#ink coating is less bad if u have something that can ink well

[monaisdark]

i like how u write Shigaraki 😳❤ can u do maybe some bully reader with a sprinkle of virgin!shiggy hehe 🥰 reader can be dom or sub its up to you!! ❤

AH i’ve been meaning to check my inbox but ommmg this motivates me so much, thank you ! <3 I decided to do some dom reader - hope its ok!

➨ paring — Virgin! Tomura Shigaraki x Fem! Bully! Reader 

➨ warnings —  Sub! Shigaraki, Dom! Reader, slight mommy kink, slight masturbation, humiliation, degradation, cum denial, begging

PART 2

Shigaraki slumped into the ground, his back against the now wet wall. It hasn’t even been 3rd period yet and you already completely ruined his day. You and your group of followers threw water at him, something about him smelling bad. His papers and books were thrown out of his bag, soggy and falling apart from the water poured on them and his favorite hoodie now uncomfortably wet. 

Shigaraki would already be late to class by now so he didn’t bother to scurry off like your friends did when they heard the late bell for class. You walked a bit behind them, turning your head back at him a few times before completely disappearing down the hall. 

Shigaraki wasn’t sure what he did for you to hate him so much. It was almost like you were out to get him since day one. And of course, you being so popular, it made him the school outcast, well, even more of an outcast.

He tried everything — ignoring you, doing everything you asked him, even trying to fight back. The last try left him with a sprained wrist and bruised cheek. So in the end, everything left him either humiliated, damaged, or hurt. 

He finally stood up as he heard footsteps from a hall monitor coming down the hall he was in, grabbing his backpack that contained the remaining contents of his school stuff before running off into a nearby bathroom to hide. Luckily, nobody was there to see how disheveled he looked.

Shigaraki took off his hoodie, thankfully the hoodie was thick and caught most of the water, leaving his long sleeved undershirt a bit damp but nothing he couldn’t handle for the rest of the day. He set everything wet under the hand drier, letting the hot air dry them a bit. 

As he dried his face, something at on the floor caught Shigaraki’s eye. It was a small piece of paper that was also damp. He picked it up confused, did it fall out of his hoodie pocket? 

‘’Shigaraki, meet me in room 204 after school today. Be there.’’  He could read out from the smudged, running ink. Shigaraki looked at it confused, yeah it was definitely for him but why? How did this even get into his pocket? He’s usually always alone, he didn’t hang out or spend his school days with anyone.

“Hey! Get to class!” The voice of the hall monitor outside of the bathroom almost made him yelp. He stuffed the note into his back pocket, grabbing all his stuff that was thankfully a bit more dry before leaving.

You eyed Shigaraki from across the cafeteria, a small smirk tugged your lips as you saw him pull out the tiny piece of paper for the 12th time that lunch. A wave of satisfaction overcame you every time you saw his eyebrows furrowed at the paper. 

You tried to make the note as vague as possible, you could tell from the confused look on his face that he didn’t have a clue on who sent it. Just how you wanted it.

You turned your thoughts back to your friends, mixing your laughter with theirs. You had no idea what they were laughing at. These people are assholes, why do you hang out with them again? A small boy whimpered on the floor, his food spilled all over his body. Oh, that's why. Like hell you’d be on the receiving end of their bullying.

It’s not like you felt bad. School was a hierarchy, these poor people were just at the bottom. When you first got here, you quickly rose to be at the top. Not like you expected to be anything less. You held yourself to a high standard, of course you’d be at the top.

So it made you sick seeing how some of these people held themselves, especially Shigaraki. He looked and smelled like he only showers every other day, he alternated between 2 hoodies each week, did he even bother to wash them?

He barely talked to anyone, usually playing some videogame on his phone. Does he not care about himself? Well maybe that was why you targeted him, you just wanted him to be better. Nothing else.

Then you noticed how much of a pervert he was. If a girl was ever near him, his eyes would automatically shoot to their chests before awkwardly shifting away from them. In P.E, you found it funny how he’d try to hide his boners after seeing all the girls in their shorts. How gross, he’s a horny little virgin.

You almost felt bad, maybe if he smelt better, maybe if he wore better clothes, maybe if he just tried to take care of himself. It was no surprise that he wasn’t getting chicks. But then again, he didn’t look too confident in anything. Yet alone girls.

That’s when you had came up with a plan. You’d sleep with him. Don’t get it wrong, you had dignity. If it was anyone else, you’d probably make fun of them even more, maybe even expose their perverted behavior.

But Shigaraki looked so helpless, if he kept up with this he’d never get better. Maybe he’d become desperate enough to start touching girls on the train to school, how disgusting.

You were doing everyone a favor. This is just charity work.

“Hey.” Shigaraki jumped, what? He was even more confused then before, you? Why would you send him a letter to meet him alone after school? He stayed quiet, he backed into a desk as he heard the click of the door. Locked, shit, you locked the door. You probably were gonna beat him up, usually you’d have other people pick on him, was today finally the day you’d take more action?

“Stop sweating, I’m not here to do anything bad.” You walked in front of him, Shigaraki would be lying if he said he wasn’t terrified. “Um — why.. why did you want to meet me?” Shigaraki’s voice cracked and you almost laughed, has he ever even been alone in the same room as girl?

You decided to be blunt, there was no sugar coating what was about to happen. “You’re a virgin right, Shigaraki?” You brought your hands to the buttons of your shirt, slowly unbuttoning your top.

Shigaraki immediately felt himself starting to get hard at the sight of your bra. “What—” You rolled your eyes, doesn’t he get it? How dense can he be? “Just answer me.” 

Shigaraki felt so humiliated, this was honestly worse then all the bullying he experienced from you. He has to admit to his bully that he’s a virgin, or better yet, that he’s never even gotten close touching a woman.

He couldn’t lie, I mean look at him! The most action he’s gotten was those JOI videos he’d watch late at night. “Yeah..” He whispered enough for you to hear, just incase anyone else was hiding in the room. “..Why?” 

A smirk spread across your face, just like you thought. His red face was honestly so enjoyable to see, almost just as enjoyable as seeing him try to hide how hard he was.

“I know you’re hard, Shigaraki.” Your hands moved to his crotch, palming him. “Ah, ah! Wait! I’m—“  Holy shit, did he cum? Just from a bit of palming?

Your hands retracted from the damp fabric, “God, how pathetic can you be?” Shigaraki lowered his head, you didn’t want to know. You’re the first girl to ever touch him, he didn’t want to come that fast!

“I’m sorry! Please.. I’m still hard!” Now he’s begging? He was ready for you to laugh at him and leave him a gross mess. He would understand.

“Take it out.” Shigaraki could cry right there, you were serious! He didn’t know what made you want to do this now but he didn’t care. All that matter’s was you wanted to fuck him.

His mind flooded to what you guys could do, would you rub his now exposed dick? Would you take it in your mouth? Better yet, what could he do to you? He’ll learn quickly, he just wants to touch your boobs!

Suddenly, he was on the floor. He couldn’t even process what was going on before you straddled him. We’re skipping straight to it? This wasn’t necessarily what he saw in those porn videos but that’s okay. His hands moved to your chest, he saw this in the porn videos too! But your hand slapped his away, “Don’t touch me. You still stink.” 

He frowned but it was quickly gone as he felt you lower yourself on him. Shit, shit, shit, he’s inside you! Inside a pussy! You already started moving and Shigaraki already lost it. This was better than what he could ever imagine! 

You smirked at the scene, its barely been a minute and he’s out of it. His eyes were rolled back and he was moaning louder than you! You had to admit though, you were a bit surprised he even got past 30 seconds of being inside of you. 

“Mhmm— m...mommy!” Now you could laugh, “Mommy? Really Shigaraki?” Tears were forming on the corner of his eyes, you weren’t sure if it was from your words or the pleasure but you preferred if it was from both.

“I’m sorry! It’s just— ah!” You angled yourself to hit deeper, “No, no, Shigaraki. Go ahead. I should’ve known you’d be into something like that.” His moans filled the room, you were lucky this hallway was always empty after school was done.

You felt him begin to twitch, already knowing he’s about to cum. Eyes narrowed down at his messy face, he’s trying to cum inside you without you knowing? 

You stopped moving and brought him up so he wasn’t laying down anymore, “Y’know, for a virgin I’m a bit impressed.” Shigaraki whimpered when he felt you get off of him, the feeling of your warm cunt no longer around him.

“Wait! Please, please— I wasn’t done!” He whined watching you put your panties back on and button your shirt back up, “You were about to. You think I want your battery acid cum touching me?” 

Snickering as he heard his desperate whimpers begging you to finish him off, an overwhelming feeling of power filled you. A fake annoyed sigh caught his attention, “Take a shower tomorrow. Also wear a different top for god’s sake. If you do— “You brought yourself to his level on the floor, “I might let you touch me.” 

Shigaraki nodded furiously, “Yes! I promise! I will, I will!” You turned and unlocked to the door to leave, catching one more look at his messy state. A sigh was let out of you as you closed the door, the sounds of him moaning ‘mommy’s pussy’ as he finished himself off, made you giggle. How sad.

You rolled your eyes, clicking heels down the hallway. You might’ve just created a new problem for yourself. 

[ginazmemeoir]

so i was inspired by @h00man-bean and here you go with a fic about Kaz and Inej as the Devil and the Reaper.

tagging @h00man-bean @mango-pickle @carmen-riddle @the-fault-in-our-inquilab @momo-all-the-way @gopikanyari @aadyeah @reddish-green-personality @weird-u @holding-infinity-and-a-book @dragonfairy1231 @totallyforgotyouwerehere @a-dragon-under-the-stars @taareginn

I crash into consciousness. The sound of gurgling water and rustling leaves greets me as I stand up. Strange. The last time I was alive, I had arthritis and was confined to a wheelchair. All Nina could do was slow mine and Inej’s death. I remember the last breath I drew, the last thought I had, the last time I saw Inej smile. And then nothing. Just an empty void, just – not being anymore.

I look at myself, flex my toes. It appears as if death has returned my old skin back to me, but it still doesn’t look like mine. This one is clear as if it was tended to by a Grisha tailor daily, as if the man who bore it had never worked a day. I am wearing the suit I stole from Pekka Rollins, decorated with a genuine gold pin showing a crow with a lion’s head in its claws. My cane lies beside me along with my hat. Either I am in a coma and am dying a slow, painful death as many of my enemies wished, or I have woken from a dream and nothing that I know happened, never really happened. I would rather prefer the first. Then, I see Inej.

She stands there in her captain’s uniform, the teal coat Sturmhond gave her, coupled with breeches and boots. I bet her knives are still tucked there. Her skin, still the same gleaming bronze, is now wrinkle free. Her eyes are kohl rimmed, and her ink black hair spill onto her shoulders. She looks at me with confusion, her eyes searching. “Kaz?” she asks. I move toward her, and then run. Funny how a good leg is almost as useful as a grisha crafted cane.

I clasp her hands in mine, her breath caressing me. “Inej,” I whisper “What are we doing here?”

“You’re both dead actually.” says a voice behind me. I turn around to see a Fjerdan merchant approaching us. He wears a blood red coat with gold lapels. His blonde hair is slicked back, and he walks with the cool confidence of someone who just cracked a deal. The only thing differentiating him from a Kerch businessman that I once looted is that he’s surrounded by floating rocks. Inej immediately kneels beside me, and nudges me. “Sorry but I have a bad leg. Also I don’t bow to animated turkeys.” I say as I go and retrieve my cane and hat. The Fjerdan chuckles and replies in heavily accented Kerch, “I suspect that bad leg excuse is of any use to now, Kaz Brekker. Also, please get up Inej, you look extremely out of place bowing to me in a teal coat.” Inej gets up reluctantly, and when she does, she has… tears in her eyes?

“Sankt Demyan of the Rime, thank you for protecting me.” She says, and hands him one of her knives. “Ah. How poetic.” He says, and pockets the knife. That is when I realize that we, in fact are dead. And Inej’s saints, are in fact, real. Great. There goes my ten thousand kruge. Thankfully the rest of the Crows aren’t here or I would have ended up as quite literally, a bankrupt soul.

“How many times have I told you Demyan to let me welcome the visitors? You’re hardly a gracious host, let alone a good gambler,” says a Shu woman, as she walks in behind Demyan, along with a Suli girl. The Suli girl was surrounded by floating rocks as well. She looked at Inej, and smiled at her. “And now, I would like those gold buttons of yours.” Says the Shu woman.

Inej hastened to remove her own lapel, a dragon and a fox, when the woman stops her. “I’m not talking to you Wraith, I’m talking to Demyan. We had bet that Kaz Brekker would kick him in the balls when he first arrived. I however had gone for a scathing insult. So seems like I won.” She says, and takes the gold buttons that Demyan removed (albeit while grumbling) in her slender hands. “Sankta Yeryin of the Mill, and Sankta Marya of the Rock, I- it’s an honour to meet you.” says Inej, and proceeds to bow more times than she has apologized when she was alive. I am shocked to see the way these so called “saints” milk Inej’s “devotion”. She was the closest thing to a saint that people actually had down in the mortal realm, and I would rather have kicked Demyan in the balls than let Inej bow again. But I restrain myself for the sake of my jaan.

Inej gives two more knives to the women, and stands beside me. She looks like a ridiculous schoolgirl, all giddy as if she had met her favourite aunts, and I catch myself falling in love with her all over again as a dead soul. Demyan soon interrupts my thoughts with that sinuous high-pitched voice, and asks, “I see you’re unusually quite today Dirtyhands. What’s the matter?” “I’m sorry, it’s just I’m wrapping my head around the concept of not existing physically anymore. Also I’ve heard you carry your belongings with you to the afterlife, so where’s all my gold?” I reply. Yeryin chuckles, her slit eyes crinkling while Marya looks at me in disbelief. Her voice, booming like a mountain echo, repeats what she, and countless others back in the mortal world, including my wife, thought each day, “Have you no honour Kaz Brekker?” I just shrug and adjust my hat.

“Anyways, ah, back to the topic at hand.” says Demyan, as he walks towards a tree. No wait, the tree. It could easily be as tall as a mountain. Five springs gush forth from its roots, and a heart is suspended from thorns right in front of a tear in it. The heart with the thorns I remember from the most epic heist of my career, involving legends and the Ravkan monarchy. The tree I do not. Inej asks, “Mind me, O great Saint of the Dead, but could you please acquaint us with our surroundings?” Wow. That’s a lot of vocabulary from a woman whose last sentence, in my memories, is complaining how the medicine she gave me smelled like rat fart. “Oh yup that’s Djel. Or rather his ash tree. Quite popular with my countryfolk.” he says cheerfully. “And we’re here in a mountain in the Sikurzoi, in a different plane of existence. For you, are dead.” he continues, with that ridiculous smile of his. Marya then steps forward, her voice slightly less enthusiastic, giving me the feel that this is all probably quite rehearsed for a while now. “You are a long way from home my loves. Kaz Brekker, you died a natural death. Inej Ghafa, you also died a natural death. Both of you were a hundred and thirteen years old, with Inej dying within a year of your death. The form you have now, is the form you chose to be remembered as.” she says. Yeryin huffs past us, her robes billowing, and hands the buttons over to Demyan, raising up her hand to his face and showing a symbol that quite contradicts with the Saint of Hospitality. “I should have expected such from you, you merchant scum.” she says. She then turns to directly address us and says, “Enough introductions though. The real reason you’ve been brought here is for another reason entirely. You see, the souls of the dead…”

I roll my eyes as the Sankta prepares for another lecture about how our “feeble human brains can’t comprehend the world.” I regret having married Inej in this moment in the afterlife though. Dirtyhands would’ve conned them by now and found a way back to the mortal realm. Kaz Brekker on the other hand, sits on the grass like a five-year old listening a story. Inej sits beside me, her coat now lying beside her in a heap and her hair fluttering open. How I wish I could’ve seen her in the open sea like that.

“…are usually brought to the other sides of the tree.” Yeryin says, waving her hands in an elegant motion to summon up a throne made out of the river pebbles and rocks, confirming that the trio were all, in fact, Fabrikators. “There, they are all assessed in context with their deeds on earth. Everything that they’ve gone through, and everything they’ve done is all taken into account by the Saint of The Book.” She then points to a woman, invisible until this point, sitting near the tree. She bends over a desk, poring over a giant ledger and surrounded by thick books. Her thick blonde hair covered her face, her glasses perched on her wide nose, and her fair, plump skin flushed. “The three of us then decide their fate in the afterlife. Those, who we decide are ‘good’, enjoy the fruits of paradise for a while and then return to the making at the heart of this world. Those, who we deem ‘bad’, are impaled on the thorn wood until they are purged of their sins. They then bathe in one of Djel’s springs, and return back to merzost.”

“Yeah but why are you telling us all of this? We get it, we’re dead, so which way are we going?” I ask the Saints. Inej elbows me once again, scolding me with her eyes. I shrug, and stand up with my cane. “Unless you have something else to tell us, I would like to take your leave. Saints.” I start to walk, when I find myself tripping over. I right myself with my cane just in time, and see that my hands and feet are bound by vines, Demyan’s hands raised up. These saints want a taste of Dirtyhands? Fine. I will show them Dirtyhands.

I see Kaz’s demeanour change. He slips into the familiar garb of Dirtyhands, his eyes cold as flint, lips slightly pursed, standing like the King of the Barrel. I get into a fighting stance, my heavy coat no longer obstructing me. I feel the presence of my remaining knives, regretting handing over the rest. I respect my Saints, but nobody, and I repeat nobody, touches my husband and escapes alive.

Marya stands immovable, her eyes gazing at something in the distance. Yeryin clasps her hands, and states, “You came here at our wish Kaz Brekker. You leave with our wish as well. No need to reach for your knives Wraith they won’t serve you here.” I feel a tug inside me, as if someone is yanking on my leash. Before I know, I am pulled back, my breath knocked out of me, and I crash into a wooden chair. Kaz suffers a similar fate beside me, and I can see his anger barely in check. “Why are you doing this to us?” I ask Marya. She glances at me, her eyes tearful, and replies, “Because we’re tired Inej Ghafa. Because you’re now, the new gods of death.”

Great. We’re the subject of a cruel joke by the Saints and are being tortured for our sins. “We don’t want anything to do with you or your jobs. Just release us and march us over to the thorn wood, I’m ready to answer for my crimes.” “Oh you silly girl, we won’t kill our scapegoats, will we? Isn’t that right my fellow sisters?” Demyan says in his ridiculously cheerful manner. That smile takes me back to the West Stave, Heleen bartering over me with the slavers, her sinuous smile each time I resisted her. I eventually did track my slavers, although only Kaz knows of their fate, for he was the one who insisted on having them. Demyan then comes over to us, and the Saint of Death’s face becomes morose. He kneels in front of us, as if pleading with us, and says, “You see, we’re linked directly with humans and grisha. Death. Hospitality. Pathfinder. Our roles were fundamental to the balance of the world, to the smooth passage of souls and justice in the afterlife. However, seeing the Starless One return back to merzost, seeing Juris merge with the Dragonqueen, has made us realize that we thought impossible, was actually just – improbable. You would certainly know about that, wouldn’t you Dirtyhands?” Demyan glances at Kaz, his eyes moist, while Kaz looks at him unflinchingly. Weren’t the Saints destined to perform their duties? Then why are they looking for scapegoats? Demyan comes back to me, his tone rushed as he blurted out his plan. “We long to be free Inej Ghafa. We too long to return back from where we came. We too long to feel.” Yeryin and Marya then float over to us. “A Saint that dispenses justice, must have suffered injustice to be accurate in his judgements. He should be immovable, yet sensitive to the souls he receives. Kaz Brekker, you have shown us the resilience and fury of a Saint.” Yeryin says. Marya then glances at me, and begins, “Jaan, you’re one of my own people, and so I hold a special place for you. The Saint that is the Reaper, who brings over the souls of the dead, must kill without remorse. Must feel for each soul with all of her heart. She must be indiscriminate in her search.” “And you Inej Ghafa have shown us that heart.” Demyan finishes, clasping my hand. “The part is yours, should you keep it. However, remember, you must take it up with free will, for handling the deceased is a far more tedious and draining task than it sounds.”

I look back at Kaz. His eyes are focussed on the ground, his brain coming up with another wild scheme. I look at the Saints with disbelief. All this time, as I, as millions, prayed to them, honouring their martyrdoms with festivals and prayers, the Saints just longed to be human. Kaz finally speaks after what feels like an eternity. “I have a question. Are the Saints willing to answer that?” “But of course. That is the least we can do for you.” says Yeryin.

“You might’ve come across two souls in your eternal career. Jordie, and Pekka Rollins. What fate awaited them?” I ask hesitantly. I am both excited and afraid of the answer the saints hold for me. Marya looks at the Saint of the Book. She rises, and comes towards us, a small register in her hands. She hands it to Marya, and returns back, giving me a not-so subtle side look. Marya searches for the names I asked, clears her throat, and begins. “Pekka Rollins, the leader of the Dimes, a gang in the streets of Ketterdam, was impaled on the thorn wood. He was purged of all his sins, and then chose to return back to merzost. As for Jordie, your brother, he did not choose to stay for long.” I look back at Marya. “His soul… was tormented. Even though he was healed with the waters of Djel, even though we helped his soul discover his unknown gift as a Grisha Tidemaker, he kept searching this garden for you. In the end, he chose to take a single bite of Djel’s fruit, and returned back to merzost, finally at peace.”

Jordie’s fate stuns me into silence. Pekka Rollins snatched our life on Earth, but even in the gardens of paradise my brother kept searching for me. My vision blurs, my brother’s destiny opening a well of sadness in me, his peaceful return to merzost the only respite offered to him. This was the place where Jordie’s soul searched for me. Where he waited and waited for me, until he dissolved back into the heart of the world. And this is where I would choose to stay for eternity, the only place that holds my brother’s peace. I look at Marya, and nod.

Beside me, Inej grasps my hand, and smiles. She then looks down at Demyan, and says, “We will take up the mantel of your duties, O Revered Saints.” I roll my eyes. It’s as if Sturmhond’s vocabulary worms it’s way into Inej’s brain each time she talks to her saints.

The saints all look at each other, then smile and open their arms. “Our powers, are then yours, Wraith and Dirtyhands.” Golden rays, the colour of sundried wheat and barley emit from Yeryin. Ink black waves surge from Demyan while a shower of dirt erupts from Marya. The three slowly disappear, probably to a much better place. The knives Inej gave to them clatter on the ground.

Inej picks up her coat, dusts it off, and shrugs it on. She picks up her knives, touching them to her forehead, and wipes them on her sleeve. “So what do we now?” she asks me. “Well we’re here for eternity, alone, at least till you go off to bring our souls. Let’s have some fun.” I say and suggestively smirk. The Saint of the Book widens her eyes in horror as she looks at us. “Oh keep it in your pants, you perv.” I say, as I give a big shout and run towards the gentle slope along the riverbank, Inej’s soft padded boots following me, as we both tumble into each other and hurtle to the earth.

[a-table-of-fics]

Cull to Adventure, Chapter 5, Draft 1

[[As Tumblr increased the size limits for posts, I can finally put this chapter draft all together.]]

Marie was already in a sour mood, having woken up far earlier than preferred. But it got worse as she realized she might as well have slept in; hardly anyone was around today. The heat wave, combined with the fact that all games were postponed until the respawn points have power again, meant that no one was around. Marie knew she couldn’t move too far from where the Outpost was without drawing unwanted attention, but it was a bit demoralizing. She was glad she had the parasol for the scant shade it provided in the midday sun, but she still tugged at her kimono every so often.

Well, if she wanted to find her cousin and the stolen Zapfish, she would have to do it herself. She didn’t want a second celebrity disappearance to cause more chaos, but she didn’t have much choice. Agent 2 would have to complete the rescue mission alone.

As she looked in the Outpost for her Charger, she debated whether Gramps should be alerted at this point. She decided against it, still; he was probably stressed enough about his mission with Agent 3, and she didn’t want him throwing himself in danger trying to find Callie. That was her job, darn it!

She opened a drawer and found her charger waiting, but…where was her uniform? The armored hoodie, the short, the boots, even the headset were all missing. She rustled around; maybe a bit of disorganized Callie rubbed off on her…but no, they were gone! Someone was in here! They took the Splattershot and one of the Ink Tanks, too!

A flash of panic came over Marie; someone had come in, and the outpost was breached! But… wait, why wasn’t her charger taken? Or any other supplies? Just the Agent getup and weapons—Oh.

Oh no.

She ran out of the shack, stumbling over her kimono a few times as she went for the manhole to Inkopolis. She had to get to Ammo Knights, and fast. It was lucky there wasn’t really anyone in the Square; while Marie took care to make sure she wasn’t immediately recognized by the adoring public, she didn’t care as much in the rush she was in.

The doors to the Ammo Knights store burst open the moment she unlocked them. Sheldon barely had time to look up in shock before the idol was in the back, frantically booting the computer up. Several monitors came up, each showing different angles of a new part of Octarian territory. None of the cameras could see anything, but when Marie put the headset on and heard panting and slight whimpering, her suspicions were confirmed.

Cull had gone into Octo Canyon alone.

Marie took a deep breath, turned the mic on, and coughed politely.

“Eh—” started Cull’s yelp, before he remembered where he was and clammed up.

“Oh good, you remembered the headset,” Marie said, keeping her voice level. “Okay, I think we can get you through this, but… I’m not sure where you are…”

“C-came in a-and made it to ch-checkpoint…”

Marie checked. The simulated sunny beach area in Octopolia did have a trail of green, including some inflated sponges. And it led right to a smaller respawner, directly in front of a massive road of pink ink. From where the camera was situated, Marie could see a Balloon Fish, but there were a few things behind it that were too blurry to see.

“They got some- some kinda robot b-bombs!”

“Octopods?” Marie asked. “Shouldn’t be a big deal, right? They just run at you.”

“…B-but that one at the start was so fast…C-can I really take more than one in a f-fight…?”

Marie leaned back in her chair, noting where the blurs were.

“You don’t have to, ex-Agent 4! If you can take that Balloon Fish, the Octopods should all pop with it!”

“B-but if I go up there, w-won’t they pop it and…?”

“Nah, they’ll run up to try to blast you. The Balloon Fish’ll be fine!”

Bad time for a joke, Marie realized, as she saw something shake in the respawner.

“Look, look,” she said, frantically trying to clear Cull’s head of some of the anxiety. “All you gotta do is keep your distance! Pop that balloon before the Octopods get to you.”

Cull finally surfaced, out of the respawner, and swallowed. He looked at the expanse of Octarian pink before him; it was going to take a lot of ink to even get to the Octo-bombs. He started firing, and Marie saw that his attention was divided between his path-making and the upcoming encounter.

“Hey, eyes on the prize, kid, not the road!”

Well, now the kid’s movement was slower, but at least he seemed more alert.

A thought came to Marie.

“…Ignore that when you start driving, ok?”

The Octopods started to rush in, but it was too late. Cull had already hit the Balloon Fish, taking the bombs and their weird red balloons with them. Octarians had the strangest ways of holding Power Eggs.

“Nice.”

That just left a layout of crates in a flattened “u” shape against the wall, a wall which had two Balloon Fish attached to it. As Cull looked up and around, Marie took a moment to swap through the cameras, finding a launchpad at the top, and the next camera showed a checkpoint. Thankfully, nothing between there and their current position Cull would have to worry about.

“All right, so just pop those balloons and swim up there. Nothing to worry about.”

Cull looked, hesitantly, but nodded. The Balloon Fish made short work of those boxes and covered the wall in green. But… he hesitated, rubbing the back of his head. Marie could hear sheepish mutters of “uh” and “oh boy” over her headset. She was about to ask what the holdup was, maybe throw in a joke about enjoying his handiwork, but all that came out was “wh” before she realized the problem – he was a slow swimmer when it wasn’t a vertical slope.

And she had seen the kid climb, too. This looked like a tougher thing to scale, sure, but his grip back then was impressive, and she was sure he could have figured something out. At the very least, it would probably be better than him struggling to swim up like he would have to now.

“Okay kid,” she said, attempting to hide her haste in correcting this, “I don’t usually recommend this, but you might want to try a running jump here.”

“O-okay…”

Marie watched as the ex-Agent stepped back, steeled himself, and sprinted to the wall. He jumped, and Marie thought he was going to slam into the wall, his squidforming was so close. However, it wasn’t close enough to conceal the fact his tentacles were… well, half-gone. He disappeared in the ink in a flash, but Marie could still tell, especially as he splashed and struggled to get the vertical movement.

Marie couldn’t do much more than watch; explaining how to swim to a fellow Inkling would just be dumb, and she wasn’t good at motivational platitudes. Still, she could try to encourage.

“Almost halfway there. Just keep breathing.”

“Just got past the second Balloon Fish; you’re almost there!”

Cull finally slipped over the edge onto wooden floor again. He couldn’t even kidform, and Marie could hear him panting and fully view his squid form.

His fins were much more disk-shaped than most, making his silhouette look less like an arrow and more like a mushroom with a point on top where his mantle ended. His skin had a spotted texture, as if someone had lightly sprayed him with darker green paint. More prominent, however, were his eight arms, all irregular stumps of what was expected, clearly from an injury long ago. His two tentacles, while about as long as most Inklings’, were notably thinner, and showed the same signs of being cut off at the end.

And Marie had sent him headfirst into danger. Worse yet, he refused to leave.

Cull wasn’t panting for too long; he soon kidformed, and was silent on his walk to the launchpad. Marie wasn’t sure what to say; she may like snarking, but humiliating someone was something else entirely.

A few quick key presses, and Marie could watch him land on the next section, where there didn’t seem to be much going on. There was a single sponge floating in the middle of a gap in the road, but not much else to see other than a few pillars. As Cull tentatively clambered down in case there was something, Marie switched to the next available camera. She could see Cull fill the sponge with ink to make a bridge in the distance, but more importantly, there were patrolling Octarians moving in a synchronous circle on some grates that were jutting out of one of the pillars.

“Octotroopers above you,” Marie called out, as Cull walked forward. She could see him step back onto the sponge, looking up and spotting the enemies. He tentatively moved forward, but never so much that he committed to a plan before stepping back. Thankfully, neither Octo seemed to have seen him, their gaze focused squarely on what was in front of them rather than what was below.

“C’mon,” Marie said, after about fifteen seconds of this, “You gotta do something if you wanna get outta here!”

“Uhm…”

“Oh for— just go! Take ‘em out and find a way up!”

Well, at least he was moving forward. The bad news was, the Octarians saw him, and began firing shots through the grate. At least the ex-Agent 4 was aware of this, and trying to zig-zag a little bit. He made it under the grate, with only a few spatters of pink on him for it. When he shot straight up and splatted one of the Octotroopers, however, his reflexive ducking was not enough to stop himself from being coated in green ink.

Despite herself, Marie had to stifle a snicker. Maybe it was just a needed release from stress, but there was something adorable about that pratfall. It reminded her of something that happened when she herself was younger, when she played one-on-one with Callie. The exact same thing happened to her, except she completely missed Callie…

“Y-you there?”

Marie took a breath, composing herself. Cull didn’t need the idea that she was laughing at him, nor did he need to hear her worrying about the other Squid Sister.

“Yeah, um… look for a way up the pillar. Looks like the grating goes to another floor… Just watch for that Octoslob and you’ll be fine…”

But Cull wasn’t looking up now. His attention was caught by something out of range of the cameras. He fired ink offscreen, slowly and carefully. Marie didn’t hear any return fire or Octarian shouts from his microphone, but all the same, this was concerning.

“Uh, I said ‘up’ the pillar…”

“Th-there was a lot of pink ink over here…J-just want to be sure…”

“I understand that,” Marie said, quietly kicking herself for not thinking of the possibility of an ambush, “but they’d have a hard time chasing you up. You might be better off—”

She heard the sound of wood breaking, and hoped to the Crane that Cull was alone; she’d be hard pressed to help him if she couldn’t see.

“Huh…Is that…?” he said, after a pregnant pause.

“Hmm? What was that?”

“N-nevermind, I must be mistaken…”

Marie heard some paper rustling, and then some grunting and splashing before Cull emerged from behind the pillar, now on the second floor. He took a few breaths, leaning against the column, before finally heading to the wall.

After making a break through a few more Octarians and some kind of wall-cleaning robot, he made it to a dead end. Behind a bunch of crates destroyed by a nearby Balloon Fish, there was nothing but a sheer drop to the facilities miles below. To his left, he could just see a large wooden wall, with the launchpad there. He groaned.

All Marie could say was “Sorry, kid, but you gotta make it through this.”

Cull stepped back to look, but he didn’t know if he could make another climb like that so soon. Instead, he looked to the re-inflated Balloon Fish, and then at the wall; not even at the launchpad!

Marie was at a loss for words when she saw the kid start clambering onto the enormous ink bomb, and rather quickly at that. Sure, Cull slipped once or twice, but he never once lost his grip. Within fifteen seconds, he was wobbling on top of it, looking almost like an eight-year-old bouncing on a waterbed. He sat down and started rocking, as if he was trying to get comfortable.

“Okay, look,” Marie finally said, “I get it may be tiring, but that’s no excuse for lazing around and…”

She stopped when he stood up, the Balloon Fish rolling back so far that Marie stood up, shocked at how far over the ledge Cull was. Cull, for his part, had an expression like he swallowed a sunfish whole, but kept his eyes to the wall he had to climb. He took one step forward, waiting for the Fish to roll enough…

And then he jumped. His hands reached out, and he was able to grab onto the ledge. By all accounts, he shouldn’t have been able to keep his grip, but it was dawning on Marie that he was a whip-lash squid.

He hoisted himself up, finding another piece of Sardinium, then looked over the edge to see about that launchpad. It was a simple swing down, and Cull was on his rapid way to the next area.

Marie was there to witness each remaining step. The ambush from above, where Cull leapt screaming into his first Splashdown. The attack immediately after, where he managed to actually take one or two of the Troopers before they even landed. Cull getting splatted again by the remaining Octarians, though he didn’t gasp as frantically when he respawned this time. He was able to finish off the other Octotroopers and make it to some more sponge-scaling situations and an easy battle.

After a bridge made from sponges filled with Balloon Fish ink, Marie’s eyes widened. Up ahead, a bulbous flying thing she knew all too well, and she was about to cry out a warning, but stopped herself. She was already dealing with a bit of a nervous wreck; no sense in giving him a heart attack in all three of his.

Instead, she said, as plainly as she could, “An Octobomber. Gross.”

“What—” Cull started, before yelping. He just saw a Splat Bomb land by him, and it wasn’t his.

Marie sighed as he respawned. Even if she didn’t want to scare the kid, that warning may have been less than helpful.

“Sorry, squid,” she said, apologetically. “Didn’t want to scare you…”

Cull walked back over to where he was, far more slowly this time. Shooting gobs of purple at him was one thing, but now they were hurling bombs at him!

“Ugh… how close is the Zapfish?”

Marie blinked. She hadn’t even been looking for the Zapfish; she was just making sure this kid got out alive.

“Um…”

She could see Cull looking around, mostly up and at the corners of platforms. She assumed he was looking for the camera, but he was nowhere close. At least it kept him safe while she re-calibrated the ZapSeek program that Sheldon wrote.

“Let’s see… the Zapfish is… uh…”

“Ye—?” was all Marie heard in response, before the computer suddenly went black. Her eyes widened, and she frantically mashed the power button, but all she heard was the equally frantic clicking of the button.

Sheldon opened the door behind her, frantically pulling out a set of keys. He dashed to a caged area behind the computer, where he kept the generator.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, trying each key in turn as fast as he could, “Without Zapfish, we gotta rely on this generator, and as you know, this is an old thing, and the fact is, it’ll take a bit to refuel it and start it up again, not to mention the computer booting time—”

“Sheldon!” Marie said, sharply. “Just tell me what I can do to help get it back! There’s a kid lost in Octopia here!”

“Right, right,” Sheldon’s capped silhouette nodded. “Sorry. So, I need you to take the rip cord here and wait to give it a good yank! There’s a coupla things I gotta keep in place over here while you do that…”

Marie walked over, but saw multiple cords that looked pull-worthy.

“Um…”

“You got the rip cord?”

“No…”

“All right, hold on…”

The sound of Sheldon pouring whatever the generator needed slowed to a halt, and he patiently walked over, instantly finding the correct cord and handing it to her.

“I’ll let you know when to pull. It might take a few tries for it to start, but keep at it.”

Marie nodded, not understanding when she heard a variety of switches being flicked, as well as some clatters.

“All right, you ready?”

She pulled the rip cord. A rumble, but nothing else.

“Okay, try again.”

It took a few more pulls, but the generator eventually roared to life.

“Now, lemme take care of getting you started, and I’ll be out of here…”

Marie didn’t dispute that. She was a lot of things, but she was no computer squid. She waited for the slow booting, the password entry, the appropriate programs written by Sheldon…

It felt like hours, but everything Marie was used to was back up. Sheldon saluted, then went back to working on his weapons.

Right, so she could flip through the cameras again, and find Cull who was… still standing at that checkpoint. Her audio wasn’t working, but she could tell he was just calling out, trying to get a response.

It took a minute for Marie to find the volume and fix it, but she was greeted with a quiet, almost fearful “…hello?...Yes?...Is the Z-Zapfish close…?”

“Yeah, hang on,” Marie said, putting on a practiced smile. “It was just a technical thing, sorry.”

“O-okay…”

“Just keep moving forward, m’kay? That Octoslob might have bombs, but he’s pretty slow, so just keep on your guard, okay?”

Cull gulped, but still started taking steps forward. It was slow and halting, with him looking around as if he was expecting the Octobomber to have flown to where he was.

Marie wasn’t going to spur him too far forward; the camera systems for other areas were still loading, and she didn’t want Cull dying down there, especially if it would be from something super avoidable.

Suddenly, after some tentative advancement, Cull ducked into the ink. Marie switched from the loading screen back to him the moment she heard a splash. He was nearing the Octobomber.

“Remember, kid: those Splat Bombs have timers on ‘em. Keep moving, and don’t let ‘em catch you! That’s a rule of the battlefield!”

Cull wasn’t moving.

“Come on, this is no time for hide and splat! You gotta move forward! Once you get to the Zapfish, you can get out of there!”

“But…” Cull whispered, still not so much as swimming an inch, “I-I don’t know…”

“Look, kid,” Marie sighed. “If you want to find your way home, you need to get past this guy. I already told you; keep moving and you’ll be a harder target for him!”

After a second (presumably waiting for the fat flying octopus to look away, which Marie had to admit would be a decent strategy), Cull emerged and started running, firing wildly as he did so. The Octobomber flinched as ink hit them, and they spun around, quickly lobbing a bomb at the Inkling intruder. Cull kept running forward, barely out of the blast’s range. He kept shooting, somehow missing half his shots as he did so.

It gave the Octobomber enough time to fire another bomb. Marie would have congratulated Cull on his plan of circling to avoid the explosives, but she was too busy gasping as he inattentively moved towards the edge.

“Kid, watch it—”

“Yeah, just keep movin’! Works great!”

He cheered as he splatted the enemy, but the cheer was short lived as he fell off the ledge.

Marie didn’t see his ghost swim up. She waited, desperately scanning every pixel, rotating every camera, but she saw nothing.

She started breathing again when she saw his hands inch onto solid ground, followed by the rest of him.

“Oh, thank Cod,” Marie said, more under her breath than anything. “Right, so….”

The hacks into the next area of security cameras finally loaded. Marie wasn’t sure what the delay was. Something about cache? She’d have to ask Sheldon later, but for now she looked into the next set of cameras, and…

“Hey, good news!” she said. “You’re almost to the Zapfish and outta there!”

“Uh, y-yeah…” Cull said, sounding like Marie did when she first learned how to fake smiles. “Uh, al-almost might be a strong word…”

“What are you talking abou—oh.”

A quick pan of one of the cams showed the problem. A series of dry sponges formed a line from the floor Cull was on to the floating island the Zapfish was on. Even if he used the Balloon Fish lined across the sides to fill them up, this would be a struggle for him to swim up what most Inklings could with just a bit of effort.

“Er… yeah, this might be tough…” Marie trailed off. “I’m sure you can make it up there, though…”

“Nnn…”

She saw him standing there, craning his neck to see the sun-shaped wall far above him. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could tell he wasn’t exactly readying up for the climb. Heck, he was walking back to a ledge (thankfully, a part with a railing this time). He looked around a little, but he didn’t see anywhere else he could try to go.

The blue skies made from blue monitor light surrounded him on all sides, illuminating a sparkling blue sea under him. Looking out on the wooden platform into the distant waters like this was filling him with nostalgia, back when he could only be halfway between squid and kid at most. He remembered having to brush his tentacles off his eyes a lot, to see a cloudless sky like this, with rocky beaches and wooden docks. The false sun was still a good one, adding to the illusion pretty well. Even if the air was still the stale air you’d find in caves, it didn’t matter; the atmosphere was so much like that of a beach, giving a very surreal vibe of familiarity along with the floating platforms, debris, and screens. This was inspiring.

“You okay, kid?”

“Hmm? O-oh, yeah, j-just needed a moment…”

He pulled himself away from the view, having calmed himself a bit. He took a breath, and looked at the challenge before him.

He fired at the first sponge until it was dripping with ink. He took a breath, and climbed up to the top of it. It was easier to just climb up the one, and he still had a dry, shrunken sponge in front of him.

He stepped onto the dry sponge, and was about to fire to inflate it as well, but he realized he’d have to do still more climbing with the other pair up ahead. He wasn’t sure if he’d be up to that; even that one small swim took effort. He still wanted to get the Zapfish in something resembling a timely manner, so he looked either way. It’d be a tricky thing, but he’d done crazier tagging a spot on Moray Towers the one time.

Standing on the tinier platform, he looked at the Balloon Fish on either side, and popped one.

Marie’s jaw dropped. She just saw Cull get flung like a ragdoll as the sponge exploded out to its full size under him. He flailed and hollered, but not as intensely as she thought it warranted. Heck, it almost seemed planned, as he landed flat on his back on top of the next set of filled sponges. He grunted, but he quickly got up and leapt at the final wall between himself and the Zapfish’s platform. A couple of grunts and kicks against the wall, and he could move from dangling by his fingers to actually getting onto the platform.

From there, Marie could view him freeing and petting the Zapfish. He sat down as the platform moved to the exit, the Zapfish on his lap. It was kind of adorable, honestly.

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @PrincessaBitchessa!

Hello hello! I got a bunch of the things you asked for and, like my previous two works, this is completely stupid fluffy goodness and I hope it'll put a smile on your face! Merry Christmas!

Read on AO3

*****

Infamnia

The money lasted longer than he thought it would, but not long enough to get out of the dog house of all the debt from medical bills and the mortgage. Stiles didn’t know what to do, how to find himself out of the zeroes and commas and the red ink on the envelopes, until he remembered the letter inside the safe his father set aside before he was killed. He pulled it out from where he’d locked t away, wanting nothing to remind him of what took the better part of two years to even partially come to terms with.

The blue-lined paper still had the frayed edges from where it was torn from a notebook, and the penmanship was as dicey as his father’s ever was.

Stiles I’m so sorry you have to read this letter. But since you are, let me say that whatever happened to me was not your fault. It wasn’t, Stiles, and if you’re blaming yourself I’m going to haunt your scrawny little ass. Don’t. There’s more that I want to say than I can ever put into paper, but this is held securely in the safe specifically because this information is extremely confidential.

If you’re ever in trouble, if you need money, protection, a job, anything, you give the following number a call, and ask for whatever Hale is in charge. You tell them you’re John and Claudia Stilinski’s son. They’ll take care of you. Whatever you find out about me, about what I did and what I accepted, know that it was to protect the town. From what it didn’t want to know about. They owe me a debt, one that I saved for you.

Love you, kid

Dad

Stiles’ bony fingers trembled slightly as he held the paper, mulling over the words as if this was the first time he’d read them. In truth, it was the first time he ever was really taking in the meaning. While he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what exactly whatever you find out about me, about what I did meant, he would maybe check this out before selling foot pics.

Phone in hand, he tapped a pen on his knee, waiting for someone to pick up. Pick up pick up pick up pick u- THANK YOU.

“You’ve reached Beacon Hills Wildlife Preserve Management, how may I help you?” Secretaries all had this extremely creepy customer service voice that was robotic. Every one of them had the same voice.

What in the flying technicolor fuck was the Beacon Hills Wildlife Preserve number doing in this bizarrely ominous letter? This couldn’t be real. “Uh, could I talk to whoever’s in charge?” He sounded so lame. He could hear himself sounding so incredibly lame.

“May I ask for the purpose of your call so I can route you to the correct person?” The woman’s voice indicated that she could hear his lameness.

“Uh, I got bills I need to pay and I need help, I was told to call the number.”

“I’m sorry, we have no open positions at this ti-“

“Wait, wait wait, can I speak to the, uh, Hale in charge?” He remembered there was a name in the letter, maybe the name would help.

“Transferring your call now.” The voice cut directly to a hold tone. Well, that got him instant results.

The pen tapping his knee increased in speed as he waiting for someone to pick up the phone.

----

“This is completely insane.” Talia Hale rubbed her temples, a headache coming on. The fae wanted to move their court to the Preserve, even though that would not only effectively shut down anyone else trying to use the land. Some true galaxy-brain level genius released no less than five wolpertingers into the forest and now every one of her soldiers was out hunting goddamn flying jackalopes. And now, this.

“We have to do something, though.” Laura stood in the middle of the room, arms folded. “They won’t just stop here. Jerry’s bloodthirsty, and he wants a werewolf with an apple in his mouth on his Christmas dinner table.”

“Not it.” Peter said, because it was the most inappropriate thing that he could possibly say. He felt the eyes of the ladies staring at him, and decided not to acknowledge it. “Would you prefer nose game?”

“Thank you for your contribution.” Unhelpful ass. Talia stood, looking at the map of the preserve on the center table in the room. The lines marked out territories, the fenced off areas for endangered species, paranormally important spots, the Nemeton of course, everything of relevance. And right on their eastern border was a brand new Argent Armory establishment. How they got clearance for that when California had some very impressive gun laws was beyond her. The local lines had been redrawn and somehow those French-blooded fucks had gotten the ordinances to allow a firing range. Which would allow them to have a massive store house of guns and ammunition right there, so they could plan to clean house.

“Can we claim it’ll disturb the birds?” Laura offered. “It must, right?”

“Maybe. But you know the people love their guns. And don’t care about birds.” The phone started ringing across the room. “I’m more worried one of em will gun down a wolpertinger and then I’ll have way too many questions to answer.” The door opened brusquely and a young man strode in, looking cross as ever, throwing the body of a rabbit-quail-deer looking thing on Talia’s desk. “Number three.” He was slightly out of breath, looking at the body like it had personally called him a bitch. “And maybe they won’t shoot wolpertingers, but someone definitely did fucking shoot me.” He yanked off his coat and, yep, that was a bullet wound on his shoulder.

Laura poked it, just to hear him yell at her. Cain instinct.

“Stop it.” Talia gently smacked Laura’s hand. “You see who did it?”

“Y’even need to ask?” He snapped. He watched Gerard Argent smile and wave just a little from his property line, walking back as calm as he pleased at the edge of the woods. The bullet wasn’t wolfsbane, but in a way that was even worse. A wolfsbane bullet would at least do something. It would kill him, yeah, but it was a purpose that had a ‘reasonable’ point. The point of this mundane bullet was just to piss him off. And it was working.

“Will someone answer that phone?” Talia asked, fussing over her wounded boy.

---

Stiles sat in the office of the BHWPM headquarters, with a cup of coffee in his hands. The woman in front of him had introduced herself as Talia Hale, and given that two of the children in the room had the same severe cheekbones, dark hair, and piercing stare like they could see right into his bone marrow, he was fairly certain they were her children. They were attractive in the exact way that terrified him, which was probably not a good thing, because that was definitely his type. “Your father has done a great deal for us over the years, we are happy to help you now in payment for the help he gave you. Is it money you need?” Talia asked, looking over the young man. While not unkempt, there was something in the rakish hair and the unpressed shirt that said he might not be doing so well.

“A job would probably be better, I’ve been trying to get further in the FBI, but-“ He shrugged, not keen to detail his psychiatric history to people he didn’t know. “That’d be more of a help than a one-time get-outta-debt free card.”

“The FBI?” Talia asked, looking at him with new eyes. “Do you know what your father did with us, exactly?”

Stiles was entirely clueless. “I’m....guessing he helped clear drunk hooligans outta the preserve?” Stiles was definitely not the drunk hooligans ever, shut up. “Nah, I’m guessing he helped you hide bodies, smuggle people, and/or doctored police records for Scary One and Scary Two over there, and instead of taking bribes he took it on future favors.” The vibe in this room was way too Corleone for it to not be some undercover operation.

While the woman’s expression didn’t shift even at the comment to her own children, something in her eyes imperceptibly altered. Something a bit like amusement, or interest. “Would you want a job with someone who would do those kinds of things?”

“If my dad thought it was a good thing to do, it must have been for damn good reasons. I’m willing to find out.

“Derek, why don’t you take Stiles to get a proper suit. If he’s running with us, we need him looking the part.” Talia said with a smile. “And get him a proper gun.”

Scary Two: Tall Dark And Terrifying stepped forward and walked Stiles out the door without a word. He could work with that, and hey, any excuse to ogle the boss’ kid, right?

-----------

And Stiles thought those little fuckin wolpertingers were bad.

This was, in fact, infinitely worse.

He sat next to Derek in their little foxhole, only yards away from the Argent stronghold. Apparently Cora, the last piece of the Hale puzzle, and the so-described baby of the family, was inside. Who the fuck steals a baby, Stiles thought. And every one of them was ready to go utterly feral to get it.

Feral being both the operative word and unsettlingly accurate, as it turns out, with his boss lady on all fours and snarling at the people lobbing smoke grenades at them. Derek had his fangs out and everything, but luckily said nothing about how clearly Stiles wanted to climb him like a slightly more angular pine.

Because werewolves. Of course werewolves. Why wouldn’t there be werewolves.

Stiles popped out of the foxhole and nailed one of the Argent soldiers directly in his face, giving a startle to the others behind the line and giving an opportunity.

Stiles didn’t run out first, everyone else could go first and get shot at, he didn’t really want to catch any of them. Instead, he snuck out and around the melee, getting his gangly ass right into their stronghold as Talia was probably ripping someone’s throat out. Ew.

Inside was warm, and a little off-beat. “Hey, Cora?! Where you at!” He hissed, gun drawn in case someone stayed behind. He snuck around, looking for where the baby would be. Make a sound kiddo, come on, something, Uncle Stiles didn’t have a super-sniffer equipped.

After poking around what felt like a century, he finally heard the whine of an itty bitty kid, and lo there the child was, adorable as a button. “Aw, heya kiddo, c’mere.” He picked up the child, humming a little to try and keep them calm as he now had the great joy of having to get out of there. With the kid. He walked the whole back-asswards way around to stay far enough away from gunshots and yelling, because if that baby started crying, both of their asses would be dead! And the werewolves could smell his and Cora’s cocktail of gross or whatever, they could track him down anyway and it would be fine! Cora was fine, he was fine, everything was Gucci.

Back at the headquarters, he started looking around for anything that would help the child, blankets or diapers or at least something. But there wasn’t even a car-seat or anything. Where were they keeping the kid if the whole family was there the whole damn time? Stiles sat in one of the office chairs, baby sleeping soundly on his chest, as he waited for the family to get back.

There was no calm awakening for either, as a foot blasted through the door of the wildlife preserve office, splintering it instead of opening it. The sound of the voice cursing was definitely Derek, and he busted it down properly, a slight girl’s arm over his shoulder and a quart or so of blood apiece on everyone.

“Stiles, where the fuck did you go, we-“ Derek halted his scolding when he looked at him.

“Shhhhh, you’ll wake Cora up!” Stiles hissed.

Derek blinked those stupid pretty eyes as he looked truly lost for words. “Stiles.”

“Yeah?”

“Where did you get a baby?”

“Whaddaya mean? In the stronghold, where you all said-“

“This is Cora.” He said, pointing to the unconscious woman he dragged in.

Oh. Baby of the family meant. Youngest sibling not. Actual infant. Huh.

Huh.

So then who exactly was he holding???

“Who the fuck steals a baby?” Peter asked,  pointing at the kidnapper.

Stiles looked at the child like it had turned into a 30 megaton nuke.

Talia sighed. “Stiles.”

“Yes’m.”

“....Laura, go get some formula and diapers. I’ll....ask around about the baby.”

----

Stiles didn’t get into the family business to actually start a family. This was not his intention in the slightest. But here he was, singing a very off-key Jurassic Park theme song he composed himself to a tiny baby girl he decided to call Izzy, after his suggestions of Katie, Smelborp, Stormageddon, Cirilla, and Dreamsmasher were all shot down.

Derek walked in, and stood next to Stiles, hands out, offering to take the kiddo. Derek shouldn’t be allowed to dress down ever in Stiles’ presence, because the thin tee and the sweatpants were doing far too many good things for him. Too much was on display.

“No. Mine. Go kidnap your own.”

Derek exhaled, which was as close as Stiles ever got to a laugh from him. “C’mon, you’re dead on your feet, you adrenaline crashed hours ago, and the kid’s not falling asleep anytime soon. Give her over, alright?”

“Mine.”

“I get it, I get it, you like the kid. But what happens when you get attached and we have to hand the kid back over?” Derek folded his arms, and it....hhough he shouldn’t be allowed to fold his arms either, what were those arms even??? It wasn’t fair. Stupid werewolf whatever magic bullshit.

“Give her back?” Stiles asked, offended by the suggestion. No, they were not giving Isabel back, no no no, not happening.

“Yes, give her back. Do you think you can just keep her here forever? The Argents might burn the whole preserve down if this is one of their daughters. You don’t have a birth certificate for her, even.”

“Shhhhhh stop saying sense words.”

Derek slipped his arms in and yoinked the baby before Stiles could react, but as soon as the baby was nestled against him, Stiles didn’t have the heart. Derek looked hot as hell all the time, but that, with the light from the lamp bouncing off of his face, and even a smile? He was beautiful. “There, was that so hard?”

“Yes. Give her back.” But Stiles wasn’t trying to take her back, he knew in a battle of strength he wasn’t going to win that. Unless it was strength of will, that he could go toe-to-toe with any of them. Stiles sat in one of the chairs, ready for a long night ahead of him, watching Derek pace softly in socked feet around the room.

With Izzy settled in a makeshift crib, Derek sat in another chair, rubbing his eyes that were still dusted with gunpowder and smoke from the fight. Cora was up and running again, talking things over with Talia and Laura, his job was to watch the baby. And Stiles, though they came as a joint package.

Stiles fiddled with a fraying end of the chair. Ever since he joined the family months ago, he didn’t ask any of the specifics of what his father did, but he was curious. “You know what my dad did, exactly, to get this kind of treatment for me?”

Derek looked up. “You sure you want to know?”

“Yes.” Stiles had stolen a baby he wasn’t exactly king of the moral high ground that day.

Derek sighed, thin mouth pressed so tight it was almost one dimensional. But something in his mind must have won out, that Stiles deserved to know, so he told. About how he was fifteen, with a girlfriend, and given some frankly terrible advice from Peter, that ended up getting her in a bad way, and Derek had to snap her neck. It was a mercy kill, but that was a dead girl’s body, and any whiff of that reaching the public would ruin Derek’s life forever.

Talia and Claudia had been friends for years, so when Talia asked for John to come to the preserve, no lights no sirens, for a favor, she made a leap of faith that John wouldn’t betray her family. But he didn’t. John fixed the autopsy results to show she was hit by a car, fixed everything up so she was mourned by her family in the normal way for a tragic death, and no one was the wiser that Derek had killed her.

Stiles was silent for a long time after that. Derek thought he’d fallen asleep, but finally Stiles spoke. “He did the right thing. He warned me, you know, that he did and accepted some things I might not like. But that’s....that’s not what happened.” They looked at each other for a moment, the quiet intimacy of secrets laid bare broken by the sound of a stirring baby.

“Aw c’mon Izzy, please just sleeeeep.....be a good lil Mafia princess for me, huh?” Stiles begged, getting up.

“We’re not the Mafia!” Derek objected.

“You wear suits, you talk about the family business, you run a front organization to alter cashflow, just cause you’re wolves doesn’t make you not-Mafia.”

----

“She’s a spark.” Talia announced to the collected family, Izzy playing with the square in Derek’s suit pocket.

“Shiiiiit, where’d they get one of those?” Peter asked, side-eyeing the little one. Someone snapped at him about his language choices, but it didn’t matter, as he would continue to do what he wanted. Stiles didn’t care for Peter too much in general, but after hearing what happened with Derek and Paige, he was not exactly feeling it.

“Explanation for the newbie?” Stiles asked with a raised hand.

“Spark, you know, magical talent. Some channel it into Druidism, some channel it in other magical schools of thought, that kind of thing. They become our emissaries, or...if the Argents raise one up from the ground, a devastating weapon.” Laura explained, looking at Isabel with a look more concerned and less suspicious.

“Oh, you mean like this?” Stiles snapped both sets of fingers, and a shot of electricity arced from one thumb to the other.

Every wolf in the room stared at him in utter silence for a solid ten seconds of uncomfortable quiet.

“Stiles.” Derek ventured the conversation.

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you could do that.”

“Didn’t ask.”

“Are you always this- never mind I know you are.” Derek shook his head.

Stiles grinned at being so well known, but the conversation was too serious for many jokes. “We’re not giving the her back to those unhinged fu- people, are we? She’s like me. Mine.”

“Well. That depends. If she was born to one of them, they are their child.” Talia wouldn’t like that if it were the case. “But, the fact that the police haven’t knocked on our door tells me that either they think we’ll kill the kid if they do, or they have no better right to her than anyone else. I think it’s the latter. However, they’ll bring their whole force against us to get her back. If we had John-”

Stiles froze at the mention of his father’s name, but said nothing more.

“If we had John, we would definitely be able to sort her paperwork out. But we don’t. We need to find a new contact in the police that can arrange us those papers. Until we get that, Derek and Stiles, I want you both to take her into the vault with everything you need to last a week with her. You’ll be safe there. Any questions?”

Stiles raised his hand again. “Is there wi-fi in the vault?”

---

There was no wi-fi in the vault.

There was also no cell service either, which meant no Netflix, which meant no video games, no Youtube, nothing to amuse him. And it was only two days in. He had nothing. Except for, of course, annoying Derek. At least Derek was very generous in this.

“Twenty questions.”

“No.”

“I’m thinking of....a noun.”

“No.”

By four days, Stiles had run out of annoyances and had drifted into just mindlessly babbling at Izzy, while Derek’s forehead wrinkles got worse and worse with every minute that his brain cells slipped away.

On the sixth day, Derek finally decided to play ball. Either Stiles had worn him down enough, or maybe the two bottles of whiskey were going to help him cope.

“Truth or dare?” Stiles offered, smile with as he took the offered booze.

“Only because I don’t have a deck of cards. As a warning, never play Laura in King’s Cup, she has never lost a game and given me alcohol poisoning three times.”

“How does the whiskey even work on you, Mr. Healsalot.”

“Is Healsalot the best you can do?”

“Shut up.”

“It’s actually a bit of halite. Disables werewolf abilities while in close proximity, if something happens I toss it away as quick as possible and I’m good in, I’d say a minute or so with this level of exposure. Cora had a couple day’s worth, which is why she was knocked out.”

“Gotcha.” At least it made as much sense as anything else these weirdo furries got up to. Once each had downed a respectable amount of alcohol, they could begin. “Alright, truth or dare, big guy.”

“Dare.”

“Dare you toooooo.....fuck never mind there’s nothing fun to dare you with in here. These are all your family’s valuables and shit how am I supposed to dare you to dress up in Auntie Myrtle’s wedding dress and sing Poker Face on video for my own personal blackmail?”

“Truth, then.”

“You like guys?”

Derek stared at the directness of the question. “Subtle, aren’t we?”

“Literally never.”

“Okay. Sometimes.” Stiles didn’t look happy about the answer. “Why did you steal the baby?”

“I thought she was Cora!”

“You thought they wouldn’t have any sort of defenses around the hostage they’d taken from the werewolf family that they were fighting a turf war with?!”

“Shhhhhhh it’s fine it’s fine it all worked out right?”

“Did it? We’re hiding in a vault, that you have not stopped bitching about once since we came in here, and we might be giving her back, and even if we don’t, who’s going to take care of her?”

“Me.”

“You.”

“Moi. Yo. Io. You want it in any other language?”

“Polish?”

“Fuck you.”

“You wish.” Derek had something of a grin as he took another shot.

“Do you wish you could fuck me?” Stiles was getting bolder a couple shots in.

Derek took a moment to answer. “Sometimes.” Vague bastard.

“Oh? Like when?”

“Ah ah ah, my turn.” Derek took a swig, forgetting the dainty shot glass. “How many moles you got?”

“You wanna count em up?”

“Not an answer.”

“Over a hundred.”

Derek nodded, considering this thought as carefully as someone half-drunk really can. “Interesting.”

“Where do your eyebrows go when you shift?”

“How the fuck am I supposed to answer that question?”

“It’s your body, dude! How am I supposed to know how many moles I got when you don’t know where your friggin eyebrows go?!?!” Stiles’ limbs flailed as he gesticulated his exasperation.

“You’re gonna wake Izzy.” Derek warned. The baby was in another room of the vault so she could sleep while the adults could have their last-day-of-vaulting fun.

“Alright alr- wait, you called her Izzy.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yeeeeeeees, yes you did you called her Izzy instead of the baby. You like her.”

“Shhh.”

“New question: do you like Isabel Stilinski-Hale, the new baby of the family?”

Derek chuckled, man he really must be drunk. “We’re hyphenating?”

“I found her so I get first billing, but like y’all took me in so like, I guess you can join. Whatever.”

“Yes, I like the kid. She’s pretty good for a baby. Only projectile vomited on me twice. That’s not bad.”

“She’s the best kid.”

“Do you really think you’re in a good place to adopt her right now in your life?”

“Nooooo stop with the serious questions.” Stiles whined. “Serious ones aren’t fun let’s get back to the flirty ones those were fun.”

“It’s my question.” Derek shrugged.

“If I stole you as a kid I’d name you Moodkiller the Great.”

“Is ‘the Great’ my last name or is ‘the’ my middle name, like Kermit.”

“God you’re such a fucking nerd.”

“You know, no, I’m not in like the...perfect spot. But who IS when they get a kid? And I got the magic thing, and she does, so like....I dunno, she’s got no one else, probably, so.....wouldn’t you guys help me?” Stiles’ big dark eyes looked so beautiful in the scant light of the vault. Derek’s kryptonite.

“Of course we would, don’t be stupid.” Derek mumbled, looking away.

“.....Isabel Stilinski-Haaaale you’re gonna come home with uuuuuuus.” Stiles grinned, getting his own way.

“Whose turn is it?” Derek asked, not sure where the game had gone.

“Mmmmmine. I think. Maybe. Does it matter?”

“Guess not.”

Stiles paused for a second, looking at the distance between them on the floor, the thought process unfolding before Derek’s eyes as he saw Stiles decide exactly how to ambulate himself closer. With a thud, Stiles flopped on top of him and they fell flat on the floor.

“Ow.”

“Oh shut up that didn’t hurt, you big baby.” Stiles wasn’t going to let Derek get another word in, pressing his mouth against his, clumsy and off-center and everything bizarrely fitting together despite everything.

Derek only let Stiles win that for a half a second, before pinning Stiles down to the floor himself.

----

Stiles’ hangover next day was legendary. The wakeup screaming baby was violence to his ears and Derek was disgustingly FINE and Stiles hated him so much except for the fact that he still wanted to make out with his stupid face. Once he got up off the floor maybe. Everything hurt. Ow.

“C’mon, dumbass, Mom and Laura showed up outside, they said we got the kiddo and gotta go fill out the paperwork at the station. Gotta tell the world she’s your girl.”

“Yeah.” Stiles mumbled a little, looking up at Derek with the baby on his hip. “Mine.”

[flourishingbatter]

Turn 4 ; Intermission

 Seeing that there were hardly any takers of his beckoning, he'd exhale a brief scoff until he noticed the veil of ink creep and cover over his screen. For a moment, he had made no sudden moves as the great eye on his shoulder darts its gaze toward Vainglory ; it's iris shrinking in the process. Did they actually think he was none the wiser? 

 To match the ink's efforts, vines would suddenly burst apart from where they were before darting towards Vainglory and ensnared the ink with the foliage constantly wrapping around them - the point of trapping them in a hollow ball of plant growth. 

 Before he could make an attempt to scratch off the remaining residue left on his screen, a resounding CLANG!! Echoes across the stadium, as Revak had crashed down and struck true with his attack. 

However, not even that had made the titan flinch with how the impact never registered. The only thing it did though was infuriate Johnny even more. With the half-ling near his presence, the best course of action was to dart his right hand up and snatch Revak once again, rearing back the ensnared fist to set one more example but before that could happen...

Paul

"Wait!! Wait! Timeout, timeout!" Paul rushes forward and ahead of the group, proceeding to gesture his hands to form a 'T' while calling out. Clearly, he needed to put in the moment of sparing his friends from Johnny's out of control attitude. Though, he blinks, not sure as how to respond to the other...Giant appearing behind Johnny. Nonetheless, a quick redirection was in order!

AlphaJohnny

Johnny blinks, easing his tension as he looked down at Paul and for a moment caught sight of the shoe's imprint on his red cap. Though, with his trained and steeled gaze masked the grimace he wanted to share as he acknowledged that he had got caught up in the moment and kicked his friend. "...What?"

Paul

"U-Uh..." He quickly darts his eyes from to and fro, thinking of a quick excuse in order to sway Johnny's decision. 

 "H-How about I- uh, talk with 'em! Y-Yeah! Maybe they can totally see your reasoning!" Hopefully, the others would catch on to his white lie.

AlphaJohnny

For a moment, he was beginning to weigh on the decision whether he should let his best friend give them a good reasoning. Hell, so far, maybe they got scared and hid behind him thinking that was the only reasonable conclusion he'd come up with. A mental note was made, since harming Paul wasn't something he'd like to do but with the rest...He knew, KNEW that the others weren't strong enough. For all intents and purposes, if they could hardly make a dent in this body then how could they survive if they met a common enemy with that strength alone? Regardless, Johnny proceeds to lengthen his right arm back in front of him, with Revak still held and lightly tossed them forward, knowing that they could land without being damaged further. "Alright, you have your time. If you can convince them then hopefully, we could all take a moment to explore my home."

Paul

"Y-Yeah! Sure! Th-That's totally great!" It wasn't. With a hesitant nod, he looks back to the group and proceeds to jog back to the exit of the coliseum, ushering the others to follow as they needed to discuss the matter at hand and possibly work on a new tactic. 

Revak

[Revak landed with a slight roll, still admittedly disoriented from being snatched out of the air, but still recovered to his feet fairly quickly, giving a quick sideglance to Johnny before hobbling over to Paul, rubbing his arms gingerly.] * ...Thanks for the save, Paul. I'm pretty sure I was about to be "example number 2" there... [

He collapsed onto his butt with a small huff, looking up at the self-proclaimed future champ.] * ...So... this isn't exactly working, huh?

Paul

"Wait...Wait not here, let's go back to the lobby." He makes sure to gesture a glance to Johnny, so as not to be within hearing distance.

Vainglory

Vainglory let out a surprised squawk as vines consumed his sight, leaving him blind and in unknown territory. He  fell over and was now laying on the back of his stem in literally nature's hamster ball. 

He swallowed, looking around nervously and well, to say the least, he doesn't like being alone in dark, cramped spaces. He began to panic, rolling his foliage hamster ball around in a circle. 

 "G-guys? Fight companions? W-where did you all go?!??" He heard Paul's muffled voice trailing off and tried rolling in the direction he heard it from, before bumping into one of the coliseum walls.

 "GUYS? M-MUSHROOM ALLY??" His voice was muffled and the source of his jittery yelling was the panicking, foliage hamster ball.

Revak

[Revak, noting the screeching of a frightening ink, he quickly stood up, rushing to pick up the vine ball, carrying it back towards the group.] * ...H-hold on, we're gonna get ya out of there, Vainglory. Let's just get to safety first.

Lilith

[* Good, a timeout. Something they needed at this point to do some SERIOUS planning. Lilith would follow behind Paul as he beckoned. She wouldn't protest against the idea of moving elsewhere for the short break. THe only question on her mind now was.. How the hell were they gonna go about this now?..]

Corrupt

[Corrupt Sighs, Half Relief and Half Frustration, as He Turns to Paul's Direction. He Stood and Watched for a Moment Before Walking to the Meeting Place. At least it was a Break from the Chaos.]

Vainglory

Vainglory let out a shaky gasp when his hamster ball was lifted off the ground and he immediately lurched up off of the back of his stem, curling into a ball. "Revak? Is that you?" He was happy about not being alone but being shrouded in darkness still wasn't fun for the ink.(edited)

Happy

Happy put his viney fists down and followed the crowd. He was grumbling so loudly it wasn't hard to hear a profanity or two in his speech.

Revak

[Having carried the floral prison over to the rest of the group, Revak brought the ball of foliage over to his allies.] * Yeah, it's me... I'd get ya out myself, but my claws wouldn't cut it. * My only other skills have the unfortunate possibility of damaging you too, so I'm getting someone to help.

AlphaJohnny

As Johnny watched over the group, he'd go ahead and turn his back on them once they had left to give him his space. If he were to trust Paul, then this was the right time to do so.

Though, despite not noticing Malevolent arrive, he had not given them a hint of acknowledgement

Paul

He'd nod, taking a moment to exit on back as the group had been lead to the lobby. As Paul stopped in his tracks, he'd take a moment to groan before it was soon replaced by a low wailing, going so far as to grip and pull at his cap and hide his face under it as this situation had just become even worse then before, bringing about an immediate stress upon the mushroom. "I don't know...I don't know what to do here...I want to help him but he can't just do this...!"

Vainglory

Muffled chatter came from the hamster ball in response to Paul's tone.

 "Do not fret, 'shroom pal! Vainglory and all of these friends of yours are here to assist! They all will surely talk some sense into your titan friend, whether it be through violence or serene methods." His tone was surprisingly reassuring, instead of the usual vainglory in his voice.

 "Besides," he added, "Vainglory just met you and he can already tell that stress isn't a good coat of paint on you. Lighten up!"

Hollow

Hollow watched everything go on. The entry of a larger entity. The actions of Alpha and Paul...he was glad for the break, not really wanting to fight. So he followed along, keeping silent until they we're away from Johnny. "First off, I can help the trapped one... either burn the plants or cut him out with my trident. Second...if we can avoid fighting I'd prefer it, but I doubt that'll happen. Last...if we have to fight, my magic may help once I recover from my entry."November 13, 2017

Sela

"I would think that trying to show him that he's putting us in the same damn situation he was in would make him be like 'Hey maybe I am being the alpha male asshole throwing my weight around' like a boy who went to the gym a few times and thinks he's tough shit. Only problem is, he's actually physically fucking tough." 

 The demoness put her hand on her hip with a growl.  "Hit him directly in that snotty TV face of his and it did nothing.

"He grabbed me like I was paper, and for a moment--yes I was worried about what the fuck he'd do to me."

Paul

Paul...Would begin to weep right then and there, restraining some effort to not baul out but instead destress themselves. It took a few seconds for the mushroom to acknowledge the comforting comments which did add on to his emotional breakdown.

 Releasing his grip on the cap, he then straightens up before planting his wrist against his face and quickly swipes away any left over tears as his expression had immediately changed to a hardened look. 

 "Okay...I got that out of my system..."

Once he goes ahead to look at the group once more, he's more or less trying to boast an optimistic outlook despite this huge set back they were dealing with.

 "So...Let's figure somethin' out. I'm not sure why but...Seeing how he brushed off those attacks like they were nothin'..." He scratches at his head for a moment, weighing in on the evidence from what just happened. "Do you think he's...Invincible?"

Sela

Sela felt bad that he cried, but sometimes you gotta just let it out. At his other question, she sighed. "no."

Revak

[Revak could only nod softly, a softened look in his eye, viewing Paul's destressing attempt before giving a soft smile when the mushroom man calmed himself.]

 [The dragon scooted the ball of vines over to the towering other boss monster.] * ...C... Please just... use the trident.... Gently though. I wouldn't want him getting hurt.

 [He turned back to Paul, listening to his question; scaled brow furrowing in concern.]

 * I don't think so. Everything has at least some kind of weak point. What Johnny's might be, I have no clue... But we may need to find it.

Vainglory

Vainglory shook his head but of course, no one could tell, as he was still in a ball of vines.

 An ink tendril surfaced from the cracks in the floor and shook left and right as if it was saying no. 

More muffled comments came from the foliage hamster ball, "Well, there's no way he's invincible. 

And if he is, then the best strategy would be keeping him locked up or something. At least until mushroom pal and company figure out a solution. 

"Uhh, Alpha did mention to Vainglory that he was once a flower but now isn't, or something like that. Is there any chance you guys know what he means by that?"

Revak

* Before he becoming a hulking, 15 foot wall of a beast, Johnny was something... similar to what mighta appear to be a mix of human and plant, with a flower for a head. 

 [A small flame-breathed sigh escapes the dragon. He resists the urge to glance at Corrupt, admittedly curious as to potential similarities between Johnny and the other beings similar in appearance to him...] 

 * Apparently he only became this after absorbing human souls.

Sela

"If you look at Paul here, but imagine slightly taller and with a flower head, then you get the idea." A sigh. 

"Johnny's weakness is probably emotional, but I'm sure we all know how bad it is to smack at someone when they're that emotional..."

Malevolent

Well, still quite confused, it seemed the others were going off to talk? After a moment Mal opted to take on a much smaller form to follow after the others (Now being more around 5'6" instead of the full 47 feet he once stood). Instead of the massive screen for a head, he now had a more flower-like one. 

Although not too much seemed to change otherwise, aside from a few minor details. He quickly ran after the others to properly figure out what he had missed and what was happening. "Hey- So ah, if you don't mind my asking, why exactly was Johnny fighting all of you? What is going on anyways-”

Revak

[Revak's horned head whipped around to spot what was once the immense monstrosity that the dragon totally hadn't been violently ignoring the presence of for the sake of his own sanity, but relaxed a bit upon seeing they were now in a far more managable size for his mind to digest.] 

 * Long story short, he absorbed some souls, became that, we get called by Paul here to help, then he denies our help then tries to trap us here "for our own safety" in what can only be referred to as terrifying.

Lilith

"And even trying to literally knock sense into him hasn't worked.." [* She'd add to Revak's explanation.]

Vainglory

Vainglory wasn't exactly following along. Humanoid flora? Absorbing human souls? All this talk was making him dizzy. He remembered his host reading about human souls but he also remembered his host putting the book down after the first page, so he didn't exactly have that much to go with. 

 "Uh-huh.." He mumbled, before hearing a new voice. 

The ink wasn't exactly thrilled about newcomers but since he was sitting in a hamsterball of vines and foliage in pitch black, this person could've been here the whole time and he just hadn't noticed. More muffled chatter came from the ball of vines that Revak was holding, 

 "Well, newcomer, as dragon friend Revak just said, he apparently absorbed souls! Vainglory wasn't exactly called to help by mushroom pal but he did stumble into here through that portal just like you did. Vainglory can confirm that the titan wants to force us to live here because the Underground is dangerous and, well, since you're here too now, he'll probably force you to move here too."

 "But! With the wonders of rebellion, mushroom pal and company can overcome this.. people-hoarding mayhem! And put a stop to Alpha! And possibly make him un-absorb those souls!"

Malevolent

"Yeesh... Well, from my personal experience at least, things that have absorbed souls are a lot more durable than normal. I mean I figured he had some souls from when I first visited him, the altered form and screen was kinda a dead giveaway... That seems to be a reoccurring theme... ANYWAYS- From the sound of it, it seems like the power might have gotten to his head a little- that's rather common for recently absorbing souls." 

 Mal makes a soft hum, thinking this over and briefly wondering exactly how many souls Johnny had absorbed, he didn't really ask when he first visited, not one to pry.

 So much for being impressed over Johnny's seemingly good self control for not letting power get to him, couldn't really fault him for that though. Forcing people to stay though? Definitely a flawed plan...

Revak

[...Huh. So the hybrid's hunch was correct. Either way, this still left the question of wtf the fuck they were expected to do about it?]

 * ...Well... that's a start, but is there any kind of way to help him come to his senses that won't result in one or more of us becoming a dusty smear on the wall? 

 [...Rather morbidly put, but not inaccurate, based on what had nearly happened to him just now.]

Vainglory

"So you know about soul absorption?" Vainglory spoke up while accidentally rolling his hamsterball-made-of-vines out of Revak's hands, landing on the floor with a light thud. "Do you know if there's a way to undo the effects of absorbing souls? Or at least.. remove the souls?"

Paul

"Mmm..." Paul had been idling with trying to figure out the major powerhouse that Johnny was while trying to listen in on the group's retrospective of all this. "Can I ask...What else these uh, souls can do exactly? I dunno if it's a hunch but I kind've wanna get an idea."

Malevolent

"Know? Granted you can't see" he chuckled slightly "I happen to be an omega myself, I have seven souls to be exact. Anyways ah- At least from my expereince, if you wanna remove the souls, you gotta get them to rebel, call to them or something. If you can get them all worked up they might try and help you fight him, like make it easier to deal damage or something. How long it takes to do that and if it even would work on him are different matters entirely... And then there's the matter of do the souls want to leave. That's entirely up to them once you do some real damage. Though removing them might not be necessary in the end" he shrugs "Again, for all I know things could be entirely different so don't base all the things to try off of what I'm saying"(edited)

Hollow

"I know about soul absorption." The ex king finally spoke up after listening to the banter for so long. He was still trying to come to grips with everything, given that his prior conversations with Alpha didn't seem so bad, but the fight clearly showed where the problem was. 

"Depending on how long they've been there, the host can willingly give up the souls....otherwise someone has to Save them. But, even that has a limit...." He stated, looking towards the ground briefly, before turning to the omega. "Seven? One more than myself."

Revak

[He stares curiously at the immense boss monster, similar in appearance though perhaps an alternate of the king.] * ...Either way, it's the one lead we've got. I say we should try it.

Sela

"... From what little experience I had with one human soul, they might have some level of communication with him, but if he's not listening to them and drowning them out, then they might want out just as much..."

Paul

"...I...Think we should ask him if he can talk to the souls. Maybe that'll give us a way to scope for somethin' at least?"

Sela

"I doubt he will listen, honestly."

Malevolent

"Souls sometimes don't like to talk if they don't agree with your actions anyways"

Hollow

"I have a question for you, other Omega and little mushroom guy." His attention was on them for a moment before he remembered something he was supposed to do. With a flourish, Hollow conjured his trident, almost as big as himself. "Someone hold the ball still...I need to aim true."

Revak

[Revak, with a shock, quickly dropped to his knees and braced Vainglory's prison in his hands.] * Vainglory, brace yourself, you're gonna be free in a sec.

Malevolent

"You can call me Mal by the way, but go ahead, ask whatever"

Paul

The mushroom blinked as he looked up to the goat monster, though grimaced with the sudden introduction of their weapon.

Lilith

"I would hope if we bring their voices to his attention,  then perhaps they can persuade him further. Hopefully..." [* Lilith meanwhile eyes the ex king a few folks over. Careful with that buddy.]

Hollow

Hollow made his way over to the ball containing the one he heard was called Vainglory, tappng on it with a claw on one side. "Press as far away from my tapping as possible."

Corrupt

[Corrupt Quietly Listened to the Talk Around Him as He didn't have Anything to Say. The Talk of Souls Rang up a Few Personal Questions of His Own Existence and His Own Silent Souls.] 

 [The Summoning of the Overgrown Goat's Trident Caught His Eye Though. Oh. That's Something He would Want for His Own. A Giant, Red, Three Pronged Weapon of Power. That would have to be for Another Day.]

 [But for Now He would Watch in Silent Curiosity as They Tried to Free the Ink from its Plant Prison.]

Vainglory-Yesterday at 6:52 PM

Vainglory could barely hear what they were saying through the viney walls of the vine hamster ball, but he had a good understanding of what they were saying. All he heard was "Vainglory, brace yourself" and immediately tensed up, curling into a ball against the side of the vineball furthest from the side Hollow tapped on, and began preparing for the worst.

Happy

Happy watched all the talk of the souls and Johnny rather quietly, but still grumbled every now and then about what had happened earlier with the fight.  He didn't plan on making any convo himself about the souls because it would only lead up to a rather awkward convo to him about himself that he'd rather not focus on. 

 Heck was it already getting a bit weird for him to see a goat king right now. He stopped thinking about that rabbit hole of awkwardness when he'd notice  them now trying to get the mouthy ink out. 

Oh. Happy quietly wondered if this was going to get bad really quickly for them seeing what Hollow was going to do.

Hollow

After giving it a few moments, trying to ignore the others who seem a bit...distressed at what he was preparing to do, the goat monster raised his trident into the air, pointing it straight down.

 Memories of certain fights crept into his mind, but he managed to cast them away as he slammed the trident down, trying to cut off the end of the ball of vines.

The ball of vines were easily torn up, releasing the small ink from their prison without damaging the hostage.

Vainglory

He gasped for air, almost falling out and onto the ground as he was released from his prison of vines. 

He got up out of his curled-up-in-a-ball position and sighed with relief.

 "Oh thank the stars, Vainglory is free!" He made dead eye contact with Hollow, and continued, "Vainglory would like to say th.. tha.. t..th.. th.. you.. th.." He seems to be struggling with his words, hesitating as if he doesn't know what to say.

Revak

[Revak couldn't help but smile at the ink's struggle to thank Hollow. It was clear he was impossibly grateful, even if he didn't know how to express such.] * You're free now, bud.

Hollow

The trident vanished in a puff of red magic, the king moving away to sit in a slightly isolted spot. "No need to thank me....just trying to help. Sorry for scaring everyone."

Vainglory

"Yes, it would be best to save the gratitude until the war is won." He piped up, his face scrunching up as he looked in the direction they came from. 

 "Now that all assets in this battle are free of shells of vines, it would be best to come up with an actual strategy, whether peaceful or not. The more time wasted stalling, the more Alpha will get impatient, and Vainglory has a feeling that Alpha isn't any better when he's grumpy." He turned to Paul. "Mushroom pal, do you have any ideas?"

Sela

Sela huffs. "It's not that he would get impatient, it's that some of us might. After all, Johnny technically has what he wants, and that's us being here."

Paul

At least that was fixing something, but the true problem awaited them and they needed to dilly dally no further then this. Straightening up, he'd take a deep breath, pumping both fists in front before smacking them down onto an open palm. 

 "...I know he's my best friend but bottom line is...He's become his own worst enemy. This is kinda, bigger then we expected and I'm really sorry for bringin' you into this mess."

 A brief hesitant sigh, solemnly looking down for a moment. "We've always had a great connection, sticking up for him...A lot of the time, I've been helpin' him when we were growin' up and in a way, I look up to him - technically before the big guy phase - but still! We need to save him before he does somethin' a lot worse." 

 With a new goal in mind, motivating the mushroom to gaze back up and for a moment, a grin had crept in to show that he was determined enough to get through this. What would prompt his next action is to take a few steps forward and extend out his hand. "Let's do this, for freedom."

Hollow

"I brought myself into this mess...I wanted to fix things here, it's what I do. And now that I'm here I'll do whatever I can to help you guys. There are two of us here who haven't fought yet...perhaps with our added strength we can topple him, and knock some sense into him. If we can find an opening, I think the little mushroom can Save him."

Revak

* We can do this. And once we do, all of you get one item from my shop free of charge. [Honestly, Revak was just eager to get back to Solo.]

Sela

This situation was feeling too... anime right now. Her hand finds it's way in her pocket and she sighs. "We might as well go back with some sort of game plan."

Revak

[Revak, of course, relishing the sheer amount of anime, places his hand on top of Paul's like the weeb he is.] 

 * Our one chance is to try to get the souls to rebel. If they help us, we can possibly do enough to save him, whether it's by knocking him out of the power trip forcibly, or convincing him that he's gone too far.

Corrupt

[Corrupt was Slightly More Pumped to Smack Johnny in the Face. With How Great the Want of going Home was Growing and How Many People Wanted to Kick Johnny's Ass Right Now, Those Internal Battle-Enthusiasm Levels were High. Only Internally.]

 [He just Stares at the Hands. What is This? What is This Ritual? What was going on? What?]

Hollow

The former king looked at the hands being put together. He didn't belong there, and didn't feel right putting his own in, so he just stood aside. "When you're all done being all cheerful and friendly...we need to talk tactics."

Malevolent

Y'all can be party crashers but Mal is gonna join this anime moment, extending his arm and placing his hand in unlike SOME people. He grinned, this could be fun, he hasn't had a proper excuse to fight in a while. "I'll help the best I can, maybe I can help y'all get a hit on him. Sometimes all it takes is a good few smacks to knock some sense into people."

Corrupt

[He just... Awkwardly Puts His Own on All the Hands. He doesn't Know What He's doing but He's doing the Thing of Touching Hands Now too.]

Vainglory

Vainglory lets out a sigh, all four of his mouths smirking. He definitely felt wholesome, getting to be apart of something. Being apart of an actual team made the ink feel alive. He finally spoke up, 

 "That titan, Alpha, may be a powerhouse wall who's set on hoarding visitors. He may be fixated on keeping mushroom pal and company out of the Underground, and he definitely has the strength and willpower to back that up." 

"This team's chances may not be the best and they may not be the brightest.." "But Vainglory has faith in you all. He knows that mushroom pal and company can overcome the wall that is Alpha." 

"So, from now on.. Vainglory can.. no, everyone here can beat that titan! Vainglory is sure of it!" He extended an ink tendril to join the group cheer.

Revak

* Well said, Vainglory.

Sela

"...." Well now she was feeling like an asshole on top of slightly awkward. Stepping to join the group, she puts her only hand down. "Whether we talk him down, or beat his ass into listening to reason... So we can all get back to where we need to be."

Happy

Happy put his vine on Corrupted's hand to join the group cheer. He look's very... eh about it but his "hand" is there. " I still vote on kicking his ass. Even after all of this."

Lilith

[* Lilith nods, having been listening to everyone else. They could do this. They'd bring him back no matter what. She places her own disembodied hand down.]

Paul

One way or the other, either tactic was welcome. Paul wasn't sure why but maybe this different approach he was having in mind may just work. Whether it be physical or mental, some would call his action stupid but that was for later. "Alright..." He would then lower his hand before raising it up, to let the others disperse. "Brea-!!" 

Suddenly, a ring tone would alert Paul, causing him to immediately jump up in surprise. "A-Ah!!" The mushroom wasn't focused on saving face as he was busy fishing through his pockets before procuring Johnny's phone from his pockets. What he didn't take into account that he accidentally pressed speaker on the phone, to which, everyone could hear a rather angry person on the phone.

🌹 "Paul! I swear to- Do you know where our son is!?" 

"M-Mr Rajotte!? Uh...F-Fancy talkin' to you here..."

🌹  "Oh yeah it's pretty great knowin' that our son has disappeared and you hung up on me. For cryin' out loud, if that boy is doin' somethin' illegal..." The voice would drop down in volume indicating they had stepped away, probably to vent some stress, to which Paul had began to sweat slightly. 

 Oh boy.

Sela

".... Is that Johnny's dad?"

Hollow

"Well this is going to cause a delay...but it sounds like we have all the more reason to Save Johnny. Perhaps we should wait until this call is over before we talk about how though."

Paul

"Ah- Ah ha...Uhm, that was his dad."

Revak

[Revak couldn't help but sweat nervously himself.] * O-oh no... Should... Should we tell 'em...? I mean... T-they'll have to know eventually...

Hollow

"They deserve to know about what he's done...but not what is about to happen."

Malevolent

"You make it sound like we're about to commit a murder"

Paul

"S-Shhh! Don't make it sound wo- I...Ahh...."

Revak

[Well... he couldn't help but snort at that.]

Sela

She sighs. "Paul if you want, I could talk to him."

Vainglory

Vainglory winced. "Wait.. is Alpha actually called Johnny??" The inkling gasped, having just now realized no one else was calling Alpha "Alpha".(edited)

Lilith

[* Lilith's .... keeping out of this part. She's no good with parents of other folks. Keepin' to the shadows so to speak.]

Corrupt

*...We're going to Kick Their Son's Ass Though, Not like That's Better... Except it is but I Don't Think You could Say That.

Malevolent

"I mean, you could although whether you should is a different matter entirely"

Corrupt

*...I Guess.

Hollow

"I could talk to them. Maybe the voice of a King can settle them. Even if I'm not anymore."

Revak

* I doubt they know who ya are.

Vainglory

Vainglory shook his head. Now wasn't the time to think about what to call Alpha. He turned to Paul, narrowing his eyes. "Quick, come up with an excuse before this "mister Rajotte" guy comes back to the phone!" He whispered. "Tell them Johnny is super sick and at your house or something!"(edited)

Malevolent

"A familiar voice is probably for the better, and making up lies wont make things better"

Vainglory

"So mushroom pal should just blatantly tell them their son turned into a monster and is hoarding people so they don't leave?" He retorted with a snort in Mal's direction.

Sela

"Considerin how mad the voice sounded at Paul, wouldn't it be better for someone level headed to talk?"

Malevolent

"I mean possibly, although it could be worded better"

Revak

[His tail flicked anxiously behind him.] * We may need to answer fast. I dunno how well he might react to being kept waiting...

Paul

"No I...I'd rather them...Get settled down, don't let this be too fast. I'll try and speak in his defense at least" By then, after a few seconds have passed, a new voice comes in, though more comforting to the reciever since they were currently trying to adjust to the shocking idea of their son running off.

🌻 "Hello? Paul? Are you there?" 

 "...Hi Mrs. Rajotte..."

🌻  "It's okay, we're both...Stressed right now. I don't want to get mad at you, I just want to know if you've seen our son. I want to know why he's ran off." 

"Y-Yeah about that..."

Sela

Sela can be a cutthroat when it comes to being direct about things, but doesn't argue.

Hollow

Hollow just listens and waits in silence. Speaking up right now could cause a problem.

Vainglory

Vainglory listens intently, preparing for the worst. How would they react? Would he hear sobs over the phone? Glass smashing? Chairs flying? He scrunched his face at the thought of it.(edited)

Paul

"Something has...Well, happened, and..." He paused, trying to figure out how to word this without freaking them out. "Okay...I can't keep this hidden for too long but Johnny's...Undergone somethin' way worse and he came to me for help but..."

🌻  "...What? What are you talking about? Is he going through something that he's kept a secret?"

 "S-Somethin' like that, yeah."

 "..."

 "You all didn't notice the...uh, new tree right?"

🌻  "Well...Sort of? Most of the- James, gimme a moment...You'll what? Police? Just, let's try and figure out what Paul's getting at."

🌻  "I'm sorry...But, this talk of the tree, I was just thinking it was usually some of Ellinia's students being taught new lessons in magic, why?"

"...Uh...Johnny did it."

🌻 "Excuse me?" 

 "He's more, uh, how should I put this? Changed? in some senses?" There was a brief pause for a moment, which felt all the more nerve wracking given how Paul was beginning to sweat nervously.

🌻  "Changed? Wh- that doesn't make any sense. Did he get injured? Has he eaten somethin' foul or-"

 "Johnny'stransformedintoabiggiantguyandimtryingtogethimbacktonormal!" Whoops, he just blurted that right then and there.

🌻 "...What?"

Revak

[He pinches the bridge of his snout.] * Ooooh boy...

Lilith

[* Just. Sloooow facepalm.]

Sela

"Oh my ... fucking god..." She mutters low enough so the phone wouldn't pick it up, putting her face in her hand.

Hollow

"I recommend plugging your ears for this next part..."

Vainglory

Vainglory started fidgeting with his spiked collar nervously, glancing left and right at the others around him to see their faces. "Damnit, here comes the glass breaking and the screams and sobs and the chairs crashing.." He let our a shaky sigh, looking back at Paul and the phone.(edited)

Paul

🌻 "I-...T-that doesn't make any sense." 

 "I know! I...Please bear with me, We-er, I! Found him and- He's...Okay! ...For the most part." Another pause, much to the inaudible argument serving as background noise before Mr. Rajotte returns to speaking.

🌹 "Paul, elaborate. Now." 

 The mushroom takes a moment to swallow down his fears, as he drew in a deep breath before exhaling. "Johnny's...Look, I don't know what else to say but he's...Changed, it's hard to describe real-"

Sela

The demoness straight up walks over and takes the phone from Paul with ease, who was probably not expecting anyone to do that.

Paul

"Aaa-!!" Paul immediately jumps, putting up both hands in surrender while watching her in surprise.

Revak

[Just... Blinks. Revak has no clue what's going on anymore.]

Hollow

He wasn't sure what the demoness had planned, but it was better than watching Paul stumblr through everything.

Sela

She puts the phone to her ear. "Hello, is this Mister or Misses Rajotte? You have to forgive Paul, as you can tell he's a bit flustered. My name is Sela, I'm one of Johnny and Paul's friends. Paul called us for help after Johnny ran away."

Vainglory

Vainglory muttered a quick, "Ooooh, snap!~" under his breath when Sela snatched the phone.

Paul

🌹  "Wh-...We've never heard of you before. Though...The kid did pull a reasonable thing, can't blam- Ugh, okay. Do you know WHAT happened to Johnny? Why does Paul have his phone? And what about that tree he mentioned?"

Sela

"Yeah, sorry we had to be introduced like this but that's besides the point." She shifts her weight on her feet,

 "Johnny was trying to help his friends out by messing with some magic he didn't really understand and it's backfired a bit on him. I imagine he ran away because he was afraid of what you guys would think of, er... what he looks like right now. The tree is an after effect, sir. Paul has his phone because Johnny dropped it at one point." 

 During the whole time she's explaining, she's holding the phone up with her tails to her ear to ... check her nails while talking.

Hollow

At least someone was able to explain clearly about the whole ordeal. Though he was worried about just how much Sela would reveal if they kept asking questions.

Vainglory

Vainglory watched Sela intently, impressed by her multitasking ability.

Paul

🌹 "...Well...Never thought he was the one to get into magic. Must've been good at hiding it apparently because we've never saw him get interested into it."

🌹  "Okay uh...I'm not sure if I'm able to wrap my head around this. So the tree is his idea of testing it out? Ugh...When I get my hands on him..."

🌻 "James! Don't imagine disciplining him, that's just gonna make you more angry!"

🌹 "...Right, sorry honey. Anyways, just...Is it possible to speak to him? Paul mentioned that he found Johnny."

Sela

"We did find Johnny, but he's not really... listening to anyone right now. With the changes, honestly, he probably couldn't... hold the phone." She frowns a bit, holding the phone properly with her hand, "Other than his stubbornness getting worse and the effect of the magic, he's physically okay. We're going to try and reason with him, but it might not be a good idea to come and try to see him right now... He's all over the place emotionally. I'm sorry to say it."

Paul

🌹  "...Fine...As long as he's okay. Swear to hell if he's gettin' into some Black Mage nonsense I'm gonna flip more then just tables..."

🌹 "Thank you Sela, give Paul my thanks at least." 

After stating that, there was a moment before the phone would be hung up as Mrs. Rajotte would come back on the line.

🌻 "Please be careful, I don't want my sunshine to act as if he's alone." 

 And with that, the conversation would cease as they had hung up, much to Paul's relief of Sela steering the situation to something they could understand. "...Dude, thank you so much...”

Lilith

[* Thank god that ended MUCH better than it started. A small 'breath' of relief.]

Hollow

"That went a lot smoother than anticipated....good work Sela. I'm glad I saved you, or else you might be unconscious right now."(edited)

Revak

[A small relieved sigh escapes the dragon, a clawed hand placed lightly on his chest.]

Sela

Sela clicked the phone with a sigh. She's not surprised it ended that way, though thankful it was a bit easier than she thought.  The phone is held out to Paul, her expression casual. "They're parents, they're worried so it's understandable... I didn't tell them exactly everything but just enough that they got some ease. Just a matter of staying calm so they pick up the vibes from you." She gives Paul a pat on the cap.

Vainglory

"Yes, staying calm seems to have made that go much better than expected." The inkling smiles at Sela. "You have a way with words.. 'Sela', was it?"

Sela

Her head turns to Vainglory. "Yeah, it's Sela. And it's hard to think on the fly but even a brief moment to take a breath can help level things."

Paul

Paul only hums for a bit while appreciating her gesture, receiving the phone and placing it back into his pockets. How Johnny knew all these cool people, he'd never know.

Vainglory

Vainglory nods at Sela, before turning his gaze in the direction of the arena. He fidgeted with his collar nervously as soon as he started thinking of fighting Alpha again. 

He knew that this time would be different, for he would have to trust in the others, as well as himself. It was somewhat reassuring to have other people backing Vainglory up this time, even if it's more like he's the one backing them up. A nice thought indeed.

Hollow

After a brief moment to collect himself after it was all over, Hollow decided to speak up. "Now that that's over, we need to discuss how to save Johnny, for his parents. We can't just go in there fists blazing..."

Revak

* Excuse you, sir, my fists are currently not blazing at all. [He's joking of course.]

Lilith

[* She... can't really help her flaming wrists. Just subconsciously rubs the wrist portion of her gloves.]

Hollow

He pauses for a moment before sighing, once again having to collect himself. As he looks around, there's a orange sparkle in his eyes,"Right, everyone tell me your strengths and weaknesses. If we pair the strengths up correctly we can do some damage, and we can cover for each other's weaknesses."

Malevolent

"You're making this sound like some elaborate battle plan, man, honestly all we need is the basics as far as i'm concerned. We're not playing chess"

Paul

"...I'm not sure if we want to make this complicated but I'll try again and talk to him. Maybe...Try and make myself assertive besides you guys? He'd usually trust any of you right?"

Lilith

"Assertion would be advised. After all, you are closest to him, are you not?"

Revak

* I'd assume he'd trust us...

Hollow

"I had a chance to talk to him before all this happened. We seemed to get along, so there's a chance I can still do something in that manner. He did let me leave without hassle..."

Vainglory

"Vainglory isn't so sure Alpha trusts him since he hasn't known Vainglory for very long. Plus Vainglory made him trip and tried to blind him." He lets out a sigh, before shuddering

"Also that big eye keeps looking at Vainglory funny.. as if it has a concious.."

Sela

"My right side is a bit of a gap in my defense." And that's all she'll reveal about her weaknesses. "You guys seem to be forgetting, he wants us to go at him and fight, so that it proves his point even further." 

 Sela said nothing when the others remarked on Johnny's trust or feelings toward them. The last time she saw Johnny... It ended pretty poorly. She frowns, wondering if he was being more aggressive because of her presence.

Paul

"We're all strong in our own ways. Just that...Whole soul thing and uh...'Bastion' entitlement isn't giving him a good way to gauge it."

Hollow

"About that soul thing....what do you know about that, Paul?"

Paul

A shrug, "Honestly, I'm just gettin' this whole info from you guys."

Revak

* Yeah, the whole "living wall" thing is kinda a hinderance... though, as far as the "souls" thing, I like Mal's idea of seeing if we can get a response from them.

Malevolent

"I mean, if you CAN get a response from them, you can usually tell at least"

Hollow

"That's why I wanted to know more, if anyone knows perhaps where the souls came from? Mal and I both have a...fair few souls ourselves. We might be able to use that to reach Johnny's."

Lilith

"We just have to either gauge a response from his or get him to listen a bit more closely to them. "

Paul

Another shrug, this time only giving a meek expression to their statement. "...I just wanna ask him a few things. I'm not gonna be scared this time."

Malevolent

"I ain’t gonna do anything that risks my souls I'll have you know, so whatever you have planned better not be something risky. But yeah, for now maybe we should start with a verbal approach"

Hollow

"If he stays calm...maybe he can tell us a bit more. And don't worry, I'll do the brunt of the work if necessary, i don't mind risking myself."

Paul

"Well...I guess we should just face the fireworks at least, eh?" Regardless, Paul would decided to trod his steps over to the entrance leading to the arena

.With that said, most of the group would follow suit with the mushroom taking the lead. Now more organized in their thoughts and perhaps a plan in mind, maybe, just maybe that the calm atmosphere now would lead to a possibly better outcome. 

 Only time would tell.

[ctcopier]

Printer Buying Guide

Printers are essential peripherals, performing a critical role as they render electronic information into tangible records or material output.  You're simply not using your computer to its fullest potential if you are unable to print reports, presentations, letters, photos, or whatever it is you need to output. Choosing a printer can be confusing, in today's competitive, ever-changing landscape.  This buying guide rounds out some of the more important criteria to consider before you make that all-important purchase decision.

Printing Technologies

This is the biggest decision to make before anything else.  Your choice should be based on how you work and the kind of output you will be expecting from the printer.

Dye-sublimation: Dye-sub printers can print continuous tones and a superior range of colors that laser printers are unable to, making them ideal for more demanding graphic applications or color printing. Dye-sub prints are also less prone to fading and distortion over time than dye-based ink prints.  In addition, many consumer-based dye-sublimation printers can print directly from digital cameras and also accept memory cards.  They are, however, more limited in the range and size of printing media that can be used -- usually letter-size paper or smaller.

Laser: Laser printers are the perfect choice if you need to print large amounts of text documents. They print faster than inkjets and have a lower cost of operation over the long-term -- even though they may cost more to buy initially.  There are trade-offs, however.  Monochrome laser printers produce crisp black-and-white text but cannot be used for color printing.  Color lasers deliver excellent text and graphics but are much more expensive and can be costly to maintain.

Paper Handling

Paper is obviously an important issue in printing. Here are some important tips on paper handling for printers:

o When buying a printer, make sure that it's equipped to accommodate all the paper sizes and types that you'll be using.  If you need to print on heavy stock, for instance, make sure the printer can handle the heaviest paper you use.  For this purpose, a printer's paper path can give an indication of how it handles paper: Inkjets generally use straight-through paper paths, while lasers use S-shaped or U-shaped paths.  Generally speaking, the straighter the path, the thicker the media that can be used. However, the curved paths typical of laser printers also makes it possible to have more flexible configurations for input and output trays.

o Using the correct type of paper will also make a difference to your printing. Inkjets can print on a variety of matte or glossy photo paper, but make sure you choose the right kind of paper for your printer to obtain optimal print results.  For example, matte papers are suitable for both pigment and dye-based inks, while luster finishes are generally more suitable for dye-based inks.

o In terms of size, most inkjets and lasers can handle printing of letter and legal sizes.  If you need to print larger prints, however, consider a printer that can handle sizes like 11 by 17 inches.  You may also consider getting a printer with multiple paper drawers if you'll be switching between different paper sizes on a regular basis.  For a laser printer, multiple output trays, duplexing (double-sided printing), collating, and automatic stapling can be additional useful features.

o If you plan to use third-party paper, make sure it works well with your printer.  Before you buy a large quantity of third-party paper, try a few samples by printing the same photos on both the printer manufacturer's paper and the third-party paper, and then compare the results.

Printer Specs and Key Features

Printers feature various specifications, so navigating the spec sheet intelligently requires familiarity with what each specification entails according to the printing technology involved or for the type of usage planned for the printer.

o Resolution: For laser printers, 300 dpi is adequate if all you need is to print black-and-white text, but choose at least 1200 dpi for photo realistic grayscale or color printing. For inkjets, choose one featuring 1200-dpi or higher resolution with a droplet size of 4 picoliters or smaller for sharp, clean output.  With photo printers, resolution varies according to technology: Output at 300 dpi by photo printers using dye-sublimation technology is comparable to photo printers using inkjet technology outputting at 1200 dpi or higher.

o Speed: Speed ratings vary greatly, and the print speeds cited by manufacturers usually refer to printing in draft mode or at the lowest resolution.  For laser printers, a more accurate way of measuring actual print speed is to time just how long it takes from the minute you hit "Print" -- to the time that it takes the printer to warm up, spool the job into the print queue, and for the printed output to finally come out.  For inkjets, print speed is not one of its stronger suits; so don't be overly concerned with this spec.

o Memory: Extra memory will come in handy for laser printers to enable them to handle large graphics and documents more easily.  Check the maximum upgrade-able memory allowed for your printer, if it features a hard drive with similarly upgrade-able memory, and if the printer can use generic memory or needs the manufacturer's brand.  In the case of inkjets, memory is built-in and not upgrade-able, but this is not an issue inasmuch as processing occurs on the side of the computer -- so there's no need for large amounts of installed RAM to begin with on inkjets.

o Connectivity: Most printers today no longer support the older parallel connection but feature instead USB 1.1 or Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0 or 3.0) -- either of which should work fine with USB computers.  For printers to be used on a network, it will need to have an Ethernet port to enable printer sharing.  For more flexible printing options, you may want to look for printers with infrared input/output ports that allow wireless printing from notebooks or other devices with infrared ports.  And if high-speed or long-distance printing is what you need, consider printers with a FireWire port.

 Consumables and cost per page

The purchase price of the printer is just the beginning of its overall cost because over time, the hidden cost of ink or toner, paper, and parts will add up.  These "hidden costs" are the consumables; dividing the total cost of consumables by the number of pages that can be produced from the consumables gives you the cost per page.  Laser printers offer the lowest cost per page, using relatively inexpensive toner and normal-weight, uncoated paper.  On the other hand, cost per page for inkjets can be four or five times as much, depending on how much ink you use and the cost of the paper -- normally more expensive, coated, glossy paper for higher-quality color output. The tank configuration for inkjets should also be taken into consideration.  Inkjets with a single cartridge for the colored inks will incur higher replacement costs because the cartridge must be replaced as soon as one color runs out -- even if the cartridge still contains plenty of ink for the other colors.  To save costs, get an inkjet with separate cartridges for black and each individual color.

Print Quality

All the specs and fancy features in your printer won't mean a thing if you don't have good, solid print quality -- whether of text or photos -- to back it up.

o Text: Text should be smooth and crisp. At the smallest font sizes, the individual letters should be clearly readable, and they should not bleed into one another. Medium-size fonts should have no fuzzy edges, and the largest fonts -- especially bold ones -- should be filled with solid black, not a muddy brown or bluish tone. You should also be able to see well-formed and well-rounded counters (the openings) in letterforms; if you don't, it's usually a sign of the printer laying down too much ink. (Remember, however, that inkjet printers will display some wicking on plain, 20-lb. paper, as the ink bleeds along the paper fibers.)

o Graphics: For color printing, look for gradients -- or areas where a color goes from dark to light. Color should transition smoothly, and you should not see any color banding, where distinct bands progress from dark to light.  On a test page, you will likely see a gradient bar that goes from black to white through a series of progressively darker gray shades; the transition from shade to shade should be smooth without a noticeable line. Also, look for a nice balance of colors in color-graphic printing -- something that's not overly saturated nor flat and washed out.

o Photo: A good photo print should like the original photo. Colors should be accurate and balanced, vivid but not oversaturated.  Good detail should be present in all areas, with no jagged lines or pixels or any other visual artifacts.  Good contrast should exist between shadow and highlight areas -- not muddy or flat and without color.  You may not always be able to tell the difference from one great print to another, but almost everyone can recognize a bad print when they see one. Trust what you see.

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