happy is the wrong word. "That´s a good idea," she then nods. "Even if she´s old...maybe someone´s heard her story. Knows what kind of myth or legend connects to her,"

Elliott nods giving to his drawing some shadow for the shape of the face "Were there any clues about the dragon.. or the others...?" he asks curious, he then realizes what Santana says, she thought the woman was a trickster, that's something he never thought about before, when these creatures attacked, they all defended themselves, he did too, he remembers New Year and the enormous creature. He gets lost in thought, his pen stops. What were these creatures? He never stopped to think about it, he just reacted, and now it was too late for some of them. Who were they? he corrected himself "Do you think maybe we should draw all of them? Try to find out about... you know, we have seen many now" he looks up at Santana.

Santana thinks abou how cool a name is The Myth Killers when Dani speaks. "We found the bird in the cave. It says it was its home. You know, like the dragon had like, his place. It says it lived there a fucking ton of years, but you know, I assumed it was lying lies... the woman said...something about the life she sewed together." Wich agains, all this sewing metaphors connect to the angel thingie of stitching the world together. In the end it was all about knitting. "You can't kill what's already dead... That's what it says. And that's what all the big monsters had in common! We need a cool name for them. I accept suggestions." She illusions some little monsters in front of them.  The first Samhain one, the one she didn't see but Blaine showed her an illusion of. The big thing attacking at New Years. Marley with a tittle of "Picture not avaiable. I didn't see it and everyone saw it differently." The dragon. And the undead woman. "Those are what I know of. "

"Who knows just HOW many are out there." Dani agrees with a nod as she picks up the first pen once more, doing some corrections around the eyes before turning her attention to the feathers. "We should form an investigative group and call it "The Knitting Circle", that way nobody will get suspicious about what we´re actually doing." She puts the pen aside and then smudges the edges of the feathers a little with her fingers. When Elliott speaks up however, Dani gives him a nod. "Yeah, maybe that´s a good idea. I´ve already done a drawing of the dragon the day after the whole encounter. I had a feeling it wasn´t over..."

Elliott frowns confused about those words, they seem like riddles, everything always had to be so vague and mysterious, almost like they were part of a bigger story who needed to be solve and someone could be hitting at it breaking the fourth wall, was this joke even worth it. Either way, he keeps thinking about it "But why do we need to be secreti-" he starts asking "oh yeah memory erasure..." he bites his lower lip "Nice" he looks over at Dani's notebook waiting to see her other drawing "Oh, there is another one" he suddenly remembers "Jules told me about it" he says moving the drawing of the woman aside for a second and on the next blank page he made a quick very simple drawing of a flying creature "though I didn't personally saw this one, but it was the one from the news, in new year, a second creature appeared in Time Squares" he shows the drawing to Santana, then he looks at the line up of illusions "Is that the "mom", why is she Marley?"  he deduces by elimination "I didn't really see it very well either" he sighs "I mean it was sort of a blob with faces... kind of super fucked up and creepy."

Santana shrugs. "The investigate group  can have many names, but I mean the monsters! What should we call them? The undead big monsters? Is just not catchy." She walks a bit to look how the drawings where going, while still maintaining the illusions. "My my, then you are going to try to draw all of them? Half Dani and half Elliott. It would be really useful. I doubt anyone took pictures, trying not to die and all that." So, the dragon was done already. Perfect. She thumbs up at Dani. "Oh no no, fuck secrets. I'm going to tell everyone about it. They can't erase my memory." She saw the flying creature thing. "Oh, true. There were other monsters at New Year. Added." Santana changed Marley to Shelby, and then to the blob. She remembers she is not supposed to super mock Ryder in case he returns she needs that friendship strong. She grins "I though it would be funny!"

"That and...well we already got strikes, if we get another poking our noses into things that aren´t supposed to be for us," Dani shrugs her shoulders. "I mean I don´t mind poking my nose into it, I just don´t want to get caught doing it. Or have my memory erased." She wipes her fingers on her jeans and puts her notebook down for a moment before pulling another one from her bag and handing it to Elliott. "It´s on the first pages. A close up and some full body sketches," she tells him.]

[THEN THEY KEEP DRAWING AND CHATTING BOOM DARK CURTAIN]

[jumpboy-rembrandt]

hey do yall wanna hear an au idea i’ve had abt the seven birds as a superhero team? the plot is constantly changing, but here’s what i’ve got (warning it’s a lot and bullet points are used gratuitously):

an alien object falls to the earth, breaking apart as it falls. it scatters around a small city, and the pieces seem to hone in on the nearest living human once they near the ground.

(psst – this is the light of creation)

these seven (mostly) unrelated people slowly realize that they now have…unusual abilities

another alien entity follows, and its agents begin wreaking havoc around this city searching for the missing pieces of the light

(psst – this is the hunger)

individually, each person touched by the light ventures out to fight off these beings, especially since they themselves tend to be targeted.

these agents can get a vague sense of where the shards are, but not who exactly has them. thus, there is some degree of investigation done to find the individuals.

said agents can either be sentient or monster-like

the light-holders are all disguised as they fight – some for anonymity, some so that these agents have more trouble seeking them out, and some just because it seems like the right thing to do.

none of them knew each other before now, but they cross paths often enough that they realize they should probably group up.

most of them want to keep their identities secret, so they agree to do that while also making a few other decisions:

they should all have each others’ numbers. they won’t seek each other out, but it is important to keep in contact.

they should get better costumes (a plea from taako, who subsequently makes them)

they should have a theme

so they decide upon uniform colors and the title of “seven birds” because…idk, maybe they all like how poetic it sounds?

anyway, here’s a breakdown of each member:

magnus was struck by the light while sparring with carey behind their apartment complex. he was knocked over and carey kinda panicked?? but then he got up and said “did you do that?” and she responded “how would i hurl something at you from the sky, you’re fucking huge” and they moved past it

carey and magnus are roommates, so she’s the first one to notice when he starts accidentally breaking things and can knock her down more easily.

the weirdest part was when he was carving a little figurine and she jumped up behind him – to be fair, she thought he was drawing plans for something at the carpentry shop. they both saw the knife go directly towards his fingers and…bounce off. being magnus, he immediately tried to stab his hand and nothing happened. carey, being carey, poked the edge to see if it was dull and, ow, no, it wasn’t.

so, magnus has super strength and armor-like skin. a downside to this is that the changes weren’t entirely magic (think commitment), so he has to eat a lot more than usual and that’s. not insignificant.

the superhero name he chooses is eagle, which he called out immediately bc he wanted the best bird. his color theme is orange. his uniform doesn’t have sleeves, and it was a struggle for taako to even make him wear a shirt.

merle was hiking through the woods, and when he got hit he actually blacked out for a little bit. he woke up in a bed of flowers and, huh, that’s really convenient how it broke my fall

he works part time as an EMT and spends the rest working in a plant nursery. i. think you can guess how he notices what’s going on.

merle’s power is accelerating and manipulating organic growth, which means that he can both control plants and heal wounds. this does take a physical toll, as it is his energy being transferred. he also needs to eat a lot.

his superhero name is dove bc ~peace~ and stuff. his color theme is, naturally, green.

taako and lup were. uh. not getting in trouble. they were just having a misunderstanding. fortunately, said misunderstanding was not as fast as they were bc the misunderstanding was missing their shoes. they stumbled and fell as the light split at the last second and hit them both, but they quickly jumped back to their feet, turned a corner, and were home free.

both of them are studying masters level chemistry, so their discoveries are in public and require a bit of covering up. taako was trying to work out the chemical structure of a fairly simple crystal when it moved. he jumped, then tried it again, and found out that he could even separate out certain parts without needing a reactant.

lup gets bored waiting for a solution to boil and suddenly it explodes

taako’s power is manipulating chemical structures and lup’s is causing combustion or explosions. both require a knowledge of chemistry; taako has to understand the structure of what he’s moving or separating, and lup needs to know about boiling/ignition points and pressure changes etc. again; the energy comes from them. you get the point by now, i think.

taako is starling and purple, and lup is phoenix and red.

they both have pockets containing little beads of easy-to-change materials if they can’t find anything else to use

barry is a phd student, and was in the basement bio lab of the local university when the light phased through the ceiling and hit him. he stumbled backwards and fortunately didn’t hurt himself, bc he basically lives in there and no one would check on him for a while.

the next time he’s forced into a university function, he’s shrinking against a wall wishing he wasn’t there, and then he…isn’t. he falls over into the next room bc he just went through the wall.

i’ll be honest – barry basically has danny phantom powers. the tricky bit is that if he’s exhausted, instead of losing his powers, he can’t keep a physical form very well. finally, a reason for this man to get some sleep already.

his codename is nightingale and his color is blue. thank goodness he can make his clothes and glasses ghost with him, or else he’d be recognizable and useless.

davenport was relaxing with a short flight just outside of town. he notices some strange lights, then realizes one is coming towards him, then barely manages to keep the plane from crashing when it hits him in the head. he quickly lands and checks the plane for damage, but there’s no trace of it.

his mind is wandering during a pretty boring meeting one day when everyone suddenly stops. davenport tunes in and notices that, um, there’s a small boat appearing to float across the table. this completely snaps him out of his thoughts, and it disappears. it’s a good thing the old people on the board like to brush over unexplainable things, bc after a few moments, the meeting picks back up.

he works at a nerd museum. he mostly enjoys it, but also wants to save up enough to move to the coast.

his power is creating illusions and, depending on his energy, materializing them. the illusions barely cost anything, but the materialization is really draining.

his hero name is canary and his color theme is gold.

i wanted it to be albatross at first, but that sounded a little…eh? i liked canary better, esp since it’s yellow

+ instead of having half the symbolism of a curse, it symbolizes freedom!! i think that’s an important dav trait.

finally, lucretia was riding home on her bike and, unlike dav, did crash. strangely, she and her bike were totally unharmed.

lucretia works part-time as a secretary to save up for college, while also working at a bookstore bc she is a Nerd. she got lost in the Deep Shelves and, when a pile of books fell and set off a domino effect, she stretched out her hands to stop them – and they actually did stop.

lucretia can create force fields of any shape, and move them around. that may seem simple, but she can ride them like a hover board, trap people, and, if she’s strong enough, slice things.

her superhero name is bluejay and her color is teal.

other characters include:

julia, magnus’s coworker/boss’s daughter, and they’ve been in love since forever. when the light stuff started though, magnus figured he should slow down.

…yeah, she figures it out pretty soon. magnus is bad at keeping secrets.

carey, magnus’s roommate and constant alibi/excuse-maker/back-up

killian, who works security at the business lucretia secretaries at, and keeps bringing her out to social stuff bc the girl needs it. they also talk abt girls a lot bc they’re both Gay™ – lucretia especially enjoys teasing killian about carey with the “really great calves” from the gym.

killian accidentally said weird shit when first gushing about her and, of course, lucretia will never forget it

noelle was saved by the team from whatever the hell lucas ends up doing in this au. carey offers to share her room, esp since magnus is uh. working a little more irregularly these days and they could use the split rent.

noelle and carey also talk about girls, including killian who could “probably throw me across a room” from the gym.

angus was looking into all this nonsense and figured it was easiest to track down twins who seem to know a lot about chemistry. it wasn’t too hard. taako and lup were appalled that his parents Just Let Him Do That and so there’s a 50/50 chance that angus is in their spare room at any given time.

listen they got a two-bedroom apartment, but apparently they’re still too clingy to sleep alone. nerds.

ren is taako’s coworker and best friend. she knows Something is up, but isn’t entirely sure What. she also knows better than to try and find out. taako will tell her when he tells her.

honestly i low low lowkey dig the idea of noelle/ren but you didn’t hear that from me. if it happens to show up though. oh well.

avi makes frequent deliveries for the hammer and tongs, and is pretty tight with magnus. he’s even tighter with magnus’s dogs, which stay at the h&t bc his apartment is run by ruthless monsters.

johann is the town’s dramatic and overtalented musician, who is almost always in the background. i’m not sure what his deal is, but he sure is good at music.

hurley is a cop who keeps trying to figure out what is going on, but isn’t having much luck

artemis sterling is the very frustrated mayor

certain people are given powers by the hunger, a la hawk moth. these include gundren, magic brian, jenkins, sloane, the hammerheads, cpt cpt bane, lucas, etc.

the major manifestation of the hunger is john, but only merle manages to see him.

unlike miraculous, the hunger is dangerous to its hosts if they become disagreeable. the birds can save the people possessed, but it’s not easy.

there are Mysterious Third Parties that can grant additional powers

one is known as the raven queen. she grants kravitz the power to possess non-organic materials, as well as a scythe that can temporarily dislocate souls and do mild portal shit.

kravitz was a coroner trying to get a gig in the orchestra, but then he almost died and the raven queen resurrected him and he’s got a really strong sense of duty so he’s doing this now, he guesses. at least he still gets to have a normal life when he isn’t busy.

i like to think that after sloane rejects the hunger, the raven queen scoops her up and also grants the ability to possess non-organic objects. she was a good mechanic before, and is super good now. she gets hurley to give up on the whole investigation thing and join her and they live happily ever after, and also kick the occasional ass.

at first, RQ’s orders are to retrieve the light so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but taako persuades kravitz that the birds are able to use it to defeat the hunger once and for all.

after that, the mission is just to keep as many people out of danger as possible.

istus and pan can also grant powers, but i’m not sure how they’d fit in yet

more random facts:

taako, lup, and barry are actually at the same university even though they never see each other. the mascot is a mongoose.

at some point the bio and chem departments are doing a joint conference thing. taako and lup are wandering around while spamming the birds’ group chat with really awful memes with magnus. meanwhile, barry is trying his best to ignore his constantly-vibrating phone as he talks to a professor about something actually important.

do they find each other in this truly ridiculous way? You Decide.

lucas is in the same department as barry, and even though he’s kind of a genius, he is also. how you say. a dick.

ren and taako work as chefs at the davy lamp. ren is almost definitely going to own it one day, and taako is proud of her.

lucretia and magnus meet via carey and killian, and quickly become close friends. because magnus is incapable of keeping a secret from anyone he knows, she finds out that he’s eagle and so they now know each other’s secret identities.

anyway that’s all i’ve got for now, thanks for coming to my ted talk

[on-the-wings-of-hope-prose-en]

Improbability

In the vast hall, filled with a sky-purple shimmer, with columns soaring to a height that is inaccessible to the eyes of ordinary mortals, filled with the energy of the omnipresent ether images flickered on the screen in what seemed to be a waving mirror in a carved wooden frame. It was perfectly visible for the two observers that were standing near this mirror how a male human, inspired by the common combat impulse, was at this point of time blocking a deadly enemy weapon with his own body, thus giving his comrades a chance to climb out of the trench and go to the offensive in this battlefront sector. Here his body unevenly shudders, soaking up a deadly leaden stream, and as if in time with this act, the frosted surface of the mirror shakes in response. Here in the last dying effort, this soldier clasps the enemy machine gun with both of his hands, and his blood-stained lips whisper their silent farewell “hurrah!” After a brief moment, floating in the mirror images forever capture in the ether his fading gaze together with the rushing up to the sky from the mutilated chest light-bearing spirit, who has spread out his wings like a finally released prisoner. The mirror fades out, and the images-waves gradually disappear, as if the sea of colorful information has once again come to a long-awaited calmness…

“You must certainly remember, Orianna, that I did warn you in advance of this possible ending of his earthly journey?” and the elderly, fair-haired angel with the scar on his right cheek stared at his companion as soon as the Hall of Destinies fell silent again.

“Mr. Arael, I remember that according to your calculations, the probability of such self-sacrifice was…”

“Our initial calculations, Orianna. Since then, much has changed both in the external and internal worlds. The death of his brother at the battlefront, the fatal illness of his mother, the beginning of the siege of his native Petersburg… All these events simultaneously seemed to break and strengthen his determination to fight to the end. But in the initial calculations we made, as you must remember, he should have lived almost to the end of this war.”

“Mr. Arael, do you mean that I have failed to pass the entrance test and therefore cannot be admitted to your Department of probabilistic forecasting of the worlds of free will?”

“No, Orianna, they don’t. Many of your calculations were correct for the man’s previous choices – and we, as representatives of the probabilities department, never ask newcomers to be one hundred percent accurate, which is only available to the Almighty.”

“Thank you. I really hope so…”

“Then don’t forget to introduce John to our department. This knowledge will be a reward for the feat he performed on Earth.”

Having that said, the head of the probabilistic forecasting department, wise with many eons of experience, tapped with a smile his future budding colleague on the shoulder and smoothly pointed his wing at the door. The one named as Orianna nodded joyfully and hastily, doing her best to hide the flicker of her smile from her mentor, flapped her small, girlish wings, and tenderly fluttered out of the hall.

* * *

“Looking strange, huh?” Orianna laughed brightly, watching how the etheric-clad spirit of John was looking around in surprise as if he still did not fully understand, or would never admit even to himself, that the life of the soul does not finally end with the death of the body, no matter what these endless and finally ending their journeys earthly materialists and skeptics might say otherwise.

“Oh… What a strange and wondrous vision… I feel as if I have died and gone to Paradise, and the most beautiful woman on earth is bending over me like an angel…”

“It’s all true! Well, almost everything…” Orianna said in confusion, playfully adjusting a curl of her sun-red hair with her wing. “As you can see, having “died” back on Earth, you didn’t die after all. Great, right?”

“Is… is this… always the case here?”

“No, not always. By the way, it depends on you, humans, where you will end up. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you: “Welcome to the seventh heaven!”

“It must be truly the seventh sky. How beautiful it’s around here!” both parted and still not parted with his life John wondered while looking around and walking on the likeness of sky bridges-rainbows among iridescent pearl-colored islands-clouds.

“Tread carefully, it’s like walking on water… A little doubt in the reality of all that is happening – and you will instantly begin to sink into the waves of the ether,” with a wary look at the staggering John said sunny-red-haired angelic girl, narrowing her almond-shaped eyes. “Let me back you up, I’ve got enough faith in the Almighty for a simple skywalk!” she said with another graceful smile, and hastily took John “under her wing”.

Thus, they went on for some time, no matter how relative time as a concept would be in this world.

“But why I ended up here? And what do you plan to do now?” after a while, John decided to break the long-kept silence.

“And then, according to my instructions, I’ll give you a tour of our improbably probabilistic department. It’s over there, a little way off,” and Orianna waved her wing away. “And you are here, in the seventh heaven, solely because you have earned it according to the Divine Law. For the feat of the spirit. Many of you Earthmen, by the way, never deserve anything like this…” she added thoughtfully, looking down at her feet. “They go straight down there,” she added, waving her wing, “and never come back.”

“And what lies down there?”

“Far, far below us – there lies the Abyss. And demons. Sca-a-a-ry,” Orianna added reluctantly, shivering as if trying to push away an old unpleasant memory. “But you don’t have to think about it. And I don’t want to think about those who suffer there, either. Catch up!” she changed the subject abruptly and started jumping across the clouds.

* * *

“And this is where we make maps of human destinies, do you see?” Orianna winked, pointing to a holographic projection of a library in the center of which at that very moment several dozens of open books were gently floating in the ether.

“Do you want to say that our destinies were predefined by you before we were born?”

“Almighty forbid you, most certainly not!” Orianna flapped her wings, staring at John as if he was an incomprehensible infant. “We give you the freedom of choice and the right to determine your own fate. But that doesn’t mean that we are not allowed to calculate in advance how likely and what exactly you will choose one day in your lives, right?” and the curly-haired celestial girl playfully smiled again. “My last trial job was to calculate the new probabilities of some of your possible choices. But I was mistaken, to my own shame. You people can be very unpredictable at times!” as if being seriously offended, she pouted her lips.

“And what did I do wrong?”

“That’s the point, you have made everything right! But… not in the way I originally thought it would be. And this, by the way, is one of the main challenges in the work of our entire department – taking into account the free will of people. In deterministic worlds, everything is different, simpler. But here…”

“And what does that mean – deterministic worlds?”

“Well, they are those in which there are no beings endowed with a soul and therefore possessing free will. Once your Earth was strictly deterministic too, and we could – not without some effort, of course – calculate what and where would happen on it at any given moment of time. And now, with the advent of another civilization, everything… everything is not the same as it was before,” Orianna sighed sadly and lowered her wings. “I hope you understand me at least a little, even though you’re… a human. You are, by the way, not the first human I’ve seen here. I mean, here in our department.”

“There were others?”

“Of course. We need to somehow convey information about the most probable events we have calculated to the inhabitants of your civilization, right? So, we gave some of them such tasks.”

“You mean that…”

“You call them prophets,” Orianna finished his thought.

“I think I can guess at least a few people who visited your seventh heaven department at least once…”

“In fact, there was an order of magnitude more of them. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to remember their own obligations back on Earth. And people simply did not want to listen to many of them,” as she said these words, Orianna thoughtfully moved the tip of her finger through the air, drawing out unfamiliar figures.

“…And what do these mapped lines mean?” and John pointed to the thin lines of light that intersected with each other like cobwebs and connected the sparkling, shining balls of light on the multi-dimensional map, which, by the whim of an angelic hand, had just materialized directly in front of the slightly startled John’s eyes a few otherworldly seconds ago.

“Lines of related destinies with indicated degree and form of influence. Individuals have fewer of them, and public figures have more. Yet sometimes one in the field is still a mighty warrior.”

“And the light globes?”

“Moments of making fateful decisions. Points of bifurcation, in your pseudo-scientific language. After fixing each such point on the timeline, the destiny map is automatically restructured. This, by the way, is a map of your past life. And this point,” and Orianna pointed to the brightest of them, which no longer emanated light, “describes the moment when you sacrificed yourself for the lives of others and for the sake of their upcoming victory.”

“You mean they are going to finally win this war?”

“It would be more correct to say that the probability of your country’s victory is… But, yes, they will prevail. All our preliminary calculations demonstrated that.”

“That just drives one crazy!”

“I wouldn’t rush it if I were you,” Orianna replied, laughing. “But for beginners, it sometimes truly seems unimaginable and improbable at the same time – the possibility to know the probabilities in advance. And I’m already used to being, so to speak, a celestial accountant. Even though we don’t have such a position here.”

“In other words, you can calculate everything? Up to any point in the future?”

“Everything is known only to the Almighty. That’s why you were once told that not a single hair would fall from your head without his knowledge. Mine, too, by the way.”

“May God forgives me for being tactless, but… but I think I like the way your hair looks… as well as your face… and your eyes… and that smile…”

“Really?” Orianna asked, confused. “You’re not the first person to tell me that, but it’s always pleasant to hear it, especially from humans!”

“Can you tell me if I can… go back to Earth later? Help my beloved ones there?”

“Well, you won’t be able to go back at that time, because the law of ether’s waves won’t allow it. Fifty years from now, it will be. Don’t you worry, time is a highly diverse concept, especially here! You should look around for a while, get used to it, at least change your ethereal clothes, so that you don’t have to wander around the seventh heaven in a soldier’s uniform for five dozen earth years! By then, I’ll have calculated a new fate for you. Whom do you want to become again, haven’t you decided? We could really use some prophets in that world of yours…”

“I… I’ll have to think about it. Thank you for your… kindness. So where can I come up with a new ethereal look here?”

“The hall of embodied fantasies is a little to the left and right of our all-central… well, let me take you there by myself, or you’ll surely get confused with our coordinate system. Give me your hand!”

“I thank you!”

With these words, the spirit of a man known as John, still shining with an otherworldly light, took the warm angelic hand in his own and gently, tenderly and timidly kissed it.

“And this, perhaps, was truly inevitable,” Orianna whispered to herself with a smile.

10.06.2020