#i mean technically spider is an option

[tahnisreu]

@prvtocol she either goes blue or finds an RDA defector like SHE AIN'T GOT PANDORA TINDER

[the-artist-grimm]

Im sorry if you already answered something similar but does the twins ever reunite with Forneus in your au? If so how does it exactly work out, does Narinder, Anthea, and Forneus share custody?

Crimson Angel AU - The Situation between Forneus and the Twins

(Anon, @gerroacarnival  and @xquaserh Putting all these asks in 1 cause oh boy this is a COMPLICATED question to answer oof. I wanna preface this that while I love Forneus just going by the characters personalities/themes of this AU the reunion is not as fairy-tale happy as it is in game)

Anyway-the boys do reunite with her technically, but not in the way Forneus dreamt. Reunions are good in theory, the long lost children reunite with their ‘real’ family, hug their mother, go ‘home’ with her, start life anew, but life isn’t so simple, now is it? It’s never that easy, not when one side clings to the memory of three day old infants and a reunion she'd dreamt of for so long it just became her expectation, and the other side has no memory and complex feelings on the whole matter with this slight feeling that perhaps while their mother loves the idea of them, she doesn't actually love them.

It's messy, complicated, and no matter what, will NEVER be the reunion Forneus wanted. The second they left her embrace, she lost the chance to be the mother she'd wanted to be for them, yet never realize till too late what else died with them.

(Putting this under the cut cause it's longgggg. The Twins and Forneus's story has so little in-game text that it's become this favorite thing of mine to interpret/expand)

The Two Parents

Forneus did and didn’t have a choice to give the boys up. When Shamura appeared, the newborn, extremely premature kits were already doomed to die, so the choice to either let them pass naturally or to allow War to take them as gifts with a potential of reunion was an either damned if she did or damned if she didn’t, situation. And in her grief and desperation, she chose the option that gave the potential for hope. She gave the twins to Shamura, accepted the golden skull, and waited. Waited for her babies to come home, waited as a mother who never really ever had a chance to be a mother-one who works off feelings but no experience. 

Meanwhile when it came to Aym and Baal, Narinder never told them who their parent(s) were. How could he, when he himself had no certainty as to who they were? Though his 7th Vessel, Forneus, had left service specifically because of pregnancy, he had no means of tracking how much time had passed since when they first arrived (it could've been a century since for all he knew), nor any means to confirm without doubt that the black, newborn kittens were hers even once his next vessel gave him the date-he couldn't ask them to investigate something so personal and unrelated to their cause.

Their box held only their bodies, a spider-silk cloth which was their burial shroud, and a note penned in Shamura’s hand. ‘A Gift’ that’s all the note said. No names, no clues, no nothing. While Narinder had suspicions, he could not in good conscious tell the boys of a potential mother out of risk of being wrong-of getting their hopes up for a heroic parent only to be proved that it wasn’t her, or worse, told heroic tales just to learn they were abandoned all along. Vessel 7 was heroic yes, had a sense of justice yes, but during her service her luck had made her grow arrogant, had transformed flirting into a game of hearts and people into a way to get the upper hand-for all he knew, if they were hers, they could've all along been her means of trying to easily get out of vesselship. He just didn't know.

And thus Narinder raised them from there. He tried to use the title of ‘Master’ as a barrier in hopes that, if they did have a family awaiting them, he wouldn't take their place, (it was also out of guilt for being the reason they were trapped) but he also couldn't bring himself to fully shut them out either. The moment their dead bodies healed in the gate and they started to mewl for attention his unbeating heart bled for them, and he just couldn't deny them love because he knew how much it hurt to be without.

The Twins

As centuries passed Aym and Baal were content with Narinder as their 'Master'. He who told them stories of his time above, who taught them how to fight, who fashioned them clothes from whatever scraps of cloth he would get vessels to send-he was all they had and knew. When they felt the time to sleep it was in his paws they curled up, when they got hurt training or got bored it was from he they received comfort and attention. It was his magic which allowed them to age against the Gateway's stasis, it was he who saw their eyes open, watched as they learned to speak and walk.

But that’s not to say neither did think of whoever was left behind from time to time. Baal tried to keep hope that he and his brother were taken-stolen by the Bishops, with whatever parents they’d had having desperately tried to keep War away. Aym, meanwhile, only felt anger, bitterness and resentment, for who lets two three day old kits be taken and sacrificed? Narinder himself simply tried to keep neutral on the subject, not wanting to feed into either side in hopes that'd avoid a heartbreak or the smooth transition to their 'real' kin.

The Lamb

When the Lamb appears and starts to befriend them, it's then the boys suddenly find themselves feeling the same sense of security and comfort Narinder gives them towards Anthea. As the lamb brings them toys and books catered to their interests, teaches them to read, uses the crown to show them the world above and encourage their boundless curiosities. As nights suddenly see the lamb visit in their nightgown book and quilt in hand, letting the twins snuggle into their sides as the three are cradled against Narinder's chest while reading a book, and the boys fall asleep to a heartbeat for the first time. Narinder had always been stability and security, Anthea became tenderness and warmth.

Anthea teaches them what a 'Father' is as well, and the boys realize that's what their master actually is-he's their dad and tentatively start testing calling him as such, and while it's not until just before Silk Cradle they realize it (yet don't call them Baba yet) Anthea's long on their way to feeling like a parent too.

Which then begs the question…what of the parent(s) left behind?

First Contact

Baal still wants to meet them, he's always been curious and just wants to know who they are, while Aym is still angry and wants nothing to do with them. They got a parent in their master, and Anthea's their friend and practically a parent too, so why bother with the ones who abandoned them? Narinder overhears the boys debate over it more and more, and as Anchordeep’s door opens, Narinder hesitantly asks the Lamb for a favor.

He’d heard rumors of a shopkeep she-cat who wore a golden skull, and Anthea had been the first to confirm that cat's name was Forneus. He’d never asked a vessel to do such a thing before, mainly out of not feeling close enough to ever ask such a personal, unrelated to the Bishops, task, but he wants to give the boys closure, and Anthea would happily do anything to help the kits. And thus they're sent out, and in a bit of a side quest work their way to getting Forneus to sit down and just...talk.

She explains her side of what happened, how the boys were born too soon, how she had really no choice, breaks down, and as the cats had been listening in and Aym who's now uncertain feels bad, and he requests Narinder for permission to speak.

“Save your tears for when we meet” is what he says, and that’s all that’s said through the crown.

For Aym it’s an olive branch-he’s sorta gotten an answer as to why he and his brother were sacrificed, though he's not entirely sure how to feel since well...she still gave them up, but she looks sorry so... Baal's eager and happy to hear that they were cared about but is a little disappointed at realizing that she didn't really hesitate despite the situation, but regardless, both are willing to give her a chance. They want to get to know her, and then they'll decide how they feel after that.

They, do not, see her as a proper 'Mother'. Just someone who shares their blood who they want to meet. To then Narinder's still Dad-he's still the one who makes them feel secure.

Meanwhile for Forneus it’s proof that she’ll get what was promised. Her boys are not only alive, but they’re children-they’re still children, so she'll now get what she wanted and more. They'll reunite and she'll then take her children home to travel by her side-she’ll get to raise her dear little babies just as she’d planned, and while it took so long it's going to be perfect.

She's dreamt of the boys seeing and running into her oncoming embrace crying. That they'll love her instantly and had already because she's their mother so of course that's how they'll feel. How could they not? Children ALWAYS love their parents.

The Lamb promises to help her meet them once they’re free, and every visit after, Forneus tries to get the boys to talk again-offers gifts for the lamb to bring to the Gateway, rambles on about all the things they'll do together while the Lamb browses her shop. And...well they're things, at least. Most of the toys she offers are either baby toys or things that just don't interest the boys, and some of her plans are...plans. They're elaborate-taking them to X mountain, to X landmark, traveling here and there and everywhere. Big and grand and...and never mentioning their Dad or Anthea being there.

Baal thinks it's sweet how excited she is while Aym is getting more and more unsure-but even Baal eventually admits that she's a little...loud. Forneus is loud-she's energetic and eager and while he and Aym can be too, seeing it from a stranger about them is...weird. She keeps calling herself their Mama , and calling them Zamir and Delshad despite being told otherwise because apparently those were their names (a fact not even Shamura had been given. Narinder had to name the boys himself). She keeps talking about those three days they were with her, and it kinda feels like she loves the babies she gave up and not them.

Anthea tries to tell her about them, but she usually doesn't realzie since she's busy talking to her babies and not them, it's as if the lamb isn't even there. The boys can't even try to think of trying to talk-she never leaves an opening for them to try. Eventually the boys ask Narinder to mute the crown during the Lamb's shop visits the more uncomfortable it gets.

It's like going to a family reunion and being brought to your great Aunt who last saw you as an infant at your christening. She insists on kissing your face and hugging you tight and going oh how big you've grown sweetiepie and this and that and...and you put up with it because she's family but...well she's a stranger despite the shared blood. She doesn't actually know the you of now-and you don't know her.

Reunion

When the final Bishop falls is when Forneus suddenly finds herself left in the dark. For 6 months she sees hide nor hair of the Lamb, and gradually gets worried because where are her sons? The Bishops are dead, why hasn't she been given back her babies?

(The Lamb had been avoiding her cart during crusades out of both grief and guilt-Aym's dying word of calling them 'Baba'...it broke something in them, made them realize just how much the boys had meant. They had a shattered heart and endless guilt, and having to face Forneus and explain she'd never meet her sons? It'd been too much as a grieving parent themself)

The twins were revived after 4 months but Anthea only finally approached Forneus after 6, and she was too relived to finally hear she could meet them to bother asking what'd happened. Anthea invited her to come to the cult that weekend, and Forneus happily accepted, not even noticing the tiredness in the Lamb's eyes nor the uncertainty in their tone. Even on the day she arrived at the cult, she didn't mind the lamb, not even as Anthea gave her a final warning.  

"There was trouble setting them free…they’re wary, skittish, they’ve been through a lot... I know you’re excited but please be gentle when you speak to them, be calm and keep your distance please they’re so easy to startle."  

Meanwhile the boys waited at the temple with Narinder, who, for the hundredth time, asked if they were certain they were ready for this. Though it'd been 2 months, the toll of dying so traumatically via turning to ash, of being trapped in the gateway, the trauma of resurrection, the fear of being alone without their parents because that's what he and Anthea were to them, Narinder had wanted them to wait as did Anthea. The boys could hardly sleep without at least one of them there with them in bed, were just starting to be ok interacting with other people, could only handle the touch of a select few and even then sometimes would just break down into panic attacks out of seemingly nowhere. They weren't ok, but the boys had insisted. This woman who claimed to love them had been kept in the dark for so long, they felt bad and wanted to try.

They felt guilty for not being ok. Even as Narinder and Anthea repeatedly and gently reminded them that it was alright-that their feelings were valid, that they could take all the time they needed and they'd be right there to support them, the boys had insisted and they just couldn't deny them their choice.

But once Forneus arrived no one got the chance to even properly introduce the boys to her-she just saw them, ran towards them for the reunion she dreamt up, swept them into her arms, and next thing she knew she had two yowling, struggling kits trying to break from her hold. In her excitement and in not listening to Anthea's warnings she'd done the worst thing anyone could've done-she was louder, bigger, stronger, scarier than them, and as the kids managed to shock her into dropping them suddenly Baal was hyperventilating, and Aym was working himself into a panic attack. And Narinder and Anthea, having two months practice in calming them like this, and having long been the twin's safe people, immediately fell into place. Narinder got Baal, Anthea got Aym, and Forneus could only watch.

Could only watch as Baal started gasping for Dad as Narinder tried to get him to breathe, as Aym started sobbing for Baba and practically tried to bury himself in their embrace, as her babies looked at her in fear and clung to someone else.

And then all she can feel is anger. She'd waited 300 years-those boys were hers. Why are they clinging to someone else?

From there it just becomes a mess, she gets into a very loud, very heated argument with Narinder especially for 'stealing' her sons which just scares the boys more, and in a very poor move tries to just grab one of them which prompts Anthea to use a show of godly power and threaten her to get out of the Cult which she does since a crowd has also formed (the Cult was ALL aware of the twin's poor mental state, and they'd all grown very protective of the community's first children despite having to keep their distance because by gods those kids deserved more than what fate had given them).

Forneus leaves angry, and Narinder and Anthea now got two kits who had been tentatively healing temporarily back at square one, and who are now gonna start having nightmares of a stranger taking them away on top of preexisting ones.

I wanna note that Forneus isn't a bad person. She isn't, but she's also not used to things not going her way. As a vessel she was 'Lady Luck', she who rarely died, who always had the upper hand, who would pop curse shots at the Goddess of Famine for fun and be the heartbreaker of her own cult able to flirt and tease and talk her way to whatever she wished. She's kind and cheerful and charismatic sure and she genuinely does want to help people and do the right thing, but there's still this...ignorance, arrogance-that she doesn't even realize is there.

Like how above in Starfall Part 1 she VERY casually mentions how she 'knows what it's like missing her own twins' and 'how 'hard' it must be for Anthea to have nothing of their family to remember them by', but the thing is...she doesn't know. She's so hooked on this idea that she WILL get her boys back that she completely has just ignored the grief that comes with loss entirely this whole time. The way she misses her sons is NOTHING like how Anthea misses their brothers-she misses them like a relative you haven't seen in awhile but will see soon. Anthea misses their brothers because they're DEAD and they know that they will NEVER see the two again, especially now. Like Forneus has not considered how she's lost a LOT of moments with her children. They're still kids yeah but they're not returning to her as blank slates-though physically and mentally 11 they've been with Narinder for over 300 years, that's a lot of time to be without her. She loves them, but kinda more-so the sons she thought she'd get back.

Thus when you've been envisioning this 'perfect' reunion the entire time only for it to not go your way...it's a hard pill to swallow. She gets disappointed/angry understandably-anyone would, but instead of stepping back and realizing she can't fault the boy's feelings she takes it out of the ones who 'took' her place instead, which then turns her into this loud scary bad-guy to the boys.

And Aym and Baal aren't to blame in this situation, like they're kids, and like with my 'great aunt who last saw you as a baby' analogy, it's not their fault they don't immediately love her. She's a stranger-one whom, the more she tried to force interactions via the crown during their imprisonment, seemed to have little interest in them personally and more in whatever children she assumed she'd be getting back. And after that disaster of a first meeting? They don't want anything to do with her she scared them that much.

As for Narinder and Anthea they both feel awful because they understand why Forneus is angry, she only gave them up because she was promised a chance for reunion (though she ignored the CHANCE part of that), but in the same breath Aym and Baal are their sons and they'll take their side first over anyone else's. And the thing is there's nothing that could've been done on their part to prevent this really either.

Anthea telling Forneus the twins had died? Anger, grief, then upon their revival a fierce insistence for the boys to NEVER go near the Lamb or Narinder again, which the twins would've been just as terrified and against.

Narinder not showing care to the kits for those 300 years? They would've gotten attached to him anyway since he was literally all they had, though they might've turned out worse emotionally because of neglect

Telling the boys to wait longer to meet Forneus? She likely would've just shown up on her own within another month anyway since by that point Anthea had just freed Heket from Purgatory and word was starting to get around about the new God of Death so this would've happened but worse.

The only way Forneus could've had the reunion she'd wanted would have been if Narinder never forced the twins to start aging against the stasis. But then there would be two 300+ year old infants, which is a whole other can of worms.

Notes/Explaination

Again I love Forneus in-game she's so adorable and my one of my favorite NPCs to visit, but I also like making imperfect characters, especially parents and their relationships with their children. And while I love the idea of her being this wonderful, sweet, amazing mother, I also like the idea of her being really flawed about it to.

Crimson Angel is about learning to communicate with your loved ones, and in this case, it needs to be her looking at things from the twins view and realizing that if they don't want her in their lives, she has to accept that. She needs to realize that she's not entitled to their love just because she gave birth to them. She also has to let go of the sons she gave up that day-those three day old infants who were perfect little blank slates, and get to know the boys they became without her. She has to realize someone else took her place in their hearts, and realize that if she wants to join them, she HAS to let the boys come to her, and that she has to work on THEIR terms.

She cannot try and force a love if she wants a chance for it at all, and must swallow her pride and listen to others who know the boys better-Anthea and Narinder, alongside the boys themselves.

She'll get a relationship with the boys eventually, but it's not going to be the one she hoped for. She's gotta work on herself first and realize her flaws, maybe get some practice with handling children via unintentionally adopting a certain fan-favorite grave spider kid after finding him all alone, and just...wait. Narinder and Anthea are the twin's primary parents, and while Forneus does eventually get to a place where they're comfortable with her, it's never going to be on the same level, and they all just gotta contend with that.

Boarders are by @/lambouillet

[the-shinysnorlax]

Miguel O’Hara: A comprehensive reading guide

I honestly don’t know if this has been done yet, and considering that there are multiple different main canons for Miguel, it’s even more confusing on where to start.

To clarify, there is 3 different “Mainstream” universes for Miguel. Earth 928 (The main universe for most Miguel media), Earth-2099, and Earth-6375 (The universe where he’s part of the exiles)

I’m gonna be starting with

Earth-928

(Note: I’ll try to put these in order as much as possible, but due to retcons and other things like Spiderverse it may not be 100% accurate)

Important reads are in bold

-Amazing Spider-Man #365 (Not really important, it’s just a preview of the first issue, but it’s counted as Miguel’s very first appearance so.)

-Spiderman 2099 vol 1 #1-10 (VERY important reads, they set up the universe and Miguel’s origin story)

-2099 unlimited #1-3 (Not really important to the lore, but they’re silly little stories that I have to mention them)

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #11-15

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #16, Ravage 2099 #15, X-men 2099 #5, Doom 2099 #14, Punisher 2099 #13 (VERY important reads, highlights the fall of the hammer arc and shows Miguel’s relationships with other 2099 characters, especially Jake Gallows. Read in the exact order listed)

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #17-22

-2099 unlimited #8

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #23-34

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 annual

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #35-38 (Venom 2099 arc, important read as it introduces Kron Stone properly)

-Spider-Man 2099 special

-Spider-Man 2099 meets Spider-Man (First introduction of Miguel to Peter)

-2099 unlimited 9-10

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #39-43

-Symbiote Spider-Man 2099 #1-5

The following issues have been mostly retconned and are no longer canon. I’m listing them still for sake of continuity (Plus they’re interesting) but they are NOT canon to E-928

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 1 #44-46

-2099: World of tomorrow #1-8

-2099: Manifest Destiny

End of retconned comics

-Captain Marvel vol 4 #27-30

-Superior Spider-Man #17-19

-Amazing Spider-Man vol 3 #1

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 2 #1-12

Note during this time is the Spiderverse event and Miguel is featured in multiple comics that tie into it. I will not be listing them all due to time, plus he was mostly featured in his own comic for it anyways

-Secret wars 2099 #1-5

-Amazing Spider-Man vol 4 #1

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 3 #1-10

-Spiderman 2099 vol 3 #11-16 (I list them separately because this takes place during Civil War 2 and that also has a lot of tie in comics that I will not be listing due to time. But yeah. That’s a thing)

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 3 #17-25

-Amazing Spider-Man vol 5 #32-36

Earth 2099

-2099 Alpha

-Spider-Man 2099 vol 4

-2099 Omega (This and vol 4 are E-2099 Miguel’s origin story. I’m not personally a fan of the writing but it is essential to read if you want to understand the universe)

-Spider-Man 2099 Exodus Alpha, #1-5, and Omega

-Spider-Man 2099 Dark Genesis #1-5

-Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099 #1-5 (The best series we’ve gotten so far of this earth, not really important to the Miguel lore. I just like it lol)

Earth-6375

Note that this is optional to read and I’ve heard some very mixed opinions about how Miguel is written here. If you want to read it, be my guest.

-Exiles #72

-Exiles #75-99

-Exiles annual 1

Honorable mention: Timesplitters 2009-2099 #1-4, Spider-Man, and X Men.

These technically take place in a separate continuity to all 3, but they are important enough that I listed them anyways.

Honorable mention 2: Edge of Spiderverse vol 2

Idk what continuity it takes place in. it is currently ongoing.

Other non comic media

The following is a list of media that Miguel is featured in extensively (Not counting all the mobile games because I mean those are just gacha games and aren’t important to the Miguel lore)

-Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse and Spider-Man across the Spiderverse

-Ultimate Spider-Man S3EP9 and 12

-Spider-Man Edge of time (Personal favorite adaptation of Miguel in media)

-Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions

-Araña and Spiderman 2099: Dark Tomorrow (Not confirmed but likely takes place in E-928 5 years after series ends)

And that’s about it! If there’s any appearances I missed, please don’t hesitate to say something and I’ll fix it as soon as possible.

[copperpipes]

Ultraman spec bio part 2 (previous/first part)

Ultraman's shape does not necessarily point to anything I could go off of about internal structure so i'll run free on that :)

but there is something else that had me scratching a hole from my scalp to my skull, and that is

MASS

ugh. horrible. where does that mass of a 40 meter giant go?? I'm not very knowledgeable in physics but I will do my best to get out of this forsaken pickle.

you see energy does have mass (see the famous E=mc² formula) and can't just disappear into thin air, so where does it go? i have two options:

option 1, which i like more:

said energy is converted into another type of energy and stored, somewhere, or

option 2, which i like less:

pocket dimension. an overused and overrated easy way out. one i will use only if i give up on the better one.

(but for now we are going to ignore this section until i get more sleep)

CONCLUSION: [continue under cut vvv]

Ultraman is a very big single celled organism                    (technically,,,,he’s alien after all and alien cells might be different)

HOLD ON HEAR ME OUT HEAR ME OUT 🗣🗣🗣

my reasoning:

-like single celled plants he possesses a membrane through which he can (sorta) photosynthesise (spacium skin) with cytoplasm just sloshing inside (spacium energy) that can be released if needed through pores (hands n’ such).

-cells still can have internal structures, i propose that ultras have little pockets all over their bodies that would work not unlike muscles (or like spider limbs because this is where i took it from) by filling with spacium energy to inflate and spacium energy being withdrawn from them to contract, notice there are no bones in this equation because those little sacks would be pulling the skin (like shark muscles) to move the limbs. 

-but if he’s a cell then does he have a nucleus? my answer would be, for what? Why would he need a nucleus? it's irrelevant, but. Again, Ultraman is an alien, so instead of a nucleus lets rename it to a core, something that would store an ultra’s mind, like a neural network. it could either be complex but small, or very simple and big. space may not be a problem but bigger also means slower. it can still be a network (and it could be located in his head), just not made out of cells because there’s no cells, just soup. 

-no cells, no fibers, no brain. just soup encased in a spacium membrane.

-so also technically a dumpling.

i regret nothing.

next, part 3

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

I've been gathering all the elligible creatures for next tournament, double checking my work. And I hit the retriever.

AND THIS FUCKING THING.

This thing stopped me for hours. Because they keep changing what it IS. Because look at it, cool spider robot, right? oh, and it knows languages, that means it's either a mindless automaton (fine because it's like a toy) or it's an intelligent creature, right? Wrong? Turns out it's NEAR mindless. Red flag, especially given it has 3 int. Usually sentient creatures don't go below 5, so it's likely either a smart automaton like your phone or animal, right? Well turns out it's made from an imprisoned bebelith that had most of its intelligence removed. MOST? Is it animal level or not, because that's down to the usual animal range but it apparently still understands language. Does it even matter, does being made from an imprisoned spirit that follows orders mean it couldn't consent anyways? I made an argument for that with golems, and we know that spirits imprisoned spirits cannot fight even if they want to as long as the vessel's durable metal. But then you look at the MPMM, this new book we're going into. and hey look, they removed the "imprisoned bebelith" part that's been in every description for decades. But it is gone because it's not true anymore, or is it gone because the MPMM shortened nearly every description? Some PLAYER RACES got reduced to 3 sentences, so is that no longer canon, or is it just not included in this summarized version of it because they assume you know from Tome of Foes?

ultimately, sorry, not including it in next tournament. 14 foot spider droid with paralysis and restraint powers would've done numbers. But I am really unsure if this is sentient and if it could consent even if it was (since the ritual seems to override its free will). And I can't in good conscious include an option unless I'm confident it can consent. I'll take "I can't think of a scenario in which it would want to, but it technically could." but not "incapable of consent."

[themadbiologist]

Are you looking for an interesting and potent — but not lethal —toxin? Well, I happen to be an evil botanist and I have a candidate for you. I’ve peppered links to relevant information throughout, because evil science is not sloppy science. Citations, citations, citations.

Plants and fungi have been experimenting with poison for much longer than humans have, and that means they’ve come up with some interesting options. One of my favourites comes from an Australian relative of stinging nettle (Urticaceae family), Dendrocnide moroides, commonly known as the Australian stinging tree or gympie-gympie. Between the common name and the fact it’s from Australia, you can infer it’s quite something.

Gympie-gympies are covered in hairs called trichomes up to 7 mm long, which act as needles and inject a chemical cocktail into the skin upon contact. This cocktail includes delights such as formic acid, histamine, and a class of compounds all their own called gympietides. It sounds like fun, doesn’t it? The pain caused by the stings is lasting and exacerbated by cold, in one case lasting two years. Oh, and even morphine won’t save anyone unfortunate enough to be stung. I reckon this would send a clear message.

Like any good (well, evil) scientist, you’re likely wondering what exactly it is about gympietides that cause so much pain. They’re chemically similar to compounds found in cone snails’ and some spiders’ venom. Gympietides interfere with neuron function and increase the activation of nociceptors (responsible for pain). In slightly more technical terms, they delay voltage-gated sodium channel inactivation. You can read about the isolation process and mechanisms here — it’s a bit too far from botany for me to delve into.

Plant-derived toxins are objectively cool, and gympie-gympies produce a spectacularly potent option on par with cone snails that will leave a lasting impression on your enemies. Let me know how they react…heh.

[roguestorm]

How To Start Reading Marvel Comics

Okay, so let's say you're a fan of the Marvel movies or games or you just saw Spider-Verse and you want to know how to start reading comics. Hi, welcome! This is one method of getting into comics; it is not the only one. We're going to be heavily relying on digital comics for this one, so if you prefer reading on paper, this might not be for you.

Step One: Pick a Character

This should be easy! Pick a character whose comics you want to read. It doesn't have to be your favorite character of all time; it just needs to be a character you're interested in getting to know a little better. A character is going to work better for this particular method than a team will, although there are plenty of team reading guides if you really want them.

Let's say, for the sake of example, that you just watched the Moon Knight Disney+ series and you want to read some stuff about Moon Knight.

Step Two: Find a Reading List

The very technically advanced way to do this is to Google "[Character] Reading List" or "[Character] Recommended Reading." For Moon Knight, Marvel has an official one that pops up right away.

The official ones are good places to start, but IMO, the best ones are usually from tumblr or Reddit. Comic fans can be very intense, but we also know more about the material than anyone, including Marvel. :) Here's one for Moon Knight.)

Step Three: Understanding the Reading List

Comic names are formatted one of two ways. You might see someone say Moon Knight (vol 7) or Moon Knight (2014). These refer to the same series of comics. They mean that the title of the series is Moon Knight, that it is the 7th series published under that title, and that it started publication in 2014. Moon Knight (vol 1) is Moon Knight (1980), because it's the first run of comics called Moon Knight and it started publication in 1980.

So, how do you know? That's where the wiki comes in. marvel.fandom.com is my best friend. So, when you type "Moon Knight vol 7" into the search bar, it brings up this page. See how it says (2014-2015) at the top? That's how you know that Moon Knight (vol 7) is Moon Knight (2014).

Step Four: Accessing Comics

Now we have to get the comics. We have a number of options:

For digital comics:

Buying digital comics. You can do this on Amazon or Marvel.com. However, this gets expensive real fast - for example, Moon Knight (1980) has 38 issues, and each of those costs $1.99. That's almost $80, just for volume 1.

Marvel Unlimited subscription. This is not a bad deal TBH. It's $10 a month, and they have quite an extensive catalogue. The only problem is that the site takes forever to load and is not easily searchable. Usually, I'll type into Google the name of the exact comic I want to access (e.g. "Moon Knight (1980) #1") and then click on the marvel.com link that comes up.

Piracy. This is the easiest and cheapest option, and thus the most popular. I'm not going to link any sites, but ask a friend or Google and you'll find one easily enough.

Physical comics are also an option, but they are more complicated. Groups of issues are collected in trade paperback collections, but finding which collections contain which issues can be a bit more of a hassle. And then buying those collections can get pricey very quickly.

If you like physical comics and have a public library card, I'd recommend checking out what they have on their shelves. On a Marvel comic, you want to look at the back cover, usually in the lower right-hand corner, and it will tell you which issues are in the comic (e.g. "Collects Moon Knight (2014) #1-6"). You might find some things that were on your reading list, or you might find some comics you'd never have read otherwise. A lot of public libraries (at least in the US) have a larger comic book collection than you'd expect.

Step Five: Have Fun and Be Yourself!

The most important thing to remember is that you are supposed to be having fun. There might be some frustration if you're not used to reading visual media (I know I wasn't), but it should overall be fun. If a comic feels like a slog, you don't have to read it! Maybe you and the person who made the reading list just have different taste. Try a different comic. Try a different character.

Also, remember that it's okay to be confused. You might be jumping around a little bit and so you might not know everything that's going on. This is kind of the perpetual state of reading comics. If you want to double-check the wiki or ask your friendly neighborhood comics blogger, that's totally fine.

[thygoddessouijathicc]

Bishop Edibility Tierlist; A very deeply serious essay about which bishop would taste the best if you had to eat one of them for any reason

Aight, 88% of you voted in favour of this being released, so this is on you. This blood is on YOUR hands. Just remember that as you read this.

So you all remember that essay I did about how the bishops all had some kinda trauma or different reactions to purgatory and shit and how that was such a serious thing analyzing dialogue and reactions and stuff-?

Well there are TWO wolves inside of me, and one of them writes serious researched essays, it’s time you meet the other.

To preface this, this essay is entirely a joke please don’t take any word of this seriously.

To start with, technically anything is edible if you try hard enough, sometimes only once but I digress, however some things are more appetizing than others.

For this essay we will be taking evidence from canon in some cases on things you can eat, but assuming that this only means these things are more appetizing in this world, not that anything you can’t feast upon very specifically in the game is somehow inedible. Meat is meat.

Also Narinder will be referred to as a bishop because he was one.

Ok let’s start our list.

At the absolute bottom of the edibility tierlist is Narinder. Narinder is a cat. While technically cats are indeed edible by the laws of meat is meat, cats hold a special place in the hearts of many including myself.

But to be honest the real reason that Narinder holds this spot is meat quantity and quality of him specifically. Narinder, holds very little meat. Sure he has a head, but his arms are skeletal and it’s safe to assume possibly a lot of the rest of his body tis also but frail bone. Possibly what is not could also be rotten if he’s that kind of god of death that qualifies as a corpse. And while meat is meat, Narinder not only has very little, but what he does have may be poor quality. This cements him in the shameful bottom spot.

He’s also a-

Moving on, next, quite regrettably, is Leshy. Leshy is a major jump in quality from Narinder.

We don’t know much about bushworms or their anatomy but what we do know, is Leshy is dummy thicc, this means he has a large quantity of meat.

Unfortunately Leshy is also a worm which isn’t exactly the most appetizing creature to put in your gaping maw so that docks him a few points.

However the true reason he cannot be higher is that depending on your read of his anatomy, Leshy could qualify as a salad, and EWWWWW VEGITALS!!! 🤢🤮🤮

Moving on to the “would eat again category” we start with Heket.

Now it should not be news to anyone that frogs are edible, especially to French people. But I don’t believe in French people, they aren’t real. Anyway as I’m saying, you can eat frogs to your hearts content!

There are sanitation issues with Anura apparently being super gross which docks some points but overall, Heket is a solid option.

Now we’ve reached “ok hear me out” territory with Shamura.

Spiders are a major food source in cult of the lamb. Which is a bit questionable for a few reasons, including that there are multiple spider characters and Webber exists but also small spiders on the ground which seem to be a separate species which raises a lot of questions possibly best gone unanswered.

What really matters is what you can do with the small spiders you find around, you can chase them down and when you catch them, they drop meat. My friends have told me that this means I’m just taking meat they are holding, after all you can get berries if the spider has taken them.

What I say to this is: but the idea of lamb running around at night and picking up whole large spiders off the ground and feeding them to their followers is fucking hilarious, and also they always drop the same meat and never berries unless they have picked them up. You’d think if I’m just taking what they have and they will eat berries as well as meat, that I’d get berries more often. Nay, only when picked up from my farms.

This leads to the only possible conclusion being that people in the cult of the lamb universe feed often on spiders, that’s right, Helob eating followers is VENGEANCE.

So, we have established spiders are very edible in cult of the lamb, and you know what Shamura is? A giant fucking spider. They are edible, I rest my case.

Now let’s move on to first place oh boy who is it, probably who you should have expected, Kallamar.

His name sounds like Calamari to start with and not only can you eat squids in real life, you can in the game (similar weird separate species thing with spiders only in this case it’s more definitive that you can very much eat the squids themselves.)

Kallamar would also likely cry if you proclaimed your desire to consume him, misery not only makes meat better but his tears could be seasoning!

Not even to mention the fact that after beating him, it would be a moment of victoriousness and pure vindictive nature, to proceed to eat Kallamar, and vindictive nature is something I most definitely do not lack as I cuss out bishops every time I see the statues after I beat them.

Squids also don’t have many bones so unlike the others who you’d have to spend an extensive time processing before eating, Kallamar would be easy and his bones make up very little of his composition.

In conclusion, why did you read this whole essay it’s not even that funny.

And those of you who voted to have this released. Are you happy?

Are you not entertained!?

[im-the-j-in-anthony-j-crowley]

Good omens is very much about choosing your own side rather than the two proposed sides. Heaven/hell

Having defined this, I offer you the following opportunity:

If you were one of the angels that existed at the beginning of the story, do you think you would have remained in heaven, or would you have fallen?

I know that technically as humans we're not on either side, but technically the angels don't seem to be on either side either, so I'm curious

If you want to read my long attempt to find out where I think I am, it's below

And if anyone wants to comment more on their decision in comments, reblogs, I'd love to read

I want to say demon so badly, I mean, I love chaos, and I have a tendency to want to make situations worse. I'm annoying to no end if you allow me to be. I have the aesthetic, black clothes, 8 rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, all very rocker style

But I don't see a reason why they decided to expel me from heaven except... To ask questions? To challenge authority? That's what I'm inclined to do. Say the plan they're making is flawed? People usually don't like it when I say something is wrong (even though I say it with the intention that we can look for a way to improve it)

I feel like the only option is if Crowley really did go out just for asking questions, because that would mean it could be because of this.

I've been making friends with every living thing in the world, I have been obsessed with ethics and learning to identify abusive situations in order to fight them, I love to look for the "best way for all the people involved in something" (Clarification, I am not at all saying that I am excellent at this. I'm just trying to be) when there's a spider in my house I try to get it out the window, unless it looks poisonous. There are poisonous spiders here, but I don't know how to identify them, the preventive measure is to kill any spider that looks like the vague description I have of those poisonous ones

Wait, why am I talking about spiders? Fuck it, I'll choose demon simply because if I were an angel I'd spend all my miracles keeping those damn clothes spotless

Every time I wear clothes that aren't black, I manage to get them dirty within 10 minutes

Which is very rare, because I assure you, THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN WHEN I WEAR BLACK CLOTHING

[dailycharacteroption]

Book Review: Pathfinder 1E Core Rule Book

And so we begin something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: Book Reviews!

In this special, I’ll be taking a look through various Pathfinder and Starfinder books that I own and generally talk about Their content, their artwork, and other things that offer pros and cons about them.

And what better way to start than with the Pathfinder core rulebook!

Ah yes, the storied ancient times of 2008. I had just graduated high school and was getting into community college. Before that point, Pathfinder had already been writing adventures for 3.5 D&D as a strange and controversial ploy to tap into the market of RPG gamers that had rejected 4th Ed. However, they had no intention of stopping there, starting with their Core Rulebook, which took the info in the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide of D&D 3.5 and revised it in preparation for the launch of their very own system and products.

What was tricky about this was that some things, such as summoning spells, had to be designed for a book that was technically not out yet: the Pathfinder Bestiary, so the writers had to figure out what monsters were going to be in the Bestiary but not be shared with the Monster Manual counterpart (which is why the 3.5 PHB has all the different sizes of giant spider/centipede/scorpion on them whereas Pathfinder did not, for example).

All in all, this was the effective launch of a new product off the bones of an old one, which really hadn’t been done to this scale before, pushing the limits of what was outlined by the OGL. It was rare, fun, and exciting times, and nobody can claim that Paizo didn’t succeed in that regard.

But let’s get down to it with the actual content of the book!

Now, it’s going to be literally impossible to list the content of the book without comparing it to the D&D work it was based on, so I’m not going to even try there, but first off, compiling the Player’s Handbook and DMG into one book was a good move on Paizo’s part, for while it made for a hefty volume, it was still less expensive to prospective GMs than the PHB/DMG/MM combo of D&D.

Inside, the actual content works hard to refine the formula of 3.5, developing a design philosophy that rewards the player for sticking with things instead of punishing them for diversifying. Favored classes are now picked by the player on start with no restrictions, and said favored classes reward you with bonuses rather than reducing skill points.

Speaking of which, skill ranks are no longer super costly for going outside your class skills, and while you get numerically less, they reward much more, giving bonuses for the class skills as well. Furthermore, the skills themselves are consolidated, with several being merged into one skill (such as Spot, Listen, and Search all being Perception now)

Furthermore, Classes had all been refined as well. Pathfinder introduced new versions of old abilities, such as making certain class abilities available for a number or rounds per day instead of daily uses of variable value that then run out, such as barbarian rages and bardic performances. Meanwhile, clerics gained the vastly superior channel energy, and if they actually wanted turning/rebuking undead in their arsenal, there were feats for it, and the system for doing so was simplified compared to the frankly absurd original system. And then there were quality of life tweaks like giving druids, paladins, and rangers options for not having animal companions (and making companions much more clear-cut), barbarian rage powers, rogue talents, and the like, and of course, giving sorcerers bloodlines to really help diversify them. (Not to mention giving sorcerers and wizards better hit dice so they don’t keep dying at first level.)

Meanwhile, while feats remain a core part of the system, they made little tweaks to old favorites and added important new options, including something as simple as “have another rogue talent” or “have more rage rounds per day”.

And spells! The spells in the Core Rulebook are pretty much all lifted from the PHB, but their design aesthetic was shifted, with save or die spells dealing massive damage instead of instant death (protecting player characters and monsters alike), while the polymorphing spells were much more balanced: adding set abilities at certain levels instead of just letting you become anything and potentially break the game with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Monster Manual, alongside other quality additions.

And moving on from the player-centric options, the GM stuff is somewhat stripped-down, but still very important, ranging from advice about how to build encounters to NPCs as well as general environmental rules and the like, all very fun and important stuff.

Throughout the book, the art also really helps convey the aesthetics and vibe of the world of Pathfinder, with not just primary Pathfinder artist Wayne Reynolds, but a dozen or so other artists as well. Additionally, the art helped bring to life the example “iconic” characters that became the stand-in representation of typical members of each class. Admittedly, a lot of this art is borrowed from the 3.5 books that came before it, but we’ll forgive that. It was their first book of an entirely new system, and that borrowed art was pretty dang good.

Additionally, each chapter sports an opening with a few paragraphs describing the scene of the chapter splash art, which really conveyed that the iconic heroes depicted therein were, you know, characters with personality, not just example art. Which I feel is an important thing when trying to depict a game where players are meant to bring their own characters to life. (I should note that Seltyiel, the iconic eldritch knight, and later magus, was the only one of the prestige classes to be considered a true iconic with his own lore, while the others were only just character art. Probably because he was specifically F. Wes Schneider’s baby).

Overall, the core rulebook has a lot going for it. It took everything we already knew from 3.5 and refined it to be less forcing players to build their characters in certain ways via punishment, and more rewarding them for choosing to build their characters a certain way, while also balancing and changing assumptions about certain feats, spells, magic items, and even the underpinning of how XP was awarded and NPCs were built. Not to mention all the effort to make it seem like the underpinning of a living world through the art and descriptions (name one thing about Pelor in D&D other than his domain list and the fact he’s a neutral good sun god. I dare you).

Now, that isn’t to say that it’s all peachy keen, though. In their efforts to make the core book mostly setting neutral, the core book fails to give more than a few paragraphs about the planes, which is fair, they were still hashing out their cosmology at the time. Additionally, a lot of the book’s novelty at the time was based on the changes that it had made to various otherwise familiar things. Some of that impact is lost if Pathfinder is the first RPG you pick up, and for all it’s simplifications, Pathfinder remains a very crunchy game with a lot of moving parts (I still get new players that struggle parsing the fact that “natural armor” is an entirely separate bonus and not a specific type of armor bonus), all of which can make it much more intimidating to get into compared to 5e (i.e., the one thing that 5e has over either edition of Pathfinder.)

And I think that will do for today. If there is any final thoughts I have, it’s that for it’s humble beginnings as a new system which was little more than a revision of an older one, the core rulebook was, and remains, an important lynchpin of the system (the core book being important? Shocking.), but as we do more of these reviews, we’ll also see how other books shaped the system and the lore. Look forward to more this week and in the future!

[sinsiriuslyemo]

For the #100 NSFW/Smut Dialogue Prompts, could you please do number 52 with Doctor Zachary Smith from the 1998 version of Lost In Space?

Thank you in advance

2060

When you agreed to allow Dr Zachary Smith onto the SS Phalanx, you had no idea what you were getting yourself into. 

   After the return of the Robinsons, Major West and Jupiter II, the United World Governments had ordered the production of ten exploratory ships to begin charting more of the galaxy in deep space. The idea was that it would help ensure safe travels for any future expeditions using warp speed. A few months later, you were the youngest woman in UWG history to be named Captain of a midsize exploratory ship: the SS Phalanx — arguably the best day of your life — until your commanding officer informed you that Dr Zachary Smith would be joining your crew as the ship’s doctor. At first you thought he might be joking, but it didn’t take long to realize that he was far from joking. Apparently the traitor doctor had negotiated a plea — save his life from the infectious spider bite on his back, and he would forever be in debt to the UWG. Of course, he was a liar, manipulator and opportunist. There was no way he could be trusted on a fighter ship nor could he be trusted to even run a lab on-planet. The only other options were to either send him to Lastrites, a prison planet where most criminals were abandoned, or to assign him a post on an exploratory ship, a low stakes assignment where he would have little to nonexistent opportunity for sabotage.

   The initial decision was to send him to Lastrites, but apparently Professor Robinson had talked the higher ups out of it. Something about him being manipulative and intelligent enough to gather support among the other prisoners, build or hijack a vessel and attack Alpha Prime. The smarter decision was to keep the doctor under close watch. 

   You had reluctantly agreed, while inside you were fuming. You’d worked your entire life — busted your ass in basic training — to be assigned Captain of one of the new exploratory ships, and yet you were being made to play fucking babysitter?! What was worse was that Dr Smith was arrogant, selfish and one of the most obnoxious men you’d ever met. Not even his good looks made dealing with him on any level worth it. 

   Regardless, you had been given a direct order from your superior, there was no choice in the matter.

   “Entering sector 12b, Captain,” your navigator announced.

   “We’ve been charting new galaxies for two months,” your pilot groaned to himself.

   “Well, that’s part of our job, Stevenson. The whole point of exploratory ships isn’t just to discover new planets, it’s also to map out more of the galaxy and make space travel more efficient so that what happened to Jupiter II doesn’t happen again,” you replied, shifting to a more comfortable position in your chair.

   “With all due respect, maybe having the guy who caused that incident on our ship isn’t the best way to do that, Sir,” Stevenson replied.

   “Not my call. As far as the UWG is concerned, Dr Smith is far too dangerous to be left to his own devices on a prison planet.”

   “So they put him on our crew?” your security officer asked.

   “Well, that’s why we have you, Callister,” you answered, smirking over at her. “Unlike the robot on Jupiter II, you have no operating systems which can be tampered with.”

   “Sometimes I wonder if he even has morals at all,” Stevenson mused as his fingers busied themselves logging their traveled distance. “I mean, apparently the kid said he did technically save him once while they were stranded on Priplanus but was it out of moral instinct or did he do that because he knew it was in his best interest?”

   “Who knows,” your navigator replied, pushing the button on the console that took panoramic photographs of the surrounding stars and constellations. “Maybe when they sucked the spiders out of him, they managed to suck the evil out too.”

   “I wouldn't be so sure,” Stevenson mumbled.

   “Captain, I’m getting a transmission from an unknown planet in the Zeta Centauri system,” Callister said, turning to look at you with her eyes lit up. “It says, ‘Is anyone out there?’”

   You grinned as a bubble of excitement fluttered in your belly, and pressed the com button that would allow you to address the entire ship at once, telling them to prepare all stations for first contact. 

   This was it — the reason you enlisted in the Universal World Governments to begin with. Ever since you were a child, you had dreamed about getting to go out into space and explore new worlds, and now it was finally happening. There was just one last thing you needed to take care of before joining the landing party in the shutter hangar.

   You turned to your first officer sitting in the chair beside yours. “Take the com? I need to have a chat with our doctor and make sure he knows what's expected of him.”

   “Yes, Sir.”

   Standing, you left the bridge and made your way down to the med bay, where you expected to find Dr Smith. 

   You had done your best to maintain a professional niceness with him at first despite the fact that you didn’t trust him as far as you could throw him, something he seemed to pick up on no matter how well you tried to hide it. In spite of being given a second chance of sorts, his bitterness at being ‘demoted’ and assigned to an exploratory ship was palpable and he never missed an opportunity to suggest he was better than his station. If you were being honest, he was likely right, but that hadn’t been enough to simply forget the damage he’d caused. He was lucky to be alive, let alone the head Doctor on any vessel.

   As you turned a corner, the med bay doors slid open when you approached. You walked to the office in the corner of the room and found Dr Smith sitting at his desk, seemingly in the middle of paperwork.

   “Doctor, I’m not sure if you heard the announcement, but we need all hands prepping stations for first contact. You’ll be a member of the landing par —”

   “Yes, yes, I heard you,” he replied, waving a dismissive hand without once looking up at you. 

   “And yet, your team hasn’t begun to prep the med bay.”

   “You’re blaming me for their incompetence?” he asked, finally looking at you.

   “As their commanding officer, it’s your job to —”

   “I know what my job is, Captain.”

   You arched a brow at him. “Do you? Because it seems for the last year that you’ve been on this crew your time has been consumed with sulking like a spoiled child who had his candy taken from him.” You took a step closer to his desk until the edge was barely pressed into the legs of your trousers. “May I remind you, Doctor, that the United World Governments would’ve been in their right to send you to Lastrites for what you did on Jupiter II. As far as I’m concerned, you’re only here due to their willingness to have mercy.” You put a little more bass in your voice. “Now get up and instruct your team to prepare for first contact. I expect you to be in the shuttle hangar in five minutes.”

   The corner of his lips curled into an amused smirk as he looked you over. “Very well, Captain.”

   Turning on your heel, you left his office and went back to the bridge. “Callister, have you had a response yet?”

   “Nothing yet, Captain. It appears the message has been on a running loop for the last twenty years. Harold was able to pinpoint where the signal was broadcasting from.”

   Nodding, you reclaimed your chair and gave the order to your pilot to proceed to your destination. 

   The planet was a solid tan with slightly darker veins weaving all around it. There didn’t appear to be any form of life at all at first glance, something your chief scientist confirmed. After first double checking with your chief scientist that the planet had breathable air and gravity, you collected your first officer, second officer, and chief of security, leaving your chief engineer in command until you got back. As the four of you made your way to the shuttle hangar, your first officer leaned toward you.

   “Everything go okay with Smith?”

   You let out a sigh. “It’s incredible how he acts as if he didn’t try to assassinate an entire family and cause their ship to be stranded on a barren planet. If it weren’t for that little boy vouching for him, he’d be rotting away on Lastrites.”

   “So it went smoothly,” she teased.

   “If by ‘smoothly’ you mean I ripped him a new asshole and walked out; yeah, it went smoothly.”

   Walking into the hangar, you were pleased to see Dr Smith already waiting there with his gear. He tipped his head at you and your first officer. “Captain. Commander.”

   “Doctor,” you replied, walking past him into the shuttle. Once the five of you were buckled in, you took the shuttle down to the surface of the nearly barren planet. 

   “Might I ask why we’re even bothering to come down here when there is seemingly nothing to see?” Dr Smith asked.

   “Oh come on, Zac,” your first officer said playfully. “I thought you’d like getting off the ship for a bit.”

   “My name is Zachary, thank you very much,” he muttered to himself.

   “Harold says there’s a small area of plants growing here,” you said, checking your portable navigation device. “Besides, we already know someone was here once. It’d be good to try to find out what happened.” You turned to look at him. “Any ideas, Doctor?”

   Smith held your gaze for a moment before he looked around at the vast desert-like surface around them. “Well, assuming there was in fact life here, and not just someone that was stranded, my guess would be a lack of rain over a prolonged period, possibly coupled with a lack of other resources. No rain led to severe water shortages, which would lead to drought, crop failures and, of course, economic collapse. They might have been able to survive for sometime, but without the storms and rains, life would cease to exist.”

   “But Harold said there was plant life here. How can that be if there’s been no rain?” your second officer asked as you held up your navigation device, turning in place to find which direction the small patch of plant life was.

   “Maybe they had water reserves that they thought would last until they got help?” 

   “I imagine so, though it certainly would have run out before the plant life that is apparently growing here,” Smith replied.

   “It’s this way,” you said, pocketing your device. “Keep your eyes open. I doubt we’ll find much that we wouldn’t have seen on the scanner, but you never know.”

   The five of you began to walk through the dry, sandy desert until you came to a massive hill. Without much fanfare, you began to climb, your crew following behind, all except one.

   “I think I’ll just wait for you down here then!” Smith called out, one hand over his eyebrows to shield the sun above.

   “No, you won’t,” you replied, looking back down at him. “Start climbing or we’ll be taking one less person back onto the Phalanx.”

   Smith grimaced, stepping forward and pausing for a moment before he too began to climb up the sand hill. You waited for him as the rest of your party continued their journey up, glaring at him as he reached you.

   “We could’ve gone around,” he complained, passing you with great effort.

   “And it would’ve taken us longer,” you answered. “Look at it this way; at least you’re getting in some exercise.”

   He scoffed exhaustedly, grunting as he pulled himself up the hill. “I can think of much better things to be doing for cardio than this, Captain.”

   You didn’t respond, only glancing up at him as you continued your climb behind him while trying not to look at his ass. For as much as you couldn’t stand Dr Smith in many ways, you could admit he was an attractive man. In fact, it was only when he opened his mouth and spoke that your attraction to him dimmed. Still, you weren’t about to give him any sort of upperhand by telling him that you thought he was handsome.

   By the time you reached the top, you were all sweating profusely, each of you taking long gulps from your respective water cans as you took in the view. There was sandy terrain and other sand hills for miles, except for one vibrant green patch not far from where you were. It was a relief to not have to encounter anymore sand hills to reach it, and the five of you set off toward it, having to slide down on your bottoms after the hill became too steep.

   “Well, I’ve got my workout in for the day,” Callister said with heavy breaths as you all reached the bottom.

   “How is this even possible?” your first officer asked, taking a few steps towards the greenery.

   There were some plants that normally grew in the desert; Prickly Pears, Desert Willows, Pindo Palms and others, but some were trees and plants that weren’t in any registry — likely plants that were native to the planet. But without water?

   “As I said, these plants might have very well begun to grow after the society was eradicated. It’s possible this planet has seen some rain in the past few years, though clearly not enough to replenish the entire planet quite yet,” Dr Smith said, wiping beads of sweat from the back of his neck with a handkerchief. “It’s quite extraordinary actually. Most plants, without a water source, will die within a week, some after a few months. In this environment, I would expect the latter. The root will survive for quite a while afterward, but it will decompose over time. These clearly didn’t despite the dry heat and no rain for who knows how long — at least a decade though quite possibly longer. I’d like to take some samples back with us for testing.”

   You nodded to him, reaching for your earpiece. “Harold, there’s nothing here. Just a bunch of plants and trees. Can you check for thermal signatures below the surface? I wonder if some people tried to go underground, away from the heat when it became too much.”

   “Certainly, Captain.” you heard over your com.

   Dr Smith was beginning to gather samples of all the plants, going from one to the other. He was approaching a smaller plant with what appeared to be bright yellow six-petal flowers, and went to cut one off but the stem wouldn’t give beneath the sheer blades. He tried again and again, with no luck. Finally, apparently fed up with trying, he instead took hold of the plant’s base and ripped it from the soil, blinking several times as the dirt beneath kicked up slightly. Sneezing twice, he gave a sniff and pulled out a sealant from his bag, wrapping it around the root, which had come out in his efforts.

   Callister and your second officer were checking the perimeter of the green patch for any sources of water or indication of recent rain while your first officer took samples of the sand to take back to the ship. 

   “Captain, it appears you’re correct. About forty-seven feet South West from your current position, there are two distinct thermal signatures.”

   “Can you tell if they’re human?”

   “Negative. I would advise you to proceed with caution.”

   “Copy that,” you answered, feeling a pair of eyes on you. When you looked up, Dr Smith was staring back at you, his gaze slowly lowering over your frame, as if he was taking you in. “You alright there, Doc?” you asked, slightly dipping your head to bring his eyes back to yours, all while ignoring the shiver that was trickling down your spine.

   Smith cleared his throat, nodding curtly. “Just fine, Captain. Thank you.” He took a deep breath before he gestured to his backpack. “I’d like to get these back to the ship as soon as possible, so could we hurry it along?”

   Rolling your eyes as Callister and Briggs came back, you nodded to them. “Anything?”

   “Nothing that we could see,” Briggs answered. “Though there were some damp patches of ground on the North side of the greenery. It looks like a drying puddle, but no water left. Must’ve rained a few days ago, maybe a week.”

   “It’s like the planet wiped out existing life to make way for new life,” your first officer mused, almost to herself.

   “You say that like the planet is sentient,” you replied with a smirk. 

   “Well, no, obviously it’s not, but… it’s just interesting.”

   “Harold said there are two thermal signatures less than fifty feet from here to the South West.”

   “Human?” Callister asked.

   “Unclear. But if there are people down there, we should bring them back to the Phalanx with us. Maybe we can give them some supplies or just drop them off at the next habitable planet. Callister, you mind taking the front?” you asked, earning a nod of affirmation from her. “Great, Briggs, you and Halster fall in behind us, and Doc?” You looked to find Dr Smith staring at your body again with what you could swear was a lustful look in his eyes. “Dr Smith,” you said again more firmly.

   His eyes snapped up to yours in shock.

   “You’ll walk between me and Halster, copy?”

   He swallowed, nodding once.

   “Alright, let’s move.”

   The sun seemed to be getting closer to the planet, making the air drier and hotter than even the hottest summer you’d experienced back on Alpha Prime. Your skin was beginning to become pink with the beginnings of a sunburn, and for a moment you hoped the Dr had managed to find some aloe that you could use once you got back to the shuttle. Drinking from your water can, you couldn’t help but feel Smith’s eyes on you as the five of you trekked through the sandy expanse of the desert planet until your navigation device began to beep.

   “It should be here,” you mumbled, looking around at the ground, but seeing nothing that stood out. Kicking some sand aside, you started to look for a latch, a lever, anything really to indicate an underground structure of some kind.

   “Captain,” Callister whisper-yelled, waving you over and pointing down at the ground once you looked up at her.

   Taking out your gun, you set it to stun and pointed it to the latch that was peeking out from beneath the sand. Slowly, Callister turned the handle, unlocking the latch with a thunderous snap, and carefully tugged it open.

   “This is Captain YFN of the SS Phalanx! Is there anyone down there?” you called out.

   “We’re here!”

   The distant voice was accompanied by scurrying footsteps that grew in volume as they got closer to the opening. Your trigger finger relaxed, hands lowering slightly as a skinny man dressed in what looked like a burlap sack appeared beneath the open latch.

   “Are either of you hurt?” you asked.

   “My partner — she’s unconscious! Please!” he answered.

   Glancing at Callister, you nodded once and looked back at the man. “Come on up, my security officer will go and get her.”

   You could feel a pair of eyes behind you, staring so hard that it felt as though flames were licking every inch of your skin, even beneath your clothes. Looking over your shoulder, you found Dr Smith, his face and neck glistening with sweat as he appeared to undress you with his eyes. Heat bloomed on your cheeks, a shiver crackling down your frame as his stare met yours and held it. 

   Your first officer and the man were talking but their words were muffled by the intense staring contest you and the doctor were engaged in. It wasn’t until one of them touched your shoulder that you tore your eyes away from Dr Smith’s and looked to see Callister climbing up the ladder with an unconscious woman on her back. Your first officer and the man helped pull her out so that your security chief could climb out.

   “She’s breathing, but her pulse is weak,” Callister said as she closed the hatch back up.

   “Let’s get her back to the ship,” you replied.

   It was another thirty minutes before you were finally back on the Phalanx, and it seemed Dr Smith was slowly going back to his normal, obnoxious self as he and Callister moved the unconscious woman to sick bay, while you and your first officer spoke with the man. Azile was his name, he had apparently been a scientist on the planet you and your party had just left. 

   He and his partner Dr. Shay had anticipated the drought just weeks before the last rainfall. According to him, they had tried to warn people, but their government refused to heed their warnings. They had built an underground shelter and put out a distress signal, hoping to reach someone before their civilization died of exposure and dehydration, but had heard nothing until the Phalanx answered their call.

   “I was sure we would be dead in a matter of weeks if not days,” he said as a nurse checked him over. “We got little rain just last month, and it helped us stay alive a while longer than we would have, but by then everything else had died.”

  “There was an area not far from where your bunker was. Plant life is beginning to grow back, but it’ll be years before it gets big enough to rebuild any form of civilization,” you said. 

   Azile’s eyes lowered, the corners of his lips drooping. “I expect you are correct.”

   Glancing at your first officer, you said, “You’re welcome to both stay aboard the Phalanx. We can take you to the nearest UGW station, where they can help you get settled elsewhere.”

   Azile cut his eyes to you. “You mean leave Copulas?”

   “Is that the name of your planet?”

   “Yes! And we cannot leave. It is our home —”

   “I understand it may be difficult to —”

   “I beg your pardon, Captain, but it is not so simple,” Azile said. “Unless you can take us somewhere where Flaming Blooms grow, we cannot survive anywhere but Copulas.”

   “Flaming Blooms?” you asked, wondering if that was the name of the plant that Dr Smith had taken from the plant area of the planet. 

   “Yes. They grow year round, and are an essential part of our ecosystem. Dr Shay is more knowledgeable of the science behind it than I am, but I do know that without it to permeate the atmosphere, we will die.”

   “What is it?” your first officer asked.

   “Bright yellow Turnera Diffusa.”

   Your first officer gave you a sideways glance, prompting you to clarify, “Flowers. Dr Smith collected a sample of one.”

   “It keeps our air safe to breathe. It is also what allows us to procreate year round,” Azile replied.

   “Captain?”

   Looking over your shoulder, you looked back at Dr Smith, who looked more like his usual self.

   “Dr Shay is awake,” he said. “She’s asking for Azile.”

   “I’m all finished here,” the nurse said. “He’s cleared to go.”

   Nodding to the nurse, you gave Azile a tight smile. “We can take you to see her.”

   After leaving Azile with Dr Shay, you turned to your first officer and Dr Smith. 

   “What do you think? We can’t just leave them here, right?”

   “Not now anyway,” your first officer replied. “There’s no telling how long it’ll take for the planet to become habitable again. They could be in that bunker for years.”

   You turned to Dr Smith as if to ask for his input.

   “It may be possible to leave them with something that could accelerate the plant-growth,” he said, his eyes lingering for a moment on the two rescued scientists. “I’d like to perform some tests on the samples I brought back first.”

   “They said that the flower you brought back keeps their air breathable,” you replied. “Start there.”

   “Perhaps you can leave the science to myself and the other scientists, Captain,” he snarked.

   “Good to see you back to your usual charming self, Doctor,” you quipped back.

   The corner of his lips twitched, as though he’d had an urge to smile but stopped himself. Without another word, he turned and left in the direction of his lab. 

You had contacted the UWG immediately after returning to the bridge, explaining the situation and informing them that you would be remaining in orbit for a few hours while the two Copulians recovered enough to return to their planet. You were authorized to leave them with enough supplies to accelerate the plant growth and begin rebuilding their ecosystem. Just as you were wondering how they would be able to rebuild their society, Harold informed you of three other heat signatures detected below the planet’s surface. In the end, six more Copulians had been rescued.

   It had only been an hour since you’d left Dr Smith to his testing when his voice sounded in your ear piece.

   “Captain.”

   “Everything alright, Doctor?”

   “I’ve found something that you may want to have a look at,” he answered.

   “Copy that,” you said, looking at your first officer. 

   “Go ahead, I’ve got the bridge,” she said with a nod.

   Nodding back, you stood and began to make your way to the lab, where you found Dr Smith leaned over the plant that Azile had identified as a Flaming Bloom. He glanced up at you, looking you over before returning his attention to the flower in front of him. 

   “The other plant life seem to be nutrients, likely what they ate when the planet was fully functioning. This one, however, as you… so eloquently put, indeed is what allows the inhabitants to breathe the air.”

   “How is it that we were able to breathe even though there was so little of it?” you asked.

   “I wondered the same thing, and so I ordered some blood samples and scans from our visitors and ran some tests. It seems that though their biological make-up is similar to our own, they differ in one area greatly. Their lungs have a sort of additional glan, which I believe stores the particles that emit from this particular flower. If they spend too much time without it, their lungs would collapse.”

   “That still doesn’t answer my question.”

   He arched a brow up at you. “While their lungs have the ability to filter and store the particles from this flower, our lungs do not have the gland necessary to do the same. If we breathe too much of it, it enters directly into our bloodstream and triggers a response from the central nervous system, specifically the hypothalamus.”

   “English, please.”

   “The hormone control center,” he replied. “It governs desires, lubrication, and arousal.”

   Your brows shot up above your eyes. That certainly explained why Dr Smith had been looking at you the way he had back on the planet. “Azile mentioned something about it being how they’re able to procreate.”

   “Fascinating,” he mumbled to himself. “I wonder if any of them would be willing to stay and provide additional data for me to study.”

   “You mean become your lab rat?”

   He narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn't put it so crudely, Captain. I’m sure the UWG would be delighted to know more about this new species as much as I would.”

   “Maybe you could ask them if they’ve done any research themselves then,” you replied. “I’m sure they don’t differ very much from humans in that regard.”

   His upper lip curled briefly into a snarl that was gone before it even fully formed. “I suppose that would suffice. In the meantime,” he turned back to the flower and began to try and remove the bud, “I can continue to run tests on this sample to determine what else it may be —”

   A small poof of pollen floated into the air as the bulb was removed, wafting under his nose and causing him to sneeze several times. He screwed his eyes shut and quickly shook his head before he moved it onto a petri dish. 

   “What else it may be capable of,” he said, sniffling once. 

   “Alright then,” you answered, a slight dizzy spell coming over you as the pollen particles drifted toward where you were standing. You took a breath to steady yourself just before a shiver ran over your frame, heat building beneath your collar.

   Your mind kept telling you to go back to the bridge, but your feet would not cooperate, keeping you planted in place as the heat beneath your collar spread to your chest. Your nipples hardened under your uniform as Dr Smith turned to face you with that look in his eyes again.

   “What is it?” you asked as a tingle began to bloom inside you. Your heart pounded in your ears, drowning out much of anything happening outside the lab, and air thickened around you.

   “Captain,” he said breathlessly, taking a few cautious steps toward you. “It seems as though I’ve… inhaled the pollen. Perhaps it’s best that you return to the bridge for the time being.”

   “I can’t.”

   “You…”

   “I think I may have breathed some in, too,” you replied, your voice nearly unrecognizable. 

   As much as you had managed to ignore your attraction to him before, now it was all you could see. The contrast between the brightness of his eyes and the darkness of his closely cropped hair, and the way his goatee framed his lips made you still. As he took another couple of steps toward you, your heart quickened, a flutter of what must have been butterfly’s wings blooming in your belly. Despite your attempts to avoid doing so, your eyes lowered to drink him in, pausing when they fell below his belt at the bulge that was forming there.

   “I insist that you go back to the bridge,” he said, his voice a bit more husky than before. His eyes still lingered on your body as he continued to move toward you, and he slowly licked his lips as he came to stand toe to toe with you, swallowing thickly. “Immediately, before I… Well, I’m just not entirely sure that I’m able to control myself at the moment.”

   Your chest was visibly rising and falling with every deep breath that you took. “I’m not sure it’s the best idea for me to be around other crew members while under the influence of this…” His scent suddenly overpowered your sensibilities, drawing you closer to him until your chest and his were but a hair's breadth apart. “How do we fix this, Doctor?”

   His gaze flickered down to your lips, the pulse in his neck throbbing visibly. “Well, considering that these particles are what allow the Copulians to procreate, I might hypothesize that coitus would remedy the effects.”

   “So if we were to fuck, we’d be back to normal,” you replied, the heat beneath your collar slowly beginning to cool.

   “That or… we simply wait until our bodies burn it off. For you that may be only a few moments. I, unfortunately, inhaled quite a bit more than I did while we were rescuing the Copulians. It may therefore remain in my system for a longer period.”

   You could feel the overwhelming lust leaving your system, still a small amount lingered, stoking the fire in the pit of your stomach that burned hotter with every moment that passed. You realized that although you always pretended otherwise, your attraction for the doctor was beginning to seep through, clouding the annoyance you harbored for him. His eyes really were breathtaking. If he hadn’t been such an arrogant prick, you might’ve slept with him a long time ago.

   “Well, I can’t exactly leave you in this state,” you said, the butterfly wings in your belly still fluttering insistently. It might’ve been the pollen particles that had broken through your stubbornness, but now that your attraction to him had tasted oxygen, it refused to be put back into a box.

   “Well then… perhaps… won’t you help me? Please?” His hands were balled into fists and seemed to be resisting the urge he had to touch you.

   As the corner of your lips curled up on one side, you broke the touch barrier, winding your arms around his neck and bringing him flush against you and your lips pressed to his. He moaned into your kiss, his large hands holding you to him by the waist as he tilted his head and pushed you up against the wall behind you. You could feel his erection pressed hard against your hip and arched your lower back to push back against it while your hands busied themselves with unzipping the front of his jacket. 

“There’s no bed in the lab,” he mumbled against your lips.

   “Who cares? Just fuck me, Doc,” you answered, pushing his jacket off his shoulders and tugging on his shirt next.

   He seemed just as desperate to rid you of your clothes and a few flurried moments later, you were both topless, with your pants down to your knees. His head dipped to encase a hard nipple in his mouth, one hand massaging the other between two fingers. Groaning, you arched toward him, one hand holding his head to your chest while the other slowly reached between you to wrap your hand around his erection.

   Turning you to face the wall, he reached between your legs and groaned against your neck when he felt your slippery folds.

   “Fuck!” he hissed against your neck.

   “Yes, Doctor,” you groaned, rocking back against his hot erection. “Please.”

   You whimpered when his fingers left you, gasping loudly when you felt the head of his cock sliding through your slit, looking for your entrance. Mewling when he pressed against it, you held your breath as he pushed into you, moaning in an exhale as he slid fully inside. He groaned when his hips met your ass, leaning against you until his lips brushed over your ear.

   “Call me Zachary,” he whispered.

   “Oh Zachary,” you sighed as he pulled back slowly before pushing back in.

   He groaned in your ear, his hips building up to a steady pace while his hands moved to grab your hips, pulling you to him. His hips clapped against your ass, growing louder and louder as his thrusts became more insistent, demanding. This wasn’t about exploring the undeniable attraction between the two of you, this was about getting off, as quickly as possible. 

   The thought made your muscles tighten around him as a tingle swelled between your legs. You moaned helplessly, the side of your face slowly leaning against the wall in front of you as your eyes closed and your hips arched back. The cold, solid surface on your cheek did little to cool your burning skin, and sent a shiver down to your nipples. Fingers curling against the wall, you scratched against the surface as your breaths fell in time with each snap of his hips. His thick cock stimulated every inch of your tunnel, exciting the various nerve endings and driving you toward an orgasm quicker than you anticipated. Your walls pulsing around him again, you whined as he sunk all the way inside you, pressing forward until your hips moved toward the wall. You tried to spread your feet further apart, but your pants — still around knees — wouldn’t allow it, making the ache in your pussy build more.

   “Captain, you feel so good,” he purred in your ear, earning another moan from you.

   “Y/N,” you replied weakly, tilting your head toward his. “You need to hurry, I have to get back to the bridge.”

   He groaned in his throat as his hands slid up your ribcage to massage your breasts. “I would love nothing more than to take my sweet time with you, Y/N.”

   He gently pinched and twisted your nipples as he nibbled on your earlobe, his hips grinding against your ass.

   “Later,” you answered, trying to rock your hips back against him.

   Grunting in your ear, he moved his hands back to your waist, using his leverage to move you hard and fast on him. The new pace sparked more nerve endings inside you, quickly building you up toward the edge as a firm, staccato clap joined the sounds of heavy breathing and throaty moans. Flattening your hands on the wall, you tried to keep yourself in place, hoping that in doing so it would allow for his thrusts to hit you harder and send you over the edge. The tingles that had spread to your clit finally reached its peak, and you held your breath in anticipation. 

   One of his hands left your waist and found your hardened nub, rubbing tight circles over it. You gasped, your muscles throbbing with the orgasm that washed over you. 

   “Oh yes, Y/N!” he groaned, quickening his pace and following you into release. 

   He thrust through his orgasm, continuing to stimulate both of you as your tunnel milked his cock. With one final push all the way to the hilt, he panted against your ear, his fingers still on your clit while his erection kept his spend inside you. Your pussy still hugged him, as if trying to squeeze every last drop out of him. If it had been up to you, you would’ve stayed exactly as you were, pressed against each other with his long, thick cock deep inside you for much longer. But after a few blissful moments of riding the aftershocks of release, reality began to set back in. Your muscles squeezed him defiantly at the thought of you needing to get back to work.

   Opening your eyes, you savored the feeling of him filling you completely a bit longer before whispering, “I should get back to the bridge.”

   He nodded against your shoulder, his heavy breaths warm against your skin as his finger grazed your clit one last time, earning a gasp. His cock slowly retreated, making you whimper at the loss as your muscles engaged, trying to keep his release inside you while you bent slightly to pull your pants back up. Turning toward him as you both got redressed, you stared at each other, still catching your respective breaths. Where before, the sight of him annoyed you to no end, now you wanted nothing more than to spend the next several hours mapping the span of his body, of which you’d only seen so much of.

   “Obviously, you’re not to breathe a word of this to anyone, Doctor,” you said, trying to regain some semblance of authority.

   The smirk that appeared on his lips didn’t help. “Of course, Captain.”

   “And use a mask if you’re going to continue running tests on that flower,” you added, tugging at the hem of your jacket after you’d zipped it up.

   “Yes, certainly,” he replied with a single nod. 

   You turned to leave the lab when he stopped you with a hand on your elbow.

   “Um…”

   Turning back to face him, he stepped up to you and pulled you into a firm kiss, humming against your lips before he pulled his head back to look at you.

   “Permission to visit your quarters this evening, Captain?”

   You arched a brow though it did little hide the lust in your eyes. Swallowing thickly, you gave a curt nod and cleared your throat. “That would be fine if you prefer to give me the latest update on your testing, Doct—”

   “Oh come off it, Y/N,” he interrupted gently, the backs of his fingers sliding against your cheek affectionately. “I know you felt what I felt just then. I want you again without having the need to rush.” His fingers grazed down your neck, his eyes following the movements before coming back to look into yours. There was a warmth in them that you never imagined you would see in Dr Zachary Smith, and yet there it was, gentle and sincere.

   Not knowing what to say, you rocked forward and kissed him, humming against his lips when he cradled your face in both hands and kissed you back. Reluctantly pulling away, you silently nodded.

   You took a small step back, breaking your contact. “I’ll see you tonight then.”

   “Yes, Captain,” he answered, one corner of his lips slightly curled up.

   You turned and left the lab, running a hand through your hair as you made your way back to the bridge. When you were back sitting in the Captain's chair was when you felt the evidence of what had just happened dripping onto the seat of your panties, and you smiled to yourself.

*request from this NSFW prompt list

[aquaquadrant]

Thinking about what kinds of foods Timmy and Tango could reasonably have access to: As well as rotten flesh and spider eyes, a mob farm set up for player kills would also occasionally drop carrots and potatoes. In addition, it would occasionally spawn chicken jockeys. If they have access to moss and moss-replaceable-blocks, they would also have access to wheat and seeds (so chicken + eggs eventually), plus sticks for fishing rods, and if they had access to any water sources that means fish

OHHH… this is so fun to think about. there’s a lot of little nuances to hels that make survival difficult (ramble incoming)

so a mob farm would be a great source of food- if a player can gather enough resources and space to build one, and it’s left undisturbed long enough to actually be used. for tango and timmy, who can’t stay in one place for very long, it’s not really an option.

in fact, for most of hels, mob farms are a tall order. lots of hels players will grief one as soon as they see it; it’s like an anarchy server that way. the only way to make one is to be part of a relatively structured community that enforces rules on its citizens, such as new helington, or to go so far into the wilds of hels that no one else disturbs you (and i’m talking like, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of blocks away from spawn).

water is a bit tricky. hels isn’t the nether in that water still exists and can be placed down, but natural sources of water are scarce. rivers and lakes tend to be lava more often than not, and oceans are extremely rare. but hels players can fish from them! tango and timmy have fish in the little drabble i did. the issue is that in hels, fish will not spawn in an artificially-created water source. so if you filled a bunch of buckets up with water and made an artificial pond somewhere else, it wouldn’t spawn fish. this makes the few oceans a hotspot for activity, which is quite dangerous (as tango and timmy found out).

now, crops. crops can technically grow in hels, like in the nether, but they don’t grow very well. the soil has a tendency to revert back to dirt and even with water nearby, growth is extremely slow. hels is a pretty hostile environment to plants (all the grass and trees are kinda brown and wilted, except for crimson and warped forests which thrive). it’s more complicated than tilling some dirt next to water; in order to create the right conditions for crops to grow, you need a well-controlled greenhouse- which again, isn’t an option for many players.

building off that, grass has an extremely rare chance of dropping seeds when broken, due to the poor nutritional value of the dirt. beetroot is basically extinct (not that it’s a huge loss). moss is a great source for those who can find some, but- unsurprisingly- lush caves are rare, too. tango and timmy certainly haven’t come across one.

and finally, the animal problem. you know how in the life series, the players would kill all the animals on day one, and then no more animals would ever spawn? i think it has something to do with chunk loading, and that applies in hels, too. there are so many players in hels (it’s an infinite world that gains new players frequently and no one ever really leaves) so the chunks clustered around spawn are always being loaded by someone. players have to go to very distant unloaded chunks to find animals, and it’s risky to bring any back; there’s a high chance of them being killed by fire, lava, fall damage, hostile mobs, and even other players out of spite- if they can’t be easily stolen.

CHICKEN JOCKEYS. SMART. if you have a player-kill mob farm operated by someone actually paying attention, you could successfully extract the chicken and, after a few eggs are laid, have a proper chicken farm. i’m sure new helington has one of those set up, as does any other community that’s able to have a mob farm.

in a nutshell, i’m sure there are a few successful farms (mob, crop, and animal) located way, waaaaaay out there in hels, created by players that fled to the less populated chunks. but for the majority of the population, who are more concentrated around the spawn chunks, the options are limited to hostile mob drops (cause hostile mobs still spawn everywhere) or having a secure food supply from someone powerful in an organized community (ie. new helington gets its main food supply from hels!vintage beef, who works with alisker in return for protection for his cow herd).

PHEW. thanks for the chance to ramble B)

[soraviie]

At some point in this new life of yours, you've slipped into a parallel dimension where everything looks like as you know it but doesn't act like it. Because how come you're walking side by side with the love of your life and the air is shrouded by a frigid silence. How come, out of all the people in the world, it is the wall-like bodyguard, Kwang-min, that is urging you to talk?

"Sir, perhaps you should listen _____________ out?" he suggests, trailing slightly behind as he escorts you both back to the car.

"If ___________ wants to say something, they can tell me so much themselves."

His answer by now is nothing short of expected but still you can't concel the flinch that comes hearing the sharpness of his tone. Naturally, receiving such a curt reply Kwang -min, the teddy bear of a man and your most favourite of all the Jimin's bodyguards turns to you, expectant. But...Jimin started it.

"Please, tell Mr Park that I have nothing to say to him. I'd find a spider infested wall crack a more pleasurable company than I do of him."

From the corner of the eye, you can see how unkindly Jimin's eyes glimmer underneath the neon-lit streets. His jaw is ticked and he stalks forward, clearly mad out of his mind. Admittedly, calling him with such distant title outside of bedroom activities was a low blow. Still, you've grown obstinate about this whole thing and every single interaction with this annoying, aggravating, extremely complicated man has been grating your nerves to a pulp.

"They said—"

"I heard," Jimin interrupts with an irate hiss. "Thank you, Kwang-min."

Even the well-meaning bodyguard gives up.

Nearing the SUV you weigh on your options. Spending another intensely silent ride with Jimin at the end of a tiresome night of pretending everything to be alright was exhausting already to think of, so when he grabs the handle of the door, you linger back, letting Kwang-min run into you.

"Are you alright?" he asks you concerned but you brush his anxiety away, easily faking a smile. You've been doing a lot of those.

"Just fine. I think I'll take the taxi instead."

Immediately, sweat makes fine beads on top of the poor man's forehead. You know as well as he while he's technically employed as Jimin's bodyguard, Jimin himself would personally chew off his head if anything should happen to you. Or at least he would have. Now...with a sad feeling washing over you, you fully realize that now you're not so certain anymore.

"That's not safe," his mouth makes a diplomatic suggestion while the eyes plead. You know that look.

Years back, in the right dimension if you will, he used to give you that look as you came bouncing back home from your "unsupervised dates with yourself" a.k.a. you broke Jimin's rules of not going out without a bodyguard. When the news broke of him dating, it was a massacre, not a literal one thankfully, and he'd been worried sick about you. You don't know what Jimin told Kwang-min that one time he'd caught you sneaking back home with a lollipop in between teeth and clearly with no bodyguard in sight but since then the kind-hearted giant had lived in sheer terror. Regardless that after marrying Jimin, the public had calmed down a bit, you were more than certain they would rejoice hearing that there were problems in the paradise. That there was a possibility of your husband not loving you anymore.

"I'll manage," you shrug, fiddling carelessly with the ends of your thin jacket. A bit cold for the night but it looked the best. Tonight the duty called and you had to hold your husband's hand and smile for the cameras. Some kind of movie premiere not that you gave a fuck. If only they knew you'd both go back home and head straight into your separate bedrooms, not exchanging a single word between here and there.

Needless to say, it'd been deathly quiet in your home.

"Please consider," poor Kwang-min looks close to tears but you really can't stand any more of this anger.

"No, I—"

"____________ get in the fucking car or help me God," Jimin suddenly growls, the decisive wrath in his tone cutting any and all debates you could have had. A moment passes where both of you simply glare at each other but in the end, begrudgingly but still, you relent.

As expected — silence.

Listlessly, you gaze out of the tinted window until a sneeze rips out of you.

"Bless you," comes your husband's quiet greeting and you nod in acknowledgment of it. Koreans didn't typically use "bless you" but you suppose after all these years of being together, something has rubbed off on him and as nothing follows this small interruption of the ongoing cold war, you disregard the small phrase being anything else other than force of habit he'd picked up from you.

You close the doors to your bedroom with a deeply miserable sigh, sensing an itch at the back of your throat. Just what you needed. When the tepid knock trembles your door, you're in the middle of trying to get the zipper open at your back and occupied by the task, you forget to tell him to fuck off.

"Come in."

Changed into his homewear, Jimin slides in, holding a steaming mug. Your favourite mug in fact. Though his expression remains impassive you can smell the concontion he's holding in his hand. Honey, ginger, lemon. A medicine for an oncoming cold.

Wordlessly, he sets it down onto the nearby desk.

"Thanks," you bid, suddenly meek.

"Do you need help with that?" he croaks, suspiciously raspy, pointing at where your fingers still try to reach for the damn zipper.

You nod and turn your back to him, every nerve in your body jolting with repeated flashes of anticipation. It was some new-age blouse your stylist had thrust onto you. The woman was nuts and you never met her outside those times where you had to make a public appearance but in this moment you praised her choice of clothing. Just the faintest of brushes of Jimin's fingers has you reeling, wholly grasping how isolating the dragged out fight had been for these past two weeks. You hear him suck in a breath as inch by inch your back is revealed. As if you hadn't fucked raw every other day.

"Done," he coughs awkwardly, taking a step back and you hold the shirt so that it doesn't slip away entirely.

"Thank you."

In the low light his eyes catalogue through a variety of emotions. It's so much to consider, too much and you see him swallow, gaze flickering unsurely all over your face. In the end he settles on simply wishing good night.

"Love you," he adds, in the still moment between where the door is open and shut, half-glacing at you over his shoulder.

yeah I kind of outsold with this one

[biitchcakes]

Ideas for a FALLOUT verse :

i'm gonna ramble here but i wanna get What I'm Thinking out.

OPTION 1 :

Jessica's Fallout story is very similar to how her life starts now ⸺ only, instead of Hydra that's employed her parents, it's the Institute. Researchers in genetics that would be very interested in some Big Brain Biologists like the Drews. Perhaps they're wanted for their research into irradiated spiders ( we don't see any mutated spiders iirc?? so like, maybe they survived pretty unaffected, stayed normal, and maybe that's why they're being researched on? 🤷‍♀️ ), or perhaps not and they're just normal biologists and one of them is more than willing to use their daughter as a genetic guinea pig.

She's poked and prodded at as a child, perhaps even still while she's developing within the womb. She's got a slight immunity to radiation ( decently so, but not entirely safe from it as i'm not looking to Ghoulify the gal ).

Does this make her some sort of mutant by Fallout standards? Just lacking the FEV? Something instead of the FEV, really. I suppose, sorta kinda. And I might touch on that.

OPTION 2 :

I mean, I mean, look at Fallout 4's main storyline and look at what's happening to her in her comics right now ⸺ her son is abducted by an evil organisation, goes on a wild hunt and stops at nothing to find him. ( Replaying the game rn with her as a character, and every time she sadly says something like "I need to find my son, they've abducted my boy" it's a GUT PUNCH ⸺ TOO REAL RN )

I'd make her married to someone random, and I'd rename Shaun to Gerry.

If I go this route, a more Fallout 4-esque story not a one for one, I'm gonna work her being a detective for Nick Valentine in there somehow. I can't not do that. Everything else is so perfect already, how can I leave that out too? ( in his Raggedy Ass Columbo Jacket and all <3 )

Either way, some KEY THINGS I wanna hit:

She's a bounty hunter.

Her weapons of choice? Modified biker gloves charged with fusion cells, looks like lil electrified balls firing as she uses them. As well as a pistol fitted with a laser attachment that she's affectionately named her Venom Blaster. ( Think Pew Pew from FO:NV. ) I was gonna go with knuckle dusters but I like the biker gloves more. Suits her. Plus that means she's got some sort of range on them like she would her real venom blasts. How do they work technically? I'll get there.

In lieu of her pheromones, she's got high as all hell charisma. Could charm the dew right off a honeysuckle. And, if possible, some way to work in the Black Widow perk from New Vegas, 3 & 4.

She'll be younger than she is now ⸺ instead of being typically 28 - 32, I'm taking her down to 24 - 28.

There's a brief, and I mean very brief, period of time in the comics where she smokes. I'm bringing that back for this verse. Pay her in caps, or depending on the job, a pack of smokes. If you wanna gain some points toward her good side, bring her a pack out of the blue.

Still from London, but her parents move to the States at some point before the bomb.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

So, this isn't actually the Dybbuk's real form. They're demons that possess corpses, the real form looks like a sort of jellyfish. Below is a 3e depiction, which is kinda cheating but it's all I've got. They're telepathic jellyfish demons that love making people scared or nauseous. They try to spend all thier time in the prettiest corpses they can find, entirely so they can freak people out by mutilating it (then fixing it up to do it again).

Maybe "violence" or "gore" was a bit strong of a tag, but it was the best of the options I know. Being here for minotaur and spiders and tentacle monsters doesn't necessarily mean you're here for this....Ok I guess if you're here for tentacle monsters this technically counts, but whatever.

[blooming-violets]

Creature Like Me || Chapter Three: All Kinds of Gray

[TASM Peter Parker!Werewolf AU]

Summary: Kraven and his guild of hunters have been tracking and quelling the werewolf population for centuries. The time has come for Aylin to complete her first solo hunt to prove herself to the guild. It was supposed to be simple. One wolf, one death, one victory. She never expected to end up with a secret hostage on her hands.

Chapter Three Warnings: disturbing depiction of young captured woman, forced female nudity, mention of torture, mention of a deceased father and older brother

[link to chapter index] 

“Welcome to your new sanctuary.”

Peter carefully walked around the abandoned 70’s camper. It had sat parked in the depths of the forest about 5 miles from Aylin’s home off a dirt service road. The road hadn’t been used in years thanks to a few fallen trees. Her car was parked at the top of the road and the two of them had made the slow walk down the overgrown path in silence.

A creek trickled behind the forgotten vehicle and emptied out into a quiet pond. It was hot and stuffy inside, the air feeling muggy in her throat, and sweat beading up on her forehead. A gnat buzzed in her ear which she lazily swatted at.

“You can open the windows if you want,” she offered. “They don’t open up very wide but any air flow will be better than nothing.”

Peter nodded, giving her a timid look, “Is-uh-is this yours? I mean, is this where you live?”

Aylin smiled, finding his questions humorous, “No. This is not where I live. You are not allowed to be where I live. My poor mother would have a heart attack if she saw a werewolf enter our home.” She gave a sigh and slid into the moth eaten, yellow plaid dinette booth. She motioned for Peter to sit across the table from her. In another world, they would have resembled nothing more than two people on a camping trip. “My dad bought this camper for us when I turned 16. I think it was supposed to be my birthday present but also something for the family. We-” She hesitated, quickly adding. “-never ended up using it. I parked it here a few years ago and used it as my own personal getaway from everyone. No one but me knows that it’s here. It should be safe.”

“It smells like you in here,” he whispered.

Aylin frowned. All she could smell was the forest after a night of heavy rain wafting in through the open door. It was one of her favorite scents. It brought the comfort of home.

“Well, like I said, I’m the only person who ever uses it. There’s a bed in the back. It’s comfier than it looks. Pillows and blankets are there, too. You might want to give them a shake outside to scare off any spiders.” She thought about what else she could add to the conversation. “It no longer runs so don’t even try to get it started. Some mice moved into the engine and chewed up a bunch of stuff. But I like to sit in the passenger seat with the window down, stare out at the pond, and listen to the forest talk to me.”

Peter’s eyes drifted to the front of the camper, scanning through the dirt streaked windshield. A soft, peaceful smile rested on his lips.

“It’s perfect,” he sighed. “Anything is better than staring at a dark wall.”

“So, about that,” Aylin chewed on the calloused, hard skin around her thumbnail. “You’re not a prisoner here. I mean, technically you could leave at any point. I’m not going to chain you in or anything. But, if you do choose to sneak away, you better be careful. These forests are crawling with hunters. They will find you and it won’t be a pleasant death. You’re in their territory now. You saw the drive out here. There’s nothing around for miles apart from the Silver Colts. If you stay here, though, I can keep you safe. I can feed you and make sure no one heads out in this direction. You can live out the rest of your days in relative comfort, admiring the view, and eating nice food until I have what I need. I’d say it’s the better option of the two but that’s for you to decide.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Peter said as if it should have been obvious. He was sticking with her. His mind was made up.

She gave a steady nod, “Good. There’s no bathroom in here but you’re an uncivilized animal so I’m sure you’re used to going outside.” There was a sharp edge of prejudice to her tone.

Peter flinched at that but stayed silent with his eyes locked on the skinny table between them. He would not bite the hand that fed him.

“I have some books in the cabinet beside the bed you can read if you get bored. If you can even read. Uh, there’s an old rope hammock down by the pond. It’s always a gamble if it’ll still hold your weight or not but it's a nice spot to relax if the camper gets too hot. As of last year, there were no leeches in the water so feel free to use it as a way to clean yourself and cool down. I’ll bring you food once a day. Probably around the evening or early mornings. Whichever I can manage. Today you’ll have to go hungry because I know I won’t be able to leave tonight once I return back to the guild.”

He gave a nonchalant shrug, “Used to it.”

“And no making fires! That’s basically signaling to everyone around exactly where you are. Just stay calm, relax, sleep, go pick some wild blueberries, roll in the dirt…I don’t know what you dogs like to do. I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t wander too far.” She should probably attempt to be nicer so he’d be more likely to stay. “Please.”

He smirked at the grumble she made after. Like being kind to a werewolf was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.

“I’ll be here,” he promised.  

“Oh, thank the sun, you’ve returned!” 

Her mother, Nesrin, leaped from her spot on the couch. She had been dozing off with a half knitted scarf in her lap. She would only ever knit when she needed to soothe an anxious mind.  Her wooden knitting needles bounced off the hardwood floor and rolled after her as she ran towards her daughter. She hadn’t properly slept since Aylin left. 

Seeing her beloved mother after everything she went through nearly brought her to her knees. Aylin crumbled into her warm embrace. She felt like she was five years old again and searching for her mother’s comfort after a scraped knee. The pressing defeat of failure in her task finally came crashing down around her. Without the heart, she had no proof of her kill. She wouldn’t be able to complete the ritual. 

“I think I messed up,” she tried to hold the tears back but her voice was thick with sadness.“ I couldn’t get the heart. It all went wrong. There was no time. Sergei is going to be upset. I couldn’t finish what I started.” 

“Hush,” Nesrin soothed her. “Don’t mind that now. None of that matters. All is well. You are alive. You are home and in my arms. Come in. Take off your jacket. Are you hurt?” 

Aylin sniffled, reluctantly pulling back from the hug, and wiping her eyes, “No. I’m okay. I’m not hurt. Just a failure.” 

“No child of mine is a failure,” Nesrin scolded. 

They both knew once Sergei caught wind that she had returned, she would get no time to rest. Her mother, with her thick, long raven colored hair, the hair that Aylin knew so well, ushered her into the house. Not even time could steal the rich color from her locks. Aylin admired the way stray pieces flailed out behind her when she walked like she was creating her own breeze wherever she went. She was happy to finally be home. 

“My lips are sealed, Linny. No one will get their hands on you until I’ve deemed it time. I’m going to draw you a bath. I’ll wash your hair just like I used to and you can tell me everything that happened. After that, I am going to tuck you into bed and you are going to nap. Only after that will I allow anyone to know of your return.” She gave her daughter a light swat against the bum, urging her towards the bathroom. 

She couldn’t help but smile. Leave it to her mother to try and put Sergei in his place. 

“Alright, alright,” Aylin laughed. Her mood was already changing. Nesrin had that effect on people. She was the sun to Aylin’s moon. “I’m going.” She turned around, walking backwards, with a glint of excitement in her eyes. “Guess what? I killed two wolves yesterday. Two of them! The whole pack unexpectedly showed up and tried to rip me apart but I got out. I survived. Even if I didn’t get what I went there for.” 

Her mother gasped in horror, placing a hand over the golden sun pendant dangling on a delicate chain around her neck. It was an old Christmas gift from Aylin’s father. Nesrin never took it off. 

“You are going to be the death of me, child. Come into the bathroom and tell me all about it.”

“Our mighty huntress has returned from her first solo battle!” 

Sergei’s voice boomed out over the crowd. He stood on top of a wooden platform in the middle of their small town square. A large bonfire roared in front of him. Warm orange glowed over his face, creating a dance of shadows and light to give him a hellish, demonic look. He looked massive up there. Powerful. Almost godlike. 

The guild members stood in a wide circle around the fire as they watched their fearless leader. Tables had been set up off to the side with drinks and food. The live band silenced their instruments to allow Sergei to speak. A party was always thrown after a trainees first hunt, if they survived, that is. It was a right of passage. A celebrated sacred honor. Their traditions date back centuries. 

After her nap and a home cooked meal, Sergei was alerted to her return. He spent the rest of the afternoon one on one with her, going over every detail of her hunt. He wasn’t as disappointed as she thought he would be about the lack of heart. In fact, he seemed to be the complete opposite. Almost as if he was glad she failed. When she mentioned the whole pack suddenly showing up, he insisted that she had done the correct thing in getting out of there. She told him everything exactly how it happened…minus the existence of Peter. She had surveyed the camp, stalked Sierra down, severed her spine, watched her turn, then took her life. The sound of her gun shot must have alerted the pack to the danger. They came running. She had just enough time to get back to her car, killing another wolf as a distraction, and managed to escape. She spent the night at a motel to get some sleep before returning home. That was it. The entire story. Most of it, anyway. 

“Did you manage to see anything else while you were there?” He had asked. “Did you find any of their secrets? Did you have time to look around? What did you find?” His questions were backed with an impassioned, deliberate intent. She thought of Peter and wondered if Sergei knew more than he was letting on.

“No,” she lied. “Nothing at all. There was nothing else there. It was just an old camp.” 

Sergei had clasped his heavy hand on her back and gave a booming laugh. It had a hollow sound to it and she got the impression he was putting on a show to mask his disappointment. He had expected her to find something important at Eagle Peak. 

Or someone.

He gave her two hours to herself before the party would begin. During that time, Nesrin had plaited a thick, single fishtail braid down her daughters back and tied a black bow to the end. She tugged out a few strands in the front, giving them a loose curl to help frame her face. Aylin chose to wear a simple, black midi dress that hung down to her mid calf and sat snuggly around her waist. She paired it with a gray cardigan and her favorite chunky, black platform boots. They made her seem taller and helped downplay the outfit to be more casual. 

“I wish you’d try wearing some color for once,” Nesrin huffed as she looked over Aylin’s appearance. “The black darkens your beautiful eyes. It takes away some of their light.”

“I’m still in mourning,” she replied with a dull voice. 

Her mother rolled her eyes, “That was five years ago, Lin. The dressing like you’re in mourning period is over. Are you sure you don’t want to borrow one of my sweaters? I have that beautiful deep red one. It would just pop against your skin. Or the yellow. Oh, you know how I love that yellow one.” 

Aylin rubbed her fingers over her temple. The party was already giving her a headache and they hadn’t even left yet. She hated crowds. Even the idea of them was enough to bring one on. 

“I’m positive.” She wondered what Peter was doing right now. She sort of missed his company. He was quiet. She enjoyed that quality about a person. 

“I’ll bring the red one just in case you change your mind!” 

Now, as Sergei stood on the stage, Aylin surveyed the crowd around her. Her mother, standing next to her, still clasped the red sweater tight in her arms as if her daughter would suddenly change her mind. She looked from face to face, person to person. These were the people she knew all her life. Their guild had their own school. She wasn’t allowed to attend a public one. They rarely ever went into the nearest town unless it was absolutely necessary. The more secretive their guild was, the easier their existence. Their job was to stay quiet, out of sight, and take care of the werewolves. If someone breaks the rules, they’re thrown out. Either their family disowns them or they disappear with them. The people who leave never return. If she was caught with Peter, she would be thrown out. Her mother would come with her, that she knew. Nesrin would never leave her daughter’s side. But the guilt of forcing her mother to leave their community would eat her alive. This was what they knew. These were their people. Their family. 

Sergei was still speaking. He loved to hear himself talk. 

“From the moment I welcomed Samuel as my second in command, I knew the Silver Colts were in for a successful year.” 

Aylin’s stomach dropped at the mention of her father. Sergei rarely brought him up anymore. Her mother’s back straightened, her head held high, and her hand clasped around the necklace. She was trying to appear stronger than she felt. 

“He proved time and time again to be a dedicated hunter and a loyal friend. My best friend. But, more than that, he was a dedicated and loyal husband and father.” Sergei turned to where they were standing to speak directly to them. He placed a hand over his heart and showed his sorrow on his face. Maybe it was the flickering of the bonfire messing with the lighting, or maybe she was still exhausted from her hunt, but Aylin swore his sadness didn’t reach his eyes. It felt more like he was putting on a show than speaking from the heart about his fallen friend. It was the same feeling she got when he was asking her about the hunt. Something felt off. “I know Samuel would have been so proud to be standing on this stage tonight to honor his daughter. I still remember how he held back tears the night he got to honor Emir. Both of them, gone too soon.” 

Her cheek twitched as she locked her jaw. Her teeth ground together in annoyance. She glanced over at her mother who was now openly weeping. Five years and the pain still felt as raw as it ever had. They were still in mourning. No amount of time could change that. The mere mention of her father and brother could send Nesrin into hysterics. She hated that Sergei even brought them up. Her mother was trying to be strong in front of the crowd but Aylin could see her resolve starting to fail.

His eyes settled on Aylin. They bore into her with a strangely profound stare. She felt as if he was trying to peel back her tightly guarded layers and read her mind. His gaze made her uncomfortable like she was standing naked in front of a crowd. He knew something she didn’t.

“Tonight, in place of those we have lost, I will honor young Aylin as the newest huntress to the Silver Colt Guild!” 

The people erupted into loud cheers. The sudden sound made her flinch. Her headache intensified. She felt dizzy. Her mother gave her a tiny shove, pushing her towards the stage. That was her cue to start moving. She took a deep breath and made her way up to stand next to Sergei. He completely dwarfed her when she stood beside him. It felt like every time she saw him, he got a little taller, and gained more muscle. 

He grasped tightly onto her hand and held it up to more applause and hollers from the rowdy crowd. Sergei let the noise wash over them, basking in the cheers as if they were meant for only him, and then settled everyone back down 

“Now, tonight’s ritual will go a little differently. When I spoke to Aylin this afternoon, she gave me a detailed report of what happened yesterday. To put it plainly, she was ambushed. Those vile creatures knew she was coming and they sacrificed one of their own for a chance to tear apart one of ours! As she was trying to cut out the heart from her slain foe, the pack surrounded her.” 

A slew of horrified cries followed. 

“Poor Aylin had unknowingly walked straight into their trap and we were the ones who sent her there! They have no morals. They do not care if one of their own must be sacrificed as long as they get to draw blood. Our blood! But, even though she was surrounded, Aylin did not fret, for she had her father’s blood running through her veins and no more of their families blood needed to be spilled at the hands of the beast!” His voice boomed. It echoed off the forest trees as his enthusiasm grew. He had everyone gripped by the throat and hanging on his every word. Everyone except one. “She fought her way out! She slaughtered two more of those foul creatures and managed to escape by a hair! Three slain wolves on her first hunt. She is the true definition of what we stand for! She is the true leader of our tomorrow!”

Her stomach ached. He was exaggerating the truth to make it sound more daring and risky than it had been. He made it seem like the wolves had planned the entire attack like they knew she was coming before she even arrived. It was a calculated move to push his guild’s hatred in the right direction and it was all a lie. He was lying straight to these people’s faces without a hint of fabrication in his voice. Like it was the easiest thing in the world. Like he had been doing it his entire life. She had never seen him from this angle before. She felt like she was getting a sneak peek at the slimy, barnacle ridden underside of a mighty ship. She kept her eyes staring straight ahead. She would not question him. Not here. Not now. 

“Our traditions and rituals state that the successful hunter must toss the heart of their first kill into the blazes of the fire. But Aylin does not have what we need.” He paused, a smirk peeking out from under his untamed beard, as he held his breath for a dramatic beat. He was a showman putting on the performance of his life. “Luckily, I intend to make things right. She deserves to finish the ritual. She deserves to rip the heart from her slain beast!” 

It was then that Aylin’s resolve fell. She looked up at Sergei with confusion. There was no way anyone would have been able to travel all the way to Eagle Peak Camp to retrieve Sierra. There was no way her body would still even be there. Surely, her pack would have moved her and Lorina by now. They never left them where they fell. They had their own rituals of dealing with their dead. There was a reason why the public never stumbled upon bodies of giant wolves. 

Sergei gave her a wink, lowering his voice just for her, “Don’t look so frightened child. I have another wolf for you. Another heart to pry from its chest. Show these people you are Samuel’s daughter. Show them you are Emir’s sister. Show them what you are capable of.” He motioned behind him with a wide, swinging arm. “Calypso, my beautiful wife! Bring out the beast!” 

Her heart leaped into her throat and she spun around to see where Sergei was pointing. Her eyes scanned through the dark, searching for the face of who she was terrified to see. Calypso pushed a tall metal cage on wheels out in front of the stage. It was covered with a thick blanket to hide whoever was inside. The cage was big enough to fit a human, not a werewolf. Whoever was in there was stuck in human form. She bet the bars were lined with silver to keep the prisoner from breaking free. 

Her heart was racing. She could feel the panic rising. Had they found Peter? He was only five miles out. He was close enough that his capture could be possible. If they found him, if they knew she had brought him, she would be banished. Was this all a show to shame her in front of her family? She stared at the blanket covering the cage, trying to mentally will it to fall so she could see who was locked up, and dreading finding her friend on the other side. 

They were not friends. 

They were not friends. 

They were not friends. 

Calypso fanned out her wild, unruly mane of thick hair over her shoulders. Her bralette, made of a light tan werewolf pelt, hardly covered her large chest. Her tightly toned stomach was on display as her wide hips swayed with each step. She knew the men were all staring at her and she was soaking it up. She loved the attention as much as Sergei. Maybe even more. 

“Cal, my love,” he motioned down to his wife. “Would you do the honors?” 

She flashed him a dazzling white smile. Her teeth were sharper than average. Aylin often wondered if she filed them into points. 

She gripped onto the blanket as Aylin held her breath, terrified of who she was going to see. With a flashy flick of his wrist, Calypso tossed the blanket aside. The crowd burst into angry, insulting jeers towards the unveiled prisoner. 

Relief and horror flooded her all at once. 

It wasn’t Peter. 

He was safe. She was safe. They didn’t know about him. 

In his place, however, was a young woman. Aylin hesitated to even refer to her as a woman. She looked no older than 19. She was stripped naked. Her dignity ripped from her body to leave her vulnerable like it was done with the sole intent to shame her. She was smaller in size and huddled up in the corner of the cage. Her eyes were filled with fear. Her body trembled in fright. She almost resembled Peter in weight, being severely malnourished. She held the same look, too. The one that screamed of someone who had been tortured for longer than their body could  handle. Someone weak and broken. This girl was no threat to them. She would put up no fight. 

Sergei did another one of his booming laughs as he soaked in the sights before him. Someone in the crowd threw a half empty beer bottle at the cage. It shattered, spraying glass and beer all over the poor girl. 

That’s how Aylin viewed her. A girl. Not a wolf. Not an enemy. A scared, young girl. Aylin’s eyes sought out her mother in the crowd. Nesrin had vanished into a dark shadow under a tall pine tree. She was clutching onto her necklace, a frown etched into her wrinkled face, and shaking her head. She didn’t like this anymore than her daughter. Her mother wasn’t a hunter. She was just the widow of one. 

Sergei slid a long dagger out from his belt loop. It was curved into the shape of a claw. He thrust it into Aylin’s hand and shoved her down the steps towards the caged girl. His hand stayed tightly on the back of her neck, keeping her from looking anywhere but at the cage. 

“What do you say, Colts?” He addressed the crowd. “Are you ready to see how Aylin takes after her father? Are you ready to see if she has what it takes to be a leader?”

They cheered and whooped and hollered. The band was banging on their instruments. This was nothing more than entertainment to them. The noise was too much. Too loud. She felt sick. 

“Who is she?” She whispered to Sergei. “Where did she come from? What did she do?” 

He chuckled, “It doesn’t matter. She didn’t do anything. She’s a wolf and wolf’s deserve to have their hearts ripped from their chest! There is no humanity in her. She’s nothing but a repugnant beast. She has no soul. Go on! Show me that you belong here.” 

He took a step back, joining the crowd circling around her and the cage. It occurred to her that they weren’t going to release the girl. She wasn’t going to get a fair fight. She wasn’t going to get a chance to defend herself. Aylin was meant to murder her through the bars. Human to human, not hunter to beast. 

She slowly walked up to the cage and peered through the bars. From up close, the girl looked even worse. She had been a prisoner of someone, marks of torture speckled her skin as unspoken words of her time in captivity, and Aylin had a sinking feeling it wasn’t at the hands of another wolf. 

“Who are you?” Aylin whispered to her. 

The girl turned her head, glaring at her with whatever strength she could muster, and spit directly in her face. Her action only served to rile up the crowd further. They were calling for her death, begging for it to be drawn out slowly and painfully. They wanted to watch her suffer. 

Aylin wiped the glob of saliva from her cheek. Unlike her peers, it did not anger her. It only made her sad. A cornered animal, with all her defenses ripped from her, using the only fighting tactic she had left to try and mask her fear. It could have so easily been Peter inside this cage. This was her punishment for lying to Sergei. A punishment for taking Peter. Whether or not he knew of her misdeeds, something had changed in the air. He knew more than he let on. He knew that she was weak. 

The young girl’s emerald eyes faded into Peter��s soft, honey hues the longer Aylin stared at her. 

The dagger fell from her hands. 

She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t. Not like this. She refused to kill someone not in their wolf form. 

Aylin turned on her heels, elbowing her way through the crowd, and making a direct line for her house on the outskirts of their town. She blocked out the sounds of the disappointed crowd. She blocked out the sounds of Sergei calling after her. She blocked out the screams of the girl as someone else finished what she couldn’t even start. 

She blocked it all out as her swift gait eventually turned into a full sprint, forcing herself as quickly and as far, away from the caged girl as her body would allow.

“Peter?” 

The camper was dark and quiet. 

She had run home but knew that she could not stay. Sergei would surely follow. Her mother would be asking questions. They would each demand a different kind of answer and she had none to give them. She couldn’t stare her inevitable failure in the face. Running was easier. Hiding was simple. She packed a bag and left on foot. Cars were for people who didn’t let down their entire family. Failures deserved to walk the five miles through the dense forest, in the pitch black, to her sanctuary. 

The only safe place she knew of that still felt like home. 

She pushed her way into the back room, anticipating Peter to be asleep on the bed, only to find it empty and untouched. 

Her heart sank. 

He wasn’t here. The camper was empty. 

Of course he wasn’t here. 

Why would she ever expect him to stay? 

He had lied to her. Everyone lies. Herself, included. Everything is one big show. A giant performance to better achieve one’s own desires. 

She had freed him from his chains, brought him to safety, and he had told her what she wanted to hear until he was left alone. Why would she ever believe that he would sit around and let her kill him after she was done interrogating him? She was a fool to believe such a thing. Werewolves couldn’t be trusted but, she was finding, neither could her guild. Sergei had set her up. She wasn’t entirely sure how but he knew there was supposed to be something in that camp. Something he wanted to get his hands on. 

And the only thing she saw of value was Peter. Who was now gone. 

She wondered if Sergei knew the pact would be close by. She wondered if he really had willingly sent her into a trap or if he even expected her to come back alive. “They have no morals. They do not care if one of their own must be sacrificed as long as they get to draw blood.” That was what he said about the wolves but she now wondered if he was referring to something else. She had the strangest sense that she had been used as bait. 

She was starting to ask a lot of questions. Questions she had no answers to. Questions that only lead to more questions. 

Aylin kicked open the camper door more violently than she intended. She stalked out into the night, filling her lungs with the familiar forest air. Her chest felt tight. Anger, anxiety, annoyance, and confusion all gripped at her throat. 

But it was the disappointment tinged with sadness that worried her the most. 

The absence of Peter caused her more inner turmoil than what had happened at her “party”. She shouldn’t be this upset to lose a werewolf. She should be relieved that he was no longer in her care. He wouldn’t have to be something to worry about anymore.

And, still, she felt the weight of his absence like a sinking stone of sadness. 

She followed the creek down to the pond. She was hoping to see the moon shining through the canopy and reflecting off the still water. It was one of her favorite sights. The moon and her forest brought her a comfort that not even her mother could compete with. Seeing the moon would make her feel better. 

As she pushed her way between two overgrown bushes, she stopped short. Instead of the moon, she saw something else. 

There, fast asleep on the old rope hammock, was Peter. 

She was afraid to blink, terrified that if she let him out of her sight for even just a second, he would disappear from her life again. She didn’t want him to disappear. She didn’t want him to go. She didn’t want him dead. 

There was something about him that endeared to her closed off heart. He had a tender soul. A quiet softness. Like a light, summer breeze on a lazily evening. It was silly to think such things about a werewolf but it was how she felt. Seeing that young girl in the cage was too much. Her entire life she believed she was on the right side of history. She was helping to save the public. A silent protector of the world. But murdering a defenseless, naked teenager locked in a cage was not right. It was not a heroic act. Killing her would have saved no one. 

Aylin was no hero. Not a mighty huntress or a future leader. 

She was scared and sad and confused. She craved the wisdom of her father, the strength of her brother, and the safety of her mother. She craved whatever strange comfort Peter was starting to bring. She wanted to understand him, to unravel him like a mystery, until she found all the answers she sought out. 

She wanted to be his friend. 

That was it. 

That was all that she wanted. Nothing more. Nothing less. 

Friends. 

He hadn’t left her. He hadn’t lied. She felt she could trust someone she met hours ago, someone who was supposed to be her enemy, more than the person she had known her entire life. 

As she moved closer, she could see streaks of dried tears carving a path down his cheeks. His long lashes were wet and clumped together. He breathed quietly through parted lips. His arm rested under his head as a makeshift pillow. She could make out the strength of his muscles under his skin. Not even nearly starving to death could steal them away, it seemed. The mystery of the wolves clouded her thoughts. They were the Silver Colts sworn enemies and, yet, they hardly knew anything about them. 

 Despite his dried tears, Peter looked peaceful as he slept. 

He didn’t look like a monster. He looked like a man. Just like the wolf in the cage only looked like a scared girl. 

Maybe they were wrong. Maybe werewolves weren’t as terrible as they thought. 

And then she remembered her father and brother. 

They had been torn apart by a wolf on a hunt. Their bodies had been so mutilated, Sergei refused to let her mother and her see them. They died at the hands of someone like Peter. 

She didn’t know what to think anymore. Two days ago her world was black and white. Good and bad. Heroes and villains. Today, it was all kinds of gray. 

Aylin took a step back away from Peter, hoping to let him rest without bothering him, when her boot crunched down on a stick. The snapping of wood caused Peter’s eyes to shoot open, wide with fear. He sat up too suddenly. The hammock rocked violently under him. He tried to catch his balance but it was too late. The hammock flipped over and he was thrown onto the ground. His sleepy body splayed out over the dirt, bits of leaves clinging to messy hair. 

She tried not to laugh. She really did. But she couldn’t stop it. 

Her laughter filled the quiet, night air. It lightened the chaos of her mind and soothed her anxious soul. 

Peter scrambled to his feet, his face blushed scarlet, and shook the leaves from his hair. 

“Why are you here?” He asked, voice caked with sleep. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” 

She steadied her laughter with a deep breath, “I brought you some food.” 

“You said you wouldn’t be able to until tomorrow.” He looked up at the sky, the moon telling him it was only around midnight. “Why are you out so late?” 

Most of the humor she had still tumbling around inside of her dried up at the memories of earlier. She swallowed, giving a shrug, “Couldn’t sleep. Come inside. I brought dolmas.” She made her way back to the camper with Peter falling in step behind her. 

“What’s that?”

She raised her brows in shock and glanced over her shoulder to look at him, “You’ve been missing out, wolfboy. This one is a mixture of rice, meat, and herbs stuffed into a grape leaf. You’ll love it. My mom made them this afternoon. She’s the best cook in our guild.” 

She wondered what her mother was thinking right now. She had left without seeing her. Without saying goodbye. It wasn’t the first time she had run away without leaving a note. Nesrin was probably used to it. 

Aylin held the door open for Peter, “After you.” 

He gave her a gentle smile, nodding his head in thanks.

“I also brought you some clothes. Clothes and food. See? I’m a wonderful host.” 

Her brother’s old clothes. It wasn’t like he would need them anymore. 

She slid into the seat across from him and pulled a tupperware of food out the bag she left on the table. She happily watched as Peter ripped it open and carefully examined the contents. He only lasted a few seconds before digging in. His eyes widened and then closed, savoring his mouthful. It was strange to watch a werewolf enjoy her mother’s cooking. She felt a sense of pride. She wondered if her mom would like Peter as much as she was starting to. 

Aylin had no clue what tomorrow would hold for her. Sergei wouldn’t be pleased. Her mother would have questions. She was witnessed refusing to kill a wolf in front of her entire guild. It wasn’t going to be easy. She didn’t want to think about it. Instead, she would focus on tonight.

Tonight, she would watch Peter eat his fill of dolmas. 

Then, she would try to sleep. 

Today, right now, this is what she chose to focus on. That was all that mattered. 

Tomorrow was tomorrow for a reason.

[Chapter Four]

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