#regardless of whether or not monsters in DR have blood

[lynxgriffin]

I don’t know if monsters can bleed or not, but Susie would definitely donate blood if it meant she gets to eat cookies and drink fruit juice that they hand out afterwards.

Honestly if Susie could donate blood, she'd probably do it just because then she'd get to see a lot of blood and that'd be badass. The snacks are a good bonus, too!

[pathfinderunlocked]

Lady of Ash - CR12 Mesmerist

I can save them. And I intend to do so. I intend to make them mine, in exchange for returning their memories and sanity to them. And this will be my city, filled with the accursed walking dead whose sunken eyes still remember life, whose hearts still remember what it was like to be loved by the living.  But now I love them.  My Ashfallen.

Artwork by Oukawa Yuu on Seiga.  Badly edited by me.

The Lady of Ash is a faction leader in my dark fantasy setting of Vorseah, and her stat block reflects a character who is mostly involved in preventing fights, not winning them. If the artwork looks familiar, you probably remember it from the Vampire's Daughter monster that I posted; this is the same character, 600 years later.

The unusual combination of ancient youth dhampir vampire is what happens when someone is born into a vampire family and gets killed by vampire hunters as a child, and then gets raised into undeath as a full vampire by her surviving family members.

Her unique vampire power grants her the ability to awaken undead, in place of dominating humanoids. She uses this power to form a small civilization of intelligent undead. She has little concern for whether the undead she awakens are, or were, good people - she only wishes to provide them the same freedom over their destiny that living creatures possess. She wishes for both herself and her people, the Ashfallen, to get along peacefully with others, whether they be crusading paladins or evil necromancers. Despite that seemingly benevolent goal, her powers and her upbringing have warped her view of the value of life, and she isn't a good person. She has no empathy for the living, only a desire to avoid conflict with them.

However, she lacks the ability to create vampire spawn, and doesn't desire to create new undead regardless. She relies on her allies to subdue undead and allow her to use her powers on them.

When faced with violent undead, she uses her Command Undead ability to stop combat, and then uses Awaken Undead later at her leisure when the target has been secured and restrained. Against living targets, she charms or dominates them instead of fighting. She virtually never uses her energy drain or blood drain attacks; even if forced into combat against something like an aberration or outsider that she can't dominate, she'll either flee or rely on others to fight for her.

She always has her Umbral Shield trick implanted in herself, and begins battle with her other two mesmerist tricks already implanted in her allies. Typically she implants Compel Alacrity in melee allies and Mesmeric Mirror in spellcasting allies.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate making NPCs that use character classes? This stat block has too many special abilities. Some of it is the vampire template's fault.

Lady of Ash - CR 12

Avoiding the light from the window is what appears to be a young girl in a dress with long black hair and a white hat.  She has unusually pale skin, and the hanging oil lamp casts no shadow on the opposite wall.

XP 19,200 Dhampir, ancient youth vampire, spirit walker mesmerist 11 LE Small undead (augmented humanoid) Init +7 Senses darkvision, low-light vision; Perception +23

DEFENSE

AC 27, touch 17, flat-footed 23 (+3 Dex, +2 deflection, +1 dodge, +7 natural, +3 shield, +1 size) hp 141 (11d8+88); fast healing 5 Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +16; +2 vs. disease and mind-affecting, channel resistance +4 DR 10/magic and silver Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 5 Weaknesses vampire weaknesses (except sunlight weakness) Immune undead traits

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., spider climb Melee slam +10 (1d3+1 plus energy drain) Special Attacks awaken undead (11 HD/day, DC 22), blood drain, children of the night, command undead (8/day, DC 22), energy drain (2 HD, DC 22), hypnotic stare (-3 Will/Perception/Sense Motive/initiative/concentration/DC vs. Diplomacy/DC vs. Intimidate, 5 or 3d6 damage, 50 ft.), mesmerist tricks (3 at a time, 11/day)

Racial Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +18)     1/day—charm person (DC 20), command (DC 20)

Mesmerist Spells Known (CL 11th; concentration +18)     4th (3/day)—dominate person (DC 23), serenity (DC 23), speak with haunt     3rd (6/day)—appearance of life, charm monster (DC 22), dispel magic, nondetection     2nd (6/day)—aversion (DC 19), command undead (DC 21), detect thoughts (DC 19), knock, suggestion (DC 21)     1st (7/day)—adoration, hide from undead (DC 18), innocence, mindlink, sow thought (DC 20), undetectable alignment     0 (at will)—daze (DC 18), detect magic, message, open/close, touch of fatigue (touch +10, DC 17), unwitting ally (DC 18)

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 16, Con —, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 24 Base Atk +8; CMB +8; CMD 23 Feats Bouncing Spell, Command Undead (see text), Extended Stare, Extended Stare, Demoralizing Stare, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Spell Focus (enchantment), Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness Skills Bluff +37, Diplomacy +23, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana, local, history, nobility, religion) +6, Linguistics +5, Perception +23, Perform (oratory) +9, Sense Motive +26, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +15, Use Magic Device +14; Racial Bonuses +10 Bluff, +10 Perception, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Stealth Languages Common, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Infernal, Necril, Orc Gear potion of inflict serious wounds x2, Lily Sunhat, +2 reflecting mithral buckler, ring of eloquence (dwarven, elven, gnome, halfling), amulet of natural armor +1, ring of protection +2 SQ bold stare (allure, distraction, susceptibility), change shape (dire bat or wolf, beast shape II), gaseous form, glib lie, undead inception, shadowless, spider climb

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Awaken Undead (Su) In place of a vampire's Dominate ability, the Lady of Ash has the supernatural ability to soothe and awaken undead creatures and break a necromancer's control over them.  She can use this on up to 11 HD (a number equal to her own hit dice) of undead creatures per day.  This does not cause the undead to become under her control, but it breaks effects such as Command Undead, grants the undead creature an intelligence score if it doesn't have one (typically the same score they had in life), and changes its alignment back to what it was in life.

To use this ability, the Lady of Ash must touch the target as a full-round action.  An undead creature makes a Will saving throw against this effect, DC 22.  If the creature is under the control of a necromancer or other undead, the Lady of Ash must also succeed on a caster level check with a DC of 10 + the hit dice of the creature exerting control over her target.  On a successful saving throw, or if the Lady of Ash fails the caster level check, this ability has no effect.  The save DC is Charisma-based.

A creature affected by Awaken Undead rolls a d100.  On a roll less than or equal to the Lady of Ash's hit dice, it becomes friendly toward her.  On an 80-89 it becomes hostile to her, and on a 90-100 it becomes confused and self-destructive.  Otherwise, the soothed creature becomes indifferent toward the Lady of Ash.

Blood Drain (Su) A vampire can suck blood from a grappled opponent; if the vampire establishes or maintains a pin, it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage. The vampire heals 5 hit points or gains 5 temporary hit points for 1 hour (up to a maximum number of temporary hit points equal to its full normal hit points) each round it drains blood.

Command Undead (Su) As a standard action, 8 times per day, the Lady of Ash can enslave undead within 30 feet. Undead receive a DC 22 Will save to negate the effect. The save DC is Charisma-based. Undead that fail their saves fall under her control, obeying her commands to the best of their ability, as if under the effects of control undead. Intelligent undead receive a new saving throw each day to resist her command. The Lady of Ash can control any number of undead, so long as their total Hit Dice do not exceed her mesmerist level. If an undead creature is under the control of another creature, the Lady of Ash must make an opposed Charisma check whenever her orders conflict.

Continued Animation (Su) Three times per day, when the Lady of Ash is using hypnotic stare on a humanoid target and the target dies, as an immediate action the Lady of Ash can force the target’s soul to remain in the body. The Lady of Ash can then control the target as if using dominate person for 5 rounds. The creature gains 22 temporary hit points and continues acting as though it were alive and conscious until it loses those temporary hit points or the duration expires.

During this time, the creature counts as undead, but it can’t be healed by negative energy. The target receives a DC 22 Will saving throw to avoid this effect and die normally. The save DC is Charisma-based.

This ability ends immediately if at any point the target’s body is completely destroyed (such as by disintegrate) or restored to life.

Change Shape (Su) A vampire can use change shape to assume the form of a dire bat or wolf, as beast shape II.

Children of the Night (Su) Once per day, a vampire can call forth 1d6+1 rat swarms, 1d4+1 bat swarms, or 2d6 wolves as a standard action.  These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the vampire for up to 1 hour.

Gaseous Form (Su) As a standard action, a vampire can assume gaseous form at will, as the spell (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.

Hypnotic Stare (Su) The Lady of Ash can focus her stare on one creature within 50 feet as a swift action.  That creature takes a –3 penalty on Will saving throws, concentration checks, initiative checks, Perception checks, Sense Motive checks to oppose Bluff, and to the DC of Diplomacy and Intimidate checks made against it.  The Lady of Ash can maintain her stare against only one opponent at a time; it remains in effect until she stares at a new target, the opponent dies, the opponent moves farther than 50 feet away, or the Lady of Ash is reduced to 0 hit points.  The Lady of Ash can remove the memory of her stare from the target’s mind; The creature doesn’t remember that it was affected (nor does it realize that it is currently being affected) unless the Lady of Ash allows it. 

The hypnotic stare is a psychic effect, and relies more on the focus of the Lady of Ash than the target's perception of her stare.  It can’t be avoided in the same ways a gaze attack can.  She can use this ability even while blinded, but must succeed at a DC 20 concentration check to do so.  The penalties from multiple mesmerists’ stares don’t stack, nor do they stack with penalties from witches‘ evil eye hexes.  This is a mind-affecting effect, but can affect undead, ignoring their immunity to mind-affecting abilities.

Once per round, when a creature affected by the Lady of Ash's hypnotic stare takes damage, she can increase the damage by 5, or by 3d6 if she dealt the damage herself, and the target must succeed on a DC 22 Will save or become shaken for 1 round. This is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit. The save DC is Charisma-based.

An undead target affected by the Lady of Ash's hypnotic stare loses its immunity to her mind-affecting spells and abilities.

Shadowless (Ex) A vampire casts no shadows and shows no reflection in a mirror.

Mesmerist Tricks (Su) As a standard action, the Lady of Ash can implant a mesmerist trick in herself or a willing ally she touches.  She can do this up to 13 times per day, and can have up to 3 tricks implanted at a time.  The trick remains dormant until either it is triggered or the next time the Lady of Ash regains her spells.

As a free action usable even when it’s not her turn, the Lady of Ash can trigger this trick under the conditions listed for that trick.  The subject must be within 210 feet of the Lady of Ash for her to trigger the implanted trick.  She doesn’t need line of sight, but anything that blocks telepathic contact prevents her from triggering tricks.

The mesmerist tricks the Lady of Ash knows are as follows:

Compel Alacrity The mesmerist can trigger this trick whenever the subject begins its turn within an enemy’s reach. The subject can move 20 feet as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. The subject can’t move farther than her speed in this way. The movement from this trick doesn’t count against the subject’s movement speed for that round. Mesmeric Mirror The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject is attacked or becomes the target of a spell that requires an attack roll. Three duplicates of the subject appear, and the attacker must determine randomly which it hits (as mirror image). Each image lasts for 11 minutes or until destroyed. This is an illusion (figment) effect. See in Darkness The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject moves into an area of darkness. The subject gains darkvision with a range of 60 feet for 1 minute. Telepathic Link The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject and her allies are outnumbered in combat. For 1 minute per mesmerist level, the subject and the mesmerist can communicate telepathically. If the subject and the mesmerist are more than 210 feet apart, the telepathic connection is severed and cannot be regained unless the trick is implanted again. The mesmerist and the subject must share a language to be able to communicate. Umbral Shield The mesmerist can trigger this trick whenever the subject would be exposed to harmful bright light (such as sunlight is to a vampire). Once triggered, the subject ignores any harmful effects of bright light or sunlight for 1 minute.  The subject is immune to the dazzled condition while this trick is in effect. Unwitting Messenger The mesmerist describes a recipient to the subject while implanting this trick, then recites a verbal message no longer than 55 words. The subject of unwitting messenger has no memory of the message or the target recipient. When the subject encounters the specified recipient, the subject repeats the message verbatim, but does not recall speaking the message or its contents. This trick ends if not triggered within 24 hours. The subject of unwitting messenger can be fooled by mundane disguises or illusions, causing her to deliver the message to the wrong recipient.

Reflecting Buckler Once per day, the Lady of Ash can use her buckler to reflect a targeted or ranged attack spell targeting her back at its caster. Area spells, touch range spells, and other spells not directly targeting her are not affected.

Vampire Weaknesses Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from mirrors or strongly presented holy symbols. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against that creature. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action. After 1 round, a vampire can overcome its revulsion of the object and function normally each round it makes a DC 25 Will save.

Vampires cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so.

Reducing a vampire’s hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn’t always destroy it (see vampiric fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points—a vampire reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless vampire’s heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the head is also severed and anointed with holy water.

Normally, exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. However, the Lady of Ash's lily sunhat prevents her from being harmed by sunlight.

Vampiric Fast Healing (Su) A vampire gains fast healing 5.  If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, a vampire assumes gaseous form and attempts to escape.  It must reach its coffin home within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed.  (It can normally travel up to 9 miles in 2 hours.)  Additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect.  Once at rest, the vampire is helpless.  It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round.

[thecreaturecodex]

Anchheri

“Nocturne” © Lois van Baarle, accessed at her ArtStation here

[Commissioned by @abominationimperatrix​. The anchheri is a monster from Uttarakhand, the state in India making up the foothills of the Himalaya. As related in the superb book Ghosts, Monsters and Demons of India, its characteristics have been transplanted into the “acheri”, an “Indian” undead attributed to the Chippewa that does not exist in any authentically native sources. GMDI doesn’t say who’s responsible for this, but I know. The oldest attribution of the “acheri” to “Amerindian tribes” is in Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were by Michael Page and Robert Ingpen. I’ve complained about this book before. Whether this was an intentional alteration (the book has many of those), or a result of lazy scholarship (confusing “Indian” for India with “Indian” for Native American), the damage has been done, and most images of the anchheri online are clad in buckskins. The most accurate pop culture anchheri, possibly because its creators weren’t relying on English language sources, is in Shin Megami Tensei]

Anchheri CR 7 CE Undead This humanoid child has an odd, cruel smile, clawed hands and sunken, glowing eyes. Her skin seems tightly drawn around her bones, and has a hue of decomposition.

An anchheri is both tragic and dangerous, as they are the undead remains of children who died an unnatural death. They hide during the day in mountainous caves and crevices, and descend from the mountains at night to frolic and play. Mortals who join in these games risk being attacked. An adult will usually be just shredded with tiny claws, or put to sleep and its blood drunk, but anchheri are more subtle on their attacks on children. The touch of an anchheri’s shadow spreads plague, and a child who dies from this disease becomes a new anchheri. Thus, a single one of these monsters can become an infestation rapidly, and tales are told of entire villages emptied of children.

Anchheri are difficult to slay without access to magic weapons and divine magic, so some communities have taken to propitiating them instead. Anchheri love gifts; clothing, jewelry and toys are all appreciated. They fear the color red, perhaps because it reminds them of their own blood spilled, and so people wearing red clothing are usually safe from an anchheri initiating attack. Giving an anchheri red clothing, however, is a sure way to insult it and invite violence. The mind of an anchheri is childlike, and they are fairly easy to trick.

An anchheri stands between three and five feet tall. Because of their willowy frames, they are treated as creatures of Small size regardless of height.

Anchheri                CR 7 XP 3,200 CE Small undead Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +10 Defense AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+1 size, +4 Dex, +4 natural) hp 85 (10d8+40) Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +6 DR 10/magic; Immune undead traits Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2; Weakness red aversion Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee 2 claws +12 (1d4-1), shadow +7 touch (disease) Special Attacks blood drain (1d2 Con), create spawn, sneak attack +3d6 Spell-like Abilities CL 7th, concentration +11 3/day—deep slumber (DC 17), fly, stone call Statistics Str 8, Dex 18, Con -, Int 13, Wis 9, Cha 18 Base Atk +7; CMB +5; CMD 19 Feats Combat Expertise, Deceitful, Improved Feint, Nimble Moves, Weapon Finesse Skills Bluff +14, Climb +10, Disguise +17, Escape Artist +12, Perception +10, Perform (dance) +6, Stealth +19 Languages Common, Necril Ecology Environment any land or urban Organization solitary, pair, gang (3-6) or party (7-12) Treasure standard Special Abilities Create Spawn (Su) Any humanoid child killed by an anchheri’s disease rises as a free willed anchheri at the next new moon. Disease (Ex) Bubonic plague—contact; save Fort DC 19; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Con damage, 1 Cha damage, target is fatigued; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Charisma based. Red Aversion (Ex) An anchheri must succeed a DC 20 Will save in order to attack a creature wearing red clothing. If the anchheri fails that save, it cannot attack that creature for the next 24 hours. If that creature attacks the anchheri, the aversion is broken. Shadow Touch (Su) An anchheri can make a touch attack with its shadow as a secondary natural weapon. A creature touched takes no damage, but is exposed to the anchheri’s disease.

[shuttershocky]

wait the guillermo anon just gave me a revelation

unless i'm forgetting something here, if shiki's nanaya instinctis kick in on sight, shouldn't they have gone apeshit when he first saw akiha too? or did she not count because she hadn't inverted yet or something

Fun fact, in the Remake they actually do long before Akiha inverts. Shiki's just amazing at being in denial.

A significant change that the Remake does from the original is that Akiha isn't a mixed-blood anymore, at least, not according to Dr. Arach. There's an optional cutscene where you can have Arach explain that Akiha differs from the rest of the Tohno family in that she's not a human-oni hybrid at all, for some reason she was born a pure oni, with a body that matches that of oni before interbreeding even began, and even older. She is likened to a monster ten thousand years old, and it would be a mistake to compare her to anything created in the age of man.

Now regardless of whether or not you actually see this scene, Shiki's instincts will activate when he next has breakfast with Akiha in the same way it did when he first saw Arcueid. Rather than lose control to Nanaya Shiki and go into a killing frenzy though, Tohno Shiki's denial of weird shit powers activate and he brushes it off as a weird morning nausea that strengthens when he looks at Akiha, but can probably be cured by running away and going to school instead.

Also, it appears that Makihisa took great pains to make Akiha pass off as a human. There's some details early on in the VN that Akiha was often hospitalized as a child and needed surgery. Given that Arach is a surgeon, it's possible she was tasked with making sure Akiha passed as a human and to remove or modify whatever inhuman parts of her that may come from her atavist nature. (We will probably know more when the other routes get made)

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH27

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

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Chapter 27: Star Death Reality Show (X)

Lara's words drew silence from everyone.

That afternoon, after the search for Mark and He Yi failed, Dr. Lu had complained casually that the snow was too slippery, and he accidentally fell—he had fallen three times in one afternoon, and the number of times he fell might have doubled if Du Yue hadn't been watching him the whole time. This had reminded everyone that they would be living here for the next six days, and they couldn't travel on the snow every time.

So the five of them, together with Xue Jiahui, Janet, and Alex, who were present to help search at that time, eight people in total, had carried the necessary snow-shovelling equipment to each house and swept out a snow-free road near their houses, leading to the church in the middle of the village. And Jing Siyu, Jing Sixue, and Annie, although not missing, had not cleared their paths, nor had the missing Mark and He Yi.

Lara's thinking was very clear. If someone had knocked Xue Jiahui out and taken her away, unless he went to the church first along the snow-free path Xue Jiahui had cleared and then gone to someone's house to hide her along the seven snow-free paths connected to the church, his footprints would otherwise be left in the snow.

"But in the afternoon, we walked around and left many footprints on the ground, which are difficult to distinguish now," Qi Leren countered.

"Let’s look for it along the way," Lara said.

This search went on throughout the night, but there were no extra suspicious footprints on the ground and there were no clues in the people's houses. By dawn, Dr. Lu was too sleepy to keep his eyes open. He followed the crowd with a yawn and walked into the church with them to have a rest.

"The Best of the Day will be broadcast in two hours. Let's just wait for it before we rest," Lara said.

Dr. Lu said, "I can't do it. Let me take a nap and just... call me when it’s time."

Giving a look of being exhausted, he yawned hard enough that tears almost fell. Qi Leren patted him on the shoulder: "You might as well go back so you can sleep. Have Du Yue accompany you."

"Aren't you sleepy?" Dr. Lu muttered.

"Not too much." Qi Leren also felt a little tired, but it was probably because he was tortured by Chen Baiqi. His energy was better than before, so he could stay up all night.

"Forget it, I’ll take a nap on a couch here for a while, just for two hours, I’m too tired to leave," Dr. Lu murmured and yawned again.

Seeing that he was so sleepy, Lara  smiled and said, "You can't sleep on the couch either. It would be bad if you caught a cold."

Qi Leren suddenly remembered the glowing stone: "Lara, do you remember that glowing stone? You and Francis found it in a cave yesterday."

"Oh, what's wrong?" Lara wondered.

"Before going to Xue Jiahui’s, we passed the church to look at the stone. It turned out that... It was a bit strange, you should also have a look," Qi Leren solemnly said.

Lara nodded and walked with Francis towards the back room of the church.

Pushing open the unlocked door, the old room was illuminated by the polar daylight outside the broken window. But the first thing the people who walked into this room saw would never be the stone that had broken into two pieces and lost its luster in the corner, but Xue Jiahui lying on the ground.

"Xue Jiahui!" Qi Leren let out a low cry, and Dr. Lu, who was about to fall asleep, hurried up to check her condition.

"Still alive, breathing and heartbeat are normal." Dr. Lu touched her neck and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Why is she here?" Du Yue wondered.

"We'll know when she wakes up," Qi Leren said, and looked at the stone that was no longer shining.

Before, when he was busy performing for the audience, he hadn't noticed that there was dried blood on the stone's surface that penetrated into the crevice. When he thought of the bloodstained bandage found in Annie's room, he inevitably linked these two things together.

Was it because of Annie's blood that the monster in this stone was awakened? It made sense. As a member of Deep Sea Religion, Annie would recognize this stone as a natural thing. Although she was resting in the house because she was feeling unwell that day, Mark had seen the stone, and it was likely that he had told Annie.

But this guess wouldn't be recognized even if it was spoken aloud. After all, this group of contestants still didn't know that a terrible monster had appeared here... After Xue Jiahui woke up, he would look for an opportunity to let her identify the pictures of the octopus so that the chain of logic could be made. Qi Leren was going to do this.

After more than an hour, the contestants came to the church one after another, waiting for the announcement at 8 o'clock. Jing Siyu was much better. She came with her sister Jing Sixue, and Annie also came. When she saw Xue Jiahui, she raised her eyebrows: "Didn't you say she was missing?"

"She was found more than an hour ago in the room behind the church hall. Also, the glowing stone we found on the first day has been broken... Something is wrong," Lara said in a dignified way.

Janet, who had just arrived, smiled mockingly and said nothing.

Xue Jiahui, who had been placed on the couch, let out a loud groan, and everyone looked at her. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around in confusion.

"Are you alright?" Lara sat down beside her and asked softly.

Xue Jiahui opened her mouth and asked hoarsely, "Who are you?"

When she said this, Qi Leren screamed in his heart. The important clue-NPC fell off the chain at the critical moment via the ridiculous method of amnesia, which simply cut off the possibility of obtaining intelligence across the board. He had a faint feeling that there was a 90% chance that this boss-enemy was the "octopus" mentioned during their discussion before, but he knew nothing about it except that the octopus was a parasitic cosmic alien. He didn’t know its habits, fighting capacity, or whether it would reproduce rapidly.

While Qi Leren was struggling, Lara had already asked about Xue Jiahui's condition. She had really lost her memory and even forgotten who she was. Obviously, it was impossible to remember that she had done a program about "amphioctopus".

Janet held her forehead and sighed in an ostentatious manner: "I am really fed up with cooperating with the performance, even a memory loss scenario has come out. I think Miss Xue won yesterday's Best without any problem."

As soon as she spoke, the speaker started: "Now broadcasting the voting results. The winner for the Best of the Day is: Qi Leren."

The people present uniformly turned their attention to Qi Leren. Janet, who had been beaten on the spot, looked at Qi Leren in a particularly bad way. Dr. Lu was more excited than he was that he got the Best. He said happily: "Congratulations, please come have dinner with me and Du Yue later to celebrate!"

"Thank you... Well, thank you all for your support and love." When Qi Leren remembered that there was an audience, he had to smile and pretend that he was very happy, but his brain was spinning: How could he be rated as the best yesterday? Was it because he’d found that the glowing stone was broken? Or for some other reason?

On the second day of this reality show, many things had happened: Jing Siyu fell into the basement, Mark and He Yi disappeared, they searched the basement, Xue Jiahui disappeared and lost her memory...

He had participated in almost every one of these events. It was probably because of his positive performance and occasional "flash of light" discovery that he had gotten so many votes, Qi Leren thought.

"It's a pity, I thought Miss Xue could get the Best, but it turned out to be Qi. It seems that the audience is more fond of conscientious and obedient actors." Janet looked at Xue Jiahui with a playful mockery.

Xue Jiahui looked confused and overwhelmed, and Qi Leren could not see the sense of recognition in her face. He was now not sure what had happened to Xue Jiahui. If someone had really knocked her out, who could it be?

"It's still strange. The three of us came to the church at eleven o'clock in the evening. At that time, there was no one in the room. After that, we went to Xue Jiahui’s, and the journey took only ten minutes at most. Why was Xue Jiahui hidden in this room? Who brought her here? How did the perpetrator avoid other people?" Dr. Lu murmured, his brow wrinkling more and more tightly as he looked very distressed.

"I’m afraid that only the audience will know this," Lara smiled bitterly. "After all, we can't check these cameras."

"Unfortunately, we can't get help from the audience outside the stadium," Francis said.　

"Actually, it shouldn’t be impossible," Qi Leren suddenly said.

"Do you have a communicator?" Janet looked at Qi Leren with suspicious eyes.

"No. Like you, I have no other tools except a knife. The fixed cameras are installed inside and outside the church. The audience watching the screen clearly knows who brought Xue Jiahui here while she was knocked out. As long as they tell us the name of the person, everything will be understood," Qi Leren said slowly, looking at the speaker.

Lara's eyes brightened. "You mean..."

Qi Leren smiled and nodded.

Although this speaker would only broadcast the names of the Best, even if it was just a name, it would play a great role in cracking the current puzzle.

"Qianbei is too powerful!" Du Yue actually clapped his hands on the spot, and his admiration was beyond words. Dr. Lu on the side covered his face with one hand and his mouth with the other. It was a shame that this fanboy gave exaggerated praise regardless of the occasion!

"This is also an idea, but will the audience cooperate?" Francis asked.

"Let’s try it. Will you ask them?" Qi Leren invited Lara.

Lara nodded and took a deep breath before solemnly saying, "Hello, audience and friends, welcome to our program. Today is the third day of the program, and many unexpected accidents have happened, especially the accident to Xue Jiahui. We can't figure out who knocked her out and brought her to the back room in this church, and we don't know what the motive is. We hereby implore the audience who have watched this program to vote for the man who committed the crime when they vote for today’s Best of the Day. This is very important to us, please help us. Thank you!"

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[thiswasinevitableid]

Furies (Mermay OT4)

Request from @angellioncosplay, fill is NSFW

The jagged edge of the harpoon slices into his tail. 

Barclay knows he’s doomed but he thrashes and tries to dive all the same. He doesn’t know what the boar above wants, doesn’t care, he just wants to go home, he has to make it back to them, please, all he wants is to see them again. 

A second barb pierces his side, blood clouds his vision. 

In the darkness below, he thinks he sees two red lights racing closer. Then the harpooners tug, and the world snaps to black.

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

“Is he stable?” Duck whispers as Aubrey swims out of Barclay’s bedroom, shutting the door behind her. 

“Yeah. I’m glad Indrid warned us when he did; if he’d lost much more blood, I’m not sure even my powers coulda helped.”

“And Joe and ‘Drid?”

“They’re gonna stay with him. I think they’re okay but, well” she sighs, shakes her head, “if that’d happened to Dani, I don’t think anything could make me leave her side.” She loops their arms together as they swim to the door, “do you wanna come stay with us? I know this is hard on them, but you had to, like, break a harpoon in half while one of your friends almost died.”

“Nah, oughta stay in case any of ‘em need somethin.”

“You want to keep Dr. Harris Bonkers for extra support?” She holds out her sea bunny.

Duck rubs it’s back, “I’ll be okay, but thanks for the offer Lady Flame. You get home safe now.”

“I will. Oh” She turns, swimming backwards as she adds, “if he needs any more healing between now and tomorrow, come get me right away!”

He promises he will, locks the house up for the night and floats into the kitchen to put it back in some kind of order. Indrid’s sketch pad and enchanted pen are still on the floor where he dropped them, Joseph’s book and Duck’s half-built model ship knocked sideways from the seer pushing away from the table in a flurry of silver and panic. And on the counter are the ingredients Barclay’d set out for dinner, the ones he was checking off when he realized he needed scallops and swam off with a promise to be right back. 

Duck sighs, jumps when something whaps at the green-glass window. 

“Jesus Winnie, thought you were in the bedroom.” He cracks the window enough to lift the octopus inside. See slowly slides off his arm, swimming across the floor to the pile of salvaged ship instruments Duck and Indrid found for her. 

“Maybe this will keep her from stealing the silverware.” Barclay plucks a knife from the cephalopods tentacle. 

Suddenly, he’s too heavy to swim. They almost lost him. 

It’s simple, really. Duck is in love with Joe and Indrid. Joe and Indrid are in love with Barclay. But that doesn’t mean Duck doesn’t love the other mer; Barclay is one of his best friends, a sympathetic ear when things go south and the only one of the four of them capable of beating Joe at Ten Shells. Barclay also understands something about Duck that escapes many of their kind; that he can love Joe, curious and meticulous from his black hair to his dapper monochrome tail, and Indrid, strange and aloof until you gave him the right kind of stroke on his silver scales, with the same intensity. It just manifests in different ways. 

Duck cracks the bedroom door open, finds the wounded mer on his back in their large, seaweed colored bed. Indrid and Joe are nestled on either side of him. Normally, they’d be an undignified, loving pile, but the bandages on his stomach and tail prevent it. 

Indrid stirs, trilling in distress. His nightmares come and go, are most often the echos of horrible futures he was forced to watch over and over. Duck has a pretty good guess as the which one is playing in his mind tonight. 

He wiggles down onto the bed, draping his arm over Indrid’s side and guiding his bony back and red fin against his chest. When Indrid registers his weight, the nervous twitches of his tail stop. Duck glances up, watches Barclay’s hand glide down the bed to hold Indrid’s own. 

Someone almost took this from them. Almost ripped away pieces of the hearts of the mers he loves most in the world. 

And he wants to know who. 

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

“Dearest, how are you feeling?”

“Fine, totally fine.” Barclay tries to sit up as a demonstration, only for his whole body to convulse. He falls back against the bed, whimpering pathetically. 

“Hmmm, I was afraid that would be the case. There were some timelines where you healed quickly, but it seems the monsters who attacked you did a great deal of damage.”

“No, no, it was just a twinge, if you give me a sec I can-”

“-You will stay in bed.” Indrid’s red gaze sharpens, “no mate of mine is going to re-open his wounds trying to make me breakfast.”

“Besides” Joseph looks up from setting all the med supplies they need in tidy stacks and lines, “it’s not like Duck or I can’t cook. You need to rest, big guy.” He swims over, strokes Barclays hair. Barclay leans into the feelings, trying to ignore the fear gnawing a new hole in his side. 

In the three days since the attack, he hasn’t been alone. His boyfriends and friend take turns sitting with him, talking when he wants to and letting him sleep when he needs, bringing him food and changing his bandages without complaint. 

It’s all wrong. That’s not their job. It shouldn’t be, that’s what they have him for. Some part of him wishes they’d been too late. Because he doesn’t want to face what’s coming. 

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

“Any luck?” 

“Some. Juno says she saw an unfamiliar hull pass by about an hour before Barclay got attacked, but she wasn’t close enough to see any details.”

“Damn it.” Joseph slams the book one human weapons in frustration, then cringes at his outburst. 

Duck swims to him, pulling him up from the chair into an embrace, “We’ll figure it out, slick. Nothin else, happen to know we got a real smart mer workin the case.” He winks, kisses Joseph on the cheek. 

He snorts, then looks at the floor, “Some part of me is worried about what will happen if we do figure out who hurt him. I...I don’t believe in violence outside of dire circumstances, but they, they nearly killed him. I’d like to say my motive in seeking them out is to make sure they can’t hurt anyone else but, well, that’s secondary at best. What I want is to make them pay.”

“That makes two of us” Indrid slithers in the door, “he’s sound asleep, not to worry. I have narrowed down our potential culprits with my visions, but I too am afraid of what I may do if I locate the humans who dared harm him.”

“I get the feelin, but right now we’re mostly borrowin trouble. Let’s wait until we know a little more before decidin whether to track ‘em down.”

Joseph nods, opens his mouth to suggest one of them retrieve dinner from the fishmonger down the block, when there’s a crash from the kitchen. 

“Damn, Winnie must’ve gotten into the cabinets again.”

Indrid blinks, then frowns, “No, that is not her doing.”

Rushing into the kitchen reveals Barclay trying to arrange food on the counter. His upper body can barely move, and his tail is unable to maintain direction due to the bandages. 

“Don’t worry about, ow, me” Barclay smiles at them, but Joseph spots panic in his eyes, “th-thought I’d do some meal prep since you’re all gonna be busy this week.”

He’s about to point out that a)they’re all capable of feeding themselves even when busy and b)Barclay’s only been recovering for a week and a half and Aubrey explicitly told him it would be at least a month before he could move around without help.

Before he can make any points at all, Indrid draws himself up to his full height, frills of his ears fanned out and gestures to the bedroom, “You will do no such thing. You need your rest, dearest.”

“But-”

“That was an order, not a request.” It’s a tone that never fails to make Joseph’s spine turn to mush, and by the flash of pink in Barclay’s tail, he feels the same way. Then his whole tail drains of color and he nods. 

“Right. Sorry. I, I didn’t mean to upset you guys.”

Indrid’s frills flatten and he swims swiftly towards the other mer, “Barclay, I’m not-”

“It’s okay. I caused enough trouble already.” He catches Indrid by the chin to kiss him, blows a second kiss Joseph’s way, then disappears into the bedroom. 

As Indrid flicks his tail nervously, Duck clears his throat, “Know I joke about him not havin a selfish bone in his body, but this is startin to get ridiculous.”

The silver-scaled mer sighs, coiling his tail around Joseph’s own and opening his arms so Duck will come give him a hug. When the three of them are close together he murmurs, “ I saw this timeline, but I had so hoped it would not be the one we ended up in. I have mentioned before that the culture Barclay and I grew up in as deep water mers is very different than what you have on the reef. One component of that was the belief that a mer who could not carry his weight in his home would not be in said home for much longer. His mate or mates not only could, but were encouraged to, throw him out to make room for a more useful partner.”

The entirety of Joseph’s stomach crawls up his throat, “He really thinks we’d do that to him?”

“I suspect so.” Indrid rests his head on Duck’s shoulder, “Barclay is already prone to such fears, in that he prides himself on taking care of others. And it is a deeply ingrained message and practice, so much so that there are times I still fear you three may turn me away should my powers disappear.”

“‘Drid-”

The mer purrs reassuringly, “But then I remind myself that I am not down there. I am up here, with you who love me regardless of my strength. Seeing the future helps a great deal as well; I can peek and see there are no timelines where you turn me away. Hmm” his tail taps Sterns lower back, “I wonder, is there a way we can mimic that experience for Barclay? Help him see his future here?”

Joseph gets an idea and, for the first time all day, the sense that he’s getting somewhere, “I have a plan.”

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

Barclay isn’t sure if this is some cruel joke, or if his boyfriends genuinely believe they won’t grow tired of him needing to be cared for all the time. Regardless, he doesn’t know what to do when Joseph lays beside him, kissing his cheek and shoulder as he talks about how they should go see the Kelpie migration this fall, and how he’s heard about a human beach where they serve a swim-up meal to mers and humans alike, and wouldn’t it be nice for all four of them to visit and try the food?

He doesn’t know what to do when Indrid gently sits him upright and combs his hair, jumping from topic to topic between kisses to the back of his neck but always returning to what they should do for Joseph’s birthday, or Dani and Aubrey’s anniversary, or their own anniversary.

He doesn’t know what to do right now, Indrid sitting and drawing while Joseph finishes changing the bandages on his tail. The one on his side came off a few days ago, scar tissue forming a jagged tooth of pink and white in his skin. 

Duck swims in, greeting them all at once, his usually friendly expression somber. 

“Joe, ‘Drid, could I talk to you in the kitchen? It’ll only be a minute.”

His boyfriends nod, assuring him they’ll be back even as they swim away. He wishes he could believe it, but he can think of only one reason Duck would need to talk to them alone. With a sad little groan, he rolls onto his uninjured side and pities himself to sleep. 

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

“You’re sure that’s the one?”

“Positive. Minerva had a near miss with it this mornin, described the exact same thing Barclay did. Speakin of which, we know they’re down a few harpoons because the ones they sent after her she threw right back at them.”

“A fair response if ever there was one. Do we all agree on the plan?”

“Yep”

“Yes.”

“Good” A smile that could make a sea monster afraid, “then let us begin.”

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

Winthrop lounges on the deck of the Nemo as his guests and the hired guides mill around the edges of the boat. After that run-in with the mermaid earlier today, they’re on pins and needles, hoping to see and (finally) catch another. 

Is poaching in a protected cove illegal? Only if you don’t have the money to pay the fine. Is it wrong to hunt the rare creatures that call this stretch of ocean home? Wrong is a deeply subjective concept. 

Warmth leaves the deck as clouds swirl above the sun. 

“I say, wasn’t it sunny a moment ago?”

“Yep. Could be again, provided y’all head to shore and never come back here.” A voice calls from the bow. 

Everyone races forward, shouting in excitement when they discover the merman addressing them with an oddly calm expression.

“Don’t even think about tryin to spear me. You ain’t the only ones with weapons.”

A second mer surfaces, armed with a spear gun he clearly knows how to use. 

“Joe’s a damn good shot.”

The other mer fixes them with a steely gaze, “This is your last warning. Leave this cove and never try to hunt here again.”

“Or what?”

The whole boar rocks as something massive bumps the underside. Screams draw his attention to the silver, serpentine shape gliding through the water. A red fin breaks the surface and then it’s gone. 

Then the boat nearly capsizes as it rams the port side. In the darkening waves, the monster turns it’s head to look up at them. It’s red eye is the size of a steering wheel, but he forgets all about that when the creature rears up, jaws snapping, and narrowly misses dragging his wife off the boat between butcher-knife teeth. 

“Our friend here is mighty angry with you” the first merman rubs the monster's fin as it swims by him, “in fact, he’s downright furious.”

“And it looks like he’s decided to build up some speed before hitting you this time. I don’t think your boat will survive that amount of force.”

“Alright, alright we’ll leave, we’ll go and never come back.”

A hissing screech from the monster. 

“We swear!” He says, really meaning it this time. 

The first merman points towards shore, “then get goin’.”

The boat speeds away, and Winthrop decides to never, ever look back. 

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

“That was fuckin incredible darlin’”

“Thank you” Indrid returns to his usual form, groggy but pleased, “you were both wonderful as well.”

“Never been happier that you’re so into workin out how human machines operate” Duck kisses Joseph hard, one of Indrid’s favorite sights in the whole of the sea.

 “If you like how I handle a spear gun, you should see how I handle, um, other things.”

“I am” Indrid yawns, “in favor of that idea. But first, I believe I am due for a nap, and Barclay is due for an update.”

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

“You did all that for me?” Barclay twists his fingers in the blanket beneath him, trying to sound pleasantly surprised instead of confused. From the look Joseph and Duck trade, he’s doing a shit job. 

“Well, technically we also did it to keep the reef safe from hunters, and hopefully start a legend that will keep any like-minded poachers from coming within fifty miles of our home. Or our family. And yes, dearest, that includes you.” In the darkened bedroom, deep purple shimmers up Indrid’s tail. A signal to obey.

“I, I never said it didn’t.”

“Yes, but it has been on your mind for weeks.”

“I…”

“Barclay” Joseph settles beside him, taking his hand, “Indrid told us about what you two were taught about needing care or being helpless. I, we, none of us want you thinking that’s what will happen here. I promise.”

He doesn’t realize he’s crying, not until Indrid whispers “hush now, dear one” and carefully rests their tails together so that the wound is left untouched.

“I, I thought saying it would make it worse. Make you think I needed reassurance, which would just make it clear how useless I am. I, I know that sounds ridiculous.”

“It’s not ridiculous to feel vulnerable or scared after something traumatic.” Joseph traces his fingers up and down his arm and his scales ripple in reply. 

“Nor to feel off-balance when you are unable to do what you usually do.”

“But you gotta tell us next time.” Duck rests next to Joseph, “we care about you, all three of us, but we can’t help if we don’t know what’s wrong.”

He flashes apologetic yellow, “You’re right. I’ll, I’m gonna try to be better about that. It’s just hard for me to let other mers take care of me sometimes.”

The purple returns to Indrid’s tail, and when he turns to look at Barclay his smile is no longer gentle and ethereal. It’s almost tangible enough to slice his chest and send everything he wants pouring onto the bed. 

“It seems to me, my dear one, that you could use some practice in that area.”

“Yes” he murmurs, then yips when Indrid bites his throat, “I mean yes, sir.”

“Much better. After all, your convalescence has made such things difficult until now. And yes, Joseph, I will keep an eye on the futures to be certain no one is hurt. Speaking of which: Duck, please adjust so Barclay’s head is in your lap. You’ll need to hold his shoulders down should he try and disobey me.”

A shift of the bed and then his head rests on mottled green scales. 

“Hey” He smiles up and Duck sends a crooked grin his way, setting more pink off in his tail. He may not want to fuck him, but Barclay’s not about to deny how handsome Duck can be.

This rumination distracts him from Indrid and Joseph’s conversation, so he’s pleasantly surprised when the black-tailed mer catches his lips in a kiss. It’s precise, down with calculated care that always makes him feel like the most interesting, important thing in the world. 

“That’s it big guy, relax for us.”

“I’, I’m tryINGfuck, it’s, it’s kinda hard when Indrid is doing that.”

Indrid chuckles, continues teasing the scales in his upper tail, “Shall I stop?”

“No, please no-”

“Please what?” His slit opens at the steel in Indrid’s voice. 

“Please sir.”

“Good boy. Ah, and here’s that lovely cock of yours. What shall I do with it, hmmm?”

“Anything you want sir.” He tries not to giggle as Joseph nibbles his ear.

“I was not asking you.” Indrid cocks his head at Duck.

“Huh” Duck toys with Barclays hair, “think I wanna see you suck it. Been too damn long since you had a dick in your mouth that wasn’t mine.”

Indrid licks his lips and then Barclay’s moans fill the bedroom as his boyfriend lovingly sucks the head of his cock. 

“Is now the time to mention he sucked me off yesterday while you were at work?” Joseph smiles up at Duck, though his hand is busy teasing Barclay’s nipples. 

Duck growls, “and you didn’t even give an encore where I could watch. Mighty rude of you. Both of you.”

“Don’t blame me” Indrid jerks Barclay off with one hand and fingers his slit with the other, “you know how needy our pet gets.”

“True. Guess I’ll have to put him in his place.” Duck looks down at Barclay, gaze soft in spite of his tone, “not tonight though. Tonight his job is to take care of you.”

“Speaking of which” Joseph turns his face into another kiss just as Indrid’s mouth envelopes his cock once again. He moans and whimpers between those perfect lips, a month of not even being able to touch himself meaning his body is already being dragged towards orgasm. His hand finds Joseph’s tail, petting it enticingly. 

“If you AHnnnfuck, lay perpendicular babe, I can suck you off without hurting myself.”

Joseph glances at Indrid, who pulls off of Barclay’s cock and shakes his head, “Not tonight, dearest.”

He whimpers, tries to lift his head, use his tongue to tease Joseph’s retreating tail, only or Duck to hold him firmly in place. 

“I know, sweet one, you do so love being inside our pet, whether with that talented tongue, those skillful hands, or this sinful thing.” He gives a final jerk, then uses his tail to guide Joseph into his former position, “And I would never deny you that pleasure. He’s such a good little pet after all.” He kisses Joseph posessively, then glides behind him and sets his hands on his waist, “which is why I am going to fuck him on you. I will control his movements, so as to avoid aggravating your injury.”

“And because you get off on it.” Duck adds.

“That too.”

“AHfuck!” Barclay’s whole tail lights up purple for an instant as Indrid shoves Joseph down onto his cock. He might submit to Indrid, but Joseph is the mer in the sea he most wants to claim, to fuck until he’s begging for more.

“Nghnshit, shit that’s so good big guy, fuck I missed this.”

“Ahem.” 

“Thank you Indridoh, ohohohohfuck.” Joseph’s hands scrabble on Barclay’s tail as Indrid bounces him up and down. He looks so handsome like this, cock hard and slit swallowing Barclay to the hilt, dark hair loose and framing his head like a crown. 

Barclay reaches for him, desperate for a touch, but Duck holds him down.

“Thank you, love, if he had moved just then he would have hurt himself.”

“Don’t care” Barclay growlwhines, “Joseph, babe, wanna touch you so bad.”

“You’ll get to, big guy, there’ll be plenty of chances after this.”

He growls, teeth clenched as the riptide of his orgasm pulls at him. 

“It’s okay big fella, you can let go. We’ve got you.” Duck’s voice, as soothing as the hand he scritches down his scalp. 

“Fuck” is all he gets out before Indrid pushes Joseph down and Barclay spurts up into him with moan. 

“Better, big guy?” Joseph’s smile is as dazzling as ever. 

“Uh huh.” His bones are mud, his eyes heavy, and he feels better than he has all month. 

“Good. Come, let me look you over and hold you. Duck and Joseph will join us shortly.”

“But I thoughtAHfuck” is all he hears before the sound of Duck frantically fucking Joseph fills one half of the room, his boyfriends moan switching from charming to mouthwatering as Duck keeps fucking him after he’s cum. 

Indrid builds them a nest on the other side of the bed, guides him into it to comb his hair and rub his aching shoulders, humming as he does. Eventually, Duck swims over to join them, Joseph more floating than swimming in his embrace. 

“How do you feel, big guy?”

“Good. Really, really good.” He closes his eyes, safe in the knowledge that his home and family will still be his when he wakes up.

Then he opens them again.

“Wait, so what the fuck did you actually do to the guy who harpooned me?”

[angelicjeonghan]

4 Lives

After committing a crime so cruel that even an execution won't do, Wonwoo finds himself as a Goblin, searching for the one soul destined to take his sword out of him. But throughout his long, long lifetime, he finds himself meeting that soul, Mingyu,  again and again until Mingyu reaches the lifetime in which he has to take Wonwoo's sword out. 

4.4K words

Note: Goblins are immortal and have the ability to travel to different places by opening doors (open the door to your bedroom but end up in another place) ! Just some info so you’re not comfused if you haven’t watched the drama :-)

Hello! This is the second fanfic I’m writing on here! I posted this on Asianfanfics.com but I thought I’d put it on here too :-) Also! This fic is HEAVILY inspired by the popular K-drama, goblin! But I changed a lot of things and the plot is completely different, its just a few things that I chose to keep. Regardless, this fic was inspired by Goblin so if you like this fic, you should go watch it!

They say that humans have four lives, and that afterwards, the soul finally gets to go to a higher place. They say that those who’ve killed themselves become grim reapers, and that those who commit heinous acts will be cursed as immortal until they find their brides. They say all of that, but who really believes it? 

--

Wonwoo didn’t mean to slaughter a whole village. He didn’t know what he was doing, he just knew that whatever the king wants, the king gets. It didn’t hit him that he and the group of soldiers that he led single handedly took the lives of countless individuals until he found himself kneeling in front of the king with his hands bound to his back and an executioner fastening a blindfold to his eyes, preparing him for what’s to come. His whole body shuddered as beads of sweat dripped down his face. He wasn't sure if it was out of fear or out of heat. Maybe both. His execution was scheduled for the night, so there were rings of fire circling him, illuminating what was to come. 

He realized in what was supposed to be his final moments that he didn’t do what the king wanted. He and his soldiers were only supposed to kidnap the king, but the selfish desire deep within him that he didn’t know existed caused him to kill a village. 

He uttered one final apology, finding that there were no tears left in him as he prepared himself for his death.

The sword piercing his body felt like nothing to him. Even when he felt himself choke up blood and his body begin to burn in pain, he felt nothing but guilt. He was a monster and deserved this. He deserved to die the death of a public execution. He deserved to die due to the war that was to ensue due to his actions. He didn’t deserve to open his eyes ever again.

So when they did open, he was confused. 

He scanned the barren fields around him, and was greeted with an old man who appeared beside him in an instant. 

“How am I here? How...Why am I here?” He asked quietly, afraid that somebody from the town might somehow hear him in the vacant fields. He looked down at his stomach and saw the sword that stabbed him days prior. But it was different now. It was transparent and glowed, but if he chose not to focus on it, he wouldn’t see it. He tried to touch it, but his hand went right through it. He gave the man a questioning look. 

The old man sighed deeply as he scanned the young man before him. 

“Have you ever heard of a Goblin?”

--

The first time he met Mingyu was in a small town in England. He decided to leave Korea as a whole and move somewhere he’d never be found, and decided that England would be a good start. 

Besides, he had an eternity to learn English. 

Mingyu, who’s name at the time was Mark, worked at a local bakery in their rural town away from the Royal Palace. Royalty didn’t seem to matter to their quaint way of living. Wonwoo was the only foreigner in the town, and was often questioned about his whereabouts and how he traveled from the orient to here. He couldn’t lie and say that he teleported, because they’d just try to burn him for witchcraft, so he lied and said that he travelled from China to import tea. 

They didn’t need to know that he was Korean, anyways, because to them it was all the same.

Mark was one of the only people who didn’t question him for not being European, and their friendship soon grew. 

Wonwoo found it easy to suppress certain feelings throughout his life, from being in training, to being in battle, to then having to go into hiding. 

It was easy to suppress these feelings when he couldn’t relax and bask in them, but sitting here with Mark made his heart beat just a little faster than he would have liked. 

Mark grew up strictly catholic and made no advances towards Wonwoo, but the lingering stares and the jolts of electricity that ran through their bodies as they brushed their fingertips over tea was enough to suffice. 

As Mark grew older, he began to question Wonwoo’s age. They’d been friends for ten years, and Mark was now balding and developing wrinkles, yet Wonwoo kept his pristine complexion and didn’t seem to age at all.

Wonwoo always brushed him off with a comment along the lines of “Asians don’t age”, but Mark wasn’t stupid.

Mark knew deep down that there was something supernatural about his friend, but he didn’t push on it. Even when he laid on his deathbed in their shared apartment, fifty years later and completely bald, wrinkled, weak and brittle, he didn’t question Wonwoo’s youth. 

Wonwoo pressed a kiss to his forehead as he said goodbye to his friend, and prayed that it wasn’t Marks last life.

That was the first time he felt the pain of a Goblin. He had initially felt grateful to whomever the old man had been before, but now all he felt was sorrows and regret. He thought that his execution was enough, but he knew that he deserved this.

--

The second time he met Mingyu was 100 years later in New York, United States.

Shortly after Mark's death, Wonwoo decided to leave Europe to forget about him, hence finding himself in the busy streets of New York. He initially didn’t like the big city, but he felt like the growing city was a good way to forget about his past “lover”. 

He even got an education. He was immune to diseases and wanted to help people, so he became an ER doctor to save lives. 

This was his way of making up for his past. For every person he killed, he would save ten people. 

With his new task and busy work days, he soon was able to forget about Mark.

That was until a fateful day in the hospital, where Michael, a respiratory therapist from the other hospital along with his assistant, Siyeon, came in to treat an ill patient. 

Wonwoo wasn’t assigned to the patient, but checked in during his break to see if he could be of any assistance. He didn’t look at Michael when first entering the room, not out of rudeness but out of simple concern for the patient. However after doing a quick rundown of whatever procedure needed to be done, he turned to Michael to ask if he needed help. 

But Wonwoo didn’t hear a word Michael said, because all he could feel is a rush of electricity pulsing through his veins and tingling in his feet as he looked into Michael's eyes.

Siyeon politely nudged Wonwoo after a short period of time, asking if he was okay. She explained that he’d been staring at Michael for a few seconds without saying anything. 

Wonwoo nodded his head, clarifying to the duo that he had a long shift and that he just needed some fresh air.

He spent his lunch break outside, barely touching his sandwich as his mind raced with the previous events. 

He’s alive

But his thoughts were cut short quickly as Siyeon, the assistant, called out to him as she jogged over, her lunch bag clutched in her fists.

“I’m going to be blunt with you, Dr. Jeon.” She started, staring deep into his eyes. “Are you a Goblin?”

Wonwoo’s eyes widened as his mouth hung open. 

He blinked a few times at her, mumbling a few times about why she’d ask that, before she interrupted again. 

“I’m a grim reaper.” She stated, sitting down on the bench next to him. “And I think you’re a goblin because I can’t get a read on you. I don’t know when you’ll die, so I’m assuming that you’re a Goblin, right?"

Wonwoo scanned his surroundings, deciding that they were secluded enough to talk in public. 

“If I wasn’t a Goblin, then what would I be?” He questioned. 

He didn’t understand why she was confused about what he was. If she couldn’t get a read on him, wouldn’t that make it perfectly clear?

“You could also be a lost soul. You know, somebody who is supposed to die, but doesn’t?” She explained, leaning back in her seat comfortably, eyeing Wonwoo as he processed his new information.

“Oh…” He trailed off. “Well, you were correct, I’m a goblin. I didn’t know lost souls existed.” He said. 

“Really?” She asked, taken aback. “But a lost soul is gonna be the person to save you.” She grinned at his confusion, explaining further. “You’ll save a person one day, whether that be

through your job here at the hospital or through your powers as a goblin. But they’ll then develop supernatural abilities that will allow them to see your sword.” She pointed to the protruding sword from his torso, cocking her head to the side. 

Wonwoo’s eyes went directly to his torso, where the transparent sword glowed. 

“They’ll be able to pull out your sword and then you’ll be able to die. So, save as many lives as you can.” Siyeon patted Wonwoo’s shoulder as she got up, getting ready to go back to her shift. 

“But you have plenty of time. I know you remember Michael from his past life. He will be the one to pull your sword out, but not in this lifetime.”

He never tried to see Michael again after that, but he had faith that he’d meet Michael’s soul again.

--

The third time he met Mingyu was 100 years later in Quebec City, Canada.

After “getting another job offer” in Canada, Wonwoo studied up on French and moved to Quebec. He decided to take a break from being a doctor and focused on music. He decided that saving lives isn’t just medical, and that music can help and heal people just as much as medicine. The pay was significantly lower than he was used to, but his savings kept him afloat as he performed gigs at local pubs and coffee shops. 

Technology was growing, so he was able to record a CD with his songs. He was amazed at what humans were able to do, and was almost thankful to have been able to live to see the change in the world. 

Wonwoo finished up his last song for the night at the coffee house he’d been performing at, and graciously accepted the applause. He spent the rest of the night in a local pub with a few friends, one being Siyeon, as they drank the night away.

Siyeon quit her job as a medical assistant due to her deaths rising up and getting in the way of her work. 

Her grim reaper priorities were far more important than her other jobs.

She found an interest in French music and bought a vinyl with a familiar name to the title, and eventually she made her way up to Quebec to annoy Wonwoo.

But he wasn’t annoyed by her at all.

She kept him company, and it was nice to know that when their friend group dies, she’ll still be there to mourn with him.

The group drank until they could barely walk, stumbling up to Wonwoo’s fancy apartment.

His friends often asked how he managed to afford the place, but he brushed them off and claimed that it was inheritance.

However Wonwoo’s apartment was a few floors up, and living in Old Quebec, there were no elevators available, so the group had to force themselves up the stairs. 

What was normally an easy, but tiring, walk soon became a marathon for Wonwoo.

He wasn’t usually this clumsy, but after missing a step, he found himself falling flat onto his face. 

“Are you alright?” A worried voice asked.

Wonwoo brushed it off as one of his friends, holding his hand out for one to take.

But the jolt of electricity that was brought to his fingertips sobered Wonwoo up completely.

He stood up, wiping away at any dust that might’ve been left on him, before looking up at the man before him.

“Hi..” The man started “Are you alright? I noticed you fall, and…” He trailed off.

“I’m great.” Wonwoo said, feeling heat rise to his cheeks as he stared deeper into the eyes of the man before him. 

“Oh!” The man exclaimed awkwardly, pointing to the door adjacent Wonwoo’s.” I’m Mattheu, your new neighbor.”

Wonwoo grinned, reaching out to shake Mattheus' hand again, feeling himself melt into his touch. 

Siyeon eyed the two of them, raising an eyebrow as the duo made heart eyes for each other. 

She ushered the rest of their friend group out of the apartment building, promising a place to sleep in her apartment a few stories down.

It was clear as day to Siyeon that Wonwoo’s relationship to Mattheu was going to be a lot different than the ones he’d had with Mattheu’s soul before. In the past, they could never be together in public, however in the 20th century city of Quebec, the duo can live the way they want.

Wonwoo had never experienced happiness like what he experienced with Mattheu. Their good morning kisses, their homemade dinners, and the love they had for each other made Wonwoo’s heart swarm with warmth and joy. 

Until Mattheu began to get sick. 

It was little things at first, but Wonwoo knew after a few weeks what was happening. 

Mattheu had told Wonwoo about his past lovers, and how there were many nights that went unprotected, but he truly thought that he wouldn’t be one of them.

One to get AIDs, that is. 

Wonwoo knew he was safe from it, but that just made him feel worse. His lover would have to die, and he couldn’t even die with him.

Mattheu hung in there for a little while, trying his best to keep his routine but becoming weaker and weaker as time went on, until one day, Mattheu didn’t hum in contentment as Wonwoo smothered him in his good morning kisses, didn’t sigh deeply as he felt the duvet being pulled from him, and didn’t open his eyes to see the love and adoration that Wonwoo held in his own.

Siyeon tried to help him, holding him as he cried and tucking him into bed every night, but he couldn’t stay anymore. He couldn’t stay in this apartment, in this city, in this country anymore. It was time for a change. 

--

The fourth time he met Mingyu was 80 years later in Seoul, South Korea. 

He needed to go home after Mattheu passed.

He put off going to the country that hated him in fear that he’d be ridiculed and exempt from ever stepping foot on Korean soil, except...it didn’t hate him.

Because what he did centuries ago didn’t even make it to the textbooks, and as it turns out, his actions never caused a war. The other villages grew defensive once they heard about the attacked village, however after hearing about Wonwoo’s death, they decided to accept it and move on. 

So he felt comfortable again in South Korea. 

He went back to being a doctor after moving back, and prayed to whomever may be listening that French music never makes its way over to South Korea, because he grew a bit of a following and didn’t want to be known as the “Hot, singing doctor who knows French”. 

Siyeon also followed Wonwoo, deciding that she, too, would like to go home. 

Siyeon never really knew what she did to make her commit suicide, so she wanted to see if being in Korea would trigger something in her. 

Wonwoo ran a hand through his hair as he looked down at his clipboard of things to do, scribbling down a few notes here and there as he enjoyed the calm morning environment. 

But that was quickly replaced by chaos as a new nurses rushed in a patient who’d seemingly been hit by a car. 

He quickly rushed over to her bed and examined her current state. 

Her arm was nearly dislocated, her chest seemed to have taken a big blow with the blood ushering through a wound, and her face was completely scratched at. 

He told the nurses to grab some anesthetics as he began to prep her for emergency surgery, however she began to plead weakly as he vocalized his plans.

“I'm pregnant” she repeated to him through labored breaths. “Be careful and save my baby”

Wonwoo’s mind raced as he thought of what to do. 

He knew that if he played it safe, she’d be able to make it, but a fetus so small that it was barely visible to the outside world wouldn’t. 

And he couldn’t let his patient down.

He scanned the room again to ensure that nobody had their eyes on him before he told his patient to close her eyes. 

He put his hand over her stomach and used his powers to heal her. Not completely, but just enough to ensure that whatever may be growing inside of her does so with no problems. 

He rarely used his powers to heal others, opting to stick to his medial knowledge. But he swore to himself that if he could save somebody, he'd do it no matter what.

The nurses rushed in with needles and other equipment seconds after he finished, and he thanked whomever may be up there that they didn’t see what he had done. 

He let another doctor take control of the patient's surgery, and visited her only after she was fully healed and was able to sit upright. 

He hoped that she would have been too out of it to have noticed what he’d done to her stomach, but once the nurses that took care of her left for their other patients, she tapped on her stomach and smiled. 

“My eyes were closed, but the glowing that came from your hand was too bright to not notice.” She smiled softly. “I won’t tell anyone, but I just wanted to say...thank you.”

Wonwoo smiled back at her, wishing her the best of luck on her pregnancy and journey throughout motherhood. 

He turned to leave the room before glancing back at her, a question popping into his head. 

“Do you have names picked out?”

His patient pondered for a moment, rubbing her stomach as she thought.

“If it's a girl, I’d name her Eunwoo.” 

Wonwoo grinned. He liked the name a lot and complimented her on it.

The patient took another moment to think, cocking her head to the side as she decided. 

“And if it’s a boy, I think I’ll name him Mingyu.”

--

The fifth and time he met Mingyu was 20 years later in Seoul, South Korea.

Wonwoo made his way to the library, enjoying his first few days of his break from working. 

He again made the decision to take a break from being a doctor, deciding that he wanted to learn how to write instead. 

He thought about his life and how big of a hit it would be to write a book on it. 

So that’s what he decided to do. 

He sat down in his usual spot as he began his writing process: make a bullet point list of the progression of events, then write for an hour, and then scroll on his phone.

The new iPhone came out, and he was over the moon with what he could do with it. 

Siyeon called him out for still having a flip phone in 2020, so he finally upgraded to an iPhone.

He loved all of the social media apps, but he found himself drawn to twitter the most. 

He could tweet out anything he wanted and it would be there forever. Amazing. 

He leaned back in his chair as he scrolled, giggling to himself as he read the tweets from a few of his favorite artists. He felt like a little kid, but it made him happy.

It almost made him miss the way the person across from him stared at him. 

Or rather, his torso. 

Wonwoo glanced up from his phone and raised an eyebrow to the person across from him.

And then he felt a familiar tingle again.

But this time, the tingle came from his torso as he saw the sword appear before him again, glowing brighter than ever before.

The man across from him got up and made his way over, giving Wontoo a toothy grin as he pointed to the sword. 

“So...I see you have a sword in you.” 

Wonwoo’s mouth went dry and his hands began to clam.

Is this it? He thought to himself. Am I gonna finally die today?

“Uh…” The man continued “I’m Mingyu, your "Bride", by the way. I’m assuming you’re the Goblin I was destined to save?” 

Wonwoo nodded his head weakly, his arms trembling as he reached out to shake Mingyu's hand. 

 “We don’t have to do this now, you know.” Mingyu reassured, patting Wonwoo’s back in an attempt to calm him down.

But they did. Once you meet your bride, you need to perform the execution within the next few hours. Otherwise, the Goblins bride could be in danger.

Wonwoo melted in Mingyu's touch as a deep sigh left his lips. 

He looked up at Mingyu after some time to introduce himself as well as to tell him his story.

He told Mingyu about what he did to become a goblin, about all of the places he’d lived, and about the times that he met Mingyu’s soul. He told Mingyu about his plans to write a book about his experiences, about the long, long life he lived. He told Mingyu that he almost wishes that he could live forever at this point. Almost. But he's ready to leave this world, now. 

Mingyu smiled at him, rubbing hands reassuringly. 

“Humans have four lives, right?” Mingyu asked, earning a nod from Wonwoo. “So after this life, I’ll go to...wherever souls go, right?” Wonwoo nodded again.

“So we will be together then, Wonwoo. Mark, Michael, Mattheu, and I. We will be there with you when I’m done living this life.”

The thought of being reunited with Mingyu’s soul for eternity brought tears to Wonwoo’s eyes as he began to sob quietly.

Mingyu stayed with him until Wonwoo calmed down, picking up his phone to call Siyeon, who quickly rushed over to meet the duo. 

They said their tearful goodbyes, and Siyeon promised that she only had a few lives left to take before her duty as a Grim Reaper was over. Afterwards, she’d join him up there and keep him company as he waited for Mingyu’s soul to finish living it’s last life.

Wonwoo and Mingyu held hands as they made their way to a barren field on the outskirts of Seoul.

Wonwoo thought it would be best to do it here, as there would be nobody around to watch him disintegrate into thin air. 

Memories of waking up in a similar field, complete confusion and the start of his new life washed over Wonwoo has he took in his final moments.

Mingyu, despite only meeting Wonwoo for the first time today, felt a deep sense of sorrow as Wonwoo stopped in his tracks, turning to face Mingyu with a soft smile.

Wonwoo felt content with his surroundings, he felt content with Mingyu beside him, and he felt relieved to finally be done with living. 

Wonwoo took Mingyu’s reluctant hands and placed it onto the sword, squeezing it slightly as a signal that he was ready. 

“Wonwoo…” Mingyu started, tears forming in his eyes. 

“Hmm?” Wonwoo asked, looking up at him. 

“I’ll see you again before you know it, alright?” 

Wonwoo nodded, smiling softly as he felt the sword finally leave his body.

Then he felt himself float.

Then he felt nothing. 

Jeon Wonwoo was gone from this Earth, but he was watching from above.

--

The last time he met Mingyu was in his heaven.

Wonwoo felt someone pepper his face with kisses as he stirred awake. 

He opened his eyes slightly to adjust to the light that cascaded through the blinds by the window.

He knew that window. 

He rubbed his eyes before opening them again, reevaluating the room.

This was his apartment in Quebec.

The kisses plastered to his face stopped momentarily as a pair of hands grasped at his cheeks, turning his face to the side.

There he saw Mingyu, grinning at him as he pulled Wonwoo into a kiss. 

Wonwoo melted in his touch, feeling slightly delirious as he held onto Mingyu’s hand. 

“M-Mingyu...You’re here?”

Mingyu nodded, pushing a few strands of hair from Wonwoo’s forehead before pressing a kiss to it. 

“I’m here. Do you know why we are here?” Mingyu asked. 

Wonwoo shook his head, scanning the room again.

“It’s our heaven, Woo.” Mingyu said. 

“I..I thought I was in heaven…” Wonwoo trailed off. 

Prior to here, he’d been with Siyeon as they wandered around with their friends. 

He was happy there.

But being here with Mingyu, that was indescribable. 

“You were in your heaven, but now you’re in our heaven. This is where we live now. Together.” 

Together

Hey guys! If you liked that, I also have a few fics on Asianfanfics.com! I might post a few on here depending on how well this does lol. Thank you for reading!

[tyrantisterrorart]

Godzilla Gang Revised: Children of the A-Bomb

On this installment of the Godzilla Gang revised, we look at monsters made by atomic bomb tests and other experiments with nuclear power that occurred in the mid twentieth century - the first generation of modern atomic mutants, the children of the A-Bomb!

Ebirah: originally an ordinary sea shrimp, Ebirah was mutated by radioactive runoff from the secret base of the Red Bamboo, a terrorist organization responsible for many atrocities and abominations that plagued the world during the Age of Monsters.  They controlled the creature with Soma berry juice, placating it when their ships were nearby, while leaving it irritable and violent due to its need for a fix the rest of the time.  The crustacean was a good guardian for the wicked men, but eventually was disarmed (literally) by Godzilla II.  Ebirah eventually recovered from its addiction and regrew its claws, and was given a home on Solgell Island in the Monsterland Archipelago.

Okondoru: created from the same nuclear runoff that made Ebirah, Okondoru wasn’t quite as big as its crustacean counterpart, and was less easy to control as it wouldn’t eat any soma berry juice.  Luckily for the Red Bamboo, it was far less durable than most kaiju, allowing them to drive it off with conventional weapons whenever it started trouble.  The bird barely survived its scrape with Godzilla II, taking decades to lick its wounds before eventually finding a home on Skull Island in the Monsterland Archipelago.

Kamacuras: whether Kamacuras was a relic of the various prehistoric atomic ages is a matter of debate - the insect was already unnaturally large in the modern day before its exposure to man-made atomic energy, though this may have been a result of it sharing an island with the dormant but still radioactive egg of a Godzillasaurus.  Regardless, it did not become a full-fledged kaiju until human researchers tested an experimental nuclear device meant to control the weather, accidentally dousing the island’s athropods with mutation inducing radiation.  What once was a dangerous mob of man-sized carnivorous insects became an army and monstrous arthropods that were almost the same size as Godzilla.  Luckily, one of their natural predators grew as well, and the Kamacuras population was reduced to three female individuals before they could overrun the earth.

Kumonga: once a man-eating spider the size of an ox, Kumonga was already a terror before she was turned into a kaiju by a nuclear weather control device.  The massive arachnid feasted on the population of Kamacuras once she was gigantified, but despite dining on dozens of individuals she never stopped killing and eating.  The gluttonous beast finally met her match when Godzilla II came to rescue Minilla from her clutches, giving the spider a brutal beatdown that nearly claimed her life (though Kumonga gave nearly as good as she got).  The incident apparently made an impression, as Kumonga’s aggressive nature notably cooled quite a bit afterwards, and the arachnid now lives in relative peace with her fellow arthropod mutations on Solgell Island.

Gezora: one of a handful of sea monsters produced by American atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, Gezora was lured to Selgio Island by the psychic call of Yog, an amorphous alien from a distant and, according to him, extinct civilization.  Yog wished to wipe out all life on Earth, and tried to use Gezora to that end, though the cephalopod proved a failure once he forced it to clamber onto land, as Gezora quickly dried out and began to die.  Gezora managed to drag itself back into the ocean once Yog relinquished control of it, and was eventually given a home on Faro Island in the Monsterland Archipelago along with the other Yog survivors.

Ganimes: a massive crab, Ganimes was the second monster Yog took control of, and proved more successful than Gezora, as it was able to last on land far longer and also had the protection of an armored shell.  However, human forces on the island managed to defeat the monster by attacking its vulnerable eyes, blinding it and forcing Yog to get another kaiju slave while he waited fro Ganimes to recover.  The crab eventually escaped Yog’s clutches and made a home on Faro Island.

Kameba: the third and final monster Yog took control of, Kameba is a distant relative of the mata mata turtle, and fairly durable despite its small size (for a kaiju).  The turtle was the most successful of Yog’s enforcers, and came close to winning the day for its master once Ganimes recovered and was sent to back it up.  Luckily, humanity figured out how to kill Yog himself, breaking the two kaiju free of his control, at which point Kameba and Ganimes turned on each other.  Both survived their near-fatal battle, and Kameba went on to face Godzilla II himself in combat and (barely) live to tell the tale, before finally being placed on Faro Island to live in peace for the rest of his days.

Matango: the radioactive fungal colony named Matango initially stretched the definition of kaiju, as it would take a while for it to become a rampaging giant after its initial mutation.  However, at the height of its power, it was one of the largest monsters on record, engulfing nearly an entire island and infecting all of its plant and animal life.  Dozens of humans - sailors, castaways, explorers - became hosts to the monstrosity’s nefarious infestation, and it seemed the fiend would be free to consume whatever landed on its shores for decades to come.  However, in a stroke of macabre luck, the space monster Hedorah would make landfall on Matango’s island, killing most of the mushrooms with its toxic slime.  Those that survived mutated in response to Hedorah’s toxins, turning into a massive, shambling monstrosity that contained what remained of the consciousness of its human hosts.  This incarnation of Matango pursued Hedorah and fought the smog monster to a draw, and eventually both would be imprisoned on Selgio Island in the Monsterland Archipelago.  (If you’re wondering how I justify including Matango as a kaiju, it was a kaiju on Godzilla Island and in Godzilla: Monster of Monsters.)

Frankenstein’s Gargantua: the oldest child of the A-bomb, Frankenstein’s Gargantua is so named because it is a result of nazis trying to replicate the horrendous experiments in reanimation pioneered by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. They eventually brought their experiments to their allies in Japan in hopes of cracking Frankenstien’s secret, and the latest attempt at making a new Frankenstein monster was in the process of reanimating in Hiroshima when the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city.  Nearly two decades later, a colossal beast would be unleashed upon the world: the radioactive Gargantua of Dr. Frankenstein!  The mutant freak ran amok on the Japanese countryside before it was slain by the subterranean monster Baragon, though the combination of radioactive mutation and Dr. Frankenstein’s reanimating chemicals would ensure the horror was not quite over... 

Sanda: one of two sons of the original Gargantua, Sanda mutated from a piece of the original’s flesh that was torn off by Baragon during their battle in the forests of Japan.  He mutated further as a result of his tumultuous creation, gaining armored skin and a more muscular body than his lanky father.  The brown Gargantua grew up to be a relatively peaceful and benign creature, having a soft spot for humanity in particular.  Sadly, the same could not be said of his brother...

Gaira: born from blood spilled during the original Gargantua’s battle with an Oodako on the Japanese coast, Gaira the green gargantua was a vicious and bloodthirsty creature that viewed every other living being as prey, though he particularly enjoyed feasting on human beings above all else.  Sadistic and ill-tempered, the green gargantua embraced humanity’s enmity towards him, and was more befuddled than touched when his brown-furred brother leapt to his aid during humanity’s first attempt at killing him.  Though he allowed Sanda to tend to his wounds, Gaira eventually came to blows with his sibling when Sanda kept him from eating some humans that had come to check on them, and the two battled for hours before a volcanic eruption appeared to claim both of their lives.  Decades later both monsters (or perhaps their regenerated descendants) would reappear, and eventually they were given homes on Skull Island, where Kong himself would keep their rivalry (and Gaira’s hunger for human flesh) in check.

NEXT TIME ON THE GODZILLA GANG REVISED: Children of the H-Bomb!

[what-big-teeth]

Reveal (Cambion Boyfriend, pt. 3)

Gender Neutral Reader x Male Monster [Part 1] [Part 2]

Slight lime ; NSFW-ish

The drive to Cam’s apartment complex is silent, save for the smooth jazz pouring from the radio. You know that not even the masterful tones of John Coltran will be enough to soothe him. The way he grips the steering wheel tersely with paling knuckles is proof. But you choose to remain quiet, watching the familiar scenery glide by until you reach one of the complex’s gates. 

You can’t even fathom what to say in this situation. Not after everything that happened.

With the press of a button on Cam’s fob, the iron is pulled away, allowing the car to drive through. He pulls up right in front of his apartment, located on the first floor. With the awkwardness from the car’s interior still lingering between you two, you’d rather not have to rely on Cam to help you inside. So you call upon your stubbornness and manage to haul yourself up using the handle above the passenger side window. Your legs are still horribly weak from whatever your captors injected into your system. But you don’t want to trouble Cam any further—

A gentle hand braces against your lower back. 

“Need some help?” 

You honestly wish you didn't, but the sweat beading your forehead is obvious proof you do. You nod and lean on his side as you two slowly walk indoors. Everything is as you remember it, even with the few empty water bottles piled on the coffee table and the textbooks littering the carpet. But knowing what you do now…

Cam leads you to the couch. You gladly plop down onto the cushions, wincing from the painful twinge in your back. He swiftly sits by your side, hands hovering at the ready.

“What’s wrong?” 

As the dull throbbing dies down, you huff out a laugh.

“Just thinking how support beams aren’t the greatest form of spinal support.”

Instead of lightening the mood as you hoped, your words only deepen his frown. When you try and meet his gaze, he presses to his feet.

“We should take care of those scratches,” he says, walking away.

And just like before, the same awkward air settles around your shoulders, a growing obvious weight. 

When Cam returns with the first aid kit, you close your eyes and swallow any attempts at small talk. Hesitance wins out. The only sound that emerges from your mouth are hisses as Cam dabs at your sensitive facial wounds with an alcohol wipe. 

“How are you feeling?” he asks. 

Your conflicting thoughts give way to a churning mixture of emotion. Anger, at being kidnapped. At being lied to for so long by your closest friends. By the Moores. Fear from not knowing whether you’ll see Jacqui again; from wondering if any other Hunters know about you. But there’s happiness as well, mainly at being saved. Your mind is too addled, too tired, to formulate any words regardless of how much you want it to. 

You aren’t surprised when you end weeping in reply. 

The careful touch of a q-tip stills for a few moments before resuming. Once finished, you expect Cam to get up and leave. But he stays seated, the heat of his body radiating towards you. From the corner of your eye, you see a rich, golden brown hand reach towards your face. It stops short then falls away. 

You don’t try to stop Cam when he gathers the used supplies and the kit, standing to his feet. Not even as he heads further down the short hallway. He returns a few moments later, carrying a few items. A pillow, a blanket, an oversized shirt, and a large pair of sweatpants. He sets the pile beside you, just a bit too far away to actually feel his presence.

“You’re more than welcome to use the bathroom tonight if you want,” Cam murmurs. He gathers the used materials, the first aid kit, and stands. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

When he walks down the hallway this time, he ducks into his room. The door closes with a soft click.

You’re left sitting on the couch, staring at the provisions he left behind. The idea of taking a long bath or shower greatly appeals to you. But with no energy to start the process, it’s a lost cause. So you settle on peeling off your sweat-tinged clothes and trading them for the clean pair. But you can’t bring yourself to lie down and sleep. 

Part of you doesn’t want this gaping discomfort between the two of you anymore. The other mockingly asks how you even plan to fix...this. The doubt grows louder, telling you that now isn’t the time. That if you sleep, things can go back to normal if only for a while. But a small part of you whispers in reply: when will things be normal, if ever?

The two streams of thought war with each other, back and forth. Until one finally wins out.

It leads you to Cam’s bedroom door and gives you enough courage to raise a loose first. Your knuckles rap against the thick wood three times. No answer. You steel yourself before your bravery wanes and enter his room. 

Cam lies in bed, his back facing the open doorway. For a moment, you almost believe he’s asleep. But the subtle way his shoulder blades tense tell you otherwise. And of course it would. You’ve known Cam for years. Even after learning this new development about him, you still do.

It’s why you’re able to to sit beside him, somewhat closer than you were back on the couch. Why you reach out and gently place a hand on his raised shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. 

“I’m not scared of you, if that’s what you think.” You lick your dry lips and swallow down your building nerves. “You’re still the same dork that loves mythology. The same kid who was horribly protective of his copy of the Matter of Britain. No wonder you were such a huge fan of Merlin while growing up.”

Cam shifts, rolling over to meet your gaze head on. 

“This coming from the same person who asked me to read from that book when we were kids. I’d say that makes you as much of a dork as—oof!”

You smack him with a pillow a few times. 

“That’s total heresy and you know it, Cameron Sims.”

His laughter is contagious as you keep up the attack. But one of your swings misses, and Cam strikes, grabbing at your wrist. With a startled “hey!”, you attempt to wriggle free but Cam’s grip is iron-clad. All your struggling does is draw you closer until you’re straddling him. 

He sits up, still holding your wrist captive with a grin.

“You give?”

“For now,” you say, narrowing your eyes. “But just you wait.”

Cam chuckles deep and low. It’s a sound you didn’t realize you had taken for granted. One you want to keep hearing because this is your childhood friend. And someone you feel more than friendship for. 

You reach out and cup his face, silencing his soft laughter. He stares at you with wide, dark brown eyes made visible by the bright moonlight outside. You smile.

“Can I see the real you? Please?”

Your heart pounds heavily in your chest, the sound flooding your veins and echoing in your head. You think Cam can hear the sound, too. He keeps his eyes trained on you as his appearance shifts again. This time, his black, bat-like wings are tucked against his back. But his scales are just as apparent as they were back at the warehouse. 

Red-slitted eyes surrounded by black sclera regard the way your gaze widens. And you reach up with your other hand, letting your fingertips graze the odd yet faint blood red marks underneath his right eye.

“Are these letters?” you ask.

Cam leans into your touch with a soft breath. 

“Yeah. They spell my demonic name: Caimellus.”

You say his name, repeating the three syllables a few times. You rather like how it sounds on your tongue. 

“They’re faded,” he says, “because my mother was human while my father was an incubus. She was an ex-Hunter, to be more precise.”

Your mind recalls the robbery that took the lives of Cam’s parents. His mother, kind and gentle, and his caring yet stern father were never seen again after that night. The authorities cited the intruders as the cause of their deaths, which makes horrific sense. As does his sudden adoption by his godfather.

“It was the Conclave, wasn’t it?” you murmur. “Is that why you were taken in by Dr. Lane?”

Cam nods.

“He was my father’s trusted ally and another incubus. Once he heard about what happened, he immediately claimed me as my father wished in case he died. Dr. Lane is the reason I’ve been able to lay low and hide my demonic nature for so long.”

The moment of silence between you two is bittersweet in many ways. But you refuse to let it deter you from learning more about Cam.

Feeling emboldened by what’s been shared with you, you keep asking questions. Yes, he can feed off of human energy through sexual contact, but chooses not to. Thanks to Dr. Lane’s careful tutelage, Cam learned how to feed through platonic touch instead. The pinch you give to his side for realizing how he was able to lull to sleep as kids is only acknowledged with a chuckle.

You keep going, letting your fingertips trail and touch parts of his body. He confirms his scales are for defense while his claws are weapons in their own right. So are his fangs and tail, if he so chooses. The horns are more of an intimidation factor than anything else—

A dampened moan interrupts his explanation. Your fingertips have barely grazed the area where his horns and his scalp meet. 

“S-sorry,” he says, sounding a little breathless. “Sensitive area.”

You don’t apologize. Because you aren’t sorry. And while holding his unsure if embarrassed gaze, you can’t help but want more. 

“Can I...I want to thank you for saving me,” you whisper. “But only if you want me to.”

As if reading your mind, his slitted gaze flits down towards your lips before finding your eyes again. 

“Please,” he breathes. 

You lean down and press your lips against his. The kiss is chaste, as much as you wish it wasn’t, because it’s taken all of your nerves just to do this much. You can be satisfied with just this, even if he doesn’t return your feelings. You begin to pull away, only for a warm, steady touch against the nape of your neck to stop you. 

Cam slots his mouth against yours, groaning at the contact. His claws gently scrape against your scalp, making you shudder and gasp. He uses the moment to press his tongue against yours, which you’re more than receptive to. There’s a sharp nip to your lip that you return with a huff of laughter. You “accidentally” let your fingers curl around the base of his horns and slowly rub the black keratin. He growls, a low yet deep sound, as he pulls you close so there’s no space between your bodies. You feel something wind around your waist and give it a brief squeeze.

Eventually, your lungs begin to burn. Just enough to cause some discomfort. You pull away from Cam with one last moan. Heat sears your cheeks from seeing the thin trail still connecting your mouths. It’s broken when Cam smirks up at you.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for years.”

You’ve barely registered his words before his lips find yours again. It takes all your focus to not give in to the softness and warmth of his mouth. 

“S-since when?” you manage before he silences you.

“Senior year.” A scrape of fang. “High school.” The slightest squeeze from his tail and his claw-tipped hands. “Night before prom.”

You force yourself to pull away and bite your bottom lip to ground yourself. When Cam attempts to follow, you press your fingertips against his mouth. But he kisses them, undeterred. You use the moment to catch your breath.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

Your fingers are left a little cold by his retreat. 

“Growing up, you only knew me as Cameron: a black, nerdy kid with coke-bottle glasses that was way into mythology and reading. As much as I wanted to tell you while growing up, I didn’t know if you would be okay with knowing me as Caimellus.”

So that’s the reason. This whole time, and even before, he’s been just as unsure as you. But not anymore. You hope he understands when you cup his face in your hands, and skim the pads of your thumbs against his cheeks. That when you press a kiss against the faint demonic lettering staining his skin, he knows. Witnessing the glassy shine to his eyes, you know he does. But hearing the words can’t hurt, either.

“I love you and I want to know both parts of you. Cam and Caimellus. Everything you have to offer, I want, for as long as you want me.”

Your body tips over, landing against the bed leaving you to stare up at Cam. He brushes the back of his knuckles against your cheek and smiles. 

“Will forever work?”

You grin. 

“Of course it will—”

You gasp as his clawed hands dip under your borrowed shirt, trailing up to your chest. All while his tail winds up your clothed leg and gently squeezes. 

“Because I really like hearing you say my name,” he breathes against your neck. 

Your fingers dig into his shirt and pull at the worn fabric. 

“If you want to hear it again, you’ve got a couple of years to make up for. Think you can do it?”

One of his hands slips past the elastic of your sweatpants and you can’t help but lift your hips. 

“In spades,” he promises.

“Sounds good to me.”

[yetanothersonic]

Im now intrigued, if Sonic WAS a Vampire, what headcanons/theories would you have of him?

The first thing I always think when considering a theory is “how would this work in the canon?”, but Vamp!Sonic just wouldn’t work in the canon at all. And honestly, I don’t want him to be canon. Because it can go one of two ways: either, SEGA will go the same path as werewolf and just say that Sonic is still Sonic, pure of heart, etc. OR if they did go full-out actual bloodsucking vampire, I would not want that to happen to my beloved hero. So, realistically, please no canon Vamp!Sonic ever.

But there’s always fanfiction. And here I have another split path in my thoughts: what I like to see and what I think makes sense. I personally like stories where the hero goes all feral and becomes a threat to his friends. Or the fear that that will happen.

But here’s I think would make sense, if I’m looking at this not as canon or my preferred genre of fanfic, but just theory:

Sonic is a Vampire. Okay, when did he become one? For the sake of this theory, let’s say it just happened, like how the Werehog thing was a mechanic introduced for one game, suddenly something happened to make Sonic a vampire. Let’s say all the common rules of vampires apply: must drink blood, burned by sunlight, sleeps during day, hurt by garlic, holy water, etc., otherwise immortal, boosted speed and strength.

Sonic is still a good guy. He doesn’t like anything about being a vampire. Obviously, he doesn’t want to drink blood, and he’s worried about hurting his friends and the citizens of his world who he has fought to protect for so long. He also misses going out in the sun. He misses hanging out with all his friends, who tend to go to sleep at night, just as he’s waking up. (Maybe Rouge drops by to keep him company. I’m sure she’s always up late for one reason or another.) Of course his friends still support him and believe in him, especially Tails and Amy.

Sonic is still a hero. He’s going to stop whoever turned him from hurting anyone else. Whether that’s another vampire, as per traditional lore, or if Eggman did it like with the Werehog, Sonic’s going to stop the bad guy. For the sake of this theory, I’ll say Sonic succeeds. Whether or not his vampirism is cured at that point is your choice. Even if he stayed a vampire, he would continue being a hero to the best of his ability. His friends take over when the sun rises, and they become more renowned, while Sonic gradually slides behind them in popularity. He’s also unhappy with this. He misses being The Hero and he hates that he becomes useless during the day. Either there’s a sequel in which he finds a cure, or he comes to accept his new role.

Since he’s still going up against Eggman, he has to battle his new weaknesses. He deals with these the same as he does water. He either learns to plow through, no matter how scared or hurt he is, or he has Tails help him. Eggman happily exploits Sonic’s weaknesses and insecurities as much as possible. Cue character growth arc.

Regardless of how long Sonic is a vampire for, he’s going to get hungry at some point. Actually, he’s probably going to get hungry very soon, because of the common Fast Metabolism headcanon. This is a problem, because he doesn’t want to drink blood, even a tiny bit. His friends offer their blood, but he refuses. Because he’s so stubborn, he just lets himself get hungrier and hungrier, until he inevitably snaps. Take your choice of what horrible thing happens here. But even if he drinks from one of his friends, they will be okay, because that’s just how this story goes. No matter how hurt they are, they live, and Sonic feels terrible. He runs off to be alone and curses himself for being a monster. Cue Friendship is Magic plot. After he learns his Friendship Lesson of the Week, his friends help him figure out how to get the blood he needs. I think the most likely solution is getting blood bags from a hospital. But maybe he also drinks blood from non-sapient animals. Or buys meat at the grocery store and doesn’t cook it. Any which way, he finds a solution which gets him by, but never fills him as much as he would like. There is always a little bit of danger that he might hurt his friends.

TL;DR: Sonic would continue to be a hero, but with significant weaknesses. His friends take over as the daytime heroes, which makes them more popular than him. He has to go through multiple character arcs before he can find happiness again.

Very briefly, I will summarize the fanfic I hope to write maybe someday. Sonic has been a vampire since he was little, no one knows except Tails, Sonic feeds off the little non-sapient forest critters, all the games have played out the same as canon because he is not weak to sunlight except at noon, and he is not immortal. In the story, Eggman finds out and causes trouble for Sonic, so Sonic has to tell a few of his friends, and they go on a quest to find the magic well that can cure him. After some mishaps, they succeed, and they all live happily ever after, especially Sonic. That’s the short version.

So that was a lot! My brain always wants to explore every possible path, so that’s why I write so much ^_^’

[solynacea]

333: Pride, Gluttony, & Scars

Warning: This a very long post that contains character analysis and an as-of-yet unsubstantiated theory. I don’t blame you if you want to skim read, and there’s a TL;DR at the bottom.

I’ve seen a lot of posts about the events of the newest chapter of Nanatsu no Taizai; as someone who does manga edits, I spend quite a bit of time staring at panels and dialogue to figure out how to organize, what can be taken out, what should be left in, etc. And I’ve done the same with this chapter, pouring over the scenes of Escanor’s final moments again, and again, and I’ve seen a theory about Merlin posted by @derieri​, so I’d like to share my thoughts on the final words exchanged between Escanor and Merlin.

But first, let’s talk about blame. I’ve seen so much of it going around: Elizabeth should have healed him, Mael should have kept Sunshine, Meliodas should have kept him from fighting, and while those are valid complaints, they also subtract from and undermine Escanor’s character and the development of his arc. We learned from his gaiden that he thought he was a monster, unfit to live, a beast to be put down without remorse. It wasn’t until Meliodas bested him in combat and forced him to realize that his life was not his to do away with so carelessly that he began to live. And Escanor did what so many people with chronic depression/suicidal tendencies do: he latched onto his comrades as a reason to continue living.

Note: I am someone who suffers from the above conditions, so I am basing my analysis on that.

To Escanor, his very reason for being alive in his world was to protect the people he cared for, even if that meant losing his life in the process. And while he does care for the people of Liones — seen by him battling Estarossa to keep them safe and purposefully moving their fight to a lake to avoid hurting the knights nearby — the largest part of his world was the group of misfits who had become his friends. The Seven Deadly Sins were his family, the people he loved, the ones he would do absolutely anything for. Escanor did not see value in himself outside of as a tool to protect others; even without Sunshine, facing down an Indura spawn, he was willing to let it rip him to shreds to protect Gilthunder and the others. He was willing to die then. If Mael hadn’t intervened, he would have.

The long and short of what I’m saying is that, even without Sunshine, he would have found some way to put himself in that battle. We knew he was dying. It was shown in the blood he continued to cough up no matter how many times he was healed, in his disregard for his safety while fighting the Sinner at Camelot. His one regret when he thought he was going to die then was that he wouldn’t be able to continue protecting his comrades. Escanor, in his final moments, made two choices that those around him, who loved him, respected: he retook Sunshine to fight for his friends, and he burned up his life to keep them safe. (For those of you saying that Mael could have taken his place: yes. Or he could have joined in. But the Sins weren’t able to resist the Demon King without Merlin’s limit break magic, so whether or not him doing anything would have changed the outcome is debatable.)

Now that the bulk of my understanding of Escanor’s character is done, let’s move on to what originally prompted this post: his confession, and Merlin’s reaction to it.

While saying his farewell to the Sins and others, Escanor makes sure to acknowledge each of them in some way, whether by thanking them, apologizing, or asking for a favor. Or, in Ban’s case, getting in one final roast. What doesn’t he do? Downplay their grief. He fully acknowledges that his death is going to impact them all in some way, particularly not being able to attend King and Diane’s wedding. And when he gets to Merlin, he makes the confession of feelings she already knew he held. 

After which Merlin does what Merlin is best at: she deflects. This is a canonical character trait for her; whether making a vague mention of something (her love for Meliodas), or waiting until the last second to reveal pertinent information (her Infinity magic), Merlin is known to be powerful and mysterious. She’s cool, she’s unruffled. And that doesn’t change here.

What does change is how Escanor speaks to her. Up to this point, he has always been respectful, almost to the point of absurdity. He does not press her on anything, does not question her. Yet here we see him blatantly refuse to allow her to hide behind a half-truth. Did Merlin view him as a test subject? Yes. Merlin views everyone that way to some degree. But Escanor isn’t a fool, and he immediately shakes his head and tells her that his feelings for her exist regardless of her view of him. Which leads to this:

Her veneer cracks. Merlin has only appeared vulnerable to this degree at one other point, and that was the death of Arthur. Her cool demeanor falls apart whenever some she cares for is dying, and that’s what happens here. If you want to read her body language, she’s averting her gaze (hiding from him), crossing her arms (to get distance/hold her emotions in check), and digging her fingers into her coat (to retain control). The moment Escanor tells her that he doesn’t care how she sees him because it won’t change how he feels, she begins to fall apart. And what does she say? “You’re too late.” We’ll come back to that.

She continues by seemingly veering off topic. “Too late for anything, for everything . . . some things just can’t be taken back.” Now, quite obviously we have yet to get a full gaiden for Merlin. Some of her backstory has been hinted at, like the destruction of Belialuin, which seem to be what she’s referencing here. But there’s something odd about it, and as @derieri​ pointed out, the way she’s wording her sentences and the confusion of Meliodas and Elizabeth make it highly likely that she’s referring to something other than Belialuin’s fall while saying that it’s too late. She continues by saying, “Escanor, I wish you would have found me sooner . . . If possible, 3,000 years sooner . . .”

That’s a very specific time frame, given that the first Holy War ended exactly 3,000 years before this event with the sealing of the Demon and Goddess Clans and the curse put on Meliodas and Elizabeth. 

Here, Escanor directly acknowledges that there is something other than the sin that earned her the title of Gluttony. Merlin’s reaction?

Utter surprise and, by the sweat on her brow, horror. Whatever this sin is, it’s something that she’s tried desperately to keep hidden for centuries. Not even Meliodas, who she once loved, or Elizabeth, who she views as an older sister, know what it could be. When Escanor says that he doesn’t know the specifics, only that there was something else because she always looked so sad, we get a close up of her eye. Traditonally, this is a technique used whenever one character breaks through to another. It’s meant to bring us close to the character, to show those boundaries breaking down.

In this context, it means the boundaries between Merlin and Escanor are breaking down.

She goes silent after this while he says his final farewells, and doesn’t move until she goes to him and kisses him. There are three things that happen in those few panels that contradict Merlin’s established character: 1.) she moves towards someone, instead of having someone move to her; 2.) she acts on an impulse; and 3.) she puts herself directly in harm’s way. Merlin has been in battles before, yes, and she has suffered damage, but it is very rare for her to put herself so blatantly in danger when she doesn’t need to be. She could have told him she’d always remember him fondly. She didn’t need to burn her face as horribly, yet she did. 

Directly after the kiss, she says:

There’s an interesting word choice here that might not be obvious to non-native English speakers. Merlin does not say, “I do not reciprocate your feelings for me.” She says, “I was never able to reciprocate your feelings for me.” In other words, she doesn’t say she does not love Escanor. She says she’s unable to love him. And there’s a world of difference between those two. It’s the difference between saying you do not eat something because you don’t like it, and you aren’t able to eat something because there’s a reason, like an allergy. Something is prohibiting Merlin from returning his feelings, at least in a deep way.

This is the panel that first caught my attention. “As proof of your life, as proof that you existed, I’ll take these burns upon my body . . .” That is a lot of commitment for someone she claims to see only as a research subject. There’s another person we’ve seen sear their flesh to touch the person they care for, and that was 3,000 years ago, when Meliodas reached into a goddess barrier to cradle and comfort Elizabeth. Merlin is scarring herself so that no one, herself included, will ever forget Escanor. And furthermore, she’s doing it as a symbol of his love for her. 

Remember that point I said we’d come back to later? In the theory, it’s stated that Merlin sold Meliodas and Elizabeth out to the Demon King and Supreme Deity. Which, frankly, I think would be another level to the tragically beautiful story that is Nanatsu no Taizai, but from that come two possibilities: Merlin was punished for her hubris in daring to speak to the gods she betrayed by having her ability to love removed, or she removed it herself after the destruction of her home/the curse being placed. 

Tl;dr: Merlin did, in some way, love Escanor, but whether through her own means or outside interference was unable to reciprocate it fully.

[lilacmoon83]

A Darker Curse

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 24: Calm Before the Storm

Michael paced the floor impatiently, as they waited for the DNA results.

"You know, I don't even know why we're doing this? What does it matter if that guy is her father or not?" he asked. Greg raised an eyebrow.

"So you're not just a tad curious? I mean, what if it's true? Cause if it is...I sure as hell want to know how it's possible. It could mean that more is going on here than we can imagine," Greg replied.

"Did the district attorney even approve this little detour? Because I've been in law enforcement a long time and the district attorney just wants this conviction, I can assure you. He or she won't give a damn about some paternity test," Michael snapped. Greg rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Then call my boss, because regardless...I think this is important. I don't why yet, but this town is lousy with something weird and I want to know everything. This I think is where it starts," Greg replied. Michael was about to call him on his bluff and make the call when the doctor came out. He had introduced himself as Dr. Whale and the seasoned detective could tell that the results had shocked the doctor.

"The results you asked for are back," he said.

"Took you long enough," Greg complained.

"Yes...well when you told me who the subjects were, I had to run it three times just to make sure it was right. But it is," he said, as he handed the folder to him. Greg opened it.

"Familial match is nearly one hundred percent," he read.

"Wait...familial match. Couldn't that mean that they're siblings?" Michael asked. But Greg shook his head.

"No...those would be hitting different markers. I tested Emma Swan against David Nolan and he is biologically her father. I don't know how it's possible, but he fathered her. He's even the same blood type," he mentioned.

"And this story he told about Swan's mother and her being forced to leave to save their daughter?" Michael asked suspiciously.

"Well...I don't remember anything like that, but it wouldn't surprise me if they had to run from Cora. Our former Mayor, up until her ousting, ruled this town with an iron fist. If she wanted something...she got it," Whale replied.

"Why didn't anyone ever report her for abuse of power or any of her supposed crimes?" Michael questioned in frustration.

"Do you really think someone willing to kill a child, if his story is true, would leave any evidence? Or that anyone would be brave enough to report her?" Whale asked, as he walked away.

"He's right…" another voice said, as they turned to see a ginger haired man with a dalmatian.

"I am sorry to eavesdrop, but you must know that Cora Mills is a monster. She thinks nothing of violating a person, whether it be their privacy or physically," the man said.

"And you are?" Greg asked

"Dr. Archie Hopper...I'm a psychiatrist," he answered.

"And do you have any examples of this abuse?" Michael asked. Archie smiled thinly.

"Too many. I would say David has suffered more than most under the elite people in this town. He even tried talking to me, only for Cora and his ex to threaten me for counseling him and then stealing his confidential files," Archie said.

"And no one did anything?" Michael asked skeptically. Archie handed him a copy of a recent newspaper.

"Now that she's not in power anymore, the people are taking their power back and exposing just a little of what Cora and her cronies are responsible for," he said, referring to the article written by August Swan.

"I know you gentleman did not ask for my input, but if you are going after a wonderful family like the Swans, and that includes David Nolan now, then you're going after the wrong family," Archie said, as he moved along. Michael sighed.

"As interesting as all of this is...it's way above my pay grade," he complained.

"Are you going to call the state police in for this?" Greg asked.

"I really don't see how we have any other choice," Michael replied.

"Maybe we do. Hold off for at least another day," Greg said.

"But we're leaving tomorrow!" Michael called, as the assistant district attorney walked away.

"No...we're not," Greg called back. But that was unacceptable to Michael and he decided he was going to call Greg Mendel's boss. There was definitely something lousy in this town like he had said, but he was beginning to think that there was also something off about this man as well.

~*~

Snow and David arrived home at the loft and he led her inside. She sighed and collapsed on the couch. He closed the door and locked it, before collapsing next to her. She sniffed, but felt safe and protected in his arms, as she cuddled against him. He dropped a kiss on her head.

"They're not taking her," he promised again and she looked up at him.

"Even if we have to go live like bandits?" she asked, only half joking. He smiled.

"Any life with you would be wonderful...even one as bandits," he promised. She took his hands in her own.

"You were so strong for me back there, even after everything you've been through with Kathryn," she said.

"I still have things to work through. I guess it's easier now with my memories though," he explained.

"It doesn't erase what happened...but I can't blame her completely. It's Cora that is the reason for all of this," he replied.

"Which scares me...because I know her. I'm worried about what she's going to try next," she feared.

"Me too...but she has no magic here. That's in our favor and I'm going to fight whatever she throws at us and I don't care what I have to do to neutralize her, even if it means I have to take her out myself," he admitted.

"There was a time when you stopped me from doing that...to save me from darkening my heart. How can I not stop you from doing the same?" she asked, troubled by that. He sighed and knew exactly the time she was referring to.

~*~

Snow glared at the Queen, as she emerged from her carriage. She took aim and felt the need for revenge fill her senses. One arrow and she would end the Queen's life and thus her pursuit of her. Then she could finally leave the Kingdom and be free. She spared a quick glance at the man that she had knocked out and tied to a tree. She shook any thoughts of him away though. She didn't care what he said or about the absurd claims he had that he was her true love. It was a lie. It had to be, because she stopped believing in love long ago. True love was a myth. Marriage was just a business transaction. She wanted none of it. She breathed and fired the arrow, only to have her heart practically jump into her throat, as the handsome idiot she had tied to a tree foolishly jumped in the path of the arrow. It struck him in the shoulder and she was infuriated.

"Why? Why would you do that?" she cried, as she knelt beside him. He was in obvious pain, but managed to pull himself up against the tree.

"I refuse to let you darken your heart by killing in revenge...especially over that evil witch. I'd rather die," he confessed and she was taken aback by that.

"You'd...you'd die for me?" she asked in disbelief.

"Does it look like I'm making this up?" he joked.

"No one has ever been willing to die for me," she stated sadly.

"No one you can remember," he said, as she approached him and he gently caressed his face. Though the dark thoughts swirling in her mind were fighting her, the part of her mind begging her to kiss him was louder. So she pressed her lips to his and the rush of memories was instant. Her eyes flew open in surprise and she gasped, as she looked at him in wonder, before her surprise melted into a bright smile.

"Charming…" she gushed.

"Yes…" he uttered, as she kissed him again.

"I remember and I still don't see how that's different from this," she complained, but he knew she did and sighed.

"You didn't have love in your heart when you almost killed Cora then and only sought revenge. But this is different. If I do this now, I do it knowing that it is the only way to protect my family. I won't do it for revenge...I'll do it, because she has left us no choice and the survival of our family depends upon it," he promised. She smiled gently.

"Look at you...getting all old and wise on me. Except I'm the only one that got old," she mentioned.

"Snow...you are not old. Far from it," he said, as he lifted her chin with his hand.

"You are so beautiful...you still take my breath away, so much so that it makes me eternally grateful that you still want me. I know it had to be so hard out there...being alone and I know there had to be men that probably asked you out," he said, as he looked down at that.

"It was hard...but you're the love of my life. I'd never feel comfortable with anyone else, nor could I ever love someone the way I love you," she assured him. He nodded.

"I know...but then there were propositions?" he asked. She sighed.

"Yes...especially when I was a waitress. But most of them were only interested in one thing and the moment they found out about the kids, that was pretty much it. Trust me, I made sure to get the message across that I had two kids to save myself the awkwardness of turning them down. Because I could never want anyone else," she replied.

"I know...it's the same for me," he promised, as he pecked her on the lips.

"So...do you think they have the DNA results by now?" she asked curiously. He smirked.

"Probably..but we're not going to worry about that right now," he replied. She raised an eyebrow.

"We're not?" she asked coyly.

"No...we'll have to deal with all of it, but not until morning," he replied and she yelped in surprise, as he swept her into his arms.

"I take it you have something in mind to pass the time and it has nothing to do with sleeping," she mused playfully. He smirked.

"Just me making love to the most beautiful woman in all the realms," he replied, as he gently sat her on the bed. She blushed and looked down a little shyly. She had missed the way he made her feel that she was exactly as he saw her. She had not felt that way in a very long time. Her experiences in the Land Without Magic had weathered her and buried Snow White beneath the guise of Mary Margaret Swan, whom she had to become to survive.

Men like her husband did not exist out there. Even the nice ones fell short and it made the bad ones even worse. But he peeled away those weathered layers just by being him and Snow White emerged without fear. She was finally herself again without feeling the burden of what she had lost, for she had finally gotten it all back. He was worth everything she had suffered through and more.

"All those lonely nights...all the hardships...it was worth it for just one more night with you," she confessed. He smiled.

"I feel the same...everything I went through...it was worth it to know that you and Emma escaped Cora. But I promise you, as long as there is breath in my body that we will have more than just one night. We will have a lifetime...we will have eternity," he confessed in return. A tear slipped down her cheek.

"Charming…" she uttered, as their lips crashed together and passion swallowed them in its perfect storm.

~*~

Emma watched fondly, as her son gave big belly laughs, as Neal pushed him on one of the baby swings.

"You love this...you little daredevil," he joked, as their eyes met and she smiled.

"So...how about we go grab something at Granny's after this? You know, my last meal as a free man," he said. She rolled her eyes.

"You are not going anywhere. Your Dad isn't going to let it happen and apparently mine isn't either after what he did," Emma replied. Neal smiled.

"Yeah...watching them try to figure out how he's your father when that test comes back positive should be fun. He's way more intimidating than I expected," he said. She smirked.

"Aw, does my daddy scare you?" he teased. He scoffed.

"No," he said too quickly and she raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, so I'm the guy that got his little girl pregnant and then left her. He would have every right to want my guts on a stick," he admitted. She nodded.

"He knows there was more to it than that now though...so do I," she admitted in return.

"I was too hard on my dad for that, because I did the same thing," he said.

"I need to forgive him," he realized. She nodded.

"You do. But in your defense, you didn't know about the baby," she said.

"But I love you...and leaving you, because I was too cowardly to deal with my own issues with my dad was wrong. I wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me," he replied. She shrugged.

"Sometimes I want to stay mad at you...but my mom just didn't raise me that way," she said.

"I grew up hearing about hope and this amazing true love that my parents have. And then...I finally got to see it and my mom was right. True love really is magic. You made mistakes, but I forgive you," she told him. He swallowed thickly at that.

"Wow...yeah I don't deserve it, but thank you," he replied. She smiled.

"You do and so does your dad, because he's not the enemy here. Cora is," Emma said.

"Yeah...she is way worse than I thought possible," he said. She snorted.

"Tell me about. I mean, mom and August always told me how bad she was, but seeing it, especially after finding out what she did to my dad...yeah there is no forgiving her," Emma replied.

"Yeah...honestly, I don't know how your parents are still standing after everything she's put them through," he admitted.

"True love is magic," she reminded and he smiled.

"It's also really embarrassing public displays of affection and Granny's sounds great, because I have a feeling that it's not safe to go back to the loft for a while," she joked and he chuckled.

"Cherish it...cause my parents, yeah...that was not true love," he replied.

"You never told me about your Mom," she said.

"You know about my dad's past in the book though, so you know her," he replied.

"Milah...but I'd like to hear it from you," she said. He sighed.

"Well...I think at one time, they may have loved each other, but then came the ogre wars," he began.

"Dad had no choice and went off to war. It was considered an instant honor if your husband died in the war," he continued.

"Stupid," she commented.

"Really stupid...and he got scared. I get it...because you either died or were so horribly crippled that you wished you were dead after going to war," he explained.

"So...he crippled himself just enough," she said. He nodded.

"I never blamed him for that though...but my mom did. She was so hateful to him after that and eventually, she ran off with Hook, before he was actually Hook," he replied. She nodded.

"Then...after he was the Dark One, he caught up to them and got his revenge," he added. She squeezed his hand.

"He was hurt and he lashed out. It wasn't right, but sounds like your Mom and Hook weren't angels," Emma said.

"They weren't. Hook sold me out to Pan and that's how I got stuck there for two hundred years," he replied.

"So that's how you know Tinkerbell?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yeah...she hated Pan too," he replied.

"Apparently not enough not to work for him," she muttered.

"That's what I don't get. I mean...I get if she is working for him to get off that hell hole island, but I can figure out why he has an interest in Storybrooke. There's no magic here, so he'd never want to come to a place without it," he replied.

"Well...my brother is the author and if he wants a story, he'll get it," she assured, as she saw Rumple arrive with a young woman that she recognized as Lacey.

"Where did you go?" Neal asked.

"To the shop to see what I might have to work with. As you know, since there are certain conditions in Storybrooke as of now, I'm limited as to what I have to work with," he said and they knew that was code for there was no magic.

"Yeah, well that's a blessing in disguise, because if you had what you need, then Cora would have it too," Neal reminded him.

'Yes...which is why taking her out might be messy," Rumple said. He rolled his eyes.

"I was thinking of locking her up...not murdering her," he said.

"A cell isn't going to stop her," Rumple argued.

"He might be right," Emma said and he looked at her in surprise.

"Emma…" he said in disbelief.

"I'm sorry...but she's put my parents through hell. And now she's trying to put us in jail and take us away from our son!" she reminded him. He sighed.

"Yeah...I know," Neal agreed.

"So what do we do? Because I know you talk a big game, Em...but I know you aren't just going to walk up and cap her," he said. Emma huffed.

"Sure feel like it sometimes, but since the curse is't broken, I'd rather not have Graham arrest any of us for murder," she replied.

"Curse?" Lacey asked.

"It's complicated," Rumple answered, only confusing her more.

"Let's just table the murder talk for the moment and get some onion rings," Emma said, as she put her son in his stroller.

"Hungry buddy?" she asked.

"Pancakes!" he called and Neal chuckled.

"Dinner for breakfast...yeah he's yours," he teased.

"Shut up," she replied, as she nudged him.

"Just so you know...this is the furthest thing from dark that there is," Lacey commented to him. Rumple smirked, as they followed.

"It is...but stick around. It might grow on you and I assure you, dark things will come to Cora Mills when I'm done with her," he promised.

~*~

Tinkerbell found her way to the park and wanted to appreciate the beauty of this world, but it was hard when her mind, heart, and soul were so burdened by the deals she had made to escape that nightmare of an island.

"You know, if you're trying to sneak up on me...you're really bad at it," she snapped, as she looked at the man that was following her.

"Oh, I'm not trying to sneak up on you. If I was...you'd never see me coming," August replied.

"Really?" she asked skeptically.

"My Mom is a former bandit...she taught me some skills," he replied. She scoffed.

"But she's not really you mom," Tink commented.

"Yes she is. She raised me from age seven and I'm everything I am, because of her. And she's the best woman you'll ever meet," he said, fiercely defending her.

"Okay...sorry, I didn't realize that you really saw her as your mother," she replied.

"Well...I do. I was dumped in this strange, new land and she's the only reason I became the person I am. She raised me, loved me, and gave me a home, even when I knew she was in pain," he said.

"I'm not here to hurt Snow White," Tink assured.

"If you take Emma and Neal away...you're going to hurt her. Neal is the father of her grandson and Emma's best moves may be deflection and denial, but she still loves Neal too," August argued.

"He should have thought about before he stole all those goods and Emma may not have stolen anything, but we both know that she knew what he was doing," Tink reasoned.

"Cut the crap...you're not here, because of some stolen goods. What the hell does Pan want with Storybrooke?" he demanded to know. Their eyes locked and they stared each other down for several long moments, before she looked away.

"Pan has no interest in Storybrooke," Tink said.

"Then why are you here?" he questioned.

"Does he want Emma and Neal apart for some reason? Is that why you're here posing as a cop?" he questioned again.

"I can't tell you!" she shouted.

"Oh come on! You know what a little demon he is! If he's after my family...then I need to know!" he shouted back.

"This has nothing to do with him!" she yelled.

"Why the hell should I believe you?" he exclaimed.

"Because you're the author! You know that all the realms are frozen under the curse...including Pan! And I'm here to make sure it stays that way!" she revealed. His brow furrowed in confusion.

"What? You want to keep the curse from breaking?" he asked.

"If the curse breaks, then all the realms wake up and time moves again," she replied.

"And then you have to go back to work for Pan," he realized. She nodded. But he shook his head.

"That still doesn't make any sense. If he sent you here to this land before the curse...then there had to be a reason for it. What did he want?" August asked.

"Forget it...because I'm going to make sure your sister can't break the curse, so you better run home to mommy and prepare her for what's to come," Tink replied, as she stalked away.

"No way in hell! You're not taking my sister from us!" he hissed.

"I have to!" she snapped, as she turned to him.

"If the curse is broken and time moves again...then Pan will destroy your family," she said.

"That doesn't make any sense?! We've never met him. Why would he have any interest in us?" August questioned.

"It doesn't matter...because this curse isn't breaking," she said, as she ran away from him. August sighed and thought about chasing her, but then decided to go to Gold instead. There was a chance that he might have some insight into what his dear old father could want from them.

~*~

Cora stared at the black diamond, as she and Kathryn walked along the dark streets of Storybrooke. She knew exactly what tool they needed to activate it, but that wasn't the dilemma that was causing her to hesitate. If she activated the trigger without magic, she didn't know exactly to what degree the destruction would be. She knew it would work on some scale. It was designed for her to use at any time, magic or not, to hit the reset button and escape if she wanted. But with magic, she would have been able to ensure that none of her enemies could escape the total destruction. Without, there was always a chance for survival. But she was so dissatisfied with everything that she was ready to blow the entire town and escape unscathed into the Land Without Magic. She had amassed a nice fortune and she could live luxuriously out there and eventually, somewhere, she knew she could climb her way back to power. But there were two people she wanted to make sure did not survive and the only way to make sure was to force them to be at the detonation point. She smirked, as Sidney Glass met them on the street.

"Emma and August parted ways from their mother and David. They went back to her loft alone...but I don't know how long that will last," he reported.

"Excellent work, Mr. Glass. Do you have the item I asked you to bring?" she questioned. He nodded and handed her a rolled up paper bag.

"Thank you...that will be all," she replied, as they continued on.

"What is that?" Kathryn asked and then gasped, as Cora took out a gun, before handing it to her.

"What...you want me to take it?" she squeaked.

"Do you want revenge on David and that little bitch that stole him?" Cora questioned. Kathryn swallowed thickly and the older woman rolled her eyes.

"The gun is just to get them to do what we want. Trust me...their demise will be much more satisfying than a bullet. Take it," she ordered. Kathryn obeyed and put it in her coat pocket, as they continued on with Mary Margaret Swan's loft as their intended destination...

[thecreaturecodex]

Vampire Pumpkin

“Inktober Monster Challenge 10: Vampire Pumpkin” © Richard Svennson, accessed at his deviantArt here

[I will no longer be in Europe for the World Tour project in October, but I still figured I should cover this exceedingly spooktacular monster. The only primary source for the vampire pumpkin comes from Tatomir P. Vukanović, who wrote about the folklore of the Romani in Serbia. Part of me wonders if it is a goof, in either direction. Whether Vukanovic made it up as a joke, or whether the Romani he interviewed made it up to mess with the guy asking all the questions. 

Regardless, the original vampire pumpkin doesn’t bite people; it just moves around and causes ill-feelings. Which makes it more “vampire” as in monster than actual blood drinking undead. This is one of the few images of the vampire pumpkin out there, and it gives it fangs (which has the advantage of making this something you can fight, rather than a hazard).]

Vampire Pumpkin CR ½ NE Plant This creature resembles a large, blotched pumpkin with vines still attached. It has narrow eyes and a small slit for a mouth, in which are surprisingly sharp canine teeth.

In cursed lands, or areas where the undead commonly roam, even the vegetables may turn sinister. Vampire pumpkins can form from any sort of curcubit, including melons, squashes and gourds, but for whatever reason pumpkins are the most common. Vampire pumpkins are barely sapient, being able to understand a few words in a language commonly spoken where they live. They obey intelligent undead creatures, and are slavishly devoted to vampires. A vampire’s castle may have a patch of vampire pumpkins growing outside it, whether the vampire wants it or not.

Vampire pumpkins are skittish and cowardly if not led by the undead, and tend to skulk in shadowy places rather than attack indiscriminately. If cornered, or if a foe is clearly weakened or dying, it will bite, which causes a surprising amount of blood loss for such a little nip. What makes vampire pumpkins especially dangerous is their cursed aura. Whether or not the vampire pumpkin shows itself, creatures near it become more vulnerable to accidents, disease and other misfortunes. Thus, identifying the vampire pumpkin is often more difficult than actually killing the thing—vampire pumpkins are slow, and can be pulped, chopped or boiled with only slightly more difficulty than an ordinary squash.

Despite their sinister behavior, vampire pumpkins are still edible. Dishes made with them have a slightly more iron-rich flavor, but are otherwise harmless.

Vampire Pumpkin          CR ½ XP 200 NE Tiny plant Init +4; Senses low-light vision, Perception +4 Aura malaise (30 ft., DC 12) Defense AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+2 size, +1 natural) hp 11 (2d8+2) Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +0 DR 2/slashing or bludgeoning; Immunities curses, plant traits Defensive Abilities negative energy affinity Offense Speed 15 ft. Melee bite +3 (1d2 plus bleed) Space 2 ½ ft.; Reach 0 ft. Special Attacks bleed (1d2) Statistics Str 10, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 13 Base Atk +1; CMB +0; CMD 10 (cannot be tripped) Feats Improved Initiative Skills Disguise +1 (+21 as vegetable), Perception +4, Stealth +12; Racial Modifiers +20 Disguise to appear as a mundane vegetable Languages Common (cannot speak) Ecology Environment any land Organization solitary, pair, basket (3-6) or patch (8-24) Treasure none Special Abilities Aura of Malaise (Su) A living creature within 30 feet of a vampire pumpkin must succeed a DC 12 Will save or suffer a -2 penalty on all saving throws for the next minute. A creature that succeeds its save is immune to the aura of malaise of that vampire pumpkin for the next 24 hours.

[merryfortune]

Day 16 / Rain

Ship: Scytheshipping | Ema/Kyoko

Fandom: YuGiOh Vrains

Word Count: 1,688

Rating: M

Tags: Canon Compliant, Post Canon, Angst, PTSD, Sexual References, Hurt/Comfort, Victim Blaming (?)

  Ema hates how easy it was to love Kyoko.

  She had never loved a woman or man before. She was above all the romanticism and oxytocin. She was only in it for the base; for the sex and the backstabbing. She was truly her brother’s sister and her father’s daughter in that regard. People were disposable and the easier it was to hate them, the better the consecutive one night stands were; that’s why Akira got dull so quick and became a friend more so than boyfriend. But Kyoko?

  Somehow, she was different.

  She really shouldn’t have been. She should have been the epitome of the cheap hate fucks that Ema was fond of because there was no lingering fondness.

  Kyoko had red hands the likes of which Ema had never seen before and with them, she carved the worst and most painful rivulets she had ever felt on her back. That woman was a monster. All red hair and red hands and these cold, grey eyes which burned the same way that dry ice did. She was a rough fuck and Ema liked it. They weren’t the type to get cosy after coitus, but they would share a bed and somewhere in the exhaustion, they did become that type. It was an affectionate attachment that Ema thought that she wouldn’t ever be interested in. She wasn’t some hopeless romantic teenager, after all. Love them and leave them was her philosophy.

  But she couldn’t leave Kyoko. Maybe not now but not never, Ema thought as she put kind emotions into herself when Kyoko stirred on the third one night stand that they had together. Ain’t it funny how things happen in threes?

  Outside the room, it was thundering atrociously. That must’ve been what had woken Kyoko up; Ema had been drowsing, mostly thinking about how she was going to ghost Kyoko later but when she felt the other woman roll over and touch her back, so gently that Ema flinched because she wasn’t used to that woman’s touch being soft. And her voice, it broke as she spoke in a terrified whisper.

  “I’m scared.”

  Boom. Crash. Bright lights split the sky and rain of biblical proportions continues to last the sky roof of Ema’s penthouse apartment. Thunder and lightning followed and Ema didn’t need eyes in the back of her head to know how badly Kyoko winced. Her fingers curled in on themselves against Ema’s back. It was pitiful and she wanted to sigh but instead, she found herself with more compassion than that but maybe she shouldn’t be if her hunch was right.

  Nonetheless, Ema rolled over and she didn’t realise how close Kyoko had been to her until now. They hadn’t been touching but they had been so close to it. A breadth of a breath; of a hair.

  “Are you okay?” Ema asked. She was afraid to reach out across those mere millimetres between herself and Kyoko; a shame given her natural instinct was to console, to touch and caress her.

  “Nights like these always take me back.” Kyoko confessed.

  Ema swallowed her tongue on that. Sharp and cocky. She had been right.

  “It was just after Dr Kogami had been…” Kyoko’s voice trailed off and as though on cue, there was another crash of lightning which she shuddered out. Her breathing turned ragged and she grimaced; huddling in on herself, giving herself the comfort that Ema was still, albeit hesitantly, withholding from her. “It was a night like this when Spectre came home with Ryoken; seeing his face was like divine retribution. Obviously we couldn’t get rid of him but it never stopped hurting completely. Only a little less; a constant reminder of what we had done to those children.”

  It seemed even monsters could show remorse. Ema’s brows furrowed. It somehow seemed easier, on her conscious and even her heart, if she pigeonholed - believed - that the Knights of Hanoi were beyond redemption and that they were inhuman.

  Of course, what does it say about her; that she was willing to cavort carnally with them…?

  Regardless, in the darkness of her bedroom, Ema didn’t truly see an evil woman before her. She struggled to see anything; it was all in monochrome shades, a little grey, a little blue, some black and some white. Nothing definitive; all shadowy. She sighed and her escape breath was difficult to know the meaning of until she inched in closer.

  Kyoko seemed surprised. Her eyes brightened briefly when she realised that she had finally been given the approval which she was vying towards but it was still more than apparent to Ema that she was consumed with guilt.

  The thin sheets that they shared laid over her haphazard over Kyoko, barely disguising her nakedness; either of their nakednesses, really. Ema’s left hand snaked along Kyoko’s upper thigh, drawing circles upon it, moving the sheets, crumpling them and she gazed sympathetically unto her. She simply dripped with saccharine sympathy but it was mixed with disgust. Kyoko couldn’t blame her.

  When Ema tried to understand this woman, to find some sense of purging divide between right and wrong. Kyoko was someone broken, maybe. Broken by decisions she had made when she was barely out of high school. Ergo, she had been taken advantage of, likely given some story about a shiningly bright future, all good and pristine and that the ends justified the means. No matter how repugnant such means were and whether the end was even worth it to begin with. After all, no Ignis were left and humanity had no successor...

  It was sickening. But that never meant that she had to forgo agency. So, she was cruel in her denial of it. She was someone who had abided by six months of torture for six children, barely out of preschool. And someone who had been willing to abide by it for six more months, and possibly longer, if need be…

  She was atoning, now, or so Ema had been told. Ema didn’t believe it but she still stroked the idea in case it was true. In her perspective, she saw cowardice in such claims, to be bluntly honest. If she wanted to atone, she ought to do it in the eyes of justice. Not in the shadows where it was safe.She should do something as stunning as lightning and electricity. But that was just Ema’s opinion and she had only been mauled by the data of the insane twice, after all. Only twice; not thrice.

  But as Ema came to embrace Kyoko, she found it difficult to maintain such heinous thoughts about her companion. Kyoko was complicated, there was no reducing that, Ema found as her thoughts and feelings fluctuated with each breath. Changing with the oxygen in her blood and lungs.

  She hugged Kyoko tightly, in it all. Her body was cold and Ema snuggled in. Kyoko smiled with tears in her eyes as she laid her head on Ema’s breast. She could hear Ema’s heartbeat and she could feel it too. It was steady, not necessarily slow but it wasn’t fast either but it was sublimely comforting.

  It still rained outside and violently at that. Kyoko still winced and flinched and was completely and utterly fragile as the lightning and thunder spooked her relentlessly but she did settle. She did come to dream, inhaling the smell of Ema’s sex and faded perfume as she did so. Finding some comfort in them both and in her warmth. Not once realising that Ema had cruel thoughts about her.

  Even presently. Ema still couldn’t sleep and she was still considering ghosting Kyoko, leaving her out in the cold where the rain seemed to wash the world unclean in its natural violence. She probably deserved a bit more sadness in her chest like the turmoil of a storm, just like those kids and how it all spiralled out from there with those individuals. After all, she was still a monster; even when cradled in human arms but her eyes had lost that cement like bluster. There had been emotion, messy and unadulterated, in those eyes of Kyoko’s, right before they, with their sharp and pretty lashes, fluttered close and she fell asleep, calm and safe, in Ema’s arms.

  The following morning came arduously and so did the day after that and Ema never ghosted Kyoko like she had planned to. She never told Kyoko about those thoughts as they lingered still. Turning to visions of futures which had the potential to come to pass but no, Ema kept them all to herself as sex turned to dating with the enigmatic Baira, sharp as medical waste syringes and as soft as the plastic bagging and as confusing as all the scientific names for all the chemicals inside little jars.

  So, Ema stayed. They stayed. And somehow domesticity leaked into their relationship where it really shouldn’t have and Ema realised that her heart could come to pound when she enjoyed the familiarity that she had with Kyoko. The kisses which turned from sour to sweet, the longer that they stayed together and all the less than romantic moments in between which Ema prefered because she wasn’t that type of lady who could stomach all the sap and syrup more fitting to cinema than to her real life.

  And it was all so strangely easy. As easy as breathing, to love Kyoko, Ema found. Even when she still felt that she shouldn’t because Kyoko’s hands were as red as her hair with the guilt of what she had done ten years ago and how it progressed since to hide the sins that yes, she was redeeming herself with. Or at least that’s what Ema had observed thus far alongside this woman she was in a relationship with.

  Because despite it all, all the love that she had built up in her heart, Ema still had the occasional thought of leaving it all. Just like Kyoko was a monster, Ema was a ghost. It simply couldn’t be helped, even if there was a very real love, somehow at play in this situation.

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH22

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 22: Star Death Reality Show (V)

What was happening? Feeling as though he was blindfolded, Qi Leren and He Yi looked at each other nervously.

"Mark? Are you all right?" He Yi also asked loudly.

There was still no sound in the room.

"Let's go in and have a look," He Yi said nervously.

Qi Leren's heart beat faster. According to the routine in horror games, the loud noise just now was likely an indication of danger, suggesting that Mark had met some big trouble inside.

Had he met the monster? Qi Leren became suspicious. From the task background’s information, he clearly knew that the monster in the "glowing stone" had hatched by this time, although he wasn’t sure whether this monster was a simple and rude physical attack type or a parasitic type like an alien. If it was the former, it would very likely eat people, and its target...

Qi Leren pulled out the knife assigned by the program company and said to He Yi: "Okay."

He Yi looked at the knife in his hand in surprise: "...Do you need a knife?"

Qi Leren was dazed and realized that he had overreacted a little. To an NPC, this copy task was just an ordinary reality show. They didn't know what they were going to face and they were unprepared for it.

"Be prepared." With a straight face and posing as an experienced leader, Qi Leren boldly pushed open the door, as there was no warning from [Rain-Day Laundry] in his card slot.

Mark had fallen not far from the door. There was no blood on the ground. Instead, there was a fallen bookshelf, from which a large stack of objects such as vases and books had fallen to the ground, along with the axe. Obviously, when the black man had come in he had stumbled and knocked over the bookshelf. He was probably hit on the head by something, shed a little blood, and suddenly fainted.

Qi Leren breathed through the corners of his mouth, put the knife back into the sheath as if nothing had happened, and leaned over and lifted the man up: "Come and give a hand."

He Yi also came to help, and the two men lifted the upper body and the lower body, and reluctantly put the big black uncle on the bed.

"Now what? They’re still waiting for us, " He Yi said.

Regardless of the obvious inhumanity of leaving someone unconscious aside, Qi Leren thought for a moment: "Well, you look after Mark here, I will take the axe over, and then I’ll call Dr. Lu... Er, I mean Lu Cangshu."

He Yi smiled: "I know, I heard that his dream is to be a doctor, so his nickname is Dr. Lu."　

It seems that this copy world has also automatically filled in some settings, Qi Leren thought.

The two reached an agreement and Qi Leren took the axe and walked out of Annie's house, walking towards Jing Siyu’s house. Walking halfway, Qi Leren suddenly remembered what He Yi seemed to be about to say to him before Mark's accident. He had said that he’d seen something in the middle of the night...

Qi Leren looked back at the church in the middle of the village. Could it be related to the glowing stone inside?

　　&&&

When he returned to the house Jing Siyu was staying in, the group of people were waiting anxiously for him in this narrow room. Xue Jiahui saw Qi Leren coming back alone and couldn't help but ask: "Where’s He Yi?"

"He Yi didn't come back with you?" Lara also asked.

Poor Mark was forgotten by the girls because he wasn’t handsome. Qi Leren felt deeply in his heart that this was really a world where looks were most important.

"Mark fell and fainted. He Yi is looking after him. I decided to bring the axe first." Qi Leren handed the axe to his teammate Du Yue, giving him a chance to show his skills.

Du Yue took the axe, smiled at Qi Leren, and began to split the wooden trap door. The dust on the carpet flew up, and several of the women ran out covering their noses, unable to stand the dust. Annie was the worst. She coughed wildly and rushed out without looking back. He could still hear her heavy coughing from afar.

"She’s not allergic to dust, is she?" Out of occupational sensitivity, Dr. Lu felt that her cough didn’t seem to be choking, but rather an allergic reaction. "We don't have antihistamine drugs here."

"It won’t be a serious allergy. We’ve all received physical examinations to detect allergens, and at most it is mild allergies," Francis said calmly.

"It'd better be..." Dr. Lu muttered.

"Let's go and see Mark later," Qi Leren said to Dr. Lu.

"Oh, okay," Dr. Lu readily agreed.

Du Yue, an honest boy, worked hard and diligently. He chopped the trap door to the basement a few times, revealing the dark environment below, which gave off a sense of dread.

The ladies were outside, Mark and He Yi were not there, and there were only Francis, Alex, and Qi Leren in the room, a total of five people.

Dr. Lu, who knew the routine well, had no choice but to help: "Well, it seems that we have to go down and look. Who will go down first?"

"I'll do it." Francis stood up.

Alex was one step late and curled his lips. "I'm the second."

After a little reflection, Qi Leren turned to Dr. Lu and said, "It's enough for the three of us to go in and have a look. You and Du Yue wait outside, then go to see Mark when we’re sure that Jing Siyu is okay."

"Alright."

Francis illuminated the basement with a flashlight. The entrance was very humble, with the ladder that led down only made of wood. Immediately after Francis went down, he found Jing Siyu passed out at the bottom of the ladder, and the three people joined forces to get her up.

The group of women also came back from the outside covering their noses and gathered around Jing Siyu to check the situation. Only Qi Leren and Francis were still in the basement, shining flashlights to check the situation there.

"I thought it should be a basement where sundries were placed, but it turned out to be like a laboratory," Qi Leren said curiously.

The same was true of Francis. The two were puzzled by the white-painted basement: "Maybe the owner was a researcher?"

This basement wasn’t big, only 20-30 square meters. The ground was made of cement, the walls were painted white, and all the walls were covered with bookshelves and lockers, with a pile of books and unrecognizable organ specimens. Qi Leren tried to read them, but the words above were all unfamiliar characters—obviously this was the language of this civilization, and the "alien" Qi Leren couldn't understand it.

There were also a lot of materials on the desk, which Qi Leren turned over thickly and couldn't understand. He opened the drawer and checked it, but there were no items like keys.

"Does the program know that there’s a basement in this house?" Qi Leren asked.

"I'm afraid I don't know. They said that it took only three days to sweep the village and arrange the fixed cameras. They couldn’t have been too careful," Francis said calmly.

"Right." Qi Leren looked thoughtfully at the family photos on the desk. The intelligent creatures on this planet looked very similar to them, with two eyes, one nose, one mouth, and no superhuman powers, so one could hardly tell the difference between them and this group of contestants.

"Hey, Francis and Qi, aren't you coming up yet?" Lara shouted from the entrance of the basement.

"Coming!" The two people who didn't find anything in particular gave up, grabbed the flashlights, and climbed out of the basement.

Just as everyone climbed out of the basement, there was a dull boom in the distance, like the sound of an avalanche. Several people were shocked and ran out to check. The women outside the door looked in the direction of the church in doubt: "Did something explode in that direction?"

"Did the church collapse from not being maintained for so many years?" Lara asked.

"I don't know, it was somewhere to the north either way," Xue Jiahui said. "Let’s go see He Yi and Mark later and ask them which direction the sound came from."

Jing Siyu was still unconscious, so they didn't trust to leave her alone in the house. Instead they moved her to Jing Sixue's house and asked her sister to look after her, while the rest went to visit Mark.

Qi Leren winked at Dr. Lu. Dr. Lu ran to Qi Leren and whispered, "Did you find anything?"

"I feel like there’s something wrong with the basement in Jing Siyu’s house. Go back and call Du Yue to have a look. You search carefully to see if there’s anything," Qi Leren said.

"Leave it to me!" Dr. Lu the treasure hunter said confidently.

The rest of the people walked towards Annie's house, and when they passed the church they made a special check and found that there was no place that had collapsed or looked damaged.

Further north was Annie's house. The group of people walked through snow and squeezed into the house. Qi Leren knew where to go, leading everyone to the room where Mark was lying. The door was open, but there was no sound.

Qi Leren suddenly slowed down: "He Yi? Mark?"

No one answered him. There was no one in that room.

"What's the matter? Weren’t those two here just now?" Janet asked exaggeratedly.

"Yes, Mark was knocked out by the shelf by the door, so He Yi and I carried him to the bed in this room. He Yi was looking after him. I brought the axe first... Did Mark wake up? Maybe they went out to find us but went the wrong way?" Qi Leren guessed.

"Impossible, they’re still in this room," Lara suddenly said.

Everyone was shocked by Lara's words and looked at her.

This female star with short hair and a heroic spirit had sharp eyes, and her eyes swept across everyone's faces: "It snowed in the middle of the night yesterday, and a new layer of snow was deposited on the ground. I have a habit of looking at the footprints in the snow. I paid attention to them when I came here just now. Before this group of ours came, there were five sets of footprints in front of Annie's house—those left by Annie when she left in the morning, those left by Qi Leren, He Yi, and Mark when they came to take the axe, and those left by Qi Leren when he left. Only these five sets, no more footprints, do you understand what I mean? Mark and He Yi didn’t leave the house. They’re still here."

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[supercasey]

RvB Warrior Cats AU

I have no excuse for how long this took to post (other than moving houses and getting caught in a blizzard this morning). I know I made a post with this concept several months ago, but I’ve since then rewritten quite a bit of it and added more story ideas, so... go nuts I guess. Putting this under a readmore to spare the rest of my followers.

Blood Gulch Clan / Blood Clan / Gulch Clan Leader: SpiteStar (Church) Last Leader: FlowerStar (Flowers/Florida) Deputy: CrimsonFur (Sarge) Last Deputy: SpiteEyes (Church) Medicine Cat: FixCoat (Doc) Clan Members: TuckTail (Tucker) HeavyHeart (Caboose) CinderStalk (Tex) SpeckleBelly (Simmons) SnailFoot (Grif) RabbitWind (Donut) PoppyFox (Sister) TuckFrost (Junior) Freelancer Clan / Mother Clan Leader: JaggedStar / Leo (The Director) Last Leader: ShadowStar (Allison) Deputy: EchoBurr / Aiden (The Counselor) Last Deputy: JaggedWhisker (The Director) Medicine Cat: None (kinda FlowerCreek???) Clan Members: ThunderSpot (Washington) TinyWhisper (Connecticut) QuickStalk (Carolina) LostEye / Tawnypaw (York) ((He hates his name)) HollowJaw / Quietpaw (Maine) ((Also hates his name)) WindStone (North Dakota) WildStorm (South Dakota) OwlFur (Wyoming) FlowerCreek (Florida) The AI Clan / Alpha Clan Leader: ThistleStar (Sigma) Last Leader: None Deputy: PigeonFeather (Gamma/Gary) Last Deputy: ThistleMask (Sigma) Medicine Cat: MousePatch (Theta) Clan Members: WitShimmer (Epsilon) LizardStrike (Omega/O'Malley) SwiftDapple (Delta) SongLeaf (Eta) SmokeLeaf (Iota) Chorus Clan Leader: BraveStar (Kimball) Last Leader: Shystar (Doyle) Deputy: BadgerHeart (Andersmith) Last Deputy: BraveFlame (Kimball) Medicine Cat: GreyBird (Dr. Grey) Clan Members: CherryPelt (Volleyball) DoeFlight (Jensen) PounceTail (Palomo) BitterFang (Bitters) MinnowLeap (Matthews)

Unaffiliated Cats / Rouges WeaselTuft / Felix (Felix) LocustMist / Locus (Locus) Vic (Vic)

[BASIC BGC PLOT] ((AKA if I write a fic this is gonna be the beginning))

Starts out with Tucktail going on a patrol with Heavyheart, who he ditches in favor of hunting on his own (and maybe to search for any available mates because he's unabashedly horny at all times no matter the AU), only to run into a kittypet named David. They hit it off right away, but unfortunately David's twoleg shows up and nabs him before he can run away. Tucktail relays this to Spitestar, who initially dismiss it as nothing to be concerned about, but Cinderstalk is curious. She corners Tucktail later on and asks more questions, until she discovers that Tucktail unintentionally found Thunderspot, a warrior from her old clan. Cinderstalk then goes into detail with Tucktail about her last "clan", although it was more like a group of rogues. It apparently all fell apart after a few warriors went rouge (no pun intended) and started an internal war that took several cat's lives. Thundersport had been unaccounted for most of the battle, but was hit by a monster on the thunderpath and was taken away by twolegs. After hearing all of this, Tucktail goes back to the twoleg place to help David escape, bringing Spitestar and Heavyheart with him for backup. They manage to save David, and the four of them return to camp to officially welcome him to Blood Gulch Clan (David has a bit of a panic attack when he sees Cinderstalk but he'll be okay).

[THINGS THAT HAPPEN/INFORMATION]

FAMILY SHIT (FOR THE BGC)

- Jaggedstar and Shadowstar are the parents of Quickstalk and Spitestar (Spitekit goes missing as a kit and ends up getting taken in by a rogue). Later on they also have Thunderspot (although they didn't raise Thunderkit, as Shadowstar died not long after birthing him, and Jaggedstar refused to interact with the orphaned kitten). - Flowercreek is Tucktail's father. He’s trans, and arrived at Blood Gulch Clan pregnant and injured from the PFL fight. It’s implied that Owlfur is the other parent. - Crimsonfur is Snailfoot, Poppyfox, Rabbitfoot, Windstone, and Wildstorm’s father (Snailfoot and Poppyfox made up one litter, the others made up the second one). After Windkit, Wildkit, and Rabbitkit were born, Crimsonfur took Rabbitkit back to his clan, as he was the runt of the litter, and raised him himself. - ((Also, both litters are from separate mother's and were born around the same time. Snailfoot and Poppyfox’s mother died giving birth, while Windstone, Wildstorm, and Rabbitfoot’s mother was not affiliated with Crimsonfur’s clan and had no interest in joining it, leading to her eventually agreeing to give up her undesired runt to Crimsonfur to make him go away while she kept the other kits to herself; Crimsonfur laments the fact that he didn't take all of his kits home, but what's done is done)). - The AI aren't related (save for Songleaf and Smokeleaf) but they refer to themselves as brothers and sisters. They act like a fucking cult and it’s Creepy. - Tucktail is trans fIGHT ME. - Flowercreek is also trans and so proud of his fucking son. - Tucktail has had exactly one litter; only one kit was born and that kit grew up to be Tuckfrost. Tucktail loves his son so much, it's ridiculous.

PROJECT FREELANCER ORIGINS LORE

- Long ago, a newly apprenticed Shadowpaw was patrolling her clan’s border by herself, when she came across a young kittypet named Leo. The two play-fought for a little while, but Shadowpaw had to go home, so she promised to come visit him again soon. - This escalated to Leo and Shadowpaw meeting every day, until Shadowpaw convinced Leo to come join her clan. Upon returning home, however, Shadowpaw was scolded by her leader and clanmates for befriending a kittypet, and was given a rather harsh ultimatum; either kill/chase away Leo, or never return. - Stubbornly, Shadowpaw chose Leo over her clan, and together, the twosome left the clan’s territory. - It was incredibly hard at first, as Leo struggled to learn how to hunt and Shadowpaw was still a young apprentice, but the two soon found an abandoned cabin on the edge of the forest. At first, they avoided going inside, but during a storm they grew desperate and took shelter inside. - Finding the cabin truly abandoned, it became their new home. Soon enough, other cats came to live with them, one of which was even Leo’s old housemate; Aiden. - They all soon went to the Moon Stone, and were given warrior names by Starclan. Shadowpaw became Shadowclaw, Leo became Jaggedwhisker, and Aiden became Echoburr (there were other cats but they’re unnamed NPCs so fuck ‘em). - Seeing as they had Starclan’s approval, it soon became clear that they needed to form a fully fledged clan and elect a leader. There was much debate, in which Echoburr insisted that Jaggedwhisker become leader, but Jaggedwhisker denied the offer, deciding that Shadowclaw would be a much better leader. - Again, they went to the Moon Stone, and Shadowclaw was gifted her nine lives, and formally renamed Shadowstar, dubbing her the leader of Motherclan. - Together, Shadowstar, Jaggedwhisker, and Echoburr kept the peace. It’s debatable whether or not they were all each other’s mates (they were), but nonetheless they soon produced their first litter (with Jaggedwhisker sitting in as leader while Shadowstar had her litter). - The first litter was Quickkit and a stillborn. Shadowstar was really broken up about losing a kit, but she still adored her daughter (she also lost a life during the birth). - Soon after, Shadowstar got right back into being leader, even taking Quickkit with her everywhere she went as she went about her clan duties. - By the time Quickkit became Quickpaw, Shadowstar had lost a lot of lives. She’s very headstrong and rebellious, so she ended up leading her clan into a lot of unnecessary fights, leading her to lose several lives. As one last ‘hoorah’, Shadowstar became pregnant a second time, and soon gave birth to Thunderkit and Spitekit. She died during the birth, barely given enough to name Thunderkit before she passed. - Jaggedwhisker ended up naming Spitekit, but in the same breath ordered the kit to be taken into the forest and killed by Echoburr. Feeling sorry for the poor thing, Echoburr took the kit out of the cabin and into the forest, where he quickly ran into a rogue. The rogue commented that Spitekit was adorable, to which Echoburr offered to give him to her. Not passing up the chance, the rogue accepted and adopted Spitekit. - This was the first of several corrupt decisions that Jaggedwhisker- now Jaggedstar- would make. After burying Shadowstar, he gave Thunderkit to one of the queens in his clan, ordering her to never tell the kit who his true parents were. - Quickpaw grew up knowing Thunderkit was her little brother, but was unable to tell him due to her father forbidding it (she never even knew about Spitekit). Still, she became very closely bonded to him, and regardless of her father’s orders, treated him as her younger brother. - Not long after Shadowstar’s death, a young black shecat appeared on Motherclan’s doorstep. At first, the clan cats warned her to run away, as Jaggedstar seemed unhinged, but upon meeting the young cat, Jaggedstar allowed her to join, naming her Cinderpaw. - Quickpaw and Cinderpaw were best friends as apprentices, as both were very similar personality wise. However, Jaggedstar’s clear favoritism for Cinderpaw became more and more blatantly obvious, causing a rift between the two cats. - As if to rub dirt in the wound, at their shared warrior ceremony, Quickpaw and Cinderpaw were named Quickstalk and Cinderstalk. When questioned by his daughter as to why they were given the same name, Jaggedstar claimed it was to “inspire you two to be better”. This led to even more tension between the girls. - ((I’m not gonna get too into Jaggedstar and Cinderstalk’s relationship because it’s… very creepy. He even apprenticed her and had her sleep in his nest some nights because he loved her and Cinderstalk was too intimidated to tell him no)).

PROJECT FREELANCER FIGHT LORE

- After the Freelancer Fight, a lot of things happened: Flowercreek joined Blood Gulch Clan and became Leader soon after, but lost most of his lives quickly as a result of being inexperienced in fighting/hunting due to once being the Freelancer's makeshift medicine cat (he was also considered to be too docile of a leader, leading many to believe his death was staged, although nothing has been proven). - Thunderspot and Tinywhisper were both hit by cars on the Thunderpath and taken to an animal shelter, and while Tinywhisper didn't survive the crash, Thunderspot did, and he was soon adopted by a twoleg and moved to coincidentally live near the forest where Blood Gulch Clan resides. - Quickstalk was thought to have been killed by Hollowjaw, but she secretly escaped and began wandering. Who knows? Maybe we'll see more of her in the future… ;3c - As apprentices, both Losteye and Hollowjaw (at the time named Tawnypaw and Quietpaw) were injured while out hunting, causing them to be renamed after their new injuries/scars. Everyone in the clan was against it, but Jaggedstar was determined to make sure that the two toms never forgot their mistakes. - Losteye, Owlfur, and Cinderstalk all ran into each other after the Freelancer Fight and got into a brawl, ending in Losteye dying while Cinderstalk chased Owlfur into Blood Gulch territory, where he was finished off by the rest of the clan (Tucktail was the one who killed him and had no idea he was his other father). - Windstone and Wildstorm traveled together for a long time, but during a fight with Hollowjaw and the AI Clan, Wildstorm left Windstone to die and attempted to live on her own, but eventually ended up in Blood Gulch territory and got herself killed by a vengeful Thunderspot, who believed her to be responsible for her brother's death. - The whole internal fight in the Freelancer clan is revealed to have been caused by Thistlestar all along, who wanted to seek out power by destroying other clans and taking the strongest warriors left alive. However, he’s later killed in an all-out war between the Blood Gulch Clan and the AI Clan, where he’s struck down and killed by Spitestar (who unfortunately also dies in the fight soon after killing Thistlestar). - Tinywhisper's death was 100% not an accident; she found out what was happening in the clan and had every intention of telling her clanmates. Unfortunately for her, the fight had already begun while she and Thunderspot were out hunting, resulting in them returning from their hunt in the middle of the fight. Before they could help, however, an unknown cat (Witshimmer) took the opportunity to shove both unsuspecting cats onto the thunderpath, just in time for a truck to hit both felines, killing Tinywhisper instantly while Thunderspot was left horrifically scarred by the incident (both physically and mentally. He has panic attacks if he hears a car horn and can't go near the Thunder Path without panicking).

RANDOM LORE

- Tucktail and Thunderspot eventually become mates, but it takes awhile because Tucktail isn't sure how he feels and Thunderspot is afraid to form bonds with other cats (also Tucktail doesn't want to ever be pregnant again and he's worried Thunderspot might want kits. This leads to them talking and agreeing to not have kits together, and just adopt instead if the opportunity comes up (Poppyfox offers to birth them some kits and they may or may not accept her offer)). Then again, they’d probably be fine not having kits. - During the Blood Gulch VS AI fight, Spitestar is killed, leaving the leadership position empty. There's a debate over who should become leader, as Crimsonfur is very old to become leader and was only meant to be Deputy until someone else stepped up to the task (namely Cinderstalk or Tucktail), but no one did (seeing as Cinderstalk is dead at this point, she’s out of the running). They offer it to Thunderspot, but he's very much against the idea. ((I actually can't decide who should be leader. I like the idea of Thunderstar or Tuckstar, but I dunno. Maybe just go with Crimsonstar??? Fuck))

CHORUS CLAN LORE

- Chorus Clan is a motherfucking Mess. It was formed by a bunch of rouge's that couldn't agree on a leader, leading to a full on war. The survivor's agreed to a truce, and the oldest survivor- Shyshiver- became the leader, dubbing the most capable warrior- Braveflame- as his deputy. - Seeing as Literally No One had any idea what to do (Shystar never even got his nine lives) the leader made a tough decision and agreed to house two rogues in the clan. In exchange, the rogues would train apprentices and help them get started. - This led to betrayal, as the rouges assassinated Shystar in the night. No one knew it was them at first, and Braveflame became Bravestar. - Bravestar immediately began trying to investigate into the death of her old leader, leading her to get help from Blood Gulch's clan cats, who offered to assist after being rescued. - (I'm thinking the BGC deals with some kind of disaster, like twolegs invading their territory, requiring them to leave. The few that managed to outrun the twolegs settle in Chorus Clan for awhile. This also takes place directly after the AI fight, meaning Spitestar is dead and there's no new leader yet). - Tucktail, Heavyheart, Specklebelly, and Snailfoot agree to apprentice Badgerpaw (Badgerheart), Doepaw (Doeflight), Cherrypaw (Cherrypelt), Pouncepaw (Pouncetail), Bitterpaw (Bitterfang), and Minnowpaw (Minnowleap). They’re also the ones to suggest their warrior names, as Bravestar thought it appropriate that they help. - Tucktail and Pouncepaw do NOT get along, at least on Tucktail's end. Tucktail is constantly reminded of his own terrible behavior as an apprentice, and he hates how clingy Pouncepaw is. It doesn't help that he feels responsible for two other apprentices dying (the kids who died in season 12). - Specklebelly is scared shitless of his apprentices, as they're both girls and he's nervous around them (his mother was rather abusive and he's low-key scared of shecats because of it). They're both patient though and Doepaw even starts seeing Specklebelly almost as her father. - Snailfoot is kind of neglectful with his apprentices’ training, having them just practice stalking and hunting instead of actually teaching them to fight. This actually ends up working out, as Bitterpaw and Minnowpaw both end up being excellent hunters and teach the others how to set up a proper ambush. - Heavyheart is… trying??? He's never been trusted to apprentice a cat before (neither has anyone else but whatever) and he keeps unintentionally seeing Badgerpaw as being his “new Spitestar”, which makes things semi awkward. This eventually gets resolved, with Badgerpaw sitting and talking Heavyheart through his grief. - Specklebelly and Snailfoot low-key see their apprentices as “the kits they never got to have together”. This even leads to Bitterfang and Doeflight jokingly (and sometimes honestly) referring to each other as “bro” and “sis”. - Bitterfang and Minnowleap are from the same litter. Their mother died when they were kits, and Bitterfang became very protective of Minnowleap, as he was very fragile as a kit. - Doeflight and Cherrypelt are also related, being sisters from the same litter. As kits, their father abandoned the clan, taking their other littermate (a tom) with him. The sisters are incredibly close, although they're very different personality wise. - Despite more or less losing both of his brothers on the same day, Pouncepaw acts laid back and unaffected. This leads to Tucktail sitting with him and getting the kid to open up about his grief, also leading Tucktail and Pouncepaw to mature. - Throughout all of this, the BGC keeps trying to discuss who should be leader. Seeing as Crimsonfur, Thunderspot, and Rabbitwind are missing (taken by twolegs), it's unclear who should be leader, as Crimsonfur was deputy (but he's old) and Thunderspot was the most experienced. - ((BTW, Poppyfox and Tuckfrost have both gone off on their own at this point. Poppyfox goes between wanting to be a kittypet to escape the warrior lifestyle and living as a rogue. Tuckfrost has been chosen as a “prophecy cat” and has been on a quest concerning his destiny, although he longs to return home and reunite with his father.)) - Everyone is of the opinion that Tucktail should become leader (Specklebelly argues that it should be Crimsonfur until Snailfoot convinces him to give up), but Tucktail refuses to, as he believes Thunderspot is the only sane choice. - After much deliberation (and a lot of bullshit) Tucktail finally agrees to go get his nine lives. - Accompanied by Fixcoat and his Chorus Clan apprentice (a way too excited Graypaw), Tucktail visits the Moon Pool and gets his nine lives from Starclan. - While he gets to see Spitestar (they have a tearful reunion), Tucktail can't find Thunderspot anywhere (he was scared that he had died during the twoleg attack). While he's relieved that Thunderspot isn't dead, he's now afraid that he'll never see him again, at least until Thunderspot passes away and joins Starclan. - Right after getting his nine lives and becoming Tuckstar, the new leader is given a prophecy by a puny cat he doesn’t recognize (Tinywhisper), who tells him “When the traitors are revealed and the river runs red with blood, only then will lightning strike, and the lost will return to where it all started”.

((I don’t have much else and for that I’m sorry, but I’ve become invested in this AU. Feel free to hit me up with ideas/questions, and I’ll do my best to respond!))