#look how puny her cannon is

[allsoundwavesarebeautiful]

it's my birthday so i was browsing tfsource and saw something highly cursed:

this is NOT what i envision when i say i want Woman Galvatron

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

Going along with the Nikke train, because clearly ass. And because I like Exia.

Anyway, may I request Neon with an S/O who is just as trigger-happy as her? Two overly excitable people with weaponry makes me feel happy.

(Bonus points for S/O bringing a smol gun but it is almost the strongest thing in existence.)

(GoV: NIKKE) Neon's S/O being gun-crazed like her

Sounds like you need a Noisy Cricket. ...Does anyone even know what I'm referencing, or am I showing my age again?

Finally, Neon had someone who saw the light of overwhelming firepower!

It's no wonder to Counters why Neon fell in love with S/O, the moment they brought their own small armory, she had heart eyes upon first sight.

Much of Neon and S/O's free time consisted of going to the Firing Range to test out what kind of weapons and ammo could create the most devastating boom!

(Neon) "HAHAHAAAAA! YES! LOOK AT THE BULLETS TEAR THROUGH THE TARGET!"

(S/O) "RECOIL INJURIES, WHAT RECOIL INJURIES?! HAHA-"

Everyone watched in mild amusement and horror at S/O's arm getting brutally beaten as they tested out Neon's gun since she wanted to share her love for stronger guns.

Forgetting that S/O was human, and couldn't tank the recoil like a Nikke could.

(Anis) "...Commander, why did you think we needed to add a second Neon to the team?"

(Commander) sigh "Don't ask me, ask HQ..."

But what had piqued Neon's interest above all was S/O's weapon of choice for operations.

When the squad went to the surface, all of Counters carried their rifles, and even the Commander had a pistol for desperate measures.

Meanwhile, S/O had something even smaller than a pistol. It looked like a child's toy.

The squad paused as Neon made a noise that caught their attention, the other three watching their conversation from a distance.

Neon eyed S/O's "gun", one eye peering closely at it, making her scoff.

(Neon) "What the heck is that thing!? It looks so puny!"

(Anis) "That's what she sai-"

(Commander) "Anis, please."

(S/O) "What? It's my weapon!"

(Neon) "Weapon?! That can't even be called a pistol, your finger barely fits in!"

(Anis) "PFFFT-"

(Rapi) "Anis."

(Neon) "Come on, you're a believer of firepower like I am! What's that gun going to do, make laser noises until our enemies die of embarrassment?!"

(S/O) "It's not the size that matters, Neon!-"

(Anis) "OW! OH COME ON, THEY'RE MAKING IT TOO EASY-!"

(Neon) "It absolutely does! What caliber does that gun even fit, nerf darts?!"

(S/O) "...What's a nerf dart?"

(Neon) "Not sure, think it's some kind of old earth toy, but my point still stands!"

(S/O) "When we fight something, you'll see how valuable it is!"

(Neon) "Fine, prove me wrong!"

When combat finally broke out, S/O was the first one to take a shot.

With a single pull of their trigger, they were sent flying back as the shot vaporized an entire enemy patrol in a massive explosion.

(Neon) "WHA...HOW?! YOU NEED TO LET ME USE THAT!"

S/O poked their head out of the rubble, seemingly unharmed.

(S/O) "No way, you were mocking it earlier!"

(Rapi) "Sir, that more than likely alerted everything to our presence. We need to move-"

(Neon) "With a gun like that, we can take care of everything out here! Master, please give me authorization to-'

(Commander) "No. And S/O, you don't pull your weapon out until things get hairy, understood?"

The couple looked extremely disappointed.

(S/O & Neon) "Aaaawwww!"

(Anis) "I mean, they kinda have a point, Commander. That gun might as well be the world's smallest artillery cannon."

(Commander) "...Just how do you reload that thing?"

(S/O) "Honestly? I never needed to. It doesn't really run out, and I've been using this thing for a while-"

(Neon) "WHAT?! OH NOW YOU HAVE TO LET ME USE IT!"

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Traitor.”

Going to be working on this one for a while. Hope you guys enjoy the update :)

He did his best to stay calm even as he was led into another room and introduced to their drake boss. He tried to keep his expression somewhere between an easy smile and a thoughtful nod, let them think he was really considering their offer, really considering  their offer to go out and murder himself.

It was all just so unbelievable.

He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that the chairwoman would want  him killed. He thought the two of them were long time allies. He thought she had been the one, along with Admiral Kelly, to support his rise to the rank of captain when all of this began. What had happened between now and then to necessitate her desire to kill him.

He had to admit that he was both hurt and concerned for himself.

His brother Thomas was out there posing as him while the universe's most powerful politician plotted to end his life. She had the strength of the entire GA Armada behind her. He doubted all the ships would attack the omen if she asked, but at least some of them would, and without him there to maneuver the ship…. He worried that they wouldn’t last through a fight.

His stomach churned as the two pirate  women spoke among each other trying to make him believe a lie. His stomach tied itself into another knot. He was surrounded by an entire galaxy of people who wanted to kill him, and for what?

Because the human race was growing too powerful politically? And somehow he had something to do with it.

Despite suddenly being thrown into politics at a young age, he knew that he didn’t understand them. He was a pilot and a soldier first and foremost, and he found that being a politician required lying to people and in ways that he just wasn’t capable of. He knew he was in a vulnerable position.

The two women finished their little speeches, satisfied that they had followed him, and he nodded to them as he was led back out into the hall. Cannon walked behind him the entire time spear held at the ready, ready to cut down anyone who tried anything. He had no doubt that they would be able to handle Beatrice and Geea. The Drev was no great shakes as a warrior and Beatrice behaved more like a  crack addict with a knife than she did a fighter. Between him and Cannon they could take the two of them out.

In fact, Adam could probably take both of them at once if he had to, though he didn’t relish the idea.

He had a feeling that the two of them were being used just as anyone else might be. They weren’t working for themselves but being manipulated by a system that didn’t want to get in trouble itself.

The two of them were just patsies.

They led him out of the room and back into the main thoroughfare of the pirate waystation. Where once he had been excited to view all of the cool and illegal technology, he now felt sick to his stomach. Neon lights flashed above him under colorful ad campaigns for new jetpacks and all he could think of was the betrayal.

He needed to talk to someone. Immediately.

“I must return to my ship to make preparations.”

“We will come with you.”

He shook his head, “No, I need you to make sure that the rest of my men are getting along in the equipment they find. If they don’t get what we need then the mission is a bust, so you better make sure things go smoothly.

He didn’t wait for them to respond, but turned on his heel and made his way back towards the ship, his boots clattering on the metal flooring.

Beatrice said something rude behind him, but he ignored her for the most part.

He didn’t care about her at this point, she was simply a pawn in a larger game.

And while they were pawns….. Well that would have to make him a King, which honestly wasn’t much better than a pawn.

He was a target for an assassination, and the entire board felt like it was moving around them, and the opposing queen had him in her sights.

He was going to have to change that.

He stepped into the tube leading him into his “fake” pirate ship.

It had been a lot of fun pretending to be a pirate over the past few months or so, allowing words of his deeds to spread in just the right circles, and crafting elaborate stories of daring encounters with UNSC cargo ships who were willing to help him with his plan. For the most part it had all gone off without a hitch, and he had been able to live out every child’s fantasy of becoming a pirate.

But now, now the jig was up and the fun was over. He was going to have to figure out something in the next few hours.

He stepped onto the ship and headed towards his rooms, shutting the door behind himself before setting up a secure transmission to the Omen. The line that he sent the transmission out on was disguised as some sort of manifest request to an orbiting ship above. No one would find anything interesting about it, though the signal would be intercepted by the Omen and opened on another secure channel, which generally tended to be used to monitor cosmic feedback.

He waited there for a moment as the device rang a few times, and then the screen sputtered to life.

The picture wasn’t the greatest quality, but they had made sure to do that over the past few days to hide any of the small quirks about Thomas that would have made him easy to identify as an imposter.

“Cargo?”

The word was a pre made code word asking if it was safe to speak out of character.

Thomas would respond with either, “Goods, or weapons.” The first meaning go and the second meaning stop.

“Goods.”

The image before him cleared up, and his brother's face peered back at him from the camera. He had to admit, they had done a good job in making him look Like Adam. He had tousled blond hair and eyepatch and likely makeup to adjust the structure of his face. All in all, it was pretty impressive, but being Adam and Thomas being his brother he could definitely tell. Thomas was shorter and a bit thinner than he was, though he had filled out since joining the marines, and his hair was a shade or two off from Adam’s.

“You good?” Thomas asked, flipping up the eye patch to show his real eye.

Adam sighed, and rested his elbows on the table before him, “There has been a….. A massive compilation, and I’m not sure what to do.”

Lord Avex still sat on his shoulder, and had been surprisingly quiet since the revelation about the chairwoman. 

“Are Sunny Krill and the others there, I need to talk to them.”

Thomas nodded and shuffled on the other side of the camera for a minute before returning.

“How about physically. Haven't had the shit kicked out of you, have you?”

Adam shook his head, “No, no I’m alright, Just mentally reeling at this point.”

He rubbed his temples trying to stave off the headache he could feel coming on.

There was a soft thud and hiss, and the door behind Thomas opened.

Sunny stepped into the room and hurried over to the monitor resting her hand on the back of the chair Thomas sat in, “Adam, are you alright!” The worry in her voice was palpable. She had wanted to come along on the mission with him, but he had reasoned that she was  too recognizable. Even if they had changed her colors it would have been far too easy to  identify her. She hadn’t like that, but had still agreed to stay behind.

“I’m alright, physically anyway, and so are the others.”

“You’ve figured out who their leader is.”

Adam went quiet, and by the looks he was receiving, he knew that they could sense the tension in his face, “Wait till the others get here.”

Just when he said it, the door hissed open again and Simon, Dr. Katie and Krill walked into hte room.

Dr Krill inflated his helium sack and floated into the air, looking him over with a critical eye for a long moment, “You don’t seem injured, so that is a good sign.”

Adam sighed and shook his head, “I wish that were the case.” 

“I don’t understand.”

“I mean I would rather be beaten up than dealing with the real problem at this point.” He rested his head against his hands and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Look, this is going to sound absolutely insane, so I will just go ahead and send you the recording.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the recording device he had taken with him dropping it into the little well on the communications array. There was a soft whirr and it slowly levitated upward and began to spin. The video was played back for the others to see, and they watched in silence ad growing horror as the Chairwoman of the GA plotted his death.

When the recording cut off, the group of them stared at him with wide eyes.

Sunny shook her head, “This makes no sense.”

“Why would she…..”

Adam shook his head, “I don’t know…. I thought we were on good terms, but it seems as if that is no longer the case. THe GA is against us, or at least the head of the GA is. I don’t know who is loyal to us, and I certainly don’t know who to trust.”

It was then that lord Avex piped up hopping down from Adam’s shoulder, “The Celzex will always be on your side, Admiral. That is why I came on this mission, that is why your ship is the only one equipped with our weaponry.” he stamped one of his feet, “We will wipe her and her puny planet off the map.”

Adam raised a hand, “Woah…. woah , I don’t know about that. We have to do this carefully. I doubt she is acting with the entire interest of her species in mind, but more likely a small group of people. If we are going to deal with her we will want to confront her quietly where no one else is going to get hurt.

Lord Avex didn’t seem particularly pleased about that turn of events, but he kept quiet and allowed Adam to continue.

“We need to expose her publicly is what we need.”

Sunny shook her head, “And how do you plan to do that. There is already the problem of you having to assassinate yourself, which really isn’t going to do us well at this moment in time.”

He shook his head, “IT will be easy to take care of the pirates, they aren't all that smart and taking them out won’t be difficult. Just let them board the ship and then we can deal with them from there. After that is what I am worried about. We need her to show her hand, and we need to gather plenty of evidence. What I have right now is good, but if we can find something better, then that will ease my mind.”

He stood and paced back and forth slightly across the room, “We need…. We need to open me up to them. We need to make it look like I am vulnerable, we need to give them a chance to carry everything out, make it look like I am an easy target. Let thor guard down, and then when they come for me, we close around them like a bear trap and they will be none the weiser.” He tapped his fingers against the table, “You can’t help but leave some kind of digital trail in a time like this, it is completely impossible, if we have one end of her plot in a public setting, than we can unravel it right before her eyes and there will be nothing she can do about it.” 

Krill, who had been mostly quiet for this time shook his head, “It seems strange that she would involve herself so closely. Using a proxy to do all the work for her would at least give her plausible deniability, why would she do it herself ?”

It was Thomas’s turn to pipe in, “Seems easy enough. She’s the only one she can trust. If what you say is true than I doubt she is going along with the interests of her own people. If she involves someone else than it is going to get messy for her especially if she doesn’t know where their loyalties really lie. She would have to make the decision to deal with it herself and ricks being caught, or risk being outed by the people that she trusted, and seeing that most of the Rundi are politicians at heart, it wouldn’t surprise me that she wouldn’t trust anyone ther than herself.” he waved a hand in the air, “They are grabbing for power just like she is, and they might see this as an opportunity to undermine her and set themselves up to become the new chancellor.”

He nodded slowly, that did make some measure of sense.

But how to pull hair out of hiding.

One thing at a time he supposed.

Outside he heard the sound of footsteps coming up the hall, and he turned to look at them making a quick hand signal, and the feed was cut off. He leaned back in his chair just as there was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” He ordered, and the door opened up to reveal cannon trailed by Beatrice and Geea.

He growled internally

They continued to get in his way and were becoming  a real annoyance for his plan.

He was gong to have to deal with them soon.

“Ah, ladies, you’re back. Were we able to find all of our supplies.

Geea stepped forward, “I believe we have, now you better get to work quickly, my employer grows impatient with your stalling”

I bet she does, he thought standing and smiling to conceal the rage that was festering inside him. He walked over and patted the Drev on the arm, “Don’t worry, by this time tomorrow you will be all sorted out, and all of us can go happily on our merry way.”

He slipped past her and walked into the hall chin down eyes narrowed,  hands balled into fists slightly at his sides.

By this time tomorrow they could begin dealing with the traitors, whoever they may be.

[taiblogcomics]

Rise of the Respecticons

Hey there, smoked sausages. Alas, as I hinted, our stack's run dry on the current MLP issues, at least as far as the main series goes. But we do still have the rest of the Transformers crossover! And I think that's fantastic~

Here's the fantastic cover:

And I do mean fantastic. Like, my god, have you ever seen such an awesome cover? Like, if this cover doesn't convince you of this crossover, I dunno what will. Spike and Grimlock are quite a pair. As someone who doesn't really follow Transformers, I dunno if breathing fire is something Grimlock does on the regular. It's awesome, though. I just want you to know this cover is awesome, that's all.

So, back in the first issue, Chrysalis did a spell looking for other changelings in the multiverse. This snagged onto the Transformers, and several Autobots and Decepticons have appeared in Equestria. However, there's one exception to this: an Equestrian has instead appeared in the Autobots' world! And that's where we rejoin Spike. Due to the current crisis, the base is mostly abandoned, with one exception: Grimlock. Grimlock is supremely confident in his ability to protect the base by himself, and Spike admires that kind of confidence. In fact, he almost envies it.

Naturally, some sort of conflict arises. With the base largely abandoned, the Constructicons have come calling. Grimlock, him being king and all, easily holds them off for a while. Unfortunately his taunts at how puny they are get the combiners to shape up and take their name seriously. As such, they group up and become Devastator. This is big problems for Grimlock. Spike can't exactly leap in and help, either. But the little dragon considers the situation, takes in the surroundings, and retreats inside the base once more.

Spike's not retreating out of cowardice, though. He retrieves a few books from inside the Ark--and lemme just say, it's kind of weird that Cybertronians have printed books on paper--and begins reading. With speed, he then begins operating the computers, where the keys are as big as he is. Keying in the last command, he climbs onto the PA and tells Grimlock he has five seconds to duck. Grimlock, being beaten into the ground by Devastator, can oblige. And that's when the Ark's engines activate, frying Devastator to the point that he disassembles back into his individual Constructicons.

In the aftermath, Grimlock just sits outside and asks Spike to sit with him. He congratulates Spike, and Spike says he didn't do much. Grimlock disagrees, saying he finds Spike most impressive. Spike had the ingenuity to use the ship's engines as makeshift cannons. Spike learned an unfamiliar operating system in record time. Spike uses personal pronouns! Grimlock's already as big and smart as he will get, but Spike will continue to grow. And so both of them bask in a post-battle victory, in mutual respect of each other's skills~

This issue contains a second story! Not even a backup like some of the DC books we've covered. Both stories are basically half the issue. This one features Pinkie Pie starring on a televised cooking show. Or maybe it's just a public stage show, I don't think Equestria has television. Either way, she's joined by a Transformer named Gauge, which is one I'm not familiar with. In the spirit of promoting togetherness while the Transformers are here, Pinkie's promised a recipe exchange. Pinkie displays her favourite cupcakes, but Gauge's iron filing casserole doesn't go over so well with the audience.

Pinkie, of course, is kinder about her opinions on the casserole, but before they can start on a new recipe, suddenly a space bridge opens! Out steps Shockwave, one of the most dangerous Decepticons. Shockwave feels the cultural exchange is logical. In fact, he's inspired to do some scientific experimentation. He turns his hands into several of Pinkie's cooking utensils, and decides to see how much energy he can process from a pony. That's actually a terrifyingly dark thing to say in a My Little Pony comic. I'd expect no less from Shockwave, though~

The rest of the ponies flee, but Pinkie Pie refuses to abandon Gauge. Gauge blocks a shot by bringing a baking tray down on Shockwave's head, following this up by ripping a couple of the utensils out of Shockwave's arms. Pinkie trips Shockwave while he's stunned, and the pair each grab a frying pan and clap Shockwave on either side of his face with them. Now he's the idiot sandwich. They kick him backwards through the space bridge, and it closes behind him. The remaining ponies in the audience cheer for the pair. The comic ends with each tasting the other's dish, and neither really enjoying it. Pinkie refuses to say so, though, and declares the show a success~

These are both just kind of fun crossover stories. They’re nothing particularly groundbreaking, but they’re fun, and that’s what’s most important in doing a crossover like this. Shockwave’s cool and menacing and all, but I don’t know Gauge, and really you could have put anyone in that slot. Now Grimlock I do know, and this is a great story. The mutual respect between these two characters comes off really well, and plus it’s just nice to see Spike able to handle himself on his own, with his own skills. And, as mentioned, it gave us one of the most fantastic covers of any piece of media ever~

Next issue: another two stories, focusing on our pegasus friends~

[kendrixtermina]

Further reactions to "The book of lost tales":

I appreciate that Idril canonically wears armor and does swordfighting.

I feel like I can actually imagine adult!Idril much better now like in armor and with open hair, distraught but ready to fight while babby Earendil does not yet realize the danger...

My first thought is that Earendil was probably cute in that baby chainmail. My second thought is OUCH, Idril and Tuor always made sure their growing baby had fitting chainmail cause they felt the apocalypse might get them at any moment. Imagine that, imagine them having the baby armor fitted every year or so :(

Its fun how much of the basic structure already exists but most of what you'd consider the main characters doesn't exist or is scattered across various minor roles The only Prince anywhere in sight is Turgon - Except for Team Doriath, theyre all accounted for. I suppose Maeglin is kinda there in name only with vaguely the same role & motivation, but looks personality and background all did a 180 since. Luthien is still pretty much "princesd classic" at this point, not quite the fearless go-getter from the final version - markedly this version tells Beren that she doesnt want to wander in the wilderness with him whereas the final one says she doesnt care and its Beren still wants to get the shiny so as not to ask this of her and also for his honor.

I mean in the finished version Id consider the 3rd and 4th gen royals to be the main characters (well, alobgside Team Doriath and the varioud human heroes) and theyre hardly here. Imagine the silm with no Finrod!

Feanor had no affiliation with the royal family whatsoever, and is also generally less super. He's just the guy who won the jewelsmithing competition, not the inventor of the whole discipline. Still seems to have been envisionad as a respected member of the community who gets called to the palace for crisis meetings and is listened to when he stsrts giving speeches. From the first he already has the backstory of going off the deep end (or at least growing disillusioned with Valinor) after a family member is killed by Melkor and theyre still the first to die, but its just some other rando unrelated to the royals

The situation regarding the humans is different - instead of Melkor leaking their existence, its Manwe who explains that the other continents were supposed to be for them eventually. So Feanor goes off on a tirade about weak puny mortals comes off as a more of a jerk unlike in the final version where Melkor barely knew about the humans and described them to the Noldor as a threat. On the other hand in this one, also very much unlike in the finished product, Melkor dupes even Manwe into being unfair to the elves as a whole. In this the final version is a definite improvement, both Feanor and the Valar come off as a lot more sympathetic and though still deceived he's partially right in some things at least, so you have more of a genuine tragedy rather than a simple feud

There is something to the idea of Commoner!Feanor tho. I guess some of this survived in his nomadic explorer lifestyle and how both his wife and mother (who arent mentioned here) eventually were the ones to get that background of being not especially pretty ladies who are not from the nobility but got renown, respect and acclaim for their unique talent and contribution to society, with each having invented things and Nerdanel also being renowed for her wisdom. Hes sort of an odysseus-like Figure in that sense. I suppose later developements necesitated that Maedhros & co. have an army not just a band of thieves, which means they needed to be nobles/lords. That said this being a society where artisans are very respected and half the lords have scholarly/artistic pursuits going, the gap was probably not as big to begin with as it might have been in say, medieval England. Esoecially since Nerdanel's father had been given special honor by one of the local deities and that the social order might have been a very recent thing in Miriel's time. One might speculate that the first generation of Lords started out as warriors during the great journey, or perhaps just Finwe's friend group.

Also found that bit intetesting where the Valar have to deal with the remaining political tensions and effects of Melkor's lies on the remaining population in Valinor... - i guess with the change of framing device it was less likely for news of something like this to reach Beleriand. That, or the existence of Finarfin and his repentance made this go smoother this over in later cannon

Turgon's go-down-with-the-ship moment reaaly got to me. Im half tempted to write a fic where his wife, siblings and dad glomp him on arrival in Mandos. I dont care that none of them exists yet in this continuity i want Turgon to get hugs

I love all the additional Detail that got compressed out in the shift from fairytale-ish to pseudohistoric style especially all the various Valinor magic insofofar as it is compatible with the final version - particularly love the idea of the connection between the lamps and the trees that is now integrated into my headcanon forever

Its actually explained what the doors of night are

If I had not already read unfinished tales or volumes X to XII where this is also apparent, this is where I would say: Ah so the Valar were supposed to be flawed characters. Manwe has an actual arc; by the time he sends Gandalf he finally "got" it. I think in the published silm the little arcs of Ulmo and Manwe are mostly just lost in compression/ less apparent when only some of the relevant scenes got in but not all

It occurred to me way too late that the "BG" chars are the most consistent because theyre at the start and most stories are written from beginning to end. Finwe doesnt get a dedicated paragraph of explicit description until HoME X but my takeaway was that he's described pretty much like I always imagined him anyways/ same vibe I always got from him... charismatic, thoughtful, enthusiastic, sanguine temperament, brave in a pinch but at times lets his judgement be clouded by personal sentiment (though that last bit is more apparent/salient as a character flaw once he became the father of a certain Problem Child) ...i guess this would be a result of jrrt having had a consistent idea of him in his head for a long time.

This means Finwe's still alive at the time of the exodus which is just fun to see/interesting to know... Interestingly he sort of gets what later would be Finarfin's part of ineffectually telling everxone to please chill and think it over first while Feanor simply shouts louder (which is consistent with his actions before the sword incident in later canon where he initially spoke out against the suspiciozs regarding the Valar) - but its not exactly the same, he's more active than Finarfin later in that when "chillax" availed nothing he said that then at least they should talk with the other Kings and Manwe to leave with their blessing and get help leaving (This seems like it would have been the clusterfuck preventing million dollar suggestion in the universe where Feanor is related to him and values him) but when even that falls on death ears he decides that he "would not be parted from his people" and went to run the preparations. I find it interesting that the motivation is sentiment/attachment (even phrased as "he would not be parted from [his people]" same words/ expression as is later used for the formenos situation), not explicitly obligation as it later is for Fingolfin (who had promised to follow Feanor and didnt want to leave his subjects at the mercy of Feanor's recklessness )

Speaking of problem children. It seems the sons of Feanor were the Kaworu Nagisa of the Silmarillion in that originally all they do is show up at some point and kill Dior as an episodic villain-of-the-week. And then, it seems their role got bigger in each continuity/rewrite... probably has something to do with the Silmarils ending up in the title later making it in the sense their story that ends and begins with them. They have zero characterization beyond "fierce and wild" at this point, though in what teetsy bits there is we already have the idea that Maedhros is the leader and Curufin is the smart one/shemer/sweet-talker, though not the bit where Maedhros (or Maglor, or anyone really) is "the nice one". Which I guess explains why "Maglor" sounds like such a stereotypical villain name.

"The Ruin of Doriath" was purportedly the patchworkiest bit of the finished product, but I never noticed and it actually left quite an impression of me upon first reading, the visual of Melian sitting there with Thingol's corpse in her arms contemplating everything thinking back to how they met... she had the knowledge to warn him not to doom himself but couldnt get him to understand it because he doesnt see the world as she does.... After reading this though I wish there was a 'dynamic' rendition that combined all the best bits like, youd have to adapt it to the later canon's rendition of the dwarves, have Nargothrond exist etc. But i mean that just makes Finrod another dead/doomed relative of Thingol's whom bling cannot truly replace, like Luthien and Turin. In the Silmarillion you could easily read it as just an "honoured guest treatment" but here and in unfinished tales I get the impression that Thingol actually did see Turin as a son.

Already you see the idea of trying to make the stories all interconnected but there is less than there will be (the human heroes aren't related yet and there is basically no Nargothrond, which is later a common thread for many of the stories - a prototype shows up in the 'Tale of Turambar' tho complete with half baked prototypes of Orodreth and Finduillas

O boi im not even through yet

[poorvioletdraws]

Tom vs. The Underworld

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9  | Chapter 10

6. Time Bomb

Break the bonds, tear the fabric, cleave the stones, stop the magic…

… Break the bonds, tear the fabric, cleave the stones, stop the magic…

…. Break the bonds... Tear the fabric... Cleave the stones... STOP THE MAGIC!

As the former queens of Mewni gave their final chant, all of the dark magic that had been festering in the Realm of Magic began to negate into sludge. Being their only option, Star and her family finally made a decision in order to set things right and save the lives of all monsters and mewmans. Destroying all magic from being accessed by others, despite if their intentions were good or not, was the only option they had left given the time they could work with. 

However, a core element fighting to survive its approaching death rushed away from the group of spell-casters that were now moving towards an exit well from the realm. This particle, the last remaining piece of dark magic, had fed long enough on the devious emotions of its demon host that it craved that power once more. It sought out an escape from the destruction. Anywhere at this point. As long as it can infect another host and thrive again. It couldn’t perish just yet.

The thunder roared as the dark magic speck darted away from the final spell’s effect in a direction that felt like it needed to head towards—almost as if it were being pulled. But soon it was cornered by a crystallized rock formation in the once-enchanted ocean where the water was cascading upward toward a portal. With this being its last resort, the fragmented darkness that was determined to survive retreated up the opposite-flowing waterfall just in time before it collapsed with the realm.

A familiar blue figure hung above the spectacle and bore the only witness to the successful evasion of the evil-induced entity.

“It seems that something interesting is about to happen... It’s a shame I won’t be able to observe any of it. But I am overdue for a long nap…” Glossaryck lamented as he gave a yawn and faded out of existence... 

“Goodluck, kid…”

The Crystal Dimension was going through an extreme alteration due to the instability of magic. And because the user whose powers kept those locked away within the dimension no longer existed either, the universe was in for an unpleasant surprise.

The crystals created by Rhombulus began to melt away like popsicles in the scorching heat.

“Gyaaaagh!” A jelly monster with three eyes gasped for air while huddling over the disintegrating crystal.

“Ahahahaha! I’m free! Yes, yes, yes!” A female monster dressed up in a wacky astronaut costume chortled as she jumped away from her once-imprisoned spot.

“Ussss too, usss too!” A two-headed snake creature hissed beside her unanimously.

A large three-eyed reptilian monster came forward and grumbled, “Hmmhmmm, buuuuttt whyyyyy, yo?’

“Who cares! Now I, Zedlord, destroyer of planets, shall finally continue my quest to take over the galaxy!” A rather brash male monster dressed in black armor bellowed as he barged his way into the group.

“Planets? Didn’t you only blow up one planet?” a flying bat creature scoffed snarkily.

“Uh, n-no!” Zedlord stammered.

“And wasn’t that by accident too?” The bat creature mentioned.

“Quiet, you!” Zedlord shoved the creature away from him.

As the newly-freed criminals began to bicker amongst themselves, a portal from the Realm of Magic opened up nearby and out came the last known existence of dark magic. Now that it was separated from the realm, it didn’t have much time. It was left weakened from its travel into the other dimension and from the depletion of all other magic. It would surely die out if it couldn’t infect a host within the next few seconds. But which one to choose?

“I’ll fight you, I’ll fight all of you to prove how bad I am, come on!” Zedlord challenged. 

“Nah, no time fer yer puny monstah.” A sizable monster with one eye and one horn blew him off.

“Come here, I’ll show you puny!” Zedlord tried to rush at the monster but his opponent held him back effortless with one hand while answering him with a yawn. “What?! Scared?! Come on!”  

The group of bad monsters all began to exchange an assortment of teases, boasts, and arguments back and forth with each other.

The dark magic was ashamed of its options but it was also desperate. It would just have to settle with either one of them or its existence would be over. 

“Well, hello there, aren’t you rather… familiar….” A sly voice came from behind the dark matter. Although small, his aura was immense with a sinister vibe about him.

A spike in cruel intentions came from the shadowed figure the mass was now focused on. It was the same force that led it to that portal and brought it here as if for some kind of maniacal destiny. That was the one it needed, the one meant for it!

The dark magic rushed toward the figure but was halted by his raised hand.

“I’m sorry… Have you forgotten?” The formidable figure smirked as the mass began to scatter into particles, “You’ve always belonged to me, you were just taken away. But it seems things have changed in the universe to bring us together again… Now return to me!”

The dark magic now shot into the figure and a great red light filled the entire area in a flash.

“What was that?” The group of monsters wondered aloud now distracted from their quarreling.

“It came from behind that rock!”  

“Mighty Zedlord, go take a look.” the female monster from early told him.

“Hey, don’t boss me around!” Zedlord fumed.

“Quit wasting time and look.” The two-headed snake demanded.

“Argh, who cares about some wimpy light, I’ll blast that area to bits and show you all my power!” Zedlord shouted as he brought up his cannon arm.

“That won’t be necessary.” The shadowed figure announced as he appeared from behind the rocky wall.

A miniature red being floated into the scene. He wore a purple robe and his beard and eyebrows were long, thin black slits. He had a very all-knowing look painted across his face and kept his legs folded beneath him as if sitting criss cross on the floor even though he levitated before them.

“Who are you and how’d you get here!” Zedlord blurted out.

“Obviously a captive like the rest of us, genius.” The bat creature jeered as he rolled his eyes.

“Quiet, Batty!” 

“The names not ‘Batty’, it’s Martin.” The bat creature corrected.

“Seriously?”

“Ahem.” The red being cleared his throat in order to gain the attention of the group again. He then swirled into the air above his audience and said, “My name is Appendixon. I’ve existed for a lengthy amount of time, being the first to be imprisoned here in fact. And I’m going to use you all as my soldiers in my plan for revenge.”

The group was silent for a moment but then busted out laughing. Not the response Appendixon warranted.

“And why should any of us follow you!” Zedlord snickered, jabbing his finger in the red being’s direction. “You’re nothing more than a red, puny—“

“Careful with what you say next...” Appendixon admonished as his diamond-shaped eyes of emerald green peered at Zedlord brightly. “It may be your last words for I don’t need every single one of you.” That cruel intention from earlier began to flow from the suspicious red being and intimidated his insubordinate approacher. 

A huge shadow suddenly wriggled away from the small figure and loomed over the entire group of criminals. With it came the dark emotions and substantial strength of the magic now within. They began to cower.

“Sorry if I miscommunicated, I wasn’t giving any of you a choice. Either follow, or die here.” Appendixon threatened with a glare.

“Y-yes, sir…” Zedlord piped up and bowed before the red being. The group of monsters did the same without hesitation.

“Stellar!” Appendixon changed his tone to a more jovial one and looked delighted with their obedience. 

“Now then…” He brought up his hands as his eyes lit up. A rift began to static into creation and a black portal ripped open, large enough for all of them.  “I have some unfinished business on Mewni that I’ve been itching to take care of for a few centuries. Shall we begin?”

The horde of the universe’s most evil beings agreed with a cheer for their new leader’s budding plan.

“Hey, can I get a ride with you guys?” A small, light-blue furry monster approached the departing group from a wall he was recently hiding behind. “I’ve been stuck here for so long and all I came here for was to deliver pizza!” He was holding his violet ball cap and appeared to be pleading to them.

Appendixon’s followers looked to him for an answer.

“Ugh, sure…” Appendixon shrugged. “Just because I love pizza. That sounds good right now actually...”      

First pizza, then conquest.

[emilyjunk]

Hey, I was wondering if you were working on HGAu part 19?

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (part 8)(part 9) (part 10) (part 11) (part 11.5) (part 12) (part 13) (part 14)(part 15) (part 16) (part 17) (part 18) (moodboards) (playlists)

somewhere in the back of beca’s mind, it registers that there are only 4 of them left. beca, amy, this monster of a boy and his partner from district 1

in the front of her mind, she just sees benji’s lifeless form on the ground, his neck hanging at an awkward angle, the puddle of blood growing around him

the beast inside her snarls with a fury, an anger, pulsing red and hot

“poor district 12. so puny” grins the boy from district 1, his hands coated with liquid crimson. beca and amy glare at him, panting from exertion

“it’s 2 on 1, beefcake” amy says. “maybe you should run, or else prepare to perish”

beca hesitates, trying to seem tough and larger than she is, but fear is holding hands with her heart. “yeah... uh. what she said.”

the boy laughs, a psychotically carefree thing that causes goosebumps to break across beca’s skin. “you two didnt honestly think we were alone?” he quirks his head, and that’s when beca hears it

the echoing snarl of beasts - many of them - just as the girl from district 1 jumps out of the second story window of the skyscraper next to them, landing in a crouch

beca’s heart gets caught in her throat as terror seizes her

the district 1 girl smirks “well well well, a tiny mouse and her bodyguard. this is about to get interesting”

something about the words infuriates beca. she reacts without thinking. she throws her axe in the direction of the girl

she ducks and it whizzes over her head

“feisty,” she laughs. “but enough chit chat... we’ve got company.”

the sound of claws scratching over the concrete of the cityscape grows to a terrifying volume as a group of mutts - at least 5 of them from what beca can see - bound around the corner

beca doesnt stop to think -- she runs, weaponless and afraid. a beast leaps at her and she throws herself on the ground. it overshoots and lands to her left, circling back around. she scrambles to her feet and dives into the nearest building, not daring to look back

the inside of the building is cool tile, slippery and smooth. beca slides across it, barely registering the decor, a minimalist black and white that had at one point been popular before the Dark Days

she makes a beeline for another door, throwing herself through it - only to stop... it’s a dead end, an old closet, clearly recently picked clean by the careers who’d been camping out in the city. it’s completely empty

she can hear the growling of at least one beast behind her, can smell the foul stench of its breath. she holds completely still, not daring to breathe

it takes everything in her not to make a sound when it pokes its snout into the closet, its nose just a foot from beca’s torso

she covers her mouth with her hand, her breathing ragged

the beast sniffs, its large line of nostrils flexing with the motion, its head tilting toward beca. it opens its mouth, revealing its razorlike teeth... 

the moment seems to stretch in slow motion, beca quivering in her bones, waiting for the sharp jaw of the mutt to close around her

and then... miraculously, the mutt huffs, its mouth closing with a snap. it turns away from beca, pushing off on its hind legs to run back the way it came

beca whimpers, her feet giving out as she slides down to the floor, her head in her hands. she gasps in several lungfulls of air, her cheeks wet

get up, the monster in her urges. time to go home, beca

trembling, she manages to push up on her knees and crawl out of the closet, back into the lobby of the skyscraper

that’s when she sees it -- piled in the corner, all of the careers’ supplies. weapons, food, clothing. she can’t believe her eyes. numbly she crawls over to the pile. finally... something to help her survive

“i dont think so,” sneers the familiar voice of the boy from district 1

beca hears movement as he dives at her

she grabs the nearest weapon off the pile, a small knife, and manages to flip on her back just as the boy lunges toward her, his hands held out to grab her by the neck

she feels the knife pierce into his soft skin, just under his ribcage, as his hands outstretch

she pulls her neck away from him, the knife twisting in further

hot liquid spreads on her hands, thick and red. she gags, but can’t think about it

the boy is still reaching for her, his eyes dark and twisted, even with the knife jutting into his body

beca doesn’t know how she does it, doesnt think about it, just angles the knife upward

the boy lets out another gasp, blood gurgling from his lips, and stops his efforts to get his hands around her neck

he looks at beca in shock, gravity pulling him further down on the knife as his body slumps on top of her

finally, he crushes down, his full weight falling on her body, her hand between them on the cold silver of the knife

a cannon booms, but beca cant find it in her to react to it

it takes all her strength to push the boy’s lifeless body off of her, her fingers still curled around the weapon that killed him

yes, she finally answers the beast in her mind, the one that sounds frighteningly like her own voice, time to go home

[jisangyo]

Megatron can read mind and he don’t want to (2)

⬇️⬇️⬇️this is the first chapter btw:

Chapter 1

bad grammar Warning😂

It is surprisingly close to the Ship.

The warlord find the artifact in a cave by the location starscream (soundwave) provides. He stay in the cave with the unknow Cybertronian artifact for a little longer, to think about what he should do with his new ability. It would definitely be a great weapon towards Autobots after he manage it, but now he need to deal with hearing everymech’s random thoughts. The ground start shake a bit, he know the Autobots are here now.

Is there anyway better then fighting your annoyance off? Megatron think not, he grab the artifact then face the exit of the cave , wait for the Autobots to show up and face their death.

Optimus Prime and Arcee show up from the Space bridge,

“Optimus and a little Autobot, exactly what i need to spare my free time with.” Megatron’s cannon pointing right at them, he overdramaticly waves his servo with the artifact he grab,

Arcee angrily hold her blasters in front of Optimus, she yell, “Don’t you dare insult me or Optimus! We are not for you to spare!”

“Megatron, put down the artifact then you can still walk free out of this.” Optimus’s battle mask are on, he stare at Megatron, almost like he is impassive.

Megatron can hear all the aggressive insults in the little autobot’s mind, he didn’t bother, his more curious on Optimus’s mind.

“Oh, you really expect me to be serious about five autobots that hide cowardly somewhere on earth? ”

Megatron raise his eyebrows, mocking at Arcee, he kind of start to enjoy his new talent, listen to this little autobot’s sad, impossible thoughts. Optimus stop Arcee from trying to run over Megatron, because he know she don’t stand a chance on wining, not even if they fight Megatron together. The warlord is powerful, if it’s not because of luck and Megatron’s pride, The decepticons might win the war already. He need to carefully think about whatever he say.

“Megatron, it’s never too late, we still have chance to rebuild Cyberton together———” 

Like the old time, when we stand by side——

“Shut up! Optimus, there is only two way for you, fight me or death! ” Megatron aggressively stop Optimus speech, neither or he want to hear optimus thinking about back than.

“But you can’t put the puny human away, Can’t you? You choose them, instead of our plant! The plant that you destroy! ”

“You and the decepticons started the War!”

I wish i never——

The cannon blasted at optimus, “How dare you! How dare you judged what we used to have! What Orion Pax did!?” Megatron keep shooting at them. He heard, the one who replace Orion, now is even judging about what he did!

Only the first shoot made on to Optimus’s chest, he avoided the rest of them then the autobots start to fight back,

The heat is increasing under Megatron’s armour, he is mad, he is furious, he is... sad? Even him, After all those century of the war, had never doubt about knowing Orion Pax in the first place.

“What? I... I never doubt about our past! ” Optimus was confuse on Megatron’s sudden anger toward him, he is anger all the time but he won’t just shoot without any sign. He has no time to even think about why Megatron suddenly mention about their past. 

“Oh prime, stop lying already. ” Megatron’s red optics are flashing angry light. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Optimus looked confusedly at Megatron, Arcee is speechless behind Op timus, she will have to talk to Optimus when they’re back in base.

Give up on debating, “Megatron, just hand over the artifact. ” Optimus run in front of Megatron, close combat with him will get him a better chance for getting back the artifact.

“Make me.” Megatron smash on Optimus’s face right before Optimus hit his abdominal.

The artifact eventually broke during the fight, the warlord star at Optimus so hard like he can tear him apart, he transform into Cybertronian jet then fly out of the cave.

“Optimus, we’re going to have to talk.” Arcee hold her arm behind him, Optimus  look at her in silent for a while then he nod.

—————————————

Megatron flight back to Nemesis, all the Vehicon and Insecticon stay quite while the warlord furious walk in the hallway, he walk right into his own quarter. 

[No one disturb me except for emergency!] He commanded, then sit down on his chair.

Soundwave know his lord is mad, he didn't bring back the artifact, so there is a big chance he met Optimus. The loyal communication office quitely walk to the front of Megatron’s quarter door.

[Soundwave, requiring the access of Megatron’s quarter.]

The door open in front of Soundwave after a few second. The powerful warlord almost block the whole entrance of his quarter, “Soundwave, I thought you wound be the last one to dare disturb me right now.”

None of them move,

“I said only emergency! ” The black screen stare right at Megatron, 

[Megatron, require company.] The slender mech is still starting at the warlord, Megatron let him in after a few more seconds, he know there is no way to get rid of his old friend if he insist coming in.

Megatron sit back on his chair, Soundwave sit down on his opposite side. The dark mech then pull out a cube of energon on the table.

He took a few sips, his plating are still hot and the temperature is still going higher after the drink. “I heard it, he regret knowing me.” His optics is half close staring at the cube. “I never regret that, my past, what ever I've done. I have no regret.”

I never regret that either, never when we met, never when you form the Decepticon, I will die for your cause and you only. Megatron hear it again, his voice, he look at Soundwave like he could see through the dark screen,

“I hear it, in his mind.”

So you can hear my voice also. After you wake up? Soundwave’s screen row  down a few line of the words. His ventilation system are on, he is nervous, the black screen hide his emotion and voice away on purpose, but now its all clear in front of the one he want to hide from the most.

“Indeed, my most loyal one.” Megatron spread his body in front of the communication officer, “We shall rebuild Cybertron together.”

The sound of ventilation is louder in the room now, Soundwave’s feelers silently wrapped around Megatron’s feet———

——————————————

And that’s it, I don’t know how to write nsfw in English yet. Hope you enjoy my writing🙌🏻

I will write more about this when i , you know, write more😂

At first, this megatron read mind should be something like he hear everyone thinking about his aft, but we i was actually planing on this, it turn out to be something.......HUUUUUUUMMMMMMM

Leave a comment to tell me your idea about how this should go please😂

[katliveblogs]

“You have to ignore him when he gets like this,” Gordon commented.

“-I don’t think it’s a loss, thank you very much.  I think the cannon would be a failure, but that’s hardly the only way to do it.  I’m betting a victory of sorts could be managed.”

“Though he’s harder to ignore than I’d like,” Gordon remarked.  “I agree with him there.  I think we’d win.”

Children arguing about “who would win in a fight”, except they are themselves one of the fighters.

“That’s only three, and you’ve run out of points to argue,” Mary said.  “Did you say four to get me to pay attention?”

“Yeah,” I said.  Because you’re insecure and you’re more likely to fixate on a proper number, which can be more easily proven or disproven.

Sy this is such a bad way to go about things.

“Ah,” she said.  I thought I caught a roll of the eyes as she glanced away, looking over the Academy.  The trees grew wild in between buildings, and there were places where the branches meshed with the branches that jutted out of buildings.  There were more stitched at this end of the Academy, and more general experiments.  It was interesting to look at.

Great now I’m jealous of fictional characters for getting to look at interesting things.

“Pause for emphasis,” Gordon said.  Mary snapped her head around to look at him.  He was smirking.  “Then Sy’s reveal.  There was a fourth reason.  He never said there wasn’t.”

“You’re ruining it,” I said.

“Only because you’re predictable.”

I mock-gasped.  “You take that back, you oaf.”

He didn’t flinch.  “Better to be an oaf than to be puny.”

I mock-gasped again, with a little more emphasis.

Yeah this setup was pretty obvious. I’m guessing the fourth thing was that “it’s even a consideration”?

Also I honestly can’t tell how much this is Sy and Gordon playing up their play-fighting to appeal to Mary and how much it’s just them having fun.

[wotzup]

CH3- Save her(part 2)

So here you go people here’s part 2. Yeah I’ going to turn it into a series. I’m going to add further ships later but for now you shall all have a bit of Yohamaru/Yoshimaru. I hope you enjoy this one. I shall be uploading new chapters on the weekends. CH1 CH2 that head cannon that is vital for the plot that you must not forget You can also find the story on FFN.net and Wattpad And here we go –>

Hanamaru woke up. She was cold and hungry. She had no clue where she was. The only thing she knew at The time was that she was tied to a chair, with a gag in her mouth and in a room with no windows whatsoever. Just a door. A metal door. The last thing she remembered was being dragged by someone who pulled her side. Hanamaru was scared. She tried to break free of the ropes. It didn’t work. In the process she tipped over the chair onto its side making it and her fall. A muffled zura came from her mouth as pain seized her side. She sat there scared her heart beating quickly. She wondered how did those protagonists in the books she read escape out of this like it was nothing.

Then a sound came from the door. The door hissed as it opened and Hanamaru was blinded by the bright light. She blinked her eyes a few times and saw two silhouettes standing in that bright light. “Pick her up and take that gag out.” said the one with a shorter pony tail standing on the right. The one with the longer pony tail approached her and set her chair upright and pulled the gag out. From Hanamaru’s mouth a whole bunch of stuff came out like, “Where am I and what do you want with me zura!?” “Put it back on.” the other instructed. The gag was placed back on her mouth, her voice now muffled. Hanamaru tried to find out who was she, the one with the long ponytail, but she had a mask on. All that she could make out was that she had blue hair and smelled like the ocean.z

The blue head went back beside the other girl. “If you plan to escape you can’t. Even if you plan to, we’ll kill you. Even if you use magic we will kill you. We won’t hesitate. After all you’re just a mini part of the grand scheme.”

Hanamaru had a whole bunch of thoughts and feelings coming up. ’What scheme zura? Why am I here zura? Will I even see daylight zura? I’m scared zura…’ her train of thoughts were broken by the blue head when she began to speak. “You are here to attract your friends here so that they can tell us information related to their previous mission.”

Hanamaru’s mind went into overdrive. She remembered giving the Three Mermaids a huge stack of books. Old books that were at the back of the most recent books. None of them had seen those books before. Hanamaru didn’t even know they existed till she was reorganizing the library again with Ruby. All those books were about an ancient swords. Only the best could obtain that sword. It was said that a great squadron called μ’s had created these swords and were known for their power. The problem is that these swords had the power to destroy as well create. The squadron had reached a point where they were invincible, or at least till they felt that they were too powerful and that they must destroy the swords. The problem they couldn’t. So they hid the swords locked up deep in a place. No one knows where the swords are now except for them. The next problem. No one knows where they are. The Three Mermaids had found out where one of them are and that was the forest which they went to along with her and Ruby.

It was because of this that now she is stuck in a place she least expected to be. All she hoped was that someone would save her but she didn’t want her friends to be in danger because of her. “If you want you can join us. You seem to be a quite knowledgeable person. If you do we will free you… after we get what we want.” the other one said.

Hanamaru shook her head in denial, vigorously. There was no way she would betray her friends. “So then rot here till your friends come.” the two laughed manically and the door closed shut. Hanamaru could only hope she would come out of here alive.

Yoshiko zoomed through the branches of the trees as she made her way to their hideout. She had used a location spell to find it and her predictions were right. It was in the same place where she found it last time. She had went on an errand for Nozomi when she accidentally stumbled upon it and some how escaped from the area without getting caught.

“I hope Zuramaru’s alright.” she muttered. She knew she was almost there. Her mind was only focused on Hanamaru. Yoshiko felt as if it was her fault that Hanamaru got kidnapped. After all all that happened to her was most of the time bad. The only things which she considered as great was meeting Hanamaru and Nozomi(sometimes she’d regret it) and learning magic. It was something which fascinated her. The power flowing through her veins felt nice and she felt more like an fallen angel.

She reached the spot. A boring building stood in the clearing. She was surprised to find it barely guarded. ’Where are the guards? They usually heavily arm the place.’ she thought as she used a spell to make herself invisible. She jumped off the tree and made her way slowly to the building while analyzing the situation. It was unlike her but she really didn’t have a choice, she didn’t want to accidentally hurt her friend. Thanks to her bad luck she stepped on a twig that wasn’t there before. A huge axe from the tree in front of her swung. She jumped to the tree on her right, barely dodging it. That’s when she noticed that if that was hidden then what else would be lurking. She knew those bandits weren’t your average bandits. They were specialized in warfare and magic making them even deadlier. She wasn’t a skilled magician like Nozomi. Yoshiko wished she payed more attention to Nozomi’s magic classes instead of trying to escape.

She didn’t learn a spell that would remove the illusion. Nozomi being one of the best magician’s in the country would know but Yoshiko did remember a small conversation she had with Nozomi who said, “Some spells only come with continuous use of magic or experiences. Not all are easy like the ones I’m teaching you now. You end up crafting your own spells sometimes in the process. Magic is based off of your emotions even though it might not seem like that.”

Yoshiko understood that now. She knew that her skill was not even close to the mark to remove this one. She couldn’t teleport inside because she had no clue how it looked like. When you teleport you or someone you need to imagine the place. Yoshiko looked at the ground, dejected. She really wanted to save Hanamaru. That’s when the idea struck her. She smirked at the ground. This was going to be fun.

Hanamaru sat there cold. She didn’t know how much time passed. She was scared beyond her wits. The blue haired girl, her kidnapper, had been coming often, asking her to join, threatening her. There was something she noticed though. The girl looked uncomfortable, like she didn’t like what she was doing but Hanamaru felt as if it was just a trick of her eyes after all she was hungry for hours and they hadn’t brought her food. Her stomach growled.

She felt the ground rumble beneath her. She let out a muffled ‘zura’ in fear. She wanted to go home. She wanted to bask in the warmth of books. All she hoped that all of this was a dream a nightmare. Then suddenly, the ground in front of her collapsed. Now she was terrified beyond anything. Out from that hole came another girl. “Zuramaru is that you?” a familiar voice said. She nodded her head. “Thank god your safe. This place has the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. I should ask Nozomi about some stuff but that aside.” Yoshiko said as she removed the gag and the rope which tied Hanamaru to the chair. “T-thanks zura.” Hanamaru hugged Yoshiko tight and started to sob. “How did you know where to find me?” she said between sobs. “I am a fallen angel of course I’d know where my little demons are. Anyway, Zuramaru we need to get out of here before-”

“I enter this room and trap you both.” said the blue head who appeared out of nowhere. Yoshiko’s eyes widened. Hanamaru bit back a scream. “The door’s locked and you can’t go back the way you came from. There is no escape.” she grinned as she neared the two with a ball of magic in her hand. “Zuramaru take my hand.” Yoshiko whispered. Hanamaru did as she was told. With each step Hanamaru was frightened. Her heart beated faster and faster. She could feel Yoshiko’s hand trembling. A warm sensation was felt on her back. She did not know the meaning behind the sensation on her back. “Yo-Yoshiko chan…” she said quietly.

At the last moment Yoshiko moved her other hand and the next thing Hanamaru knew was that she was in the forest in front of a quaint cottage in a clearing. Yoshiko left Hanamaru’s hand and fell face first into a muddy puddle. Hanamaru felt weak to pick up Yoshiko. In fact she felt weak to even walk. Everything seemed to spin around her. She could see her friends come out of the cottage and running towards them. The next thing she knew she fell on the ground beside Yoshiko and closed her eyes out of fatigue.

Yoshiko woke up to the sound of laughing. She opened her eyes to find Nozomi sitting along with the other people she met before stuff happened and Hanamaru across the table on the otherside if the room. Nozomi looked back and approached Yoshiko while the others waved at her. “Ah your awake.” Nozomi continued while the others were again busy with their conversation, “That act you pulled of was surprisingly courageous for you. Usually your such a scaredy cat.” “Fallen angels are not scared of mortals or anything. Mortals are just puny and worthless. I only did that so that her comrades won’t feel sad.” she said trying to protect her pride. “You mean you’re in love.” Nozomi teased with a smug look. “Fallen angels don’t fall in love with mortals like her.” “Your totally head over heels for her.” “Am not.” “Firstly you were checking her out while watching them.” Yoshiko turned beet red at the statement. “Secondly look at your back.” “My back… are you lying Nozomi?” “Would my cards lie?” “Maybe.” “Do you want me to washi washi you?” “No it’s fine…” Yoshiko said covering her chest with her arms. She got up, stumbled a bit and headed to the restroom. She didn’t really believe what Nozomi said except for the first one. There was no way Hanamaru would be her… no there was no way. It was only her crush. An infatuation. She was sure she would get over it. Just like that other girl she had a crush on. She got in the bathroom, shut the door and took off her shirt.

From out side they heard a scream. Everyone except for Nozomi turned in the direction. “What happened to Yoshiko chan zura?” Hanamaru asked, concerned. “Nothing. She just realized something.” Nozomi replied and gave Hanamaru a wink.

[injuries-in-dust]

Out numbered, out gunned, never out fought

My first real attempt at a humans are space orcs story. Written on my mobile, so excuse any spelling errors, I have proof read and tried to correct, but some may have slipped through the cracks. Queen Krillix clicked her mandibles together in anticipation as he surveyed the situation upon his scanners. The Vespula fleet consisted of five hundred dreadnoughts, two hundred heavy support vehicles, one hundred attack fighters, and one flagship; a Nova-class heavy bomber, a type aptly nicknamed by their enemies "planet smasher". The fleet of the United Sol fleet however, was a dozen warships, half a dozen battle cruisers, and a hundred mongrels; ships which had previously cargo haulers, research vessels, and transport ships meant to carry colonists to new worlds, all of them had been stripped down and retrofitted with heavier weapons and armour. They were not ascetically pleasing but were serviceable enough. For humans. From her throne room aboard the planet-smasher "Iron Sting" (loosely translated into galactic common.) the queen extended her will to her army. The hive was not of mindless drones, her soldiers could think for themselves, their intelligence, their instincts, guided the hive to victory. But their will was the queens will and the queens will was their will. She guided them, drove them, gave them reason to live. The hive without their queen was a bunch of soldiers without a cause, without desire to do anything to eat and procreate. With billions of mouths that feed already the hive was running out of food in the handful of systems their already controlled. Expansion was the only key to their survival. So the queen drove them on, ever forward, ever outward, to new worlds and new foods. So it had passed that the hive had found this small system, with an unassuming little star. Colonised worlds and strange fleshy-bipeds running around their little homes and growing food. No armies, no defences; none that bothered the hive anyway. Not even space worthy vessels. The hive had descended and claimed this world. There had been but a paltry resistance from the bipeds. But farmers with pitchforks and lasers were no match against a single attack ship and the well trained soldiers of the Vespula when the will of the queen was behind them. There in the ashes of the settlement, the hive had learned the name of the bipeds; humans. They had come to learn the name of their world; New Earth. They came to learn the fleshy bipeds were not born to this planet but another. They were much like the hive, in their own primitive way. They dominated their homeworld and had spread. First across their own system and then, when they ran out of room, to others. Anywhere they found suitable they planet their two feet and claimed it for their own. Yet they also did something the hive did not. The humans called it Terraforming; to force a world to be suitable for your kind. The science caste had put their minds to this terraforming as a way for the hive to claim more worlds. But the process was slow, taking several hundred cycles. Dozens of queens would come and go before even one world was made suitable for the Vespula. An unnecessary waste of resources for too long a goal. Expansion of suitable planets was deemed the only true way forward. The queen acknowledged a slight kinship with the humans, despite them being fleshy bipeds of dull colouring, and the Vespula were the great insectoids of the royal black and noble yellow. Like the Vespula, they were driven as the hive was driven, by the need to grow and survive. The feeling of kinship did not make the queen stay her tarsal claw. If anything it encouraged her. These humans were not just prey, or a nuisance, they were competition. They needed worlds and food as did the hive. They had great, ever expanding numbers, as did the hive. How long before they came to battle over territory? The queen considered and decided to strike first. These humans were primitive. They had only recently discovered the means to travel faster than light. They had strange notions of peaceful exploration and learning. They took only those worlds which were not already owned by sentient beings. This was surely a hindrance. It was a weakness, if nothing else. When something stood in the way of your food you should strike it down. It was the only way to be strong. The only way for the majority to survive. No wonder they hadn't expanded too far. "Status?" The queen asked and the solder of the tactician caste responded. "Scans show no other human ships in the sector." Then this paltry number was their whole fleet. "Weapons appear to be high intensity lasers. Radiation signatures on the warships and battle cruisers indicate nuclear weaponry" Primitive. Nuclear weapons, such a barbaric people. Yet effective enough in its own way. If it were not for their shield generators the queen might have been worried. If the humans concentrated fire on one ship at a time the humans could break the shields and take down a dreadnaught or two. Such ha tactic would have even worked against the planet smashing Nova-class vessel. But during that time they would be taking fire from every other ship around them. They would surely be destroyed before any shields collapsed. As it was, all the Vespula ships had shields and the human weapons would crash against them as they tried to attack ten times their number. The Vespula would cut through this pitiful fleet with their quantum cannons and proceed through this Sol system, claiming every inhabitable planet along the way until they reached the human homeworld. Glory to the hive! The queen bent her will, her fighters felt her and obeyed as her will became their own. The weapons began charging, their ships took positions for attack. In a few more seconds the humans ships would be in range of their cannons. Then there was a voice she had not expected. "My queen." It came from a drone of the technician caste, manning the communications station. He seemed confused, this concerned the queen. "We are receiving a message from the flagship of the human fleet." Thirty seconds until the ships were in range. The queen waved a claw dismissively. "I have no patience for long speeches about how they will not be defeated how they will make their stand and-" the technician interrupted her, another unexpected thing. "My queen, the translator states only two words." The queens antennae raised upwards- the equivalent of a smile to their race. "Let me guess, 'we surrender'?" Ten seconds and the ships would be in range. "No my queen." The queen looked at him expectantly, "no?" The technician looked again at his screen, which had translated the strange language of the humans into a written transcript. "It says, 'Leeroy Jenkins.'" The queen's mandibles clicked, her antennae dropped, the signs of confusion "Leeroy Jenkins?" The ships came into range. The human ships raced at great speed. The Vespula ships fired. The human ships did not engage them?! They did not slow to attack speeds! They did not shoot. They charged onwards. Their movement was too fast. The quantum cannons missed! The targeting combat computers of the Vespula worked best on ships that had slowed to a proper attack speed. This was the speed of fleeing, but the humans were still heading toward them?! The queen was confused as were her soldiers, but their wills were found one thought, one desire; shoot the human ships. Some ships hit, but they were only glancing blows off the armour of the speedy and agile human vessels. Then a luck shot! One human vessel, a war ship, exploded as the quantum laser caught its nacelles. The other vessels raced past, igniting their fallen comrades. They didn't fire against the attack fighters, they ignored the cruisers and dreadnoughts. The puny human vessels penetrated into the very heart of the seam of hive ships. Too late the queen realised their course; they were targeting the flagship, only the flagship. HER SHIP! "All power to shields!" Half a dozen nuclear weapons were launched at once, less than 500ft from the hull. Just in time did the technician pour the auxiliary power into the shield generators. The shockwaves of the explosions made the shields rumble like a violent ocean. Radiation detectors signalled that the outside of the ship was already a hotbed of fallout. Their thick hull and shields were keeping the interior safe. A second wave of missiles were launched. A third were close behind. Before those nukes even hit their shields, the ships of the first wave were in range and launching another wave. Where was her ships? Her soldiers? Their powerful weapons? The queen already knew the answer, the hive was too afraid of the swift and agile Human ships. They couldn't fire upon them for the risk of hitting the flagship. The fourth wave of missiles impacted. Alarms signalled the collapse of the shields and radiation penetrating the outer layers of the hull. The tiny human ships were massing again, launching their fifth strike. Nuclear missiles and lasers fired simultaneously. All their fire was concentrated one one place; the bridge. *** Far and away, across the void of space. The princess Noxi was torn from her rest in her sleeping chamber. Emerging from the warmth of her cocoon she scrambled to an opening and looked to the stars. For the hive they had always been warm and inviting, promising new planets, food and resources for the glory of The Hive. Now they looked cold and frightening. Promising unknown dangers and darkness. She felt a shiver run through her thorax. Across the hive cries went up as the realisation dawned on each member of the Vespula race. Males, females, and larvae were all feeling as one the terrible loss and grief not only of so many brothers and sisters, but their beloved queen. Princess Noxi felt an ache in the back of her head. There was no stopping it. It began instinctively as soon as her mother had died. She felt the ache grow in intensity, almost searing her brain, as her connection to the hive grew and solidified. Within minutes the pain faded. Queen Noxi looked upon her hive with fresh eyes. The will of the hive was her will. Her will was the will of the hive. These Humans. Not long ago their desire had been to destroy these fleshy bipeds. They were supposed to be primitive. They were supposed to be weak. They were supposed to fall to the hive like so many had before. The soldiers in the sol system. Her soldiers now. Their fight was on hold. Their shock was fresh. They had just witnessed the death of their queen while they'd been stuck, helpless, lest they harm the queen they were trying to protect. They needed her guidance now, more than any other in the hive. They were waiting for it. Waiting for the will of their queen to guide them. Queen Noxi gave her will out to all of the hive across all their worlds, the billions of minds received her, "Run. Run from the humans." She hoped it was enough to save them.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs,”The Nexus Falls.”

Sorry about the weird formatting. It was a hectic morning, but I hope you enjoy. 

The entire room blinked in unconcealed shock as the Commander turned off the monitor and returned to the captain’s chair. A completely different mad stood before them now. He could have been ten years older, eyes burning, back straight jaw set.

“Lieutenant, what do we know about the Burg weapons capabilities.”

“Well, sir, it doesn't look good for us. They have….. Some sort of heat gun that the GA has not yet been able to reverse engineer. If they hit us directly enough they could cook us all like sardines in a tin can.”

“Well, let’s make sure they don’t hit us.” He pointed across the room towards the systems specialist, “Call down to the engineers and tell them to pull power to the coolant system. I want it to be a winter wonderland in here by the time we are done. Let the crew know to wear gloves. Until the GA gets here with those extra shields, we are flying balls out naked, and I’m not a big fan of that picture.” 

He turned back to the original crew-member, “What are their shield capabilities.”

“GA database says they are at a level two, energy resistant, but….. Well look at this. They have no impact on projectile weapons.”

“What’s the point of having a shield in the first place if it can’t protect you against projectiles.” One of the crew members muttered.

The commander leaned back in his seat single eye flashing, “Because, projectile weapons are considered barbaric and out of date, all of the advanced GA weaponry runs on energy pulses. If they have those weapons it would act like an EMP to our ship and we would loose power. Don’t question the usefulness of their equipment.”

He tapped his fingers against the armrest, “After all, their equipment would be useful…. If they were fighting against anyone but humans. This levels the playing field,” he turned in his chair to the Comms officer, “Open comline to our other ships.

It didn’t take her more than a moment to do as told, and he spun in his chair back to face forward, “Commander, have the Burg surrendered, yet?” 

A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of the Commander’s mouth, “Not yet, but we are working on it. Captains Ho, Silva and Bassi, peel off to protect the plants defence nexus. The rest of us will stay here to take care of the burg fleet as much as we can until GA backup arrives. Use only projectile weapons, and not anything energy found that the GA may have given you. Make sure to up your coolant systems. They have a one charge heat ray that could potentially cooks us where we sit.”

“Commander, the burg ship is moving.”

“Get to work everyone!” The commander ordered, “Tell the pilots to launch, and start targeting their engines. Take care of any other ship that tries to do the same to us.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The burg ship is targeting us, sir.”

“Sunny, Preprair lateral rail guns.”

“Yes sir.” The small blue Drev turned back to her console and began working furiously.

The commander grabbed the controls, which responded to his touch. The chair morphed around him giving him a place to insert his hands and his feet for better steering. 

A curved holo-projections dropped down over his eyes casting his skin into shades of blue and white.

“Sir, the Burg have almost reached lock… sir.”

“Remain calm.” The man ordered 

The new recruits stared out the front screen of the ship as the burg ship dropped into position. It was a massive thing all spikes and pincers painted in colors of black orange and red, dressed for war. And between two of those pincers, they watched as a bright purple light began to grow up, targeted right towards them.

“Commander, if we don’t move now there will be no TIME to move.” One of the crew members yelled in agitation.

“Thank you lieutenant, I am very aware of the movement capabilities of my ship now TRUST me to fly her. Sunny! Are the rail guns charged.”

“Yes sir.’ She shouted back 

The crew member paused mid argument, through they wriggled in their seat with panic. The bigger the flash of purple light grew the more agitated they became until everyone on the bridge crew was muttering and cursing to themselves. Outside a swarm of F-90 Darkfire jets rolled out from under their ship sweeping through the center of space.

Silently, little bolts of white light leaped across the intervening space, and little red explosions, like the blossoming of flowers appeared against the burg hull.

The large purple orb grew in power and strength

The bridge crew was in an uproar.

Commander Vir remained still and silent looking down the barrel of death without so much as flinching hands remaining relaxed around the controls.

The purple beam fired.

And suddenly, they were gone.

All around them the world warped caving in on itself imploding and then expanding in an instant. As soon as they appeared in space, nothing but a field of stars in their view, the commander pulled a hard left, slowly turning their hulking ship backwards.

There was a gap from the crew as the burg ship came back into focus though at a wildly different angle than before.

The commander had micro warped the ship BEHIND burg defenses, though they wouldn’t have this upper hand for long. Even now the burg ship was turning on its axis to face them.

“FIRE!” The commander ordered.

And sunny pulled the trigger.

All through the ship, they could felt the massive ca-chunk ca-chunk as two rail guns fired. The space was lit up between them, and then space was lit by a massive blossoming explosion of red and orange alone the left side of the burg ship completely snapping off a few of the pincers and sending space debris out in all directions.

Little fighter jets, like a swarm of bees around the head of a bear continued to harass the burg shi

“Contact!” Captain, it was a good hit

“But they will be prepared for it next time, he muttered. That maneuver won’t be so unpredictable.”

Just then a light blue holo-projection appeared to the side of the captain’s chair. Nairobi from engineering stood before him, “Captain, whatever you just did DON'T do it again, or you will overheat the warp core, and cook us all.

“Damned if I do damned if I don't.” THe man muttered, “Don’t worry, that was just giving us a bit of a head start.” Her projection disappeared and the captain tilted their ship slightly to the right, “Fire!

That same sound reverberated through the ship, rocking them in place as they sat. The burg ship was a little more prepared this time, pulling to the side managing to dodge one entirely while the other merely strafed their starboard side, though it still left a red hot gouge against their hull

“Burg targeting us again commander.” There was no purple light this time, which partially assured him they were not in danger of being cooked

Behind the Burg, the second UNSC ship had been pulling to a flanking maneuver, only to be blindsided by a second incoming burg ship

They watched as the purple beam cut across intervening space and caught her a glancing blow along the port side.

“Shit.” The commander muttered

“Check on captain Eklend.

“Charging again, commander.

The ship jolted to the side, just as a volley of red hot beams burst towards them. THe entire hull rocked and shook. The crew grabbed onto their seats crushing as the entire room rocked and thundered nearly throwing them out of their seats

“They hit, hull breach on cargo deck E, sir.

“Containment.

“In effect sir, though it won’t last for long.

“Casualties.

“No casualties, so far though four were injured.

“Commander, Captain Eklend is alright, through their core is dangerously close to overheating. He can’t take another hit like that, and his warp capabilities are disabled for the time being.

“Tell him to adjust course and put the Bur ship between him and their command ship, I have an idea or two that might just help us.

The crew looked on from where they sat, rigid in their seats while behind them, the commander relaxed back into his chair. Again his hands were steady on the controls, his single eye was sharp

And there was  a glimmer of something hungry in that bright green eye.

“Lieutenant, how long can we polarize the gravity field on the outer hull?”

“It would be dangerous sir, no more than a few seconds or risk pulling the ship apart, or pulling us apart

He closed his eyes for a moment searing mentally for Conn, who was preparing to exit the airlock

“I need you to do one last thing before you leave.” 

Their conversation was quick

 “ I just spoke with engineering, sir. It won’t be healthy for anyone, or for the ship but it can be done for a few seconds. How long do you need.”

“Long enough to deal with Newton's first law.”

***

“Your Glory our instruments are detecting a hull breach.

The burg commander hissed in pleasure, “Puny human ship will stand no chance at the rest of our attacks.” The human may have followed her once with that micro warp, but he wouldn't be able to do it again.

The ship shuddered and rocked as those tiny, pesky nits continued to batter their outer hull. One of her ships broke through and hurtled towards the human ship, catching it a glancing blow along its dorsal side before being blasted into oblivion

Didn’t matter to her, those ships were unmanned, and she always had more, “Charge the energy cannon.

“Yes your glory.

The human ship fired back not a moment later, and they were only just able to maneuver out of the way, sending a volley of rounds over their upper fins. One of their dorsal antenna was blown straight off, but it was a loss she could take. Warfare in space was slow especially between ships as big as theirs, though outside the nits rocketed past in groups of four or five.

The ship continued to rumble as ordinance battered against their hard outer shell

She ordered another volley, which seared through the void battering against the human hull. There were no breaches this time, as they were aimed towards center mass, but large portions of metal and siding came peeling off like shell peels off a corpse.”

In that intervening time, the humans had charged up their large opposing weapons and sent two more rounds straight for them. She tried pulling to the side to avoid them, but the human had maneuvered his ship in a sharp turn between the firing of the first and the firing of the second cannon, moving the trajectory of the second directly into her line of movement. There was an eruption on the deck below her, and she was almost thrown onto her face.

“We have a hull breach, your glory.

“Would you like a casualty report.

“I do not care about casualties.” She snapped gripping hard onto one of the ship’s interior rails, hooking around it with one of her pincers

She looked up at her screen, watching on radar as a second human ship rolled into position behind them. She was not worried though. Another one of the burg ships had maneuvered to cover her from the rear, and they seemed to be having marginally more success than she was

The human ship had taken multiple hits, including one from a heat beam, which seemed to have crippled it’s movement ability.

She was pleased, though not pleased enough about their current position against the main human ship.

“Fire energy cannon!” She ordered, but as she did the humans dropped some sort of volley of their own. A thousand lights burst into shape before the ship, like a million tiny sparks shed from a fire, they erupted around the hull and out into space catching the energy pulse mid flight.

The little dots of light erupted through it dispersed her energy shot.

She would have been angry for her plan being thwarted, if that had been her plan to begin with. As the night around them was lit up by a thousand tiny sparks obscuring her vision and that of their ship she roared, “Fire Central cannon.” 

The missile erupted from their dorsal side trailing gas and fire as it went.

***

His vision was partially obscured by smoke, and he had difficulty seeing the burg ship through the remains of their flares, though something in his gut told him not to rest easy. 

Which is why he, unlike everyone else, saw the sudden eruption of flame through the cloud of dying sparks sucked clean by the vacuum.

“Reverse polarity!” He ordered.

And in response, the lieutenant slammed her hand down on the button.

He felt the change as soon as it came. The entire ship squealed and groaned. Metal pulled against metal popping and cracking as rivets and screws snapped. He was thrown against his harness pulled in multiple directions at once as the outer hull’s gravity was polarized backwards into space.

Objects all across the ship exploded with the intense power of gravity being pulled in all directions.

Blood pooled stuck still in veins and hearts.

Movement became impossible.

And the burg missile soared from the cloud, before slowing, stopping, and then wildly reversing direction. Spurred by a pre programmed secondary explosion which sent a wave of compressed gas outwards to propel the thing faster before dissipating.

There was a loud SNAP. as the polarity was reversed back to normal. And the entire crew gasped.

A few people fell unconscious against their harnesses 

Commander Vir wiped his face on his sleeve, blood trickling down from one nostril.

“Conn? Conn are you there?”

“Yes commander, I am here. The doctor is safe, and so are your little pets. Be lucky, I just managed to get gravity belts to them in time. I wager to believe the doctors head might literally have exploded otherwise 

“Good work.”

“I’d say it’s my pleasure, but I honestly don’t care/” 

***

The burg commander crowded in delight. 

The human couldn't have seen that coming.

But behind her the shiplings squealed. She saw it before she could demand to know what was going on, watching as her own missile came soaring back at them from space. The shiplings reacted faster than she could have, and the ship jerked upwards narrowly missing the projectile as it roared past cutting under the lower side of the ship.

It felt as if they were safe for a moment, but then she looked up at the screen and watched as their second ship erupted.

She only had enough time to curse before the debris began pelting their ship tearing into metal, screeching and vibrating through the hull.

The human ship had known what was coming and maneuvered to dodge the debris.

“We’re flanked!”

***

“Got you now bitch.” 

Outside in the vastness of space, little blue dots began erupting against the star field.

“Captain, GA backup is arriving.” Their comms specialist said.

“Casualty report.”

“Three dead, sir.”

That was three two many, but he couldn’t focus on that now, he had to deal with what was at hand.

“Fire on the burg.”

“Sir, she’s retreating.”

“To where!” His question was answered as she dropped towards the ace of the planet. At some point, the three human ships had managed to get rid of most of the incoming Burg, though the defense nexus had been shredded.

“Sir, she’s heading planet side.”

“What good will that do her.” one of the crewmembers asked 

The Commander knew exactly what it meant, “We can’t use any of our weapons if they go planetside for fear of killing the civilians…. They are taking this war ground level because they know they cannot win in the sky.”

“That’s fine.”

“No its not, they could dig in, take hostages….. This is about to get a whole lot more complicated.” 

[unsung-heroesofmobius]

Deck the Halls

Jerard was making use of every tool he had at his disposal, grappling cord whipping around to keep Shadow from getting in and blasting fire out from his right-hand gauntlet, obscuring himself from view as they fought. The combination of the fire and the fisticuffs made it seem as though Jerard was punching Shadow with literal fire. The ebony hedgehog would try to teleport to get in on a number of occasions, only to by slashed at by the whipping metal. Jerard had learned to predict Shadow’s Chaos Controls before, but now, it was just unfair as he could straight up sense where Shadow was teleporting to.

What once would have seemed like an impossible fight was now a certified duel between two opposing forces.

Shadow was getting more and more frustrated as the battle dragged on. He was not expecting such a challenge from Jerard after the last times they fought.   He growled at the blonde. “What is this? How did you suddenly get this way?”

The mercenary smirked behind his helmet, the T-shaped visor staring right at Shadow’s eyes. “I’ve always been this way. You were just lucky that your G.U.N. scientists locked it away. Now, there’s only one way to go, and that’s up!” Jerard grabbed his lightsaber once more and in the midst of the flurry of steel and fire, he saw clearly. What one’s eyes could not see, he could see through the living force around him. His saber strikes were far more controlled now, and more precise, landing harder and faster hits on the immortal hedgehog. He was giving Shadow’s natural regenerative abilities a true challenge now.

It was like watching a dance, choreographed for the viewing pleasure of an unseen audience as the whipcord carved through the flames, giving them form as they shot out and around them. The heat was blistering, and the battle intensifying, yet here, Jerard had his focus. His mind was on the hedgehog before him. This time, there was no hate, but there was passion. There was not peace, but there was serenity. In him, here and now, Jerard was an epitome of balance, rage and war with love and compassion. He fought now to protect as well as strike.

All the while, Omega was matching might with might against Bunnie, their punches sending shockwaves through the base, causing snow to fall in through the now open hangar roof. Bunnie was showing off how experience and will trumped even Omega’s overwhelming power. She used the rockets on her feet to help her accelerate on the ground, almost as if she was just hovering, circling around Omega before blasting him in the back.

“HOW ABOUT YA HAVE S’MORE!” She followed up the heavy blast with a barrage of weaker strikes to keep him pinned. The E-100 unit responded in kind by swerving his torso around and firing his shoulder missiles at the rabbit.

“YOUR PUNY ARM CANNON IS NOTHING COMPARED TO MY OWN! IT’S TIME FOR THE BOOM BOOM!” Several panels on the robot’s body opened up to reveal high explosive round. Omega’s optics locked onto Bunnie. “TARGET LOCKED! WEAPONS PRIMED! OMAE WA MO SHINDEIRU!” The rounds rushed for the Freedom Fighter as she flew up, in hot pursuit of their target.

All the while. Rouge watched on. She had been told to handle the explosives, but she decided not to in order to watch the fighting. It was while Omega was speaking that Zapper showed up and beeped at her.  “Let me guess. You’re Jerard’s?” She inquired.

The astromech whirred and booped an affirmative.

“Good. I know another route to that floor. Follow me and get to your ship.”

“WHY WON’T YOU DIE ALREADY?!” Shadow unleashed a strong chaos blast, forcing the fire and the grapple cord away. With that fight cleared of obstacles, he could now see the black armour of the criminal mobian. Jerard decided to keep to more simple methods now. After all, it was clear Shadow was getting tired. The repeated strikes and healing was starting to take a toll on the hedgehog’s stamina.

Jerard let out a short chuckle. “Because, it’s always a great day for someone else to die!” Jerard came at Shadow with just his lightsaber now, something that Shadow could more easily dodge without everything else obscuring his view, but Jerard wasn’t about to let up. Every swing was a step closer to victory, and Jerard wasn’t about to lose that momentum now. Images of his training, of his battles, flooded his mind, guiding his hand as he swung towards evermore vital areas. He sensed Shadow growing desperate, using chaos attacks to drive him back, only to be blocked by his lightsaber. Truly, if he had been in his prime, Shadow would not have stood a chance, but even so, just this small bit was giving Jerard the edge he needed to conquer his foe.

And then, it happened. A diagonal strike across Shadow’s torso hit, and not just any strike. Jerard stared in awe as an electrical shock knocked Shadow back. The wound still healed like all the others, but it was slower. Jerard looked at his lightsaber, seeing the familiar electrical currents that he had once used so long ago. The grin on his face could almost be felt as he stood up straight and pointed the blade at Shadow from afar. “Like I said, only one way to go but up.”

“This means nothing! You still haven’t done a thing that could actually hurt me.” The sparks dissipated from the wound, but there would be a reminder of this fight forever etched on Shadow’s body. A scar to tarnish the Ultimate Lifeform’s perfection. To mark Shadow the same way that he had marked his brother, Volt. It was a turning point in this battle. 

Well, that and the starfighter igniting its engines. Zapper was safely docked into the Astromech housing of the ship, controlling the laser cannons on its front to fire at Shadow and Omega. Jerard saluted to the hedgehog before boarding the vessel. 

Bunnie had led some of the missiles into the pillars of the hangar, compromising the structural integrity. “I think we’re gonna need a quick exit, Jerard!” She called as the starfighter kept its canopy open for her to get inside right behind the pilot seat. The Team Dark Members could only look on as the vessel shot out of the hangar.

Shadow was left to feel the reminder on his chest, growling at this symbol of defeat. He turned to Omega. “We’re going back to base, now.”

[rodimushotbodimus]

ok. so. you know how bayformer ironhide is all gun crazy? imagine if he met a human female whos like crazy good with guns, but he doubts her until she hits every target in the range, and he just stares at her all like "im not sure if i should be scared or turned on"

@kapowinthekisser This prompt was really interesting - Neither Mod Vega or I have ever written Ironhide before, so it was a bit of a challenge! 

I hope you enjoy it, and thank you so much for sending in a request :) 

When Ironhide first met her, he honestly wasn’t very impressed. 

He wasn’t much of a fan of most humans, really - while there were many who were strong in spirit, he just couldn’t get over their small, easy-to-squash bodies. It was hard to take them seriously, and Ironhide really couldn’t find himself becoming attached to them any more than any other organic species he’d come across. 

She was the current liaison between NEST and the Autobots. Their previous liaison evidently got a little too buddy-buddy with Ratchet and had to be swapped out, which was unfortunate. Nate was actually kind of bearable. Or was his name Neil? Human names were weird, and kind of hard for Ironhide to remember. 

Either way, he was gone now, and in his place stood a petite little woman. She wore her head fluff - hair? - in a tight bun behind her head. Her clothes were rather simple in comparison to other human females Ironhide had seen, with no long, flowy fabric anywhere.  She introduced herself curtly and merely blinked with disinterest when Ironhide asked if she wanted to see his cannons. 

Why didn’t any of the humans want to see his cannons? They were his pride and joy. And Optimus wondered why Ironhide didn’t care much for these particular organics. 

After debriefing them on their mission, she left the room as well as Ironhide’s procsessor - he’d already forgotten her name by the time she was out the door. There were more important things to focus on now, like getting ready to kick Decepticon aft in a few weeks.

Ironhide was a bit shocked when he came across her at the firing range a few days later. The range was human-sized, but built outdoors so Cybertronians could be here too if they wanted. Ironhide, unsurprisingly, found his way here whenever he had free time, mostly to heckle the NEST trainees. 

She was the only person here today, and judging by the huge pile of brass in front her booth, she had been here for a while. 

“Well, well, well. Wouldn’t expect to see you here, of all people,” Ironhide said once she’d removed her hearing protection, and he kneeled on the ground near her. 

She smiled as she reloaded the weapon in her hands. “I’m here every morning, actually. Gotta keep my reflexes sharp and all that. I was just running a little late today,” she replied. She cocked the gun and looked over her shoulder at him. “How about you? You come here often?” she asked with a smirk.

Ironhide’s fuel pump did a little flip, which he promptly ignored. It wasn’t like he’d never seen a human wielding a gun. “Yea, when I’m not up to my optics in secret missions. Nothin beats a little visit to the range,” he said. He peeked down at the impressive assortment of neatly arranged weapons that she had finished firing.

“You uh, any good?”

“Oh, please. How do you think I even got into NEST? My cute little smile?” She replaced her hearing protection and polished off a few rounds with the gun in her hand - every shot landing dead center on the target. She gently placed it with the weapons by her side, and fished yet another one out of her bag. “How about you, are you any good?” She asked him loudly. 

“Ha! You bet your aft I’m good. I’m the best on the team - hell, I’m the best on Cybertron,” Ironhide said. 

She laughed. “And here I thought your comment about your cannons was an innuendo.” She loaded her gun, which was obviously not a weapon that any ordinary civilian could get their hands on. It was almost as big as she was.

Rather than firing it immediately, she paused, turning to him again. “How about a little friendly competition?” she asked.

Ironhide scoffed. As if this puny human could outshoot him. His trigger finger had been itching for a go, though, so maybe it could do him some good. He transformed his hands into his favorite weapons and shrugged. “Can’t turn down an opportunity to blow scrap up. What are we shootin’ at?”

She rolled her eyes, but walked over to the Cybertronian sized targets. Ironhide followed her curiously. There were several set up side-by-side in a variety of sizes, and she gestured toward them. “Alright, hotshot, I want you to hit the three on your side, dead center, right on the spark, without obliterating the entire target. You may want to put your cannons away, since they’re kind of overkill here,” she said, taking a moment to admire them, “although… they are pretty nice.”

“Thank you… miss, but I’m gonna stick with ‘em.” He felt a little bad for forgetting her name, but they’d only met once. “Are we gonna race or somethin?”

She laughed. “Meryl. My name’s Meryl. And let’s make it a race, just for kicks!“ Her eyes lit up in a way that would probably be unsettling to most other humans.

“Alright, Meryl. It’s on,” he said, aiming his cannons and waiting for Meryl to aim her own weapon. “You ready? Count to three?“ 

“Let’s do it!” She shouted enthusiastically.

Ironhide counted them off, and they started to shoot. 

Things were going well, but before Ironhide could hit his final target, Meryl hit it for him, dead center, as well as the one next to it that wasn’t even considered part of their little competition.

He looked over at her target in shock, noticing that she was already finished with her own. Neat little holes pierced the fake Decepticons, right over where their spark chamber would be. “What the…?”

She looked up at him, innocently lifting an eyebrow. “What is it, Ironhide?”

“How the frag did you do that?!” he demanded. 

Meryl laughed, setting her gun down. The genuine joy on her face contrasted so heavily with her expression the first time they met and she was… not half bad looking, if Ironhide had to be honest with himself. 

“Well, you know. You may have alien weapons built into your arms, but these deft little human fingers are definitely an advantage in some stuations,” she said, wiggling her fingers as though to show them off. 

Ironhide simply stood there, gaping at her. “I… I don’t…?”

She laughed again. “I get that a lot, big lug. But we can maybe go for another round sometime, if you’re up to it,” she said with a smirk. She picked up the massive gun she had used and strode back over to her weapons to start cleaning the residue off of them.

Ironhide denied the request for his fans to click on as he watched her go. His optics settled on her soft, organic behind. Another request for his fans to turn on was quickly dismissed at the sight, although his engine stalled audibly for a moment. She glanced at him over her shoulder with a smirk and it sputtered before roaring back to life.

Perhaps humans weren’t all that bad.

[richardkickler]

Richard Kichler: 1

Richard Kichler: 1

Richard shifted his bag onto his lap from the bench seat of his Buick. He made a quick inventory of its contents. He was liable to get ornery if he was deprived of his smokes and dented, green coffee thermos. With his morning ritual complete, he opened the door and stepped into the rays of sunlight streaming through the fog that hug immobile in the chill dawn. With a small, satisfied smirk about his lot in life he walked from the street to a pair of steel storm doors set into the sidewalk. Crouching down he grabbed the handle of the left door and wrenched it with all his might. When the entrance to the descending stairs was open he massaged his lower back. He couldn’t help but notice that opening these doors was getting harder and harder each year; He wasn’t a spring chicken anymore.

Closing the blast door once he was safely down bellow, Richard was bathed in cool subterranean darkness. Reaching to his right he grasped the handle of a breaker lever. Richard smiled a bit more to himself comforted that it was right where it always was. Some things are absolute, can always be depended upon to be there. With a mighty kachunmk, light flooded into the tunnels from bare bulbs strung from the ceiling every few feet. Further inside the complex unseen generators whirred to life. Down the main corridor that led to the supply depot he couldn't help but notice a large spider web fracture in the concrete at the halfway point across from a large locker labeled," CONTAINMENT." I guess I know what I'm doing today after I have my coffee. Never a dull day. 

Grabbing his smokes and coffee from his bag he walked over to a rail just beyond the reinforced blast doors leading into the depot. He lit a smoke as he rested his forearms on the barrier. Accidently singing his cupped palm with the lighter, he dropped it into the pit below. He counted four Mississippies before it hit the unseen floor. It wasn't the first of last time he dropped his trusty Zippo into the warehouse. The Cold War designers of this place hadn't built this bomb shelter with clumsy civil servants in mind.  Clasping his red in his teeth Richard climbed down the ladder beside him. Back in the late 80's he had taken great pride in how fast he could mantle the rungs but with age came an untaxing pace. He didn't have anywhere to be so why should he rush? On the floor besides vapor wrapped, wooden crates he found his lighter. It had a new dent but was otherwise unharmed. Puffing his smoke Richard poured some coffee into the lid of the thermos. Sipping his mud, he read the stencilled labels of the GI crates: Canned peaches, .45 caliber ammunition, MREs, spare Browning barrels,. toilet paper. The Ruskies had never dropped the rocked but still all this Vietnam era crap was down here; Not that Richard would complain about never being turned into a shadow by a white hot flash of atomic hellfire.

Grabbing a crowbar from atop one of the crates, Richard pried open the nearest crate of peaches. He put one of the aluminum cylinders in his bag then returned up topside. Placing his bag on a chair, he went to a pile of bags of cement that he kept along the wall for the frequent repairs the tunnels required. It went into a wheelbarrow and then over to the only hose in the upper veranda of the depot. Shovel in hand he sidled over to where he had seen the cracked section of wall, chain smoking all the way while thinking of last nights game. That new kid on the team really had an arm like a fucking cannon. Back at the fracture, Richard gently laid down the wheelbarrow. Mixing the concrete slurry slowly with his shovel he allowed himself to drift into thought. He couldn’t help but think of how wonderful dinner with the family had been last night. For once he and his Phillie weren’t at each other's throats, Saddie had remembered to add egg to her meatloaf, and Bobbi had made varsity quarterback. Life was downright wonderful. Somewhere in the deep background a low, familiar  rumble cut overtook the white noise of the hummer generators. Richard sighed and walked the wheelbarrow a safe distance away mumbling,”I guess it’s that time,” in a monotone to himself. Lifting the latch to the containment locker Richard spot checked his gear. It was always best to be thorough. Lighting another cigarette while placing a spare behind his ear, he put on a fluorescent yellow safety vest with, “Mendota DNR,” emblazoned on the back. He yearned for the days when he had worn the vest with pride out in the vast forests of the region. Sometimes he missed daylight and the pure, blue sky but he knew that somebody had to provide while Sadie was on the mend. When the cracked wall exploded out as a massive drill blasted through it , Richard knew there was no more time for daydreaming. 

Slipping on his holstered .45 and the tank to his flamethrower over his vest he began to count. He knew it would be thirty Mississippis until the first wave. As the drill withdrew Richard reached into the cabinet with practiced measure. He pulled the pin from a M34 white phosphorus grenade and lobbed it into the gap in the wall with disinterested familiarity. Third time this week.. Why does it always have to be on my shift on the day I planned my weekly hike with my boys? The grenade went off with a flash and a wave of dry heat that he could feel from down the hallway. For the dusty hole in the wall pained screams issued as the sweet, sickly smell of flash fried flesh wafted over to Richard. Pointing the 12-ga Remmington riot gun that had been hanging next to the M34 fired a warning round at the gap he yelled, “Go home and you critters won’t get hurt,” in the same monotone he had used when belaboring that he had to patch the cracked wall. To emphasize his point, he squeezed the trigger sending flechet flying into the dust. Now there was evermore vliod curdling screeching. This was worse though. The white phosphorus had been fatal. At this distance the flechet would only flesh wound. The sound of frenzied footsteps stampedee towards him. Making sure his shots were leveled below three feet Richard discharged his shotgun five times before pausing to reload. “Go home, Laurence. Return to your subterranean kingdom. Stop being such a dick.”

As the smoke cleared Richard could see that they had really gone all  out this time. A huge cavern had been constructed just outside of the tunnel complex walls before they had driven the drill tank through the wall. On the ground mole men unlucky enough to not been granted immediate death writhed in agony. The ones that had succumbed to the flame were little more than charred husks. The ones who had absorbed his boomstick's wrath bled into the two foot capes customary for a mole man legionnaire. The thin aluminum breast plates that their armorershad crafted were no match for Richard's thunder. Their gnarled fingers grasped at the voids of missing flesh on their bare bellies. Gnashing their teeth as they bled out, Richard couldn’t help but be sorry for them even though he knew that if he let the mole men go again his supervision was going to have his ass. He’d already been written up twice for not wearing his safety vest while operating in a municipal capacity so he wasn’t going to take any second chances,

The cavern that had been blown in the wall ended in a tunnel that turned 90 degrees before leading to unseen depths. From around that corner there was the squawk of a bullhorn. Over its hissing white noise a trill, tiny voice proclaimed, “I am Laurence biggest of my people, first of my name. Tremble Richard Kichler, last of your name, my eternal foe! I shall grind you down man titan that stands at least six feet tall! Once we slay you we shall reign for a thousand years on the surface world! Hear me and shake knowing that you face the largest of my kind. Today is the day that my justice is prosecuted! Leave now and you may yet see your wife’s puny front teeth again.”

Always a showman, Laurence. You’d think a mole man could just be content with running an underground kingdom that stretched a cubic mile but for some people nothing is ever good enough. Richard figured it had to be a size thing; Phillie called it a Napoleon Complex after he came back from his first semester at college.  As the biggest, he had to fight something bigger to prove his regal, godhead status. To Laurence, king of the mole men, if Richard, guardian of what they had dubbed the Exoworld, could be disposed of, the conquest of surface was assured by right of manifest destiny. In truth, Richard had seen more manpower devoted to booms in the racoon population. Fifteen Mississipies until the mutants. 

Lighting up another smoke he walked with confidence and grabbed another tool from the cupboard. The mole men of Laurence’s dynasty had been attacking every few days since the late 80’s but still they hadn’t learned to look for claymores. Richard set one up at the mouth of the 90 degree bend and at the breach point across from the cabinet. After years of doing this he had started to pity them. Their tiny brains and poor eyesight meant that the average mole man could neither see nor remember that after their first wave Richard placed out the two minimum claymores, as per city council dictates, everytime they attacked. “Hey Laurence, first of your name, I left out claymores. The steel ball bearings will shred your men. Go home, sir.” Richard had been allowed to use more colorful language when conversing with Laurence in the past but ever since the city had passed an ordinance that had made mole men an endangered species he had been barred from adding insult to injury. Big government, small town. If I had  my way I’d just smoke that four foot tall rat. Knowing that they wouldn’t turn around Richard went back out into the tunnel to wait in relative safety from any wayward ricochet. He couldn’t dwell too long on the head of the snake as his oblivious minions had wandered into the tripwire. There was a blast followed by the sound of gallons of paint being whipped at wall in one pulpy wave. “Hey, Laurence?”

The white noise piped up again. “What surface man? Do you wish to surrender?”

“No, sir, I’d just like to say that there is another one. Your men will get blasted again if you don’t go back to your palace.”

Enraged Laurence shouted back with a high pitched squawk, “Do not lie, titan, you do not possess any more tiny earthquakes! Do you think I am a coward or a fool? I am far too massive for your mind games to work on me, you wretch!”

“Laurence, you are only half a foot taller than the other mole men.” There was a pressure drop and more pulp as the second line of defense was triggered. “I told you. I know that the mutants are next and that you’ve gotta get rid of them but you know it's the flamethrower next.”

“What does a titan know of the size of a mortal? I, the hugest paragon of my noble blood to ever exist, do not need your opinion! May your Exoworld god forgive me for what I have to do to you next! I will build a shrine to my bigness with you bones, Richard!”

“You look like a walking armpit.” Richard really wished that the mole men hadn’t learned how to pirate cable onto a tube tv one of their wrinkled expeditionary teams had recovered on trash day over on Lawndale Street. Every since they had taught themselves English from reruns of Alf and The Andy Griffith Show and ever since then been able to read the name tag that the city made him wear. He shook his head. They definitely had the ability to get to the surface with their aluminum tipped drill tanks. Laying Richard low had somehow been worked into Laurence’s mole man dogma to the point that he refused to go to the surface without walking over a fallen titan’s carcass. Unfortunately for them, along with forgetting about claymores they forgot about jellied gasoline.

When Richard heard the jangle of aluminum chains he knew the mutants were coming. He sparked his trusty Zippo and placed it to the pre-ignition chamber. The nozzle of his flamethrower sprang to life as he made a mental note that he had to pickup milk on the way home. Stepping over mangled mole men, Richard firmly planted himself in the breach. The moment he head slapping footsteps he let fly the kiss of dragon's breath. Up until recently he'd have to cull the mutants with a Browning. It'd always been a hassle to set up and take down with an extra kicker of the murder it did on his back. Ever since Elon Musk started selling them, the city council deemed bringing this masterpiece of American steel out of storage. From the other side it might appear as though the gates of Hell had opened wide but atop the carnage it only looked like a longer Wednesday than Richard had planned for. The dancing wall of flame reflected off the faux brass nametag pinned to the front pocket of his shirt.

[encountersincamperland]

The Magician’s Assistant

As we rolled into our Fort William campsite, thunder rumbled like ancient cannon fire, a memory of battles fought around this garrison town. Rain spat at us without insult: a warning benediction, as it turned out.

As we erected the side tent to our campervan, dark clouds bullied above us. You stabbed the earth with a metal tent peg as a flash of lightning lit your efforts. Not the best implement to be wielding with lightning around, you said, but no more came.

Sitting in the van thirty minutes later, with the rain now gone, we drank our tea and shut our door against the next onslaught: midgie hordes threatening to invade us.

The sudden noise of a helicopter interrupted our chat and the evening birdsong, slicing through our tranquility with unkind cuts.

I couldn’t see it. It was just a noise bouncing off the mountains and the earth. It landed eventually, close but behind trees that bounded the campsite playfield and picnic ground. I glimpsed its flashing lights and blades through dense summer leaves on heavy branches.

Curious campers looked out of van doors or lifted tent flaps. Some wandered down to the playfield for a closer look. Your first thoughts were of a mountain rescue; mine were of a celebrity arrival. But conditions were not good for flying, so this was unlikely to be a whimsical jaunt.

Shortly after, the blades mowed the air again and the machine rose to meet the mountain’s shroud and disappeared into the mist.

Peace restored, I began to prepare our evening meal, a veggie hotpot, and instantly forgot about the interruption.

Whrryll, whrryll, whrryll. Fifteen minutes later, there is was again. Really? What’s going on? Hope this doesn’t keep up all evening, I thought, being reminded of police helicopters pursuing puny criminals from the air over our Hounslow borough home, late into the night, on occasion.

Finally, it growled into the air again and swooped away, allowing the quiet evening sounds to return: tentative birds, clinking cutlery and sliding camper van doors, opening and shutting, to release their captives.

It was two days later, in a newsagents, as we waited to board a boat to Skye, and I casually read bored headlines about politicians behaving badly, that I saw the picture of a woman. She was about my age, dressed in hiking gear and smiling, relaxed and happy, sitting on a rocky outcrop, the top of a mountain, perhaps. The headline ran: Woman killed by lightning strike in freak accident while walking in the Highlands. A closer read revealed that she was in the Ben Nevis mountain range above our campsite and the accident happened around the time of our arrival.

Two rolls of thunder and a flash of lightning is all it took. Like a magician god showing off a terrible trick, it was over in a flash and nobody saw death appear and take her place. It was a sobering thought, how near we were to a fatal accident; how we had flirted with the brief storm as we blithely carried on setting up camp. And the randomness with which it was her and not one of her walking companions or one of us on the campsite who was picked to be the magician’s assistant that day. Was it luck? Fate? Chaos? Whatever you call it, it was on our side that day, and we were travelling on to Skye: a little chastened and very thankful.