#i mean i know how the ones who hatch in the wild know but how do fuckers who hatch in captivity know?

[misswynters]

Lil Daredevils with big hearts

featuring. ekko x wife!reader

note. i need more aunt! jinx (this is horrible i don’t like it but i’ve spent way too much time on this)

requested. by anon

Your birthday had been a quiet affair so far, just you, Ekko, and the twins at the Firelight hideout. You hadn’t expected much; after all, it was difficult to celebrate properly in a city like this. But your daughters, ever the spirited pair, had whispered and giggled all morning, plotting something secret. You knew they wanted to surprise you, but you couldn’t have guessed how far they’d go.

The more mischievous of the two, had decided that a proper birthday gift was non-negotiable. Her twin, more cautious but equally devoted, followed her lead. Together, they hatched a plan: She would swipe something special from a merchant in the Piltover market while her sister kept watch. It was innocent enough in their young minds, a way to show how much they loved their mama. But even at five years old, the twins underestimated the risk.

The plan unraveled quickly. The more excited twin had barely snatched a sparkling trinket from a vendor’s table when the merchant shouted, drawing the attention of none other than Caitlyn Kiramman. The Enforcer’s sharp eyes caught sight of the tiny thief darting between stalls, her twin calmer sister trailing behind, trying to call her back. Caitlyn’s voice rang out, calm yet commanding. “Stop right there!”

But the twins didn’t stop. Fear propelled them forward, their small feet pattering against the cobblestones. Caitlyn sighed, reaching for her rifle, intending only to fire a warning shot to make them halt. The sight of the weapon, however, filled you with cold dread as you turned the corner and saw the scene unfolding. Your maternal instincts overrode all reason, and without hesitation, you threw yourself between Caitlyn and the girls just as her finger accidentally squeezed the trigger.

The shot echoed through the narrow street, sharp and unforgiving. Pain exploded in your side as the bullet tore through flesh, and you stumbled, clutching the wound as blood seeped between your fingers. The twins froze in horror, their eyes wide and filled with tears. Caitlyn lowered her rifle instantly, her face stricken with regret. “Oh my gods… I didn’t mean—”

The chaos only deepened as Ekko and Vi arrived, drawn by the sound of gunfire. Ekko’s eyes went wide as he took in the sight of you on the ground, bleeding, with Caitlyn standing nearby, rifle still in hand. Rage replaced the shock in an instant. “What the hell did you do?” he snarled, rushing to your side.

Vi, confused and alarmed, held up her hands. “Cait, what’s going on? Who are they?”

Caitlyn stammered, clearly shaken. “I didn’t know they were children—she just—she jumped in the way!”

Before Ekko could unleash the full force of his anger, a familiar chaotic energy entered the scene. Jinx appeared out of nowhere, her wild grin softening when she saw the twins huddled together, crying. “Hey, hey, what’s all this fuss about?” she said, kneeling to their level. “Don’t worry, Auntie Jinx is here.”

You managed a weak smile through the pain. “Jinx… take them. Please.”

Ekko didn’t even need to look to know you trusted her implicitly. Jinx gently scooped up the twins, her tone uncharacteristically soothing. “Come on, munchkins. Let’s go somewhere fun, yeah? Don’t worry about your mama. She’s tougher than she looks.”

The twins clung to her, still sniffling, but they didn’t protest. With one last glance at you, Jinx disappeared as swiftly as she had arrived, the twins safe in her care.

Ekko turned his attention back to Caitlyn and Vi, his protective instincts blazing. “You pointed a gun at my daughters?” he hissed, his voice dangerously low.

Caitlyn stepped forward, guilt etched into every line of her face. “I didn’t know they were yours, Ekko. They were running, and I—”

“That’s no excuse,” Ekko snapped, cutting her off. “They’re kids. My kids. You don’t aim a gun at children, ever.”

Vi, still piecing everything together, held up her hands. “Wait, wait. You’re married? And you have kids?”

“Uh. Yeah, Vi,” Ekko shot back, his tone sharp. “Surprise. Maybe if you and your Enforcer girlfriend weren’t so trigger-happy, you’d probably know that by now.”

“Ekko,” you murmured weakly, placing a hand on his arm. “It was an accident. Please let it go.”

He knelt beside you, his anger softening as he saw the pain in your eyes. “Let it go? She shot you.”

“It was my choice,” you said, your voice firm despite the pain. “I saw the gun, and I jumped. She didn’t mean to.”

Caitlyn crouched down, meeting your gaze with a sincerity that was hard to ignore. “I swear to you, I would never intentionally harm anyone, especially not a child. I’m so sorry.”

Ekko didn’t respond immediately, his jaw tight as he tried to rein in his emotions. Vi stepped closer, her expression more serious now. “Look, I get why you’re pissed. If someone hurt my family, I’d lose it too. But Caitlyn made a mistake. Let us help. We’ll get her patched up.”

You reached for Ekko’s hand, squeezing it gently. “Please, my love.”

He let out a long breath, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. “Fine. But we’re not done talking about this.”

Vi nodded, offering her hand to help you up. “Fair enough. Let’s get you somewhere safe first.”

Later, back at the Firelight hideout, Ekko hovered over you as you rested on your shared bed, the wound bandaged but still tender. The twins were with Jinx in another part of the hideout, their giggles faintly audible through the walls.

Vi and Caitlyn stood nearby, both uncharacteristically quiet. Ekko finally broke the silence, his voice low but firm. “You’re lucky she’s okay. If she wasn’t…”

“I know,” Caitlyn said softly, her usual confidence replaced by remorse. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make this right.”

Vi crossed her arms, glancing at you. “For what it’s worth, you’ve got guts. Jumping in like that? Not many people would do that.”

You managed a small smile. “Not many people have kids like mine.”

Ekko sat beside you, his hand resting over yours. “They’re lucky to have you as their mom.”

Despite the lingering tension, the room felt a little lighter. Jinx’s voice suddenly called out from the other room. “Hey! The mischievous one is trying to climb the wall again! Who taught these kids to be such little daredevils?”

Ekko sighed, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “I wonder where they get it from.”

You laughed softly, wincing as the movement tugged at your side. “Maybe their dad?”

taglist. @diffusebread @xxblairslairxx @annybah @niredsw @stqrlxght @kriss-w @marilovz @blkmystery @multiverse-fandoms-2001 @turquoizxe @mishellii @kor-0suu @feelya @theamazingmilli @multim00n @m00nd0v3 @sodavrr @maialublmere @radtragedyarcade @spiderhook @night-fall-moon @ekkosh @hoonobono @bandletale @thesecondhandwoman @alientee @duchessmoooon @lilbunny1sworld @lil-kpopstan @mbekgsv @lulumallow @ametheslime @sunshiines-stuff @lolana101 @jadeash434 @hobieeeloverrr @misonesaturou @serene6728 @hellokittyfeenie

banner. @anitalenia art. not mine

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

what compels you about the Lord howe island stick insect?

its supposed extinction was such a mundane tragedy, this entire population of insects on an isolated island wiped out by the unintentional introduction of rats aboard a ship. it's a fairly common byproduct of colonization, native species being outcompeted by rivals they never should have encountered at all. you so rarely hear about insects impacted by it though, because so few people care about insects even when they're dying out completely.

except they didn't die out. they were thought to be extinct for almost a century, until in 2003 researchers confirmed a surviving population on, of all places, Ball's Pyramid, a volcanic and inhospitable spire of rock twelve miles from Lord Howe Island. not an insurmountable distance, but pretty vast if you're a flightless stick bug. how did they even get out there? no one knows. but they were there, just 24 insects who were supposed to be dead all huddling under a shrub together.

researchers took four of them back to Australia to start breeding programs. at the Melbourne Zoo they've bred them in the thousands now, and they've started contingency programs at a few other zoos worldwide. they're still considered critically endangered, at tremendous risk of extinction, but there are cautious plans to start reintroducing them to Lord Howe Island, when it can be ascertained that the island will be safe for them. there are still European rats that need to be exterminated, and a fungus threatens the plants that the stick insects rely on. there's still a population on Ball's Pyramid, but it's perilously small. their future in the wild isn't certain by any means.

but they're alive, and there are thousands more of them than there would be if no one had gone looking for them. if all the stick insects on Ball's Pyramid get sick or drown or are eaten by seagulls tomorrow, there will still be Lord Howe Island stick insects in the world, and it's all because some people decided that these bugs deserve a second chance and dedicated their entire lives to giving them one. Paige Howorth, the director of invertebrate care and conservation at the San Diego Zoo, the first zoo to successfully breed the insects outside of Australia, said this:

My most vivid memory has to be the very surreal experience of flying back to the San Diego Zoo in 2016 with 300 critically endangered Lord Howe Island stick insect eggs in my backpack.... I’ll never forget counting out the eggs with the Melbourne wildlife health and care teams, who surface-sterilized them pre-flight, so that they could come home with me with a lowered risk upon hatching. The idea that we were finally bringing this incredibly rare species back to San Diego to make their global population a little more secure made me hug that backpack closer. And yes, I did take them to the bathroom with me on the flight. (x)

whenever people start rambling about how humanity is inherently evil or selfish or whatever I think about shit like this. a woman hugging a backpack full of 300 eggs close for a 13 hour flight, just to give some bugs a chance. imagine.

they're also called tree lobsters, which I think is just rad.

[devoted-horror]

giving the new survivor hatch.

a/n: this is my first time writing for dbd in general, so!! i hope i do this game justice bc i play it every day lol

includes: the huntress, the trickster, the ghostface, the artist, the cannibal.

warnings: not proofread, typical dbd stuff like blood, mentions of murder, things like that, gn reader, love at first sight but only if u tilt ur head and squint really hard, inconsistent length, im going to be so delusional over jiwoon im sorry, i can't speak russian or korean so i just used a bunch of translators sorry if i got smth wrong, inaccurate behavior of dbd crows but relatively accurate behavior of irl crows i think, scream reference in danny's part bc i had to, reader injury in jiwoon and danny's parts, written over the course of a few months so sorry if the pacing is weird.

THE HUNTRESS

Anna has been in the fog long enough that every face of everyone she's ever killed has started to merge together into one. She doesn't know their names, and hardly ever reacts whenever she encounters a new survivor.

Mercy is not something she shows during trials. She is a hunter, and anyone who crosses her path, be it man or animal, is her prey. Nothing in the wild is merciful.

And you were nothing more than another person for her to hunt, prey for her to kill. And trust me, she was going to kill you.

Or, at least, she was.

And then you dropped a pallet on her. Now, normally, Anna would get very angry when this happens. Her prey is fighting back, and though it gives her a thrill, it's annoying. And for a brief moment, she did feel angry the moment the pallet hit her.

But then you were apologizing, a look of genuine guilt on your expression. You even asked if she was bleeding. Your survival instincts were lacking, clearly, but Anna found that to be... oddly endearing??

She felt a surge of protectiveness spark within her, something she had never felt during her time here. It was a familiar feeling, yet one so foreign at the same time.

But how could she not feel such a way when you were staring up at her, clearly scared that she was going to hurt you yet brave enough to stand in front of her and apologize for something that, by all means, you should have done.

Anna just stares you down for a long moment, having an internal struggle with herself on what she should do with you. Ultimately, her need to protect overruled her need to hunt, because after breaking the pallet between the two of you, she made a gesture for you to follow her.

And, not wanting to die, you did.

She took you to a shack, something you've heard other survivors refer to as the killer shack. The only reason you knew this is because you were told to stay away from it unless you wanted to get put in the basement.

She just pointed to one of the corners of the building, and looked over at you, "Оставайся здесь." And you didn't immediately understand her, though you were quick to pick up on what she was telling you. It seemed as if she wanted you to stay here.

Your safest bet on surviving was doing what she said, so you just nod and awkwardly place yourself in the corner she had been pointing at. She doesn't spare you another glance as she leaves you alone.

You're not sure how long you stayed there. You could hear the other survivors screams though, and you felt sick to your stomach at the sound of them being hooked and sacrificed to the Entity. They probably won't be too happy about this the next time you see them...

It was only when you were the last one standing that Anna came back to retrieve you. She found you exactly where she had left you, and even though you couldn't see her face due to the rabbit mask, she seemed rather pleased that you had actually listened to her.

If she had it her way, Anna would keep you by her side. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. The Entity would probably force the trial to end if you didn't either escape or die.

She begrudgingly brought you to hatch, the black mist pouring from it, silently promising safety if you jumped into it. You stared at it, confused about what it was, and that protectiveness she was feeling only seemed to grow stronger when you looked up at her for an explanation. The only explanation she offered was a slight gesture to you, and then the hatch.

"Иди, кролик." She says, lightly pushing you to the hatch and watching as you hesitantly decide to trust her, jumping into the hatch and leaving her alone as the fog comes and places her back in the Red Forest.

If she's lucky, she'll be in a trial with you again soon.

THE TRICKSTER

He'll immediately recognize you to be new. He prides himself in recognizing every survivor he's encountered, either by their face or by the sound of their screams. Mostly their screams.

And he certainly didn't recognize the scream he heard when one of his throwing knives ricocheted and hit you while he was chasing down another one of the newer survivors; Sable. It was a small, startled scream, nothing worth his attention, but it was new. That was enough to make this trial more exciting, and he found himself keeping his eyes peeled for you.

Which... was a lot easier than he expected it to be, because you just kept running right into him. Seriously. Did you not pay attention to your surroundings? Do you think he's a survivor?? Do you not see the bloodied fucking bat he's holding???

He's not sure if he's annoyed or amused by this. Partially both, to be honest. It's amusing to see you relax for a split second after bumping into him, not recognizing him to be the killer immediately. It's annoying because he'd like to hear you scream, please and thank you.

Jiwoon doesn't necessarily target you during the trial. To be honest, he's trying to weed out the other survivors before focusing his attention on you.

He wanted to take his time with you, to see what sounds he could pull out of you before the Entity forced the trial to end. Just the sound of you gasping whenever you bump into him has his mind racing.

This was honestly enough to keep him motivated throughout the entire trial, a certain bloodlust sparking in him. He relished the sound of everyone else's screams, but they weren't appealing to him right now.

He needed the other survivors out of the way. He needed you alone. And when he finally got rid of the last pesky survivor, the fun began.

And when he corners you in killer shack, he really didn't plan on being merciful. He wanted to hear you scream, and then he wanted to kill you, really. That was his plan.

The only way you'd get out of this alive is if you beg, honestly. And I mean beg. On your knees, crying, pleading, offering something in return for your survival. That sort of begging.

You were new and shiny in comparison to all of the other survivors, and maybe it's because he's a sadistic bastard, but he really does adore the sight of you on your knees, crying as he absently nicks your skin with one of his throwing knives.

This is where Jiwoon feels a bit torn, truth be told. He's never been a patient man, so he wants to get as many screams out of you as he can before the Entity forced the trial to end. But at the same time, he knew he'd see you again in a future trial, sooner or later.

It wouldn't hurt to prolong his time with you, would it?

The entire time he's pondering this, he's dragging the blade across your skin, relishing in the sweet sounds of your gasps and whimpers, and you stutter out a desperate 'please'.

Ultimately, Jiwoon decides to be nice, just this once. He'll mutter a quiet, "짜증나..." before hoisting you over his shoulder and carrying you off.

You struggled, obviously, assuming he was ending your misery and taking you to a hook. He didn't really mind much, having an iron grasp on you that kept you from wiggling free.

He dropped you right next to the hatch once he found it, finding your small pained sound to be adorable as you look at your salvation with a confused expression. But before you can crawl into it and escape, he's grabbing you by the back of your shirt and pulling you back a bit.

For a moment, you think he's going to kill you, and you squeeze your eyes shut, expecting pain. But nothing comes. You feel him tuck something in your shirt, and he lightly pats your cheek, cooing a bit at your terror before he lets you go and leaves you alone.

And when you're back at the campfire, you find a photo of Jiwoon neatly folded and tucked into your shirt, signed with his autograph.

He'll have an encore the next time he sees you, and you can only hope you don't find yourself in a trial with him again any time soon.

THE GHOSTFACE

Would actually never give you hatch under normal circumstances. He's here to kill, so kill he shall. He treated you the same as any other survivor when he first saw you, though it wasn't until he was in chase with you that he realized how interesting you were.

For one, you were... surprisingly good at looping him?? For a newbie, he was rather impressed. That's not enough to get him to let you live, but it's definitely a start.

No, his interest is only truly piqued when you start quoting horror movies during chase.

Honestly, if he didn't know any better, he'd think you to be flirting with him. A person after his heart, truly.

It was only when he had you cornered that you really caught his attention. You weren't scared, and it intrigued him as much as it annoyed him.

He was just itching to dig his knife into you and take a photo of your lifeless corpse once he was finished. But even with your life at risk, you showed no fear.

Hell, you even mocked him.

"No, please don't kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel."

Sure, you weren't the first survivor to mock him, and you certainly won't be the last, but he found you interesting.

Oh, he needed to kill you. He needed your photo in his collection, it would be his favorite.

But he thought it would be more fun to humor you. Danny was a patient man. This isn't the first time he's drawn out a kill.

You were honestly surprised that he had left you alone. You didn't think that would actually work, and you were... a bit concerned, actually. None of the other killers you had ended up in a trial with during your short time here has entertained you the way Danny has, and you're not sure if you should be scared or not.

And, much to your very hesitant relief, you didn't see him for the rest of the trial. You knew he was watching you though. Every once in a while, you just felt... you're not quite sure how to describe it, but it almost felt as if you were being hunted.

You'd see him from the corner of your eye though. Never for long, just quick flashes of his screaming mask. Honestly, you felt less scared when he was actively trying to murder you.

That's how the rest of the trial went for you, at least. Until eventually, you were the only one left standing. You may be new, but the other survivors had given you the rundown of what to do if you were the last one standing before the trial had started.

You had to find hatch. Which was... easier said than done, truthfully. Especially since you weren't sure where the fuck Danny was. There's no way he was letting you go, right? He's probably saving you for last, right?

Whenever you so much as caught a glimpse of something moving, you were scurrying in the other direction.

This is pretty much Danny's way of giving you hatch. There's no way he'd give it to you directly, not yet.

You had honestly thought you had found it all by yourself until you were fucking stabbed, the flash of a camera in your face blinding you.

Truth be told, Danny did plan on killing you. He had wanted to give you a false sense of hope. But your stupid little smile when you saw hatch got to him, okay? So he'll settle for this for now.

"You owe me."

And he doesn't even spare you a glance as he pushes you into the hatch's mist, his gaze intently focused on the photo of you he had just taken.

Unfortunately for you, you've caught his attention.

THE ARTIST

Carmina is one of the more merciful killers you may come across, so she'd be fairly likely to give a new survivor hatch depending on how the trial has gone and whether or not she's consumed by anger.

She only realizes that you're new to the fog when her crows surround you and you don't try shooing them away. When she finds you, you're actually... rather content having a murder of crows surrounding you.

Very very confused. She'll probably just stare at you for a hot second as you go about the trial without a single care for the crows swarming around you. Even the crows are confused.

You distract her long enough with your antics that a good chunk of the gens pop, and she had to force herself to leave you be in order to focus on hunting the other survivors.

She'll ignore you for the entire trial after she leaves you be. Her crows can keep watch for her.

So for the rest of the trial she's only vaguely aware of your location, occasionally stopping once in a while to determine whether or not her crows were still with you. They were.

Even the other survivors seemed confused by your behavior.

On the rare occasion that she bumped into you during the trial, it was always when another survivor was nearby trying to tell you how to get rid of the crows.

You never even tried to shoo away the crows throughout the entire trial, and at some point, they stopped swarming around you. They didn't go away, no. You, somehow, managed to tame Carmina's crows with little trinkets that you found littered across the place.

Honestly, the crows seemed to like you enough that even if Carmina told them to hurt you, they probably wouldn't listen to her. It's hard to believe that you were a new survivor with how calm you were about everything happening.

It's probably that calm nature, coupled with your ability to calm her crows, that solidified in her mind that you were the only one who would make it out alive.

And with a newfound determination, Carmina sacrificed the other three survivors with no issues, and she could hear hatch opening not too far away from her.

With the help of her crows, Carmina was able to easily bring you to hatch, and she could only tilt her head to the side and make a small, croaking sound as you smiled and thanked both her and her crows before jumping into the hatch.

This is one of the many moments Carmina laments no longer being able to create art. She'd love to immortalize the image of you smiling at her, surrounded by her crows.

THE CANNIBAL

Bubba is honestly torn when he spots you, because you look so afraid, cowering in fear at every little sound and struggling to repair a generator like the others had told you to. He understands your fear because it's something he's very familiar with.

And while he has a job to do, not wanting to disappoint the Entity, he can't help but find it hard to hurt you. No matter how hard it was, Bubba had no choice.

But when he approached you, you didn't run. Sure, you let out a startled shout, the generator blowing up in your face as you stared up at him like a scared animal, quietly begging him not to hurt you.

But you didn't run.

How could he hurt you when you weren't running from him? Everyone always ran. But not you. You weren't running from him, and he didn't know what to do about that.

Bubba's trouble was so very evident. He's always been an expressive person, so it wasn't hard to tell that this was stressing him out. His free hand kept clenching and unclenching his apron, and he kept making small noises in the back of his throat.

He doesn't want to disappoint the Entity, he doesn't. But he's not sure if he can hurt someone who's not running from him. You aren't running! He really likes that! The only people who never ran when he was around were his family!

The nail in the coffin is when you, even despite your fear, took a chance and set down the toolbox you were holding. You... you gave him a gift. Not one that he could use, but a gift nonetheless.

There was literally no way he could hurt you now the guilt would eat him alive. So, he just opts to leave you be to instead focus on the other survivors. He wouldn't feel guilty hurting them.

The entire trial, Bubba focuses all of his attention on getting rid of the other survivors. If he sees you, he gets all nervous and can't even look at you for long without babbling incoherently before scurrying away.

Some of the other survivors may pick up on Bubba's strange avoidment of you, and may even use that to their advantage by running by you in chase because Bubba just... he can't hurt you, I'm sorry.

He's swinging his chainsaw, and then suddenly Kate is running by you and he's coming to a full stop out of fear of accidentally hurting you.

It really stresses him out, and even though you're still scared of him, and even though he's supposed to be killing you, you can't help but feel bad. So whenever the other survivors got a little too close when Bubba was chasing them, you always made sure to stay out of his way.

It's okay to be a bad teammate because it's Bubba.

Jokes aside, Bubba takes his job as a killer very seriously. He may avoid hurting you, but he makes quick work of the other survivors.

And when hatch opened right next to Bubba after killing the third survivor, he took it as a sign from the Entity that he was meant to give it to you. Why else would it open next to him?

Bubba was ever the gentleman when he brought you to hatch, guiding you to it carefully and making sure you didn't trip on any debris littered across the area.

He even scared off a few judgmental crows! He knew how off-putting it was to have them watching you all the time, especially when you're new in the fog.

And when you quietly thank him, smiling at him as if he weren't a killer, Bubba was just over the moon.

It's been so long since he's had someone to protect. The fog is a scary place to be but he'll do his best to make it a happy place whenever you two are in a trial together.

Оставайся здесь. - Stay here. Иди, кролик. - Go, rabbit. 짜증나. - How annoying.

[nell0-0]

Could you possibly do a fic where the Chain meet Legend's cucco companion, Piyoko? I want to see their reactions to her :D

Sure thing! Sorry for the wait, but here it is ^^

Main characters: Legend, Four, Wild, Wind & Warriors (+Piyoko, of course!)

“Legend, don’t freak out, but don’t you dare move.”

…Not exactly the words one would like to hear first thing in the morning before coeherency made its appearance on his brain, but he would have to deal as usual, Legend figured. What went wrong now?

“…why” Legend said, voice thick with sleep and slightly slurred despite his best attempt.

Turning the other way and sleeping this problem away was so tempting. Problem he wasn’t aware of, mind you, because he could more or less glimpse everyone else around camp. Either sleepy, still snoring or staring at Legend with an intensity only deserved for a dangerous foe or-

“There’s a-“

Legend reached above his head, his hand colliding with something soft, a familiar texture greeting his cautious fingers.

“Wait, stop!”

“Goddesses, he’s doomed.”

“Legend, noooo!”

Grabbing whatever it was, a suspicious squeak as a result, Legend used his elbows to hold his weight while he looked at the cause of alarm for the three dumbasses in front of him.

“Pyo!”

…a cuccoo. Well, at least it wasn’t a tiny monster out for his blood. Even though that description adhered to cuccoos most days. Not to this one, chirping excitedly at seeing Legend’s messy face with dry drool still on the side of his mouth.

The others (just three of them, at least) had jumped back. He had expected the over the top reaction from the champion, who was wieling a soup ladle as if it was a weapon. Not so much from Wind who shouldn’t know what they were since he didn’t have them on his era and he hadn’t yet been attacked by an angry flock on this adventure. Definitely wasn’t expecting Four with a… cane? A magic cane.

A magic cane he hadn’t told Legend about. Darn it.

“Really, guys? First thing on the morning?”

“Why are you so calm about this?” Wind squinted at Legend, taking Wild’s soup ladle and poking at Legend’s face with the round edge. Wild shot Wind a betrayed look, who shrugged in response gesturing at Legend in a baffled manner.

Four’s eyes seemed to shimmer a myriad of colors, his face contorting awkwardly as if he couldn’t decide on whether he should laugh, get concerned or scold them all and go back to sleep.

“Guys, it’s okay, it’s just Piyoko.”

Holding the cuckoo, no longer the little chick she had been while on their adventures with Din’s troupe and the Nayru fiasco, Legend cooed. Wind poked at Legend again, bewildered. The look Piyoko threw the sailor was murderous, the poor kid backing off as if burnt and abandoning the wooden ladle to its uncertain fate. In retaliation, Wild flicked the kid on the forehead, quick to retrieve yet another soup ladle from his seemingly infinite supply on that slate of his.

Why soup ladles? Why not swords. Goddesses knew Wild never had enough of those with the rate he kept breaking them at.

Only Four seemed coherent enough to get them back on track from their usual shenanigans, despite being the less alert of the three.

“Piyoko?”

“Piyoko” Legend smirked. Four’s eyebrow twitched.

“And who’s Piyoko supposed to be? Aside from a cuccoo, I mean.”

“My cuccoo.” At the united front of three unimpressed heroes, Legend relented. “I’ve raised this mayhem bird from before she hatched from the egg.”

“What.”

How eloquent, Wind.

The commotion had seemed to catch Warriors’ attention. Or maybe he had been listening the whole time and Legend had just not noticed. Give him a break, he had just been rudely woken up without a good reason from his power nap after the second shift of the night watch. If he wanted to be grumpy or mad about that fact, he was well within his rights.

Either way, as usual, Legend thought while rolling his eyes out of habit, the war captain butted in the conversation.

“Is that a hero spirit thing, raising cuccoos?”

When Wild and Four shot him bewildered looks, probably questioning if Warriors also had a hidden cuccoo somewhere, Warriors was quick to deny it. Weird.

“If it is, then maybe that’s where Linkle gets it from.”

Legend stared at Wind uncomprehendingly. No way someone had named their daughter that, right? Right?

“Exactly my point.”

Okay, nevermind, apparently Linkle was a thing now, and both the captain and the sailor seemed to know her. How that was possible since, supposedly, none of them had met before this journey of nine heroes, was anyone’s guess. But neither asked about Ravio living in his house earlier that week, despite those two also impossibly knowing the scammer, so Legend wouldn’t ask about this either.

Four sighed, as if incredibly tired of this conversation already — Legend had been the one woken up, not Four, the nerve — he asked “and who’s Linkle?”

“My sister.”

Wild stared. “Your what.”

“You have a sister?”

“Not the point!” Warriors flushed, pointing at Legend. Trying to redirect the dumbass trio’s attention back to him, it seemed. That fucker. “Why are you asking me about my sister when Legend is still holding that cuccoo like nothing!”

Maybe if he was more awake, or if Legend wasn’t secretly elated that Piyoko had sneaked out to join him that day, he wouldn’t have said the next words. As it was, he was way too tired to care.

“To be fair” all eyes snapping in his direction, Legend grinned. “I threw Piyoko at Ganon.”

…

“Why did I never think of that.” Wild stared off at the morning sky, looking as if the world had opened new possibilities he hadn’t been aware of before. It was probably accurate, too.

Four just gaped at Legend, for once at a loss of words.

“She almost plucked an eye out. It was awesome.”

“Weaponized cuccoos.”

“Terrifying.” Wind may have said that, but the glint on his eye told another story.

Warriors took a step to the side, putting some distance between himself and the sailor, seemingly having an internal crisis.

Huffing, Legend dropped his weight on top of his bedroll again, Piyoko flapping her little wings before gently settling on top of his head. While the others woke up and those four got their shit together, Legend was sure he could manage to sleep another five minutes.

[rise-my-angel]

I don't really know how else to say this, but suggesting that Nettles is actually Rhaena, because the Maesters didn't have their facts right is uh, wack.

Rhaena in Fire and Blood is a white, silver haired Targaryean Princess born to the brother of one King, and the step daughter of a later Queen, whose whereabouts were thoughly documented, spent much of the war as a welcomed guest in the Vale where she lived in comfort and had her dragon Morning, hatch from one of her eggs, and continued to be well documented after the war of her whereabouts and activities as she was one of the few living Targaryeans after the war ended.

Nettles in Fire and Blood is a poor, black, dark haired, homeless bastard girl born to a whore. She on her own, bonded with a violent and wild already grown dragon who no one could tame, then after the war, disappeared for good where the rest of her life is unknown, but became something of a spiritual figure that eventually became someone worshiped by the Hill Tribe of the Burned Men.

Point to me where in Fire and Blood, the Maesters would've mixed those two up for any reason. Making a white book character played by a black actress in the show, is not an excuse to give her the story of a totally separate black character who was always black in the books.

Rhaena in the show being played by a black actress, is not an excuse to say that the black book character of Nettles, was just accidentally mixed up or made up by the Maesters, from the very well documented actions of a character who in the same book, was a white girl in a royal family.

Literally no one in the citadel is mistaking an orphaned black bastard girls actions, for a white girl in the royal family. Or would be stupid enough to mistaken the well documented actions of said white royal girl, for a totally made up black bastard girl that completely disappeared after the war.

You can just say it was wrong to give Nettles story to Rhaena. You people do not have to defend fucking everything this show has changed from the books, just because you personally enjoyed it.

Race swapping a white character to be black does not mean that it's fine to remove the already canonically black character that existed prior to the race swap, and give her story to the character who was originally white.

Listen to yourselves, for the love of god.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

horse girl charlie morningstar, her partner in a cool hat and eye patch vaggie, and the Hazbin Horse Rehabilitation Ranch- where shit people are introduced to horses no one else wants and hopefully no one get trampled to death (niffty this means YOU)

other key features include

vaggie riding a small working horse and ppl keep calling it a pony and she keeps telling them It's Not A Fucking Pony

charlie and her beloved mule, who never listens to her

angel dust wanting to learn dressage bc it looks like "fancy sexy riding" and also he was banned from mentioning the words "bare back" or "bucking bronco"

husk constantly found drunk and asleep in his horse's stall while said horse nuzzles him

niffty obsessing over grooming all the horses down to their individual hairs, yes even the bad tempered horses, yes she likes it when they shmoosh her against a wall or step on her foot

alastor looking calm collected and in control on his horse as he wanders off from the group and never participates in activities bc his horse won't listen to him either and he's too proud to admit it

sir pentious keeps trying to make his horse look and preform the best using his own new designs for tack and gear and it always backfires but he's the go-to one if your saddle needs adjusting or fixing

his egg boiz are a flock of chickens

his horse keeps eating the chickens' eggs and he keeps crying over it, even when charlie tells him they wouldn't have hatched into chicks anyway

lucifer lives in a shack somewhere around here with his collection of customized my little pony brushible toys

the locals in the nearest town still talk about lilith's incredible horse whispering skills before she up and vanished

charlie gushes about these stories a LOT but laughs nervously if asked about her own way with horses

she tries.

her way of making sudden loud squees and eeeks and excited yells and wild energetic movements doesn't fit well with most of the horses

she also slips up and gets flaming mad at anything that threatens her family's ranch or anyone who mistreats a horse

angry charlie is Scary Charlie

her mule doesn't care tho it knows she's a pushover treat giver

when vaggie first figured out what was happening she spent weeks with her own horse slowly getting it used to all sorts of weird charlie-related things, including stealing charlie's jacket a few times to flap it wildly while chasing her horse around the paddock singing loud show tunes

vaggie's horse is the only one that'll let charlie ride it without being a nervous wreck

charlie maybe cried a little when she went for that first ride

vaggie has a shot gun

she spends a lot of time checking on things riding far out and alone and keeps the gun with her just in case

she's never actually threatened any of their human boarders with the shot gun but she does have an unnerving tendency to check and clean it whenever she's pissed and trying to keep some shred of her patience intact

every week there's at least one night set aside for an evening dance after dinner and yes chaggie was doing it long before any other ppl showed up

valentino showed up once and charlie chased him off the premises with vaggie's shotgun

the ranch used to have a television

now it has a radio tower

no one except alastor is happy about it but his radio commercial revenue is paying for most of this so they all keep mostly quiet about their grumbling and record voice lines for ads when he looms over them with a script

vaggie swears the time she shot out the radio tower's windows while arguing with alastor over her and charlie's voice lines was a complete accident

razzle and dazzle are ranch dogs who keep track of the horses when they're out grazing and both are COMPLETELY in tune with charlie, been with her since childhood, the three can basically read each others' minds and watching them all work together is like watching magic

(vaggie also knows how to work with them but has to use more obvious signals instead of just tiny changes in body language)

vaggie keeps trying to gently remind charlie there are events for dog handling she could enter in

but the ranch was lilith's passion and rehabilitating rejected horses her dream and charlie is not not giving up on that OR on the rejected people her mom always was so proud of and charlie is NOT letting herself think for one moment that her mom isn't coming home

speaking of coming home

chaggie met when charlie was out riding after a storm looking for a lost horse and found it staring curiously down at a half dead lady lying in a ditch with a freshly gouged out eye and burns on her back

the half dead lady claimed she shot out her own eye by accident and got hit by lightning

or maybe fell asleep on a campfire uhh

charlie was way too busy figuring out normal social interactions again and also how to patch up a pretty lady without being a complete fool about it to question vaggie's super realistic tale

vaggie was planning on staying just long enough to get on her feet again- especially after she started catching feelings watching charlie being sweet with all the stubborn horsies- and seeing how much charlie was struggling with the ranch without having someone else to look after

she was even gonna steal a horse on the way out

and got caught by charlie in the act

charlie just smiled sadly, told vaggie she was glad she wasn't heading off alone, told vaggie's horse to take care of her, and then went back to the daily chores

vaggie caught up with her an hour later

she'd had to properly put her horse away and get breakfast started first, for after they've finished up the morning stuff

they've been running the ranch together ever since

keekee the cat is the actual boss on the ranch and got her name from how doors always open for her (bc she bothers whoever's around until they drop what they're doing to obey her)

cherri bomb stops by once just to laugh at angel dust and ignore pentious but ends up being the only one who figures out why the new horse is spooking at everything- it's got hearing loss, and she's got it too from doing endless unlicensed fireworks shows, and she's totally just sticking around until the horse gets used to things here. totally

[ideahat-universe]

It's like Pokemon but mask off.

I like monster catching games and like with most westerners my first taste of the genre was with Pokemon. But it didn't end with Pokemon. A lot of people who fell in love with Pokemon rarely extended their interest to other titles. As a result many other members in the genre languished in obscurity. The most notable ended up being Digimon but Digimon never got a big piece of the pie, but when rpgs were having a monster catcher craze I jumped in.

Monster Rancher, Dragon Quest Monster, Digimon, Azure Dreams, Robopon, and even something completely off the wall.

And after playing that and many more I had my illusion completely shattered on how good Pokemon actually was.

Every game had a little something that Pokemon either dragged their feet on having or never had.

Robopon gives you the ability to customize and change your abilities based on whatever load-out you gave your Robopon. On a surface level this looks like something that makes the identity of your Robopon irrelevant but that's far from the case as items have to be compatible and certain levels of compatibility make moves more or less effective. But the most important part is acknowledging is that when this game came out Pokemon still had sparse, single use TMs and HMs that were permanent. Robopon allowed you to access to basically every move in the game, you just had to discover which combination of items on which Robopon enables it.

Dragon Quest Monsters 1 has a breeding system and mandates that you use it. Not only are bred monsters stronger than wild ones but carefully bred monsters can have unique and very powerful offspring and even if you settle on a specific monster and want it to be your main, the monsters have level caps that are less than 100 meaning that you'll fall off if you insist on holding a monster indefinitely.

Dragon Quest Monsters 1 came out a full year before Pokemon Gold and Silver came out and when that came out and had breeding as well, the differences were brutal. You were expected to wait out the egg hatching (as if running around in a circle was ever going to be a fun game mechanic), then your egg would hatch and the Pokemon would either be the mother in its base form or a not Ditto. But wait, it's even worse. Pokemon have breed compatibility that is obfuscated with vague terms and now instead of mixing and matching at will you have to consult an insane flow chart to divine who can make babies with whom and you just end up using Ditto anyways.

But the worst part is that outside of shiny breeding (and learning a couple of moves from the parents that can't be acquired otherwise) and getting baby forms you don't get anything special from breeding Pokemon because any random Pokemon can have the stats you're looking for meaning that catching Pokemon is going to be better than breeding in almost every regard.

Azure Dreams allowed you to fight with your monsters and your monsters followed you around in the over world. Two years prior Pokemon Yellow came out with the trademark mechanic of having Pikachu following you in the over world. But this feature would not consistently stay in future titles and it took till Arceus for a trainer to be ever slightly more involved in the fight than just standing and giving commands.

Monster Rancher sacrifices a lot of commonly loved mechanics in monster games in order to have the most definitive monster training experience. Monsters have to train via mini games and non-combat related activities.

Monsters get tired, they get sick, they eat, they have favorite and least favorite foods, they can get hurt, they can get angry, they can run away from home, they can cheat their training, and they can fight with or without your guidance. When you play Monster Rancher you will miss out on the exploration and the range of creatures but when you let your Pokemon get one shot because you didn't know the match-up and basically nothing happens to you or them you'll miss how Monster Rancher makes you care about the well being of the Monster and when you're in a cave or a patch of grass or a large body of water, grinding out experience by fighting a small handle of Pokemon over and over again (back then! I know experience gain is really easy now but back then) you'll wish you can just go to a real gym and exercise the experience you want.

Digimon World changes from game to game but the very first one for the PSone is THE game that screwed up how I felt about Pokemon's basic mechanics.

Digimon World 1 gave you only one Digimon to train and raise at a time and a couple dozen transformations but you could feed the Digimon, it has moods and behaviors, you need to discipline it, you can train it in combat or at a gym, you can adjust its stats, it can learn dozens of moves on top of a super move and Digimon are programmable. Intelligence isn't just a magic damage stat. The smarter your Digimon is the better it can comprehend specific commands and complex maneuvers, meaning that with enough training your Digimon can be told to do everything from evade oncoming attacks, go whole hog and do max damage, Defend from all attacks, or even conserve mana spending.

Dragon Quest Monsters had this as well where depending on how they are trained they handle fights and understand commands based on your training or lack thereof.

Nothing like this really exists in Pokemon. When Reverend breaks Pokemon down to "press the button to receive dopamine." It's a joke but in reality, as a trainer you should be expected to actually train your Pokemon well enough to actually do things on their own. In real life every trainer for every sport expects the person they train to be self directing, when you do a coliseum match in Dragon Quest Monsters you can't give monsters specific commands so you have to rely on how you conditioned them to fight well beforehand.

A Pokemon Trainer should be able to be hands off, and have your Pokemon handle it on their own. If you have to tell your Pokemon what to do and when to do it, have you really even trained them anything?

And you might think this is a long diatribe on what is clearly a post about Palworld but my point is that I play the Monster Collector/trainer games and have been finding Pokemon lacking for maybe 15 years. So I look forward to and support the little differences that make other monster collection/training games better than Pokemon and Palworld offers a very unique experience when compared to Pokemon.

Let me break it down.

Pokemon slowly phased out regular real world animals in favor of more Pokemon but they often gloss over how because there are no normal animals and there's just Pokemon for everything, that Pokemon have to be the main product that's consumed and killed and that hundreds of Pokemon more than likely exist to just be butchered and consumed regardless of how sentient and sapient

many of them are. At the very least Pokemon have their own food cycle where they brutally murder each other to stay alive.

In Palworld you don't have that issue! It's a dog eat dog world, whatever you don't feel like capturing or keeping you thrash 'em and scrap 'em. The game has ragdoll physics so when you're done murdering the sheep and stripping it of its assets you can roll its dead body into a river.

Pokemon talks a big game about friendship and love and how you can't just treat Pokemon like emotionless weapons. However, that's exactly what players do. There's no consequence for letting your Pokemon get nuked so there's no particular care for their well being. Nine times out of ten you don't win because you love your Pokemon more. You win because your Pokemon out levels the opponent or they hard counter the opponent.

In Palworld they don't worry about that ethical dilemma. You know what? Your Pals are weapons and if you really want to up the ante, give them a gun! In the Pokemon world most conflicts are resolved with a Pokemon battle but in Palworld killing people is a team effort!

Gary may think he's smarter than you but is he smarter than bullet?

Throughout the games and the movies and the comics and even TV show what you'll notice is that actually Pokemon battles are a low priority for most Pokemon owners. A lot of people treat Pokemon as family members and pets but even more use Pokemon as a utility to solve everyday problems or participate in special contests.

Depending on the Pokemon game you are playing the side content can enable ways for you to treat the Pokemon like a friend and not like a living gun. There are even mini games that allow you to train your Pokemon towards a goal that doesn't involve just fighting the opponent but these things aren't added on top of each other with each title, they're swapped out. Never the same mini games, never the same friendship mechanics and in each game they are very shallow.

In Palworld you are expected to fight with your Pals but the main feature is putting your Pals to work at your base. Building and turning your complex into a well oiled machine. Not every Pal does the same job so you're invited to get many pals for many different tasks.

So in Palworld they are a pet, they are also a gun, and a hammer. But it's all a core feature and not side content and there's no pretense where you pretend that the creatures you control is not just tools to serve you and do what you desire.

Speaking of desire! Pokemon has Winked and nudged at the idea that Pokemon are occasionally more than friends and pets. There are an odd amount of Pokemon that are more human than monster and there's a redacted text log that says Pokemon and humans were mates and got married. It's hard to know just how close Pokemon are to humans without it being kid friendly or just extremely strange.

Palworld doesn't have that issue! In fact.

Here's Lovander! A Pal whose text entry more or less says that it's fucking everything that moves! It has only recently set its sights on humans, but that's not a big deal. After all, humans can be captured in Pal spheres like any other Pal. That's right game theorists! in Palworld humans are just Pals and are subject to the exact same mechanics.

It takes courage to say the quiet part out loud.

Now is Palworld the Monster Catcher game I've been waiting for? Kind of. It's in early access and if it adds more tasks and locations and objectives it could be quite good. Being completely unhinged and unethical is what makes Rimworld great. If this game can be modded easily, for 30 dollars. It's worth your time. Let's just hope that Craftworld was just a stepping stone for this and not an indication of the devs being more idea dogs than developers.

[adolin]

favourite parts of GtN act 3 I had forgotten about

Cytherea giving Dulcie a health crisis the moment Silas might get in contact with Abigail's ghost

There was something pale blue sparking within the corpse of Abigail Pent, and suddenly and horribly the body shuddered [...] Someone screamed, and she recognised the voice as Dulcinea’s. Gideon moved thickly through the grey-lipped crowd, watching Dulcinea collapse in what felt like slow motion, reaching out to the rumpled figure in the big dressing gown. [...] Protesilaus stalked forward, and he did not even bother to draw his sword: he simply punched Silas in the face.

The fainting spell so that she'd have an excuse to make "Pro" punch Silas... I love her. She really committed to everything <3

Wild speculation time: as a Lyctor, Cytherea has an unprecedented level of control over every cell of her body, including the cancer cells. Her body's "default state" is the terminal cancer she died with, but she's clearly able to tune it up and down. My pet theory is that the Eight House cancer is inherently necromantic in nature, so it becomes more costly to her to fine-tune it when she's actively doing necromancy, such as puppeteering Pro <- she's not faking the bout of pain, she is in pain, and still going for an Oscar. Who else is doing it like her

Magical restorative herbs Teacher had lying around

When Colum gets syphoned too hard, Teacher makes him sniff something. WHAT IS IT I desperately need to know what Teacher's herb garden looks like.

Have they been eating the Canaan House fish?

Speaking of Teacher's herb garden, the cold storage room at Canaan House includes meat and fish as well as vegetables.

Strings of startle-eyed, frozen fish with their scales and tails intact hung like laundry on lines above steel countertops, bewildering Gideon with the reality of what she had been eating.

This is interesting to me because it could say something about the status of the ocean near Canaan House regarding pollution / the state of Earth's fauna in general. I tend to take Taz literally when she said Nona took place over "a hundred thousand years and five days" and believe tens of thousands of years passed between the flashbacks and the Resurrection. The fauna being healthy enough to be eaten would match with that — not that the half life of nuclear waste means anything when you're God, but a hundred thousand years is definitely "safer" than ten thousand.

Babsʼs boyfriend

“I should’ve stayed home and gotten married,” he said resentfully. “As though anyone was even offering,” snapped Ianthe.

He had a lover boy back on Ida... I know this to be true

Third House power struggle

“How many people had these hatch keys other than the Ninth?” said Corona. “We had no idea the basement was even there.” (ten minutes later) “I am also in possession of one,” Ianthe said, unruffled. “What?”

I would read the whole book from Babs' POV. I think whatever was going on between the Tridentarii must have been incredibly fraught. Away from Ida, Corona's lie must be weighing on them like never before. Away from their court and family, I think Ianthe is going on the biggest power trip of their life. And Babs is there also.

Then later this happens

“At arms, Babs.” Her twin sister’s voice was thin and soft as silk: “Don’t unsheathe that sword, Naberius.” “Ianthe, what—are—you—doing.” “Well, Babs, thank God, has much better sense than to listen to you—Babs?”

The moment when Babs officially won't do what Corona says if Ianthe disagrees... Corona's shocked and saddened reaction... this is new for them. to me. and she doesn't like it. Ianthe meanwhile is letting out twenty-one years of quiet resentment

****

Anyway. TLDR! I'm enjoying this reread very much :3

[meepwrites]

Thinking of a Rapunzel inspired Black brothers au.

I say ‘black brothers’ and ‘inspired.

Because I couldn’t decide who should be Rapunzel.

Besides I am afraid there is no au in which the black brothers have a happy family waiting for them outside of Walburga and Orion and I don’t want to strip them of the idea of a royal status (they be ✨fancy✨.) so chained princes it is, forbidden from leaving the castle aside for certain occasions and of course only with great company.

I actually DIDN’T think abt how the brothers would Meet Remus and james 🧍‍♀️but those two - movie canonically to Flynn Ryder - are definitely petty thief’s and ‘ruffians.’

James either does it for his family or solely for the fun and his buddy - because he could just invite Remus around for a round of soup everyday but Remus would never take that generosity (going to be great when he inevitably ends up living in a castle because wolfstar.)

It all began by Sirius convincing Regulus to sneak out for a night on the town - the lanterns are a town festival or smth, still to celebrate their birthdays (WHICH MEANS THEY GET TWO CHANCES A YEAR TO SEE IT. KEEP THIS IN MIND.)

but their mother never let them engage within it ‘for their own good’ and ‘They are but Peasents.’ and damn it Sirius will seek the lanterns himself and drag Regulus along by the elbow if he has to.

Unfortunately they never made it to the lanterns that night (Ran from guards who recognised them. made it back to their rooms panting and exhilarated - Sirius was all crazy laughter and joy. Regulus was horror and joy, laughing together.) but they bumped into Remus and James before their night ended.

James almost instantly calls dips on the cold younger brother while Remus is still blinking after the wild older one who well, definitely caught his attention, he mindlessly nods at james “Uh-huh.”

And then comes back to sorts with a heavy blink and a snap of a head tilt “James you can’t call dips on people !”

THEY DON’T KNOW THE YOUNG MAN THEY MET ARE THE TOWNS PRINCES BTW - locked up within their castle and all,

ordinary people can barely recognise the reality of the two young heirs.

Perhaps Regulus and Sirius sneak out more and more - meeting James and Remus after a couple times before the two thief’s do their research and come to realisations.

They eventually set out to rescue the brothers because why not and hence comes the fourth way planning to rescue them, the planning is done in shabby town taverns with the help of the Black Brothers because they have all the inside information duh,

Regulus was initially reluctant but he comes around.

Do any of them know where exactly they will be running to ? No but Sirius, if he is to be the heir, wants to reset the way of the kingdom he wants to melt the dictatorship of his father and mother and if he has to run and a hatch plan somewhere along the way for that to be possible he will and James and Remus are willing to help.

Regulus would argue he could stay until their parents age out of the role - Sirius would rather not and seeing all that Remus had suffered under the system of the kingdom he’d rather not 10 times over.

—-

Sirius and Regulus would absolutely sing a version of ‘when will my life begin’ ? together but it’s about all the royal training and ettiquete they’re being put through and their different levels of yearning for elsewhere and the dislike of their present.

Regulus would have the ‘mother knows best’ number with Walburga because she isn’t letting him get out of hand the way Sirius had - little does she know Regulus already had (Nothing can separate the brothers if I have anything to say about it.)

He’s just a better actor - Still his mother does lower his spirits.

Rapunzel’s hesitance than joy to leave her tower gets split between them, Sirius jumps like there is no tomorrow - Regulus is coaxed out by James’s gloved hand that he smacks away before climbing down himself but all of them can see his hesitance fear and darting eyes for at least the next couple of hours

Peter is probably a little baker and a friend of Remus’s and James - that’s where they take the princes, he’s the one who gives them away eventually

Probably after Sirius belts ‘I’ve got a dream !’ <—(that’s when Remus is first really star struck and James knowingly/teasingly juts him in the ribs) in his establishment.

The queen shows up not longer after demanding to know where her children are.

Peter rats them out.

Backtracking a little though :

Regulus absolutely dragged Sirius off the table when he was singing because “what do you think you’re doing !!”

“Changing the Kingdom !”

Regulus blinked at him with a grotesque expression “You can’t- Oh my god this won’t change the kingdom ! REMUS *whips around* Tell him- *loudest groan of history kind as he sees Remus ‘the smart one’ completely whipped for his oblivious brother.* For god-“

Sirius would be like “See !” bcs Remus didn’t protest

And regulus would be massaging his temples like “No.”

[askthatoneanacondraikaiguy]

Omg it's so random but Does Kai and Skylor still wear clothes to hide potential genitals from people ? If so, how Wu does get the clothes ? Because they're both pretty large and tall so they need extra sized clothe now.

Does Kai and Skylor still sleep in a bed ? You said they can pretty much curl on themselves and sleep anywhere but maybe they could sleep together in a king sized matress with a lot of warm blankets ?

Okay, yeah, that's definitely random! But, a reasonable question.

So, I'm gonna answer your ask in reverse, so that any snake people nudity can be included under a read more. Later, I'll post the illustration of Kai napping separately (with a matching Skylor art) too for people who wanna reblog that but not the rest of this answer.

As for beds, yeah, Kai and Skylor can still sleep in beds. They usually do. However, they are also very comfortable sleeping from suspended forms. Anacondrai would sleep in swamp trees and rainforest branches suspended over bodies of water for quick escapes and opportunistic hunting opportunities.

(I'm realizing now; considering how large Anacondrai can get, they almost definitely hunted gators at some point in history)

As for concern of nudity and clothes:

Skylor and Kai technically don't need to wear clothes, but it'd feel pretty weird if they didn't, like walking around in underwear but not pants; technically you're covered but Man It Feels Weird.

I personally HC that Skylor didn't get to pick out much of her wardrobe growing up with her father, so she's taking advantage of her new freedom to use it to express herself. She may have no control over being an Anacondrai or how that looks, but she has control over how she dresses now, and she embraces that.

in season 5, Wu apparently orders the Ninjas clothes? Not just the tea uniforms, it's suggested that their new ninja uniforms arrive that way too. He probably has a friend or something in textile and fashion work that he can call up for getting the clothes for his Ninja.

Skylor doesn't have that and I don't think she would have been taught how to alter clothes, but I figure she could go to Nya for help on that front. Nya designed her own Samurai suit (and also had more than a few hand-me-down outfits in her life), she definitely knows how to alter clothes to fit better. Kai is the one who suggests it when he sees Skylor struggling with, say, skirts designed for human waists and not Serpentine ones.

Further answer (including an illustration; not NSFW I don't think but there are no clothes) under the read more;

Snakes genitalia is internal, so, no, at any given point Kai and Skylor don't have to worry about it. The closest to that would be the pelvic spurs, but I HC those only occur on wild snakes and not on Serpentine. It's one of the ways you can tell a Serpentine newborn apart from a normal snake.

(Fun Fact: Anacondas are ovoviviparous, meaning they hatch their eggs internally and give birth to live young instead of laying eggs like Pythons)

(why'd I dedicate so much time to the lighting on the scales in this? No clue)

For some reason Aspheera canonically has breasts (or the implication of them in the contour of her clothing at least). But I refuse to think about what that implies for Serpentine as a whole. Skylor's transformation has basically just given her thicker scale armor across her chest.

I hope that answers your questions!

[rosadreams]

LILIA VANROUGE is the definition of "people change over time"

In Diasomnia chapter 4, we learnt that Lilia never intended to start a family, let alone taking care of children. He seems to dread taking care of Malleus since he had a hunch that Maleanor will push the baby sitting duty to him. He even expressed his discontent towards the idea of raising children since they are weak and can't do anything.

When Maleanor asked Lilia to run away with the egg, he doubted his abilities to hatch the egg, since dragon eggs need love and magic from it's parents. It was Maleanor who knocked some sense into Lilia, to which she proudly says " You love me, don't you?" "You, my right hand general, spends so much time with my left hand general like a married couple. How could you not love the child of our blood?"

Lilia reluctantly listened to Maleanor to flee with the egg and leave her as bait to the Silver Owl, and he was even heard protesting about it but Baul had to remind him that the egg is the future king of Briar Valley who is still incapable of protecting itself.

It seems to me that Lilia loved Maleanor and Levan but he did not understand that it's "love", thats why he wasn't sure if the egg would hatch. Lilia even said that he did not care much about what he eat until adopting silver. This can be implied that he probably don't know how to self care. His tone was also quite cold (as compared to the present), addressing Silver, MC and Sebek as human, unlike in the present time where he just addresses everyone by their name; regardless of their race.

Malleus's hatching was delayed quite a few hundred years, it's possible that Lilia spent those amount of time grieving with the loss of his precious friends and trying to sort himself out cause he needs to hatch the egg and raise the child (Malleus is like the last thing holding Lilia together since he's the child of Maleanor and Levan).

When the egg finally hatches, I think that's the period where Lilia had finally accepted the death of his friends, and learnt to move on and understood the meaning of love . Keep in mind that dragon egg hatches with magic AND LOVE between the parents. Lilia probably came to love Malleus like how he did to Maleanor and Levan (platonically).

Fast forward to a hundred years later when Lilia discovered Silver in Wild Rose Castle. To recap on the spell that the 3 fairies casted on Silver, " The prince will go into a deep slumber, until he finally meets the one who loves him " Baby silver probably woke up from his sleep and was crying aggressively when Lilia stepped foot into the castle. When Lilia knew of Silver's identity, he almost wanted to take revenge for his dead friends and kill Silver. I personally think that prime Lilia would do it without any hesitation BUT he stopped himself from doing so, and instead, choose to coo at the baby, bless it with his magic and GAVE HIM A NAME. The name was not because of the hair colour (the reason that he gave to adult Silver), but instead, Lilia wanted Silver to be able to find light in darkness, as a guide in life. Can be implied that Lilia was at complete loss + didn't know what to do when he lost both of his friends and he didn't want Silver to go through that path especially when Silver is the son of Briar Valley's enemy.

Lilia KNEW what he signed himself up for when he decided to adopt Baby Silver. "Can the current me really learn how to love?" I think Lilia was still in doubt of himself back then and was pondering on the topic of Love and emotions so much, he probably wanted to see if he was capable loving of an enemy's son (throw back to the earlier chapters when he said that it's a hassle to have a family cause it would be harder to say goodbye) Yeah sure, Lilia might have made egg Malleus hatched (still not confirmed but I think it's safe to say that it's true for now), but I feel like he wanted to dive deeper to understand humans and the concept of love. Thus, baby silver was adopted and raised in seclusion (probably to avoid the eyes of other faes so that they won't take notice of Silver. They might do smth bad since Silver's biological parents were the reason why Briar Valley is suffering loss)

((Cue Maleficient Move, when Maleficent herself was the one who cursed Aurora but is also the one who broke the curse))

Fast forward to when Baby silver gave Lilia an acorn bracelet, saying that he wants to stay with Lilia forever and wishes him for a long and healthy life.

"Papa, stay healthy and let's always, always and always stay together and forever~"

"Will you pray for my long life? You, the human...."

The human who is related to the person that killed his friend is probably what Lilia wanted to say. However, Lilia only chose to hug Baby silver tightly and says nothing more. Baby silver tells Lilia that he loves him, and Lilia responded with a me too. This is probably the moment when Lilia's heart starts to finally waver by A LOT (since he kept the acorn bracelet for a LONG time and even brought it to NRC).

However, I theorized that the only reason why Lilia never openly called Silver his son and says I love you back is because he was afraid of admitting it. It would explain why Silver's sleeping curse is still on and off since the person who supposedly love him didn't admit it?

Might just be me overthinking this, but I think the loss of Maleanor and Levan made Lilia a little bit more closed off in his emotions. It's not that he can't express his happiness or what, but more of him choosing to hide away his fear (eg the intense fear he felt when he had to leave Maleanor alone to defend herself). He probably felt extremely useless back then, which might make him a little bit terrified of love?

This can be further carried on to the recent timeline when he verbalised his desire to leave and "spent his final moments" in the red dragon country, even though it's just excuses to cover up his loss of magic. He doesn't want to be viewed as weak (especially since his 3 sons looked up to him), cause he might feel "useless" again.

I think that modern Lilia understands love better now (throw back to ghost bride event when he told the bride that what you desire is always the nearest to you; bro knows how the ghost knight feels since he was in his position before) but he still lacks the ability to admit that he loves his 3 sons and cares for them deeply (just hear the way he screams when Malleus overblotted + using his whole body to defend Silver). Prime Lilia would ask them to buck up and do better...

Lilia definitely changed, and I think that's what makes his character interesting. The long of passing of time changed him from someone who is "cold" to someone who has learnt how to love and adapt to changes.

He just needs to learn how to communicate these thoughts to his sons now, seeing how 1 of them has already overblotted while the other is falling into pit darkness.

[vitaetmorsfilo]

this is a list of moments where natsu is smart (and then some, i couldn't stop myself) (episodes from 17 to 32)

- when fighting zalty, upon learning about time arc, deduced that it does not work on people, which ultear elaborated as it not working on any living matter

- when deliora started to crumble, caught on that this damage was not done by him

- when our team returned to the now fully undamaged village, natsu figured that that must be work of time arc

- when sherry and yuka came to village, natsu quickly told erza that yuka's magic can cancel out other's magic (in comparison, lucy told that sherry's magic is controlling trees and stones, like, girl, didn't she explicitly said that she can make puppets out of everything, excluding humans?)

- (on another note, in the episode where natsu, lucy, happy, gray, erza and loki's bodies and souls got shuffled, how did natsu managed to read that spell? it was in an ancient language that gave even levy trouble)

- i mean, even when he turned out mistaken, he recognised happy's egg as dragon's egg, because it had slash-like markings (like, we don't know how exactly dragon eggs look like, so it's a fifty-fifty chance that he was right)

- (on yet another note, makarov saying that you can't hatch an egg with magic? and that in general for there to be life there supposed to be love? it falls pretty in place as to how natsu himself was revived by zeref. after all, zeref genuinely loved natsu, and thats how he managed to revive him in the first place. if he held no love, then natsu would've still be dead after attack on his village. damned stubborn dragneels, amirite?)

- (also, i'm probably being delusional, but aren't first arcs strangely and loosely correlate with natsu's backstory? like, with macao being taken-over by vulcan = how zeref was consumed by his curse? or maybe how they searched for macao, when he was in their sight all along = igneel actually being sealed in natsu's soul, when natsu searched for him all around fiore? and daybreak book being saved by lucy from being destroyed and figuring out secret message from it = lucy being the one who rewrote e.n.d. book thus saving natsu from dying? yep, i'm being delusional-)

- figured that it was gajeel behind the attack on guild hall and team shadow gear (which is, like, okay, for us its obvious, but gajeel seemed surprised when natsu said that, did he really thought so low about natsu that he won't figure it out?)

- (have you fucking seen him when he overheard that lucy was taken by phantom lord? my boy was going to smoke that goon right then and there, he is down bad-)

- (he was SO going to go back to beating the shit out of phantom lord, nevermind his injured guildmates and master and order from erza to retreat, but the moment he saw lucy cry and starting apologising and blaming herself, HE FUCKING FOLDED LIKE A PRETZEL, my boy is down bad)

- went to destroy jupiter before it accumulated power for another shot, which is honestly a solid plan

- when fighting totomaru, under the guise of letting out a roar, managed to spit on totomaru (which is... i don't know if it was intentionally planned or not, it could go either way, but i think the first variant is way funnier)

- managed to redirect totomaru's sword at the giant lacrima, and when he figured out how to fight totomaru by spreading his flames further even if they are under control and how to make them not susceptible to the control itself, got a fluke shot at totomaru that actually went flying into sword in lacrima, which was his target to begin with

- (onto yet another note, what was your fucking plan lisanna? hope that your words alone would reach elfman? without any kind of back-up plan, or at least some thought put into evading him in case he attacks, or measures to defend yourself? you are stupidly lucky that anima picked you up)

- when fighting gajeel, dissipated his roar with bare hands, wild

- when he heard that gajeel's dragon also dissapeared, he quickly connected it with igneel's dissapearence too

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

What do you think constitutes as a 'monster'? In the scary monster Halloween event mummies, vampires, werewolves, skeletons and dragons seem to be monsters but there was also the ghost pirate, so do ghosts constitute as monsters? Is 'monster' a term used for creatures that aren't part of the main four species (humans, fairies, merpeople, beastpeople)?

I honestly don't think what counts as "monster" and "non-monster" is a huge distinction to make, nor is it strongly defined in the world of Twisted Wonderland. I also don't think it's something as simple as "these specific 4 races are not monsters and anything outside of these 4 are monsters" because that's just a really arbitrary decision. The labels themselves (if this is the case) are also extremely unfair, as it implies negative things about the non-dominant species when they really haven't done anything to warrant it and can't control the population of their species to come "out" of that monster label. I think it's much more likely that what makes something a "monster" is how it compares to a human in terms of life functions. For many of the "monsters" listed (vampires, mummies, skeletons, ghosts, etc.), they have unnatural means of coming into existence. These creatures are not "born" like a normal living creature would be. Rather, they "turn" or are "made" somehow. In the case of the werewolf, they're also "unnatural" in a magical sense because people are not able to shift into different forms on their own. Even beastmen cannot just assume beast form; Jack's the exception due to his UM. Merfolk need to take a special potion to maintain their human forms, and can only shift in cases when they want to revert back to their merforms from their human forms. They'd need to take another transformation potion to gain legs again. Because a werewolf defies these constraints, that may be what makes them "monsters".

Finally, we come to dragons, which is a particularly special case. We learn that Malleus himself, being a dragon fae, has ancestors who are real dragons. We also learn that beastmen are descended from real animals, and, from this, can probably also deduce that merfolk are also descended from various sea creatures. For this reason, some fae, beastmen, and merfolk are "monstrous" in some regard. However, the label "monster" is seen as derogatory, and is meant to be clearly distinct from just "animal" (see: Malleus's reaction to Rook saying he is "more monster than animal" in Rook's PE vignette). Therefore, beastmen and merfolk are off the hook for this discussion, since their ancestors are animals and not "monsters".

I also considered intelligence being a factor for the monster/non-monster distinction, but that doesn't seem to hold up when you consider that Phantoms and Grim are also called monsters or beasts. Buuut there are cases of intelligent Phantoms, and Grim himself is capable of human speech which is incredibly remarkable. We also don't know enough details about dragons themselves to know if they are "wild" and incapable of human speech. The one thing I could say about dragons that makes them different from humans (and thus fit into my earlier proposal) is that they probably produce eggs that have to be incubated to hatch (similar to chickens, I guess??), if Malleus's birth is anything to go off of. This creates a distinction between human reproduction and dragon reproduction--and since Malleus and other dragon fae have elements of both, it supports the idea that it can be difficult to reconcile with one's humanity vs being seen as something inhuman from the start. This could explain why Malleus takes such offense when Rook comments in the vignette I indicated: it's questioning his humanity.

[letterstoear]

Three reasons to love Lilia Vanrouge!

We’re in a bit of a Diasomnia month so I thought it would be fitting to start with Lilia.

Please make sure to check out my shop too: Shop — Letters to Ear (squarespace.com)

*spoiler warnings*

#1 DILF

Man’s got children to raise and he does it so well, it’s hot. We got Silver who was the child of his enemy, but he brought himself to love and raise Silver. When Malleus was still in his egg state, it was none other than Lilia who loved Malleus so he could hatch. From there he devoted himself to both Silver and Malleus without any time for himself. That takes a lot for someone to be tossed into parenthood and manage to grow into it.

We also got these selfless acts he does to get Malleus to grow outside of his locked up world. He managed to fake a stomach ache to get Malleus some solo traveling time in the Scalding Sands event.

In the Lost in a Book event with Stitch we get an even closer look to how Lilia wants everyone to enjoy their time. With Riddle he constructs a “rule” to make Riddle enjoy the game of capture the flag. Which goes to show how Lilia truly looks out for those close to him and takes it upon himself to come up with a solution.

Then we get events like Playful Land, where he experiences a wild gremlin like Grim. During the Monstro ride we get to know that Lilia was paying close attention to Grim who almost fell out of the ride. The only reason Grim didn’t was because Lilia was holding tightly onto him. Lilia could have left Grim to drown in the pool of water, but he didn't; he held on tight, even if it meant sacrificing having fun.

Confidence is him

Lilia has mentioned this several times throughout his scenes, but he truly thinks of himself as adorable and cute. Boasting about himself with full confidence means takes a lot to do. Especially the cute part, I find most people don’t like being called cute and would prefer other descriptions. However, Lilia loves his appearance, but it's not in a narcissistic kind of way. Rather, he’s so comfortable in his own skin he doesn’t mind other’s opinions.

Letting go

Lilia was a general who went up against humans who very much destroyed his kingdom. This very understandably would cause one to be in grief and despair or even cause resentment. However, Lilia does the opposite. He understands there are humans who do harm, yet he understands not each human is like that. In fact, he finds value in the lives of humans and is able to let go of his past. Really, he accepts the past and finds a way to move on.

With that I leave you three reasons to love Lilia, I’m sure I could go on and on, but the post would get too long. Thank you for reading this post. Reblogs are much appreciated!

[spaceless-vacuum]

Hi my friend sent me your Lynn cub reader fanfic and it was Soo cute!🥰

And I wanted to request something different

But the same thing at the same time

Can I have a yandere link's playtonic x baby hatchling lizalfos female reader

The links found the egg it a weird one and it just hatch in front of them

Like who would be her father and mother figure

And we all know wind is the best big brother!

I just think it funny and think differently links would be good monster fathers and mothers lol

The egg twitched- then bounced. Moving across the ground while bouncing from side to side.

“Is that… I mean is it really?” Sky trailed off. He was asking the question on everyone's mind, Was there really a baby lizalfos in there? Was this where they came from? The group had seen groups of enemies spawn from dust or dark magic- but never considered how they might go about creating their own young once fully grown. It was an assumption they were all born through darkness.

It all felt so natural to just assume the creatures didn't have any young. He had never fought a baby lizalfos or ever heard of one. So why was this egg moving? There was no way this was some egg they carried in as food because if it was they'd have swallowed it by now. Sky looked to the spot where the two lizalfos guards had died. They refused to move even as the rest of their camp was slaughtered.

“Seems like it. I’ve never even seen this before but I've heard the story. Their babies hatch so quickly they're only in eggs for a day or two which makes them hard to spot in the wild.” Twilight tilted his head studying the egg as it twitched again before standing still. It almost knocked itself over. “I don't think it's going to stay in there for much longer.”

“Are you guys just going to talk around or do we plan on actually doing something?” Four was the first to make his way over after clearing out the rest of the camp.

“It's just a baby.” Twilight was quick to defend the egg. He could see the anger in Four, the man wouldn't do anything, but it was smart to remind him that you were no danger. When you hatched you would be too young to do anything and hardly the size of a cat. If you attacked they could manage getting away and leaving you alone. For the sake of a new life in the world he would choose peace.

“It's a monster!” Four couldn't understand why Twilight was acting so nonchalant. Did the rancher really have it in his mind that this thing was anything like his goats? That the moment you hatched you would come out and sniff his hand? Of course not. Ganon’s minions would never know rest. You would either grow up in the wilds and be a killer or by some miracle you would be raised in an environment that would encourage goodwill.

“I’m still unsure about this. Granted it's still a monster, but you guys were wrong about dragons." Both the rancher and smith turned to Sky. He was staring off into the distance. A tell tale sign that he was somewhere else right now. “I mean everyone here thinks they’re evil but I’ve met friendly faces of theirs.”

“If we keep them we’ll have to feed them and keep them out of trouble. It may hurt us or it may imprint and protect us. No way to tell.” Time made his way over with the rest of the group. This was Wild’s era. if anyone would have a good clue what was going on it would be him. Four broke away from the group to ask the champion some questions.

The egg hadn't moved again. Time knew the stomping of their boots and sound of combat couldn't have made you feel safe. It was possible you were too scared to come out. With time maybe you'd grow closer to the group, it was only a matter of time. Both parties were apprehensive of each other. Unsure if the other was friend or foe.

Time knew the men here well enough to know that no matter what happens they would be taking the egg. Everyone could argue about it but it was set in stone. Curiosity would get the better of them all. If they left the camp now- leaving you in it- someone would wrap back around to take the egg. It would cut down on time if they just took the egg and let the baby run off when they hatched.

“You found WHAT?” Wild had heard the news and was going to rush over at any moment. Time scooped the egg up with both hands. You could fit in one but he wanted to make sure he didn't drop you. The boys wouldn't let him live it down if he did. It felt a bit rude to be taking you from what was your home. He knew however that your family was dead. taking you with them to a palace more packed with food was your ebay chance at survival.

“Our leader has spoken.” Twilight studied the old man's face. There wasn't a sliver of doubt in his mind that they would be taking the child with them. The rancher knew where to look to see the curious child that was hidden in their commander. The other may only see the kind and tough leader but his elusive other self was right there underneath the surface. Time had let his curiosity and hope get the better of him- or maybe make him better than the rest.

Wild was the first to run over. Hyrule was rushing over as he heard the news. The rest of the group was left to search for loot and make sure no stragglers snuck up on them. Wild was enamoured by the egg. In all his time in the wilds he had never come across one. He assumed they must be rare or well hidden but Hyrule disagreed. He had seen a baby lizalfos along with a few eggs in his home era.

Hyrule was insisting that it wasn't terribly difficult to find an egg or baby even. It was the danger of them that made you lucky if you never found one. The hatchlings were vicious. Born with a ferocious appetite they would eat anything they could get their hands on. They needed a large amount of food to grow up as fast as they could.

They spent very little time in adolescence and grew full size in the matter of weeks or months. Hyrule had never come across an adolescent lizalfos- which only made him think they could grow within a few days if supplied enough food. Why else were there so few accounts? Wild had no need for these accounts. He had heard rumours from stable hands and was sure he knew everything he needed to.

“How cool is all of that?!” Wild was ecstatic. Eyes wide he stared at the egg in Time’s hands. The old man kept trying to walk but was stop by the constant barrage of questions and hands trying to touch the egg.

“No! Not cool at all.” Hyrule turned to Time. “We can't bring this thing into our camp. We don't know-”

“I've made up my mind.” Time was calm as he interrupted Hyule. “We know what we're doing and if the worst happens we'll just leave them and let nature take care of the rest.”

“You don't know how much they eat!” Hyrule said.

“Two WHOLE raw cucos.” Wild stared at Time. “Hyrule said he saw one- a baby- eat two whole raw cucos. Twice the child's size.”

“I'm sure he's exaggerating.” Time was not sure any child could eat that much.

“When I was travelling I came across a baby lizalfos and I saw it eat two whole raw cucos. Whole! I stayed hidden because I had never seen one before and couldn't recognize what it was until it was halfway through the first. If we allow this to hatch in our camp it will eat everything it thinks is food.” Time could see what Hyrule was trying to stay. He was worried about those that had food that wasn't locked up in magical sheikah tech.

“I’m sure we can manage. It won't be able to swallow us whole and the champion can hold all food we don't want them getting their claws on. We won't allow them to just help themselves but there are ways to make sure they get fed.” Time pated the egg and felt it twitch as the child inside moved.

“How big?” Sky turned to Hyrule.

“What?” Hyrule looked past Time to the other man. Twilight was silent watching Wild prance around Time trying to get a better look at the egg now that it was moving again.

“How big was it? A cuco is pretty big, bigger than our egg here. If it ate a whole one it wouldn't be able to move from the weight of something its size stuck in its mouth.” Sky thought he had a good point. Hyrule held out his arms to represent the size of the one he saw. It was roughly the size of a gator. The egg was as big as one of their heads. The newborn hatchling would be too small to eat that much.

“I think we should be more worried about when this’ll hatch.” Twilight moved around Time and put a hand on Wild’s shoulder. He was not able to stand still at all and was bouncing around. You had been moving when they approached to take care of the monsters, and only stopped once the fighting was over. He figured since they were all new they were scarring you from coming out. You had to get used to them first.

“We need to keep moving. We simply don't have the time to wait there all day. We're taking them with us. If we can handle the adults in this camp we can handle whatever the kid throws at us. If they turn out to be hostile we will leave them or take them to a different monster camp.”  Time walked out of camp. Everyone followed behind him and made their way back to the road.

. . .

“You can't rush nature. They'll come out when they feel ready to.” Warrior was sick to his stomach watching the champion do something crazy. It was always the fear someone would get hurt while on his watch that got to him. Everyone else watched with their breaths drawn waiting for the champion to finish his task.

“They might be stuck!” Wild had heard stories of this happening. Sometimes baby birds would get stuck in their eggs and would need help coming out or else they wouldn't hatch. You had to intervene or let nature take its course- and take the life of the young in the egg.

“Do you know what you're doing?” Wind was sitting next to Wild helping him by keeping watch. He planned on cracking the egg himself. He was hesitating. The idea of hitting your head terrified him. 

Everyone was unloading their packs in the clearing. It was midday and the weather in this region was far too humid to push any further. Faron was a jungle and the line of sight here was terrible. The moment anyone went off road they were out of view. Time was the only one to stay on the road the whole time. Electing not to take shortcuts or other paths so they wouldn't get lost.

He was the one that was holding you for the most part. He was worried you would hatch and scurry away into the underbrush and disappear. The others all got their chance but everyone passed it back once they had their fill. Warrior said the egg reminded him of a dragon which got Sky talking and by the time he was done it was time to call camp. Everyone was exhausted and sore from fighting and then walking for hours; but the most unbearable part was how the egg wouldn't hatch.

It had been hours and not one time did the baby break the shell. Four figured they had the hatch date wrong but Hyrule was sure that they only started moving when they were ready. What was the point of the rocking if it wasn't from you trying to get out. That meant something was wrong. It shouldn't take anymore than an hour or two and it had been double that since they took you along.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” Wild took his right hand and tapped the hilt of his dagger. Just hard enough to hammer the tip of the blade into the shell. He pulled the knife out. There wasn't any blood. He put the tip back in and tilted the knife wedging a sizable piece of shell off. Once it started to give way he removed the knife and pulled it away with his hands.

There was a flash of silver scales through the hole he made. You were in there and moving around. Squirming to try and break out. You had been stuck; not strong enough to break the shell on your own. Wild took another piece of the egg and broke it off. There was now a hole small enough for a hand to fit through.

“Hey Wind, think you can reach in there and pull them out?” Wild tilted the egg towards the kid. His hands were small enough that he would have no problem reaching in and grabbing you.

“Sure thing!” The sailor was all too happy to help out. He reached in and pulled. He had his hand around a leg of yours and was gently tugging you out of your shell. Wild helped out by breaking more of the shell off. In a matter of moments they had managed to free you. The inside of the egg was dry. A testament to however long you had been stuck in it. Everyone watched as a singular silver lizalfos opened its eyes and looked around.

“Well I’ll be.” The rancher was off to the far side of the camp watching. For something so strong you sure weren’t a fighter. They wouldn't have any issue caring for you that was sure.

“Hey everyone! Look!” Wind stood up and held you by one leg; holding you like a prize fish he just caught. The smile on his face was wide and you looked from him to everyone else in the camp out of surprise.

[inseasofgreen]

ghost!!!!

would it be a good thing or a bad thing to simp for zemorri? i feel like i should be conflicted about him, but i am instead simply biased.

anyways, use this as an excuse to give us zemorri lore pls.

thanks :)

Ayy!! My comfiest writer!!

Honestly I wake up everyday asking the same thing. He's not an outright evil character, but he does bring a lot of questions about morals and what is right and what is wrong. Specially in his case when there is no real winning for anyone, at least in book 1. How it unfolds in later books is honestly a mystery to even me. For once I don't have a clear definitive path with my writing, which is exciting!! For the most part. God Zemorri and Sciosa are going to give me a run for my money ripp

But on to some Zemorri lore!!

I was going to go on about some of the more light hearted things, his name, his dragon bond, etc. but I feel the need to dive a bit deeper. Let's go with his claim to the Vultis throne.

Zemorri was raised as a bastard, believed to be the son of a disgraced dragon rider who attempted to betray the Good Emperor Mikath, Zemorri's real father, and tip the odds to the Usurper Xorulth favor. Zevetta actually wasn't told who to claim was Zemorri's father, only that she was to protect him at all costs and prepare him for the day he would have to reclaim his throne. So Zevetta came up with that lie on her own. Knowing that Zemorri would be better received if the man who fathered him died fighting for the Usurper and also who Zevetta could've logically had the proximity to conceive with. So not only has Zemorri lived a lie his whole life, he's done so while being in close proximity to the Usurper.

Zemorri and his mom have played a very dangerous game. Zevetta getting her husband to talk to the Usurper and basically talk Zemorri up while Zemorri is off doing all these "great" deeds in the King's name. We're not even going to go into the fact that his stepfather let Zemorri be raised with his true born sisters.

I should also mention that Zemorri as the imperial champion ranks above the whole military, his stepfather included. He only has to answer to the Emperor. The crown prince too, but that's more of a case by case basis tbh. So him, already plotting and scheming from a young age to claim the throne, mixed with his rank in court, as well as going to Nivra? Simply put, shit's going down in Nivra.

Oh, and a bonus. Zemorri's dragon Indiss is actually a wild dragon. He doesn't listen to the Zrato like one bred, hatched, and raised dragon would. He's also bigger, like x2 the usual dragon Zrato's ride. Indiss also is just a little freak in general, being as his usual breed is quite colorful with patterns on them and are mean. Indiss however is white as snow and doesn't eat everyone and thing he comes into contact with.

Zemorri is going to be either well loved or absolutely despised by anyone who reads POTO and they'll be no in between honestly lmaooo

Tagging the POTO Tag List because yes.

@lord-fallen @inkingfireplace @rhikasa @leahnardo-da-veggie @satohqbanana

@real-fragments @the-inkwell-variable @tildeathiwillwrite @fromthenortheast @heycerulean

@sonnetery @wyked-ao3