#like the animation may LOOK a bit more 'kiddy' but holy shit

[dragontamer05]

Gotta love how Monster Reborn went from like a good card cause you know bringing back those who've fallen n stuff.

And now in Go Rush Monster Reborn/Monster Reincarnation has like become the evil power card (on par with Oricalchos tbh)

[antiquechampagne]

Beastly Kingdom - CH15 - The Road Home

Liz sat outside the buzzing courtyard in a chair William had brought her. Facing the battlefield, she sipped some irradiated water and watched. Her body was healed enough that she didn’t need to worry about bleeding out, but everything felt like it was being held together by 200 year old bubblegum and duct tape. Any more stimpacks and she risked getting sicker than she already was. Anyway, others needed them more than she did. So she sat, her arm resting in a ratty sling and let the rads do their work.

Groups of prisoners, their hands raised over the heads or shackled, shambled past surrounded by grim and bloodied troops. Liz wasn’t really in the habit of taking prisoners, but that was the General’s call, not hers. They were his problem now. Every now and then, the gunfire echoed across the field. From the best she could tell, most of it was coming from the ruined airport.

Footsteps approached her from behind, but she didn’t turn around. The steps were heavy but confident. The General’s steps. Besides, William was keeping a close eye on her from the side of the building. She took another swallow of poisoned water.

“Looks like you won your war, General,” she quipped.

“In no small part, thanks to your help…” he paused, “Literally. Just for the record, though, maybe look into taking the stairs.”

Liz chuckled. “You may have a point. I don’t think I’m too eager to repeat that swan dive again.”

Nate shuffled uncomfortably. “Look… I just heard on the radio that that deathclaw of yours is making it really hard for our guys to clear the interior of the airport. Do you think there is any way you could… you know… call her back or something?”

Liz leaned forward in her creaking chair. Of course, he would ask her to get up now, wouldn’t he?

“Tell your guys to clear out of the way of the exits. I’m not responsible if someone gets in between a deathclaw and where she wants to go.”

Nate nodded and headed back inside. Liz gave him some time to relay the orders. She stretched her limbs, sluggishly ambling forward onto the now silent battlefield. After a minute, she put a pair of fingers in her mouth and released an ear-piercing whistle. Then, she waited.

A few moments passed by before she saw a glowing blue mass come bounding out of the building, racing pass the wreckage of Liberty Prime and through the gaping hole in the wall. Liz couldn’t help but smile. Mama reminding her of some giant irradiated puppy being called back home for supper.

No sooner had this thought bloomed in her mind than it was ripped away in a fiery flash. As Mama sprinted over a fallen heap of power armors, an explosion shredded the ground, throwing her to the side.

“Damn it!” Liz spat, racing as best she could across the uneven field, pocked marked from the day’s events. William ran to her side, quick to help if her leg or balance faltered. She waved him off indignantly, even though she could feel edges of her wounds grow angry and hot. Mama regained her footing and limped towards her, closing the gap between them. Liz could see countless scorches and lacerations crisscrossing Mama’s hide, but it seemed the cobbled together armor had shouldered the brunt of the damage. What she was really worried about was her right front paw, which Mama was purposely hiding as she shuffled about sniffing and licking Liz.

“Knock it off.” Liz gently scolded. “Show me your hand. Come on!” She pulled her arm of the sling and put her open hand out, palm up. “Show! Now!” she said a bit more sternly.

Reluctantly, Mama lifted her bloody limb and placed it in Liz’s hand. In the middle of the scorched and blackened paw, a piece of wicked shrapnel had embedded itself, poking out painfully. Blood ran freely over her fingers.

“Oh Mama, you need to be a bit more careful where you step. Landmines are nasty little shits, aren’t they?” Liz turned to William, who staying just out of Mama’s arms reach. “Give me your blade,” she demanded. William obliged. As she reached for the blade, she realized she still held the bottle. Placing it on the ground, she took the knife. Liz looked deep into Mama’s glowing eyes and held them. She hoped that her message would get through. If not, and she lost Mama’s trust...

“I need to get this out. It is going to hurt, probably a lot. But you need to stay still.”

Carefully, she began to tease out the shard, trying hard to dislodge it without making the wound worse. Mama snarled and gnashed her teeth, growling viciously inches from Liz’s ear. Liz ignored her, focusing at the delicate and dangerous task at hand. Slowly, the flesh released its grip on the twisted metal and it slid silently out of the wound. Mama began to pull her hand away.

“Not yet, Mama.” Liz warned. Mama stopped. Liz picked up the irradiated water. She gently rinsed Mama’s wound, her blue blood washing away cleanly. Liz watched as Mama’s flesh began to knit back together.

“That’s a good girl.” Liz released her paw and patted her forehead.

The rest of their time was consumed by the logistics of caring for the wounded, stripping the airport of useful scrap and splitting the spoils. The day was just starting to turn when they started heading back home, their pace slow but steady.

Nate had joined their rabble; saying there was kind of some final details that needed ironing out, so he tagged along. Everyone nursed their wounds as they walked, drinking and laughing, surprised by the fact that anyone had actually made it through the fight.

Dusk painted the sky as they neared the Nuka-World main gate, the low clouds a mix of purples and reds reminding Liz of puffy bruises. Liz was joking with Mason, elbowing him in the arm and laughing when he dropped his shotgun. Mags put a hand on her shoulder.

“Boss? You seeing this…”

Turning around, Liz stopped in her tracks. The silence hit her. No greetings from guards or banter from people hanging around the market. Only the sound of the wind greeted them as they stepped through the turnstiles.

“Holy fuck,” Mason whispered under his breath.

Before them lay bodies piled in bloody heaps on the steps leading to the park map station. Liz spotted Pack members, Operators and locals as she walked up the slick concrete stairs. Familiar faces hung by ropes in front of the giant maps. Liz could feel her blood boil as the flies buzzed by her ears. Someone behind her wretched. Reaching up, she plucked a folded paper with the word TRATOR scrawled in large letters pinned to Dr. Mackenzie’s chest with a stiletto. Time stopped and her blood froze in her veins as she read the words inside.

With out a word, Liz dropped the paper and bolted. She ran fast, beating it over the broken pavement, ignoring any pain coming from her recently reknitted muscles and bones. She passed more bodies as people yelled behind her. She ignored everything, focusing solely on reaching Kiddie Kingdom as fast as possible. The barricades in front of the gate were broken, streaked with scorch marks splattered with blood. Liz sprang over the corpses of the guards laying in the entryway, upsetting the last bit of stability of the wooden boards, sending them loudly clattering to heap the ground. Frantically she scanned the empty queues and still rides for any sign of Louis or Oswald. All she found were feral ghoul corpses, their colorful faces now painted in their own blood.

A distant pop of a handgun pierced the air, followed by a muffled scream. Again, Liz shot off. She rounded a corner and stopped, unprepared for the scene before her. Oswald lay crumpled in a fetal position at the bottom step of a dilapidated tower. Green glowing blood oozed between his clenched finger and pooling around him.

He gasped as he saw her. “Liz! Get back…” His voice was weak, his warning trailing off.

At the top of the stair stood Gage, an icy cold glare bore down on her. His pipe gun turned and pointed at her, but Liz ignored it. Her eyes were locked on Louis. Her son writhed in Gage’s iron grip, his fist clutching the chest of Louis’ dirty striped shirt in a tight ball even as the feral boy tore and bit at his skin.

“LOUIS!” she gasped, and then growled. “Let him go, Gage!”

“There you are, Boss.” He leveled the gun at her. “I was starting to wonder if you would ever show up for the fun!”

“Put him down!” she screamed again. Her mind raced, trying to calculate any way to get either Louis or the gun out of Gage’s hand. She stood frozen in place, anything that might have been able to leverage too far out of reach to be of use. All she had was her wits. “What the fuck have you done?”

“What have I done? What the fuck have YOU done, Boss? I brought you into the outfit, and you are gutting us!” Gage’s one eye never wavering its hateful and deadly glare.

“What the hell are you talking about? I’ve done EVERYTHING for Nuka-World! All we had to do was take out those fucking Brotherhood bastards and we were golden! We can just sit back and watch the caps flow in!”

“WRONG!” Gage spat. “You slaughtered the Disciples! You cut our forces by a half!”

“Is THAT what this is about? Nisha and them were a bunch of homicidal maniacs! There was NO WAY they were ever going to get on board with the plan! Can’t you see that?” Liz inched a half a step towards Gage as she spoke.

“NO!” he screamed. He roughly wrapped his muscular arm around Louis, drawing him to his chest. Louis spat like a trapped animal, his legs kicking wildly. Liz stopped. “You tried to make us tame, to tempt us into a life of servitude to Commonwealth assholes with caps… a pet of this General to get fat off his shit! You forgot what we ARE! What we were. But I’m not going to forget. I’m a MOTHER-FUCKING RAIDER!”

Before Liz could react, Gage placed the muzzle of the gun against Louis’ head and pulled the trigger. Time stopped.

The flash.

The flying bits of skull and brain.

The smell of blood, gunpowder and sugar.

The evil smirk on Gage’s twisted lips.

Everything detail burned into her brain. Her mind spun and ground against itself. The gears of her mind stripped themselves in a futile attempt to comprehend what she was witnessing.

“LOUIS!” she screamed. Her son’s name was the last word that would ever pass through her lips again.

[meganmazing]

fics i read while on vacation

I went to australia to visit family last week, and boy oh boy are layovers and delays a joy - especially when you are not a person who easily sleeps on planes. To cope, I ended up downloading a bunch of long fics and binge read them all. The hardest part was just picking a few (lol) of what I read for this list.

Here are some of the ones I loved the most. They’re mostly cherik but there’s also a klance, a drarry, and a stony or two (or three) because those pairings are like my comfort food when it comes to fanfiction, and I needed that the past two weeks (hello, canceled flights and difficult support staff). These are also all rated either Mature or Explicit, so if that’s your thing, join me. This is a long one.

As always, if you want more recs from a whole host of pairings and more nonsensical gushing about why I love them, check out my bookmarks on my ao3: megamazing. All links below go to the ao3 version of the work. Click the titles for the link even if the little line doesn’t show up under them. And don’t forget to leave kudos for the authors and share the love!

CHERIK

No Longer in Silence by Black_Betty  26k  Rating: E

It has been eight years since Charles has seen Erik. Eight years since they parted under unkind circumstances and Erik went off to sea. The boy he once knew is Captain Lehnsherr now and they are as known to one another as strangers, and yet--Charles finds that eight years has done nothing to diminish the feelings he had when he was 16 and in love.

It's unfortunate then that Erik doesn't feel the same way.

(Persuasion AU)

The writing in this is incredible, truly. It’s in Charles’ perspective and the emotion coming from him throughout this one kills me in the worst and best ways. And Erik, my utter love. It’s based on Persuasion, so it’s Jane Austen, so you know damn well that there will be misunderstandings galore, and yet...

I usually avoid non-powered AU like the plague, but I gave this a shot and I am so, so glad that I did. Regardless of whether you like/know the story it’s based on, you will fall in love. It is heartwarmingly romantic, and still earns it’s rating in the end. This is a forever-rec, fit for everyone, and i will be shouting it from the rooftops forever.

Tessellation by nekosmuse  116k+  Rating: E

He had been following Xavier's career for years. He had read and reread and reread again everything the man had written. He had tried, on more occasions than he could count, to recruit Xavier into the Brotherhood, but each request for a meeting had been denied. Aside from his work, no one knew anything about Xavier. Not what he looked like, not the full extent of his power--though from what little they did know, he was by far the most powerful telepath in existence--and not what his intentions were.

The man was a recluse. As far as Magneto knew, Xavier had never once stepped foot outside his impenetrable Westchester manor. And now he was scheduled as the keynote speaker for the largest pro-mutant conference in the world.

This is the novel length cherik AU fic you didn’t know you needed. To be fair, I do not read many fics involving Genosha, but I may be reconsidering my preferences after this one because I WAS IN LOVE. It deals not only with all the romance/love/fluff/banter I adore with cherik, but it really gets into Charles and his disability as well as his relationship/history with alcohol. The relationship feels so genuine and believable that I was smiling and aching for these two by turns. I also love Emma in this? More Emma in fics, please.

Mutually Beneficial Transaction by Pookaseraph  41k+  Rating: E

In his sophomore year at Columbia University, Erik, feeling slowly strangled by his mounting college debt, places an add on a sugar daddies website. He doesn't know exactly what to expect from it, but when he's contacted by a man named Charles who seems less creepy than the other people who have responded to his profile, he decides to give it a shot. Charles is nothing like what he expected, and Erik finds himself slowly falling in love with his sugar daddy while trying to find out exactly what caused this amazing guy to buy his emotional and sexual intimacy when he clearly deserves so much more than that.

Pulled straight from the highly emotional comment I left on the fic immediately after reading: “This story is fucking fantastic. In every way. I usually steer clear of non-powered AUs, but holy shit I am so glad I clicked on this one. I'm in love with their love and you wrote this so fucking beautifully my emotions are all over the place. I will rec this until I die. All the love and kudos to you <3″ Here is me, holding up my end of the rec’ing bargain. I was in A State after finishing this story, if you couldn’t tell. The relationship between our boys here is so complicated and vastly different from what I've read before.  

If you are looking for sexy humor and angst for days, then look no further. I wanted to hug them both, constantly. They needed it.

Urban Legend by toesohnoes  10k+  Rating: M

They say that if you stand in front of a mirror and say his name three times Magneto will appear. Charles has never believed in urban legends and he's never been capable of turning down a dare.

Urban Legend was downright mesmerizing. It reads kind of like a campfire story (but with M rated bits, so maybe not one for the kiddies), and the atmosphere it created was elegantly creepy. Because i came in already loving Eric, part of me was rooting for him and Charles, while the other half was screaming for Charles to GTFO.

You Know My Name by dvs  11k+   Rating: M

Erik and Charles are spies with something in common.

Look. I know this isn't a Man From U.N.C.L.E. fic, but it gave me MFU feels and it does the Cherik relationship beautifully, so it pretty much has it all. Erik is Bond, Charles is charming, and I am craving more of this universe. It’s fast paced and from Erik’s POV, and tbh I just found the whole thing dangerously sexy. Plus, the plotty bits were right up my alley.

Tale As Old As Time by madneto  44k+   Rating: M

Charles is a bibliophile living with his stepbrother in a remote village. Erik is a lonely prince with an affliction he doesn't know how to control. Logan is the greatest hunter in the whole world.

Pretty much what it says on the tin. If you've seen Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" you know pretty much exactly what you're getting into. Lots of fluff.

So, you may or may not know I love Beauty and the Beast. And yet somehow, despite that, I wasn’t totally convinced that I was going to love this fic. WRONG. I was so wrong to doubt. It was everything you want out of this kind of AU, while still holding true to Charles and Erik. The story feels very much like it’s own thing, which is so important to me in AU stories. I also love the way the author played with mutations and the curse. I desperately want to give more specifics, but I feel like it would spoil things? Which is weird for a AU this well-known, but I really felt like this author made it their own.

Final quick mention: Love Runs Out by ikeracity   24k+   Rating: M

Just yes. This is one of my absolute favorite modern!AU with powers fics. It's just so sweet and loving and it makes me happy. Apartment complex neighbors, a whole host of mutants, and a community center that made me smile so much. You need a good, fluffy read every once in awhile, okay?

STONY

Rom-Commed By Fate (Or JARVIS) by leashy_bebes   14k+   Rating: E

The best thing about being an Artificial Intelligence is the ability to parse, filter and modify the things people say until you've got the cause to do exactly what you wanted in the first place. Or, in which JARVIS cock blocks Tony into having an actual relationship.

This has everything I love about stony in one form or another, and I was so jazzed to see that I hadn’t already read it! How I missed it, I have no idea. Steve’s characterization in particular really hit the nail on the head for me. It is so sweet (I am seriously understating the fluff here, trust me you will melt) and sexy, and like I said before, we all need some good, happy fics once in awhile. Break up the angst-fest with what I pretty much consider required reading for fans of stony. It’s like a little taste of everything there is to love, with minimal angst.

JARVIS is an honorary Avenger in my book, and I love the Avengers fam dynamics. Fight me.

Any Other Way of Loving by brandnewfashion  27k+   Rating: E

In which Steve is bad at dating, Tony isn’t, and neither of them are as subtle as they think.

I have re-read this one multiple times. Not even on purpose, just because I keep gravitating back to it somehow, and I love it more every single time. It’s fake dating, but is it? Totally. Maybe. Our boys are a bit slow on the uptake. I love their dialogue in this one. Bants for days. I will die on the hill of Tony Stark, and this fic has great Tony POV. Also, great pinning on both ends. (that sounds dirty, but I don’t actually mean it that way this time)

The Last Love Song of Anthony E. Stark by jibrailis   42k  Rating: E

After contracting an Asgardian virus, Tony starts forgetting things. And people. And Steve.

So if you read that summary above, you can probably guess that this one is not fluffy. There are wonderfully heartwarming and heart-wrenching moments that make you feel all the things, but I don’t think I would call it fluffy. It’s Tony POV all the way, and that makes the pain even worse! This story is so good. The writing is spot-on, and the style of storytelling had me hooked.  

Wanna feel pain and sadness and read a really moving story that has a genuine plot? What if I told you that there are also sexytimes, and pinning, and on-point jokes and moments that hurt my heart and melted it at the exact same time? Not convinced? Asgard roadtrip. With Loki and Sif. Also, Steve loves Animal Crossing. Did I mention the sexytimes?

Specifically, I found the way that Tony dealt with everything happening to be completely accurate for the character, and the same goes for Steve, Loki and Sif. And stony low-key feels until they are very much no longer low-key. But the memory loss hits you harder every time, and the aspect of unreliable narration absolutely killed it.

DRARRY

Reparatio by astolat   17k+   Rating: E

Draco snorted. “I’m not reduced to penury. I want something considerably beyond money, and I rather think you’re the only one can give it to me.”

“You want the Invisibility Cloak,” Harry said, flatly. He’d half expected as much; it was the only thing he had that Draco could want—

“Don’t be stupid, Potter,” Draco said. “I want my reputation back.”

It’s that thing that looks like fake dating, but is really, really not. You know what I’m talking about. It also looks like friends with benefits, but who are they kidding? Not me. Barely even kidding themselves, and even then it’s not for very long. Draco and Harry banter fuels me. This one is Harry POV, and it’s very well done. Draco is also cunning and strategic, which so many people tend to drop off in favor of just making him just a sassy prick, and I was so here for all of that. Pretty sure Harry was too, deep down.

The one thing that had me going, hmmmm, is that Ron and Hermione are not together, but there is no drama there so it’s really not a big enough deal to make me put it down. No character bashing, which is a must for me.  

KLANCE

Don’t Break Connection, Baby by princedeadend   38k+   Rating: M

Keith works part-time as a phone sex operator and receives a prank call from Lance. This does not go as planned for Lance. Thus begins the adventure of our dear sweet goofball continuing to call Keith to fuck with him (but not like fuck fuck with him...at least not yet). And y'know, eventually having legit conversations with him and getting attached and growing on Keith. Summaries are not my strong point, alright?

aka the phone sex operator fic no one asked for

Maybe no one asked for it, but I certainly needed it. This was one of those “why-not” clicks for me, since I don’t usually go for this kinda thing, but WHERE HAS THIS FIC BEEN ALL MY LIFE. I loved every second. The humor, the banter, the perfectly written sexytimes, and the awkwardness you just knew was gonna happen the minute you read the summary, were gorgeously timed and executed.

This is a rom-com in fic form, but a bit more graphic. Lance and Keith being happy and smile-y with each other is my kink. This fic also reminded me that phone sex is a great, great thing indeed. Not to mention, Lance has a bit of a praise kink? Sort of? Say what you want, I’m here for that.