#i was gonna try for a centaur thing here but was having trouble with that. you get two legs

[mantischrysalis]

also karen horseylegs

[eschergirls]

December 2024 Caption Contest Winners!

It's been 2 weeks so it's time to pick the winners for the December holiday caption contest!

I got a lot of submissions this month and they were all really good, so I had a lot of trouble choosing. However, I managed to pick which I think are the winners! This month I'll pick 3 winners and 3 honorable mentions.

Each winner will get to choose a prize if they wish (but you don't have to, you can just participate for fun too.) The prizes are extra Steam codes that I've acquired. If you won and want a prize, please contact me. Also, as mentioned at the start of the contest, I've also added SuchArt as a potential prize if you won and would like that. :3

Honorable mentions can get a prize if any of the winners decline (I will contact you if that happens, you'll be picked randomly.)

So here are the entries, organized by the platform they were submitted on:

Fedi/Mastodon:

waitworry: "hey check out this toe!" yassie_j: Where the hell is the rest of that body, oh my god

Disqus:

Alan D: Fired from the Nativity play for being the wrong kind of ass. "Anybody know this bum?" Demma10: "I've found Avengelyne's legs. Now to go find the rest of her." GreenLuthor: She's got legs... but I don't think anyone knows how to use them. Imry: "Sorry about the concussion, but trust me, you'll thank me later. Those people were NOT your friends -- if they were, they wouldn't be trying to get you to play League of Legends." P J Evans: "Which one of you ordered these legs?" wipdottxt: "I've got one scantily-clad woman already, there's just 2 more left to go!"

Tumblr:

awlwren: "Hurry up! I need someone to open the trunk so I can put the props in, and I think your ventriloquism dummy is crushing my costume!" chameleonsynthesis: "Hey, the store was sold out of whole turkeys so I hope everyone is fine with just legs." chaoscheebs: "Ugh, I knew this part-time job helping Santa was going to be a pain.  I'm gonna have to take it up with Odin after I deliver the last set of hyperrealistic lap pillows..." dsknsk: "Sigh...being appointed Santa and having no time to put anything decent on is ONE thing, but to think anyone actually put this pair of disembodied legs on their wishlist is another! I'm going to look for someone else to do this, because I'm out!" fyrenwater: "I hung sexy stockings on the fireplace and all I got from Santa were these sexy disembodied legs." harukami: "Detached legs! I got detached legs for sale! Any would-be centaur girls in need of some detached legs?" haveievermentioned: "Whelp. Someone wants to make steamed hams" hsavinien: "Newly-harvested buttnana limbs! Get 'em while they're fresh!" magista-manyshaped: "Disconnected body parts delivery. Who ordered the spare ass?" milkawa-and-co: "Stay positive ! I have lost only half my clothes and you, just your torso ! It's better than the disaster at the last New Year's party !" paternalnerd: Santa had better give me that new spine and a digestive tract after I'm done delivering all these real dolls for him silveraptor (via email): In the tune of Jingle Bells: “Checked into the hotel, In full Viking cosplay. The traffic sure was hell, But I think I found a date! She’s way into the brand,  Got her and my axe in hand. This seems to me like a lot of grief for an all-girls one night stand! Oh! Escher Girls, Escher Girls What a wild ride! Bending chicks like twizzlers taking butts-n’-boobs in stride! Oh! Escher Girls, Escher Girls I feel like we’ve been screwed! Like Vicky’s Secret it’s all because there’s too many horny dudes!” spider-honey: "I told you NOT to get white-girl wasted before the con rave! You do this every year!" therealityhelix: "Where do you want the lower half of this mannequin?" twilight-owl: "Delivery!  I got your set of disembodied legs here, where do you want them?" varaeya: I NEED to win this Escher Girls Triple Crown to afford my back surgery! No one will know that I cheated! zombiemollusk: "what? the pirates wanted booty for christmas, so that's what i got."

The honorable mentions go to: Imry, waitworry, zombiemollusk

The runner-ups are: 

In third place: @silveraptor with the extremely creative Jingle Bells riff!

In second place: @fyrenwater: "I hung sexy stockings on the fireplace and all I got from Santa were these sexy disembodied legs."

And the winner is... @chameleonsynthesis: "Hey, the store was sold out of whole turkeys so I hope everyone is fine with just legs."

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you so much to everybody who participated!

This caption contest was great and I really enjoyed reading all the captions! They brought a smile to my face at a time when I really needed it.

I hope everybody is having a great holiday season and will have a great Christmas (if you celebrate) and a very happy new year! 

Stay tuned in January for another caption contest! (possibly winter themed)

If you won and would like a Steam code as a prize, please message me with which prize you would like.  If you came in 2nd, message me with 2 choices in order of preference...  I'll give you your top choice that hadn't been taken by the other winners. (To clarify, every winner only gets 1 prize, but winners other than the one in first place should give me their list of games in order of preference so if one is taken, I'll give you the next on the list.  It makes it easier for me to hand out the prizes.)

If the winner or the runner ups don't claim a prize, then I will pick from the honorable mentions randomly to claim a prize if they want one.

The Steam codes I have available as prizes are for: Aragami, Garden In!, GoNNER, Hotel Giant 2, I Am Fish, Ittle Dew 2+, Peachleaf Pirates, Riot: Civil Unrest, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Shortest Trip To Earth, Such Art: Genius Artist Simulator, Survivalist, Tunche, and Uncertain: Light At The End.

[mandareeboo]

You asked for drabbles, and lo and b3hold I do have a few. If you decide to keep asking, I'll send more sporadically if that's okay.

The Centaurs ask Horse what her equipment is and is for. Horse has trouble explaining that it's to accomdate and carry Rider, since the Centaurs don't know what a "Rider" is. They offer to take it off of her, but she isn't ready for that yet. Instead, they offer to take turns carrying it, so Horse doesn't get too tired.

"Rider and I... we're like one of you guys," Horse explained, watching out of the corner of her eye as Glendale bent her hooves to drink from a river. "When we're together, we're like a centaur. This stuff is to help her stay on me."

"So, you, like, piggyback them?" Zulius' eyebrows shot up. "That's a lot of work to try and replicate art. I kinda respect it."

"I run faster than Rider. It's just logical. And, besides- I like being able to keep my eye on her." She shook her head, reins jangling. "Though, I guess that didn't really work this time, huh."

Ched rapped a feathered fist on her chestplate. "Gonna be real, I just assumed these were, like, weird scales. To go with your weird face."

"They come off.... when Rider wants them too." Horse shrugged sheepishly. "Still don't have those opposable thumb dohickeys you all seem so fond of."

Glendale stood up with a jerk, accidentally splashing water her way. "Oh, I could keep those in my tummy for you! I get to hold onto things not my own and feed the gaping portal hole in me, you lose those you hold dear, it's a win-win."

Horse's ears flattened as she turned instinctively. "Absolutely not. Rider's going to need these when I get back to her!"

A soft pink hand on the back of her neck had her stiffening, but Wammawink didn't force the issue, gently patting her. "I'm sure your Rider person will understand if you want to take them off here and there. She wouldn't want your fur to get all matted, would she?"

"I... guess not. She always hatred it when I got rashes because we rode for too long."

She hooked her index finger under the side of her rein. "Let mama Wama carry the burden for a bit, huh?"

"Only if you promise to never call yourself that again."

"No promises," she sing-songed, and Horse rolled her eyes but bowed her head willingly.

Horse hadn't rode with a bit in a very long time now, but it was instinctive to smack her lips as the rein left her face, testing the sides of her mouth. Wammawink carefully wound the fabric around her arm and left it there, almost like a makeshift bracelet.

"Alright," she said. "Chest scales next."

"Ooh, ooh, can I wear them?" Durpleton raised both hands and made grabbing gestures. "I want weird chest scales!"

Horse looked at him, then his broad shoulders. "I don't really think physics is on your side there buddy, but go ahead. It's basically impossible to break these things." She moved to the side and gestured to a latch with her hoof. The plates unhooked and shifted outwards to make it easier to pull over her head. "It's heavy at first, but once you get used to it you'll never wanna take it off, promise."

A hand on her stomach made her jump, but Julius happily continued to unbuckle the saddle. "Gimme. I bet this will make my butt look even better."

"Guess that leaves the back scales for me," Ched hummed. The idea was undoubtedly daunting for the centaur bird, but he puffed his chest out. "Lay it on me, long-nose."

Glendale raised her hand. "Oooor I could wear it. On my body. Not in my portal tummy. Unfortunately."

"Oh thank glitter," Ched said. "Yes, please."

"You- you realize that's part of my saddle, right?" she asked. "I mean you could probably pry it off if you had to, but it's not supposed to seperate."

Zulius held the item up, scoffed, and tossed it to Glendale. "Oh, gross, nevermind."

The gentlest of breezes buffeted Horse's spine, and some instincts just couldn't be ignored. She hit the ground with a resounding thud, rolling and flailing her hooves in the air. Itches aplenty seemed to appear all at once, quickly vanquished with wiggles and whinnies of enjoyment.

"That's the stuff," she sighed, eyes fluttering closed with a smile. "Maybe Rider won't mind too much after all."

Wammawink ran her fingers over the worn leather and hummed. "I'm sure she'll understand."

[kieraelieson]

Centaur AU 8

When Thomas woke up, rather slowly, feeling itchy and groggy and much in need of a shower, it was to soft voices and little clops of moving hooves.

“And where is the rest of the food?”

“That’s all there is out here. Mostly we tend to eat the pre-made stuff.”

“I’ll have to put it on the list too then.”

Thomas opened his eyes, registering that Patton and Emile were talking.

Patton sighed. “It’s just… strange. I worry that with all of the new nice things that once Thomas leaves it’ll be so miserable and I don’t know how I’ll be able to handle it.”

“Thomas won’t be leaving. Or if he does, we’ll be taking you with us.” Emile promised.

Thomas nodded slightly, staying silent.

Patton moved, peeking over the shorter wall that separated his stall from the one Thomas was using as a bed, met Thomas’s eyes, and jumped back with a sound rather like a loud squeak.

“Oh, dear! I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were awake.”

Thomas sat up. “No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s alright,” Emile said. “Little mishaps happen, you both are fine.”

Thomas stood up and stretched, gratefully noting that Emile was making breakfast for everyone. Between yesterday and now already this morning, he could tell he was going to greatly appreciate Emile. He was going to have to find some way to pay Emile back somehow.

He opened the stall, seeing Roman and Remy blinking and drowsy, and Virgil very much awake.

“Let me see what we have going for today,” he said, mostly to himself, as he walked over to the schedule on the wall. “Oh, Emile, thanks for making breakfast.”

“You’re welcome.” Emile said. “Though, as you may have heard, we are woefully short on ingredients.”

Thomas nodded.

“What about coffee?” Remy asked. “Please tell me they have coffee here.”

“Not yet.”

Remy let out a long groan and flopped onto the floor dramatically.

Thomas couldn’t help a little smile. He looked at the schedule, trying to parse out the rather terrible handwriting. He should get a new one and fill it out himself. His handwriting might not be that much better, but he could read it himself more easily, and he wouldn’t have to try and translate names with a tired brain.

Patton had a party at five, though it didn’t say when it ended. And Logan had one of those charity things, which he would certainly not be doing. Thomas considered a long moment, and then started looking for a phone number. He was probably the one that had to call and cancel things like that.

He finally found a whole list of phone numbers on the back of the calendar, and managed to get the right one, and tell them that Logan wouldn’t be able to participate in anything for at least six months, or however long the vet said after follow-up visits.

They weren’t very happy about it. But in this, Thomas wouldn’t take no for an answer, and if they were going to talk to the Authiers’ lawyer, well, hopefully the lawyer knew what to do. Because Logan wasn’t going back to a single one of those contests, legal or otherwise, until he was both healed and wanted to.

He turned back around to see worried faces, and wished that the phone wasn’t corded so that he could have taken it outside and not worried them all.

“It’s alright, I just canceled all of Logan’s events for the next few months. He’ll be fine to rest up and get well now.”

“Well that’s good,” Roman said.

Virgil and Patton nodded solemnly.

Thomas yawned and considered. What should he do next? It took a moment to come to his fuzzy brain, but he realized that he should come up with something for them all to do all morning, rather than just standing around. He felt slightly bad about having the paddock be his go-to, but it was worlds better than being cooped up in a stall, and he didn’t really know enough to give them somewhere else to… perhaps that’s what they could do. Explore the estate as a group and find all the places where they could go, and figure out what there was to do.

He had to have Patton back, clean and ready, by five then, and he needed to do something to set up Logan first, but that seemed like a very good plan. Also, considering clean and ready, they would all need a good brushing down at some point. Perhaps he ought to aim at getting back by three then, and asking Remy and Emile for help setting up a kind of grooming circle.

But he had a plan! And one that, barring unforeseen troubles, seemed like a good one. It wasn’t too ambitious, and it might even go well.

But first breakfast. Which… he didn’t really have. And he felt absolutely terrible to say it, but he didn’t want to try the centaurs’ food. He’d always kind of guessed they didn’t mind that weird grassy smell, cause they ate grass anyway. That was a thing he needed to ask about.

“Well, if they have a bunk room, they might have something like a cafeteria here, I’m going to see if I can find it and get some breakfast. If there’s coffee, I’ll bring you back a cup, Remy. Also, I might need your phone, and I’ll expect someone to call me if Logan wakes up.”

Remy, still splayed out on the floor in a rather uncomfortable-looking position, nodded and floundered, trying to reach his bag without getting up. He was unsuccessful, much to the amusement of everyone watching. He made sure to pout at each and every one of them once he got his bag and his phone.

“You know someday it won’t be little funny smiles!” he threatened, turning away from them all.

“Thank you, Remy,” Thomas said seriously. “I’ll be sure to get you coffee.”

Remy grumbled out something that might have been a thank you, or perhaps something else.

And then Thomas went for a walk, running his hands through his hair and swiping at his clothes to hopefully make himself look less like he’d been sleeping in a pile of hay. He vaguely knew that the bunkhouse was somewhere roughly straight from one wall of the stable, though he wasn’t certain how far it would be. And he just hoped someone would still be in the bunkhouse that he could ask.

Perhaps he should have asked one of the centaurs to come with him. It would be faster, and another set of hands in case he had to bring back several things. But he didn’t want to stop them from eating or having a bit of time to themselves. They certainly could use all the good things he could possibly get them.

He walked a good way before seeing the building, and jogging towards it. He was lucky enough to reach it right as someone else was walking out.

“Oh! Uh, excuse me, can I…” He had to pause a moment to breathe, but managed to continue. “I’m looking for a… cafeteria?”

“Yeah, it’s over this way, but breakfast ends at nine, you should hurry.” They pointed to a different nearby building, with its doors standing open.

Thomas nodded quickly. “Thank you!”

He ran into the cafeteria, grateful to see that the line was only a few people long. There was prepared eggs, sausage, bacon, something that looked like oatmeal perhaps, and toast. Thomas piled up his plate and then looked until he found the coffee. He served himself a cup of coffee and found some to-go cups, filling one up with coffee as close to the way he knew Remy liked it.

He felt rather overwhelmed by hurrying, especially as he glanced at a clock on the wall and saw that, if nine truly was the cut off, he only had ten minutes to eat. But despite his hurry, he had a fleeting question float through his mind. Would any of the other centaurs want coffee?

He should find a way to get decent food to them. Or bring them here. They may indeed like grass and hay and food made from it, but they also liked normal food, and should have it as a regular option.

He just didn’t know how. Yet.

He was working on it. And that would have to be enough for the moment.

Thomas tried to relax a little and eat, but he couldn’t help worrying that something bad would happen while he was gone.

Soon he was getting up and going back towards the stables, hoping that everything was fine, that they’d had a nice breakfast and Logan was still peacefully sleeping, but worrying that it wouldn’t be the case.

When he opened the door though, they all seemed perfectly fine. Logan was even still asleep. He really needed to trust them a bit more.

“Hi, guys,” he said, feeling more than a little awkward, all out of breath from having hurried back when nothing was wrong.

“Did you get my coffee?” Remy asked eagerly.

Thomas nodded. “ Yeah, I did, here. It’s not hot anymore, but it’s still a bit warm.”

Remy made a weird face, somewhere between grateful and still a bit displeased at the luke-warm coffee.

Thomas agreed with him, honestly. It wasn’t even close to ideal. And surely there was something better they could do. “I wanted to talk with you all.”

Virgil seemed concerned, but the rest of them watched him curiously.

“About what?” Patton asked.

“Well… this isn’t working out the best…”

On seeing the look on Virgil’s face, Thomas quickly backtracked. “Not like I’m giving up! Not at all. More like, I’m gonna need some help to know how to actually move forward. I’ve been doing my best, but it’s not exactly worked out well.”

“Ok…” Roman said slowly. “I think we can agree that things haven’t exactly gone the best, but… it’s not like we can help with much.”

Thomas nodded. “I know it feels that way, it does to me too, but there has to be something we can do. For starters, there’s the cafeteria. It exists, and I know that now, but do you guys want to go there? If you do, I’m sure I can come up with a way to make them let us in. It’s big enough. Or perhaps we could have them set out tables outside for you all. But I need to know that it’s what you want too. If you don’t care, or would rather stay here, we can work that out too.”

There was some shuffling back and forth, and several pairs of eyes staring at the ground.

“Well, I for one want hot coffee. Count me in.” Remy said firmly. “And I bet Emmy wants to come get some real food too.”

Emile nodded. “Yes, I’d prefer more of a variety of food than what is here.”

Thomas looked at Roman in particular next, hoping he would have more firm opinions.

Roman sighed, a rather pinched look on his face. “I like the idea of better food, but I’m not sure if I want to deal with all the other workers to get it.”

Patton nodded immediately. “We’d have to be quiet, and they would say rude things, and it would be pretty miserable even with the good food.”

Virgil nodded silently, clearly agreeing with Patton.

“Alright then,” Thomas said. “Well, what if I were to call the Authiers and see about officially changing what you’re all fed? If I insisted, I’m sure there’s a possibility of getting food sent here. We’d perhaps have to deal with the courier, but that would be less trouble.”

“If it’s at all possible, which is not certain,” Logan said.

Thomas went immediately to his stall to check on him. “Are you feeling ok? Would you want more painkillers? You haven’t eaten yet, right?”

Logan gave him an odd look. Of all of them, Thomas had the hardest time decoding what Logan’s looks were supposed to mean.

“Yes. Painkillers would be nice, and I haven’t eaten yet.”

Thomas nodded quickly, shooting Emile a glance. Emile was ahead of him already, getting a plate of food for Logan. Thomas went and made the same kind of slurry with the medicine that Logan had asked for the other time, putting some drink mix into the water so it wouldn’t taste as bad.

Once he got back, Virgil was already in Logan’s stall, trying to help him sit up without jostling his legs. Emile handed the plate in and then backed up so Thomas could get in with the medicine.

“Here you go, and I’ll go get some clean bandages to wrap your legs up in.”

Logan nodded stiffly and then downed the medicine with a slight grimace.

Thomas grabbed a few rolls of bandages and went in, extremely concerned to see Logan looking spacey already.

He knelt down next to Logan’s shoulder, laying his hand on his gently and rubbing very small circles. “Hey, there, Logan, are you with me?”

Logan looked at him silently, his face concerningly blank.

“I’m a bit concerned, ok? Can you stay here with me? I’d like to know I’m not hurting you, so I’ll need you to talk with me, ok?”

Logan let out a sigh. “I won’t be hurt by the changing of bandages.”

“Well, I certainly hope not, but just in case, can you try and stay present with me? And with Virgil?”

Logan looked up at Virgil, who was much more obviously concerned than even Thomas was. He slowly nodded.

“Alright. Here’s what I’m going to do, I’m going to run my hand down your leg to the end of the bandage and start unwinding it. Can you stay focused on Virgil for me? Tell me things about him, what colors can you see in his eyes?”

Logan frowned slightly, which was a good thing to Thomas. “What do you need to know the color of his eyes for?”

“To help you pay attention,” Virgil said softly. “You help me pay attention to safe things around me sometimes, this is like that.”

“Yes, exactly.” Thomas said, slowly and lightly running his hand down Logan’s leg. “Alright, I’m going to unwind this now. What colors can you see?”

Logan was looking far more attentive and present, staring up into Virgil’s face. “Mostly black. A very dark brown. Something that might appear green, except for the darkness of his eyes in general, which makes it look like a dark gray.”

Thomas very gently started unwinding the bandage. “That’s very good. What about his hair?”

“Most would classify the color as black. But when seen in the light there aren’t the cool undertones usually present in a pure black. I would classify it as a very dark brown.”

“That’s a very thoughtful way of saying it,” Thomas said. “My hand is going to move over to your other front leg, and then run down to unwind then bandage the same way.”

Logan nodded.

As Thomas moved to unwind the next bandage, he thought of another thing. “Why don’t you tell me about what you were doing in the paddock the other day? It seemed very clever. Something to keep you away from the holes without being able to see them clearly.”

Logan gave him another one of those odd looks when Thomas said the idea was clever. Thomas still wasn’t certain what it meant, but he decided to remember that, and use the word clever more often with Logan.

“It’s more of a common sense idea, but if you’re curious…” Logan trailed off, and Thomas looked up to see him looking the slightest bit bashful.

“I’m going to move to your back leg now. And yes, I am curious. It sounds like a useful thing to learn.”

Logan cleared his throat. “If you’d like to learn then, I suppose I’ll tell you.”

Virgil sent Thomas a look, a look that said he’d stumbled across a key, and that Virgil wasn’t certain how he was going to use it. Though to be honest, Thomas wasn’t sure either.

“I’m going to touch you now, and stroke down your leg to unwind the bandages,” Thomas said, careful to keep his tone light and unobtrusive, hoping Logan would continue.

“I am far-sighted, so I could see the holes at a distance, but not close to my own feet. If I could place the hole along the fence, and if I was careful to take measured steps, I could place it between the two fence posts, and I could know how many steps from the first post until I would need to step over or around it. Virgil was helping by confirming the distance. I haven’t yet mastered taking steps of perfectly regular length, so my calculations were often incorrect by a step or two.”

“Wow. -I’m moving to your other back leg now- That really is very smart, Logan. I’m impressed.”

Logan smiled slightly.

Thomas counted that as a very big win. “Alright, I’m going to go and get the ointment and then wrap your legs up. You can go ahead and eat your breakfast. And then the vet said we need to have you walking some, but slowly. I’ll be right back and then explain my plan.”

Logan nodded.

Thomas was quick, and soon got back with the ointment.

“So what is your plan?” Virgil asked.

“Well, first helping Logan,” Thomas said, kneeling again by his legs. “I’m going to go in the same order as last time, starting with this leg. And once I’m done, we’re going to very carefully help Logan up. If he’s doing well, then I’m hoping a few of you will help him walk around the outside of the stable a few times. -Alright, I’m moving to the next leg- And while you all walk around, I’m going to try and set up the iPad with a bunch of books, and see if I can make it so that Logan can get more when he wants to. That way he will have something calm and enjoyable to do while we’re gone. -I’m moving to your back legs now- And then I was thinking that some or all of the rest of you might want to come with me, and explore some of the estate, see what all there is, and where else we might like to spend time. Ok, last leg now, Logan.”

“That seems like a good plan,” Roman commented.

Thomas looked up to see Patton looking around at them all, confused. “What’s up, Pat?”

“Just… what’s an iPad? Is it like a bookshelf?”

Thomas was a bit concerned to see a few curious looks. Apparently several of them had never heard of an iPad.

“Well, I bought one… yesterday? Was it yesterday I went to the store? I think. Anyway, it’s a small rectangle, and it runs on electricity. It does a lot of things, and it’s pretty complicated, but the reason I bought it is that it can hold many many books inside it without taking up much space.”

Patton nodded slowly, still looking confused.

“Later today I’ll let you try it some too, ok?” Thomas said with a smile.

Patton nodded more confidently this time.

“And the rest of you too, I’m sure you’d all like a little bit to try it out. It’s mostly for Logan, especially while he’s healing, but everyone can try.”

Thomas stood up, looking around the stall. “Ok, Logan. Do you think you can stand up with just me and Virgil helping? Or would someone else be better? Or would you like to try by yourself?”

Logan frowned slightly in consideration. “I’d prefer just Virgil.”

Thomas nodded immediately and left the stall. “Just be gentle on yourself.”

Logan set his empty plate aside, held up a hand for Virgil to grab onto, and then heaved himself up. His face twisted in pain, and once he was standing he leaned heavily on the wall.

Thomas gave him a moment before asking, “How is it?”

“Painful. But bearable.”

Thomas nodded solemnly. “Ok. I’d like you to try walking around the stable. Take long, slow steps, don’t push it too much. If the pain changes at all, stop there and come back in to lay down.”

Logan nodded, very slowly moving to leave the stall.

Thomas left it to them all to take care of him, and tried to figure out where he’d left the iPad, and where would be a good place to plug it in.

From outside, he heard quite a few ‘be careful’s, followed by Logan saying ‘I may be injured, but I don’t want to be babied, I can walk on my own’.

Thomas smiled to himself. With Logan doing this well, if he could just keep going, he’d surely be better soon.

———

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[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

do you like the plot of the new tlsq? honestly I don't, to me torvus is too angry with mc for something we couldn't avoid imo, the acromantula attacked us, what were we supposed to do, die? maybe i missed something, i don't understand all these "it's your fault" accusations

....I've got a lot to say.

I'm watching the footage right now and honestly...it's really not a very good story at all. It feels like maybe they wanted to make a TLSQ about Torvus but more out of a sense of obligation or opportunity, as he was one of the character who didn't have one yet. Not because they had a story they wanted to tell about him. Like, we don't learn anything about Torvus or about his relationship to Jacob. I'm not saying that I'm opposed to TLSQs that act as follow-up to things that happened in the main story, but between this and the Knighthood TLSQ...it's just never executed very well. Not to mention that the whole motif of togetherness and community is soured by how mean-spirited the tone feels.

First of all, like you said, the premise is absolutely ridiculous. They repeat the idea that MC is to blame for everything, so many times that if it was a drinking game, you'd die of alcoholism. Usually having MC own up to this, regardless of player input. Which is kind of frustrating if you think about it for longer than half a second and realize that not only was none of this was MC's fault, but you'd seriously have to be confunded to think that this was a logical conclusion. The entire trajectory of how all of this happened is a bit woolly and not well defined, but to place the blame on MC's shoulders is nonsense, and as a result the entire story is systematically broken, especially concerning MC's motivation. Torvus blames them for everything, and they just...kind of go with it. Everyone does, for no apparent reason.

So opening the Forest Vault is cited as the reason for why all of this started. Considering how much they try to push a theme of interconnection and the bonds of nature, I could believe that the Vault would have unforeseen effects on the ecosystem. Hey, we still don't get how the Vaults work, so that would be fair enough...Except apparently what it all came down to was MC's duel with the Acromantula. That's what caused a chain reaction of events that...er, somehow, led to the Centaurs having a water shortage. But the Acromantula was responsible for the trouble with the fairies and the red cap. He had nothing to do with the Troll and the Forest Lake. Did I miss something? The Acromantula had no connection to the Centaurs' problems. No, you know what ultimately caused the problem with the Troll? The sleepwalking students. They trod upon the bubotubers while under the spell. So, in other words...MC opening the Forest Vault stopped the problem from getting any worse. Not only did their actions not cause this, they actively helped. Why doesn't Torvus, or anyone for that matter, point this out?

No one seems willing to take apart the logical fallacies of Torvus' vendetta. Why is MC blamed exclusively when it was a joint effort? Charlie was there. Hagrid was there. Torvus was there! They all helped open the Vault! And he has the nerve to act like this is all on MC? It's no better than when Dumbledore gave MC a year's worth of detention and ignored the other students who came along. That's not even getting into the ludicrous idea that MC is at fault for the duel with the Acromantula. Y'know, where it was trying to kill them and their friends? And they didn't do any lasting harm to the creature at all? And it was his choice to leave his colony? Why is that our problem? The story forces MC to "prove" to Torvus that they can be trusted to solve this problem even though he demanded their presence in the first place. Does he want their help or not? It just really tests my patience. We even have to prove to the Acromantulas that we can be trusted to solve the problem. Why? That seems like such a waste of time. Why do I care if they have faith in MC?

So MC's obligation to this problem, which the quest loves to have them restate, is flat. What about the consequences if they don't fix this? Yeah, no, that's nonsense too. Not to call Torvus' bluff, but literally no one in the quest does, so I suppose I'd better. Just what does he mean by saying that MC will be "banned" from the Forbidden Forest? Does he not realize that they already are? Has he forgotten that the humans call it the "Forbidden Forest" and that students aren't allowed to go in? Clearly, MC has been disregarding that for a while, and Torvus knows it. Tell me why MC should stop visiting the Forest just because Torvus says they have to. Y'know, Care of Magical Creatures classes are sometimes taken into the Forest. What is MC supposed to do if that happens? Get a zero for the day? Why should they? I know it's Kettleburn and he's a little bit odd, but the point is that this would cause a conflict and I don't imagine the school staff would care about the Centaurs' wants in this situation.

I know the Centaurs consider the Forest to be their land, and they have a strained relationship with the humans at best, but seriously, what exactly are they going to do if MC disregards their "ban?" Short of killing MC on sight, how are they gonna enforce this? And again, I'm gonna call that bluff because Centaurs do not harm children. Culturally, it is considered extremely taboo to harm a "foal." Never mind the trouble they would get into with Dumbledore and the Ministry, not to mention R, who want MC alive. Speaking of the teachers, why does MC so freely tell Flitwick and Sprout about their plans to try and temper a troll? They shouldn't, because any reasonable teacher would react with alarm and forbid MC from doing this. Confine them to their Common Room while the staff goes to sort this out. Come to think of it, why don't Flitwick and Sprout do this? They just shrug off MC announcing their intent to visit the Forbidden Forest and tame a dangerous creature! (Deep, deep sigh.) Look Torvus, The Creatures Reserve is (probably) within the Forest, so no, Luca's not gonna stop visiting. It's one of the areas in the hub world of the game, and this quest drops at a point when MC still has to visit later on for plot reasons....so I know The Forest isn't going anywhere. This threat isn't scary, it's irritating in how blatantly empty it is.

At the end of it all, MC has to review what they learned in their path of atonement, and show Torvus how much they've grown. Get the hell out of here with that. MC and Charlie could have died a few times over, and that's on Torvus. He didn't tell MC about the troll! He knew, and didn't tell them! Because "something thing, you needed to learn a lesson, etc." No! That's not okay! I'm supposed to consider him my friend after this? Seriously, I wouldn't mind all of this so much if Torvus didn't constantly treat MC like a hated criminal, and MC didn't so humbly accept that treatment. I'm gonna need to rewrite this one a fair bit in my headcanons because Luca may be soft and an occasional pushover, but they also develop a nose for bullshit as time goes on, and this entire TLSQ is demanding MC atone for saving the school, for something they already faced punishment for with the kitchen detentions. For something that Torvus participated in, and seemed quite happy about at the time. Y'know what, I'm starting to think he's got a pretty serious entitled streak. And for better or for worse (and by that I mean, for worse) I think MC may have nurtured that streak when they first met Torvus. He blamed them for Jacob's actions, and MC did everything they could to "make it right." I think Torvus has learned from that incident that he can hold MC accountable for anything so long as he finds some six degrees of separation method of claiming it involved them.

I feel terrible for the fans of Torvus' character. Because this quest is even stupider than the Knighthood TLSQ and it makes me even angrier than the All Wizard Tournament. This one was, to put it nicely, a misfire.

[missnight0wl]

The Ketsueki brothers theory time!

All right, so this one will be based on the recent datamine. I usually don’t like to write theories using only datamine, but I have to say, I’m pretty excited about this one, and I don’t think I can wait until the chapter is released. Anyway, I’m letting you know that I will mention one possibly important piece of information, but I’ll try not to tell too much about the situation when we learn it, not to spoil too much.

Now, without further ado, let’s dive in.

In one of the future chapters, we’ll learn that Jacob was repeating the words: “Ryu, Chinese Fireball, dragon claw”. However, due to the circumstances, we can’t learn from him what it means, and so it becomes a mystery for MC to solve. Now, “Ryu” is what got me interested in particular. This is what I found:

Ryū (龍, 竜, 隆, りゅう, リュウ, Ryū) is a Japanese masculine given name and family name meaning "dragon".

And I thought… what are the odds that the Wizard in White’s real name is:

RYU KETSUEKI?

I mean, it’d totally explain why his name wasn’t revealed yet, right? But wait! I have more!

Let’s go back to Y5. In Y5Ch6, we had this scene:

Frankly, I always felt that Nick’s words here were supposed to be misleading – that Jacob was using “dragon” as a nickname or something. And I did in fact believe that it might’ve been about the WIW. The thing was that I based my speculation on his tattoo:

But to be honest, I kind of abandoned this idea. I mean, there was no follow up whatsoever, so I assumed that either the writers forgot about it or that it was indeed about a dragon in the Portrait Vault.

But now, with that name… It all adds up quite nicely. Like, let’s say that a dragon is an emblem of the Ketsueki family – hence the tattoo. Also, let’s say that the eldest son is always named Ryu, for example. That being said, since Jacob believed that “a dragon” is at Hogwarts, perhaps it wasn’t even exactly about the WIW – it was about Victor. But why Jacob would be interested in Victor? Or in the WIW, for that matter? Well, it brings me to my second realisation.

A while ago, I proposed the idea that R might’ve used Victor’s vampirism to lure WIW into joining them; that they promised him that they can cure Victor. But it only explains how they did it. I still had no idea WHY would they do it. And then, it hit me: R thought that the WIW might be Jacob. Well, not literally, of course.

I often talk about how the siblings have to be connected to the Cursed Vaults and necessary to open the final one. I think of it as their curse which was carried through generations. I believe that their family moved abroad at some point as well – that’s why R had troubles with finding them and why nothing was happening with the Cursed Vaults until Jacob appeared. So, what if R’s search led them to the WIW somehow? What if for some reason, they thought he can open the final Vault? What if they’re responsible for his expulsion, just like for Jacob’s, and that it was supposed to force him to join them (so Victor could’ve been simply an additional motivation)? And maybe, just maybe… there was some prophecy involved with that?

Now, why would I put the prophecy into all of that? Well, mostly because I don’t see any other explanation for this part from R’s letter they wrote to Jacob after Duncan’s death (Y5Ch7):

The first time when I thought it might have something to do with any kind of prophecy was when we had the class on Myomancy in the game, which is a form of Divination using rats and mice. So, y’know, the rats part is pretty obvious. As for Centaurs, they do specialise in Divination, right? After all, even MC went to them for help in that matter. Therefore, maybe Jacob had a similar intention? But I still wasn’t convinced about those rats… So, maybe it’s about different kind of rats? Like… “traitors”?

Here’s my wild guess. There was the prophecy, and both Jacob and the WIW seemed to fit it. I assume that the WIW might’ve been recruited first, but then, R realised that he’s not the right person. Perhaps they even withdraw their offer of helping Victor. But even if not, the WIW rebelled against R and somehow betrayed them. Or not even, but that’s R’s version of the story.

When R was working on Jacob already, he somehow learnt about the prophecy and about the WIW. He wanted to find him, or find his brother. He also wanted to go to Centaurs with the prophecy, even though he probably was already in a bad relationship with Torvus. 

R found out that he’s investigating it, and they didn’t like it because it could mean that Jacob would discover too much. After Duncan’s death, when R was also trying to be nicer to Jacob, they told him not to think about “rats and Centaurs” – where “rats” refers to the WIW, who R portrayed as a traitor or something. I know they used a plural form, but I think it still makes sense as a generalization. Alternatively, they might also be talking about Rakepick (as Jacob was likely working with her at the time, too, and R probably wasn’t happy about it either).

Also, it might even fit the Rogues theory. It’d explain why the WIW wants revenge on R, and why he’d join the Rogues who secretly work against R.

So… yeah! I guess that’s it! As always, I don’t expect that Jam City will explain things in such detail. I really doubt that we’re gonna return at all to the plot of Jacob believing there’s a dragon at Hogwarts. But if it at least turns out that the WIW’s name is Ryu Ketsueki… I’m gonna be very happy.

[weirdthinkingdragon]

Chase Of Fascination

I have no idea why, but this one was a S.T.R.U.G.G.L.E to finish.

Centaur Hizashi Yamada x reader

Warnings of injuries and a bit of blood

Nerves still course through me as I approached the entrance gate. I’m still worried about possibly kicking a centaur too hard or something happens that makes them hate me. Of course, that has only happened to a handful of people, but it still could happen to me. The centaurs are free to leave whenever they wish, so it’s not like they’d be stuck with me again if they have to be.

There were multiple people and centaurs in the distance. One green-haired kid was having trouble getting on an oddly colored paint centaur. Another was a rather bratty child who kept yelling at the red and black one he was on, but it seemed to not mind his temper.

My mind drifted off from them as a man and woman came up to me. The male seemed rather uninterested in being here, and the woman cheerfully waved at me. “Welcome! We’re glad you chose to help ride horses safely by learning here!” She opened the rather fancy gray gate with horses on it. They lead me down a path with multiple other small pastures on both sides.

Many of them were with riders training. It made me feel a little better watching a blond fall off a Dapple Gray centaur with a rather purplish color. Despite his calm demeanor, it was easy to tell he was rather concerned for the blond. The blond quickly got back up and laughed it off, making the centaur look relieved.

“Pretty interesting huh? We’ve got a few free ones hanging around back there.” Looking to the ground, there are multiple hooves marked into the gravel. It was quiet between the three of us as we walked there. In a way, this felt rather awkward.

A rather beautiful looking centaur quickly approached as we entered the area. A Dun Palomino by the looks of him. The black-haired male next to me didn’t stick around and left as soon as he saw it approaching. “What’s up yo!”

“Hey, Hizashi! Aren’t you still supposed to be with that Kyoka kid or something?” Asked the woman next to me. He shook his head. His long bright blond hair slightly moving with his head. It was long enough to drape across the sides of the shoulders of his horse part.  "Nah, she dug the style of another one and asked to be with them instead. No worries!" She smirked at him.

“Jeez, you seem to chase everyone off at some point!!”

“Do not! It was just that last one! Just gotta find the ones who dig my kind of style!”

“And what would that be? Noisy until they want someone quieter? You make quite a few of them go to poor Hitoshi or Momo instead.”

He shrugged. His attention was then drawn to me. “Why, hello dear new rider! Didn’t notice ya there for a minute! As ya heard, name’s Hizashi! What’s yours?” He asked, and even bows for a moment while keeping eye contact. I wave while saying my name.

He smiles and stands back up. “A great name for a great looking human! Now, why don’t ya… What do you humans call it with those loud metal things? Take me out for a spin?”

I couldn’t help but smile at his straightforward enthusiasm. How could someone not like him? The woman looks at me with a smirk on her face. “Well, would you like to tame the wild beast?”

Hizashi mocked a gasp. “I am no beast! If I am a beast, I’m a sexy beast!” She rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say. Now come on! Time to get the gear!” The three of us headed towards a large red barn farther in the distance. Hizashi suddenly slumps over. “Man, why the saddle? Bareback is so much better!” He looks at me with a wink. “And gets us all the closer!”

She rolled her eyes again. “You and I both know bareback is highly unsafe for beginners. We learned that early on, and it’s better not to make the same mistake again. Especially if they decide to sue like last time.”

He waves his right hand. “Yeah, yeah. So what? I just know to keep my hands on them this time.” She frowns. “No. That’s final.” He crosses his arms and pouts. Something about the furrow of his brows and the puff out of his lips made him look cute. I do slightly question why that type of facial hair though. We quickly reached the barn and she went over to the equipment that had blankets and saddles with oddly shaped binds that look like an odd form of bridles on the wall.

She grabbed a black blanket off the wall and went to put it on Hizashi’s back. He blocked her by moving his body away. “Shouldn’t our dear new little rider do it instead? They gotta learn after all!” She looks at me and smirks. I could already tell what she was going to do and held my arms out. She drops the blanket into my arms. It was heavier than I thought it would be and caught me by surprise.

“Let’s get you started, huh?” She questioned while Hizashi moved closer so his side was next to me. He twisted his human torso to pat his horse back. “C’mon, we ain’t got all day dear!”

I couldn’t help but feel heat rise in my face as I looked away from him. They both laughed at me. I decided to just go with it and throw it onto his back. “A little forceful eh? Or can’t handle lifting the bit of weight?”

I shook my head. Hizashi looks in thought mischievously. “Nemuri, should we give ‘em the old light saddle?”

She smirks at me and him. “If they had trouble with the blanket, probably!” She reaches over and grabs a smaller black saddle with a rather deep dip in it and hands it to me. It’s surprisingly not much heavier than the blanket. I was able to get it on easily enough. I then lean down to hook the bottom together and tighten it. Worry went through me that maybe I tightened it too much.

“It’s not too tight is it?” They both laugh. “Ha! Not at all little rider! I’d say for a beginner you’ve got it rather loose!” Knowing that was a relief. Nemuri then goes to the other side of the wall where the odd-looking bridle was and picked it up. “This one I’m going to help with, since as you can tell, it’s not a regular bridle.”

She then puts it over his shoulders. Its metal circles were perfectly set on his shoulders while another strap went across his lower neck in the front and a few connecting on his back. Nemuri hooks a few more of them together in the front connecting both sides on his human stomach. She then grabs reins and puts them through the metal holes on his shoulders. It looks rather uncomfortable though…

“Is it uncomfortable? Why do you allow this if it is then?” I ask. Hizashi raised a brow at me. “Yeah, not gonna lie, it’s a bit odd, but it’s because I don’t have fur for it! It’s adorable you’re so concerned though!”

Nemuri looks at a watch on her wrist, then hands me the reins. “Alright, have fun you two! I have to go help others.” She says, waves, and walks out of the place. Hizashi and I go over to an empty pasture. He stays close to the metal bars of the fence. It might be to make sure I don’t fall to the ground as easily or something.

I was able to climb up into the saddle easily enough. It was a little difficult getting my right leg over his side. He kept his hands close to my legs like he was making sure I didn’t fall. “Ya know how to use the reins right?” He asked, trying to look back. He could only turn enough to see one of his eyes. “I think so,” I replied, and lightly pulled the reign to make him turn right. He turns without any problems. “Yep, ya got that down already! Now, why don’t ya try to kick to get me goin’? I tried kicking his sides. My feet barely even touched him. Hizashi barks a laugh. “Hah! What was that little rider!? I couldn’t even feel it! Ya gotta give a little more power than that!” I tried kicking a little harder, but it had the same strength. “C’mon little rider! You’re still not quite getting it right. Don’t worry, I can handle it if ya go a little hard! It’s almost endearing ya care so much though!”

The third time must be the charm. I kick slightly harder. He stood silent for a second, and I started to worry maybe that was still too hard. He starts to walk. “Yes! There ya go!”  I breathe a sigh of relief. “Now, let’s get runnin’!”

“W-wait! Isn’t it a little too soon for this!?”

He started to trot. “Nah, gotta learn eventually. Might as well be now! Hang on!

-------------------------------------------------

For the past two weeks, he’s been rushing into having me learn things, and it’s easy to tell he has a hard time staying still for long. Oddly enough he loves to jump hurdles. They’re not exactly hurdles though since that isn’t something that was supposed to be taught here. I think he likes I end up leaning closer to his back when he’s jumping. It was easy to tell with time how a lot of people didn’t like him too much. He was able to keep learning pretty fun though. Besides, not many others can say they’ve jumped hurdles on a centaur before. Even Nemuri and the other which I found out is named Shouta were surprised since he hasn’t allowed that with others. Same for him actually sticking around and us hanging out. Usually, he tends to speed off after a few hours of being here.

Like now, we’ve been taking a break and I was laying against his side in the shade of a tall tree in the same pasture I met him in. He decided to lay down for a bit. I know laying on his horse part could be dangerous, but he assured me it would be fine for a bit. It was a really hot day and drained our energy faster than usual. Fortunately, there was a rather strong breeze that helped cool things off. Many others canceled their training for today. There was a peaceful silence between us with the rustle of the leaves of the trees and the pretty freshly cut grass.

“You two seem pretty comfortable over there!” yelled the familiar and teasing voice of Nemuri. Could have sworn Hizashi almost let out a growl as he heard her yell. He quickly grew a large smile on his face again though as she approached and sat next to me. “Whew, pretty hot out here, huh you guys?”

I laugh. “You said it. It must be like a hundred degrees or something.”

She laughed as well. “You’re close! The gauge says it’s about that.”

“Yikes! Well, at least it’s not too humid.”

“Still doesn’t help the sweat everywhere though.”

“True,” She replies and looks towards Hizashi. “Hey, Hizashi, what do you usually do if it gets even hotter out?” He sits up and shrugs. “Usually stay deeper in the forest,” He points his right thumb at himself. “I never let the heat get to me though! If there’s something I want to do, a little heat isn’t gonna slow me down!”

“I don’t doubt it for a second, knowing you in the past two weeks,” I replied. He gave me a cheeky smile. “Aw! I’m touched ya know me so well already!” He hooked his left arm around me and messed with my hair. I tried to push him away. He stopped rubbing my hair, but didn’t let go of my shoulders. He still kept his arm slung around me as he stood up.

Nemuri didn’t stay long as she saw a message come up on her phone and ran off. Hizashi’s smile went into a smirk. “Hey, ya know what we should do for your last day?”

I blinked at him. There was something we haven’t- no, he’s not thinking of that is he? He laughs at my expression. “Yep! Why don’t we do it as a final treat? You’ve got enough experience by now for bareback!”

“Won’t Nemuri get angry about it?”

He shrugged. Well that’s reassuring. “Fine, but you better make sure I don’t fall.” His smile somehow grew bigger than I’ve ever seen it. “Wouldn’t dream of it, little rider!” He almost too enthusiastically dragged me by my arm over to the fence. I climbed up on it high enough to help get on his back.

Getting on, it felt weird. It was hard to keep my balance, and to better it, I tightly gripped his shoulders. I also had to be careful where I was sitting so as to not be on his hair. He started laughing. “Don’t be so worried! I got ya! If you’re so worried though, why not try this instead?” He asks and grabs my arms to wrap around his torso. He seemed to shiver at the touch. “Not close enough,” he mumbled. How is this not close enough? “Hey, why not try your legs too! It could be like…” He seemed to try remembering something for a moment. “Like what you call a piggyback ride!” He grabbed my legs and wrapped them around his lower stomach.

It definitely wasn’t the most comfortable thing. A lot of pressure is being put on my lower back. I quickly unwrap my legs from his torso and try to figure out how to keep my balance better the other way. He huffs, but allows it. He does place his arms over mine though.

We practiced that for a few hours, and my back is KILLING me. Guess I still need to work on my form. As I expected, we got quite an earful from Nemuri. It was more in a teasing way though since everything turned out fine.

I was saying my goodbyes and thanks to them. It was now sunset, and it cooled off slightly already. I started to walk away from the entrance gate when Nemuri suddenly yelled for me. “What’s wrong?” She has a giant smirk on her face. “When you get home, there will be a gift from me for you. Just a heads up!” A gift? Why would she give me a gift? “Well, thanks for it!”

“No problem!” She replies as I turn around and continue on my way home. It didn’t take long for me to hear the sound of hooves coming towards me. I turn around and see Hizashi. I was curious as to why he was following. He’s never come this way before.

"Can’t leave ya alone now! Heard there’s been a pack of violent stray dogs around.” I don’t like the rather feral glare he had when he said that.

“So you’re walking me home? That’s fine. It gets pretty lonely anyways. Also, I’m not riding you there though. My back is still killing me from earlier.” He sulked a bit at that. “Alrighty then! How about ya give me your cute hand to keep you close instead then?”

“Sure?...” I give my hand to him, and he immediately interlocks them. He got into a walk that stayed level with mine rather quickly. It was peaceful between us until there was the snarling of dogs and yelling in the distance. Hizashi pulls me closer into his side as the noise of the dogs came closer towards us. In the distance, it was easy to tell they were ragged and scraggly. And definitely not friendly. They stared at us for a second, and started to charge. Hizashi had no trouble rearing up ready to hurt them.

One that had severe burns got the jump on us and bit into my leg. I was able to force it off after a few kicks with my other foot. Hizashi then kicked one of his front legs that crashed into the dog and sent it flying. He glared at the others who seem to be looking for an opening to attack as he lowered himself slightly for me to get on. Despite the pain in my leg and back, I knew the best thing to do is get on his back..

He decked the smaller blond one that went for his chest. After getting on his back, he got back up and landed a harsh kick to the same scarred one that tried to strike again. It didn’t take too long to get to my home in the woods. There was a rather large box in front of my house. It was a pretty big house, and he was able to enter the door by ducking his head. The ceiling was higher so he stood back up. “What are you doing!? You should put me down and wait outs-”

“No. My little rider is hurt so I need to help. I’ll help clean the floor or somethin’ after if that’s your concern. Now, you have those bandage things, right?”

“Yeah, in the bathroom to the right.” He had trouble squeezing between the couch and a chair, so he slightly moved the chair. Entering the bathroom, I leaned over the cupboard and grabbed the first aid kit. I then get off his back and stand on my toilet seat. I nearly fell with the pain in my calf, but Hizashi grabbed me before it happened. He makes me sit down on it and grabs the kit. He was rather confused as to how to open it. I reach over and open it to grab the small bottle of peroxide and bandages. I open the bottle and pour some on my wound. I’ll clean up the floor after.

Hizashi recoils from the peroxide. “What’s that?” The bubbles came up in the wound. “It looks like it’s hurting you more!” He goes to take the bottle. “Calm down! It’s used to help clean the wound from infection!” That eased him a bit. I then wrap the bandages around my leg. Blood seeped through, but it doesn’t seem to be deep enough to need stitches.

Something in him changed as he glared at the blood. “Ya can’t go anywhere without me now.”

“Why not? So We were attacked. You were with me when I was and I still got injured.” He hugged me tightly. “What if I WASN’T there?” He squeezed tighter. “You would have died! I… I can’t lose ya,”

He went quiet for a minute. “Everywhere you go, I’ll be with you now,” He suddenly perks up. “Besides, ya got a new fancy saddle from Nemuri!”

“Way to ruin the surprise.” He noticed what he said. “Oops… Well, gotta test it out tomorrow, huh, my dear little rider?”

I rolled my eyes.

--------------------------

Idk what to think of this. I wanted the idea of yandere centaur Hizashi, but I don't think I did justice with it. After straining my mind for two weeks, I’m finally done! AKNKCJSHBHJDVb

[eunsoyi]

helloo. would it be possible for you to write a #1 fantasy prompt for kuroo please? ♡ congratulations by the way ^^

aaa finally a fantasy one !! thank you luvie <3

the brightest witch of her time

( hogwarts!au because harry potter is a fantasy novel you can’t say otherwise )

brightest witch of her time. kuroo tetsurou let out a scoff as he watched ravenclaw’s most famous and well-respected student scurry back and forth inside the library carrying a mountain of books. it’s not like him to actually hate a fellow student, especially someone in his year. but oh boy, do you get in his nerves.

to be fair, he did feel a little guilty for hating you without your knowledge. however, the thought of him being guilty with you as the reason made him weirdly angrier. he concluded that it was probably his superiority complex acting up. as a gryffindor, he did need to protect his pride as much as possible, and his competitiveness is obviously drilled down deep in his nature.

“you’re gonna poke a hole on her body. stop glaring.” kozume kenma, his best friend and also one of the students from gryffindor, reprimanded him in a hushed tone. tetsurou rolled his eyes. “oh i wish a hole would grow on her body.”

kenma sighed, closed the book he was reading and faced his friend with a scowl. “what did y/n even do to you?”

tetsurou pursed his lips and finally looked away from you. “i have no idea. she’s just annoying.” kenma then turned to get a glimpse of your busy little figure and gave a soft chuckle. “i don’t get it.”

“yeah, you never will.” tetsurou whined and forced himself to focus on his textbook about healing potions and whatnot. the thought of severus snape whacking his head for turning in a half-assed essay was enough to snap him back to reality and continue studying.

you and tetsurou used to have a civil relationship. with ravenclaw and gryffindor having an enormous amount of classes together during their first few years at hogwarts, it was only natural for the two houses to form unlikely friendships with each other. it was no doubt that ravenclaw students are exceptionally intelligent, they are known for that trait after all. that nature had caused an inevitable yet somewhat healthy competition between the two houses that used essays, homeworks, and exams as criteria to determine which house is actually better in academics. the punishment was the losing house gets to give their points to the other house.

surprisingly, the results varied a lot. gryffindor would take the lead for one subject, and then suddenly during the next one, ravenclaw would overtake them. the system was like that, and everyone loved some competition and it motivated them to work harder, especially tetsurou who was named as the smartest gryffindor of his year.

take note, smartest gryffindor. not smartest hogwarts student. not smartest wizard. just the most intelligent person in his house and more specifically, in his year.

you, despite the varying results of the ravenclaw versus gryffindor academic competition, were the only consistent thing in the said system. you always, always got the highest marks for essays, exams, and homework no matter what the subject. and it annoyed tetsurou. because no matter how hard he tried, no matter how many all-nighters he pulled, he was always nowhere near to beating you.

the annoyance bubbled into hatred once he started hearing your nickname: the brightest witch of your time. he was very much jealous of the fact that each and every educator in hogwarts acknowledged your skills. hell, even snape, head of the slytherin house, infamous for his unreasonable actions towards his students that are not from his house, had favored you because you were just that good. tetsurou then spent the following years just trying to compete with you (he even joined the quidditch team and got in as a seeker, but his interest quickly dissipated when he realized you weren’t even interested in playing quidditch).

despite being just one spot below you in academics, he still remained number one in terms of popularity, and oh boy did he take pride in that.

“hey, tetsu.” a chirpy girl from slytherin suddenly greeted him while he was chilling in front of the fireplace in the gryffindor common room.

“how did you get in here?” he smirked and reached out to plant a kiss on the girl, to which she giggled flirtatiously in response. tetsurou felt kenma roll his eyes beside him, but paid no attention to the pudding-haired boy and continued making out with the girl (whose name he doesn’t even remember).

“i have my ways.” she replied in a muffled and out-of-breath tone, showing a hint of exhaustion from tetsurou’s intense kiss.

“you’re naughty, ain’t ya?”

the two of them continued flirting until kenma suddenly spoke.

“oh? y/n.”

tetsurou’s head snapped towards kenma’s direction. “what about her?”

“why are you so worked up?” kenma narrowed his eyes as he gave the slytherin girl a disgusted expression. “she’s walking towards the forbidden forest.” he explained and pointed outside the window. and lo and behold, you were there, walking in the dark without any care in the world with a small light emitting from your wand.

“what?!” tetsurou was now standing up, dropping the girl sitting on his lap. she clicked her tongue and attempted to return to their original position, but failed because tetsurou suddenly dashed outside the common room.

“ugh, that bitch.” she mumbled under her breath, gritting her teeth.

“you know kuroo doesn’t even know you, right?” kenma told her, not even giving her a glance as he flipped through his book. the girl grunted in response and left, fuming.

tetsurou’s sweat was covering his field of vision, but he found himself running as fast as he can, not even thinking about what kind of punishment lies beyond him and you once the teachers find out you were out during the night.

he then found you on the entrance of the forest, your wand still emitting the same small light. he panted, putting his hands on his knees.

“oi, y/n! what the hell are you doing out here?” he yelled. you immediately turned around to face him, and he noticed you turned pale once you realized someone was there with you.

“none of your business, kuroo.” you snapped.

tetsurou felt his frustration bubble up because of your reply. “wow, rude much?”

“just leave me alone.”

“jeez, suit yourself.” tetsurou snapped back and turned to walk away. he walked for about five steps and when he turned around, you were suddenly gone. it’s as if you were air or something. “what the fuck..” he muttered. there was no sign of you anywhere. he composed himself and went to follow you inside the forbidden forest.

he took out his wand and muttered “lumos.” as he walked in a straight line, trying to find any sign of your presence. his wand lit up, but his hands were still shaking in nervousness. going into the forbidden forest was not allowed because the forest can literally kill you, and the all of the hogwarts students are aware of this fact, so why the hell is tetsurou risking his life looking for you?

he walked for about another ten minutes when he heard galloping. what the fuck, centaurs?! he frantically tried to remember any kind of offensive and defensive spells he learned in class and hid behind a tree, his heart rate increasing as the galloping sound became nearer and clearer.

“hey, hey, it’s okay. calm down.” he heard a sweet female voice say. he angled his position to get a glimpse of the person who owned the voice and let out a sigh of relief when he noticed that the voice came from you. his eyes widened as you reached your hand to touch the most beautiful, most peaceful, most elegant creature tetsurou has ever seen. its skin was pure gold, and its hair was very, very soft like clouds. the creature emitted an angelic yet somehow intense aura which spiked his curiousity even further.

he walked towards you and the creature quietly, despite trying his hardest not to make his presence known. you snapped, still not moving your hand away from the creature and turned around with your wand pointing out towards tetsurou. you cursed under your breath and let out a sigh of relief when the light of your wand flashed into his familiar face. you did not acknowledge his presence any further and continued petting the horse-like animal, but tetsurou didn’t care. he reached out his hand as well and much to his happiness, the creature did not move away.

“what are you?” he found himself asking the creature, of course, it did not respond. it was worth a try, he thought, chuckling to himself. he heard you giggle slightly when you heard his question. “it’s a unicorn.” you answered. “this one’s a baby, though. i wonder where his parents are.”

“where’s the horn?” he asked once more, this time looking at you.

“like i said, it’s a baby.”

he wondered how you knew about that information, but shrugged it off after realizing you are the most intelligent student in hogwarts. “you could get in trouble for this.” he stated in a matter-of-fact tone. you scowled, still not meeting his eyes. “no shit, sherlock. it’s called the forbidden forest for a reason.”

he clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “i’m just saying. jeez, why are you here anyway?” he asked in a rhetoric manner. the two of you stood in silence for a few seconds, admiring the golden unicorn, before you spoke again.

“i go here because i want to see them for myself.” you said with a serious expression. tetsurou was surprised because you actually answered his question, but remained silent as a cue for you to continue. “it’s fun learning about a few of them in class and all, but i want to see the real ones. the dangerous ones. the creatures we’re not allowed to see. i want to learn.”

tetsurou was astonished. for the first time since he met you, he understood why people were calling you the brightest witch of your time. it wasn’t just about your memorization skills or your talents in uttering spells and making potions, it was also your hunger for new information. your need to learn about the unknown, about the things hogwarts had purposely left out in its curriculum. he looked down, a pang of guilt striking through his chest as he remembered what malicious things he had said, thought, and felt about you. tetsurou was so goddamn wrong about you, and he hated that. a part of him wished you were just the annoying ravenclaw he always knew, but it was refreshing to know that in some way, you were more than that.

he sighed, and as he did, he finally caught your attention and you looked up at him. “what?” you narrowed your eyes.

“just..” he paused. “the next time you come here, tell me, okay?”

you gave him a suspicious look. “why? you’re not going to tell on me? you know telling someone would cost ravenclaw a lot of points, right? and gryffindor would finally win house cup?” you asked, not trusting him one bit.

“i wanna learn more.” he simply said. “and being a snitch is petty. i’d rather beat you fair and square.”

you didn’t answer but instead just laughed in response. the two of stayed there for a good five minutes until finally returning back to the dorms. before the two of you parted ways, you stopped in your tracks and faced him once more.

“meet me there thirty minutes after dinner everyday.” you just said and ran off to your own common room. he just stood there, shocked at what you just did. when he came back to his senses, he smiled to himself. with finally having something to look forward to for the first time in years, he walked back to his room with a spring in his step.

“you look chipper.” kenma said as tetsurou finally reached his dorm room.

“do you know that a baby unicorn’s skin is gold?” he asked, grinning.

“i did not know that.” kenma replied rather nonchalantly.

“yeah, me neither.”

this took a long time to finish bc i can’t remember jack shit about harry potter but i wanted to push the gryffindor!kuroo agenda so much. hope you liked this! requests for 100-follower special is still open. see this for more info!

[sinerelynarnia]

Fighters To Lovers (2)

~Aaron Pevensie, the sibling who stayed in Narnia, the one who’d rather fight in a war and die with honor then sit in school and learn about a war without fighting in one, infected with a curse, causing her to live forever, becoming the burden to herself and never loving again

Word Count- 1696

Send Requests Here

“Well what are you gonna do about it, you stayed to keep Narnia safe right!” One of the centaurs shouted stepping up tall and facing me as we stood around each other, in another one of the meetings that ended in hate.

“I stayed in protect Narnia yes, not to rule Narnia, whatever happened with Telmarine, i’ll deal with it when it happens, as for the Scavengers I don’t think they’ll be coming back,” I huffed standing up. “Is there anything else you’d like to discuss well we’re out here having a war between each other?” I asked the room looking around, everyone stayed silent. “I’ll see you all around the castle then,” 

I walked out clenching my fists and feeling the anger that coursed through my body, Peter and Susan were the ones to deal with it, I was the middle child, the rebul, the one who didn’t have to listen to the rules.

“I choose to stay in Narnia, it’s my call to make the rules,” I huffed turning around and facing my most loyal knight, McAlester Klan. “You tell me this after ever meeting, and I wouldn’t go back to my world in a heartbeat, i’d rather be here, then sitting at a desk learning about a war,” I huffed staring to undo my hair.

“I know princess,” McAlester huffed walking over towards me. “You really should get that checked out,” I looked down at the blood stain on my dress.

“Just a minor wound,” I lied knowing nothing was there. “I’ll just it check out in just a mid, would you go prep my house, I think i’d like a nightstolle by myself,” I asked undoing my dress.

“Yes my princess,” 

“Don’t call me princess please, it’s Aaron, if you could tell your guards that too for the millionth time,” I huffed hearing the sound of my door close. “Thank you,” I whispred slipping my dress and corset off and letting myself breath.

I looked down at my bloodied stomach, looking around for a wound hopelessly. “Can you just give me a break,” I mumbled letting my hands loose and laying down on my bed. “Just let me die already huh,”

“Princess, your steed is prepped!” I heard McAlester shout from down below my window, I smiled forgetting my pain and drapping a robe over me and running downstairs with only leggings and a undershirt covering myself under.

“You don’t have to worry about me you know,” I chuckled grabbing my sword and drapping myself over my steed. “Don’t I always come back fine?” I teased.

“You always come back with some sort of enjoying, don’t stay out to late now princess, it’s my duty to protect you, Aaron,” McAlester said, I smiled and tapping my steed, sending us off into the forest, determined.

We flew off into the forest, jumping over fallen trees and turning corners, the wind blew into my face and I just smiled, feeling free, a rare thought in my mind, knowing I could never be free from the curse that I bardoned myself to be.

“Woah woah slow down,” I hushed pulling on the rains of my steed, coming to a complete stop. “Thats the horse I had seen earlier,” I whispered, watching a identical black steed to my white one, eating grass. “Where has your master gone?” I asked jumping off my horse, wrapping the lead around the tree and walking towards the black steed.

Rushing in the bushes snapped me out of my transe, I turned around drawing my sword and turning around, watching the bushes move all around me.

“Princess it’s only me,” Trufflehunter said coming out of the bush with bandages in hand. I relaxed my body and let the tension leave. “There's a Telmarine here, I thought you should come check it out, Nikabrik has him,” 

“Show me will you,” I asked grabbing the reins of the black steed and mine as well, following Trufflehunter through the bush. “I had seen him earlier, I actually came out looking for him,” 

“Well we’re right here, be careful princess, won’t your kingdom worry about you being gone for so long?” Trufflehunter asked.

I turned around and waved at the trees. “Send for my kingdom please, let my knights know i’ll be gone for the night but i’m safe, but please don’t mention where I am,” I asked the tree, the leaves formed and flew behind us towards the kingdom. “I make the rules,” I chuckled walking into the house.

“Aaron what a lovely viste,” Nikabrik said smiling and standing up. “I could make some tea if you’d like,”

“I’d like that, I could bangae the Telmarine up, wouldn’t want you guys getting in harm's way,” I suggested, Trufflehunter passed me the bangaes and pointed to the room. “You didn’t make it to far did you,” I whispered sitting myself down on the bed and unrolling the bandages. “When you wake up you’ll be sent back to your kingdom, you’ve caused enough trouble,” 

I finished wrapping the boys head and walked out, sitting down on a soft cushion placed with Trufflehunter and Nikabrik. “How did he get here?” I asked taking a sip of my tea.

“That boy was being chased by guards, the took Trumpkin,” Nikabrik said munching angrily on a sandwich. “You’ll get him back won’t you?”

“I will bright and earlier, bargain for a bargain,” I smiled leaning back against the wall. “It feels nice not to spend the night in the castle, i’d rather be free, roaming around Narnia,” I chuckled taking another sip.

“Princess,” Trufflehunter said then paused. “Aaron, he had this with him, he blew it,” Susan's horn was held in his hand. “Do you think they’ll come?”

“Hopefully, it’ll be my chance to do what i’d like,” I chuckled leaning back. “They’d probably me grateful to see me you think, mad that I hadn’t come back with them, confused that I hadn’t aged a day,” I laughed rubbing my forehead.

“That’s the curses of this land for you, i’m sorry that I couldn’t find anything that’ll help you, nothing in my books had a curse for immortality,” Nikabrik hummed feeling bad.

“Don’t worry about it, i’ve lived with it for three-hundred years, what more can I do,” I chuckled finishing up my tea. “I’ll take my place on the couch, you two stay safe okay,” I helped myself up and walked to the couch that laid in the room where the boy was sleeping. “Don’t worry, he can kill me,” I laughed taking myself out of the room.

“Hey Aaron,” Nikabrik said, I turned around and faced him. “You know the kingdom is clueless of you, i’ve heard them speaking well they roam the forest, they just think your like Aslan, not immortal but alive with magic, that could be changed in a heartbeat,”

“I wish it was like that Nikabrik, my life would be less stressful,” I chuckled leaving the room and placing myself onto the couch, I pulled the blanket down and positions myself to face the boy, awaking at any sound.

The morning came quickly, and the muffled sounds of the boy woke me up, I shot my eyes opened washing his move. 

“What the?” The boy mumbled touching the bandages on his head, Nikabrik and Trufflehunter muffled voices were heard from the kitchen, I closed my eyes when the boy looked my way, opening them up once again.

I stood up quickly, taking form and following the boy, I watched him look at Trufflehunter in confusion.

“Well it’ll be to late to kill him now, and plus the princess wouldn’t like you killing guests now would she,” Trufflehunter said, the boy darted for the door, getting blocked by Nikabrik.

I smirked watching him grab a poker and point it at the pair. Placing my sword down on the ground I jumped on the boys back wrapping my arm around his through and using my legs to bring him to the ground.

“Okay okay okay,” I hisses tapping his hand against my arms, I lost my grip, pushing him to the ground taking my sword off the ground and pointing to his chest.

“Who are you?” I asked stepping on his chest. “Why are you here?” I asked raising my eyebrow.

“I’m Prince Caspian,” Capsian, what his name was, raised his hands in the air. I loosened my posture. “My uncle, he’s trying to kill me,”

“Princess Aaron,” I placed my sword down and placed my hand out infront of me. “Your uncle, i’m taking a guess that the baby was a boy,” I asked looking at Caspian.

“I’ve got to go, go back and fight,” Caspian said looking at me. “My uncle made the guards shoot arrows at my bed, i’ve got to tell my father,” 

“Let me accompany you, I can stop the war that is about to occur, and I don’t think you’ll be able to walk so far on your own, without your steed,” I smiled looking outside the window, both our steeds laid asleep in the forest.

“You found him,” Caspian smiled. “It’s nice to meet you princess but we both have kingdoms to go back to, go back to your,” Caspian turned around walking out of the hut, I quickly grabbed my sword and followed him.

“My kingdom won’t need me, you’ve blown the horn haven’t you, my brothers and sisters will be here, they could do it, I insist on coming with you,” I huffed untying my need.

“No offence Princess but your not dressed for the occasion and I wouldn’t want you to die on my hands,” Caspian jumped on his steed, looking at me as I copied is action, covering my undershirt with my robe.

“You’d be surprised at what I could take, i’m coming with you,” I demanded, Caspian shed a smile and took off, I nodded at Trufflehunter and Nikabrik then took off. “No offence Prince Caspian, but i’ve never seen you around,” I yelled riding beside him.

“I could say the same thing for you Princess Aaron, i’ve never seen you before, how do I know your telling the truth now,” Caspian teased.

“Guess you’ll just have to trust me!” I yelled toggling the reins, causing me to move forward, faster than Caspian, I smiled as we raced through the forest together, it was about a day trip from Tremarine from Narnia.

[radioromantic-moved]

“house call”

a chapter in a longer fic i’ve been working on, which i won’t post because it’s something like 25 pages already and i’m only halfway done with it. but you get this one because i’ve finally gotten to the part with actual romance (yay)

tw for some mentions of death, but nothing graphic or specific

tagging the people who wanted it: @mxmcduck @ship-trek @loverboypercy @tsundere-selfship 

word count: 1200

A few days before Jon wakes up (although nobody knew that at the time), Nyx takes a walk through the tunnels and decides to do something stupid.

They think they have a plan, although as per usual, they’re only about halfway sure of the security of it. Also as per usual, if their plan goes wrong, they will most likely die. The little voice in the back of their head that sounds like Jon tells them that they are definitely going to die, and Nyx decides to not-die even harder to spite it. 

They know where the door is. Or at least they think they do, and then it turns out they’re right. So far, the plan is going great. They push it open and step inside, and don’t close it behind them (they don’t know if that makes a difference, and if the plan goes right it won’t, but they do it anyway because they are contrary and difficult by nature). 

Helen is there. They’re pretty sure there wouldn’t be a way for her to not be there, but it’s nice that that’s also gone how they expected it to. 

If she’s surprised, she does an excellent job of not showing it. “What are you doing here?” she asks. Her voice has something in it that’s one part amusement and one part some other unknown thing.

Nyx shrugs. “Visiting.”

She looks them up and down. Looking into her eyes for too long makes them feel a little dizzy. “You’re lucky I’ve just eaten, you know,” she says at last. 

“I sure am!” Nyx says cheerfully.

“Really, though. Why are you here? There are much easier ways to run from your problems.”

“I know. I’m not trying to run from my problems. This is honestly more like running into my problems, if ya think about it. Okay, um, I like you, which is stupid of me, but I’m really good at being smart about stupid things. And I’m also really good at getting myself into super dangerous trouble, so I combined those two things and figured there was, like, an eighty percent chance that you weren’t gonna kill me. And as for the other twenty percent…that’s where the super dangerous trouble comes in, I guess.”

Helen tilts her head to the side, slightly. A little bit of the rest of her tilts to the side with it. “What makes you so confident I won’t kill you?” she asks.

Oh, they’re getting to the good part now. “It would be boring. You like me because of that stuff I mentioned earlier. I’m smart at being stupid and I like getting into trouble, which makes me unpredictable, and you like when stuff is unpredictable. If I was a threat to you, you might want to get rid of me, but we’re friends right now and I’m funny and not super high up on your list of priorities to get rid of at the moment. Plus, you just ate.”

Helen looks thoughtful. “For an unaligned human, you’re sincerely one of the strangest people I’ve met,” she says. “But you are clever. I’ll give you that.”

“So does this mean you’re not gonna kill me?”

“Not right now.”

Even though they were pretty sure they were on the right track to begin with, they do feel a quick rush of relief. If Jon heard that they’d died by basically walking into the mouth of the beast, he’d resurrect them so he could kill them again.

“In that case, can I tell you about this book I read the other day? You’d like it. It’s so bad it’s hilarious. Kind of makes you feel like you’re losing your mind.”

Helen smiles, and by now Nyx is used to the teeth that are a little too sharp. “Why not?”

They talk for a while--Nyx isn’t sure how long. There aren’t any windows in the Distortion, and they find that they’ve stopped feeling hungry, or thirsty, or tired. Which they could kind of get used to. They could also get used to the hallways that keep stretching as they pace down them until they decide to turn around, at which point they begin again to stretch the other way. 

Helen is a good listener. She acknowledges them at all the right places, but mostly she lets them talk about the nonsensical romance plot between a half mermaid and her tortured vampire-centaur boyfriend. When they finally stop, she sits down next to them on a couch that wasn’t there a second ago.

“The door is open. You can leave,” she says.

“In a sec.”

Looking at her for a prolonged period has moved from “migraine-inducing optical illusion” to “looking at a computer in the dark.” A little weird, and your eyes hurt, but possible.

“I know you’re not exactly the same as Helen when I met her. Or you. You know what I mean. But I like you, a lot, the same way I liked her, and I don’t think it really matters if you’re her or someone else or just you. Which is terrible news for me! I know. But in the interest of full disclosure, and all, there you go. I like you very much, you spirit of terror. Do with that what you will.”

“You know,” Helen says, “you’re the first one to tell me it doesn’t matter whether I’m still Helen or not.” She laughs a little, shakes her head. “Figures.”

She turns to Nyx now, to look at them head on, and oh, whoa, there are those eyes again. “You are aware,” she says, “that I am a monster. I am stronger than you in nearly every way, and you and I both know that your life is hanging by a few very thin lines. I’m just making sure--and this is very kind of me--I’m making sure that you’re aware of all this. Are you still sure you want to keep going where this is going?”

“If you’re okay with that,” they say. “Don’t worry. This is all according to plan.”

“And what,” Helen asks, “is the next step in your plan?”

“This,” they say, and they kiss her.

They know all about the idea of a kiss so good it’s indescribable and all that. This is a kiss that is genuinely indescribable. It feels like static and glitter and velvet and just a little bit like fear, and Nyx sees fractals open behind their eyes. They wonder for a second if this is what it feels like to die, and decide it’s alright, all things considered.

They don’t die, though. 

They separate, and because their mouth is constantly moving faster than their brain, the first thing Nyx says is, “Ha, now it’s going to be especially hard for you to kill me.”

“Be quiet,” says Helen, “and leave before I really do trap you in here for thinking too highly of yourself.”

They salute, because they are a dork, and walk out the door.

They walk out the door, and they are alive. They wonder how they’re going to explain this to Jon. Or Melanie. Or Basira. They also wonder, while they’re at it, how they keep getting away with these things.

[gi-maeve-rose]

Dark Matters

Chapter 2: An Old Friend

“Man, I fucking hate Elf Town,” Daryl complained from the passenger seat of the police car.

Nick huffed a sigh, keeping his eyes on the road. “I’m aware. You say that every time we drive through.”

“Because I hate it every time!” Daryl groaned in distain as he watched the expensively dressed elves go by. “Those Magic feds couldn’t come out to the station? It’s not like they ain’t been there before. They know where it is.”

“You read the email, Ward,” Jakoby reminded, glancing at his partner. “If they were to come out too close around the time of the Wand incident, people are gonna start suspecting things.”

“It’s been two years, man. And isn’t it suspicious that two LAPD officers, the ones who were involved with the Wand incident, are going to Magic Task Force HQ?”

Nick said nothing. He understood Daryl’s apprehension. After their traumaticing encounter with the Inferni, and the revelation that Daryl is a Bright, all he wanted was for things to go back to normal. or as close to normal as possible. No one knew about Daryl being a Bright except Nick and the two MTF agents, Kandomere and Montehugh. Not even his family knew.

“I can’t deal with this shit again, Nick,” Ward continued. “We almost died last time. You did die.”

Nick grunted. He hated being reminded. The scar was reminder enough. “The sooner this is taken care of, the sooner we can go back to our normal lives.” He pondered for a moment. “Well, normal-ish.”

Daryl scoffed, and the rest of the ride was silent. Whatever it was the agents needed from them, he knew it was Magic related. And it was going to take a while.

Although having gather as much information as possible for the moment, Kandomere paced his office once more with more files in hand. Perhaps he missed something. Another, a different, elf involved, maybe not an elf at all? He was desperate for it to be someone else, anyone besides-

The landline on his desk buzzed and he stopped pacing to answer.

“Agent, the LAPD officers are here,” a woman informed.

“Thank you, send them in.” He quickly shut the files away in his desk and sat in his chair as Jakoby and Ward entered.

“Thank you for coming out on such short notice,” he started as they sat. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I called for you in the first place.”

“something Magic related?” Daryl asked. He already knew the answer, yet he still so foolishly hoped otherwise.

Kandomere sighed. “The Wand was stolen.” Daryl and Nick stared in disbelief, so he opened his laptop to the security footage so they could see for themselves.

“Fuck...” Ward muttered, running a hand over his face. Kandomere nodded somberly as he shut the laptop. “So, what? You want us to go looking for it?”

“Of course not,” Kandomere reassured. “You two got lucky retrieving it from Leilah, and you only got accidentally roped into that one. You’ll get yourselves killed if I send you out purposely after these people.”

“Then what?”

Nick kicked his partner’s foot and shot him a warning look. Now was not the time to get an attitude. Daryl glared at Nick and rolled his eyes with a scoff.

Kandomere, although annoyed, kept his composure. “I need your assistance.” He handed them a background check sheet. “I have reason to believe this elven woman might be affiliated with the two in the footage.”

Nick handed Daryl the sheet. “Do you want us to bring her in for questioning?” he asked.

Kandomere shook his head as he stood from his desk, grabbing his car keys. “We’re going to go to her. We’ll take my car.” Anxiety hit him like a freight train the moment those words left his lips.

Daryl and Nick followed after him. “So we’re your muscle?” Daryl asked with an eyebrow raised. Kandomere said nothing and continued walking, earning a cocky grin from Ward. “Hear that, Nick? Big, bad Magic fed needs some bodyguards.”

“My partner, Montehugh is busy with gathering more information,” Kandomere spoke sternly, clearly annoyed. “And I need you because she’s a Bright. If she were to try any funny shit, I figured having another Bright may be useful.”

Daryl’s smug smile turned into a scowl at the reminder. He looked over to Nick who only shrugged in response. Daryl shook his head in displeasure as they reached Kandomere’s sleek, black 2020 Audi S7.

The trio found themselves driving through East LA. It was more diverse with humans, orcs, centaurs, and many other creatures of the like. It’s also an area you’d least likely find an elf passing through, let alone living.

Daryl stared out the backseat window in confusion. “Some shit really must’ve gone down with her if she’s living out here.” He looked at Kandomere, who kept his eyes on the road ahead. Daryl’s worry was confirmed. “What happened?”

“That’s not pertinent to this, Officer Ward,” Kandomere answered firmly. “We’re to go in, get the information we need, and get out.” All the while praying that he could keep it at that.

Daryl and Nick didn’t buy into it. There was a history between him and this woman, but they knew better than to pry.

After another short while of silent driving, they arrived at their destination. They pulled into an apartment complex parking lot, taking an open space in front. Two orc children and one human child played in the grass, their parents socializing with each other on the patio. The orc father was the first to notice the car, very out of place in this part of the city. He stood from his seat and approached the three men as they exited the car.

“Good afternoon,” Nick greeted, feeling it was best that he took over for now. “This is Agent Kandomere, with the Magic Task Force. This is Officer Wa-”

“Officers Ward and Jakoby, with LAPD,” the orc resident finished.  Yeah, I’ve heard about you guys. Especially you.” He held his hand out to Nick. “The name’s Markus.”

Nick smiled and shook his hand. Daryl and Kandomere gave each other a relieved glance. Perhaps this would go over easier than expected.

“So what can we do for you? You guys look like you’re far from home.” Markus asked.

Kandomere felt the question was more directed toward him, seeing that he was an elf and all. But he didn’t pay it any mind. “We’re looking Ynshael Cortez. Goes by ‘Shae’?”

Markus nodded with a chuckle. “Ah, I should’ve guessed. She sticks out like a sore thumb around here.” He turned toward the entrance and pointed them in the right direction. “Through that door, up the first flight of stairs, door on the right.”

Kandomere nodded in thanks before heading toward the door. 

“She’s not in trouble, is she?” Markus called after.

The three men stopped and turned back to face Markus. “Do you have relations with her?” Daryl asked.

Markus shrugged. “Her and I don’t talk much, but she’s good friends with my wife and she nannies the kids in the area. The kids definitely seem to love her.”

A moment of relief washed over Kandomere. Shae hadn’t been up to no good after all these years. Or so it seemed. Sadly, he still couldn’t rule he rout just based on a good word.

Kandomere nodded again. “Thank you.” He continued to the door, this time faster. Was it the anticipation to see her, or did he just want to get this over with? It had been over a decade since they’ve spoken, let alone seen each other. How much had she changed? Would she even remember him? The things they’d been through together? If she did, would she even want to see him? They hadn’t exactly left off on good terms...

Before he knew it, the three of them stood just outside her door. Kandomere pushed aside the bothersome thoughts. This was business. But though it was such, he found himself paralyzed.

“Agent Kandomere?” Nick tried. Kandomere didn’t move. Daryl huffed in annoyance and knocked on the door himself, the sound shaking Kandomere from his stupor. 

The first thing they heard was a large dog barking, then a woman’s voice. “Titan, hush! I fucking swear, I never wanted to fight a dog before, but you’re testing my limits, dude.” The clicking of the locks coming undone could be heard from the other side. The door opened. “I love you, but seriously. Can I he-” She stopped the moment her icy blue eyes, smudged with eyeliner, caught Kandomere’s.

Kandomere felt a lump in his throat. It really was her. Wavy black to blond hair falling over her prominent collarbone, a grey, ripped up Metallica crop top hung loosely on her torso, falling off her shoulder. A pair of black spandex shorts hugged her full hips.

She was exactly the same, except... Different. She now sported multiple piercing on her ears, a piercing on one side of her button nose, and one decorating the center of her bottom lip, drawing attention to their plumpness. And so many tattoos... Yes, it was her, exactly the same, yet different.

Kandomere cleared he lump in his throat and pushed away years of suppressed feelings (and the rather new suppressed feeling in his trousers). “Hello, Shae,” he managed to speak as professionally as possible.

“No...” A knowing sharp-toothed grin grew on her face. “...way.” She propped her elbow on the doorway above he rhead and placed a hand on her hip. “Kandomere? Is that really you?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Art by: @morphinetunee

Taglist (open):

@morphituu​ @faeylinn​ @nheireii

Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~

I do not post to any other website! Please do not repost my chapters to any other website unless I give you my written permission!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Bright or any of the characters except for my OCs!

[atelierpleiades]

THE KIDS ARE HERE!!!!!!!

holy shit the face i made when i saw the box in the porch lmao omg. oh my god. new dolls in literally a decade

anyways a bunch of first thoughts

HOLY SHIT THEY’RE BIG

the dc noah body is kicky but not too bad, it balances pretty okay. also i’m pretty sure the body isn’t actually meant to take a whole Bunch of poses anyways so....whatever

cd carson body has some Real Long Legs and oh my god i didn’t think he’d be this pale. faceup is gonna be like toasting a marshmallow

the unoa face is actually a surprisingly good match size-wise for the dc noah body! i’m gonna get a couple of faceplates in the fairy skin and airbrush this one a paler colour

unoa face + dc noah body has a decent range of motion for the neck, though it does have a bit of trouble looking downwards. but also it was hell trying to get the s-hook onto the headback so maybe it’ll just take a bit of time? or tbh it might be that the bottom of the headback is too flat to allow much downward movement

dc carson is so slender. he’s so skinny. dc noah was much heavier than expected (but also idk what i expected?? did i expect it’d be like figmas???? lmao but also oh my god i would kill for a centaur figma)

i also wanna say, i absolutely loathe the way these were packed. i prefer the foam inserts like iplehouse or fairyland, especially for storage since both these methods look like they’d absolutely murder any body blushing. so i’m gonna buy some foam blocks myself, carve them, and upholster(?) the insert in satin so that it doesn’t scratch off the inevitable blushing i’m gonna do for tabris (the dc noah)

ANYWAYS I’M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SO HAPPY BUT OH GOD. THE THINGS I HAVE TO BUY NOW. EYES ESPECIALLY. i’m super broke

[sarifel-corrisafid-ilxhel]

Taxxon Anatomy Inspiration Post

I am still trying to figure out a good way to draw Taxxons. I really have a lot of things I want to do with Taxxons, in particular a Taxxon named Bent-Leg, but I’m never satisfied! I think I have their head figured out, but the body is giving me trouble now. So I’m gonna throw my thoughts here in an easy to visualize format. For reference, here is the Book Cover impression of a Taxxon. It is ugly and makes little sense. I know aliens are alien, but I like my aliens to have some biological grounding, and this has none whatsoever. Suffer with me and gaze upon the monstrosity.

Okay, time to start compiling a list of things Taxxons have and are like.

Fact #1: Taxxons are around 10 feet long on average, sometimes longer. Okay, we have an actual concrete number to work with here, so that’s easy. On Earth during the Mesozoic Era, there was a gigantic centipede known as Arthropleura, which was also around 10 feet long.

Keep in mind this is a wide, flat creature, kind of like a gigantic land trilobite. Taxxons are more tube-shaped and as thick as a tree, but the overall length and width of the centipede is almost spot-on for Taxxons.

Fact #2: Taxxons are bright yellow on average, with some potential variation.

Okay, easy enough to consider. Also, Taxxons have nightmare hunger. Caterpillars are voracious little beasts. So the Taxxon-Caterpillar comparison is easy enough to make.

Fact #3: Taxxons are burrowing creatures. This one gives us some difficulties, actually, because burrowing creatures are generally long and slender. While Taxxons are long, they are anything but slender. While burrowing snakes and lizards tend to dig with their noses, Taxxons instead have a rotating hellmouth that crushes rocks.

There are burrowing creatures who use their face to burrow, such as this cutie.

That’s a Nematode from South Africa which is found deep in the crust, where it burrows through rocks hunting bacteria and other primitive lifeform.

However, the sheer thickness of Taxxons and their raw power brings to mind something decidedly less organic:

Fact #4: Taxxons are soft-bodied and squishy.

The Velvet Worm is perfect here. With the exception of mineralized mouthparts (which Taxxons appear to have, per the book cover art), velvet worms are soft and squishy ambush hunters. They are rather skinny compared to Taxxons, and they’re kind of fluffy (hence the name), but they are structurally similar. They use internal pressurized fluid as a skeleton- it’s implied Taxxons are similar because of how easily Taxxons squish when hit or crushed.

Fact #5: Taxxons have lots of legs

This one I don’t really need an art reference for, because the Velvet Worm and Arthropleura both cover this nicely. According to the cover art, Taxxons have 20 legs and 12 claws for a grand total of 32 limbs. However, the books imply Taxxons have dozens of legs without ever giving us a clear number. The smallest possible number which could be referred to as “dozens” is 2 dozen, or 24 legs. But it’s probably more than that, because no one would say “Dozens” when they could just say “two dozen”.

The above image of Arthropleura should have at least 48 limbs, judging by the number visible. The caterpillar has 24. And the Velvet Worm has somewhere around 88 limbs (My best guess, it’s hard to see some of the legs).

Now, it’s real easy to see *why* the book cover images would have fewer legs. It’s just easier to draw. And the books are never specific, but usually

Fact #6: Taxxons have four big eyes with internalized segmentation and an exterior jelly layer.

Now, I don’t really have a good reference for this. Most animals with segmented eyes have the lenses on the outside, and most animals with jelly eyes only have a single lens. All I can really think is that Taxxons have camera-style eyes, but their retina is subdivided into many, many lenses. For most creatures, these many lenses would all create a single image in their brain, like a pixel TV. However, Taxxons appear to see thousands of seperate images (book #43), which Tobias comments on as being unusual and a sign they had a primitive brain. The only advantage to this that I can think of is that they use it for parallax determinations, which would give them great depth perception and motion tracking. Tobias also mentions seeing color, but it’s not clear how much color vision Taxxons have relative to Humans. He describes Jake and Rachel as pink, but we don’t know if he means “Flesh pink” or “Hot magenta”. I’ll assume “flesh pink”, which probably means Taxxons have full color vision.

Fact #7: Taxxons are basically centipede-centaurs

This is one of the most interesting aspects of Taxxon anatomy. Taxxons are, as previously established, around 10 feet long. However, they can rear as much as half of their body up off the ground to look a human in the eye. Not only that, but their forelimbs are distinctly arm-like, with the top ones having 3 pincers and the lower ones having 2 pincers.  That always makes me think of caterpillars again, as caterpillars can also rear up like that and have specialized forelimbs which are different from their regular walking legs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Taxxons are actually a lot like gigantic caterpillars, which makes me wonder if a properly fed Taxxon can eventually pupate and turn into a flying horror. Hmmm. Probably not. But still fun to think about. Maybe they could at some point in their past but they don’t anymore because of the Yeerks? Taxxon butterflies. No, wait, I’m getting off topic.

Ummmm....Yeah here’s everything I have as far as inspiration for Taxxons goes, and I will get back to you once I have some ideas on how to actually draw them in a way that pleases me! I still absolutely love thenixart’s Taxxons, which are exemplified here: https://thenixart.tumblr.com/post/188823841740  They are so huggable and soft and they’re almost perfect, but I don’t want to copy them with my design. So yeah, time to figure out what works for me!

[sassyduckqueen]

30 Days of Lukanette- Earth & Water

Based on Ikari Gozen. Hope you all enjoy. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So Kagami is your partner for this game thing?" Luka asked as he video called with Marinette. 

 "Yeah. I mean don't get me wrong. I like Kagami but she keeps on giving me this unsettling smile and she asked me what my bloodtype was. Apparently, everyone in Japan knows their bloodtype," She sighed. "I don't mind working with her as you know but she keeps on looking at her phone and I feel like she's making fun of me,"

 "Mari, I don't think she is," Luka smiled. "I'm just not sure Kagami knows how to human sometimes,"

 "Tell me about it," She sighed softly as Kagami called for her. "Oh, well. I better get going. Bye, bye you two,"

 She grinned softly, waving at both Luka and Sass, who was quite happily nestled in the crook of Luka's neck and was using his hoodie as a mini blanket. Luka smiled softly as he waved back.

 "Ok. Try and have fun. I'll talk to you later," He smiled, hanging up as Sass happily chilled on his shoulder. He put his phone and began to play softly.

 "So why did you not sign up for this friendship day game?" Sass asked as he looked up from his spot.

 "Hm... I have friends. Besides, I'm no good at riddles," Luka smiled as he played softly. "Why are you hiding in my neck today anyway?"

 "It's cold," The little snake hissed, making Luka chuckle. The leaves had started to fall and the north wind was beginning to blow but it wasn't too bad. However, he lived on the seine as the air was much colder here and he imagined the little snake god was sensitive to it. 

 "If you want, I can also Mari to make you a little blanket for the upcoming months," Luka suggested, getting a little nod off the snake. He smiled but playing a little bit then he decided to go for a walk. He slipped on his shoes and Sass tucked himself into his hood before he grabbed his phone and walked out of his room.

 "You off out?" His ma asked. He nodded. "Make sure you're home by six o'clock sharp,"

 "Sure, Mum," He smirked, rolling his eyes before they both burst out laughing. As if the captain would put a curfew on her kids. She trusted them and if they got into trouble, then they could learn from their mistakes. He walked over and gently kissed her on the cheek before leaving the boat and walking towards the town center. It didn't take him long to get there and he browsed around the shops as he hummed to himself. 

 "Luka?" A somewhat familiar voice called out. He looked around and spotted Ivan waving at him. He smiled and waved back before walking over. He noticed he was with Nino, Max and a tall guy he recognized as King Monkey. Though he hadn't officially met him or Nino really. He only knew him because he was Alya's boyfriend and a friend of Marinette's and of course, he knew that he was Carapace but only because of Miracle day.

 "Hello, Luka. It is wonderful to see you again," Max grinned, pushing up his glasses.

 "Hey, how's it going?" He smiled as Max turned round to Nino and Kim.

 "Luka here is making the opening soundtrack for my game," He smiled happily. "I'm 100% sure he will make it sound awesome,"

 "Dude, that's awesome," Nino grinned. "You play with Ivan right?"

 "Right," Luka grinned.

 "Luka writes all of the music and he's a master at playing guitar!" Ivan grinned, proudly. "Without him, Kitty Section wouldn't be around. We were struggling so much to find a guitarist and then Luka was like I play guitar and boom, he joined us and now we're epic!"

 "Hey, I'm not that good," Luka mumbled, playing with his hands. He was sure Sass had just rolled his eyes. "So what are you guys doing today? You part of that friendship day game thing?"

 "Nah, Alya's playing it and tried to convince me to play but I'm no good at Riddles," Nino laughed. "Besides, if I want to meet Adrien Agreste, I just have to message him. He's my best bud,"

 "All the girls are playing it," Max replied. "I would have too but I have plenty of friends here. Which is amazing because in the beginning of the year, I started off with zero and now I have one, two, three, four-"

 "Five if you count me," A little robot appeared from inside Max's bag.

 "Of course, I count you, Markov. You're my best friend," Max smiled as Markov flew around before noticing Luka.

 "Hello, I'm Markov," He stated. 

 "Hi, I'm Luka. It's nice to meet you," Luka smiled softly, not failing to notice that Max had counted him as a friend.

 "Didn't you join in with it, Luka?" Ivan asked, looking at him softly.

 "Oh, you know riddles aren't really my thing," He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Besides, I got friends,"

 "Yeah but been home schooled isn't fun,"

 "You're home schooled, dude?" Nino asked, frowning.

 "That explains why we have never seen you in school," Max points out.

 "Oh that must be so cool!" Kim grinned excitedly. "I would love to be home schooled! I'd only turn up to go swimming!"

 "Y-yeah... I'm home schooled," Luka admitted, feeling a little bit uncomfortable. "But it's cool and come on, Ivan. You know the captain always make sure I have any instrument I want,"

 "True, the captain is awesome like that,"

 "Excuse me but who is this captain?" Markov asked, showing question marks in his eyes. 

 "Oh, the captain is my mother," Luka explained. "She calls herself captain because we live on a boathouse called the Liberty on the Seine. Ivan comes round a lot and I think Nino's been on it a few times,"

 "I didn't actually realized you lived there, dude," Nino laughed. "That is so awesome,"

 "It is pretty cool," Luka admitted. "As for the school thing, I do go to the art club and I've made friends there. Marc and Nathaniel are awesome and so talented. Actually, that reminds me. I need to ask them about the next issue of Silencer,"

 "Oh their new comic! It's so cool!" Kim gasped. "Silencer was a supervillain, who switches sides and using his voice stealing powers for good! Though Viperion doesn't trust him but Ladybug does and he works with the Illustrator and Reverser to help save Paris! Oh, oh! Who's your favorite superhero, Luka?!"

 "Hmmm... it's a tough choice between all of them really. Cat Noir's power of destruction is epic and he uses it well, Ladybug is clearly a natural leader and has confidence, Ruyko can turn into the elements so who wouldn't like that and Viperion has a lyre as a weapon. As a musician myself, I imagine it would be useful,"

 "What about the part time heroes?" Nino asked.

 "Carapace is pretty cool but to be fair, all of them are," Luka struggled. "I can't chose,"

 "Mine's King Monkey!" Kim declared. "Imagine having the power to mess up people's abilities! Soo much fun!"

 "Nah, Carapace's shield ability is way better!"

 "Pegasus can literally travel anywhere he wants," Max huffed. "That is 100% more useful then any of those two,"

 "Umm come on, guys.. they're all cool," Luka grinned as Ivan grinned.

 "I agree with Luka!" He declared, putting his arm around Luka's shoulders. 

 "Thanks, Ivan," He smiled but then horrid screams were heard. Luka looked over and saw a giant machine-like centaur that appeared to be chasing something and was coming towards them. He looked at his feet and saw Marinette and Kagami running. He looked around and saw the cinema. "Guys! Get in there and hide!"

 "No problem, dude!" Nino declared as they ran inside. Luka pretended to follow them but grabbed a stick and used it to jam the door. "Luka!"

 "She must of seen us running and threw a stick at it. It's jammed!" He stated, trying to open it before looking around. "There's an alleyway over there. I'll hide in there. Keep low and don't draw attention to yourselves!"

 "Ok! Be careful!" Ivan gasped. Luka nodded and ran into the Alleyway. As soon as they were out of sight, Sass flew out.

 "Very crafty," He commented before Luka held out his arm.

 "Sass, Scales Slither!" He declared, transforming before jumping up onto the cinema roof and then jumping into action. He jumped down as the creature reached out of Kagami. 

 "You will never go out again!" It declared but before it could grab her, Viperion pushed her out of the way. He landed on his feet as she got up and ran. "Kagami!"

 "Hey!" He yelled. "What are you suppose to be?!"

 "I am Ikari Gozen! I am as elusive as the wind, as powerful as the flood and as swift as lightening! What can a pathetic creature like you do to a goddess like me?!"

 "That is some real cockiness there!" He stated as he dodged her attacks before he jumped up and landed a kick on her chest, forcing her to stumble back as Ladybug and Ryuko joined him. He back flipped and landed next to them. "Ok, Ryuko. What happened?!"

 "I'm afraid my mother was akumatized because I disobeyed her. I only wanted to make a new friend," She sighed, looking down as her mother looked for her. "I was a fool,"

 "No, you weren't," Ladybug assured. "But we need a plan,"

 "Purrrhaps I can help," Cat Noir grinned before going to charge at the giant centaur but Ladybug grabbed his tail, stopping him. "Ok, mi'lady, you clearly have a plan,"

 "Well, we need one," She replied, throwing up her yoyo. "Lucky charm!"

 She caught the box that appeared and opened it. It contained bathbombs. 

 "Hmm," She looked around and her bug vision highlighted Ikari Gozen then she looked around. Viperion and Cat were lit up then the box and finally Ryuko. "Ok, I have a plan. Viperion, you're gonna distract her. Cat, you and me are going to get her to eat this. Finally, Ryuko. You need to let yourself get eaten. When you end up inside, use water dragon then we destroy her akuma and everything goes back to normal. Sound good?"

 "Alright!" Viperion grinned as Cat got into position. Ladybug grabbed a delivery box off a motorbike and put the bathbombs into it. "Hey, Ikari Gozen! Why don't we become friends? After all, it is friendship day!"

 "I don't need friends, you worm!"

 "Firstly, I'm a snake and secondly, you're never gonna make any with that attitude!" He gasped, kicking her back. He landed on the floor but she grabbed him and swallowed him. He landed on a car seat and a seatbelt strapped him in. This wasn't part of the plan but he opened the seat belt. a few seconds, the box landed on his lap so he opened it, ready for Ryuko, who came through a few seconds later. She looked at him and grinned.

 "You might want to hold your breathe," She declared as Ikari Gozen shouted something about her daughter's location. "Water Dragon!"

 She burst into water and it started to fill up the place. Viperion took a breathe before he was submerged. The bathbombs floated up and started to fizz before the room shook and lunged forward, freeing Viperion as it flooded the whole place. He swam up and a few seconds later, was spat out by Ikari Gozen. He landed on the ground as the water reformed into Ryuko. The centaur felt down and Cat cataclysmed her Bokan, freeing the akuma. Ladybug captured it and purified it before throwing up the box the bathbombs were in fixing everything. Kagami's mother turned back to normal with her car and everything was fixed. The four of them did their fistbump and both Cat and Ladybug went off.

 "Hey, Ryuko," Viperion stated, causing her to look at him. "You know you can call me a friend both in the mask and outside of it,"

 He had never seen her smile like that before but he assumed it was because she was happy.

 "Thank you, Viperion," She smiled before rushing off. He jumped up onto the building and down into the alleyway. He quickly transformed back before looking outside and rushing over to the cinema. The stick he used had disappeared too. He smiled softly before opening the doors. 

 "You guys ok?" He asked.

 "We just realized Mecha Monkey vs. Cyber Sharks 4 is on!" Kim gasped excitedly. "You wanna watch it with us?"

 "Sure," Luka smiled before they all brought tickets and food. 

 (***)

 "So me and Kagami ended up getting orange juice even though we lost," Marinette smiled. "She's actually really nice outside of the costume and honestly, I think I maybe misjudged her because she always seemed so strict. Oh, did you know her and Adrien broke up?"

 "Oh... did they?" He asked, wondering why this was news to Marinette but then he remembered she didn't know who Cat Noir was. Even if it was pretty obvious. 

 "What about you? Did you do anything fun?"

 "I ended up going out, battled a giant centaur and then went to the movies. Just another day in the humdrum life of Luka Couffaine," He winked, making her laugh. "It was nice. I got to hang out with Max, Ivan, Nino and Kim for a little bit but I had no idea what the movie was about. It's like the fourth one in the series and I hadn't seen any of the others,"

 "Really?" She laughed softly as he nodded. "Well, I'm still proud of you for hanging out with friends,"

 "Yeah? Well, I tried my best," He smiled. "I'm proud of you too,"

 "Oh and why's that?"

 "You befriended Kagami and took her out for orange juice," He smiled softly. 

 "Well, she is really cool," She grinned. "Oh!"

 He rose an eyebrow as she rushed up and brought over a new t-shirt design for Kitty Section. 

 "What do you think? I'm basing them on the four elements. Water, Earth, Fire and Air. Cool huh?" She gasped excited as he looked at them. He noticed each element had a kitty section mask based on their characters. "So Juleka's is Water, Rose is Air, Ivan is Fire and yours is Earth,"

 "Why am I earth?" He asked.

 "You're grounded and down to earth!" She grinned, making him smile. "Also snakes are earth creatures so I figured it made sense. Sure, no one else knows you're Viperion but you and I do and-"

 "Marinette, I love them,"

[sikereviewdotcom]

strawberry shortcake s2 ep1 - horse of a different color

this one was suggested by someone who couldnt keep their mouth shut and not sing the strawberry shortcake intro theme in the middle of our economy class

no one wanted to hear that, but they  went ahead and then i actually followed up on that train of thoughts i remembered about the fucking cartoons and i knew it pronto: its a must-see shit its like slightly above the level of magical school bus series, but the final rating is for the fin not the beginning so lets begin this horseshit:

were reviewing “horse of a different color”, it focuses indeed on strawberrys horse, honey pie pony (its her entire damn name, how sweet right? like all of them, i got diabete from this review but its the cost of maintaining this blog anyway, the kids are playing together on a that tree having fun jumping around like chimpanzees hooba hooba but sadly our filly quickly realizes she cant play king kong with them and keep falling on her ass,

yet since theyre all retarded or young (id say its a fifty-fifty case for them kinda normal ig, i mean they ARE literal 6yo) they try several ways of getting her up on that tree, not thinking how to get her down if they ever were to succeed (good for them: aint happening) its child labor too btw, from an horse still same deal what if honey pie fell down on them? crushing them corpses with her mighty pounds? the findus company would be delighted to hear such news, im sure its some quality (sweet ass) horse meat

once it all fails she understands a horse isnt meant to climb a tree, too big too fat its four legged, not even entertaining the relationship giraffes have with trees

but it aint over, then (after a talk with herself) hp hears the laughters of a bunch of kids which catches her attention, it always does who can ignore that sorta noise? although she aint annoyed by it shes just into the idea of riding a bike now, shes even gonna get a go at it oh yea thats it we finally found her human hobby gogdamn shes a backward furry

of course it fails aswell since she has no hand for the handle and shes heavy so i guess its the reason why she rides into w/e and cant stop? because otherwise she couldve also just.. actually it makes no sense does it? i mean she couldve easily stopped the ride actually how is that kid bike even holding her? ive never tried putting a pony on a bike for 6 y/o but i doubt about its capacity in not being crushed aswell as i doubt in the kids bones not being severely damaged after a visit under honey pies horsy buttcheeks

but all of that really makes her sad: she cant play with her human friends and shes the only horse around strawberry land or whatever see me tearing it for her, theres so much emotions in this episode especially after that filly trynna get kids to get into some horseplay horseshit like dude theyre only 6, lets go easy on them, might have a problem with the parents of the kids watching this episode no one even thought how fucked up this one part is? sure horseplay isnt only sexual or w/e but it still is the visual of 6yos on all four jumping around and neighing together with their ass a little bit too exposed wow im going on a dangerous road here? aint i? not gonna sue the writers im sure it was their subconscious speaking probably got issues from their childhood, eventually got them sorted out since 2004 what do i know? aside from me not caring

back on track : after seeing horsey being so sad the kiddos decide to get her a horse friend but where the fuck? they got no idea, they are proud nonetheless and go tell honey the good new until they are like “wait but we have no idea where to find horses!” ofc we get a big reveal, some serious strawberry shortcake lore: actually all the horses, ALL OF THEM FROM THE ENTIRE FUCKING PLANET are on one (1) single island: ice cream themed to diversify it all they are just chilling over there in ponyland and for some reason this one here got lost or idk guys she took the boat and checked the rest of the world out as an even younger filly, found strawberry and her friends and decided now she was a centaur  slash humanrry furry human, idk you get it but shes their friend and so on to introduce the concept of an AWESOME island full of equestrian activity and ofc ice cream but its kinda lame because who cares? everythings already made out of food, also why isnt the ice cream melting? its one water? nevermind for the introduction as i was saying, hp sings an horrendous sounding song it deteriorated my ear drums they got pierced or something  or maybe im exagerrating? either case horses cant sing:

so to the ice cream land they go, huh

of course it wouldnt be a big adventure without an almost broken bridge oh no whatever shall we do? could we possibly cross it safely? lets try it out  guys: yay it worked good for us little stress and suspense it was wack how they got honey pie out of the hole her big ass hoove made im mesmerized by the power of friendship and sugar at this point, just in full awe for the rest of the episode probably over dosed on all the ice cream flavoured horseshit, i got some all over my mouth its dripping on my desk i gotta clean that later

next thing we know: horses its all this episode is about (aside from labor) but you see, so far hp would switch between normal human language and neighing well turns out her other fellow equines can only neigh and so they just neigh together while our english well-spoken mammal translates to the moronic kids who just smile smuggly

of course the animals are having a welcome party then, dancing around while the morons are just bored, harsh one being a cartoon character isnt it guys? w/e theyre gonna ask for honey pie to come back home now, convinced that her natural habit isnt her place and she loves them too much to just leave them and never come back and break any plans they ever had together- oh shit looks like shes leaving forever huh? what a plot twist mark that on the bitch quota for today

the first one to leave is the little boy btw, important thing to note: hes the biggest pussy he cant even face reality: oh no, no more pony back time before sleep thats quite a bummer, downer and man how are they going to survive now they got no animal to watch over them? jesus theyre soon, on the boat (idk where they got it from idk why suddenly theyre on a boat because then theyre once again gonna cross that bridge but ok) anyway yea theyre having a relationship crisis during that ship trip yada yada ah and the bridge, because (see i do not call them morons for now reasons obviously they deserve this title not only because theyre 6 but also because they are just daft:) they proceed, once in the middle of the bridge all 4 of them, to stop and wonder

“will the bridge be able to hold all of us? wont it break? damn i wonder if it will crack” and they talks without moving until vlam: a tree comes and breaks it (dont ask) so now theyre in trouble:

back to ponyland: bitch pie realizes how much she misses her actual friends and that she can speak english which her other horse friends cant do so she is special and probably abnormal, shes a big outcat of the pony society and has no other reason but to escape her incoming death sentence for fraternizing with the humans of course none of the second part is true, she just wants to see the kids again so she says asta la vista baby to the neigher team and runs away see, she hasnt taken the boat and yet also arrive to the bridge? why a boat sequence then? i will skip this for now but it WILL play in the rating, imagine im the parent of the youngster watching this crap and i have to endure it

if it sucks this bad and is this illogical i might just get bored and change the channel, idc my progeny aint gonna be watching this in either case, ill make them watch political debates then interrogate them on what they learned after what but it wasnt actual political debates just random furry youtuber venting with their fursona sprites animated and thats how you make your kids retarded, the kick of this joke is that i aint planning on getting any kids but totally gonna make them watch classics too such as the attack of the killer donuts as soon as they reach 6 so they wont be dumb and probably not getting diabete or w/e in their adulthood

then honey pie saves the kids btw all of them, heavy shit

and they all go back to strawberryland, happily after a big “wow i missed you sm, you are my real friends w/e if you dont look like me i aint speciest guys really!” theyre all vegan too btw so this works for them i havent watched enough strawberry shortcake episodes to know if they ever eat meat but i have doubts seeing how theyre into a very cannibalistic diet which include eating dessert when obviously thats what they are at least half part, this cartoon raises a lot of political questions it may have a deeper value than i first attributed to it

the end: another terrible song plays about horseshit and how tasty it is

thats all folks

so the rating: big 6/10, so you know 5/10 if its a decent kid show where im highly eager to click on the x and get back making jams but nah

surprisingly enough, i only wanted to stop watching half of the episode and not the entirity of it so credits for thats since im an adult and not a kid, imagining kids enjoyed this sweet childish cartooness or w/e now why +1? its because of how many political questions it raised, how it made me think about our society and cakes yknow its more than kids having a conflict with an horse it talks about veganism, specism, handicap, cannibalism, the management of the limited ressources were exploiting and so on yea really makes you think, its subliminal messages to make kids smarter: they watch their dessert-imbecile counterparts doing bs and then get it right irl: good  ah- it also makes it better for you when youre watching this with your kid, you suddenly transcend to another level of spirituality, existential crisis activated or at least reasoning mode or w/e youre willing to name this the point is you arent bored still despite all of this i rated it quite low for such a serious kid cartoon what couldve possibly made me tic? 1) kids are morons and cant understand all of this, not clear enough for the targeted public 2) projection onto the characters/dialogues from the writers of their childhood traumas (the horse play event didnt go unnoticed, karren brown) 3) my little pony ripoff 4) its controversial, our society, especially in 2004 couldnt understand the depth of this shit and finally 5) i got so much ice cream flavoured horseshit all over my desk god help me this is so filthy what a fucking mess i would totally recommand it to anyone who feels like being blown away by the statements made in this work of art 6/10 but really we all know in the future, itll be a 9/10, some ahead-of-its-time-crap

tg, out

[excellent-monster-girl-ideas]

Khera and the Liminal Diner

Khera couldn't help but slump as she took her seat in the diner. Once again, rejected, she thought with a sigh. "Orcs don't cry," her family always told her, but after years of failing to find love, she couldn't help but let out a few tears.

As she waited for the waitress to come, she thought about her latest crush and wiped her tears with her handkerchief. "I'm not into tall girls," he had said. Those five simple words had verbally stabbed the 7-foot orc woman through the heart.

At least it was better than other times she was rejected. One elf boy she tried asking out said he wasn't into tusks. Another boy, a merman this time, told her he couldn't stand the color green. Even a human - a human, of all people! - rejected her by saying he didn't want a girl stronger than he.

As she was thinking about these things, the waitress arrived. She was an elderly cat-woman, definitely a tabby judging by the hair, with a name-tag reading "Muse." "Evenin', Khera," she greeted.

"Hey," Khera replied, her face down.

"Aw, why so glum?" Muse asked, placing a hand on her hip and another on the table.

"Ah, nothin', just... guy trouble."

"Aw, I didn't know you had a guy," Muse said, giving a gentle smile.

"That's the problem, I don't."

"Oh, I see, I see. Well, then, ah... what can I get you this evening?"

"Triple burger," Khera said. "With a large Pixie Cola."

"Sure," the old woman replied. "Anything else?"

Khera shook her head.

"I'll bring it right away," Muse replied, leaving the table.

Khera sighed, continuing to think about past rejections. What am I doing wrong? she thought before wiping yet another tear from her eye.

Some time passed before another patron entered the diner, her arrival announced by a bell over the doorway. Khera turned to the door out of curiosity. It was a certain dragon girl wearing a black leather jacket over her red-scaled arms.

"Yo, Khera! Thought I'd find you here," she said.

"Hi, Eza," Khera said, not facing Eza as she sat in the booth across from her, uninvited.

"Got your text. That sucks, man," Eza said, taking her leather jacket off and setting it in her lap. The red scales on her arms and shoulders faintly glimmering in the dim light. "Sounds like a real jackass, too."

Khera nodded, wiping away more tears from her eyes. "I'm... thinkin' 'bout givin' up on findin' a guy."

"What?!" Eza exclaimed. "Nah, c'mon, man! One dumb guy doesn't mean you gotta give up on all of 'em. I've known you for how long? Like, six years? You've always wanted a boyfriend!"

"Yeah, but like-"

"'But' nothin'! It's like my mom always said: If you want love, chase it and never look back!"

"Your mom's in jail."

"Hey, the guy told her he was eighteen!"

"He was an elf, Eza."

"That doesn't- that's not the point!" Eza half-shouted. "Look, the point is, you want a boyfriend, right?"

Silence hung over the two for a brief moment. Khera glanced up at her friend with a smile. "Yeah, I do."

"Then don't give up! The right guy will come to you!"

"But, like... how?" Khera asked.

"Hmm..." Eza stroked her thin with her clawed hand. "How 'bout loitering at a mall or somethin', holdin' a sign that says 'Seeking 18-21 year old girlfriend-free boy' or somethin'-"

"Oh my gosh, Eza," Khera laughed.

Eza laughed with her. "Thank krazk, I got you to laugh."

"Did you just swear in Goblin?" Muse asked with a chuckle, returning to the table with Khera's burger and soda. "So nice to see you, Eza."

Eza laughed heartily. "Been hangin' around Tekkati too long. You know how she slips into her native tongue when she gets pissed."

"Oh, I hear her all the time," Muse laughed in return. "Now, what can I get you, Eza dear?"

"Just a beer is fine," the dragon girl replied, leaning back with her arms outstretched. "Whatever's available."

"That's fine," said Muse, "but you better not drive home on that motorcycle of yours if you do."

"Aw, c'mon, it's just one beer," Eza complained. "Besides, dragons have, like, ten times the alcohol resistance of a human!"

"Isn't it ten times worse?" Khera muttered as she smirked.

"Hush," Eza said, quickly turning her head to Khera and back to Muse. "C'mon, just one beer?"

"Alright, alright," Muse chortled. "I swear, I feel like your mother sometimes, Eza."

"Yeah, you nag just like her!" Eza called as she walked away.

Khera laughed at their exchange, taking a big bite of her meal and a sip of her soda. As she did, another bell rang as a new guest entered the diner: a four-foot tall, curvy goblin girl wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

"Hey, guys!" she said as she approached Khera and Eza's table.

"Yo, Tekk!" Eza greeted as the green-skinned girl leaped into her booth. "How's everyone's favorite shortstack doin'?"

"Oh, I'm doing awesome right now," she said with enthusiasm. "I just bought the place!"

"The restaurant?" Khera asked.

"Krazk yeah!" Tekkati shouted, raising her fists. "The dream's coming true! I'm finally gonna fulfill my lifelong dream of owning a pho shop!"

"...Dude, you first ate pho, like, three years ago," Eza said.

"My life didn't begin until then! Ever since I first came to the human world and ate pho, I've been addicted to the stuff! It's the soup of kings- nay, the soup of gods!"

"Oh, Tekkati! Good to see you, dear," Muse said warmly as she returned to their booth with Eza's beer. "Here you are, Eza dear."

"Hell yeah! Thanks!" Eza said, snatching the bottle and quickly opening it with a draconic thumb.

Muse laughed. "That's hardly the way to speak to an old lady like me," she admonished.

"I've heard you say worse," Tekkati said.

"Oh, that was one time," Muse replied. "So, did you buy the restaurant?"

"Yep! It's gonna be great! I wanna do a lot of the same stuff you do here, like having lots of room for larger liminals like lamias and centaurs, adjustable seats for differently-sized races... y'know, that kind of stuff."

Khera looked around the diner. She had never noticed how spacious it was before. "Oh wow, I never even payed attention to that."

Muse smiled and nodded. "We try to accommodate as many races as possible. We're even going to start using moisturizing seats for mermaids and other semi-aquatic liminals once the shipment comes in."

"Oh man, I gotta do that!" Tekkati said.

"So, do you have a name for it?" Khera asked, hand under her chin.

"Oh, I never told you? I've had it planned for years!" The goblin girl exclaimed. "See, the place is gonna have this biiiig line outside it, since there's gonna be, like, brazillions of people coming, right?"

"That's not a number, but continue," Khera said.

"So, because of that inevitable massive line, I shall dub the restaurant - get ready - the PHO QUEUE!"

The few other diner patrons turned their heads to Khera, eyes wide.

"Hm, well, that... that's, um..." Eza said, scratching the back of her head.

"That's very... unique," Khera said.

"Ah, well, it's..." Muse stuttered. "Um... so Khera! How've you been?"

"Ah, I've been fine," she said. "Still been looking for a boyfriend. Last guy shot me down hard."

"How hard?" Tekkati asked.

"Like... 'doesn't like tall girls' hard," Khera said, leaning back and looking at the ceiling. "And now I'm depressed again."

"Oof," Tekkati said with a wince.

"Like I said: he's a jackass," Eza chimed in.

"Oh, dear," Muse said, pulling up a chair to their booth and taking a seat. "May I ask you something?"

Khera tilted her head. "Um, sure?"

"Why do you want a boyfriend?"

Khera paused for a moment. This wasn't something she really thought about.

"I mean, does she need a reason?" Eza asked. "People wanna be loved, right?"

Tekkati nodded. "Plus, she never had a boyfriend before."

"Don't need to be reminded!" the orc girl said.

"Ack, sorry!" Tekkati squeaked.

Muse nodded. "Yes, it's normal to want love, Khera dear," the old cat-woman said. "There's certainly nothing wrong with it. But if there's one thing to remember, it's that love is not something to be chased."

"Huh? It's... what?" Khera said.

"Love is like happiness. If you chase after it, you'll never have it. It needs to come to you."

"Aw, that's boring!" Eza bemoaned. "C'mon, Muse!"

Muse chuckled. "Perhaps it's a little boring to young girls like you-"

"I'm twenty-nine," Tekkati muttered as Muse continued.

"-But when you're my age, you'll have the benefit of hindsight. I made many mistakes growing up, trying to chase happiness, and coming up empty each time. I used to live on a farm, you know, but one day, when I was twelve, I ran away from home to live in a big city."

"Woah, really?" Khera gasped, her eyes wide.

"Oh, it was quite the adventure. I wanted to be a singer, and I actually became very popular for a while. I made many friends, and quite a lot of money too. I was happy, but pretty soon, I remembered my family. They were definitely worried sick about me, no doubt about it. I tried pushing aside my feelings, but one day... it ended."

"Hm? What did?" Tekkati asked.

"My fame," Muse replied. "It ran out. My 'fifteen minutes,' as humans like to say. I lost all my friends, my home, and eventually all my money, too. So I crawled back home, without a penny to my name..."

"Oh, that's sad," Khera said.

Muse smiled. "Not quite. As I walked home, I started noticing things. Smaller things, like trees, clouds, and rocks. I started seeing them as beautiful things. When I walked all the way to that city, I took the exact same road, but noticed none of them. I didn't take notice of such a beautiful world because I was so focused on finding happiness."

Khera tilted her head again. She nodded before taking a slow sip of her drink.

"And yet," Muse continued, "I found happiness there, real happiness. I began to appreciate the world around me, and there I discovered joy for the first time. Joy isn't found in big things," she said, turning to Eza and Tekkati, "like the thrill of a motorcycle ride, or owning a famous restaurant. It's found in smaller things. Things like a conversation with a friend, or a good bowl of soup."

"So... what should I do?" Khera asked. "Should I just... give up on finding love?"

"You're already loved," Muse said, turning to face the orc girl with a warm smile. "When I finally arrived home from that trip, I was sure my family would hate me for abandoning them. But they didn't. They loved me even more now that I was home. I wanted to be loved by so many people when the only people I needed love from were right there the whole time."

Muse took Khera's hand and gestured towards Eza and Tekkati. "You're already loved," the old cat-woman said. "Loved by so, so many people."

The dragon and goblin girls smiled at their orc friend. She smiled back, tears in her eyes. "Thanks, Muse."

"Anytime, Khera. But just remember," Muse said as she stood up, "I'm not discouraging you from finding a boyfriend. Rather, I want to encourage you to enjoy the smaller things in life. They're sweeter things, anyway. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to continue my job," she said with a grin. "Tekkati, would you like anything, dear?"

"Just a Pixie Cola," the goblin girl replied.

"And, um..." Khera said, "Can I get a refill?"

"Of course," Muse said, leaving to get their request.

Khera looked at her friends. "I... I'm really glad to be your friend," she said, grinning, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Same," Tekkati said, smiling.

"Yeah, definitely," Eza replied. "But don't cry, alright? You're gonna make me cry, dammit!"

The girls laughed, and began to talk about other things as Muse returned with their drinks. As she drank her soda, Khera began to savor it - all of it: the jovial conversation with her closest friends, the sweet taste of the fizzling soda, the soft seats of the diner's booths, even the blue and yellow of the table where they sat. All of it became sweet to her, when she hardly paid mind to it before.

The orc girl couldn't help but smile. She found her joy, with friends she loved, in a diner she adored.