#save yourself a slime key

[disorganised-bagel]

been playing way too much slime rancher recently, and am now getting The Urges to make some kind of rtc slime rancher au

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 2

First thing I had to do was compare the map in the chapter 1 title page to the chapter 2 to confirm they are different maps. I'm two chapters in and I really want to play a game where hunting and eating monsters while exploring the dungeon to sustain yourself is a key mechanic.

This is really neat.

So is the basic idea that each floor of the dungeon corresponds to an actual floor of the tallest tower from the golden castle and some magic is being used to alter the terrain per floor?

It looks like there's a water level a few layers down.

Did Marcille's staff always have a little sprout growing out of it?

I'm with Marcille on the bats and rats. That sounds like an easy way to getting sick.

WAIT!! I've seen this meme!

Laios looks so upset and shocked that Marcille wants to eat normal food rather than hunt monsters.

The matagi are winter hunters from Northern Japan. They're known to hunt deer and bears. I guess that's the idea Laios imagined when thinking about hunting monsters or beasts.

So are Matagi a thing from where Laios is from or did he hear about them from the samurai guy who left the party and that's what he imagines they are?

Laios's explanation about how baraselia don't eat people but instead wrap their tendrils around victims to kill them and convert them into compost is not reassuring.

So there's a corpse retrieval and resurrection service. But it's not a union benefit of any kind. And since the resurrected have to pay a percentile fee for being resurrected, this would incentivize finders to prioritize retrieving rich adventurers.

Not sure what stops people from just robbing the corpse instead.

I might as well save each instance of Marcille casting magic and try parsing anything about the language she's speaking. Maybe see if there are any recurring runes in that language.

Kinda interesting how Marcille holds her staff in her right hand when they're traveling but switches it to her left when she begins casting magic.

I already said she was right-handed, but it looks like she prefers to use her right hand to the point that she doesn't use her left hand at all unless it's necessary. She prefers gesturing, holding, and acting using her right hand and will only use her left when her right hand is busy.

The moment her spell-casting was interrupted, she started transferring her staff back to her right hand. And when she was grabbed by the plant, she was gripping her staff with her right hand but doing nothing with her left.

To summarize, Marcille has no instinctive use of her left hand and you could probably easily hit her with a sneak attack from her left side.

Last chapter, Marcille got attacked by a slime. This chapter she got captured by a plant. I hope this isn't going to be a recurring thing with her.

I think the chapter is really brushing aside the part where Marcille was grabbed by a parasitic plant that plants its seeds under other creatrues' skin. Her clothing is probably thick enough to have protected her, but they should check her her skin for any cuts or scrapes and should look through her cloak for any seeds that might be embedded in the threads.

The plant would probably have let Marcille go after a minute or two since it likely wants its victim to be far away when its seeds sprout.

That face Marcille made conveys so many thoughts and emotions, the first of which is the dawning realization that she's going to learn things about Laios on this journey that she never wanted to know.

Marcille probably wasn't thinking how snug the shadowtail's grip was when she was more concerned about being eaten or having seeds implanted under her skin.

If Laios was the one who had been grabbed by the shadowtail, he would have been excited and asked everyone to leave the plant alone while it tied him up.

Love how the hollow comes with a fire pit, a broom, and a sign asking adventurers to clean up the place. Are there guild members who just scout out the dungeon for camping areas and prepare them for adventurers? Someone had to build that bridge they were crossing, right?

There's nothing strange about plants making fruit that other creatures find tasty. The strategy is the fruit and seeds will get eaten by whatever animal wants them and the seeds will pass through the creature's digestive tract and get pooped out somewhere else. The plant is using whatever eats its fruits to transport its offspring and provide some initial fertilizer.

The plants that use their fruits to lure in prey probably generate fruit somewhat independently of when they actually need to eat. If they only produced fruit when they are hunting, then most prey animals would either refuse to approach the fruits or adapt to become able to avoid the plant's traps entirely.

Baraselia might even have a gimmick where it has active and inactive tendrils. Most of the tendrils would be inactive and be meant to trick the prey into thinking its safe to approach the baraselia fruit. But then some random tendrils are active and are meant to catch prey that has concluded it's safe to approach.

And considering how shadowtail works, it likely doesn't produce fruits since it has other means to spread its seeds hence why it wasn't in the list of fruits in the tart.

I'm having fun with this. I'd like to know what kind of adaptations the local animals have to combat or avoid these plants so they can get to the fruits.

back

[goodlucktai]

three clicks and i'm home

rise of the tmnt movie canon divergence word count: 2k title borrowed from i know the end by phoebe bridgers

set in my role reversal au now the darkness comes alive, this was written for @mad4turtles who requested leo's pov of the krang interrogation scene

read on ao3

x

Leo is in and out of consciousness, only aware of the white-hot pain in his chest and the sound of his oldest brother screaming.

He’s never heard Raph sound that way before.

Everything blurs together, unfamiliar, unsafe voices crowding around him. Something is wrenched from his shoulder with a sickening sound and the agony of it knocks him out for real. 

“Disgusting,” he wakes up to hear someone say, “it’s getting its muck everywhere. Can’t we just kill it?”

Oh, Leo thinks, gazing dazedly down at himself, blood oozing down his cracked plastron and dripping from one of his bound arms. I think she means me. 

His senses return one by one, and start sprinting around to gather the facts of his situation. He can feel movement beneath him, a constant, steady vibration, that makes him think the ground is moving. No, not the ground—the floor. They’re on something that’s moving. Lifting his head enough to let his eyes dart to the side, he takes in rows of stacked shipping containers, all strung up with pink slime. He traces a few webs of it back to himself, his arms stretched to either side almost to the point of pain and bound in place. 

“Patience, sister,” a second voice says. “I need something from it first.”

The alien that enters his line of sight wakes Leo up fast. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug. It stares at him with bulging eyes the color of jaundice, contempt in every inch of its face, and Leo stares back, hoping that his racing heart doesn’t give itself away somehow. 

“You’re smarter than you look,” the alien says after their momentary standoff. 

“And that’s saying something,” Leo says with a toothy grin. It’s easy to fall into this role, talking nonsense to create room to think and observe, to get a solid read on this guy. “‘Cause I look damn good.”

“You’re not human, not entirely,” the alien goes on. “Yet you fancy yourself their hero, do you? Why else would you care enough to put your life on the line for them?”

“You’ve got the wrong turtle, pal. Heroism was never really my bag.”

Two years ago, when his brothers first got the big idea, Leo went along with it specifically to make sure they didn’t bite off more than they could chew. It quickly spiraled out of his control, but by then he was fully along for the ride. Besides, he’s always been a follower—wherever his siblings were is where Leo wanted to be, too. 

He has no idea what Splinter was thinking, shoving him out ahead of them and expecting him to lead. Just look at what Leo’s capable of fucking up from the sidelines. He almost got Raph killed. He almost lost the key for good. He has no business calling the shots. His brothers were right to doubt him. Maybe after this, he’ll finally be able to convince dad to take it all back. 

After this, he thinks, clinging to the implication of an after. 

“Now this is a surprise,” the Krang replies with faux interest. “No tiresome drivel about honor? Sacrifice? The warriors we subdued from the planets before yours sang a much different tune. All of them were weak, with weak ideals to match. But you—you know better, don’t you?” 

Leo watches him warily, disquieted by how inhuman his mannerisms are. It’s hard to anticipate what he’ll say or do next, which leaves Leonardo feeling as though he’s running to catch up in this conversation. 

“For example, you know that the strong will devour the weak,” the alien says, approaching slowly, looming above him like a horror movie monster. “And you know that the only way to save your sorry hide is to give me what I ask for. You want to live, don’t you? How about I offer you a deal? You tell me where the key is, and I won’t leave you a pulpy smear for your comrades to find.”

For a moment, Leo imagines being stupid enough to consider it. Wistfully, he thinks it must be a peaceful way to live. 

Out loud, with more courage than he feels, he says, “Sorry, I don’t take candy from strangers.”

“Let me kill it,” the sister alien says, crowding in from behind so silently that Leo had no idea she was there until she spoke. Her breath is hot against the side of his face, teeth so close he can count them. “It won’t talk. It’s a waste of our time. I haven’t gotten to kill anything yet.”

Leo is sixteen, and has so far lived in a world where, generally speaking, people have compunctions when it comes to killing children. Draxum dropped him off a roof, but he seemed to believe that Leo would be able to walk off a fall from that height, or at the very least not die. Big Mama did make a targeted attempt on the turtles’ lives, but her cat-and-mouse games almost seem to be how she shows affection. Leo has a standing invitation to come work at the Nexus whenever he wants—and another standing invitation for a poker game every other Saturday. He hasn’t told dad about either, because he doesn’t think that would go over very well, but he has taken her up on the poker games. Hypno and that worm guy are constantly causing trouble (case in point: stealing the stupid key for the stupid Foot Clan) but they also sent the Hamatos RSVP cards for their wedding next summer. And, like, Leo and his family are going to the wedding. 

The Shredder was another story, but he wasn’t really a person. He was a spirit, trapped and warped inside a curse until barely anything remained. It was the dark armor they were fighting, really, a construct of malice. 

Leo has never been here before. Held helpless between two powerful creatures who swatted his family around like flies, who are discussing his death the way people discuss dinner plans. He’s frightened. He wishes he wasn’t alone. 

When he reaches inside himself for bravery, he finds the memory of Raphael leaping off the rooftop after him. No hesitation. No plan. Just courage and conviction and love for Leo that was louder than anything else. 

I can do that, he thinks, clenching his fists and squaring his shoulders. I can be fearless, too. 

“You may be right,” Krang One says, unbothered by Leo’s lack of cooperation. “I’ll just have to see for myself, then, won’t I?”

It grabs him by the shoulder and bears down, and Leo coughs out a wounded noise he can’t help when it grinds intentionally against his open wound. 

Something burrows beneath his skin and climbs upward, little tentacles, worms, slithering, disgusting, inside his body, inside his head, reaching for—

Well, isn’t this interesting, the Krang’s voice says from inside his mind. How does a creature as small as you contain hatred this big? And with such a fearsome weapon, why point it inwards?

Memories fall in front of him like dominoes, outside his control. It doesn’t make sense. Someone else is rifling through them, someone else is trying to find something. 

Leo catches on with barely a second to spare. The Krang wants to know where the key is, which means he’s looking for information about the lair. Panicking, scrambling, Leo thinks really hard and really fast about the old lair, destroyed by the Shredder, everything reduced to nondescript rubble. It’s a clumsy deflect, barely more than a road bump. The Krang continues probing, annoyed now. 

Where is your home? the Krang demands. 

So Leo thinks of home—April’s bathroom, manicures and face masks and Snapchat selfies—home—any dim alleyway with Mikey and a couple cans of spraypaint, watching it all come alive with color—home—a darkly lit TV room and late night Spanish soaps that he learned to love because of the one-on-one time it granted him with dad—home—sitting with his twin on the curb outside their favorite bodega, sandwiches in hand, watching a video essay about any obscure topic on his phone—home—Raphie’s shoulders, anywhere—

“Useless,” the Krang spits out.

“Tell me about it,” Leo barely manages to bite back, exhausted.

He just has to hold on a little longer. They’ll come for him, he knows they will. 

“Oh, how cute,” the Krang says, picking up on the thread of that thought like a hound scenting out a fox. “You think they’ll save you?”

From Leo’s memory, he pulls forward the key again—Leo fumbling it, making a mess of the mission, Raph’s anger, the troubled expressions Donnie and Mikey wore. Leo is trouble, nothing but trouble, he only invites disaster. He did half of the Krangs’ job for them. In fact, it’s largely thanks to him that they’re here at all. 

“I should be offering my gratitude,” Krang One says meanly. 

As he speaks, Leo can feel him rifling through memories, taking advantage of Leo’s split attention. 

If Leo were anyone else, it would have been impossible to keep up. But this is where the peculiar manner of his existence really shines. 

Draxum designed the four of them meticulously. There are still moments he’ll look at them with a sort of reluctant pride when he thinks they’re not paying attention. Once, after an uncomfortable family dinner, he let slip that he had intended for Donnie and Leo to be a working pair, which is why it amused him that they decided to be twins entirely on their own, even removed from his influence. 

And while Raph was built to be a tank and a front-line fighter, and nothing and no one outmatched Mikey in speed and agility, the twins were always destined to be the thinkers. Draxum, who was an alchemist as much as he was a warrior, regarded both physicality and intelligence to be of equal importance. He had had a half-formed plan of Donnie and Leo running the lab together while he managed his army. 

With Donnie, that intelligence is easy to see. Like Leo, he has perfect recall, but he’s also a verifiable genius. Growing up with him, as isolated as they were, it’s easy for his family to take for granted how terrifyingly gifted Donatello is. No other nine-year-old is going to be able to build a working generator out of junkyard scraps through trial and error and a keen intuition. 

Leo’s secondary mutation is harder to pin down. He wouldn’t be able to design a working Rube Goldberg machine even if someone put a gun to his head, but he’s never lost to Donnie in chess, or go, or poker. He’s never even come close. He can tell at a glance when Splinter is lying to him, he knows before she opens her mouth when April has had a bad day at school, it will take at most ten minutes alone with a stranger before he’s reading their microexpressions and nonverbal cues with a very slim margin of error. 

Leo’s smart when it comes to people. But more than that, he knows how to position the board. He can pull strings that have even someone as tricky as Big Mama dancing in his palm. Not always, and not perfectly, but well enough. And learning how to portal reliably taught him how to think on multiple levels at once. He has to be aware of what’s in front of him and what’s going on behind and around him, too. If he’s going to move Mikey forward to cover Donnie, he has to be certain it won’t leave Raph outnumbered. His brothers dart through those doorways unflinchingly the second one appears, trusting that the other side is where they need to be, so Leo has to make sure that’s true.

And all of that feels like endurance training for this moment. He can only just maintain a single step in front of the alien rooting through his head. He feels like a guppy squaring up with a shark, but it’s just enough to slow him down. Throw out a parachute behind the speeding car and drag it back. 

“So much potential, wasted,” the Krang says derisively, his tone of voice markedly agitated by now. He probably intended to do a clean sweep of Leo’s thoughts, get what he needed, and call it a day. Leo is happy to make his life even slightly more difficult. 

He doesn’t think the alien is aware of the feedback he’s putting out. Leo can follow it like ripples across water, branching out from a central point. He doesn’t dare look too closely and call attention to the fact while the Krang is still actively present, tearing walls down in Leo’s head, but he would put money on this mental connection going both ways. 

“Ugh, you sound like my stepdad,” Leo wheezes, barely able to follow the thread of the conversation on top of outthinking the foreign body inside his brain. “As a matter of fact, the two of you would probably get along. You could bond over, like, wishing all of humanity was dead. I should get your number for him when all this is over.”

The Krang’s face draws itself into a snarl that will probably feature in Leo’s nightmares for the rest of his life. 

“I’ve had enough of you!”

Join the club, Leo would say, but the breath is punched out of him by the tentacle that wraps around his bleeding shoulder and squeezes. The white-hot agony of it makes him cough and struggle to inhale past the weight of painpainpain. He can’t help but make a subaudible turtle distress sound that would have had Raph crashing through a wall to help him if he was even remotely nearby. 

Raph, staring down at him with frightened brown eyes. Those hands that have always held Leo hovering above him instead, afraid to touch—

Not afraid, that voice in his head says with mean certainty. Disgusted. He didn’t want to touch you. After what you did? It was all your fault. 

It’s all Leo’s fault, of course it is, but that isn’t—that doesn’t matter. Raph loves him anyway. Raph wouldn’t have left him. 

But he did. Don’t you see? You’re alone. 

No. He’s alone because—he did this. He sent Raph away. He’s alone because he saved his brother and he took back the key and the Krang is just a bitter, angry old man who doesn’t know how not to be a sore loser even after a thousand years of nothing but losing—

The Krang roars, and digs into Leo’s wound even harder, and blood comes out faster than is safe or healthy, probably. Leo’s turtle noises become out-loud cries he would be ashamed of if he had room in his head for something as superfluous as shame. His pride abandons him quickly. It hurts. It hurts. 

A single crack in his shield, a hiccup in his uniformed thoughts, is all it takes. The Krang’s presence floods in like an ocean, black water rising, and Leo is drowning, drowning, drowning. 

“No one is coming for you,” the Krang says with cold conviction.

Once, when Leo was very little, he asked Raph and April to toss the clean bedding over him as they folded the laundry. He thought it would be fun—like a cozy cave to explore—but he was unprepared for how heavy the quilts and sheets would be. The weight toppled him down and he got all tangled, he couldn’t find the edges, he couldn’t find his way out. 

Within thirty seconds of that smothered, helpless feeling, he was clicking and crying so hysterically that Splinter came into the room at a run. 

Leo lasts almost a full minute this time, and maybe someday he’ll find that something to be proud of, but after almost a minute he’s screaming. 

“Help me,” Leo wails, all bravado gone, every inch of courage deserting him, writhing and clawing at the pink slime oozing up his arms, “help me help me—”

He wants daddy to run into the room and untangle him and scoop him up even though he’s too big to be scooped up by Splinter anymore. He wants to be lifted out of the mess he made and carried to where he’s always been safe, where they always take him back.  

He wants the smell of fabric softener and April and Raphie’s worried faces, Splinter’s warm fur beneath Leo’s tear-sticky cheek. He wants to still be little enough to be carried, to be someone’s baby. He wants to go home. 

He cries until he can’t breathe, until he’s choking on it, clinging to that tiny, fragile hope by his fingertips. 

But no one came. 

[endlessdreamworld]

Hey hey! Since your requests are open at the moment. What would any yandere genshin character's Interact with a Very clumsy Reader. Just imagine. The yandere watching the reader walk before tripping on their feet. Or maybe accidentally slipping onto leaves? That would be funny and I would definitely love to see their interaction!

Sorry to make you wait. I wanted to do a few shorter form responses, but this came out on accident. If you want more, please feel free to send in a request. Clumsy Reader X Diluc Ragnvindr

It started like any typical day in Mondstat. Markets were bustling, bards were performing, knights were patrolling, and the city was thriving. The sky was filled with a growing amount of storm clouds that were a welcome addition to a sweltering hot midsummer day.

For you though, this was a very irregular day with one unfortunate event chained after the other. A bag of flour went rogue in the bakery and you ended up completely covered in the stuff. Of course the bakery gave you bread as compensation for the situation – a lot of it. Ironically, this made everything much harder because the sheer amount of bread made the trip home cumbersome. Because of this delay and new handicap, by the time you were able to get your errands finished and your affairs in order it started pouring rain when you had just started the trip home. The flour that still coated your skin and clothes had turned to watered down sodden slime.

By the time you finally arrived at the front door of your home the compensation bread was ruined, and your clothes were heavy and cold with dripping rain. All you could think about was taking a nice hot bath and changing into dry clothes and climbing into your dry warm bed. You almost fainted though, when you reached into your pocket to retrieve your house key and found nothing. Your bones itched, your nose burned, the stress was transcendent. Honestly if you died at that moment you’d be fine with it, because you certainly wished you were dead.

You did your best to take a breath, though you were borderline crying at this point. The sun had set long ago, and it was pitch black. You had no idea where your keys could be, and worst of all, it was still fucking raining.. You dropped the bag and it landed with a wet heavy flop. You’d just have to deal with that in the morning.

You started retracing your steps back to the bakery. It’s incredibly likely you left them inside, which would be the worst possible scenario because you didn’t have enough money to stay at the inn. Then it finally dawned on you that there was no happy ending here, and you might need to find a place and just wai—

Air, vertigo. You fell.  

You’re not sure if you slipped on something, or if you misstepped outright, but what you did know is that you were in the elevated part of town, and you had a long way to go. Could it be? The death you wished for? You accepted this ironic, tragic fate with a sardonic smile.

And just like that…

A sharp tugging on your wrist. Something – no… someone grabbed your hand before you fell too far. You opened your eyes, and saw someone holding you up by the wrist, but between the rain and the ambient darkness, you couldn’t get a proper look at them.

“You know, you really need to be more careful.” You felt a firm tug and then you found yourself on solid ground. The stranger who had saved you stood before you. “What are you doing outside during a rainstorm in the middle of the night?”

You were about to answer, but your savior tugged on your wrist again. The figure led you to The Angel’s Share bar which, luckily, was nearby. Now you had the protection of the bar’s awning to shield you from the rain. The shadowy figure looks at you expectantly. “Right, so it all started when…” You took your time to explain the situation step by step as to how you got here.

“So you’re locked out of your own home, and have no money for an overnight stay at the inn. Does that sound right?”

You nod. The shadow figure put his hand to the bottom of his chin in thought. “Very well, I understand the situation completely now. And... I have a solution.”

You could scarcely believe what you were hearing. “It’s simple really,” You could hear the sound of light jingling ever so slightly through the heavy droning of the rain. The mysterious figure handed you something, a pouch filled with… mora. So much mora!! This is way more mora than you would need for the inn.

You look up at your shadowclad mystery knight slack jawed. “Think nothing of it.” He sounded flustered. “Now come along, the inn is this way.” The figure walked with you the entire way to the inn, and then a thought crossed your mind. ‘Did he think you were going to take the money and run off? 

No.

Absolutely not. Your mystery knight just wanted to be sure you made it safely to the inn considering you could have died if you took the fall intended for you earlier. Speaking of your knight… Was he one of the Knights of Favonius? He certainly wasn't dressed like one. You walked in comfortable silence, or as comfortable as it could be when you’re so cold you were in physical pain and your teeth were chattering as loudly as the falling rain.

You arrived at the inn. You turned to thank your mystery knight, but when you did you saw nothing, just empty darkness. He must have left silently when he saw you made it safely to the inn. It was frustrating, because you really did want to thank him, but you were unfortunately left unsatisfied in that department. The rest of the night was a blur that ended with your face planting into a lush feather bed.

You woke up the following day, miraculously not sick. though you weren't going to complain about that. You returned to the bakery which was in fact where you left your key and headed back home. FINALLY, you were home, but you saw something unexpected on your doorstep.

Where you expected to find a gloopy pile of paper and gluten was instead a basket with a replacement of all of the ruined goods that got trashed in last night’s storm. Your mind wandered back to your mystery knight, but it’s not like you were going to get an answer so you cut your losses and moved on.

And so it was yet another typical day in Mondstat. Markets were bustling, bards were performing, knights were patrolling, and the city was thriving. You had plenty to do today, but there was an extra pep in your step. The mora you received from your mysterious hero was going to be a tremendous boost to your quality of life.

Unfortunately, it seems like there was simply too much pep in your step since you missed your footing – again. And found yourself plummeting towards the lower part of town… again. Then you felt a sharp tugging on your wrist….. Again? A wave of deja vu washed over me.

“You know, you really need to be more careful.” Today was almost a mirror image of the previous day, but unlike yesterday, the view of the person holding you by the wrist was bright and clear. His head was backlit by the sun, looking fittingly, just like a shining halo.

 Holding you by your wrist was Diluc Ragnvindr of the Dawn Winery.

[visualnovellover]

Hi and Happy Halloween! Hope you're doing good! I have a spooky Ivory Wraith scene I haven't seen before and wanted to share in case you or others haven't seen it.

In my most recent DoL run, my PC never stole IW's necklace or had the archaeological site built, though she did find the key to the plinth room. Just for funsies, I decided to see if anything interesting happens if you steal the Ivory Necklace on the night of a Blood Moon.

I honestly much prefer this scene to the absolutely nothing you get when you steal the necklace at any other time. At least here you get some warning that you've made a BIG mistake and a good idea of exactly what that mistake is. It feels more fair this way, especially if you've stolen the necklace really early in your run, forgot all about it, and suddenly find yourself being hunted by a vengeful ghost months later.

And yet another reference to the IW being "familiar" to the PC, even if they've never encountered it! You can get this scene as early as the very first Blood Moon, before IW is even active. I keep getting more and more curious about what the connection is between IW and the PC (and how or if the Initiate fits into it). I am so hungry for info and all I get are tantalising crumbs.

i just want you to know, that i very much am indebted to you for somehow giving me new IW content that I desperately need.

somehow i failed to think about the scene change IF you stole its necklace during a blood moon (actually maybe i tried to in my first save and just probably forgot about it lmao)

yeah i also agree with what you said! like, take this as a lesson to NEVER steal from the dead. but new players who haven't encountered IW wouldn't understand and need of quick cash.

but also i like the fact that if you take it before the blood moon, you're ripping the very last thing IW has before it became to be. as we see in the schism event, IW merely spectates what happens above from the lake. Sometimes appearing to them and sometimes interacting as well. and base on my speculation, IW cannot physically harm anyone when it's not the blood moon. The tentacles and slimes are an exception but it can't hurt you.

that's why it possess PC to get through the compound. when you force it out of your body during the fight IW can only try to heal you during and after the fight, iirc.

so it's basically torture for IW if you took its necklace so early. it has to wait, something that never occurred to it because it never had to wait ever since its death. you're making it wait before it can give you back the pain you've given it. clawing on its neck just waiting to get its hands on you.

also i really really need to dissect pc- just what's the deal with the lingering familiarity they have with basically anything in the city???? like oh there's that song/lullaby jordan learned from syd's other parent, oh and that stone hedges when you're walking the dogs and that freaking ghost.

i just really wanna shake pc really hard to get my answers (even though i won't get anything since pc is probably even fucking confused)

happy halloween as well!!!

[pandamoniumvibes-27]

Rainy Day

Back to Masterlist

Characters: Mona Ningguang Yae Miko

A/N: okay so I haven’t done a Genshin post in a bit but I took a break blinked and all the sudden I’m behind on all the Sumeru lore. I’m trying to do it right now but until then I can’t do anything really lore related. But it’s raining outside so I hope you like some rainy day writing!

A/N: Okay I wrote these a couple months ago and originally this was suppose to have an extra character but I couldn’t figure out what to write for them. I hope you like it!!!!!!

~~🌧️~~

Mona’s mood was already soured. Why out of all days did it have to rain today?!

She had planned to go to the Adventures Guild for some extra mora so she could eat something other than salad

Not that she didn’t love salad!

No, salad is amazing, and it saves her mora.

She could go all day having only salad!

She knows from experience…

But with the rain being non stop she came home soaked!

Not to mention her scryglass was hazy from the rain. She couldn’t even scry the stars.

Archons she could go for some soup right now.

Eating soup underneath a blanket, reading her favorite astrology books.

Instead she was cold and had only salad to eat- wait what was that smell?

Mona’s house for whatever reason was filled with the most delightful aroma and it was warmer than normal.

Almost as if someone has been cooking…

“Who’s there?! Come out and a face the wrath of the great Astrologist Mona Mag-“

“Hi Mona!”

“egi- Y/N what are you doing here!?”

“Im making soup.”

“How did you even get in?!”

“You have a spare key under the welcome mat remember? Anyways, I saw you doing commissions earlier, and thought I’ll surprise you with soup! No one likes eating cold salad on a cold day!”

Mona couldn’t help but smile. It was almost as if you had scry the stars yourself and red her destiny.

Mona however quickly gained composure.

“Well I suppose I can also use this time to finally get you to understand the difference between Astrology and Astronomy. Each time you get it wrong I’ll hit you with one of my books on the head.”

“Hey aren’t your books kinda big and all hard cover?”

“ They have a lot of knowledge. But don’t worry I won’t use my favorites they are to import to use on you.”

“ Sweet Barbatos save me!”

~~🌧️~~

The weather never really affected Ningguang’s job.

However it could serve as an annoyance.

Cargo and intel that was being shipped to Liyue Habor could be delayed.

Meetings would have to be rescheduled if they were taking place outside.

But this by far bothered her the most. Today she was supposed to have a meeting with Y/N for a picnic.

A small break from her busy schedule to spend time with the one she loves most.

She had picked out a spot away from the harbor.

Placed far from Hilichurls and slimes so they could relax in nature with each other as their company.

All plans ruined by rain.

You still manage to visit her though.

“You know Liyue Harbor is still quite beautiful even when it rains.”

“Y/N. I suppose our date will have to be rescheduled for today…”

“We could, or we can go ahead and take a walk, just the two of us. Maybe buy ourselves a nice meal~ bring it back to Jade chamber. I’ll gladly cancel my schedule if it meant u can spend more time with you.”

Ningguang chuckled to herself.

“While that’s a lovely idea we both know it’s impractical. However, I am a little bit less busy from the rain today. Would you be free for dinner?”

Y/N nod smiling.

“I’ll pay tonight!”

“No, I have more than enough mora I’ll pay.”

“No! You always do this let me treat you!”

“I have more than enough mora for the both of us, I should naturally pay for the expenses.”

“No it’s my treat!”

The only problem now was how she was gonna convince Y/N to let her pay for the bill.

~~🌧️~~

Miko had no qualms with rain. Rain was a natural part of life and nothing to get upset over.

That didn’t mean she preferred it.

Inazuma was currently facing quite the storm. Thankfully not one created by The Shogun but still a nuisance nonetheless.

Miko, along with many other shop owners had to close their shops due to the rain.

To make the day more banal the shrine was also not busy today from the weather.

Miko must admit she was a little surprised to see Y/N still came to visit her.

But Y/N didn’t need to know about that.

“Y/N, you still came all this way to visit me~ What a special day this is~”

“I’m surprised you haven’t decided to mess with one of the Shrine Maidens yet. Feeling merciful today Miko?”

Miko chuckled.

“Well that’s for you to find out~”

Miko was not in the mood to tease today surprisingly enough. Today she wanted to relax indoors and enjoy the sound of the rain on her windows.

Perhaps she could do just that.

“Are you busy?”

“No, why do you ask.”

“I need a beta-reader for some of the new books, would you mind?”

Y/N look at Miko confused but then answered.

“You know I love a good book.”

“Follow me then.”

Miko went to her private courtiers where you to took a seat in one of the two reading nooks.

“You always take that chair, what do you like it so much?”

“It’s comfy. I don’t have any new books for me to read, I hated all the new books given to me yesterday.”

“I knew it! I finished reading the latest books yesterday!”

“It seems I’ve been caught red handed~ Would you like to read a book on the shelf?”

“I’m in the middle of reading The Miraculous Adventures of the Traveler you have it?”

“I have all my best selling novels, it should be on the second shelf with the white spine. What chapter are you on?”

“I don’t know the chapter, but they just arrived in Liyue and a tour guide is helping them prepare a send off for Rex Lapis. What are you reading?”

“That book is such a good read, I’m rereading Pretty Please Kitsune Guuji?”

Miko always chuckled after saying the title.

“You just made that book to mess with The Raiden Shogun, Im sure of it.”

“I would never~”

The two made small talk as the rain made noise for a tranquil atmosphere.

Good books, good company, good atmosphere, how perfect of a day this has become.

———

Masterlist

[crybaby-bkg]

sᴄᴏʀɴᴇᴅ | ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ғɪᴠᴇ

Bakugou x f!reader Warnings/Tags: male OC tries to assault reader, short scuffle between reader and OC, attempted sexual assault (but nothing actually happens), poor living conditions, slowly creeping into the hesitant friends arc!!, panic attacks, very brief suicidal ideations Word Count: 4.6k Minors/blank/ageless blogs DNI!

Main Masterlist AO3

A couple days have gone by since your meeting with the heroes and the Hero Commission’s worker. You still haven’t come to a clear decision yet, but granted, this is a big decision and its not just one that you can make over night. 

As you head home from your job, you try to weigh the pros and cons of rebranding as a hero. For one, you’d probably make more money and be able to afford your apartment. You wouldn’t have to sneak around so much, and you’d probably get a lot more respect and credit when walking amongst people, and not just in online spaces.

But…who’s to say the rest of society will accept you? In hero society, being a vigilante is illegal. You know that if you accept the conditions of rebranding, then your crimes will be forgiven, but for the rest of your career, you’ll be under strict watch. What’s the point of saving people if you have to be monitored the whole time?

A lot of those who have become victims themselves, or had been saved by you, respected what you did and how you went about it. But so, so many, including heroes and the government and police alike, hated you. Not because of what you stood for, that most didn’t know or didn’t care to know, but because you were targeting men. Its not like those men were innocent, but due diligence and the whole concept of “judge, jury, and executioner” really turned people off from you. 

If you did accept, how would other heroes see you? Would they find new respect for you, after hearing your story? Or would they only condemn you to being a vigilante, someone who should’ve never been forgiven? 

How would Miruko see you? Would she respect you, and what you’ve become? Would she still carry the same disdain she shows on the news? 

What would become of you, if you let the Red Medusa lay forever forgotten in the streets, and become someone new? Should you bring up your vigilante days, or do you let the news dig it all up and find out when you start flourishing as a hero? Do you keep the gap between victim and hero empty, or would you have to spill it all to everyone?

The thoughts overwhelm you, and you find yourself in front of your door before you know it. You drop your keys twice, and by the time you finally unlock your door, someone clearing their throat interrupts you. Your head whips around to find your landlord standing a few feet beside you with his hands tucked into his jeans. 

He’s a younger guy, which was a surprise when you first met him. You thought all landlords looked like sewer rats with greasy hair and a creepy aura. This landlord, Mr. Riku only exudes one of those things—creepiness. 

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your rent, sweetheart.” Mr. Riku nods his head to you, and you bristle at the name. 

“Don’t call me sweetheart.” You snap at him, keeping your hand locked on your doorknob, the other holding a pocket knife tight in the front of your hoodie. Mr. Riku rolls his eyes at you, holding his hands up in mock surrender as he laughs. 

“Ah, right. Trauma, and shit.” He says flippantly, making a face that you think is supposed to disarm you and make you laugh with him. You don’t. You stare at him for a minute, chewing the inside of your cheek as you take all of him in. 

“What do you want?” You bark when he stands there staring at you for too long. Every time you talk to him, you feel like you’re going to emerge out of the conversation covered in slime weighing you down. 

“You’re three months behind on rent. I should evict you.” He singsongs, twisting his mouth as he leans against the wall beside your door. 

“So why don’t you?” You sneer at him, all bite and sharp teeth that he ignores to instead clean invisible dirt from under his nails. 

“It would be a shame to lose such a pretty face in my building, you know? I’d miss it.” Mr. Riku looks up at you from under white haired bangs, grinning something evil that makes your stomach churn and your chest tighten. Before you can say anything, he’s slinking his way inside of your apartment through your open door, coming in before you can stop him. 

“The fuck are you doing?” You shout at him, hand tightening on the pocket knife as you flip it open inside your pocket. You really don’t wanna slice up your landlord and get into actual non-vigilante trouble for this, but you’re starting to fall into fight or flight mode. Right now, he’s one of the men who’s hurt you, and you refuse to be a victim again. 

“I own the building, sweetheart.” Mr. Riku says snootily, walking into your living room, violating it with his yuck. “I’m entitled to come into each and every unit when I damn so please.” He looks around the place, holding up a shirt you left on the couch and sniffing it blatantly in your face. 

You cringe at that, heart rate picking up as you take a step to him, frozen in your spot when he suddenly appears in front of you again. He reaches a hand out to your own that’s still in your pocket, and you finally find it in you to move, snatching away as you stumble into the still ajar door. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” You growl at him, though your voice shakes much more than you’d like. Usually, when facing off with creepy men like this, they don’t know who you are, can’t hang your living situation over your head, don’t know your connections to a high ranking hero who paid for you to live here.. 

“I have an offer for you, that I can’t let the other neighbors hear.” Mr. Riku whispers, inching closer to you until his nose damn near brushes yours. 

You jerk back, one hand still gripping the knife, the other curling up into a fist at your side. If he attacks, you can either cut him or punch him, but that might not be enough. You might have to get your gun strapped to your hip, even though you’re sure that it’ll be too loud and alert the neighbors. You’re not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing. 

“Which is?” You reply back, calculating his next move as much as you can, trying to keep your head leveled. 

“I’ll extend your stay here. But you have to treat me right in return.” Mr. Riku mutters, hands—creepy, disgusting, too bony, too long, too veiny hands—reaching out to cup your chest. Before he can, you swing your fist, nailing him directly in the jaw, sending him crashing into your bookshelf next to your front door. A few books fall on him, and you stand above him, heart racing at the thought of what he just tried to do to you. 

“Fuck you, you fucking pig.” You spit at him, voice cracking as he moans in pain. You pick up your bag, kicking him between the legs once as hard as you can before you finally dart out into the hallway. 

From there, you run and run and run until your legs take you to a safe place, heart in your throat all the while. You don’t think you can breathe; you don’t think you took a single breath the entire way there until you found your back against a familiar door, gasping in the musky air of the warehouse. 

Nobody seems to be here, as all the lights are off and its quieter than it usually is. You call out Vanity’s name, expecting for at least her to be there, but nobody answers you. You feel rooted to your place at the door, eyes welling with tears as your shaking hands hold tightly onto your bag. You can’t move—have your limbs always been weighed down so heavily by lead? Has your heartbeat always been so loud in your ears?

After what feels like hours, do you slowly start sinking down onto the hard, cold floor beneath you. Your fingers are warm and clammy when you finally let go of the bag, to instead wrap your arms around your figure. You take a breath, and then another, before the sobs start to wrack your body, heavy and loud and ugly, shaking and screeching, angry and full of—of, rage, fear, terrifying, body consuming fear. 

Your eyes burn with every blink, your chest getting too tight, you don’t think you can muster anymore breath inside of your lungs. You can’t move, you can’t move, you can’t move. 

A shadow emerges from the steps in the back corner, and you think that this might be the end for you. Maybe it should be—you won’t have to fight anymore, you won’t have to suffer. You won’t be such a pain in the ass for Dynamight anymore. 

But instead, you’re greeted with an emerald green eyepatch and a golden, glowing eye. Vanity. 

She says something to you, but your ears feel like they’re filled with cotton. She crouches in front of you, waving a hand in front of your face, but your eyes have been unseeing for a while now. So she holds you, close to her chest, gathers you up in her arms like a mother would, and she holds you. 

You don’t think you’ve ever cried harder. 

You two stay like that for what feels like days, before your tears have slowed to trickles down your cheeks, and your sobs have dissipated into quiet little hiccups. You don’t know when you started holding her back, but your hands grip her shirt, and you belatedly realize that she’s wearing her usual pajamas. 

“Sorry for waking you,” you croak out, throat dry and scratchy. Vanity leans back to fix you with a frown, and you notice that her own eye holds tears. 

“Don’t apologize. I heard my girl crying, and what kind of best friend would I be to not comfort her?” She reassures you, wiping away the few stray tears that still fall down your face. You smile wobbly at her, before planting your head in her chest again. She’s warm, and holds you close to her with her arms wrapped tight around your shoulders, stroking your hair. She lets you stay like that for a few more minutes, before she speaks,

“Can I ask what happened?” Her voice is tiny in the big, spacious room. “It’s okay if you don’t want to share.” You sit with her question hanging in the air, trying to gather the words in your mouth to spit out. 

“Creepy, shitty landlord.” Is all you can muster up. It’s enough though, as she only hums in acknowledgement, muttering, 

“It’s always creepy, shitty landlords, ain’t it?” You can hear her smile when you start to laugh against her skin, finally pulling back to look at her. Her cheeks are tear-stained, and you wonder if she can cry from an empty socket. 

“Let’s get you cleaned up, yeah?” She asks, helping you to your feet. 

The rest of the afternoon goes by in a blur, with Vanity helping you to the shower, lending you some clothes since you didn’t have anything clean in your bag, and fixing you up something quick and easy to eat. You two are quiet in the empty warehouse, and you fall asleep next to her on the cot in her room. It’s uncomfortable sharing such a small space, but at least you know you’re safe. 

…

Things went by uneventfully when you “broke” into your apartment to get some extra clothes and other necessities with Vanity. After that though, you’ve stayed in the warehouse full time. It’s not the most ideal living situation though, long term, since there’s no Wi-Fi and it interferes with your connection to the outside world and possible villain activity going on. Also, there’s no hot water, nor is there a fully functioning kitchen besides a microwave. 

This hideaway was only supposed to be for temporary usage—running away from the cops, needing to get stitched up, some extra ammo, a safe place to sleep for a few nights. 

Not for two weeks. Once your higher ups started asking questions about your performance after a few patients expressed their worry about your near constant zombie-like state, you realized that you had to find another solution. (You think its the consistent cold showers that really did you in. Miruko spoiled you with such a nice place.) 

You finally decide to swallow your pride, grumbling all the while as you stand behind the warehouse, holding your phone up high to the sky. 

[ You , sent at 8:49pm ]

hey asshole, its trm. got a minute to chat? 

[ Dynamight , sent at 8:52pm ]

yeah, only took you three years to text me

what?

[ You , sent at 8:55pm ]

you're even ruder over text

I need a favor, but don’t expect anything in return 

[ Dynamight , sent at 8:57pm ]

Never. 

[ You , sent at 8:58pm ]

got some housing issues going on rn. do you have any recs for low rent apartments in the area?

[ Dynamight , sent at 9:00pm ]

Ur shitting bricks if you think you can get something low in this neighborhood

[ You , sent at 9:05pm ]

thanks for the fucking help then

[ Dynamight , sent at 9:06pm ]

got a spare room at my place tho?

[ You , sent at 9:06pm ]

And what the fuck does that mean?

“What the fuck does that mean, Dynamight?” You immediately call him before the text can even send through, heart in your throat, your breathing heavy. Dynamight answers on the second ring, and grunts at your loud tone this late at night. 

“What else would it mean?” He asks, voice disinterested as he yawns on the other end of the line. “I gotta spare room at my place, if you wanna crash.” He offers up like its the most casual thing a person could ever do. You’re silent on the other line as you let his words sink in, eyebrows furrowing as your gaze unfocuses on the thicket of trees in front of you. 

Why would he offer up his place to you? Is he looking for something in return? Would he take advantage of you? What if the fucker had some kind of freaky room where he could tie you up and do whatever freaky shit repressed heroes do? You bite at your lip, mind reeling, as you form your mouth to reject his offer.  

“Look, not to be an intrusive dumbass but—” Dynamight speaks up after a long stretch of silence. 

“You are.” You cut him off, listening to him grunt on the other end of the line. 

“Shuddup.” You can practically hear the frown in his voice before he continues. “But I see Miruko hooked you up at a shelter near the apartment you were staying at, and its pretty close to where I’m at. If you don’t wanna take an hour commute to get there because you gotta stay in some shitty apartment, then you could come crash with me.” 

He’s too fucking nonchalant for you, to be offering up something so hugely important. You just don’t get it, you think, as you exhale, one hand gripping your phone tightly and the other gripping the roots of your hair. 

“And why would you do that?” You ask him in the tiniest whisper you can muster, brain struggling to figure out why someone like him would offer his space to someone like you. 

“The fuck? I just explained why.” Dynamight grunts confusedly on the other end, and you can damn near see his thick brows scrunching in confusion.  

“No, I mean why you?” You ask desperately, hands starting to tremor as you speak through your teeth. “Why are you offering up your place for me to live? We don’t even know each other, much less like each other.” Your voice, quiet, shaking under the weight of the words. Dynamight is silent for a few seconds before he retorts, 

“We’d have to know each other to dislike each other.”

“Shut up, you know what I mean.” You snap at him, back straightening as if he could see you. He goes silent for a few beats, formulating the right words in his head before he talks quietly into the mic. 

“Call this a gesture of good faith.” He states, voice firm and unwavering. “I’ve intruded on your life a fuckton these past weeks, trying to rope you into hero life, ‘nd all that, so I wanna offer up something that means a lot to me. Even playing field, and shit.”

You fall silent, mulling over his words, everything that could go wrong if you were to put your trust into a hero, a man. He could hurt you. He could get away with it, easily. He could paint you out to be the crazy one, the problem. 

But…he could help you. You would never need a man’s help but—Dynamight, in all of your interactions, never seemed like the type of scummy guys you frequently punished. He felt genuine, in a sense, firm but not too pushy. And maybe—maybe you could trust him. Just a little bit. 

He hasn’t turned you into the police or to Hero Commission (yet?). You guess the guy couldn’t be all bad. 

“I’m not taking any fuckin’ handouts.” You snap at him after a minute of silence. You can hear him chuckle on the other end before fabric starts ruffling in the background. 

“Not a handout, dumbass. Just letting you borrow some shit for the time being.” He shrugs, and you swear you hear him yawn once. You frown, kicking up some branches that lay fallen at your feet. 

“I’ll pay rent.” You mutter to him. 

“No shit you’re paying rent.” Dynamight snorts, barely giving you a second to even offer. Shit head. 

“Okay. Text me your address.” You go to pull your phone away to hang up, interrupted by his voice calling out on the other end. 

“You’re coming now? I was about to go to bed.” He grumbles. Your eyebrows furrow in confusion, pulling the phone away from your ear to check the time. 

“The fuck? It’s not even 9:30 yet, you old fart.” You poke at him, listening to his annoyed mumbling on the other side. 

“Shut the fuck up.” Dynamight says with no real malice. “Call me when you’re outside.” He hangs up before you can say another word, and sends his address through to you only seconds later. 

You look up at the sky before going back inside, gaze focused on the full moon and the cloudless skies, and wonder how the hell you’re gonna tell Vanity that you're moving in with a male pro hero. You decide that the best way to tell her, is by not telling her face to face at all. 

Before you leave, you write a note left on your cot for her to find. You know she’s not going to be happy about this, but you have to put yourself first every once in a while. 

…

“Well you look like shit.” Is the first thing you tell Dynamight when he opens the door to his apartment. He’s frowning at you, with half of his ash blond mane flattened on one side, his tank top twisted at the neck a little, his sweatpants low on his hips, and his feet bare. He looks like you’ve just woken him up. 

“Fuck off,” he mutters, yawning before he turns on his heel to walk back inside. You follow, albeit hesitantly, afraid that something or someone might be wanting for you around the corner, ready to attack. But you take off your shoes, and pad into the living room, and it looks like no boogeymen are plotting on snatching you before you can even scream. 

Dynamight stands behind the couch with his hands on his hips, a sleepy little frown on his face as he looks at you. He gestures to the open layout of his place, voice a deep grumble in his throat. 

“Living room. Tv remote there,” he points to the coffee table before hooking his thumb behind him. “Kitchen—don’t eat my fuckin’ protein bars.” He points at you next and you only sneer at him. He tries to match your look but he’s too sleepy to keep up, so he only turns on his heel again before guiding you down a long hallway. 

“Did you fall asleep already? We just hung up like, thirty minutes ago.” You ask him, frowning when it takes more effort than you’d like to keep up with his long legs. 

“Shut it. I thought I was gonna stay up, but ‘m fuckin’ exhausted.” Dynamight grunts at you, sidestepping at a door across from what looks like the bathroom. You peer inside, hiking your heavy book bag up higher on your shoulder. Dynamight goes to take it without warning, and you instinctively grab it back, head whipping up to stare at him in confusion. He scrunches his face up before shaking his head at you. 

“Sorry. Looks heavy, and I was gonna put it down for you.” His voice is small, and he folds his arms across his chest. You blink up at him for a few seconds, taking a few breaths to calm your suddenly racing heart before you drop the bag into his barely ready hands. He grunts at the weight of it, tired face surprised at how much you’ve stuffed inside. 

“This my room?” You ask him, ignoring his question of how many bodies you’ve packed in there, to walk inside the new space. 

It’s big. Entirely so, almost as big as your whole apartment from before. There’s a deep marooned carpet covering the floor, the walls a muted gray, with cream colored black out curtains covering the windows. The bed looks too big for just you to sleep in, decorated with more gray and cream sheets. Four pillows sit against a wooden headboard, and a small circular decorative one sits in the middle. There’s a purple throw blanket at the end of the bed that doesn’t match anything, but you see that its knitted, and you wonder why someone like Dynamight owns something so soft. 

There’s a TV in front of the bed, and a small couch at the end of it. A closet on one side of the room, open and empty, the other wall decorated with a wooden dresser pressed against it. The room is beautiful and so…un-Dynamight. 

“Why’s the bed so big?” Is the only thing you can muster up, shocked at how nice the room really is. Dynamight grunts at that, and you think it might’ve actually been a chuckle. He enters the room, setting your bag on the cream couch and letting you enter, before he stands back at the doorway again. 

“‘Cause I’m a big guy, with some big friends who like to invite themselves over and get too fuckin’ drunk to go home.” Dynamight leans against the doorsill with his arms crossed over his chest, yawning at the end of his sentence. His eyes are so low, and droopy, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d think his quirk was actually being half lion. If you tilt your head enough, you’re sure you’d see some fluffy ears hidden in the mane of his hair. 

You look away, realizing you’ve been staring as you run your hand over the soft blanket. You look back to him, almost as if in question, but he only blinks at you. You’re quiet for a while, taking everything in. 

“Bathrooms across the hall, too. It’s all yours, since I have my own in my room.” Dynamight tells you, head jerking back to across the hall. Your eyes flicker behind him before landing on him again, feeling something warm starting to light up your chest. 

“Thank you, Dynamight.” You whisper to him, voice tiny, as you awkwardly fold your arms over your chest. You hate feeling so meek, so in debt, so needy. But he doesn’t seem to take advantage of it, rolling his eyes as he pushes off the wall. 

“We’re roommates now. Call me Bakugou.” He tells you, voice firm. You want to be an asshole and come up with some smart remark, but you can’t seem to find any. So you nod at him, once, and give him your last name, too. He smiles a tiny little smile at that before a yawn breaks his face again. He backs up from your door with a small wave, nodding to you. 

“We can discuss rent and shit in the morning. Get some sleep.” He tells you, going to turn his back before you speak up as you start unzipping your bag to pull out some pajamas. 

“I could say the same to you.” You call out to him, watching his eyebrow quirk in surprise. 

“So say it.” He nods his chin to you, slowly walking backwards to his own room. You bristle at that though, shoulders hiking up to your ears as you flip him the bird, something you’re really starting to like doing to him. 

“Fuck off.” You snap at him, no real malice in your tone. Dynamight—Bakugou, laughs at that, before turning on his heel to enter his room. He closes it without another look and you feel yourself release the breath you hadn’t realized you were holding in. 

So what now? You think to yourself, your eyes falling to the pajamas you’re tightly holding before glancing up to the bathroom. 

Now—a hot shower. 

The bathroom is just as big as your room, with the same maroon-grey-cream color scheme going on. He’s even got some decorative towels in here, and it makes you wonder if someone did all of this for him, or if he did it himself. Either way, it doesn’t matter much when the hot water is all you really came for. 

You go on about your nightly routine without further preamble, stiffening every time you hear a bump in the loft. You keep your gun close to you, even seating it on the toilet as you shower and brush your teeth. But nothing happens, and you dart quickly into your room, locking it behind you the moment you’re safe. 

You check the closet, behind the door, and under your bed, and find nothing thankfully. You let yourself breathe for the first time in a long time, as you sit on the side of the bed in your pajamas. You won’t stay here long, you muse over with yourself. Just use his Wi-Fi and shower and oven until you can find a reasonable place to live, even if you have to start taking extra shifts at your job, even if it means having to do less vigilante work. 

This is only temporary, you tell yourself as you lay back in bed, pulling up the purple blanket until it reaches your chin. You don’t want to get under the bed covers—it’ll signify that you’ll overstay your welcome. You can’t stay long. You can’t. 

You don’t sleep much the first night, watching the door all night long, anticipating someone to try the doorknob. It’s left alone the entire time, and only when the sunlight rises, do you finally rest your eyes and let sleep take you. 

chapter six

please do not repost or rec on tik tok!

tag list: @endlessfreaky @iamaconfusedpan

[laylanatorseventeen]

rolling up to pelican town and bagging the most eligible bachelors and bachelorettes is hilarious when you consider how you can dress yourself in this game

For example I have provided illustrations

Haley. Sexy, stylish, beautiful. Me in my toga and laurel wreath and mud on my feet. Probably smell like fish bc this was right after 1.6 released and I was obsessed.

Emily. So stylish and avante garde and quirky and manic pixie dream wife. I'm wearing a garbage can lid as a hat and a 'shirt' literally made of seaweed. Only saving grace might be the crystal shoes if it wasn't so dissonant with the rest of the Fit. Probably has loose honey in pockets.

Alex, my most recent beau. He doesn't know it yet but he shall be mine. I have recently discovered the propeller hat and the galaxy hammer. I may have accidentally smacked him with it once. Not pictured: my 20 fish ponds and green Goku hair hidden under the propeller hat. Also I'm trying to raise slimes and it low-key kinda sucks. I'm about to rock your world Alex baby.

[letsgosisyphus]

Hold yourself to a standard. Dominate your Id and your Superego. They will trick you into falling for traps if you aren’t vigilant. Your standard must be that of someone critical of their thoughts and not just someone who accepts them without question. 

There perhaps will be phases of your life where you allow your id or superego to run the show but you will surely feel foolish upon this realization. These mistakes are costly, if not financially, physically,emotionally, spiritually, mentally, you will pay with your years. As someone who knows first hand, I can say with no doubt in my mind that being frugal is what will be your secret weapon in your endeavors with dominating the Id and Superego. 

Your Ego has to talk some sense into these idiots that are trying to get you drained and killed. The ideas that the Id and Superego sell to you are all false advertisement, they are full of shit. They will weaponize your emotions, memories, goodwill, habits, desires, pride, dreams and anything else to make their products look more appealing to you. You have to realize they are both desperate and want you to buy from them now. But you must fight and object.

 You dont do what you do for divulging in vices and you dont do it to take responsibility away from people(infantilization). You do it because this your standard. Other people and their drama and your own drama is not healthy to tend to so readily. Drama is low vibration, your involvement may as well just be instigation. Do not feed into that bullshit. 

Your standard is your cross to bear, your Sisyphus boulder, and your life force. This is what keeps you alive. Not listening to 2 idiotic manipulative forces that have nothing better to do but foster temptation through false advertisement. Frugality is key. Listen to your higher self. 

You dont need to go out of your way for others and you also don’t need others to access some things you’d enjoy. You can create straight from the creative source, if you are truly upholding your standard this is even easier. You have everything you need. 

Do not waste your energy running into burning buildings when you know all you need to do is put the fire out. There’s nobody inside this building that needs saving. But it’s designed for you to believe you are in this burning building or someone else is. 

Some fires vary in size but your Ego is the fire extinguisher and the water cannon. Your readiness to accept an idea is what tells you how big a fire is. If you don’t even question it, that’s a big fire. It’s so big and it’s so funny because you can’t even feel the embers. But the smaller ones are the ones you can feel the heat from. 

You have to hunt down your perceptions and things you accept in your default state and see how letting your Id or superego run wild is really burning up houses and buildings in the city of your self development. 

-Slime

[3wisellamas]

Also, with Adventure Time the filler episodes often ARE the plot, you just don't realize it for a few seasons. The show really relies on bringing back details and lines that seem inconsequential at first, but turn out to hold much more significance.

The sunken city in Ocean of Fear? Yeah, that's what remains of our civilization. The silly book that teaches Finn how to kiss princesses? It's hiding a LOT more secrets of a cosmic horror nature, and each of the princesses holds a key to unlocking them. The penguin that the Lord of Evil himself says is the most evil soul he's encountered? About that...

The show was originally meant to age with its main character, Finn, and it executes that beautifully. At the beginning he's a carefree 12-year-old, fighting anything as long as it's evil and just having a good time. The episodes are silly, nothing makes you think too much, since he's not thinking about it too much. But then as he grows in realtime (kinda gets lost in the streaming age, but when the show was airing he really did have birthdays each year IRL and became a teenager after a season or two), and gains more context about the world he lives in things start...changing. You're MEANT to look back on those silly early episodes after a little more gets explained and think "Wait, that was actually kinda fucked up," and Finn does so too, taking another look back at some of the things that have happened to him and realizing there was more there, and his further adventures get more serious as he matures and gains more responsibility, until by the end of the show he's 17 (that realtime aging thing did stop after a while sadly) and dealing with fate-of-the-world-type stuff, that all ties back to the days he saved kidnapped princesses from a lonely old wizard.

But, even then, the show's tone never loses that silliness. There's a literal entire plot arc, one of the darkest in the whole show in fact, about a screaming lemon man. Candy and slime are fundamental building blocks of the universe alone with fire and ice. The eldritch abomination that represents True Evil at one point gets stuck in the body of a fucking snail. The writers actually admitted to basically making the entire plot up on the fly, as they'd brainstorm episodes each season that built on things they'd already established and go in new directions from there, and it shows in the chaotic and stream-of-consciousness nature of AT's plot but damn it it WORKS. There's an absolute art to the way it weaves those lighter episodes that most would disregard as filler with its overarching plot, in fact building its plot OUT of those moments rather than planning it all out beforehand, to the point where if you start skipping episodes to only watch the serious stuff you end up hopelessly lost. It's a nice reminder that not everything HAS to be serious and plot-heavy, that you can have a deep message and organic character development while still laughing and having fun! That enjoying yourself while watching a cartoon is not a bad thing.

Adventure Time is actually pretty interesting in its format cause it's right inbetween modern-day cartoons where there's usually A Season Or So Of Filler/Character Building and Then The Plot Picks Up and older cartoons where there was NO plot and it was just Characters Having Internally-Consistent Hijinks every episode.

Which makes sense, since iirc AT was what kinda spawned the modern-day format in an era where cartoons did NOT have plot.

But the thing is? Unlike modern ones, AT never really "picks up" and has a cohesive plot. It get heavier and has internal arcs and does have an overarching message and story, but there's not really a point where "okay this is where the plot begins" so you really do have to just sit back and enjoy the ride and let everything unfold. The payoff is GREAT. But it's very slowburn and that makes it feel like one of its kind.

[blzzrdstryr]

Like a fairy tale

Yandere!Diluc x maid!fem!reader

Wordcount: 1921

CW: Yandere and slightly suggestive themes.

You loved reading fairy tales as a child - they were magical and hopeful, a needed retreat for a child of destitute parents. They were a promise that if you were good and kind and beautiful enough, eventually some faraway prince would come by and save you from poverty. And you tried to be good - you were obedient and hardworking and you pushed your hardest in the local school, yet hardship and scarcity still trailed your every step - the meager earnings your parents made weren't enough to buy you nice clothes or let you eat until you were sated, which in turn made social interactions harder: some kids sneered and humiliated you, some tried to help you out of pity. You disliked both groups: whether they were friendly or aggressive towards you, they still looked down on you.

Thus you decided to distance yourself from your peers - there was no knight in shining armour galloping towards you on a snow white steed, yet a good education could be your golden ticket to a better rich life. It was hard at first - to work and to study and to help your parents all while ignoring the demeaning and insulting comments the bullies made, but you gritted your teeth and pushed forward, imagining how wealthy you’ll become in the future and in the end our efforts were rewarded - you graduated as the best student, that led you to receiving a scholarship from Sumeru academy. Sparks and shine appeared in your eyes as you read the letter, barely stopping yourself from outright squealing and jumping from joy.

The moment of happiness didn’t last long though, as a reality again reminded you that there’s no place for fairy tales in the real world - scholarship covered the full cost of apprenticeship, but only it - you still had to spend money on the journey from Mondstadt to Sumeru, a place to rent and food, and if you still could find a job after your arrival in the foreign country and pay off the later two, trip required mora that you never had. At first you had a mad idea to traverse Teyvat on your own two feet - it would be a slow and arduous process, but cheap nonetheless. You later gave up on this plan - archons didn’t give you any vision, nor did you have fighting and travelling experience to aid you on the trail that no doubt would be full of slimes, hilichurls and other dangerous monsters.

And that’s how you started job hunting - you took on any work that promised you a hefty pay, be it some boring reports for guild of adventurers or an exciting yet risky endeavor of getting information for an extravagant cavalry captain, which then led you to Dawn Winery. Head housemaid, Adelinde, posted a job opening for a maid, and the prospect of a stable salary, free food and comfortable bed was enough to lure you in there - two or three years ago the previous owner of the winery died in the accident and his successor left Mond for some reason, leaving the maintenance and management of the winery on the shoulders of the said housemaid.

After a quick interview, the head maid demanded you to show her your cleaning skills, which you effortlessly did, having to look after the house by yourself all your childhood. It seems she was satisfied, as she nodded to you and asked to follow her as she led you to your room. Compared to the other two maids here, Hillie and Moco, who preferred to spend their work time in idle chat, you came off as highly professional and diligent worker. This contrast raised both your position and salary in the winery, as Adelinde started to entrust you with tasks more interesting than simple sweeping and cleaning.

You were outside the winery the day you met Diluc - returning from the city and carrying several stacks of milk and wheat you got chased by the hilichurls. Monsters didn’t leave you, no matter how long and how far you ran. You were ready to drop all the goods and have Adelinde to scold you for wastefulness and dereliction when Ragnvindr appeared and stole a breath from you. He looked just like the prince from your childhood tales, impossibly pretty and strong, arriving just when the creatures caught up with you and then defeating all of them with a single slash of great claymore. And just like a fairytale prince he helped you to get up and collect the scattered baggage and asked if you were okay. Then you two headed for the winery, you didn't know that he was it's owner at the time, chatting and thanking him, as he carried purchases. Adelinde almost fainted when she saw the return of the prodigal master in your company. After hastily taking goods from his hands, she made you apologize for rudeness and insubordination, but Diluc interrupted you saying it was fine.

Ragnvindr heir returned back to the winery and life went on its own, except the unreadable glares Diluc started to send you when you both were in the same room. It started off small: the quick glances that soon grew into intense staring. With his impassive stone face it was impossible to tell why he was glaring at you so much, so you acted as polite and professional as you could in his vicinity - after all you didn’t want to get fired and look for a new job. The key to this riddle presented itself during one day.

It was a bleak windy morning when Adelinde sent you to the city again, and as you walked the sky darkened and rain started. You returned absolutely soaked and shivering, teeth chattering and limbs slightly numb from cold and when Diluc saw you he ordered you to change in a low commanding voice. Frightened by the possible dismissal, you hurried putting on the uniform. Because of the haste you pulled it too tightly, hiking up a maid dress a little. It wasn’t up enough to reveal your hips or thighs, showing just a portion of knees that was usually hidden by the wide skirt.

Diluc’s eyes were glued on the uncovered joints, a subtle blush appearing on his pale cheeks. You continued to work, feeling how he consumed your legs with his eyes alone. He is lusting after me. You didn't know what to do with that revelation back then, embarrassed and slightly scared of attracting master Diluc's attention.

Nonetheless, an answer quickly came on the next day as you found a bonus to your salary, so big that it could be considered a payment for the next month. Diluc, despite his usually impassive face, seemed to be ashamed of the thoughts he had yesterday, with the body language telling you of his true feelings.

A plan came to mind. You hated yourself for it at first - it was low and disgraceful, you felt like a stereotypical manipulative gold digger, yet still decided to realize it in life - you needed mora, as fast and as much as possible. Over the time you spent working at the Dawn winery you noticed that Diluc, despite his obviously high intelligence, wasn't really good at judging one’s character, so he fell for your scheme pretty easily. Design you had in mind was pretty simple - to stir him up with small, innocuous gestures and changes that would slip past the outsider’s eyes.

Sometimes you applied a thin layer of healing lip balm on your lips, that so conveniently happened shine and glitter under the light, sometimes you donned your dress a little bit higher, opening the view of two delicate knees and sometimes after cleaning and working all day you felt so hot that you had to unfasten one or two buttons to cool off. Diluc, despite not showing it on his face, was obviously distracted and aroused, hands clenched into fists and a shaky, barely controlled exhale escaping his nose.

He started to pile you with bonuses and prizes; “for a well done job”, he said one time, averting his gaze and masking the shame in his voice under a huff. He also started to request you to specifically clean the rooms he occupied, his eyes sizing up almost every inch of your body. You felt how the lust and desire radiated off him, how his hands itched to trace your skin and have you at his mercy, yet he stopped every time with his steel strong control and self-discipline. You sensed how it dwindled little by little.

Diluc, in some perverted sense, was that fair prince of your childhood daydreams that would save you from poverty.

You almost had saved up the needed amount of money when you noticed the loss of your most cherished possession - an invitation to the Sumeru academy and scholarship certificate. With heart booming in your chest you started to look for it in the whole winery, without giving out that you were searching for something. It seems that you were unsuccessful in your attempts, as master of the winery soon called you into the office.

Here, he was sitting behind the desk with a familiar paper in his hand - your eyes widened as you saw it and you had an urge to run up to him and snatch the invitation from him. You performed a curtsy instead, closing the door behind you and waiting for him to speak, eyes still on the sheet in Diluc’s hold.

“[First], you are a diligent and skillful employee, Adelinde has a very high opinion of you” he started from afar, a slight rosy blush dusting his cheeks at "skillful employee".

"So as your employer I wouldn't want any harm to befall on your person, and" he shaked the invitation a couple of times, "it came to my attention that you were planning on travelling to Sumeru. I advise you against this nonsensical idea".

You gritted teeth, careful not to insult him with the couple of barbed words at the tip of your tongue. Nonsensical idea? This was your goal, a main reason why you worked so much and allowed yourself so little.

“I am sorry, master Diluc, I am afraid I can’t abandon this idea”, you say, response flat and controlled, a thunderstorm of emotions hidden beneath the faux calm, “It is my goal, and the main reason why I work here”. So I can have a bright and secure future, in which I won’t have to worry about the tomorrow ever again.

“I also learned that you were born into a low income family and you had to struggle in your life because of that ” a sudden mention of your less than glorious origin makes your face burn from the shame you thought you buried a long time ago. You are stunned, so he continues: “I believe this little endeavor of yours is also motivated by your desire for a stable future. Drop it, I travelled all across the Teyvat and there are horrors that can easily destroy you both in body and spirit”.

He stands up from the desk, and gets closer to you: “I can look after and provide for you, just stay there and you won’t have to worry about the future again ”. His hold on the paper gets tighter, pyro vision shining with a dangerous glint. A faint smell of smoke spreads through the room - a warning if you remain stubborn and unyielding.

Who could have known that the fair prince was a greedy dragon all along?

[givemeyourcrunchbars]

Sequestered

Fern x f!reader

If there are any warnings I need to add, please let me know :)

The weight of the crown on your head was too much to bear today. You gently set it down onto the grass, next to you in the shade of the giant oak trees above you.

If someone were to ask you what it's like to be a princess, you would say it's a curse. For the past 15 years you've been raised, your father was stern and barely paid any attention to you. Suffering from neglect, you slowly watched him become more and more corrupt with power, forcing the entire kingdom to stay within its walls. As far as the common people knew, the outside was a mysterious place not to be messed with.

That's what power does to people. To have all these abilities at your hands, is a great responsibility. But most rulers toss those away, like a bag of trash being disposed into the garbage can.

You sighed, gazing across to the opposite side of the clearing you were sitting in. You raised your head to look up at the sky. Oh, what I would do to have a different life...

The rustling of leaves caught your attention. You gasped, quickly backing away into the shelter of the trees. Dad can't catch me being here!

"Hey."

You froze as relief washed over you. It wasn't your father.

You weren't allowed to leave the kingdom. Finding loopholes wasn't easy, so you didn't know what you'd do if he found out.

Carefully, you stood up, squinting at the figure standing at the opposite end of the meadow. Slowly, they- or it- stepped into the sunlight. You recognized him from your past adventures. Fern the Human.

"Hi," you replied warily. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know," he said. "Just exploring." Fern wore the same expression he did normally, a blank set of eyes and his mouth set in a straight line.

You nodded, your eyes darting around the clearing, at anything but him. You rarely interacted with outsiders, especially since you weren't allowed outside of your kingdom. So you didn't know how to act. All your social skills started chipping away because you were forced to stay inside all the time. "Princess duties".

"I haven't seen you around here before," the grass boy remarked. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" I repeated. That was a good question. Every single decision I've had to make and every emotion I've had was decided for me. So much so, that I wasn't sure there was any "me" left.

"I'm Y/N," you replied. Fern tilted his head.

"Where are you from?"

"Um." You struggled to find the words. He couldn't know about the kingdom, or else you would find yourself kicked out. What was even the purpose of telling him? It could only end badly. His curiosity would get the better of him, driving him him to see the kingdom for himself. Would Fern even try to save us?

Even though you wanted to rescue your people badly, the thought of them roaming around aimlessly in the Land of Ooo scared you. They barely knew anything about the outside, and the only information they did know altered their perspective to think of it in a bad light. Besides, what could Fern do to help? He's just one person.

"It's none of your business," you ended up blurting out. "I have to go." Your father wanted you home for the evening anyway. For what, he didn't say.

You turned away before you could hear Fern's reply, dashing off into the dense forest.

Taking a deep breath, you began to form an image of a raven inside your mind. Shapeshifting was still something you weren't good at. You were supposed to follow a certain set of rules as a princess, one of which being that you couldn't shapeshift into your raven form in the presence of other people. It was seen as impolite.

Focus on shapeshifting! You commanded yourself. Finally, you were able to fly, ruffling your wings a bit. You missed being able to soar.

"Wait!" Fern's voice yelled from behind you, his footsteps trodding through the layers of leaves on the forest floor. You sighed, flapping up to the tree tops and taking off. A feeling of dread gradually grew in your chest, facing the reality that you had to go back to your secluded life, with people that ignored and misunderstood you.

As the dark green leaves of the forest zoomed by beneath your feet, you began to wonder whether you should've listened to what Fern had to say. Eh, it probably wasn't important.

Directing your thoughts back to your destination, you vowed to come back to your happy place as soon as possible. It helped clear your head. Hopefully, Fern won't be there next time. The idea of talking to people made you uncomfortable. The people that you've trusted in the past have all either broken your trust, or just didn't care about you at all.

There's a crown here in the bushes, Fern observed, lifting the heavy piece of gold. It was a big ring, with an arm extending upwards, holding a small, rugged black crystal. Interesting.

Turning it over in his hands, something strange caught his eye. A carving on the back of the crown. It was barely illegible, but Fern could make out one name. Y/N.

"Where is your crown?" The Raven King hissed angrily. "The suitors are already here!"

"I don't know, Dad!" You frantically racked your mind, trying to remember where you had left it. A princess' crown was a part of her, as a role model and a symbol. But this time, it represented worth.

"Why are you making me marry someone I don't even know anyway?" You hurriedly glanced at your father, brows furrowed. Your father had invited a group of suitors to compete for your hand in marriage. They desired only the princess' heart, but it wasn't true love, like what you dreamed of as a child. They just wanted land, wealth, and power. Marrying you was their key to a happy life. Without your label as a princess, they would have no opportunity at all.

"You know very well why!" Your father growled. "This is going to be beneficial for the kingdom! Don't you want me to prosper?"

You started walking down the spiraling staircase that lead to the main hallways, unable to stay calm any longer. "I want the people to prosper," you replied, sending a spine-chilling glare to your father behind you. Before he could respond, you stomped away, into the main hallway where a line of antsy suitors stood waiting.

You definitely have a thing for walking out on people.

"Heya, Fern!" A boy wearing a worn, dual-toned green backpack greeted Fern, holding open the door that had separated the two just moments before. "Jake just made some meatloaf! Want some? It has your favorite- I mean our favorite garnishes." Finn grinned.

"No thanks," Fern replied, distracted. His eyes wandered all around the giant treehouse that stood over him, almost menacingly. Despite what Fern wanted to think, there was something about it that made him uneasy. When he thought of the treehouse, he thought of Finn, which in turn caused him to obsess over the fact that he wasn't Finn. Then who was he?

"No probs." Finn sounded a little disappointed, but cheered up when Jake called out that the meatloaf was ready from somewhere inside the house.

"By the way, can I ask you something?" Fern asked, taking something out of his backpack, which tumbled to the ground, causing him to groan in frustration. Finn turned back to his grassy friend while taking a plate of food from the unseen Jake. "What's up?"

He gasped when he saw the golden crown gleaming in the sunlight. "That belongs to one of the princesses!" He picked it up and handed it back to Fern.

Fern nodded, stowing it in his backpack. "I found it in the forest near Tree Trunks' house. I think this girl dropped it," he said.

"Whahf girl?" Finn said, trying to chew meatloaf at the same time. "PB? Fire Princess? Slime P?"

"No." Fern shook his head. "I've never seen her before, and honestly," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "She was scared of me." He sounded frustrated, his voice trailing off.

"Dude-"

"Why doesn't anything ever work out?!" Fern said in anguish. He curled his fingers in and out of his palm, trying to release the tension trapped in his mind.

"Calm down, dude," Finn exclaimed. "I can help you find her, don't worry! I've never seen this crown before either, so we can go together." He placed a hand on Fern's shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"No!" Fern protested. "I wanna do it myself," he said, softer. "Can you just tell me how to find her?"

Finn looked taken aback for a second at his grassy friend's outburst, but nodded regardless. "You can ask the Candy People and the other kingdoms, they probably know who owns that crown." He handed Fern a map of the Land of Ooo, sketched out on a yellowed piece of paper.

Saying their goodbyes, Finn left Fern on his solo quest to find the mysterious princess.

The long and chaotic day was finally over. You sank down to the floor, your back against the door to your room. You stared at the king-sized bed. I hate this. I hate everything.

After you left your father standing on the stairs, you had awkwardly walked into the main hall. But that must have been the last straw for your father, because he still didn't join you, even after five minutes. He ended up sending a replacement to accompany you after a long time of waiting. You wished that the suitors didn't keep glancing at the spot where your crown was supposed to sit while you stood with your hands clasped in front of you, staring at the doorway your father was going to follow you through.

I still have to get the crown back, you thought. Where did I leave it? The only place I would've lost it would be... Then you realized. The clearing! Of course! Oh no, I have to go there right now!

You raced over to the small window in your bedroom, peeking your head out. Seeing practically no one outside, you transformed into your raven form and hopped on the windowsill. Suddenly, an object was hurled at you from below. Looking down, you saw a small child chucking pieces of corn at you.

"Get out of there, you stupid crow!" He yelled. Close enough.

You carefully flapped your wings, flying high above the kingdom. As soon as you were out of reach, the child gave up trying to knock you out of the sky and returned to his home, resuming the quiet atmosphere the kingdom always held during evenings.

Night had almost fallen over Ooo when you finally arrived at your meadow. Landing in the spot where you had sat earlier that day, you turned back into a human and rummaged through the bushes for your long lost crown. As the minutes ticked by, you began to grow more frustrated. Where is it?! If I lose it forever, I'm done for.

"Huh?" You said out loud. Prying apart the branches of a blueberry bush, you found a few grass blades attached to the rough leaves, reminding you of Fern. You stood up. Why not just see if Fern had it? He wasn't the scavenger type, but something as mysterious as an unknown princess' crown was sure to fascinate him.

Ugh, the sun is setting. You sighed in defeat, vowing to visit Fern the next day to take back the circlet. Another day that's ending, another gloomy morning to look forward to. But this time, you had a mission to accomplish.

[drippingsunflwrs]

Is that SOLEDAD  YILDAZ that I see over there? You know they have quite the reputation of being the THE SWEETHEART around town. The 28 year old has been around these parts for  2 YEARS  and within that timeframe has landed themselves a job as a/an BARISTA AT ONCE UPON A TART while living in CHESTNUT APARTMENTS I overheard that they can be quite STUBBORN but their saving grace is that they are KIND HEARTED. They remind me of  COFFEE RINGS ON A WOODEN TABLE, SUNSHINE MIXED WITH A LITTLE HURRICANE, AND LEATHER-BOUND BOOKS but you’ll have to decide that for yourself. 

tw: death mention, bullying mention

Soledad was born to two loving parents, both of who adored their daughter with everything they had. She was the only child of Carmen and Ömer Yildiz. Shortly after her arrival into this world, the Yildiz’s moved from Turkey to Boston, Massachusetts, when her father got the opportunity for an excellent traveling salesman position and the move had been planned for a while now.

Growing up, Soledad was a happy child at home. She was so infectious with her laughter and smile that her family quickly nicknamed her “Sol,” and the name was one she fell in love with from a young age.  She tried her hardest to live up to it every day.

Despite the loving household Sol had, things at school were different for her. For some reason, one Sol couldn’t seem to understand, the kids in her grade always looked at her funny. The girls never wanted to talk to her about anything, no-one made an effort to sit with her at lunch, during gym she would always get picked last, and her locker usually had some sort of goop or slime smeared on it as ‘the prank of the day.’

She found her escape in books. One day she picked up a copy of ‘Harry Potter’ and the brunette was hooked since. It wasn’t long before she was trying to read as many books as possible, from all different genres.  Thanks to her books, the older she got, the tougher her shell began to get towards the world around her.

Her real escape came when she left Boston to attend university at NYU. She chose to take the business path like her father. Starting her second year of school, she met someone and the pair dated for just shy of one year. They was her first love, first one (and only) to have ever slept with,  and heartbreak. During her third year at school, her mother ended up passing due to complications with heart surgery. She was devastated and kept to herself even more than ever. It wasn’t long before her relationship came to an end, closing her happily ever after, though she used the sadness she felt towards motivating herself to study harder.

With a lot of hard work, she ended up graduating top of her class. After graduation Sol took some time to travel around Europe for a bit. She did some backpacking and in her adventures met many lovely, and not so lovely, people along the way. She went to places like Paris, Peru, Japan, China, Egypt, Prague,  but her biggest dream has always been London. For some reason or another she just can’t seem to get there.  

Now, a bit new(ish) (2yrs) to Ravenswood, Vermont, Sol is ready to make her mark in the town and the small business. She always tries to show up with a smile on her face and a bright personality.

She can come off as shy at time but once you get past her shell she is extremely friendly and always ready to talk your ear off about her newest book she’s reading.

fun facts:

she may not be too outspoken about it, but she is a gamer.

loves music, late night talks, and laughing

she is always ready to lend a helping hand or shoulder to lean on

she will keep your secret and take it to the grave

her favorite customer is (wc) and she often tries to have their cup of coffee always ready for them when they makes their daily visit to once upon a tart. .

she has made (wc) her unofficial roommate as she has given them a key they can freely use to enter her home whenever htheye needs it. she’s used to them coming over needing to be stitched up, fed, or just wanting to hang out. all in all she cares about them.

[thelittleplantlover]

Surprise - Corpse x Reader

As requested by @thefanficmonster (with changes), because she writes so much for so many people. It was time to give her something she wanted to read. Thank you for all your amazing stories and your support on this fic Vy🧡!

Pronounce: gender neutral

Warnings: none

Genre: fluff

Word count: 1647

~ A surprise does not always means something good. But you might be surprised yourself with how people react.~

I grumbled and cursed while climbing up the steep stairs of Corpse’s building with two heavy bags of groceries and supplies hanging off my shoulders. Of course, there was no food left in the fridge or even the cupboards when I had arrived for the first time today. I could have known. Okay I lied. Technically there was food. However, not even I could decipher what dish could be made from the leftovers. Not to boost my own ego, but I had gotten quite good at making tasty dishes since I first visited his home.

Out of breath I reached the correct floor. In normal times, especially during this heat, I would have taken the evaluators up to his floor. Sadly, several serious safety issues had been discovered during the maintenance work performed on the elevators the day before. Leaving me with nothing but these awful stairs. To admit, I was slightly proud of myself for reaching it without any stops on between. One victory point for (y/n).

I fumbled around to find the keys. It did not help that I felt rushed. What I had left at Corpse’s home could be considered a surprise. When thinking of a surprise, people usually assume it is something nice. Something the other person would like. I was not so sure if he would love it. I rather had the feeling he would be displeased. And in all honesty, I did feel slightly anxious about it. Looking back at the situation I could not see what better option I had. After all, you can’t turn away an infant in need and I was sure Corpse would not either.

Once inside, I waddled straight to the kitchen not bothering to turn on the big lights. Getting rid of the heavy weights on my shoulders was the only think on my mind at this point. How did these cheap weak plastic bags even still hold on? The handles had ripped off before with less.

With a last grunt of effort, they found their way on the countertop. I allowed myself one sigh of relieve before putting myself back to work again. After filling up the fridge, I turned around to replace the foil, which has been living as an empty roll of cardboard for the past three weeks. Wondered why. It was a good move though. To do the foil first and the filled fruit bowl later. After all, foil does not break when it falls to the floor.

What was it again that the insects always preached? If you don’t move they won’t see you? Yes. That apparently what I tried when I saw Corpse sitting on the couch. The infant on his lap. In the dimmed light with his dark clothing, his persona radiated smart psychopathic villain in a spy movie energy. I did feel like that one person that walked into the villain’s office at the wrong moment that would freeze only to be killed a few seconds later.

Corpse looked me straight in my eyes, while scratching the head of the fluff ball that laid on his lap. Only enhancing the psychotic energy. His voice did nothing to decrease it.

“We are both very disappointed in you.” His face was stoic, his voice steady. At least I could exclude the possibility that he would be mad. That did not dismiss the feeling of stress that ran through me.

The only thing I could let out as a response was a sound between a groan and a wince. I quickly ducked down to avoid his gaze. Keeping myself busy by picking up the foil. Placing it on the counter and throwing the empty roll in the paper bin, I started to unpack the rest of the things I bought. Keeping myself busy was a way to delay his disappointment. However, I knew that it would come soon or later. And sometimes it is better to just get it over with.

I decided to explain myself once I heard him moving towards me. “I was not going to keep him. Just until we could check if he is chipped at the vet and get some advice on what to do with him. I promise!” turning around to face him. He had moved the pup from his lap into one of his arms. The little thing was small enough to comfortable lay in his arm.

“We?” His head turned slightly left to peek into the last bag. Curious to see what I had brought with me. I was not sure if he could see the dog supplies. If he did, he did not comment on them looking like a contrast to what I just promised. Not daring to take them out of the bag, I just stood in front of him. My hands fumbling with each other.

“Yeah.” The nerves kicking in harder as he moved to look at me. I still did not know what exactly he thought of the situation. “My lab partner and I were collecting samples at the river and we saw the poor boy stranded on a large rock in the middle of the it. So, we saved him. But neither of our homes allow pets so…” I fell silent, avoiding his eyes. Hoping he would not mind my decision.

I heard an amused huff above me before feeling his lips on the top of my head.

“You’re too cute.”

I looked up to face him. His adorable slime was plastered brightly on his face. Not a hint if displease or discomfort. I had calculated that he would at least be slightly upset with me. “You- are not mad?”

He even had the audacity to let out a laugh. The little boy on his arm shaking with him. “No. I’m not mad.” He sends me a reassuring smile, for which I could only look at my feet for. I still felt bad for not telling him. This received me another amused huff and a one-armed hug. Careful to avoid hurting the pup, he pulled me into his chest. Kissing the top of my head before leaning his head on top of mine. “How could I be while you are being so precious.”

Flustered I buried my head further into him. Something that he did not miss as I felt his chest vibrate with his chuckle.

Pulling slightly away while keeping his arm around my waist Corpse asked: “He is only going to stay for a little while though, right? I still can’t take care of plants, I for sure cannot take care of a dog.” His head nodding towards the window still. Three pale green plants tried their hardest to survive. Their leaves hanging, like they tried to physically show that they were slightly suffering.

“No,” I laughed, “I don’t think either of us has the time to take proper care of him.” I looked up and give him a smile back. “Especially seeing my first job is to make sure you actually have something nutritional to eat in your house.” Petting his chest for the food measure.

Corpse stuttered, his hand leaving me to rub his neck. Pleased with not being the only one put into a little situation today, I unpacked the dog supplies. Leaving the bed and bowls on the counter. Corpse could decide where it was okay to place them. It was still his apartment.

“So, you are okay with him staying over until we know what to do? I will of course stay here for the time.” I still wanted to check if he would be fully okay with it. Forcing him to take a puppy in was the last thing I wanted. “If that’s okay.” I rushed after, my confidence faltering. We have not yet been together for that long and I did not want to invade his privacy. I knew how much he appreciated to have some time on his own as well.

If Corpse was shy or had any doubts about my stay at all, he was good at hiding it. His free arm wrapped around me once again. “If getting an ugly dog was what it took to make you stay longer, I would have gotten one sooner.”

“Ugly?” I exclaimed in disgust as I softly pushed myself away from him. I placed my hand on my heart. My mouth slightly agape, eyebrows raised.

“He is ugly. Look at him.” Corpse argued. Grabbing the floof with two hands he held him out right up to my face. Sure, the little mut definitely did not deserve the first price in a beauty contest. But the little tooth sticking out at the bottom and the goofy eyes made him even cuter. I was sure some of his friend would agree.

“Bingus is ugly and you love him.” I retorted. Which was answered with a loud gasp before I could even finish my sentence. It was questionable to me whether or not the hurtful expression on his face was played or not. Either way, Corpse replied passionately to my statement.

“You take that back!” His finger now pointing to me. “Bingus is a God. He is very pretty.” His passion combined with his facial expression made me fail to suppress the giggle bubbling up.

I pushed his hand down and stepped closer to give him a sweet kiss on the cheek. “However, none of them are as pretty as you.” The whisper made him flustered and slightly uneasy but also made his beautiful smile break out again. He quickly composed himself, putting the now wiggling pup down and straightened up.

He gave me a quick kiss on the lips, his smile never leaving his face, before grabbing his car keys from the counter. “Come one, let’s get your stuff. If you are going to stay for a while you will be needing more clothes. Can’t have you steal all my hoodies.”

[greenygreenland]

Dawn: Garmadon and Wu x Reader

-sorry this took so long, I was trying to generate ideas I liked, but then writers’ block was like

~no~

Summary (given to me by @minneholmes): What about “in the period of garmadon and wu’s adult years (the anacondrai wars) where reader is trying to keep all the elemental masters together?” The reader could be a childhood friend or a significant other of one of the brothers.

You knew nothing lasted forever, but this? This was it. The final and only breaking point left to snap was this. The Elemental Alliance had been solid. It was like Earth, rigid, unyielding, and whole. Now, it lay in shambles, leaving you with nothing save for suffering. 

The war would end soon, you thought. But not in your favour or anyone else  beside those slithering pieces of slime. You sighed, running a hand through your hair as Wu have your shoulder a good squeeze. “There was nothing left to be done.” he said. You sent him a glance, shrugging off his hand with a frown. 

“There’s ‘nothing left to be done’?” You were beyond angry. Angry at yourself, at how stupid you had been, at how badly everything had turned out to be. Your eyes stung with hot tears but you didn’t care, you had to yell, had to let the universe know just how angry you were. 

“Wu, if we had been more alert, then we all would have seen it coming! We shouldn’t have trusted the word of our own, no matter how tight knit we are. That was how they got us. We were fooled by our own blind belief in each other!” You grasped the sides of your head, ruffling your hair and extending the gap between you and Wu. “I don’t care what we do next. I’d rather die than lose to the anacondrai! I will not bow down to them. Never.” 

You couldn’t see through the tears blurring your vision. You were just so angry at everything and anything that came in your way because nothing was supposed to turn out like this, nothing was supposed to not get better. You were tired. Tired of it all. “There’s--there’s nothing left to do Wu and I...I don’t know how we can win when we...” 

Suddenly, warm arms pulled you in fast. They were warm, comforting, and loving. You hadn’t hugged anyone in a while, not since the start of the War that left you scraping over war plans for days. There was no time for sentiment when anyone could die any moment. 

The last rays of sun shone over Wu’s golden locks, illuminating the precious colours over your cheeks. Wu was the very embodiment of light. He practically exuded it wherever he went. 

“When I was young,” he tenderly began, “my father always told me to have faith. Forever, that is what I will hold onto, and for that reason, I will never admit defeat until I know it to be the right path.” Your knees began to give out and Wu crumpled to the floor by your side, arms still tightly secured around your shoulders. 

“When we walk, it will never be in a straight line, so when we face adversary and hardship, we must never lose faith in ourselves or those around us. I know hope may be lost, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find it again.” You squeezed your eyes shut and buried your face in his shoulder. “Wu, I--I’m falling apart. I can’t...I can’t do this...” 

“Yes you can.” he affirmed. “You’re strong, so much stronger than you know.” 

You sat there in the quiet courtyard for a while longer, savouring the comfort that encased your soul. Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn’t. You wouldn’t know, not until you were sure the war could be won. 

When you had finally calmed, Wu glanced at the purple sky mashing with pink and blue. “It’s getting dark.” he gently said. “Do you want to go inside?” You shook your head. “I think I’ll stay a while longer.” He nodded in understanding, giving your elbow a pat. “Good night (Y/n). There’s dinner on the stove and tea on the counter if you want some. Get some sleep.” He glanced at the dark circles under your eyes. “Please.” 

You watched as Wu made his way to the doors and slid them open. For a moment, warm, yellow light engulfed your figure with warmth. But as soon as it came, it disappeared, along with Wu and his comforting smile. You rested your head in your knees, and for an eternity, you sat in the fading light, allowing the darkness to consume you until the stars and moon decided to enter the stage. 

You knew it hadn’t really been an eternity, but it could have been. You were drowning in your mistakes, your misplaced steps that could have led to victory. The broken alliance was left in shards, shards you could never piece together. 

“Hey.” 

You lazily opened your eyes, squinting at the small lantern that burned through the night. “Garmadon.” Your voice was soft, nearly lost to the wind. It was a miracle he heard it, and another that he allowed a smile to reach his lips. “What are you doing out here?” 

“Drowning in my own sins.” 

Garmadon set the lantern at his feet and plopped down by your side. He leaned against the wall, allowing his head to fall back so he could gaze at the stars. “You didn’t show up for dinner. Are you hungry? Or has that urge been drowned too?” You chuckled a little at his lame attempt at a joke. 

“You look better when you smile.” he boldly admitted. “Keep it that way.” You ignored the heat rising to your cheeks. “Garmadon--”

“When we were younger, you used to smile all the time. So much that your cheeks hurt. I called you stupid for that, but now I wish I hadn’t.” He let out a long sigh, and you realised that he was reliving memories of the past. Garmadon was hard to read compared to Wu, but it was times like this that you knew what he was thinking just by feeling. 

“Something is on your mind.” you blurted. Garmadon glanced at you and then back at the stars. He fiddled with the edge of his sleeves. “Even if I am, it’s not important.” He turned to face you head-on. “Talk. You’re not okay and I will not sit here watching you fall apart.” You bumped his shoulder, almost playfully. “I’m alright. I’ll get through this like I always do.” 

“’Like I always do’.” Garmadon scoffed. “This is a battle you can’t win on your own. No matter how strong you are. Nothing was your fault, no matter how you look at it.” 

There was a long beat of silence that stretched for seconds, then minutes and more. You didn’t know what to say, and maybe that was because there was nothing to say. Garmadon was right. First Spinjitzu Master did you hate when he was right. 

“The Time Twins were the key,” you quietly stated. “They were the first step that caused doubt to spread between all of us. Garmadon, who do we trust? What if they managed to convince other Masters to turn? Then what can we do? We are all filled with doubt, and that doubt is more powerful than any army. I said it once and I’ll say it again, we are losing.” 

Garmadon didn’t say anything. 

He was supposed to be the smart one. The solid boy who you looked to for ideas and support when you had none. This time? All he gave you was a look of uncertainty. Shivers ran down your spine.

---

A brand new day. A brand new dawn. Your stomach grumbled, and you knew it was because you had skipped dinner and breakfast. It was a terrible coping mechanism you did under stress, something that would later come to bite you in the back. 

But you couldn’t worry about that now. You had a duty, as the Master of Aether, to the last of the Alliance. 

You could practically feel the doubt coursing through the Master of Ice’s veins as you passed him. He had his arms crossed, and his lips pursed so paper thin. “How can we win without the Time Twins?” he inquired. “They were our most powerful allies, and now, I do not believe we stand a chance.” 

The Master of Lightning ran a hand through her thick hair with a sigh. “I can only hope we win this. They have all the time in the world they need, all while controlling it and everything. What do we have? Just the last of us. And even if we do win, how do you restrain two Masters of Time?”

You paused in your step, flicking your katana a few times to ease your nerves. You carefully listened as they continued talking amongst themselves. 

We can’t do this...

We can’t win without them...

How do you beat time?

We’re going to lose.

It’s over. 

It’s all over.

Suddenly, as if you had been struck by the Master of Lightning herself, you froze. Everything became clear, and it was then that you knew you had to do something. Even if you doubted your own abilities, your own allies, and everything Ninjago had to offer, you couldn’t sit around and watch it unfold.

You had to be there for the Alliance when no one else could. You had to mend the broken pieces, even if it was one by one.

You turned to the Alliance gathered in small groups. They mingled with each other, discussing the latest battle plans or complaining about how this was ‘the end. “Excuse me!” you called. “Can I have everyone’s attention!” 

The Masters all turned to you, eyes wide in bewilderment. 

“Don’t tell me we’ve been betrayed again. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the Master of Lightning’s fault. She has a big mouth anyway.” 

You didn’t care who said that; you’d chew him out if you saw him again after the battle. “I know we all feel doubtful,” you glanced at the guy who complained a second ago. “But that does not mean we can accuse each other of betrayal! If you want to continue doubting each other, then fine. If Ninjago falls, then I know I can blame someone other than myself. This is our last stand. We cannot let the Anacondrai win! Not when there are families--mothers, fathers, children who rely on us! We cannot fail them. Not this time. 

“Someone told me to have faith,” you glanced at Wu, “and that when we walk, it will never be in a straight line. This...setback, this betrayal, will not hinder us further. Today is a new day, meaning new beginnings, and new opportunities. We are strong, but only as our weakest link. Together,” you glanced at Garmadon, “we must mend what has been broken, and triumph for the Alliance! For all of Ninjago!”

You heaved in a deep breath. 

“So let this be our last stand, and together, let there be another dawn.”

My Ko-fi (please support me 👉👈) Also please reblog so this ca reach more people. Also, also, happy Christmas if you celebrate.

[questersrest]

apologies for the just talking about junk lately but my brain’s on infodump o’clock. i really want to talk about dq9 grottoes and alchemiracles. so here’s a wall of text that’s been in the back of my brain for around 9 years.

i always thought this stuff was insane and i’m dying for a remake so i can get into this again.

so.

quest #015 collapsus’ call

at the summit of the heights of loneliness, you will find a man, christopher collapsus, who climbed all the way to the top but collapsed just short of zere rocks. you need to bring him a special medicine. as a reward he will give you your first treasure map: granite tunnel of woe lv. 1.

a treasure map will depict a red X drawn on part of a map, this will be one of several locations on the overworld but it’ll be fairly zoomed in so it might take some thinking to figure out where it is. when you stand in that location, a prompt to press A will appear and when you do, a cave entrance will appear. these caves are called grottoes. inside you’ll find several floors with monsters and chests and then a boss floor.

when you beat the boss they will drop another map. it’ll be random but influenced by 3 factors:

a) the level of the map just beaten.

b) the hero’s max level. the hero’s level is stored separate for each vocation so if you’ve hit level 99 as a minstrel but are currently a level 30 warrior, your max level is 99.

c) the hero’s max revocation. when the hero reaches level 99 as a vocation they can revocate, resetting that level to 1 and gaining a little +1 next to the level. my max revocations was a +3 on gladiator.

there are like over 32,000 maps with over 200 quality variations if i remember right, the exact total is over 8 million possibilities with these varying features:

a) it’s location on the world map.

b) it’s environment theme: ruins 40%, cave 30%, fire 10%, ice 10%, or water 10%

c) the number of floors before the boss floor: 2-16

d) the layout of each floor including the placement of any chests. if you’ve ever played a mystery dungeon game you know what to expect with randomly generated dungeons.

e) the starting monster rank of the grotto. monsters appear from a pool, there are 12 ranks and each environment has its own pool of monsters for each rank. the monster rank can only start at up to rank 9 but it increases every 4 floors so to find rank 12 monsters, you’ll need a grotto that starts on 9 and has at least 13 floors. many monsters in the higher ranks are exclusive to grottoes so if you want to complete your bestiary... well i never in 700+ hours found a water grotto with rank 12 monsters. monster rank on each floor also determines what ranks of chest can appear there. there are 10 ranks of chest. each weapon used for making the 5 star weapons has a 1% chance to be in a rank 10 chest. there’s one for each of the 12 weapon types. but even on a monster rank 12 floor it’s not guaranteed to have rank 10 chests. (chests by the way refresh when grotto is closed and reopened).

f) it’s boss, of which there are 12 possible. each boss is more difficult than the previous and so it is related to the map’s level, so dw, a level 1 map can’t have the final grotto boss, you won’t be ready for that.

there is some lore to the bosses. the goddess celestria, daughter of zenus (who was slain by corvus at the beginning of the story), said her father must still be alive in some capacity or the world would cease to be. every grotto boss has some dialogue before the battle commences. fowleye specifically explains that zenus shattered into 10 pieces which took form as the first 10 grotto bosses. the 11th is the demon that the supreme sage sealed in a book with himself long ago, the supreme sage, still in the book, is a character who gives you the quests related to the sage vocation. the 12th is greygnarl who was slain by barbarus in the story but at the end his shadow was shown hinting at his return. in his dialogue he talks about himself, barbarus, and styrmling who remains somewhat of a mystery. greygnarl actually drops an yggdrasil leaf instead of another map.

each boss has 3 items they can drop. a 100% drop: another treasure map. a (i actually can’t remember, i think it’s 5 or 10)% drop chance: a certain pretty good piece of gear. a 2% drop chance for a piece of armour used for 5 star armour. most armour categories can be split into multiple sub-categories e.g. handwear that focuses on defence or deftness so there’s one for each sub-category: 1 shield, 2 headwear, 2 handwear, 3 bodywear, 1 legwear, 2 footwear. each boss has a specific one e.g. the first grotto boss, equinox, has a 2% chance to drop the vesta gauntlets: defence handwear. greygnarl is an exception to the rules, i don’t remember all the specifics and can’t find details at this time but i do remember is his 100% drop is an yggdrasil leaf and one of his drops is a certain legacy boss map, i’ll get to that in a bit.

treasure map names are clues as to the details of the map before explored but usually don’t guarantee anything (except a few environments, if it says “waterway” it’s definitely water).

there are a few other weird factors for the probability for monsters appearing on floors resulting in the ruby path of doom map that got extremely popular to share in japan and got referenced in dq11s because of the one floor with nothing but metal king slimes. i myself found a grotto which had a floor with absolutely no monsters whatsoever, it did however have 2 chests on that floor, at least one of which was rank 10.

now say you get one of these special pieces of gear, how do you make the 5 star gear?

agates of evolution are items than can only be made through alchemy and are only used for alchemy. the ingredients are 2x ethereal stone, 2x sainted soma, 1x chronocrystal. ethereal stones and sainted somas can be obtained through a few means but the easiest is through further alchemy with the ingedients being available through monster drops and sparkles found in the world. chronocrystals can only be bought, there is an npc in a cave that can only be reached in the postgame the only thing he sells are chronocrystals for 50,000 gold each, the most expensive item in the game.

there are a few special treasure maps, legacy boss maps, that lead to a grotto that is only a boss floor, a boss from a previous game. we have: dragonlord, malroth, baramos, zoma, estark, psaro, nimzo, murdaw, mortamor, nokturnus, orgodemir, dhoulmagus, and rhapthorne. the first you’ll likely come across is baramos’ map lv. 1 as a quest reward. the one greygnarl drops is dragonlord’s. when you defeat a legacy boss, they will return and ask to gain experience too, if you agree the map will level up. as a legacy boss levels up, the drops will increase in chance or change entirely. be careful as some maps you can only get once unless shared from another player, you could lock yourself out from some items. the key things they drop are armour to dress up as heroes from the previous games and maps of other legacy bosses. some legacy bosses are only available from the dlc quests or dropped by other legacy bosses that are only available from the dlc quests and since the online service was discontinued in 2014 they are now almost unavailable (if you’re genuinely interested bc you missed out, shoot me an ask and i can explain that one).

then there’s the orbs. every legacy boss can drop one of six coulored orbs. as their rarest drop, this won’t change, the chance can just be increased with their level, the only exception is nokturnus who changes which orb he drops with his level. it’s the same 6 orbs that appeared as a plot device in dq3, alongside a 7th in dq8, and would go on to appear in dq11. all six orbs are thankfully available among the legacy bosses available without online services.

each of the special items can be alchemised with an agate of evolution and a certain orb to make an improved version that looks identical. e.g. 1x stardust sword + 1x agate of evolution + 1x silver orb makes a nebula sword. getting the ingredients is both expensive and time consuming BUT it goes further. 1x nebula sword + 3x agate of evolution + 3x silver orb will make a further improved and identical but still only 4 star supernova sword. most of the time. see when you try to make this further improved item, krak pot will alert you he feels an alchemiracle coming on. he will state a chance as i think 10%, 20%, or 30% which i think can be influenced but i’m afraid i don’t know the details. you are then forced to save the game with the result determined so you can’t reset and try again. if it should succeed, you will make a 5 star item, the best item of that kind in the game, a stronger palette swap of the other items. e.g. the hypernova sword.

should it fail and you want to try again, you can alchemise the failed alchemiracle item e.g. the supernova sword with a rest stone to return it to the first item e.g. the stardust sword. reset stones can be bought from the mini medal collector of dq9 once you can reached the final reward.

so here’s the procedure.

1. grind grottoes and their bosses for this stupid rare gear. 2% drop rate has nothing on shiny pokemon, sure, except you do have to go through the entire grotto again every time.

2. grind legacy bosses for orbs.

3. grind materials for agates including money for chronocrystals.

4. pray to the rng gods once more for an alchemiracle.

5. cry because you spent 100 hours on this and it didn’t work.

6. give in to cheating via rng abuse, the hoimi table’s out there still.

have fun