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rascalentertainments · 3 days ago

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Wish Granted 🌟👩🏾🎶 (Wish Reimagined)

Chapter 15: Wizard Duel🌟⚡👑

Chapter 14

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The group carefully continued to make their way to safety. "You sure he'll be alright back there?" Gabo asked Asha.

"Magnifico's crafty, but Star's more powerful than he realizes. He can at least hold him off long enough for us get back to safety."

Gabo hesitated a bit thinking about the fight. "Yeah....but Magnifico doesn't play fair..."

Magnifico gave his staff a twirl and quickly shot a blast of green magic at the starboy. The star instantly dodged it with a backflip. "Ohhh, so close! Wanna try again?" He chuckled.

The man growled in frustration and shot another beam of magic at Star.

Again, Star dodged it, and the blast hit one of the town's main mirrors, fracturing it. Magnifico gasped seeing he could no longer see his handsome face in the reflection, or anything else for that matter.

"We just fixed that mirror, you glowing brat!!" He yelled.

The star laughed as he took a look at the shattered mirror. He could see part of his own broken reflection as well as the king's. "I don't know much about mirrors, but I'd say its an improvement!"

Another blast surprised Star as he just barely dodged it in time. That was a close one... He quickly flew out of range so he wouldn't get blasted again. This was followed by another series of magic blasts, mirroring his previous fight with the star.

"Why. Won't. You. Just. DIE?!" Magnifico's voice grew more and more furious with each blast of magic. He only stopped momentarily to rest, since the consecutive blasts were taking some strength out of him.

When the king wasn't looking, the star landed gently on top of his head. Not as a parrot, but as a large rooster. He nestled in as if he was making himself a nest. "You know, you're so serious all the time. Its always 'Bring me the star! Bring me the wishes! I will have my revenge!'" With each time he mocked the king in an annoying tone and pecked him on the forehead.

"You need to get a hobby that doesn't involve being a monster or stealing from others. Your magic is even kinda boring!"

The man had enough of Star's rambling. "GET OFF ME!" he screamed as he attempted to grab Rooster!Star, but he ended up flying away. "What would you know about how to use magic? You have limitless potential in yours and yet you decide to play games like a child!"

Another blast nearly hit the star, causing him to fly quickly to safety. But the blast ended up destroying a bust of the king that a loyal resident made in his honor. The more he blasted, the more damage he was doing to the area.

"At least I can control mine, Maggy! Hehehe!" Star snickered. "Might as well quit now, while you got it easy!"

Easy? EASY?! It had the audacity to not only mock his magic, but also their battle?! This had to be the most challenging and annoying prey he's had to deal with. The king's blood was near boiling, but he wouldn't be mocked for long.

Not only that, it seemed that the star had actually started using his powers more properly, as if someone taught him how to focus his transformations...

He was prepared to resume blasting his magic, but then another idea popped into his head. Something that would shut up that star...

"You want magic, fool? I'll give you magic." He growled as he gripped the staff tightly in his hand, charging it up with as much magic as possible. He then whipped around and aimed his staff towards the teenage group.

Star's face fell as he realized what the king was about to do. He flew down and transformed with a flash of light.

Right as he took the blast, the king was met with a powerful shove, making the evil magic just barely miss the group by a hair.

Simon shielded the others from the blast the best he could, as the impact sent splinters of wood and stone everywhere. "Is everyone all right?" He asked, as he took a look at everyone.

"Yes, we're fine, Simon. Thanks for protecting us." Dahlia quickly assured him.

"Hey, don't you see the hat? I am Mrs. Nesbit!" Flazino mumbled, then fell back to sleep.

"...Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call him fine." Hal commented on Flazino's mental state.

"Is the king mad about us over there? I can't even tell from here!" Safi asked as he fought back a troublesome sneeze.

"Dunno. I can check though. I'm sure he's not mad at us!" chimed in Dario. Being the tallest of the group, he stood up and took a look at the fight from a distance. He saw a large yellow deer in a fighting stance as the king had been knocked clear into a wall, making a hole in it.

The man gripped both sides of the wall and emerged looking like an angry bull. His eyes flashed a venomous green as he looked directly at Dario.

Dario instantly ducked and looked like he had just seen a ghost. "Yep, he's mad. We gotta go!"

"Not without Star, we're not leaving him behind!" Asha scolded him. Even with a mad king breathing down their necks, she refused to leave the star.

Gabo rolled his eyes. "Well, I hope you have some magic of your own, sister. Because we can't exactly fight magic with the power of friendship!"

Gabo didn't intend to give Asha an idea, but he did.

Magnifico turned his attention back to the star as he pushed the rather heavy rubble out his path. He desired the star's power now more than ever. Not just so he and his wife could have infinite magic to conquer the world.

Right now all he could think about was the pleasure he would get from killing the star on the spot. The man looked at the starboy with newfound hatred for his existence. At the moment, only one word came to mind as he spoke. "Abomination."

Star's eyes narrowed at the king as he pawed the ground, returning a harsh word of his own. "Stupid Head."

With lighting like speed, his semi-large antlers collided with the king's staff, causing the two of them to be locked in a battle of strength. Deer!Star was attempting to break the staff with his antlers, but it didn't seem to be budging. The star didn't have experience in fighting, but he knew if he stopped now, his friends were toast. "I won't let you hurt them! Or anyone else!" he shouted at the king

Magnifico on other hand was getting furious with how long with battle was going. He never imagined getting the magic would be this difficult—or stubborn. He pushed back against the magical deer, forcing him to slide backwards. "You're even more foolish than I thought...." the king grunted.

As the magic between them kept growing stronger, the animation style on two began to change. Going from the traditionally animated, to a more sharp, anime-esque style. Magnifico and Star now had green and yellow outlines on them as their magic was constantly flaring.

Magnifico was growing tired of this match, so he quickly grabbed Deer!Star's antlers and threw him into a pile of barrels. "Don't tell me you're getting attached to more people?" He laughed and started walking towards the rubble in defiance. "You don't belong here, and you never will. The only thing you're good for is power. Why else would some peasant call on you?"

He tightly gripped his staff to stab the star who was still down, this time to get the job done. Deer!Star "And I will take that power...." The staff slowly raised into the air. His voice echoed with pent up rage. "Even if I have to take it from your yellow corpse!"

Right before the deed could be done, something flew over Magnifico's head and bounced against the wall. When the object fell it turned out to be just an ordinary apple. Caught off guard, the king turned and saw Dario with his arm extended out. The rest of the teens were further back and hiding behind a stall.

Dario sheepishly grinned at the king.

Gabo on the other hand, was ready to blow. "You....missed? How could you miss?! HE WAS THREE FEET FROM YOU!!" He shouted at the lanky teen.

"My bad!" Dario laughed uncomfortably.

Magnifico had the most confused expression you could imagine at the whole thing. Then he realized, that was the whole point. When he turned, the star wasn't a deer anymore, but instead a-

"KANGAROO! He actually did it!" Dario laughed, before Bazeema pulled him away.

(Wasn't expecting a Rescuers Down Under reference were you? Neither was I. 😅)

Star quickly gave the king a few quick jabs to the stomach, making him jump back far enough to avoid another attack. "Come on! You want to fight hand to...paw?" He chided the king as he pretend to box. (Ignoring the fact he still had no idea how to actually fight)

He jumped forward gave him a hard swipe of his tail that sent him sliding further backwards in pain.

Magnifico growled. "I'm not falling for anymore of your asinine games! I am the king of Rosas and I will not be mocked by a childish star with amateur magic!" he absorbed more magic into his hand and grabbed the now marsupial star by his neck.

The king was even stronger than before, the star could feel the evil magic radiating off of the king, it was almost unbearable.

"Once I'm done with you, the rest of Asha's traitors are next. I can finally wipe that smile off your face as I kill them!" The man beginning to sound more like a madman with the more power he absorbed.

However, Kangaroo!Star had enough strength to give Magnifico a good strong kick, forcing him to fly across the ground. Star was beginning to feel tired, realizing the Nan had drained some of his magic again. How was he going to beat this guy long enough for everyone to get away?

Usually he came up with some good plans, but he was to distracted by the king slowly getting back to think of anything!

His left ear twitched as he heard Asha call his name. She was still with the others as they prepared themselves to be distractions again. "Star! His power comes from the staff! Change into a snake!"

He didn't quite understand how that was supposed to work, but he did it. Once he transformed into a giant slinky snake, he asked "Now what?"

The poor star was a bit slow to grasp things at times, but this was a terrible one. The entire group shouted in unison: "Tie him up!"

It finally clicked. "OH! GO IT!" He quickly slithered over to Magnifico and wrapped himself tightly around the king.

His exposed arms were quickly grabbed by a few of the teens, trying to keep the man from shooting anymore magic at them as he attempted to thrash himself free. "UNHAND ME YOU WORTHLESS PEASANTS!" Gabo grabbed the arm that held the staff, and tried to rip the crystal off. But there was a problem... "IT WON'T BUDGE!" Gabo exclaimed. "What did you use, evil super glue?"

Asha went over and tried to help Gabo get the thing off. Time was running out though, as the teens could feel that he was charging up his magic to blast them all at once. "If I'm going down, you're all coming with me!" The mad king threatened.

Before it could go off, a furry brown blur whizzed by the two teens and snatched the crystal off the staff. On the ground, Valentino turned and triumphantly showed the green crystal between his teeth.

"HA! THAT'S MY GOAT!" Gabo exclaimed. At least he didn't have to resort to stabbing the king's hand as his plan B. This was much better.

"Val, hit the crystal as hard as you can, its the only way to stop this!" Asha told her furry friend.

Valentino nodded and was about to hit the crystal with his front hooves, when he was pounced on by a lynx.

Sabor grinned wickedly as he looked down at his prey.

Asha ran to help the little got, but without thinking, she let Magnifico's arm go. "Asha, wait-" Gabo started to warn her, but it was too late.

Magnifico stored up enough of his magic to force everyone off of him. They went flying across the ground away from him.

"Okay, now he's really mad. Let's get out of here!" Dario advised as he scrambled to get away. The others soon followed him, and took Asha with them. Not wanting to leave Valentino behind, Gabo swiftly kicked Sabor off of the goat, sending him flying into a sack of flour. Part of him felt good to get back at that cat for giving him his facial scar.

Asha grabbed Valentino, but there was no sign of the crystal.

"No time to waste, let's go!" Hal said as she pushed Asha forward and back to the rest of the teens.

Star fell to the ground and changed back to his human form, this time actually feeling more of the pain from the king's magic as he held his chest in pain.

A flour coated Sabor limped over to Magnifico and coughed up the green crystal like a hairball.

The king had to ignore the cat slobber and just put the crystal back in its rightful place on his staff. "About time you made yourself useful to me." He commented, not even looking at the cat in the eye.

The lynx growled as he glared at Magnifico, but he knew better than to anger him. So he just scowled and walked away back to his true master.

The starboy was still on the ground, but he was beginning to regain consciousness. Magnifico couldn't let that happen.

"Its time to end this right here and now. Before you get any other smart ideas. Time to claim our power!" his voice boomed. As the end of his staff began to glow a bright green, brighter than it was previously.

Magnifico grabbed the staff with both hands and swirled the wand in a giant circular motion. He repeated the motion over and over until the green circle became complete.

The circle began humming and moaning, as if it was a giant creature inside. It would be rather fitting since Magnifico was gripping his staff like a leash, trying to keep it under control. "Try to fly your way out of this one, brat!" He mocked the star with a wicked grin.

Star slowly opened his eyes and felt himself being dragged forward. He looked up and saw a giant green black hole, and it was pulling him in!

"Time to fly!" Star exclaimed as he turned into a parrot and flew off to finally join Asha and the other teens.

Only, as he was flying, he noticed that he didn't seem to be going anywhere. In fact, he felt like he was going backwards without trying. He looked behind him and saw that he was still being pulled backwards.

The star changed his form again, this time to his horse form. But he was still slowly being pulled away.

"OH, COME ON!" the star exclaimed in frustration as he rapidly changed his animal forms into something heavy enough to get away. With each failed attempt, he was panicking more and more. In desperation he tried just about any animal: a deer, lion, tiger, bear-

"Oh my! Having a bit trouble are we?" The king lightly mocked the star. "Where are your jokes now?" Only the king was laughing now.

Finally, Star turned into an elephant, which stopped his slow descent into the black hole. But he couldn't celebrate just yet, he still had to escape!

Elephant!Star started marching forward and fighting against Magnifico's pull. "Gotta...get back...to Asha." He grunted as he slowly took large steps forward.

Magnifico's eyes widened with horror, that thing was STILL fighting back?! And he was getting away again? No, not now, not when he was so close to his prize!

The magical tug-of-war was interrupted by Queen Amaya who stepped onto the scene right on cue.

(In case you're wondering, Sabor is just sort of in the background, he's just had enough of all this 😂)

"Darling, I could use a hand here! Our victory is quite literally walking away!" Magnifico said in a annoyed tone.

"As always, Mi rey..." She started as she pulled a small yet familiar red vial from her sleeve. "I've come prepared."

Her voice was calm, as if there wasn't a giant yellow elephant standing before as she walked to the other side of the black hole.

"This should put you in your place..." Amaya quietly threatened the star. She threw the vial directly onto the back of Elephant! Star, covering him in a red and making him cough.

"Gross, what was that?" He said, disgusted after the mist cleared. "Wait...I'm feeling kind of weird..." Star mumbled as he felt his entire body began to shake rapidly.

In a bright red flash, Star was instantly back to his human form. "No! Nononono!" He panicked and tried to turn into the elephant again, only this time, nothing happened. No matter what animal he thought of, he couldn't transform into anything! "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!"

"Oh, that was simply a spell had I been brewing for a while now." Amaya giggled as she enjoyed seeing Star in distress. "Your animal antics have been getting in our way long enough, so I made a spell put a stop it long enough for you to enter the crystal."

And with that she walked past him as if he was nothing more than a gnat.

Star couldn't see her face, but he could feel her glaring at him. Without his animal powers, he had to muster whatever strength he had into flying away.

Magnifico crackles as he reaches his victory. He decided to mock the star one more time. "Don't worry, its nice and roomy so it'll be like you're back in space! It'll feel just like home!"

Star's mind snapped back to his time in space. All he could see was Earth and the near total blackness of space.

How he wanted to go there.

How he wanted to meet humans.

How he didn't want to be alone.

"YOU'RE NOT SENDING ME BACK!" Star screamed as he charged up more of his magic and flew harder than he did before.

But as hard as he tried, it was getting clear that it wasn't going to be enough for him.

Before he met his fate, only thing was in his mind.

Asha, I'm sorry...

As this was happening, we cut back to the teens nearly in the clear. They had nearly reached the pathway to Bazeema's hideout when Asha suddenly stopped.

Dahlia was the first to notice. "Asha? What's wrong?"

The girl looked behind her where the fight was still going. She could feel as if something was wrong. "I have to go back."

"Are you nuts, woman? Why? Magnifico will turn you ashes in a second!" Gabo exclaimed. As much he liked causing problems, this was one fight he was actually glad to get away from...

"Look, I just need to go. Star needs help." That was all she said before dashing off.

Dahlia's jaw dropped in disbelief. "How do you even know that? He's literally made of magic!" She shouted to her friend, but she was already gone.

Safi sneezed once again. "AAAAAACHOO!!" He looked at the rest of the teens as he sniffed. "You're all thinking the same stupid idea, aren't you?"

Back into the magical fight, Star was inching closer to the portal, which was slowly taking some of his magic. While he was in absolute terror, Magnifico was overjoyed.

"I believe it's finally realized it's defeat! Shall we take our prize together, darling?" He offered.

Amaya was about to accept when Sabor pulled on her dress to get her attention. She looked down and saw the lynx hissing as he pointed to the target: Asha was coming in fast.

This girl was becoming more and more of a nuisance everyday. Since her husband already had the star, Amaya decided to take advantage of the situation and deal with Asha herself. Or more accurately, make a deal with Asha.

Amaya slowly raised her hands into the air and with a quick strike, she covered the girl in green smoke, blinding her.

When Asha opened her eyes, she was no longer in danger. Heck, she wasn't even in Rosas anymore!

We then see the Hamlet has been restored to its former state, only now it looks brighter than ever with life. The people there seemed be more joyful and not constantly looking over their shoulder for an attack. They looked...happy?

Asha knew this had to be an illusion, but it all felt so real to her.

At that moment, Amaya gently placed her hand on her shoulder. But Asha was so immersed, she didn't even realize the queen was there until she spoke. "Do you like what you see? Isn’t this whole life better than running fear for the rest of your life?"

She was back home in the Hamlet with her mother, saba, Valentino. Usually its a small gathering at their house when it came to Sabino's music, but with the addition of the seven teens and even Flazino joining them. This was something she always imagined for her family and community: To be safe and free.

Amaya continued, "I must say, Asha. When you dream, you don't just dream for yourself. You dream for those around you. Quite admirable."

Asha was beginning to fall into the trap, as she smiled seeing everyone happy together. Her smile slowly faded the longer she looked at the scenario. Something was missing... or rather someone.

She turned to Amaya. "Where's Star?"

"Oh dear, I thought it would be so clear." The queen had a slight mock in her tone as she explained. "You can have your family and your life back. All you have to do to make this reality, is to hand over star. Forever. You can forget any of this ever happened, and live a peaceful life you've always wanted for your people. I say its a fair deal, yes? You're almost there."

For a moment, Asha looked back at the illusion of her family and new friends being together, genuinely being at peace to live a normal life again. But not everyone she loved was in the picture.

Asha finally glared at the Queen with determined eyes. "That's not the life I want. Not without him."

The queen sighed deeply. "I was hoping you would be smarter in this situation. But alas, you are still young. There's a lot of your father's spirit in you..." She then tried one last trick as she approached Asha.

"Its sweet that you care for it so much, but you seem to treat it like it means more than a friend to you. Frankly, he's more like a pet."

That made Asha completely regain control of her senses as she clenched her fist. "My Star is not a pet!"

She quickly dashed passed Amaya and through the fake Hamlet. She didn't stop until she emerged from the illusion cloud. The illusion itself dissipated and the scene

Amaya growled as she pulled a hidden dagger from her sleeve. "Get back here you-" her threat was cut short as she fell over something small and furry. She looked behind her and saw a little goat stick her tongue out at her, then ran in Asha's direction.

Back near the magic black hole, Star had run out of strength to keep flying. The thing he feared the most might be coming for him after all...

Just as Star was getting sucked in, he felt a hand grab his arm and stop him. He opened his eyes and saw Asha pulling with all her might to break him free.

"What are you doing?! You're gonna get sucked in too!" Star exclaimed. "Just get away while you can!"

Asha grabbed Star's arm and pulled with both hands now. She could feel herself already getting slowly pulled in, but she kept trying to free her friend. "No!" She yelled back. "I'll never leave you behind, I just couldn't do that to you!"

At that moment, the star felt something change within him as he looked at Asha. Something that was different from his adoration of Earth. While Star had never experienced it for himself, it was the growth of something he thought he would never feel in his life:

Love.

It would take him just a little bit longer to realize it. And with this new feeling he immediately grabbed Asha's wrist with his free hand and attempted to pull himself away from the black hole.

"Its no use, little one! The star is ours!" Magnifico cackled as he was ready to achieve his victory.

Suddenly, Asha could feel something wrap around her waste. She turned her head and saw Dahlia attempting to pull her back. "Don't let go of him! You can do this!" Dahlia encouraged her as the wind began to howl louder.

Behind Dahlia was Gabo, holding on as tight as he could to her and pulling back. "You better not die on us, Asha! You still got a monarchy to tear down!" He yelled, hoping that they couldn't see the tears in his eyes forming.

Behind Gabo was Dario, followed by Hal, Safi, Bazeema, Simon and little Valentino pulling on Simon's shirt with all his strength to help.

"Amaya, I could use some extra hands here!" Magnifico said impatiently. He could feel the magic was beginning to cease from his staff, and he didn't know how much longer it would last.

"Do. Not. Rush. Me." Amaya actually sounded annoyed with him for the first time. She grabbed onto the staff alongside her husband while Sabor clenched a part of it with his paw, contributing what little he could.

As both sides were pulling with all their might, the combination of magic kept building up until-

BOOM! 💥

Both groups were flown backwards due to the force of the blast.

As everyone tried to shake off the magical explosion and get to their feet, Asha had successfully pulled Star out of the royals reach. When they had landed, Star had ended up wrapping his arms around Asha after she freed him. When she sat up, Star was still holding onto her.

"That was close...are you alright, Star?" Asha asked.

Asha didn't hear an answer out of Star. Instead he just kept holding her and could feel his arms shaking. It was as if he wanted to keep her from leaving. "....Star?" She tried asking again.

This time, the star changed his into his familiar mouse form. He still didn't speak, but it was more clear that he was shaking out of fear. He didn't even look up at Asha.

"Come on, we gotta go before they get back up!" Hal warned her as she helped her up.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to ask questions. Instead, Asha gently held him in her hands and ran as fast as she could with the others.

Behind them, she could hear the king's voice filled with rage. "You traitorous brats! If you ever want to see your family again, you better bring that star to us at the ceremony. Or their deaths will be your head!"

He aimed his staff at the group, only to find that the crystal at the top was missing. "Don't tell me you managed to drop it." Amaya chided him.

The man looked up and saw Bazeema quickly following behind the group. She turned, and was holding the crystal in her hand. "I'm sorry, but I really needed to take this!" She didn't need to apologize to the homicidal villains, but she did anyway.

The king rolled his eyes and threw he staff to the side. "Fine, we can handle you with our own hands!" He announced as he held his wife's free hand.

"Now there's an idea I agree with!" Amaya agreed. She prefered this method than always relying on that staff anyway.

A sickly green blast of magic was headed straight towards the teens, prepared to kill them in the spot. They had almost no time to react!

Simon leaped in front of the fleeing group and slammed down a knight's shield to the ground, blocking the royal's magical attack just in time.

"Keep going! I can hold them off for a minute!" Simon grunted as he pushed with all his might against the shield.

Gabo came back and grabbed the back of his shirt. "Ooooh no you don't! We don't need another sacrifice moment! Just hurry up and come with us!"

"I'm going to protect everyone in Rosas even if its against our own rulers!" Simon yelled back. Then in a last feat of strength, he punched the shield into the ground, making it stay in place as the magic blast continued to hit the object.

When he was sure it was secure he finally joined the others. However, his eyes were looking more tired than before.

The king and queen ran out of energy and had to cease in their attack. Amaya was tired, but fine. However, Magnifico looked like he hadn't slept in weeks as he fell to his knees in exhaustion.

She took her husband's face in her hands. He looked slightly pale after expelling so much magic. "Dear, you need rest. You've done more than enough." Both her face and tone was filled with concern.

Magnifico gave her a weak smile. "I appreciate your concern, Amaya."

He had enough strength to get back on his feet. As looked in the direction where the teens left, his thoughts were consumed with revenge. Not just on the pathetic star, but also Asha and the traitors of traitors of Rosas.

They won't make a fool of him again, especially not tonight...

"But I've had enough of these games. Before the ceremony, I believe it's time we turn to a friend on the other side..." The king's voice grew deeper as the camera zooms in on his green eyes.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Actual footage of my hands after writing for over a month:

After a whole month of an absence, I FINALLY FINISHED A NEW CHAPTER! 😭 Believe it or not, as long as this chapter is, I still had to cut it short! The next song was meant to be in this chapter, but because work got in the way and hadn't written in so long, I decided to wait until the next chapter. But rest assured, the biggest parts are coming still, and just in time for the anniversary of the story!

I also have been obsessed with the Sonic movies and franchise lately and its spiraled into me making an AU around Silver the Hedgehog and his spin off story, so that also took over my mind too, lol.

So back to this story, I really wanted to show the growth of Asha and the teens together since the movie had them just be friends from the start without explanation. And even then, they just didn't have enough chemistry for me to get why I should care about them. They haven't been friends for years like in the movie, so I wanted to build up their trust in each other and to Star and Asha, even with Dahlia's betrayal. And at least they would ALL have some kind of purpose multiple times in the story. Maybe friendship really is magic! 😂

I wanted this chapter to be a big moment for not only Simon to prove he wants to be a knight, but also where Star fully fell for Asha, but he wouldn't realize it until someone told him why he's been feeling different about her. Though he thinks Asha only sees him as a friend...😅 LOTS of things are going to happen to Star and Asha and most of it is good, but you'll probably want some tissues near the end of the story!

It feels good to back to writing and the Wish Rewrite fandom, and to have some fun with this AU again! Thanks so much for your patience, and I promise the next one won't take as long! 😂

Thanks for reading!

@oh-shtars @tumblingdownthefoxden @chillwildwave @your-ne1ghbor

@annymation @lazytitans-world @thesafireartist @natsuki208

@snackara @kenihewa @mythartist21 @uva124

@spectator-zee @cocoapowderpictures @emptyblog7

@pinkninja0708 @gracebeth3604 @ishadow246 @jojo-ker06

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whatudottu · 3 months ago

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Hello Ben 10 fans, it's been a hot second hasn't it, it's time for another round of Whatudottu Rambles and it's been a long time coming! Not just because of the gaps between posts but because this original idea comes straight from 2023 notes yay!

Today, we'll be talking about vulpimancers, but specifically their history and the politics of Vulpin! Because! For some reason! Whenever I think about vulpimancers, Vulpin, and vulpinic tortugans I think about their relation to the rest of the universe at large and frankly I want to elaborate what has been years of note taking!

God it's gonna be LONG!

So! One of the caveats when dealing with societal structure and the politics therein with significantly more animalistic appearing species, especially vulpimancers who do not have the actual physical structure to speak Earth languages, is that trying to base them off of a real human culture is a SIGNIFICANT FAUX PAS let alone taking inspiration from more traditional and indigenous cultures from around the world. It's part of the reason my obviously-armadillo ant bio talpaedans have their cultural influence taken from historial Europe more specifically during the time of their royal blood swapping since that's the basis of the tradie marriages.

What this means for vulpimancers is that I won't be taking from any modern world culture and hopefully harkening their lives and otherwise timeline to be kind of the present day equivalent of early human communities. Vulpimancers don't exactly have hard borders on territory beyond their stable hunting grounds and are nomadic, sticking together in communities, working within packs, then bundling for rest with families. This will persist until the 'modern era' which consists of a lot more than just the last 25 so years 'today' means, and that territory ends up becoming a whole country, a few communities per country with their relevant amount of working packs and individual families within.

Communities are 'run' by family elders and pack leaders, being a combination of 'the eldest takes care of the youth' parent style but also of those in charge of resource gathering being the... I suppose statistical analysts of the community who take stock of the resources they have, the mouths they need to feed, the seasons of their country, and how well one resource is actually growing (in the case of plants) or breeding (in the case of animals). It's not completely flawless sure, but it's certainly a system that works in a deadly pitch black environment filled with predators galore. Each country has a basic sense of politics even without a so called 'government head' or unified governing body, and historically their international politics extend to the access foreign vulpimancers have to the lands and resources of their country. Often smelling like a region none of the communities have traveled through (and countrymancers would have had interactions with the other communities and familiarised themselves with their scents), the allowance of foreign travel are limited in small numbers to only a few members of a family and only one or two members of a worker pack just outside (never within) the border; a whole community is expected to remain well away from the border unless the border happens to be at the centre of a river or by a dense cave system.

This system would have gone uninterrupted were it not for the fact that early tortugan settlers, an old species already at space fairing technology well beyond many of the civilisations we know were what they are today, landed on Vulpin during their mission to colonise their star system. One argues that the tortugan got to their level of technology from having a lack of predators and thus more proposed 'free time' to dedicate to advanced sciences, another says that they were simply haughty and underprepared for an environment that they had no ability to even understand beyond the atmosphere let alone the conditions on the ground. What inarguably happened though was in some way the settlers were stranded, their ships corroding and decaying from the harsh chemicals of the air, fighting for their damn lives in the pitch black of Vulpin. Forced to adapt or die, the settlers faced the wild threats of Vulpin fighting tooth and nail to live, running into what would and will continue to be the apex predator vulpimancers reacting in fear to their initial 'foreigners in our territory' related hostilities. It was a reluctant few vulpimancers who saw the fear of the settlers and tried to, realising they both shared the same sapience (or at least an intelligence that was not well adapted to the daily stress of Vulpin), allowing their kindness to inform the tortugans of their own intelligence in turn.

However over time, evolving not only themselves but the environment around them in small yet incredibly noticeable ways, the nations of vulpimancers (particularly near the original region/s of the settler landing zones) were quick to notice and many quick to anger in reaction to the distortion of THEIR land - their COUNTRY - some even quick to forgo what kindness they had extended to the quivering death fodder. Hodgepodging together shelter from their ship scraps, warped metal and corroded rust making for an ironic newly created collection of beaten up shanty towns, the torugans (on their way to becoming the vulpinic tortugans of the modern era) were either left to fend for themselves as communities of vulpimancers dropped their support or had to rebuild again and again as some ran them out, furious at the junk obstructing their riverways, digging up their plants, and diverting the natural and long studied hunting grounds of their prey. The very rare few communities - or rather, specific individuals - leave the attempts at expansion to run it's course and to meet it's maker at the hands of the weather and wilds seeking to erase the settlers' old technology, truly predating on anything the tortugans have build up whether it be the walls of their home or the flesh beneath their skin.

Unlike the nomadic vulpimancers, the tortugans are sedentary in their housing and are densely packed into small Minitowns so to say, their population never particularly comparable to the large number of vulpimancers. Minitowns are only ever really found in countries that have notable 'places of evil' that the communities of the region avoid like the literal plague, especially areas that not a lot of wildlife disturb, which technically makes for shit city planning since it means prey species and plants aren't nearby in the area, but the tortugans would take anything to get predators off their backs even if it means they need to have their own versions of worker packs. Some Minitowns have actually consulted with a few communities about where best to place a sedentary 'camp' so to speak, which varies given the relationship a specific group or nation of vulpimancers have towards the settlers whether they'd rather hide them away near a cave system that could provide good shelter and cave-dwelling prey, or in specific colder locations where the tortugan-vulpimancer relationship is actually neutral to positive, they might suggest a Minitown to be built adjacent to a winter site to help during what might usually be a deadly chill.

Tortugans however can still be 'on the run' however if they've wondered into regions where vulpimancers hate them, but unfortunately the early settlers who have not yet adapted to the conditions of the planet are run off to die instead. This and the former paragraph would be referred to in modern times as the New Settler policy, more of a general reaction the general vulpimancer had to the tortugans rather than an official decree, but a generalised trend that can all be connected under a retroactive title.

With a somewhat stable environment, the remaining survivors and the descendants of the settlers would have adapted and become the vulpinic tortugans, now able to sustain themselves and not be as entirely reliant on their historical Minitowns; they still aren't an apex predator by any means, nor too far removed from being a prey species, but their poison spines and defense curl allows them not to be completely food. Due to the inherent limitations of even the recommended locations of Minitowns, a fair many tortugans become nomadic out of necessity, the growing number of mouth unable to be filled with the lack of resources. Tortugan and vulpimancer relations are still heavily varied between regions, but with the new nomadic tortugan groups - tending towards groups of friends or small families - there may yet be more opportunity for the two species to bond in the best case scenario. In a neutral but positive case, some countries that had been very hostile to the tortugans may view the up-and-coming nomads to not be as much of a threat to their land and allow them transit, though nothing more and in the most untrusting of cases they'll be escorted to the next border with haste or even only allowing passage if the path to an adjacent nation is otherwise hard to cross over.

Throughout their entire time trying to survive Vulpin, the tortugans previously didn't have enough time to consider anything as formal as politics. With their physical adaptations, now they can enter the world of more unspoken politics that the vulpimancers were already scent deep into, splitting into the primary two demographics of settler and nomad tortugans. Settler tortugans typically stay within the country, even if some may have nomadic tendencies to travel between known Minitowns of the region, often having a specialised class of the worker pack to rely on food and materials; they still cling onto every scrap that their ancestor came with, though they have long forgotten a lot of what they specifically meant to them. Nomadic tortugans can but often don't travel exclusively within their country - a contrast to their neighbouring communities - needing to avoid countries that actively hate them and only occasionally daring to step within countries that tolerate them at BEST but would rather not have to interact with them; they often sympathise with the original vulpimancer communities affected by their coloniser ancestors, those who ultimately failed in their goal regardless, travelling around the world that they know would have had attempts made to terraform it into something unrecognisable should the colonists have had 'better' circumstances to do so.

It was sometime in the modern era that Vulpin began to become an intergalactic dumping ground fueled by the tortugan colonies, or rather the United Tortugan Market - a trade colony built up of several planets within the same system, except for Vulpin - who are filling up with excess waste, recalled that one of their ancestral colony ships failed to produce any results on Vuplin and thus considered it the trash they they dumped onto it. Ignorant not only because the settlers failed to report back about a sapient species, they also wholeheartedly believe that the passengers sent to the planet on that initial voyage died before they could populate, they emptied out their waste bins and tossed them down onto the planet at ranges that would not allow corrosion to interfere with their ships flight. And now, where both the vulpimancer communities - disgruntled about repeated history - and the newly adapted vulpinic tortugans - newly afraid to taste their own ancestors' medicine - have to deal with their lands and homes being ruined and overrun by scraps and busted machines, the UTM begins selling a service to local customers for their new planet sized dump, dubbing it Vulpin: the Market Junkyard.

With the intergalactic trash piling up, destroying the ecosystem, damaging ancient lands and displacing many communities and even whole fucking countries of vulpimancers, new political ideologies start to form. There are the 'fuck aliens' crowds who - despite reluctance - allow for vulpimancer refugees of neighbouring countries, beginning to revert to (or worsing their already bad relationship to the tortugans) xenophobia towards both settler tortugans and nomadic tortugans, some countries turning to the ones cohabiting with them to 'go back to where [they] came from' and leave their planet alone. Others have put their foot down and - essentially - form the political ideology of 'learn to fucking cope' where communities specifically refuse to share their unmarred land to even their fellow countrymancers, splitting off into the 'okay LET'S fucking cope' ideology where the otherwise displaced community in reaction would essentially sever that community's nomadic path from the rest of the country by actively posturing against any movement into what is now deemed their own new country.

The last two ideologies, loosely titled 'maybe we need help' and 'there's too much shit to ignore', mirror the initial settler/nomad tortugan political split that spawned initially from vulpimancer influence. The first ideology works in stark contrast to the 'fuck aliens' ideology where displaced communities find refugee within tortugan settlements, between small families making homes in Minitowns or whole communities and even countries depending helping tortugans with Junkyard Cities - cities that are still only technically about the equivalent for maybe suburbs at most, Vulpin countries aren't particularly large but they are numerous - making use of the intergalactic trash to build homes and (unfortunately) having a steady supply able to repair and maintain them; it is however more common to have Minitowns with a partial nomadic life, even if it's only for the purpose of resources which still stem from their initial hurdles in town construction. The 'too much shit to ignore' ideology mirrors the international tortugan nomads where an entire country's worth of land is filled with rubbish that not even the native wildlife can make use of it's resources buried beneath the scrap, making the region an undeniable dead zone that may bring many species into extinction, if not simply endanger them; international travel would probably only be for family sized groups, probably only families given that, and only if they have experienced enough worker pack members.

Vulpinic tortugans, in contrast to the disgusted and resentful opinions that the vulpimancers hold for the trash piles, generally speaking simultaneously view the growing junkyards as horrendous yet rife with opportunity as the lands they were forced to call home fill with materials they can use to build their homes and potentially enter the stars their ancestors had dreams of one day returning to. Nomadic tortugans are revolted as though this may not have been the terraforming they feared their ancestors could have fallen into doing, they are still affecting the planet as if they were dominating the land with technology and greed, and settler tortugans specifically in areas not yet prone to junkfall do not much benefit from the opportunity they'd provide in order for their opinion to differ from the nomads, unless their worker packs reach further into the the junkyards for 'treasures'. As mentioned in the afforementioned 'we need help' vulpimancer ideology, settler tortugans in junkfall regions would gather around junkyards and build cities from the scraps, using the fact that the wildlife would steer clear of the cluttered regions as a deterrent to the risks of expansion to make larger settlements than they could have otherwise on an untainted Vulpin, especially with the wealth of materials able to maintain the structures of the city. But even the Junkyard Cities require an ample source of food and other resources not found in the trash, so overrun countries and the deep centre of the junkyards forming around the planet cannot support a city of needy people, displaced or otherwise, and thus even the settler tortugans of Junkyard Nations must leave to find greener-but-not-literally pastures; depending on the population of the displaced settler town, they may resettle at the edge of the junkyard to create a city, move even further away to recreate a Minitown just for them, or even become nomads and set a course away from their ruined homes.

With all these broadstroke political ideologies, there is the fundamental truth that within these junkyards houses 'useless garbage' from societies with much higher tech levels sitting in scraps of themselves, the levels ranging from interplanetary to even intergalactic levels of technology that may be broken to the point of being garbage, but their structure still exists and the stray opportunist to take the time to reverse engineer the scraps can do so with lots of trial and error. The tortugans have to learn by this exact trial and error having long forgotten the sciences their ancestors used to strand themselves on Vulpin, and ever watchful the vulpimancers (especially those displaced, especially those cohabiting with the tortugans) keep an open ear (gill?) to the goings on in the junkyards, enough so that a handful of individuals take the same route as their junkyard neighbours to trial and error their own tech.

Leaving a planet and it's inhabitants to rot under the piles of trash and metal you litter it with leaves for bitter peoples who scrap themselves their own frankensteinian machines of your and all your customers' technologies, influencing a rising tide of Vulpin spacefarers that offer no fealty or kindness to the United Tortugan Market your own peoples find respect in. Junker Pirates, you call them, rising from the pitch black of the corrosive atmosphere you first lost a colony fleet to, and how interesting. The settlers DID survive. And they've made pets- or so the tortugans and the rest of the intergalactic community believe.

Pirates are treated like pirates, of course; arrested like the criminals they are. Unfortunately this is one of the first instances of not recognising vulpimancers for the sapient beings that they are, where the vulpinic tortugans - revealed to be the closest cousin species hereditarily to the arburian pelarota, and thus obviously capable of sapience even if 'more feral' 'more savage' 'more undeveloped' - are sentenced to whatever punishment suits the declaration that they are indeed guilty of piracy, the vulpimancer crew on the other hand are treated like trained dogs and sent into the null void where a large population begins to form and a new brand of hostility begins to brew. Given that the vulpimancers with tortugan crew have to actually tolerate the tortugan enough to be isolated on a ship with them, the null void pirates do not generally resent the vulpinic tortugans of the crew, rather they may despise specifically the tortugan cousins or even the UTM, if they do not generalise and grow to hate everyone not from Vulpin. If the tortugan pirate are sent back to their planet - deported so to speak to Vulpin - and carry back the news that the vulpimancer members of their crew were sent to the null void without due processing, new hostilities spark on homeground. Communities that grow to despise the pirates for giving Vulpin and it's newly discovered people an even worse reputation that it already has, those that once again circle back into hating the tortugans - now their reasoning being that they 'keep getting away' from karma and still hurting their vulpimancer kin - and then there are those that grow to hate the intergalactive governments for stealing their family away and locking them between the folds of the dimensions. The pirates are still going to pirate, regardless of if they are breaking their terms by leaving the planet again, and those who have lost crew to the null void seek to find (and steal if necessary) null void technology and in a worst-case scenario memorise the construction of the projectors so they may smuggle back those illegitimately 'processed' back on Vulpin.

Other pirates that are either set free or are bound to fulfill the conditions of community service (which if word ever got back to Vulpin, the returning pirates being the key here, those that resent the intergalactic governments would resent the community service in turn) more often than not find themselves in the long term not returning to Vulpin. The pirate whom were set free may return full force into piracy once again, though this time without their vulpimancer crew - at least those that do not follow through with finding null void tech - and may begin to accrue members of other species into their Junker Ship, if they were open to such ideas. Those that were given community service may learn more about the intergalactic governments and try to find a way to fix their perceptions of vulpinic tortugans, vulpimancers, and Vulpin in it's entirety by eventually settling somewhere where they can begin getting into the far more structured and far more... loophole ridden poiltics of written law and relations. Those in the political field will begin to realise that Vulpin is legally speaking a part of the United Tortugan Market, that it's official name in the colony is Vulpin: the Market Junkyard, and that very distinctly is NOT UNDER THE 'OWNERSHIP' VULPIN'S OWN PEOPLES. The ex-pirates that happen to return home, learning a little of the politics if they are not politicians themselves, spread the news back home inciting others (including the very fucking understandably furious vulpimancers) to potentially engage in interplanetary and intergalactic politics of their own, especially vulpimancers who are tired of others - which includes the vulpinic tortugans who have been the most vocal not necessarily by choice, mind - speaking over them.

The introduction of interplanetary and intergalactic communications, even if it is limited to visitations as the environment in Vulpin (especially with Junkfalls now present as an element worry about) makes setting up a communications array for the height required to transmit and receive signals rather difficult on a good day, let alone a day shared with very... opinionated communities, has allowed for the ability to access foreign language and common symbols that can help with interspecies relations. Or hinder them, if you teach a very well used universal 'fuck you' sign to a very understandably pissed vulpimancer forced to be treated like an animal deaf to all the words being spoken around them. The access to language also helps form the first technologies allowing for Vulpin languages to be added to translators. However, with a lot of the languages in the intergalactic community having their own writing system (with Vulpin languages not needing a writing system for the longest time), the previously unwritten Vulpin languages are given one by the vulpinic tortugans who use a carved variety of and Old Tortugan writing system and transliterate many of the sounds, especially vulpimancer languages as unlike Vulpin tortugan languages, the sounds did not already have close equivalents. Writing it planetside is often done with sheets of metal rather than wasting plant material, but intergalactically with sighted individuals it is written on the average data screen.

With it's basis in Old Tortugan, modern tortugan languages with the same root language such as Arburian languages, not only can tortugans begin to read Vulpin languages, but anyone who has knowledge on tortugan languages can engage with Vulpin languages more thoroughly than they were able to previously. Which considering they considered the vulpinic tortugans as the 'most' sapient of the Vulpin species despite them both speaking in what essentially amounts to growls and yamper, is quite significant of a development, even as it is functionally once again removing the voice of vulpimancers in favour of the tortugan voice. Sometimes vulpimancer politicians are willing to let that slide in favour of being understood, walking around with tortugan liasons who have the mouth structure in other to reciprocate more common intergalactic languages. Other vulpimancer politicians refuse to rely on their fellow Vulpin national to speak for them and instead insist on using some newly created translators fitted with their relevant Vulpinic language pack, speaking for themselves with a voice technically not theirs but one that they can assuredly say voices their own personal experiences.

On Vulpin, there is a growing community of junkers, a variety of members not exactly connected like the communities of vulpimancers and their own ideologies made up of tortugans and vulpimancers (often called weirdos mostly because of their more nontraditional tortugan-like behaviour and interests), who spend most of their time in the junkyards scrapping together all the tech tossed homeward bound into their lands to develop distinctly Vulpinic technology. Unlike the pirates - which if questioned, they'll say they 'heeded the warnings' from the pirates and elect not to fall into the same trap - Junkers often remain on ground zero and don't actively seek out revenge, not like they are suddenly so much kinder than the Junker Pirates, but rather they use their pretty fucking justified anger to fuel their projects and scavenger hunts; it's also not like they're push overs with hearts of gold either, especially since some a working on building pretty powerful machines that could be considered weapons, they WILL defend themselves and they have quite a bit of faith in their abilities. And remaining on the planet is quite the majority of the vulpimancer communities, and not just the xenophobic ones, as they have unlike the politically motivated interplanetary travelers they choose to remain in their home territories (or as close as they can if they are one of the displaced communities). They are the communities and countries that try to maintain the general political interactions between each other that had been present for a long time within their evolutionary history, which does mean they do not explicitly care about the interplanetary affairs beyond hoping that the Vulpin politicians can get them to stop using the planet as a dumping ground. They - unless otherwise stated in their individual political ideologies - do not care to pay much attention to the weirdo vulpimancers and the alien tortugan who are a very clear example of how no other alien is likely to decide to live on Vulpin willingly ever.

One of the first interplanetary organisations that Vulpin and it's peoples were introduced to were the Plumbers, and given that their first interaction was with the Junker Pirates and their very severe sentences, Vulpin and Vulpin officials stationed even in government bodies are rather typically ACAB (or I suppose APAB, All Plumbers are Bastards), and many of the politicians are moving to get legally defined rights not just for the recently reintroduced vulpinic tortugans but also the very hard to fight for, very tooth and nail political clambering, establishment of rights for vulpimancers as well. Regardless of how well the pirates are breaking out the members of their crew from the null void, getting the official rights to trial and thus the ability to call the illegitimate processing of vulpimancer pirates as a violation of a vulpimancer's sapient rights and thus hopeful (doubtfully) garner some consequences for the hasty arrest of the early pirates. Politicians were also attempting to get the rights for Vulpin into the legal 'ownership' of the people of Vulpin, specifically recognising the vulpimancers as the original custodians of the land and respecting the national land of the vulpinic totugans that have evolved to live on Vulpin, but in order to do so they would need to actively find the current root owner of Vulpin within the United Tortugan Market. As much as the pirates and all those resentful of the intergalactic governments and the UTM would have liked to tear at the throats of the trade colony, the Vulpin representatives are in a tentative situation trying to prove not only the species' sapience, securing the rights in which that is allotted with, but also that the peoples are of... sound sociability in order to gain any semblance of recognition of being even a national people.

It is with the arrival of the tick on Arburia that presented an... ample opportunity to try and... convince the United Tortugan Market of that 'sound sociability' and potentially... a bargaining chip to their own planet's ownership. As much as the potential of damning an entire planet to suffer in ways similar to how they have suffered was very appealing, it would have been significantly detrimental to the work the politicians and the future of Vulpin against the tide of Junkfalls if they left the innocents of Arburia to die or to in fact use them as hostages to outweigh the biases to give them their legal ownership. Instead, at the begging of Vulpin representatives - with the help of the onboard communications of Junker Ships and the pirates that drove them - the members and species of Vulpin gambled on kindness and sought to rescue and save the arburian pelarota and their families like the early vulpimancers once did with the early tortugan settlers, ships lined full of fleeing families even as the government heads of the UTM began to panic upon seeing the pirate ships, especially when infamous crews and ships began to be sighted. Arburian pelarota's, being exposed in their time of need to the act of kindness from both vulpinic tortugans (which they believed to be more violent cousins) AND vulpimancers (where they had been wrongly informed where simple trained animals) had allowed them to understand their mutual sapience, regardless of the roughened and angry exterior of the peoples of Vulpin in addition to their nature as pirates. Fully willing to deliver the inhabitants of Arburia (which, they were not the only ship fleet, but they were the ones willing to keep searching even as the planet was in it's death marches) onto solid ground within the UTM colonies, they seek to enter the atmosphere of any of the requested planets. Hesitantly, not willing to let pirates into their planets, it was at the behest of their Aburian inhabitants that they allow the Junker Ships entry. It is with the evacuation of Arburia that Vulpin gained it's first ally.

It does not mean they suddenly have all the goals they have set out to do, but it means there is someone who is not themselves who have a ball in their court.