#not small enough that it kills off such a huge amount that the species would perish so evolution just didn't evolve it

[swaglexander-the-great]

People have this unquestioned assumption that evolution strives towards a ‘perfect’ organism. Evolution doesn’t have a concept of perfect, it just works towards a point where a sustainable amount of the population will survive, then fucks off.

'the human body is perfect god doesnt make mistakes' what about wisdom teeth then. huh. gonna let those bastards grow in and fuck up your jaw for god. didnt think so

[the-greatest-magic-of-all]

Because I THOROUGHLY enjoy sending things to you, have this :3

Loyal Knight AU - Riz plans or milking this idiots wallet dry

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

This office sucked but it was all he could afford at the moment. Freezing cold in the winter, boiling hot in the summer and with barely any soundproofing meaning he could hear whispered conversations from three doors down with his sensitive hearing. At least it was better than working out of his tiny apartment, mostly because it looked professional and he could actually meet with clients here without it seeming weird.

Riz had managed to get a bit of a reputation over the last year or so, solving some pretty complicated cases in between his more regular fair of spouses trying to catch their partners cheating. It wasn’t a huge amount of money but it was enough to help his mom pay the rent and put food on the table more often than not. Of course he had to pretend to be older than what he actually was, no one would take a seventeen year old seriously as a PI but he was good at his job despite his age.

Being self-employed at his age was strange but barely anyone would hire a goblin and especially not one so young for as much as he was making now. Riz was a very good rogue though, with a preternatural talent for this kind of work that gelled well with his knack for adventuring. It was mostly solo adventuring though since he hadn’t found a party, involving plenty of stealth since he was particularly weak as one of the smaller species. Relations between goblins and the humanoid races were getting better but they still weren’t fantastic.

Riz had been tearing down and packing away a clue board from his most recent case, successfully closed and handed off to his client for a decent sum of cash, when his door was flung open with quite an amount of force. The goblin jumping in surprise and biting back the urge to hiss at the elf?...no, half-elf… standing silhouetted in the light from the hallway outside. The well-dressed young man squinting around in confusion before his single eye, the other one clearly only recently lost if the fresh wound across his cheek and brow only half hidden by an eyepatch were any indication, settled on Riz and he broke into a grin.

“Ah! Excellent, I thought you were closed since the light was off.” He let the door swing shut behind him, reaching for the light switch on the wall and flicking it on to illuminate the room properly. The bright, audibly buzzing overhead light making Riz wince and pin his ears back when he had to adjust to the sudden light. He’d had the damn thing off for a reason, mostly because he didn’t need it with his darkvision but also he’d been awake for nearly four days straight by this point and his head was killing him.

“I was recommended this place, they said there’s an excellent detective here and I require their services. When can I expect them to be in, or should I make an appointment through you?”

Riz resisted the urge to sigh, stepping down off the stool he’d been using to reach the top corner of his clue board and dusting his hands off on his pants. “I’m the detective. How can I help?”

“You? But you’re-“ The half elf frowned, the unspoken ‘a goblin’ left lingering in the air as Riz stared up at him. He was all tailored clothes and expensive jewellery layered over refined elven features that just screamed massive disposable income. That and the fresh injury meant that he was probably on a quest for revenge and those clients always came with the best payouts so Riz grit his teeth so he wouldn’t say anything rude and scare off a big payday.

“Yes, me.” The goblin flicked the tip of his tail, the sharp movement the only thing betraying his annoyance as he tried to keep his face locked in a pleasant ‘customer service’ mask. Tall-men like this never noticed the subtle body language and this one was apparently no exception, making a small ‘huh’ noise before he moved to sit in the chair on the clients side of his large desk.

“Fair enough, as long as you can get the job done that’s all that matters. I need you to help me find someone.”

The rogue made a noise that indicated he was listening, stepping around the boxes he’d been using to file away his clue board and settling into his chair across from the half-elf.

“Someone tried to kill me with an enchanted blade, the healers say it can’t be repaired with magic.” They gestured to the ragged wound on their face, Riz glancing at him as he pulled a drawer open to search for his pre-made contracts. “They also tried to kill my Mama, and mortally wounded my Papa. I want to find them and repay the favour, is this something you can assist me with?”

“Yes. Terms of the contract are standard and will include an allowance for the duration, but working out how much to charge in the end might be a bit tricky since I don’t know how difficult the job will be, or how long it will take.”

“Payment is not an issue. You can decide what payment you want later once we find out who the bastard is.”

“If that’s what you want.” Okay, definitely a rich asshole with more money than sense on a revenge quest. He could easily charge double, or even triple his usual going rate and they wouldn’t even notice. Plus, it’s not like they’d be able to get out of paying, his family may have left the fae wilds a couple generations back but contract magic still ran strong and it would be magically binding in a way that was nigh impossible to remove.

 Riz scanned through the contract, filling in what details he’d been given before sliding it across to his client with the pen for him to add anything else that was relevant. The goblin flicking an ear when he noticed that the man wasn’t really reading the contract so much as just… looking at the page. His eye was darting around too much and he looked like he was having issues, though once he got to the back page he seemed to focus properly. Squinting at the ‘Payment to be decided by detective on completion’ Riz had written on the portion where a monetary amount would usually go before he signed his name at the bottom.

“Excellent. Is that all then?”

“Oh no. I’m going to need a few more details than that, maybe a good look at where you were attacked for starters.” Riz took the contract back, signing his own name on the bottom and feeling a shiver run down his spine as his own magic took hold.

“That won’t be a problem. What shall I call you then… Detective?”

“Riz is fine.” The rogue squinted at the fancy, looping handwriting of the half-elf at the bottom of the contract before folding it and putting it away in a locked drawer. Reaching across the table and offering his hand to shake which the man took happily. “It’s going to be nice working with you Mister Seacaster.”

YES!! I love it!!

Fabian had felt the slight burst of arcane energy when the Dectective signed his name on the contract but paid it no mind. His Mama's scroll club friend had assured him that this guy was a legit professional. The Goblin had discovered her family's missing heirloom (and her husband's affair) in no time, with no tricks or extra fees.

So, whatever was in that contract with the small print that gave Fabian a headache just thinking about reading it was probably nothing serious. He didn't even look like a full spellcaster anyway! Though, Fabian hadn't exactly clocked him as a detective either.

Almost putting his foot in his mouth thanks to the cliche of The Hard-Boiled Detective usually having an attractive and capable secretary. Sue him! The man had amber eyes and high cheekbones with freckles all over them! Even the slight bags under his eyes and loosened tie gave him a certain tired handsomeness that, you know, Fabian should have clocked as Detective-esque. That's on him.

Either way, when Fabian left with the Detective from his dingy, little office to Seacaster Manor to let him have a look around, he was confident he'd get his revenge within the month. How hard could it be to track down one guy?

[blueper-saiyan]

I’m overanalyzing something that’s canonically not meant to be thought about, for fun, so here’s a speculative Saiyan biology question: how often do they actually need to eat? I’ve sort of joked about the possibility that it’s like large predators irl where they gorge themselves occasionally and then wait until the next big kill. This would balance out the amount they’re eating to closer to a normal human, just a surprising amount in one sitting, and dodge the thing I’m about to go off the deep end about. But I think they’re probably supposed to need that amount frequently? Which is like, rodent levels of frequency and portions, but unlike a small mammal, a huge amount of actual food consumed. It’s fine if there’s only a handful of Saiyans on a whole planet but how did that work when there was a lot of them? That’s a massive amount of food, where is it coming from? Are they mostly feeding their army by taking food from conquered planets? They’d still need to be producing enough for their homeworld. Is it being farmed automatically and that’s how they can have the majority of their whole species be soldiers? But like, Gine has a job processing meat, so it’s clearly not entirely automated. Stuck thinking about Saiyan agricultural production and supply logistics help.

Unfortunately, I can also say that almost immediately after finding out the amount that Saiyans eat, the back of my mind did jump to “how fast do they starve?” Like, is that a much bigger threat for them than a human or do they have about the same amount of reserves, even if they’re eating more? If it is way faster, how does that affect how they view food/hunger? As a fun irl example, hummingbirds have such an insane metabolism that they would potentially starve to death if they slept at night. So they don’t sleep like normal, they enter a state that’s more like hibernation to slow their metabolism down enough to survive. Many hummingbird species are fiercely territorial because they need access to their food source or they starve. I imagine a theoretical hummingbird society would be thinking about food differently. And because this is my indulgent post where I get to talk about animals, I’m also going to bring up vampire bats, which could also potentially starve if they can’t feed within two days or so (I did not go deep into scientific literature to find original numbers and sources for this estimate I’m sorry true bat fans. Actually same goes for the hummingbird estimate but I know more about birds.). Unlike the more territorial hummingbirds though, vampire bats roost together during the day in colonies, with the same other bats repeatedly. And their food source can’t be guarded like a flower patch can, so there’s less purpose to territoriality. So they can form long term friendships with each other by interacting in ways like grooming each other. Within these friendships, when one bat gets a meal during their few-hour-a-night feeding window, but the other one doesn’t, the one who got enough food will often share with their friend to keep them from going hungry. Then their friend returns the favor when their roles are reversed, keeping them both alive, along with the rest of their friend network.

So those are some very different responses to needing food nearly constantly. If I were deeper in ecology mode I could probably try and come up with explanations based on the types of food source and territory and other factors for why, but I’m here to apply this to Saiyans lol. Honestly, a cooperative strategy would make more sense given that they’re pretty human-like, but that’s certainly not the sense we get given of their society. Were they always super individualistic or is that a recent development? Are they even actually individualistic or is that fully a societal role thing (elites are different from lower class warriors)? Or is the idea that they don’t cooperate partly a lie made up after their deaths anyway? Speculative biology for intelligent species get the extra layer of culture just to make things more messy and fun. We also know pretty much nothing about their original home planet and the actual context that shaped them, so I don’t get to apply other factors, like how easy it is to defend food sources or how important it is to stick together. We probably won’t ever get to know anything more about their original homeworld/Sadala, which is disappointing given that we got hints about it, but it does leave more room for speculation.

[surveillance-0011]

Other misc HOL hcs that im just putting in the same post bc why not

Douglas is capable of driving and has a motorbike. Probably wrecked it some time before the game's events and it's in the shop or something. Not like he should be allowed on the road considering he's usually. Well. Yknow. Decent driver when he's sober though.

Also his lil fins flop down when he is sad tired or sick

Angela wears colored contacts. His actual eye color is purple (like in the concept art + model in the art book).

Krubis did try to crash the wedding between his wife and Giblets. it was a whole thing within the g3 for like a month or so

Mux owns the space versions of twitter and tiktok alongside Muxxalon. Muxxalon also has a streaming service full of very, very trashy and unoriginal content.

Moplets and Furgles share a common ancestor and are part of the same order. It's like humans in comparison to lemurs.

Furgles are often used in experiments not just by the G3 but in the scientific world as a whole for the same reasons animals like rats and fruit flies are used (simple, still adjacent/similar enough to sapient species, shorter lives which means more generations to be studied in a shorter amount of time)

Krubis skateboarded as a teen/young adult.

Giblets would kill a man for a white chocolate mocha. He has killed for a white chocolate mocha. He will kill again. Posthumously, even. Don’t fucking test him

Garmantuous’s species starts off as aquatic nymphs that resemble joints. They’re very small but grow to the huge size they are in game.

Gene deals with chronic pain from overexertion during his line of work and phantom + growing pains in his legs.

Knifey, pre-DLC, felt distant from the others. Initially it was all just work but seeing the bond between the Bounty Hunter and the Gatlians form + Gene start caring for other people again made him feel a lil left out

Granted it was not like he talked much to others and for a while he didn’t gaf at all but ig when he saw it all he eventually took a chance for a change of scene. He didn’t realize everyone else kinda counted him in, in the end

Either way he’s usually the type not to talk unless someone talks to him first or if it’s about stabbing and maiming killing etc etc etc or something he needs. Gradually opening up more but he’s actually pretty quiet on a day to day basis

Helen ends up working with Gurgula as a secretary/record keeper (squanch games please keep this gag running I beg of you)

[bokettochild]

Wait. If the Lu boys were in httyd and had a baby deathsong to take care of, who would be the best and who would be the worst at taking care of it?

Oh, I remember THIS episode!

Okay, so, putting the boys in charge of a baby dragon that screams near incessantly, and only chills out when eating and/or being sung too (as singing/vibration are main forms of communication for it's species) is setting some of them up for failure.

I say Warriors has a great singing voice, but he has the biggest issue with letting people hear it. Am i projecting my fear of public singing onto him? Yes. Yes I am. He's so used to people making fun of his voice that he doesn't like using it unless he's masking, and singing makes masking HARD. His voice isn't rumbly either, so baby dragon really isn't too fond of him. It's kind of odd that the one hero whose spirit animal is a dragon doesn't work well with a baby dragon, but ah well.

Wind is alright handling the little one. He helped with Aryll, but I can promise you that even if we love babies, older siblings get tired of the screaming too. He would try his best with handling the little guy, but again, as we all know, baby deathsongs only chill out at the sound of song/soothing vibrations, and Wind is a teenager just entering puberty. His voice is anything but smooth or rumbly, it is breaking. All. The. Time. So yeah, not great for soothing babies of any species

Four honestly can't stand the thing. He's got enough voices screaming at him INSIDE his head, why would he want a baby dragon screaming at him from outside? I mean, Shadow would definitely 100% try and convince him to help with a baby dragon (Shadow has a huge soft spot for animals that can kill you but are babies), but he'd only do it for Shadow.

Now, Twilight is okay. It's well established that Twi can't sing for the life of him (I mean, he CAN, but he shouldn't). His voice does rumble nicely, but the dark magic lingering on him tends to throw baby animals off because THREAT! Danger! Hide! So yeah, he shuts the thing up, but only because it's scared of him. (He is very upset by this.)

Wild, similarly, is a bad choice. Wild is a decent singer, and the scars and damage from his past do make his voice sound nicer to dragons, but he his magic feels WACK and really makes very young dragons rather wary of him, because, again, THREAT! He is helpful in providing stuff to eat to keep the lil guy busy though, and has endless stuffs to play with, shiny stuff.

Also a not great choice is Legend. Legend has a great singing voice, likely even the best (being cursed with mer attributes has it's perks) but unfortunately while he can wrangle small animals with a lot of skill, and yes, he can keep the thing calm, for some reason they can't figure out, the baby dragon likes trying to bite Legend. Only Legend. It doesn't even seem mad, it just likes chewing on him. Granted, if he wears gauntlets, this keeps the baby busy for a while, and he will literally be sitting there with a dragon dangling off his wrist by it's teeth, but he's not keen on that, so he's more a last resort option.

Sky does decently he sings, he's strong enough to wrangle the thing,a nd dragons respond well to him to begin with. Granted, the little guy takes more energy than he really has, but he's trying his best. Luckily for him, he's one of two heroes that has a voice deep enough that singing even isn't needed, because the rumble in his voice is enough to make baby dragons feel safe.

Hyrule is the second best choice for handling dragons. For how many have tried to kill him, he's got a surprisingly skilled touch, and his magic maybe has something to do with that. His singing is not rich or rumbly at all, but it's just the right amount of Haunting for a death song to feel at home, and his whole aura has a similar feel to the species. There are legends that deathsongs are the fea or sirens of the dragon world, and seeing Rule with a baby deathsong kinda drives that theory home and tucks it in bed.

The best person though, is Time. He thinks nothing of the little guy climbing over him. like Hyrule, he's just Other enough to feel like home to the little guy, and his voice is rich, deep AND beautiful, so it kinda sounds like a daddy deathsong, so baby feels quite comfortable just chilling with Time. The armor is also pretty helpful, since he's at less risk of biting if the lil guy get's playful. More than that, time is used to mischievous creatures, and a baby dragon is no issue for him. He is literally the perfect combination of Other, nice voice, strong and safe, and playful for the little guy to feel happy.

[ilearnedthistodaysblog]

#1071 Why don’t army ants make nests?

Why don’t army ants make nests? Army ants can clear an area of insects and food in a few days, so they have to keep on the mood to find more food. Most species of ants build complex nests that have interlocking tunnels and chambers for different purposes. They have places to keep their larvae, places to store food, and other structures. They even have air vents that poke out through the ground to ventilate the nest. Ants can shift about fifty times their own weight, but they are pretty small, so one ant doesn’t move an awful lot of soil. It can take months, sometimes even a year before an ant nest is complete and even then it is constantly undergoing construction and repairs. The queen is always in a chamber in the very center of the nest, which is for safety. All of the ants in the colony have different jobs. Some of them find food, some of them fight, and some of them are responsible for building the nest. Army ants don’t build nests. Before we look at why, lets look at what an army ant is. There are over 200 different species of army ants, but they all exhibit similar traits that make them interesting. The first is the amount of food they eat and the way they eat it. A regular ant colony has between 50,000 and 100,000 ants in it. They can consume a lot, but they never out consume the area they live in. An army ant colony has about 15 million ants living in it. They can catch and consume huge quantities of food. They do this in two ways. The first line of attack are the workers. They head out from wherever the colony is based and look for small insects. They generally target bees, wasps, other ants, and anything small they can find. They have strong mandibles and they can make short work of most small insects. The second line of attack are only found in a few species of army ants and they are called submajors. They have evolved to be much larger than the regular workers and they have long legs and very strong mandibles. They can catch and cut up much larger insects and spiders to be carried back by the regular workers. Because of their sheer numbers and the extra large ants, army ants can carry back about 3,000 insects an hour to the center of their colony, sometimes killing 500,000 in a day, and they will decimate any area that they travel through. When army ants move into an area, there is usually an exodus of insects moving out of the area. The fact that army ants clear an entire area of insects when they arrive is the reason why they don’t make permanent nests like other ants do. If they lived in one place, they would run out of food within a few days. The only choice they have is to move to where the food is. The army ants tend to stay in one place and then move on about once every twenty days. So, while they are in one place, where do they live? That is the second fascinating thing about them. They live in a nest that they make out of their own bodies. It is called a bivouac. The stationary period lasts for as long as it takes for the queen’s eggs to develop. The queen lays her eggs and about ten days later, the ants make their bivouac. The queen stays inside it and the ants fetch food to feed her and the newly hatched larvae. When the larvae are developed enough, the ants move on. So, how do army ants make a bivouac? They find a suitable place, which is somewhere like an overhanging rotten log. Workers at the top grip the log until they have completely covered it. Then, by gripping each other’s legs or bodies, the ants form a nest that hangs off the log and is made entirely of interlocked ants. There may be as many as 700,000 ants in the structure. Inside the structure are tunnels and chambers that the queen and the larvae can live in. There are entrances and paths for workers to bring food in. There are even air vents that can be opened and closed to keep the nest ventilated and at the right temperature. Then, once the larvae are developed enough, the ants disconnect and carry on their way. Researchers have collected ants from the forest, in a giant vacuum cleaner, and put them in a lab. No matter what kind of army ants they hoover up, the ants automatically make the same kind of bivouac. It is unclear how they know how to do it or where the knowledge comes from. Maybe it is just a sense. They will also link together to make bridges over gaps that other ants can walk across. It is fascinating. And this is what I learned today. Photo by Estiak Jahan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/ants-in-macro-photography-11942086/ Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bivouac_(ants) https://www.howitworksdaily.com/ant-architects-how-do-ants-construct-their-nests/ https://www.orkin.com/pests/ants/ant-nests https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/how-army-ants-build-city-like-nests-using-their-own-bodies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_ant https://expeditions.fieldmuseum.org/army-ants Read the full article

[startistdoodles]

Since we are on the topic about him

Do you have any headcanons about swordsman and the dark matter race in general?

Yes!! I have quite a few thoughts about them as a matter of fact, so this might get long haha.

Dark Matter Species

Dark Matter and Light Matter (what Kirby’s species is made of) are related species that both come from Void. Dark Matter in particular is negativity and hatred given physical form.

Given that they are made of hatred, they thrive off of misery and negative emotions and grow weaker in the presence of positive emotions. They can only be defeated with the use of a Light Weapon, which have all since been lost to time.

The most ancient incarnation of pure Dark Matter is Zero, who serves as the ruler of all of the lesser Dark Matters.

By feeding on enough dark particles and negativity, Zero can reproduce asexually to create even more Dark Matter underlings. This is a trait unique to him, as lesser Dark Matters are not strong enough to reproduce.

On rare occasions, a Dark Matter can be born that contains trace amounts of Light Matter which causes them to experience more sincere emotions and physical traits not found in others of their kind. However, such emotions are a sign of weakness among the clan, and weak links are quickly eliminated by Zero or one of his henchmen.

Dark Matter are also known for being quite aggressive among others of their kind and will attack each other if they sense weakness.

Zero, as well as the rest of the Dark Matter, can utilize psychic abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis. Zero himself can even overwhelm the minds of others to an excruciating degree.

Dark Matter is known for their ability to possess various things such as living creatures and inanimate objects. They can pass their own physical characteristics to their hosts in a way that is completely unnatural and strange. Young and/or inexperienced Dark Matter struggle with fully possessing a victim but they can possess small objects and creatures with very low mental willpower.

Being freed from Dark Matter possession leaves the host with lingering side effects for the next few days, such as feeling lightheaded and nauseous. They can also suffer more frequent nightmares and feelings of misery and irritability. These effects will wear off in a few days.

Dark Matter Blade

Zero's most trusted henchman. He is one of the captains of the Dark Matter army and the strongest one too. Skilled with a sword and effectively unable to be killed, he is a huge threat to the GSA.

His first mission as captain was to slay a Star Warrior. But something deep down inside him didn't have the heart to fully go through with it.

He has a deep inner conflict about his role as a member of Dark Matter that he keeps buried as much as he can. Despite his front, he is a deeply lonely person. However, any sign of weakness could get him destroyed by his master.

Like the rest of his kind, he doesn't need to eat actual food to survive. If given the chance, however, he would love to try Dreamland's cuisine as it looks very tasty to him.

Gooey was banished by Zero after having escaped being destroyed by him. Blade pities Gooey, and occasionally hopes he is well back on Popstar. (Gooey Headcanons)

[strawwritesfic]

Thanos x Alien!Reader: Lights

Summary: One must learn to pick one’s battles, especially when dealing with a lover like Thanos.

Rating/Warnings: T (referenced one-sided!Thanos/Death; Thanos and reader in a sort of open relationship; sexual implications; reader is not a fan of Nebula; reader of undefined species; foul language; set pre-Guardians of the Galaxy)

Challenge:  "25 days of Christmas" Challenge by Sweet-n-Chaotic on Lunaescence Archives.

Tag List: @imaginesfire

Lights

If one chose to visit Earth in the middle of December—especially certain sections of Earth—they would find it buried not under the snow so often spoken of in their seasonal songs, but rather a deluge of trinkets, trees, and twinkling lights. Christmas had never really caught on throughout the greater galaxy. The only people who really celebrated it tended to be abductees from the planet itself, or the occasional “alien” that had visited during Christmastime and caught some sort of obsession about it.

You were neither. Earth had been graced with your presence only once or twice, and so many years ago that you could hardly remember it. Seeing holiday decorations strung around the already cluttered cities you frequented often caused you to snort derisively. Not this year, though. This year, you’d decided to take all that “festivity” and do your own cluttering.

Admittedly, that did not mean much, given the space you lived in. Sanctuary 2 might have been an enormous ship, but your quarters weren’t all that impressive. Stuffing several gallons of synthetic snow, a large spindly plant, piles of boxes, and tiny glass women with wings inside there made your quarters look even less impressive. You could hardly move around anymore. Were you finished, though? No, not yet. There remained one thing to complete this eyesore.

“What is it that you’re attempting to do here?”

Just in time. As you switched on your last detail, Thanos himself clomped into your room. He looked just as ridiculous as you had hoped among all the trappings of your holiday cheer. His purple face especially didn’t do so well under the constant shifting of the flickering silver lights you’d just finished lining the ceiling with.

“Oh, hi, honey,” you said, in mock surprise. “You’re home early.”

“I’m home precisely when I told you I would be. What have you done to my ship?” he demanded.

“I have done nothing to your ship. I have decorated the small area of said ship that you allot me for my services.”

“Why?”

You and Thanos had known each other for a very long time. On and off though your relationship might have been (depending on how Death was treating him at any given time), he knew you better than most beings did. His question was not for his own benefit, but a reminder of what you had to lose by answering a certain way. But that was the thing: You and Thanos had known each other for a very long time. Yes, he was a huge threat to the galaxy. To you? Not so much. If Thanos intended to kill you, he would have done it by now.

Very, very slowly you stood up to your full and considerable height. “I decorated for Christmas.”

“You don’t celebrate Christmas.”

“You don’t know that.”

“You’ve never celebrated it before.”

“I decided to turn over a new leaf. For all you know, I found spiritualism and this is my way of expressing it. You don’t know everything I get up to while you’re away. Questioning me about my newfound belief is just rude.”

The two of you stared at each other. You refused to break eye contact. In the middle of this, some of the synthetic snow you’d purchased built up enough near the ceiling to deposit itself directly on top of Thanos’ bald head. No amount of stuffing your hand in your mouth could prevent you from laughing at that.

He grit his teeth as he swiped the wet stuff onto the floor to begin the process anew. “You will find spiritualism when the Skrulls find a safe place to live. Do you even know what Christmas is celebrated for?”

Damn. You knew you’d forgotten to look something up for this scheme. Thanos stood and waited for your answer, and you knew he’d wait as long as it took for you to procure one. He was nothing if not patient.

“What if I told you that I was more into the aesthetic than the actual celebration part?” you asked.

“Tell me honestly, [Name]. What is this all about?”

One thing Thanos was not was good with women. If he had been, Death would have accepted him long ago. So it should not have surprised you that you had to spell it out for him. You had parted after a rather sticky fight, and you’d never been one to take an argument sitting down—not even one from a man on the hunt for godlike power.

“Fine,” you said. “It’s your ship, but they’re my quarters.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning! Meaning that I’m going to do what I want with them! You go gallivanting around the galaxy looking for your Infinity Stones, embroiling yourself in the war on Kree, training your daughters, courting Death, and you expect me not to care. But I spend one evening with another man and you’re threatening to kick me out. I may let you keep me, Thanos, but you don’t own me. I need something to call my own. Or else I may go looking for quarters elsewhere.“

His eyes narrowed. They looked from your face, to the snow, to the tree and figurines and boxes. Then he heaved a sigh so heavy his shoulders fell before he turned to leave the room. “I want it all down. You may keep the lights.”

“Really?”

“Everything else comes down.”

You couldn’t help a small grin at having won this small victory. “If you insist.”

“I do. And I insist you join myself and my daughter for dinner.”

Ugh, that usually entailed several hours of listening to Nebula kissing up.

“Do I have to? Okay, okay. I’ll be down in hour,” you added at the look on his face. One victory was enough for the night. You didn’t want to press your luck too hard. What would do if he really kicked you out? No one else in the galaxy knew you quite so well as he did.

[arllenn]

Hey there, I rarely check on Tumblr nowadays due to work and stuff but I've played Dragon Raja for a while now so if it's not too troubling, I would like to request a fic of MC giving Osho and the others a well deserved verbal smack down during the final showdown (the MC didn't blame the Gen siblings for what happened to them and managed to save Erii from Osho). Bonus if MC cut ties from everyone after the mission... Sorry, I'm a huge fan of angst.

Tags for this chapter: angst, violence, all bitter no sweet, respawn system gets abused for angst Tw: cannon typical violence, graphic-ish descriptions of death, blood, suicidal thoughts and almost actions, wounds and the like

You’re clutching yourself as you shake knees getting weaker by the second, hiccuping and heaving the flood of tears that decorates both your face and the street under you with the weight of your emotions are the only constant for you. You’re drowning in your own emotions, phantom pains of all of your recent deaths and revivals clawing at you demanding your attention, demanding your time. You’re hugging yourself trying to mimic the comforting action that you remember from your childhood. “Why isn’t it working.” You choke out sobbing harder as you grip your arms. It’s too tight yet not tight enough, your limbs responding to your pleas is a sign that you’re still alive yes, but, but this is, this isn’t what you want.... this isn’t what you want at all. Your nails are far sharper than you remember them they tore through the flesh of your arms lightly. You could feel Herzog’s claws ripping through your flesh as well, everything hurt, you want to go home, you want to go home, you want to go home.....

But you can’t. Everyone was dead, at one point Caesar had said that Black Swan Bay had sunken, so the actual land was probably gone too, nothing left to remember that place but you Zero and Z. God you wanted to see them right now, the area on your head that he had patted earlier seemed warm giving you a small amount of comfort but also dealing even more damage to your psyche. You wanted to go back to those warm days in your childhood when none of this was known to you. When you weren't running around matchmaking and doing everyone else's work while also getting nothing in return, not a thanks, not even a small indirect amount of appreciation or encouragement. Your legs buckled under you your arms reching out as if to grab onto something to stop you from falling. Your knees met with the ground violently scraping at the skin there. You can't breathe, you can't breathe, youcantbreatheyoucantbreatheyoucantbreatheyoucantbreathe, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts, why is he doing this to you didn't he love you? That man, Herzog, had raised you. You had spent so much time at that orphanage, you were so happy. So why.  whywhywhywhywhyhwhywhy. You recalled warm winter nights spent in front of the fireplace curled up with Zero on one side and Z on the other.

You remembered one day specifically. Back then you lot were young, so, so, so, young. You chuckled choking on your tears, that day Z and you had spent a solid hour arguing over who would run over to get Zero, that day it had started raining, then the rain had turned to hail mid hide and seek game. Z had found you moments before the storm started. You two ended up huddled under the ice bridge. The orphanage in sight but seeming miles away due to the storm. Zero had been caught first and had gone back to the courtyard as per the rules so she was probably fine. You needed one of you to go and get her so that she could bring back an umbrella for the other. Then you had heard it, the sound of thunder wolves nearby. Then Z, with no hesitation had, scooped you up put your head under one of the flaps or his jacket and ran back to the cottages. All while you could hear the heavy ‘thunk thunk thunk’ of wolf paws behind you. Looking back on it now those wolves were probably the result of Herzog’s experiments and not a naturally occurring species. The souring of your childhood memory made bile rise in your throat, the thought of looking at your early life through that lens rather than just christmas day made you want to scream. Z and Zero were so different from your seniors. If you had been with any of them back then you knew for a fact that they would’ve sent you to deal with the wolves, only coming in when you were a hairs breath away from dying.

But that hadn’t save you before, you can’t count how many times you’ve died sense meeting them. From your flesh being torn from your bones by death servitors to bleeding out in some nameless alleyway after being shot by hydra’s soldiers. You had also drowned at one point, that death had been the worst. You remembered clawing at the water begging for the chance to live once again, you remembered feeling your legs tear off after the submarine had exploded, you remembered reaching your mangled arms out, out, out towards the light that came from the surface of the water. You remember feeling the water force itself down your throat and into your lungs, it burns, it hurts, it burns, it hurts. You had been seeing flashes of reality as well as the last time you ended up in cold waters like those. It didn’t matter because in the end you had died. It never matters how hard you try, how many times you die, because you always end up failing.

You lay on the sidewalk screaming, there was no one nearby nor anything that you could hear other than the pounding of rain on the sidewalk and your own sobbing. Your hand burned with the new blood that flowed inside you. Your mind burned with the scars of the past that it never got to address, your heart burned with the open wounds this mission had left you with. You wanted to die right here, sink away into nothingness. Stay in the room with the grand piano and flowing waters. No one could bother you there, no one could make you do meaningless tasks without your say, there was no matchmaking, no pointless errands, no suicide missions, there was nobody but yourself there, just you, just you. Luminous wouldn’t be there to make you do his work, he wouldn’t be there swearing to be by your side to help you while simultaneously doing nothing at best and dragging you down at worst. There wouldn’t be a Caesar there to send you on every reconnaissance mission with no backup and no direction. Johann wouldn’t be there to demand information on your past like he had even earned the right to know it, like he didn’t need to earn that right because it should just be given to him. Just you in a place where no one could hurt you.

You looked up from the ground that you had been staring at, bringing your hands up to your neck you squeezed. It wouldn’t work in terms of killing you, you knew that, but it worked as an easy substitute, feeling the pressure of your own hands on your neck, the shortness if not complete lack of breath, the light headed feeling, it served as a less drastic solution for now.

“It’s great to see you all safe and sound!” Eva’s voice cut through the momentary peace that you had found, your hands reflexively letting go of your neck.

“Safe and sound?!” You repeated in disbelief, “What part of any of me seems to be safe and sound?” It felt like she was mocking you. The memories of Herzog’s claws slicing through your spine, through every part of you, flashed then the words ‘It’s great to see you all safe and sound!’ Played over them, those words were the last thing you wanted to hear right now. Why,why,why,why,why is your pain always ignored like this? Why is it always your job to make everything right? You can’t do this anymore! You won’t do this anymore.

Bringing your fist up you smashed at your communicator, “Cassell- will...turn th-this into- into no-nothing more th-th-th-then a dream for every- every- everyone” Eva’s voice though distorted still managed to snake its way out of the thing despite all the damage you had done to it.

"AGH, SHUT UP!" You yell slamming your fist down harder and harder, each time screaming, begging for her to "JUST SHUT UP" You're crying even harder now. The glass that made up the outer layer of the screen. The rest of her words came out broken and jumbled, and even if they hadn't been due to the damage your screaming and shouting would've drowned it out anyways. "STOP. TALKING. JUST. SHUT. UP."

"Caesar helping you to-to-to destroy- criminal underworld.... true story- believe." Your fist paused midair at those words. Caesar had helped to destroy the criminal underworld? That was the story that they were going with? Not even the whole team, just Caesar what kind of absolute bullshit was that. You had done 100 times more then the supposed hero of the story, hell Luminous had done more, fucking Erii had done more. So where did they get off on this- this- you didn't even have a word for it it was so stupid, so stupidly infuriating. Herzog had said that the people from Cassell had experimented on you, and while he wasn't one to be trusted you sure do feel so fucking dumb for defending them. At least Herzog had the common decency to put up an air of kindness. These people just treated you like a convenient tool, something to be used and dealt with as they pleased. Something that didn't need thanks or praise or a break because it was an object meant to be used and thrown away as they saw fit. "Re-re-re-return to takamagahara to say-say-say-say-saysay goodbye-bye-bye to-" Your fist swung down with overwhelming strength shattering the communicator completely. Broken pieces of metal and glass embedded themselves in your hand bringing a fiery pain that slowly destroyed all of you in its wake. You fell even further onto the concrete clutching your hands one in the other relishing a bit sickly in the pain that it brought. Your right palm glowed with the same light it first had when you had accepted Erii's blood. Then it started rejecting the pieces of metal and glass in both of your hands. Slowly pushing them out and healing the cuts instantly once they were out.

Chuckling you flipped over your hands looking at both perfectly healed sides. It was like you had never been hurt in the first place. You marvled at them, twisting them over and over again, bringing them to your neck once again you smiled and closed your eyes. You had no idea what you were. Had you always been like this? An undying freak with special powers? Had Herzog's experiments done this to you? It was obvious that your new healing ability came from Erii's and the light king's combined blood but what about everything else? Had you been born this way? Was it Herzog's half baked evolution pills? Had Cassell truly experimented on you? Z said you had the capability to become a dragon lord now, but what did that mean? What did that make you? Your chuckles turned into full of peels of laughter, your cheeks stinging at the feeling of both the semi dried tear tracks being pulled at as well as the force of your laughter. The peels of laughter soon mixed with pained sobs and you were once again back to crying. You weren't going to put up with this anymore. Dropping your hands you slowly stood up like a puppet on strings. Walking at a slow pace one second in between each step you started walking.

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

Anjou is in one of the VIP rooms with a man dressed like a pastor. You don't care what they're talking about, stepping in front of the pastor you look over at him. He takes steps back on his own, unprompted, it's a first but then again you suppose that you probably look like the walking dead, and in a way you were, not to mention that you also felt like it. A lukewarm apathetic haze settled over your emotions as you looked down at Anjou. He's the second person you met after waking up, he's the whole reason you, a freshman at his wacky school that you hadn't even been asked if you wanted to join, were on this mission. How stupid is he? He had sent you, a person who had what he described as 'little control' over your extra skill and who had just woken up after a freeze bath in Siberia on this mission, an SS ranked one that he was hesitant to even send his best students on already. So why had he chosen you? Why did you have to die over and over for a cause you didn't understand and people you don't know. "Freshman." he nodded as though prompting you to speak. He never broke eye contact or even showed any emotions other than a laid back and relaxed expression. It pisses you off. Why is this old dingbat relaxing, kicking back and enjoying his time while your'e such a mess? He gestures for the priest to leave and he does. Leaning forward elbows on his knees he looks you up and down before going back to making eye contact. "What has you so worked up?"

You want to cry, its the closest you've gotten to an 'are you ok' sense waking up but at the same time you wanted no part of a wellness check led by the man in front of you. "Herzog said that Cassell College experimented on me. Is that true?" You can almost make out a hint of surprise in his eyes before he starts laughing. You bight your lips pulling them into your mouth in a desperate attempt to hold back your anger wanting to get your answer first before you rip him a new one.

"Goodness no, why would you ever believe anything that old snake had to say, and here I thought you were a once in a decade genius. I suppose that title still belongs to Johann then." You ball your hands into fists. Its more than obvious that he's making light of the situation. Didn't he know that you had been raised in Black Swan Bay? Didn't he know that Herzog, a man who you had trusted, had experimented on you? Is he incapable of connecting the dots between your trauma and your current situation combined with Herzog's words? No he did know, he knew and he still chose to make light of everything you had gone through. Insinuating if not blatantly saying that you were an idiot for believing that what happened to you once could happen again. Slamming your hand down on the table you levied on him the worst glare you could, the burning behind your eyes letting you know that you probably looked less menacing then you wanted to.

"Where the fuck do you get off saying something like that to me." It's phrased as a question but its really not. It's a challenge for Anjou to defend his words, one he unfortunately takes you up on.

"I understand that this whole mission and especially today has been taxing on your team but that doesn't mean you should and can snap at everyone like that freshman. Take sometime to cool off, go outside and talk to your seniors, hopefully they'll be able to reach you in ways I cannot." He's getting up to leave after his mini lecture, essentially passing you off to be someone else's problem but you wont let him leave that easily. Your hand grabs onto his forearm stopping him in his tracks. For a millisecond you consider punching him. Beating him over the head with one of the glasses on the table, but the part of your brain that still, despite everything, says that you ca't do that to him because he had pulled you out of Siberia's ice who knows how long ago says not to. And it wins.

"I'm not going to apologize for my language-" He cuts you off with a tut of his tongue, now you have no regrets for the words you planned on saying next. Letting go of his arm you continued. "I'm entitled to be angry when an asshole says asshole things. And I'm allowed to curse said asshole out however much I want." You step in front of the exit crossing your arms, you catch a momentary glimpse of your face in one of the metal outlinings of the wall as you do. You truly do look dead, eyes lifeless and lightless, face twisted into a painfully weak version of the you that you wanted to portray. You know that in this position you run the risk of your conversation leaking out of the room but honestly you don't care, like at all. At this point you want to just scream and cry your emotions out. But you can't because you don't want to, you don't want to be any weaker in front of anyone than you already are.

"Freshman-"

"I was raised by Dr. Herzog for so so many years and the whole time he was experimenting on me and everyone I knew. And-and-and you expect me to just trust you when you say that you didn't do anything. You expect me to rule that out as a possibility when you've given me no reason to, not in terms of character or proof. So why would you say that me believing that random strangers who I've known for less then a month and who I, if I'm being honest don't trust, experimenting on me is a dumb fear?" You clutch at your heart bunching up the cloth that protects it. "I just- do you see why thats dumb? Do you see why it makes no sense to me? One day I'm celebrating christmas as normal with my friends the next minute I'm smacked in the face with the fact that the man that I considered a father," you gag a bit on the word, "has been experimenting on me and everyone that I love, that he's been killing all of us as soon as we turn 18 because we wont survive to 22 because of his experiments? Finding out that he thought of us, children he had been raising for years as nothing more then science experiments who had outlived their uses. Do you have any idea how much that fucking hurt? I had to watch everyone die around me while I wasn't able to do anything! Zero even sacrificed her life to save me and I still ended up dying so many times anyways." You're clutching at yourself again, seeking comfort in the only arms that you can trust right now, your own. You're glaring down at the floor trying to blink the tears away. It doesn't work. You're basically two steps away from dry heaving and sobbing. Anjou reaches out his hand, most likely to guide you to sit down but you slap it away. "Don't fucking touch me. You sent me, a freshman who hadn't really even enrolled in your school or been given the choice to do so on a suicide mission with other students and no adult supervision from the college itself. I've died so many times sense waking up. It always hurts, it's never been painless, I've never been thanked and yet you expect me to just what- put my blind trust into you? I spent more time around Chime then I did you and he spent half of the time as Ruri Kazama."

'"Freshman you're hyperventilating you need to calm down."

"I WONT CALM DOWN" You're yelling now, its not the same kind of painful shouting that you had done earlier on the street, this is loud as well yes, but its from a frustrated sadness rather than a devastated anger. "Why did it have to be me? Weren't there other students you could've sent? Adults? Why did it have to be me? You had no reason to trust that I wouldn't kill the others. I had justwoken up and you decided that I was your best choice? You didn't tell me anything you just threw terms out and expected me to understand. You didn't even give me time alone to breathe let alone ask questions." Your chest is tight, you can feel each of your deaths, piercing pain of claws slicing through flesh, the burning heat of bullets, the singeing of fire, being torn to pieces. You can feel it all and it all hurts so much. You want it to stop, you need it to stop. You don't want to hear these people talk like they're your friends like they care anymore. It's all too much, you're almost sobbing now, curling in on yourself to try and mitigate any pain that may come.

"Newbie whats-"

You turn eyes catching onto Caesar, Johann, Luminous and Finger standing behind you. When did they get here, how much did they hear. It burns and it burns devouring everything in sight. All the memories that you have with them that you've been trying to view in a happy light, all of them crumble to the ground in front of you the moment you see them. "SHUT UP, USE MY NAME FOR ONCE WILL YOU?! NEWBIE DO THIS, FRESHMAN DO THAT, YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN ONCE USED MY NAME!" Full on sobbing you bulldoze through every thought that comes to mind yelling them out at the people surrounding you. "YOU'VE NEVER ONCE ASKED ME IF I WAS OK. YOU;VE NEVER ONCE SENT ANYONE WITH ME WHEN YOU SEND ME ON THOSE STUPID SUICIDE MISSIONS. I'M A FRESHMAN A NEWBIE YOU HAD NO REASON TO TRUST ME WITH ANY OF THIS. WHAT WOU;LD'VE HAPPENED IF I HAD DIED AND STAYED DEAD? WHAT WOULD'VE HAPPENED IF I HAD BEEN CAPTURED? WHAT THEN?" You clutch onto yourself harder, seeking even the smallest bit of comfort from the feeling. Your voice has lowered in volume, you no longer have the emotional or physical strength to do anything other than keep your voice above a whisper. "Do you lot remember when Ruri had specifically said that even two of us couldn't handle Herzog alone? And yet you still thought that it would be a good idea to send me up alone, acting like you were tough for taking care of the death servitors at the entrance." You sigh, there are so many other examples you could go through but you also don't want to be here any longer. "What about you Luminous? I get that you had to watch Erii, but making me do everything and anything you could think of by myself while knowing that Johann and Caesar were constantly sending me on missions as well? You even complained that I took too long to do things. Maybe if you did something for yourself for once instead of just saying that you will then running away and hiding like a coward these things wouldn't happen. Maybe then Erii, Chisei and Chime would still be alive and I wouldn't have to deal with- with this fucking guilt!"

"Look I'm sorry about the Erii thing but listen, we had no idea you were feeling like this. You should've come to us-" Finger is trying to mediate, trying to comfort you, but it only makes things worse.

"And how could I have," You croak out, "How could I have trusted that you would listen, that I would get a break? You never even presented the option for me to have any kind of choice in how I carried out my missions let alone not do them at all. I had nothing I still have nothing. I'm presumed dead at best and no longer exist at worst in terms of my original legal documents. And even if I had access to them I'm still 20 years younger then I'm supposed to be." With a watery chuckle you continue, "Even if I did tell you if I was thrown away I wouldn't have any papers to do anything, to get a job, to live a life, I'm completely reliant on the college for everything. Not to mention the fact that I know nothing about the world. If Cassell had deemed me" You shudder at the word "a failure, then I would've had nothing, not information on the world at current, not even an identity." You shake your head walking in between them and towards the exit. "I don't care I'm not doing this anymore. Find some other freshman to be you dog."

You walked out and onto the streets of Tokyo. You glanced back once lamenting the fact that you hadn't gotten to say goodbye to Zero. You turned away glancing in the direction of the convenience store that Luminous would always make you go to to buy Erii's milk. You trudged down the streets of Tokyo back to that place. Hopefully you can buy paper and a pen to leave her a note with what little money you have.

The bell on the store door jingled when you opened it. The man was standing behind the counter as he always was. You're experience with father figures have been lack luster this far but you've always thought that this man gave off the air of one. It made you relax, seeing someone that while familiar wasn't from the orphanage or Cassell. He looked up at you wearing that same smile that he always did. You knew it wasn't for you specifically but rather something that he probably gave all of his costumers but still it made you feel a bit warm inside.

"Hey kiddo you look a bit rough, everything ok?" You take a few steps forward and nod a bit

"I think it will be now. Or at least I hope so." He hums and nods his head at your answer deciding not to pry, a decision you appreciate.

"So then you here for the usual?" You look back at him and glance around the store, you don't see paper or pens of any sort. It's a bit of a let down but you suppose asking wouldn't hurt.

"Ah no actually," Your voice is still raw, and a bit choked up from all the crying and yelling that you did earlier, you hope you don't sound weird." "Do you sell like, um... paper and pens or something like that? I want to write a note to a friend before I leave."

He scratches at his chin mumbling under his breath as he thinks for a few seconds before getting up and going around the store coming back with a bottle of warm milk in hand. He then returns to his spot behind the counter pulling a note pad and pen out from under it. He places the milk next to the writing utensils and pushes them towards you. "Here, milks on the house, I don't sell paper or anything but feel free to use that and leave the note with me. I'll give it to your friend."

You give him a small smile. It's all that you can manage right now. Your eyes burn with tears again. "Thanks, my friends name is Zero she's blonde has blue eyes and is about," you place your hand were Zero's head is about as accurately as you can, "This tall. She has a flat affect and seems kinda emotionless but she really is a sweet girl. Um, her hairs long and she has a big black bow tying it back." The man nods his head repeating your description back to you. After gaining conformation he sticks his thumb up and takes the letter from you promising to hand it to her the moment she walks through the doors of his shop. You thank him one last time and promise to come back there if you're ever in trouble before leaving.

As you walk through Tokyo's streets aimlessly, you repeat the words in your letter, speaking them into the rain. "I hope that we can meet again in a more peaceful time, preferably away from the bay and Cassell as I don't have the best impression of them. With lots of love, your best friend..." You laugh a bit, your words were supposed to be a parody of what Z said to you. You think its fitting for a farewell letter.

You meld into the raindrops after looking back one last time.

[that--unusual-person]

Through some kind of magic, the pillarmen have turned into anthropomorphic animals, how would they react?

Fantasy AU. Engage. im going all in.

Kars

- A concoction gone terribly right. Well, to him at least.

- It was a successful feat, Kars had managed to manifest bird-like properties from extracts of several different species.

- But, there was a problem. The potion had only some effect on his body, physically. He was aiming for the sight of a hawk, and the keen swimming power of a duck, and a resistance to cold weather like penguins. Hell he even got peacock dna. But he was very disappointed from the results of the potion only confusing certain parts of his body.

- He thinks the flamingo blood caused the change in the potion. Their high amount of spirulina in their bacteria must have made his body resist most of the transformation, allowing the cells to morph with half his body.

- The process of the evolution was interrupted making only his arms and legs morphed. His limbs became similar to the birds he used for his concoction.

- His arms first began to prick with sharp needle stabbing pain as darkly colored feathers began to grow from his shoulders to his finger tips morphing his bones and joints into wings that reflected a purple like hue. His legs shedded their skin, making a mess of gore on the ground as his body made huge flamingo-like legs, the shade of red the same as blood. The same soft feathers on his arms running from his knees to his waist, and the most embarrassing yet elegant part of him, his tail. A white peacock tail that flowed elegantly behind him.

- Kars took the results of the potions effect into his books and made some adjustments, but he cursed himself for jumping straight into testing without precaution, and with no antidote to reverse the effects. So he decides to wait and see if it wears out.

- Surprised but not impressed by the results, his wings leave no room for grabbing, and his legs can’t do much besides grab small animals, pens and paper fall from them. His tail, though, leaves for a good look on his person.

- But he can’t help but think of all the chicken jokes Esidisi will make out of him. And the mess he is going to make of the shedding feathers.

Esidisi

- Today, Kars wanted to test something rare, legendary even. He had gotten his hands on some scales and blood of a dragon. The ooze he made was far from a potion as he tested it on plants. The intensity of the mix would turn the organisms to ash in seconds, making the ‘potion’ a one way sip to death.

- But the concept of ‘don’t drink this’ and death don’t apply to Esidisi. He doesn’t even know how to spell it(ha. joke). Kars needed to go out to find an ingredient to make the ooze safer and more compatible to drink, leaving Esidisi in charge of watching over it to make sure it didn’t explode.

- While he was out, Esidisi thought what the harm is about trying just a small sip of it. He only heard about how dangerously hot it was, plus, he likes spicy things. But if the red to white burning at the bottom of the cauldron and the bubbling color of the ooze the same as lava wasn’t a good enough warning, he had to have a taste.

- The spoon itself burned at the touch of it as he dipped it in and his lips were scorched as he took a sip. He dropped the spoon as his mouth burned from the drop hitting his tongue. Shortly after he started to burn with an intensifying heat. Next his body started to reek of heat. As if a fever x10 was burning him from the inside out.

- His skin began to harden and crack in the form of scales from his chest to his arms and legs. His back gave way to wings beginning to form skin and hard bone, flexing and breaking off ash and asphalt. A scaly tail began to protrude from his rear, shaking off sparks of fire. His mouth began to pool with thick black smoke as he clawed at his chest heaving for fresh air from the heat.

- When the transformation is over, Kars comes back with what he needs but drops it on sight of Esidisi and his new form. Esidisi was thrilled about his new dragon-like form, his wings, claws, and chest glowing with new temperatures, but Kars, he was not as thrilled. Pretty soon Kars is lecturing Esidisi about how his newest creation could’ve killed him or worse, but seeing how successful it mutated his form, Kars tosses aside his ingredient to add caution to the mix and will continue to under-go the ooze the way it is.

Wamuu

- Another magical mishap, but this time, Wamuu has taken on the study of spells.

- He was practicing the art of transformation from one of Kars's books he, well, was ‘borrowing’. Totally didn’t take it from his studies without asking because he is such a good boy.

- Always on the drive to be just like his successors, he wants to be just as great and powerful and will take any risks to make it to where they are.

- Though he bit off more than he can chew when he underestimated the spells difficulty level and the classic Kars Warning NOT to use magic he forbids them until they are older. But Wamuu being Wamuu, has a thirst for power.

- At first, nothing happened. He didn’t feel any different aside from the stomach cramps and attack of growing pains in his legs, all in all he didn’t see any transformations. Figuring he just put himself up to the painful failure(literally) of the transformation he decided to take some medicine to get rid of his pain and sleep on it.

- He slept like a rock, and when he woke up, his bed was crushed and he was flat on the floor. Well, on his side, I don’t think a half human half horse can fall flat on their stomachs… maybe their backs? Who knows, more importantly, Wamuu has yet to fully process the situation.

- You know how horses freak out when they fall? Wamuu did just that, scrambling about in excitement and confusion at how his spell worked, except it didn’t make it up his whole body seeming to stop at the bottom of his torso. His horse half was a rich shade of copper colored fur with a short blonde tail, his legs have just as much muscle as he had before and his torso seemed to be thin yet just as muscular. Though, the spell was incomplete, never making it from his feet to his head to his realization, and to that info he cursed himself for not searching for a second one to complete the first(it’s one of those step 1 to step 2 except you skip 2 and go to 3 situations).

- But still, it’s fascinating to him and he can’t wait to do more. After this lecture from Kars, of course.

Santana

- Once again Santana is sneaking through everyone's things to complete this potion or question he needs.

- Same time as Wamuu, they both are rummaging through Kars’s quarters. Finding anything that they need, Santana going first then Wamuu following close behind being convinced that Santana will take the blame for sneaking in(he lied. he’s totally not going to hear it from Kars again).

- As Wamuu found the book he needed, Santana was still rummaging through Kars’s many mini self-made(Kars patented, Esidisi approves lol) potion ingredients he uses for curses. Just when he finds the one he needs, reaching in the far back, Wamuu whispers loudly behind him he’s ready to go but starts Santana by the sudden boom of his voice, causing his body to jump and his arm knock some of Kars’s potions off his shelf.

- They fall onto the floor at Santana's feet creating a cloud of purple and red gas that’s as heavy as smoke from a campfire. The gas reaches up to his head as he grabs the mini potion and backs out of the fog. Wamuu then grabbed him by the wrist and rushed out before their masters could investigate the noise.

- He began asking if Santana was fine, of course, he said don’t worry about it and walked off like nothing happened, so Wamuu let him be while he returned to studying his own magic. As Santana enters his room he suddenly starts to feel itchy on his head, scratching near his horns he sets the potion he took on his desk and begins to scratch with both hands. Suddenly the worst headache appeared, like his head got slammed into a wall.

- Head becoming itchy he begins to scratch until strands of hair are starting to fall out and the pain of his head starts to move to his horns. He’s felt his horns grow before but he never thought they could ever be this irritating. Looking into a nearby mirror he watches as his horns expand longer, more rounded and rugged, just goat horns. After his horns were finished, his legs started to itch. Resisting the urge to satisfy the itch he rips off his pants only to see black fur begin to grow on from his waist down to his… hooves? Since when did he get hooves? Then, when he thought it was all over, he felt his tailbone shift uncomfortably. Turning around in the mirror he watches his rear as a small fluffy tail sprouts from his butt.

- Remembering the gas he accidentally made while taking Kars’s potion makes him think, oh great, not this again. He isn’t very thrilled with his new form, never wanting to test this sort of magic. But, he can’t help but admire how good his horns look.

“I heard most potions taste like sea water.” - Von

[legoshi-plz]

Late Night Visitor (Riz x Reader)

Summary: It’s late at night and Riz catches you by yourself. Looks like Herbivores aren’t his only prey. Dark!Riz x Domesticated Dog! Reader

Part Two

Warnings: Smut (NSFW +18), Dark! Non-Con. TW: For Rape, Abuse, Mention Of Past Victims, etc.

///////////

“H-Hello?” Silence. It must have just been the wind.

You knew you shouldn’t be alone in the auditorium by yourself this late at night and that a teacher could come give you detention at any moment but you really needed to practice. Louis said the dance solo slot in the next Drama Club Showcase was as good as yours if you could prove to him you were the best dancer there. You knew you weren’t but you were the most creative by far and as long as you could perfect the routine you had fine-tuned especially for your body and capabilities, there was no way he couldn’t give it to you.

You knew there was always the possibility he wouldn’t give it to you anyway just because you were a Carnivore. Not just any Carnivore, a domesticated dog, the clumsiest your Canine clan had to offer. Certain moves that were cakewalks for the more graceful and agile Carnivores, like Juno, had you stumbling in seconds. But what you lacked in equilibrium, you made up for in determination.

The auditorium doors opened and shut. Your ears weren’t deceiving you, you definitely weren’t alone.

“Hello?” More silence.

“I know you’re there.” More silence. You walked to the front of the stage and saw a large figure standing by the door.

“I was just about to leave,” you called out in case it was a teacher. Something in the back of your mind told you if it was a teacher, they would have spoken up by now.

The figure stepped closer, approaching you slowly. Your eyes finally adjusted enough to the lack of light and you could make out who it was. It was a grizzly bear, he was in the same year as you in the Art Department of the Drama club. You were a little embarrassed to admit you didn’t really know anything about him, you had never really noticed him. What was his name again? Ralph? Razz? Rick? Ri-Riz!

“Riz, is that you?” You said lightly. He was now directly in front of you standing below the stage.

“What are you doing here all by yourself?” He asked. His voice was so friendly. You could recall speaking to him a few times before in passing, he was always so friendly. It was such a contrast to his aura, which your dog instincts found downright menacing. You scolded yourself for your own ingrained prejudice. You had to give him the benefit of the doubt, you were both Carnivores after all. If Carnivores didn’t stick up for each other, who would?

“I was just practicing. The Winter Showcase is right around the corner.” You laughed dryly. His beady eyes never left you for a second. It was unnerving.

“You shouldn’t be here all alone. There’s monsters out there.” He stepped onto the stage as if it was any other measly step and not nearly a four feet drop.

“Monsters....? Like who?” you noticed his frame, where intimidating before, was downright massive now. He hadn’t always been this big, you were sure of it. You would have noticed right?

“Like me.” Silence. More silence.

Once your mind finally wrapped around what he had said, your legs immediately took off only to have him slam you into the ground before you could even make it off the stage. When you tried to crawl away he grabbed you by your ankle and drug you back to him.

“Now you didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” He growled, his sharp fangs barred.

You knew occasionally when an animal was extremely desperate, they would eat other Carnivores but it was such a rare occurrence, nearly unheard of in today’s society. It was especially rare for female dogs, their meat was highly unfavorable to the palette so they were rarely devoured however they did come in as the number one demographic of victims for a.... different type of assault.

Riz ripped away your uniform, tearing it nearly to shreds. Your blood turned cold as you realized exactly what he planned to do.

“No... no Riz, please!” You begged trying to cover yourself. He chuckled then proceeded to rip your underwear off, not worried about your bra.

Domesticated Female Dogs were the number one victims of rape from male carnivores of all species. They were seen as docile, weak, and in some instances, traitors to the animal race. They were also easy targets. No one ever believed a Carnivore when they were attacked. They were supposed to be able to defend themselves right? Right?

Riz seemed intent to show you just how wrong you were.

“Please, Riz, you don’t have to do this!” You screamed thrashing beneath him. He grabbed you by your neck, lifting you slightly then slamming you back down to the ground. Your ears started ringing.

“You sure have a lot to say to me now? I can remember you not even knowing I was alive.” He grumbled, unbuckling his pants and pulling them down. Of course he went commando.

“I’m sorry! Please, let me go, I’ll do better!” You were near hysterical now, the panic having fully set in.

“Too late,” He sighed in content, ripping your legs apart and settling between then. His menacing girth already standing at attention.

He spit into his hand, pumping his swollen length then lining himself up with your entrance. He thrust once, stretching you way beyond your limit.

“Wait, please, just give me a second. You’re gonna tear me in two with that thing!” You cried, placing a hand on his stomach to try and keep him at bay.

“That’s the whole point,” he chuckled, pushing more, “ but I’m not a total bastard. I’ll make you a deal, kiss me and I’ll think about going slow.”

“Y-you can’t be serious-“

“One time offer, take it or leave it,” he pushed further and you could have wept at the pain.

“Fine, fine, fine! I’ll do it, I’ll kiss you just please give me a second!” You sat up on your elbows, wondering how the hell you were going to reach up to kiss his massive form.

He leaned down to meet you halfway before murmuring, “Try anything funny and I’ll break your jaw.”

You gulped and allowed him to kiss you. Without warning, he pushed his entire length into you, making you cry out in pain. This was all the opportunity he needed to shove his tongue down your throat to silence you. Just when you thought you were about pass out from lack of oxygen, he finally let your lips go with a cocky grin.

He wasted no time pumping into you, each thrust feeling like a punch to the gut. He was way too big for the shamefully inadequate amount of prep you endured. If things were different, if the two of you were actual lovers, if he actually gave a damn about this feeling good, you knew it would. There were small wisps of pleasure mixed in with the overall guilt and pain of him fucking you and you couldn’t help but imagine how amazing this would have felt if any other circumstances had brought the two of you together. But not this. This was demeaning. This was force. This was ra-

“The least you could do is look at me when I fuck you!” Riz’s voice thundered. Your eyes shot to his hulking form sweating on top of you. Something was wrong with him, besides the fact he was forcing his dick inside you. He didn’t look like he usually did, something in him had snapped. Even his eyes, which were almost friendly twenty minutes ago, looked absolutely feral now. He almost looked... wild.

“Tell me how good this feels! Tell me how much you love this,” Riz was going at a near bone breaking speed now and you were struggling to stay in rhythm just so you could avoid the worst of his strength. He was too caught up in his own delusional fantasy to realize you were gyrating away from him.

His claws suddenly wrapped around your throat. His fangs were glistening in saliva, his entire disposition showcasing his carnal hunger.

“Do it or I’ll fucking rip your throat out?” He growled, one claw hovering over your kill point. Your body clenched in fear.

“It-It f-f-fee-“

“Louder!”

“It feels so good! Nobody’s ever fucked me like this! Your cock’s so huge! I love it!” You yelled but you were only rewarded with his muderous laughs.

“Fuck! You just got so fucking tight! That does it for you, huh? You get turned on when I threaten to kill ya?” His grip tightened on your throat, this time completely constricting your airways. You thought this was going to be the time you actually passed out but right as your vision turned tunnel, he let you go, cumming deep inside you.

“Fuuuuuuck, if I had known it was going to be that good, I would’ve done this a long time ago.” He panted on top of you. You were still gasping for air, having finally been released from his hold.

He pulled himself out of your wrecked womb and watched completely mesmerized as his cum leaked out of you. He tucked himself back into his pants and stood, adjusting his uniform.

“Tell anybody about this and I’ll have to kill you, just like I killed the last one,” Riz said casually, hopping off the stage and out the auditorium doors.

Your entire body felt grotesque. It was like your fur wasn’t your fur anymore, like your limbs weren’t even your limbs anymore. You couldn’t even bare to pick yourself up you were so ashamed. It was as if he took your body with him, as if... as if...

As if you belonged to him now.

[cant-blink]

Prisoner, Ch. 1

Summary: Gigan and Megalon meet a young Ghidorah. Gigan is intent on converting the child into their pirate crew, whether he likes it or not. 

-

What the hell happened here?

Glancing between the red planet ahead of them and the radar meant to detect life, both seemed desolate. But that can’t be right, he’s heard all about this world and the rare fauna it held, valued on the exotic pet black-market. Yet the sensors were picking up no life down below. Not even a plant.

Gigan rechecked the coordinates, just to ensure that they made it to the right world. Yep, it was and he wondered if there was some sort of malfunction.

He glanced back, seeing Megalon play-wrestling with Scoli. He said nothing to the beetle and centipede, as he directed the ship to orbit this world. Maybe they were in a bad spot? But as they moved, there continued to be no signs of life down below. Odd, very odd indeed. It was almost li-

Wait, there we go! The radar was finally picking up life signatures by the world’s single giant ocean. That’s a relief.

He lets out a soft breath, a smile growing on his beak as his hooked claw reached out and delicately pushed some of the buttons on the control panel. He glanced back again at his crewmates.

“Hey,” he started, getting their attention. “We’re going in for a landing.”

And that’s the only warning they were getting to brace themselves before he plunged the ship down into the atmosphere with speed. Flames erupt from the front of the ship and the floor began to tremble slightly before increasing in intensity. The emergency light flashed as warnings came to the control panel’s computer to slow the fuck down! But Gigan held firm, his beak cracking into a wide grin. 

The screaming coming from behind him only encouraged his behavior as they cut through the last layer of cloud.

Cutting it a bit short, he leveled out the ship close enough to the ground to whip up a huge plume of dirt and debris. Their momentum held firm, the landscape zooming beneath them at breakneck speed.

Looming up from the horizon was a mountain, that they were heading straight for!

“GIGAN, STOP IT!!” he heard shouting and he was pretty sure it was Megalon. He lets out a laugh before activating the anti-gravity devices to lift the ship up higher to avoid a mountain range. There was the ocean just beyond, purple in color. Here we go. He finally brought the ship to a halt and began hovering it down towards the ground. Easy now, easy... Putting down the gears, the ship landed delicately onto the rocky shore. 

Perfect, as always!

Turning towards his crew, he saw Scoli clinging to a wall and Megalon stuck on his back and he shook his head slightly. But he did nothing to help up his clumsy friend as he refocused on the control panel. 

“Get ready to go. I’m going to activate the cameras; I want full 360 view of the place.” He glanced out a window. “Don’t want to miss out on an opportunity, after all.”

-

He’s almost done with this world.

Its lifeforms were quite large and plentiful, and so many of them had young. Perfect conditions for harvesting lifeforce and fueling his growth. He’s already gathered enough victims into his bio-sac dome to make the journey to the next world and was now occupying his time until his meal was ready for consumption. Nothing more fun than a round of exploration, and senseless murder!

He had just found the ocean, and he was playing with it. Its water seemed to have solidified into a thick purple substance, like gelatin, and it seemed to be alive in and of itself. It would rise up in thick tendrils and nudged against his legs in an attempt to engulf him; it reminded him of his bio-sac’s tentacles snatching up anything that came too close. 

Luckily, it was very easy for him to pull free and it only encouraged his curiosity. He would bite into the jelly and his teeth would penetrate a transparent layer. There was the taste of salt-water in the fluid that poured into his maw. 

Blegh.

He wasn’t a fan of eating it, and he lets the pieces splatter onto the ground from his mouth. But biting chunks out of it was still very fun indeed. What was more fun, though, was him spotting a creature further out to sea. It wasn’t a species he’s met before, and how could he resist flying out to meet it?

This prey was the largest creature he’s met in his short life so far, about half his size. It stood upright, without front appendages beyond a few small tentacles at the front of its body. Its disproportionately large feet were gouging chunks out of the gelatin ocean as it walked on its surface. It had a crest structure jutting out the back of its head and a large glowing... eye on either side of it, glowing a bright amber. 

It seemed so blissfully unaware of his presence as he flew over it, as if it was confident its sheer size would protect it from harm. No doubt, it had no natural predators on this measly planet, but he was anything but natural.

He opened his jaws and shot flaming energy balls at it. The thick purple liquid rippled out as some of his fireballs struck the surface, explosions coming up around his prey. It lets out an echoing booming cry and the young Ghidorah does not let up. He shoots another trio of fireballs, one of them striking its tail and severing it to fall into the disturbed ocean. The tentacles thrashed around as its cries grow more high-pitched in distress.

Chuckling to himself, the young dragon swooped in from behind, his talons out to sink into the creature’s flesh. It began to struggle, but he was not to be dislodged as his three jaws surged forward to tear into its flesh. Rip it apart bit by bit.

After a moment spent torturing this creature, his wings began to flap. Luckily, this world had a thick atmosphere with light gravity, allowing him to take off with relative ease even with this added burden.

There was a bit of a suction effect trying to pull it off the ocean, as if the creature was gripping it, but with another tug, he ripped it free. Chunks of the purple gelatin fell from its feet and back onto the rest of the ocean.

He flew this creature back to the beach, and dropped it onto land without care. Its collision onto the beach was not a pleasant one from the sound of it and it seemed to struggle getting itself back up. He doesn’t allow it to recover as he landed beside it, his jaws clamping onto different parts of its mangled broken body before lifting it into the air.

Hearing the cries of fear and pain as he slammed his prey into the ground repeatedly was like music to his ears and always had him wanting to hear more. He hoped this was a plentiful species, as he was starting to run out of toys to play with.

It was a sure sign that soon, it’ll be time to move on. 

Dropping his still-living prey onto the ground one last time, he planted a foot onto it to keep it pinned and leaned down to start stripping flesh from its body to devour. He didn’t require flesh to survive, he needed only to sap their life energy. But it was still fun to taste, to rip apart, even better if they were still alive while he did so.

His right head caught sight of something flashing through the sky over the mountains. His left head focused on it as well as he fed, his large eyes taking in every detail.

Not a meteor, but a ship. It was landing somewhere much further up the beach.

Oh, good! More toys to play with! It’s not often that prey just hand themselves on a silver platter like this.

Licking his bloodied lips, he shifted his foot to where its giant amber eyes were, assuming this must be the head. The creature wasn’t even struggling anymore, even as he placed all his weight onto that foot, crushing it beneath his weight. Feeling the bones break apart and the blood spreading over his sole, he pulled his foot away to admire his work for a moment before turning away. He started running towards the ship, his wings fanning open wider to catch the wind until he built up enough speed to kick off the ground and fly into the air.

Let’s have some fun.

-

“Ghidorah?”

Megalon tilted his head, looking back at the screen Gigan was watching, spotting a small kaiju flying in. The cyborg had the image zoomed in and enhanced, and he can see a three headed creature making a bee-line straight for them. The beetle has never met this infamous ‘Ghidorah’ before, so he wasn’t sure what he was expecting. This, however, wasn’t it.

“That’s Ghidorah?” he couldn’t help but ask. This was the creature that killed off Gigan’s Masters? The one the cyborg was lusting over? The one the beetle declared as his rival? THIS was the cosmic terror?!

Well, beating this thing to a pulp was going to be easier than he thought and he was about to hurry outside to do just that when Gigan speaks up.

“He’s not my Ghidorah,” he told him with audible confusion and disbelief. “This is a whole new one. I never heard of another Ghidorah being created.” The cyborg chuckled slightly as he watched the screen. This hydra was a lot smaller than the one he knew, a youngster most likely. Was his Ghidorah breeding somewhere out there and this was one of his offspring? Isn’t that very interesting...

“What do we do with it?” Scoli asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Gigan chortled. “We invite him to join us. A Ghidorah, even a young one like this, will be more valuable than anything else we can poach from this planet.”

“If he’s so valuable, shouldn’t we sell him?” Megalon asked with an edge to his voice. He didn’t want to have this... thing with them, so he’s willing to say anything to get rid of this little dragon. Gigan’s Ghidorah or not, Megalon didn’t want the potential competition for the cyborg’s attention.

Gigan was more than aware of what the beetle was trying to do and he couldn’t hold back a smirk at Megalon’s jealousy. “No amount of money would be good enough.” He heard the ‘hmph’ from the insect and turned back to look at the little hydra. “Like it or not, Megalon, we’re keeping him.” He looked towards Scoli. “Clear out one of the containment units, one of the heavy duty ones, just in case. We’ll meet you outside.”

Scoli nodded softly before turning and scurrying away towards the lower decks. Gigan spent another moment to watch the little dragon come in for a landing nearby before opening the doors and moving towards the exit.

Megalon rushed to keep up. “But what if it’s not a Ghidorah and it’s just some random thing that LOOKS like a Ghidorah?” What did he have to say to discourage this cyborg’s interest in this youngster?

“You’re being silly now, babe,” Gigan said with humor before continuing. “I know what a Ghidorah looks like. There’s no mistaking them for anything else.”

“But... but... He’s so tiny! Are we really going to play baby-sitter until he’s all grown-up?”

“I play baby-sitter with you all the time, soooooo...” Gigan drawled before he looked over his shoulder at him, knowing exactly how to shut this beetle up. “You’re not trusting me, Megalon. Acting all jealous over a kid of all things.” He maintained hard eye-contact with the insect. “Keep yourself in check, or I’ll start reconsidering our friendship.”

Megalon froze for a moment. Did Gigan just call him- “I’m not jealous!” the beetle stated defensively, fumbling over his thoughts a bit as he tries to come up with a valid excuse for his behavior. “I just don’t think this is a good-”

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion came and the ship’s foundation shook. Gigan knew immediately what was happening; the damn kid was attacking their ship! Without another word towards Megalon, he rushed outside and turned in the direction the young Ghidorah should be. There he was, shooting... fire at the hull.

He never knew his own Ghidorah to spit fire. In the time they spent together in Nebulan captivity, he’s only ever seen him shoot lightning. Very interesting...

The little one very quickly caught sight of his movement and all three of those heads turned towards him.

Silence...

-

Well, this wasn’t what he was expecting.

He was expecting small lesser creatures to be in this ship; that’s always been the case in his experience. But what came out was no small creature, oh no. This one was damn near twice his size!

He’s never seen anything so huge in his short life; in fact, he’s never met a fellow kaiju before. He was still young enough that different races still held novelty to him, and his eyes took in every detail. The creature had green flesh and gold... scales? And three wings, and one eye. And 2 extra appendages that ended in silver hooks. A weapon, that’s what this thing is.

But he was not one to be easily intimidated; even as young as he is, a Ghidorah was still not a creature to mess with. Besides, can you imagine how much life-force he can syphon out of this thing? Sure, it’s not as potent as the souls of children, but the sheer amount would more than make up for it. It would be enough to fuel TWO trips to the next world!! This thing looks very pointy and sharp though, so best to be carefu-

“Hey, kid,” the creature spoke in an odd mixture of a natural and mechanical voice. Really, the fact it talks at all was most surprising. The young Ghidorah never had anyone actually talk to him in a way he understands. Supposed it was an inevitability, but what now?

Flee, or try to kill it for that bounty of lifeforce? Never before has he ever had to make that kind of decision. He usually just defaulted to the latter.

“Ghidorah, right?”

Wait, how did it know his name...?

...

Heh, seems his reputation has preceded him. But then, what did this thing want? It knew who he was and yet doesn’t run in fear? His suspicions were starting to overcome his pride. For the first time, he engaged in this conversation. “Who are you?”

“Name’s Gigan,” the creature said in a strangely casual tone that did nothing to ease the young dragon.

“How do you know who I am?”

“Heh, I know another Ghidorah,” he told him. “Great friends, him and I. Used to work together in another solar system. A pleasant surprise to see another one here. You’ve been having fun, I see.”

The young dragon narrowed a pair of eyes. Another Ghidorah? He had no idea there were other Ghidorah out there. The idea any of them would be friends with this thing was dubious though. 

“Why did you come here?” He had no intentions on stopping his questioning, especially not while he was still on edge about this whole situation. 

"Glad you asked. Y'see, I travel around, stripping worlds of their resources, and life," At once the young Ghidorah's eyes lit up a bit with interest, and this 'Gigan' seemed to notice as he chuckled. "Yeah, sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Exactly why I worked so well with the other Ghidorah, when our goals align perfectly, huh?" He took a step closer and the dragon's body tensed up, still apprehensive. Thankfully, Gigan comes no closer. "I came to this world looking for a good time. And here we are. Fate works in strange ways, bringing us together, huh?"

The youngster can already tell where this was going before this funny-looking creature said it.

“How can I not give you the opportunity to join me? Whaddya say, kid? Interested?” 

The hydra doesn’t answer or move for a long moment. So many red flags were shooting up in his heads, and he was unsure if it was just his natural instinct to distrust other lifeforms. He just... didn’t like this thing. He didn’t like how it spoke to him or the words it was saying. It just... seemed manipulative.

He should get out of here. Whatever this thing has planned, it wasn’t good and he takes a step back. 

His instincts seemed to prove correct as the creature’s beak twisted into a smirk at seeing him step back. His tone too seemed to change, still friendly but with an edge laced into it. 

“You sure you want to do that? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The little Ghidorah said nothing, glaring at this creature before shaking his heads. Yeah, it was time to leave. He should fly back to his bio-sac and devour what he can before vacating this planet. Now. The urgency in his instincts only got worse when he spotted movement by the door to find another giant kaiju, roughly the same size as the one in front of him. It wasn’t as sharp-looking, but it did have pointy front limbs. It had no wings that he can see and it had a strange... horn between giant golden eyes that looked to be made of a bunch of little eyes.

“Such a shame,” the pointy one continued, the red jewel on that forehead starting to glow. “I was hoping you’d be smarter than the last Ghidorah.”

The youngster couldn’t ignore the red-flags anymore and he attempted to make a run for it. But no sooner had he turned his heads than he felt a jolt as a red beam erupted from the creature, hitting the scales in his chest.

Thankfully, his underside had heavy plated armor that held up well, but it was still enough force to stumble him back. He screeched in anger before regaining his balance, facing the two giant kaiju.

Seemed he had no choice but to stand and fight, in what would be the most dangerous battle he’s ever faced in his young life.

[wherearemyglassesbro]

i saw that you play genshin impact, so i’m kind of curious... what’d be the axis and allies’ vision and weapons?

Uh oh...now you got me started. Be warned, it’s a long one cause I have no self control

Some key terms for those who don’t play genshin impact and want to be included!!

Cryo -> ice, Hydro -> water, Dendro -> nature, Geo -> rock, Pyro -> fire, Electro -> lightning

Hilichurls: a common enemy found in the wild. Despite looking like hairy trolls, they have a district language as well as texts, art and song that they share together making them an advanced species!

Ruin guards: another enemy. Giant, scary robot...they scare me...

Knights of Favonious: an organization of knights within Mondstat that keep order and peace :) very nice guys and gals over there!!

Mondstat: modeled after Germany

Liyue: modeled after China

Alfred: pyro, claymore, Springvale Mondstat

Alfred would be a super heavy hitter in battle but his drawbacks are that despite his energetic nature, he’s slower because of the weight of his weapon

He blows stuff up a lot and sets all of the grass around you on fire so if you fight with him...His teammates will take damage from him Jeez Louise!!!

Since we don’t have all of the nations of Teyvay unlocked, I don’t know where he’d be from! I’d have to explore to get a sense for it so for characters that don’t have a place on the map yet, I’ll mark them with an asterisk from now on! :)

Idk where he lives but I do know that he’d be a devoted member of the adventurers guild! He’s always willing to offer a helping hand to anyone in need! Wether it be helping Granny Ann make hash browns or taking comissions to go kill a huge ruin guard who’s terrorizing the town!! He’s always leaping into new jobs! He isn’t even in it for the money or rewards! He just loves helping out!

Arthur: Dendro, archer, Mondstat

Artie is a beast in battle! Shooting vine Aries at enemies to tie them up or temporarily blind them??? Sick as fuck. Keep in mind, Genshin doesn’t have any Dendro characters that are playable yet so idk how they’d fight but I think I can guess :)

Artie is technically part of the knights of favonious because he works in their library. He translates books written in ancient texts into the standard language so historians and others can read what the old civilizations had to say

Instead of having normal eyes, they’re slit like snake eyes. And he has leaves instead of hair :)

He has a little seelie that floats around at his side. He talks to it but it doesn’t really do anything but provide company to a lonely guy :’) he needs more friends

Matthew: Anemo, catalyst, *

It’s always good to have a catalyst on your team! Ningguang is a great example of an underestimated catalyst cause she can do INSANE damage man!! So I think Mattie would be the same way

Matt isn’t violent and doesn’t enjoy fighting so his in-game voice lines would say that lol

Mattie is an alchemist! Well...A student alchemist. He didn’t take up an interest in alchemy until like, 3 years ago so he’s got a lot to catch up on still! He’s doing his best!

He gets very annoyed with Alfred since Mattie is detail oriented and gentle...Alfred is not any of those things. But he still loves his brother and on rare occasions, he’ll assist him with his commissions

Ivan: Cryo, catalyst, Liyue(temporary)

Ivan would be a support character for sure but he’d do a damn good job of doing it

He’s buff but he doesn’t do hand to hand combat, he’s mastered magic for a reason

Ivan spends most of his time studying hilichurls. He writes books about them, translates their texts and acts as a peace keeper when he can. He gets information from them about the Abyss Order in return for free reign of small portions of protected land where they can live without fear of being killed

Because he’s from Schneznya(spelling?) he’s kinda expected to be a bad guy but he left a long time ago. But he still sounds like he’s from there and...He’s super pale too so there really is no mistaking where he’s from

Ivan can’t stand how ignorant humans are towards hilichurls so he does everything he can to advocate for them. He’s covered in scars from when he first started engaging with the beasts. A huge scar runs down his face but he doesn’t mind it

He’s got big, sharp teeth!! So he doesn’t often smile cause he thinks he looks weird

Francis: Hyrdo, long sword, *

Fran is underestimated when it comes to combat (like Kaeya...I see you slandering this man) but he has so much potential!

Since he’s a hydro, he is so useful for elemental reactions! If he’s paired with a cryo or pyro user, he’d totally boost them!!

Fran is a traveling entertainer, he goes between the 7 nations as a singer and actor for small stage plays. He has a crew of friends who travel with him, they’re one jolly bunch!

He always acts all nonchalant and stuff but once he’s in a battle, he’s wild. Especially if the abyss order holds up his crew on their way to their next tour destination “We need to be in Liyue Harbor in four hours you are NOT holding us back!” *tidal wave*

He’s a regular tavern hopper! A very recognizable face since he’s been banned from a handful for getting too rowdy

He can make not one, but 2 special dishes :0

Yao: Dendro, polearm, Liyue

I just imagine him as a shorter, richer and cooler version of Zhongli

He’d do that kick move that Zhongli does with his polearm oh man that looks SICK dude!!!

Yao would shoot vines out and they’d strangle enemies for a few seconds before disintegrating but if he’s leveled up enough, they’ll totally strangle those stupid hillichurls lol

Yao sells rare gems and other miscellaneous items for very high prices in Liyue where he grew up. His shop is upstairs by the Fatui bank. Rich people enjoy looking at what his shop has to fifer and will argue prices with him. They’re getting scammed for sure. He’ll list a set of cor lapis earrings as $50,000 and the rich will be like ‘I’ll pay $25,000, no more than that’ and he’ll take it!!....Cause thise earrings are worth $5000 at most >:)

Hes close with a lot of the higher ups in Liyue and is often invited to fancy lunches or dinners where they discuss policy, contracts and vendor permits. He doesn’t really get a say in any of that but he benefits from listening

Kiku: Electro, claymore, *

Kiku would be SUCH an awesome electo user are you KIDDING me??? I can see it now, him swinging that huge sword around, purple lightning bolts flying all around and he looks like a total badass? Amazing vibes

When paired with cryos???? He’d do an insane amount of damage fr

Kiku runs a small restaurant where he...runs the place...but doesn’t cook. His restaurant is extremely exclusive and people often throw fits when they can’t get in cause the wait list is over 5 years long. He’ll rest his hand on their shoulder and smile ‘is something wrong? I’d love to take a complaint if you have one’...No one has even dared to complain to his face lol

Behind the restaurant front he deals with the Fatui, buying and selling minerals or artifacts. That’s where his knowledge is at, not with food. He pays his staff to ignore what goes on behind the scenes and the locals are too busy enjoying the restaurant to question what goes on after dark

Gilbert: Pyro, long sword, Mondstat

Gil would be one of the free characters given to you at the beginning of the game but hey, I’m not complaining

He’s highly destructive and very chaotic in battle, he can do that spin move even though that’s meant for claymore users

He’s Mondstat’s biggest trouble maker. He runs an underground gambling room that sits underneath a tavern. He isn’t really into gambling but he makes a lot of money by running it

The only knight who knows is Ludwig which is not good cause...Gil pretty much bribes his brother into not telling the knights of favonious (peace keepers of Mondstat)

Gil never got his gliding certificate cause he kept flying into buildings. He broke his nose doing that lol

Lovino: Pyro, catalyst, *

I can’t add anymore images so imagine a floating, red and black orb. Lovi doesn’t get a book catalyst cause he doesn’t read :) That’s the catalyst thing I’m talking about 😅😅

My guy has the angriest in game voice lines, he’s inconvenienced by every battle, every enemy is ugly and a fuckin disaster. He’s just. Angry.

He’d be a super weak character if he needed to rely on hand to hand combat but he learned magic for a reason babey

He owns a flower stand in his country and makes all kinds of beautiful flower arrangements. He even picks his own flowers in the fields when he can (but usually pays the town’s children to do it for him to ‘teach them the value of hard work’).

Everyone knows he’s a total hothead and will piss him off on purpose just cause it’s funny lmao. But then somehow...Their hair or clothes will just...catch on fire. So is it really worth it to tease him? :/

Feliciano: Hydro, archer, Mondstat(temporary)

I feel like Feli would also be a free character, not cause he isn’t good or anything! But you always need an archer on your team!

Feli has healing properties for his team and doesn’t do an insane amount of damage but when given the right resources, he’d be a pretty sick healer

He moved to Mondstat to join the church there. He leads prayers in front of the church and sings in the choir inside.

He is the sweetest and has never committed a crime in his LIFE but he’s afraid of the knights lol he’s terrified that he’ll get in trouble and be kicked out of Mondstat forever! That would never happen but he’s a worry wart cause of his brother

Ludwig: Geo, long sword, Mondstat

Lud is the only one that I could really think of as a Geo but Geos are awesome :)

He’s a hard hitter but has like...No shield so he’ll take damage fast if you don’t give him those artifacts with shield in them or whatever lol uhhhh I wouldn’t know anything about that cause I suck at building my teams ;-;

He’d totally be in with the knights of favonious! (I think that’s spelled right lol) but he’d take his duty as a knight very seriously!! He’s a familiar face around Mondstat, the elderly absolutely adore him and the local teenage girls swoon over him which he finds super embarrassing lol

He has to work hard to keep Gilbert in check cause even though Gil isn’t a knight, his actions reflect negatively back on Lud very often... :(

Please ignore the spelling errors and terrible photo cropping on my part lol this was so fun!!

By the time you’re seeing this, ive already made full outfit red sheets for everyone mentioned above!!!! :D

[dragon-fics]

DOS: (Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit) An Act of Vengeance (Smaug X Reader)

Chapter summary: Fifteen years before his attack on Erebor, Smaug comes across a crying child who's been given up by their lord in exchange for Smaug to not attack the town. He takes care of the child until its a teenager. But when this beloved human falls into a mineshaft made by dwarves, Smaug gets angry and Erebor is just too near to not attack... 

No POV

Smaug stirred in his mountain. He lay upon thousands upon thousands of gold coins, chalices and gems, though not under them, just on them; he didn’t have enough treasure to immerse himself in. Not yet, anyway. His mountain at the time was nowhere near as large as Erebor, nor was his treasure. He had rested here, in this mountain, for two months, after destroying his last one while trying to get out of it. He had slept for too long and had grown too big to get out of his cave. And so, he spent months upon months scouring the land for an alternative place to call home.

When he first came here, his chamber was devoid of riches, so he made it his job to pillage as many villages as possible in the area. Then, the lords from farther away towns, but still near enough for Smaug to pillage with an hour of beating his mighty wings, would drop enourmous amounts of gold and other wealthy possessions at the base of his new mountain. He smirked at the thought; men were so scared of him, they gave up their wealth to keep the fire-drake at bay.

So, he did not need to leave his chamber. Until now.

Something had disturbed him from his slumber.

A sound echoed through the chamber. The dragon stirred again. It sounded like a choked sobbing. And then another sound found its way into the chamber. This time it sounded like sniffling. The sobbing and sniffling rang through the chamber again, and again, and again. It was never-ending.

Smaug snapped open his amber eyes. His pupil narrowed down to a black slit in the middle of his orange sapphire eye. Who dared whimper and weep in his mountain? Who dared to disturb his slumber with their sorrows?

He rose to his feet, tail whipping through the air, knocking his treasure about. It displeased him. His lip rolled up into a snarl as he growled. He walked towards the wide tunnel into the chamber, the pale moonlight beamed down the steep slope of a tunnel. He had noticed the sobbing had turned into whimpering, but it still bugged him. It itched at his sensitive ears as he climbed up the tunnel, his front claws gripping the walls, his back ones pushing him forward.

He emerged onto the platform at the yawning entrance of the tunnel. His large red-gold head poking out of the entrance. He heard the shuffling of tiny feet to the side. He smelled the air. He could smell a human youngling. He looked in the child's direction, seeing its shoulder poke out from behind one of the spiking stones by the entrance.

Smaug emerged further out of the tunnel, curious why a child, of all things, was up here. He’d had knights, lords, the odd woman, come before him with offerings, either that of death, treasure or food. He’d only ever taken the treasure and eaten the knights, though--they never stood a chance against him. But never had he had a child in front of him.

He moved his head to see the child, his long neck moving as elegantly as a snake through the air. He looked down at the child with a large orange-yellow eye. The child was curled into a ball, trembling with fear and the cold, sniffling. He/She/They were young, about six or seven years old. He/She/They were dressed in a dirty, torn tunic. He/She/They had long, matted hair and his/her/their skin was as filthy as their clothes. He/She/They trembled on the ground as he looked over them, looking at his/her/their skinny dirty knees.

The fire-drake felt sadness tug on his heart, which surprised him because he had felt nothing like that. He rested his head on the ground by the child.

“Hello,” he greeted as softly as he could with his booming voice. The child shuffled his/her/their feet and tried to stop sniffling as he/she/they trembled. “I am Smaug,” he introduced. “And you are?”

The child hesitated before answering. “(Y/N),” he/she/they stuttered. (I don’t know how to type Your Name (Y/N) stuttered ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

“Why are you here, (Y/N)?” The dragon spoke softly, which was very much against his nature.

“Be-because I’m an orphan and-and dragons like orphans,” he/she/they sniffed.

“But you barely have any meat on you,” he thought aloud, “what would I ever do with you?”

(Y/N) fell silent and continued to tremble. That wasn’t the best thing to say.

Smaug shifted uncomfortably. He looked around. A fog was gathering around the mountain, dusting it with cold water droplets. He could feel condensation gathering on his scales. He looked to (Y/N). Goosebumps covered every inch of his/her/their skin, and undoubtedly under his/her/their thin tunic. He/She was/They were trembling violently.

Smaug hummed and turned around. (Y/N) thought he was going away and leaving him/her/them there. But the red-golden dragon picked up the child, his/her/their tunic between his lips. Smaug carried him/her/them into his chamber, carrying him/her/them like a dam would her hatchling. To light the way for (Y/N), he made his chest and neck glow, as if he were preparing to breathe fire on his enemies. The warm light reflected against his treasure. He tossed around pieces of treasure as he walked over to his nest in a bowl made of gold and jewels. He placed (Y/N) in the centre of the bowl and curled up around him/her/them.

“Tomorrow I’ll get clothes for you. Better clothes than the rags you’re wearing now,” Smaug said, moving his wings so they made a makeshift tent for (Y/N), trapping in his heat to keep him/her/them warm. He/She/They stopped shivering soon after the dragon laid down beside him/her/them. The fire-drake’s neck and chest stopped glowing as he relaxed his body. Maybe being a sacrifice wasn’t so bad?

*-*-*-*

Fifteen years later

(Y/N) was travelling back from Dale, one of his/her/their many places of employment. He/She/They wore a heavy cloak and a basic ensemble that most labourers wore. He/She/They were nearing the base of Smaug’s mountain, the mountain he/she/they grew up in. They pulled their wooden staff off their back and used it to lean on as they climbed the stairs up to the dragon’s layer.

He/She/They would travel back and forth from towns near and around the mountain, stopping to stay with her former guardian between each town; usually for a day or two.

(Y/N) continued to climb, finally reaching the dragon’s platform in front of his tunnel down to his chamber. He/She/They banged their staff off the wall of the tunnel.

“O, Smaug the Magnificent, may I come in?” (Y/N) called. Sometimes Smaug would be awake when he/she/they came to visit, but sometimes he was asleep and if (Y/N) entered unannounced, and he wasn’t fully awake, he’d snap his jaw at him/her/them, almost eating him/her/them. Though gladly, that only happened once.

(Y/N) waited for a response, but was met with the distant sound of hammers hitting chisels. “Smaug?” He/She/They called. Still no response. (Y/N) slid down the tunnel and into the chamber. He/She/They could hear high-pitched clanging coming from all directions in the chamber.

(Y/N) walked straight ahead, looking around, trying to identify where exactly the sounds were coming from in the chamber. They stayed walking, looking in all directions instead of the one he/she/they were walking in. He/She/They took the last step but didn’t feel the floor beneath him/her/them. Instead, they fell dozens of feet, landing face-first into icy stone at the feet of a dwarven miner. The dwarf jumped back in shock and bent down to examine the human. He/She was/They were dead.

*-*-*-*

Smaug arrived back later that night. He had spent the entire day trying to tell (Y/N) about the miners in the mountain, to stop him/her/them from going there. He had followed his/her/their scent to his mountain, hoping he/she/they had waited at the base for him. When he didn’t see him/her/them at the base, he spiralled up the mountain by the stairs, hoping to spot her but couldn’t. When he reached the platform, he immediately smelled death. He plodded forward. A small circle of dwarves stood in front of him, facing inward. Smaug growled, and the dwarves scattered amongst his gold. In front of him lay the broken body of (Y/N). Anger swelled inside him. Not only had the dwarves snuck into his mountain when he was away hunting, but they had caused (Y/N)’s death.

He snarled, his tail whipped through the air, hitting the tunnel walls. He roared a gut-wrenching roar with all his rage. He released a long stream of flames, spraying fire all over the chamber, burning the dwarves alive and disintegrating (Y/N)’s remains. The fire-drake left his home and flew down to the base of the mountain, seeing a huge gathering of dwarves camping there. He spat fire at them too, his heart raging with what they had done.

I will kill all the dwarves I come across, he thought angrily. I will wipe out their species for killing my (Y/N)!

He looked off into the distance. Erebor and Dale were ahead of him. And dwarves filled Erebor. In particular, it housed the dwarf king there. What better way than to take vengeance on the species that took away his most beloved, than by taking away the beloved king of that species.

[hunters-of-the-wastes]

From heavyweight birds to nimble predators – to graceful prey and who were once deemed ecologically controversial landscapers, ever since the bombs dropped all those years ago, animals large and small felt the brunt end of the nuclear war. For decades or even centuries, many of the creatures who once roamed the pre-war USA are now lost to time. But some animals are defying the odds, recovering to healthy population levels long after being deemed lost causes. 200 years after the war, many creatures have bounced back, some surprisingly suffering little from the horrors of nuclear devastation. Others, descendants of the once proud wildlife who once roamed the world, now make their mark where their relatives once stood.

Fauna in the world of New America come in a variety of shapes and sizes and occupy wild areas throughout the world. After 200 years, many animals have started to once again return to their old habitats. Some animals have been domesticated by the inhabitants of the New America, and serve as pets, transportation or livestock. Other animals cluster together in the wild in packs, herds, and flocks and try and make a living in the new world. Like with most things, cycles never end. After humans, Deer and Elk populations in many parts of the states both exploded and diminished. While Radstag took the place of many of the larger elk and Deer species in the main Boston territories, many other deer species virtually remained unchanged. As a result, the wilds of Commonwealth are often teeming with deer. Docile creatures, they serve as food for much of the land’s more savage beasts. In addition to the common whitetail, which virtually remained unchanged in much of the US, other smaller deer species came into fruition following a long tedious evolutionary set path, each one designed to thrive within the new world.

Towards more northern territories in New America, Large species of Cervidae still roam the lands. Alces alces, or the Moose still holds title of the largest and heaviest original species in the deer family. However, unlike before in the older days where this animal would never have to fight for the title of largest Deer roaming the planet, the Moose now has competition from other Large Cervidae.

One such species is Megaloceros Ingentiaegidi

ingenti - large, remarkable (Latin) aegidi - shield (Latin)

An absolute icon of prehistory come to life, this giant deer takes on the role of its name sake as one of the most impressive and largest species of Deer. Although comparable in size to moose (6 feet tall, 1,100 lbs), this animal is closer in relation, surprisingly to the Eurasian red deer, who were thought to be brought in to the America’s to fill in exotic game ranches, places where Hunters wouldn’t have to travel half-way across the world just to hunt certain species, or meat farms, as in modern times, western countries such as New Zealand and the United States had taken to importing and farming European red deer for venison.

The term Megaloceros was given to this deer species in regards to the highly noticeable and recognizable “Shield”, that Megaloceros, especially the more famous Megaloceros giganteus, aka the Irish Elk was known for sporting. Impressive antlers that instead of branching out and developing tines, have developed into large shovel-like (palmated) antlers with thick tines growing out from them. It is because of these antlers that this species were originally incorrectly thought to be derived from Moose, as Red Deer and other Elk species like Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain do not have Palmated shovel antlers, but large branching antlers which develop many tines during their life time.

Despite not being related, they are still a large animal when compared to other species of deer that now populate much of the New America landscape, being slightly dwarfed by Moose, (Alces alces) in terms of weight and height, while the moose is dwarfed by Altorell.

Huge deer, bigger than a domestic cow but with a graceful and elegant form perfect for bounding about the open environs where they are commonly found, the American Giant Elk, like most deer exhibit countershading, the belly being a much lighter color than the darkened back.

A shoulder hump stores fat reserves and also supports the animal’s huge antlers. With a span of up to twelve feet, these antlers are the largest of any deer by far; while females do not sport them, males use them to plow snow and expose edible plants, fend off predators, scratch the occasional back itch, and as weapons during the annual rut.

Enormous rutting stags crash their antlers together and shove to determine dominance, a sound that can be heard more than half a mile away. Most of the year these animals can be found in same-sex herds, grazing and browsing under the watchful eye of an appointed sentry. In the northern parts of their range they are often known too commingle with large herds of caribou.

Despite its keen senses, sharp hooves, and the males’ formidable antlers, they still have many natural predators, including wolves, big cats, bears, and wargs; humans too now hunt these creatures with regularity, some for subsistence and most for the trophy of a lifetime. Some humans also consider them sacred, representing bravery, fertility, endurance, and power. Living with so many dangerous predators has made them skittish and unpredictable, making them singularly unqualified for riding despite the many attempts.

Another Species of Cervidae one can stumble across is the Altorell

Described by many as a tangled mess of hair and muscle, with twisted antlers jutting out at seemingly random places on its upper body, it is a mutated member of the Cervine Family that branched off from their original pre-war counterparts, who, unsurprisingly given their tremendous size, happened to be moose!!

The result of a small isolated population of moose being tainted by the radioactive fallout from the onslaught of atomic warfare, it towers over even the most largest of the commonwealths largest fauna, with them being able to fend off large Deathclaw with ease. However, they are also horribly misunderstood creatures. Tales of their temper run rampant through the northern territories, but as it turns out, Altorell are not as aggressive as tall-tales dictate, with attacks against humans being the result of human’s harassing or otherwise giving the animal reasons to attack.

It is also thought that these hyped tales of aggression are also what gave rise to the idea that they are also bloodthirsty to their own kind. While it is true that males will often fight ferociously during breeding seasons with intruding males and deaths can occur during them, males do not actively go out of their way to kill members of their own kind as previously believed. And they are not as solitary as first believed either. Males are known to do what is described as “territory guarding” meaning that while it seems like they leave an area to roam somewhere else, they actually don’t.

And even in defense of their territory range, they are not all that aggressive towards other members of their kind. Rather than retaining a territory simply by fighting, which can cost the animal valuable energy or even result in serious injury or death, Altorell have a 3-stage process to territory guarding. Males often create "sign-posts" to advertise their territory. Sometimes these sign-posts are on the boundary thereby demarcating the territory, or, may be scattered throughout the territory. These communicate to other animals that the territory is occupied and may also communicate additional information such as the sex, reproductive status or dominance status of the territory-holder.

Sign-posts may communicate information by olfactory, auditory, or visual means, or a combination of these. If an intruder progresses further into the territory beyond the sign-posts and encounters the territory-holder, both animals may begin ritualized aggression toward each other. This is a series of stylized postures, vocalizations, displays, etc. which function to solve the territory dispute without actual fighting as this could injure either or both animals. Ritualized aggression often ends by one of the animals fleeing (generally the intruder). If this does not happen, the territory may be defended by actual fighting, although this is generally a last resort.

Because Altorell have what is known as Type-A territory- An 'all-purpose territory' in which all activities occur, e.g. courtship, mating, nesting and foraging-reports of territory size can be confused by a lack of distinction between home range and the defended territory. The size and shape of a territory can vary according to its purpose, season, the amount and quality of resources it contains, or the geography. The size is usually a compromise of resource needs, defense costs, predation pressure and reproductive needs. Younger animals do not need such large territories and as a result their range is smaller. Larger males have highly variable territory sizes, ranging from less than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) to almost to over 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres)

To put that range into perspective, The state of Rhode Island is 776,960 acres, or 1,214 square miles.

Females are also not that aggressive as well. Female Altorell without calves are mostly peaceful towards humans. However during their Breeding and Birthing Season, Altorell can become so aggressive and dangerous that many settlements will cordon off areas where they are known to roam, blocking roads and effectively banning entry on all lands for months at a time, until breeding season is done and calves are old enough to leave their mother.

Males have also been discovered staying close to birthing females, as their range can home at least about 3-5 females at a time, and Unlike Moose who only interact with their kind during breeding season and are normally solitary the rest of the year, Females and Male Altorell stay in close vicinity of each other for protection of the young, who when small can fall prey to larger creatures unlike the adults. If a female is in danger and requires aid she can call upon the neighboring females or call for her male, who will come to her rescue.

The only domesticated Altorell known to exist, goes by the name of Kheglen, and like most of his kind is protective against what he owns. But because he moves around a lot, his territory is not a set place. Instead it is the Caravan trailer which he associates with and what's in it, meaning the people living in it, and he'll protect it against anything he deems a threat. So he often roams freely around his "territory" getting rid of threats whenever they park the Caravan. And as it turns out that protection is even against things like passing BoS convoys, who he has learned can pose a danger to those he is protecting-because of this Kheglen has made it a habit of stalking the vicinity around the Caravans and even walking the roads attacking BoS convoys should they wander too close.

Knight Elk, also named "Moon-Stone Elk" or the Inakata Elk, are the fourth largest Elk species, crowned by an impressive pair of antlers that grow so large it is thought they never shed. Herbivores that live in cold climates, they are generally docile, though they have been known to attack when threatened. The distinguishable white hair and shaggy mane make this elk different to other elks in the region, and it is often said they possess a staggering majestic beauty that cannot be rivaled. With a herbivore diet includes grasses, leaves, bark and plants, their high-quality pelts have many uses, and their antlers are highly prized due to their unique branching similar to that of a European Red Deer. Shining and graceful with snowy coat, they are often a symbol of Strength, vitality, wisdom and cunning. As such it is often commonplace in some settlements in the north to give a Greystone charm carved in the animals likeness, to travelers in hopes of a swift journey. In other settlements, because of the stags symbol of fertility, Statues depicting the elk in various poses, are often given to expectant mothers in hopes that their children develop strong able and healthy. Many families also keep one in their home or on their doorstep for luck.

[hobeymakar]

Disco Love | M. Rantanen

Words: 2,129

This is dedicated to my girl @grenawitka​

A/N: I randomly had a dream about a future significant other taking me out to a 80s-style roller disco as a date because I’m a freak who loves 80s disco a little too much. Since I’m single af and my attraction to the male species mostly revolves around hockey players, I figured I would make it about a player. Mikko was suggested by my girl @grenawitka​ and thus, this was born. In this, COVID-19 never happened and the season and offseason take place at their normal scheduled times

Warnings: excessive amounts of disco, swearing, references to sex, and light sexual content

-

You’re in your room curling your hair to try and make it look as 80s as possible. There’s a new roller disco that just opened up in Denver and you haven’t shut up about it since they announced they were opening it. It literally got to the point where you were talking Mikko’s ear off about it and since he’s a great boyfriend, he agreed to take you there on a date.

You finish curling your hair before throwing a headband over it to keep it in place and putting it into a high ponytail with a colorful scrunchie. You also put on very colorful makeup. You have a rainbow-colored leotard on with a pink skirt over it. You have leg warmers and armbands on and look like you belong in an 80s music video. You put on hoop earrings just to add to the look and take a picture to send to the WAGs group chat. The older girls definitely appreciate the look more than the younger ones who think you look lowkey ridiculous.

Before you can defend your look to the younger girls, Mikko comes out of the bathroom dressed in a dark t-shirt and shorts.

“Really babe, that’s what you’re wearing?” you scoff, not believing he didn’t even put an ounce of effort into it.

“What’s wrong with my outfit?” he whines.

“It’s basic and not 80s enough!” you huff in frustration.

You drag him into his side of your walk-in closet and you give him a whole wardrobe change. After a while, you’re satisfied with his new look, which consists of a bright muscle tank, dark 80s style joggers, and sneakers.

“Alright now go look at your look,” you inform him, gesturing to the mirror.

He takes a look at himself and grimaces. This is definitely something he would never wear on his own accord.

“You look great, baby and it’s one night to make me happy,” you assure him.

“I just hope no one recognizes me,” he grimaces thinking about being caught dead by the media wearing what he has on.

You roll your eyes at how dramatic he is and get ready to leave. After a few minutes, you leave the condo and make your way to the car. Mikko insists on driving, which is better for you because you get to control the music and like the pest you are, you play nonstop disco in the car. The entire ride you subject Mikko to the likes of Evelyn Champagne King, Donna Summers, The BeeGees, Gloria Gaynor, Chic, KC and the Sunshine Band, Fire, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and more. 

After what must feel like an excruciating long time for Mikko, you finally arrive at the roller disco. The parking is shit, as it usually is in the city, so you have to park a few blocks away in a parking garage. You make the walk to the roller disco, braving the chilly air of the early September night in the city. You make your way inside the building and Mikko pays the fee for two. You then head over to the rentals to rent out old-fashioned roller skates. Mikko had wanted to bring his rollerblades, but you told him that it defeats the purpose of going to a roller disco, since it’s with old-fashioned roller skates.

“What are your sizes?” the guy working the rental booth asks, before recognizing Mikko and his face drops.

Mikko talks to the guy and lets him know their sizes. The guy wishes he could get an autograph but settles for a picture with him instead. After the exchange is done, you put on your skates with Mikko tying the laces up for you. You both then head to the hardwood rink holding hands. Since your skating isn’t the best, Mikko leads you at a much slower pace than he would go normally.

The song Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees starts playing and you feel like you’re being taken back in time to 1979 or something. You start singing along to the song as you skate alongside groups of friends and other couples.

“Aren’t you glad we’re back in Denver?” you ask him.

“Yeah, being back in Denver means a new season is starting and another shot at the cup,” he replies.

“I really believe you guys can win it this year, babe,” you assure him.

“That’s what everyone said last season and look what happened,” he replies bitterly, referring to their latest 2nd round exit. 

“Yeah well that was last season and this season is different! You guys are a year older and wiser and you’re going to make it out of the West this year!” you assure him again.

“I sure hope we do,” he smiles weakly.

“Anyway, we need to start planning our halloween outfit for this year!” you suggest, already coming up with cute couple ideas.

“Babe, it’s September,” he replies, throwing you a look.

“Yeah, I know, but we need to be the best dressed couple at the party,” you reply.

“Why don’t we just dress like we’re dressed now? I think being a 80s roller disco couple will make us best dressed at the party!” he teases.

“As long as I get to see you in tight pants,” you giggle.

“I’m not wearing tight pants, babe,” he replies.

“You’re going to wear tight pants,” you add.

The song Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough by Michael Jackson comes on and you start singing and swaying to the beat. As you get more comfortable with your skating, you start picking up your speed. Mikko starts showing off by moon-walking on his skates and doing fancy moves.

“You’re such a show off!” you whine.

“You act like you don’t love it!” he adds.

“Whatever, I’m hungry,” you reply, dragging him out of the hardwood rink and towards the concessions area. 

You both look at the menu and decide to split nachos, as well as ordering two slices of brooklyn style pizza and drinks. You wait for your food while I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor plays, with you managing to sing all the lyrics into Mikko’s ear. Your food is ready and you sit down to eat it in old-school booths that remind you of old pizzerias.

“Have you been having fun?” you ask him, afraid that he’s only pretending for your sake.

“Surprisingly it’s been fun. I’m not really into disco like you, but it’s been really fun. The old-school vibe is nice. I feel like it’s 1989 or something,” he admits with a small smile.

“Not gonna lie, I was scared you were only pretending to like it because I do. I always wanted to go to a roller disco and get that old school nostalgic experience,” you inform him.

“Well I’m glad I brought you here tonight. Does that mean I get the boyfriend of the year award?” he asks hopefully.

“You still need to stop leaving your clothes thrown all over the floor, leaving the toilet seat up every time you use it, and put in a new toilet paper roll instead of just leaving it on top of the holder for me to give you the award,” you explain, shooting him a look.

“I’m sorry,” he replies sheepishly, kissing your cheek. “I’ll be better about those things.”

He’s lucky he’s hot because you honestly would’ve killed him already from how much you have to baby him, like as if you’re his second mom. 

“Thanks I know I’m hot, but it’s great to hear you say it,” he winks, before taking a bite of his pizza.

Clearly, you said the “you’re lucky you’re hot” part out loud and you curse yourself for inflating his already huge ego.

You two finish your food before throwing out your food and heading over to the old-school arcade area. There’s a couple skeeball machines, pac-man, super mario, and a few other old-school games.

“Babe, I hope you know I’m gonna kick your ass in these games right?” you ask, as you make your way to the ticket machine.

“I don’t think so, my love. I hope you know I’m not gonna go easy on you,” he retorts, buying the tickets from the machine.

“We’ll see about that Rantanen,” you smirk, confident in your ability.

“You’re on, Y/L/N,” he adds, not backing down.

You head over to the skeeball machine and manage to kick his ass in that game.

“I thought you said you weren’t gonna go easy on me, babe,” you smirk, knowing how much he hates to lose in anything.

“I was, but I won’t be this time around,” he lies, trying to play it off.

“We’ll see about that,” you scoff.

You head over to the pac-man machine and battle against each other and Mikko manages to beat you in a very close match.

“I thought you were gonna kick my ass,” he teases, making fun of you.

You just shoot him a look and take him over to the Super Mario machine to redeem yourself. After a very close match, you manage to beat him. You two go back and forth and after playing a few more games, you record more wins and therefore are crowned the ultimate champ.

“I’d like to thank God first and foremost,” you say, giving a fake award acceptance speech.

He just shakes his head in amusement and hip checks you lightly.

“I don’t think that’s how you treat a champ, babe,” you tease, still rubbing the victory in his face.

“Yeah yeah yeah, I’m still the better skater,” he retorts, causing you to laugh in response.

You both head back over to the hardwood rink as the song Love Come Down by Evelyn Champagne King comes on and you literally start singing your heart out to the song, as you skate along with him. That song can definitely express your feelings for Mikko perfectly.

“Babe, did you know?” you ask, stifling a giggle.

“Know what?” he asks in confusion.

“That you make my love come down,” you add, before laughing.

“That was corny, babe,” he chuckles, kissing you.

“It’s true! I just can’t help the way that I feel!” you add, referencing the song again.

“You’re lucky I love you,” he groans.

“I love you more,” you smile, kissing him.

You skate for a little while longer listening to all the jams and even watch as some guys start having a battle right in the middle of the rink. After a while, you decide to head home and you return your skates back. 

You leave the roller disco and walk down the streets of Denver, getting the occasional weird looks by people for your 80s style attire. You eventually make your way back to the car. You take the aux once again and play Dancing Queen by ABBA causing Mikko to groan.

“Really ABBA? I hear enough of them from Gabe,” he groans.

“You’re acting like this isn’t a great song!” you retort, as you start heading back home.

You torture Mikko with more disco music durignt he whole drive back home. Eventually, you arrive back at the condo and go straight to the bathroom. You remove your makeup and tie your hair up before changing into one of Mikko’s old team Finland shirts with nothing underneath and heading into the room to see Mikko in bed and scrolling on his phone. He looks up and smiles when he sees you wearing his shirt. You join him in bed and straddle his waist, his hands going automatically to your hips.

“Have I told you before that I love when you wear my clothes?” he asks, his fingers running under the seam of the shirt.

“You may have mentioned it before,” you tease, running your fingers through his curls.

His hands go to your butt and he grabs both cheeks in his hands.

“Someone’s being handsy,” you tease, before rolling over onto his side.

“Such a tease,” he groans in disappointment.

“Quit whining you baby! We’re watching a movie tonight and I’m picking,” you inform him.

He hands you the remote and you choose Saturday Night Fever, the iconic 1977 disco movie.

“Really?” he groans, shooting you a look.

“Just shut up and turn off the lights, Mikko,” you order him.

He gets up begrudgingly and turns off the lights before climbing back into bed. You start the movie and Mikko gets over the movie choice after a while. You two don’t even watch the entire movie, abandoning it halfway because he got too handsy, which was part of his agenda from the second he saw you wearing his shirt. The soreness that you feel the next morning was worth it when he wakes you up with breakfast in bed.