#monster legends hacked

[shushmal]

Stranger to Myself (I think of Home)

For @steddie-week Day 5! Rated T — Check the tags and content warnings!

Eddie is a monster.

Eddie started watching Steve because it didn’t hurt so bad. Didn’t hurt like it does with every glimpse he catches of Wayne, of Dustin. The people who had loved Eddie when he was Eddie. But Steve—Steve was safe. Steve was a boy Eddie knew in passing glances and high school gossip, a guy who was laughing with his friends in another room at every party, a man who planted his feet and fought monsters and helped save the world. Steve who told Eddie to be safe, because Steve was kind when he didn't have to be, when he wasn't expected to—so Eddie finds himself watching Steve instead.

Because Eddie is a monster, and Steve knows exactly what to do with monsters. Eddie knows this.

To Steve, it wouldn't matter that Eddie is the last little bit of the apocalypse still kicking around Hawkins. Eddie who had been chewed up and spat out of hell at the last second, just before the final dungeon slammed shut, sneaking through the shadows unseen, past the unsuspecting heroes wrapped up in their victory. Past his friends, the people who had tried to keep Eddie safe. Past Dustin, who’s face had already been changed by grief.

Past Steve, as well. Steve, who told Eddie to be safe, and Eddie hadn’t.

Eddie wonders sometimes, what Vecna really had in mind for him. 

But Eddie is just an unfinished experiment, not quite who he used to be, but not yet the thing Vecna had been trying to twist him into, before the wrinkly ballsack bastard bit it and disintegrated into dust like some b-grade horror movie villain written by some unimaginative hack that shouldn’t have even been in the writer’s room.

He’s the last piece of the Upside Down, Vecna’s last monster, but Eddie’s worst crime post-resurrection is a bit of misdemeanor stalking, simple battery, and animal cruelty. A guy’s gotta eat, afterall. It had taken a while to figure out his own exact brand of vampirism, but Eddie’s gone a few years now without killing anything or anyone. He would be proud of it, but instead he watches Steve make dinner and feels sick on the aftertaste of iron and salt still coating his tongue.

Eddie had started watching Steve because it didn’t hurt, because Steve would take care of it, if Eddie ever needed to be put down. Eddie knows this.

So, it didn’t hurt so bad to watch Steve—until it did. 

By then, Eddie was too far gone and couldn’t stop.

His Steve who came back to his lonely castle, days and days after that final battle, after the climax of the story, the end of a legend, still bloody and scorched, none the wiser to the monster peering through his windows, watching. And that was Eddie’s first clue, that was how Eddie first learned that he wasn’t really Eddie anymore—that nervous energy he used to have in life had died with him. Now he sits motionless in the tall pines behind Steve’s house for hours and days, unmoving, as he watches Steve live. 

Sometimes, Steve looks out his window, eyes scanning the treetops like he knows Eddie’s there. Everytime, Eddie sits up a little straighter, like a dog eager for attention. But everytime, Steve’s eyes drift past him, unseeing, searching.

It leaves Eddie—already out of step with life, with humanity—a little unsettled, a little too hopeful. Eddie is a thing that shouldn’t be seen ever again, a dead man without a heartbeat, without breath in his lungs, without a reason to exist and yet still here. He wishes he were still dead. He wishes even more that Steve knew he was there, that Steve was looking for him. But Eddie knows better. Eddie can’t go to Steve, because Eddie is a monster and Steve has fought enough monsters. Eddie doesn’t want to get added to the list. He doesn’t want to do that to Steve.

Eddie sits in the trees instead, unmoving and watching for days and weeks. Sometimes he leaves, to feed. Sometimes he stands in the middle of Steve’s empty house when he’s gone, breathing in the lonely silence. Sometimes, he closes his eyes and dreams.

But they’re never his own dreams.

And he never, ever visits anyone else in their sleep, in their dreams and nightmares. No one, except for Steve. His Steve, who’s dreaming of a summer day, sun high in the sky, sitting on the top of skull rock with a six pack and a cigarette. It’s such a simple, beautiful dream. All of Steve’s dreams are like that. Eddie watches the line of Steve’s neck as he tilts his head back in the sunlight, face catching the July warmth.

Steve doesn’t startle when Eddie sits beside him. Just leans in until his head rests on Eddie’s shoulder. It’s beautiful, he’s so beautiful, Eddie wants to cry.

“I miss you,” Steve whispers, like it’s a secret. He presses a smile into Eddie’s jacket. “Isn’t that silly? I barely even knew you.”

Eddie has to swallow back the emotion filling his throat. “Yeah, that’s pretty silly,” he croaks.

“I wanted to though,” Steve sighs. He leans even closer, hands grasping at Eddie’s sleeve, the back of his shirt, and Eddie wishes they could melt into each other, become one thing, become Steve with just Eddie hiding between Steve’s ribs, in his blood, sitting in the center of his chest right next to his heart. “I wanted to know you. I wanted to kiss you so bad.”

If this were real, if they were really sitting on skull rock in the sunlight right now, if Eddie was human, he would be crying. But here, in Steve’s dream, he doesn’t, can’t. Maybe Steve doesn’t want him to be sad.

“Really?” he breathes instead. “Me?”

Steve hums, his hand sliding down into Eddie’s, fingers warm, soft. “Robin calls you my Great Bisexual Awakening.”

Eddie barks a laugh, throwing his head back. He wants to be sobbing, but he laughs instead and when he stops, Steve is looking up at him, painted dream soft and sweet. They watch each other, Eddie cataloging the specks of gold and green in Steve’s eyes. He’s beautiful. 

But then Steve blinks, and the corner of his mouth turns down, smile falling away. Eddie feels his skin prickle. He feels watched.

“I miss you,” Steve says again, urgent. And then, just like that, he smiles again, and the feeling’s gone, and Steve presses his face once more into Eddie’s shoulder. “Tell me something.”

Eddie tries to shake off the feeling of disquiet, to relax back into the tenderness of Steve’s dream. “Like what?”’

“Something I don’t know.” He’s beautiful, so beautiful, and Eddie adores him, loves him so much.

“I wanted to kiss you, too.”

Eddie opens his eyes, his breath sharp in the silent forest, and watches as Steve sits up in his bed, gripping the blankets tight in his fists. Even from here, in his haven in the trees, he can see the tears on Steve’s face. He never wants Steve to cry.

When morning comes, he steals into Steve’s home, buries himself in the lingering warmth of his sheets after Steve leaves for work. The fading smell of him is intoxicating, even the salty sting of Steve’s tears, and Eddie wants so desperately. Wants him from the pain in his throat, the hitch in his breath, the way he’s been hollowed from the inside out. Everything has been taken out of Eddie, scooped from between his ribs and scraped smooth, an empty jack o’lantern waiting to rot on the front step. 

The wanting is worse than the starving, the thirst. Eddie can’t cry anymore, he isn’t human enough to, but he wishes he could.

Instead, he lays in Steve’s bed, breathes him in, and disappears into the woods behind Steve’s home when he hears the rumble of Steve’s car turn onto the street. He watches as Steve falls into the bed, long gone cold since Eddie has soaked up all the warmth from the blankets in the long hours of Steve's absence. He watches, a monster, as Steve’s eyes glance through the window, eyes on the trees. Straightens up, hoping and wanting, and slumps as that gaze slides past him. He watches Steve’s evening with longing building in his chest, and when Steve slips beneath his covers, Eddie closes his eyes.

“What are you waiting for?” he asks.

Steve is sitting on the edge of his roof in this dream, watching the forest intently. He doesn’t turn his head towards Eddie, caught on a particular spot in the woods.

“You, I think. At least, I think it’s you. I hope it’s you.”

Eddie leans in close, hoping that Steve will turn his eyes, to look at Eddie, to give him that sweet, dreamy smile. “You shouldn’t bother waiting for something like me,” he tells Steve, desperate for those pretty eyes to look at him. “You should be happy.”

“I am happy,” Steve murmurs. He doesn’t look happy. He doesn’t look at Eddie. He watches the distant trees, standing guard. “I’m happy waiting. I think I can wait forever.”

Eddie doesn’t dare touch him, doesn’t dare turn Steve’s head. Even though it hurts. It hurts so bad, so Eddie opens his eyes. In the distance, Steve turns in his bed, chest expanding with a sleepy sigh, and doesn’t leave his dreams.

Morning comes again, and the night falls again, morning and night and morning. Eddie rises from his perch, glides closer to the empty house to steal through the unlocked door. He lays in Steve’s bed, in the shadow of Steve’s warmth left on the sheets. Breathes him in, even though Eddie needs no air. He leaves when he hears the rumble of a familiar engine. Night falls. He closes his eyes.

Eddie watches the way Steve sits on the edge of his roof again, feet dangling, eyes scanning the treeline at the back of his house, quiet and sentry. Like he’s waiting for another monster to appear between the tree trunks. Eddie sits beside him, and doesn’t speak, not even when Steve whispers, only once.

“I miss you.”

Morning comes again, and then night. Sun and moon, wax and wane. The summer heat does not bother Eddie, nor does the winter snow. He imagines building a family of snowmen in Steve’s yard, company for a lonely house. No one visits Steve here. Like they’d forgotten Steve altogether, and Eddie’s the only one left to bear witness to Steve Harrington. Steve who is lonely, who sleeps and dreams and waits for the monster in the woods. Or maybe…

Maybe Steve told them not to come here. Because here is only for Steve, and only for Eddie.

Night falls, and then the morning breaks. Steve doesn’t rise from the bed.

Uneasily, Eddie shifts. Snow slides from his shoulders, landing in heavy thumps on the forest floor below him. He watches as Steve rolls onto his back, arm over his eyes, mouth twisted in pain. Even from here, he can see the tears on Steve’s face. He watches Steve lay in bed the entire day, until night falls. Eddie closes his eyes.

Steve’s dream isn’t a dream this time—a vast darkness instead, stretching long and far. Eddie takes a hesitant step. Water splashes beneath his bare foot. He turns.

And suddenly, it’s like he can hear Steve in his ear, whispering, “I’m happy waiting. I think I can wait forever.”

Eddie turns again, and Steve is there, watching, waiting. Eddie feels the instinct of it, the prickling awareness of being seen. It settles over his skin, sharp and biting like ants. Eddie is the monster, and Steve has found him. His gaze roots Eddie where he stands, water lapping against his toes. The ripples roll away from him, stretching the unreachable distance between Eddie and Steve, distant stars, until they crash against Steve’s feet, and the water settles again, falls calm.

“I miss you though,” Steve whispers, right into Eddie’s ear. “I can wait forever, but I miss you.”

“Really?” Eddie asks. It echoes through the dark. He can see the way Steve smiles, even from so far away.

“Of course,” Steve whispers. “I’m waiting for—”

Dawn breaks through the trees, and Eddie opens his eyes with a gasp. The sound is sharp through the silent forest. Morning mist rises from the pine strewn ground. Steve isn’t in his bed anymore, and Eddie feels himself almost panic, gaze searching.

Searching, until he finds Steve, not even three feet up, sitting above his window on the roof. He stares out into the trees, stares right at Eddie, finally sees the monster in the woods. That gaze raises the hair on Eddie’s arm, animal instinct tightening his muscles, his bones. Steve watches him from his perch on the roof, watches Eddie watch him back. 

He’s the most beautiful thing Eddie’s ever seen.

Because Steve’s not standing guard. He’s waiting. Waiting for the thing in the woods, for Eddie to finally come home.

Eddie shouldn’t, shouldn’t go to him, but now that he knows, how can he make Steve wait a moment longer? 

Steve gasps when he appears, but it’s not fear in his eyes when he looks at Eddie. Eddie feels it again, feels watched, feels seen. Steve looks up at him and his smile is the most beautiful thing Eddie’s ever seen.

“There you are,” he whispers. “I missed you."

[kirabasai]

modern tobiizu au where izuna and tobirama are rival e-sport players. they take the competition the most seriously out of the entire league. they are a pr nightmare and definition of toxic competition because they constantly go on twitter and shit on the other. they deliberately fuel fanwars. people call them the physical embodiment of league of legends despite the fact they don't even play league of legends (leaving what game they play ambiguous).

tobirama invents new ways of playing the game and abuses bugs in competions until abusing bugs gets banned because it reached a point where he was discovering exploits faster than the devs could patch them. izuna shits on tobirama for a full twitch stream saying how tobirama needed those bugs to even match him, and he says he hates how he ended up adding a new rule to the league because of how he played. izuna doesn't even play the same as tobirama, its just the principle of the fact he got a whole new rule made.

izuna is really intuitive, he's fast at figuring out new strats and mechanics and enjoys mimicing other ppl's playstyles as a form of psychological warfare. his reaction speed is very fast; "oh, you're ambushing me? lol get rektd." he goes through mouses like his monster energy cans because he just keeps breaking them (they can't handle the stress of his intense playstyle). if he had a mouse that was actually well made, he probably would not have this problem. however, those mouses just don't feel the same as the super specific, dirt cheap $15 mouse he got down at konoha-mart (or so he insists). he has a closet filled with boxes of this mouse for when he inevitably breaks it again.

one of tobiizu's pr nightmares happened like this:

at one point izuna figured out rpf fanfiction existed so he encouraged his fans to write really bad fanfiction of tobirama. why? he wanted to send it to tobirama so he could witness tobirama snap/explode/have a conniption. psychological warfare. this wasn't too bad, actually.

until tobirama publicly tweeted a link to a 100k word slowburn fanfiction he wrote detailing a forbidden love affair between uchiha izuna, professional esport player, and uchiha madara, the retired esport player who is his team's manager and his BROTHER. izuna livestreamed himself screaming for 30 minutes straight. he cried off camera. pr for both teams scrambled as they had to clarify, no this work is not real (because some people are dumb). madara has to announce his engagement for ppl to stop thinking he and his brother r like that. he's not engaged, but the internet scrambling to figure out who his (nonexistent) fiance is makes tobirama's fanfiction fall out of focus so it works out. originally the pr team wanted izuna to come out as straight but he flat out refused because "if everyone thinks i'm straight i'm doomed to not ever have a boyfriend" (he is bi and very dramatic.) he also gets back at tobirama for this eventually with the Hacked Reddit Incident (in which he hacked tobirama's reddit acct and posted various (nonexistent) issues on various subreddits, including AITA. everyone figured out very quickly it wasn't tobirama but that didn't matter to tobi because not only was his pride wounded, those posts will forever be associated with him [because things can still circulate around the internet even after the original post is deleted])

so yeah. i think you can imagine how the fandom space is if tobiizu r pulling stunts like that off extremely frequently. (chaos. its pure chaos.) somebody is probably crying in a corner, somewhere.

at one point somebody likens tobiizu's dynamic to a boy pulling on his crush's pigtails at a playground, except for them it goes both ways and is far more extreme. this spirals into the fandoms splitting into four factions: "omg they're so in love they're adorable like little kittens", "are y'all fucking CRAZY", "im just chilling here can we pls go back to normal", and unaware. tobiizu find out very quickly, and for once don't know what to do. the pr teams are just glad its nothing negative, for once.

(tobiizu are screaming in e/o's dms like this is YOUR fault. no its YOUR fault. they dont realize it but they're acting exactly like how the person who sparked it all said.)

(they'll get there. eventually.)

(somewhere, somebody is wondering "how can two people so smart be so DUMB.")

(finished this post after over a month bcause my pookie @oh-no-its-bird asked me to here u go bestie it's finally here <3)

[hero-of-the-wolf]

@kikker-oma !!! I couldn't let this month pass without writing you a little something 🫶 I hope you like it!!!! based on this drawing here :)

Twilight stumbled back a step, bringing his shield up against the lizalfos’ attack. His side screamed in protest at the impact, forcing him to fall back another step.

“Careful, Twi!”

“Do you need any help?”

“Are you okay?”

The rancher ignored them all. He was losing his mind. He knew that the others meant well, but it was hard not to feel absolutely smothered by all of their concern. He was a fully capable hero, just the same as the rest of them. So why was his injury such a big deal? Just because he’d almost died-....

Twilight shook his head firmly. He was fine. The wounds were well on their way to scarring by now. So what if they were still sore? So what if his current strength was only a fraction of what it once was? There was absolutely no reason for the others to worry about him.

He was fine.

The lizalfos pressed the attack, hacking its sword against his shield over and over again. Twilight gritted his teeth, losing more ground with every hit.

This was getting ridiculous.

Surging forwards, he bashed his shield against the monster, stunning it, and thrust his sword through its chest. With a horrible screech it exploded into a cloud of black smoke.

Twilight panted, wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his hand. He moved to walk forwards when his legs buckled, sending him stumbling to his knees with a surprised grunt. Almost immediately he felt a concerned hand prodding at him. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath, trying to hold it together. He’d be worried too if he was in their shoes, he tried to remind himself. They meant well.

He waved Sky away and forced himself back to his feet. His side was still screaming at him, his head was spinning, he couldn’t quite catch his breath. He looked around for the next monster only to realize the battle had already ended and everyone was staring at him.

He felt his face flush red.

Without a word he picked a direction and took off, steps quick and unsteady. He couldn’t take it anymore. He needed space.

He managed to make it out of earshot before the pain grew too much and he was forced to sit down roughly on a nearby rock.

Hylia it hurt.

It shouldn’t. He hadn’t even done that much during the battle. It shouldn’t hurt at all.

What was wrong with him?

“Twilight?”

He stiffened. He didn't dare to turn around. He knew that whoever it was, they wouldn’t be leaving him alone so easily. But maybe if he just—

“Hey… are you okay, rancher?”

Or not.

“Fine,” he snapped.

“I’m… not so sure about that.”

Footsteps crept closer, almost too quiet to hear. Twilight glanced over to see Hyrule nervously wringing his hands. When he noticed the rancher looking at him he immediately stopped, dropping his arms back down to his sides. The rancher frowned in concern and motioned him closer.

But Hyrule only bit his lip in response. “You… you’re bleeding, you know.”

Twilight looked down at his side, eyes widening in surprise when he saw that his shirt was already growing red.

“Oh.”

“Can I…?”

He nodded, resigned to his fate, and let Hyrule pull his armor off to look at the wound. He ignored the traveler’s concerned sounds, staring down at his clenched fists instead.

He’d hurt himself again.

Some hero he was.

“I know you’re trying to get your strength back,” Hyrule finally spoke up. “But you can’t hide this from me.”

Twilight glanced over again to see Hyrule watching him expectantly, his hands still outstretched. His heart twisted in guilt and he forced his gaze away.

“M’sorry….”

“Nothing to apologize for.” Hyrule gently pressed his hands against the wound. They were blessedly warm, easing the pain back into a much more manageable ache.

“Thank you,” he tried again.

Hyrule paused, looking up at him with a small, genuine smile. “Anytime.”

[indierpgnewsletter]

New Games from April and May 2024

It’s been another great couple months for new games. If this is the first post like this that you’re seeing: every two months I highlight around ten games that were newly released on itch.io. I hear about most of these games through this form.

A Terrible Fate: A FitD game about cursed adventurers doomed to re-live the same three days until they stop the world from ending. Uses magical masks, inspired by Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. (@theresattrpgforthat / Mint-Rabbit)

Against the Monster: A story game about a monster hunt, the good of the monster, and the monstrosity of the hunters. Based on For the Queen. Comes in English & German. (Jasmin Neitzel and Andrea Rick, Plotbunny Games)

Numberless Secrets: An expansion for Hearts of Wulin that adds a Brindlewood Bay style mystery mechanic to the game of wuxia melodrama. For fans of Ancient Detective and such. (Lowell Francis, Age of Ravens Games)

Down the Road Through the End of the World: A game about people on a desperate journey through a post-apocalyptic world, looking for a haven. Based on Psi*Run. (Kodi Gonzaga)

Last Train To Bremen: A storytelling game of doomed musicians and poor decisions. One shot for 4 players exactly, using Liar’s Dice. From Caro Asercion, the designer of i’m sorry did you say street magic.

Deep in a Matrix of Flesh and Metal: A FitD game of crime and cyber-horror, where you and your crew of down-and-outs will try to become the biggest fish in the overcrowded pond that is Zone Zero, or die trying. (Calum Grace)

The Adventures of Gonan: A cute and innovative adventure game based on a fictional kids fantasy TV show, using a scene based structure that looks a bit like Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast. (Tragos Games)

Into the Blind: A scifi horror hack of Trophy that twists it to tell stories like Alien and other genre classics. (Riley Daniels/Sick Sad Games)

Full Spectrum: An expansion for Spectres of Brocken, the mecha game of former friends turned enemies. This contains a collection of alternate settings and scenarios for the base game. (Austin Taylor, Arisia Santiago, Ethan Yen, Fin Coe, Juliet L’mous, Mike Balles, Valis Teoh, Aaron Lim)

The Pact: A two-player game poem about best friends, one of whom becomes a vampire at some point in their life. Players explore their relationship & find out what they’ll do to keep a childhood promise… (Marc Majcher / Majcher Arcana)

And as a bonus, a game I contributed to, Chiron’s Doom is out. It’s a storytelling game about an ill-fated expedition to explore a mysterious monument. Can be played solo or up to 3 players. It’s pretty neat!

(This first appeared on the Indie RPG Newsletter.)

[tenderleavesbob]

Whumptober 24/31

No. 24: Alternate Venom

Considering the twists and turns and tricks in this dungeon, Sky expected it to take longer to find the boss. It took him less than fifteen minutes after he left his brothers.

It should have soothed him. It should have been evidence that he made the right choice. Sky found himself standing outside the large doors instead, listening to the beast inside, with his hand tracing the odd marks on the stone. It looked like something had been on the door once but had since been torn away. 

Sky couldn’t find his brothers, but he could find the door leading to the boss of this awful dungeon. Find it quickly and easily, too. Frowning, Sky looked back the way he came. No monsters or tricks impeded him.

Legend had said that something was wrong with this dungeon. It felt like this was only proving him right. 

It didn’t matter, Sky told himself. The sooner he took care of this boss, the sooner they could leave this place. He could do this.

When Sky pushed on the doors, he half-expected them to stay in place. It felt like there should have been more to it, but the doors yielded with a dull screech. It was harder to push aside the feeling of wrongness as Sky entered the room.

It took Sky less than ten minutes to regret his decision.

The boss was a large rat encased in stone. Fi blazed white in his hands as Sky hacked at the stone, eventually breaking away the rat’s armor. The rat hissed at him, fangs glistening like a snake’s and black blood trickling where the shards of stone had cut it. A sickly green dripped from its fangs.

The same sickly green shone on Sky’s arm where a fang had scraped him. He staggered backward and the giant rat wavered in front of him. 

He had made a mistake. He was prepared for a regular boss. He had never fought a black-blooded boss before. He should have been prepared!

Sky scowled at the monster and raised the Master Sword. She felt like she had gained a hundred pounds in mere seconds. His arms ached with the effort of holding her up. What was in that venom? How badly would a mere scrape hurt him?

The monster should have pounced him. It should have taken advantage of his weakness. Sky didn’t understand why it just watched him, why it wasn’t attacking him. What was it doing?

Its red eyes glowed like rubies. They doubled and tripled as they stared at him, but they didn’t move closer. Was the rat waiting for something?

This was a trap and Sky had fallen for it, but what was the trap?

Sky forced himself to take a shaky step forward. He needed to end this now. The stone armor was gone. The sword should easily be able to cut through the boss.

He needed to…

The rat watched him, still as stone. Sky took another step and almost stumbled.

He needed to finish this. Sky needed… Sky needed…

The red eyes never blinked. Sky’s arm felt stiff and ice cold.

His brothers were relying on him, and as Sky’s knees buckled, he realized dully that he had failed them.

First | Previous | Next

[shady-scripter]

✨Rawr✨

@trippygalaxy

“That way, there’s no way for them to strike back,” [Name] added in a matter-of-fact tone. “That is the exact words of my dad.”

Twilight hummed, his boot stepping on a significantly bigger branch than before, creating a nice crack as the two strolled.

Usually, he decided for wolf form when he patrolled the perimeter, but you had insisted on coming. It wasn’t like you didn’t know, everyone knew, but he wanted to be able to talk to you. Wolves happen to not be able to speak words.

Twilight nodded as you kept talking about your lynel-esk father. Though, you called them ‘centaurs’ in your world.

“So…centaurs? Are they all like him?” He asked the question at the tip of his tongue since you mentioned your father.

You scoffed. “Not nearly. The rest of them are…wild. He rarely talks to them from what I know.” Then you started giggling. It was a giggle akin to Wild’s when he decided he wanted to put a lizard or fly in dinner. Or akin to Hyrule when he sees something shiny in the distance that’ll lead to hours long search just for him to be sleeping in a flower. Or Wind when someone says something wrong and he is now plotting their downfall.

“Do you want to know how centaurs were made?” You could barely contain your cackles. Twilight lightly chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck.

“I have no idea,” he said, his voice slightly wavering. Then he sighed and shrugged. “How were centaurs made?” He couldn’t say that he hadn’t imagined it.

A woman who didn’t not have a good time at a ranch? A man who had too much fun at a ranch?

He kind of didn’t want to know…but he kind of did.

“How were centaurs made?” He asked again, his ears stood at attention against his will.

“Well,” you tapped on your chin, your teeth showing. He’d noticed the sharpness of your canines not too long ago. He had spent that night playing with his own, happy that the others wouldn’t only be bugging him about it. “it all started because this one guy, Ixion, fell in love with the Queen of the Gods…”

And he listened. He listened so intently that he barely felt the arrow embed itself into his collarbone.

It was like muscle memory to take out his sword. The next arrow got embedded into his shield, the Ordonian Goat head blocking the sharp end of the stick.

Then there was you, standing at the Hero of Twilight’s back as monsters seemed to spawn from the trees.

You hacked and slashed, doing everything you could to prevent Twilight from moving his body that was obviously killing him. None of it was working. At this rate, even with the arrow taken out of the wound, he would be on standby without Hyrule’s magic to help him. After the battle that happened earlier, the Traveler was hard at work, nursing those who needed dire help. Legend, Wind, Four. It had taken him out, easily magic exhaustion.

Twilight grunted with every swing, like a broken record. Your heart sunk with every hitch of breath.

When you were finally stabbed by an enemy, you decided that swords weren’t enough. You dropped your sword and ran right to the sea of purple and black, the portal that accumulated the enemies.

For the years you’ve been doing this, you’d think it’d feel like nothing. That wasn’t true though. You’d feel everything.

You felt the change of your spine, making you fall to your hands, but you still pushed forward. You felt the way your skin hairs grew longer and longer. You felt the way your face elongated. You felt everything.

You took the throat of one of Wild’s bokoblins into your mouth and tore it out of the neck. You spit it out, reveling in how disgusting it tasted. You moved on to the next one, then the next one, your fur, no doubt, covered in the black blood you shed.

Sooner or later, they were gone. Then you shifted back, your back straightening last. You promptly threw up, the black blood that coated your mouth coming out.

Hands came into your face and pulled your hair back. Twilight waited silently as you spilled your guts. When your hurling turned into coughs, he patted your back a few times. “Yep, I know.”

That was the start of something he never thought would happen.

[tabletopgayventures]

My current list of Tabletop Roleplaying Games.

13th Age

1879

A Grim Hack

Aberrant 

Absolute Power

Abyss

Accursed 

After The War

Anima Beyond Fantasy

Animal Adventures:  The Faraway Sea

Apocalypse World

Arkham Horror The Roleplaying Game Starter Set

Ars Magica 4th Edition

Arzium

Avatar Legends Starter Set

Babes in the Wood

Badger + Coyote and their Daring Adventures 2E

BattleTech:  A Time of War

Beacon Tabletop RPG

Beam Saber

Blades in the Dark

Bulldogs

Bunkers & Badasses

Cairn

Call of Cthulhu

Candela Obscura

Cantrip

Cats of Cathulhu

Chaos 6010

Champions Now

Collateral Damage

Contagion 2e

Cortex Prime Game Handbook

Cosmic Patrol

Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game

Coyote and Crow

Cthulhu Awakens

Cthulhutech

Cypher System 

Daisy Chainsaw

Deathmatch Island

Defiant Role Playing Game

Denial & Yearning

Dialect

Dinocar

Dinosaur Princesses

Discworld RPG

Dragon Age Roleplaying Game

Dragonbane

Dread

Dream Machines

Dresden Files Accelerated RPG

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Dungeons and Dragons 3.5

Dungeons and Dragons 5e

Durance

Dwelling

Epitaph

Epoch

Essence 20

Fabula Ultima

Fantasy Age

Fate Core System

Fever Nights Role-Playing Game

Flabbergasted

Fragged Empire

Fratboys Vs

Girl By Moonlight

Glitter Hearts

Goblin Quest

Goblin Slayer TRPG

Gods of Metal:  Ragnarock

Hannukkah Goblins

Have Axe, Will Travel

Hellfrost

Here, There, Be Monsters!

Hero Kids Fantasy RPG

Heroes Against the Darkness

Hopes and Dreams

Hounds 

I’m the Badguy?!?

In Nomine

In the Ashes

Inevitable A Doomed Arthurian Western

Ink

Interns In The Dark

Into the Dungeon

Jiangshi:  Blood in the Banquet Hall

Jordenheim

Katana-Ra

Kids on Bikes 2nd Edition

Killshot an Assassin’s Journal

Konosuba TRPG

Leverage The Quickstart Job

Lilliputian Adventure on the Open Seas

Little Fears Nightmare Edition

Lost Roads

Marvel Multiverse RPG

Mermaid Adventures

Micro rpg book

Modern Age

Monster of the Week

Moonlight On Roseville Beach

Mork Borg

Motel Spooky Nine

Musketeers vs. Cthulhu

Mutant Year Zero

My Mother’s Kitchen

Necrobiotic

Never Going Home

Night Shift:  Veterans of the Supernatural Wars

Night Wolves

Numenera

Odyssey Black Tales

OneDice Pirates & Dragons

One More Quest

Ork! The RPG

Our Woodland Gods

Outcast Silver Raiders 

Outgunned

Over the Edge

Overlight

Pasion De Las Pasiones

Pathfinder 1st Edition

Pathfinder 2nd Edition

Pathfinder Savage Worlds

Perils & Princesses

Pirate Borg

Power Rangers RPG

Prism

Psychic Trash Detectives

Punk’s Been Dead Since ‘79

Queerz!

Raccoon Sky Pirates

Raven

Rebels of the Outlaw Wastes

Reign

Rhapsody of Blood

Rivers of London

Ryuu Tama natural fantasy role play

Samurai Goths of the Apocalypse

Scum and Villainy

Shadowrun 5e

Shadows Of The Past

Shield Maidens

Shiver

Someone in this Tavern is a fucking mimic!

Spell The RPG

Squeeze

Star Trek Adventures Captain’s Log 

Star Trek Adventures The Roleplaying Game

Star Trek Adventures Second Edition

Star Wars 

Starfinder 1st Edition

Starfinder 2nd Edition

Stoneburner

Syma

Tangled

Temples and Tombs

The Bleackness

The Dark West

The Dread of Night

The Play’s the Thing

The Quiet Year

The Revenant Society

The Void

The Watch

Thirsty Sword Lesbians

This Discord has Ghosts in It

This house is Fucking Haunted

Thousand Year Old Vampire

Tomorrow City

Troika!

Unisystem

Urban Decay

Utopia

Vaesen

Vagabond

Valiant Universe

Variations On Your Body

Venture and Dungeon

Waffles For Esther

Wanderhome

Warcraft The Roleplaying Game

Werewolf the Apocalypse

What Lurks Above

What Lurks Beneath

What Lurks Beyond

World Ending Game

Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast

Xianta Cyber Wuxia

Xoe Microplayer

Zweihander

I'll update this list as I get more. Feel free to send me ideas and also reblog this!

[undertheopensky]

Anticipation

Whumptober Day 16: Alt #5 Body Modification

Characters: Legend, Wild, Warriors

Trigger warnings: Presumed drowning, body horror, painful transformations, some blood

Read on Ao3!

Oh look! More drowning! Except not really.

-----

“Why is your Hyrule so inconvenient?”

“It’s not my fault the lizalfos took over the docks!” Wild stabs one under the arm. Black-blooded and undeterred, it just hisses and swaps its jagged weapon to the other hand. “I clear them out and then they come back, it’s just the ways things work here!”

“Well it’s fucking annoying!” Wars knocks aside the spear aimed for his gut, then uses his shield to knock the monster back a few paces. When it stumbles at the edge of the wooden platform, he pushes the advantage and shoves it off into the river below.

“Wait, don’t -”

“They swim,” says Wars flatly, wiping his hair out of his face. He ducks to the side when the lizalfos spits at him again.

“Yeah,” says Wild. “And good luck getting them out of the water again.”

Wars mutters curses under his breath.

Having - finally - finished off his current opponent, Wild switches to a bow so he can take out the lizalfos Wars had unsuccessfully tried to drown. The best thing to do is just pepper them with arrows until they get angry about him dodging their return shots and come close enough to hit with a sword, or keel over with twenty arrowheads in their face. And since Wild is best with a bow, that makes it his job. Fortunately it’s one he enjoys.

Wars curses again. “Shit - vet, look out!”

There’s a yelp, a splash, and triumphant lizalfos jeering.

Wild rolls his eyes. “You okay down there, vet?”

He fully expects to hear cursing, or maybe complaints about getting his boots wet. That there’s nothing -

“The vet can swim, right?!” he asks, running for the dock Legend had been standing on.

“He said he could!”

But there’s uncertainty there, because none of them have ever seen him do it. When they’d wound up on Outset for a week Legend had refused to get within spitting distance of the water.

Absently blocking a tail swipe, Wild scans the rough water for red and gold and pink, and - there! Dragged along in the current. It doesn’t even look like he’s trying to swim, just struggling uselessly against the water. The vet is so going to get it for lying about being able to swim. If Wars doesn’t kill him, Time definitely will, once they make it back and Wars snitches.

Graceless but efficient, Wild hacks away at the lizalfos until it collapses in a heap of smoke. A quick check proves Wars is holding his own against the only two remaining, a black and a blue, so he can handle that.

Monsters dealt with, Wild jumps in the water -

And finally hears Legend screaming.

Sound underwater is always weird. Too flat, and strangely echoing. Wild still recognises the sound of Legend in pain, and his heart tries to turn itself inside out on the spot. Fuck. Fuck. What had happened? Had one of the lizalfos got in a lucky shot while pushing him off the platform? Was that why he hadn’t surfaced? But it’s been minutes what could have - there’s blood in the water -

Wild swims closer. There’s a - a zora? Tangled up with him, are they trying to help Legend? Wild doesn’t know them, doesn’t know anyone with that combination of pink and gold and gossamer veils instead of thick fins. What if they’re not helping? What if they’re why Legend is screaming? Zora are big and strong and agile in the water and this one must be huge to have such a big tail -

Legend shudders, and goes silent, and the thrashing stops, and Wild can actually get a clear look at what’s going on as he dives to the rescue.

There was no zora. The tail is attached to Legend, his body Hylian to the hips then transitioning to the pink and gold scales of an enormous fish. Wild’s never seen one with such delicate, translucent fins.

Or one that was, y’know, attached to a person, but that’s neither here nor there.

Wild hooks an arm around Legend’s waist and tows him to the surface. He’s desperately close to out of air; what about the veteran? He’d been - goddess - screaming right up to the last, so was he able to breathe underwater like this? He hopes so. Legend’s not resisting him at all and it’s really concerning, actually.

Breaching the surface, Wild takes a few seconds to gasp for air - he’d really cut it too close - before turning to inspect Legend. He’s relieved to find the veteran blinking back at him, tired but aware, water pouring from his face and hair. “Oh thank the goddess. Where are you hurt?” Wild starts swimming them towards shore - it’s not as close as it should be, because the current had apparently said ‘fuck you’ and pushed them both out to the middle while dragging them downstream.

“Mm? Jus’ a bruise, the lizalfos tripped me n’ I hit my hip on the platform as I fell.”

Wild remembers just how much blood there was in the water and does not believe him, but there’s no easy way to check while they’re both treading water. Legend being half a fish will probably also make things tricky. Do fish even work the same way Hylians do??? Legend is definitely a little hazy. He’s barely helping Wild tug them along, just giving a sluggish kick now and then, more to keep his balance then for propulsion. “Okay, so how do we get rid of the tail?”

“I transform back when I leave the water.”

Cool, that’s easy. Wild finally finds the riverbed with his feet. Blessed solid ground! Well, semi solid. It’s more sand than mud, at least. Although… hmm. There’s no way Legend will make it out of the river without feet. Wild will have to carry him. “Alright, up we go!” He scoops Legend into his arms and starts wading out.

Legend falls against him, visibly confused, before he registers what’s happening and his eyes go wide. “No!” He throws himself backwards, and his massive tail thrashes. They overbalance.

Up to his neck in river water with sand creeping into his pants, Wild turns a dead-eyed glare on Legend. “Why.”

“I wasn’t - I don’t -” Legend’s tail flicks back and forth like an agitated cat. He sinks deeper into the water. “I wasn’t… ready. I can’t -”

“Can’t turn back that fast?” Okay, so there’s a time component. That’s fine. Wild would like to get dry sometime today, but he can cope. “How long til you can make the switch back, an hour?”

“No, it’s just -” Legend looks away, shame pinning his ears low. “I just - need a break. Need to brace myself, first.”

Wild remembers Legend’s screams.

Dread rising, he asks, “It’s the same turning back?”

Legend reluctantly nods.

“Fuck.”

Legend gives a humourless bark of laughter. “Yeah.”

“The fuck kind of ability is it?”

“Cursed item,” Legend says. He scowls at Wild’s raised eyebrows. “What, did you think I was joking every time I told you not to touch my shit?

“No, I’m just surprised you still use it. It sounds horrible.”

Legend sighs. “Part of the curse. There’s no item to use - it’s just a part of me now.”

“Ledge! Wild!”

They both look up. Wars is jogging along the shoreline towards them; he would have had to navigate the docks to get off the river first before even starting to follow them, poor bastard. He’s a little out of breath when he slows to a stop near them. “Are you both okay? Ledge, I’m sorry I didn’t warn you in time, but you told us you can swim!”

“I can swim,” Legend snaps, a bit more life coming back into him. “It’s just a bit difficult when a cursed item is unexpectedly breaking every bone in my legs!”

Warriors’ face goes horrified, scanning Legend like he can see through the water still rushing past. Legend reddens. “I’m fine, stop giving me that look!”

You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t believe you, says Wars dryly.

The sigh Legend gives is long and loud to express his annoyance, but he kicks back in the water so the pink and gold of his tail comes close to the surface. “Involuntary transformation,” he says shortly, and rights himself.

“It’s pretty,” says Warriors.

Legend glares at him, tense and waiting for the punchline.

“Why didn’t you ever tell us?”

The tail thrashes, churning up river mud into a murky soup. “And open myself up to every joke and taunt you all can think of? ‘Legend turns into a pretty pink fish, let’s knock him in the fountain for a laugh!’”

“Legend. That doesn’t sound like a joke. That sounds like torture.”

Legend flinches and looks away.

Wars continues doggedly, “I knew a guy in the war who used transformation magic. Scary stuff - and it always left him pretty fucked up afterwards. I saw blood in the water, was that from you?”

“It was,” says Wild, ignoring Legend’s irritated hiss.

Wars grimaces. “And I bet transforming the other way is just as bad. Shit. Is there anything we can do to help? Make it easier?”

Legend shrugs and sinks deeper in the water, uncomfortable. “I mean, it’s not as bad if I have warning? When it’s unexpected it always seems to take longer.”

“That happen often?” Wars asks.

He wobbles a hand. “Not so much these days. I’m more careful around water that’s deep enough to trigger it.” He snorts. “I’ve been waiting for one of these portals to dump us in a lake, though.”

Wars and Wild both cringe.

Breathing out sharply, Legend sets his face into something grim and determined. “Alright. Let’s get this over with.”

Legend’s stifled screams are awful, but somehow not as awful as watching his beautiful tail tear itself in two. The scales slough off in sheets, exposing twitching muscle underneath, before pale skin crawls in to replace them, painfully slow. Coiling ribbons of crimson are swept downstream along with shed scales, glimmering pink and gold. Eventually, he’s left fully Hylian, drenched and panting in the shallows.

Wars insists on running his hands over his legs, checking to make sure the skin sealed fully and the vet is intact.

“It may look horrific, but it does at least put everything back when it’s done,” says Legend dryly.

“Sounds horrific, too,” says Wild. The sound of Legend’s bones breaking, tearing away from themselves, and then reforming had nearly made him hurl.

“And this happens every time? Isn’t there any way to control it?”

Legend cracks one tired eye to look at him. “No. As soon as I’m submerged up to the waist, the curse takes over.”

“Fuck,” says Wars.

“I already said that, you’re behind the times,” says Wild, making Legend grin.

“Well it bears saying again.” Wars scrubs at his eyes. “Wild, you’re the expert here - how far off course are we?”

“Uhh.” Wild has to pull out the slate to answer that one. He knows they wound up downriver, but how far? Whoof. “Well, we’re almost to Thims Bridge,” he says, “which is not closer to Kakariko.”

“More’s the pity,” Legend mutters, trying to wring out his hair.

“However, instead of trying to catch us horses in the wetland, since we’ll be going straight past a stable I can just pull mine. So, yay for that?”

“How far is it to the stable?”

Wild squints, trying to do the math on foot. “Like… half a day, maybe? We weren’t gonna make Kakariko today no matter what, so it might be better to stay at the stable’s inn overnight.” He and Wars meet each other’s gaze and carefully do not look at Legend, who most needs the rest.

“Sounds like a plan,” Wars agrees.

With a grunt of effort, Legend levers himself upright. “Which way, then?”

“Well according to the weird glowy map, the bridge is that way, but I’m not seeing how that’s your problem.” Wars kneels in the sand, presenting his back to Legend. “C’mon, climb on.”

“What? No. You are not carrying me, there’s no need for that shit.”

“Are you kidding me? Look at you. You’re exhausted. You can barely stay on your feet. It won’t cost me anything to carry you for a bit while you get your strength back. Besides,” he adds, “your shoes are soaked. If you walk half a day in them now you’ll get blisters.”

Legend makes an indistinct grumbling noise. “Fine.”

When they eventually make it to the stable in the evening, they’re beyond relieved to see the rest of the Chain waiting there. It does mean that Wild has to race ahead making frantic gestures for everyone to shut the fuck up, lest they wake Legend, sleeping peacefully on Warriors’ back.

[rocksibblingsau]

What kind of video games do the rock trolls have?

I feel like it's a given they'd have hack an slash, beat em ups, shoot em ups, anything action really, and music based games. Probably in the style of Brütal Legend.

But I can also imagine horror, maybe?

Like I can see the setting: buildings so old and rusted you can't tell what's rust and what's not. On a dormant black volcano devoid of the warmth of lava. The only movement being the ashes blown about. Perhaps creating a black fog always in the distance.

But then what monsters would there be? What are rock trolls afraid of? Giant predators seem more like a pop troll anxiety. Talent sucking is scary, but unlikely. Maybe zombies or an equivalent? At this rate I feel like isolation itself would be scarier than any monster.

But the real question is 'chill' games. Theoretically rock troll stardew valley COULD exist. I've heard volcanic soil is great for plants and they definitely have agriculture. So someone could attempt to gameify it. If it does exist, the brawl code would probably be a social mechanic in this 'Metaldew Valley.' And... that does sound really fun.

They have a pretty decent selection! Like you said there's every kind of action game. Guns, swords, knives, etc.

They do have horror as well, though horror and action tend to overlap for Rock Trolls a lot. The two monsters that Rock Trolls find scariest are:

Zombies and Ghosts.

Zombies have no personality, autonomy or individuality. You've seen one zombie you've seen them all.

Ghosts meanwhile are intangible. Rock Trolls hate an enemy they can't fight against.

Establishments are also a common 'villain'.

As for chill games... well to Rock Trolls these are chill but I'm assuming you mean OUR definition! Rock Trolls have a lot of music based games (Guitar Hero style), racing games, wrestling games, platformers, party style games (Jackbox), and even puzzle games. There's a popular one that's sort of like Cooking Mama but you assemble guitars. I imagine there's probably something like Metaldew Valley as well.

[is-there-a-filipino-legend-yet]

I think Apex Legends might be dying for good...and that might not be a bad thing.

EA has laid off a lot of employees, and most of the original crew for Apex is gone. There's been TWO major hacks during its entire lifetime, one of which just happened during a tournament recently.

The game is broken, unoptimized, and way more harder for new players to get into.

The new skins and cosmetics and events are very thinly-veiled cash grabs. EA would rather listen to the whales who spend tons and tons of money on the game without thinking twice.

The lore makes no sense anymore. There are more characters than what the current writing team can deal with. Shipping should have never been canonized, and some fandoms are better off with uncanonized popular ships (see: YeeHan Overwatch and HeavyMedic Team Fortress 2)

I want to love Apex. It's introduced me to the first nonbinary character who was a human and not a robot or an alien or a monster. It helped me find great friends. It helped me cope with many dark times. It's just not the way it used to anymore.

[cloudninetonine]

A Player's Aid: Chapter 12

Fandom: Legend of Zelda, Linked Universe

A/N: Ya'll I'm sorry but I am exhausted so please don't think I'm ignoring the asks OIUEHIF I'M JUST GETTING THROUGH THE WORK DAYS AND GETTING THIS STORY FINISHED- hope you enjoy tho! I'm glad I was able to get it done faster this time!

Warnings: Bad language, mentions of violence, threatening language, descriptions of blood and gore, mentions of injuries and mentions of death! (Please tell me if I missed anything it's near 1:30AM IOEUFGIF- I am a little manic)

“NO!”

The words echoed through the hallway, a blood-curdling scream that bounced off the walls and dragged a stinging down into their ear canals, reverberating through the heroes' heads as the champion dived into the middle, the fingertips barely brushing before any trace of you disappeared completely, leaving behind the carpeted floor that Wild slammed right into.

“GODDESS BE DAMNED!”

Hyrule had closed the gap between him and Sky violently, slashing at a Skulltula that leapt desperately after the blonde with dripping pincers snapping dangerously. Its squeal nothing but a nuisance in his ears as he spun his sword tip down and thrust it violently into its head, eyes popping with a disgusting squelch as he pinned it to the floor.

Sky could see it, the bloodthirsty look crossing his face- teeth grinding, huffing up a violent storm with murder dancing in his eyes, an abyss of forest brown with hints of green.

He had caught a glimpse of it that day, a look of rage, the look of rage, the one that stretched over lifetimes and painted itself over the faces of the calmest of men. The Hero of Skyloft had worn it too, many moons ago, as he struck down Demise and brought peace into his era.

Hyrule had worn that exact expression at the lake, and now, after taking a small glance towards Wild, shaking and panting in a similar state, he knew that the cook had felt the exact same way.

“Champion!” Time’s voice was of urgency and authority, batting back another hissing Skulltula with a grunt. “Rejoin the circle!”

Wild’s hands dug into the fabric of the royal carpet, digging in his nails desperately as images and scenarios raced rapidly through his mind- there were so many possible things that could have been following through this. The Shadow had you in its clutches, just where they didn’t want you, and so easily too, brain jumping between two things and two things only.

A slow, painful torture as the Shadow dragged whatever information he wanted from you, he would be cruel, he would be sadistic and soon enough your anguished screams would echo through the castle or he could just kill you, simple and quick, with nothing but an uninterested shrug to his shoulders when he and Hyrule would ask what became of you.

“Their presence was simply a way to bring pain, dear Champion, and well, I did want to wait longer yetttttt- watching you pathetic heroes whimper over some even more pathetic sack of meat is simply much more entertaining.”

Death, torture, death, torture, death, torture, DEATH-

Hands settled violently onto his shoulders, fingers digging into his tunic and his skin when Twilight’s face came into view. Worried, frustrated, angry and a whole whirlwind of emotions as he hissed his name desperately.

“Now isn’t the time for this, Link! We’re surrounded- pull yourself together!”

And in a sudden rush of everything, Wild released a trapped breath in a heavy gasp.

His eyes checked over to Hyrule, noting his shaking figure as he violently hacked at the monsters, the phantom red flying as he frantically tried to kill all that barred his path. The traveller was in a panic, similar to himself, but unlike the blonde his panic hadn’t completely frozen over, he still had his fighting spirit and by the goddess, he was ready to stain the walls with monster blood if it meant that he could go chasing after you- even while having no clue on how to get to you.

“We have to go after them.” 

Twilight’s eyes reflected understanding yet the frustration was still obvious. “Yes and we will-”

“We have to go after them now.”

Of course, that was the obvious thing to do, but that wasn’t a following thought, it was a present one- fuck these monsters and fuck this pathetic excuse of an ambush, Wild needed to get you now and he was ready to risk it all to do that.

“And how do you suppose we do that!?” Legend snapped, bashing a Skulltula back with his shield. “I am not sure if you’ve noticed, Champion, but we can’t exactly waltz our way through this!”

Wild had already zoned in, his eyes watching the movement of Legend’s arm as he blocked another set of gnashing pincers, turning back to Twilight and ogling his target item hanging right off his arm.

Twilight looked curiously at his shield before the realisation dawned and he hardened. “No-”

Hyrule’s frustration was sharp enough to cut through stone as he snapped. “They could be dead by the time we get through these monsters, so shut up ranch-hand and listen to his fucking plan!!”

Wind’s cackle was like a light within the darkness. “They sure are tainting you, traveller!”

“Is this really the time, sailor!?”

“I’m just saying-”

“Enough!- Go through with your plan or be done with it!” Time’s roar was an imposing one, a whole slew of emotions dripping from his words. “I will not have infighting! Especially not now!”

The group was not a stranger to stupid or dangerous ideas, a memory of Warriors and Wild sailing over a camp upon the back of a fallen tree surfaced at the thought, or the many times one of the boys (Hyrule and Wild) had leapt onto the back of a great beast to beat it down to size, or even that time when someone had tried to outrun a Gohma with sheer determination alone after angering the monster in hopes it would stray from the downed comrade- sometimes stupidity was held over safety within them all, if it meant defeating the enemy, or saving the victim, they would go to great lengths to keep them safe.

Twilight knew that Wild considered this one of those times. There wasn’t any way to get around it, no reason, no refusal- the cook had made up his mind and this was what was going to happen.

So, with a final sigh, he caved.

“What is your plan?”

----------

"Come now, dear Guide, don't leave me in the dark- talk to me."

Dink’s voice was best described as an amalgamation, many spoke at once, an eerie echoing drip to his tone that could never just blend together adding to his disturbing supernatural aura that made him this shadow demon. You could hear them all, every single voice belonging to the Chain was mingling with his own, sometimes one would domineer the other- you could hear Time, you could hear Wind, you could hear Warriors, you could hear Four, the Shadow after all was that, a Shadow, so would it make sense for him to have something of his own when he himself wasn’t his own person?

Even now, the face that stared back at you was very clearly Hyrule’s-...or was it? Bathed in darkness, bearing a callous front the shadows that formed his body swayed with the wind. Like smoke to a dying flame, his body constantly shifted and left you dumbfounded about what you were truly looking at. It may have been Hyrule but in that very same breath, it could have been someone completely different- only adding to its demonic presence that made you back further into the wall hoping to become one with the stone and avoid this situation altogether.

Successfully tearing yourself away from his grasp at the price of Hyrule's dagger, you’d tossed it violently towards him as you twisted your leg from his hand (more like a claw from the way his nails dug into your skin) as he dodged it then scurrying back until your back made contact with stone to make as much distance between you as possible. 

It was funny to him of course, he just laughed, for you were a bug beneath his shadow boot- did you really think tossing a measly little dagger was going to do any real harm to him? Especially with that pathetic excuse of a throw?

"I must say, the townsfolk show better skill in the face of monsters, how embarrassing for the guide of the heroes."

"I-Im not the Guide." Your voice was a whimper, shaking from your very obvious fear. "You've got the wro- hm, wrong person-"

The Shadow tilted its head, smirk teasing. "Is that right?"

"...Please let me go."

People liked to joke about this kind of scenario. In the situation of kidnapping, they'd annoy the person to near insanity and get off scot-free- or in their hyped-up cloud of adrenaline, pure rage would take over and they'd simply beat their attacker back, an uno reverse card one might say to the whole scene. However that was just chit-chat, online humour for Internet points, you knew for a fact the wrong thing said at this moment would probably have your throat slashed with barely any of his strength.

And that terrified you.

You were terrified.

Back in childhood, you were that little five-year-old cowering in the corner of your room under the piles of blankets, hawk eyes trained onto the darkness creeping within your wardrobe. The crack between the open door held an opportunity for the monster within to stare right back at you without your child mind knowing a thing. Would it come for you when you finally collapsed from exhaustion or would it burst forth and gobble you up the second your focus dimmed?

The fear within you was primal then, that fear of the unknown, what lay where you could not see it and it was with you now, bubbling sickeningly in the pit of your stomach as the Shadow chattered and joked about your early demise that he would bring with his own hand.

Not even a week ago this creature was a character to you, a fairytale if you will.

And now you were about to be murdered by it.

Dink walked between the streams of light cascading through the windows of the room, the particles of his shadows faintly catching the shine at each turn he made. It made sense that he clung to the darkness, but you begged within that he would step into the beams once. Just once, so that your mind could be laid to rest- trying to comprehend what you were seeing was hurting your head. 

He looked more like Wild now- or was that just the darkness playing tricks?

The Shadow only let out a belly laugh, his voice bouncing off the walls, “Oh, you humour me so, do you really think your whimpers will change my heart, dear Guide?”

You teared up, “Please, I just want to go home-”

“Ah, home.” He said the word with a fake interest, tilting his head as he feigned consideration. “I have never had such a thing, you know, I merely passed through the times through the shadows of The Hero’s light-”

He grinned, crouching down to look at you. “-it’s why they call me the Shadow, you see, I have no other name nor a life to call my own.”

“....Is that why you need me?”

And once again, the monster burst into laughter throwing his head back and covering his mouth to muffle his hysterical laughter- creepy and bone-chilling, he already sounded inhuman enough but the laughter that caught your ears certainly wasn’t doing anything to ease your worries.

“You think I would value something so pathetic? Bah!” With a wave, he pushed off his knees back to his full height, looking you down with those crimson eyes full of malice and disdain. “I would find it an insult if you didn’t sound so sincere- idiotic, but sincere.”

Curling deeper into yourself, you shook, voice wobbly, “Then why am I here?”

A cold chill ran through the room, the shadows within the corners growing, casting great darkness over the walls and eating at the light that cascaded through the large windows. The eyes of oil paintings glaring down at you through the pitch black that only grew closer and closer, judging you with hell flames dancing in their painted pupils as the gloom tickled the points of your boots and caused you to only shrink deeper into yourself. Dink’s eyes were demonic through the shade, piercing through the surrounding tenebrosity to stare right back into your fear-struck gaze.

“Why do you think?” The bitter tone crawled over your skin like millions of bugs, the phantom feeling of many legs running over your body as he spat. “A being able to ascend through timelines, with the knowledge of all that has, is and will ever be? From another world entirely but yet you still hold influence in this one while the Goddesses stay ignorant to anything that strays from their precious creation. If you’re able to do such a thing, you must hold more power than even the Golden Three themselves-”

With each word, he seemed to melt into the gloom of the room, red eyes still following you as he paced like a predator ready to pounce. “-and with that kind of power I can finally get rid of those heroes, wipe them from history and do as I please without their pathetic little attempts to get in my way.”

The terrified tears streamed freely now, face flushed hot in fear and heart frozen in terror yet still pumping the blood through your veins to rush the adrenaline in every crevice it could find- your stomach plummeted when he turned and suddenly it seemed he had vanished, no red eyes to show his position with his shadows hiding him from your sight.

You shook; you cried.

“I’m not the Guide.” The sob caught in your throat, an anxious sickness brewing in your stomach as you searched for him frantically in the pitch black. “I don’t have any magic power, I can’t even do a coin trick, please you have to believe me-”

You couldn’t even scream- the red eyes were back and rushing towards you until they were a breath away, a hand slamming next to your head with more talons than claws digging into the stone. Roughly your chin was grabbed, the frightened yelp leaving your mouth muffled as your lips were smushed under his coarse gloves. You couldn’t escape.

Dink’s red eyes were manic, pupils straining in barely restrained venom. “Don’t lie to me- the spell brought me to you. You bear the name and its suffocating presence I’ve felt for decades, you dare try to trick me?”

“I-I’m not! I’m not, I promise I’m not-” His grip tightened and you whined at the pain, “Please- please don’t kill me-”

With a monstrous growl, he ripped his hand away, the pain still lingering in an itchy ache as he grabbed your front tunic violently and hauled you to your feet. He towered you now. An enigma of shifting shadows with a taut scowl that seemed too big for his face, inhuman in a way that was too real for you and left you a shivering mess against the wall as his words dribbled from his mouth similar to the dripping of blood from a blade- sleek but chilling.

“I’m going to kill you.” Quiet. His words were quiet because he didn’t need a reason to shout for the calm was way more terrifying than the force. “Tear out your heart, throw it at the heroes’ feet and watch them weep over it.”

His scowl stretched into a smile. “Cry now, little guide because you won’t be able to soon enough.”

The sincerity in his tone was what got you, coupled with the swirling bloodlust in those pools of crimson you could see your life flash right before your eyes. The longest second you’d ever felt, experiencing whole lifetimes in only an instant as you thought back to your own world, your friends, your family, the strangers that had come and gone, everything that had led up to this exact moment. Here. In this castle of ruins, with the real Heroes of Hyrule, with real monsters of Ganon and the actual Dark Link whose voice had muffled from the gallons of blood rushing in your ear.

That night when he first chased you was an example of the fight or flight response- your instincts choosing to fly as you sprinted away from the Shadow as it chased you through the streets.

That option was scrubbed away, with no room for fawning and the option to freeze was laid to rest by the adrenaline, you did the only thing you could do.

Raising your knee you slammed it between his legs without an ounce of hesitation, you didn’t hold back putting all your strength into the attack as it made contact with him, a small grunt of effort leaving your lips as you did. You weren’t about to play fair at the edge of Death’s door.

Silence.

Red eyes glanced down to where your knee met his crotch, the appendage hesitating before it slowly fell back, your booted foot meeting the floor just as his gaze returned to you.

“Did you really expect that to work?” His voice was a mixture of amusement and chagrin. “I’m a shadow- I share your hero’s likeness but not their weaknesses.”

You strained out a shaky breath. “...fuck.”

Then, without a single thought of your own preservation or even a single thought at all, you acted upon impulse and slammed your head right into his nose.

The following moments would have been comedic if your thoughts weren’t screaming at you to bolt. The two of you stumbled away from one another in a daze, Dink dropping back onto his arse with a string of violent curses while he held his face desperately trying to stop the stream of black ooze which resembled blood (he could bleed?) drip from his nose. You weren’t too great either, dazed and dizzy from smashing your forehead against his face, staggering about with a similar chant of swears as you tried to decipher which way was up and which was down.

“You…fucking…wretch…” Dink gasped through the pain, still crumpled over, “Just…you wait-”

Your blurred vision settled, the doubles that you were seeing finally melting back into one and you could see the doorway just a few steps ahead, leading out into the castle halls.

This was your moment.

“Get back here-”

Without a single glance back, you bolted, still a little dizzy but refusing to let that get in the way of your freedom. Shouldering through the door, you came across an unfamiliar hallway enveloped in the webbing of the Skulltula and promptly cringed at the sight of eggs sacs scattered through the natural fibres. You didn’t stop, however, powered by your fear you took to one direction and fled.

“You dare run from me!? I’LL HAVE YOUR HEAD, PEST!!”

You felt violently ill from the words, the pure unyielding rage in his voice was clear, one mistake, one slip up- if Dink got his hands on you, the last thing you would be seeing were those red, demonic eyes.

You weren’t about to let that happen.

Boots slammed against the carpet, the bangs muffled by the fabric. You heaved and puffed, your lungs in an icy pain as they burned from the strain but in your mind, the words rung out like a mantra “Don’t stop, don’t stop” and you kept those words true to yourself- you weren’t about to stop, not now, not ever, not until you reached the Chain and the sounds of Dink’s footsteps chasing after you finally faded from your mind.

You skidded around a corner, finding comfort in the light that streamed through the open windows of the winding corridor, you were still quite lost, unable to piece together the exact location unsure if you had stumbled in. Was this a place which you had trekked in digital form, or another restored section of the great building?

Sounds echoed behind you, your form tensing in horror before you brushed away questions and rushed down the hallway. 

It didn't matter where you were in the castle, you didn't care, you'd do laps around the entire thing until you finally found your group. Your stamina be damned, you were getting out of here alive. You'd see the Chain again, you'd see your family again, you'd see your friends again and as long as you kept running that thought would manifest into reality.

Your boot snagged a piece of frayed carpet, eyes growing into dinner plates as you shrieked in horror. No, no this wasn't about to happen, you weren't about to fall victim to that damned Hollywood trope- you weren't. Pushing through the stagger, you didn't allow yourself to plummet straight into the floor, taking a few wobbly steps that you were quickly able to correct and mentally cheered.

I think the fuck not-

You plummeted from the force around your ankle, covering your face and letting your arms take most of the blow as you collapsed into a shaking heap on the floor

You fell.

You fucking fell.

"NO!" The scream was Oscar worthy, as were the tears and horror on your face, head snapping back to see the black murky substance that had enveloped your foot. "No- fucking- please!"

Magic no doubt, dark magic that writhed and twitched in the shadow of the hallway. In an effort to escape you kicked at it hysterically, clawed at it desperately and even tried to drag yourself closer to the light in hopes that maybe, maybe it would burn away the dark. 

Hyperventilating through choking tears, you fought. Sick threatened to decorate the floor, the anxiety and the dread a horrid mix that clashed violently as the seconds continued to tick by. This wasn’t about to happen, you were not about to die this way- like some stupid horror cliche, chased by the psychotic axe murder hellbent on gifting you with a slow, torturing death- This isn’t how you wanted it to end.

The rapid thumping of footsteps had finally reduced to an uncanny nothing as the Shadow had begun to ascend the hallway. Silence. That was all he produced. Not a footstep on the carpet, not a pant from his frantic run- you didn’t hear a peep from Dink as he slowly made his way towards you. 

It reminded you of the documentaries, that quiet walk of his, a slow but gradual stalk as the predator drew closer to it’s prey, feral eyes pinpointed on one thing and one thing only.

You really wished you could have been the cameraman in this moment, for being the prey was just as panic inducing as you had thought it would be.

“You’ve had your fun.” The venom was cold but laid on heavy, searing into your skin and burning at your very core as an icy fear. You tried to scramble faster, “I’ve let you run, for long enough, insect. Scutter along these floors but enough is enough.”

You moved to your back, still dragging yourself despite the obvious being clear- you weren’t getting out of this.

��What the fuck do you want with me!?” You screamed desperately, tears still running as you gasped for breath during your panic attack. “I don’t have anything to fucking give you!”

“Are you really that dense?”

The streams of light were your only source, watching as Dink grew closer and closer. Terrifying really, his body moulded each time he reached the sun- first you saw the shadow of Hyrule before his form returned to the black mass of the shadows only to reform into Wild, once again disappearing and he had shrunk himself into Wind. With each shift his voice would change, but not to match the hero he wore, he couldn’t even give you the kindness of that. Suffering. He just wanted you to suffer during your hysteria and leave you disarray.

He really was eldritch in a way and certainly nothing you had ever wanted to experience.

“Your power, Guide, I want your power-”

“I DON’T HAVE ANY POWER!” Your voice was shrill to you, bouncing off the walls and echoing even further down the halls. “I’M NOT FUCKING SPECIAL- LET ME GO YOU STUPID FUCK!”

He stopped just a few inches off, watching you with eagle eyes as you wailed, tears and some snot running down your face. You knew you were a pathetic sight to see, snivelling and crying in a pile of limbs on the floor- not an ounce of bravery on your face, your eyes only reflected the fear that followed the scent of death and the further unknown. How could this be the heroes’ Guide? Valued and respected amongst the masses, was something that probably fluttered around his head. Nothing but another weak and useless slab of meat, similar to the many he had cut down before.

“I have no more time for this.” Quiet, restrained. You could hear the metal slide along his sheath as he pulled his blade. “You die here, guide.”

He pounced.

You weren’t quite sure what happened in those few moments- your mind was reeling. Too much was going on for you to fully comprehend anything other than your own screaming thoughts: You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t move. You couldn’t see. Not fully anyway, you couldn’t turn away from the crimson that stared you down with a hatred so true.

You just wanted it to stop. It was all you knew as you threw your hands in front of your face, hoping in some way that it would somehow block the blow. You wanted everything to stop- your brain, time, your upcoming death- all you really wanted in that moment was for everything- to-

STOP!

…

……

………

…………ding…

……….ding…

…….ding…

A static stillness filled the air- along with grunts of effort that you knew belonged to Dink. No humanoid made such a distorted sound, nor did any monsters you knew, so horrific to your ears as his noise of struggle being the only thing you could register. You almost didn’t want to look, caught in the belief that looking would break the spell that had suddenly cast over the shadow that kept him at bay. Nevertheless, when his steady flow of forced threats and other colourful words flowed from his mouth did you finally take the chance to glance at what had befallen him.

Yellow.

Dink was yellow.

No, not yellow in colour but in tint- it covered each inch of his body from his boots to his strands of white hair. Not just yellow however, phantom chains accompanied the glow, pinning him midair and phasing off into some impossible abyss. They jangled, they swayed and they kept your almost-murderer only a few inches back, his frantic red eyes trained on each little movement you made in a moment of pure mania.

You crawled back instantly when your own eyes met them, huffing and puffing in horror.

Stasis…

Dink was in Stasis.

Who the fuck put Dink in Stasis?

A very quick answer was found when your hand flew out as you moved your weight, sight catching the electric glow beneath the leather of your vambrace glove right where you knew the Sheikah eye stared back at you.

Had you Stasised the Shadow?

It was only then did you notice the sound from earlier, growing only more rapid as the seconds ticked by and you felt your heart mimic the beat of each metallic “ding!” as the magic of the Sheikah slowly faded the longer you laid there. 

There was no time. 

The clock was ticking.

Fight or flight returning with a vengeance, you leapt to your feet. Still in panic, still covered in tears and snot, still shaking like a fearful child- you had no more time to question what or how, it was now or never- you turned.

Only for your impulsive thoughts to flare, a tactic flying at impossible speeds right into your overstimulated senses.

Without a second thought, with a raged cry you flew back around with your fist clenched and slammed it right into the demon’s nose.

Then, without a second to register the pain you bolted, not caring to look when the illusion of magic finally shattered as your timer ran out, an enraged cry catching the wind as Dink’s body flew back a few feet and skidded through the hallway.

Silence.

You had just turned into the next hallway when it happened- the scream. The scream of a lifetime, not human, not monster, just pure demonic as it exploded through the way. Like a shockwave, you felt the brush of a burning magic on your neck before you embraced the darkness of another corridor, his shriek changing in a constant cycle: low, high, near, far, human, animal, monster- decades worth of fury built into one horror movie wail.

You knew he would have been nominated for the oscar in another life.

“GEt bAcK hERe-” 

You phased him out in a desperate attempt to stay sane, something so wrong shouldn’t have ever reached your ears. You just kept running. You didn’t stop. Not when Dink’s voice finally faded and not when your lungs and legs began to burn. If any stray arachnids still lingered you wouldn’t have ever known, only focused on the way ahead and any stray obstacle that laid on your path and likely zipping past them, leaving the Skulltula to the dust. You were never one for running, you hated PE, but today you would be awarded gold and the Olympics would write you down as the fastest runner alive- Usain Bolt could never.

Your sanity dwindled on the fine line of insane and sane, dancing a sloppy strut as the world around you began to fade and all you could focus on was running.

Until you were finally running no more.

An arm had caught you, thrust forward into your person and catching your chest as your form curled into it from the force. Winded. Your breath was thrown out of you at the contact, a heave leaving your mouth and leaving you with no time to recover as you were dragged into something solid that breathed like a human and felt like a human.

It didn’t stop your blood curdling scream though, hands frantically beating at the clear appendage wrapped around your body as you tried desperately to escape. You would not die here, cold and alone, in the arms of a monster instead of being surrounded by the warmth of love. You would wail, you would fight until your last dying breath because in this moment that’s what was happening- this was your dying breath and you would not go down without knowing you tried to beat the odds.

“No! No! No! No-” Your head was tucked into something warm, spit flying from your frightened yells as the fight was bled out of you. “No! No! No! No-”

It was all you could say, it was all you could think.

No.

No.

No.

It was all you could gasp.

Even as your body finally registered safety, even as you finally collapsed against the form that most clearly belonged to the Wild, the sight of his ocean blue tunic washing over a blanket of comfort that only zapped away your remaining adrenaline. The mutters of “No.” repeated. Robotic. Desperate. Pleading.

“I have you.” He whispered into your hair, his arms protective. “Focus on me, (Name), you are safe.”

“No. No. No. No….

no….”

~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sorry no tags rn I can barely think straight (I will edit in tags when I can!)

[steviestits]

Steviestits's Masterpost

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Name: Alex Age: 36 Pronouns: They/Them Prompt Guidelines: Accepted Subjects Ao3 Account: LouderSwine Icon & Banner Credit: BoneBoyBird

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Steddie Fics Masterlist

By The Pricking of My Thumb

After Jonathan bashed Steve's head into the pavement, Steve remembered he had powers, setting off a chain reaction from Nancy breaking up with him early to certain enemies showing up sooner than expected.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #sevensteveau Rating: Teen Trigger Warnings: Canon Typical Violence

The Heart Of Loch Nora

Kas aka Eddie takes over Prince Steve's kingdom and keeps Steve captive before brainwashing him into being his mate.

Status: Completed Ao3 Link: Click here Tumblr Tag: #heart of loch nora (includes art for fic) Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Extremely Dubious Consent, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Brainwashing, Gaslighting, Stockholm Syndrome, Mind Manipulation, Mind Control, Forced Feminization, Body Modification, Blood Drinking, Mild Gore, Additional Warnings In Author's Note

I Move the Stars For No One

Labyrinth inspired, but they share zero plot points. Steve becomes King Edward's possession after stumbling onto a fairy circle.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: (Coming after completion of first chapter) Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #starsfornoone Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Child abuse, Feminization, Mating Rituals, Heats/Ruts but not the Omegaverse kind

In The Family Way

Addams Family Values au set in the Omegaverse after the events of the movie with Steve as Debbie and Eddie as Fester.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #inthefamilyway Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Attempted Murder as a love language

I’ve Seen My Future, And You’re It

Before Stevie met Mr. Henderson, a science teacher at her school, her life was simple. She was a teenage boy living in the year 2024 and didn’t care about all this science crap, but not only has she turned into a girl, she’s traveled back in time to the year 1986 and is now stuck there!

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: (Coming after completion of first chapter) Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #futureyoureit Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Genderbend, Brainwashing, Electric Stimulation, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Gaslighting, Feminization

My God Longs For Me

Horror story where Steve was abducted by a cult and meets his future husband, Eddie, only for them to be separated when the police break-up the cult. Years later on a camping trip, Steve's friends begin to be murdered, which somehow has to do with the cult from his past.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: (Coming after completion of first chapter) Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #mygodlongsforme Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Feminization, Brainwashing, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Ritual Sacrifices, Gore, Mpreg, Body Horror, Monster Fucking

Siren's Call, Sailor's Fall

Lost Boys Au but with mermaids instead of vampires, and the mermaids win.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #lostmerau Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Hypnosis, Extremely Dubious Consent, Feminization in the Clownfish type of way, Mermaid Transformation, Bad Guys Win

System Hacked

Eddie hacks into Steve's terminal and alters Steve's body and mind to his liking.

Status: Completed Ao3 Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #system hacked Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Mind Manipulation, Brainwashing, Stalking, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Extremely Dubious Consent, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Forced Feminization

Urban Legend

Legend has it that there's a monster that stalks the campus of Hawkins University, who devours those careless enough to wander into its grasp. Not mentioned, however, is that monster is looking for a mate and has set its sights on Steve.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #urbanlegend Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Mind Manipulation, Brainwashing, Stalking, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Extremely Dubious Consent, Body Modification, Forced Feminization, Additional Warnings In Author's Note

Divider borders by Saradika

[silvrash-797]

@ladye-zelda, the fic you've been waiting for is here >:)

Brothers (pt 1)

Day 29: not allowed to die

Warnings: Legend mentions wanting to die (shhh, he's delirious)

Part 2

Read on ao3

Wild surveyed the battlefield from his vantage point in an old oak tree, taking out monsters as needed, keeping an eye out for each of his brothers. The lesser monsters had been eliminated, leaving only a few dangerous enemies behind.

All in all, the battle was going quite well.

Until suddenly, it wasn’t.

“LEGEND!” Wild screamed, watching in horror as his brother fell over a cliff, propelled by the massive swing of a Darknut's claymore. A flash of terrified violet eyes and glinting golden rings caught his eye before the Vet disappeared entirely.

“NO!!” Wild roared. He leapt from his branch, using the time dilation to fill the Darknut's visor full of arrows. He broke into a full sprint the moment his feet touched ground. Dashing towards the edge of the cliff where he last saw his brother, he threw himself off the ledge, ignoring the calls of his other brothers trying to stop him.

The cliffs were tall and imposing, and Wild's heart lodged itself in his throat as he looked for any sign of his brother. Please, pleasepleaseplease oh Hylia please let him be alive!

There! Wild angled himself towards a splash of red near the base of the cliff, deploying his paraglider at the last possible moment to break his fall.

He rushed through the surrounding trees to Legend’s side, sliding on his knees as he approached the crumpled form. “…Vet…?” he breathed, suddenly nervous and so, so lost. “Link?”

Wild held his breath as he examined his downed brother. Shattered legs, a broken arm, a deep gash through the tunic weeping blood from the Darknut's claymore, cuts and scratches everywhere from falling through the trees, So many injuries, is he even…

The barest motion in Legend's chest caught Wild’s eye; relief flooded his body as shaking fingers found the pulse point in Legend's neck and felt movement. Faint, too fast, but a pulse nonetheless.

“Legend?” Wild's voice broke, and he swallowed to clear the lump before trying again. “Legend, Link, can you hear me?”

Legend grimaced, an awful groan tearing itself from his throat as his eyes fluttered open, pain bright in his irises. “Wha'…who?” Violet eyes roamed aimlessly, until Legend blinked and focused on Wild's face. “Wil'…s'that you?”

Wild sniffed, tears threatening his vision and voice. “Yeah, Vet, it’s me.”

Legend seemed to ponder that for a moment before attempting to speak again. “’nd you're…real? …’m not…dead?”

Horror filled Wild, and he shook his head vehemently. “I’m real, and you’re still alive as long as I have anything to say about it.”

A faint grin graced Legend's lips, and he attempted a chuckle before breaking into hacking coughs. A small trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he sighed. “Goddesses can’t give me a break,” he muttered, “’vrythin' hurts. I don' think,” he gasped, “I’m making it outta this alive…” His eyes fluttered closed.

“No, Lege, don’t say that!” Wild protested, tears beginning to fall as he pulled a clean cloth from his slate and pressed it firmly to the gash in Legend’s abdomen. Legend gasped softly, eyes flying open in shock and pain.

“Wild, stop, t'hurts!” Legend coughed again, rasping and painful. “Just let me go…I can be back with m' Uncle…an' Marin…my family…” his voice faded.

Wild ground his teeth. "A wise man once told me that 'family is being connected by more than blood,'" Wild choked out from a tear-constricted throat.

"I told you that, Champ," Legend rasped with a raised eyebrow.

"EXACTLY!" Wild exclaimed, "We're family, Vet; you're not allowed to die like this!"

Wild’s slate chimed, and he fumbled to open the communication rune while keeping pressure on Legend's wound. “Wind! Is everyone else okay?”

Wind's voice crackled through the slate. “We’re fine! Everyone's freaking out that you just left, though! Did you find Legend? Is he…?”

“He’s alive,” Wild confirmed, “but he’s hurt really bad. I have fairies, but I can’t use them until someone helps me set his legs and arm! I’m doing what I can, but we need help now.”

“Okay, okay,” Wind’s voice faded as the rest of the Chain’s voices rose, then came back into focus. “Okay, Hyrule and Wars are using my deku leaf and Sky's sailcloth. They’re on their way! Hold on, Vet, d'you hear me?!”

Legend rasped a small chuckle, panting as he responded, “Yeah…I hear ya, Kid…’m trying.”

“Wild, I’ve got my telescope, I'll let you know when they’re at the base of the cliff so you can shout for them, okay?”

“Thanks Sailor,” Wild breathed, cutting the communication for now to better attend to Legend.

Legend groaned and coughed again at the increased pressure. He swallowed harshly, then took a shaky breath. “Wil'…” his eyes fluttered. “I…”

“Hush, Vet. Help is coming, just stay awake a bit longer, please don’t fall asleep!”

A shudder rocked Legend's body and his face twisted in pain. His breath choked in his chest as blood bubbled at his lips, but the fit passed and his breathing stabilized.

Exhausted violet eyes met terrified blue and the faintest ghost of a smirk touched blood-stained lips. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Legend whispered as the slate crackled to life once again.

[crystalelemental]

What do you wanna see the postgame in Pokemon you want? I feel like it's kinda tricky to figure out myself when I replay the postgame content in numerous times.

Okay this might go for a while, because the short answer is "I don't think I know anymore."

Part of the issue is defining what count as "postgame." Like, is Kanto Redux in Gen 2 postgame because the League is the finish point, and Red is optional superboss content, or is that part of main game? Is the second half of Unova optional postgame content, or is it main game because you technically never finished your League quest? Some situations, like the Emma and Anabel quests in Gens 6 and 7, feel pretty decisively postgame, as do things like Delta Episode. But what counts and what doesn't is up for some debate, and I'm...not really sure where I draw the line. I've referred to everything in the second half of Unova as postgame, but now I question that decision.

More to the point, postgame runs into two specific problems in both story and gameplay areas.

Gameplay is probably best explained by Bopper's Gen 2 video. In it, he expresses that a major selling point of Pokemon is the emphasis on continued growth and development, talking about how moves being learned late or late appearing Pokemon give players something to work toward, and keep the game fresh and interesting. And to be honest, this tracks. As someone who's owned cheat devices most of his Pokemon career, you do try to hack in final teams right at the start and they get stale really fast. Having something to work toward is part of the fun.

Postgames tend to run into the problem of not having anything left to specifically work toward. The difference between Crystal's Kanto Redux and Platinum's battle island is that in Platinum, my team is done and has learned everything. As a result, that island doesn't really offer anything particularly fun. While I've been a proponent of Gym Leader and League rematches in the past, they also have the issue of...not doing anything different. Red as a new final conflict requires a different approach from facing off against Lance and the League, but Cynthia 1 and Cynthia 2 go down to exactly the same strategy. There's less to work toward, so the island feels entirely boring to me. It's a complete slog.

While there are opportunities to switch up the team, sometimes that comes a bit late, and isn't exactly...engaging. It works in a game like Crystal because of how type matchups work, where Misdreavus can be caught and immediately blank Red's Snorlax, or Tyranitar countering half of Red's team. Or in Emerald, Mawile can hard counter Steven's entire team with careful play. But later games don't have that opportunity. It's just lower level stuff, sometimes weaker stuff, with no real gameplay benefit.

Which leads to the main thing. This is a Monster Collecting game. Its postgame is effectively completion of the dex. Which is something Pokemon is uniquely terrible at. A game like Nexomon (which is excellent and should be played) lets your postgame be hunting down everything, which is all available in that one playthrough. But Pokemon has version exclusives that demand two games, and internet connection, and with Switch paying for online connectivity. In addition, while Nexomon has a ton of Legendary status mons, it also gives a ton of Golden Nexotraps for assured captures to simplify the process. Meanwhile, Pokemon gives you one (1) Master Ball, then gives you a gauntlet of like a dozen Legendary Pokemon that are wretched to catch because of how annoying their systems are. Monster collecting in the most popular Monster Collecting Videogame is terrible by design. It's never been good, and they're never going to make it good. Though I guess they tried with Galar's Dynamax Adventures and Paldea's fights with main legends. Though they both still do the stupid catching thing in other ways, like the Galar birds and Treasures of Ruin.

I think ideal gameplay actually gives you something to work toward, but also Pokemon really just needs to improve how it operates with catching everything. Which I think it has. To its credit, Galar and Paldea do make it easier to complete the dex by making near everything available. But that's also predicated on dealing with the awful raids and dens, which is somehow worse.

The other element, story, is where things get dicey, and I'll use a comparison to explain. In Nexomon, your postgame events are...honestly the most story intensive segments. They're really good, and my personal favorite parts. More critically, they're continuations. Nexomon 1 follows up the main story of defeating Omnicron with your story of destroying his soul so he can't regenerate (spoilers I guess). Neoxmon 2 follows up all the heavy stuff that happens with a bit of a departure, but only in the sense of setting up the connection between things that happened and things that are about to happen. It's all excellent, and the postgame story is the hook. Granted, alongside new boss fights and challenges and developments that are engaging too. Shame about how the hunt for Tyrants goes, but I digress.

Gen 2 and Gen 5, while they offer postgame, tends to be very light and disconnected on story. There's not as much relevance. Even with things like XY and SuMo and the Paldea DLC, which are much heavier on story, they have...literally no significance to the main event. Like okay, you can argue the thematic relevance of Emma as a character, or that the UB hunt is related to Lusamine's actions, but like...it's really not that connected to what was going on before. Teal Mask is just 100% disconnected, and when they do connect in the Mochi Madness thing, it kinda sucks ass and they wrote Carmine out of it entirely like assholes. I will never forgive that.

I can't say Pokemon's ever really had a great story-centric postgame. It completely lacks in that area, and tells the story it wants to tell centrally. Not that Pokemon's ever been that intense on story. So this is an area it can't really work for. But the ones that do stand out...also run into issues. XY and SuMo have great events with Looker, Emma, and Anabel...but the actual playing of those segments isn't great. And going back to the initial question, does Teal Mask count as postgame if you can do it, entirely, from nearly the start of the game?

The final issue is one of...well, the Battle Facilities. I hate them, personally. I have no investment in playing literal cheating AI at reading minds. Gimmick frontier stuff like in Emerald and Platinum can be fun, but stuff like the normal Battle Tower sucks. Add to it that legendary Pokemon don't count, and there's also very little benefit to gathering legends. You don't really get to do much but stomp the League with the box legends, and...then what? Do a bunch of extra stuff? Run battles that don't allow them? What's the point of having the postgame without those benefits? Galar fixes this a bit by letting anything into Tower, but it's a small concession more than a proper fix.

Honestly, I don't really know what this all adds up to. Part of it is desperately wishing Pokemon had better capture mechanics, because god do the current ones suck. Part of it is thinking that postgame should be a little quick, because usually my complaint is it goes on too long. But I really don't even know what I'd expect anymore. I think that, to some degree, postgame in Pokemon works while the generation is current, but falls off in importance on replays. It's why Daybreak made Legends Arceus worse.

[wanderingnork]

Good Girls and Bad Boys: Githyanki and "The Palace of the Silver Princess"

TIME FOR A LONG SHOT META

"Silver Princess" was originally designed to introduce people to basic Dungeons and Dragons. It's largely a hack-and-slash adventure, much like many other early modules. On page 6, there's an aside on NPCs, which--unlike today's adventure modules--presents them as totally optional, most often used when a party needs some extra muscle before venturing forth into the dungeon. Rooms are jam-packed with monsters separated from each other only by wooden doors and apparently politeness not to get involved with anyone else's initiative order. Wandering monster tables may spontaneously generate a creature that would totally disrupt any sensible dungeon ecology (for example, the sudden appearance of a cave bear or gelatinous cube). Traps just pop up in random hallways where they'd kill any actual inhabitant. The map layout is absolutely arcane.

What I'm saying is that it's a fucking delight.

Some quick backstory on the adventure. Jean Wells was the first woman to work in the TSR design department, and "Palace of the Silver Princess" was the first TSR adventure solely written by a woman. Problem: executive meddling at TSR resulted in Wells' adventure (the "orange version") being recalled on the day of publication and destroyed en masse. It was replaced by the "green version," which was almost entirely rewritten by another author and bears exactly no resemblance to the original. What I'm discussing here is the original Orange Version of the story--Wells' original vision of the module.

In the adventure, amid all the chaos, there's a running plot thread about the titular Silver Princess. A classical beautiful princess ruling over an idyllic paradise kingdom, the Princess Argenta was beloved by all. To honor her, the elves and the dwarves who lived in the kingdom cut and polished a magnificent ruby and gave it to her as a gift, calling it "My Lady's Heart." Because giving your rulers giant random treasures has never ended badly before.

Looking at you, Arkenstone.

Argenta decided to throw a masquerade ball in honor of the elves and dwarves. People from all over the place showed up to the party just to see the ruby, including--of course--a mysterious knight. He appeared smitten with the princess even more than the ruby, but people didn't take that kindly. Some guests challenged him after the party, but were never heard from again.

Weeks later, a huge red dragon appeared and burned the kingdom to cinders. Survivors claimed to have seen a knight in blue and silver armor riding on its back. In the midst of the attack, Argenta went missing, and her palace lies in ruins. In the centuries since, no one's seen any sign of her, the knight, or the ruby--but a red dragon is still sometimes spotted in the sky, wearing an empty saddle on its back.

Now, of course, the player characters are venturing forth into the ruined palace in search of "My Lady's Heart," the missing ruby.

Throughout the palace, the players repeatedly encounter images that contradict the legend. Mosaics and paintings of a blue-and-silver clad knight and the princess and a statue of embracing lovers all hint toward something more. One mosaic shows a maiden fleeing a knight in blue and silver armor riding a red dragon, but the maiden, knight, and dragon all appear sleeping together peacefully in another mosaic. There's even a painting and a statue of the red dragon itself.

If the players search, they find two key clues to the story of the princess and her knight. First is Argenta's diary, which tells the story of the knight wooing her and winning her heart, and ends at the fourth day of their marriage. Second is part of a poem, clearly written by the knight himself, which hints at falling in love with Argenta and how her innocence even tamed his dragon.

Then there's the tragic twist. In a secret chamber, where "My Lady's Heart" is hidden, the players will encounter a pair of ghosts. They are Argenta and her knight, protecting the ruby together forever. In order to claim the ruby, the players will have to put the ghosts to rest.

So...the true story of Argenta, the knight, and the dragon seems to have been much different than the legend. Putting together the context clues, Argenta received the ruby and threw the ball where the knight saw her for the first time. The knight came to take the ruby, and their first meeting got off to a really bad start (the mosaic of the pursuit). However, Argenta managed to charm the dragon and then the knight. He changed his plans and wooed Argenta, in a courtship that was clearly long enough and intimate enough for a great deal of art to have been made of him and his dragon. On the fourth or fifth day of their marriage, though, something went horribly wrong. Either the knight turned on Argenta without warning and they both died, which I think is unlikely based on the poem he wrote. Or, what I think is probably what happened, someone else came looking for the ruby and they died at that point. The dragon survived and burned the kingdom to ash in grief, and still circles the area centuries later wearing its rider's saddle.

This is where I make my argument that the knight was actually a githyanki.

More below cut because this got really long.

In meta terms, the timeline works out. The Fiend Folio was published in August 1981. This was the full introduction of the githyanki to the world, so they'd only appear in publications after that. "The Palace of the Silver Princess" adventure module, also published in 1981, doesn't directly include the githyanki. I can't track down the specific month of the adventure's release. However, the adventure's writer Jean Wells worked for TSR. She would have been well aware of what was going on around her, and potentially helped in proofreading and editing thanks to working as an editor on other adventures (such as the famous "Keep on the Borderlands" module). She might have also read White Dwarf magazine #12, where the githyanki first appeared in the "Fiend Factory" section.

Within the adventure, there are several clues to the knight's identity. First, we have the requisite "riding a red dragon." Not impossible for other sorts of brigand knights, but the fact that riding red dragons has been linked to the githyanki since day one is, to me, a glaring neon sign. Second, the knight's armor is always described explicitly as "silver and blue," emphasizing its oddness. The Fiend Folio discusses how baroque and beautiful githyanki armor is, and exactly what kind of armor the knight wears isn't specified. It could be plate mail. It could be the typical githyanki splint mail.

Then, on the entrance level of the palace, the party can encounter a very strange trap. If the wrong key is used in a keyhole, a glowing silver sword will appear, and an illusion of the knight will appear to attack the party. The silver sword can be taken after the battle. It's a +1 sword, so not quite as powerful as the Fiend Folio's +3 silver swords. Still, the emphasis on it being silver feels quite pointed.

Githyanki are, from the Fiend Folio, raiders and plunderers. The most likely way to encounter them on the Material Plane is in raids, accompanied by a red dragon. A githyanki getting wind of a ruby worth as much as "My Lady's Heart," 10,000gp according to the adventure, would certainly pursue the treasure.

The story of a beautiful and kind woman charming a terrible man into abandoning his wicked ways is about as old as human history. And especially in "medieval" fantasy fiction, this sort of story is a classic. The 1970s in romance were marked by the bodice-ripper tale, which is a space where young, beautiful heroines fall afoul of--and often eventually redeem or reform--villainous, wicked men. In 1981, anyone writing a love story would be writing with that kind of backdrop. A woman like Wells, part of the target audience for romance novels, might be absolutely steeped in those tropes. The story of Argenta, the knight, and the dragon would fit right in.

So yeah. I hold that the knight was an early portrayal of a githyanki, although it's never stated explicitly, because all the hallmarks of the time were present and it makes for a damn good story. If that's true, then all of us writing fic about our beautiful and handsome protagonists falling afoul of, falling in love with, and occasionally reforming terrible space knights are carrying on a grand tradition from the good old days of D&D.

[daniarts19]

Characters in my LGBT headcanons

I just putting this because I can’t open my old account because of my google account being hacked,

Lesbian: Catra (She-Ra), Namaari, (Raya and the Last Dragon), Ivy (Carmen Sandiego 2019), Amity (The Owl House), Spinel (Steven Universe), Cassandra (Tangled), Andrea (The Ghost and Molly McGee), Mary (Total Drama), Apple White (Ever After High), Sammy (Camp Cretaceous), Alex (Dragons the Nine Realms) , Julia (Total Drama)

Gay: Ryan Akagi (Infinity Train), Shiro (Voltron), Benson (Kipo), Ryan (The Wild; my version of Ryan), Logs (Dead End), Bia Zao (Kung Fu Panda legend of Awesome; rewritten), Raj (Total Drama), Aristotle (Billie Bust Up), Diazo (Strange World), Bowie (Total Drama)

Bi: Frey Holland (Forspoken), Lapis (Steven Universe), Owen (Total Drama), Min-Gi (Infinity Train), Carmen Sandiego, Marcy (Amphibia) Luz (The Owl House), Alberto (Luca), Bodi (Rock Dog), Mirabel (Encantó), Jun (Dragons and the Nine Realms), Luisa (Encanto), Krel (3 Below), Edric (The Owl House), Moxxie (Helluva Boss), Tulip Olsen (Infinity Train), Lance McClain (Voltron), Raya (Raya and the Last Dragon), Naomi (Elena of Avalor), Lena (Ducktales), Savannah (Ron’s Gone Wrong), Viper (Kung Fu Panda), Mr. Snake (The Bad Guys), Priya (Turning Red), Eda (The Owl House), Tyler (Turning Red), Lil'Foxy/Francine (Rock Dog), Chizu (Samurai Rabbit), Kitsune (Samurai Rabbit) , Sasha (Amphibia), Ethan (Strange World; respect that opinion), Norma (Dead End), Priya (Total Drama), Hunter (The Owl House), Naida (Lego Elves), Lucy Santana (Daniel Spellbound), Peng (Kung Fu Panda Legend of Awesome; rewriten), Wakko (Animaniacs), Yaz (Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous), Millie (Total Drama), Star (Star vs the Forces of Evil), Ellody (Total Drama), Mermista (She-Ra), Lily Lightly (MLP G3 My version), Raven Queen (EAH), Abe (Clone High), Soleil (Fright Krewe), Hal (Wish), Starlight Glimmer (MLP), Axel (Total Drama), Frida (Clone High), Marianne (Strange Magic; my version ), Floyd (Trolls), Connor (Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken)

Ace: Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony; Biromantic), Mantis (Kung Fu Panda; panromantic), Mr. Peabody (heteroromantic), Hans (Frozen; heteromantic), Libby (The Ghost and Molly McGee; biromantic), Ms. Tarantula (The Bad Guys; panromantic), Anne (Amphibia; panromantic), Ezekiel (Total Drama; heteromantic), Luca (heteromantic), Lilith Clawthorne (The Owl House House; Aroace), Po (KFP), Abby (Turning Red; Panromantic), Angus (Rock Dog; Heteroromantic) Lauren/Scary Girl (Total Drama; Aroace), Peridot (SU; Aroace), Sierra (TD; Aroace), Douxie (Tales of Acardia; Biromantic), Byx (Endling; Panromantic), Jay Snake (Descendants; Demiromantic), Octavia (Helluva Boss; Biromantic), Elian (Spellbound; Biromantic)

Pan: Adora (She-Ra), Kipo (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeast), Sam (Green Eggs and Ham), Jo (Kid Cosmic), M.T/Lake (Infinity Train), Wander (Wander Over Yonder), Camilo (Encanto), Molly McGee (The Ghost and Molly McGee), Val Little (Monsters at Work), Blitzo (Helluva Boss), BeetleJuice, Emira (The Owl House), Rider (Centaurworld), Nooshy (Sing 2), Yuichi Usagi (Samurai Rabbit), Zack (Carmen Sandiego), Willow (The Owl House), Casey (Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur), Kitty (Total Drama), Wandering Blade (The Dragon Knight), Valor (Bravelands; my version), Briar Beauty (EAH; my version), Cheng Lonnie (Descendants; my version), Tom (SVTFOE), MK (Total Drama), Ruby Gillman

Queer: Katie (The Mitchells vs the Machines), Stolas (Helluva Boss), Honeymaren (Frozen), Vi (Arcane; into being lesbian) Caitlyn (Arcane; possibly Bi)

Trans: Barney (Deadend; also gay)

Non-Binary: Thunder (Nine Realms; Pronouns as He/Him), Nari (Tales of Acardia: Pronouns as She/Her), Raine Whispers (THO), The Collector (THO; Pronouns as He/Him), Asher (Kipo), Billie (Billie Bust Up; pronouns as she/they and her/them)

Demi:, Tin Tin (Heteromantic) Doom (The Bad Guys Books; biromantic), Vee (Panromantic) Aira (Lego Elves; biromantic), DJ (Total Drama; heteromantic)

Well I hope you like this. (Please don’t send rude comments, just respect this).