#like someone had thrown a fireball at earth

[kindafooey]

So I have the vibrant northern lights mod installed in Skyrim even though I'm not a huge fan of it because it makes me go "lol these lights look fake as hell hashtag actually lappish hashtag hollywood aurora hashtag they do not fucking look like that" but like. occasionally we get nights like this one when I look up at the sky and it's like

and like, yeah, okay, sometimes they do get that big and intense

[sxfik]

and when the seasons change (will you stand by me?)

read on ao3 • main masterlist • law school masterlist

summary: when kang sol's mother has to work late, she has to take care of byeol. it's just her luck that she has an exam the next day, one for professor yang of all people. joon hwi, being the kind classmate he is, offers to study with her.

or: byeol is solhwi mastermind, and she's says everything we wanted to say to the two dummies.

request by anon: hiya! saw that you do solhwi prompts so I was thinking that Sol A has to babysit byeol but there's a big test the next day so she calls joon hwi over to help her w studying. meanwhile byeol(being iconic) tries to set them up in true shipper fashion.

a/n: this is based on a request i got on tumblr, pictured above! i have around 5 (ish) fics that will go out over the week so stay tuned for those lmao! uh yeah, i don't really know what else to say other than im really sad law school ended so i've just been sad and mopey, but still writing to fill that hole. as always, enjoy <333

Although Joon Hwi was the 'star' student of Hankuk Law School, he was never much for studying. It's not because everything came to him that easily, but because finding the strength to concentrate and study when he could be hanging out with his friends or doing anything better with his time was insanely tempting. Finding the effort to get to the library, and read up on his textbooks was arduous and he always found it easier to study by himself, no distractions around. This was, of course, until Kang Sol came along. For Joon Hwi, everything in his life was turned on its axis when she came into his life.

When he first met her, in Professor Yang's class, she was just the poor girl being grilled by the professor. His heart went out to her, watching her pull her hair out of the bun to avoid the question. He didn’t know what possessed him to answer for her, but he assumed it to be a one time thing. But from the moment she crashed into him yelling "Second Round Judicial Exam, save me!", he was stuck on her.

Slowly, she was everywhere in his life, from the study group to the legal clinic to a majority of his classes. Unlike so many of his classmates, who were by the book and generally clinical in personality, she was a fireball of energy and passion. In class, despite not being the best student, she would argue with so much passion and energy that it was impossible to win against her. It was fascinating, watching her connect and jump from case to case. She would throw herself into everything she believed in, which included defending him from the school and his uncle.

Joon Hwi has liked girls before, but he's never been so captivated and head-over-heels for anyone in his life. Love and dating seemed secondary, and he preferred to keep it out of his life until he reached his goals. You could call him selfish but he prefers to call it being focused on his goals. He's always had one goal in life, and it was to work with the law, whether as a judge or working as police or as a prosecutor.

Yet, if Kang Sol was in the room, his eyes were on her. Whether she was frustrated at him or teasing him or gleeful with him, he couldn't help but smile at her. If she was around, he was right by her side, making her laugh or cringe or annoyed.

So there he was, studying in the school library with Kang Sol. Professor Yang’s exam was right around the corner and unlike last time, he cannot miss the comma in the given case. Plus, he doesn’t even have the excuse of being accused of a murder this time, so both Sol and Joon Hwi were hunched over their books, pouring into the texts when Kang Sol’s phone blared loudly from her bag, startling them both.

Sol cringed as she dug around in her cloth bag, the classic dirty looks tossed her way by the sleep deprived students as she stood to leave the library and take the call. He buried himself back into the textbook, but the concentration was lost and he was more interested in the call she’d gotten than ins and outs of defamation laws.

Around 10 minutes later, Sol was speeding back to her chair, the phone clutched firmly in her hand. But Joon hwi could see her frustration from a mile away. Her face held that pout, her eyebrows furrowed and grumbling under her breath. It was adorable.

But he was worried, considering it was the day before the exam, Sol couldn’t afford to be distracted from her studies. He wasn’t blind to her struggles in school, but Joon Hwi never considered her lesser than him for not being able to pick up the concepts with speed.

Unlike him, and a majority of his classmates, she had passion and a heart when dealing with clients. He could see it in her mannerisms with clients in the legal clinic, patiently explaining the clause or the issues they might face to the client. She’s sympathetic to the max, always hearing out the client’s grievances before making a judgement on what they had done. She was exactly what the world needed: a sympathetic, patient lawyer that was willing to fight for the client, someone that they can cling to. He and every professor in the school knew it, but it seemed Sol was the only one who never realized how essential she was.

Suddenly, he felt himself getting up to gather his materials with her without a second thought, despite the confused look Sol shot him. He wasn’t sure what exactly possessed him to do it, but he knew that if she wasn’t there, he didn’t want to study at the library either. Grinning at her, he walked out, side by side until they were outside the quiet library. She paused in her tracks all of a sudden, taking him by surprise and he paused too, looking back at her, tilting his head in confusion.

"My mom needs to work late today, so I need to rush home and take care of Byeol," she looked up at him finally, her face apologetic. "I'm sorry, Joon hwi but I don't think I'll be able to study for the exam with you," she started to walk away, but he couldn't let her go that easily.

"I'll come with you," he offered, surprising himself, "I'll study with you. Plus, it'll be easier to take care of Byeol with two people than one, right?"

She paused, looking back at him, conflicted. Sighing, Joon Hwi stepped closer to her. "Come on, let's not keep her waiting. Shall we?" He was determined to keep her company, especially since she’d have less time to study since she’d have to take care of Byeol. It was easier this way, and I’d do this for any friend he told himself.

The ride there was slow and quiet, but not an uncomfortable one. They both walked in tandem, with their backpacks filled with everything they'd possibly need to study, and even the bus ride was peaceful, the two of them staring out the window, watching the scenery pass by them. Joon hwi sat beside her, rather than across from her like last time, just to save space on the bus. On the very empty bus they were riding together.

Days like this, where the air was heavy and humid, the earth preparing for a heavy rain, were the most comforting types of days. The air was still warm and humid, making Sol’s hair poof out slightly, her naturally wavy hair frizzing out of her bun. The feeling of her beside him, as if this was a regular ritual for both of them, brought a sense of content in his heart. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, whether it was the girl beside him or the past year’s chaos, but watching the trees and the traffic pass by them brought more peace to his life than ever.

The two made their way into the alleyway, where Joon hwi had once stood guard of when Lee Man Ho once lived, threatening her family. He's standing in front of Kang Sol's house behind her, holding her backpack in hand as she struggles with the keys.

Finally, finally, she gets the door open, and a figure zips by, crashing into Sol. Byeol’s arms wrapped Sol's waist, like the adorable sister she is. Sol stumbled back into him slightly at the sudden weight thrown onto her, but nonetheless, crouched to envelop her sister in a bone-crushing hug. Joon hwi couldn’t help but smile at the two sisters, their love for each other enveloping him

"Unnie!" she grinned up at her, "Did you bring him with you?" Her eyes were serious and wide as Sol opened her mouth to answer.

"Byeol-ah!" Joon hwi yelled out from behind Sol, peaking out to see the 8-year old grinning at him, much wider than she did at Sol. Ha!

"Joonhwi-oppa!" the girl squealed out, leaving Sol's grip to run to him. As she ran to him, he picked her up and twirled her in the air, the girl's giggles echoing through the small alleyway as the two greeted each other.

Sol, standing by the door, smiled faintly before calling out, "Come in, before either of you catch a cold!" Both of them filed in, incessantly chattering as if they hadn't seen each other in months, even though it had only been two weeks since Joon hwi had been by to take the two sisters out to the park.

"Oppa! Why did you come with Unnie?" Byeol asked, finally being set down inside the house, looking up at him curiously as Sol

"Ah, we have an exam tomorrow, so I'm here to study with her," Joon hwi replied.

"Good," the girl jumped onto the couch. "Unnie needs a lot of help," the girl quipped back, nodding her head solemnly, making her look a lot older than 8 years.

"Yah Kang Byeol!" Sol exclaimed, indignantly. Joon hwi chuckled at the two as Sol turned to him. "Here, we can work in the dining room," she moved to grab her backpack from him, stepping towards the dining room.

"NO!" Byeol yelled out at the both of them, her hand flying out to stop the two of them, "Unnie, you should work in your room instead! You know I'll be watching TV and obviously, it'd be too loud for you to focus," the girl rushed out, her doe-eyes a bit too wide, her voice a little too innocent. She is definitely plotting something, Joon hwi narrowed his eyes at her but she avoided the look, choosing to jump off the couch and walk towards them instead.

Before either of them could protest, the girl pushed the both of them towards, presumably, Kang Sol's bedroom. Sol awkwardly laughed at him, Joon hwi shooting her an amused look. They awkwardly stood in her room, Joon hwi avoiding her gaze and choosing to look at the walls instead. Her room here looked similar to the one she had back on campus. Her desk was stacked to the max, sticky notes lining the walls with old reminders and little notes of encouragement. It was neat, but brightly colored, which suited Sol so very well.

“Let’s get started shall we?” Sol finally said, clearing her throat, gesturing for him to set down his books. He obliged, sitting at her desk while she chose her bed. They both set up all their materials, the awkward silence shifting into a peaceful one, the two working themselves into a comfortable rhythm.

It had been almost an hour of straight studying, both of them regurgitating criminal codes and case precedents from memory. Joon hwi was sure that by this point that his mind was complete mush, and Sol was starting to wither, her eyes almost glazed over while she started into one of her casefiles. Her hair was a lot puffier than it was when they started. Turns out, Sol had a habit of ruffling her hair with her pencil each time she was confused or working herself too hard, which was often.

“Let’s take a break shall we? I’m going to get a glass of water,” he said, standing up and stretching his arms out, trying to put the two out of their misery. He yawned, the stiffness in his muscles finally noticeable when he stretched out. She nodded back to him, yawning and stretching out in her chair, before she picked up her phone to check some messages.

He walked out of her room and back to the living room, where byeol was still glued to her seat, her eyes on the TV playing some cartoon. Heading over to the dining table, he poured himself a glass of water with the pitcher, before heading back to check on Byeol.

“What’s this show called?” he asked her, taking a sip of the water while watching the show with her.

“Hm?” Byeol turned to him, “Oh, it’s this show about two kids who set out to find a treasure mapped out by their parents,” she explained, gesturing towards him to take a seat beside him. He obliged, opting to sit beside the girl, both their eyes glued to the screen. A few moments passed by, before the little girl turned towards him.

“You know, my sister’s favorite color is dark green. Not like emerald green, but forest green tinted with some dark blue,” Byeol said nonchalantly. Joon Hwi’s eyebrows furrowed, confused as to why the girl is telling this to him. “And, her favorite ice cream is this nutella infused one that you get down the street, closer to the town square. It’s been her favorite since she was little,” she continued, not giving his confusion any heed. The girl rapidly started telling him facts about her dear sister, all the while confusion took over his features.

“Joonhwi-oppa,” she squinted at him, pausing as her face grew serious, “You like my sister, don’t you?” He sputtered, choking and coughing out the water. “I knew it!” she excitedly squealed.

“Byeol, byeol, shh, you can’t let your sister know okay,” he brought a finger to his lips, his eyes alarmed. For an 8 year old, Byeol was surprisingly cunning and observant. She had managed to figure out what he had been struggling with for the past year after just a few short visits. They shared a look of understanding between the two, before the girl turned her attention to the show, leaving Joon Hwi walking back to Sol’s room. The Kang Sisters,  he shook his head, laughing as he thought, what a perfect duo.

bonus

It had been almost 3 hours of studying together before Kang Sol realized that the sun had set outside, and all of a sudden, they were in a rush to clean up. Joon hwi had to leave before the dorms closed entrance and because of their studying, the two of them had their head buried in books since the time they got to her house.

She was glad to have him over though. Despite her hesitation at the school and fears of inconveniencing him, having Joon hwi made the process a lot smoother. With his careful and gentle help, she had a much easier time understanding the concepts and she was eternally grateful, considering Professor Yang’s exams were always some of the toughest.

They were rushing out of the house, his backpack in her hand as he hurriedly put on his shoes and stepped outside the house. But before Joon hwi could turn with a hurried goodbye, she called out to him, her breath suddenly lodged in her throat.

“Thank you,” she quietly told him, the prospect of looking into his eyes as he leaned over her doorstep daunting. “Thank you for helping me, Joon hwi, it was really kind of you,” she beamed at him, trying to convey her gratitude and more in the only way she knew possible.

They both paused, looking at each other as the air got thicker between them, as if a string was drawing him closer to her. She watched as he swallowed slightly, his adam’s apple moving slightly before he let out a soft “You’re welcome,” and a classic smile, before he rushed out, trying to catch his bus.

She sighed, watching him as he rushed off, capturing the bus. Soon, she thought, Soon, I’ll tell him how I feel. She reassured herself, turning around only to find Byeol hiding behind a pillar.

“Byeol? What are you doing, weren’t you watching a show?” she questioned her sister, but Byeol made no response. Suddenly her sister frowned at her, muttering something about how can she possibly be a lawyer and she’s so blind, leaving her in utter confusion at the front steps.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

Some mechanical notes on Arcane Gate

With Warlock 11, Fjord acquires a 6th level Mystic Arcanum, and with 2.127, we learned his choice is Arcane Gate! It’s a fun spell, more like Symmetra’s teleporter than Portal’s... portals, and I thought I’d do a quick rundown on its mechanics, limitations, advantages, how it works, and other minutiae. Especially since there’s a bunch of common misconceptions about how the spell works. Here’s the full text:

6th level Conjuration 1 action, range of 500 ft, up to 10 minutes of concentration Components: Verbal, Somatic

You create linked teleportation portals that remain open for the duration. Choose two points on the ground that you can see, one point within 10 feet of you and one point within 500 feet of you. A circular portal, 10 feet in diameter, opens over each point. If the portal would open in the space occupied by a creature, the spell fails, and the casting is lost.

The portals are two-dimensional glowing rings filled with mist, hovering inches from the ground and perpendicular to it at the points you choose. A ring is visible only from one side (your choice), which is the side that functions as a portal.

Any creature or object entering the portal exits from the other portal as if the two were adjacent to each other; passing through a portal from the nonportal side has no effect. The mist that fills each portal is opaque and blocks vision through it. On your turn, you can rotate the rings as a bonus action so that the active side faces in a different direction.

Notable Limitations

To point out one of the biggest limitations of the spell, also pointed out in the episode: “that you can see” requires that Fjord must be able to see the location of both portals, the one next to him and the one 500 ft away. This is a major limitation as that potentially lengthy offers many an opportunity for something to obscure line of sight: buildings, landscapes, crowds, fog, darkness.

There is also the clause “on the ground”. This prohibits placing either portal in mid-air, directly onto a wall, above open water (though nothing necessarily says you cannot put it on a seafloor or submerged riverbed, just not above the water itself), and similar. So, both points selected must be on a surface that is either literal earth or a floor, i.e. one portal on the tenth floor of a tower and the other in a garden glimpsed through a window. At what point is the ground too steep to be the ground, though? That seems to be a DM fiat question to me. (I have a small post musing about that.)

Both portals are also described as “hovering inches from the ground and perpendicular to it at the points you choose”. This generally limits the portals to a vertical orientation. In other words, it will always be a doorway. This means that you cannot fall into a portal nor can you drop something through it, meaning all the Portal shenanigans of the conservation of momentum of an infinitely falling object cannot be replicated with this spell. (Momentum is otherwise conserved, though! The portals simply link two points in space.)

Hovering inches above the ground also means that, potentially, sliding things into the portal will face a bit of a challenge because arguably, if it’s too short or flat, it will slide underneath and past the portal and, if it’s a larger object, it will bump into the portal as if there’s a ledge or sill.

Because the spell does not include language that allows the caster to restrict who may pass through the portals, this means that anyone may freely do so, even if the caster does not wish so.

Technically, per RAW, one cannot peer through the portals like a window: “The mist that fills each portal is opaque and blocks vision through it.” This means that spells requiring line of sight, such as Disintegrate, cannot be cast through the portals. However, Matt described in-game that when Fjord creates the second portal the fog in the first portal “suddenly dissipates, like someone had thrown a droplet into still water” and that as the fog scatters, the group can see directly through the portals to the other side. This description implies line of sight, so here, spells requiring line of sight can be cast through it. Whether this will remain true in the future, we will see.

Notable Advantages

There is no limitation on the number of creatures, objects, or combination of both that pass through the portals, and the caster is not required to go as well. The only real limitation is size; the creature or object must fit within a 10 ft diameter. This makes it good for teleporting a large number of creatures at a time or, because it lacks a clause about carrying capacity like Dimension Door, objects that cannot be carried, i.e. Levitate a very heavy object through the portals. One can also definitely throw something through the portal, such as a flask of alchemist’s fire.

The portals are also two-way: any creature or object that passes through the portals can then return back through it, and ten minutes is a decent length of time. Long enough to, say, teleport into a room, quickly locate an object within that room, then leave again. It functions very well as a “get in, quickly get back out” spell.

As displayed in the episode, the portals are visible from the active side only. This allows them to be well hidden, such as by conjuring it an inch from a wall and turning it so the active side is facing the wall. Since the portals are stated to be two-dimensional, arguably they cannot be seen or interacted with from any angle other than straight on. However, because they’re glowing, they do shed light that will likely be reflected off nearby surfaces or visible in the dark even if you’re looking from the incorrect angle.

As a note, the portal is not said to be invisible from other angles; the portal is stated as “visible only from one side”. Therefore, arguably, See Invisibility cannot see the portals from the incorrect angle, though Detect Magic will.

Nothing in the language of the spell prevents magic from being cast through the portals, save for the previously mentioned note about line of sight. Fireball can be cast through the portal.

[babyboiboyega]

Undercover (Korra x reader)

Pairing: Korra x reader

Content: some violence

Word Count: 1.9k

Babyboiboyega’s LOK Masterlist

Babyboiboyega’s Masterlist of Masterlists

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She had done multiple undercover jobs before, but she had never been as deep undercover as she was now. Granted, she had only been undercover for a few weeks, but she could’ve sworn that the weeks were going by as slow as they possibly could.

Of course she felt honored that Chief Lin had trusted her enough to go through with the job, but it would’ve been a little better if she had a partner; someone who she could genuinely trust on to have her back, should things go wrong. But she had gotten this far, and she was sure that today would be her last day playing the role of a gang member. That fact made her shoulders sag with relief, though they quickly tensed again as she approached the subtle, yet misleading, door that led to the gang’s main area of operations.

Her eyes glanced around, making sure that the eyes of bystanders didn’t stray her way, before knocking a series a knocks on the door. No sooner than she had completed the pattern was the door swinging open, the smell of stale and sweaty air hitting her face. She squared her shoulders back, morphing her face into an expression of indifference before stepping forward.

The door slammed shut behind her, echoing through the hallway that stretched before her. The loud sound always set her nerves on edge, but she had quickly learned to not show one sign of discomfort in the faces of the gang members around her.

The echoes faded and left only the sound of her footsteps bouncing off the walls of the tunnel-like hallway. The closer she got to the end of the hallway, the easier she could make out the sounds of machinery and voices. The air also became stuffier, hotter, the closer she neared the end.

She kept her gaze forward as she walked past the vast number of machines pumping spirit energy into huge, glass beakers. Every once in a while she could hear the garage door open on the other side of the room, undoubtedly a new case of captured spirits. Every encaged spirit her eyes flitted over made her want to absolutely destroy the very  building she walked in, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle the several gang members that were scattered around the room. There would be a day where she’d enter the room again, but instead of posing as a gang member she’d be apart of the group who would arrest them. The thought almost made a small, self-satisfied smirk appear on her face. It quickly disappeared, though, the second loud voices rang out across the room.

Her eyes snapped in the direction of the commotion right as two gang members ran around the corner, faces a mixture of anger and nervousness. One of them continued to run towards the room where the “boss” resided while the other stood in the middle of the room, cupping his hands around his mouth and yelling over the sounds of the machines.

“We’ve been made! Take what you can and meet at the trucks! We’re going to the secondary location!”

She couldn’t help her eyes widening at the mentioning of a secondary location. As long as she had been in the middle of the gang’s operations, she had never heard of a “secondary location”; it made her question what else she had yet to learn.

It took her less than a second to jump into action along with those around her, her feet carrying her in the direction of the garage. As she ran, she followed the actions of everyone else and pulled a mask over her face, realizing that the last thing she needed right now was to be recognized by whoever would burst through the wall.

The trucks made a commotion as they all started up, Y/N managing to haul herself on the back of one right as the wall next to them exploded into pieces.

She had to hold onto the sides of the truck as it sped out of the garage, turning the corner and beginning its speedy chase down the streets of Republic City. She turned towards the opening in the back of the truck, her eyes instantly landing on a familiar vehicle that gained on them.

“Throw everything you have at them!” A voice called from the front of the truck right before a handful of them stood up, doing exactly as told. As she watched, the vehicle dodged large chunks of the street being thrown at them as well as fireballs that were relentlessly thrown. Without looking at the driver, she knew it could only be one person driving the vehicle that expertly, and the realization made everything that much more complicated. If Asami was here, that meant she wasn’t too far behind.

She tuned back into the events transpiring right as the sound of police vehicles reached her ears, several of them rounding around the corner they had just passed. She had barely registered them before she heard the familiar ‘thwip’ of the metal benders’ cables; a sound she was so accustomed to. Within seconds, two of the members had been pulled from the truck, their bodies rolling across the ground as the truck continued to speed. The vehicles chasing them seemed to slow down as they drove past the bodies, but she knew what was about to happen; her hand flew out and grasped the railing at the edge of the truck right as it skidded to a deafening stop, her body being thrown, but not as far as those who had nothing to hold onto.

“Why do you all have a tendency to run all the time? You wouldn’t have to run if you all just followed the law.”

The voice made her eyes widen, yet not in surprise; more like in frustration at the level of complication this entire job had just reached. Her mind raced with ways to get out of this situation without blowing her cover, and each one seemed crazier than the last.

Multiple footsteps sounded as the police vehicles around them came to a stop, instantly surrounding the truck. They had only gotten a few feet within the truck when the members quickly righted themselves, sending everything they had once again. Before she could even stop herself, think about the consequences of her actions, she found herself raising her hands, sending chunks of earth in the direction of the metal benders. She watched as one piece of earth hit one of her fellow earth bender’s in the abdomen, not being able to hold back her wince. She would surely have to apologize for that once she was back in the station.

Her millisecond of hesitation was all it took for a cable to wrap around her midsection and pull her forward. Her body wanted to act on instinct; twist in the way she was taught in cadet training to unwound the cable from around her, but her undercover personality had no cadet training. Her undercover personality had no idea how to disarm a metal bending police officer; it was rather peculiar, keeping her body from acting on instincts.

Instead, she clenched both fists and raised them quickly, effectively raising a jagged, piece of earth and severing the cable around her. As soon as the cable was cut, she found herself flying towards the familiar vehicle that had been at the front of the chase. She quickly curled in on herself right before she hit the hood of the vehicle, making a good sized dent in the metal frame.

She had barely had time to even let out a groan before she was being pulled off of the hood harshly.

“Look’s like you were a flyaway, literally.” If not for the waves of pain wracking through her body, she would have maybe cracked a small smile from under her mask at Korra’s typical witty one-liners. But she had a job to do right now; a job that didn’t include laughing at her best friend’s jokes.

As soon as Korra had turned towards the police vehicles, dragging her by the back of her shirt, Y/N stomped her foot against the ground, making a small piece of earth raise beneath her. It rose fast enough to catch Korra off-guard, even for a second, and it made her grip loosen altogether on Y/N’s shirt.

She jumped off of the raised pillar and hit the ground running, her eyes focused on the handful of members who had managed to escape the cables and who had managed to make it back to the truck. It was now peeling off in a series of loud screeches and leaving a dust cloud behind as it fled the scene. If she could just get close enough-

A gust of wind picked her up- no, quite literally picked her up- and she hung suspended in the air as multiple gusts of wind swirled around her, threatening to rip her mask off of her face. She had just managed to raise her hands and hold her mask in it’s place before the wind disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, and then she was falling. She braced herself, ready to hit the ground in the safest way possible. Her breath was stolen as another gust of wind, a gust that felt more like a punch, hit her square in the chest, knocking her into a vehicle unfortunate enough to be on the street in that moment.

She had been punched, kicked, even thrown before, but never by the Avatar; it felt different than being hit by a mere gang member.

Her eyes were squeezed shut, afraid that if she were to open them the world would start spinning and never stop; they stayed shut even as she heard footsteps approaching her.

“If you promise not to throw any more earth at me, I’ll let you walk to the police truck.” She lifted her head and opened her eyes right as Korra reached down, seizing her by her arms and hauling her upright. “Now let’s see who’s under the mask.”

Her words had just registered in Y/N’s mind when her hand grasped the bottom of the mask and pulled quickly. Korra’s movements halted immediately as soon as Y/N’s face was revealed, her eyebrows furrowing in disbelief.

“Y/N?” Her voice held equal measures of confusion, bewilderment, and…hurt.

She knew exactly why she hadn’t wanted her cover to be blown, especially by Korra. She had had no idea how Korra would have reacted, but now she saw her reaction up close, and she felt a small twinge of regret.

“I can explain everything, Korra.”

Her mouth opened but words seemed to escape her, and she stayed that way until Chief Lin appeared behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Korra, we’ll explain everything later. Act as if you don’t know her right now.” She paused, watching Korra’s reaction and sighing when there was no reaction, “I’ll take her to the transporter. Meet us at the station.”

Without another word Lin reached forward, grabbing Y/N’s arm and pulling her in the direction of the police transporter.

Korra’s eyes followed Y/N’s figure, her mind trying to connect the dots as to why she had been among the members they had been chasing. Her mind held multiple questions, and she was going to get answers to every single one of them.

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I wrote this a few weeks ago, and I’m just now posting it! It’s also unedited in case you see any mistakes! I also plan on making a part two to this!

I hope you all enjoyed this! Stay safe, y’all!

[not-all-dead]

angstpril day two: sole survivor

CW: lots and lots of death, su*cide at the end

fic under the cut

It was too much chaos. He could barely tell what was going on, his senses overwhelmed by everything. He couldn’t take it.

“Bolin, watch out!” Someone screamed at him.

Opal.

There wasn’t time to think. He ripped a hole in the earth below him and dropped in. A roaring fireball passed overhead just as he bent the earth back over him.

At least it was quieter here. It was cold, too. Cold and damp. He sank to the ground and pulled his knees to his chest. His was breathing quickly, and his eyes were watering. He stared into the darkness in front of him, trying to calm himself down.

The ground shook too often. He flinched at every tremor, trying not to imagine what had caused it. Trying not to imagine who’d have been hurt this time. It was especially difficult when there were screams. He felt tears tracing down his cheeks, but made no move to get rid of them. He felt frozen in place, the earth surrounding him a comfort yet also a prison.

He took to counting the seconds between blasts, timing each tremor that wracked through the ground. It was horrifying how frequent they were, but at least it was something to focus his mind on.

One, two, three.

Boom.

One, two.

Boom.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Boom.

One, two, three, four, five.

Boom.

One, two.

Boom.

He kept counting, the time between blasts gradually increasing.

How long had it been? The ground no longer shook. He couldn’t hear screams anymore. He couldn’t hear anything anymore. His cheeks had dried, his breathing evened out. The air in the space around him was stuffy, damper now than it had been at first. Warmer, too.

He didn’t want to go back up. He was used to the dark now, used to the safety of the earth all around him. Here, he could imagine that the screams had been of the White Lotus. Here, he could still convince himself that they’d won.

Three-hundred and forty-two, three-hundred and forty-three, three hundred and forty-four.

It had been too long since the last blast. He had to go up.

He started to push the roof of his hole up, carefully lifting it until he saw light. He pushed it to the side and had to cover his eyes, the cloudy sky above still significantly brighter than it had been underground. He stood up but didn’t climb fro the hole yet. Instead, he listened. For anything, for everything.

There was a faint crackly of fire somewhere nearby. The air was still, the trees quiet without wind blowing through their leaves. His own breathing was the loudest thing around. There should have been more noise. There should have been, but there wasn’t.

He bent the floor beneath his feet up until he could step onto the solid ground. He spun in a slow circle to take in everything around him. It was so much worse than he ever could have imagined.

A massive fire raged through the forest in one direction, demolishing everything in its path. The smell of burning was strong in the air, smoke rising overhead. Next to the flaming forest was the Air Temple. At least, what had once been the Air Temple. Most of the building was collapsed into a massive pit of lava that seethed and bubbled below. What still stood was crumbling in on itself.

There was a pool of water in the other direction, yellow and orange strewn throughout it. Bodies. The new airbenders, all lying submerged, unmoving.

Opal.

He walked slowly towards the pool, still somehow hoping she wouldn’t be there. His heart broke when he spotted her, near the front of the group.

She must’ve died trying to protect the others, he thought to himself.

He wanted to stay there, to grieve her and the others, but his legs kept going. He turned towards the wreckage of the Air Temple, stumbling through hundreds of large dents in the earth. It looked like a war zone, but then again, it practically was. P’li had really outdone herself.

As he neared the lava pit, he noticed blue and red at the bottom of a cliff. He walked towards them, chest tightening the closer he got. It was Kya and Bumi, their bodies twisted unnaturally. He couldn’t bear to look at them like that, so he kept walking.

Some time later, after wandering aimlessly, he came across a large slab of earth. It’s corners were far too square to be natural. He walked around to the other side of it, hesitantly peeking underneath.

Lin and Su lay there, crushed by the weight of the slab. There was a stain of red on the dirt below them, blood seeping from their compressed forms into the loose earth. The metallic scent was strong.

He kept walking, terrified of what else he might find. He walked the perimeter of the lava field, scanning for anyone else he might know. He hadn’t seen Korra or Asami anywhere. He tried not to think of where Mako could be.

His path around the lava pit led him to where the Air Temple’s courtyard had been. It was messy to say the least. Korra lay in the middle of it all, platinum shackles and chains wrapped around her ankles and wrists. Her parents were thrown against a wall, Asami and a few others with them. If he hadn’t known better, he thought it almost looked like a slumber party. If only it had been.

He saw that there was an arch leading to one of the parts of the temple that still stood. His feet kept him moving, weaving through the rubble around Korra and taking him through the arch. The space was lit up orange, half of the floor glowing with heat. That was where he found him.

“Mako!” He cried, a relieved smile coming across his face.

He ran to his brother's side, falling to his knees beside him.

“Mako, I was so worried about you! But it’s alright, we’re alright,” Bolin continued, taking one of Mako’s limp hands in his own.

“You must be so tired, I can’t imagine. You know, I had to hide! I counted the seconds between every time the earth shook, it was crazy. It was so dark in the hole I hid in, I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face. At least you had some light here, light is nice. But not too much, too much light isn’t good, just like complete dark isn’t good.

“I’m glad you’re okay though, Mako, it sounded like chaos when I was hiding. I was so scared you’d get hurt, I was scared everyone would get hurt. But it’s fine, we’re all fine. We’re fine, right? Yeah, yeah, we are. You’re just tired, taking a little nap. Just the same as Korra, and Asami. And Opal. And everyone else, it’s just a big group nap. You know, I’m pretty tired too. I might just lie down here with you, take a little rest myself. It’s so nice and warm in here, like a cozy bed. You were smart to choose here for your nap.”

Bolin shuffled himself around so he could lie down next to Mako, his hand still tightly gripping his brother’s. He stared at the ceiling, no longer knowing what to say. Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to get out of there, to find help. But he felt so oddly peaceful laying there, holding his brother's hand, that he didn’t move. He stayed there for a very long time, willing Mako to wake up. He knew he wouldn’t, but he hoped anyway. When the sun was rising again, new light peaking through cracks in the building above, he finally spoke again.

“I love you, bro. I love you so much,” He said quietly, turning his head to look at his brother.

“I’m really tired,” He whispered, turning back to looking at the ceiling.

“I think… I think I just need some sleep. I’m sorry, Mako,” He turned once more to face his brother, who’s hand was now cold in his own.

“I love you,” He whispered again before bending the earthen walls of the temple out and collapsing the ceiling.

[ask-marios-apprentice]

Fireball Practice

This is the Glove that I use to throw fireballs. It creates a fireball using fire flower oil.

The reason why I have to use this instead of just using a fire flower as a power-up is...well. My earthling biology can't absorb/process power-ups or magic or magic-based items. I have immunity, as well most if not all people from the earth have immunity as well.

Anyways

I had received the gloves the following Monday after the weekend. Mario mainly had me do target practice, but also some platforming training near the docks. I even got to use the glove underwater. (Somehow?).

I remember when Mario was training me to use the glove he gave me some anecdotes from his and Luigi's first experience returning to the Mushroom Kingdom after unclogging a pipe in Brooklyn. he told me about how he almost set Luigi's mustache on fire the first time they used a fireball. he even told me about the first time that he defeated Bowser and saved Peach.

The reason why he told me this was because he remembered what it was like to not be considered a hero, but just an average joe who was thrown into a role he barely knew anything about. He saw someone like that in me. He admitted that it was one of the reasons he had chosen to mentor me.

After that experience, we both headed to the respective homes we both had. I had thought about what he had said to me that day. Mario was not just a hero, he was a person. The games showed him as more of an empty vessel with some mild personality. But no. He is a bombastic man who is willing to put his life on the line to make sure he can save people.

...Garth signing off. Bye

[buzzdixonwriter]

The Purple Monster Strikes

Recently in an online discussion of 1950s sci-fi films, the old Republic serial The Purple Monster Strikes came up.

Why is came up I’ll mention later, but first let’s note it: 

was made in 1945 

was the last 15 chapter Republic serial

is awful

Not eyeball gouging / brain melting / soul scorching awful the way The Lost City or Gene Autry And The Phantom Empire or Captain Video are awful, but awful enough…

…yet at the same time, worthy of comment (as we’ll soon note).

1945 is a crucial year.  Despite the Nazis last ditch Battle of the Bulge, WWII is clearly winding down to an Allied victory in both Europe and the Pacific. 

American audiences feel tired of the war wand want something else in their entertainment, even low brow / low rent entertainment like movie serials.

Republic produced three serials that year:  Federal Operator 99 proved surprisingly good, Manhunt Of Mystery Island (their next to last 15 chapter serial) tried some new ideas that while interesting didn’t prove interesting enough to be tried again, and The Purple Monster Strikes brought interplanetary thrills back to the theaters, only this time instead of visiting Mars, Mars (at least two of ‘em) came to Earth.

As noted in my overview of Federal Operator 99, Republic serials of that year looked…inexpensive.* 

This is especially true of The Purple Monster Strikes which really needed a bigger budget, a better script, and adequate production time for the type of story it was trying to tell.

That story?

In a nutshell:   The Purple Monster is a one-Martian invasion come to steal the secret of the “jet plane” (the script uses the term interchangeably with “rocketship”) from Earth and take it to Mars where it can be mass produced and used to attack our world (Why?  WTF knows or cares?).  To achieve this The Purple Monster bumps off the scientist in charge of the project, physically possesses his corpse by turning into a ghost-like entity, and tries to kill a nosy investigator and the late scientist’s niece.  In the end The Purple Monster tries to escape Earth only to get blowed up real good (Did I mention this is silly, stooped, and trite?  I did?  Good).

So why am I interested in The Purple Monster Strikes?  Well, for two reasons, the second and more important one we’ll save for the end, the first is that when watched with fully informed eyes, it’s a testament to the single greatest contribution the serials made to filmmaking:  The production board.

Lemme ‘splain what that is.

In the old days of movie making it was a folder with slots for narrow strips of colored cardboard to be slid in.  The strips were color coded for interior or exterior scenes, night or day, specific locations, second unit or special effects, etc.

These strips were grouped together on the production board so all the exterior day shots at one location could be filmed back-to-back, followed by all the night shots there before moving on to a new location.

The colored carboard strips were further broken down to match production numbers in the shooting script (“Scene 37:  The bandits take the town”), key props and costumes, stunt work, but most importantly actors / characters in the scene.

You want all your most important / expensive / difficult stuff grouped together…but you also need to figure out what you didn’t need so you could pare down your budget.

For example, if you need someone to play a policeman in Scene 1 and in Scene 12 but those scenes are shot two seeks apart, maybe it’s cheaper to have two different actors playing two different policemen for one day each than keep one actor on call for two weeks.

Likewise, if you’ve got an actor in a key supporting role, put all his scenes together.

This necessitates shooting out of sequence, but shooting out of sequence is now pretty much the industry norm for any filmed or taped production.

The serials invented the production board and the rest of the industry speedily glommed onto it.

Once you know what to look for in The Purple Monster Strikes, you can pretty much break down which scenes were shot when.

Case in point: Masked heroes and villains aside, serial characters rarely change costume except to match stock footage from earlier productions.  It’s not especially notable for male characters but females typically wear The Same Damn Dress in Every Damn Scene.

So when heroine Linda Sterling gets dunked in a water tank midway through The Purple Monster Strikes, you can bet that was her last day of filming since they were no longer worried about ruining her costume.

Likewise when a female reinforcement from Mars arrives, the exact same location right down to the same car parked in the same spot are used even though the female Martian doesn’t arrive until 2/3rds of the way into the story.

You wouldn’t notice this week to week in a movie theater, but they’re painfully obvious when bingewatching.

Case in point: There are never more than four characters onscreen at any time; this was all the production could afford on any given day.  If a fifth character showed up, one of the others needed to be knocked unconscious (if they were lucky) shot and fall off camera (if they were unlucky), or disintegrated (if they were really unlucky).

For example, the hero and heroine could be talking to a scientist (day 1 / shot 1) when three baddies show up at the door (day 2 / shot 1).  The first baddie shoots the scientist, who falls off camera then enters the frame and knocks out the heroine, who conveniently falls behind a counter (day 1 / shot 2).  The other two baddies enter and a huge brawl erupts (day 2 / shot 2).  The heroine revives (day 1 / shot 3) and shouts a warning at the hero.  The hero blasts a minor baddie who falls off camera as the other two baddies flee the scene (day 2 / shot 3), then the heroine rejoins the hero (day 1 / shot 4).

Binge watching also reveals a lot of sets and props reused again and again.  The same footstool is used as a weapon more than once, a prop valve in one chapter serves an entirely different function in another, and while serials frequently reused stock special effects shots, The Purple Monster Strikes doesn’t just use the same exploding car shot twice in the same serial, not just twice in the same chapter, but twice in the same car chase!

(Speaking of which, whenever they get in Linda Sterling’s car you know the odds are 50-50 it’s going off a cliff in a big flaming fireball.  The Purple Monster Strikes has her going through so many identical make automobiles you’d think she owned stock in a car dealership.)

Anybody familiar with Republic serials is going to find a lot of reused sets and props here.  Having seen Manhunt Of Mystery Island recently, I immediately recognized their ubiquitous warehouse set, the Republic Studios loading dock doubles as two different factory exteriors, and having lived in Chatsworth several years I can practically name each and every rock in the exterior scenes.**

On the plus side, bonus points for some impressive looking props, including a rocket test engine that provides the explosive cliffhanger for the first chapter, a double-barrel disintegrator that looks like a giant set of binoculars (I wonder if it was originally a military surplus training aid), and a spaceship seen under construction for most of the serial that proves to be the most striking design the redoubtable Lydecker brothers ever created (a pity it’s glimpsed only briefly before being blown up in the last chapter; Republic should have reused it for their later sci-fi serials instead of the dull unimaginative designs they went with).

Fun factoid: Mi amigo Donald F. Glut, filmmaker / NYTimes bestselling author / film historian, knew The Purple Monster hizzownsef, Roy Barcroft, and reports Barcroft had the wardrobe department sew a secret pocket in his costume for his cigarettes! 

Speaking of Barcroft, he’s the best thing in this serial and he ain’t that good.  A perennial bad guy in serials and B-Westerns, he normally turned in a satisfying performance, but the script for The Purple Monster Strikes gives him nothing to work with.

I mentioned previously how Federal Operator 99’s script works more often than not and gives its characters something the actors can work with, but The Purple Monster Strikes?  Nada.

Every line is a clunky flat declarative sentence exposition dump of the “I’ll take this strange medallion we discovered to Harvey the metallurgist to analyze” variety.

Even Linda Sterling can’t do anything with this though she tries to find an appropriate facial expression for whatever scene she’s thrown in.

As for nominal star Dennis Moore, I won’t say he’s wooden but in one of the innumerable fight scenes Barcroft hurls a coatrack at him and for that brief moment the coatrack delivers a far more memorable performance.

Sidebar on the fight scenes: They are choreographed expertly, among some of the best Republic ever staged, but directors Spencer Gordon Bennet and Fred C. Brannon -- both serial veterans who could do much, much better -- really dropped the ball in shooting them.  They’re shot almost entirely in wide angle longshots using slightly sped up photography instead of intercutting to keep the pacing fast.

The rest of the cast consists mostly of stuntmen carefully enunciating their one line before the fists start flying, or older male actors who deliver surprisingly good performances compared to everyone else.

But that script -- oh, lordie, that script!  This was made in 1945 and they’ve got a damn organ grinder in it!  Organ grinders vanished from the public sphere with the damn of movies; by the 1940s they were found only in comic books and animated cartoons; in other words, kid stuff.***

It’s clear the writers on The Purple Monster Strikes (Royal Cole, Albert DeMond, Basil Dickey, Lynn Perkins, Joseph Poland, and Barney Sarecky) considered this mere juvenile pablum, not worthy of even the smattering of sophistication they sprinkled on Federal Operator 99.

An adult can watch Federal Operator 99 and at least feel the story makes some kind of sense and the characters, however imperfectly enacted, at least offer adult motives and behaviors, but The Purple Monster Strikes is just insulting to the intelligence (I mean, they call the female Martian invader Marsha.  Seriously?).

Okay, so why do I think this is worth writing about?

Because The Purple Monster Strikes is the bridge between WWII and the Cold War.

Most of the major tropes of 1950s sci-fi are reactions to Cold War anxieties, and those anxieties are transplanted WWII anxieties.

Before WWII, American moneyed interests waged a relentless PR campaign against communism, socialism, and labor unions (sound familiar?).

Forced to make peace with the Soviets during WWII, these moneyed interests -- now heavily invested in what Dwight D. Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex -- bit their lips as US pop culture portrayed the Russians as gallant allies against fascism (and they were; credit where credit is due).

As soon as the war ended, however, and in fact, even a little before the end (see The Best Years Of Our Lives; great movie), they were already recasting the Russians as treacherous authoritarian atheists out to conquer the world.

As noted earlier, American audiences felt weary of a relentless diet of war related entertainment and in the waning days of the war turned eagerly to non-war related stories. 

Likewise studios, not wanting to get caught with rapidly dating WWII related material nobody wanted to see began actively developing different kinds of stories.

After four years of intense anxiety, the country needed to come down but couldn’t go cold turkey.  Science fiction (and hardboiled mysteries and spy thrillers) provided safe decompression.

1945 marks a significant sea change in Republic serial production.  Sci-fi would become a more predominant theme, infiltrating other genres such as the ever popular masked mastermind (viz. The Crimson Ghost).

Federal Operator 99 would be the last highwater mark for more plausible serial stories, but crime and undercover espionage remained serial staples to the bitter end.

Only Manhunt Of Mystery Island seemed a misfire and even in that case it only meant the masked mastermind returned to more traditional origins instead of the inventive backstory created for Captain Mephisto.  

What The Purple Monster Strikes did was take a very familiar set of WWII cliches and stereotypes then recast them in a (relatively) safe science fictional context.

The closest prototype to The Purple Monster Strikes is Republic’s G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon, as racially offensive as you could hope to imagine, and turn the inscrutable “yellow” villains into malevolent purple ones (later green when colorization was added).

By making the literally other worldly alien the “other”, 1950s sci-fi sidestepped the worst implications of their own themes:  

Invasion 

Subversion 

Fifth columns 

Loss of soul / identity / individuality (personified in bodily possession by alien intellects)

Paranoia

The Purple Monster Strikes lacks the wit and wherewithal to fully exploit these ideas, but it sure could hold them up for everyone to get a quick glimpse.

As childish and as inane as the plot may be, by the end when hero and heroine realize there is literally no one they can trust, The Purple Monster Strikes dropped a depth charge into preteen psyches fated to go off six years later with the arrival of The Thing From Another World and countless other sci-fi films and TV episodes afterwards.

Did The Purple Monster Strikes create this trend?  No, of course not – but as Stephen King pointed out in Danse Macabre regarding the incredibly inane The Horror Of Party Beach’s selection of nuclear waste dumping as their raison d'être for their monsters:

“I’m sure it was one of the least important points in their preproduction discussions and for that reason it becomes very important.”

King’s point is by not giving the matter much thought, The Horror Of Party Beach’s producers simply tapped into a subconscious gestalt already running through the culture and said, “Yeah, nuclear waste, wuddup widdat?”

Likewise, The Purple Monster Strikes’ producers / directors / writers didn’t sit themselves down to analyze Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four but rather picked up on the forever war current already moving through the American body politic.

War without end, war without ceasing.

And if we can’t define an enemy by name or place, so much the better!  The war on crime, the war on poverty, the war on drugs…

The war on terror.

The forever war thrives on the faceless unknowable enemy with the unknown but clearly malevolent anti-American agenda.

“Them”…against…U.S.

As an artistic achievement, The Purple Monster Strikes is sadly lacking in nearly all aspects, but as a cultural artifact, it’s still a clear warning.

Only not about “them” but about…us.

  © Buzz Dixon 

  *  read “cheap”

** Republic’s low budget backed them into an overlapping series of sci-fi serials, loosely referred to as the Rocket Man / Martian invasion serials by fans.  The Purple Monster Strikes’ costume was reused for Flying Disc Man From Mars (which featured a semi-circular flying wing already featured in Spy Smasher and King Of The Mounties) and again for Zombies Of The Stratosphere, but between those two serials the wholly unrelated King Of The Rocket Men was released.  Zombies… is a sequel to both Flying Disc Man… and King Of The Rocket Men but Radar Men From The Moon introduces a new character -- Commando Cody -- who wears the same rocket pack as the heroes of King… and Zombies… but faces a lunar, not Martian menace then he spins off to become Commando Cody:  Sky Marshall Of The Universe in a quasi-serial (i.e., no cliff-hangers, each chapter a complete adventure) fighting a third alien invasion!

***  Or the works of Bertolt Brecht, but that ain’t what Republic’s going for here.

[patchdotexe]

Explorers of Arvus: uhhhh / 3.23.21

today's notes are different from usual bc. well. you'll see

LAST TIME ON EXPLORERS OF ARVUS i broke my sleep schedule and am barely existing so this is fine. we went back to camp vengeance an uhhhhhhhhhhhh we are now going to fuck off into the forest to die or prove a very important point

oh god we forgot to level up

[mgd voice] BOOSTING NYX TO MAXIMUM LEVEL

im so fuckin tired. what on earth am i doing. how do i level again

k is not here this time but instead we've got mae+nii bonking their heads together to simulate 2 braincells and so far it is not working. i might just have to like fuckin, drop out n zzz partway thru or somethin. would be fun to see how chaotic michael makes charlie in my absensce

oh wait i can do d&dbeyond i think. how do i work this again. will i ever remember i have shield

what level am i. level 6? pog. oh shit i think i have a new thing

. new spell

. 3 total 3rd level spell slots

. bend luck! i can now screw people over on purpose (and will probably use my sorcery points FINALLY)

michael is leveling charlie up bc my brain is apple sos

ASDXFKLJFH I FEEL CALLED OUT zec rb'd my most recent art of MaX with "all i know about xem is that leo likes xem a lot that's the extent of my knowledge" THANK U FOR SUPPORTIN ME ANYWAY

there will be less blaseball distractions than last time bc blaseball is now on siesta. however i will still have MaX brainrot in the background bc i was drawing xem

wyatt mason my beloved

OKAY I GOTTA MUTE THE TACO STAND FOR THE ENTIRETY OF D&D i cannot and will not get distracted. we can do this. we

nintendo wii

we havent even started yet and im already incoherent

ok i have made a decision and that decision is that i do not have the brainpower to play. however i do have the brianpower to take notes hopefully! so ill just like. vibe. this will be a first

oh man im gonan pick up Blink. charlie is gonna be a fucking menace to herself and others

oh my god its not concentration so charlie may continue teleporting while unconscious. thorne is going to hate this

[charlie gets her soul eaten by a ring] [charlie singing dragonston din tei at halvkWAIT JORB HAS A PRIZE

jorb got a thing! an evil genius thing! figure man. fugrine. figuring. help

GREEN HAS DIAGNOSED ME AS TIGREX MONSTERHUNTER i love this

my notes are a disaster. this is so sucks

serotonin is stored in the wiggly zoomy jorb camera

jorb: his pinky is the size of the rest of his fingers

leo: he has a disease

jorb: he has a disease.

jorb: that disease is male pattern baldness

leo: [reduced to tearful giggling for mysterious reasons]

LAST TIME, ON EXPLORERS OF ARVUS: we've returned to camp vengeance! taure is still unconscious, which is not very great. camp vengeance is doin better tho!

michael, as part of the recap: ingrid is getting railed by her new girlfriend,

first dice roll of the day is michael rolled a 1. good start

OH THORNE IS AN ARTIFICER NOW thorne took a level in artificer!

"...it's like figuring out the right mathematical equation to summon a gun."

group is gonna go check out the statue that we passed by now that we're not WHAT DO YOU MEAN PONK AND GEORGE CANONICALLY HAVE IBS thats it im not looking at 772 anymore

im doing a bad job of paying attention but at least im Present

SIERON LEARNED FLY AND USED IT ON CHARLIE

michael: what do you want to do with your new flying powers?

leo: how many problems can i cause in 10 minutes

guard 1: ...why is the halfling flying?

guard 2: [rolls a 3 on intelligence] i think they can just do that

groundhogs, the real scourge of the campaign

silje and sieron are gonna hunt a big elk. they got distracted and sieron is putting grass on silje's head. i think

WAIT WE'RE ON WATCH NOW FUCK

we have discovered kali's tragic backstory whoops

update i am. too sleepy for this. good nigh everyone

[ and then leo went and somewhat took a nap! solar, normally playing thorne, started playing charlie in my stead. @jorbs-palace, local hero, started taking shitpost notes in my stead. ]

jorb's ghostwritten notes for leo:

help solar is immediately doing a cursed voice for charlie. charlie can do so many crimes

congratulations, charlie is now temporarily immortal!

dwarves can hit things with their beard

kali wants to know if she's legally allowed to bail

she'd feel really bad if she had to loot our corpses for payment if we died.

we have entered the Tree Zone

one of the corpses is now a flamingo (has one leg)

silje has decided to stab the ground. take that, dirt

kali was large size for a second there but then she remembered to not be a giant

"you accidentally deleted my cat?!"

silje has learned naruto cloning jutsu

be gone, thot

oh boy, making an int check to look at a statue! 11! silje is dumb apparently.

hmm. the statue has divination magic. it's also affecting silje.

SILJE LEARNED A 6TH LEVEL SPELL? its only single use but still

you solved my statue riddllllleeeee

thorne forgot to have eyes

its a shame mac and cheese doesnt exist in the d&d universe

wizards are just math criminals (the criminal part is setting people on fire)

sieron crit fails a check but it was still a 9 because of having +8

thorne is looking for what's weird!

uh oh music got scary, never a good sign

hmm. those leaves over there weren't dead a moment ago.

UNDEAD TROLL TIME! rolling initiative

"it's ok, im a wizard, it's my duty to be correct." "wow! waow!"

woooah here he comes

IT JUST DID HALF SIERON'S HEALTH AS A PASSIVE END OF TURN EFFECT?

thorne backed up and cast eldri- oh, ray of enfeeblement. character development continues

charlie is going to just blink out of existence for a minute.

big chungus has grabbed silje and sieron. BIG CHUNGUS HAS THROWN SILJE AND SIERON.

sieron is using hit and run tactics! isn't good at his extra attack yet though

silje is activating bid bid blood blood blood

thorne uses beam of skipping your leg day. troll's legs are now skipped.

michael is trying to determine what a 'clavicle' is

"does that mean the star trek kind, or the bdsm kind?"

charlie wants to cast magic missile.

charlie has vanished back into the ethereal plane mid-taunt

silje has decided to not get bitten today

silje may or may not have stats.

oh, right, trolls are weak to fire! and also we forgot to upgrade sieron's firebolt. so it actually hurts now!

silje is full of knives and blades and does 31 damage in one turn!

charlie shouts words of encouragement from the ethereal plane. a nearby ghost vibes with this.

🎉 eldritch blast 🎉

kali remembered she hates the sun

silje is enthuasiatic about charlie saying "get him cat boy!"

charlie contemplating using fireball to nuke the troll and also the entire stonehenge

charlie has decided to use magic missile instead, probably for the best

the troll bit at charlie SO POORLY it broke some of its teeth on the ground

charlie is too small to hit

accidentally rolled advantage on a firebolt, so got to learn it WOULD have done 29 damage with a crit but instead it missed because it was not actually with advantage

silje has just sliced open its entire back and made a spray of frozen blood! radical. big boy is down!

we have burned the body because we are not stupid. well, we ARE stupid, but not stupid in the way of leaving a body full of necrotic magic around

[dr coomer voice] i think it's good that he died!

we're also doing a funeral pyre for the other corpses that were around. just to be sure.

our loot is: the satisfaction of a job well done

thorne is cosplaying as charlie

charlie has located the direction troll came from! she found the 'the way to sweet loot' sign

thorne is apparently better at survival checks than our hired guide? wack

we found a viking house! it has: mead, a shield, gravestones,

found a gold coin in the mead! maybe it was thirsty

oh theres a LOT Of coins in there actually. 60 gold and 120 silver!

have successfully pointed out a hole in the DM's logic :)

there was a raven! it cawed and left. ok bye buddy

and that's where we leave it! heading back to camp vengeance next time.

someone rated this session a 7.2 out of 10, which is very specific

good night mr coconut

[genyathefirebird]

I will share your road   The Old Guard x Doctor Who Chapter 1 - in which the Ninth Doctor catches sight of someone who doesn’t make sense, and then the Tenth Doctor meets Andromache the Scythian. 

Summary:

A look of wonder flashes across the woman's face. It burns bright and consumes her wariness for a split second, and when he sees the curiosity glinting deep in her eyes, he relaxes a fraction, because that's understandable.

"A Lord of Time." She loosens her grip on the knife, then takes a step back which allows him to breathe out. "I've not heard that title before."

"Well…" He tilts his head to the side. "I've had a lot of names over the years."

Her response is as blunt as the rest of their conversation, but he can see the hint of a smile turning up the corner of her mouth. "So have I."

read under cut 

Nine - Krakatoa - 950

It's not the eruption, but it's one that will still be marked down in history.

He’s not sure why he’s ended up there because he’s already seen the Big One. Last week he had stood on the same shore and watched history take place before his eyes, drawn to the sight of destruction in a way that made his hearts ache and eyes water.

He had seen Gallifrey burn, with his old eyes. Now his new ones looked for newer, brighter sights.

But today it had been a little itch running down his fingers, and it hadn’t shifted. Something within had made him turn the dial back on the years and fling his little TARDIS into the past, back to the same patch of Earth.

The police box touches down on the beach with an ear-splitting wail as the craggy silhouette of Krakatoa looms up over the horizon behind him. When the Doctor steps out, he does so gingerly, boots sinking into the dry sand closer to the treeline and he shoots a dubious look over his shoulder. It rises out of the trees, looking for all intents and purposes a silent mountain on an uninhabited island.

Then he turns his back on it, while he can, and walks his way across the shoreline.

The whole morning passes as every other had before it, right up until a rumble shakes the ground and then it begins, with a thick plume of smoke rises into the sky. It sends alarm racing through his veins and his uncertainty fills the air closer to the ground as ash begins to fall like snow, dusting the trees he passes under. The plume chugs on upwards with foul-smelling smoke puffing out more and more, threatening to blot out the sun, and the Doctor makes his way back down to the water, berating himself for ever landing on the shore.

There are fixed events, like this one, where he can only observe. But he knows how history goes, the volcano erupts, the event is recorded for the history books, and life goes on.

It's as simple as that.

Which is odd, even for him, because he finds himself listening to the soft crash of the waves on the sand while walking back and forth instead of turning back and heading to his TARDIS.

As if to answer his unspoken question, the itch along his fingers returns; there's something keeping him there.

The ground begins to shudder again, and the Fire Mountain rings true to its name. Rocks and fireballs are thrown up into the sky, yet he still can't put his finger on it, find the why , which is irritating, and he supposes he's now the sort of person who gets irritated easily.

Wrestling with the prickly edges of his new personality, the Doctor tries his best to distract himself by walking back across the shoreline with his boots sinking into the wet sand as he goes. His new black leather jacket, recently fished out from the TARDIS wardrobe, sticks to his neck uncomfortably from the thick humidity in the air. His walking takes him further down the shore and right up to the water’s edge again, where the lapping water rises to wet the hems of his jeans.

A voice calls out, and he turns his head towards the sound. He spots a trio of young fishermen running towards a boat hauled up on the sand which he hadn’t spotted before. Their voices are raised in panic but they move swiftly, loading up whatever few supplies they had gathered on land.

And that’s when he sees it ; the thing that's twisted up in the timeline of this event like a beating heart of its own.

Or rather her. A tall, pale woman with dark hair.

She’s not exactly what he was expecting, not when she was dressed like a simple traveller, but she chases the coughing fishermen off the sand, acting more like a fleet commander overseeing a retreat.

Even as she turns and her gaze brushes over his solitary figure in the distance, he can feel the fierceness of her intentions wash over him. If he didn't have his own way out, he thinks he'd trust her enough to throw himself into the water and clamber onto the boat himself.

With the heat of the sun beating down on his head and neck, and the thick smell of volcanic gas in the air, it makes it hard to focus. But the Doctor exhales heavily, trying to look past the weighted twist in the timelines that trail around her. To his surprise, there is no easy way of finding the end or the beginning, and it makes him draw closer, without thinking, in a heady mix of curiosity and confusion, because she is helping.

From the distance, the Doctor only manages to catch snippets of her warnings.

She keeps up a stream of shouts until the fishermen pile in and shove off from the shore, sending their boat bobbing into the darkening waters. He can just about make out her voice as it cuts across the way, catching a snippet of her telling them to leave, to escape, because she’s seen this before; “You won’t survive the Fire Mountain! Go, if you want to live!”

As if to make the point clear, the ground shakes violently, and any notion of returning to shore is quickly dispelled. The quake leaves the Doctor swaying on the spot although he finds his balance quickly, attention still on the woman who also shifts her weight to catch her balance just as the earth stills again.

Although she doesn’t look wrong in the temporal sense, she clearly is out of place. The island itself was uninhabited, and the fishermen had made the wrong pit-stop for supplies, but she hadn’t been in the same crew, or made any move to join them on the water.

There's a satisfied look on her face when she sees the boat sail out across the water. He can see it when he squints, and he understands , because he’s felt it himself a countless number of times. And when she turns away from the water and he's able to see her unobscured, he also sees the double-sided axe strapped to her back.

Now that’s different, he thinks, feet stumbling forward on the lumpy sand and his breath catches on the smoky air.  

It is an anachronism of sorts, carried forwards beyond its own time, which makes it as uncomfortable to look at in the same way popcorn gets stuck between teeth during a good bit of a film. Gritty and sharp, it belongs elsewhere, quite like his police box shaped TARDIS sitting behind the tree line.

The blade gleams under the meagre light filtering through the ash clouds to wink its secret at him.

There's only two of them left on the sand, and the Doctor keeps moving towards her, curiosity burning behind his eyes. He knows he’s caught her attention too, if only by being the sole person remaining on the shore in the shadow of a soon-to-be erupting volcano.

But then his sonic bleeps madly in his pocket with the imminent warning to leave before the fixed event takes place. By the time he fishes it out and looks up, she's gone. Either lost to the wind or having dove eel-quick into the sea to be pulled into the boat, or disappeared into the forest.

With a useless reluctance, the Doctor heads back to the TARDIS to wander on, accompanied by the lingering image of the fierce looking woman and the odd disturbance in the timeline around her.

Ten - Cochin- 1227

It's late in the day and the last of the boat builders and dock workers were wrapping up any repairs or preparation for the morning. Nets were shaken out for a final time and then folded up. Behind them, the Doctor steps quickly, brown coat melting into the shadows as he moves closer to the end of the line of market stalls and smaller pitches by the water.

It was a good city to visit. Loud, vibrant, excellent seafood dishes, what better way to pass the time while Donna visits her mum and Wilf for the weekend?

And he had been happily wandering about in holiday-mode with a pocketful of fresh rambutans, right up until he saw a familiar-looking face and felt a little bit of his stomach drop out, like when the TARDIS swerves a handful of galaxies at the speed of a hundred millennia and has him dangling off the edge of the console wishing he had sorted out seatbelts or something .

As dusk turns to twilight, he trails after the woman for a few streets before taking a bit of initiative to suddenly cut across her path. It causes her to skid to a halt and the abrupt move sends muddy water over the tops of his trainers.

Under the moonlight he can see the severe frown cutting across her furrowed brow.

"It's you!" The Doctor exclaims, feeling a rare burst of incredulity, leaning in to look at her face. "It's definitely you, I remember the axe! Krakatoa!"

His time for reminiscing is cut short when she drags him backwards into a portside alley with an unusual display of strength. Before he even realises what's happening, there's a knife pressed to his throat. "Whoa, whoa!"

He shuts his eyes, waits for a moment, and then reopens them, letting them adjust to the lack of light. She’s a carbon copy of the woman on the beach as Krakatoa erupted hundreds of years ago. The only difference was that her dark hair had been shorn to her shoulders.

That was it.

No grey hairs, no wrinkles, nothing to suggest anything to bridge the time between then and now.

The Doctor briefly entertains the possibility that this woman is a direct descendent of that woman, only he dismisses the idea as soon as it sparks. It’s not someone else. Not with her timeline rippling back further than he could see.

It makes his eyes water and his nose itch just to try and track the golden light back past the vanishing point again. A heady confusion descends when he tries to follow the lines back and makes him dizzy until she gives him a little shake that rattles his teeth.

"Explain yourself." The woman demands with a hand fisted into the front of his coat, "We don't dream of you."

If there was any lingering doubt, that had sent it packing. She was every inch as commanding as the woman who chased off the fishermen from the island.

His hand inches slowly up his coat to gently press his fingers against her wrist. "Not a Time Lord, but still…"

By then, her impatience had clearly reached the end of whatever tether she had reeled out, and the Doctor lets out a yelp when her knife slowly cuts into his skin at the base of his throat.

"Ow, owwww!" He winces, feels the blood drip onto his shirt collar and senses if he wants to keep himself mostly unscathed, it would help to start talking. "Listen, listen! I'm not from around here. And when I say here …I'm talking about a very large area."

She snorts, but remains silent. Her eyes are fixed on his neck as the blood continues to trickle down and tickle at his skin, and he takes her silence as permission to continue.

"I'm not like you. I’m not human. I travel through time.” He waits to see how it lands, but again, she doesn't waver. “I was at Krakatoa, and then I carried on travelling."

"Not human,” she repeats eventually. "You wear strange clothes and speak with an accent I haven't yet heard. But you bleed."

The Doctor tips his head sideways, tugs at her hand to press it flat against his racing pulse in his neck, going double time, and then drops it to either side of his chest. "Two hearts. Time Lord."

A look of wonder flashes across the woman's face. It burns bright and consumes her wariness for a split second, and when he sees the curiosity glinting deep in her eyes, he relaxes a fraction, because that's understandable.

"A Lord of Time." She loosens her grip on the knife, then takes a step back which allows him to breathe out. "I've not heard that title before."

"Well…" He tilts his head to the side. "I've had a lot of names over the years."

Her response is as blunt as the rest of their conversation, but he can see the hint of a smile turning up the corner of her mouth. "So have I."

"I'm the Doctor."

With that he stretches out a hand slowly, as if she hadn't already held a knife to his throat, and waits.

Slowly, she tips toward ever so slightly and then clasps at his arm in an age-old greeting that feels as much out of place as his own suit and tie. He feels the weight of her timeline press up against his, and finds that she is Earth-bound, tied to the turning planet under their feet, just as much as his is forever strung out between the stars.

"Andromache of Scythia."

Although it's too late for any dock workers to wander past, the air is still thick with the day's heat and the Doctor plucks at his collar to loosen it, until he just yanks out the tie and stuffs it into his pocket. He swipes at the trickle of blood working its way down his neck and shrugs.

She studies his half-hearted grin before backing away a little. "What does it mean, Time Lord?"

Even with the new distance between them, she’s cautious enough to position herself to block the entrance of the alleyway. After a quick glance at her, he deems the relaxation in her stance at a great enough odds with a repeat of her lunging at him again, and so he hoists himself onto the closest barrel for a better seat.

"I travel through time. I get into trouble, get out of trouble, cause a bit of trouble." His grin returns despite himself but doesn't receive any real reaction from her. "And I help, where I can. Back then, I saw you warning those men on the beach, telling them to get into their boat."

"I've seen fire mountains, volcanoes, explode. The air chokes, the land is smothered, and it's hard to survive afterwards if you manage to escape the fire. I saw their boat land on shore, for supplies , even with the smoke rising into the air. They didn’t know they needed to leave."

Although the knife remains in her hand, she slowly drops it to her side and her expression turns indecipherable. There’s a question caught between her thoughts, and he waits patiently for her to voice it.

"How old are you, Time Lord?"

It's his turn to be silent.

He looks at her, really looks. The dizzy feeling returns. Disconcerted by it, he swallows, unable to see the full extent of it from such a narrow view. But he looks, and he looks long enough to be able to see how her timeline extends back through the years in a dazzling pattern that's woven through time. For a single person, a solitary living, breathing human, it's too vast; more days than the waves of the Arabian sea he can hear knocking against boat hulls on the other side of the alley.

The Doctor blinks and finally answers, "Nine hundred of your human years. Give or take. I don't spend them all in order. Not like you do."

Andromache shakes her head slowly and then inexplicably sighs as she tucks the knife away into her belt.

"You?"

At his question, she lifts her head long enough to give him a hard smile, and suddenly he wonders which one of them was looking for answers. It’s enough to make him nervous in his unknowing. He catches a glint of white when she steps a little bit closer and flashes her teeth in a mockery of a smile.

"I have walked this earth for a long time. I don’t remember how old I am.”

The Doctor's eyes widen and his feet stall against the side of the barrel. It takes him a good few moments to run through things, to try to match it up with any anomalies he knows of. She’s not even like Jack, who makes him feel like a leaden ball’s just dropped inside his stomach. Her timeline is unnaturally long in a more natural manner, not created, but still with purpose behind it.

Lacking the how, he also comes up short with the why, which is still brilliantly interesting even if it isn't helpful. He coughs to clear his throat, "You said that you didn't dream of me? What's that mean?"

"There's been others, who cannot stay dead, and we dream of each other until we meet." Andromache glances over her shoulder at the quiet harbour. "One has since past."

Although she doesn't elaborate, he sees the grief in her eyes and understands enough of secrets that are too fiercely guarded to share with strangers. "I'm sorry."

"It was some time ago. We have learned that nothing that lives, lives forever."

The Doctor nods, "It's what we do with that time, that makes it worthwhile."

She wrinkles her nose at that, and then laughs at him. "Nine hundred years, you say? You are still young."

He tries to feel affronted by it, feels a little snap of prickliness at how casually she said it. It makes him almost want to argue back. Only there’s something in the tired roll of her eyes that makes him bite his tongue. Because despite his long years and losing his home planet and finding the will to move on after the Time War, there's a big difference between stretching out an existence across the entirety of time and space and living on the slow path. It is an unending, relentless existence that offers change in some ways, but nothing of the comfort that his TARDIS provides as he leaves one place for another.

For all of his loneliness, he still has a piece of home and an escape. Even his regenerations offer him new life, change, new beginnings.

To remain unchanging against the steady tick of passing time, to feel each acute grain of those sands pass by while remaining as stuck as a rock, somehow unweathered, he almost feels those walls closing in around him just from standing in her presence.

It makes him want to turn and run.

He has to clear his throat again before he can ask, "So, how does it work?"

"My wounds heal. I don't age. I've been called a monster, a demon, an angel, a god, and everything in between."

"Do you mind if I…" The Doctor reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his sonic screwdriver.

In a flash, Andromache draws the knife in a straight slice across her palm before holding it up. The cut is deep and her blood spills down her wrist and forearm to drip onto the alley floor.

"No, no, no, no!" In a panic, he jumps off the barrel and takes her hand into his, searching his pockets for his tie to try and staunch the bleeding.

And then the flow of blood slows. The wound begins to knit itself together until the awful split melts away into unharmed skim. He swipes at the dripping blood still covering her palm and then runs the sonic over it, frowning when it comes back with no results.

Eventually, he pockets the sonic and finds his words again. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know." Andromache wipes her arm on her trousers and leans against the side of the alley. She crosses her arms to look back at him, as though she could pick him apart with just her gaze. "I take it this isn't something you've seen in your nine hundred years?"

"No, not for a human." He admits with a frown, “And believe me, I’ve seen my fair share of the unusual and strange.”

She nods back with an easy acceptance, knowing there’s nothing more he can offer her. They stand in silence for a moment, and he feels her blood begin to dry on his palms.

“It is late. I must meet my companions-”

“What do you do?” The question flies out of his mouth, circling back from her off-handed comment. He can think of a dozen instances where someone with a unique talent had taken it and used it with unhelpful intentions, and he can’t help but ask the question. Twice, he’s come across her now, and if he left without knowing, he’d feel the guilt of it sooner or later down the line.

“Do?”

“You travel?”

“We have been hired to guard a caravan of travellers. They are looking to make a new home, but the journey is long, and they are mostly families in search of a new life. They require protection we can provide.”

“Ah, I see.” He comments, and his grin returns, because he really does.

Andromache turns to walk away, but just before she rounds the corner, she looks back with a thoughtful gleam in her eye and says, "Physician, if we happen to cross paths again, I'd be interested to know if you've found any answers."

[megamanxfanfics]

S.VI - Ep.12: Grand Design

-------------------------------------------------------------------- INT. FALLEN COLONY – Lab Sites - NIGHT

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

-Fade in-

Gate stares at his monitor in fear. Zero has just defeated Blaze Phoenix and X has destroyed another Nightmare Portal.

GATE: (panicking) This is.. horrible!  Not only is he back, but he’s made short work of Infinity Flea and Blaze Phoenix like they were nothing!!  How…?  How did he get so strong??

Isoc steps into the room.

ISOC: That would be the Nightmare’s doing.

GATE: (gasping) Isoc!

ISOC: (shrugging, acceptant) He did create it after all…

GATE: We created it!

ISOC: His Virus was the source.  You know that better than anyone…

GATE: Hmph…. How are you so.. nonchalant about all this?  Aren’t you afraid that he’ll come after us??

ISOC: (grinning) Oh no… I have a theory.

[INSERT TITLE CARD - Grand Design]

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

INT. MAGMA AREA – Blaze Phoenix’s Lair - DAY

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

X nods to Zero, ready to beam out and go home.

ZERO: Wait, before we go…

He spots a green Nightmare Soul left behind from Blaze Phoenix’s core and grabs it. Zero absorbs the power into his own core as his eyes glow orange for a second.

ZERO: We can’t let these fall into the wrong hands.

X: (nodding) Right!

Zero takes another second to walk over to the fallen Phoenix and rips out the weapon chip from his decaying core.

ZERO: …There. Now we can go.

The two share a smirk before teleporting home.

-cut to-

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

INT. MHHQ BUNKER – Control Area – DAY

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

The triumphant battle-weary heros appear in the middle of the room, by Signas’ console. They are both war-torn, but otherwise fine.

SIGNAS: Nice work, you two!!

ZERO: (nodding) Thanks, boss.

X: (saluting) Sir…

They both wearily nod and salute him as they walk over to Alia’s Console. On their way over to her, Zero looks at X with respect.

ZERO: Here, /catch.

He /throws the enemy’s weapon chip at X, which surprises him.

X, /catches it with a mild smile on his face.

X: Huh? /Oh… Actually, I’ve got something for you too..

ZERO: Hm?

He fumbles around in his compartment belt and returns the gesture by /throwing him the new Sub-tank he just found.

X: Here…. /catch.

Zero catches it and looks at the gift with gratitude.

Once at her console, Alia turns around with a satisfied smile.

ALIA: Very good, Gentlemen.  Now that you’re back… Let’s debrief!

Zero rolls his eyes.

ZERO: Always with the debriefing…

Alia looks at Zero, annoyed.

ALIA: Uhh, Yeah we’re debriefing…  It’s called - Doing My Job?  Hellooo!

X: (beaming, amused) Ahahahaahah.

Zero shakes his head and cracks half of a smile.

ZERO: (smirking,) …Alriiight, alriiiight ya got me…

Mid-laughter X suddenly panics.

X: Oh no!  Wait!! What about that Reploid?  I completely forgot about him.

ALIA: Don’t worry.  When you came back from the Pocket Dimension, another Reploid appeared at the Settlement. That must have been him.

X: (relieved) Okay, good.

ALIA: Speaking of which, who was in that Portal?

X: You’re not gonna believe this.  It was Vile.

ALIA & ZERO: What!?

X: I don’t know…. He didn’t seem real.  Someone must be messing with me.  

ZERO: Well that’s gotta be the Nightmare at work…

X: Even less-so.  Your Nightmare Counterpart had that Purple Virus Color we both love so much.  This one was more of a faded blueish gray. He was also very weak.

ZERO: Well, maybe that means that the Virus is wearing off!

The two look at him, spooked.

ZERO: N-Nightmare Energy…. Whatever this is!

Alia walks over to X and.

ALIA: Hmm, well that’s another mystery we’ll have to figure out later.  As for this power set…

She takes the new chip and walks it over to her computer.

ALIA: This, we can examine!  

She runs an analytics test.  The monitor displays a grid-like image of a generic reploid figure swiping a burning saber.

ALIA: It looks like you got Magma Blade! Good job!!  It emits a wide-ranged blade of fireballs from a Saber.

X shakes his head.

X: It’s unearned… You should use it, Zero.

Zero shakes his head.

ZERO: No need.  I’ve learned how to use his Shoenzan from our battle!

With a quick diagonal swipe, Zero shows them a new menacing saber, engulfed in flames. He creates a short wall of fire, similar to Blaze Phoenix’s winged fire-clap, but more contained.  

DOUGLAS: (nervous, troubled) HEEY, EASY!!

Douglas runs over to them from his Console, worried and annoyed.

Zero extinguishes the flame just as soon as he creates it and sheathes the saber into his back.

DOUGLAS: Could you not do that indoors, please?  I spent a long time making this place operational…

ZERO: Relax, Doug. I’ve got it under control…

DOUGLAS: (muttering) Hmph…. wreckless..

X and Alia both look each other wide-eyed for a second. Then they both choose to shake their heads and move on.

ALIA: U-uh anyway…. I should give you some more background on Blaze Phoenix before we close his file.

X: Yes, let’s proceed.

X gives Zero a disapproving glare for a second.

ALIA: Blaze Phoenix was an Ex-Investigator of the Earth’s Hot Spots. His ability was far beyond any of the other members on our Team.  Even Turtloid couldn’t examine these climates, but Phoenix was our solution. He could research any area that was dangerously hot without fear, but the problem was that his teammates couldn’t keep up. During the Great Repliforce War, his Team had investigated Burn Dino-Rex at the Sunhouse Mountain long before you, Zero…

ZERO: (shocked) Really!!?

-FLASH-

—————————————————————————- INT. SUNHOUSE MOUNTAIN – Deep Pit – DAY —————————————————————————-

Blaze Phoenix leads the way with an eager grin on his face as a fantastic wave of flames surrounds his entire body.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) Yes.  His team made it as far as the Lava Tunnels.  Do you remember that?

Far behind the flames, Allen, Glen and Ron struggle to keep up as their bodies are perspiring from the intense levels of heat in the pit.

ZERO: (v.o, reacting) Oh my God, I hated that…

The whole area begins to rumble. The giant tunnel shakes as rocks can be heard crashing down beneath them.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) So did they…

RON: What the-?

A Researcher turns around and widens his gaze immediately at a huge stream of lava, as tall as the entire tunnel around them.

RON: Oh God!!

2 others turn around, frightened to see the huge wall of lava coming for them.  

RESEARCHERS: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The wave engulfs all three of them entirely. Their bodies disintegrate instantly upon contact.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) All the others who fell behind died needlessly...

From far ahead, Blaze Phoenix crashes through a wall with an aura of flame around him.  He barely hears the faint sound of screaming, which makes him only slightly turn his head.

Then, he notices a giant wall of lava headed straight for him.

BLAZE PHOENIX: Hm!?

-Fade to Orange-

Upon an orange background, she narrates.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) When he came home, he was punished and thrown into quarantine.  

-dissolve to-

————————————————————— INT. LAYE LABS – Probation Bunker – NIGHT —————————————————————

A charred and recovering Blaze Phoenix rests in a chamber that is only slightly comfier than a jail cell.  

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) Ultimately, it was decided that in order to prevent any more victims from getting hurt, he would be disposed of and buried deep underground.

His cell door opens as he continues to sleep on a bench.

ZERO: (v.o, responding) How…?

A Reploid with a large cannon in hand walks up to him and places the weapon directly into his open beak.

ALIA: (v.o, narrating) Boulder Gun to the mouth while he was sleeping…. It got ugly…

-flash-

A large boulder is generated from the weapon, instantly crushing Blaze Phoenix’s skull from the inside. Blood spurts all across the wall and onto Victor’s chest, who shakes it off and wipes his weapon clean.

-FLASH-

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

INT. MHHQ BUNKER – Control Area – DAY

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

X and Zero look at Alia horrified.

X: Whoaaa!

ZERO: Brutal…. No wonder Gate lost it…

ALIA: Hmph.  It’s really hard to tell who was right in hindsight…. But he was definitely dealt an unfair hand.  Ugh, God that place was so toxic…

Alia winces and looks down with a hard feeling of guilt.

X: Heeeeey.  You okay??

He immediately walks up to her and puts two comforting hands on her shoulders.

With tightly closed eyes she nods and sniffles it off, trying to maintain her composure.

ALIA: Yeah, I… I’m fine.  It’s just a lot.

X: I know hun. We’ve all been through a lot…

He places a loving forehead against hers and they both take a slow deep breath together.

ZERO: Uhhhhh, is this still part of the debrief…?

Alia looks at X and grits her teeth.  Then she takes a breath and looks at Zero with a sly simper.

ALIA: Hmph… ya got me.

ZERO: If I didn’t know any better… It looks like X, has got you.  Hey, are you two…?

ALIA: That’s None of your Business!!!!

X blushes.

ZERO: Oh-o Maaaan! Woooooooow.  I really Did miss a lot while I was out.

X: Come on, Man. That’s enough.

ALIA: Alriiiiiight, alright.  Let’s keep it Professional. We’re done here.

ZERO: Hahahahaha, okaay…

X gives Zero two side-eyes with a half-grimace, feeling embarrassed.

Alia pets her hair and smirks at them with a slight blush.

ALIA: (grinning, smug) You both look like hot garbage.  Get cleaned up and spend the night in the Settlement.  I think it’ll be good for both of you.

ZERO: (confused) Huh?

X: (smiling, thoughtful) Hm.

-cut to-

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

INT. FALLEN COLONY – Lab Sites – NIGHT

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

Gate and Isoc continue their troublesome discussion.

GATE: So what are we supposed to do now… just wait until he miraculously comes around?  I don’t think that’s a very sound idea.

ISOC: We’ll follow through with the Contingency Plan until such events fall into our favor.  

GATE: That’s crazy! It’s not working!!  Dynamo is unreliable and that Resurrection was too weak!!  What the Hell was that???

ISOC: …Something to keep X busy, like you asked…

GATE: Hrrrgh, it’s not good enough!

ISOC: I’ll get Dynamo to come around.  Don’t worry.

GATE: (panicking) How can I not!??  Zero suddenly came back, stronger than ever and he’s tearing this whole thing apart!!!

Isoc hides a wicked smile and takes a breath.

ISOC: I know it may seem Counter-Intuitive, but the more he consumes the Nightmare, the better off we are.

GATE: (frustrated) How!? It will only make him stronger!!

ISOC: Yes.  And then he’ll become an Omega-Level threat once again.  X and the Public will turn on him. They will force his hand and once he Finally crosses that line… Then, my friend… he will see that our visions are aligned.

Gate looks at him wide-eyed.

GATE: You’re a Mad Man.  You’re putting a lot of faith into a hypothesis that we don’t even know is feasible!  

ISOC: Oh, it’s possible. I know how he thinks…. And when he’s backed into a corner, he will cut through anyone. Even his closest of friends.

GATE: That’s a very dangerous game you’re playing…

Isoc makes an evil grin. Gate shakes his head.

GATE: No, I have a much better idea.  It’s time to tip the scale in my favor…. It’s time to send in High Max.

-cut to-

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

INT. HEXAGON STATION – Reploid Settlement – NIGHT

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

Zero walks with X down the main steps of the reformed Train Station.  It is now a Recovery Hub for Homeless and Injured Reploids.

ZERO: So this is the Reploid Settlement..?

X nods.

X: Yeah.  It got really scary out there after your Shuttle Mission had… failed.

Zero frowns and looks away.

X: Local Mavericks turned up from around every corner and a lot of sacrifices were made…

X clears his throat.

X: But that was a while ago, already.  Once we got a semblance of control to the city, we noticed that the survivors naturally flocked over to here.  So, we decided to help them as best as we could.

ZERO: That’s really great, man.

X nods and smiles.

X: (proud) This… is who we fight for.  It’s a constant reminder that we need to get back out there and do better.  Every day.

Zero looks at X, stunned.  Once again, he has done a lot of growing up in his absence.

Just then, a cute reploid that shares X’s likeness in blue armor walks up to them.

LEVY: Hey, X!!  I was wondering when you’d grace us with your presence again.

She gives him a hug.

X: Eh heh heh..  Hey, Lev.  How’ve you been holding up?

LEVY: Really good.  Your friends are awesome!  Especially that new Fire Guy.

She thumbs over to Fef, who is mingling with Kassy, Regina, Iso, Data and Araki.

X: (smiling) Glad to see everyone’s getting along…

LEVY: Oh yeah. I’ve been training with the others and everyone’s been /really /Welcoming.

She /punches the /air with both fists in a cute way while making eyes at him.  Zero gives her and X a strange look.

LEVY: (flirty) Any chance, we’ll get to spar again soon???

X: Ahh.. n-no. We’re just here to recover and catch up for the night.  But now that we’ve got Zero back, maybe the two of you could-

LEVY: Hmph!  Passing me off to the Nightmare!?  I know who you are…. You’re the one who caused this whole mess!!  Under normal circumstances, it’d be an honor, but frankly… you can go to Hell.

She walks off in a huff.

Zero looks at X and rolls his eyes.

ZERO: So much for getting along……

They both walk on towards Lifesaver’s Med Car.  

X: Ah, don’t listen to her. She’ll come around.

When they pass by Fef’s group, the reploids all look at Zero in awe and fear.

ZERO: I don’t really care, if I’m honest…. I just want to get better and get back out there.

X frowns as they make it to Lifesaver’s car.

-pan to-

-------------------------------------------------------------------- INT. REPLOID SETTLEMENT – Med Cars – NIGHT --------------------------------------------------------------------

X and Zero step inside the car to see Hanse and Hal sitting with the charred Tekk. Lifesaver is tending to him.

HANSE & HAL: (nervous, scared) Ah-hh… Z-z-Zero!!

X: (annoyed) Relax, guys. He’s with me. He’s on our side…

Zero folds his arms and turns his back to them in a huff.  They instantly see his burn marks from the Magma Area.

Tekk tilts his head and smiles at Zero.

TEKK: H..h-hey.. Zzeerroooo…

ZERO: Save your strength, Tekk.  You’re no good to us, dead.

TEKK: (nodding, weak) rr..riigghhht…

He curls up and goes back to sleep.

Lifesaver looks at them with a stern face and walks over to X.

LIFESAVER: Gentlemen… What can I do for you??

X: We need a recovery bunk for the night.

LIFESAVER: Ohhh. Finally taking my advice and giving it a rest, I see. Come on…. Right this way.

He grabs some gear and leads them to another car, internally.

-cut to-

-------------------------------------------------------------------- INT. MED CARS – Recovery Bunk – NIGHT --------------------------------------------------------------------

The wounded legends are led to two padded gurneys, which lie at both walls of the car, across from each other. Lifesaver Prime and two assisting clones set the both of them up with IV wires, energen packs and light sedatives, which will ensure a smooth night without incident.

Zero gives Lifesaver an untrusting look, once stuck with the needle.

LIFESAVER: Oh, don’t worry. It’s a light dose of Repli-tonin.  This’ll just take off the edge, so your body can focus on recovering faster.  That’s what you want, don’t you?

ZERO: Hmph… I guess.

X: Thank you, Lifesaver.

He smiles at X.

LIFESAVER: Very good.  I’ll have a clone check up on you later.

He and the clones exit the car. The last one out, turns off the light and shuts the door, finally leaving them to their privacy.

The glow of their red and blue head gems illuminate in the darkness as X and Zero recover together.

-cut to-

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

INT. ABEL CITY – Dynamo’s Apartment – NIGHT

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

Dynamo stands by a window and watches over the barren city from high up.

DYNAMO: (v.o, thinking) Man I miss this City! …What have I done?  The bustling streets, the unsleeping crowds, the traffic at night…. Tearing it down was a lot of fun, but what was the point?  Everything’s so Boring!

Out of nowhere, from a distance, Dynamo can see a faint shadow amongst the night sky flying towards him.

DYNAMO: Hm?  What the-??

High Max bursts through his apartment window and grabs him by the neck.

HIGH MAX: I’ve Found You!!!

DYNAMO: AAGgghhkkk….  What the Hell??

He tries to fight back, but is flown into his couch and blasted 4 times at close range.

DYNAMO: AAGHH.

He tries to get up, but is instantly kicked right back down into the couch.

HIGH MAX: Stay down…. I have a message for you from Isoc.

DYNAMO: Ughh, what does He want??  Is he sad that I didn’t return his calls???

HIGH MAX: Hmph…. He wants you to know that you have one more chance to make things right.  Otherwise, you can forget about your Payment and the Luxury of Life altogether!

DYNAMO: Agghh…. Tell him, I need more time.  X really got me good, last time.

HIGH MAX: Not my problem…

DYNAMO: I’m gonna get stronger… I just need to sleep this off and collect more Nightmare Souls.  That’s all. I promise!

HIGH MAX: Hmph…. You have 24 hours…

DYNAMO: O-okay. Thank you!

High Max folds his arms and flies backward out from the window he came in. He threateningly locks eyes with Dynamo the entire time with a stoic grimace.

-       Cut to -

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

INT. MED CARS – Recovery Bunk - NIGHT

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

After a brief period of silence, X turns to his partner.

X: Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you…. How did you get that new saber?

ZERO: I created a new one while I was hiding out.

X: Huh?  You’ve never been tech savvy, before..

ZERO: Heh…. When it comes to my stuff, you’ll find that I’m full of surprises.

X: Hm… Where were you all this time, anyway?

ZERO: Well… I don’t remember a lot of it, to be honest. Reserve Processors must have blocked it out until I was safer…. But what I do remember is that by the time I rebuilt my arm and legs, I was hunkered down in a cave somewhere.

X: A cave…?  That’s it??

ZERO: Yeah, man. I dunno.  I was on the move, constantly roaming around not fully sure of where I was, exactly.  I kept looking for.. better parts. I tried to rebuild from scraps… turning junk into… something that could interface with my system.

X gives Zero a look of disbelief.

X: …Uh.. I’m sorry, but… Your story doesn’t add up, Man.  Why are you being so secretive…?

ZERO: What do you mean?? I’m not-

X: Come on. After all these years, I know you better than anyone. I can tell when you’re lying to me… which is upsetting.  …What is it that you’re hiding??

ZERO: (sighing) Look, the truth is I don’t know…. And it scares me.  Honestly, I just remember a cave and having a new saber. I was fully rebuilt with no idea how I got there and no idea where I was.

X: Oh…. Well no need to hide that from me..  Why don’t you trust me?

ZERO: In fairness, you haven’t trusted me for a while.  …And I’ve given you no reason to.

X: You always have my back in the Field.  That should be reason enough.

ZERO: But it’s really not… Is it?  

X: (hesitating) …We don’t need to get into this now…

ZERO: No, we really do.  It’s time, Man.  Speak your mind…

X: (sighing) Well… you’ve always been a guarded person, which I’ve come to expect over time.  But… my Damn Memory plays tricks on me, now...  

ZERO: Ever since Dr. Light… found you?

X: Yup. Now I don’t remember which Zero helped me grow up and learn to fight back anymore…. The cocky, headstrong idol or the jaded, corrupt Maverick…

Zero closes his eyes and winces, ashamed.

ZERO: It’s been both, Man.  The whole time, I’ve been fighting something.

X tears up.

X: And somehow, I already Know that!  And yet it’s news to me, now.  Can you imagine how frightening that is??

ZERO: I’ve lived it.  How do you think I felt in Antarctica?

X: …You scared the Hell out of me in Antarctica.  You weren’t acting like yourself at all.

ZERO: Actually, I was…. All of my inhibitions were gone.

X: Don’t start that up again!

ZERO: (sighing) I don’t Care about the Prophecy anymore, dude.  Me sitting here with you should be living proof of that.

X: But now we both know we were designed to kill each other…

ZERO: Fuck that.  I don’t care about their Grand Design.

X gasps, relieved as warm tears escape from his eyes.  Then, he makes a wry smile.

X: Always fighting against your own Destiny, to the bitter end, huh??

ZERO: (smiling) You know it.

X: So, in that case, I do have to ask this.  What’s your End Goal, now? …What are you fighting for…?

ZERO: Come on, do you really have to ask that??

X: I mean it, Zero.  If I’m ever going to fully trust you again, I need to know your motives.

ZERO: Ugh. After the Shuttle Mission Failed, I just want a sense of Normalcy…  Even if it’s unattainable.  Maybe I just want to hurt people for making the World this way. Get some of this frustration out…

X: I’d hate to say it, but I think you made the World this way…

Zero gasps and scowls with a grimace.

ZERO: Is it ‘cause of what that… fan girl said?

X smirks for a second.

X: Who, Levy? No… …Alia told me that your signal still doesn’t read as Data. So… what are you?

Zero shakes his head and takes a breath.

ZERO: It’s just as it was before. This is my Original Data.  It’s not Maverick and it’s not even Evil.  It’s just… Me.

X: Hmph.

ZERO: Not good enough for you?

X: What about the Nightmare Souls? What are they supposed to be??

ZERO: Well… They’re pieces of my Soul, actually.

X becomes wide-eyed.

X: What!!?

ZERO: I don’t know how they exist… Or even how I exist! But… somehow, the Virus Energy manifested itself into the Nightmare and was contained into these little orbs.

X: Sounds kind of like the Erasure Experiment…

Zero becomes wide-eyed.

ZERO: On steroids.

X: That explains how you’re becoming so powerful, I guess… I’m worried though.

ZERO: About what..?

X: (hypothesizing) You were revived Zero… No doubt about it.  But by who…? And for what reason? …If you absorb too many of those Nightmare Souls, I wonder… Will you end up like you did back at the Colony??

ZERO: (scared) I don’t know…

X: Can you contain it this time…?

ZERO: (worried) I don’t know!

X takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

X: Then that’s a problem…

ZERO: When this is all over, I want Lifesaver to do a full work-up on my internals.  One way or another, we’re gonna figure this out, Man.

X nods.

X: I like the sound of that.  

Zero cringes in pain with a heavy head of guilt.

ZERO: (hurting, guilty) X…. I’m so sorry that I hurt you.  Not just Antarctica or Laguz Island.  I’m sorry for all of it!

X: (surprised) Zero…

ZERO: (regretful, ruminating) How I acted during the Great Repliforce War, my reckless attack on Dr. Doppler, which nearly got us all killed… All you went through with the X-Hunters for me… and my unconventional field-training methods during the Rebellion, before that! I’m always putting you in danger. All this time, I’ve been pressuring you to do things My Way and-

X: I forgive you…!

ZERO: Huh??

X: Zero, all those experiences helped shape me into who I am today.  All the Good and the Bad…. And now that I know I can trust you.. None of it matters anymore. I mean that.

ZERO: But this Nightmare has been killing you…. That’s on me too…

X: (sighing) This Nightmare’s been killing all of us…. But now that you’re here to help, we’re finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.  Now let’s get some rest.  We’re gonna have a lot of work to do when we get up.

Zero smiles at his best friend, who closes his eyes and rests with a peaceful face that he hasn’t seen in a while.  This causes Zero to let out a deep sigh and close his eyes. Before long, he is lulled to sleep with a more complacent face as well.

ZERO: (v.o, thinking) Maybe… things are gonna turn out alright, this time…

-fade to-

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

INT. MHHQ BUNKER - Control Area – DAY

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

Caption - December 30th, the next morning.

A well-rested X walks over to Alia’s console with a cheerful smile on his face.

X: Good Morning, Beautiful.

ALIA: Hey there, sunshine!

He gives her a kiss on the lips. She smiles at him and turns back to her monitor.

ALIA: How was your sleep last night? Just what the doctor ordered?

X: And then some! /I feel better than ever.

He /stretches his arm and twists his torso, cricking his neck and looking refreshed.

ALIA: Hehe, good.  Where’s Zero??

X: Heheh.. That lug is still sleeping.  But that’s fine.  It’ll give me time to catch up to him later.

She nods and gives him a thoughtful look.

ALIA: I see.  So, you’ve settled it?  You seem.. really at Peace today.

X: (smiling) Heh...  We discussed just about everything we could last night, and... I guess I’m just really relieved about how it all went.  I’m definitely satisfied with the outcome.  

She nods and offers a genuine smile.

ALIA: Good!  You deserve some Peace of Mind more than anyone else...

X: And what about you...?

ALIA: ...I still might have some reservations, but... if you know that you can trust him, then that’s good enough for me.  I trust you...

He gives her a warm, loving smile and holds her hand.  They massage each other’s palms for 3 seconds before she pulls away and clears her throat.

ALIA: So where to, today?

X: Inami Temple.  It’s beyond time to follow up on the Reploids I left behind…

Alia offers a worried grimace.

ALIA: Okaaaaay.  Just be careful.

X: I know…

She pulls up their Mission Select screen, clicks on Rainy Turtloid’s black and white mugshot and punches in the coordinates.  In another moment, he teleports away.

-cut to-

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

INT. INAMI TREE – Meditation Room - DAY

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

X is teleported directly inside the Inami Tree, at the ground level, where a jagged tunnel of spikes can be seen.  It is still raining.

In a flash of light, he transforms into his Blade Armor and slowly walks up to the tunnel trap.

X sighs.

X: Here goes nothing…

He crouches down and carefully amplifies the gears within his boots.  After a moment of prepping, he launches himself directly through the tunnel, narrowly avoiding the spikes above and below him.  In an instant, he bashes into the wall, with his hands out and brakes on his heels.  He has made it to the other side.  Above him, the ominous portal awaits him.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Now, remember. Once you jump through that portal, we’ll lose contact. I won’t be able to see or hear anything from your end until you get back.

X: (nodding) I know…. Here I go!

ALIA: Be carefuuuul!!!!

X jumps into the portal and smiles at the sound of her voice, before suddenly disappearing.

-cut to-

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

INT. POCKET DIMENSION – Rainy Entrapment – DAY

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

X appears inside the trap from out of thin-air, whereupon he immediately spots a curative platform while getting rained on.

X: Hmph…. Just as I thought.  This isn’t the same area.

Just across the way from a similar gap in the room, a Monbando Unit looks at him and smirks.

MONBANDO: Weeeell… Look, who finally decided to show…

X: Hm!?

MONBANDO: I’m afraid you’re a little late, my friend.

Just then, an infected reploid peers out from behind the Mechaniloid.  She looks at him, driven with hatred.

X: Oh no!!

MONBANDO: And now it’s time that you Suffer the Consequences!!!

From out of nowhere, three other infected reploids reveal themselves from the platforms below him.

X takes out his saber and breathes heavily.

At once, all 4 Infected Reploids dive after him and he is forced to defend himself.

X: GOD DAAAAAMN IIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!

Jumping after them, he performs his Double Wave Giga Attack for the first time with regret.  All of the Infected Reploids shatter to pieces at once.

-Freeze Frame. Grainy Effect-

[almasexya]

What Came First, The Interstellar Space Chicken or the Egg (The X From Outer Space, 1967)

I really don't envy the poor Criterion employee who had to write out a whole five paragraph essay on how The X From Outer Space, a kaiju movie that makes even the shittiest Gamera vehicles look inspiring, is actually good, interesting, and worth your time as a viewer. This film's 88-minute runtime drags on so agonizingly that March of 2020 could have honestly turned to it for a few pointers. The X From Outer Space is straight up unabashedly bad, and in a way that leaves me absolutely no way to be able to recommend it.

See like Battle of Dragons, The X From Outer Space is neither a Toho nor a Daiei production, but that is where any similarities between the two films end. Battle of Dragons is an absolutely ludicrous thrill ride for children that have just eaten a bag of sugar, while The X From Outer Space is the kind of exercise in misery that would have drying paint running for the exits.

So how did we get here? Well, this film was made by Shochiku, Japan's second-oldest production company, and one that hadn't previously thrown its proverbial hat into the kaiju arena. However, there was money to be had in the genre, and Shochiku, having recently fallen on hard times, wasn't about to let the opportunity pass by. And while Schochiku clearly cribbed plenty of ideas from the competition (the film begins, nonchalantly, with a manned expedition to Mars) they absolutely didn't take enough to measure up to the likes of what Toho or even Daiei were doing.

The plot is, in a word, dull as fucking dirt. The film begins with a strange little helicopter landing, dropping off dangerous nuclear fuel for humanity's next manned mission to Mars. We then meet what passes for our protagonists, a team of astronauts assigned to the mission, though we only really give a shit about two of them, Captain Sano (Toshiya Wazaki) and Lisa (Peggy Neal) the American looker the Captain has a bit of a thing for. The team is being sent to Mars because none of the other missions have made it all the way to the red planet, citing some kind of extraterrestrial interference, though the bouncy, painfully 60s score suggests none of this is really a big deal, and the astronauts themselves don't seem the last bit concerned.

Within minutes of the film starting, the team is off to Mars on a sleek 60s era spaceship christened the Astro Boat. And then... nothing really happens. The film slogs along, following the astronauts and mission control just kind of doing their day jobs, with very little in the way of conflict driving things forward. They run into a UFO at one point, with zero fanfare (on of the astronauts makes fun of it, saying it looks kind of like an omelette, which to be fair it does) but otherwise the plot just fucks about for a solid 40 minutes of runtime. One of the team gets sick, there's an interminable detour on a moon base where we meet Captain Sano's old flame Michiko (Itoko Harada) but any real conflict doesn't kick in until the halfway point, where the UFO sprays the Astro Boat with spores, one of which Lisa collects and brings back to earth. Only about 40 minutes in does anything resembling a threat to the main cast occur, and even then they don’t really give much of a shit about it.

The spores, of course, grow into a big giant monster, which is quickly christened "Guilala" (I yearn for the explanation of monster names in something like Gamera vs. Gyaos, which was unabashedly the product of a child for no better reason than "it sounded neat"). Guilala goes off stomping buildings and kicking tanks as is his duty, while the protagonists fuck around doing something or other until they come up with a magic bullet, an element they name "Guilalanium" which will coat the monster in snot and shrink him back down into a spore. So that happens, Sano and Michiko kiss, and then, sometime after the sun swallows up the earth, you see the end title.

Because my reviews are all about big monsters, I have to give some space to Guilala and the effects in general. Unlike a Gamera picture, where you can tell the budget was mostly theoretical, the effects are competent here, on par with a lower-end Godzilla offering, though mercifully lacking the stock footage common to those. The tanks, buildings, and spaceships at least look like what they're supposed to, if a little uninspired, and Guilala isn't a bad suit, despite looking dumb as all hell.

There’s honestly a lot to unpack with Guilala, so let’s do that right now. First off, he looks like this:

With his big google eyes, wiggly antennae, and bulky arms and legs, Guilala is hardly scary or even really threatening. He has a ridiculous, gurgling roar that he emits at every possible moment, along with a raft of bizarre abilities, such as shooting fireballs, absorbing energy to grow, and turning into a giant sun and flying around. All of this never really amounts to anything more than just a weird trick for Guilala to pull out during the ever-present military fights, and there’s no real effort given to circumventing his abilities before they start dumping bombs full of shaving cream on him.

So, how did this movie happen? How did we end up with one of the most boring kaiju movies I have ever seen, rivaling shit like Godzilla vs. Gigan and Gamera vs. Guiron? Looking into Shochiku’s history, it seems their prime ballpark in the 50s and 60s was romance and melodrama, with a lot of low-key romantic angst, something I’m guessing their production team and regular actors were familiar with. The X From Outer Space feels, painfully, like a family-friendly romance someone dropped a monster into. Captain Sano has a low-stakes love triangle with Lisa and Michiko while the rest of the cast just kind of jokes around until the final minutes, and even when things seem dire, they never really feel that way, as if the team didn’t really understand how to convey mortal peril. Meanwhile, the jazzy, new age score does absolutely nothing to ratchet up tension, rather acting as a straight up retardant for it, and you’ll grow to pick out the themes almost instantly. Based on what I’ve seen and read, Shochiku was seemingly unwilling to really step out of its wheelhouse, refusing to create a true kaiju movie and instead creating a mixture of both, to the detriment of the final product.

Unless you’re a hardcore fan, skip this one.

[edelgoth]

mesmerizing (dimitri x reader)

pairing: reader x dimitri alexandre blayddid words: 1900 words genre: fluff!! request:  hi! i’d like to request an imagine pls for fe:th with dimitri. the reader is a dancer and she hides it by showing that she is a skilled fighter until she is seen by dimitri when she practices for the white heron cup since she got selected by the professor. i hope this makes sense, and thank u!! a/n: this is the cutest request in the world thanks for sending it <3 i hope you like it!! 

Nobody was supposed to know. 

You had no idea how the professor had worked it out. But there you sat in front of them, shoulders raised like hackles and fingers clenching your knees. 

“Please,” Byleth implored, expression disturbingly calm . “I’ve run through everyone -- and I mean everyone -- in the class, and you’re the best option.” 

“What about Mercedes?” You asked, refusing to look them in the eyes. 

“I’m sure she’d love to, but we both know she can be a bit...” Byleth turned their eyes to the ceiling, obviously trying to pick the right word. “Absent-minded?” 

“Felix?”

“No force in heaven or on earth could make him dance, let alone to represent the Blue Lions.” 

You bit your lip. That was true; and furthermore, the mental image of Felix dancing was... almost disturbing. Like you weren’t mentally equipped for something so powerful. 

“The thing is, we need to win.” Byleth said, sitting forward in their chair. “I’ve seen you on the battlefield. I know you’re very capable, but there’s something else to your movements --” Byleth looked up again, and you wondered how fast you’d have to be to escape this conversation from hell.

“There’s a certain grace to them,” Byleth said, finally, “if you just applied that natural talent with a few weeks training, I’m convinced we could win this damned White Heron Cup.” 

You stared at your professor. You knew your expression was a grim mask of anxiety. They stared back at you, face as unreadable as always. 

There was no way out of this, was there?

“Fine,” you sighed, slumping your shoulders. 

“Excellent!” Byleth gave you a rare smile. “I’ve spoken with Manuela; would you be able to fit some dance classes into your schedule?”

You nodded, unable to do anything else. Your fingers were digging into your knee so tightly that you thought it might bruise. 

“Don’t be nervous,” Byleth said, so nonchalant that it almost made you angry. 

You just smiled bleakly in response. 

You weren’t sure how you managed to get out of that room, but you did. Head down, fists clenched, and legs moving as fast as you could make them... 

“Ah!” You gasped, stumbling back. You’d collided with what felt like a solid wall. Looking up, you realized--

Oh no, you thought, oh no, no, no.

“I’m so sorry,” Dimitri said, voice laced with genuine remorse and surprise, “are you hurt?”

“I’m fine!” You blurted out. You cursed yourself for responding so quickly. 

“Are you sure?” Dimitri asked. His frown deepened as he looked at your face. “You look unwell. Do you need to--” 

“Honestly fine,” you breathed, trying your best to give him a convincing smile. “Just a little stressed. Classes, you know? Assessments... the ball.”

You could feel your anxiety rising at the mere thought of it. The dance competition was one thing; the ball was a whole other beast. 

“The ball?” Dimtri tilted his head at you. “Why would that be causing you such undue stress?”

You waved a hand at him, hoping it didn’t come across as frantic. You knew you were bright red in the face already. No need to make it worse. 

“It’s silly, don’t worry about it,” you said, avoiding eye contact. That in itself was nothing special; you always struggled to look him in the eye. It was just too overwhelming. 

“I’ve got to go,” you gave a poor semblance of a bow, and rushed off before he could even respond. 

Of all the people, you thought, I could have possibly run into... did it have to be him? 

The goddess was cruel, it seemed, and she delighted in your discomfort. 

Did you have a crush on Dimitri? Well, you would’ve said no, absolutely not. Your friends would’ve said otherwise. Annette had a particular fondness for teasing you about it. She’d nearly revealed it to Sylvain -- Sylvain -- one time. You’d never quite recovered. 

No, no, no, you didn’t have time to worry about all that. You had more pressing things to think about. 

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

Nothing was going according to plan. 

You’d hoped to sneak off during the day, to find a nice secluded part of the forest, and to practice until every muscle in your body hurt. It wasn’t your brightest idea, but you felt you didn’t have anywhere else to go. 

The dance lessons hadn’t been much help. You were too nervous. So nervous that you struggled to follow commands. There were just so many other people there, and having Byleth watch you intently was beyond disconcerting. You weren’t going to say that, though; that was rude. But you could tell they regretted choosing you.

It was only two days to the competition. You were horribly out of practice. What even was a pirouette? Could you do one? Sure, but was it graceful? Byleth said so, but you’d decided they were either a liar or a fool. Probably both. 

It seemed the goddess was against you. Every time you thought you could sneak away, something came up. Mercedes needed help carrying some boxes, Annette asked for help on dinner duty, Ashe needed a study buddy... It had all piled up, and you’d lost that precious, precious time. Busy as you were, sneaking off to the forest was looking less and less like an option. And there was no way you were waking up in the early hours of the morning to do so. You had some self-respect. 

Practicing in your room was proving fruitless. There wasn’t enough floor space. And if there were any more bangs and bumps, your neighbours might start asking questions. 

As far as you were concerned, you had one option. 

Was it a good idea to practice in the training room during the dead of night? No. But you weren’t going to the forest, that was for sure. 

All things considered, it wasn’t the worst place to practice. It was quite spacious, and it seemed to absorb sound quite well. Sure, the dusty floor was annoying, but it didn’t ruin the experience. It served a purpose, and honestly? You were desperate. 

And you’d been there for hours. It’d been a while since you’d really thrown yourself into dancing, and that in itself meant you had to brush up. But, you got into the rhythm of it quite quickly. The stiffness melted away, and before long, it was like you hadn’t even been out of practice. You even laid the groundwork for your performance. 

It wasn’t a full routine, but it was something. A bit like a skeleton that you had to add the muscle to. And sure, it wasn’t perfect, but you were almost proud of it. 

You were finally relaxed, your body flowing with ease as you followed the steps you’d laid out for yourself. There was something freeing about letting yourself go, to move so fluidly, stepping and spinning and -- 

Someone was standing in the doorway. 

You didn’t think about it. You dashed to the wall, grabbing a sword off the stand. Without missing a beat, you held it in front of you, ready to face your would-be assailant. 

Dimitri threw his hands up, eyes wide. 

“What are you doing here?” You hissed, lowering your sword with trembling hands. “You-- you nearly scared the life out of me.” 

“I didn’t mean to,” Dimitri said. He sounded genuinely apologetic. “I-- I couldn’t sleep.” 

You stared at him for a second. Your emotions finally began to process. 

Shit, you thought. Shit, shit, shit. 

“I, ah, I’m sorry,” Dimitri scratched the back of his neck, unable to meet your eyes. “I didn’t mean to intrude--”

“No, no,” you waved a hand at him, trying to muster the courage to look at him. “I shouldn’t have been practicing in such a public place.” You “Sorry you had to see that.” 

“Sorry?” Dimitri asked, confusion laced in his voice. You looked up at that, surprising yourself. 

“Don’t apologize,” Dimitri said, “you were... mesmerizing.” 

That’s it, you thought, this is how I die. 

“Now I should be the one apologizing,” Dimitri coughed, cheeks alarmingly red as he looked at his feet. “That was inappropriate for me to say,” he bowed to you, and you wondered if it really was possible for you to explode on the spot. Could you trick Annette into incinerating you with one swift fireball? 

Oh fuck. The realization that you’d already collosally fucked up this interaction slapped you in a face. 

“I- I- thank you,” you groaned, covering your face with your hands. “That’s what I’m supposed to say.” 

Dimitri chuckled. You paused. He chuckled. Did Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd almost laugh at you?

You peeked at him through your fingers. 

“It’s no problem,” he shook his head. “I surprised you. During the middle of the night, no less. Your reaction was perfectly understandable.”

You begged to differ, but you weren’t about to argue the point. “Sorry,” you sighed, looking down. “It’s just that... nobody’s really seen me dance before.” 

“Really?” He sounded genuinely surprised. “But you do it so wonderfully.”

If this boy gives me one more compliment, you thought, I’m going to throw myself in the lake and never be seen again. 

“The professor chose me to represent the Blue Lions for the White Heron Cup, so I’ve been trying to sneak in some practice,” you admitted. “I thought this location would be safe.”

“I’m sorry for intruding on your sanctuary,” Dimitri chuckled again. You were growing to like the sound. 

You shook your head, still not looking at him. “I should’ve expected someone would turn up.” 

You stopped yourself before you could say ‘and I wish it hadn’t been you’. There was no way to explain that statement. 

“Well, I’m glad I did.”

Your head shot up at that. What did he just say? As your eyes caught his, his cheeks bloomed red. 

“I, ah...” Dimitri cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck, “sorry, that was also... irresponsible of me to say.” 

“It’s fine,” you waved a hand at him, unsure of what to say to any of this. All things considered, you were quite proud of yourself for staying on your feet. 

“If it is alright with you, would I be able to... stay?” He asked, the faintest tint of pink on his cheeks. He wasn’t looking at you, fixing his gaze on one of the weapon stands in the corner of the room. You realised that you’d seen him blush more in this one exchange than you had all year. 

“And watch?” You said. You are a colossal idiot, you thought to yourself, if you die here, you have no one to blame but yourself. 

Dimitri chuckled. “I suppose. But only if you were comfortable with it.” 

You thought about it for a long moment. “Okay,” you nodded, ignoring the light, fuzzy feeling in your chest. “Just-- don’t mention this to anyone, okay? Not until the White Heron Cup.”

“I promise,” Dimitri smiled, giving you a small bow. 

“Don’t do that,” you groaned, shaking your head. 

“It seems I have a lot to apologize for tonight,” he chuckled, raising to full height. “I will stop bothering you, at least.” 

He walked to the corner of the room and sat down, offering you what seemed to be an encouraging smile. 

Well, you thought, maybe this isn’t the worst audience to perform for. 

[chemicalmagecraft]

A Black Wind Howls Chapter 1

A/N: Imagine me not writing a new fanfic instead of working on either my two existing fics or my college work because I sure can't apparently.

By the way the fic starts sometime during the events of Imprisoned, that one episode early in book one where they had all the earthbenders on the metal water prison.

oOoOo

The girl was curled up in a ball, sitting on the floor of a Fire Nation prison rig. Her black eyes were dull and she was staring at nothing in particular. The old man, Tyro, walked up to her. "Are you cold, kid?" he asked her softly.

She shook her head. The movement was barely perceptible.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded.

Tyro sat next to her. "Are you sure?"

She did nothing.

"Is there anyone here you know?"

She shook her head.

"Do you need someone to talk to?"

She shook her head.

Tyro sighed. "Okay. Well, if you need anything come to me."

oOoOo

meanwhile

"Look at this, guys!" Aang said, pointing to a board of wanted posters. The poster he was pointing at showed a person wearing a black mask with a swirling pattern on it, reminiscent of the insignia of the Air Nomads.

"The Black Wind," Sokka read. "Wanted dead or alive. If you have any information, report it to an officer. So?"

"Are you interested in the myth of the Black Wind?" a nearby villager asked. "It's intriguing, if a little morbid."

"Aang, we don't have time for this!" Katara said. "We have to find a way to save Haru."

"I'll make it quick," the villager said. "The Black Wind is a spirit that started to appear after the start of the Hundred-year War. It would attack Fire Nation resources in the Earth Kingdom under the cover of night before disappearing. It's said to have powerful control over air, akin to a master airbender, and can become one with the air itself. Some even say it can chill the air to freezing temperatures or take away firebending. Firebenders everywhere fear it."

"Really?" Sokka asked incredulously. "So there's just some all-powerful air spirit out there that hates the Fire Nation? I don't buy it, if there was something like that then wouldn't it have attacked the Fire Lord directly already?"

The villager shrugged. "It's just a myth, unfortunately. It's said that the Black Wind was born from the dying malice of the Air Nomads."

Katara grabbed Aang and pulled him away. "Thank you, but we have to go now."

"Can you believe that guy?" Sokka said. "'Master airbender spirit.' Like that'd happen!" He looked at Aang. "No offense, of course."

Aang was beaming. "No, you're right, Sokka!"

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "I know I am, but I thought you'd be less happy about that."

Aang grinned from ear to ear. "Don't you see, Sokka? There can't be a spirit like that!"

Sokka frowned. "Iiii don't get what you're- OH!" He pointed at Aang. "You're hoping they're not a spirit!"

"Yeah!" Aang nodded.

"I don't get it," Katara said.

"The rumors have to come from somewhere," Sokka said.

"Maybe it comes from an airbender who escaped the Fire Nation!" Aang added.

"Okay, we should definitely check that out," Katara conceded. "But let's save Haru first."

oOoOo

later

Katara got up on the raised air vent. "Earthbenders! You don't know me, but I know you! Every child of my home was told bedtime stories of the brave Earth Kingdom and the fearless benders who guard it! Some you you may think that the Fire Nation has taken away your power, but they haven't! They may take away the earth, but they can't take away your courage! And it's your courage that they should fear! Your courage is your real power, and they can never take that away! So remember your courage and fight back!" The earthbenders heard her speech, but while it resonated with them just a little bit they still didn't have hope they could win...

And unbeknownst to her, Katara's speech was heard by more than the earthbenders and the guards. The girl thought about the reason why she was there in the first place.

oOoOo

a few days ago

The day was clear, the sun beating down on the forest. Two shadowy figures darted through the trees with inhuman speed and agility, dodging fire blasts thrown by a squad of firebenders mounted on mongoose lizards. "Get them!" their leader shouted. The shadowy figures nodded at each other and pulled out daggers. As they ran, they slashed at the trees in front of them. Their blades went nowhere near the trees themselves but they were cut through nonetheless, as if by invisible saws. The trees collapsed as they ran past, obstructing the firebenders. While their mounts were agile enough to climb over the felled trees, they slowed down in doing so. "You can run but you can't hide, airbenders!" the leader shouted at them as they ran away.

The figures sped through the forest, still toppling the occasional tree. It looked like they were going to escape the forest... and then a wall of fire erupted, blocking off their exit. More mounted firebenders emerged from the fire. "Fan out!" one of them shouted. "We can't let them escape again!"

The shadowy figures jumped back, landing on tree branches. They separated, jumping from tree to tree to shake their pursuers. The smaller of the two shadowy figures, a young girl, stopped after a few minutes when she was confident she was safe. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, seemingly to thin air. "This is all my fault."

The larger of the figures appeared to materialize out of thin air, hugging her. "This is not your fault, my child," he told her.

"But..."

The man shook his head. "But nothing. We will get out of here alive." He pulled two rods from his belt and combined them to make a staff, which he presented to the girl. "Here. Take this."

"This is your staff," she said.

The man chuckled. "I really should've made you your own a while ago. I guess this is karma for that. Take it and leave. Fly as far away as you can. I'll find you, don't worry about me." The girl grabbed at the man, but he drifted away from her as if weightless. He started to vanish, fading from view. "Goodbye, my daughter. Remember, I will always love you," he said, his voice a whisper on the wind.

In the forest below, the firebenders had gathered, except a few who kept guard of the perimeter. "Where are they!" the leader of the firebenders demanded.

"I don't know, it's like they disappeared!" one of his subordinates responded.

"Then find them!"

Before the firebenders could disperse again, the forest exploded like a bomb was dropped. Frigid, gale-force winds battered the firebenders, their mounts, and even the trees. Blades of wind sliced at every surface, cutting through the firebenders' armor and even killing some outright.

When the winds subsided, frost covered everything. The taller shadowy figure stood in the center of the swirling crater made by the blast. "Captain Zhao," he said. His face couldn't be seen behind his swirl-patterned black mask, but it didn't need to be for everyone present to know he was scowling.

The named leader's armor began to steam as he heated himself up. "It's Commander Zhao now, and it'll soon be Admiral when I drag your steaming corpse back to the Fire Lord, Black Wind."

"If," the Black Wind corrected him.

Zhao sneered. "When. Speaking of, where's the girl?"

"I sent her away so I can kill you all in peace." The man got into an unusual fighting stance.

"No matter, I suppose I'll find her when I'm done with you." Zhao smirked. "Not like a child can do much to threaten the might of the Fire Nation." He dismounted and assumed his own stance. His men followed his lead.

"Careful," the Black Wind cautioned. "Underestimate my daughter and she might be the death of you. At the very least you'll lose a limb."

"I'll be the judge of that. Get him," he ordered. The firebenders threw blasts of fire at the man, but a smoke bomb popped from a pouch at his waist and exploded, as if on its own. The fireballs tore through the smoke cloud, but the Black Wind was nowhere to be found.

"Where did he go?" one of the firebenders asked. The Black Wind appeared behind him like a specter of death, cleaving him in two without even touching him before fading back into thin air.

"H-how is he doing that?" another firebender asked.

"Magic," the Black Wind appeared in front of him before driving his dagger into his neck. The firebenders shot at him, but only hit their ally as Black Wind had vanished again.

Zhao clenched his teeth. He had to be somewhere. He was only human, and not even the most powerful bender could become their element. He looked around carefully. There. Specks of blood trailed from Black Wind's last victim. Another one appeared, though it didn't look like there was anywhere it could have come from. Zhao threw a wave of fire in its general direction.

The fire was blown away, revealing Black Wind for but a moment before he started to fade away again. "He's invisible!" Zhao shouted. "Whatever technique he's doing, he can't do it and bend at the same time! Keep the pressure up!"

The firebenders threw more fire at their target. He deflected them all with a cocoon of air, revealing himself again. "Heh," the Black Wind said. "You're smart, I'll give you that." He turned invisible again. "Too bad I have to kill you now." His voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Zhao looked around, trying to see where Black Wind had gone. So this is why Sozin had started the war with an attack on the airbenders. He was honestly terrified. His heart was pounding and it felt hard to breathe. He sucked in a breath. No, it was definitely getting harder to breath. "He's suffocating us!" he tried to say, but no noise came from his mouth. Was this how he would die?

No, his destiny was greater than that! he couldn't die! Zhao calmed himself, trying to steady his breathing. The longer he waited, the weaker his firebending would be. He needed to find the Black Wind now. He looked around, trying to find the telltale blood from his soldier. There were red spots on the trees! Zhao blasted a branch. Nothing. He tried his best to take a deep breath and glared at the remaining soldiers. They were panicking, but his fire blast shook them out of it. They nodded and started blasting the trees too. Soon the forest around them was burning, but they still hadn't hit the Black Wind.

"Tick tock," the Black Wind's voice taunted. Zhao could barely breathe at this point. He only had enough breath left for one fire jab. He'd have to make it count. He looked around as carefully as he could. He saw a person-shaped shimmer of air from one of the higher branches, the heat apparently distorting the Black Wind's technique for a moment. Zhao poured the last of his fire into his punch, hitting not the Black Wind but the branch under his feet. With his footing lost the Black Wind fell, unable to concentrate on either of his techniques. Zhao gasped as he was suddenly able to breathe again and threw as strong of a fire blast as he could manage at the now-visible Black Wind. His men did the same, and while the Black Wind was able to block them all he hit his head on a branch. Dazed, the Black Wind fell to the ground.

Zhao walked over to the Black Wind. "What was that about you killing us?" he asked the black-clad man before kicking him into unconsciousness, then grinned. "Tie him up, fast. I don't want him to be able to move a muscle and we should get him in chains before he wakes up." His smirk widened. "The Fire Lord will be pleased."

"What about the girl?" one of the firebenders asked.

"She must be miles away by now," Zhao said. "No use looking for her, not to mention the risk of leaving him unattended. We'll just have to keep up a good guard and hope for the best. Now hurry, before he wakes up!"

But the girl wasn't miles away. In fact, she was hiding in one of the trees, sobbing. She'd seen the whole fight.

oOoOo

one week later

The girl was on her feet again. She knew that the new girl's speech from yesterday wasn't directed at her, but even still it resonated with her. And when the coal burst through the air vent, a shine returned to her eyes. A shine that had been missing ever since she saw her father get taken away. And even before Haru threw the first stone, the girl was looking for ways to attack the firebenders while making it look like she was an earthbender. When the fighting broke out, she reached out at a few pieces of coal. The coal dust swirled around them and they floated into the air. She shakily copied one of the earthbenders throwing coal, shooting her coal at the firebenders. Nobody noticed, in the confusion, that even the pieces of coal that narrowly missed scored deep cuts in the firebenders or sliced gashes in their armor. And the ones that hit... left holes.

The girl picked up more rocks, looking for more firebenders to throw them at. She saw a firebender about to attack was that another airbender? If not he was some weird, really diligent cosplayer. The girl shot one rock at the firebender's solar plexus, making the air bullet around it blunt instead of sharp. She didn't want to frighten the airbender, if he was an airbender. The old airbenders didn't like murder, right? That felt like something her father told her at some point. The rock, or rather the air bullet hit the firebender perfectly on target. The firebender collapsed with a loud shout as all the air was forced out of his lungs. The airbender smiled and nodded at the girl, then threw another firebender overboard with a gale of wind. The firebender that the girl had hit shakily got back up and punched at the airbender's back.

Only a puff of smoke came from his fist. He stared at his hand with horror before he was thrown off the platform too. The airbender then did some kind of improvised airbending move, a tornado funnel from the looks of it, and shouted for his friends to get him coal. The girl picked up a few more pieces of coal and sprinted to the airbender. She placed the coal in the funnel with the others. The coal shot at some firebenders, knocking them off of the platform. The girl then saw Tyro and Haru grab the warden and the few remaining firebenders with coal and dump them overboard. She breathed a sigh of relief, then noticed something. There was a necklace on the ground. It looked like the one the girl who made the speech was wearing earlier. Maybe it fell off while she was fighting?

The girl walked over to it and picked it up. It was a choker with a stone carved with the symbol for waterbending on it. "Is that girl from the Water Tribe?" the girl wondered to herself. It looked like she was friends with the airbender too. The girl looked around and saw that the two, plus a boy who looked like he could be related to the water tribe girl, were heading to the boats. She ran after them.

oOoOo

"Thank you Katara," Tyro said. "You gave me hope again. You gave us all hope again. And now we're going to give the rest of the Earth Kingdom hope again."

"Come with us, Katara," Haru offered.

"I'd love to," Katara said, "but we have to take Aang to the North Pole."

"Aang. He's the Avatar, isn't he?" Haru asked.

"Yeah..." Katara touched her neck wistfully. She gasped when she noticed that her choker was gone. "My mother's necklace!"

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped and turned around to see a small girl who looked maybe a little bit like Aang if he was a few inches shorter, had no tattoos, and had short short black hair holding her mother's necklace. "I think you dropped this," she said quietly. She may have looked like Aang, but she didn't really act like him... "You should keep better track of this while fighting, if it's important to you."

Katara took the necklace and put it on. "Thank you so much!" she said gratefully and hugged her. The girl flinched, but didn't resist it.

"Um... You said that you're traveling with the Avatar, right?" the girl asked when Katara let her go. She was blushing slightly. "Can I please speak with him?"

"Sure, just follow me." When Katara started walking, it didn't feel like the girl was following her. But when she stopped and looked at her, the girl was still right behind her.

"Why'd you stop?"

"Sorry, just... didn't think you were following me for some reason."

The girl nodded. "I understand. I'm pretty quiet."

Katara turned back around and started walking again. She couldn't hear or feel the girl moving behind her at all. She wouldn't say anything to her, but it was a little creepy...

"Hey, Katara!" Aang said when she walked up to him.

"Who's that girl behind you?" Sokka asked.

"And why does she look kinda familiar?" Aang added.

"Aang, Sokka, this is... sorry, I never actually asked your name," Katara said.

The girl nodded. "That's okay. My name is Dorji."

Aang's eyes widened and he pointed at her. "That's an Air Nomad name!"

"Really?" Sokka asked.

Dorji nodded. The rough brown tunic that the firebenders had made her and the other prisoners wear over their clothes exploded in a burst of air, revealing the clothes she was wearing underneath. They were mostly black, with a few bits of green. "I'm an airbender."

"Another airbender!" Aang hugged Dorji. Just like with Katara, she looked uncomfortable but didn't say anything.

Sokka frowned. "I know you're excited you found another airbender, Aang, but why were you even here to begin with?" He pointed at Dorji. "I doubt the Fire Nation would just stick an airbender in a prison for earthbenders, especially when the last airbender is supposedly the Avatar."

"Sokka-" Katara started to object, but Dorji cut her off.

"No, it's a reasonable question. I'm sure if I actually told those soldiers I was an airbender I would have been taken directly to the Fire Nation, if not killed outright..." She sniffed and rubbed a tear from her eye. "At least, that was what happened to my father..."

Katara slapped Sokka. "Hey!" Sokka objected.

"Instead I pretended to be an earthbender. They were rough, but didn't hurt me."

"Were you also planning a breakout?" Aang asked.

Dorji looked away and clutched her arm nervously. "No. I... lost hope." She bit her lip, tears forming in her eyes. "Y-you have to understand, my father..." She sniffed. "M-my... my father..." She started crying, still trying to explain herself between sobs.

Aang hugged her again. This time she didn't flinch, though only because she was too busy sobbing. "It's okay."

"I-I'm s-sorry..." Dorji muttered.

Katara and Sokka hugged her too. "It hurts, doesn't it?" Katara asked.

Dorji nodded and rubbed her eyes.

"It feels bad now, but it gets easier," Sokka added softly.

Dorji sniffed after a few minutes. "I'm better now."

The three let go of her. "Do you have someone you can go to?" Katara asked.

"My grandmother is still alive, but..." She pressed her fingers together nervously. "Do you mind if I come with you three?"

Aang grinned. "Well I'd love it if you came along! We airbenders gotta stick together, right?"

"I don't see why not," Katara added.

"Welcome to Team Avatar, I guess," Sokka said. "Now let's go. We've already spent a lot of time here, and we're supposed to be heading to the North Pole."

Dorji nodded. "To find a waterbending master for the Avatar?"

"And me," Katara said. "I'm a waterbender, but unfortunately I never had a proper teacher so I'm not too good..."

"I see," Dorji said. "Though, do you mind making a few short stops for me? They should be on the way, and I promise I'll try to be quick."

"Sure thing!" Aang said before Sokka could voice his concerns. "Now hop on Appa!" He pointed to the flying bison.

Dorji admired him. "A real flying bison... I thought they were all wiped out..."

"You can gawk at him all you want in the air," Sokka told her.

oOoOo

"So what are we doing here?" Sokka asked as he pushed aside a tree branch.

"I was worried that the firebenders would figure out who I really was due to my equipment, so I hid them somewhere I hoped nobody would find them," Dorji explained, ducking and weaving through the thick branches like she was born in that forest. "You guys didn't have to come." She stopped in front of a large tree. "We're here."

"What are we looking for?" Katara asked.

Dorji jumped, easily reaching one of the lower branches of the tree. "I'll be back shortly." She jumped again, disappearing into the leaves.

"Something seems off about her," Sokka said.

"Sokka!" Katara glared at him.

Aang frowned. "I don't think it's anything bad, but I think I know what you're talking about. She doesn't carry herself like the airbenders I remember. It's like... the difference between a rabbit and a cat, I guess."

"I understand your concerns," Dorji said as she floated down from the tree, a package bundled in a tarp floating in front of her in an air bubble. "The power of airbending may have survived through my family line, but unfortunately the spirit of the Air Nomads lives on only through you." Aang winced at that comment. Dorji touched down lightly and let the package float to the ground. The tarp unfurled, revealing a belt with several pouches and two daggers sheathed on it, a black staff segmented in two pieces, and a black, swirling mask. "My grandmother was never fit to be a monk."

"You're the Black Wind," Sokka realized.

Dorji shook her head. "My father was the Black Wind, and my grandmother before him." She picked up the belt with her airbending and put it on. "I am next in line, though. I understand if you have concerns, but I do hope you don't change your minds." She stowed the segments of her father's staff on her belt. "Don't worry, though, I won't be wearing the mask a lot. For the most part it's sentimental. But the spirit of defiance against the Fire Nation I am hoping to carry on through my companionship with you."

Aang frowned for a moment, but forced a smile. "It's... fine. Don't worry about it."

Sokka shrugged. "Well if Aang's fine with it so am I." He slung his arm around Aang's shoulder. "Isn't this cool, Aang? We're gonna be traveling with an actual ninja!"

Aang chuckled nervously. "Yyyeah..."

Katara frowned at him. That didn't sound good.

oOoOo

A/N: Okay so I had this idea like a while ago, then I started rewatching ATLA and got so much inspiration (like for example one of Iroh's first lines in the series was something along the lines of "Fire comes from the breath, not the muscle," which inspired one of Dorji's techniques), so here we are in the future.

Also if anyone has any like tips or anything on how to write bending and fighty stuff better (especially Dorji because while there are some similarities she's supposed to have a fighting style distinct from regular airbending which means I can't use anything from canon for reference...) PLEASE TELL ME. Or tips in general actually. Just please don't phrase it too rudely please.

[crackimagines]

Blood of the Eagle, Lion, and Deer (evil!Byleth AU)

AU Masterlist Here!

Withering Flower - Chapter 6

With time running short as the Javelin of Liberation already en route to Garreg Mach, Edelgard, Claude, Rhea, and Dimitri form an unofficial alliance to take down the Knights of Nemesis.

They all converge onto Gronder Field.

—–

The Elites of the Fell Star Journal - “The Battle of Gronder Field”

What I remember about Gronder Field... It was hot, it was muddy, chaotic.

Nothing at all like the previous battles. 

Of course that's pretty much the way it was for all of us, wasn't it? 

All the experiments, all those years of training...it doesn't really prepare you for all the screaming or the blood, does it? 

Frankly I'm still amazed we ever made it through the first few minutes, never-mind the first hour.

—–

1 Day Later after Chapter 5...

Byleth walked alongside his men as they transported the Javelin of Liberation to Garreg Mach. It was in a large metal container being carried by several horses on a cart.

Almost half his forces were here to defend the cart with their lives. He would have been at Garreg Mach fortifying it for an attack, but he did not anticipate Shamir and Alois going rogue.

Though in hindsight, he should have.

Regardless, there was no point in wishing what could have been.

All of this was going to end soon, his plans would be set in motion.

But for now, he was anticipating the arrival of all four factions. He was hoping to slip by unnoticed, but realistically they’d be here any minute now.

And sure enough.

Three armies peered over the horizon bearing Blue, Red, and Yellow banners.

Another army appeared to the hill Byleth was going to escape in, bearing a silver banner.

It was near the House Leaders’ armies that he saw something peculiar.

Shamir, Leonie and Alois were there.

...Leonie.

He had expected to see Shamir and Alois, but he didn't think to see her again. 

She was supposed to be dead and yet...

(Byleth) "Percy."  

He unsheathed the Sword of the Creator and heard footsteps.  

(Percy) "Sir." 

Though he looked calm, Byleth could see in the corner of his eye that he was shaking. 

(Byleth) "You willingly come to me, knowing what's about to happen?" 

(Percy) "I'm proud to have served in the Knights of Nemesis, but I will also not turn my back on my friends. I am ready to accept my fate, sir." 

(Byleth) "...You were a good kid, Percy." 

(Percy) "Thank you sir.  It's been an honor." 

With a swift strike, he slashed at Percy's chest, with him falling to the ground. Byleth had no time to mourn the loss. 

With the upcoming battle, there was more of his own that would fall.

...

Byleth had just killed one of his own soldiers. 

Even though they were so far away, Leonie could tell exactly who it was.

(Leonie) “Percy...”

Alois and Shamir lowered their heads in respect, but put their hands on the hilts of their weapons as Shamir unsheathed her bow.

(Alois) “We’ll make sure his death isn’t in vain, Leonie.”

(Leonie) “Thank you...”

(Shamir) “Look sharp. They’re getting into formation.”

...

Rhea saw the House Leaders stare at her, and she responded with a nod.

The Knights of Seiros were ready.

...

The Generals of their respective armies stood side by side.

(Judith) “Well, this is an alright battlefield to die in.”

(Gilbert) “Very optimistic...”

(Death Knight) “Realistic. Who knows what Nemesis will be throwing at us here.”

(Rodrigue) “If I can protect my son and our future for the Kingdom...I’ll be all right with this.”

(Gilbert) “Annette...Hmph. I agree.”

(Death Knight) “...”

He slowly looked over to Mercedes.

...

Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude walked up to the front together, surveying the area.

Edelgard couldn’t help but feel a sad tinge of nostalgia.

[Between Heaven and Earth - Fire Emblem: Three Houses]

(Edelgard) “Years ago we fought here as classmates…”

(Dimitri) “And now, we stand together against someone who was once a friend.”

(Claude) “As far as big class reunions go, this one’s got to be the worst one in history…”

(Rhea) “There is to be no mercy for these heretics. Do I make myself clear?”

(Catherine) “Crystal.”

(Seteth) “Loud and clear.”

(Alois) “If we are to die today, then we die doing the right thing.”

(Shamir) “Something we should have done long ago…”

(Leonie) “Alois, Shamir. It’s been an honor.”

(Byleth) “I never wanted it to come to this. I’d have much preferred if we were able to find a way to work together but…Wishing for friendship was a foolish thing for what I have done.”

(Rhea) “KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!”

(Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude) “FOR PEACE!”

(Leonie, Alois, Shamir) “FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PERISHED, WE DIE IN GLORY!”

(Byleth) “WE ARE THE KNIGHTS OF NEMESIS, AND WE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!”

And so, the Battle of Gronder had begun.

The first forces to begin the fight were Rhea's.

Soldiers charged in, swords and lances raised high straight towards Byleth.

(Riddhe) "What is she doing, her men must know this is suicide!"

(Byleth) "That's exactly why she's sending them in. She'll stop at nothing to kill us. Direct the men while I'm out there."

(Riddhe) "Yes, sir!"

(Byleth) "Since she's so insistent on throwing her life away, MAGES! RELEASE THE WOLVES! BEASTS, IGNORE THE FIGHT AND GET THE CART TO GARREG MACH AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!"

The Javelin of Liberation then began being dragged by several demonic beasts. At the speed they were going, they'd be long gone once the fight was over.

However, this now meant they would only have very few heavy hitters on the field and Byleth decided against pulling his trump card out yet, it was too early.

And Byleth was not going to summon more, if the worst case scenario happened, he needed to save the magic for warping him and his army out of the fight.

He furrowed his brow and decided to observe the battle for now.

Byleth was far back enough from the fight to worry about snipers, and his position was heavily fortified.

He was going to determine when direct intervention was necessary.

Soldiers took the horses from the cart and charged them straight towards the House Leaders. They were joined by other squads of cavalry, meeting the Empire's and Kingdom's head on.

Squads of Mages began casting a large circle around them and after a few seconds, the circle started to glow into a bright light, summoning forth several demonic beasts.

2 giant wolves spawned from the circle, and charged into the Knights of Seiros, crushing and ripping apart any soldier they came across.

(Edelgard) "Rhea, that idiot! She's going to break up our formation walking right into him like that!"

(Dimitri) "Nemesis and his commander are moving to meet us head on!"

(Claude) "I'll be moving to reinforce Rhea before they get overrun by those wolves."

Edelgard and Dimitri nodded and advanced with their soldiers as the Alliance forces moved to flank from the sides.

(Claude) "Stick to the trees and make them come to us!"

Edelgard motioned her soldiers toward the enemy, and turned to Hubert.

(Edelgard) "Take the Strike Force and help the Blue Lions take care of the commander! I will be on the frontlines with Prince Dimitri! Do NOT engage the professor!"

(Hubert) "Understood. You heard Lady Edelgard, move out!"

...

(Alois) “TAKE IT DOWN!”

Seteth's wyvern grabbed one of the wolves by the neck and bit into its eye as it was being distracted by Alois and Catherine.

Using Thunderbrand, she stabbed it into the other eye, making the beast stop, and having Alois deliver the final blow with an axe to the neck, forcing it down.

Another wolf was about to charge them, being interrupted by a hail of arrows, making it grind to a halt as it fell over.

Catherine, Alois, and Seteth looked back at the trees and nodded, a gesture of thanks to Claude and continued to move towards the Mages.

(Claude) "Keep the pressure on those beasts and watch out for any more that might come in!"

(Hilda) "Claude, we'll be moving in from behind to catch them off guard."

(Claude) "Be careful then, and strike hard and get out of there!"

The Golden Deer students stuck to the trees as Claude kept watch.

Rhea slit the throat of a soldier before setting another on fire with her spell.

Catherine and Seteth barely managed to catch up with her as she continued to slaughter any who tried to attack her.

Alois stayed behind picking off any of the stragglers.

Seteth splitting a soldier in half with his axe as Catherine cut one down, they both turned to her.

(Catherine) "Lady Rhea, you need to stand back!"

(Seteth) "Catherine is right, it's too dangerous! We don't know what else might-"

(Rhea) "I DO NOT CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO ME! THAT CHILD WILL DIE BY MY HANDS IF IT MEANS I WILL HAVE TO LOSE EVERY OUNCE OF BLOOD IN MY BODY!"

(Seiros Knight) "F-FORCES ARE WARPING IN FROM BE-"

The soldier with them was electrocuted and fell to the floor.

All three of them saw a squad of mages teleport in, and fired wave after wave of fireballs at them.

Before Catherine and Rhea could react, Seteth pushed them out of the way with his wyvern, making them tumble over and barely dodge the fire as it hit him.

Seteth was thrown off his mount and landed into the grass.

(Catherine) "Seteth! Tch, DAMN ALL OF YOU!"

Picking up Thunderbrand, she charged with Rhea and began brutally cutting down the soldiers one by

Flayn was trying to heal any injured when she saw Seteth get thrown off, making her instinctively run to him.

(Claude) "H-Hey, FLAYN!"

Doing her best to avoid the carnage, Flayn ran and knelt over to Seteth.

(Flayn) "Father! Are you alri-"

Her blood ran cold as she flipped him over.

Most of his face and his front body was burned off from the attack, leaving a mess of charred bones and blood.

(Flayn) "F...FATHER!--"

That was the last thing she screamed out as she felt her entire body go numb, and fell over to the ground next to him.

Rhea, taking her sword out of a mage's head, looked to where Seteth was, and saw his burnt face and Flayn with an arrow through her heart.

(Catherine) "Flayn...!"

(Alois) “Damn it, NO!”

Rhea said nothing and instead roared out even louder, charging right for the snipers who shot Flayn.

(Sniper) "We've been spotted, retreat to-"

The Sniper's head was lopped off as Leonie rode by with her horse, swinging her sword and running over anyone in the way.

(Sniper 2) "SHIT, AMBUSH!"

(Leonie) “TAKE THE SHOT!”

An ice spike went through his chest and he fell over.

Marianne finished casting her spell and got behind a tree as soldiers were coming to reinforce the snipers.

(Hilda) "Anyone fancy looking up there?!"

Ignatz and Shamir threw themselves against the tree next to Marianne and peeked out of cover.

(Ignatz) "That one, up on the cliff directing artillery!"

...

(Riddhe) "Direct your fire at the Knights of Seiros! If Rhea gets too close, our right flank will be completely open!"

The Mages began casting another spell before one of them yelled out.

(Mages) "INCOMING!"

Everyone looked up and saw a lone Pegasus rider coming at them.

(Riddhe) "ARCHERS!"

A small group of archers aimed at the rider and let the arrows loose.

The Pegasus rider twirled around, gracefully dodging the arrows as she kept coming at them.

Several more archers got into formation and kept up the barrage, but the rider kept avoiding them.

(Riddhe) "The hell?!"

No lone rider should be that fast. Their archers were some of the best shots in the army.

Riddhe didn't realize what was special about that Pegasus rider until he saw the symbol of a lion on the side of the pegasus's helmet.

(Riddhe) "Shit, shit, SHIT! PREPARE FOR CLOSE COMBAT, THE BLUE LION CORPS IS UPON US-"

(Ingrid) "Defenseless, are we?!"

Ingrid swooped down and used an axe to send Mages flying into the air, breaking up their formation.

Archers tried taking another shot at her until a circle formed around them, and froze them completely solid.

(Annette) "ARCHERS DOWN!"

(Hubert) "Rush them!"

(Sylvain) "Got it!"

Sylvain and Ferdinand charged in on their horses, slashing at the enemy soldiers who were still trying to get their swords out.

Riddhe pulled out his sword and was about to enter the fray until he saw an arrowhead emerge from his mouth.

He dropped the sword and fell to his knees, shakily trying to reach for it before another arrow went through his brain, killing him instantly.

(Shamir) "Target down, nice shot kid."

(Ignatz) "Don't thank for me taking a life."

The rest of the Blue Lions and Black Eagles got to the others, finally wiping out the artillery unit as the Golden Deers continued attacking the right flank, eventually joined in by Rhea and her men.

...

Dimitri spun his lance around, killing every soldier around him.

(Dimitri) "Gilbert!"

Gilbert spun around and slammed his shield into a soldier trying to charge him, being cut down by Rodrigue.

(Gilbert) "There is no end to these soldiers!"

(Rodrigue) "I'll hand Nemesis one thing, he sure has an army!"

Edelgard and the Death Knight cut down the enemies next to them, letting their forces charge ahead of them.

(Edelgard) "Keep pushing, we're driving his main forces back!"

(Judith) "Looks like the boy and Rhea did their parts as well! We're starting to rout their men on the left!"

(Dimitri) "Good, now let's-"

Dimitri stopped in his tracks, and everyone else did too.

All of the Knights of Nemesis pulled back and got into a guarding formation, stoppong their attack.

Several Alliance and Empire soldiers charged them, trying to take advantage of the situation.

(Death Knight) "YOU FOOLS, WAIT!"

The soldiers were instantly killed and sent flying back, torso and arms flying high into the air.

When everyone looked back into the crowd, Byleth was slowly walking out, de-activating the whip function in his sword.

(Byleth) "I have come too far, and killed too many to be stopped at Gronder."

Everyone immediately raised their weapons as Byleth continued to walk at them.

(Gilbert) "Your Highness, Lady Edelgard, stand back!"

(Judith) "Protect the kids with our lives!"

(Death Knight) "Acknowledged."

(Rodrigue) "With pleasure! HAAAA-"

Rodrigue was the first to charge Byleth on his horse.

Byleth did not bother moving out the way, and instead raised his hand.

Everything grinded to a halt, with nothing making a sound anymore. Slowly, everyone began to reverse, putting back Rodrigue before he even charged.

Byleth slowly walked alongside Rodrigue, waiting for time to stop reversing.

(Byleth) "2 more to go."

(Rodrigue) "With ple-AAAGH!--"

Everyone immediately looked to their left, Byleth suddenly was behind Rodrigue, looking straight at them as the Sword of the Creator plunged into the back of his chest.

(Gilbert) "RODRIGUE!"

Judith and the Death Knight swung their weapons at Byleth, him ripping the sword out and deflecting their attacks with relative ease.

Gilbert came around the side, swinging his axe down as the Death Knight and Judith kept him down.

(Byleth) "One more."

Again, everything stopped around him and the pressure was let off his sword. However, he didn’t have much time to act.

He backed up a safe distance from when he just killed Rodrigue and activated the whip.

Time resuming, The two swung at an empty space, realizing too late where he was.

Byleth was several feet back from where they would’ve hit him, and he swung at Gilbert who tried to block with his shield.

The shield was split in two as the whip reached Gilbert’s chest, splitting it open, and with him falling over.

(Death Knight) “LADY EDELGARD!”

Byleth’s eyes went wide, barely able to deactivate the whip and time and block Edelgard.

CLANG!

(Edelgard) “YOU WILL FALL TODAY, PROFESSOR!”

(Byleth) “Not...until, I AM DONE WITH MY PLANS!”

Byleth kicked Edelgard back, Dimitri and Judith beginning to rush him.

He deflected Judith’s attacks with ease, but rolled out the way of Dimitri’s.

He was confident in blocking everyone’s attacks, but Dimitri’s brute strength would snap his arms in half with how hard he was swinging Areadbhar.

Judith came in from behind and tried to impale Byleth, but he swung around and knocked her sword into the air, bringing the sword back down and cutting her chest.

Edelgard, Dimitri and the Death Knight got into position, slowly starting to surround Byleth.

(Byleth) “With one Divine Pulse left, staying here is suicidal! MEN, WE’RE RETREATING!”

Byleth turned back to them as his forces formed a small blockade around him.

(Byleth) “MAGES, RELEASE THE PRISONERS!”

The mages did as they were told, leaving a summoning circle right above the cliff where the Blue Lions and Black Eagles were and casted a spell around them, using the last of the energy to get out of the battlefield.

(Rhea) “No...NO! NO DAMN IT! YOU’RE NOT GETTING AWAY!”

Rhea’s body began to glow, and the figure slowly started to larger and larger.

“YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE MEEEEEE!”

(Catherine) “LADY RHEA, WAIT!”

Byleth and the rest of his forces teleported back to where the Demonic Beasts were dragging the Javelin back, but in the distance, he saw Rhea turning into the Immaculate One.

(Byleth) “Tch, of course she’ll force us to use it. DEMONIC BEASTS HALT! MAGES, ACTIVATE THE JAVELIN OF LIBERATION AT MINIMUM POWER! IT WILL BE DAMAGED, BUT WE HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO REPAIR IT BACK AT BASE!”

(Mage) “Understood! ACTIVATING!”

As Rhea took flight, she was about to charge headfirst into Byleth until she saw a bright light coming from the sky.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!”

After the sky was lit on fire, Rhea hit the floor, causing a mini-earthquake around Gronder with the impact.

The sky cleared up and Rhea slowly started to transform back into her human self, everyone trying to shake off the intense light that blinded everyone.

Catherine and the others surrounded her, trying to see if she was okay.

(Catherine) “L-LADY RHEA!”

Her hands slowly shook as Catherine took it.

(Rhea) “D-Don’t...let...him...succeed...- “

Her hand fell to the floor, and her dress started to turn red.

(Catherine) “No...! NO NO NO!-”

Alois turned his head away, and couldn’t help but feel guilty for her death.

He may have not liked her after learning the truth but...

...

Byleth was walking with his men until he suddenly felt light headed, and fell to the ground, dropping the Sword of the Creator.

(Mage) “C-COMMANDER!”

(Knight) “Wait a second, his hair!”

Byleth’s hair turned from the bright green he had, slowly to the dark blue.

(Mage) “Someone carry him, and let’s go! We don’t have a moment to waste!”

...

(Annette) “Ack, w-what in the-”

Her eyes went wide when she looked back down, seeing Gilbert on the ground.

(Annette) “DAD!”

She was about to run after him, but Felix grabbed her by the arm.

(Felix) “What are you doing?! We don’t know if there’s enemies still here!”

He said this, but he was fighting every instinct he had to go down to see Rodrigue. 

This was a bloody battle, and the last thing he needed was to lose anyone else.

Annette started sobbing, and Mercedes went to hold Annette. Sylvain, Ingrid, Dedue, and Ashe walked next to Felix, looking at the bodies scattered all across Gronder.

(Ashe) “So much death...”

(Ingrid) “To die on a stupid field like this is...is just-”

(Sylvain) “You...don’t have to finish that, Ingrid.”

(Dedue) “It is a tragedy...”

Edelgard, Dimitri, and the Death Knight lowered their weapons for the moment.

(Dimitri) “Gilbert, Rodrigue...”

Claude slowly rode up on his Wyvern, closing his eyes once he saw Judith.

(Claude) “We’ll...We’ll make sure no one died in vain today, in all sides.”

(Death Knight) “...What did Nemesis mean when he said, “release the prisoner”?”

Edelgard and Dimitri started to look around and noticed that the circle that was in front of the mages wasn’t here anymore.

(Edelgard) “What the...?”

...

(???) “H-Help...us!”

The Blue Lions and Black Eagles quickly looked around, not sure if they heard something.

(Dorothea) “H-Hey...Didn’t that sound like?-”

(Randolph) “Help...us!”

(Fleche) “Please!”

There was suddenly a bit of smoke surrounding the area, a circle encompassing the area they were in too.

(Caspar) cough cough “Where’d this smoke come from?!”

(Ferdinand) “That sounds like General Randolph!”

(Bernadetta) “And a little girl?”

(Petra) “They are in the sounding of pain!”

Hubert nodded and went near the cliff they were at, looking at Edelgard.

(Hubert) “Lady Edelgard, General Randolph and his sister Fleche is here!”

(Edelgard) “R-Really?!”

There was some good news at least.

Though...Why did Byleth only now decide to release them?

(Ashe) “We have to help them!”

(Ingrid) “Right, come on!”

(Sylvain) “We’re right behind you!”

(Dedue) “Hmph.”

(Felix) “H-Hang on guys!”

The Blue Lions stopped and turned to Felix.

(Mercedes) “What is it?”

(Felix) “Does something about their voices sound...off?”

The Black Eagles stopped moving as well and started to listen.

(Randolph/Fleche) “P-Pleas̶̊͜ë̵͉́.̸̘͠.̷̮͊.̷̭̓h̷̘̾e̴̫̊l̶̳̄p̸͍̏.̴̹̋.̴̛̯.̵̦̽u̷̩͘ș̸͐.̷̰͠.̶̥̾.̶̪͆!̷̩̂"̷̺̑

Everyone’s eyes went wide as Hubert said quietly to everyone.

(Hubert) “Everyone...Backs against the cliff. Now.”

Both classes started to slowly back up as their voices intensified.

(Randolph/Fleche?) “H̷e̵l̶p̶ ̵u̶s̸!̶ ̴H̷E̷L̷P̵ ̵U̷S̴!̴ ̸H̶E̶L̴P̴ ̴U̸S̵!̸”

The Golden Deer students were on the ground, slowly preparing their weapons.

Leonie looked back at Claude and gestured up to the cliff, raising her sword as her horse backed up.

Everyone took the hint, and raised their weapons.

“H̷̘̫͊͗̏̂̐̄̋͑̕͜͝E̶̞͙͉̝͕̗͔̝̬͈͋̚L̴͖͑̈́P̶̰͇͈̿ ̷͔̙̆̏̈́̾́̐̓̀U̸̺͍̇̀̕S̸̡̡̛̝̪̳͋͑͠!̷̧̠̞̜̩̓͛̽̕͠”

Bernadetta was the first to scream when they emerged from the smoke.

First came Randolph’s head, and saw Fleche’s face connected to it. Randolph’s right and Fleche’s left eye connected to form a single eye, one with two pupils and filled with bloodshot red. 

As they walked out of the smoke, their heads were connected to a single body. Several limbs stuck out of them, as if a child had created this unholy abomination that stood before everyone. 

It was several body parts of different people apparently, all crooked and bent.

Some of them had formed scythes from the bones that came out of them.

The circle began to glow even brighter, prompting everyone to look down at their feet.

(Dedue) “OFF THE CLIFF, NOW!”

No one had to be told twice. 

As the circle began getting brighter and brighter, everyone hopped off the cliff and landed right in front of the Golden Deers, looking back up.

It finally enveloped Randolph and Fleche, turning into a massive demonic beast that looked something out of everyone’s nightmares.

It was in a ball-like form, with several disjointed feet at the bottom and hands coming from the side, some broken with the bones sticking out and some arms trying to grab for anyone nearby.

(Leonie) “GODDESS, THAT’S WHAT HE WAS DOING TO THEM?!”

(Alois) “WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT?!”

(Shamir) “He was trying to research the concept of fusing people together to make a stronger unit, but that...thing is what it amounted to! After a short while once the experiments were failing, he just took the bodies we took from the civilians to make that thing!”

Everyone was taken aback by the horrific monstrosity that stood before them.

(Hilda) “I-I THINK I’M GOING TO THROW UP-”

(Hubert) “NOT NOW!”

(Dedue) “Tch, we would be wasting time fighting this thing!”

(Dimitri) “Dedue is right, but we cannot let this thing live!”

(Catherine) “Leave that thing to me...”

Everyone turned to Catherine as church forces surrounded her.

(Catherine) “Byleth is already getting ahead of us! Take what remains of your forces and get after him! If he activates the Javelin of Liberation while we’re all fighting this thing, then Rhea and everyone else would have died for nothing!”

She held Thunderbrand firmly in her hands.

(Catherine) “The bodies of the dead will not be desecrated by this thing!”

Shamir, Alois, and Leonie stood by Catherine, looking at the monster.

(Shamir) “We...we helped this thing be made, so the responsibility falls on us too. I left you alone before. I won’t be doing that again.”

(Alois) “Same here.”

(Leonie) “We’ll keep it distracted, everyone else JUST GO!”

Although no one wanted to leave them to this thing’s mercy they were right.

(Death Knight) “We are wasting time! We need to get moving!”

(Claude) “All forces, on us! LET’S MOVE IT!”

Everyone snapped out of their state of shock, and the Alliance forces followed Claude. Dimitri was the next to signal to move out, then Edelgard.

Edelgard couldn’t help but look back as sounds of fighting had erupted.

(Edelgard) “Professor...”

She closed her eyes.

It wasn’t any of their faults.

It was hers. If she hadn’t left the professor right when he needed her the most when Jeralt was dead...Maybe things could have-”

Dimitri put his hand on Edelgard’s shoulder.

(Dimitri) “It is too late for regret. El.”

(Edelgard) “D-Dimitri...”

(Claude) “He’s right. Right now, it’s up to us to make sure we can fix our mistakes.”

Edelgard nodded.

(Edelgard) “Right. We must not falter now.”

She started to take the lead, and eventually Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude walked side by side to end this where it all began.

Garreg Mach Monastery.

----

The Elites of the Fell Star Journal - “The Beginning”

In our bones, we knew the war was almost over.

Fodlan held its breath, waiting to see which side would make the final daring move. 

As expected, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude went for the kill. 

And the moment they were in sight, everything fell into a mini-civil war. We had loyalists that fought for Byleth, and those who wanted to defect and the fights began to grow violent.

Personally? I didn’t care for either side, after what had happened in Gronder? I just wanted to live.

Because in our bones, we knew the war was almost over. 

For better or worse, we knew this battle would be the beginning of the end.

----

[Escape - Darling In The Franxx]

[nightowlgazette]

Wave At The Stars and They will Wave Back

“Saturn is my absolute favorite object in the night sky. When I was a child, I had a dog-eared book on the Solar System, which I read over and over, stopping and staring with wonder at the section on Saturn. How could a planet have rings of ice? What would it be like to fly out and visit the planet, to see the rings with your own eyes. How did it get all those strange moons?”

~Maria

Maria has always been fascinated by the night sky and what lays beyond it. As a matter of fact, she met the love of her life, Maxine, while watching Saturn from the Girffith Observatory.

Their eyes locked, time stopped...then Maria tripped and accidentally spilled her iced coffee all over Max in the middle of winter and the rest is history.

So, for this very special article as a second early wedding gift to her and Max, we asked all of you which are your fevourite celestial bodies, and compiled a small list of interesting facts about them!

Saturn

As Maria’s favourite planet, and the reason Max and her met, Saturn has the honour of being at the very top of the list.

Did you know:

Saturn has 82 moons As of the pennings of this article, Saturn boasts Solar System's most known moons: 82! Some of these are large, like Titan, the second largest moon in the Solar System. But most are tiny – just a few km across, and they have no official names. 

There could be life near Saturn Not life on Saturn; the planet is way too hostile to support life. But there could be life on one of Saturn’s moons: Enceladus. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered ice geysers blasting out of Enceladus’ southern pole. This means that some process is keep the moon warm enough that water can remain a liquid underneath the surface. And wherever we find liquid water on Earth, we find life

Jupiter

For number two, we have Jupiter, named after the King of the Olympians himself.

Did you know:

Jupiter has 79 moons Second only to Saturn, Jupiter has a 79 confirmed and named satellites. However, it is estimated that the planet has over 200 natural satellites orbiting it. Almost all of them are less than 10 kilometers in diameter, and were only discovered after 1975, when the first spacecraft (Pioneer 10) arrived at Jupiter. However, it also has four major moons, which are collectively known as the Galilean Moons. These are, in order of distance from Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These moons are some of the largest in the Solar System, with Ganymede being the largest, measuring 5262 km in diameter.

You Can See Jupiter With Your Own Eyes Jupiter is the third brightest object in the Solar System, after Venus and the Moon. Chances are, you saw Jupiter in the sky, and had no idea that’s what you were seeing. And here at Universe Today, we are in the habit of letting readers know when the best opportunities for spotting Jupiter in the night sky are. Just think, you’ll be seeing precisely what Galileo did when he gazed at the planet in 1610!

Mars

For the last planet on our list -but definitely not the least- we have Mars; the Red Planet.

Did you know:

Mars Had Water In The Ancient Past We’ve been debating for centuries about whether Mars had life or not. In fact, the astronomer Percival Lowell misinterpreted observations of “canali” — the Italian word for channels — on the planet as evidence of alien-made canals. It turned out Lowell’s observations were hampered by poor telescope optics of his day, and the canals he saw were optical illusions. That said, several spacecraft have spotted other signs of ancient water — channels grooved in the terrain and rocks that only could have formed in the presence of water, for example.

Mars Has Two Moons – And One Of Them Is Doomed: The planet has two asteroid-like moons called Phobos and Deimos, named after the sons of Ares -or the Roman Mars- in Greek mythology.  Because they have compositions that are similar to asteroids found elsewhere in the Solar System, according to NASA, most scientists believe the Red Planet’s gravity snatched the moons long ago and forced them into orbit. But in the life of the Solar System, Phobos has a pretty short lifetime. In about 30 million to 50 million years, Phobos is going to crash into Mars’ surface or rip apart because the tidal force of the planet will prove too much to resist.

Black Holes

Moving on from planets to the other beauties of space, for number four we have Black Holes.

Did you know:

You Can’t Directly See a Black Hole. A black hole is called a black hole because of it’s color, especially since light can’t escape. What we can see, though, is the effects of a black hole. Analyzing the surrounding area of a black hole, we can see its effects upon its environment. For example, a star that’s close enough to a black hole can be seen being ripped apart.

Dying Stars Lead to Stellar Black Holes. The death of large stars lead to black holes, because a star’s gravity will overwhelm the star’s natural pressure that it maintains to keep its shape. When the pressure from the nuclear reactions collapses, gravity overwhelms and collapses the star’s core, and the star’s other layers are thrown off into space, and this process is also known as a supernova. The remainder of the core collapses, a spot overcome by density and without volume – a black hole.

There are Three Categories of Black Holes. 1) Primordial Black holes – These are the smallest of black holes and range from an atom’s size to a mountain’s mass.

2) Stellar Black Holes – These are the most common of black holes and they can be up to 20 times more massive than the Sun. There are also a variety of these all over the Milky Way.

3) Supermassive Black Holes – These are the largest of black holes, being more than 1 million times more massive than the Sun. There’s also a song named Supermassive Black Hole by Muse.

Perseid Meteors

Did you know:

We’ve had a near-miss in the past, and there may be one again in the future. Back in the early 1990s, astronomer Brian Marsden calculated that Swift-Tuttle might actually hit Earth on a future pass. More observations quickly eliminated all possibility of a collision. Marsden found, however, that the comet and Earth might experience a cosmic near miss (about a million miles) in 3044.

The meteors are what shooting stars are made of. When a Perseid particle enters the atmosphere, it compresses the air in front of it, which heats up. The meteor, in turn, can be heated to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 Celsius). The intense heat vaporizes most meteors, creating what we call shooting stars. Most become visible at around 60 miles up (97 kilometers). Some large meteors splatter, causing a brighter flash called a fireball, and sometimes an explosion that can often be heard from the ground.

Next Time Around. Swift-Tuttle is due back in 2126 (as you know now, it won't hit us) and astronomers think it might become a spectacular naked-eye comet like Hale-Bopp. If historical calculations are correct (see Fact #9) then the 2126 appearance will mark the comet's 3rd millennium of human observation, assuming someone is in fact around to see it.

Pulsars

Did you know:

Pulsars are what remains after the death of a massive star. Pulsars are types of neutron stars; the dead relics of massive stars. What sets pulsars apart from regular neutron stars is that they’re highly magnetized, and rotating at enormous speeds. Astronomers detect them by the radio pulses they emit at regular intervals.

Pulsars are invaluable when it comes to discovering more about space. Pulsars help us search for gravitational waves, probe the interstellar medium, and even find extrasolar planets in orbit. In fact, the first extrasolar planets were discovered around a pulsar in 1992, when astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of a multi-planet planetary system around PSR B1257+12 – a millisecond pulsar now known to have two extrasolar planets. 

It has even been proposed that spacecraft could use them as beacons to help navigate around the Solar System. On NASA’s Voyager spacecraft, there are maps that show the direction of the Sun to 14 pulsars in our region. If aliens wanted to find our home planet, they couldn’t ask for a more accurate map.

Eliot Wilde, journalist and writer for Night Owl and host of Night Owl FM

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

                             Sekhmet, the Goddess of War and Vengeance,                                           whose origins stem from Ancient Egypt.                                 She is now a freelance artist and weapons dealer.

FC NAME/GROUP: Ahn Hyejin / Mamamoo GOD NAME: Sekhmet – Identifies as Sekai to Mortals PANTHEON: Egyptian OCCUPATION: International Weapons Dealer, Artist DEFINING FEATURES: several small tats on both of her hands, a mini teardrop tat on her left cheek that is so small it appears to be a simple beauty mark

PERSONALITY: A limitless fireball, someone who can walk a destructive path having fun and laughing while doing so. Sekhmet is a sun goddess who never backs down from anything and lives life boldly. She sings louder than most, fucks harder than most, and dances fiercer than most. Can often be found chatting, joking, and flirting with friends and strangers alike. Though she has a bit of an erratic behavioral tendency as her thoughts or actions could change on whim and often leaps into things without looking. It takes a while for her to trust, or even like people, but once she does, she becomes profoundly loyal to them, willing to be generous with her time and love. She doesn’t talk about her feelings and is overwhelmed when others try to do so, her blunt honesty usually make these situations worse. The only outlet for her intense emotions tends to be through her art or starting random fights when she’s hurting. She has no issues with killing or torturing people though, once she decides that they’re deserving of it, and in her mind most mortals are.

HISTORY: Everyone has a reason for why they do the terrible things they do; some expect their actions to be met with karma while others are beguiled by the villainous lifestyle. For Sekhmet there was no greater joy than pushing the moral boundaries of mortals, it was her divine right and it also amused her, she liked to see them at their lowest point. In the time that Ra the sun god of creation and king of the gods, ruled on earth as Pharaoh, he became older and weary. The mortals had lost respect for him and no longer obeyed the laws of Ma’at, and so Ra became unduly frustrated with mankind’s insolence and transgressions and decided to teach them a lesson they would never forget. So, he sent his “Eye” who had previously served as a protector and conqueror for all of Egypt, to unleash his unrelenting vengeance and justice upon his conspirators. Once Sekhmet saw to their destruction, she found it to be agreeable with her heart and consequently developed an unquenchable thirst for bloodshed. This began the legend of “The Lady of the Sacred Flame”.

In the centuries to come, the warrior goddess grew her appetite for destruction and pestilence. Every new century brought with it a new, deadlier plague, which spread beyond the confines of a weakened Egypt. After all, her birthplace no longer practiced polytheism, forcing her to seek out those who “needed” her most around the world. Sekhmet would assist kings and queens alike on their conquest for glory, in exchange for their promise of two things: to build divine statues and temples in her honor and, most importantly, to give her a god-like child. After she returned from slaughtering and desecrating enemy territory, she expected her payment in full. Some rulers would achieve their end of the agreement and were rewarded with health and prosperity; the others were bound to watch the endless suffering and death of their people until the end of their reign.

On the eve of the new millennium, Sekhmet believed there was something now missing in mankind. As a new generation emerges, one can hardly find a glimmer of introspection or reflection about their pragmatic existence. Immersed in an Internet-driven economic boom, she watched mortals fret about what will happen if their precious world wide web crashed or if they’ll ever get a promotion at their dead-end job, but not about the art of war and glory. Despite her past actions, the humans became dormant, they weren’t as greedy, selfish or destructive as they’d been before. As a result, Sekhmet was never able to fully gain all of her followers back so she devised a different approach. As Sekai, she could create weapons to fuel both sides of any conflict and the outcome would remain the same, blood-soaked soil. This satisfied her so she continued to roam the earth with her mortal alias, posing as a scholar of the arts but continuing her dealings in the shadows.

Stranded. Not in the traditional sense of being left alone in a spot with no means to leave, but the feeling of being alone and deserted in a new place, a place with no familiar voices or comforting smiles, with no one to call on. This is how she felt during her first year at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, like fresh meat thrown into a boiling pot of vegetables. This feeling didn’t last too long though, as her coursework took over the daytime, the nighttime became her playground; clubbing fit her like a pair of Louboutins, drinking and drugging up enough to forget about the loneliness she felt in her heart and the issues of rage that lingered. She was forced to drop out of school despite her passion for it, thanks to the substance abuse and constant threats she made to the instructors; only to be transferred to an institute in the Netherlands, and then India, then New York etc… If only Ptah could see her now. This is how Sekai’s time on earth went on until she arrived in Korea, where she met an eerily familiar group of people, people who spoke vastly of immortality and grand architecture among other things…

POWERS:

I. Pyrokinesis + Volatile constructs

II. Can become an embodiment of vengeance, often gaining power from the vengeful feelings of both herself and those around her.

III. Teleportation via fire or fire-like mediums

IV. Able to induce an instinctive and uncontrollable rage in others.

V. Solar healing – Can cure biotic organisms via the strength of the sun; focusing on low vitality, poison and diseases.

STRENGTHS:

+ Sekhmet is brave, brutally honest, and willing to go to extreme lengths to prove herself worthy of respect.

+ Divine level of combat skills and war strategy

+ Observant and perceptive, and can read people well.

+ A deeply loving mother and partner, loves to shower the people she cares about with gifts.

WEAKNESSES:

- She is easily bored, and becomes excited by a fight, an argument, a challenge, or a (dance) battle.

- Alcohol is her tranquilizer, it neutralizes her volatile powers

- Profound loyalty to her creator (Ra)

- It often takes people logically talking things out with her for her to change her mind.