#if not done right can turn someone into an inhumane madman

[empty-dream]

"These are way too big! You said so, didn't you!? That this is the fate that God has granted me?! That means God is at fault!" "Take that back! Right now! Those words are unforgivable!" Teaching her faith is most important. That may be, but when a child is crying, what could be more important than comforting them first?

[edenmemes]

the witcher 3: wild hunt starters

including quotes from the dlcs hearts of stone & blood and wine

❝  you were always an unruly child. i adored that about you.  ❞ ❝  mmm. yes. of course. the excuse you resort to when you’d rather not talk about something.  ❞ ❝  how many have you killed? how many more might you still?  ❞ ❝  you know who i am. and why i’m here.  ❞ ❝  you're a madman and always have been. a cruel, cold-blooded killer.  ❞ ❝  a man should frame his wishes carefully. it forestalls disappointment.  ❞ ❝  no argument. you knew what you were signing up for.  ❞ ❝  maybe once, in a different time...i’d have helped.  ❞ ❝  don’t train alone, it only embeds your errors.  ❞ ❝  wanna get drunk off my ass. and it’s gotta be on cheap wine.  ❞ ❝  you’re a heartless bastard.  ❞ ❝  try to trick me anyway, anyhow, you won’t go anywhere, you know that. ‘cause i’ll take your head off right where it meets your neck.  ❞ ❝  sorry. i don’t want to talk about it. not now, at least.  ❞ ❝  we are more like a family.   we support each other and help each other survive tough moments.  ❞ ❝  so how’s it feel to be the village witch?  ❞ ❝  realize, please, that you were made for great things.  ❞ ❝  folks say a curse has fallen on that place, a dark power brought down by the bestiality of the murders it beheld.  ❞ ❝  so, now you’ve threatened me and all...are you in or are you not?  ❞ ❝  i know it must sound foolish, but in the dream - well, it was all too real...  ❞ ❝  we may not survive this. in fact, our chances are slim.  ❞ ❝  it’s always been about you. only you.  ❞ ❝  i remember finding your sense of humor both groan-worthy...and somehow endearing.  ❞ ❝  kings die, realms fall, but magic endures.  ❞ ❝  i detest banquets. vacuous conversation, food portions fit for a mouse, drinks that taste like piss...  ❞ ❝  despite what you’ve heard, i don’t lunge at every monster i see, sword in hand.  ❞ ❝  each day’s more dangerous than the last.  ❞ ❝  it’s folks like you that restore my faith in humankind.  ❞ ❝  my power lies in possessing knowledge, not sharing it.  ❞ ❝  the rotten smell brings back childhood memories.  ❞ ❝  awfully noble of you, showing so much concern for the needy.  ❞ ❝  no need to thank me. always glad to save your ass. you’re welcome.  ❞ ❝  i may be inhumanely beautiful, but i don’t have super human senses.  ❞ ❝  anyone can be made to talk, even a corpse. one must simply know how.  ❞ ❝  we’ve done the hardest part. only got the pleasant bits now.  ❞ ❝  there are few causes worth saving. even fewer men.  ❞ ❝  don’t treat me like a child.  ❞ ❝  there’s strange men lurking outside the house. watching me.  ❞ ❝  you must be careful what you wish for lest your wish be granted.    for there are consequences.  ❞ ❝  shall i be free of the suffering? the sadness?  ❞ ❝  i wish to gaze into those eyes, eyes the devil would be proud to have.  ❞ ❝  you were born with a great gift. and only you can decide how to use it.  ❞ ❝  any other words of wisdom? or can we go?  ❞ ❝  what i need is an ally. and something tells me i shall find none better than you.  ❞ ❝  i can see no row can occur here without your participation.  ❞ ❝  i and what concerns me have not been a concern of yours for some time now.  ❞ ❝  if you’d not arrived in time, things might have ended considerably worse.  ❞ ❝  if they can bleed, they can die.  ❞ ❝  a man must display some madness from time to time --- it helps him feel alive.  ❞ ❝  i was deeply troubled. you’ve no idea.  ❞ ❝  done that so many times, but...it felt like our first kiss to me.  ❞ ❝  don’t need to play tough on me.  ❞ ❝  i've lost too many mates already. i won’t risk it, i can't.  ❞ ❝  there’s just not enough of us. it’ll be a hard fight.  ❞ ❝  in lonely woods, screams carry long.  ❞ ❝  things used to be simpler.    monsters were bad, humans good.   now, everything’s all confused.  ❞ ❝  as for your missteps --- i don't rightly see why i shouldn't laugh if they're amusing..  ❞ ❝  i’ve no gold to offer you in reward...but i shall be ever so grateful.  ❞ ❝  if you’re scared, turn back. i’m gonna go on.  ❞ ❝  if anything happens, i’ll defend you.  ❞ ❝  once you say "i love you," a kiss has to taste differently.  ❞ ❝  maybe we should sit? you look a bit dazed...  ❞ ❝  drink it off, sleep it off, whatever it takes...just get yourself together and think things        through.  ❞ ❝  i shall join later, if it’s no trouble. i don’t yet feel strong enough to venture out.  ❞ ❝  awake at last. you writhed like a squirrel caught in a snare.  ❞ ❝  again you plan without even asking what i think!  ❞ ❝  come to see how i’m feelin'? thanks, not bad.  ❞ ❝  i remember that day quite well...there was a light drizzle, yet the cold tore right through you.  ❞ ❝  you gotta keep your eyes peeled wide open. someone’s taken an interest in your work.  ❞ ❝  oof...for a minute, i actually thought we were doomed.  ❞ ❝  you shouldn’t worry yourself --- it tarnishes your beauty.  ❞ ❝  i’d even embrace you...were you not covered in blood.  ❞ ❝  guess i could’ve been someone worse...just a shame i had no choice.  ❞ ❝  facts interest me. not fairytales.  ❞ ❝  hm, odd smell. blend of alcohol, blood and monster stench.  ❞ ❝  i’m old and i am wealthy. i may say what i please.  ❞ ❝  now, be so kind and leave me to my thoughts.  ❞ ❝  in your shoes i’d pack it up and go hide somewhere far away.  ❞ ❝  forgive me, but that's the blatherin' of someone who clearly can't snap out of it after a tragic loss.  ❞ ❝  that all you gotta say? i saved your life.  ❞ ❝  i swear on all that is holy: we shall be together forever.  ❞ ❝  think of me as part of the decor.  ❞ ❝  anyone who’s bold enough to fight is already a hero.  ❞ ❝  if this is a trap of some sort...  ❞ ❝  you can count on me, you know? always.  ❞ ❝  you don’t know how much it means...to have someone you can rely on in this fucking city.  ❞ ❝  i know you. you have no heart.  ❞ ❝  no room for friendship in this business.  ❞ ❝  evil is evil. lesser, greater, middling, makes no difference. the degree is arbitrary, the definitions blurred.  ❞ ❝  hands off, or i'll cut them off.  ❞ ❝  i’ll need to clear my head first. after those deranged dreams, i feel it’s full of cobwebs.  ❞ ❝  on your way? or will you stay longer? it’s far safer with you around...  ❞ ❝  really sad story, but something’s not right. got a feeling you’re not telling me everything.  ❞ ❝  gotta admit, there’s something about you. you’re...different.  ❞ ❝  with each arrow i shoot, i think of my dad. he’d be proud, i think.  ❞ ❝  i merely know when to indulge my pride, and when to swallow it.  ❞ ❝  you were born to greatness.  ❞ ❝  these’re dark, grim times. no room for knights pure of heart or happily-ever-afters.  ❞ ❝  a life without liquor’s like loving without licking.  ❞ ❝  my certainty i walk the right path grows strong as iron, firm as steel.  ❞ ❝  few make me feel awkward, but in your presence, i feel anxiety, discomfort.  ❞ ❝  some men have got good reason to fear their own shadows.  ❞ ❝  some men cannot admit defeat. some keep fighting from beyond the grave.  ❞ ❝  stare into their eyes, feast on their terror. then go in for the kill.  ❞ ❝  forget not that you are a person right and honorable, devoted to doing good.  ❞ ❝  ash shall fertilize the soil. by spring, the valley shall bloom once more.  ❞ ❝  there’s lots of wraiths here. i hear them whispering every night.  ❞ ❝  no one has the courage to face this threat! yet we must kill them, or sooner or later we will all die.  ❞ ❝  you are a step away from losing your head. speak the truth and you might yet keep it.  ❞ ❝  you carry within you the weight of a terrible tragedy. you are a good person, but lost. which is why you come across as grim.  ❞ ❝  if i understand you correctly, you would rather help a monster than kill it?  ❞ ❝  discouraged after a mere eight attempts?  ❞ ❝  easier to pat someone on the back and hope things will work out than it is to face the truth.  ❞ ❝  know that they can’t teach an old dog new tricks?  ❞ ❝  my, you’ve grown beautiful.  ❞ ❝  my swords a promise --- if i reach for it, heads will roll.  ❞ ❝  one condition: no one dies. that clear?  ❞ ❝  patience happens to be my weakness. so dispense with the dramatic pauses and talk.  ❞ ❝  you proved today you can take care of yourself.  ❞ ❝  you under the delusion you’ll complete your tasks, live happily ever after?  ❞ ❝  i will not sit and twiddle my thumbs. i'm sick of waiting, sick of hiding!  ❞ ❝  glad you know who i am. haven’t introduced yourself, though.  ❞ ❝  i’ve seen a great deal --- cruelty, cynicism, greed.  ❞ ❝  you tempt fate, because at heart you are unhappy.  ❞ ❝  we had our chance, but...let it go.  ❞ ❝  come now, you didn’t expect it to be that easy, did you?  ❞ ❝  promise me one thing --- you’ll stop risking your life for others.  ❞ ❝  instead of dwelling on the future, i’d rather live in the moment.  ❞ ❝  i adore love stories. especially the ones that end happily ever after.  ❞ ❝  we are drops of rain that together make a ferocious storm.  ❞ ❝  the path to freedom is paved in blood, not ink.  ❞ ❝  we’ll get our happy ending. one day.  ❞ ❝  i’ll never forget what you did for me...and what we had together.  ❞ ❝  don’t meddle in other people’s lives.  ❞ ❝  i don’t get attached to places. just people.  ❞ ❝  it’s dangerous, there are risks involved. understand that, don’t you?  ❞ ❝  and here i hoped someone would finally take pity on me.  ❞ ❝  seen a lot of dead in my time, but that must’ve been hard.  ❞ ❝  air is strange...like dropping into a deep cellar on a hot day...  ❞ ❝  wouldn’t carry a sword if i didn’t know how to use it.  ❞ ❝  take it you didn't summon me to reminisce about the good old days, so...  ❞ ❝  i was attacked --- had to defend myself.  ❞ ❝  guards have never stopped me, you know that.  ❞ ❝  treating the ill and wounded...it’s my calling.  ❞ ❝  you think it’s enchanted?  ❞ ❝  there are times when a woman should simply not explain her decision.  ❞ ❝  won’t find too many comforts, but try to feel at home.  ❞ ❝  i was looking for you...sometimes i thought you were just a step away. other times, i felt like i was going around in circles.  ❞ ❝  i’ll remember you. always with a smile.  ❞ ❝  i’d rather you not make anymore trouble --- for yourself, or us both.  ❞ ❝  got the stench of corpes on you.  ❞ ❝  you stood to gain --- that is why you saved me.  ❞ ❝  sages invariably have hidden agendas. altruism is simply not part of their constitution.  ❞ ❝  the gods have abandoned us. the mighty of this earth care not for our fate.  ❞ ❝  is that admiration i hear in your voice?  ❞ ❝  i started off heading in the opposite direction, but then turned around.  ❞ ❝  i’m fed up. i won’t have others deciding for me behind my back.  ❞ ❝  where’d you get this idea? what’s gotten into you?  ❞ ❝  i don't expect you to commit now. think it over, what you've heard, what you feel.  ❞ ❝  head torn clear off...takes incredible strength.  ❞ ❝  desperate fathers have been known to do a lot to find their daughters.  ❞ ❝  you cannot kill me. you know this...  ❞ ❝  "i give you my heart”? what kind of spell is that?  ❞ ❝  i’d go anywhere with you.  ❞ ❝  why? because i am a woman? in a frock, rather than plate? i can take care of myself, i assure you.  ❞ ❝  everything we discussed here, hope you’ll keep it to yourself. counting on it, in fact.  ❞ ❝  trusted you once. won’t make that mistake again.  ❞ ❝  shut up. i’ve heard enough of your bullshit. draw your weapon, let’s get this over with.  ❞ ❝  exaggerating for effect, right?  ❞ ❝  well, well...when cornered, you can bite.  ❞ ❝  you cannot win...even if you kill me.  ❞ ❝  you know i’m good at accomplishing the impossible.  ❞ ❝  it’s nothing, really. you’d have done the same for me.  ❞ ❝  you are not ready. you do not control your powers.  ❞ ❝  you’re a tool in their hands, even if you don’t see it.  ❞ ❝  i’d do anything for you, i would. you know that well.  ❞ ❝  this is a land where the fantastic is normal, and the impossible occurs daily...  ❞ ❝  know when a legend becomes a prophecy? when it gain believers.  ❞ ❝  i thought you’d become a stranger to me. that i’d look at you and not feel a thing. but it’s not like that at all. nothing’s changed.  ❞ ❝  to be honest, i just wanted to go on a walk with you.  ❞ ❝  what i really want is to be with you, to...to be together and...  ❞ ❝  this is not the kind of offer one refuses.  ❞ ❝  despair devours you like maggots devour a corpse.  ❞ ❝  before long every soul will kneel before you.  ❞ ❝  i run into dilemmas all the time. situations where it's hard to judge, hard to know what's right, make a decision. this is not one of them. you disgust me. and deserve to die.  ❞ ❝  you know me. i’m rare to praise, but when i do, it’s sincere.  ❞ ❝  i'm not a thug for hire.  ❞ ❝  i like being on adventures, sleeping under the stars, waking up with dew on my face.  ❞ ❝  the dream's within reach now. i’m not about to let it go.  ❞ ❝  unlike you, killing gives me no pleasure.  ❞ ❝  can't speak for the world you inhabit, but in mine, nothing is ever black and white.  ❞ ❝  you cannot possibly imagine how much i detest this place.  ❞ ❝  stones you’ve got. but i didn’t think you’d have the stomach for a massacre.  ❞ ❝  the dead man --- looked like a monster attacked him recently.  ❞ ❝  finish all your business before you die. bid loved ones farewell. write your will. apologize to those you’ve wronged. otherwise, you’ll never truly leave this world.  ❞ ❝  i've had nothing but nightmares lately. pretty horrible.  ❞ ❝  i was wandering through the forest, breathing deep the air, and then i heard a strange sound, unsettling.  ❞ ❝  had a few nice dreams. for example, in one we sat around a fire, drinking good wine, and all around people danced and laughed.  ❞ ❝  they’re all dead! mountains of corpses. yet here i stand alone. all alone.  ❞ ❝  this isn’t a game. men have died.  ❞ ❝  if you wanna listen, listen, if not --- i'd rather you spared me your wit and throw me out now.  ❞ ❝  you fed me, cared for me, had my wounds looked after. we're even now.  ❞ ❝  you’ll return, you shall. our fates are bound.  ❞ ❝  i’ve nothing left. not a fucking thing.  ❞ ❝  i don’t question your abilities. i simply don’t trust you.  ❞ ❝  what foolish things men sometimes do.  ❞ ❝  dare harm me, and against you will rise all the powers of nature.  ❞ ❝  did you destroy the evil powers? have you brought peace to my domain?  ❞ ❝  well, perhaps i shall tell you about it one day. one day, but not today..  ❞ ❝  times like these, you never know what tomorrow will bring.  ❞ ❝  you worry too much. what will be, will be.  ❞ ❝  have you gone completely mad? we must leave here at once!  ❞ ❝  time eats away at memories, distorts them. sometimes we only remember the good... sometimes only the bad.  ❞ ❝  you don’t need magic to strip men of their humanity. i’ve seen plenty of examples.  ❞ ❝  if i’m to choose between one evil and another, i’d rather not choose at all.  ❞ ❝  see what i’ve got on my back? wolves fear it. kings do, too.  ❞ ❝  i missed those awkward compliments of yours.  ❞ ❝  sometimes i think it’s all too lovely to be true…that something’s bound to happen, another war or some other horror.  ❞ ❝  took you a while. did you run into trouble?  ❞ ❝  i just travel a lot. and i don't always happen upon such good and civil company.  ❞ ❝  what can you know about saving the world, silly?  ❞ ❝  done my share of fighting. wouldn't carry a sword if i didn't know to use it.  ❞ ❝  all right, perhaps i wasn’t completely honest.  ❞ ❝  ever thought this day would come? me and you...peace and quiet...bees buzzing, birds chirping.  ❞ ❝  i detect a shadow of impatience in your face.  ❞ ❝  took me a long time to find you. wasn't an easy road to travel.  ❞ ❝  wipe that frown off your face, or i might think you don’t like me anymore.  ❞ ❝  always believed attack was the best defense.  ❞ ❝  once it’s all over, if we survive ... i wish to leave, go far away.   and i’d like you to come with me.  ❞ ❝  naturally, you suspect me of the worst. i don’t deserve that.  ❞ ❝  we can fight another time, in another place, where the walls have no ears.  ❞ ❝  once i was free...i shall be free once more.  ❞ ❝  believe me...a tavern, mulled wine, our boots drying by the fire --- i’d like nothing better.  ❞ ❝  prove it. kiss me.  ❞ ❝  the prophecies do not lie...you cannot survive this struggle.  ❞ ❝  i know you better than you think.  ❞ ❝  you know me. nothing i like more than breaking rules.  ❞ ❝  what’s happened? it’s so quiet, all of a sudden.  ❞ ❝  thank you, for coming with me.  ❞ ❝  i cannot do everything for you. use your head.  ❞ ❝  i'm angry and tired. had to kill a lot of people along the way.  ❞ ❝  we’ve come a long way, and i’d be damned if we’ve come to fail.  ❞ ❝  i sense your pain. i see your fear.  ❞ ❝  how’s this for an answer: kiss my ass.  ❞ ❝  how many have you already killed? how many more might you still?  ❞ ❝  i'm quite alive and extraordinarily well. better than i've ever been in this rotten life of mine.  ❞ ❝  i like it when you smile. come here. everything will be all right.  ❞ ❝  ugh. don’t fall in love with me.  ❞ ❝  i don’t like you. in fact, i feel like slapping you.  ❞ ❝  i'm too old to play the blushing bride...unless you ask nicely.  ❞ ❝  that bit of my life --- forgotten it already.  ❞ ❝  the world doesn’t need a hero. it needs a professional.  ❞ ❝  next time you wonder why i’m so bitter...well, there's your answer.  ❞ ❝  nothing wrong with having a drink in good company.  ❞ ❝  i want you behind those rocks. and keep your mouth shut.  ❞ ❝  nice of you to worry...but i've made my decision, and i won't change it.  ❞ ❝  this is my story, not yours. you must let me finish telling it.  ❞ ❝  after all that toil, i believe we deserve a bit of a rest.  ❞ ❝  i was afraid you were dead.  ❞ ❝  we’ve all some stain on our conscience.  ❞ ❝  leaving the castle walls means certain death.  ❞ ❝  right good jest. had us a laugh. now fuck off.  ❞ ❝  i’ve heard about you. you bring trouble, or thus far have, always.  ❞ ❝  ah, you’ve struck a raw nerve.    memories of a time long past to which i’d rather not return now.  ❞ ❝  we meet again. and it seems you need my help. again.  ❞ ❝  got a relative i can talk to? someone - how do i say this - a smidgen less irritating?  ❞ ❝  miss the target, you owe me fifty push-ups. hit it, you owe me twenty.  ❞ ❝  oh. serious talk coming.  ❞ ❝  i feel like one more lie'd be the last bitter drop in a chalice full of sorrow.  ❞ ❝  romantic? thought we came here as friends.  ❞ ❝  you’re hiding something. and that’s one thing i can’t stand.  ❞ ❝  tell me, how do you do it? always manage to pull yourself together, focus, no matter what’s happening?  ❞ ❝  i go wherever i please, whenever i please.  ❞ ❝  uh oh. i know that look.  ❞ ❝  sounds tempting. so tempting i don’t think i can refuse.  ❞ ❝  so, what do you say to a moonlight ride on horseback...and dinner?  ❞ ❝  perhaps...perhaps you’d stay just a bit longer?  ❞ ❝  how are you feeling? sleep well?  ❞ ❝  such a gloomy subject to broach...  simply shouldn’t have.  ❞

❝  such a gloomy subject to broach...i simply shouldn’t have --- not during our romantic dinner.  ❞ ❝  got it. a bit of blackmail --- just your style.  ❞ ❝  it’s the crack of dawn. where do you wanna go?  ❞ ❝  shut up before you wake someone. last thing we need is a crowd.  ❞ ❝  watch what you say. the trees have ears.  ❞ ❝  no bow at hand, no spear. my sword was all i had.  ❞ ❝  never expected you’d take such an interest in my private life.  ❞ ❝  i’m special. always was the rare beauty.  ❞ ❝  damn. been ages since we last saw each other.  ❞ ❝  some charming orchards nearby. in bloom, even, so you almost can't smell the corpses.  ❞ ❝  you know me. nothing i like more than breaking rules.  ❞ ❝  man spends his whole life learning.  ❞ ❝  if only i was as skilled with my words as i am with my blade.  ❞ ❝  i wished to know what was going on in that head of yours. i thought perhaps i could help.  ❞ ❝  i can tell something’s bothering you.  ❞ ❝  dangerous times. each thinks five times before sticking their neck out.   and i can’t blame them.  ❞ ❝  now i care not in the slightest how you think or feel.  ❞ ❝  i no longer know if i still hate you.  ❞ ❝  i see how you look at me, and i see you wither.  ❞ ❝  one last bit of advice --- find a new tavern. everyone here knows you.  ❞ ❝  you won. no point bothering with ‘what ifs’.  ❞ ❝  it’s time i took fate into my own hands. lived life anew...and truly, this time.  ❞ ❝  ahh, 'cause you thought you'd killed me that time. surprise, sur-fucking-prise.  ❞ ❝  who...who’s that? gods, i’m hallucinating.  ❞ ❝  it’s no exaggeration to say i’ve never met a warrior like you in my life. you’re lithe as an eel and strong as a bear.  ❞ ❝  i’ve a heart again, yet all it feels is grief, sadness and defeat. my life is a ruin.  ❞ ❝  sought only to protect myself. in doing so, i put you in harm’s way. forgive me.  ❞ ❝  there’s a charming grove nearby where  kisses  taste  sweeter than anywhere else in the world.  ❞ ❝  you’ve handled tougher situations. you’ll figure this one out.  ❞ ❝  who you are and why you’ve come matter little. for you’ll not leave this place alive.  ❞ ❝  i’m not panicking. just trying to be realistic.  ❞ ❝  hahahahaha...i can’t believe you fell for that!  ❞ ❝  i was actually going to recite an anthem praising your glory, but if you’re not in the mood...  ❞ ❝  lying didn’t always come so easily to you.  ❞ ❝  everyone wants to rule. i can do that better than any monarch.  ❞ ❝  tell me what you want already, and make it quick.  ❞ ❝  what a mess we made of it all...if i’d only known then how it would end...  ❞ ❝  seems a faded dream now, but there were a time where i was happy.  ❞ ❝  why’d you leave me? you claimed you loved me.  ❞ ❝  never liked boats. not one bit.  ❞ ❝  you must be mad. i’ve no intention to make things easier for you.  ❞ ❝  i don’t wish to look at your face any longer than i must.  ❞ ❝  please, no. i can’t stand spells.  ❞ ❝  we agreed not to keep any secrets from one another. we promised.  ❞ ❝  that i like! a man who boldly dares, damn the risks!  ❞ ❝  i thought you bowed before no man.  ❞ ❝  smile a bit wider. ...you were meant to smile, not bare your teeth.  ❞ ❝  is that blood? have you hurt yourself?  ❞ ❝  no reason to trouble the guards. i’ll go willingly.  ❞ ❝  look at me. promise you’ll stay out of it.  ❞ ❝  the minute we’re in trouble, you make me responsible for getting us out.  ❞ ❝  they say they don’t fear the wrath of the gods. and you, do you fear it?  ❞ ❝  i’ll let that pass. i know grief eats at your heart.  ❞ ❝  we all lie sometimes. but lying to yourself is running away, whereas there’s really nowhere to run.  ❞ ❝  don’t need your sympathy, just your help.  ❞ ❝  your loss -- it must hurt, bad. but there wasn't anything we could do.  ❞ ❝  i wish to leave, go far away. and i’d like you to come with me.  ❞ ❝  i trust you have an explanation for this. a very good one.  ❞ ❝  lot of bitterness in you.  ❞ ❝  i assure you, you’re excellent at covering your tracks --- though not terribly subtle. but i’m even better at uncovering them.  ❞ ❝  glad to see you happy...but i don’t think what we did was right.  ❞ ❝  i look at you, and...and feel like i am exactly where i am supposed to be. at long last.  ❞ ❝  i’m no coward. i'll not run this time.  ❞ ❝  yes, i know you’ve trained with swords. but you’re still shit with them.  ❞ ❝  how many innocents have you cut down?  ❞ ❝  problem is, you’re not ordinary. you were born to greatness.  ❞ ❝  not too late to surrender.  ❞ ❝  men turn honest when they feel a blade at their throat.  ❞ ❝  i'm not gonna drink. why dull my senses when i’m in such pleasant company?  ❞ ❝  it’s bound to come in handy, and each time it does, you’ll think of me.  ❞ ❝  lie still or you will bleed to death.  ❞ ❝  your life is yours, exclusively. you choose who you are.  ❞ ❝  for a minute there, was almost sure you’d leave me to die.  ❞ ❝  there is never a second opportunity to make a first impression.  ❞ ❝  it’s all because of that secretiveness of yours.  ❞ ❝  plead the gods spare us, for without their favor we shall most certainly perish.  ❞ ❝  i must say -- seen a lot, but nothing like this, never.  ❞ ❝  you don’t look like you can get home on your own. i’ll walk you.  ❞ ❝  all’s in the past, never to be restored.  ❞ ❝  you know full well i never hold a grudge. i forgive you.  ❞ ❝  the good gods sent you to me.  ❞ ❝  and the guilt, the responsibility of all this, lies with me.  ❞ ❝  you’ve only been here five minutes, and you’ve already managed to offend me twice.  ❞ ❝  you will certainly fetch me a higher bounty alive.  ❞ ❝  what's wrong with my beard? always thought it added to my dignity.  ❞ ❝  if i’m to die today, i wish to look smashing for the occasion.  ❞ ❝  i was stupid. stupidity costs a lot.  ❞ ❝  even your humblest requests seem like threats.  ❞ ❝  your motives do not interest me. only results.  ❞ ❝  and you laughed, oh, how sweetly, how brightly you laughed!  ❞ ❝  you don’t know how it is. to see someone you love die. because of you, for you.  ❞ ❝  to have a scapegoat --- that’s the key.  ❞ ❝  no need to fear me.  ❞ ❝  sorry, but -- your life story? just not interested.  ❞ ❝  with you...it was love at first sight.  ❞ ❝  gotta understand. you don’t betray people like me.  ❞ ❝  i struggled long to find a place where i’d feel safe, needed. until i finally arrived here.  ❞ ❝  just don’t faint on me.  ❞ ❝  could never be there for you everyday. but i’m happy to see you always. and today, i’m all yours.  ❞ ❝  what others think...your image...that’s all you care about.  ❞ ❝  in these foul times one must be wary, even of their friends.  ❞ ❝  come on, don’t get angry - it’s not good for you..  ❞ ❝  so, apart from the sword play, you know potions and all that?  ❞ ❝  i actually envy your sense of wonder --- common in children, and morons.  ❞ ❝  a lot of misfortune for a small village.  ❞ ❝  who are you? do you seek to hurt me as well?  ❞ ❝  the hand that feeds can also strike its wayward wards.  ❞ ❝  shh. eat now. we’ll speak once you’ve rested.  ❞ ❝  brother has turned against brother, the land is soaked in blood. evil reigns stronger than ever before.  ❞ ❝  good looking and clever. where’ve you been hiding?  ❞ ❝  doesn’t bother you, having monsters for neighbours?  ❞ ❝  stay here --- no matter what happens.  ❞ ❝  i never told you this, but i’ve always felt it: i love you.  ❞ ❝  listen to me this once -- don't take matters into your own hands.  ❞ ❝  love these moments. the air before a battle -- nothing smells as sweet.  ❞ ❝  they tried to get in through the main gate. i’m afraid they could succeed next time.  ❞ ❝  too many claim you’re evil.  ❞ ❝  why are you so eager to help strangers? sit your ass down or there’ll be misfortune.  ❞ ❝  you'd never have managed without me, would you? come, now, admit it.  ❞ ❝  for those who remain, death should never take precedence over life.  ❞ ❝  thanks for coming. thanks for risking your life for me.  ❞ ❝  don’t force me to speak of it. no more, please.  ❞ ❝  when doubt plagues your mind, follow your instincts. should they steer you wrong and land you in muck, you'll land at peace with yourself. and that's most important.  ❞ ❝   just know that i know you're here. one misstep, one error...you'll make a mistake, it's inevitable...i'll be the first to learn it.  ❞ ❝  i do not know you. i’ve done you no harm.  ❞ ❝  try not to panic...just doesn’t suit you.  ❞ ❝  we’ve come a long way, and i’ll be damned if we’ve come to fail.  ❞ ❝  had i known what would happen here, i'd never have come.  ❞ ❝  i can say i’ve seen it all now.  ❞ ❝  these scars have long yearned for your tender caress.  ❞ ❝  i don’t fall victim to curses. i cast them.  ❞ ❝  come outside. we can hold hands and stare at the sky.  ❞ ❝  we’ll work well together --- i can see that already.  ❞ ❝  from the first moment i set eyes upon you that fateful evening, my heart has only beaten for you.  ❞ ❝  i trust you as much as you trust me --- not at all.  ❞ ❝  you’ve gone all red in the face just for talking about it.  ❞ ❝  wake up. it’s just a dream. wake up!  ❞ ❝  i still don’t believe everything that happened.  ❞ ❝  i never miss twice.  ❞ ❝  bit too old to believe in bedtime stories, aren’t you?  ❞ ❝  you humans have...unusual tastes.  ❞ ❝  didn’t think it worthwhile to tell me, warn me of your plans?  ❞ ❝  i think you will not attack one unarmed.  ❞ ❝  the deeper i get into this, the more i gotta wonder...why’re you even helping me?  ❞ ❝  to live in peace, we first must kill.  ❞ ❝  at times fate muddles our path, and life turns toilsome, hard to bear.  ❞ ❝  i fight for whoever’s paying the best. or whoever’s easier to rob.  ❞ ❝  do not let my beauty distract your aim.  ❞ ❝  i’ve seen what is to come, i know destruction approaches.  ❞ ❝  the war awoke an ancient power. an evil one that feeds on bloodshed.  ❞ ❝  guess you’re no stranger to fury, either.  ❞ ❝  think i’m gonna fall for that? no chance, you’re wrong.  ❞ ❝  gotta admit --- you do pretty well with a sword.  ❞ ❝  you dare tell me to calm down?! you?!  ❞ ❝  let's say i go about my business, and when there's coin to be earned, i don't readily turn it down.  ❞ ❝  i wish to know the truth...be it sweet, be it painful, i wish to know.  ❞ ❝  men, the polite ones at least, would call me a monster.  ❞ ❝  even i grow ill at the sight of you.  ❞ ❝  i’m going on a walk. or is that not allowed either? because i could break my leg?  ❞ ❝  plan’s crazier than it is sane...but there’s an irrestistible charm to it.  ❞ ❝  unbelievable! you said something romantic! you!  ❞ ❝  we may not survive this. in fact, our chances are slim.  ❞ ❝  if anything should happen to you...  ❞ ❝  there’s not been a dark cloud yet that didn’t have a silver lining.  ❞ ❝  those are some fresh lookin’ scars you’ve got there.  ❞ ❝  no. no more about the battle. just hold me. and say something nice.  ❞ ❝  stay. this is the only home we’ve ever had.  ❞ ❝  you’re so charming when you try to be funny.  ❞ ❝  not proud of it...yet i considered all the options and found none better.  ❞ ❝  i look far different from when you last saw me.  ❞ ❝  i admire your optimism. wish i shared it.  ❞ ❝  and...try not to draw any attention to yourself.  ❞ ❝  nightmares haunt our nights and days. folk sleepwalk from their homes, never to return.  ❞ ❝  forgive me. it couldn’t be avoided. i truly am sorry.  ❞ ❝  well i’ve departed, escaped, been forced to flee so many times…yet i always returned. you ought to be used to it by now.  ❞ ❝  the human mind is as wild and unexplored a place as any land far beyond the sea.  ❞ ❝  you think you’ve won. you are wrong. i can’t die.  ❞ ❝  you’re something more. something more.  ❞ ❝  barely nicked me, i’ll be fine.  ❞ ❝  it’s just that i felt...stifled, in your shadow. i’d have suffocated had i stayed.  ❞ ❝  come, don’t just stand there. i want a hug.  ❞ ❝  it’s lovely here! i could stay forever.  ❞ ❝  do what you will, but leave me out of this.  ❞ ❝  we should end this discussion -- before i say something i'll regret.  ❞ ❝  you all right? you’re as pale as death.  ❞ ❝  let’s get back to the hut. i’ll protect you along the way.  ❞ ❝  not to keen on talking about it, are you?  ❞ ❝  it’s better to die than to live in the knowledge that you’ve done something that needs forgiveness.  ❞ ❝  i was afraid you were dead.  ❞ ❝  at times one must use reason, rather than blades.  ❞ ❝  need some peace. gotta prepare.  ❞ ❝  i suspected it might not be the best idea, but i was desperate, had no choice.  ❞ ❝  so tell me how it happened. step by step.  ❞ ❝  it was a bit of a lark, a jest. i meant to bring it all back, i swear.  ❞ ❝  if i wanted to kill you, you'd be long dead by now.  ❞ ❝  that is precisely one of the reasons why i abhor your world.    your senseless brutality.  ❞ ❝  i won’t let them take you, you know that?  ❞ ❝  magic...childish hocus-pocus. it’s just not interesting. what i find fascinating are true tales of true human lives.  ❞ ❝  save your praise for others. i couldn’t give a shit.  ❞ ❝  well, well, i am impressed. doubted you still had it in you, frankly.  ❞ ❝  i like you. don’t make me hurt you.  ❞ ❝  you know very little can hurt you being immortal, so you take wild risks, chase extreme sensations. there comes a point you’ve done it all, and all seems boring and monotonous.  ❞ ❝  with you i finally feel...harmony. a calm. feel like things are the way they're supposed to be.  ❞ ❝  i'm afraid the dishwater’s as good as it gets in this establishment.  ❞ ❝  sorry to take so long, but i had to deal with the guards.  ❞ ❝  i’d never miss a chance to spend a pleasant evening with you.  ❞ ❝  you know too much. yet one more reason why you must die.  ❞ ❝  or perhaps you seek to trick me.  ❞ ❝  if you acknowledge any gods...start praying, now.  ❞ ❝  it’s very simple. you either deceived me...or not.  ❞ ❝  i am known neither for my sense of humor nor for my patience.  ❞ ❝  naturally, it would be easier with your help, but...you irritate me.  ❞ ❝  love questions like that. am i holding up? what, my dick?  ❞ ❝  we never hunt in these woods. not even if it means the whole village starves.  ❞ ❝  we’re only ever the ones to know the truth about ourselves.  ❞ ❝  you’re insolent because you believe i cannot afford to hurt you. and you’re right.  ❞ ❝  i detest graveyards, especially wandering them alone.  ❞ ❝  you know too much. you impede me too often. and i find your arrogance an annoyance.  ❞ ❝  i know it’s wartime, but try not to be a hero, all right?  ❞ ❝  i don’t know that i’ll make for engaging company. in truth, i rarely talk to men.  ❞ ❝  you know...had a dream about you recently.  ❞ ❝  i thought i could at least count on you to treat me seriously.  ❞ ❝  don’t ask questions you know the answers to. it makes you look stupid.  ❞ ❝  you’re nosy. starting to piss me off, you know?  ❞ ❝  what did i do to deserve this? have i given you cause to doubt my intentions?  ❞ ❝  don’t fret about me. i always get by somehow, right?  ❞ ❝  i wanted to go with you --- that was my idea.  ❞ ❝  i shan’t stray a step from your side.  ❞ ❝  if that’s what it takes to save the world, it’s better to let that world die.  ❞ ❝  what’s that supposed to mean? that a threat?  ❞ ❝  i’m offering a great and true adventure, an experience like no other, the fate of only the chosen few.  ❞ ❝  that’s like choosing between pestilence and the plague.  ❞ ❝  what’s it matter? i only ever thought of you.  ❞ ❝  did you know you’ve gained twenty-seven new scars since we’ve last saw each other?  ❞ ❝  i need to know the details if you want me to get my hands dirty.  ❞ ❝  don’t know you. go away.  ❞ ❝  ever vigilant, even in your sleep. quite vampire-like, in fact.  ❞ ❝  gotten used to people treating me like a freak, an outcast.  ❞ ❝  we share a cause, then. just like the old days.  ❞ ❝  ever considered becoming a burglar? skill like that’d come in awful handy.  ❞ ❝  there’s never been a frown that couldn’t be turned upside down.  ❞ ❝  honesty's an attribute of the truly brave --- and thus the privilege of the very few.  ❞ ❝  you do not have a monopoly in altruism, my friend.  ❞ ❝  great love demands great sacrifices.  ❞ ❝  i believe it wise at times to share one’s secrets, unburden oneself to those one can trust.  ❞ ❝  it would be nice from time to time if you could sit back and enjoy life, instead of going around solving everyone’s problems.  ❞ ❝  we shall dance until the break of dawn!  ❞ ❝  a man could lose his head for a lass like you.  ❞ ❝  don’t have to come if you don’t want. wait here.  ❞ ❝  never seen this side of you.  ❞ ❝  i’m to kiss the ground you walk on, is that it? but you just did your duty.  ❞ ❝  the day you give me a smile...that moment, that’s what i’m waiting for.  ❞ ❝  i need a soul intelligent and clever, an individual who fears no dare. someone like you.  ❞ ❝  if i was you i’d catch some shut-eye, not go on flapping my tongue.  ❞ ❝  the plan is simple...which does not mean it will be easy to execute.  ❞ ❝  sometimes you really get on my nerves, you know.  ❞ ❝  you shall not turn on me, use what i say against me? you shall not tell anyone?  ❞ ❝  gave you a chance. should’ve taken it.  ❞ ❝  always better to do a bit more and even gain nothing by it,    than to do too little and face regret.  ❞ ❝  it’s lovely out here. the birds singing, the bees buzzing...blissful, really.  ❞ ❝  what a lovely dress. the color suits you exquisitely.  ❞ ❝  pretty fantastic tale. hard as hell to believe.  ❞ ❝  it’s time you discovered my romantic side.  ❞ ❝  you gotta understand the whole world doesn’t revolve around you.  ❞ ❝  can you not see i am out of my mind with worry?  ❞ ❝  every rose has its thorn, and there are no happy endings.  ❞ ❝  pretty quick to reject help. why is that?  ❞ ❝  don’t need to like each other. just gotta do our jobs.  ❞ ❝  frankly, if i can do something for you, i'll do it, willingly.  ❞ ❝  you were hired you kill me, were you not?  ❞ ❝  what’s it like, going toe to toe with a monster? knowing you’ve only two options --- to kill or be killed?  ❞ ❝  this place --- there’s evil here. death hangs in the air.  ❞ ❝  intellect counts as much as strength.  ❞ ❝  i run back inside, hasp the doors, and then i hear it --- someone whispering my name.  ❞ ❝  you know i like you. unlike the rest of this lot, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders.  ❞ ❝  if you love somebody, set them free.  ❞ ❝  if you hate me so deeply, why don’t you tell me to my face?  ❞ ❝  i’m afraid you’d not realize which way the wind was blowing if you pissed straight into it.  ❞ ❝  that was courageous. i'd never expect it from you.  ❞ ❝  i am not easily impressed, but i must admit you have succeeded, my dear.  ❞ ❝  kill me if you must. i’ve nothing to live for anyway.  ❞ ❝  aren’t you an extraordinary beauty.  ❞ ❝  never suspected you believed such things.  ❞ ❝  wait...you want to go with me? out of the question.  ❞ ❝  used to it. not the first time i’ve been hunted.  ❞ ❝  enough of this hesitation, this fretting, these feelings of guilt!  ❞ ❝  strange working with you. strange, but great.  ❞ ❝  give me a moment. i must don something more appropiate and concealing.  ❞ ❝  killing comes as naturally to me as blowing my nose.  ❞ ❝  ......   another tale of a life compromised and ultimately claimed by greed and ambition.  ❞ ❝  in the future, though, remember this --- i can look after myself  ❞ ❝  you'd really worry about me if i went on alone?  ❞ ❝  you have many merits. you merely hide them from the world very diligently.  ❞ ❝  is it true virtue always trumps villainy?  ❞ ❝  watch my movements. i’m spry as a cat and sly as a fox.  ❞ ❝  ah, if only this could last forever.  ❞ ❝  few i can rely on like i can on you. kinda hoping you think the same of me.  ❞ ❝  you are angry at the whole world. you feel inferior, feel pain, though you mask this with confidence, arrogance, even.  ❞ ❝  there exist worries for which there quite simply is no other medicine.  ❞ ❝  your bones look thin, your breathing’s wheezy. afraid one punch might kill you.  ❞ ❝  to love is to build a house of cards, or play a game of chess, but one word or ill-thought move and you must start it all afresh.  ❞ ❝  i’m doing what i ever wanted to do, being who i wanted to be. i believe that’s one definition of happiness.  ❞ ❝  you’ve not an ounce of refinement in you, have you?  ❞ ❝  pain rules the body, but fear is born in the heart.  ❞ ❝  either i get burned, or i’ll burn all else down. no other options.  ❞ ❝  should you decide your sword is the sole solution, i shall not stand in your way.  ❞ ❝  c’mon, come closer.  ❞ ❝  would you prefer i treated you like the lying manipulater you are?  ❞ ❝  i regret nothing. one lives but once.  ❞ ❝  i just hope this tale has a happy ending. for me, for you. for everyone.  ❞ ❝  just gonna go our seperate ways? no parting words?  ❞ ❝  you still stand to be quite useful to me.  ❞ ❝  i suppose you wanted to frighten me...alas, you didn’t in the least. after all, i’m a monster too, am i not?  ❞ ❝  i trust no one. learned that long ago.  ❞ ❝  it cannot be! you actually have a sense of humor.  ❞ ❝  didn’t ask for a lecture on probability. need a simple answer --- yes or no.  ❞ ❝  another word, and i shall spill even more blood. yours.  ❞ ❝  you feel resentment, i understand, but we shall work through all the unfortunate matters of the past.  ❞ ❝  stop playing dumb. i know everything...your plan.  ❞ ❝  honestly can’t see what all those dames see in you --- you’re a stick in the mud.  ❞ ❝  not showy, lovely location...perfect for romantic getaways.  ❞ ❝  i hope you’re not upset i came like this, without warning...  ❞ ❝  i’m still a long way from mastering anything. but i am trying.  ❞ ❝  now i know how you do it. just annoy your opponents to death.  ❞ ❝  word on the street is there’s a hefty bounty on your head.  ❞ ❝  for a few days now i’ve been having dizzy spells.  ❞ ❝  i’ve always had a way with ostensibly dangerous types.  ❞ ❝  wound doesn’t look good.    patch that up quick if i were you, before it starts festering.  ❞ ❝  always seemed to me you were a very complicated creature, by nature. not one to resort to such simple methods like drinking your worries away.  ❞ ❝  may i be honest? yes, i’m nervous. i really would prefer to just run off.  ❞ ❝  father always said a wise man learns from others’ mistakes, so here i am, learning from his.  ❞ ❝  ever since that horrid night...everything has changed.  ❞ ❝  what’s wrong? afraid? gut feeling queasy?  ❞ ❝  used to bother me, all your secrets...now i know if you have something to tell me, you’ll tell me.  ❞ ❝  i so don’t feel like going anywhere. sit here a while longer?  ❞ ❝  there’s something i’d like to know...how can you be so damned calm?  ❞ ❝  my knees quake like a carnival rattle.  ❞ ❝  honestly didn’t think this’d work. doubted anything would happen.  ❞

[erenspaths]

Appreciating a character as a whole is not a shame. Stop being ashamed of enjoying Eren. This guy is cool. Of course, no one in their right mind can buy something like genocide, but we're talking about fiction. Don't confuse everything. What allows you to insult us of pro-Nazi?! (like whatttt???!) or insult the author of this masterpiece of pro-genocidal dude? 3/4 of you don't even live in Europe, how can you talk about something like World War II and Nazism when you have briefly gone through it at school? I assure you that AOT has nothing to do, and has nothing to do with Nazi propaganda. Eren is not a fascist, quite the opposite. Get your heads out of your asses and educate yourself. I'm going to stick you with the definition of the word "fascism" for the most uncultured among you. "The fascist regime intends to make the nation a single community united behind one man (cult of personality and importance of hierarchy), with one individual who must step aside in front of the state. Rejecting human rights, it is accompanied by a strong and secure police state." Does Eren expect to rule the world and for everyone to obey him? No. Is Eren against human rights? He is fundamentally in favor of freedom for each and every Eldian, who at the base have been imprisoned and despised for a century now. Did Eren talk about establishing a totalitarian state led by a militia? No. To make a long story short, how can one call Eren a fascist when, instead of despising and carrying out a totalitarian policy on his people, Eren just wants to offer them the one thing that he considers to be a right for all: Freedom as a human being, as a representative of the Eldian people.

I think that everybody confuses fascism and genocide. It's not necessarily linked, even though very often in a fascist political system there are genocides.

I don't consider Eren to be a racist either. His line "When I knew there was humanity behind the walls, I was disappointed" was really misinterpreted. I just consider Eren as someone who lacks the words to express himself properly. Let me explain, what Eren wanted us to understand here is not a repulsion of other people from other countries, other cultures, or whatever, but rather it is when getting the memories of Grisha, Eren understood how much the rest of the world despised and treated them. He was just disappointed to see how stupid and mean humanity can be, what had they done to deserve this inhuman treatment? He learned about Ymir Fritz, about what the Eldian people have done to others, but wasn't cutting them off on a small island surrounded by titans who are, in the end, fellow countrymen turned into monsters, eating human beings, a punishment worthy of the task? I remind you that the Eldian people are parked like cattle in concentration camps, a kind of ghetto, pushing them back to the entrenchments so as not to mix them with pure-blooded Marleyeans (perhaps one of the only comparisons to be made with Nazism and the Holocaust) and this concerns Marley, I read somewhere that in other countries, when you are Eldian, you die, you shouldn't even exist. Eren, finally understanding, that the only mistake he made, he like all the inhabitants of the island and Eldians living in other countries like Ymir (not Fritz) Reiner, Annie, Berthold, Marcel,Gaby, Falco, Porco, Pieck... even Zeke, is to be born of Eldian blood, to belong to this people, and for some of them to be subjects of Ymir. 

This is exactly what they are accused of. They are being made to pay for what the people may have committed as an atrocity centuries before, with punishments such as confinement, bashing their own existence as a person, transformation into a horrible beast, even death penalty. 

The Eldians are considered impure human beings, the demons of this world, horrible people, kind of atrocities, they deserve to die: this is the way the rest of humanity thinks about Eren and his people. 

Then Eren must be the one who needs to be questioned? Eren is the madman, ready to commit genocide because he is going through his little adolescent existential crisis? Well, even if that was one of the reasons, I remind you that Eren is not an average boy, besides having suffered a strong trauma, he is the bearer of a heavy burden, and he has to do it by himself.

Do you think it's normal that a kid like Gaby is part of the Marleyeans soldiers, when she's, like, what, 11/12 years old? This kid should be in school. No, she's much better as bait for the enemy of Marley's state, since she's a little Eldian bitch, and the worst thing is that this kid is so propagandised that she considers her own origins as vermin to be exterminated since they are the demons of this earth and the reason for her confinement and mistreatment in Marley. In the end, I understand this kid, who wouldn't? Already, she had an uncontrolled hatred of the island's Eldians, now Eren comes undercover to attack Marley, she lost her friends (Sofia and Udo) in the process, so it's normal that in the end, nothing scares her anymore, and Sasha ended up with a bullet. Eleven-year-old Gaby lost her innocence a long time ago, just like her cousin Reiner. It’s sad.. really sad, and Eren was the first person to get it. He truly forgave the man who “killed’ his mother, because he knows that Reiner, like Berthold, like Annie, didn’t have any choice. They has been raised this way. Like Mikasa loves to say “This is world is cruel but beautiful”.

They pushed Eldians to think about them and consider themselves like trashes. It made Zeke thought that the best plan to help Eldians was their euthanasia. Can you imagine?!

They finally acted the way they did in order to save their loved-ones.

- Grisha did it because of his sister who has been slaughtered by some Marleyean officiers, then for his first wife Dina, then for Carla and his sons.

- Reiner did it because of his mother, to finally make his marleyean father be proud of him so, him and his mother could finally live together.

- Berthold, I guess, did it for his family, to obtain the certification to live as Marleyean random person, and stop being considered as a trash because of his eldian blood.

- Annie did it because of her father, because she wants to return to him. She even stated that even she knows that what she did to Paradis’ inhabitants was really awful, she would do it again because of her father.

- Gaby did it because of her propagandised mind and in purpose to honor her family like Reiner did before her, at least, it’s what she thinks.

They deserve to be forgiven, they deserve to be at peace, even if they’re Eldians. They deserve freedom. Freedom in a way to be freed from what people think they are, to be freed from what Eldia did centuries before, it never has been freedom like no political rules, like hippies, no way, it’s more deeper than that.

We still don’t know Eren’s ORIGINAL PURPOSES to start the rumbling. Why is he actually acting this way?

 Is that for freedom? Yes, I think.

 Is that for all the people he lost and all the people he loves and still alive? Yes, I think. 

Is that for a selfish purpose? I don’t think so.

Is Eren enough psychopath to want the rest of the humanity dying? No, I don’t think so.

Can someone bring him another solution - not including Islanders’ euthanasia, or genocide? Unfortunately, no.

I’m no smarter than anyone here, but I really think the moral of this story here is all about changing things, breaking the infernal cycle of things, and forgiving others, getting back on a healthy footing.

Eren is actually changing things, he is breaking the infernal cycle of things, he forgave the ones who spoiled his childhood, he is now waiting to be understood, and being forgiven. He is doing this for his people, like the others did.

[maxwell-grant]

Downfall of a Dark Avenger Part 2: Shadows of Manhattan

Having finished reading Al Ewing’s El Sombra trilogy and having had enough time to digest it, I’d like to talk about the trajectory of it’s titular protagonist, the character and series’s relationship with it’s influences. Relating to The Shadow and Zorro and general pulp archetypes, and also the way it incorporates Astro Boy’s Pluto into the mix.

This part is focused on Gods of Manhattan and El Sombra’s first appearences in Pax Omega and the ways in which the urban vigilante manifests itself in the books. 

In Gods of Manhattan, El Sombra takes a backseat to it’s central players, Doc Thunder and The Blood-Spider. I’ve mentioned how Thunder, while ostensibly a Doc Savage/Superman amalgam, also combines aspects that allow the character to condense the entire history of the superman into a single being, but to a character very much centered on the future and in progressive ideals, described in the book as someone considered both the city’s ultimate savior as well as viewed as "a faggot, a liberal and a miscegenationist”. In that regard, the Blood-Spider becomes his opposite. Perhaps the most comprehensive savaging of the dark detective/The Shadow ever put on paper, that has a larger point behind the questions and criticisms it brings up to what this kind of figure can be. 

"You can hardly have a war on crime unless you are the one defining what a crime is. First rule of the war on crime: everyone is guilty or something"

Us am vigilantes! Am us not men? Us use violence to effect social change! Am us not men? Us bring terror to underclass, make streets safer for overclass! Am us not men? Am us not men?

Making them loved rather than feared. Having them fight crime, or the right kind of crime, at least. Created a persona designed to appeal to the worst in people, to bring the citizens of New York around to his cause, his war on crime, which would, of course, then become a war against ‘urban crime’. Or some other little euphemism. ‘Inhuman’, for example. Sounds a lot more relatable than subhuman, doesn’t it? Comes to the same thing, though.

Although The Blood-Spider is an evil take on The Shadow, most of his character traits are taken from characters that followed him. He’s got the moniker, savagery, fright tactics and branded murders of The Spider, he climbs buildings and has a civilian identity akin to Spider-Man’s, with constant name references to characters like Stacey, Jonah and a redhead named Mary Watson, with him sharing a name with Peter Parker as well as Batman villain Jonathan Crane, he’s got Rorschach monologues that are echoed by his associates past his demise in white supremacist organizations dedicated to carrying off Spider’s legacy, predating HBO Watchmen’s take on Rorschach legacy. If Doc Thunder is all about taking the superhero’s past to create a better future with it, Blood-Spider takes the future of the urban vigilante and uses it as a conduit to enact a barbaric and reactionary agenda in service of undoing everything Thunder stands for, even before he’s revealed to be a Nazi agent. 

Blood-Spider is what happens when the absolute worst aspects of said characters are brought to the forefront and twisted by a dose of reality. He’s to The Shadow what Plutonian is to Superman, the most sour way said character and legend can be twisted into something horrendous. He’s the Doutrinador in a fedora, everything I vehemently argue that The Shadow wasn’t, and yet seems sadly ever closer to as more and more comics dehumanize the character. He’s Howard Chaykin’s Shadow, naked and raw and exposed for what it ultimately is. An insult and a wake-up call, if a necessary one.

In fact, said poisoning of a legend is explicitly a plot point in the book, because the book establishes that, before The Blood-Spider, the city’s main vigilante used to be a man by the name of Blue Ghost, friend of Doc Thunder and, although a mysterious public figure, still firmly on the side of good. Unfortunately, moral victories aside, “good” alone doesn’t cut it in the world of El Sombra. 

You took a look at the Blue Ghost - mysterious masked avenger, operatives all over the place, big fan-following with the working classes, and you figured...we need one of those. Just take away the Japanese orphan kid and replace him with a foxy Aryan chick.

Blue Ghost is almost a textbook Spirit analogue, even defined as being beat up a lot as his main asset, except here, he’s placed as Doc’s counterpart that died before the story began and is now replaced by a darker and more horrendous counterpart, and because The Spirit was influenced by The Shadow, it opens a roundabout connection. You can read this as a comparison between the shift from Adam West’s Batman to Frank Miller’s Batman, or a comparison between The Shadow and earlier more straightforward pulp vigilantes like Jimmie Dale, or a comparison between the pulp/radio Shadow and later iterations of him or analogues to his archetype that upped the nastier aspects. Again, nothing in El Sombra is ever quite just one thing. 

And at last we come to El Sombra, who spends much of the book caught in between the duels of Doc, Untergang and players in between. And it’s interesting that here, while El Sombra’s final victories over the story’s major conflict lie in his willingness to team up with Doc, despite knowing of his origins as a Nazi weapon, his victories over Blood-Spider instead come from turning tricks of The Shadow against him. First, when he discovers Spider’s true nature, spying on him by pulling a Fritz the Janitor. And then in the finale, when he schools Spider on what a real shadowy avenger looks like. 

"Amigo...that's my sword"

The voice came from the darkness above them, where the gaslight did not reach. The Spider's blood ran cold for a long moment, and then he grabbed hold of his other gun, tearing it from its holster and raising it to fire a volley of bullets into the darkness. "Where are you? Show yourself!" he hissed, turning in place, the gun raised to fire at the slightest sound or movement.

"You're not the only one who can hide in the shadows, my friend. I've got very good at it, over the years."

"Show yourself!" Another volley of shots, with no result. Was he throwing his voice? Was he everywhere at once? Was he a shadow himself? A ghost?

The voice echoed from another place now, continuing his speech exactly where he had left off. And still that mocking voice echoed from the shadows above.

"See, I didn't know if you were a good guy or a bad guy. I mean, sure, you killed people, and you were kind of a dick about it, you know? But I didn't know if you were one of the bastards. I didn't know if you needed to die or not, amigo."

The gun clicked empty. He was out of bullets. He turned again, and there was the man in the red mask. Just standing there, in the middle of the concourse. His smile didn't look human. And his eyes. Oh, his terrible eyes...

"Stay back." The Spider whispered, and his voice sounded in his ears like a frightened, animal thing, waiting to curl up and die in its hole.

The man in the red mask only laughed. A rich, deep, joyous laugh, a laugh that echoed and filled the whole station, bouncing from pillar to pillar, careening through the great vaulted arches. Such a laugh!

Then the laughter stopped, and he fixed the Blood-Spider with a look that would freeze the fires of Hell.

And suddenly - quite suddenly - there was no Blood-Spider. There was only Parker Crane, the Nazi. Parker Crane, the traitor. Who thought he could destroy America, and only managed to destroy himself. Parker Crane. Just a man wearing a mask. He ran, and left the sword behind him.

"Nice trick," Doc murmured, turning to the masked man. "Throwing your sword from up on the balcony - good aim, by the way - then throwing your voice and a little mental suggestion to make him think you were up in the arches where he'd been. Where did you learn that?"

The masked man shrugged, lifting up his weapon. "In the desert. You can learn a lot in the desert, if you put your mind to it."

By the story’s end, once Lars Lomax, Thunder’s arch-enemy and Lex Luthor, takes center stage as it’s ultimate threat, Parker Crane is left a traumatized, broken shell unable to even move, utterly stripped of any mystique or power that his mask and guns may have brought him. And in the end, El Sombra finds him, neutralized and no longer a threat to anyone. And he makes his choice.

El Sombra knew what it was to hate, to hate so hard and so long that you knew nothing else, to hate so strongly that it crossed that line into something beyond reason.

He lifted his sword, resting the blade in his palm for a moment, considering. Crane only stared, weeping and making his soft, mad noises. El Sombra sighed, shaking his head. "You know, I don't know if I can kill a guy who's already dead. Even if he is one of the bastards."

"Don't let him in here." Murmured Crane, his eyes wide.

"Shhh, I won't let him in," smiled El Sombra in response, trying to be reassuring. "You'll never have to face him again. I promise. It's okay, amigo. It's okay."

It was strange. He knew he should feel hate for Parker Crane. It was Djego's job to bear things like pity and doubt, to feel sorrow and shame. That was Djego's role in their team of one. El Sombra was there to take never-ending revenge and to laugh and to never look back. But to know that his murder of Heinrich Donner - his righteous kill - had resulted in so much harm coming to so many... and now to see the leader of Undergang, the man he'd come to New York to kill, just an empty, broken madman, a shell of a person... El Sombra wondered if he was changing.

"Don't," whispered Crane, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Don't let him back in."

El Sombra smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, amigo. I'm going to go and make sure nobody ever needs to see him again. And I couldn't have done it without you." He squeezed lightly. "You didn't mean to, but you did some good. Remember that."

Then, gently, he pushed the tip of the sword through the front of Crane's skull and into his brain.

He was not incapable of pity. But he was who he was, and he did what he did.

And broken or not, the bastards had to die.

We’ve seen El Sombra struggle and be faced with choices, choices between Djego and El Sombra, choices between kindness and violence, between peace and conflict. We’ve seen the conflict in his soul between things that he knows are right, because Djego is a good man with a good soul who wants good things for himself and others, and things he knows he must do, because he is El Sombra and El Sombra was created to kill the bastards that brought his world to ruin and therefore it’s what he must always do. And in the end, El Sombra is simply stronger. He has to be. But strength and violence and hatred can only get one so far. 

Gods of Manhattan is the trilogy’s moral compass, the book that most clearly defines the morality the series operates on. And in between the spectrums of justice embodied by Doc and Crane’s approach, between the two urban avengers in The Blue Ghost and Blood-Spider, El Sombra made his choice. And it’s the first choice that dooms him.

Enter Pax Omega, and we learn that, 4 years since the previous book's events, El Sombra joined a squad of agents called Yankee Bravo Seven, who work for an organization named STEAM, who enact missions against Nazis to turn the tides of war. He is joined by several other types of characters, including The Blood Widow, Crane’s former assistant Marlene Lang now having taken up the moniker (just as Nita van Sloan did for The Spider, even with the “Widow” prefix). We see that El Sombra has joined a team of bantering heroes and even formed a friendly rivalry with a man named Savate, modeled after Batroc the Leaper. 

But we see that the hunger for vengeance still burns, still burns beyond reason, restless because it’s been 4 years and the war still isn’t over and Hitler still isn’t dead by his sword. And it’s that restlessness that again dooms him, when he once again makes the wrong choice and betrays leader Jack Scorpio, Scorpio who had personally brought him on board and gave him the best shot he ever had at getting to Hitler. 

El Sombra frowned. "We need to make our move now."

Scorpio shook his head. "Not yet."

"What?" El Sombra looked incredulous.

"Wait for my signal, I said! Damn it, I need you to trust me!" Jack Scorpio reached up to brush the back of his finger across his forehead, and realised he was sweating. 

Through his special glasses, El Sombra's aura was glowing an angry, pulsing red, like a throbbing vein. "Just...trust me. I'm asking you to hold back for just five minutes. There's more going on here than you know."

El Sombra just stared at him, his lips pulling back from his teeth in a cold snarl.

"Trust me. That's all I ask." Jack Scorpio looked into the blazing eyes behind the bloodstained mask, and spoke softly, soothingly, almost desperately. "Can you just hold back for one minute?"

The eyes behind the mask narrowed.

"Can you?"

PERSONNEL FILE: DJEGO "EL SOMBRA". TO EYES ONLY: THIS INDIVIDUAL IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS. IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED HE NOT BE INCLUDED IN ANY OPERATIONS CLASSIFIED ABOVE TOP SECRET OR HIGHER. (I'll take the risk - J.S)

El Sombra spat in Scorpio's face.

"Chinga tu madre."

Then he drew his sword and leaped down into the fray.

After the mission is over, with the base destroyed and a major victory secured, although with Jack Scorpio having been killed, the team disbands. El Sombra continues to wander the forests near the Luftwaffe base for about two weeks, killing as many Nazis as he can, until an explosion blast hits near him, knocking away his mask and portions of his leg and arm, and rendering him unconscious for 8 months. By the time he wakes up, the war has ended, and so has El Sombra for the past 7 years.

Djego was afforded the best of medical care at the hospital in Venice. El Sombra was nowhere to be found.

His mask had been torn off in the explosion, along with some of the meat of his leg and arm. He walked stiffly, now, with a pronounced limp, and his left arm was all but useless, hanging limply at his side. The Wildcat crew had salvaged his sword, but Djego had little interest in using it.

Gradually, he regained his mobility. The back of his head itched constantly, and he suffered from horrendous mood swings, when he would rage against the Fuhrer and the bastards, or weep helplessly, like a child. But gradually, he found his personality stabilising in the gentle, antiseptic atmosphere of the hospital. He found that Djego - so long despised as a weakling, a coward and a fool - was capable of a kind of gentle, melancholic wit that made him popular.

Djego healed and grew, and the itch in the back of his skull began to subside, as El Sombra relinquished his grip.

Djego felt his heart seize in his chest. The cloth was missing a scrap at the end, and there was mud ground into the fabric along with the old bloodstains; but it had two evenly-spaced holes in it, and was unmistakably a mask. It seemed to be looking at him.

He takes up gardening and establishes himself in the city of Brandenberg, he becomes a fixture of the city and a friend of it, he enters a relationship, and El Sombra never appears again.

Until a mysterious stranger named Leonard Lorraine, walks through his door one day, saying he’s got a mission to fulfill, and hands him his mask. And, once again, El Sombra is simply stronger, and he makes the wrong choice again. 

Djego shook his head and tried to step back from it, but his legs wouldn't move.

"No," he whispered. "No. Please"

"I was happy," pleaded Djego. "Doesn't that matter to you?" He picked up the cloth in trembling fingers, looking into the empty eyeholds. "Doesn't that mean anything?"

There was no answer. The patrons of the bierkeller did not even notice anything was happening.

"I was happy," Djego choked, and then, in one spasmodic motion, he pulled the mask onto his face, and secured it tightly, so that the knot once again rested in the back of his head, where it belonged: so tightly that it might never come off again.

El Sombra looked at his hands.

He prodded his belly, amused at the rounded shape of it, and took a couple of steps back from the bar. The limp was gone.

He laughed, very softly, so as not to disturb the patrons.

Djego and Lorraine walk through the desolate streets of Berlin, which in the years since has completely sealed itself from the outside world through an impossibly thick dome, and Djego discovers the city completely bereft of life, with only a few lobotomized robotic citizens aimlessly wandering and chewing on the mountains of corpses in the city, as their Nazi ideology reached it’s inevitable outcome of total annihilation of any and all that the party could find an excuse to slaughter in the name of purity, which eventually included it’s few remaining members. In this world, Hitler has been a brain inside a robotic contraption ever since 1945, and it’s amidst this scenario that El Sombra, while thinking about how his final confrontation with Hitler would play out, eventually finds what’s left of Hitler. 

All around them, there were the sounds of machinery, but the Mecha-Fuhrer was completely silent, utterly motionless. In the centre of its chest rested a tank of toxic green fluid, and on the surface of the fluid, a human brain floated, like the corpse of a goldfish.

It was quite dead.

El Sombra stared at the Fuhrer for a long moment. Eventually, he spoke, and his voice was cracked and raw, and choked with rage. "Is...is this a joke?"

De Lareine smiled his terrible smile. "The Fuhrer's body needed a great deal of maintenance and repair, you know. After two years, one of the processes delivering oxygen to his brain failed...and there was nobody left to repair it. He died, slowly." There would have been some pain, at the end".

El Sombra slammed his fist into the great iron throne on which the massive body sat, shattering his knuckles and tearing the skin from them. He didn't seem to notice. "Some pain," he choked, through gritted teeth."

El Sombra was still staring into the empty, dead eyes of the Fuhrer.

El Sombra again chooses poorly. It’s this moment, above all else, that truly damns him to his fate, as we come to see what is it exactly that a persona created for the purpose of vengeance has, when said vengeance is robbed from it. Like Parker Crane, his persona crumbles completely to expose the petty, ugly little feelings that drove it to such grandstanding antics in the first place, and the allmighty El Sombra is exposed for the all-too human failings that damned him once and for all.

"This isn't right," he said, eventually, in a strangled voice. "How...how can it end like this?"

"Why shouldn't it?" De Lareine shrugged. "Here's a thought. Maybe, despite his twenty-year tantrum and all his dressing up, spoilt little Djego is not the centre of the universe -"

El Sombra turned, face red, tears streaming from his eyes, and charged at De Lareine, slashing his sword. El Sombra crashed down onto the floor, into the soot scattered about, as De Lareine walked around him.

"Did you really believe Adolf Hitler would wait around for your sword? Did you not imagine that it might be better for him to seal himself off in a hole to die, instead of murdering and enslaving continents until you finally got around to him? Did you think you were the hero of your own little story, El Sombra, with your mask and your laugh and your-"

"Shut up!" El Sombra cried out, scrambling to his feet, the sword shaking in his hand, tears and snot running down his face. "He was mine! He was mine to kill!" He lifted the sword, the tip trembling. "Bring him back," he screamed, "do you hear me? Bring him back to life!"

De Lareine had to laugh at that.

And in the end, El Sombra is crushed, spiritually and physically as his spine is shattered by Lareine, who begins to experiment on him as he lays dying, ready to fulfill fate’s greater purpose for El Sombra. Ready to become not just the perfect machine Pasito’s conquerors intended, but a superior design. Ready to abandon his former life, ready to abandon everything that defined him, ready to shed any and all traces of Zorro and Shadow and pulp hero in his system, because the age of pulp heroes and superheroes has passed. 

The metal man emerged from his hole, dragging the corpse of the Fuhrer behind him.

The brain in the metal man's chest would, perhaps, live for thousands of years. He wondered how he would spend the time.

He remembered little of his former life; he had been a man named El Sombra, or perhaps Djego. He had been stupid - he realised that now - but that was something he would never be again.

Apart from that, there was only a succession of faces, the memory of laughter and of a final, awful betrayal that had destroyed him. But there was also the sense that a great and terrible mission had ended at last, and it was time for a new life to begin.

The metal man took a last look back at the great dome of Fortress Berlin. Somewhere in there, the Leopard Man was hunting, freed from his own mission. And in the Fuhrer's old office, the empty, lifeless clay of El Sombra - or was it Djego? - lay, discarded, like a butterfly's cocoon.

The metal man thought on this, as the Fuhrer rusted at his feet and the tanks began to approach from over the hills ahead.

He would need a new name.

It’s now the age of Pluto.

[justaghostingon]

Cogs in a Steel Heart

Chapter 2: Building Trust

Hugo struggles to adjust and Cyrus gets the tea. Aka. Hugo’s got a lot of complaining to do, and Cyrus is having way to much fun watching him struggle at the whole ‘teammates’ thing.

Link to ao3 version: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331849/chapters/59001811#workskin

The next time Hugo came to report to Cyrus, he and his new team had already completed the water trial. Now most people would be a bit more excited after completing an ancient trial that lay incomplete for centuries. Or maybe just twenty years? Cyrus wasn’t paying attention when Donella explained that. Point was, the way Cyrus saw it Hugo should have been happy, or at least proud.

He was not.

“It’s like pulling teeth with these people!” Hugo tugged at his own hair for emphasis. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive!”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow as the usually calm and in control Hugo proceeded to have as near to a tantrum as he’d ever gotten, ranting and waving his hands like a madman. It was almost...funny.

“The firecracker keeps interrupting me when I’m working, and posturing about catching me in my ‘evil’ scheme-” And heavens above, Hugo actually made air quotes. Cyrus hadn’t realized he even knew what those were, “-as if I’d ever be stupid enough to make something to defeat them in the middle of their camp, what kind of rookie does he think I am? All he’s really doing is getting underfoot when I am trying to help! I need this to work out too! He’s just...uugh!” He threw his hands in the air with such violence it sent him stumbling backwards into a tree.

Cyrus bit the inside of his lip as Hugo sprang back up to punch the tree and scream at it. Thugs don’t smile on the job, and never let it be said Cyrus was not a professional. But he’d never seen Hugo so completely frazzled by simple human interaction. It was karmic really, considering everything Hugo’s usual interactions with people.

Eventually Hugo’s strength gave out and he leaned his forehead against the tree, looking the picture of defeat. And really, if two kids was all it took to wipe him out, Cyrus should have recommended him for babysitting to his neighbors ages ago. Would be good for him.

Hugo let out a deep sigh as his shoulders sagged. “And then there’s Goggles,” he said as he turns himself around to face Cyrus. “He’s a whole ‘nother problem. Always trying to compare notes, talk about “how my day was,” showing off to the kid...” Hugo crosses his arms across his chest. “And he’s not even that good at it! Like half the things he makes blow up! But when I point out his errors, which could get us blown up mind you, he gets all passive-aggressive and tries to do it his way and like come on! I’m not going to die in an explosion because he’s too stubborn to take the help he obviously needs!” Hugo huffed and turned his head away.

“If they are such a hindrance, why not just take both the totems and complete the trials by yourself?” Cyrus points out. As much as he was loving this, they did have a schedule to keep, and the sooner they were done, the sooner they could both go home. He’d get to see Mona in person again, instead of the picture tucked safely against his heart and her daily letters.

Hugo shifted from foot to look, hugging his arms close. “They might not be completely useless in trials,” Hugo grumbled. Then jumped up. “Not that I don’t do most of the work! like 95 percent really, they couldn't do it without me at all.” He ran his fingers through his hair and refused to meet Cyrus’s eyes.

Oh no. Cyrus knew that look. That’s the ‘I screwed up look.’ But surely it couldn’t be too bad, the trial was complete after all.

“But they might have helped a bit at the end there, especially with the final test,” Hugo finished. “I didn’t see through the enchantment like at all, but Goggles,” Hugo sighed. “He pushed it off like it was nothing and dragged me and Firecracker out all by himself.”

Oh. That wasn’t so bad. Why had he been so upset about that? Donella had told him to infiltrate for a reason. His mind flashed back to the first mission he’d ever had with the kid.

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

“What did you do?” Hugo screamed in his face, half soaked and feral as a wild cat.

“My job,” Cyrus replied as he pushed the body out of his way in the rain soaked street.

“You ruined the job!” Hugo threw a hand down towards the body between them. “It took me months to get him to trust me!”

Cyrus crossed his arms. “He was about to kill you.” Kill didn’t quite cut it. Rip in half was more fitting, and much as Cyrus disliked the kid, the scene of the twig-like body struggling against an iron grip as the man’s expression twisted into one of sadistic delight...

“I had it handled!” Hugo snarled. “I could have stopped him in a hundred different ways!”  He shoved a finger in Cyrus’s chest. “Now we’ll never know where the supply was coming from, and it's all because of you!”

Cyrus slowly reached out and pushed the fingers down. Hugo’s expression tightened for a second under his grip. “My orders were to ensure that man was not a threat. He was a threat. Therefore, I did my job.” He let go and Hugo instantly jumped back, clutching his hand close to his heart and eyeing Cyrus with fury in his eyes.

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

“Hmmm,” Cyrus mused. Out of the corner of his eye, Hugo flinched at the sound. “Did you say thank you?” Cyrus asked.

Hugo’s head snapped up. “What?”

“When someone saves you, normally you’re supposed to say thank you,” Cyrus shrugged. “It’s polite.”

Hugo stared at him, mouth hanging open. “I-I totally forgot about that.”

“Might want to give it a shot,” Cyrus pushed off his own tree and started walking away. “See you next week!”

Behind him Hugo let out a very frustrated groan.

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

“And then he goes to the boss, whining about how trigger happy I am. Me!” Cyrus took a sharp swig from his drink, feeling the alcohol burn its way down. “After I saved his life!” He smashed the cup down on the table.

“Hey man, I get it,” Lester gives him a hearty slap on the back. “I served my time with the crazy lady and the brat.”

“He’s something else alright,” Cyrus scowled into his drink. “Like some kind of heartless machine.” He turned to look Lester in his slightly blurry face. “You know his eyes were completely blank when that guy was trying to kill him, it's like he wasn’t even there. Freaky.”

“Maybe the crazy lady made him in the back lab,” Lester jokes. “Explains why he never leaves.”

“Makes sense,” Cyrus’s grip tightened on the handle of his mug. “Robot designed to make thugs miserable.”

“Hey man.” Lester shoved him lightly with his shoulder. “You can always quit like I did.”

“Yeah,” Cyrus took another swig and sighed. “But winter is coming, and Mona and I can’t really afford me outta work right now.”

“That sucks man,” Lester took a sip of his own drink. “Hey!” he slammed the mug down so quickly Cyrus nearly fell out of his seat. “I think I know a guy who can help you!”

Cyrus shook his head as he righted himself on his stool. “You do? What’s his name?”

Lester went cross eyed as he tried to think. “No idea,” he said, and grinned. “But when I do I’ll let you know!”

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

Hugo’s team had barely crossed the border to the next kingdom by the time it came for Hugo’s next report, a fact that Cyrus hoped would mean it was mercifully short. He was wrong.

Hugo seemed in a better mood as he approached, arms loose and swinging. “I’ve got some good news for the report,” he said with a two fingered salute.

Cyrus grunted, and Hugo took that as an opportunity to launch into an elaborate story about him and Firecracker. Apparently Hairstripe, who Cyrus assumed was Goggles and not the donkey, had suggested Hugo and Firecracker go on an errand for “team bonding.” Hugo had added air quotes around the last two words, and heavens was that going to become a thing?

According to Hugo, the whole trip had been an absolute bore, in some nowhere town where the only building of consequence seemed to be the jailhouse, (A jailhouse Cyrus did not remember being there when he’d passed through) which had quickly turned into an unmitigated disaster when some noisy shopper had tried to steal their ingredient from Hugo’s hands.

“Well I wasn’t going to stand for that,” Hugo rolled his eyes. “But the shopkeeper was inhuman, I’m telling you. I couldn’t schmooze anything more than a promise not to sell it until sunset, and then only to the party with the most money by the end of the day.”

“How unfeeling,” Cyrus states dryly.

“I know right?” Hugo huffed as he placed a hand on his chest. “No one can resist my schmoozing!” Where was I? Oh yes. Then Firecracker insisted we work for the extra money.” He spat the word work like it was an insult. “Instead of just scamming some quick cash. I pointed out we couldn’t exactly get a job, and he said we could just sell firecrackers.”

Oh that’s going to make this story confusing Cyrus thought. Firecracker selling Firecrackers, it sounds like a kids rhyme Mona would read to the kids next door.

“Meanwhile our dear commentators were doing absolutely nothing with their time, even as we started getting quite a few customers. So naturally I schmoozed up to them to figure out what was going on,” Hugo flipped his hair dramatically.

Cyrus raised an eyebrow. Some confidence after it failed you so miserably earlier in the day, he didn’t say.

“But the blind fools were completely unimpressed,” Hugo pouted. “And then they tried to frame me for thievery. Me!”

The sheer look of outrage on Hugo’s face made the corner of Cyrus’s mouth twitch up. So much for schmoozing.

“I escaped, naturally.” Hugo waved his hand in the air. “But Firecracker got caught when they accused him of stealing their fireworks.”

At which point Hugo derailed the story to rant about how he didn’t really want to save the kid, really! But there was no way Hairstripe would let him stay if he didn’t bring him back, so he really didn’t have a choice, blah, blah, blah.

Honestly it sounded more like Hugo was trying to justify it to himself after the first thirty minutes, but who was Cyrus to judge?

“The point is,” Hugo said as he finally stopped ranting, “I went to the jail as the sun was rapidly sinking in the sky, certain we were going to lose. Only to see the jailhouse before me explode into a gazillion pieces as Firecracker came running out the side.”

That explains why I didn’t see the jail house, Cyrus thought, and why there was a burning pile of rubble while I was walking through.

“Firecracker was pretty happy to see me,” Hugo smirked. “Apparently he didn’t think I would actually come back for him. I asked how he managed to blow up the building when the police had taken all his supplies. Turns out exploding moss grows on old brick. Who knew right?”

“Who indeed,” Cyrus said.

“And this,” Hugo raised a single finger. “Is where I succeeded in forwarding my infiltration goal. You see, I proposed a fiendishly clever plan to get revenge on those who robbed us, and get the prize, and you know what? Yong actually listened to me! He totally backed me up when I told them the exploding moss was a rare alchemic ingredient, and didn’t even lose his cool when one of them held a knife to his neck and demanded we tell them how to use it!”

Hugo threw back his head and laughed at the memory. “The look on his face when it exploded in his hands is one I will treasure for years,” he gasped as he wiped away a tear.

“And exploding a rival helps with your infiltration how?” Cyrus crossed his arms.

“I’m building trust,” Hugo waved the question away.

“Blowing people up doesn’t seem like the most trustworthy habit,” Cyrus pointed out. Especially for someone who is trying not to get himself caught by unstable alchemists willing to destroy whole buildings.

“Oh please, the kid blows up everything in his path if he can help it. I’m just speaking his language. Besides,” Hugo’s shoulders straightened. “I can’t keep up the goody-two shoes act twenty-four seven. I’d go mad. But this way, I’m causing problems for them. So they’ll see me as an asset they can exploit and keep me around.”

Assets for exploitation weren’t typically sent on feel-good-get-along missions with teammates, Cyrus didn’t say. No one cares enough to try to make their work life pleasant. He should know. He had worked for Donella for six years. This Hairstripe, or Goggles, or whatever his real name was, seemed to genuinely want Hugo to feel at home, despite his less than stellar introduction.

But there was no sense pointing that out to Hugo, he thought as he watched the boy preen under the weight of his own cleverness. Not when they had a mission to complete. The less Hugo noticed, the less it would hurt when he inevitably had to leave.

[stained-glass-fragments]

Her eyes rippled with something strange, but she shook her head and carefully pried his grip away from her. "We're not the same, Yune. You're filled with hatred. I can almost feel it radiating off of you. You don't want a place in this world. You think the world owes you for what you've already gone through!"

His eyes narrowed, hand falling stiff at his side. "I wanted to understand, you know. I wanted to know why you weren't filled with the same bitterness I was. Why you didn't want those bastards to pay for what they did and how many lives they ruined and destroyed. Why you would work so damn hard to try to prove something to them."

She looked up with honest aqua-blue eyes. "I felt it was worth trying for. To prove to myself that I wasn't what they thought I was."

"And look where it's gotten you!" he all but exploded. "Do they seem any more sympathetic? Do they welcome you with open arms? Do they even care how much you sacrificed for others - what you've given as a knight and protector of the weak and innocent? No! They drop your rank, act like you're a blemish to their academy, call you dangerous, and track you down like an animal!"

The tears that welled threatened to spill. As much as it hurt to admit it, he was right. In the end, she had gotten nowhere. Her true identity was revealed, and everyone changed. The men and women she once considered her comrades in arms sneered at the mere mention of her. Many were convinced she murdered missing travelers when there was no proof of any such thing. Her once good and respected name was tarnished forever. No one would listen to her. No one would believe her.

Farona gasped when she felt the warm hand wipe away the wetness of her eyes. "You see?" he spoke softly, as if to a child. "All of your efforts were for nothing. Humans are judgmental creatures overpowered by fear. They're told we're monsters by their own kind - by the real monsters - and they believe it without a second thought. Mindless sheep, flocked and corralled those who seize and abuse power."

"But..." she trailed off, her bottom lip quivering. And when he pulled her into his arms, she didn't fight him.

"We were changed - created by those power-hungry alchemists. They planned to turn us into weapons - weapons they would use to seize even more control and more power." He began to rock her slightly. "Our humanity mattered nothing to them - nothing to the parents that abandoned us. So why, Farona? Why would you ever want to prove anything to a world and a people so filled with cruelty?"

A dry sob escaped her throat. "I thought they would..."

"You thought wrong," he stated simply, and the swaying stopped. He pulled back to look into her eyes. "Come with me, Farona. We can find a way to set things straight. We can make sure those disgusting alchemists get what they truly deserve. We can find a way to prove everyone wrong. We can make them regret everything they've done to us."

"N-No!" she tried to jerk away from him, but he stubbornly held her in place. "I don't want to--I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"Don't try to fool yourself," he scoffed, his grip on the un-plated part of her arms almost bruising. "It runs through your veins, just like it runs through mine. You can't ignore it forever. Embrace it..."

"No! I'm not a---I'll never---mmph!"

Her words were cut off when he crushed his lips to hers, effectively ceasing her protests. And for a moment, she was too stunned by the abrupt kiss to do anything. But that moment quickly passed and she hastily jerked back from him, face flushed cherry red and features contorted in a mixture of alarm and anger. "What do you think you're doing!?"

A slow grin spread across his lips, making the half-lidded red eyes appear almost amused. "Why, persuading you, of course."

And before she could form a reply, his mouth was on hers again. Despite them both being the results of terrible experiments, her own inhuman strength was no match for his. She wanted to yell, but his lips were firm and the church was empty.

As she usually did when she was in any unwanted situation, Farona resorted to brute force. Her arms pulled back and shot out with the flex of her elbows, effectively pushing hard against his chest and breaking the contact from their mouths. Yune even stumbled back a few feet.

Breathing hard, the knightress backed away slowly, her catlike ears remaining flat against the sides of her head. Her eyes narrowed, scathingly defiant as her voice hissed. "Don't---ever think you have any right to touch me. Now that I know exactly what kind of person you are, I want nothing to do with you."

Yune straightened, eying her coolly. "Hm, I had a feeling you might refuse. A bit disappointing, but not unexpected. After all, you're a fool who has been infected by fake human 'acceptance'."

"Get out of here," she bit out, pointing down the aisle to the tall chapel doors. "I don't care where you go, but you had better not lay a hand on anyone. If you do, whether I'm part of the Pronterean Guard or not any longer, I will make sure that you're brought to justice."

To her surprise, Yune threw his head back and laughed. The sound echoed within, assaulting her ears relentlessly and filling her with dread. When at last he stopped, all traces of the amusement were gone. "Not lay a hand on anyone?" he repeated incredulously. "My dear, you have no idea..."

A part of her felt a stab of fear at his words. The way he spoke that, so flippantly, so tellingly...

"I did tell you that I became a high priest for their skills and powers, did I not?" he quipped with a click of his tongue. "Farona, I have power beyond your wildest dreams. The blood of Baphomet, King of the Demons, runs through my veins! And through the power I have unwillfully been given through injections, tests, and magic infusion, I have become the very weapon we were being molded into."

Her heart was hammering, but the knightress could not bring herself to run. She had to know exactly what it was that Yune had done, no matter how terrible it may be.

"However, I am now a weapon of my own fine-tuning, my dear," he clarified, beginning to walk to her right and then slowly around her. Farona followed him with her eyes, her gloved fingers settling upon the hilt of the sword at her side. "I don't belong to a power-hungry group of alchemists bent on overthrowing Rune-Midgard's leaders. And their army will not stand a chance against my own."

Her brows furrowed at that, eyes fixated on him with puzzlement as he came to a stop in front of her again. "What? You---you actually got people--or monsters--to follow you?"

"I prefer the word persuaded." He smirked, the lines of his smile twisting into something incredibly unsettling and sinister. "You see, priests have a most wonderful ability, Farona. We can raise the dead. I can simply kill the most powerful soldiers I come across and raise them back up, gaining my own undead slave. Quite remarkable, isn't it?"

Farona's blue eyes widened in utter horror. "Y--You---you killed..."

"Hundreds! Thousands!" he announced enthusiastically. "And I've created an army of powerful warriors, ranging from the burliest paladin and the most accurate of snipers, to the sneakiest and most cutthroat assassin and the most fearsome wizards... and not a single one of them can be killed. After all, they're already dead!"

He laughed at his own morbid joke, making her stomach twist. This seemingly kind-hearted, silly priest had kept such a dark, terrible the truth locked up tight behind his facade. He had already slaughtered thousands of innocent people for his own gain and obviously didn't feel even a smidgen of remorse. She felt sick.

But that wasn't important. Now that she knew the truth, he had to stopped at all costs. For the sake of everyone in Rune-Midgard, she had to apprehend him here and now---it was her duty not to let this madman leave the church and continue his bloodthirsty massacre of revenge. Eyes resolute, she unsheathed her long sword in one swift movement, pointing the tip purposefully in his direction. Her intent was clear.

"Oh, worry not. I do not intend to make you one of my army," he assured her, raising a hand up in mock-defense. The other hand fell to his pocket. "I have much more... satisfying plans for someone as special as you."

The way he spoke, like a snake waiting to strike, struck her unease up another notch. He was gifted with magic, as was abundantly clear from the horrible things he had done with his powers. However, in a purely physical sense, she would have the upper hand. He wasn't carrying a weapon and if she could just knock him out...

Farona swallowed down the growing fear that was churning inside of her, lit by the inner fire of the crimson eyes gauging her, watching closely for her next move. Whatever "plans" he had, she was intent on not letting him carry them out, whether with her or the rest of Rune-Midgard.

And to think that she had trusted him.

[paladin-andric]

Blackheart, Chapter 25: Farewell

It was no easy task the group found themselves burdened with, but each of them was driven in one way or another to see it through to the end.

Leianna and Lexius were both determined to stop the spread of corruption, bound by church duty and opposition to all evil.

Senci and Razorwing both seemed to thrive off of helping others. Razorwing had been performing such acts of heroism for years, while Senci dreamed of becoming such a hero, this quest his first step on that long journey.

Andric was slightly tougher to pin down. Of course like Leianna and Lexius demons and death were his opponents, but Alexander suspected he had rushed here because he was worried about Senci who was, in a way, family to him.

Charles was just a quiet magician whose motives remained unknown. He didn’t seem driven by fame or honor or any of that...yet he stayed with them. Perhaps he was just doing this because it needed to be done, and he had valuable skills no one else on the team had. He was needed, so he answered the call.

Tourthun wanted to become some sort of guardian to the survivors, and mankind at large. Was it grief or guilt at seeing so many die? Was it his desire to be able to strike out against evil, after being forced to stand by and suffer from it all his life? Alexander wasn’t sure, but his drive appeared relentless.

He couldn’t say why Paul was here. He seemed like the type who lived a life of danger, so this was just another mission to see through for him? While his silence and lack of reasons for why he was with the trouble might have drawn suspicion, he HAD saved Alexander and Senci’s lives. There was little room for doubt after that affair.

The knight thought to himself as he clung to Tourthun, who soared in through the air. This group was nothing like any he had ever served with...although that wasn’t a bad thing. Far from it. It was bizarre, unconventional, full of people whose entire species unnerved Alexander...yet he felt a bond with each of them.

He remembered how disgusted he was when he learned of Charles. A member of the lowly, wicked and cruel half-dragons, the monsters who were as sociopathic as they were cunning...yet once he met the man, it became clear he wasn’t like that at all.

He acted like a shy, insecure boy at times. He would snap and then profusely apologize. There was a spark in his eyes whenever the topic of magic was brought up. He read like a madman, tearing into hefty tomes with glee.

He was just like any other person...aside from the scales. And claws. And wings. And just about everything else.

But that was the point. His appearance was frightening, but his spirit was so...familiar. Like he wasn’t part dragon at all.

Maybe, Alexander thought, this is the silver lining of this tragedy. To learn from the ‘beasts’, to understand them fully and grasp the complexity of life.

He’d told himself the same thing before, but convincing himself of something so vehemently opposed to his old view of the world was still challenging. Once, he’d thought that beastmen were overwhelmingly cruel or barbaric. True, there were a few good ones, but they were the exception.

No longer could he tell himself such things.

He looked down, and gazed at the dragon currently soaring above the city.

To think even these beasts of legend are so much like us…

He shook his head. He’d pondered such things long enough. These people were his teammates, his comrades in arms and fellow warriors, all standing united against the plague that was demonkind.

There was nothing else to say on the matter.

He took a moment to look around the skies briefly. Nothing.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel antsy. Something was out there, watching. Surely, something was. Could three dragons really slip past an entire city conquered by demons unnoticed?

Everyone was crowded on Tourthun’s back, all hanging onto him as they journeyed back west, towards the gates.

The group had wanted to head over and defeat the monster at the gates, wasting no time and descending upon it with their newfound draconic allies. Hopefully, it would be swift and decisive.

“Hey, Leianna!” Alexander called out.

The cleric looked over and shouted back, both of them fighting to keep their voices heard over the cutting wind. “Yeah?”

“How’d you and Lexius get back on your feet?”

“Andric!”

“I know! What’d he do?”

“Sleepskips!” she shouted back, “Woulda been back at it in no time if I had packed some! Figures!”

“What are those?” the knight questioned.

“You’ve never heard?” a voice answered from behind him. It was soft and inhuman, quiet and unsure. He could tell it came from Charles, who sat directly behind him. His close proximity allowed the pair to speak without shouting.

“I’ve heard the name, but...only in passing.”

“Well,” the magician started, “They’re potions that fill whomever drinks it with energy. It unclouds sight and mind and restores vigor upon the user. Err, I mean vigor as in energy. It doesn’t heal you or anything. It’s like...a night’s sleep in a bottle.”

“Ah.”

“Mhm. As you might know, using magic taxes you. For people like priests and sorcerers, those potions are invaluable.”

“Sleepskip potions…”

“Very creative, right?” Charles chuckled. “Someone else named them, not I!”

“Well, it’s to the point, at least…”

“Uh, yeah! Very!”

Alexander remained silent after that exchange. He thought about how lucky they were that things had turned out the way they had.

Stumbling across the demon’s source of immortality. Andric bringing medical tonics to the wounded and exhausted. Tourthun being talked down. The other family of dragons joining forces with them.

To think they stumbled across such great fortune blindly.

He stared at the passing cityscape and wondered what would happen when-

What sounded like an explosion gave Alexander only a brief moment’s warning before a beam of blackness shot past Tourthun from behind, narrowly missing him.

The dragon, clearly rattled, dove to the side and looked over his back. The group holding onto him followed his gaze, wondering where it had come from.

High above them, in the air, a large figure hovered amidst the swirling fog.

The dragon.

The corrupted beast that had nearly caught them in the streets earlier.

The other dragons had whirled around and spotted it, too.

“Brother!” Basilrin snarled, wings flapping as he stared the monster down.

“So you’re the one who’s been firing that…” Alexander mumbled, unheard by the others.

Looks like we’ll be fighting this foe first...

“Thank you for coming!” the dragon roared back. Its voice was dark and wavering, unholy and warbling. “Thank you for gathering together like this...so I can get you all in one fell swoop!”

The dragon opened its maw, but this time Tourthun was ready. He took a sharp turn to the side and dove out of the way, just as another beam of death shot past him.

The other dragons didn’t hesitate, launching after the beast and approaching quickly. Seeing this, Tourthun turned back, staring at the small people on his back.

“I should set you down!”

“No argument here,” Lexius spoke quietly.

“Seriously?” Leianna raised a brow at the priest.

“What am I gonna do, throw my sword at him?!”

“Put the others down,” Razorwing offered, “I can fire upon him!”

Crux took out his crossbow. “I can fire as well…”

“Very well! You two stay! I will set everyone else down!”

Tourthun swooped down and landed on the city streets, looking over his shoulder and speaking in a hurried manner.

“Quickly, off, off!”

Everyone slid off of the dragon and onto the stone street below. The only ones who remained were Razorwing, Crux...and Charles.

“Uhh...Charles?” the bounty hunter stared over his shoulder in confusion.

“I-I’ve got my magic! Let me help!”

Tourthun seemed to ponder it for a moment.

Alexander opened his mouth to protest, but a hand on his shoulder gave him pause.

He turned to see Andric, giving him a knowing look. “This is his choice.”

The knight frowned and nodded, stepping back.

“Very well...let us be off. I will keep you safe, as best I can.”

The dragon looked up, watching as his father’s killer reached the corrupted dragon and threw himself upon it, Basilrin not far behind.

“Be courageous! I am by your side!” Tourthun shouted as he kicked off, ascending into the air.

The rest of the group watched the two green dragons fight with the corrupted beast as Tourthun went after them.

“Shouldn’t we do something?” Leianna asked, tapping her foot.

“What CAN we do?” Lexius frowned as he stared at the battle in the sky. The father and son tore into the larger dragon, both of them getting forced back as the mighty beast threw them off and swung his own claws at them.

“What, are we really just gonna stand here and WATCH?!” the cleric barked, clearly upset with the situation.

“We cannot effectively help from here,” Andric spoke softly, “But what we can do is stick to cover and try to keep close to them. You never know what might happen, and we need to stay close incase something goes awry.”

Tourthun flew around the corrupted dragon, who was too preoccupied with battling his family to notice him. The red dragon slowed his flight and began to drift past the beast, carefully keeping some distance between them.

Shortly after this, the group watched as a flurry of arrows, bolts, and spears of ice flew from over Tourthun and hit the dark dragon in the back.

The beast loud out a bellowing roar and turned back, firing a beam of death at Tourthun, who quickly flew out of the way, shooting a jet of fire back in return.

The green dragons clawed at him, and Basilrin even spat at the monster. It didn’t seem to do anything, but their physical attacks clearly hurt. The beast spun and slammed a leg downwards into Aurelio, claws tearing into him with murderous intent.

Aurelio roared out in agony, falling down towards the city below. Basilrin looked back in horror and cried out at the display.

“Father!”

By this point the rest of the team on the ground was running forward. Their boots pounded against the stone ground as they rushed to head closer to the battle.

Aurelio came crashing back to earth, the ground shaking as entire buildings were leveled by his violent landing. He had fallen quite far ahead, it would take quite some time for the group to reach him. Who knew if his wounds were fatal?

The corrupted dragon seemed to realize he had been given an opening. He prepared to take advantage of the now distraught and distracted Basilrin, who was still staring at his fallen father in horror.

Tourthun sensed this, working quickly to regain the upper hand in battle.

“Fire!” he shouted, and the trio on his back resumed shooting their projectiles into the dark dragon’s back. Yet again the monster cried out in pain, and Tourthun swiftly flew around him as he struggled to retaliate.

The red dragon passed by Basilrin, saying something to him quietly. After that, the green dragon seemed to regain control of himself, turning to face the mist-wrapped beast and roaring out a challenge to him.

“BROTHER! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!”

His voice carried a frightening level of conviction, reverberations of the behemoth’s fury even reaching as far as the group on the ground.

Tourthun seemed to be...retreating?

He flew down towards the survivors running forward, even as Basilrin threw himself into battle alone.

The red dragon indeed flew right down to them, landing on the street and lowering himself to the ground in an instant, as if to let them on him.

“Andric, we need to restore Aurelio!”

Alexander’s brows raised at the dragon’s frantic attempts to revive the one who he seemed to hate.

“Tourthun? I thought you wanted-”

“We MUST win!” the dragon returned, eyes narrowed, “Hurry, Basilrin can only hold him back for so long!”

Andric run to him quickly, climbing onto the beast without so much as a word. Razorwing reached down and offered a hand, pulling the paladin up onto the dragon’s back.

“I can help as well,” Lexius offered, hurrying forward.

“A fair plan,” Tourthun offered, “We do not know the extent of his injuries.”

“Hey, what about-”

“No!” Andric called out, now on top of the dragon. Though he cut off Leianna, his voice was soft.

“If the group’s separated, we need healers available to as many as possible! At least one should stay with the rest-.”

“No more time!” Tourthun yelled, the priest now on top of him as well, “We go!”

The dragon kicked off, leaving the rest of the group alone...including one grumbling cleric.

“He’s right,” Alexander said quietly, “If one of us dies because all the priests were somewhere else…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Leianna muttered, eyes narrowed, “I get it.”

Tourthun flew off with blinding speed towards the area where Aurelio had fallen.

“We should keep moving!” Senci cried, “What if they’re attacked by corrupted on the ground?!”

“Good point. Let’s go.”

The group, now consisting of Alexander, Leianna and Senci, hurried to catch up as quickly as they could. They tore through the streets, though the pair flying far above them never seemed to get any closer.

Eventually, an ear-shattering roar caught their attention. High above them, the corrupted monster snarled at Basilrin wings flapping unsteadily as it turned tail and flew away.

The green dragon gave chase, just as Tourthun came back into view, reapproaching the group once more.

The red dragon landed quickly, eyes brimming with what appeared to be fear.

“I do not know how, but Basilrin has somehow forced a retreat! Hurry, we must chase him down!”

Alexander narrowed his eyes. “Hey...where’s everyone else?”

The dragon’s back was unoccupied. Razorwing, Crux and even Charles were gone.

“There were corrupted on the streets! They are holding the line while the two healers tend to HIM,” Tourthun ended with a huff, grimacing.

The knight shrugged. “Alright, let’s go.”

Everyone quickly moved and clambered atop the dragon, who immediately launched into the air without warning.

He was in a great hurry, and Alexander could hardly blame him.

“Why are we following?” Senci asked timidly.

“He’s running away,” Alexander explained, “Senci, where do people go when they get hurt, or lose a fight?”

“Umm...somewhere safe?”

“Their home, or base,” the knight corrected, “There’s a good chance that if we give chase...we could gain access to their seat of power! Plus, we don’t want him coming back. It’s time to finish this, so we can get back to our original plan.”

The kobold nodded. “Umm...okay. Are you sure this? I mean...we’re separated!”

“We’ve got him on the ropes!” Leianna bellowed, “We can finish him off and regroup!”

“Okay…”

Senci seemed unsure about this.

His points are valid, but...this is our one chance. He’ll come better prepared next time. We’ll lose people if we let him run. Hell, we might have lost someone already...

Tourthun sped up, hurrying to rejoin Basilrin and assist in the fight against the green dragons fallen brother. The city whizzed by them, Alexander finding it difficult to hang on with such resistance in the wind.

Tourthun could have flown this quickly all along, but didn’t want anyone getting hurt. Now though, speed is of the essence…

The red dragon tracked Basilrin and the shadow-dragon across the city. They flew far East, deep into uncharted territory.

All around them, ruined buildings flew by them as the pursuit continued, wind battering the group as they desperately clung to the dragon’s back.

With several long minutes having passed, and Aurelio and the rest of them nowhere in sight, Alexander started to get worried. He would have alerted Tourthun to this, only…

A massive structure made him freeze and stare in amazement.

It came from the streets below...although, it wasn’t really below them. A massive, gaping holy rose far above the humble buildings surrounding it. Only a church on the horizon rose to meet it, dwarfing everything else.

It seemed like it had come from the earth itself, several buildings leveled and in ruins around it. The massive hole was round and made of stone. It looked like the entrance to a complex tunnel system, only massively oversized.

Big enough to fit dragons in, even…

That was it!

This is his hideout, his lair! We’ve tracked him back to the source!

Alexander could only imagine the secrets lying within the tunnel…

The mist-swallowed dragon stopped and turned around, glaring at the group pursuing him. With little hesitation, he lifted his head to the sky and let out a bellowing roar that seemed to make the world itself shake.

Only...Basilrin was already upon him.

Why did the beast ignore such a threat to its well-being? Alexander couldn’t say. The beasts on the ground seemed to lose all sense of self-preservation, becoming little more than feral monsters consumed by bloodlust.

This dragon had spoken. Retreated when he was hurt and outnumbered. He was clearly no mindless creature...so why did he do nothing as Basilrin crashed into him?

The dark dragon roared out, this time in pain as it fell from the sky. Basilrin gave no pause and swooped down after him, Tourthun on both of their heels.

The red dragon landed beside the other two, shouting frantically.

“Get off! Get down!”

The Alexander and the rest quickly slid onto the streets, after which Tourthun turned and leapt into the fray. Basilrin and the corrupted dragon were both on the floor clawing and biting at each other as they struggled to kill the other.

The dark dragon grinned. “Hah...hah...you have…already lost…”

Tourthun dug his claws into the other monster’s back, causing it to cry out one final time before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

Both dragons got back to their feet and looked down at the fallen beast. Basilrin huffed as he caught his breath, winded from the tough battle.

“T-that...that was...easier than I thought…” he spoke quietly.

Tourthun frowned. “Indeed. If what you said about his actions earlier is true, it seems he almost...wanted us to kill him.”

Senci crept forward, peering at the fallen beast nervously. “Did we win…?”

“It seems so…” the knight walked closer and stared. The dragon was motionless, its pure white eyes staring up at nothing as it lay there.

“So...that’s it?” Leianna crossed her arms. “He...said we lost, despite knowing we beat him.”

“He must mean something else…”

As Alexander looked down and considered the beast’s final words, a loud noise broke him from his trance.

The corrupted dragon was not dead, in any sense.

It shifted its body, though still lay on the ground, not moving to get up. It craned its neck and looked over at Basilrin.

Tourthun and Basilrin both noticed and moved toward the beast, but it stopped them in their tracks with a single utterance.

“Wait.”

It was spoken in a low and breathless voice, born of fear and desperation. So pitiful was the monster’s sudden change in tone, that Tourthun and Basilrin actually did pause in their approach.

It looked up at the green dragon for a long time. Its blank, expressionless eyes seemed to drink Basilrin in, locked squarely on him.

The was a short grunt before it continued.

“...brother?”

Basilrin’s eyes widened in shock. “J-Julroul?!”

The corrupted dragon frowned. “Ahh...it is indeed I.”

“You...remember me?”

“All too well.”

There was an awkward pause between the two before Julroul continued.

“Basilrin...thank you.”

“For what?”

“For-”

The shrouded dragon groaned, still laying motionless. “...for putting an end to my madness.”

“Brother…? You are yourself?”

“I...suppose I am.”

Basilrin looked over at the rest of the group, eyes full of desperation. “H-healer! Help him!”

Leianna hesitated for a moment. She looked suspicious, but…

The cleric ran forward, reaching the fallen dragon and looking him over carefully.

“He’s...you tore him apart,” the woman muttered, running a hand over his ripped and cracked scales, her own body obscured by the fog around the dragon.

“No use…” Julroul mumbled, “I am at my end. Though after what has happened...I do not think I could stand to live anyway.”

“Why…?” Basilrin questioned, “Why did you do it? Why did you join them? Why did you...m-mother...your mother, my mother...our mother…”

Julroul let a rattling sigh. “I...I cannot excuse myself. I became so blinded by my hatred. I was so angry at being subjugated by humanity. I...I let it consume me. I let it control me. I...let it overwhelm my sense of honor. That was not the demons, brother...to my shame, they merely brought out what I had been trying to deny. I am not good, like you, or the rest of our family...forgive me, my brother. I have you down. I have let us all down. I am pathetic.”

“D-do something!” Basilrin barked at Leianna, wincing.

The cleric groaned as she stared at the dark dragon. “H-he...he’s too much for me. I could maybe stabilize him, but-”

“NO!”

Everyone looked over to see Julroul, still lying on death’s door.

“You...if you heal me...I will just fall to their influence again. Please...do not do such a thing...I would turn on you all...you must not…”

“What do we do?!” Senci cried, looking over the dragon in desperation.

“He...he’s a conduit for so much corruption,” Leianna spoke in a horrified tone, “I...I can’t get rid of so much. Even if I could, he’d just die anyway. A-and if try to heal him instead, I wouldn’t be able to stop him from being overwhelmed by the corruption…”

“The answer is clear.” Julroul turned his head to face the cleric, as well as Alexander and Senci.

“You must let me go.”

“N-no, brother, please!”

Julroul groaned once again, black blood seeping out from under him. “I am sorry, Basilrin. At least with this, I will no longer hurt you, or anyone else I care about.”

“There must be some way…” Leianna kneeled on the ground, rummaging through her pack. “Argh! THINK, damn it! Come on! There’s an answer somewhere!”

“It will be alright,” Julroul assured, “Everything will be alright.”

Basilrin shook his head. “No! I cannot lose you! I cannot lose any more! You and father are all I have! Please, fight this!”

“Brother...I can fight no longer. I have let the demons possess me. I have thrown away all I cherished. I...I even…my own mother…”

“It was not you!”

Julroul growled. “It was the demons, yes...but only because I CHOSE to let them into me. I gave into my fear. I gave into my hate. I sold your lives for petty vengeance. I am a traitor and a fool. If I had only listened to you, my dear brother...the demons never could have done this.”

Basilrin closed his eyes, overwhelmed with grief. “You...we can…”

“No more. My time is up. I...I can feel it...I grow cold…”

Leianna snarled. “A-Andric! Lexius! DAMN IT! If we hadn’t split up…! Damn it! Everything would have been fine! DAMN IT ALL!”

She slammed a fist on the ground, furious at her own inability to save the dragon single-handedly. The cleric kneeled, shaking her head as she chastised herself for her failure, even as guiltless as she was.

“Basilrin...this is goodbye…”

“No...no!” the green dragon clutched onto his dying brother, tears in his eyes. “Please...please, do not leave...I need you here...I need my family…”

Julroul, frowned. “Brother…? I have...a request.”

“Anything.”

The dark dragon swallowed hard. “Please...do not think of me like this, when I am gone. After this is over, and you mourn...remember myself as I was before all of this. Remember your big brother, the one who always told you how great you would be one day. Can you do that? Can you promise your brother such a thing?”

Basilrin nodded, tears flowing down his muzzle. “I promise...I can see the old you already...those days we would lounge in the fields together.”

Julroul smiled wryly. “The best of my days.”

The blood was flowing heavily now, in a large pool around the dragon, seeping into the cracks of the stone streets.

“So cold...brother…”

“Julroul…”

“Basilrin...please forgive me.”

“I have.”

Julroul closed his eyes. His breathing slowed.

“I can see her. I can see mother. I wonder...if she forgives me.”

“I am sure she will understand.”

Julroul let out a harrowing rattle. “I love you…”

Basilrin stared through blurry eyes as his brother’s final moments, shaking. “I love you, as well.”

Julroul seized up as the cold embrace of death came to claim his soul, once and for all.

“I...will miss you…” he wheezed quietly.

With that, his breathing stopped. He was now truly motionless.

Basilrin stared down at the now dead dragon, tears dripping down from him and onto the still warm body of Julroul.

“B-brother…”

Leianna covered her mouth and averted her gaze. Though she had no personal attachment to the beast, her failure to save him seemed to be weighing heavily on her.

“He is...gone. He is...really gone…”

The green dragon took short, shallow breaths as he backed up, staring in abject horror.

“This...this is a bad dream...this cannot be happening…”

“Basilrin.”

The green dragon turned and saw Tourthun. He gave the grieving beast a somber expression.

“It is difficult to accept. I understand.”

“T-Tourthun...this...this is what you felt, too?”

“Nothing hurts more,” the red dragon admitted, “But...the afterlife...is a paradise. He is happy, now. He is free of this horrific demonscape. He is free of the corruption. He is...free.”

Basilrin frowned. He seemed to think the red dragon’s words over carefully.

“Paradise…”

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[themadlostgirl]

Not Dead Yet (Part 57)

*Okay. I know this is super duper late but in my defense I have gotten the flu and am still recovering from a brown recluse bite. I have had no energy to do anything but puke and lie in bed wishing for death. That being said I did kinda drag my feet on this latest chapter. Hope it was worth it. More to come soon!*

Pairing: Reader x Peter Pan

Warnings: language

“Wakey, wakey,” I dropped the cage containing our newest Lost Boy down to the ground. “Big day ahead of you, Baelfire.”

Strangely enough this morning I was not the first awake as was usually the case. Peter had woken up before me and was busy riling up the boys for their fun. He was really intent on turning Baelfire into a Lost Boy and wanted no mercy from anyone in terms of training. Usually we put the boys through hell but always show it is in good fun on their first day so they understand how Neverland functions. With Baelfire though I got the impression Peter wanted the boy’s spirit broken entirely so he could be a complacent and obedient Lost Boy.

Considering his background and that the second he was brought to the island he has done nothing but fight back against us trying to make him like one of the others was a fool’s errand. He wouldn’t want to be a part of our family willingly. He’d have to be forced, practically brainwashed, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Still I had my orders and I wasn’t going to try anything when the boy in question is the Dark One’s son.

A pained and drowsy groan came from inside the cage. “Best not to dally,” I opened the door, “We’re all heading to training and you are coming with.”

Baelfire was more alert now and looked at me through the clear opening. I could practically see the gears turning in his head. I pointed my club an inch from his face, “Don’t even think of trying to escape. You won’t make it out of camp.”

“That’s what you think, I was able to fend for myself in London well enough. The streets were a harsh place even before night fell,” he crawled out of the cage.

“Good for you,” I gave him a little pat on the head, “I’ve been a Lost Girl living in Neverland for the past dozen of decades. I’ve killed pirates for fun and fought a dark fairy that would make your daddy dearest look like a street magician. If you think you can run with us but you couldn’t even lay a finger on me if you tried.”

“Seriously?” he reached out to try and poke me.

I rolled my eyes and knocked his hand away. “Do not underestimate me. That’s every new boy’s mistake. Come along, I told you Peter is going to put you through the ringer and he intends to deliver on that.”

Getting to the training field I saw Peter waiting with an almost giddy smile. This cannot be good news for our latest recruit. I approached him and tugged lightly on his ear.

“Morning pet,” he turned his mischievous smile to me, “Need something?”

“Just don’t kill him, alright?” she knew he wouldn’t really but also knew that he was a sadistic little bastard that would hold no mercy in trying to break him. It doesn’t help that Baelfire would not go down without one hell of a fight if his initial reaction to being brought to Neverland was any indication.

“I’ll try,”

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it then,” I walked over towards the others and was sparring with Cubby while taking quick looks at what Peter was putting Baelfire through. Basically the poor kid was getting the living hell beaten out of him by some of the others boys. He was putting up a good fight and with a sword in hand he was holding his own but it was going downhill fast.

After calling a pause in my training with Cubby I stalked over to Felix who was taking a break in the shade.

“Hey,” I sat down next to him, “Nice morning?”

“It has certainly been an amusing one,” he gestured to where Baelfire was once again knocked to the ground.

“He’s either going to break by the end of the day or Peter is going to accidentally kill him. He’s got such a violence hard on going right now I doubt he would notice right away.”

“No he’s not, Pan has been waiting too long to have this certain worm under his thumb.”

“What is the history there?” I asked, “I know Peter and the Dark One’s backstory but how does that equate to the son? Another long and complicated story?”

“Sorta,” Felix shrugged, “Admittedly I don’t know as much as you about what his history with the Dark One is but I do know he would do anything to anger him. Taking away his son and turning him into a Lost Boy would be the pinnacle of this.”

“So it is just to annoy someone? I don’t know if that is perfectly keeping within his character or just petty.”

“Take a bit from both baskets I’d say. What about you? What are your thoughts on this fresh meat?”

“He certainly has a lot of fight in him and under different circumstances he’d fit in perfectly without having to be broken down first. Mostly I just want to keep him alive.”

“Why do you care if he stays alive other than that’s what Pan wants?”

“He’s Wendy’s brother, I promised myself that whoever the shadow brought back in her place I would keep safe. Some sort of reassurance that Wendy hadn’t been swapped out just to have her brother be subject to torture. Even if she could never know it made the guilt easier to swallow.”

“You do know he’s not actually her brother,”

“Brother in spirit, Felix. We’re not related and you’re still my brother, can it not be like that for others?”

“Point taken,” he got up, “Although you are the most infuriating sister one could ever have.”

“Thank you,” I stood up as well, “Care to help me pull the others off of Baelfire before they damage him past repair?”

“I’ll watch you try,”

“Thanks brother,” I punched him in the arm and stalked back towards the group of boys that Baelfire was trying to keep at bay. Five against one hardly seemed fair.

I jumped on one of the boy’s back and knocked him into another boy sending them both falling to the ground. The other three turned their attention to me and moved to take me out. I struck the closest back with a swing of my club before ducking out of the way of one of the other’s arrows. I advanced quickly as he notched another arrow and dove between his legs pulling him down as I did. The last boy had Baelfire in front of him like a human shield. Without a pause I drew my dagger and threw it hitting the last boy square in the shoulder. He dropped Baelfire and tore the dagger out of his arm.

While he was distracted I kicked him in the center of his chest and he was down too. “Give,” I held out my hand and he gave me back my dagger. “Go patch yourself up, Mason. Take the other idiots with you.”

Baelfire was sitting back on the ground trying to catch his breath. “You’re welcome,” I handed him the canteen off my belt.

“For what?” he sneered at me.

“Keeping them from pummeling you into a coma perhaps?” I nudged him again with my canteen urging him to take it, “Drink. You’ll feel better.”

“Thanks,” he muttered finally taking the water and downing it like a madman. “I see what you meant earlier. Not one of them landed a single blow.”

“Partly because it was a sneak attack but yes.” I grinned proud of my abilities. After decades of fighting all humility had been lost. The only people who posed any challenge anymore were Peter and Felix. Peter was obvious because of his magic but Felix was just inhuman. Every time I got close he always managed to pull out on top and it infuriated me to no end. It was my goal in life to manage a win during a spar with him.

“Now why did you do that, pet?” Peter came up behind us, “It was just getting interesting.”

“Interesting? It was getting painfully predictable, chief.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Isn’t the king of pretend supposed to be more creative?”

“Shouldn’t my Lost Girl not question me?”

“As queen of Neverland I say I cannot only question you but overrule you.”

“You let that little golden crown go to your head,” he snatched the flower crown from my head.

“Well yes, that’s where it goes,” I tried to grab it back but he held it out of my reach. “Peter, give it back!”

“Make me,” he smirked.

“Fine,” I grabbed the front of his tunic and pulled him down in a hot opened mouth kiss. He kissed me back hungrily caught up in the moment. I slipped my hand from his tunic to the back of his head keeping him close and bit down hard on his lip.

“Mmpf!” he tried to pull back but I kept him in place before grabbing the flower crown with my other hand. Once I had it back I relinquished his lip, the taste of blood dancing on my tongue.

“Y/N!” Peter pressed a hand to his bleeding mouth, “That was dirty and underhanded!”

“Just the way you like it,” I put the crown back on my head.

“True,” he reached to grab me but I sidestepped him. I knew what he was thinking and I had other things to focus on other than an angry shag.

“Should I know what’s going on here?” Baelfire was still sitting on the ground watching the scene.

“Come on, kid,” I pulled him up, “I’ll help you patch up. Peter, we’ll finish this later, yes?”

“Of course,” he grinned. The blood from his mouth had stained his lips a deep red and it dripped down his chin. That should not have been as hot as I found it.

Shaking off my dirty thoughts I pulled Baelfire away from the training grounds and back to camp. Some of the other boys had already returned and were going about the rest of their day. We walked past them with their whispers and pointing fingers. I ignored them and sat Baelfire down while I collected some bandages, aloe, a needle and thread.

I went to work fixing him up. He didn’t show any discomfort getting sewn up like others did. “Y’know, I was a little surprised I didn’t need to chase you down.”

“What?”

“I left you alone and you didn’t try to run away. Kinda disappointed to be honest. Don’t tell me Peter broke you already.”

“Never.”

“Good. You got some fight left. I like that.”

“Of course, I'll never stop. Don't think for a moment that just because I didn't try and escape this time I won't bolt the second there is another opening.”

“I look forward to it.” I finished off sewing him up and started wrapping the shallower cuts with the bandages. “But I gotta know, why didn't you run?”

He shrugged, “Too tired after that training.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t want to get used to it. I want out of here. I want to go back to my family with the Darling’s.”

“If it was up to me I would have sent Wendy home and that would have been the end of it. No other Darlings or Dark One’s sons. You coming here and being who you are is only confusing me. I am loyal to Peter but I also don’t want to follow his orders into brainwashing you into a Lost Boy when it is obvious you don’t want to nor will never be one.”

“What are you saying?”

“I can’t help you get off the island, that’s gotta be all you. But I can give you a tip.”

“Which is?”

“There’s a grove full of magic beans, hidden, west side of the island. Get to it and you’re out of here. That’s all I can say.”

“And how am I supposed to get to it? Like you said, I won’t be able to make it out of the camp without someone noticing.”

“Like I said, that’s gotta be you. Figure it out.” I stood up, “We never spoke of this. Rat me out if you get caught and I swear on my father’s grave I will make every moment of your incarceration a living hell. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now get up, I’m throwing you back in the cage.”

“Y/N!”

“Stop whining!” I hauled him up and dragged him back to the cages, “There could be worse places we could be keeping you.”

“Where could be worse?”

“Do you want to find out?”

“No,”

“Then walk,”

I locked him back up and went about the rest of my day. Peter found me shortly after training ended and snuck up behind me scooping me up in his arms. “Caught ya!”

“Yes you did,” I chuckled as we were whisked away in a whirl of wind. He set me back down as we re-appeared on top of Dead Man’s Peak.

“What are we doing up here?”

“Needed to harvest some more dreamshade,” he shrugged going to one of the vines and cutting some from the thicket. “Also I needed to take us somewhere to talk where we wouldn’t be interrupted.”

“Peter, you know I’m an anytime anywhere kind of girl but going at it against a rough mountain kinda detracts from the pleasure.” I was still sore from training too so the idea of being pinned to a hard rock wasn’t high on my list.

“Come now, I thought you were tougher than that,” he was focusing on filling the vial in his hand full of poison but I could still see the edge of his smirk off the side of his face.

“I am but it doesn’t mean I want to put myself into an uncomfortable position for your benefit.”

He corked the vial again and turned to me fully. With a small sigh I trailed my thumb over his now healed lip, “That being said I am sorry about earlier,”

“For what?”

“For biting your lip so hard you started bleeding like stuck pig.”

“That all? Nothing else you wanted to apologize for? Beg for mercy in some way?” he had slowly been backing me into the mountain wall mere inches from the thicket of dreamshade vines.

“No...what are you going on about?” I froze. Something was wrong. He was smiling but his eyes were calculating and cold.

“Baelfire, magic bean grove, you giving him tips on how to escape,”

“I don’t know what you’re--”

He slammed his fist into the stone next to my head making the entire mountain shake. “Don’t lie to me. I am the king of lies and I know when one is told.”

“How did you know?” I muttered.

“Next time you make your little escape plans don’t do it in the middle of camp with a dozen listening ears that aren’t afraid to throw traitors to the wolves. Ignoring how big of a hypocrite you are I would like to know why the hell you are trying to help him leave. You know that I don’t want him off this island.”

“Why? Just so you can have the pleasure of knowing that if Rumplestiltskin knew his son was here it would make him mad? He has no purpose but for you to torture him for your own childish satisfaction! He’s not going to give into you without one hell of a fight.”

“A fight he will lose and will eventually submit to as a Lost Boy.”

“And then what? You get a warm little fuzzy whenever you see him walking around camp with no mind of his own? Seems a lot of trouble to go through for something so fleeting.”

“I thought you knew me.”

“I thought you were more big picture oriented. Instead of putting all this time into breaking one boy shouldn’t you be focusing on finding the Truest Believer or do you not care that even now your life is ticking away one grain of sand at a time?”

The vines of the dreamshade had been inching their way closer and had crisscrossed my body from my ankles up to my waist. I tried my best not to move for fear of cutting myself through the material of my clothes.

“I have plenty of time, pet.” he said casually but he wasn’t letting up on the vines.

“That’s what you thought before. Now you have a fairy on the island that is keeping your curse at bay because you were more focused on playing than saving your own neck.”

The vines were up around my arms now and winding across my shoulders. I could feel them getting closer to my neck but I didn’t back down. I kept my eyes locked with Peter’s daring him to tighten them. To poison me.

His face cracked in a smile that scared me more than the dreamshade. Had I finally gone too far? Why was he looking at me like that?

“Look at you, you’re terrified,” the vines shrank back until I was fully free from their thorns but I felt no safer. Peter replaced the dreamshade in pinning me to the stone his hands coming up to cup my face. “I could never harm my Lost Girl.”

“Peter, I…”

“Shh,” he kissed me softly but there was no warmth to it. “I want to show you something.”

Another whirl of wind encased us. Peter was keeping me in place as we stood high up in a tree. Below I could see the bean grove. Without a word he turned my face so I could see someone running this way. Baelfire.

“But how did--”

“Seems your dear Baelfire has a surprising talent at pickpocketing.” he tapped the empty sheath at my hip. “Looks like he’s taken your advice, pet. He’ll be home free very soon.”

“What about the guard?” I searched but no one else was in sight.

“You were supposed to be guarding it this afternoon, remember? Would have made it easy for him seeing you there to let him by but this is much more interesting.”

“What are you going to do?” I know Peter. He isn’t just going to let him go.

“Something you’re not gonna like,” Baelfire made it to the grove and started looking through the stalks for a bean. Peter was concentrated on the grove and with a wave of his hand the stalks shot back into the ground one by one. The lush green grass withered away and the surrounding trees started to decay as well losing all their leaves.

“What are you doing?” I yelled at him but he didn’t stop. The grove continued to deteriorate until it was nothing but a barren landscape. All light seemed to be sucked into the darkness leaving the area almost pitch black. Around the grove huge walls of dreamshade started to crop climbing high into the sky.

Baelfire was still in the middle of it trying to find a way out. The ground settled and what lay before us was no longer a grove but a dark hollow. No light. No life.

Peter dropped us down into it. Baelfire turned with my dagger raised in his hand as if to try and ward us off.

“Good try, Baelfire, you were so close,” Peter flicked his wrist and the sharp snap of bone echoed in the unnatural silence.

Baelfire dropped to his knees clutching his now broken arm. Peter collected my dagger from the ground and handed it back to me. “Y/N…” Baelfire hissed through the pain, “I thought…”

“Thought what? That you could trust her?” Peter scoffed. “She’s my Lost Girl, what did you expect? Since you’re going to be here for a little longer you should learn this now,” Peter wasn’t looking at him anymore but at me. “You can’t trust anyone.”

He was gone again before I could blink.

(First) (Previous) (Next)

[rebeltheanomaly]

Roughdraft/Notes on Grieftale Act 1 Part 1

Opening Scene:*a kid crawls up a mountain, seemingly panicked* Im not... Gonna let you... Hurt anyone else.... *he ties a rope around his neck, and falls into Mt. Ebott, only for the Rope to snap, letting him fall into the vast underground world below* The thump echoes off the cavernous walls, the only sign of life. They feel something soft against their skin... golden flower petals from dozens of crushed flowers. Somehow, they were enough to keep the fall from becoming fatal. *the kid awakens, covered with scars, not from the fall, but from... something else... he wanders on in hope of... something* You find a large stone doorway, leading to a hall filled with a playful tune... or is it in your head? in front of you is another golden flower, alone this time, grinning at you happily. "Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! Hmmm... you're new to the underground, aren't cha? Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do. Ready?" *he cowers* Please... don't hurt him... *he seems to be talking to someone else, Flowey feels a threatening presence, but shrugs it off, after all, it's just a human.... Right?* Flowey looks uncomfortable, his smile wavers. "Haha.. of course I won't hurt you! here we go!" Suddenly, the light in the room seems to be sucked out, and a white perimeter forms around you. You feel a weight in your chest, and look down to see a heart-shaped red glow underneath your striped sweater. "See that heart?" Flowey explains, "that is your soul, the very culmination of your being! Your soul starts off weak, but it can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV!" *His soul is Obsidian, which means he's being controlled..... Or his soul is a host to something* Flowey's grin wavers. He looks like he wants to say something, then recovers. "W-what's LV stand f-for? Wy, LOVE of course! You want some LOVE, don't you? Here!" Half a dozen white pellets appear around the flower. They shoot towards you at an alarming rate. Flowey's expression darkens. "Get as many as you can." H-he says you want to hurt me... *at this point, Flowey gets the impression that he's probably just insane* *As soon as the pellets make impact with his soul, his mannerisms change from that of a shaky nervous teen too some kind of killer, he moves at impossible speed and pins Flowey against the wall, grinning and laughing in a completely different voice* ???: Sorry Goatweed, but i kinda need this body.... *His voice, grin, and penetrating red eyes seem..... Familiar to the little flower, like a really bad nightmare....* Flowey looks shocked, his face changes into that of azriel "C-chara? You're back! T-take it easy -- it's me!" *Laughs* You think i’m your girlfriend? (I’m just gonna say Chara is a girl for this) No, i know who you are Goat. *throws him to the ground* And you will stay out of my way if you know what's good for you. Flowey stares up in shock as he slinks away. ???:*lets the human take control as Toriel comes* "Oh my! You poor innocent youth, i thought I heard a commotion, are you hurt?" H-he's gone now... and so is that weird flower..... toriel takes a knee "my child, who hurt you? Who was here?" He didn’t hurt me... L might've hurt him though… "You don't have to hurt anyone ever again, my child... i'll protect you." she extends a hand to you *inches away* Plz stay away... He might hurt you too… She grabs the child's hand anyway (he takes her hand) Oh-ok… The goat monster smiles reassuringly. "My name is Toriel. What is yours?" She says as she walks with you into the next room. You notice a golden star in between two staircases... something is off about it. It isn't casting light on anything. It's almost as if it isn't even there. I-i... I cant remember... He's taken away most of my memories... *cries* "Oh, my child! The things you must have gone through!" She gasps, falling to her knees and hugging you tightly. "We'll both be happier now that we've found each other, i'm sure." Maybe.... he'll leave me alone for once.... "Of course, it'll be just you and me." She guides you up the stairs, and into a room with six pressure plates and a door. "Welcome to your new home, innocent one. Allow me to educate you in the operation of the ruins. The ruins are full of puzzles: ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them." She walks on four of the pressure plates, and the door slides open. In the next room, there sits a dummy. "As a human living in the underground, monsters may attack you. Stall for time, I will resolve the conflict. I promise. Here, practise talking to the dummy." *he looks at the dummy, and hugs it* Toriel's eyes shine with joy. "You are very good!" She walks ahead of you, and when she's not looking a frog monster jumps in your way. It looks like it has bad intentions as it charges forward for an attack “P-please stay away little frog..* The frog doesn't seem to understand you, but it hears the fear in your voice. Before it can make another attack, Toriel turns around and glares at it. The frog slinks away, embarrassed. You and Toriel find a long path of spikes barring your way. "Here, take my hand" She says, and steps forward. *he takes her hand, halfway through, one of the spikes shoots up higher then normal and gives him a small cut* I-im sorry L! "Oh don't apologize! L? What a cute nickname for me! I usually let people call me the first half of my name." Toriel seems completely oblivious, but is saddened by the cut. "Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now." She leads you into a vast empty room, the lighting prevents you from seeing too far in. "You have done excellently thus far, my child. However... I have a difficult request to ask of you. ...I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. forgive me for this." She runs off into the darkness, abandoning the one she'd sworn to protect. Y-your not L.... He punished me.... *when he sees Toriel run off* No! *he runs quickly, panicking* you chase after her, but she is nowhere to be seen. *he gets to the end of the room, she hears faint whispering around him, she can't tell what it's saying... But it doesn't sound pleasant...* Suddenly, Toriel is by your side. "Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you. There was an important reason for this exercise... to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. please remain here, it's dangerous to explore by yourself." She thinks for a moment. "I have an idea, I will give you a cell phone! if you have a need for anything, just call. be good, alright?" She stays where she is for a moment, as if reconsidering, then brisky leaves you... for real this time. (as Toriel leaves, his other side comes out, and exits the room, with the grin of a madman) You exit the room and immdiately get a call. "Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you? There are a few puzzles ahead that i have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try and solve them yourself. Be good, alright?" *he waits until the call is over, then knocks the candy bowl over without even taking any, he then walks out of that room* You spot another golden star hovering over a pile of leaves. A froggit eyes you suspiciously L: *seems repulsed by the star* Grrr... it reminds me of hope.. A Whimsun flutters out of the leaves and encounters you... it looks like it's fighting out of fear. *grins and grabs it by the neck, preventing it from escaping* Well, what have we here? *Grins menacingly, seeming enjoy the fear in it* The whimsun gasps for air, it's wings fluttering aggressively. "i can't... handle this!" *rips off its wings, limbs and tongue and leaves it for dead, laughing* You stand over the dead creature, watching it turn to dust. The froggit behind you recoils in horror, then bravely charges forwards. *picks it up and hurls it into the wall with inhuman strength* its skull shatters against the wall and it crumbles into dust. Two more froggits try to jump you from behind! *grabs them and crushes their heads with his bare hands *walks into the next room* You find the ground ahead of you looks unstable... it reminds you that these really are ruins. A whimsun flutters over the problem area, whimpering at the sight of the dust on your hands Throws a sharpened stick at it with startling accuracy, impaling it* It crumbles with a whining cry, and the stick drops onto the uneven ground, dust sprinkling onto it *He tastes some of the dust, like the sick freak he, or more accurately the demon possessing him is* You take a few steps on the unstable looking ground... and your leg breaks through the floor! You crash a story down, landing on a pile of leaves. You are now in a room with two doors on either side of the leaves, surrounded by half a dozen whimsun, ready to fight for their lives *Uses something humans aren’t normally capable of: Magic. He summons a storm of crimson energy, forcing them into the worst pain imaginable* they drop from the sky, their attacks disappearing, writing on the ground as they slowly turn to dust. You leave through the door on the right, the stairs lead you through a small gap into the hallway with the broken floor. You're on the other side of the unstable ground, allowing you to move forwards. *He goes onto the next room, avoiding the unstable ground* Suddenly, your phone rings. "Hello? This is toriel. For no reason in particular... which do you prefer? Cinnamon or Butterscotch?" *Imitates the other kid's voice* I-I-I don't have a preference.... I haven't eaten anything sweet in so long… "Oh! You sound like you're getting a cold! Well alright, thank you." You take a few steps and she calls you back "You do not DISLIKE Butterscotch and Cinnamon, do you? Would you turn up your nose if you saw them on your plate?" No, they're alright...... I mean, i can't remember what they taste like... *at this point, Toriel thinks he has some kind of Trauma-related mental illness* "Right, right. I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way." She hangs up, and you look around you. Three rocks sit near three pressure plates, and ahead of them is a bridge of spikes. *he pushes the two rocks, then goes to the third one* "Whoa there pardner! who said you could push me around?" *pulls out a drill* Hehehe… "Whoa... wait.. wait! I'll move!" the rock exclaims, sliding into place correctly. The spikes slide down. *drills it to bits as its on the button* I was gonna kill you anyway... Thanks for cooperating... *walks on* You take a few steps when the spikes shoot back up, pieces of the rock crumbling away from the pressure plate. You shriek in pain and feel your health drain away… *with the demon in control, the damage seems to make him stronger, hell, he seems to enjoy it, continuously scraping his arm across it* you move on, and spot another golden star next to a table with cheese on it. There's a mouse hole on the opposite wall *Walks on, hissing at the star* You hear a voice echo in your head: DETERMINATION in the next room you find a ghost lying on a pile of leaves... it starts to fade away You spear them with your stick. they stop fading away, looking at you with a blank expression *Gazes at the ground below Napsta, it starts sucking him in* Napstablook's face shifts from blank to shocked "W-What? What's happening? Oh no... I always knew I was a waste of space... at least now I can finally die..." Napstablook looks like he's letting himself get sucked in. *hands shoot out of the ground and drag him to hell, i'm sniggering all the while Napstablook's eyes go wide "I.. I- I changed my mind! I don't want to--" the hole closes, cutting napstablook off. You can now see there's a fork in the path *Looks at where the hole was* Doesn't matter, (grins) Suffering is all that exists, everything else is an illusion....*He enters the Spider bake sale* a little spider crawls down a web and greets you with a smile. "All proceeds go to real spiders!" she chimes happily *Grins and stomps on the webs, killing countless spiders, Muffet would never even receive word of the sadistic monstrosity from them, from someone else on the other hand.... You walk along a long, empty hall. Suddenly your phone starts ringing again (He answers) H-hello? *contemplating leaving a demonic latin message* "I just realized that it has been a while since I've cleaned up. I did not expect to have company so soon. There are probably a lot of things lying about here and there. You can pick them up, but do not carry more than you need. Someday you might see something you really like. You will want to leave room in your pockets for that. toriel hangs up, and you find yourself in a new room with six obviously damaged areas in the flooring. You get the feeling they can't support your weight for very long. At the end of the hall is another row of spikes. you walk to the one nearest to you. It collapses with a thunderous crash, and you land on a pile of leaves. While you dust off your clothes, a Vegetoid monster pops up from the ground, alongside dozens of carrots it's shooting towards you as an attack *he dodges with inhuman speed, picks it up, opens his mouth impossibly wide, bites the lower half of his body off and spits it out* I've always hated plant-based food… the vegetoid makes a high pitched shriek and dissolves, you taste dust in your mouth. You notice stairs leading back up *goes back up, and goes into all 5 of the broken areas* most are empty, one had a ribbon in it. On the fourth try, you notice in the room a glitched white shape, almost completely transparent, that keeps getting sucked into the ground and coming back up. "I.. I- I changed my mind! I don't want to-- I.. I- I changed my mind! I don't want to-- I.. I- I changed my mind! I don't want to--" they repeat again and again. "I -- I... I -- I -- I!" They pop out of existence, as if they were never there. *Grins and goes back up, walking out of the room* On the fifth try to find the switch and press it, and the spikes retreat successfully, revealing a loox. "You rude little snipe!" it cries, and strings of bubbles pour out of the walls, bouncing off surfaces at random *Grins* Is that all your gonna call me? *Pulls out the Ribbon, which he had turned into a lash* you whip the bubbles and they explode on impact, sending you sliding a few feet back but you stay on your feet. "Don't pick on me!" It yells, and you're finding it harder and harder to dodge the bubbles (Moves faster then it can keep up with and impales it's eye with his stick) It screams and the bubbles pop harmlessly. The tears from its eye manifest into attacks, then dissolve away as he does. you're in a room with three pillars, three buttons (red, green, and blue), and for the love of god more spikes *rips off one of the spikes and starts giving himself a sin mark, basically the Demonic equivalent of a tattoo* you step through the gap in the spikes and find another identical room, with a pile of moldsmalls bouncing happily and obliviously *grins and tackles one, ripping it to pieces* The other three rise up into Moldbyggs, thrashing their bodies and attempting to strike you like hammers *absorbs their life force by merely opening his mouth, at this point from beyond the fourth wall, though no one in universe seems to notice it, his skin gets more and more pale the more kills he makes, along with his hair growing and turning metallic silver very subtly, his teeth get sharper and more pointed, along with his nails * you walk on, and find yourself at another crossroad: straight ahead through brambles and bushes, or turn left where a bed of leaves forms a cross *he steps through the brambles* you find yourself on a balcony overlooking the ruins, it's breathtakingly beautiful (not that you care XD) you turn and spot the fake knife and grin, reaching for it, when a vine wraps around it. from behind you hear "Are you happy, you sick freak? is this what you were looking for?" flowey grimaces, blood dripping off one of his petals. "this isn't the first time i've watched a child wipe out monster kind, but never the way you're doing it. this is my warning: if you don't reset when you've finished having your fun... i ' l l s l a u g h t e r y o u . he pops back into the ground, and lets the knife go *smirks when he's gone* As if he can stop me... *picks up the knife and converts it into a Kukri, which is basically an Australian hunting knife, he then walks back and goes down the path untravelled* you hear toriel approaching. you realize you are still covered in dust and carrying the knife.

[itsiotrecords-blog]

http://ift.tt/2qw4D79

Water, with all of its life-affirming and throat-quenching qualities, is seemingly quite benign. But in the wrong hands, water can bring death upon any poor soul who is subjected to its deadly power. Our humble race has found many a way to use water against each other, for the purpose of causing as much pain as possible. Here are some of the worst.

#1 Waterboarding Strongly associated with the Bush and Cheney years, waterboarding has actually been around since 16th century Europe. We heard the term so much in recent years, yet many never really knew what it entailed. Far too many, in fact, dismissed it as a possible form of torture by scoffing, “it’s just water.” It’s so much more though. Waterboarding involves strapping somebody to a table on their back, causing them to become immobile. Afterwards, a cloth is placed over their eyes, nose and mouth. When they are nice and secure, the torturer proceeds to pour water directly onto the face, in intervals. This gives the poor victim the unpleasant sensation of being underwater and drowning ever so slowly. The worst part though, is the in-between moments of alleviation for the victim, when the water stops pouring. This momentary relief is just a mirage, meant to break them psychologically, as they go right back to drowning again. This process is repeated until the victim completely submits.

#2 Chinese Water Torture “Chinese water torture” is actually something of a misnomer, since the practice actually has nothing to do with China. In actuality, the origins of its name can be traced back to magician Harry Houdini’s stunt, the “Chinese Water Torture Cell.” In this stunt, Houdini entered a tank filled with water, upside down and bound, and had to make an escape before he died. As a form of torture, this practice came about in 15th century Italy, by a lawyer (of course it would be a lawyer) named Hippolytus de Marsili. Marsili created the torture after witnessing a constant drip of water impacting a stone. And in that lawyer mind of his, the first thing he thought of was how this could be used on a human to torture a confession out of them. The way the process works is to strap someone by their head and body, and on their back. Then, a simple drop of water would proceed to drip on the victim’s forehead. Sounds harmless, right? Well, it doesn’t seem so harmless when the victim is strapped for days at a time, with that drip of water never stopping. The torture is as psychological as it is physical, as the victim starts to see every drop coming, with the feeling magnified after every drip. It is even said that, after a long enough duration, the water starts to penetrate the skin. Now we know where the phrase “water on the brain” comes from.

#3 Dunking The Salem Witch trials were an infamous time in early American colonial history, and came complete with its own form of torture. The inhumane practice known as dunking was used often against those accused of being witches. But the goal wasn’t to inflict pain, but rather to test, hence the term “ordeal by water.” The test went like this: a person accused of being a witch was tied to a chair and dunked into the water. If the victim floated, they were witches, as it was believed back then that all witches floated. Of course, virtually nobody could pass this test, since human bodies naturally float and all. The victim was never acquitted, thus prolonging the torture and ultimately condemning the victim. In rare cases, the person would simply drown before they could be brought back up, which acquitted them of all charges or something. Water was the main judge here, as it was viewed as the ultimate holy purifier. In addition, if the torturers were not satisfied with the result, they would repeatedly dunk the victim, even strapping them to devices to accomplish this awful task.

#4 Boiling Water A couple drips of boiling hot water on your skin sure is painful, right? Well, take that pain, and amplify it by about a million times. Welcome to being boiled alive. Brought to you by the sadistic minds of the Middle Ages, this torture was quite simple in its effectiveness. When it was time to boil somebody, a large cauldron was filled with cold or tepid water. After it was filled to the executioner’s heart’s content, the victim was inserted into the cauldron. Then, either a low flame was set for prolonged agony, or a higher flame for quicker torture gratification. So why was the water cold or tepid to begin with? This was to ensure that the victim undergoes every stage of being cooked alive. In some circumstances, a small amount of water was placed in the cauldron. This gave the added effect of frying the victim. Fourth degree burns would occur, with deterioration of the skin and its layers. Then, the fat in the tissue would cook. After, the muscle underneath would start to show. Finally, the veins and arteries would pop, due to the heat. Henry VIII made boiling to death an official punishment in England, and one of its earliest victims — the Bishop of Rochester’s murderer, Richard Rice — suffered so graphic an execution that pregnant women fainted at the sight and had to be carried away from the scene.

#5 Water Curing Talk about a misnomer, since about the only thing this torture cures is the disease of a long, fruitful life. The water cure method is somewhat similar to waterboarding in posture, as the victim is rendered immobile and on their back. But while waterboarding involves pouring water all over the victim’s face, the water cure involves pouring water straight down their throat. Over and over again, endlessly. See, drinking too much water is in actuality a very, very bad thing, and can cause death. This is called “water intoxication,” the end game of the water cure. The mouth of the victim is pried open, and a funneling device is thrust into the throat. Water is then poured into the funnel and directly into the victim’s stomach. This is done until either the victim either dies from water intoxication or hemorrhages to death due to an eruption in the stomach. Sometimes, the torturer would be creative and make the victim vomit all of the previously ingested water, so that the torture could be done ad infinitum. Think about that the next time you wax nostalgic about how much nicer people were back in the day.

#6 Nazi Water Chamber During World War II, the Hungarian Nazi Party turned a regular 19th century villa in Budapest into something much more nefarious. Their administrative building is now referred to as “the House of Terror,” which sounds like a cheap thrill ride at a haunted theme park, but was unfortunately very real. The House of Terror was replete with all kinds of tortures, including the water chamber. This was not an intricate or complicated method, but that doesn’t lessen its horror any. It was little more than large hole filled with ice cold water, with a small platform in the middle where the sleep-deprived victim was forced to stand. If the person became weak or fell asleep, they would fall, directly into the frozen water. And this would be repeated time and again. To make matters worse, after Hungary was “liberated” by the Soviets, the Communists moved right into the House of Terror, taking over the lease from the Nazis, and resuming much of the torturous procedures from the previous regime.

#7 Japanese Deep Freeze Located deep within the isolated confines of Japanese-occupied Manchuria, China, Unit 731 was the brain child of evil genius Ishii Shiro. Shiro was a doctor by profession and, by all accounts, a nice guy and family man. But when it came time to ply his trade in Unit 731, his Mr. Hyde was unleashed upon the World War II POWs and natives who he considered “logs,” to be used, burned and discarded. Unit 731 was created to obtain vital medical data in a scientific environment. But when one examines the list of procedures, they read more like a madman’s to-do list, one that would make some medieval torture methods tame in comparison. One of the worst methods was the frostbite test. Manchuria gets very, very cold during the winter, and this did not escape Shiro at all. Taking advantage, he forced men and women to stand naked in the freezing cold, as soldiers doused the victim’s limbs with cold water, to speed up the onset of frostbite. This was done until the limbs were hard enough to elicit a ringing sound when they were hit with sticks. Afterwards, they would either have their limbs and fingers smashed off or immediately defrosted by hot water, which caused all of the flesh on the limbs to just slide off. Post-war, Unit 731 went under, with any surviving subjects killed off. While some serving in the unit were executed, Shiro died from natural causes in Japan, after giving the US all of his data.

#8 Hazing The more we learn about hazing, it seems less and less like innocent pranking, and far more like sadistic torture. Some of the tactics utilized in hazing have included physical beatings, sexual abuse, and deprivations. But one case stands out in that it involved the usage of water. The Chi Tau fraternity in Chico State University, California, was described by police as something like a medieval castle dungeon, with the words, “In the basement, no one can hear you scream” scrawled all over the basement walls. This was the stage for the “initiation” of 21-year-old Matthew Carrington, on February 2nd, 2005. Carrington was forced to go into the basement and engage in rigorous calisthenics, surrounded by raw sewage that accumulated on the floor. He was then forced to do numerous pushups in the dirty water. His body, soaking wet, was blasted with cold air from fans, which made the experience even more excruciating. He was also expected to continually drink water from a five-gallon container, which was repeatedly refilled. According to reports, all of this was too much for Carrington’s body, which broke under the strain. He went into seizures and in the hospital, and his heart stopped. The cause of Carrington’s death was swelling of the brain and lungs, developed from acute water intoxication. Unfortunately, the frat brothers did not do much for Carrington, as they took their time in calling for any help. Two men, Gabriel Maestretti and Jerry Lim, were charged with Carrington’s death, but ultimately, they both received light sentences.

#9 Republican Marriage While plenty of Obama supporters would consider marrying a Republican torture all by itself, that’s not where this term originated. Its origins actually derive from the Republican government of the 1790’s French revolutionaries. It was called a marriage since both a male and female would suffer the same fate simultaneously. This torture was especially popular during the Reign of Terror, which lasted from 1793-1794. It was the brainchild of Maximilien Robespierre, leader of the Committee of Public Safety. Jean-Baptiste Carrier, a revolutionary representative in the city of Nantes, was the main initiator of the Marriages. First, a man and woman would be stripped naked, and then tied together. While they were tied, sometimes they would be stabbed beforehand, just in case. Then they would be chucked into the Loire River, to sink and drown. These simple-yet-horrible executions happened regularly between 1793 and 1794. The worst part of it all, was that children were very likely victims of its wrath as well.

#10 The Coffin Humans cannot go more than three days without water, before we dry up and perish. With that in mind, here’s the Coffin, a torture that involves taking away any and all water from the victim, proving that the wet stuff doesn’t even have to show up to play a role in somebody’s slow and painful death. The accused would be apprehended and placed into a metal cage-like apparatus, usually shaped to conform to the human body. The victim would then be taken to a pre-determined spot, usually in a location that absorbed the most heat from the sun. Then they would be abandoned there, sweating and sweltering in the heat, without a drop of water to alleviate their suffering. In addition, the coffin was porous enough to allow animals access to the victim, which resulted in the victim being mauled and eaten while still alive. Suffice it to say, the victim usually did not make it to day three, but if they did, their death from dehydration would have been the absolute worst.

Source: TopTenz