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puckinghell · 4 years ago

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The Plus One Pact | William Nylander | Part 4

Summary: Your ex is getting married, and you don’t have a date, which means the unavoidable “why don’t you have a boyfriend” question is about to haunt you for the rest of eternity. But then there’s Will, who could be the answer to all your problems. A simple business pact, no feelings involved: that won’t be hard for you, because you really don’t like him anyways. Except pacts were made to be broken… or something. Right?

Note: This is part 4. Click here for part 1 | part 2 | part 3

You don’t know how it happens.

Okay, you kinda do.

One night, you get a text from Will that’s just a screenshot of a very strongly worded email to a certain balloon company, and then three crying-from-laughter emojis.

Still not funny!!! you text back, and you expect not to hear from Will again until the wedding.

You’re wrong. When he texts you again the next day, asking how you work was, you figure it would be rude not to answer, and then when the phone rings late one night, you worry something is wrong, so you answer that, too.

“What was your day like?” Will’s voice is quiet and timid when he asks, and you take it you’re not gonna talk about that awful game they just had, so you talk to him about your day for an hour until his voice is lighter and he’s laughing again.

It starts happening more and more, and before you really realize it, it’s weird when you haven’t heard from Willy in a day.

To be truthful, it turns out Zach was right; as he usually is, which you would rather die than tell him.

But Will is different when it’s just you two, and your favorite moments with him are when he calls after games and his voice is laced with sleep and you can nearly hear the smile through his voice when he asks you about your day. Everything about him is muted, then, but it feels real, and important, somehow.

You even learn to appreciate how annoyingly chipper he is, because sometimes you really do need someone to just laugh at your bad mood until it goes away.

You also learn that, like you expected on the plane to Calgary, Will keeps his head high but it’s mostly a facade. Comments get to him, especially when they’re about his hockey – “that’s the only thing I was supposed to be good at” he jokes one time, and you wanna hit him over the head with his hockey stick until he understands that that’s not true – and he takes everything personal, although he tries not to show it.

Everything you didn’t like about him, you find out, is something you either got wrong about him or learned to appreciate.

And there’s so much more to like about him, too.

One night, after a really bad day at work, you have a fight with your sister about Noah’s stupid wedding.

“Why are you so against coming?” your sister says, a little too aggressive. “Surely you aren’t still in love with him? He’s happy with Betty, Y/N.”

Of course you’re not still in love with Noah, but it hurts that she can’t just accept that you don’t wanna go. That she can’t take your side in this, even if she doesn’t know the full story. She should trust that you’re not being difficult for no reason.

And you can’t help yourself; it’s late and you know Will just got done with his game, and he’s all the way in Carolina but you call him anyway.

He answers almost immediately.

“Y/N?” he asks, and he sounds surprised. It’s to be expected, because he’s almost always the one calling you, but it stings a little, nonetheless.

“Uhm, hi.” You pause. “Is it… okay that I called?”

“Of course. Always.” Will sounds truthful, so you decide to take his word for it.There’s no more extra space in your brain to worry about that, as well.

“Congrats on the game.”

“Thanks.” You hear Willy’s grin. “I’ve told Zachy we’re both very proud of him for that OT winner.” There’s an indignant huff next to him that sounds a lot like Zach and you figure they’re still on the bus, where Willy usually sits with Kappy or Zach.

It’s quiet, then Willy’s voice, treading very carefully: “Is something wrong? You don’t sound too happy.” There’s some stumbling and you can almost see how Willy must be elbowing Zach away from the phone, because Zach is basically an overprotective dad whenever he hears anyone isn’t doing well.

But Willy… Willy isn’t like that, but he sounds worried anyway, and he sounds gentle like he’s trying to calm you down, and suddenly you’re telling him everything: about the day you’ve had and your job that sucks and that you’re worried about the wedding and why can’t your family just trust you, for once, and what if this all isn’t worth it just to keep your family happy?

When you’re done, Willy’s voice is soothing. The background noise has disappeared. Maybe the bus has stopped.

“It’s worth it,” is what he says. “You know it’s worth it.”

You sigh. It’s annoying still that he’s usually right.

“I just don’t want to deal with it anymore.”

“And tonight you don’t have to.” There’s a sudden noise and then Will cursing. “Fuck, sorry, hold on, I’m trying to open this stupid hotel door…” More crashing and banging, and then Willy’s voice reappears. “Tonight you don’t have to deal with anything, okay? We can FaceTime and watch a movie together.”

And that… That actually sounds really nice, and like it doesn’t require any brain power which is good because you have none of that left anyway.

“Hey, what’s your favorite take out food?”

It’s such a random question, out of the blue, and when you tell him that, the blurry FaceTime screen can’t hide his eye roll.

“It’s just something friends are supposed to know about each other, now tell me.”

“Sushi when I’m feeling fancy,” you say, “or pizza when I need comfort food.”

You can’t even pretend to be that surprised when a massive pizza shows up at your door 30 minutes later.

You hate that it nearly brings tears to your eyes, but after the day you’ve had…

“Thank you, Willy,” you mumble, and there’s something soft to his look when he smiles at you.

“What are friends for?” he asks, and you realize you don’t even mind that he’s declared himself your friend, now.

A few weeks ago, you would’ve disputed it. But now, you find yourself kinda wishing it could be more.

What are friends for is apparently your motto now, and it’s all a little strange as you get into the car, your fanciest, most beautiful dress and highest heels on.

“You look great,” Zach says. He’s wearing a suit and his hair is slicked back, the way it always is when he’s really trying.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” you reply, a little grumpily. “I hate team events.”

“I never did understand why.” Zach starts the car and backs out of your driveway. You’ve been told Alannah is going to the venue straight from work, and Willy had an appointment and couldn’t come get you, which is why you’re in the car with Zach, now.

“Because I don’t fit in there.” It’s the honest answer, but it’s obviously not the whole story. The whole story is that those events are filled with beautiful women, and you never feel quite up to par; like you snuck into a place you’re not welcome, not supposed to be welcome, either. But Zach wouldn’t get that. Willy wouldn’t get that either.

And you just couldn’t come up with an excuse fast enough, not when he said: “But Y/N, it’s for charity.”

It would not matter to the charity, of course, if you didn’t come. But Willy had looked so hopeful, and then he’d pulled out the final card: “It’s gonna be way more fun with you there by my side.”

And now you’re wearing a dress appropriate for a charity gala, which means you’ve never felt more uncomfortable in anything in your life, and your feet already hurt from your heels, and this was such a bad idea, God.

“You know,” Zach says, and his tone tells you this conversation is going somewhere you don’t want it to go. “Willy doesn’t like these events either. It means a lot to him that you’re coming for support.”

You nearly roll your eyes. “Willy charmed the socks off every person at my boss’ wedding, Zachy. He really doesn’t need my support for these kinda things.”

Zach’s face stays stoic. “Yeah, but nobody at that wedding knew him.”

“So?” you frown. “That should only be a disadvantage, considering he’s William Nylander.”

Zach laughs, then. “Still haven’t figured it out, then? I’m disappointed in you, Y/N. I thought you were good at reading people.”

“Hey!” you react, offended. You are good at reading people. It’s one of the things you pride yourself on. “If you know it all so well, why don’t you just tell me?”

Zach sighs. “Willy doesn’t like these events anymore because he is William Nylander, as you say it, and that’s not really a popular name in Leafs territory, right now.”

And, oh.

That.

“I did realize he cares a lot more about what people think than I thought he did.” You pause. “More than he should, probably.”

“Definitely.” Zach’s face has that protective big brother vibe about it, again. You used to not understand, why he always looked like that when people were talking shit about Willy.

You get it, now.

“There’s always plenty more people telling him he’s great, than there are people sending him snarky looks,” Zach continues. “But he never really believes any compliments he gets, so that doesn’t help.”

Suddenly, you realize something.

You’ve never really… complimented Willy? Even when you realized he cared more than he let on, you still just assumed he knew how great he was. Sometimes, he kinda fishes for something – “Did you see my goal?” “How about my cooking abilities?” “I know how to pick a good movie, right?” – but you’d always laughed and chirped him for it.

“If your head gets any bigger, it’ll explode.”

And Willy is always complimenting you; he tells you you look great all the time, even when you decidedly dont’t, but he clearly remembered what you told him about Noah because that’s never the only thing he compliments you about.

He tells you how smart you are, “I like how good you are with animals”, how any food you make is the best thing he’s ever eaten, if only everyone was as lovely as you.

You feel guilty, now. If Willy is your friend, you’ve really not been doing such a good job at being his friend, too.

You’re fixing that tonight, you decide right then and there.

“I’ll make him believe it,” you tell Zach, and it comes out sounding vaguely threatening.

Zach laughs. “Thought you didn’t like him?”

“Maybe he’s not as bad as I thought he was,” you admit, and you don’t tell Zach how much you really, really do like Willy, but you think Zach kinda knows anyway.

Will meets you at the door, where Alannah is also waiting for Zach. He smiles at you, eyes soft.

“You look beautiful, Y/N.” He quickly presses his lips to your temple, which is a new development that you don’t really know how to handle.

But Will is a tactile guy, anyway, so you’re sure you shouldn’t read too much into it.

You see Zach’s raised eyebrow, and suddenly remember – fine, maybe you’d forgotten your objective for a second because Will looks really hot in that suit, but you’re back on track now.

“You look beautiful too, Will.”

Willy’s eyes widen and a flush creeps up on his cheek, but before he can answer you grab his hand and pull him into the building.

It’s a fancy, really expensive hotel, where the gala is being held. It’s filled to the brim with people, a few of which you recognize, most of which you don’t.

“That chandelier must be worth more than our entire house,” Alannah mutters, and you’re glad to see it’s affecting her too, although she’s been to these events many times.

Zach laughs. “With a puppy in the house, aren’t you glad we don’t have any furniture that costs more than our mortgage?”

“Do you want a drink?” Will’s lips are close enough to your ear to hear him over the noise of the crowd and the music in the background, and also close enough to feel his hot breath against your neck. It takes everything in you not to shiver.

Maybe you do need a drink. Or ten.

Willy and Zach go to get the drinks and Alannah leads you to where some of the other WAGs are. Steph is the only one you know and she hugs you as soon as she sees you coming, then introduces you to the rest.

“So, you’re with Will, huh?” she asks, eyebrows waggling.

You were expecting that question, but maybe not so soon into the evening.

“Uhm,” you cough, “not really. Just his plus one for tonight.”

“Sure,” Steph says, and she looks like she doesn’t believe you at all.News always travels fast in the WAGs group, and Alannah is looking a little guilty.

You find you don’t mind so much, that they think that you’re together. Although you really don’t wanna think about why you don’t mind.

When Willy finds you, Kappy and his girlfriend are with him, and the four of you make your rounds throughout the room, talking to any sponsor that seems interested in a conversation. Mostly you just stand there while Willy talks, his hand on your back as if he’s scared you’re gonna run off.

“I always thought this would be a lot of work,” you mumble in Willy’s ear, when you’re between conversation partners. “But I really only have to stand here and look pretty.”

Willy grins. “Seems like it comes natural to you.”

Right. You kinda forgot about the compliments again.

You shrug, lean a little closer until you’re basically pressed into his side. It feels a little too right, maybe, how quickly Will’s arm wraps around your waist.

“You’re really good at talking to these people.” You’re talking pretty loudly, but you’re pretty sure Will is the only one that can hear you over the noise. “The second you open your mouth, people are so charmed by you. I think you could make anyone love you.”

Willy’s eyes flash to the floor, and they stay fixed there as he mumbles something that sounds a lot like another “uhm”.

His cheeks are flushed red, and you’re saved from having to deal with that as Auston appears, eyes wild and jaw tense.

“I’m being stalked,” he hisses. “This old white dude literally won’t leave me alone even for a second. He’s been following me around for an hour. Help.”

Willy bursts into giggles, which is probably not very helpful, and the betrayal on Auston’s face is enough to make you feel bad for him.

“Come on,” you say, grabbing his arm, “let’s go hide behind the bar.”

It’s easier than you thought it would be, to get through the evening. In fact, when Will asks you if you’re ready to go, you hadn’t even noticed it had become so late.

You say goodbye to the few people you know and gratefully accept Willy’s offer to drive you home.

The car ride is silent. It’s not awkward, but the air is heavy with something, and you curse yourself for all those times you wished Willy would just shut up, because now he has and you hate every second of it.

Did your compliments freak him out? Did he regret asking you to come?

“So,” Will finally says, as he stops in front of a traffic light. He’s not looking at you, keeping his gaze firmly on the road ahead of him. “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

“Zach told me you don’t like these events,” you try, carefully. You’ve never had to pull something out of Will, force him to open up; he’s always just kinda done it, from the very moment you met him, shared parts of himself with you that you never had to search for.

For you, who’s never learned how to not keep something hidden, that was maybe the thing that unnerved you about him the most.

“I like doing things for charity,” Will answers, and you can tell he’s picking his words carefully. “But I don’t like people looking at me as if I’m some kinda disappointment who doesn’t belong there.”

“Have they ever said anything?”

“No.” Will smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes and there’s a hint of sadness laced in it. “Not to my face, anyway. But I’m not stupid, you know.”

No, he’s not stupid. For all the conflicting thoughts you’ve had about him, you never thought he was stupid.

And you never thought he was a bad contract, either. It seems imperative, suddenly, that he knows that.

“Willy,” you say softly, and although his eyes are still on the road, you know he’s paying attention. “You can’t seriously believe that you’re anything but an amazing hockey player. You’re worth that contract and you’re worth the effort Dubas put into keeping you here. You’re so smart, and I know people don’t always see it but you work so hard, and Matts was so happy when you got back on his line because he knew you would be magic together.”

Will’s cheeks are red but this time, he’s not mumbling when he says: “I know I haven’t been playing as well as I can.”

“Stop,” you tell him, softly but forcefully. “Stop deflecting, stop dodging. Just take the compliment and believe me when I say you’re great at what you do.”

“That’s very nice of you,” he says, his voice a bit shaky, and that’s a different kind of deflecting but it’s still deflecting, and it’s hurting your heart.

“William Nylander,” you scold, and then you do what you’ve been wanting to do this entire evening and let yourself reach out and put a hand on his knee. “Just accept the compliment.”

Willy carefully reaches down to grab your hand, intertwines your fingers together as he lets both your hands rest on his thigh. He’s holding the steering wheel with one hand, but he’s driving pretty slowly and the roads are deserted, so you’re not too worried.

You’re more worried about the fact that he just doesn’t believe you.

“You’re a great hockey player,” you repeat, stubbornly. “And a great person.”

Finally Willy allows himself to smile, this small, rueful thing that sticks somewhere deep inside your chest, folds up next to your heart like it’s gonna stay there forever.

“Thank you,” he says, and maybe he still doesn’t really believe it but this is as far as you’re gonna get tonight and maybe that’s okay.

You’ve got time.

The car has reached your flat and Will parks it in your driveway. It’s quiet, and he hasn’t let go of your hand, and you kinda don’t want him to.

The night is over, probably.

But there’s still one thing you need to tell him, though. “It doesn’t matter, Will,” you say softly. “What those people think. It doesn’t matter.”

“No,” Willy agrees, and for the first time you can tell he believes it. “But it matters what you think.”

He finally turns to look at you and there’s so many emotions swirling in the deep blue of his eyes, but you can’t really put your finger on any of them. All you know is your heart is beating in your throat, and you really want to kiss him.

But Willy still looks a little sad, and you have a feeling there’s something he’s not saying.

“I told you I think you’re great,“ you tell him, and it’s the truth.

“But you didn’t, before.” Will hesitates. “I told you I’m not stupid. I know when people find me annoying.” He shrugs. “I get it. I know I can be too much.”

And God, there’s so much hurt in that, so much pain and yet understanding, and you can tell he truly believes that, and you would do anything to take that away from him.

Anything.

So.

“I didn’t like you,” you admit, but when Will goes to pull back his hand, you simply hold on tighter. “I was wrong. I didn’t know you, and I was wrong. Now I know you. And I like you.” You inhale, pause. “I like you so much I don’t really know what to do with myself, sometimes.”

It’s quiet. You can nearly see the wheels turning in Willy’s head as he searches your face for something; something to tell him you’re not being truthful, maybe, that it doesn’t mean what he thinks it does.

If that’s what he’s looking for, he won’t find it.

Then he drops your hand, jumps out of the car and slams the door.

Disappointment and hurt washes over you; you knew you had to try, had to put your heart out there, but it hurts that it’s smashed into pieces like that. Clearly you read it wrong, clearly you still don’t know how to tell what Willy’s feeling.

Except then your door opens, and Willy is holding out his hand.

“Come on,” he says, and his voice sounds… fond? You don’t know exactly what to think about it, but he doesn’t sound angry, or upset.

Against better judgement, you grab his hand and get out of the car.

“I have to tell you something,” Will says. And, there’s no way that he’s doing what you think he’s doing, but his hands are suddenly traveling up, one reaching to cup your cheek, the other settling on your waist. His eyes are staring into yours intently, and they’re twinkling but it’s not the same mischievous twinkle you’re used to seeing.

“I really like you, too,” Willy says, and he leans in and presses his lips against yours.

For a split second, you stand there, not quite knowing what just happened, but then his hand tightens on your hip and you realize that this is real, this is happening, and Will’s kissing you.

So you kiss back. You let your body lean heavy against the car, place your hands on his biceps and pull him closer, until his chest is flush against yours. The kiss deepens, and you swear you can feel your heartbeat synching up with his.

The night is dark, and quiet, and it rains a little, but you feel none of it.

All you feel is Will, surrounding you, and everything is beautiful and exactly the way it’s supposed to be.

#happy ending except!!! is it???#william nylander #william nylander fic #nhl fic #toronto maple leafs

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nyeh-sureiguess · 4 years ago

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CB Theory: Aku Aku’s Guardianship (and the Brothers’ Human Past)

Out of all the characters in the Crash Bandicoot series, I've always found myself drawn towards Aku Aku and Uka Uka respectively. Not only for their unique designs, characterization, and outright whimsical concept (the spirits of two recognized witch doctors immortalized through floating wooden masks? Sign me up!) - but also for the possibilities their characters open up within the franchise's lore.

Below would be one of those possibilities that I like to theorize about; the very reason why Aku Aku devotes himself to protecting our little orange marsupial alongside the archipelago they reside in.

As a disclaimer, I'd like to state that what I'm about to describe will all be grounded in fiction (we're talking about a denim pants-wearing bandicoot around here) and are purely on headcanon territory. I'll be tackling some massive "what if" scenarios that have little to no evidence canonically but are fun to think of personally.

With that out of the way, allow me to go on a full-on I'm-desperate-for-more-lore-and-overall-content-of-these-masks-and-therefore-I'm-making-this-up-as-I-go-to-satisfy-those-needs ramble.

Let's start with Aku Aku. He's a being of high intellect, for sure - usually filling in the role of an advisor to the rest of the characters when they find themselves faced with tricky situations. This aspect of his could only be rivaled by his power, as he not only grants protection to other beings when summoned but has also shown the capability of sealing other mystical entities (such as his brother) away when he sensed that the world would be in peril otherwise.

So with these in mind, why in the world would he go and devote his guardianship role to Crash? The dude's another failed animal experiment from none other than Dr. Cortex; someone who had been planning a worldwide takeover for god-knows how long. Surely with how ancient Aku Aku is portrayed to be, he would have some previous experience encountering Cortex's other specimens (Ripper Roo, Dingodile, Pinstripe- you name that boss battle) and know of how dangerous they are. Heck, Crash himself is unpredictable right from the get-go. His life cycle had only just started by the time he had washed up on the beach and his first-ever conscious decisions are to flail around, breaking boxes and any enemies that happen to cross his path. Sure, he has a good heart. That's something that we come to know throughout the game, as he actively goes out of his way to choose the greater good and stop Cortex from fulfilling his evil plots. But something like that requires the luxury of time that Aku Aku didn't have when Crash decided to spin right into one of his crates on that fateful day.

So what was Aku Aku's thought process upon meeting the bandicoot and deciding to be his protector?

I like to think that it was first out of obligation. Aku Aku's crates seemed to exist alongside the others found within the island, far before Crash had come into contact with any of them. Perhaps - when his spirit was first incarnated into the mask, he made it so that any living creature in dire need could summon him when needed (even if this proved to be a little impractical, given how rarely any of the other creatures break his boxes). So that takes care of their meeting encounter on the beachside in the first game and one could even argue that this logic stretches into the second game, given his absence from the bandicoot duo.

What I'm far more interested in would be the reason why he stays in the third game and beyond.

We're talking about an all-powerful being here who could travel anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye (and even across universes, taking Twinsanity into account), and for whatever reason, he decides to stay with the bandicoots in their own household, watching over them even as they do something as mundane as figuring out new yoyo tricks and watching Uncharted 4 on their laptops.

So why?

To answer that, I have to take a moment to talk about an aspect in Aku Aku's life that we all barely know about: his human incarnation. He couldn't have been a magical floating mask for the entirety of his life, after all. So let's say that centuries ago, he was the witch doctor of one of the tribes on the archipelago, appointed by the chief leader to be at his side and care for the rest of their people. A powerful yet humble witch doctor, at that, as he would never abuse his power for the sake of self-gain. Let's say that - aside from his position in the tribe, he lived a relatively normal life and even had a family to care for, including his twin brother, Uka Uka, who had also been a witch doctor in their village (but we'll get to his part later down the lane).

Let's say that - one day, Aku Aku's wife bears a child. Someone to help carry on their legacy of practicing medicinal magic, ideally. But the child themselves is born with mental disabilities, ones that have shown to only worsen as they grew up. The child found it difficult to communicate properly, to control their movements outside of impulse, and with the limited resources their world was faced with at that time, no one in the tribe seemed to understand what was wrong. Aku Aku would try his hardest; trying to use his magical abilities to help the child in any way he could in hopes of "fixing" him and finding himself at a loss whenever he was unable to.

Now here enters Uka Uka.

I imagine him to be the more practical of the two, wanting things done immediately even if it entails harsher, extreme means. He was matched with his twin brother in terms of their magical prowess, with the difference between them being his lack of empathy towards others. He seems like the type to charge the tribal folk with favors in exchange for his services, that coupled with his malicious demeanor being the reason why the chief hadn't appointed him as the witch doctor of the tribe despite being on par with his brother. This event struck jealousy within him, soon spiraling into an unquenchable need to knock his brother off his perch at every opportunity he got in order to show who the better between them truly was.

That child was his opportunity - because if there's one thing that Uka Uka was also good at, it's making people believe every word he said, as ill-intended as it were.

Uka Uka claimed that the child's behavior was the result of the ancients cursing their family bloodline, aligning his statements with spiritual beliefs that the people of the tribe shared. He linked the ancients' frustration to his brother, saying how they were being punished for how unworthy Aku Aku was to handle such a high-stakes position and even citing instances of the other's failures in saving lives (as he often spent too much time trying to work around the use of force and violence). He further claimed that the curse could be spread across the entire village unless the source itself was purged, that of, the child.

Aku Aku was outright against the notion, still holding onto the belief that he would one day be able to cure the young one of their problems. But it was already too late then; his brother's words had naturally stricken fear into the hearts of the rest of their people, and it was out of their own selfish greed that they pushed for the child to be executed in order to free their village from the wrath of the ancients. It came down to the point that Aku Aku found himself helpless as the chief took the matter into his own hands, having no other choice but to follow through with Uka Uka's theory in a means to appease the restless people.

This was the breaking point in the twin brothers' relationship. The grief of losing a loved one so unfairly made something snap in the witch doctor that day, the result of which being an all-out battle between the two. With how evenly-matched they were, however, the battle had only succeeded in slowing draining each other of their energy until they both reached their final breath. In was in that very breath that they had used the remainder of their powers to seal their souls away into the mask forms, allowing their spirits to live forever and their fight to continue on for the centuries to come. Aku Aku later found the redundancy in fighting and decided to lock his brother away in the temple, keeping his malice hidden away from the world (insert his speech at the beginning of Warped here. His fear of his brother's return stems from how he's well aware of the lengths Uka Uka would go to achieve ultimate power - meaning that countless of innocent lives could be lost in the process).

That brings us back to the main concern of why Aku Aku decides to stay with the bandicoots.

I'd like to imagine that, to some degree, Crash reflects some similar characteristics of that child Aku Aku lost all those years ago. From his inability to properly communicate (outside of actions and limited words and sounds) to even the childlike innocence of the mutant when looking past his chaotic exterior. He learned from his previous mistake of trying to fix the little one of his faults and found value in just being with him; accompanying him along his journey of righting Cortex's wrongs and slowly adapting to the unique way Crash acted (which could lead to why he's shown to understand Crash's gibberish throughout the years).

In doing so, Aku Aku was not only providing the world's only hero with the necessary means and power of stopping an evil scheme - but was also hoping to fulfill his role as a fatherly figure; something that he had once failed to do years ago.

TL;DR: Aku Aku decides to be Crash's guardian as the bandicoot reflects the behaviors of a son he had lost back in his human life due to Uka Uka's doings.

#crash bandicoot #crash bandicoot fandom #crash bandicoot theory #crash bandicoot headcanon #cb #cb theory #cb headcanon #theory #headcanon #aku aku #uka uka #past lives #past life #Aku Aku is a sad dad he's trying his best

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itsmariotti-blog · 6 years ago

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Jay Mariotti: Who's got it better? Harbaugh

He wasn’t on the ballot and has yet to coach a game at Michigan, yet Jim Harbaugh finished fourth in voting last week for the student-body presidency. This should shock no one who has watched life’s two proven equalizers, karma and justice, embrace him with hugs and love since Dec. 28. You’ll remember that as the dark and dirty afternoon when the 49ers — and there is no other way to state it — removed his khaki-covered carcass from the premises in one of football’s all-time mismanagement fiascos.

Those of us who know Harbaugh — me from way back — realize his public persona is something of an act. Yet no PR firm could shape a campaign that has him coming off as a happy, wealthy and enormously popular BMOC, in contrast to a Jed York-Trent Baalke corporate abomination that grows more sour and depressing by the hour at Levi’s Stadium. Seems Harbaugh makes more news than the Kardashians these days, the difference being that his events always glow with good, fun vibes, devoid of a Kanye or Disick funk.

“Disappointed w/4th place finish for @umich student body Pres,” he cracked Monday on his Twitter account. “Competitive juices flowing! Hat in the ring for 2016 & will campaign.”

Can a man beat Urban Meyer and rule a large student body in one swoop? Jimmy Frat House might be the only coach capable of pulling this off. It’s amazing how he keeps his personal headline cycle generating with cool water-cooler buzz that must warm the collective embittered souls of 49ers fans, who at least can root for Harbaugh from afar while their franchise implodes amid a crippling roster exodus and a bizarre coaching appointment. If he already had blown away York and Baalke in the public-opinion race, what’s happened since is a rout akin to the last Seahawks loss.

There was Harbaugh on a snowy afternoon in Ann Arbor, playing good Samaritan when he observed a rollover crash on an interstate highway. Christine Mowrer didn’t know who he was, but covered in blood after her 2003 Jeep Cherokee flipped at least three times, she was relieved to see Harbaugh and another football staff member wrap her and her 73-year-old mother in blankets and administer first aid until help arrived. “He probably kept me from going into shock,” Mowrer, 53, told the Ann Arbor News from her hospital bed. “I had blood dripping out of my nose, and he helped me out and got me onto the ground.”

Meanwhile, in Santa Clara, York and Baalke were trying to explain the identity of Jim Tomsula and douse speculation that Tomsula had undercut Harbaugh to get his job, furthering perceptions that the departed angel had been sabotaged by the worst kind of office politics. As Harbaugh said to a Bay Area columnist, “[You] definitely walk down the halls and people look away or they look at you and you know something’s going on,” adding that it would be a good issue for Tomsula to address. When Tomsula did address it, he blamed the media and never really denied it.

There was Harbaugh, going to Michigan basketball games, belting out the “Hail to the Victors” school fight song and pressing his hand against his heart during the national anthem. There was Harbaugh, staying in a budget hotel with his assistant coaches and eating pre-dawn cereal in the lobby before carpooling to Schembechler Hall and staying until midnight. There was Harbaugh, hanging out with his 25-year-old son, Jay, the new tight ends coach. There was Harbaugh, waving at students who wear “Maize, Blue and Khaki” T-shirts and “Welcome to Ann Arbaugh” clothing lines. St. Jim, they were calling him.

Meanwhile, in Santa Clara, York and Baalke were ducking reporters on a day when serious explanations were needed for fans. Why was Patrick Willis retiring? Why were Frank Gore and Mike Iupati leaving? Why was Justin Smith considering leaving? Why was yet another player in trouble with the law? Why wasn’t the highly regarded Vic Fangio given the head coaching job? And why was Tomsula babbling incoherently during a CSN Bay Area introductory interview?

There was Harbaugh, a big fan of the “Judge Judy” show, using his Twitter feed to congratulate Judith Sheindlin for signing a contract extension, to which she replied with a good-luck wish for his opening collegiate season. There was Harbaugh, hosting NFL prospects Jameis Winston and Bryce Petty for precombine workouts in what only could be a tribute to his standing as a quarterbacking guru.

Meanwhile, in Santa Clara, Baalke was denying reports he is shopping Harbaugh’s regressing pet QB, Colin Kaepernick. This while Kaepernick was engaging in Twitter wars and telling one fan, @battman_returns, to “mind your damn business, clown” and to “get better at life!” — all because one Stephen Batten had said Kaepernick’s abs workouts wouldn’t help him find open receivers, which is kind of true.

There was Harbaugh, escaping the Midwest winter for Arizona, coaching first base for the A’s as a “special guest instructor” for an old pal from his Palo Alto boyhood, manager Bob Melvin. And you know what he said after the Cactus League victory? “How does it get any better than this?” he gushed, in a variation of his famous line. “It’s a great day for baseball, and just to be able to put on the uniform … I haven’t been in a baseball uniform since American Legion ball.”

“He’s an inspiration just walking out here,” Melvin said. “He’s got that air about him. He’s always been quite the competitor and everyone knows that. A winner. And whenever you can have guys like that around, guys benefit from it. Plus you don’t find too many guys who want to get in uniform and go out there and interact with the guys during the workout.” Meanwhile, in Santa Clara, emerging defensive star Chris Borland was becoming an inspiration in his own right by retiring from football at age 24, injecting a cursed element into the raging chaos.

Given the turbulence and in-house leaks that undermined Harbaugh’s final season with the Niners, he deserves to experience a blossoming love affair at his alma mater. If York were an effective CEO, he would have made the Harbaugh-Baalke combination work and buffered their strained relations. The Seahawks have made it work with Pete Carroll and John Schneider, but instead of drawing lines for the coach and GM, York did the covenient management dance and sided with his fellow exec. I covered a fairly famous sports dynasty, the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, that ended prematurely because an owner couldn’t soothe the differences between a general manager and a coach named Phil Jackson, who went on to win more championships than any coach in NBA history. Yet everyone weathered the storms long enough to win six titles, six more than these 49ers won.

“You have to have like-minded people building a team,” Baalke said in a media gathering after Tomsula’s first news conference. “If you don’t have like-minded people building a team, coach, coaching staff, front office … If we’re not all looking for the same characteristics, the same type of players, it’s tough to build a unit that can go out there on Sundays and win football games.”

We’re still waiting for York to say that he failed in letting the marriage collapse, in choosing a winner and a loser. Clearly, he wasn’t overly interested in appeasing Harbaugh after using his ultrasuccessful debut season to help get a $1.3-billion stadium built in Silicon Valley. The coach was too popular and wanted too much power, and regardless of his three consecutive appearances in the NFC title game, the big bosses wanted control and no tugging of the rope. Now, Baalke gets to pull the strings of his puppet, Tomsula, and tell him which assistants to hire and which players to acquire. Now, York can preside over his sterile, quiet stadium — the high-tech antithesis of Candlestick — and count megaprofits from Super Bowl 50, WrestleMania 31 and an outdoor hockey game.

Each party in this debacle has gained total control — Harbaugh in Ann Arbor, York and Baalke in Santa Clara. Yet only one man is going to win a lot of football games anytime soon. Someone asked Harbaugh if he viewed himself as the messiah of Michigan.

“I’m not comfortable with that at all,” he said.

Oh, yes, he is. Very comfortable.

Be happy for him. He deserves that much.

Mariotti is sports director and lead sports columnist at the San Francisco Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected]. Read his website at jaymariotti.com.

#Jay Mariotti Sports Columnist #Jay Mariotti

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speedybasementcollection · 6 years ago

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Running with the Trickster part 8

You woke up to hand being clamped over your mouth and Loki telling you to be quiet. The room was still dark, and you could barely make out his expressions.

"What the hell do you think you're doing" you whispered, bringing the blankets up to cover yourself. Your pajamas were not modest, and you did not need Loki seeing more of you than he already had.

"There's trouble" he said and that set aside all forms of modest. You threw the blankets off of you and pulled a gun out of your drawer, clicking off the safest. Loki had a dagger in his hands already, standing up and taking in your attire.

"You look comfy" he smirked, your tank top was a bit too loose, thus why you only wore it to bed. Your shorts were also very tiny, but comfortable.

"I don’t hear the alarms" you told him, opting not to acknowledge his comment. His smirk faded, his professionalism taking over. He was already in his Asgardian armour, you summoned yours. A mixture black and grey. Tony had been pretty proud of it when he had made it for you. Your hair was up automatically and out of your face, getting you ready for battle.

"The sensors haven't picked it up yet, they seem to know what they're doing. We should wake the others" Loki whispered. It must have been serious if he was willing to warn everyone, so you nodded.

"Best we stick together then" you told him, grabbing his hand. He used his magic to teleport into Tony's room first. If he could get the alarm going, you wouldn't have to wake the others. You gently went over to him, nudging his shoulder. It didn't matter how gentle you had been, he still bolted up right as soon as he felt your touch.

"Tony, it's just me" you tell him, holding him down slightly. You didn't hear any crashing so he must not have called for his suit, that was good.

"What's going on and why is Reindeer Games in my bedroom?" He asked, even after just being woken up, he was still the same smartass everyone knew and loved; well everyone except Loki.

"Loki says we're under attack, we need to get everyone ready but the alarms haven't gone off" you tell him. He jumps out of bed and you try to avoid thinking about the fact that he is only in his underwear. He grabs his tablet and starts to look.

"Jarvis" he calls but usual sounds of the artificial intelligence never comes. Tony swears as he taps away on his screens. "As much as I hate to admit this, I think Loki is right but without Jarvis, I don't have my suit and nothing really works in the tower without him" Tony tells you. You want to hit him, as nice as it was to have everything go through Jarvis, it was very inconvenient at times like these.

"If I use my magic to send you to the lab, can you fix it?" Loki asked and Tony nodded, not bothering to ask the god how he got his magic back. Loki first put some clothes on him, for that you were thankful, and then used his magic. In the blink of an eye, Tony was gone.

"We should get Thor next, he is loud enough to wake up the entire block" you tell him but stop for a moment, you go to Tony's drawers, knowing exactly what you were looking for. You pulled out two ear pieces and gave them to Loki. "They don’t worry right now, but once Jarvis is up and running we will be able to use our comms. Also, this button right here" you point to a little red button. "Whenever I tell you to cover your ears, you hit it as soon as you can. It will block the sound so no gets hurt from my scream" you tell him, he nods, placing them in his ear. You already had one in yours, you didn't need two. He grabs your hand and you land in Thor's room. You go to wake up him, but Loki stops you.

"It might be wise if I wake him, I am used to this" Loki states. You let him, Thor had never been an easy one to wake up, let alone calm down. Loki shakes his brother, a little violently you think and before you know what happens, he is summoning his hammer and Loki is dodging it, this was definitely not the first time Loki has done this. "Wake up you fool, we're under attack" Loki slaps his brother awake, now he looks around the room wildly. Taking in his brother and you over his bed.

"Why aren’t the alarms running" he asks, finally seeming to wake up enough to register what was happening.

"Jarvis has been taken out, we were hoping you could make enough noise to wake the rest of the team" you tell him. He nods gravely, throwing the covers off of it. In that moment, you realised what was worse than finding out Tony slept in just underwear. You cursed as you turned away, hearing Loki groan as well.

"You could have told us to turn around" he complained, Thor simply shrugged. His grabbed his hammer and hit it to the ground, there was a loud crack of thunder and you knew it was safe to turn around again. He was dressed in his armour. "Well, that should have done the trick, lets go" you tell the brothers.

Heading back out into the hall, you noticed the others sleepily heading out of their room. Steve was already on high alert and when he seen you with Loki, he scowled.

"We're under attack, Jarvis is out, get ready" you ordered. They all listened, knowing there was no time to argue. You turn to Loki and Thor. "Do you know where the intruders are now?" You asked Loki, since he had been the one to warn you.

"Yes, I can see them" he told you.

"Alright, Loki and I will go down and surprise them. I want everyone else in the living room, we will ensure that they can only go one way" you tell Thor who simply nods, ready to repeat the instructions to the others.

"I should go with you" Steve's voice came as he returned from his room, changed into his Captain America outfit.

"There's no time to argue, they are moving quick" Loki scowls as he grabbed your hand. You aren’t able to argue with Steve because you are in front of a bunch of HYDRA agents in a matter of seconds.

"I hate these guys" you mumble. Loki uses his magic to lock all the doors, leaving only the one open to lead them to the rest of the team. You and Loki block the only other way out, with the plan in place, the fight begins.

***

You lost track of Loki pretty quickly as you tried to ensure the soldiers went where they needed to. A load roar came from upstairs and you winced as you realised the Hulk had been released. You were sure Loki had a mini panic attack, he was not a fan of the green guy. You shoved a man away from you when the blaring of an alarm swept over the tower and the comms came to life.

"Cover your ears!" You yelled as loud as you could over the comms, hoping everyone heard. You gave them a full ten seconds, as you always had before letting out an ear-piercing screech, sending all the Hydra agents in your vicinity to their knees, clutching their heads. Only a few remained standing and one had enough energy left to pounce at you and knock you over.

"You've really pissed off the boss this time, bitch" he scowled, blood dripping from his nose and ear. He held a gun out but couldn’t fire it before a large sword was rammed through his chest. When the man fell, Loki was holding out his hand for you.

"What did he mean?" You asked Loki as he pulled you into his embrace.

"I don't know, but I will find out, I promise".

***

"Where is Lady (Y/N) and my brother?" Thor looked around after the battle. The clean-up crew would arrive shortly, take the bodies away and the living ones to interrogation. The rest looked around but they didn't see anything.

"We’re right here" you call out. You were supported by Loki who was trying to carefully maneuver you around. You had a rather large gash on your side, nothing a few stitches wouldn't fix, but the bruising would be bad. Loki already advised that he wouldn't be able to heal you for a couple of days while he recuperates. Steve's dislike of Loki's arms around you was evident, but you tried to ignore it.

"Are you two alright?" Tony asked, the rest of the team looked better than the two of you did but you were happy for that fact.

"We're fine" you tried but Loki snorted.

"You are not fine, you need stitches" he announced. Bruce was currently sitting in the corner with of the curtains wrapped around him. At this he perked up a bit, getting up from where he was sitting but ensuring the clothes was securely around him.

"I will get clothes and stitch her up, bring her down to medical" Bruce said, slowly walking off to his room. You wanted to protest but Loki scooped you up in his arms and took you down to medical.

"Should we call John and tell him that she was injured?" Natasha asked, scowling slightly at his name. Tony sighed, drawing the rooms attention to him.

"I'm not supposed to tell you guys this, but she's leaving him. We drew up the divorce papers just the other day" He left it at that, he knew you would be really angry with him if he told them why.

"What?" Steve yelled. He did give Tony a chance to answer, simply stomped down towards medical, leaving everyone to look at Tony who shook his head.

"I only know about the divorce, I have no idea what that was about".

#lloki #loki #loki x reader #reader insert #marvel #running with the Trickster #marvel series #tom Huddleston #imagines

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fsycowriting · 2 years ago

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Kirby and the Cursed Castle

When I was a kid, I loved Kirby. My childhood wasn’t exactly idyllic; my parents fought a lot when I was really little over “grown up stuff” that I didn’t understand at the time. When mom and dad were screaming at each other, I’d hide away and play video games or watch cartoons, the cuter the better. For a brief little moment, I could retreat into brightly colored worlds where everyone was happy, where the biggest problems could be solved by beating up bad guys.

Kirby wasn’t just my favorite character, he felt like my best friend. Looking back, I almost treated Kirby as a religious figure. I had Kirby plushes, Kirby toys, every Kirby game I could get my hands on, and I even watched Kirby’s Saturday morning cartoon whenever it was on. Other kids at school sometimes made fun of me for how much I loved Kirby, but I didn’t care. I knew that no matter what happened, Kirby would always be there for me.

My two favorite games were Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, both on the Game Boy Advance. I always loved Amazing Mirror in particular, since it was the only game in the series to put an emphasis on exploration. It had a big, interconnected map, and you could go anywhere and fight the bosses in whatever order you found them in. Most of the other games in the series just have Kirby go through linear levels, but Amazing Mirror was special. I always wondered why they never made another one like that.

As a teenager, though, I learned that they had. I learned from a few fan forums that there was a rumored game that would have been named Kirby and the Cursed Castle, serving as a spiritual sequel to Amazing Mirror. According to the rumors, the game had gotten pretty far along in development, but was never actually released. Not for sinister reasons, though; it was a GBA game being developed near the end of the GBA’s lifecycle. Nintendo didn’t want to release a game for an older handheld, especially after production delays pushed the release date nearly a year after the DS launched. Valiant efforts were made to port the game to the DS, but eventually it proved too much of a hassle, and the project was scrapped.

After learning everything I could about Cursed Castle, I scoured forums and fansites to see if I could find a leaked build. I spent months looking for it. I went from lurking on forums to making posts asking for info, but nothing ever turned up. I’d occasionally get a lead that some person or other might know more, but those always turned into dead ends.

One day, after nearly having given up, I got an email from someone claiming to have a leaked, playable build of the game. They told me that the game was mostly complete, with a few areas that had yet to be fully implemented, although it did include the ending area and the final boss. There was also no official localization, but they’d done a crude translation of the original Japanese. They also mentioned that the game didn’t exactly play nice with emulators; it would run, but it would look weird in a couple spots, and it might crash. None of these, though, were dealbreakers. I said that this was all fine, and that I’d love a link to the build.

They sent me a link to a filehosting site, and within minutes I had the ROM on my hard drive. I put it on a USB stick so that I could bring it with me wherever I wanted. I was practically shaking with excitement, so much so that it took me a few tries to start the emulator, but once I’d calmed my nerves, I got it running just fine.

The game’s title screen was a little less friendly than I was expecting for a Kirby game. The game’s title was in big black and red letters, with an eerie little tune playing as it waited for me to press start. That made sense to me, of course, since the game was about a cursed castle.

The background of the main menu showed a glimpse of the castle. It was a big, gothic looking thing, with tall spires looming in a darkened sky. It looked really cool, like something out of Castlevania. It made me wonder if any Castlevania devs actually worked on this.

The game’s opening contained some really awesome art, although the text was a little hard to understand. From what I understood, Kirby was going to Castle Zyxithel to defeat the evil Zix, who had taken over the castle from its previous inhabitants. The artwork for Zix was creepy; it showed him (or her, or it, maybe?) as a black silhouette of a tall person in a suit and fedora, with only glowing red eyes visible. I couldn’t wait to see what he looked like at the end of the game.

The actual game started in a graveyard outside of the castle. There was a really pretty rain effect, but every so often the screen faded to black and I heard a thunder sound effect. I think this was some kind of emulator glitch with a lightning effect, but it was unsettling. The music wasn’t helping; it was unmistakably Kirby, but a little slower with an almost mournful tone to it. It was certainly setting the right mood, but the screen’s repeated fades to black put me on edge.

I was so on edge that I was a little let down by the first boss. It was just a ghost. A big ghost, sure, but still a cute cartoon ghost. It was also, well, the first boss of a Kirby game. Even with the screen fading, it didn’t give me much trouble. I beat it in a few minutes, and I was relieved to be out of the first area. The ghost dropped a key, which Kirby picked up before automatically heading into the castle.

Once I was inside the titular cursed castle, I wasn’t entirely sure that what I was looking at was real. The door to the final boss was huge, and there was a massive skeleton in front of it. It was… strangely anatomically accurate? It was still pixelated, but it didn’t look ‘cartoony’. This area was also totally silent. I wasn’t sure if this was deliberate, or if they’d simply never finished the music for this area. The skeleton served as the locking mechanism; each arm and leg, as well as the head, was attached to a chain on the wall. With the key I got from the ghost, I was able to unlock the left leg. The leg fell to the ground with a clatter. The rest of the game opened up, and I decided to head for the castle’s basement.

I expected things to be creepy after encountering the skeleton, but the rest of the game was surprisingly tame. It still had a creepy atmosphere, but it was that cute sort of creepy that makes me think of Halloween. The basement area had a lot of bug enemies, including a giant wasp for a boss, but it was still a heavily stylized wasp that looked a little cute. The game’s attempts at being creepy were also undercut by how easy it was. They introduced the ability to let Kirby have an ability in reserve, and I was breezing through the entire thing because I was never without a copy ability.

The game’s only new copy ability, Slime, was really fun to play with. Kirby would turn into a little green slime, letting him climb up walls, enter small pipes, and pass through grates. It also let Kirby do an acid spit attack, which played a satisfying sizzle sound whenever it hit enemies, leaving behind a little skeleton. I admit that it seemed kinda morbid at first to have Kirby dissolve enemies with acid, but it was so much fun to use that I totally stopped caring. I’m surprised the game never crashed from having so many skeletons.

With the last key in hand, I went back to the main chamber. I stood in all its eerie silence as the skeleton’s skull fell to the ground, soon followed by the main body. The door slowly opened with a bitcrushed creaking noise, and the screen shook as it did so. I thought it was a nice touch.

The path leading to the final boss was eerily silent. It reminded me of the World of Drawcia from Canvas Curse. In fact, I was pretty sure that this part got recycled for Canvas Curse. There was a high pitched, constant drone that played, which went lower as I progressed through the area. There weren’t even any real hazards as I made my way through the hall. The only thing it had were these big paintings whose eyes tracked Kirby as he moved through the stage.

I finally entered the main boss chamber at the end, which was an impressive looking throne room. A puddle of black slime sat on the other end of the screen. I say “black”, but it looked more like the pixels displaying it had died. I’m not sure if this was another emulator error, but the black puddle was really black. I swear the bits of glare on my screen seemed to vanish on just that puddle.

Suddenly, a shape emerged from the puddle, and Zix’s health bar appeared on the screen. I’d been looking forward to this, and Zix did not disappoint. He looked like some kind of 30s gangster, wearing a black suit with red pinstripes. I could also make out shoulder-length black hair and red eyes, which looked awesome! His hair had the same weird effect as the puddle, which only made him look even more cool.

Zix turned out to be a hard fight. He could teleport, in classic Kirby fashion, but he could also send rows of spikes moving along the arena floor, which I had a hard time dodging. He also had a big beam attack that took off over half of my health whenever it hit. He could also turn one of his arms into a big tentacle thing, but the tentacle thing gave him a bigger hitbox. After a few tries, I managed to beat Zix.

I wasn’t prepared for the second phase transition. The weird scream Zix made at the transition was deeply unnerving. I could picture my computer’s sound card straining from it. As I write this, I can’t actually remember what it sounded like. When I try to picture it, I feel like something is clawing at my mind, like my brain will get ripped apart if I think about it for too long. As Zix screamed, he dissolved into a big ball of black goo that started floating in the middle of the screen. The black slime started dripping from the walls, and the background faded into a swirling red void. I saw the health bar fill up again, and the name “Zixathu, The Cosmic Maw”.

Zixathu was a much harder fight than Zix. The moving spike attack went all around the screen this time, and Zixathu could fire more than one of that big beam attack at once. I spent most of my time avoiding its attacks, and even when I could attack, I was barely denting its health bar.

When Kirby died, it started playing the usual death jingle, but as Kirby’s sprite spun up into the air, Zixathu caught it with a tentacle-like appendage. The appendage started to slowly engulf Kirby, and I stared in confusion. I tried mashing buttons, but I couldn’t pause the game or skip whatever this was. After about a minute, Kirby was completely engulfed.

Then, the emulator crashed. It started repeating a few seconds of noise before an error message came up. I closed the emulator, and the sudden quiet made me aware of a strange noise in my room. Somewhere behind my desk, I could hear a gross squelching noise, as if someone was boiling a really thick liquid. The noise seemed to rise up, like it had started near the floor and was moving towards the ceiling. I didn’t want to turn around and look, and instead I closed my eyes and tried to think of an explanation. Part of my brain hoped that if I could come up with a rational explanation before I looked, it would be less scary.

I opened my eyes, and my blood ran cold. In my monitor’s reflection, I could see what looked like part of a black suit with red pinstripes. My heart started to pound in my chest, and I felt sweat start to build up on my forehead and under my arms. The thing behind me didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even hear it breathing. The only thing I heard was a slow, steady drip as droplets of black sludge fell from somewhere near its head onto the floor.

I think it’s waiting for me. It’s stood there the whole time I’ve written this, with the steady “drip… drip… drip…” starting to drive me crazy. I don’t know what it wants, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I think I’m safe as long as I sit here, but I’ll have to move away from my desk eventually. Maybe it will leave me alone if I don’t look at it, but I can’t say for sure. I’m not entirely sure why I wrote this, to be honest. It was a stalling tactic, sure, but I guess I didn’t want to go without saying goodbye to someone. If something happens to me, if I go silent, somebody please tell my Mom and Dad that I love them.

#kirby #creepypasta #horror #this is an old fic I posted to Reddit like a year ago

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morallyshaded · 3 years ago

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all that matters

In which Cherry gets screwed over, meets some pint sized power houses, and doesn’t kick ass. Oh yeah, and there’s a bit of tenderness as well.

The fight was unexpected.

This was unusual, because she would have normally bolted right now. Fights were not in this particular contract, she had full permission to run. Her current employer wouldn’t be mad at her, she did her end of the contract, and she would receive payment. That’s all that mattered. Besides, tonight she had wanted to leave as soon as possible. With the cash she was getting, she’d be able to afford the latest doll her sister wanted. Josie wanted a doll that looked like her, a custom one. Cherry had placed the order, giving half payment up front with the other half to come. Sure she had to cut down on meals for herself, take on a more risky contract in order to afford the other half, but it was all worth it. She was going to see Josie smile. That was worth everything.

However, before she could bolt, she had found the doors had been barricaded, from the outside. That was a bad sign, something their lookout should have informed everyone of. However, a split second later their lookout’s body fell from the perch, barely alive by the looks of it. Cherry let out an annoyed huff. Not because the fellow hench person was bleeding out on the floor, but because they were so idiotic. It is not that hard to spot people in costumes, not to mention the sirens and colors of the cop cars could be heard from miles away. Now Cherry was going to have to deal with their mistake. She just hoped that whoever decided to aide in the take down of their operation, it was one of the nicer Bats. The ones who would only fracture her wrist instead of breaking her spine.

That was simply not an option. To be hospitalized. To be put into prison. Who would provide for Josie? If Cherry were alone, she couldn’t care less. Her life had but only one purpose, to take care of Josie. Everything else was irrelevant. She could not allow herself to sustain any lasting injuries or see any jail time. Who would take care of Josie? Who would sing her lullabies when the nightmares got too intense? Who would give her spaghetti tacos because she had seen it once on a rerun of iCarly and wanted them? Who would brush her hair, play dress up with her, take her to the mall to see Santa? Not a damn person.

She couldn’t lose. It wasn’t her life to give up.

As long as one of the more brutal bats weren’t here, she’d be safe. However, judging by their plan to barricade the door, they weren’t planning on taking any chances of anyone escaping.

That must mean they want information. From all of them. Information Cherry didn’t really care to give out. Snitching was deadly in the hench world.

So it was either be killed by one of the Bats, or be killed by her fellow henches.

Stellar choice.

She cocked her gun, fully intending on making it out of here alive and uninjured, whenever she heard the tell tale sign of a blade being drawn, before a figure pounced in front of her. The traffic color costume was unmistakable.

Apparently Robin had decided to take down their operation. He was a step up from Red Hood, but still not a good chance.

She didn’t even bother raising her gun, he would cut her hand off anyway. Cherry wanted to keep all of her limbs. She then heard someone land roughly behind her. She chanced a glance behind her, briefly enough to see blue and red. Great. The Super Sons had decided to crash this. Facing off against a Kryptonian and a blood thirsty Robin? She didn’t have a chance fighting her way out.

“What? Not gonna see if your bullets can stop us?” The Boy Wonder taunted, keeping the sword held aloft.

Cherry let out a bored sigh. She hated when these people felt the need to engage in conversation. She just wanted them to kick her ass and be done with it. But apparently that wasn’t going to happen. She was going to have to listen to a bunch of smartass quips and jokes. At least nobody was around filming her, she would hate for this to get out.

“Why bother?” She drawled. “There’s a Super behind me, and a sword that would likely go right through my liver should I so much as raise my gun.”

Robin, seemed to look disappointed for a brief flash, before his smug aura returned.

“Oh good! Because my arms were starting to get tired, do you know how long I’ve been working these-” A cheery voice came from behind her.

“Silence. I’m interrogating the goon.”

She held back a scoff. She knew that was exactly what she was, but goon was more of a word that was used as a joke among henches. She didn’t see the point in correcting him. That would extend the dialouge, something she wanted to avoid doing.

Superboy flew to where he was hovering in front of her, and he narrowed his eyes for a minute, before they lit up in recognition

“Hey I’ve seen you before! You were apart of Livewire’s operation! I didn’t fight you, I was more worried about the other guys, and you like, disappeared!” Jon said, as if figuring out some huge secret. “Why are you in Gotham now?”

Great, more questions.

“We don’t need to know that. What we do need to know is where your boss ran to. He was gone before we set up the barricade.” Robin question, holding the sword closer to Cherry.

He bailed? Wow. This wasn’t the first time Cherry had been ditched by a boss. It was still a dick move though. She was never working for this mob boss again.

“I don’t know, don’t care.” Cherry answered, her voice a flat monotone. She was planning on raiding that office of his though to look for the envelope with her name on it. One way or another, she was getting paid.

“That’s not an acceptable answer.” Robin stated, and Cherry resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“Why don’t you care? Isn’t he like, your boss?” Superboy asked, and Cherry noticed something about him. He seemed to pick up on a lot of things. Where Robin was trying to get results, by the book, Superboy was more interested in the why. So curious. It was endearing, but nothing more went into her feelings than that. It was similar to the way someone looked at a cute puppy. Cooed for a bit, forget about it. Momentary. It reminded of someone. Someone awfully familiar.

She didn’t allow herself to explore that connection. Nope. Not gonna happen.

However cute his curiosity was, Cherry had no interest in explaining how hench society and contracts worked. Some things are just trade secrets.

But she should really be getting punched right now. She had to get home to Josie. That was infinitely more important than playing whatever game the two had clearly set up. Not interested. She wasn’t interested in proving herself to the kids, she wasn’t interested in reclaiming her ‘pride’, she wasn’t interested in defending herself. It would be stupid, she knew she would lose in a heartbeat.

Cherry looked down at her gun, she had been so focused on trying to get out, she hadn’t noticed the gun she had grabbed. It was a tranquilizer gun. Huh. This could work. It wasn’t as if she was important enough to get taken to wherever the Super Sons hung out. She was a low level goon.

Cherry was okay with that. So her next actions were purely logical.

Without warning, without any sort of quip, she moved her finger to the trigger and pulled, the dart landing right in her side.

The boys looked startled for a second, before seeing the little flag indicating it was a tranquilizer dart. At that, Robin began cursing and Superboy tried to calm him down.

She sat down, not wanting to drop and hit her head on the cement of the warehouse. She could hear them yelling, but she didn’t care. And as her eyes closed, she knew that she had managed to avoid the worst.

Whenever she woke up, it wasn’t instant. No, sounds came back first. There was quiet. Too quiet. But then she heard the sound of sirens. Judging by how close they were, she knew she had about two minutes.

Sensations came next. She felt the metal around her wrist, and the ground under her. She sat up, slowly, before finally opening her eyes. She winced, feeling her side. One of the boys had kicked her while she was down. Literally. Most likely out of frustration, but whatever. She didn’t care. At least, not anymore from that one flash of annoyance. She had more important matters to deal with. Like the handcuff around her wrist, connecting her to a pipe.

Rolling her eyes, she reached into her hair and grabbed a bobby pin. Double lock. Nobody used single locks anymore much to her chagrin, but it was whatever. She had practiced this act several times. Either via on her own free time, or on the clock. Handcuffs were simple to escape from, ropes were harder. But luckily, it seemed that convenience won the day.

She had about 1 minute before the cops arrived.

She needed 8 seconds.

52 seconds left.

She stood up, wasting no time, ignoring the pain in her side. She ran to the side of the warehouse, and threw open a crate. Luckily, her backpack was still there. Containing her makeup, money, and a healthy supply of guns.

She didn’t care about the discarded tranquilizer gun, she had more.

Grabbing her backpack, she ran into the backroom. The office.

It had been raided, no surprise there. The chaos making it annoying to get to her desired location.

She wasn’t dumb enough not to scope out where her boss kept their pay, in case this thing went south. It seemed her diligence paid off. She opened the book on the shelf, the hollowed out insides filled with envelopes. She plucked the one that said ‘Cherry’, written in pretentious cursive, and put the book back. She wasn’t going to take her fellow henches money. That would be rude.

30 seconds left.

Cherry left the office, and noticed an open window. It seems that the Cub Scout and the Birdie had forgotten to close it. Providing anyone who saw it an exit route. Oh well.

She ducked through the window, conveniently hidden behind crates, and stepped onto the street just as she heard the main entrance opening and the shout of ‘Police!’

Great job once again, GCPD. You let some kids in bright colors do your job for you, all you have to do is round up the bound souls. She shook her head, not wanting to go down that train of thought. It was useless, philosophy was something that she had to hear from more than one boss. She didn’t want to make her own trip down that lane.

Not hesitating, she ducked into the shadows, leaving the scene of the crime richer than when she left it.

Cherry sighed, standing apart from her apartment door. She held the wrapped package in her hand. The doll was half of her pay, but it would make Josie smile. Her side smarted, and she knew she was going to have a bruise. She’d probably have to check for fractured ribs as well. But whatever, a little makeup and it looked good as new. It would ease Josie’s mind of worries she didn’t even have.

And if Cherry had her way, never would.

She braced herself, mentally transitioning from Cherry. Cherry was for work, and for her allies.

Not for her sister. For her sister she was-

“Elise!”

The voice called out, one that made her heart swell up three sizes at least. She closed the door behind her, and saw her little sister run up to her, squeezing around her middle as tightly as she could. Which was not very tight, but it still hurt considering the state of her side. Still, she hid her grimace. She set down the package, and hugged her sister back, lifting her up and twirling around. Josie giggled, and Cherry found herself smiling a soft smile. One reserved for Josie exclusively.

“J! What are you still doing up? I told you to go to bed by 8.” It was near midnight now. Well, at least it was a weekend.

“I wanted to wait up for you! A new episode of TED-Ed just dropped, and we have to watch it now!” Josie babbled, and Cherry was reminded just how curious her sister was about the world. She wanted to know why things were the way they were. Most of the time conjuring up questions that Cherry sometimes struggled to answer.

A swell of pride overcame her, her sister was so smart.

“That’s great!” Cherry said, her bubbly voice coming out just right. She had gotten the hang of forcing her big sister voice without it seeming forced. Josie did not need to know why she hesitated. “But before we do... I have a surprise!” Cherry promised, picking up the package.

Instantly Josie’s face turned confused, but a light of happiness still stuck in her eyes. “What is it? Why did you get me this?” Josie asked, and Cherry merely smiled.

“Giving gifts and expressing affection don’t have to have a special reason.” Cherry explained, her tone never faltering. “When you love someone, you want to make them happy all the time. Nobody should use the calendar as a way to determine when it’s appropriate to show love.”

Josie seemed to take it in for a minute, before scrunching up her nose. “You’re always so cheesy, E. You could have just said ‘just because’.” She snarked, but there was a smile in her eyes that contradicted the taunting expression.

Cherry shrugged, and this time it was jovial. “Yeah, I could have. But what would the fun in that be?”

Josie playfully glared at her before starting to open it. Not paying any attention to be delicate with the wrapping paper. Cherry grinned at her enthusiasm, but it soon turned into a fond expression as Josie gasped.

“You got me a Little Gotham Girl Doll?” Josie asked, her tone bewildered and amazed looking at the lifelike doll.

Cherry smirked playfully, crossing her arms. “Guilty.”

Josie’s grin lit up like a menorah, and she hugged Cherry harder, and this time Cherry couldn’t hold back a silent gasp, but she quickly regained control.

“THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” Josie yelled, opening the box and taking out the door, looking at it from all angles. “Elise you are the best sister ever!” Josie dashed off to the living room of their studio apartment. Which really only was a couch and a tv. Their little shoebox. They couldn’t fit or afford two beds, so there was one queen one. Cherry knew she was going to have to find a solution in the future, but for once, she didn’t think about it. All she thought of was how happy Josie was.

And as she watched Josie introduce her doll to all her stuffed animals and dolls, Helen she quickly catalogued, Cherry knew the aching in her ribs, and the headaches she endured, and the danger she threw herself in, it was all worth it. Just to see that smile, just so that Josie could have the world.

She gazed as Josie set up all her dolls and stuffed animals onto the floor in front of the couch, putting a laptop (their shared one) on the table, and grabbing her notebook. She liked to take notes on things, on everything. Never wanting to forget a bit of information. Josie waved Cherry over, calling her birth name with increasingly whinier tones.

Cherry didn’t wait a second longer, and cuddled right up next to Josie as she hit play on the TED-Ed video. Cherry looked down at Josie and smiled another soft smile.

Josie’s happiness. That was the only thing that mattered.

#drabble tag tbt #a mere star in an endless night - in character #guns tw #injury tw

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dandelions-sea-blog · 7 years ago

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These are the Nights that Never Die Chapter Four

Read on Ao3(so much better there)

Fights between brothers are normal, though sometimes it’s taken too far.

Previous || First || Next

“boss… you know can’t ignore me forever.”

Red watched his brother cutting vegetables, fingers tapping arrhythmic against the surface of their shitty table in their shitty apartment on the shitty surface. He sniffed back a sneeze, allergies acting up thanks to that damn mangy stray Edge allowed into their home. Because of course, that’s what their shitty lives needed on the surface - a fucking cat. The radio in the background blared a news report at obnoxious volumes, announcing the third set of alternate monsters coming from the underground. ‘As far as we can tell, Jim, these monsters are far more peaceful than the last wave, coming out in numbers far greater than we’ve seen previously. Fourteen governments are already predicted to extend sanctuary to these refugees, which begs the question: will they run out of room?’ ‘Right Sall; it seems that more conservative politicians argue that the Ebbot portal may cause overcrowding. Scientists are debating the long-term ramifications of magic and dimensional travel on our society and the universe as a whole. Researchers from the Canonic Underground claim that the sudden influx of monsters has created a magic shortage, resulting in many of the newly settled monsters falling ill-’ “papyrus, for the love of shit turn that thing off and listen to me!” Red snapped, grabbing the slipper off his foot and launching it at the far-too loud contraption. The radio faltered, tipping back and falling off of the table with a crash. Doomfanger looks up from her grooming, staring at Red curiously from the top of the fridge. He snarled back at the littleshit, cursing it for every sneeze and every cough he has had since it entered their lives. Pieces of the radio scattered across the ground; a few caught on the torn-up bits of linoleum that lined the kitchen floor. Edge flared, spinning around with a snarl scarred across his features. Red smirked under his brother’s glare. That’s what you get, asshole. The animosity between them seeped into the room, bleeding out of the silence between him until slowly Edge stepped forward. Red smiled, leaning his his head into his hand as he awaited his brother’s wrath. Edge breathed slowly, fists clenched as he approached but never once made eye contact with the smaller sibling. His movements were precise and swift, as always Red found himself fascinated by just how intimidating Edge could be while simultaneously being the biggest, overgrown brat Red has ever known… Months of being ignored did not a happy Red make - he couldn’t even remember what started their arguments by this point. Or when they had started, for that matter; had they always hated each other? Red wanted to say no, his memory told him that wasn’t the case - and yet waking up to the everpresent silence between them that clung to their backs until the day was through made it hard for Red to remember why he loved his brother in the first place. Oh, but they talked sometimes; when Red left a shoe in the wrong place, or came home just a bit later than Edge would have liked, or when he yelled just a bit too long at the cat - whenever Red did something to piss that high strung asshole off, then and only then is red worthy of his majesty's fucking attention! Never when he did something right - not when he found a job. Not when he paid rent on time. Not when he would go to bed at reasonable hour, sharing a bed with Edge because stars knows money doesn’t grow on fucking trees on the surface. Red wished they never left the underground; all they have up here is poverty, squalor and stars… and only one of those things couldn’t have been easily seen in the underground. He hated this life; he hated the way that things changed so fast, how they lost all of their friends during relocation, how they are forced to live among humans and learn how to interact with them as if they are equals. He hated the way it changed Edge, hated how Edge shifted day by day, how he no longer seemed to want to give his brother a single ounce of his attention. If Red could have one wish, it would be to go back in time and kill that stupid brat before they decided that the Underground wasn’t good enough for them. Red kept his sharp teeth bared in a smile as Edge stalked forward, the rage coming off of him over the broken radio palpable. He folded his hands in anticipation for his lecture, already feeling the buzz of adrenaline over their impending fight. And yet, Edge walked right past him. Red’s eyes stared blankly forward as the footsteps fall behind him, heals tapping over to the broken radio bits strewn across the floor. Red turned to see Edge bent over, slowly retrieving the pieces one-by-one. It seemed that only the battery cap was damaged, so Edge is easily able to slot the pieces back together. The radio was returned to its rightful place as Edge pressed a button on the side to start back the broadcast. ‘-nd thanks for tuning into W-MTE’s news broadcast; now for your hour of smooth morning jazz…’ “i don’t fucking believe this!!” Red shouted over the melodic tones of a saxophone. Edge didn’t even respond, just returning to his cooking in the kitchen. Meanwhile Red was boiling. He slid the chair back, letting it slam against the legs of the dinning table. “i don’t have to fucking take this, you know?” He shouted, slamming his fist into the wall next to him. Edge refuses to respond. “i can go anywhere i fuckin’ want now, boss,” He spit, glaring down his brother’s back. “this is the fuckin’ surface; i don’t need your protection anymore!!” That was right, wasn’t it? Red didn’t have to stay with Edge anymore; the laws on the surface are far more protective of those who can’t defend themselves. Even if he’d have to watch his back, Red could certainly make it on his own. He did it before, back when his father abandoned him, infant brother in arms, to survive all alone in a kill-or-be-killed world. If he could do it back then, in the hellish nightmare that was the underground, as a child… Red stood up suddenly, stomping out of the single living space and into the only other room in the house - a miniature bedroom with half bath. He went for the closet, grabbing fistfuls of his clothes and shoving them into a sack. He grabbed a spare set of socks, a few shirts, a pair of pants, and his savings that he kept stashed under the drawer. He stomped into the bathroom and snatched up his toothpaste, toothbrush and medication, tucking them away with just as much enthusiasm as before. When he returned to the kitchen Edge still hasn’t turned around from his work, continuing to chop vegetables and slide them into a pot. As if Red were never there. Fuck his soup. Fuck his apartment. Fuck his cat and most importantly fuck him. Red coughed, eyes burning from what he pretended were his allergies. Finally, Edge spoke, not even turning around as he does. “...If you are going to leave, make sure you shut the door behind you, Sans.” The tone was hollow, yet sharp. Red felt his tight throat give, the tears burning as they welled up in his eyes. He shook - every inch of him on fire as he watched his brother’s nonchalant movements, even now that he is about to leave refusing to notice Red. He huffed, striking away the tears with the back of his hand as he head for the door. “good fucking luck, asshole!” The door slammed for the final time as Red walked away.

“Go fish!” “eh, i dunno if i believe ya, blue… that hand seems kinda fishy t’ me~” “nGHA IF YOU MAKE THAT JOKE ONE MORE TIME-” Red snickers behind his cards as Blue mock-fumes. Blue hates it when his friend reuses jokes like that… puns are an art form, and deserve more respect than simple repetition of the most obvious variety! How annoying. Regardless, Red reaches for the deck and draws his next card. Sans glances at his cards, eyes gliding over his hand as he seems to plan his actions several moves in advance. Blue tries very hard to read Sans’ expression; normally it is the only skill that allows Blue to win games like these. However since he is literally playing against himself he soon realizes that they all have his natural pokerface yet none of his tells. The van hurries along the road, Papyrus’ skillful driving avoiding most of the particularly awful bumps. Blue much prefers it when he drives; the other two can be careless at times and the extra movement makes him nauseous. “Alright, Sans, it’s your turn!” Blue says, looking to his other counterpart. Finally Sans gives a tell, however it appears to be too late as he chuckles victoriously, laying out his hand for the group to see. “royal flush, kiddo, pay up,” He says with wink. “THAT’S NOT EVEN THE RIGHT GAME!?” “oh shoot really? i thought we were playin’ gin…” Sans chuckles when Blue screeches, throwing his cards into the air. “heh, no need to split, ace,” Red retorts. “THAT’S BLACKJACK!!” “aw jeez, kiddo, i didn’t realize you’d made such a big deal out of this…” Sans fires back, returning his cards to the deck and shuffling. Blue lays his head out on the table and groans, defeated. “I am surrounded by dirty pun abusers…” He whines as Sans deals the cards back out. After a moment’s recovery Blue’s hand dips up from under the table to slide his cards in. He looks at his hand, examining his cards and faintly wondering what game they could possibly be playing now. Out of the corner of his eye he sees moment, and a smile breaks across his face. “Edge!” He calls, waving the taller skeleton over. “Come play with us! We could use someone with quality taste in jokes.” Edge proudly smirks, putting down his laundry basket to see what the others are up to. Blue has found that the best way to get Edge to do anything is to give him a compliment; he is particularly partial to ones about his intelligence and capabilities. “What game are you playing?” Edge asks, looking over at the cards. “rummy.” “blackjack.” “Poker!” Edge raises a brow, unimpressed. “...I see,” he says, crossing his arms. Blue smiles, picking up the deck and shuffling it. “Come on, just one round?” He pleads, using just the slightest pout to add to his persuasion. “I’ll deal you in after Red - it’ll be fun.” Edge’s face falls, a scowl seeping onto his features as he returns to his basket. “Thanks but no thanks, some of us around here have to work.” Red flinches at the words. Blue frowns, putting the deck down as he watches Edge stalk off. Red folds his cards as well, sliding out from the booth. “...i should probably get started on my chores too…” He mutters, heading back towards their room. Blue frowns as he looks back to an awkward looking Sans. The sweaty skeleton looks down at the cards in his hands, pretending to scrutinize them. Blue grunts, tapping the table with his fingers. “why are they fighting?” He asks, watching as Sans flinches harshly. “who’s fightin’, kiddo?” Sans asks, glancing away. Blue hums. For a guy who has such a great poker face when they’re playing cards Sans sure does look nervous when he’s hiding things… “Red and Edge,” Blue replies, looking back at the door. “When Red moved in with me I knew that he and his bro had… issues…” He trails off, remembering the vague stories Red would share with him about Edge. So far Edge hasn’t quite lived up to his reputation of ‘neglectful, abusive asshole’ as Red put it. He turns back to Sans. “But I never realized they were this bad… what happened?” Sans sighs, cupping his cheek with a hand. “honestly, kiddo, i have no idea,” Sans admits. “edge is pretty tight-lipped when it comes to his life before… metaphorically, of course,” Sans chuckles dryly at his own joke. Blue rolls his eyes. “eh, get it? we’re skeletons? no lips??” “Yes, yes, you are hilarious and very witty,” Blue dismisses. “But… It’s just so sad…” Blue says, returning to the conversation at hand. “Brothers shouldn’t fight like that…” “eh, it happens sometimes, kiddo,” Sans says with a shrug. “even paps and i have gotten into little spats once or twice…” “This isn’t exactly what I’d call a ‘little spat’...” Blue mutters. Sans hums. “...have you never gotten into a fight with your brother?” Blue shakes his head, dismissing even the thought of having such a fight with Stretch. “No! Never,” He defends, “My Pappy and I have always been very close… we would never just… ignore each other like that...” Sans sighs, a deep depression skirting across his face before he swallows it up with a smile. He carefully collects the cards back into the deck, Shuffling it twice before returning them to their box. “well, if i were you i wouldn’t worry about it,” He says, sliding out of the booth. “it ain’t none of our business, n’ i don’ think they like talkin’ ‘bout it.” Sans says. Blue frowns. Inaction never sits well with him, but he trusts Sans’ judgment. The other skeleton stretches, popping his back as he turns to look at his friend. “i’m gonna go tag paps out on drivin’,” Sans says, heading for the cockpit. “we’re gonna try to head out ‘t the shoppin’ center t’morrow, and it would suck if we had t’ walk all the way there.” Sans chuckles to himself. “even if the weather is lookin’ pretty runderful.” Blue shakes his head, holding up four fingers. Sans shrugs. “can’t win ‘em all, i guess…” Sans disappears around the corner and Blue sighs, leaning back in the little fold up chair. Closing his eyes he can hear the breathing of the van - the sound of Edge beating out dust from their clothes, Papyrus talking loudly to himself as he bangs out the engine, Doomfanger purring as she rolls around in the light of the sun streaming through the windows… It can be so peaceful around here at times. He wishes his friends could see that more often than they do. Getting caught up in little things isn’t good for you, not at all. It can make a person lose sight of the important things in life, and very quickly those things could disappear. Blue is jolted from his relaxed state by a puffy white tail suddenly appears in his face. He sits up straight, listening to Doomfanger as she gives off her ‘hungry’ meow. “Eddddge, has anyone feed Doomfanger today?” Blue calls. “Check the chart!” Blue lowers his shoulder so that Doomfanger can ride as he goes to the kitchen to make sure that their precious four-legged friend has eaten.

#my writing #undertale #fanfic #underfell #underswap #road trip au #zombie apocolypse au #uf!sans #uf!papyrus #us!sans #sans #papyrus #angst

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itsbenedict · 7 years ago

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No Driver’s License: Session 20

No Driver’s License is a Madoka Magica game I’m running for five players, using a homebrew of Yaruki Zero’s Magical Burst system. It follows five magical girls as they deal with an upheaval in the world’s magic system caused by some strange new three-eyed Incubators. They have to figure out what’s going on, who to trust, and how to put a stop to the cycle of despair.

I post session logs and omakes weekly, both as a reference for the players and for anyone who wants to follow along with the party’s misadventures.

[adventure log- read from the beginning]

[session 19]

Last time on No Driver’s License, everything went straight to Hell. This time, the exact reverse of that happens.

More specifically, last time the party went inside the giant alien devil-machine thingy that powers magic, in hopes of messing around with magic so that it doesn’t suck quite so bad. But, uh... they probably shouldn’t have done that when party members were near-full on Trauma, because it turns out that inside of the giant alien devil-machine thingy that powers magic... is a terrible place to turn into a witch. Let’s see exactly how bad that breaks!

(pictured: Otsuki Orino, who isn’t involved in this situation at all but I didn’t have a relevant image to post so an irrelevant one will have to do.)

♪ Come on And wreck my car Come on And wreck my car Come on And wreck my car Come on And wreck my caaaar ♪

Let’s set the scene:

Yeaaaaah, Ibara’s witch sort of merged with the fragment of the Devil’s soul which is driven by a weird ritualized facsimile of empathy. That’s... that’s gonna cause some problems.

Problem number one: Nishi is sorta panicking.

FUCKIN FINALLY, TWENTY SESSIONS AND I GET AROUND TO THE DAMN TITLE DROP. That’s been the idea all along- Tamako and Nishi are trying to make things better with very little idea what they’re doing, and... y’know. That leads to accidents.

Problem 2: Oh, Right, There’s A Witch To Fight.

The witch starts out with... an opening text crawl. This is the final boss of Paradise Quest, the hit JRPG! (JRPG here stands for “Just Really Punishing Gauntlet”.)

(Oh, we’ve ditched the two-channel asymmetrical thing for this fight- Farn and I essentially co-GMed this one in the main channel.)

After the intro, the party is prompted to name their party members- with a five-character limit, in all caps. Sakura types in names for herself, Seina, and Makoto- SUGAH, FLOWR, and CUTIE, respectively- while Yukari declines to let Sakura answer for her, and puts in DPS for herself.

Then it says “Name the one waiting for you”, and they try putting in IBARA- which it buzzes and rejects. Yukari (DPS) then suggests “DEMON”, which it accepts.

...And then it asks them to name “...who was this again?”, and then they try IBARA, which it’s fine with. And with that...

Music plays.

For this fight, we did what we did for Makoto’s last witch- a gauntlet of Skirmish challenges, capped off with a Full Battle combat. But before we can throw anything at them... the team takes an interest in the horde of heroes that are charging the final boss. Because... some of them look familiar. The Bleak Knights are identical, and have a familiar face. Sakura... tries to grab one.

The party is... weirdly impatient with her. I wonder why?

DPS gets Nishi (BADDI) to snap out of it, and she summons some monsters to help- and also tucks her incubator body under her main body’s arm, and after months of inactivity, her body wakes up and transforms.

Anyway, we decide that’s a good time to throw some problems at them- a wave of metal debris, for instance. Swords, shields, spears, discarded weapons of all sorts- a mass of them rises up behind the party and pushes them forward.

Now, the party... sort of gets out of this unscathed. In fact, they roll really well! They get some crits, even! And you know, when you crit in Magical Burst, you take Overcharge, but... wait, hold on.

It seems instead of taking Overcharge, the players who got crits went up a level in a new stat, Hate! Isn’t that great? I can’t wait to find out all about the implications and applications of this fun new stat boost!

They find out when the Bleak Knights start charging in earnest, trampling all in their way in an offensive against the final boss. The party makes some good rolls to avoid really getting hurt by the charge- but some of those good rolls are crits, which means they earn more points of Hate! CUTIE is the first to reach Hate 3, so she gets both Hatred Growth (14s upgrade to 15s) and Hatred Override, which lets her take a Personal Consequence to automatically score three Hits in a Skirmish. Wow! Cool powers! Great!

They defeat the Bleak Knights handily, beating the Spread by 2- which means that their counterpart increments Hate to 4!

Everyone’s acting... more and more like Ibara, as they accumulate Hate. Their overflowing fighting spirit allows them to deflect a thunderbolt spear hurled by the final boss. SUGAH, though, who’s got less Hate than most and is worried about CUTIE, tries hugging her. CUTIE reacts by...

...reflexively hitting her.

Thankfully, some of the game heroes- the Silent Priests, analogues to Seina (FLOWR), offer healing to the party.

SUGAH tries to get one of them to heal CUTIE, but CUTIE rejects it. DPS just... slings one over her shoulder as a portable consumable health item for later, though. And... uh oh, next skirmish: there’s a bunch of mage-y ones summoning with a huge magic circle, preparing to launch some sort of attack on the final boss, DEMON. That’s... good, right?

The team doesn’t trust this at all- and so they brutalize the Thoughtless Mages (SUGAH’s analogues) completely.

(because SUGAH took Hate from her analogues being crushed.)

Then swords rain from the sky, they make some more rolls to protect themselves, they get some crits, and DPS and CUTIE go up to Hate 4 and unlock Hatred Coalescence, which replaces one of their stats with one of Ibara’s stats. DPS, who had Fury 1 and made one single failed melee attack in the entire campaign, now has Fury 5, and a very large sword. Oh, and- the acid? Remember the ankle-deep acid? That’s still there in the witch barrier, and the more Hate they accumulate, the more it hurts to walk through.

New skirmish: the Arrogant Sages are aiming a huge-ass cannon at DEMON! The team, of course, attacks them again- especially DPS, who recognizes the Sages as herself and is insulted. She tries to cleave the cannon in twain with her giant sword, critting and going up to Hate 5 and unlocking Hatred Imago, where they get “I am not Kazama Ibara” as a temporary Trauma Track that increments Hate whenever it would ping Trauma. And then again, up to Hate 6 and getting Hatred Tutelage, where one of her skills (in this case, her Prophecy ability) is replaced with one of Ibara’s (in this case, Shear Force.)

But... SUGAH tries to stop her, because maybe they can use the cannon.

The players... are really playing along with the concept, having their minds warped by Ibara’s belligerence and stubbornness, getting into fights like this. (Farn could really not be more pleased by how this went.)

FLOWR tries to break up their fight, but fails- and just as DEMON launches an Actinic Rage lightning attack, which increments Hate by 2 for everyone it hits. DPS maxes out, and unlocks Hatred Zenith. Her hair goes yellow at the ends, lik Ibara’s, and now- any time she’d take Hate, she takes Overcharge instead. Congratulations!

Thankfully, though, they’ve finally made it to the final boss, DEMON. There’s a text crawl congratulating them for making it there, and...

And we’re in a Full Battle!

youtube

DEMON guards the gate to Paradise.

The team employs standard tactics- SUGAH uses her taffy, FLOWR launches ranged attacks, Makoto goes up and hacks away- oh, and, naturally, the team’s DPS, Kazama Ibara, goes to town with overpowered Melee Attacks. DEMON falls before it even gets an attack off.

...And the battle isn’t over.

And it’s the witch’s turn.

What?

DEMON regenerates on its turn, guarding that golden gate to Paradise and dishing out a number of devastating attacks. BADDI finally gets in on the action, attacking DEMON with some minions and a failed Melee Attack with her whip.

Some of her minions miss DEMON, and crash into the gate, dealing one damage to it. This... is a hint.

But it’s not the whole story, because when DPS charges the gate to deal some damage...

So the idea is to take down the fairly fragile DEMON, and use remaining actions to batter down the gate while DEMON is down and can’t stop them.

The team figures this out pretty quick and starts employing appropriate tactics. Makoto has a new ability from her last witch event, which she employs here:

Of course, since Makoto is at Hate 6, the bear and boar she summons are less ethereal and more hellish, covered in spikes and ready to fight. With that help, the team does some decent damage and manages to get some good hits in on the Gate.

The team takes another turn of dishing out the hurt, gets some more good hits in on the gate- it’s really suffering, now. A couple more good hits, probably! But, hey, DEMON’s up again.

They don’t listen. They keep hitting.

Kazama Ibara doesn’t give up the fight.

The Trauma Track for this witch is “Can’t admit to being wrong.”

Wham. Wham. Wham. FLOWR reaches Hate 6 and unlocks Glide Curse, Ibara’s knockback ability.

DEMON collapses, as does the gate.

And then Farn tries to tell the players that the witch barrier disappears.

GREAT WORK, EVERYONE!!! HOORAY!!!

(i can’t believe they named ibara DEMON and the demon IBARA, that was too perfect)

And then gravity disappears, and the acid on the floor starts lava-lamping up into the air, and IBARA is still swinging around that colossal sword and slicing huge swathes of the Hell Engine up...

As the cave starts to collapse, the team starts running for their lives. Except... no. Yukari- and she’s Yukari, now, not DPS, not Kazama Ibara- teleports onto the ten-foot-tall demon-Ibara’s shoulder, and blasts the infinisword out of her hands.

She tries to grapple-rescue Yukari with her Toothsome Taffy- but Yukari resists the taffy, unsuccessfully, bringing her dangerously close to 0 Resolve. Still, they manage to escape.

So, they’re back in the desert! But instead of a painfully bright sun, the sky has... the Earth in it, now. Because... IBARA’s rampage sliced the Hell Engine into pieces, and the whole thing is falling out of the sky, down to Earth. And the party is falling with it.

Yukari uses Prophecy, getting two- and asks what the outcome will be if they just let this happen.

She uses both Prophecies to ask both questions.

First things first- the team has Nishi revive Ibara, in case she knows anything about the situation and how to stop it, from being merged with the demon.

She doesn’t.

Makoto- whose purification makes it impossible for her to feel bad about imposing burdens on others- has an interesting take, but it’s not one the party can agree with. One plan is “oh god, go get the real Incubators and tell them to do something about this”, but that plan has some obvious risks.

Now... the team has been saving some trump cards. In Magical Burst, players sometimes get points of Hope, when things go well for them and the future looks bright. They haven’t gotten a lot of these so far, though, what with the constant crises- but Sakura and Makoto have full Hope bars, which they can spend on a Hope burst to make some extremely good magic effect happen.

Sakura convinces Makoto to help, and the Power of Lesbians saves the day. But... “save the day” isn’t a plan- they have specific options about what they can do. One burst can repair the Hell Engine, stopping it from breaking into a million pieces and scattering across the face of the Earth when it lands. Another can put it into orbit, preventing it from crashing at all.

They elect to use both bursts to repair the Hell Engine, such that it lands on Earth completely intact- and such that it somehow is improved or fixed in some nonspecific way at my discretion.

Also, candy-enhanced versions of Makoto’s summoned creatures appear, exploding out and scattering across the Hell Engine, to do who knows what.

This is the first Hope burst we’ve had- and huh, it doesn’t seem to fit into the magic system as laid out. Nishi has no idea what to make of it.

Aaaaaaanyway, the problem remains that the team is on a meteor headed straight for Tokyo Bay, and they’re about to be sandwiched pretty hard. An escape plan is necessary.

Rather than go back through the portal to return to the Incubator HQ, the team decides to ride it out, taking Nishi’s paper bag monster jetpacks to fly the fuck up and off of this thing. But, uh... they’re inside, unfortunately, and smack into the glass ceiling. Which... well, of course, they just smash right through. And as they do so, the ground- now featureless black stone- rises up to meet them, chasing them into the sky(?). As they fly, the stone of the Hell Engine is hot on their heels- literally, as they move away from it, that space fills in with stone- until they’re finally clear and the giant black rock hits Tokyo Bay and the team splashes down to safety.

Well, sort of safety. Next time on No Driver’s License: Safety?????

(Pictured: where the Hell Engine just Is, now)

(Remember when I said that the reverse of everything going to hell happens this time? This time, Hell goes to everything!)

#no driver's license

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not-another-imagine-blog · 7 years ago

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Drunk Pizza Party (Leon Draisaitl)

Anonymous said:

If you're taking requests, will you make an imagine with Leon Draisaitl? Something cute and fluffy, the scenario doesn't really matter ☺️ I just need the feels! 😘😂

Word count: 869

This has officially been the worst two weeks of your life.

Between Leon and the Oilers being away on a 10-day East Coast swing, fighting off a bug, your heater not working in your house, your car not starting, your boss getting pissed at you for things that you didn’t have any part in and failing a test, you were ready to throw in the towel. For what it’s worth, Leon was more than happy to listen to your problems on the phone and offer support, but you just missed him being next to you.

“Is your professor going to let you retake the test?” Leon asks. You’re sitting in bed, writing a paper and talking to Leon on the phone.

“Well, the whole class failed, so he said he’s either going to curve the test or let us all retake it. He hasn’t decided yet.”

“That’s not too bad, then! At least it wasn’t just you.” Leon reasons. You hum in response as you finish typing a sentence.

“I’m just upset that I didn’t know the material better. I studied, I took great notes but something just didn’t click. And between everything else that’s happened lately, that was just the icing on the cake.”

“I’m sorry that things have gone to hell for you since I’ve been gone.”

“It’s like you’re a walking good luck charm, and whenever you leave shit just hits the fan.” You sigh, deciding to call it a day on homework since your essay isn’t due until Monday. You lean back against the pillows and turn the phone off of speaker, holding it up to your ear.

“Hey, I’ll be home on Saturday though.” Leon points out. You nod before realizing that he can’t see you.

“Two long days.” Leon laughs lightly, bringing a smile to your face.

“I have to go, (Y/N). We’re having a team meeting.”

“I love you, Leon.”

“I love you too, liebling. Try not to burn the house down before I get home.”

“At this point, I can’t make any promises. Have a good meeting!” You chirp before hanging up the phone. You’re just turning the TV on, ready to numb your brain with some Netflix, when the power goes out.

“Shit.”

The next day, things finally seem to level out. The fallen power line gets fixed, your heater miraculously starts working again and you wake up without a stuffy nose. Still, you miss Leon, and you’re more than ready for him to come home tomorrow as you pull up to your apartment building after work. Fumbling for your keys in your bag, you stop abruptly when you hear a crash from inside your apartment. You silently unlock the door, grabbing the baseball bat that Leon insists you keep near the door ‘for reasons.’ As you listen closer, you can hear the noises coming from your bedroom. You drop your bag on the floor and creep towards your bedroom door, hearing more objects moving around and smelling what you’re pretty sure is pizza, but that also could just be wishful thinking. Readying yourself, you throw the door to your bedroom open and prepare to swing.

The bat falls from your hands as your eyes meet Leon’s. “You-you-what?” You squeal as Leon opens his arms, wrapping you into a hug. He peppers kisses all across your face as you hold onto him for dear life. “What are you doing here?” You finally remember how to speak as you look at Leon’s cheeky grin.

“I may have accidentally-on-purpose told you that we were getting back a day later than we actually did.” You laugh, speechless, as Leon lays another kiss on your lips. After finally pulling away from Leon, you glance around at your surroundings. You were right about the smell of pizza, after all. A couple of boxes sit on the end of the bed, one with your favorite pizza and one with Leon’s. There’s a bottle of your favorite wine, Netflix on the TV, candy and a pile of fuzzy blankets. You look back to Leon, eyes filling with tears.

“Did you do all this?” You ask. Leon nods. “Why?”

“(Y/N), you’ve literally had the week from hell, and you had to go about it alone. You’re always there for me when I have a bad game, so now I’m doing the same for you.” You fling your arms back around Leon, inhaling his cologne as he rests his chin on the top of your head.

“I love you so much.” Your voice is muffled since your face is pressed into Leon’s chest, but you know he heard you loud and clear.

“I love you too. Now, are we gonna eat pizza and watch The Office or what?”

“I wouldn’t want to spend my Friday doing anything else.” You let Leon lead you to the bed, but you’re both stopped cold by a clap of thunder and the power going out.

“Shit!” You curse, running into Leon’s back. Leon turns to you. Even in the pitch black, you can see his bright eyes shining.

“You wanna eat pizza, get tipsy off of wine and tell ghost stories.”

“Deal.” Even in the worst situation, Leon makes everything better.

#leon draisaitl #leon draisaitl imagine #edmonton oilers #edmonton oilers imagine #nhl #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #nhl fanfiction #hockey #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #hockey fanfiction

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ask-captain-faris-archived · 8 years ago

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Roster of Faris’ crew (part 1)

Captain: the Captain’s job is to lead the crew in battle and out, and make sure they don’t get themselves killed or worse. The Captain is often either at the helm, in their chambers, making negotiations or getting supplies. Stake: two shares

Faris Scherwiz. Real name, Princess Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon. Age: 20-21 (depending on how far after her game the individual thread is)

Former roll on the ship during the time of her predecessor: Navigator.

She leads her crew in a manner similar to a strict parent. Not known to get lost easily. The then-Four year old Sarisa was separated from her father when a storm wracked the ship they were traveling on, causing her to fall into the sea, only to later be fished out by a pirate, and when asked about her name, the delirious child responed “Farifa”, and was called Faris and dressed like a boy for reasons that she would not understand until much later. She officially joined at age ten, and met and befriended Syldra a few years later, and her bond with the water drake got her promoted to Navigator. Faris unanimously voted into being Captain at age 16 when her predecessor decided he was “getting too old for this” and retired.

First Mate: the First mate is the Captain’s second-in-command, taking over while the Captain is sick, or otherwise indisposed. Often, but not always the Captain’s best friend. Stake: 2 shares

Simon Valentia. Age: 25

He’s been Faris’ first mate for as long as Faris had been Captain, and was the one who suggested making her Captain in the first place when her predecessor decided to retire, to her surprise, as prior to that he’d been quite snarky at her. Fiercely loyal and often guarding the dock when at the hideout. His grandfather was the one who fished the young Sarisa out of the ocean. Normally the “No-nonsense type”, but isn’t above the occasional prank if the setup is already there. (he’s also the one who offers to take you directly to the Wind Shrine early on in the game) He “suspected” Faris was a “She” even before the rest of the crew found out, but had enough respect for her to not say anything.

Quartermaster: most crews will either have this OR a First Mate. Faris early on decided it was a good idea to have both, and it payed off in the end. Acts as the Captain’s adviser. Distributes rations and supplies and guards plunder, and often leads the boarding party and decides which ships were worth keeping, as well as acting as a sherrif/judge in the event of “crimes” committed by the crew. Stake: 2 shares.

Alexander “Alex” Johnson. age: 33.

The one who taught Faris how to play chess, he was just a swabbie when young “Farifa” had just been fished out of the water.

the Light sleeper outside the medic’s chambers,

Navigator: Arguably one of the most important roles on the ship next to Captain, the Navigator is in charge of determining their direction, course and whether or not they’d strayed from it. Stake: 2 shares

Former: Syldra (deceased).

A Water Drake that Faris befriended and formed a strong, sibling-like bond with. Syldra was part of what secured Faris’ position as navigator early on, when the crew that Faris had been a part of had been attacked by Sahagin, with Syldra herself fighting below. A whirlpool formed near the ship, and while Faris herself can’t remember much of what all happend during that battle, the previous captain said she’d jumped into the whirlpool and came up moments later on Syldra’s head as She the Water Drake made short work of the remaining Sahagin. Whenever the wind died down enough to significantly slow the boat (or in the case of FFV’s opening act, outright stop) she would pull the ship to keep it from drifting to the ship graveyard. She eventually got separated after she was badly injured during the fight with the game’s second boss Karlabos, she initially tried to rest up only to end up sacrificing the last of her strength, and her life, to save Faris, Lenna, Bartz and Galuf when Walse Tower sank into the sea. To say Faris did not take her death too well would be a bit of an understatement.

Jeremiah “Zed” Zamolik. Age: 23.

Started officially navigating after news of Syldra’s death reached the crew. He is the light sleeper outside of the Medical “ward” set up in the hideout. If asked if he’s a cat person or dog person, he’ll say “yes”. Did not take too well to Syldra’s death either.

Medic: takes care of the sick and injured crewmen. No crew is ever complete, or even likely to last long, without one. Stake: one and a half shares

Thompson “Tommy” Mitchel. Age: 73.

Also having been a member before Faris was even alive. Being that he’s getting on in his years, he just stays at the hideout. Took care of Boko, Bartz’s Chocobo, back when he had injured his leg. May or may not have come up with the idea to throw a mock wedding for Boko and Koko. Currently looking for a proper successor, as Elixirs and Cure spells can only get one so far.

Swabbie: The absolute lowest rung in the Pirate ladder, a title given to the newest member of the crew. It’s a rough life, and back in Faris’ days as a swabbie, meant all kinds of hazing “rituals”. Faris herself insists they cut back on the hazing, the result of which was a “Partial Bypass” that consists of several “Tests” that, if the new swabbie passes all of them, only gets it a fraction of how bad one normally does when they first start out..Stake: half a share

Crono (yes the one from Crono Trigger), a.k.a. “Mutey” (he IS a silent protagonist after all)

(see @chronomedley)

Joined prior to the events of Crono Trigger, but during an event in which Faris got herself cursed with being mute (and in a way that even remedies, echo screens and Esuna didn’t work) by way of well...cursed treasure, he brought her to his world to find a cure for her condition, and at some point during these events they’d gotten separated, after which the events of CT pretty much go as normal. His older self eventually (and later, occasionally) returns to Faris’ world, popping in on his former Captain (and vice versa) every now and then. Possesses weak telepathic abilities, which he uses as his primary method of communication. Was hired because of a recommendation from none other than Magus, although at the time Faris had no way of knowing that this Crono hadn’t begun his signature journey through time.

Demoted as punishment and because the previous swabbie “left”, from Powder Monkey: Leeroy Jenkins. age: not given.

If you’ve seen a certain video associated with the name, you probably know where this is headed. Has a tendency to just charge in alone using his name as a battle cry, has crashed Faris’ ship once, nearly got the crew killed on multiple occasions, rarely listens to orders and is currently on his last chance...which he is very likely to blow, at which point Faris will bring him back to where she found him and leave him there. Being demoted has done nothing to stop him from doing that which he does.

#headcanons #crew roster #long post #meet the crew

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wowheadquarters · 8 years ago

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Interview with Taedal

As a celebration for gaining (somehow) 300, For the past few days you could asked various questions which Taedal is supposed to answer in this interview. So, everything you ever wanted to know about him,or just to know what he knows, here it is! Additional warning: It’s long.

Q: Does Luxien is also a dreadlord or is she an other kind of demon?

Taedal: Both our parents are dreadlords, genetically speaking Luxien is also a dreadlord. Taedal: However, given her experiments with the Void, Twisting Nether, undeath and other things… It’s hard to tell what she is now. Taedal: Most of people settle with that she is still quite sexy when her form is stable.

Q: How does the Golden Torch react when you start to talk about Blizzard (Breaking the 4th wall, simply)?

Taedal: To quote one of my advisors, Corrazzale. Taedal: (In a very irritated voice with strong French accent) “Oh here he goes again, cursing the weather.”

Q: What make you take the decision to leave the Legion?

Taedal: The official version I give to people varies from “I saw the error of my ways” to “I hate being bossed around”. Taedal: The unofficial… Taedal: Look, in a game where players kill things, you don’t want to be a member of the All Evil Organization. Especially not one of the people in charge of something.

Q: What were you doing before you get the idea of the Golden Torch?

Taedal: Eh, you know. World destruction. Soul tormention. Sentient race conquering. Taedal: And also the Annual Volleyball Tournament. There were so many teams participating in AVT that when one ended, we had to start the next one right away.

Q: How did you convinced the others to became the Golden Torch?

Taedal: I didn’t really convince anyone. Taedal: Once I just mentioned to Cheret that I was really thinking about quitting and he asked me if he could quit with me. Taedal: And suddenly I had a bunch of demons eager to leave at my heels.

Q: What is your favorite(s) zone(s) in all Azeroth? (Outland and Draenor included)?

Taedal: Hm… The Forgotten Isle is easy to say, but there are better places. Taedal: Nagrand is beautiful. But I’m going with Zul’drak which is also beautiful and has one of the most awesome soundtracks. Taedal: And yes, I do hear soundtracks.

Q: If you could get high (as in height, no drugs) and sing, what would you sing?

Taedal: I don’t really sing. I am a terrible singer. Even if I could push my voice high or low, it’d be terrible, I am sure of that. Taedal: But if I have to say a song… When I Get Low I Get High.

Q: Tell us something embarrassing that’s happened to you.

Taedal: Alright, seat yourself, it’s story time. Taedal: Back in the Legion we were invading this one world, its name doesn’t matter as it no longer exists. And I come into a temple to destroy it. And there is this highpriest and bunch of bishops and acolytes. But most importantly the highpriest. Taedal: Now the Legion has the rules of epic, because when you are evil, you have to be evil with style. So dreadlords are pretty much expected to deliver a speech whenever there is even a minor chance of an epic battle or a boss-fight. Taedal: So I start the speech as I am supposed to do, I do the nice “cover mortals” and “kneel before your lord” and “your ultimate demise”. Now I’m getting to mention “reign of chaos will soar thorough your world”, which is my favorite part and this highpriest had apparently never heard of the rule of epic, because he banishes memid-sentence. Taedal: Irritating and embarrassing for it was in a crowded temple.

Q: I’m pretty sure you got an hidden talent, what is it?

Taedal: Whatever hidden talent I have, it is hidden so well I hadn’t found it yet. Taedal: But I’ve been always strangely good at locating lost and hidden treasures. Does it count?

Q: With which leader(s) you like to hang out the most? (And the one to not bring in your opinion)

Taedal: Ji and Anduin make for good companions to talk to, both show a lot of interest. Baine is less happy with me but the best person to play Hearthstone with. Taedal: And… Look, I have nothing against Velen, however he could be less… Less exorcising me on sight. Taedal: On the other hand, being around Thrall is even worse. He has a terrible paladin syndrome and is supper depressive person to talk to.

Q: How many walls did you broke?

Taedal: Ever since I managed to crash our nethership into the Labyrinth at Descension point, I lost count. Taedal: Before that it was 36. I get thrown around quite often.

Q: So, how was Argus?

Taedal: Dunno. Never been there. Taedal: My parents were from Argus, yeah, but me and Luxien were born after they joined the Legion. So me and sis are pure felbreed.

Q: What was the more surprising thing on Azeroth for you when you came?

Taedal: The variety of races. Taedal: I had visited a lot of worlds, you know. Most of them has one or two sentient races. Some of them has also some still-sentient-but-less-civilized races. Taedal: And then there is Azeroth with 17 playable races and some sentient but not playable races like the Nighborn, Nagas or Ramkahen plus some less civilized but sentient races such as Gnolls, Murlocs or those shrimpy things. Taeda: And I’m not even talking about the sub-races.

Q: Do you have a profession? Which one? Or which one would you like to do?

Taedal: NPCs don’t get professions like players do and even those we have don’t work the same way. They are more… Normal, less game-like. Taedal: As a hunter, I of course know how to skin a beast and cook it into something edible. Tame and train the beast as well, preferably before it gets skinned. I am a skilled arrowmaker too and as every demon with hooves I can smith a decent horseshoe. Taedal: If you want to give it a label… Skinning and Blacksmithing.

Q: Do you regret something?

Taedal: Yeah. I should have brought myself a glass of water for this interview, my throat is as dry as Tanaris. Taedal: Alright, let’s be serious. I sort of regret not bringing Luxien to the Golden Torch. On the other hand if I’d made her to leave the Burning Legion against her will she’d turned against me or maybe she would go insane with time, so we’d have to fight her anyway. Taedal: …I’ve mentioned to you that we have to fight Luxien as a raid end-boss, right? Taedal: Oh. I totally forgot. I’ll fix that. Taedal: Listen everybody! I have a really powerful sister and she is evil and has a working plan how to dissect this world to atoms so we have to fight her!

Q: Do you have a favorite mount?

Taedal: As a matter of fact, I don’t. Taedal: I mean, I already have a favorite pet and it’s unfair as it is to the other pets. Taedal: No need to be unfair to the mounts, of whom all are perfect.

Q: Do you like to live on Azeroth?

Taedal: Better to be living on Azeroth than to be dead somewhere else. So I am not complaining. Taedal: But if I had to choose a retirement resort, I would most certainly not pick Azeroth.

Q: How is your relationship with the other demons of the Golden Torch?

Taedal: They think I am weird but that I know what I am doing so they don’t mind doing what I tell them to do, as long as they have something from it too. And I think that strength is in numbers and there are not many people who listen to you if you don’t have an army. Taedal: So I think we have the “mutual trust and cooperation” relationship.

Q: Can you tell us more about Luxien?

Taedal: She is big and beautiful. By dreadlord standards anyway. She could dress more and her hair has its life on its own, I suppose. She doesn’t as much praise knowledge as experiments, she has to see everything on her own. Taedal: I mean, she is pretty much that kind of a person to whom you tel not to put a fork in an outlet because it’d zap you, and she’d do just that to find out whether it’s true or not. Or maybe even better, she’d find someone else to put the fork there. Taedal: She is also a skilled spellcaster. A fel-mage, if you want. Not really good with weapons, but she never needed them. She is clever enough to booby trap any place she lives, rarely anyone wanders onto her. Taeda: She is also lactose intolerant. No idea what are you going to do with this information.

Q: How would you feel becoming the main character of a fanfic?

Taedal: (Excited bat noises) Taedal: Erhem. I meant… It sounds quite cool.

Q: Your favorite(s) activity(ies) to do?

Taedal: I really love volleyball. And walks with my pets. Seriously, my pets and I spend a lot of time together, whether it’s walk, training, hoofcare, clawcare or things like that.

Q: Any fun fact(s)?

Taedal: My name is in fact Latin taeda, which means torch, with additional L so it looks like a name. Taedal: Luxien, as you have probably guessed at this point, is delivered from lux, which is Latin for light. And Czech for vacuum cleaner, which connects her to her experiments with Void. Taedal: A lot of demons that have to do something with the Golden Torch have light-themed names. When it comes to it, a lot of places on the Forgotten Isle follows the pattern too. Taedal: And Torchkeep is a play on Candlekeep - starting location in Baldur’s Gate. We have a lot of books there too. Just ask Cheret.

Q: One time, we ask you to draw something. You drew seven stickmen. Can we have an explanation or still not?

Taedal: Oh yeah, this… Those were the Seven Deadly Sins. Taedal: Considered my drawing skills, I was seriously thinking about drawing seven different sines, but that’d be too nerd.

Q: Did you and the Golden Torch tried another planets before coming to Azeroth?

Taedal: We had three ideas where to go, Azeroth among them as the Legion’s prime thorn in side. Me and the advisors were voting then with the resut 3:1:1 for Azeroth Taedal: Vand’tet abstained from voting as her idea was “we rush in and kill everyone within the Legion”.

Q: Is Illidan a good godfather or did the Illidari got a new member?

Taedal: Yeah about that… Taedal: I hate to tell you that but it was all fake news. You know, a shipment of damaged pregnancy tests can cause mass panic. Or celebration. Taedal: Illidan was really disappointed he isn’t going to be a godfather. Taedal: The only children we actually got were Garrosh’s 37 adopted ghost children for the simple reason that pregnacy tests have to effect on adoption. Taedal: Of course, Illidan asked Garrosh if he could be godfather of at least one of those children, but Garrosh, being Garrosh, was against that.

Q: How was it among the other Dreadlord?

Taedal: Quite good actually. The arguments could get quite heated and you don’t want to be in a room full of Dreadlords making angry bat noises setting each other aflame, but aside form that it was nice. Taedal: I miss the sleepovers. There is nothing like hanging upside down from the ceiling side by side with your fellows and whispering quietly not to wake the others up.

Q: If you get your own datadisc, what would you do with it?

Taedal: No spoilers, sweetheart, sorry. Where would the thrill of waiting be? Taedal: Well… I guess I can give you a little teaser, so you’re going to be angry with Blizzard for not making it happen anyway. Hold your hats and grab a good chair, here we go! Taedal: A playable demon race with 6 Classes. Hellfire Nights event, celebrated the last week of April and with its own event dungeon. 4 new raids, such as Voidforge or Ivory Sanctum, and 12 new dungeons, for example Cavern of Time: Descension, K’areshan Manaforge or Eternal Prison. Also 4 new big factions with which you may gain reputation. There is a lot of lore explained and some minor interesting things, like Ethereal or Wrathion, will once again be of importance. Not to mention the Fogotten Isle and some distant worlds added as a location. And also a new profession, Painting. Taedal: And I owe Lord Theron ten golds, ‘cause we had a bet going on whether I would or wouldn’t spill the beans. Damned Elves and their psychology.

Q: As we are the First of April, a question of circumstance: Are you a trickster? Or something like that?

Taedal: I wouldn’t call myself a trickster, on the other hand a lot of other people do. For sure I am no such a person as, say, Loki, but I enjoy a good joke just like everyone else. Taedal: What I am trying to say is that from time to time I do a little harmless mischievous joke. But even I admit that making everyone else read 50 Shades of Gray was a kinda… Overboard.

Q: How is the average day for the Golden Torch?

Taedal: We start our day with emergency, because some Voidforge battlesquad has been bored and decided they need their ass kicked and go attack us. Taedal: Then we have a quiet and nice afternoon, everyone minding their own business. Handing out quests, taking care of pets and mounts, preparing lunch and such. Taedal: By lunch usually return the nether-stalkers, so we (and by we I mean I) update the map of the Twisting Nether along with the positions of the Void and Legion forces. Taedal: After that me and my advisors have an argument what are we going to do with it and usually settle with “sabotage but keep low”. Taedal: Later Khadghar pops in to see how are we doing and stuff, so we tell him that nothing unusual happened and there’s nothing to worry about. And so we can proceed to the dinner.

Q: If you could meet the anon who asked for you to exist, what would you do? :)

Taedal: I am not really sure. Maybe hug. Maybe thanks. Most likely I’d play it like no big deal. Taedal: ‘Twas you, wasn’t it?

#world of warcraft #wow #warcrat #Taedal #golden torch #luxien

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kkaadvns-blog · 8 years ago

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have you seen bob morley around here? just kidding, it's kaden mendoza. he is a 29 year old gang leader / underground boxer that has lived in the lake view apt #801 for 11 years. he is known to be intelligent and charming but also reckless and sarcastic if you catch him on a bad day.

*uberhaxornova voice* alright helLO ( watch, no one else knows who that is ) i'm caitlyn, i’m 22, i live in CST and i go by she/her pronouns. this is my trash baby kaden. im v excited to be here & plot with ya’ll!!! speaking of plotting, like this if you wanna plot and i’ll hop into ur ims rEAl quick.. i need all the plots. i have a v basic connection pages up for him HERE, if you wanna take a look @ that and some stats n whatnot below the cut!!

( tw: mentions of death, weapons, drugs, alcohol & violence. )

BIOGRAPHY

was born in oakland, california and lived there until he was 18.

lsn ok kaden grew up… hella wealthy.. however, that money was not really made legally ??

her parents were a part of a v notorious gang in cali and lets just say he didn’t have the most ‘normal’ life growing up bc of if.

even though his parents did that for a living, they tried to keep him and his younger sister out of the loop as best as they could, making a life for their kids that was not a life like their own.

however, he knew there was something up at a very young age, there were far too many times where his parents were gone late at night for him not to catch onto their job positions.

but for the longest time, he just told himself they were doing whatever they needed to do to keep him and his sister safe and left it at that.

being the curious person he was, he ended up sneaking out of her first day of class ( i’m talking middle school here ) one day, tracking down his parents car and found a window that was open and listened to the entire conversation about how they needed to end an opposing gang that was treading too close to her parent’s territory. that’s when he found up they were much higher up in rank than he thought.. like.. leader status

he kept silent about it for a while, dropping subtle hints here and there until his parents finally caught on. they weren’t even mad that he eavesdropped on their conversation, instead they sat him down at a very young age and explained everything they did and why they needed to do it.

not only that, they started training kaden as well, teaching her him to use various weapons, how to pick locks, how to get in and out of places unseen and everything else she would need to know to eventually take their place one day.

much to their surprise, kade picked up on these things as easy as it was for him to breathe the air around them. he was a natural born criminal and that made them proud as can be. but he knew he wasn’t the only child they had, so he started asking questions.

after asking why his parents weren’t teaching these things to his sister, he found out that her life path was not that of their parents. from a young age, his sister wanted to be a cop, so that was what she pursued.

for a while, he couldn’t understand it, wanted to know why his own sister would be on the side that could potentially lock their parents away for the rest of their lives.

but that didn’t matter, she wasn’t even an official officer when kaden had to pll her out of school only to explain to her that their parents died in a crash. it was almost too much for the both of them to deal with, but it also made it clear to kaden why his sister chose a different path.

he knew that crashes happened and for a year or so, he lived with that and just wrote it off as an accident. but what people didn’t know was that he’d become really, really good at hacking into people’s information, finding out that his parents weren’t just killed in the crash, they were murdered. the whole thing was a set up.. done by someone below them in ranks that didn’t like the fact they were in power.

this set kaden off, making her go into this downward spiral that even his sister couldn’t get her out of.

he went out partying at a young age, started doing drugs.. anything that would make her forget about his parents for a while.

not only did that happen though, he became more and more motivated to take over their legacy, bursting in on one of the mafia’s meetings only to punch the person responsible directly in the face. he thought it would get him killed, and there was a part of him that didn’t care. but it didn’t, in fact it not only scared the other mafia members, but it instilled a respect for him in them that he had gotten from her parents.

things were find for a while, he was 16 and living with his aunt, uncle and sister.. all of whom tried to keep tabs on him as much as they could, but even that didn’t help them when he had a con-artist of a boy who paid people to lie for him about his whereabouts and things like that, but they tried and that was enough for him because it showed that they all loved him and cared.

but things changed once again when he turned 17, his uncle catching him trying to steal clothes from the store. and instead of reporting kaden himself, his uncle took him straight to his younger sister. needless to say, she was probably a little more harsh on him thans he should have been given that it was her brother.. she put him in a cell for a good three weeks, probation after that and that was when he started to dislike her and her life choices.

after his probation was over, he knew she needed to get out, go somewhere where no one knew his name, no one knew what happened to his parents nor the ties he now had with the same gang that got his parents killed. so she made the choice to move to chicago. he’d seen articles on it and fell in love so he figured why not?

shortly after that, he found out that he could do dangerous things for a living and basically tried to do anything and everything he could that was considered reckless. falling into the underground life.

he quickly began climbing the ranks in the gang in chicago and the boxing ring he’d gotten into after a flawless first 10 fights, his opponents not even touching him.

now? he’s pretty well known in the underground scene, feared by a lot due to his brash and blunt behavior. not to mention the fact he’s gone untouched in every boxing match he’s had in years.

however, outside of the underground life, he tells people he’s just a trust fund baby who was left with the amount of money he has, making sure his other life doesn’t get out to the general public.

PERSONALITY

while kaden is sarcastic and blunt, he’s extremely outgoing, intelligent and charming when he wants to be.

he normally get along with everyone because he lives his life as chill as he possibly can. sure, there are some people that annoy him but he has never hated anyone other than the person that killed his parents.

loves to party, drink… be wild, do stupid things.

is the dude that probably sends half nude photos to his friends 2 see if they’re up to par ?? like ‘hey do u think this is good enough 2 send’

will want to go to a bar, club or party with everyone because that’s where he feels more comfortable.

extremely reckless.. like probably will suggest they break into a park of something after hours just to go exploring in the dark??

curses like a daMN SAILOR

drinks…. a lot… like….. way more than he should.. probs bleeds whiskey

always has bruised knuckles or a black eye or SOMETHING from his boxing matches

owns a motorcycle.. and its literally his baby

… he flirts… with everyone and is rather amorous. meaning there’s a 99.9% chance he will try 2 sleep with everyone because that’s just his ‘thing’

wears glasses 2 read, but hates them w a passion so he tries not to use them when he’s in public bc she doesn’t wanna get made fun of??

extremely into netflix n chill……. yikes

can cook like a five star chef?? yet he rarely cooks for himself.

a little guarded at first but once those walls are down, and he can trust you, he considers you a friend.

the people he trusts fully though?? shit, he’d do anything and everything for.. like he’d even take a bullet for them ??

dom af & proud.

also might be slightly addicted to sex but he tries to keep that on the dl... ( sIKE hes a hOE )

plays video games whenever he gets the chance, reads comic books and is a marvel & dc hoe.. honestly.

acts like he’s okay all of the time even if he’s not because he doesn’t want to burden people with his problems, they have enough to deal w as it is.

fluent in quite a few languages.

knows how to hack into people’s things or places and does that sometimes whenever he’s bored or looking for new clients / members ??

a burnt cupcake who’s trying

STATS

BASICS

Full Name: Kaden James Mendoza. Nickname(s): Kade, K, Mendoza, M, Boss. Age: Twenty-nine. Date of Birth: October 31st. Zodiac Sign: Scorpio. Place of Birth: Oakland, California. Ethnicity: Filipino / Caucasian. Nationality: Filipino / American. Gender: Male. Sexual Orientation: Bisexual. Romantic Orientation: Bisexual. Religion: N/A. Occupation: Gang Leader / Underground Boxer. Language(s) Spoken: Filipino, Spanish, French, Welsh, German, Gaelic, Russian, Italian & Japanese. Accent: None.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Face Claim: Bob Morley. Hair Color: Brown. Eye Color: Brown.. Height: 6′ 2″. Weight: 224 lbs. Build: Fit.. Tattoos: X, X, X, X ( ribs only ), X ( back of left calf ), X. Piercings: None.

PERSONALITY

Label: The Cataclysmic / The Dirtbag. Positive Traits: Intelligent, Charming, Adventurous. Negative Traits: Reckless, Sarcastic, Flirtatious. Fears: Arachnophobia & Claustrophobia. Hobbies: Playing video games, drinking, partying, riding motorcycles / atvs, boxing, reading comic books, watching old movies, cooking. Quirks: Believes in karma, fights for animals rights, fights for gender & marriage equality, owns an outrageous amount of shoes, drinks lots of water, works out once a day, fidgets constantly, knows how to code websites, knows a lot of useless trivia.

FAMILY

Father: Tomas Mendoza. ( deceased. ) Mother: Aurora Smith-Mendoza. ( deceased. ) Sibling(s): Younger sister. ( one year younger / alive. ) Pet(s): One husky named Balto and one Persian tuxedo cat named Lucifer. Financial Status: Wealthy.

TESTS

Myers-Briggs: ENTP-A Enneagram: Type 8 ( The Challenger. ) Temperament: Sanguine. Hogwarts House: Slytherin.

#( — ooc. )#chicago:intro #hELLO #this is long af im sorry i ramBLE

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comiccrusaders · 8 years ago

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ON THE LEVEL GAME STUDIOS LAUNCHES ROCK-N-ROGUE: A BOO BUNNY PLAGUE ADVENTURE FOR PC TODAY

Sequel to Boo Bunny Plague Delivers Strangest Gathering of Hellions to Compete in the Fieriest Battle of the Bands…Ever!

A dungeon crawling, Heavy Metal musical melee from indie developer On The Level Game Studios, shreds its way onto Steam today. Players take part in the “hottest” battle of the bands competition in the Underworld, where the Devil (concert promoter) makes them do it…literally. Jam with Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure in a ridiculously intense, 3rd person top-down adventure with outrageous humor, absurd characters and packed with mayhem, monsters, music and magic…a head-banging gamers dream come true. Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure is now available for Windows PC via Steam, for $8.99 USD.

In Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure, players can choose from four twisted but musically gifted characters – our eponymous hero Bunny (lead), his robotic pal Gunny (drums), the powerful pachyderm Ganny (bass) as well as favorite-of-the-underworld and the spawn of Satan herself, Faye (backup vocals).Each character features their own powerful musical instrument which delivers a unique fighting style — critical as the heroic garage band enters the depths of darkness and battles their way through the nine layers of Hades and beyond. Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure also features: procedurally generated worlds to keep the action almost demonic, “Go Rogue” modes which are unlocked after completing the main game for new and tougher challenges with no saves or continues, dozens of godly weapons with special elemental powers, instrument upgrades to amplify the jam, Boomboxes with mysterious abilities, and of course bat-$%!@ crazy Bosses.

“Our last game Boo Bunny Plague was a hack and slash music adventure, done our way and after we finished that up we thought wow where do we go next?” stated Jeff Reimert, Chief Executive Officer, On The Level Game Studios. “Music is what makes us who we are and our style and approach is unique in a way that is all our own. Once we landed on a dungeon crawler for the sequel, we knew we had to level it up on the audio front and we got lucky – we found mc chris, a popular rapper focused on nerd life and we knew he was a perfect match.”

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This small indie team out of Houston, Texas is one with true heart. The adage “Good friends who play together stay together” exemplifies the camaraderie here between the three top members of the team. With a common love for music, and jamming together whenever they can, they’ve been resolute in taking their passions and creating a unique twist on classic game genres. Following their first two titles, the team recruited mc chris, popular rapper focused on nerd life and writer, performer, actor and animator – his works include The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the award-winning Space Ghost. In addition, industry veteran John Melchior (The Allegiant, Ghostbusters, The Videogame, Scarface The World is Yours, The Simpsons: Hit & Run and Aliens Versus Predator 2), worked alongside other senior level talent whose portfolio includes God of War III, Pokemon Go, Ghostbusters: The Videogame, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Ratchet & Clank, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted 2 and Crash Bandicoot 2, among others.

Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure is brought to you by On The Level Game Studios, creators of Boo Bunny Plague and survival horror golf game Curse of the Nordic Cove.

For more information on Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure, hop on over to: http://onthelevelgames.com/.

Follow On the Level Game Studios on Twitter: @OnTheLevelGames Like On the Level Game Studios on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OnTheLevelGameStudios Check the game out on Steam: http://www.onthelevelgames.com/RockNRogue

About On The Level Game Studios In May 2011, the jar of On The Level Game Studios was opened. The lid was stuck; so eight Houstonians with their talents and rubber gloves arrived at the scene to lend a hand. Soon after, the first game title was all over the table, the floor and their parachute pantsuits. The team grew to 12 including programmers, artists, sales and marketing, producers, musicians and evil-doers. Nearly five years later, the table and floor were cleaned (pants were stained – thanks, Brand X!), and the team (still six members strong) have two titles released The Curse of Nordic Cove and Boo Bunny Plague and now launching their third – Rock-N-Rogue: A Boo Bunny Plague Adventure (with the support of some very talented individuals who jumped in (no parachutes) and just dove right in.)

The Bunny is Back! ON THE LEVEL GAME STUDIOS LAUNCHES ROCK-N-ROGUE: A BOO BUNNY PLAGUE ADVENTURE FOR PC TODAY Sequel to Boo Bunny Plague Delivers Strangest Gathering of Hellions to Compete in the Fieriest Battle of the Bands…Ever!

#3rdperson #On The Level Game Studios #videogames

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