#so i think that he made his choice way before the astral plane

[posalis]

"Our Hextech dream." // "We finish this together."

Our fate was carved in starlit streams, Bound by more than earthly dreams.

[alpydk]

You asked for angst prompts.

I don't know if you can do anything with this, but I was thinking recently about Gale and "being heard". Going from the Mystra situation (begging to be listened to but being ignored) and moving to the tadpole stuff (being able to telepathically communicate with others if desired), from horrible quiet to loud and then maybe they win, he gets to live, and he comes back home to the terrible quiet of his tower, the only place he wanted to be the whole time, and the quietness guts him.

I dunno if that's anything or even a prompt but!

Thank you for this beautiful prompt. Really hoping that I've done it some justice. I really could have been cruel and ended this very differently, but I'm a good person (Yes, it's true.) I'll also say I found this a little challenging. I tried to branch out a little in my creative writing, so we'll see what people think.

All I ever wanted, All I ever needed

Word Count - 2923 - Angst/Comfort - CW - Suicidal Ideation, Depression, Loneliness

Silence is a such a wonderful concept. Silence is golden, as silent as falling snow, silent as the grave. All so peaceful, for that is what comes with silence, and that is what people want, isn’t it?

Gale sat within the Yawning Portal, the patrons as loud as ever with Deep Ale in hand and gut, and joy in their swollen hearts. The sound was like that of thunderous storms, and yet, to him, none of it was there. The one person whom he wanted to hear from refused to speak, her silence as deafening as the jaunty tunes spat with slurred words across the tables. He longed not for silence, but for the cacophony of life, for a connection with someone, something which in the next few days he would not have for a very long time, if ever at all.

He rubbed mindlessly at his chest as the dull ache began. After his grave mistake trying to claim the strand of the weave, a subtle pain had come and gone. He’d noticed the faded markings during the morning, a circle with weaving trails emerging from it, running up his neck, but by the afternoon they would vanish to nothingness. Over the following few days, however, they’d become more permanently visible to him, the ache becoming more persistent with a deep hunger that food could not sate. Research had told him all he needed to know; that without a cure or divine intervention, he and possibly a lot of innocent bystanders were going to die, and so with this knowledge in mind he’d made a choice: He would leave civilisation for his tower and then, if needs must, would end it all, not that it would be of any loss to anyone.

The songs grew in volume, a fight broke out in a corner of the tavern, a woman screamed obscenities at a partially dressed man as he descended the stairs clutching at a torn shirt. Friends laughed with one another over stories shared and Gale watched from a distance. He didn’t need to eavesdrop to understand the camaraderie, having seen it so many times before: during his childhood, at the academy, from the Astral Planes as the icy palm lay over his shoulder. Watching people, reading people, they’d become hobbies in enough themselves as he’d been met by the silence and rejection. He’d learnt early that he was different in some way and so he’d embraced it, resigning himself to the peace of the libraries, to the tranquillity of imagination, to the silence of loneliness. There had, of course, been the mask required of him, charismatic, charming, and yet he’d still not felt part of the inside joke, that he missed the one book that all others had been given: How to be accepted. Now, after all that had happened to him, despite the want of connection, the sound of the Yawning Portal’s inhabitants was becoming too much. Even amongst the din, he felt locked in his own mind, a spectator again to a world he was not a part of. He stood, dusting off his fine robes of scarlets and silver and left the tavern, leaving behind the patrons for one last time.

---

Gale had taken to talking to himself at random intervals as the months had passed locked in his tower. Tara was often gone finding magic items, his mother believed him to be away on an expedition in search of some ancient civilisation, and ‘friends’, if he could even call them that, had taken more notice of the words out of sight, out of mind, than he really thought was possible. His adorned robes of the past were now gone in tribute to the hunger within his chest, a Netherese orb built of guilt and self-loathing. He knew logically this was not the case; he’d read every book on the matter at hand, but sometimes it was as if it knew when he was at his worst and so inflicted more pain on him. Now he sat in the tattered robes once gifted to him by his mother, purple with many a bodged repair upon the seams, much like himself he felt.

The tower creaked and groaned; the stones settling into the foundations as the warm day came to an end. He sat on his balcony, mindlessly turning the pages of the book on his lap, hearing the flickering of the corner upon his finger. Tranquillity through imagination was not coming to him as he wished as the waves tumbled upon the docks lazily, as the breeze sang through the chimney tops with a distant whistle. Too long had been spent in the peace of his mind, becoming too familiar with the silence of an empty tower. He yearned for people, for conversation that was not his own, to be seen and heard by someone, by her.

The orb thrummed with the unwanted stir of emotion, and he felt the sting in his fingertips, knowing that another treasured possession was soon to be sacrificed to save his pathetic life, to save the people of the city who deserved better than to die at the hands of someone who should have known better than to defy a goddess. He straightened up and checked the study, glancing over the meagre number of magic artefacts he had left, working out how much time he had left. None. It was time to leave his home, leave the quiet safety of the stone walls, and find comfort beyond the veil. 

“You knew this is how it was going to end, not with a dramatic bow, a hero of the ages, but alone, as you’ve always been…”

Gale sighed, giving a last look at the place he’d called home for so many years. The piano had not been played in some time and dust gathered upon the wood. On the desk, the quill he had used to scratch upon many a sheet of parchment lay lifeless. The song of the breeze went unheard with the closing of the balcony doors. Silence. Nothing but silence in the air of the ill-fated wizard’s tower.

---

The campfire crackled in front of Tav, the orange glow lighting up her features, the blonde of her hair now as golden as a Waterdeep sunset, her eyes as magical as that of conjured starlight. Gale wanted to deny how he felt about her. He’d wanted to deny it since she had pulled him from the portal, her green eyes sparkling, the touch of her warm palm around his wrist. He’d loved her since his mind had connected with hers through the Weave: how inquisitive she was, how kind she was to all who came her way, how she wanted to kiss him with delicate longing.

Sitting on a blanket, he watched her from the entrance to his tent, the pages of his book shuffling with the evening wind that swept through the camp. The tadpole squirmed, and he heard the unwelcome thoughts of Karlach as she hummed a tune in her head before breaking into a small dance. Keeping his mental defences up constantly was proving exhausting in combination with the constant company and discussions with the party, all of which was a lot more than he was used to. He’d kept up, even with what he felt was with the slight diminishment of his wit and charisma, and for the first time in his life felt he was part of something more than just acquaintances and fleeting dalliances. Despite the heavy silence from Mystra, he did not seem to mind as much anymore as friends he wanted to be around, and connections with others filled the void that had plagued him for so long. He thought of Waterdeep, of the Yawning Portal and how the sounds there had seemed so far away from him, unreachable at times. Silence may have been golden, but to him, the noise he a part of was the spectrum of light shone from treasured gemstones.

“You seem quiet tonight, Gale.”

Tav’s soft voice drew him from the drunken chants, and he glanced up at her with a small smile upon his lips. He heard the crunch of fallen leaves under her boots as she stepped forward towards him; the fire continuing its snapping, and Karlach humming out loud for all to hear.

“Taking a moment to savour the world around me.” His words were the truth, and he’d savour the sound of her voice the most. The subtle lilt that came with her Baldurian accent was almost that of song, especially after a shared glass of Arabellan Dry or two. He’d spent many an evening with her, discussing shared topics of interest: history, poetry, Mystra; and laughter had filled more than one night, leaving nothing but fond memories behind.

The orb hummed gently in knowing of what stirred within him, of the way his heart beat for her with a longing he wished to hide, the voice in his head yelling about wanting to hold her close that he had to drown with facts about religion and the Weave. If he tried to speak the sonnets he wanted to, they would erupt from him so freely, filling the evening tranquillity just as the ballads had within the tavern. There would be no peace for any of them travelling the Sword Coast, just as he’d experienced the last few weeks, his mind and heart full to bursting with the melodies of emotion.

Sitting beside him, Tav pulled her legs up to her chest. “Nights like this are too peaceful,” she spoke with fondness. “In the city, there’s always something happening, people talking, music, just the hustle and bustle of life. I miss it.”

“I can only imagine.” He wished he could see their nights on the road the way she did. What she heard as quiet here, he heard as an unstoppable commotion of the world, within and without.

“Is Waterdeep not the same?”

Gale would not tell her the truth, of the nights of loneliness and longing, of his pitiful existence, just wanting what he had now, during the worst phase of his life. The mask was placed on as ever, smiling and optimistic. “Waterdeep is a place of many things, but being peaceful is not one of them, at least not in that of the Yawning Portal or during a lively discussion on the ethics of fungal use within alchemy.”

“Ah yes, wizards, the epitome of the unrestrained festivities,” she said with a light chuckle at the image of Gale dancing and cavorting amongst droves of eager young men and women alike.

“I’ll have you know I was quite the socialite back home.” Hm…If only.

She gave him a playful nudge. “Liar.”

He wished he could just kiss her as he’d read in many in a romance novel, whisk her off her feet and hear the sound of her breath merged with his, the quiet moans, the declarations of love upon her lips, to lie under the stars with her in postcoital bliss. But those dreams were not met for him after what he had done. He would continue to lie alone, the sounds of crickets and mosquitos keeping him awake, the nightmares from Astarion unknowingly shared with those awake filling their minds. If only the music would change.

----

Gale stood within his study, gazing upon the room he’d not seen in months. It was as he had left it, dust upon the piano, quill lifeless. There was no sound aside from the pounding of his heart, one that soon would cease at the orders of the goddess. How he had longed to come back home to the solace of the walls lined with books, to feel his body relax into the warm sheets without the ache of his body to torture him. The breeze did not blow with his illusion, no waves crashing upon the shores, no whistling through the chimney tops. Silent as the grave.

Tav sat on the bench behind him, her eyes watching over him with the protectiveness they’d held for him since that first day. Tonight was meant to be one of love, not loss, and he sighed, composing himself before joining her, letting his own voice once again fill the void within the stone walls of the tower. “My favourite spot…”

---

Months had passed, and the sounds of Toril had built up to the crescendo with explosions erupting in the sky, the Netherbrain making commands that filled Gale’s mind. His companions shouted through the eruption of chaos around him, verbally or telepathically; it mattered little. Tav! To your left! Te curo! I’m unlocking it as fast as I can. You could always just hit it if you insist on helping! Mindflayer up above, Soldier! We’ve got to get to the brainstem and take control! Destroy it! Just keep calm, will you? COMMAND… OBEY…

His head pounded, though he did not know if it was the tadpole’s influence because of the proximity to the Netherbrain or because of the concussion that he was sure he’d received with the impact to his skull from a cultist’s mace. He clasped at his ears as the dominating voice of the Netherbrain bellowed forth once again, another command resisted with the last of his strength. Mystra’s words flew through his mind with the reminder of the crown, of the orb, of his folly, and for a moment, he considered the end he could bring, the peace that would descend with the ultimate sacrifice.

“Gale. This is it.” Tav’s voice cut through the chaos, a comforting whisper in a symphony, and she rested her hand on his shoulder, bringing him to calm. It was not the icy palm he had once known, but now one of warmth and love and for a moment he was upon his balcony, sunlight upon his face, the sound of birdsong in the air.

He nodded in acknowledgement, the surrounding commotion building again in another wave that would crash upon them. The ground tremored beneath them, the roar of a red dragon pierced the air, the screams of the city echoed through darkened alleyway and flame scorched garden alike. This was it, the finale. Silence in death.

-

-

-

Gale sat within the Yawning Portal, the patrons as loud as ever with Deep Ale in hand and gut, and joy in their swollen hearts. The sound was like that of thunderous storms, and yet, to him, none of it was there. The one person whom he wanted to hear was gone, sleeping beneath the waves of the Chionthar. When searching for the crown, he’d been unable to find her, been unable to see the darkened locks that weaved amongst the current. Sitting on the docks, his eyes reddened, the silence descending on him as heavy as the orb with its guilt and self loathing, he’d refused to move in case she appeared. But she hadn’t.

He’d waited in Baldur’s Gate for her, no longer hearing Karlach’s hum, no longer having the glimpse of Astarion’s horrors, no longer hearing the crickets and mosquitos or the sound of her voice. Silence was golden, and he had the magic touch that had brought it. The others who remained tried to speak to him throughout the following few nights, but it had been the beckoning of Tara that had soon drawn him home to Waterdeep once again. He saw his mother, who filled the awkward silences when the conversation lulled with her own musings and gossip, but he barely heard her, his mind back at the campsite, always at the campsite. Wine filled his mind during dark hours as the tower creaked and groaned, sometimes alone, sometimes watching the patrons laugh and sing from the tavern.

Again, their din rang out around him unheard, the world moving at a speed he barely acknowledged, a connection with all destroyed and gone forever. His head bowed after a while, heavy with Old Red Steed, lost in thought and contemplating his next actions. The long walk home would bring him near the docks, to allow him to fall into a blissful sleep beneath the waves, to be with her again. He would hear her siren’s call luring him towards the edge and he would not fight it. All just to hear her voice again.

“You seem quiet tonight, Gale.”

A voice cut through the quiet of his mind, more melodic than the drunken banter around him. He glanced up, surely his was mind playing tricks on him again. He’d seen Tav so many times after all, standing on the balcony just out of his reach, on the docks, calling for him to join her. She could not be here, not this time. In complete silence.

A warm hand rested upon his shoulder, a soothing whisper in his ear. “It took so long, but at last, I’ve found you.”

The sound of the patrons built up around him again, but he did not hear it. He only heard the song of his own heart, the quiet words of love upon flushed lips. Wine touched breaths passed over delicate flesh with whispers of devotion spoken with longing. His voice became one with the crowd, the sound rising to the heavens for the whole world to hear.

Silence is a such a wonderful concept. Silence is golden, as silent as falling snow, silent as the grave. All so peaceful, for that is what comes with silence, and that is what people want, isn’t it?

[operationslipperypuppet]

Ooh how about top 5 Emily moments for each PC (i.e. top moonshine moment, top fia moment, etc etc) because we know Emily is incredible and can do no wrong!

Real and true. I’ll do like 2 moments for each naddpod pc and then it’ll be like 10 moments lol. Full disclosure: this is long as hell.

Moonshine:

“You can be quick with kindness, too” and then grabbing Bev and jumping off into the Astral Sea. That whole thing, where she was trying to understand Thiala despite knowing she likely couldn’t be reasoned with. An absolute peak of Moonshine. Holy shit.

Not to be the guy who brings up “how long do half elves live” at every opportunity. But it needs to be said. Because it’s also Moonshine grappling with how her lifespan is going to work. Emily was never going to take 18 levels in druid, she didn’t want timeless body for Moonshine. But she got it. And then there’s this poignant moment where she’s grappling with everything that will mean to the only other person she knows has or will experience it. Moonshine doesn’t fear death. But she doesn’t want to live in a world without her family and friends. And that’s why it matters. Plus the hardshine of it all.

Fuck it, third one. The conversation with Deadeye. She saves him. She’s the catalyst that stops him from continuing a spiral he’d been part of for possibly 100 years. And he stopped her from going down a similar path, which was Brennan’s plan when he made the character. The Cybin siblings are something that can be so personal.

Fia:

“Maybe I don’t want to be her sister, okay!” Fia was closed off to the other third mates in a lot of ways. She was never hiding anything deliberately, she just kept a lot of feelings close to her chest. She hadn’t had friends in years. Blurting this out to Hank and Zirk was her last wall crumbling and a moment of true trust. Plus like the beauty of girlhood friends falling in love wlw wish fulfillment.

“You were my fucking dream for so fucking long. But these people are my reality. And it is by your actions that one of them has died, and you tried to kill more of them. And I will miss you so much. But I, I cannot support this. Mr. Henry. Kill Her.” Truly an Emily moment of all time. The beauty. The cold hearted commitment. The sobs from both her AND Caldwell.

Tarragon:

Only gonna do one here because she’s in so few episodes. The atonement to help redeem Moxora at the end of Cerenysus. “She may have rotted but she’ll make good soil”. Devastating.

Billie:

Also gonna do one here because of the shortness of her time. Her insane antics in the Grimdung/Beeto cave fight. Trying to convince Grimmy that she was worth more than his allegiance to the cause. Being completely wrong about his thought process. And the interactions with Hank and Zirk during that fight. Too fun.

Onyx:

Pretending to be Porker Harris for the entire Merry Metal Mayhem two shot. Insane choice. She was dressed as him dead I think actually. And tried to convince Sonic that she was him. The triplets are too good.

Befriending KT. Getting her plane seat upgraded while sitting in the bad seats. Asking for her opinion on everything. So dumb. So incredible.

Callie:

Fucking. Crown of Dreams. Right at the end. She finally isn’t confused or a nannerfly. And she takes a turn to Lay on Hands Sol (who was 2 death save failures in the hole and it really felt like Caldwell’s skin of his teeth luck had finally run out) and then casts compelled duel on Ultrus to save Glen. Gets me every time. God what an episode.

Little strange, but when they’re fighting the Bronzebeards and that guy who was controlling people with the worms in the woods on the way to Irondeep. She like climbs up something, Fey Steps, attacks or casts a spell, then asks Hardwon to catch her. And Hardwon “nods like he’s seen this kind of bullshit before”. Just a very fun moment.

So sorry for going off like that. Hope people enjoy reading this insane list lmao

[languajix]

A little questionably-canon Hold Every Memory oneshot!

@cadoodledoodleydoo reached out to me with a prompt/question about if the kids could enter the astral plane by themselves, and possibly summon their uncles. My answer was basically 'kind of, I think, under specific circumstances, because of stuff I haven't publicly elaborated on yet' and then I took that thought and ran with it and it turned out to be well over 1,000 words :'D

('Questionably canon' because it involves some characterization and setting choices that I haven't 100% solidified on because I'm not quite there yet. Don and Lou moving to a bigger place at some point, for example.)

Lee crawling? A menace.

Lee toddling along? A menace at hyperspeed. The worst baby criminal. Deserving of baby jail.

"I'm going to hold this pint-sized terror captive until we both go to sleep," Don groaned into the arm he had draped over his face. His other was busy pinning a wiggling, singing Lee to his plastron who had not stopped making noise at the top of his lungs since he'd woken up five hours earlier and had been in perpetual motion for just as long. Don, himself, had been awake much longer; Dee had had a terrible reaction to something they'd fed him last night at dinner, and had spent much of the night miserably retching into a bucket and sobbing his little heart out while Don rubbed gentle circles into his shell. Dee had slept in afterwards, but Lee had decided to be obnoxious today - possibly out of empathy for his brother, they were so oddly in sync - and Don had not had that same luxury. Even a reduced set of three kids needed two pairs of eyes on them when they were these kids in particular.

"Good luck, my friend," Lou said, and as he walked by the couch he made sure to pat Don on the head in good humor. He had been off the hook with Dee because he'd sat up with the last sick kid, the smug jerk.

Don mumbled something into the crook of his elbow. He felt Lee trying to slide free and tightened up his grip just a little bit more.

It took almost thirty minutes before Lee finally seemed to give up and start winding down. In that time, Don's thoughts had slowly softened, turning sluggish, trying to slide to the astral plane or sink down into sleep, and he'd had to keep forcefully dragging himself back to wakefulness. Lee settling was the last straw.

He drifted.

He sank.

(Lee, on the other hand: well...)

---

"Listen buddy, my pal, my guy, you're gonna burn yourself out if you don-" Mike froze.

So.

He was used to Donnie's calls, right? Summons from beyond the beyond. Faint, almost impossible to notice unless you were actively looking for it with your eyes closed and your whole heart and brain in on it. It was as common a sensation these days as an itchy nose or a growling stomach.

So when it hit Mike in the chest with the force of a slap, clumsy and electric and sweet... he knew something was wrong. It didn't feel like Donnie one little bit.

He slipped out with zipped lips and a quick casual salute, almost an afterthought, pretending he couldn't see the sudden concerned glances his way. The discussion would have to be To Be Continued, apparently. This was more important, whatever it was. This was something wrong with Donnie, or something wrong with their connection, and either way? Bad news.

He didn't even worry about getting to their little meditation closet, just sunk into the shadows and shimmied up the nearest support beam and into the rafters, where he nestled himself semi-comfortably and closed his eyes. The pull was insistent and irregular, like the other end was getting impatient.

Even following the tug was different: faster, more forceful, more like giving in than reaching out to meet in the middle. But when he opened his eyes -

Oh.

Okay?

Lee shrieked with joy, babbling something like hi hi hi unca mi', and flexed his hands in the universal sign for pick me up, please, so I can stuff my fingers up your nose and jam my impossibly knobby elbows into the softest spots on your arms and probably lick you because I'm a little monster and you love me. The buzz of mischief-exhaustion-excitement confirmed it.

Mike looked around for Donnie. For any of those green ghosty guys. For literally anybody else.

Did you call me? He asked, like Lee could possibly answer.

Lee's only response was to giggle uproariously, clapping his hands together before once again motioning to be picked up.

---

Waking up from the nap was like surfacing from the deep depths of the ocean, leaving Don groggy and discombobulated. For a moment, he wasn't anything at all, and then he suddenly remembered he had hands to wiggle and toes to flex. His head pounded just a little as he stretched. The little weight he was clutching to his chest, loose and limp in a sleep of its own, brought back an awareness of who he was and who he was with.

He ran his thumb back and forth over Lee's rising and falling shell, grateful that they'd both gotten the sleep they deserved. Finally.

He sat up, careful not to disturb his sensitive cargo, and tiptoed all the way to the nursery room where he set Lee down, leaving him to his nap with a silent full-body sigh of relief.

---

"Is Lee still asleep?"

"Apparently. That's... weird, for him."

"Maybe he's catching up on sleep. Dee was pretty loud."

"Yeah. Maybe."

---

Okay, so show me the orange thread again. Orange. Where's orange?

Lee pointed to thin air. O'ange. Unca mi'.

Great! Now where's red?

Lee pointed to thin air. The same thin air? Maybe slightly to the left? Red! Red, red red.

Wonderful. Fantastic. You're a little Einstein in the making. Now for the million dollar question: is there a purple thread?

Lee looked around, twisting his head this way and that from his position in Mike's arm.

Purple. Purple like your turtle dad. Purple thread?

Tad! Lee's little tail wiggled with joy.

Tad! Oh, that was really cute. Did the kiddos come up with that one themselves? Mike was super proud.

Yeah, your Tad. Any chance you can see a purple thread anywhere?

It was a long shot, but they couldn't see their own threads, so maybe Donnie did have one, but it was invisible to him. Donnie had to be wondering what was up by now, right? Lee had to be unconscious or something over in the magic dimension. Would he even think to check the astral plane?

Lee's gaze settled on something, but then focused back on Mike, his smile widening to show off the sharpness of his canines just the tiniest bit, and the air lit up with searingly brilliant mischievousness. No!

Oh come on!

---

"Lee's still asleep. I'm really starting to think something's wrong."

"Maybe whatever Purple had is contagious?"

---

Don slipped into meditation with the same practiced ease as he did most evenings. As he snapped his eyes open, he realized that he wasn't nearly as alone as he always was at this stage of the proceedings, and his pulse pounded hard, once, until he realized who exactly was in front of him.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Mike shushed loudly. I just got him to sleep and if you wake him up I will suplex you, okay? I swear.

He looked ragged, his mask askew with drool and chew marks, his posture hunched. It appeared Lee had put him through the wringer. The culprit himself was drooling on Mike's shoulder, hefted up in his arm.

Are you kidding me, Donnie said flatly, suddenly very tired again. We thought he had been asleep, how did-?

Dunno, but he did, Mike sighed. Called me, even, thank shell. Which, did you know they could see the threads?

I guessed. Donnie remembered the few times the kids had leaned forward in his arms when he went to go summon his brothers, like they had wanted nothing more than to submerge their own hands into the beautiful streams of light. He wasn't sure if it was something to do with exposure to mystic energy at a young age or what, exactly.

Well it was certainly an experience. Hey, Donnie, if you ever really need us, like in a crisis? Have one of them do it.

Sure? Okay.

But not anytime soon. I need to go sleep for, he checked his blank wrist like looking at a watch, ever.

Donnie patted him on the shell. Thank you very much for the emergency babysitting, Mike. The thought of Lee's soul alone in the astral plane was... it could have been so much worse, honestly. Like Mike would say, 'new fear unlocked.' Did he have to be worried about any time the kids fell asleep on him now?

Anytime, anytime. Well, not tonight. But anytime other than tonight. And maybe not right before a mission, or if I haven't slept well the night before, or if April needs me to run errands, or Christmas, or Labor Day, or Cinnamon Roll Day, and I'd really like at least alternate Tuesdays off - actually, have your guy call my guy, okay? But Mike grinned and winked.

The transfer of sleepy Lee back to Donnie's arms was slow and precise and a little nerve-wracking, but he really was out like a light. Something settled in Donnie with Lee back in his arms, healthy and safe.

Listen, I know tonight was gonna be a hangout, but-

I get it, Donnie said. Mike had gotten enough hanging out all afternoon today. You're off the hook. As a treat.

Mike laughed at the meme, as Donnie knew he would, trying so hard to be quiet. Thanks, dude. Now my stomach has the rumblies only salami can satisfy.

(...getting these memes secondhand sometimes meant Donnie felt a little lost, but at least Mike was having fun.)

---

Lee was back in his body. Don could tell, now that he was actively thinking about it. It was part of that weird sixth sense he'd been experiencing more and more lately, where he instinctively seemed to know where each of the kids were without having to turn around and look, and even sometimes know when Lee was about to get into trouble because he'd feel this barely-there prickle of amusement.

Something to think about, maybe. To learn to control. It could be an invasion of privacy otherwise.

He tucked the blankets more tightly around Lee.

Well, in one way, the quiet had been nice while it lasted. Maybe Raph would be up for babysitting, sometime...

[wild-magic-oops]

Settling Into Divinity (god!Gale/god!mDurge)

Written with my Durge Lucas in mind. His canon ending is married to Gale and living in Waterdeep bc they both deserve to be content and happy, but this is the what-if scenario

[AO3 link]

It hadn't taken long for Lucas to settle into divinity. Or maybe it had. Time did pass differently in Elysium, Gale was right about that. Though Lucas still smarted a little about being forgotten for six months. But while it was his feelings that were hurting when he was mortal, it was mostly his pride that was hurting now.

Feelings for a god... they were a little different, somehow more distant, less urgent. An exchange for power and immortality. For stability, protection, safety. No longer would Lucas fear that Bhaal would find another way to enslave him, no longer would he fear that others of his kind would come out of the shadows to take away what was dear to him. No more worries like those. He was powerful enough now to finally feel safe. And so was his lover. He did not regret his choice. He could not.

He opened his eyes, staring into the Astral Plane's starry skies, swirls of purple adorning it so beautifully, just like the day Gale had shown it to him for the first time on a boat.

There was no boat this time though. He and Gale laid embraced on the surface of the water, gentle ripples washing over them from time to time. Gravity was what they made it to be. Reality was at their fingertips, to be shaped like clay as they wished. He thought it a bit condescending when gods did not think mortals could comprehend the world as they did. But now he knew that was the truth. Mortals simply could not. Their limitations did not allow them so many things. Ascension had freed him of that cage as well.

He untangled himself from Gale and sat up, nudging his lover to lay on his back, so he could straddle him. Gale grinned up at him, his hands traveling up Lucas's thighs, electricity sparkling around his temples in excitement.

"Insatiable, are we," he commented with amusement, "I like a challenge."

"As you should," Lucas replied, placing a hand on Gale's chest and leaning forward, "You're not the god of 'giving up' after all."

Gale sat up slowly, his hands settling on Lucas's waist, their faces so close to one another. Lucas's hand slid from the center of Gale's chest to rest upon the orb which thrummed with power. It was so intoxicating to him.

"And what about you, love? Settled into your divinity yet? Found out your domain?" Gale inquired.

Lucas could feel the anticipation rolling off from him in waves, and he loved the effect he had on Gale.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I have," he said, pausing for a moment before the big reveal, "It's Resolve."

Lucas felt Gale's hands tightening around his waist, and lightning leapt and danced on his lips from Gale's own. His lover was pleased, and so was Lucas.

"Rather fitting," Gale said, "I've always loved that about you - how resolute and relentless you are, no matter how dire the situation may be. It suits you beautifully."

"It pairs nicely with ambition, wouldn't you say?" Lucas whispered against Gale's lips, his own puled in a pleased and teasing grin.

Gale's eyes lit up, lightning dancing on his fingertips and right down Lucas's spine, eliciting a moan from him.

"It does," Gale admitted, eyes darkening, "We will achieve grand things, you and I."

"Together."

[areax]

laika bg3 lore dump (BG3 SPOILERS)

keeping with her source material (homebrew campaign) her patron is cthulhu bc i was like oh i love cosmic horror lets get a little funny with it— [discovers that i, erika, was born in lovecraft’s town] ah shit. which fits perfectly into bg3’s story as well because of the. you know. mind flayers. but her backstory is still pretty much the same: she grew up in an isolated village, wanted to learn forbidden magicks, accidentally contacted cthulhu, he was like hey girl hasten my return to this realm and i will give you power beyond imagining also you WILL have to serve me for 1000 years in the dreaming city after you die btw. and she was like yeah i can do that, he did a whole the color out of space thing where everyone in her village was turned to white ash except her… whoopsie.

and then as in her og lore he would give her an assignment every few years to go kill someone whose death would make the world worse on a structural level not just a personal one so like. a noble who would have pushed for reforms, a worker who would have become a union leader, a scholar who would have had a scientific breakthrough and in the mean time laika made the most of her warlock power by searching for a way to defeat death because if there’s one thing she loves it’s weaseling her way out of consequences for her actions and also she wants to live forever.

also in her og lore her patron (and another being just like him) were connected to mind flayers even though the exact nature of that connection was never made clear (like did they create them? do all mind flayers in this universe serve one of these great old ones?) with the implication that this is what laika would eventually become when she serves her 1000 years after death

HOWEVER, in the bg3 canon ive decided that cthulhu is some variation on a highly advanced elder brain from another universe of existence (and not just another plane like the astral plane or hell or something, i mean an entirely different universe that is basically unconnected to the bg3 universe, one that’s outside of our own, but since cthulhu is so powerful in his home universe, he’s able to influence / contact the bg3verse) who wants to take over control of this universe or be born into it and wreck shit or whatever. who knows. he’s a great old one. who knows what he wants. point BEING that he has some kind of meaningful connection to the mind flayers in the bg3verse but the specifics of that ive not decided and may just leave ambiguous (is he the one who first created them aeons ago so that they would evolve into a species like his own and execute the grand design to bring about his own birth in the bg3verse? thats the main theory)

the thing is. how does he communicate with laika. and i think it honestly would be. really funny. if she already had a (mostly dead) parasite in her mind even before she got got by the mind flayers. and they were just like well this ones defective put another in there. so when everyone is freaking out about being infected shes like oh a mind flayer parasite? no problem 👍 this is normal to me. but having another one put in her skull suppresses her connection to her patron enough so that he can’t contact her, but she can still siphon off his power... so initially its in her best interest to KEEP the thing in her head and that adds much more depth to her choices later on of do i accept more of these parasites into me? do i become half-ilithid? do i try to take control of the brain? what will happen if i destroy all the parasites? will that mean that he has control over me again?

which opens up really interesting parallels between her... quest (kind of) and that of the other companions. do i become like my abuser to gain power over him? is what ive done in the name of my god justified? am i responsible for my actions when someone else was forcing my hand? can i give up my power in favor of what i know is right?

this also makes her dynamic w raphael really interesting bc he has like no interest in her soul whatsoever its like buying a shitty used car. this bitch is already sworn to 1000 years of service after she dies, i’ll have to wait that long for her soul? pfft dont waste my time!

ALSO IT MAKES EVERYTHING WITH THE EMPEROR MUCH FUNNIER SHES LIKE I SEE YOU VILLAIN.

[professionallydeadinside]

For the sentence ask

“You took him and warped him to a monster of your own design”

“You took him and warped him into a monster of your own design.” 

“Warped him? That’s rather kind of you but it diminishes all the fucking shit I had to go through, so I can’t say its proper accurate.” 

Maria could tell something was off the second Ladybug had walked into her apartment unannounced. He’d said earlier in the day that he was going for a walk, something Barry recommended he do to clear his mind. Maria was two minutes from hunting him down when he finally made it back, deep into the night. 

He was wearing a bomber jacket that looked like it could’ve belonged to Carver zipped up halfway, underneath was a polo shirt Maria hadn’t seen in years. 

She didn’t know what tipped her off, there was just something with the way he scrunched his nose and adjusted his wrist as if he was wearing a watch. How he rolled his arm like he was straightening out the cuff of a suit, not a jacket. How he almost looked surprised when Maria had opened the door. 

Even his hair was different. Slicked back with gel as opposed to its usual shaggy look. His beard and mustache were trimmed in a way that was too familiar. 

Tangerine. 

Maria had pinned him to the wall, her hands shook as she gripped the collar of Ladybug’s jacket, her nails no doubt leaving marks on her palms even through the thick fabric. 

“Now hold on Beetle. The second that bullet gets put through my skull the only thing you’ll be doing is bringing Ladybug to the astral plane where I can kick his fucking ass.” 

“What did you do.” She hissed. 

“Frankly, I didn't do jack shit. It was all this bastard’s doing.” Tangerine jabbed at the chest of the body he was possessing. 

“He was poking around the train and next thing I knew I was here. So, not my fault.” 

“You’re dead.” Maria said stupidly, admittedly losing her composure. Reanimated assassins wasn't something she dealt with on a daily basis. She released Tangerine, seeing as he brushed off dust from Ladybug’s jacket. 

“Yeah, still am. But now!” Tangerine gestured to Ladybug’s body. “I've got a way to change that.” 

“What’s stopping me from throwing you in jail?” 

“The same thing stopping me from throwing this body off the nearest bloody building.” Maria snorted. Hearing Tangerine’s British word choice with Ladybug’s voice would be a lot more amusing on any other day. 

“So what I was thinking.” Maria’s eyes followed Tangerine as he began to pace. “Is that I stick around, and just keep doing what I’ve been doing. I’ll even let you have him on the weekends.” Tangerine laughed. 

No matter how much she wanted to do something, she found herself helpless, Ladybug’s life resting on her ability to keep Tangerine happy for the time being. Until she could find a way to damn his spirit back to whatever Hell he should’ve never been able to leave. 

“That sounds good don’t it? Lemon and I will even join your agency so you can keep an eye on your little Ladybird.” 

“Fine. I’ll send you the information.” Tangerine smirked and stuck his hand out, Maria stiffly reciprocated the handshake. She took it as a little victory when Tangerine rubbed at his hand when they separated. 

“Pleasure doing business with you Miss…” Tangerine trailed off, looking expectantly with eyes that were looking less familiar by the second. 

“I’m sorry love, what was your name again?” 

“Maria.” She seethed.

“Maria. Do me a favor and call my brother will you? You seem the type to have his number laying around.” 

Tangerine stepped to the door, Maria wanted to stop him, but thought against it. Before he left, he looked back with a grin that stretched Ladybug’s face unnaturally. 

“Tell him Tangerines are back in season.”

[the-lunar-library]

THE PRICE AND PREY OF MAGIC

I've talked before about how I find my vampire sorcerer Arsen very difficult to draw. In this case, I think I did a good job capturing his sense of severe, uncommunicative formality.

Another thing about Arsen is that it's weird I wrote him at all, as I'm not a big fan of vampire fiction. I don't hate it, I enjoy a lot of the tropes, but I don't gravitate towards it. I suppose in some ways I could have written Arsen not as a vampire, just as a very dark sorcerer. But Arsen wanted to be a vampire, so much so that he made it his last name, and when a character wants something that badly, I think the author should listen.

It's not that I believe characters are mystical beings communicating with writers from the astral plane -- far from it. But when you're writing, I think your subconscious is operating just as much as any conscious choices you're making. That's where interesting themes and plot connections can come through without you being directly aware of them, and you notice them later and realize how much they add to your story.

So Arsen got to be a vampire, and here he is Halloween-colored.

[taylortheanimerangerteen]

I should be sleeping but instead I am writing up this post because I can't sleep.

About this crossover au that nobody but me gives a shit about. And ya know what. Good for me. To give the quick run down before I go full explation to this au. Basically I just throw the sides from sander sides into the dndads universe and that's about it.

I used to be super hyperfixated on sander sides and now am on dndads. So why not do crossover. The other basic premise is that each side (or sides in the twins case) are also kind of assigned to one of the families.

Which will be explained in the full post below the keep reading mark.

So full explanation. You wanted to actually read this, huh?

Damn. Time for a very long post.

Also I will explain not only the family assignment but also kinda how shit goes ig? This au is kinda just me messing around and also being like. "Damn, Virgil is fun to write and honestly would be fun to just exist."

So we'll start with the obvious.

And that is the Oak-Garica family and Remus & Roman. Because Lark and Sparrow are twins and so are the creativity twins. Also because the Oak-Garica twins are very creative (they burnt down their first school, the damage was limited to only one or two classrooms but still.) With the creative twins, they act as the lord of chaos's right hand men. Also, as guards. It is very silly for the prince and Duke of creativity to be guards and right-hand men instead of royalty. But it is very fun. These two become very protective of the Oak-Garica twins while at the ravenloft castle.

Got not much else to say for the twins and the twins. We will get to the s2 group later, as that will be easier to do it that way.

Now. We go to the stampler family and Virgil. This isn't just because of the purple color schemes between the two (it kind of was when I first made this crossover idea in my brain.) But in all seriousness. He and Terry Jr. are in the French town which name I have forgotten now. Virgil acts as Terry's guard, very similarly to the twins. But until the twins, is willing to actually harm the dads (+ the mystery side that'll be revealed later.) He tries to stop the dads from stopping Terry Jr. from going to the Astral plane, which he fails at. At Ravenloft, he tries to create a very paranoid atmosphere for the o-dads. However it does affect everybody else so he doesn't do it often, not wanting to affect everybody else with it.

Moving on. We go to the Wilson family and Patton. Those who know sander sides and/or those who know dndads may feel this decision weird. Patton is very kind by nature which is very Wilson. However Grant was ya know, in a murder game. So it feels like an odd choice. However I feel it was a good choice as Patton, despite probably not wanting to kill others, would probably do so if necessary. During the for knights (fortnite) arc and all, Patton is staying with Grant and watching over the kid. Patton is very kind and feels like leaving a kid who is maybe at the most 13, maybe 14, alone would be a horrible idea. During the time in the castle, he tries to talk to Grant during it. Failing miserably however. But he tries.

Moving on once again. It's now the Close family and Janus. I decided on this one because of how different Nick Close and Nicholas Foster was. And I felt like out of the remaining sides, Janus fit the Close family more than the Foster's. Janus is all for the watermice thing. He also 100% agrees with the falsehood (very fun word and reference) that your piss can stop you from passing out, because ya know. Deceit, crazy to think that we used to not know his name, I thought that he would've been called Ethel. Anyways. At Ravenloft, he kinda just glares at Virgil the whole time. He knows Nick can handle himself, so he really doesn't act like a guard or protector towards him.

Moving onto the final family and side. The Foster family and Logan. However I will note that Logan stays with the dads the whole time. In the Close timeline, he is with the dads. Probably the only reasonable one. However in the foster timeline. He stayed with Nicholas the whole time. Anyways. Logan stays with the party, trying to act reasonable to everybody else's dumbassry. He already deals with Remus, what's 4 more dumbasses? (a lot, it sucks.)

Now before we get to the s2 group, there is a few things that I need to talk about.

Like their classes.

Logan - Wizard, despite how squishy they are. The fact they use learnt knowledge for magic felt really right for Logan. He's logic, and also the smart one. Very book smart, not very street smart. However he needs to use an actual weapon, he will straight up smack somebody with a book.

Janus - Rouge, he's very sneaky. Sneaky snake boy, which is what he has been called canonically once for those who have never seen sander sides. (I am so sorry to my dndads mutals, and any dndads fans that see this.) Janus uses disguise Self a lot (he did technically disguised himself as both Patton and Logan before.)

Patton - It's a very heavy decision between Barbarian or Druid. On one hand, with Barbarian, the whole rage and trying to always seem happy thing works really well. However, with Druid, Patton could turn into dogs. So, like, It's really difficult. So he could also multi-class, that works easier. However down side for both. Barbarian downside, Daryl is already one and it kind of just sucks. And downside to Druid, Henry is already a Druid and the two of them kinda look similar outfit wise.

Virgil - He's a Warlock. Funny because Scary is also a Warlock, so like. He can be a mentor or whatever. He's a Warlock, however he uses an actual weapon besides his magic. His weapon of choice, probably a knife. Or a spear. Something stabby, let him stab people 2023. (Let Virgil stab others in 2023.)

Remus - Paladin. He would be a fighter if it wasn't for the fact he is in fact probably magical. So yeah, what is his oath? Who knows. (Probably oathbreaker paladin but still.) His weapon of choice would be his morning star, which isn't on a chain. It's not a ball and chain weapon.

Roman - Roman is also a paladin. I could've gone fighter as well here. However once again, magic. His oath is kinda unknown as all dnd oaths for paladins suck /hj. Not really, they just don't fit him really. His weapon of choice would be his sword.

Classes out of the way. How the sides feel about the dads or how they do in this au. Or npc characters I wanna mention lmao.

Logan finds all of the dads sometimes very dumb, however he doesn't think they're 100% stupid. Just have some times where they don't think like at all. With Jodie, he doesn't find him as dumb, as Jodie has more common sense than the dads. Well until the whole flash bang thing but still. He does like the dads, just thinks they can very dumb at times.

Remus likes the dads well enough, finds them a bit boring however. He's a wild card and enjoys the same energy back. He does find Scam cool though, chaotic good and chaotic neutral get along. However he does think Well Actually can straight up die, I don't blame him. Rules lawyers to somebody who is extremely creative would to make me want that.

Roman likes the dads as well. Not much to say. He likes that they can handle themselves in battle I'd guess.

Janus finds the dads entertaining. He also doesn't have much for me to say about the dads. He does like Scam quite a lot. Finding the guy fun, cause ya know. Scams and Deceit go hand in hand. So of course they get along, mostly. Janus also like Well Actually, finding it fun to annoy the shit out of him.

Patton loves the dads. He likes how Daryl is strong and protective. He likes how Henry gets things done. He doesn't have much to say. He kind of ignores how the dads can be bad parents. He finds them great company and enjoys them. He also sucks at telling himself that they do in fact have negative traits, because that is admitting that dads can suck. Which is something he rather not think about, he tries to be a good dad. Despite having no children.

Virgil finds them tolerable at best. Kidding, he actually does like them. The original idea for this au, also includes him flirting with Glenn. I don't know why I decided that. However I decided to keep it because it's very silly. Also because it let's me make Virgil confident and shit instead of how some of the Sander Sides fandom treats him... like he's an uwu anxious baby (wow, is there somebody like that in dndads fandom? Yeah. It's Ron.) However I haven't figured if they [Glenn and Virgil] actually started a relationship or kinda just had romantic tension and it goes nowhere. And it sucks. Also Virgil finds Ron to be cool, which is nice.

Now that's done. Finally.

We can get to some talk about the s2 group. And a little info into how the sides now interact with the world since s1.

The sides have been stuck in this universe for now 25 some years. They have accepted this, so they now live as if they are just normal people.

They're family friends of their "assigned" family. (Minus Virgil, he just decided that he's now just Ron's brother now.)

Everybody has taken a fake last name to throw anybody off their trail. With Virgil taking his now adoptive brother's.

The twins figure out a name that seems royal enough. Patton takes Hart because basic ass bitch I am and it's just a good last name. Idk for Logan yet. And Janus is an oddball and idk as well, he could pass as a Likely family member if he wanted to honestly.

Now how they feel about the teens, mostly parental or mentor like. And also how they interact with the family they are "family friends" with teen. (Also with npcs I wanna mention)

Logan sees the teens as teenagers. They can be dumb and idiotic and very impulsive. He understands that, however it makes him worry for them sometimes. He thinks Taylor's obsession with anime a bit concerning. He gets along with Cassandra well, the both of them often holding intellectual conversations at like 2 in the morning. Both very sleep deprived.

Remus sees the teens with the fact that the world is very fucked up at this point and they need therapy. He does enjoy how creative they can all get, teens have some of the most twisted minds. He thinks the fact Normal is a mascot kid is pretty cool. He did wish that the devil mascot won because it'd be more fun. However he does enjoy telling Normal about fun ideas for the Teeny fanfics, most getting shot down. How he interacts with either of Normal's parents is with slight malice to the fact they keep pushing Normal's creativity down. It upsets him.

Roman thinks that the teens need to go to therapy, just like his brother. Similarly to Remus, he likes that Normal is a mascot kid. He also gives suggestions, however he doesn't get shot down as much. He also treats Normal's parents with malice for shutting down creativity and also not being proud of Normal. Like ow, that hurts.

Janus thinks the teens need to be more honest. Which is shocking coming from him. He loves a good lie but lying all the time can ruin how you feel about yourself. He actually doesn't really spend time with one family, as he doesn't really want to. However he mostly stays with the Swift family. He also likes having intelligent conversations with Cassandra and Logan. However they are usually all sleep deprived during these conversations.

Patton is very concerned for the teens. He stays with the Li-Wilson's. Lincoln concerns him the most for a while, as the kid has no friends. He interacts with Link's parents decently well. He does push for Link to actually go to school because social interaction is important for kids.

Virgil thinks the teens are cool, maybe extremely anxious but still cool. He is concerned for Scary for the fact she is being manipulated by Willy, however if he tried to tell her. She would start to extremely distrust him. So instead he goes along with the fact that Willy is "good." He is trying to help Scary the best he can, as Scary reminds him a lot of himself. God the parallels between the stamplers and Virgil, damn. Anyways. He also finds Veronica cool and thinks Scary should stop being mad at her. Same with Terry, even if Terry can be a total loser (/pos) at times.

And that's kinda the whole post. However, one last note.

The sides thinks Normal and Hermie deserve to be happy instead of sad as fuck. However, teen romance normally doesn't work out, so they're also worried that Normal will get his heart broken.

They're proud parents basically, who just worry for their kids (the teens). But also kind of just mentors but also parents.

So end of post. I am so sorry for how long this is. It was not worth it to read the whole thing. Sorry.

Anyways. Thank you for reading this long ass post. And dealing with this bullshit.

Also, sorry to those who found this via the tags. I need to tag the post for easy finding on my blog and also for reach.

I will maybe have more stuff for this bullshit au at a later date. Maybe Glenn and Virgil flirting fic. Maybe fanart with the two sets of twins being cool and twinning.

Anyways. Good day/night/time of day everybody. And thank you for reading this whole post!

[mama-ghostie-61542]

Synchronicity--Chapter Thirteen

Kinda fluffly, but still NSFW So NO MINORS!!!!

Synchronicity— The term synchronicity (syn = with, chronos = time) is the simultaneous occurrence of events (or coincidences) which apparently have no clear cause but are deeply meaningful.

However, please remember this small detail........There is no such thing as coincidence. Every single meeting was planned on the other side of the veil before birth. It was given to you in the dossier you are supposed to read before you are sent off to be washed of memory. 

"Actual dialogue"

<text messages>

"Phone calls"

^Telepathy^

*Astral speak*

Memory(--ie; ^Telepathy^ or “Actual Dialogue”)

Chapter Thirteen

Yoongi

                The frustration over the distance between us had compiled so much over the past two months that I felt like I had no choice but to run, as I did NOT want her in Korea. She is enough of a fireball that she’ll own the place by the time she leaves. Or burn it all down. I secretly booked a first class ticket on a flight from Seoul International to STL and then the private charter to PIA, discreetly alerting the airline staff that I would be on board, and wished to keep my arrival and departure a secret. As I packed, I kept thinking of things I could leave at hers. Several pairs of socks and a fair few of my down-market Levi's went into the bag, along with several hats, two hoodies, and at least a dozen t-shirts. My entry was through an employee entrance where I was met by security, who were quick but discreet. The flight was long and uneventful, with no one knowing I was on the flight at all. I ended up sleeping through most of it, so I was well rested by the time the first flight touched down at 7am.

                After arriving in Peoria, I texted Joon to let him know where I was, so he didn't worry and could do his thing there to keep my impulsive ass outta trouble. In all honesty, at the moment, I didn't care if I got into trouble with corporate. I mean, what were they gonna do, fire me? Can you imagine the backlash if they fired their best producer and talent? Army's  would have a field day. Next, as I was the first to exit the plane, I was escorted to one of  security's private rooms where I went through all the TSA checks and passport stuff before being escorted to a waiting car.

                The car took me directly to a dealership in the area, where I bought a car. Granted, it would stay in the long-term parking at the airport most of the time, but I wanted something I could just get into and drive myself home.

                Home.

                That had been a relative term until I had physically met Annah. I had always known that wherever she was, was my home. But for the longest time, I thought it meant our little nest, not realizing for years that she is home. Trust me, that was an epiphany, that the place mattered little as long as I was with her. I remember telling her, through our shared telepathy, ^I was wrong. Home isn't a place on the map. It's you and this feeling between us. You are my home.^

                At the dealership, I paid cash and transferred the entire amount; tax, tag, and title, out the door. I added it to my insurance in Seoul and started for home. Thankfully, the dealer had filled the tank for me, so I wouldn't need to stop anywhere along the way. I knew it probably wouldn't get stolen as I had purchased a manual transmission, but to be on the safe side, I made sure it wasn't flashy. In the end, I bought a green Chevy Cruze, not only because it wouldn't stand out, but also because the four cylinder engine in it made it more economical. I mean, no one would steal the two-year-old, pine green, standard, domestic in the long-term parking lot.

                When I pulled in, there was a bicycle on the patio, and I saw the curtains move in the front room. I wondered if her ex had crashed at hers last night before the kids finally went down. I don't like that he's around all the time, but with not one, but two, special needs boys, I am glad he is. Sometimes, she needs the back-up, but I wish it wasn't him.

                Although, when he met me at the door, he was jovial and let me in.

                "She's still asleep. You are welcome to wake her up, but it's your funeral."          

                I just chuckled, "Watch this shit, Brah," as I walked to her doorway and sat next to her sleeping form on the bed before leaning over her to whisper on her exposed shoulder, "Ba-By."

                She rolled and grunted.

                I smiled because I knew waking her up from a dead sleep would be a challenge. After taking a selfie with her, and tapping send, I leaned back over, "Ma-Mi," I whispered again, this time on her cheek, "C'mon, Honey, wake up."

                This time, I felt the hurt and bittersweet longing more than I physically felt her awaken.

                She gathered the blankets around her and grunted, "Ugh."

                "Baby, wake up, please."

                In her deep, gravelly, morning voice, I heard, "No."

                "But, why, Baby?"

                "Cause you're a dream," I heard her whisper.

                I snorted at that. "Woman, I can guarantee you that I am no dream," I growled. "C'mon, Ghost, UP!" and then I gathered her hand in mine and bit her knuckle.

                "Oww. Haka," she half grumbled, half cried.

                "Ya can't feel pain in dreams, Ghost. Gonna annoy you until you wake up."

                "Go’way and lemme sleep."

                "No, Darling, I have a surprise for you."

                "Don'wan’it, wanna sleep."

                It hit me then that waking her up is like waking me up.

                "Darling, you are going to want this surprise. C'mon, my love, up, up, up," I couldn't hide the smile on my face. In all truth, I was grinning on her right shoulder now and petting her head as I spoke.

                She rolled to her tummy, her face to me. One ocean eye rolled open, and I took the opportunity to lean forwards to where I knew I would be in focus; my lips resting on her arm.

                "Good morning, my Queen," I grinned.

                Suddenly, I had my arms full of sobbing Ghost. It was all I could do to hold her, rocking her while she cried. "Darling, don't cry. I'm home. Told you I was no dream."

                "Damn you, Min Yoongi," she giggled as she wiped her face. I could tell when she actually woke up because she stopped and looked at me, sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling softly at her. Blinking a few times, she asked, "How are you here? You are gonna be in so much trouble," she whispered as my phone started to ring.

                It was Joon. I gave her the international signal for quiet and answered, in English.

                “Joon! How goes it?”

                “You are in soooooo much trouble, old man. If you hurt my mom, I'll skin you myself.”

                It wasn't until she snorted as he was going off about me running out just before midnight, that he caught on that I had him on speaker.

                “MA! Are you ok?”

                “I'm fine, dear. Your father decided to surprise me this morning, that's all.”

                “Ma, He's in a lot of trouble. He took off in the middle of the night and didn't tell anyone where he was going until he landed and then just shot me a text. I didn't even know he knew where you live until he sent me a selfie with you asleep next to him.”

                “Artem Ra,” she interrupted, her growling bark bringing up a memory of her barking orders at troops. “Your father is safe and sound. Relax, son. However, remember that even a king needs downtime. Besides, you and I both know he has a wild streak. I mean, where did you think you got it?”

                Joon sounded shocked that she knew, “Ma!”

                That is when I noticed the tears dried on her face. Without thinking, I licked my thumb and set to wiping the salty residue off.

                "Yoongi," she said as she slapped my hand away.

                "Just lemme," I started as we tussled, me trying to get the streak off her sweet face and her trying to keep my hands out of her face.

                The whole time, we were both laughing and Joon was shouting, “Stop acting like kids!”

                I had her caught around the shoulders when she yelled, “Bye, Joon! We love you!” and hit the end call button on my phone.

                "Why, you,” I laughed as I grabbed her and fell over on the bed with her, tickling her.

                Her laughter was like an angel song to me.

                "Stop, stop, stop," she laughed.

                "Why,” I asked as my fingers stilled.

                "Cause I gotta pee."

                "Oh, well in that case," I chuckled as I let her up, swatting her butt as she moved past me. "P.S. That's a FANTASTIC ass."

                Haha. Caught her off-guard and speechless with that one. I smiled, sitting on the bed waiting for her to return. When she did, she smelled like strong soap. I instantly tackled her and set about to covering her sweet face in kisses.

                "Yoongi," she giggled as she tried to push me off.

                "Nuh-uh. I owe you, like, a billion kisses for all the time I was away. And you saved up all your kisses for me, too, so shush."

[rmoonstoner]

Chapter 2 of Talaq

***

Worship

***

Warning: Loss of virginity. Descriptions of pain during the first penetration caused by a male sexual organ. Dirty talk. Overstimulation. Praising. Scratching and biting. Also violence before the smut.

***

You were now standing on a rooftop that overlooked a busy late night market. There were hundreds of mortals walking the dusty streets making bargains and striking deals. You crouched down on the edge of the roof to watch a particular small shop that was selling spices, and you inhaled the wonderful exotic scents that smelled similar to the ones back home.

Khonshu watched your excitement grow as you moved to look at another stall with pastries and snacks that the mortals of this region enjoyed. He felt a foreign feeling as you came over to him, babbling about wanting to explore the area, and to try their delicacies. He chuckled and used his magic to disguise you as one of the mortals, while he slipped into an Astral plane where you could see and hear him, but the humans could not.

You made your way down into the market, and happily flitted through the people to check out the various stalls of the bazaar. Despite not having any money, many of the sellers were freely giving you samples of their wares. They must have been charmed by your gift from Hathor. At one point, a man came up to you, and he tried to sweet talk you into following him into a dark alley, but Khonshu had scared the shit out of him by mimicking the cries of snarling jackals.

After that, the moon God warned you about men like him, ones with malicious intent. You understood, because after a few hours of traveling the darkened streets with him, you witnessed horrible things.

You watched a man get chased down the street for stealing bread to feed his family, and had Khonshu not intervened, the man would surely have been either killed, or lost a hand as punishment. Then you came upon a very drunk woman who was being led to a dark corner by two rough looking men. Again, Khonshu intervened before the woman was violated against her will. Both instances, the moon God had used the wind to scare them, and then he used psychic imagery to drive them off in a crazed stupor.

"I had no idea there were so many terrible people down here." You softly said to Khonshu as you sat on his shoulder, looking down at the quieting streets.

"Yes. Unfortunately humans have a history of evil within them. Not all of them are bad. Many of them are good. That's why I look after them, watching and protecting them from themselves, while the other Gods have stopped coming to help."

"Why would they stop helping?" You asked, feeling sad for the humans, and slightly salty towards your fellow Deities.

"They figure if the mortals stopped worshipping us, then they owe them nothing in return. I think that's asinine. We were here long before they were, and at the rate the humans are going, they will be around for millenias to come. Unfortunately, the other Gods don't get to see the flow of time the way I do. The humans will be around a lot longer than any of them would like to admit."

"That is asinine. So what if they don't worship us any longer? We can still aid them when they need it." You replied with disgust. He hummed again and pointed to a group gathering by a fountain. They were singing and dancing, at first glance, they appeared to be celebrating something, but as you got closer, Khonshu pointed at how some of the dancers were covered in blood.

"That's a cult, worshiping the demonic Goddess, Ammit." He whispered as you watched two priests drag a man who was kicking and screaming.

"Wasn't she imprisoned for judging mortals for crimes they had yet to commit?" You asked, and you heard him growl in disgust.

"The very same."

"Oh. Well that's not fair. The future she sees is not set in stone. They are mere possibilities, and the timeliness can change at any given moment. The mortals can always change their future with the choices they are constantly making." You remarked, and Khonshu grumbled a quiet reply of agreement.

"Ammit grew tired of waiting to judge people. She wanted to cleanse the Earth quickly and efficiently. She was sealed away for this belief. Even her own Avatar, Alexander the Great, betrayed her." Khonshu said as he shifted, and slid down the wall towards the fountain. You camouflaged yourself to be hidden in the same manner that he was, and you both got close enough to hear what was going on.

"Abdullah, son of Abdul the sea merchant. You have been chosen to be judged by Ammit!" One priest declared, while the other began to restrain the poor shaking man.

"P-please. I haven't done anything! I follow all the laws, and I pay my taxes!" The man sobbed as a priest came up with a peculiar looking staff. You couldn't quite see what he was doing with it.

"The scales have spoken. You must have darkness in your heart, if not now, then later. You shall be punished by the power of the mighty Ammit!" The priest bellowed, and he reached out to touch the poor devastated man.

You couldn't bear to see what would happen, and you tugged on Khonshu's arm, while burying your face into his wrappings. The moon God grit his teeth, and he decided that he couldn't let these people punish someone for a crime they had not yet committed. He slammed his staff into the ground, producing a medium magnitude earthquake, while the winds rolled the clouds in to block out the light of the moon.

The people were so stunned by the sudden weather change, that they had let go of their captive as they looked up at the sky. You decided to go help him, and you hopped off of Khonshu's shoulder. You quickly snuck over to the bound man  and freed his bindings. He was shocked, but he didn't stay to ponder how, and he ran off while the others were distracted. 

When Khonshu noticed where you were, he teleported to you, grabbed your arm, and yanked you back to him as he vanished away to the rooftops once more.

"That was dangerous!"

"But they didn't see me. I couldn't just let them kill that man for no reason." You defended your actions, watching as he opened his mouth to speak, but then he went quiet. He seemed to accept the answer, and he looked up at the moon once more.

"We should move along." He stated bluntly, and held out his hand.

"We aren't going back, now… Are we?" You asked with a trembling lower lip. You knew what you had done was downright insane, especially after he explained to you that you shouldn't be seen.

"No. Just a simple change of scenery." He replied softly, and you took his hand, and you both vanished.

When you came out of his dark starry void, you found yourself in some sort of temple. You looked around, seeing how old the place was, and how it didn't appear to be kept clean at all. Layers of dust covered everything, and cobwebs stretched out everywhere near the edges of the walls and ceiling. The torches were dim, only lighting the areas with the bare minimum of light that only made the place look creepy and forgotten by time. The smells were dusty, like old musty dirt and ash.

"Where are we?" You asked, hearing your voice echo off of the walls, filling you with an empty hollowness you hadn't felt before. You turned to look at Khonshu, awaiting his reply, but he said nothing as he walked towards a set of sandstone stairs. You quietly followed him, until you came to a much different room.

This room was lit a little better. It held candles that burned with magic and gave off a gentle and warm glow. You noticed there were no cobwebs or dust. The smells of the room were full of the scent of burning wood, incense, warm spices, and a strangely arousing musky scent. You saw it was decorated with the finest of white linens that covered the white marble stone walls with cracks of silver and gold running through the smooth polished stone. 

At the bottom of each wall, were displays with weapons and armor. You saw kopeshs, spears, swords, knives, and much more you did not recognize. There were all sorts of armor styles, and they all were white and gold, accented with the finest of jewels.

Khonshu turned towards you, and he raised his hand, snapping his fingers together to brighten the room. You saw he was now standing in front of a raised part in the center of the room. It was surrounded by a channel of water reflected the light of the moon that trickled in from the clear crystal slab in the roof. You noticed quite quickly there were multiple crystal shapes all around the slab, and they all made up the night sky over Egypt. The light cascaded over the walls and the water, reflecting the light everywhere in an almost ethereal light.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

You looked to the walls behind him, and saw small fountains with golden bird skulls delivering the water into the room in a slow and steady flow. The gentle sounds of the water moving could be heard in the background. When your eyes wandered back to the center of the room, you saw that the raised area appeared to be a circular platform made of white marble.

On top of that, was a plush looking rug, and a mountain of luxurious pillows and blankets.

"Where are we?" You repeated your question again, and this time the moon God answered.

"This room is my personal chamber inside of my temple." He replied in a low and rumbling voice.

"You have a temple on Earth, dedicated to you?"

"No, little one. This place is not Earthly, yet it runs the same flow of time." He said, and he turned to look at you.

"Is that some sort of riddle? I'm good with riddles…" You replied, thinking he was playing a game with you. He tilted his head as he gazed at you.

"It wasn't a riddle-" He starred to say, but you raised your hand up and shushed him.

Khonshu wasn't even upset by that action, and he stayed quiet as he watched you walk past him, up the few stairs to lush area covered with pillows. You looked up at the sky light, and smiled at the dark sky above. You could see the slightly blurry image of the moon and the stars beyond the slab…

Wait, the moon wasn't blueish green.

"We're up on the moon? Aren't we?" You asked him, your eyes not leaving the image of Earth through the crystal pane above you.

Khonshu could see your eyes sparkle brightly, and there was a foreign fluttering feeling inside of his chest. The way the starlight reflected from the water all over your dark skin was beautiful in a way he could not describe. He found himself slowly ascending the steps to stand behind you, almost close enough that he could feel your very soul glow with happiness.

"Yes, we are." He murmured back, standing still as the marble that made up this chamber. He stared at your hair, looking softer than a newborn swan's down.

His hand twitched, itching to touch it.

"It's so beautiful. Is this where you spend your time, when not helping the mortals?" You pondered out loud.

"Rarely." Came his subdued and distant reply. He couldn't look away from your shoulders, or the way the white dress hung to your curves.

"Then why did you bring me here?" You asked as you turned around to face him.

His mask was now gone, and you could see his face again. He was quite handsome, with very a chiseled square jaw and a well shaped nose. You could see long dimples on the side of his mouth, with the left side being a tad longer. He had thick black eyebrows, with a small crese between them. His face appeared to be smooth, with no trace of facial hair anywhere.

Khonshu didn't know how to answer the question, because even he didn't know why he brought you here, but the way you looked in the light made his breath catch in the back of his throat, and he couldn't stop himself from bringing his hand up to cup your face. The second he touched you, you felt a jolt of electricity, and your eyes fluttered halfway to look at him through your lashes.

The light bounced off his dark skin, softening the hard lines on his face as his black eyes looked into yours. Your hand came up to rest over his on your face, and you felt his fingers twitch at your touch. He could plainly see you were attractive, and your eyes were mesmerizing him, commanding him to stay there.

Your hand slowly moved up the length of his arm, finger tips gently caressing him in a way that set his every nerve ending on fire. He found himself crouching to get a closer look at you as he tried to figure out what this weird feeling was. Soon he was sitting on his heels, steadying himself with his staff as he got to your eye level. He was so close, you could feel his hot breath on your skin, like a desert night's breeze in the Summer.

For the first time in your life since being a young child, you felt thirsty, and you licked your lips to moisten them.

His eyes darted down to your mouth, and his mirrored yours, feeling the exact same sudden onslaught of thirst. Without even thinking, he leaned forward and captured your lips with his, his eyes slowly closing.

Something in the back of his mind was screaming that this was far worse than taking you down to Earth against his father's wishes. That if he were to be caught right now, he would be punished for taking advantage of a young Goddess…

But those thoughts were quickly shoved away the moment he felt your hands on the sides of face, and a needy whine escaped your throat as you pressed closer to him. He left go of his staff, letting it fall to the cushions on the floor with a quiet thud while his hand came to rest on your back. He drew you in closer, deepening the kiss. Your hands smoothed up his head, knocking his headdress to the floor.

He had never felt anything like this before, and it was mind blowing.

No, it was down right intoxicating.

His hand threaded into your hair, and he reveled in the texture of it, while your hands felt the smoothness of his bald head. Before he even knew what was happening, you were jamming your tongue into his mouth, and crawling into his lap. That simple movement caused him to fall backwards against a pile of pillows as you sucked on his lower lip.

A deep groan escaped him, and you found the sound hitting your very core. He sounded needy, like he couldn't get enough of what was happening…

Like he couldn't get enough of you.

You started to grind yourself against him, chasing the tight burning sensation in your groin. It felt like hot coals burning into a raging fire as you brushed up against something hard and firm in lap. Small frantic noises bubbled up in your throat as you straddled him, feeling his hands roaming your back and sides. Every soft brush of his fingers sent you deeper into the haze of pleasure.

Khonshu had never done anything even remotely similar to this. These feelings were new, and dare he say highly addicting. He needed more, and he ignored the screaming voice in head to let go of you.

His hands gripped your soft flesh, and he pulled you down against him, thrusting upwards in a way he had only ever witnessed the mortals do. You tilted your head back and mewled for him, rocking harder into his lap for more of that delightful friction. He took the opportunity of your lips leaving his to trail his mouth along your jaw and down your neck, kissing and licking your tender flesh.

The feeling was intense, and the throbbing between your legs was becoming unbearable, almost painful. You whined again as you felt his teeth scrape against your skin, going to suck on the juncture of your neck and shoulder. You shook in his hold, whimpering for more…

Whatever this was.

"P-please…" You had no idea what it was you were requesting, but he responded with a deep growl and a nip to your shoulder. You shuddered at the feeling, whispering his name as his hands moved again. One went to your front, palming one of your breasts, while the other wriggled it's way into your dress from the front.

You gasped when his skin met your yours, finding that he had banished away the wrappings on his hands. His fingers were rough, which was a surprise to you since he kept them covered all the time.

A low rumbling noise started to vibrate through his chest, and it ran straight into yours as your hips lifted. You back was arching as his fingers slid between your legs, right to your dripping mound. You keened for him as he slipped two of his long digits through your slick folds, causing you you shake with need, your mind going numb and dizzy.

You had no idea how wonderful this would feel, and you hadn't even intended on him being the target of finding out.

"Khonshu…" You whispered his name softly, and he heard your voice like a gentle prayer, begging for release. He dove his fingers in slightly deeper, swishing them back and forth as he stretched you open in a way you needed.

He whispered your name back as he sucked a deep greenish purple bruise into your neck. Your hands gripped his cape in both hands like a vice, all the while you tried to press yourself against his hand. You were desperate for more, feeling the pleasure build where his hand worked you closer to the edge of something unknown and delightful.

Your hands started to moved down his chest, lower and lower, hoping to do the same to him. You knew basically nothing of what you were doing, and had only seen the mortals do this a handful of times through your viewing sphere. When your hands got to his belt that held his shendyt in place, he reared his head back, stopped moving his fingers, and he grabbed your wrist. You whimpered in frustration, looking him in the eye, silently asking him why.

"Little one… Are you certain you want this? I… I dont think you know what you're asking for-"

"I've watched the mortals… I know what I want, and I want to see if you're the same down there as their men… I want you… Inside me…" You purred at him while batting your lashes. A strangled groan caught in his throat as he slowly released your hand.

He watched as you undid the fabric bindings, and wrapped your small fingers around his considerable girth, pulling him out for your eyes to feast on him. He was rigid and at full mast, the head of his member leaking a clear fluid. You thought back to how the humans did this, and you gently stroked his hard cock.

The rumbling in his chest got deeper, and his hand that was still buried between your thighs sprang back into action. You lurched forwards, resting your head on his shoulder as he plunged his fingers in and out of you in a steady pace. You took low and shallow breaths as he worked a third finger into you, twisting and curling them inside as his thumb met with your throbbing bundle of nerves. He hit something that caused sparks to fly through your vision, and you let go of his throbbing cock.

"Ahhh…" Your voice came out as a cross between a shakey moan, and desperate plea. He chuckled darkly, going to nip at your ear.

"My, my, my… My sister's gift did make you overly sensitive…" He rasped, voice full or awe and wonder. You keened again, unable to speak as he pulled back to look into your eyes.

"Fuck… You're sopping wet…" He murmured as his fingers kept moving, causing a squelching sound to hit your ears. You could feel something building up inside of your belly, a knot of some sorts, winding tighter and tigher.

"I can make you feel so much better than this…" Khonshu whispered, and his fingers stopped moving. You nearly cried when he stopped.

"Please…" You begged him, and he grinned at you, bringing his hand up to his mouth. He looked you in the eye, and licked his index finger very slowly. You moaned at the sight of him, shaking with so much need, you felt like you were about to burst into tears.

"So needy… Sit down, and I shall show you the greatest heights of pleasure that you've ever known…" Khonshu said gruffly as he grabbed your hips and he leaned in to kiss you again. You could taste yourself on his lips, as his tongue laved against yours.

You obediently listened to him, and slowly lowered yourself onto his twitching member. You felt the blunt end of his shaft probe your wet folds, and then slide right in as you seated yourself on his lap. The entire way, your mouth hung open, a silent moan ghosting softly from your lips as he filled you up…

Until about half way, when a seering pain ran through you, and your body locked up, teeth biting into your lower lip as you held back a cry of agony. Your nails dug into his shoulders, and you squeezed your eyes shut.

"Shhh, little one… It only hurts the first time… I promise it gets better." Khonshu cooed to you as he held your face and wiped the tears leaking from the corners of your eyes.

"Open those beautiful orbs for me. Breathe with me." He softly encouraged you as he stroked the small of your back.

"Relax… That's it… Relax…" He chanted the words like a calming mantra, and you found yourself slowly relaxing as you took short and shallow breaths. With each intake of air, your inner walls eased up, until the pain was barely registerable. Once your breathing evened out, he leaned in, pressing his forehead against yours as he kissed you. You melted against him, wishing to get back to that cloud of pleasure, and your hips began to rock experimentally.

Sparks began to fly through you as your nerves lit back on fire, but this time there was no pain, just pure bliss as you felt his cock move inside of you. You gasped into his mouth as your hips picked up speed, and soon you were riding him hard and fast, chasing that wonderful feeling that his fingers had done to you. He parted from you, a string of saliva hanging from your lower lip as you stared into the inky black void of his eyes.

"Like that, little one… Just like that…" He groaned as his arms encased your body, holding you as close as he could.

"Khonshu… You feel so good…" You breathed hotly, using his shoulders as leverage while you bounced up and down on his lap.

"I can make you feel even better…"

"Please… Please…" You whined out, and he growled in response.

In a sudden quick movement, he tipped you backwards, resting your head on some pillows as he hiked your waist up, and shoved his knees to the floor underneath you. You wrapped your legs tightly around his waist, and stared up at him.

"Get ready to scream for me…' He rumbled, and then he started to thrust into you hard and slow. You howled for him, clawing at his back as he gradually increased his speed and the intensity of each thrust.

"Ah! Oh! Yes… Fuck! Harder!" You yowled and started to undulate in his gasp, grinding hard against him as he drilled himself into you. You could feel the head of cock scraping at something sinful, before he bottomed out, and slid out almost all the way, then he slammed himself back inside. He stirred you, rotating his hips as he bit into your neck. You shook, screaming his name loudly as his pelvis ground against yours.

That was it.

Your first full fledged orgasm hit you like lightning, searing every inch of your body with a white hot light. Your eyes rolled back, mouth hanging open as your voice cracked.

And he just kept going.

His hand came around to your front, and he twisted your clit between his fingers, forcing a hot rush of fluids to gush out from your swollen hole. The orgasm became much more intense, and you clung to him as he rode you into a set of multiple orgasms.

By now you were panting and twisting around in his grip, not sure if you wanted to get away from this feeling, or embrace it and take more of his skillful ministrations. In the end, you took what he gave you, and your mind went blank, making you feel like you were underwater, drowning in ecstasy.

"You take my cock so well. Look at how you quiver for me. I should thank my sister for making you so receptive to physical touch…" Khonshu groaned as he leaned back to watch his cock glide in and out of you. He had no idea why it aroused him to see you like this, falling apart because of him.

But it did, and he never wanted to stop touching you like this.

He was getting close, and he couldn't stand the idea of letting you go just yet. He leaned down once more and captured your mouth with his. His cock pulsed harshly as he heard your cries, demanding more and more from him.

"Sweet little Goddess… I'm going to fuck you all night…" His voice echoed through your ears, right to your center, shocking your soul. All you could do was babble his name repeatedly, encouraging him to keep taking what he wanted from you.

"I'm going to fill that pretty little pussy of yours, and you're going to like it." Khonshu growled into your ear as you felt his cock pulse rapidly. More sparks broke through your vision, and you felt him bite you again as he came. You could feel the thick ropes of his come spurting inside of you, slathering your walls with his fluids as he kept pistoning his hips. You cried out while biting his shoulder, coming hard while feeling the globs of slick flowing out of you, and running down your ass.

"I'm not done with you, yet, my starlight, talaq…"

He wanted to share this moment with you until the sun crested the sky.

And that's exactly what he did.

It was hours of this sweet torture, with him forcing your body to comply with whatever he wished. He switched positions multiple times, having you on your knees as he bounced his hips against yours, and pulling your hair as he left more bites and bruises all over your neck. You made the loudest noises as he filled you with another load.

Then he twisted you onto your side, slamming himself in and out as he held your your legs together and fucked you harshly, leaving handprints along your legs and arms.

He fucked you on you back, legs in both fists as he bent you in half and forced you to come a few times, before he filled you again.

Again and again, he mercilessly made love to you, pouring himself into you piece by piece until you couldn't form any coherent thoughts, except for wanting more of him. He went at you until the night sky lightened, and the sun began to rear itself into view.

By then, you were worn out, near the point of blacking out, which was another thing that had never happened to you before. When he was finally finished with you, he held you close, and spread his cape over your body. When you finally did pass out, his name was on your lips, along with the request of seeing him again.

He couldn't refuse you, and as you sat there in his arms, he looked up at the skylight and sighed heavily. The weight of what he had just done, hit him like a supernova exploding at the far reaches of space.

He had just taken the virginity of the youngest Goddess of the Ennead. Him, the most disliked God of the entire Egyptian pantheon, aside from Ammit. His father would no doubt be absolutely furious with him. He knew this was not the type of gift Ra had intended his son to bestow upon you.

And time was running out to get back, before anyone noticed.

"What have I done?" 

***

Note: I don't give a damn if Khonshu has a temple on the moon or not. He does in this story.

Also, since I did some research on what Khonshu's human form looks like. I'm going to go out on a limb, and take some liberties. In my head, his human form is a perfect match to Marc/Steven/Jake, only he's bald, and cleanly shaven.

Talaq is Arabic for shine/sparkle/dazzle/glitter.

@snippychicke

[semischarmed]

Projection

Have I ever told you about how the astral plane works? So, here’s a little secret about me. I’ve been dabbling the past few years a little in lucid dreaming. Well, it turns out I have a knack for it, and it’s amazing, I can go around doing whatever I want. I climbed Mount Everest, flew through the skies, visited Paris. The possibilities are literally endless. And, me being me, I like to go around in these dreams trying different ways at possessing people.

Of course, since it’s still a dream at the end of the day, the experience is somewhat detached. As fucking hot as it is, flooding my dream self inside my hot neighbor, or phasing into that cute barista at the Starbucks down the street, I always wake up to a sense of disappointment. There’s only so much the brain can make up. I’m not particularly smart or imaginative either, so it honestly feels like half my energy is spent just trying to maintain that dream.

So that led me to try other means. Of course, the next logical step was astral projection. Unlike a dream, when you project, you yourself are experiencing the world- the real world. I wanted to try my hand at projecting into people.

I found a book online that detailed specific steps on how to achieve this. I think this was where the trouble began. In addition to being a great lucid dreamer, I was apparently an astral projection savant. The book mentioned it could take months before I could manifest my full body outside the physical plane, and years before I could untether and explore the world. It took me two days before I was able to leave my own body and jump inside people.

All things considered, astral projection is a bit of a dead end. I thought I’d be able to jump inside people, control them, live as them, fuck as them, the works. Well, the human body is resilient. It knows what soul belongs in it, so there’s not much to do inside someone, you can’t really influence what they do, and people seem to pick up on the odd sensation of someone else being in the room with them, so even when I do jump inside someone masturbating or fucking, half of them stop on the spot. Still, when you’re in someone who’s a little more fearless, you feel their body as them, and, let me just say, it’s hot being inside someone when they masturbate. It’s like feeling your own hand do the deed, but you feel it as them. You feel every muscle, every feeling, every thought. The hot ones kind of suck at it, but the afterglow is pure bliss.

This book gives one strange rule on projection though: Twins, especially identical ones, are unique. They hold a special bond. “Do not project into a twin.” Given this ominous warning and my curiosity, and given how much of an expert I already was at this whole projecting thing, I had no choice but to try.

———

The first time I projected into a twin, was magical. Of course, I knew immediately who I wanted to test this on. The hot twins who lived down the street who were especially close. They seemed to have different people over all the time so at the very least, they were active. I had my sights on one particular twin: Chase. Goddamn what a specimen.

I decided to go into a sleeping Chase as a trial run during one of my late nights. The twins apparently slept on the same bed, which was a bit weird but was perhaps a testament to to their closeness. I thought it was kind of cute. Like with all projection, the body resists the intrusion and I have to claw my way into him. Easy enough.

Chase’s twin Caleb immediately stirred with eyes closed in confusion- “Chase... are you there?” The slumbering Chase did not respond. Upon closer inspection, I caught sight of Caleb’s slumbering form talking to the spirit of Chase that he took inside himself. Oh shit does this mean what I think it means? Then I decided to move inside Chase’s body while his form followed my spirit’s commands. I knew it.

The first thing I did once I realized I had full control of Chase, of course, was to start playing with this new dick. In my excitement, I was immediately drawn back into my own form, awoken by my raging hard-on. Damn it! Fucking tease. I decided to finish beating it out, with Chase’s hot bod on my mind and a resolve from then on to get better at this projecting thing and stay longer inside him.

I made a fascinating discovery that day- a discovery that had probably prompted that ominous message in the first place. Twins are already naturally connected in spirit, so when you astral project into a twin, you can displace them and the owner’s spirit actually has a welcome place to go.

———

The second time I projected into a twin, I went into the wrong one. Equally unfortunate  was that they seemed to have just had a fight, sitting in and angry silence before going to their respective rooms. I really should have done more research as far as who lived where because the person’s back that I slammed into was none other than Caleb. Likewise, it was apparently possible for twins to resist the displacement. This one was a fighter. The first thing I try to do in his body is flow into each limb and untether him. This proved to be fruitless, as he was easily able to fend off my attacks, kicking me right out of his body. I wasn’t one to lose a challenge so I again attempted a different route this time, concentrating all of me into his mind- control the mind and the body follows. Failure again. My final route was perhaps the cruelest, I expanded and positioned my soul to encompass all of him and began an all out barrage for control of his bod. Back and forth, my spirit squeezed in and out into him from all sides until he could no longer defend himself.

Finally, his soul submitted and I felt an emptying motion, accompanied by a quick shout from the other room. “H-What the fuck!” Chase barged in, visibly shaking, hands on his head in a mix of pain and confusion. He looked at me intently with an emotion I could not attribute. In response I gave a quick smirk and flipped him off with his own body before stating “Caleb, you’re pretty cute too. You like this? This is mine now.” As I start doing poses with his body, the emotion of my temporary twin became clear. Desire.

I stripped shirtless and began doing push-ups with his body, easily clearing 70 before finally breaking a sweat. I stood up and raised my Caleb arms, imbuing the room with his scent. Caleb looked on from Chase’s body with silent intent.

I then used Caleb’s nose to sniff his own armpits, used his own tongue to lick it clean, used his own mouth to flash him a demented smile. “Caleb, you taste very good, just like your hot brother,” I stated “-cmon, join meeee Chase... let’s do something sacrilegious” I ended with a wink. Of course, my fucking body woke up again, just when it was getting good. In the process, Chase also fell unconscious, as the real Caleb returned to himself. As I felt the last of my spirit be pulled back, and the waking world return, I caught the troubling sight of Caleb, back inside his own body, furiously masturbating over the events that had transpired.

——-

The third time I projected into a twin, he fell into depravity with me. Truth be told, I was again making a beeline right for Chase because, come on, look this face. Just as I was about to claim that tight ass, I felt myself get dragged into Caleb. A-fucking-gain. This time felt different though- he was still in the body with me. That in itself wasn’t too odd, given our fight from last time, but even  stranger this time around was that his body was willing. It readily welcomed my soul. His form followed my spirit’s every move, yet I still felt his soul present, compliant. I decided to do what I meant to do in Chase and began masturbating. At the end of the day, they were twins after all, Caleb was still fucking hot to cum through, and I was not one to miss an opportunity.

“Well I think today’s little trip is gonna be a two-for one” I said with his voice as I finished. I then purged myself from Caleb’s physical form and headed straight for Chase until I felt a part of my current body pull me back. My spectral form attempted to claw myself back towards Chase, but Caleb’s pull had been too strong. He wasn’t letting me go. My spirit recoiled and slammed right back into his and I felt a part of myself stain Caleb. “I didn’t say you could leave,” he commanded, forcing me to watch as he began to rub our body with his warm seed. Hot. We both brought some of it up to our shared mouth, taking in all that we had just completed. “If you want, I’ll let you go so you can go inside that asshole Chase”, he states, “Make him dirty like me...or I’ll have to”. That last line definitely threw me off. Though I meant to to investigate further, I again felt the pull of the waking world from my own body. He moaned a quick “thank you” before passing out.

The return trip to myself equally odd. The human body naturally resists a little before accepting a spirit, even when it’s the owner of that body but somehow mine accepted me with no push back. Something was off.

Still, being inside these twins was fucking hot and I was not going to let a few unfounded fears stop me. I set plans for my return trip to them.

———

The fourth time I projected into a twin was also the most impactful. I once again aimed for Chase, but immediately ran into a confusing sight...

Standing before me was Chase, or rather, Chase’s body, unconscious in frozen discomfort. As far as his soul, however, I could see its form convulsing and contorting in pain. I then catch sight of the cause of that pain- Caleb’s spectral form was somehow deep inside Chase’s filling into him. It’s like watching an infection in real-time.

I stood, or rather hovered, in silence at the bizarre display I had witnessed. Evidently, that was a mistake, because before I aimed to leave this terrifying sight and head back, I notice Chase’s unconscious form raise its head, turn right at me and give me a toothy, wicked smile. “I can see you”. Chase’s body licks its lips. “You probably didn’t know this but independent little Chase over here has been planning on leaving for a while now. Said we should split. Move to a different cities. Live out our own.” Chase’s body opens it’s eyes and starts walking to Caleb’s slumbering form. He leans over and starts making out with the unconscious Caleb. “Oh Caleb” he moans “Don’t worry. I’m never gonna leave you” Chase’s lips gently pry open Caleb’s and he snakes his tongue inside. Parts of Caleb’s cheek puff up and back down as Chase’s tongue explores every crevice. He sucks a little before letting out a satisfied sigh “so...so that’s what I taste like,” he says breathlessly.

Chase then starts playing with himself right next to his twin’s sleeping form and I couldn’t help but get a bit aroused. “You always were the hotter twin” Chase says to himself as he continues tracing his own calloused hands all over. His attention moves to the unconscious Caleb, who he stops first to ponder for a moment before beginning to pump. He then positions Chase’s mouth over his original body to expertly deepthroat his own dick. This stirs the Caleb body to life, and he makes them both finish on each other off.

With both bodies, Caleb finishes licking himself clean. “Since it’s all me over here, this is technically just masturbating” he says confidently, as if to justify the disturbing sight I just witnessed. Caleb then positions Chase’s sweaty body behind his and has Chase wrap his sweaty biceps into an embrace from behind. “Like I said bro [moan], I’m never leaving you”. Two amused pairs of eyes then look directly at me. “You’re never leaving us either right? We have to thank you somehow for this,” they say, gesturing at their incestuous selves. I am immediately creeped out. After thinking for a few seconds, they chime in unison “Welcome to the family! We have a present for you”. With that, Caleb drops unconscious. That was signal enough for me, giving me shock I need to head straight back for my body.

Of course, by the time I get there, I instead see my own self, sitting naked, eyes rolled back and moaning as he maneuvers my hands all over. I see him continue to explore me, twisting my nipples, which, fuck that feels good, masturbating me, using my own body to maneuver in ways I never did before. With Caleb inside, my body moves with a confidence I never had. The experience is surreal. The sheer pleasure more or less stuns my soul on the spot. When my physical body finishes cumming, Caleb brings our hands to scoop it up and, oddly, it tasted different- slightly salty, slightly sweet, slightly Caleb. He sniffs our armpit and, again, the scent was rank, putrid, and nothing I’ve ever created. What was coming out of my body was undeniably Caleb.

“Mmmmmm... property of Caleb now” he says with my voice, as he rubs my Caleb-smelling sweat all over. Admittedly this was kind of hot. With an assured stride that I didn’t know my body could perform, Caleb opens my door, greeted by a Chase carrying his own unconscious twin. Caleb brings my body to his own and starts defiling himself. He turns his own body around and starts fucking it with my penis. Fuck that also feels good. With each pump, his own body starts to animate, ever so slightly. When he finally cums, my physical form falls unconscious and Caleb stirs awake. I take this as my chance to get back inside me. Success.. and god with Caleb smeared all over me, I smell disgustingly good.

“You’ll never leave me, right?” The body in front of me questioned. I’m a bit taken aback and try to stammer out a response “Uh...-“ before I could finish, Chase penetrates me from behind. “That would be a no” He whispers before giving my ear a playful bite. Why did he have to be so cute. This whole series of events was something straight out of my dreams. Despite this, my self preservation instincts kick into overdrive. Whatever this is, however good this feels, I need to get out. Fast.

As if he could read my mind, Caleb’s body smiles as he makes his twin use his rough fingers to gently grab my hair and pull me back. He leans Chase over to give me a deep, sensual kiss. “Oh well, Chase isn’t here anymore. Caleb took me, all of me. We’ve always had a deep connection... but he wanted more-I trusted him and he used that love to get inside me, pervert my soul... he’s in so deep inside me now that Caleb is all that’s left.” He wipes his sweaty face all over mine and continues making out. He then starts gyrating his hips, pushing more of himself inside my body as the Caleb body does the opposite and swallows more of my still-hardened rod with his ass. I feel the throbbing almost impossibly deep inside me from Chase’s dick as they proceed. “Thank you for this” they moan in unison.

They continue humping me from both sides, locking me in a paralyzed bliss. “We wanted to give you something special for keeping us close” they say. Then I felt it in my soul. Caleb. He pulls my spirit out and with his twin souls begin to fuck me in the astral plane. The feeling is indescribable. Nirvana. Bliss. Ecstasy. Enveloped by and merged to Caleb and Chase’s spectral forms, completion. This could be me. This could be us forever.

Then reality snaps back and I am floating alone. I finally regain my composure I try to head back to my unconscious, smiling body. No dice. “Occupied” it says with a chuckle. I head for Chase’s instead, “mmmm getting close” it moans. My body grins wider and motions to the unconscious Caleb. He spits with both bodies at his own motionless form. “Go ahead, take you new place, Caleb”. With no other option, I fill into the empty Caleb shell.

Chase and my body then start fucking each other. Hard. Messy. He’s doing more things with my body that I didn’t even know was possible, and as the original owner of my body, and the current inhabitant of Caleb’s, I feel both motions amplified. Im sure he feels the same.

As Chase, he turns my body around, and again rams his thick dick inside. My body involuntarily gasps, which causes me to gasp inside of Caleb. He forces a wicked, dirty smile out of my body’s face as he plunges ever deeper. He slips Chase’s sweaty abs onto my body’s back, wraps tone, sweaty Chase biceps over mine into an armlock from behind and takes plump Chase lips into a quick peck on my body’s cheek. My body then sags unconscious. Despite the sight, the smell throughout the sweaty combination was undeniably just Caleb’s.

Chase’s eyes flutter and his body trembles as Caleb repossessed his twin’s body with the extra soul he stuffed mine with. With double the soul inside, Chase exudes double the vitality and in that sweaty embrace, Caleb again gyrated his twin’s body into mine as he fills it with double the seed- double the soul. “T-thank you for the house warming present. I’ll take real good care of you-you’ll take real good care of us” he moans, as Chase’s body now goes unconscious as well. Dread fills me.

Aside from the odd cases with twins, human bodies know who their masters are. The act of imbuing a soul into a different body is, in and of itself, unnatural. So it was at this point that my empty body starts involuntarily writhing, trying to escape. I see tears well in my closed eyes, still unconscious from effort. Of course, as Caleb, I motion to protect myself from whatever was going to occur next and set to pull my unconscious form off the Chase embrace. Before I could pull my body out of the entrapment, it shoots awake, face swinging upward to face me. Bright white eyes shoot open. Behind my skin I see a force pushing deep inside, stretching it unnaturally. The visage of Chase appears, beneath my flesh, wearing my face like a mask. Though it’s Chase’s spirit he melds, the smile growing is undeniably Caleb. When it all settles, eyes roll back into place. Instead of my normal eyes, Chase’s pale blue orbs appear in their place. The crooked smile grows to a laugh on my body, teeth looking odd, until I realize it was Chase’s own molars poking through my own mouth. He takes shallow breaths and smears more sweat around himself, and though I can’t place if it was my own body’s sweat or Chase’s, the smell emanating is fully Caleb. Bones crack, skin shivers and stretch and contract and construct and I feel, from my own soul, a massive wave of nausea.

If astral projection into another is, in itself, an unnatural act, astral displacement, astral merging was another layer of corruption entirely, it was unholy. He was changing something in me, fundamentally. Wave after wave of Chase’s flesh bleed into my body from Caleb’s onslaught. My nausea shifts into a unique pain, a pain of the soul, originating from where he stuffed my physical form full of Chase’s seed-Caleb’s seed, mixing and amalgamating us into a wholly new being. Musculature appears in place of the frame of my body’s previous shape as more and more of it is twisted and contorted. Then, perhaps in one last push of defiance, my body screams involuntarily, and I, in Caleb, scream.

“So you’ll never leave me, like he planned to” Caleb says, with a mix of my voice and his, as he rams the last, massive part of himself into my body. My physical form’s face contorts in discomfort one last time before Caleb settles it into satisfaction. “Look at us” he states as he runs vascular new hands over my body’s new face and then uses that new face to give me a seductive wink. “We’re cute as a button”. The transformation was complete- my old self no longer recognizable in the new brother he had created.

The change, of course, had hit my soul as well. From inside Caleb I screamed...convulsed...shook... moaned... you know, the works. When that last bit of Caleb dug inside my spirit and changed me, I truly felt him, felt my twin, felt his love. I’ll be a better Chase for him than Chase ever was. Our souls are bonded for life. I am a part of Caleb now, and he is a part of me. Everyone experiences it differently, but we’re all grateful after to have Caleb inside us, to be a part of something greater. I like to think I have the extra privilege of being his twin, new and improved, wearing his old body’s skin while he wears and controls mine. And sometimes, with his permission, I get to play around inside the others. Sometimes we switch and he lets me jump inside Chase, like I’m doing now. The only body off limits is my old one. I like to think that makes me special, it’s the only body Caleb keeps his soul in 100 percent of the time. It’s proof of our special connection. And he wears the new me so well, better than I ever could anyways.

And, well, that takes us to today doesn’t it? Why even tell you all of this? Caleb likes you. I like you. We like you. And we think it’s time to expand the family again. You got some good traits to work with- we’ll get a lot use out of that bod, after a few adjustments. You’re probably feeling a little sleepy now. Sorry, guilty, that was me. Oh this thick Chase dick you feel inching deeper inside your ass? Yep, obviously also me. But, cmon future bro, dig deeper, listen with your body. What else are you feeling? Do you feel our love, throbbing in you? Do you something else, leaking inside? Do you feel these calloused Chase hands pulling you ever deeper into us? Do you feel him? Do you feel Caleb already worming himself into you? Good. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you. You’re gonna love us. We’re gonna be fucking hot together after we’re done with you. Welcome Home.

—End —

Wanted to explore something a little different with this one. Hope y'all like it!

[nerdythebard]

#12: The Doctor [Doctor Who]

Brother, I disown you...

I don't know what my friend/chosen brother was thinking when he made this request... Actually, no, I know exactly what he was thinking! Well, no time to dawdle, let's do this Time Warp. Again.

Next Time: Before we return to the gods, I want to make a character very close to my heart. He is also a Doctor... only, word of warning, he's a little... Strange.

Well then... sigh, let's see the goals we need to meet to make the most brilliant alien in television playable in D&D:

Heroes Never Die: The signature ability of a Time Lord (and the most problematic), a way to cheat death and return to life. Yes, somehow we need to make a virtually immortal character in Dungeons & Dragons...

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Even in his relatively serious regenerations, the Doctor is prone to flashes of randomness, acts of nonsense, mixing puns and physical comedy to often hide the incredibly fast and advanced brain processes.

Go-Go Gadget Galore: Do I even need to say anything? Besides his trusty TARDIS (which will not be included here, we're making the Doctor, not his equipment!), the Doctor also brandishes sonic devices of multiple varieties, psychic paper, the thing that goes DING, etc.

---

As you can imagine, finding the right race replacement for Time Lords wasn't easy. I'm definitely not using The-Movie-That-Does-Not-Exist solution, and making the Doctor... half-human, urgh. All we need to do is find a humanoid, almost-fossil race that can come back from death a limited amount of times.

The Doctor is a Human Revenant, a playtest race from Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Heroes. In-game, Revenant is an undead that came back to life to pursue a certain goal, whether it's vengeance, retribution, or to make amends. Putting some flavour into it, and turning it into a long-living, mysterious being who perhaps came from the Astral Plane to search for a way to save his home planet... why not? Regular Revenants get only a +1 to Constitution, but if we're using pre-existing race (such as Human), there's another set of rules. So, we get a +1 Constitution and +1 Intelligence, and we don't get to pick a skill or a feat. Not yet.

What's most important here is the Revenant's Relentless Nature feature. We are assigned a goal, a very specific one, that we must complete in order to achieve peace. Work with your DM on that one (the saving-your-home-world one from before sounds like a good start). Until we complete the goal:

If we are below Hit Points Maximum, at the start of our turn we regain 1 Hit Point;

We know the distance and direction to any creature involved in our goal (perhaps a fellow, once-friend Time Lord?);

When we die, we come back to life within 24 hours with 1 Hit Point. If our body is destroyed, we come back in a spot within 1 mile of our place of death (unfortunately, our equipment is destroyed);

BOOM! JUST FLAVOUR EACH DEATH AS A CHANGE OF FACE AND PERSONALITY, AND WE HAVE THE REGENERATION SYSTEM! HAH! YOU SEE THAT, BROTHER!?

Ekhm... back to work, then.

The Doctor is pretty far from home, so giving him the Far Traveller background seems like the right approach. We gain proficiencies in Insight and Perception skills, proficiencies with one musical instrument (perhaps a recorder?)/gaming set, we learn one language of our choice, and we get the All Eyes on You feature; our mannerisms and quirks definitely draw attention towards us and our group, but we can take advantage of that in order to fish for some information, secure an audience with the local nobleman, or... I dunno, snog Madame de Pompadour?

ABILITY SCORES

No surprise there, we start with Intelligence. We have a literal Big Galaxy Brain™ and we use it often, and only sometimes to show off. Follow that up with Dexterity, we're nimble and we're doing a lot of running, especially when being chased (plus, we've invented the Drunken Giraffe dance). Constitution is next, the Gallifreyan biology is significantly superior to that of regular Terrans.

Next up, Charisma. It usually works, sometimes it doesn't, but even then we're kinda adorkable. Wisdom is a little low, I think we all shall agree to that, the Doctor is a creature of whim. He gets lost in thought, has a hard time remembering to explain his logic to others. Finally, we're dumping Strength. Now, we're definitely physically stronger than humans, I just don't remember any particular feats of super-strength in the show.

Heck, you want even more Time Lord shenanigans? Ask your DM to implement the "every death/regeneration makes all ability scores randomly switch places" rule.

CLASS

Level 1 - Artificer: Once again, nobody is surprised we begin with the Smart & Techy One™ for the Doctor. Artificers were brought to 5e via Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. These magical tinkers have d8 Hit Dice, [8 + Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies with light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and optionally firearms (although that's definitely not the Doctor's style). We additionally get proficiency with thieves' tools, tinker's tools, and one set of artisan's tools we choose. We can't get the sonic screwdriver (although if you want one, hint to your DM about the existence of the All-Purpose Tool), we have all these tools to replace it with. Our saving throws are Constitution and Intelligence, and we get to pick two class skills: let's get History and Investigation.

Artificers start with Magical Tinkering, an ability to bestow harmless magical properties onto inanimate objects. We choose a Tiny object with no magic in it, and grant it one of the following properties indefinitely:

It sheds bright light for 5 feet and dim light for an additional 5;

Whenever tapped, the object plays a recorded message no longer than six seconds;

The object continuously emits a smell or a sound of our choice;

A static image (picture, lines of text, shapes, etc.) appear on the object's surface.

Artificers are also casters, so at the first level, we get Spellcasting. Our casting ability is, of course, Intelligence and the number of spells we can prepare is equal to [our Intelligence modifier + half of our Artificer level rounded down]. We also know how to cast rituals.

We start with two cantrips:

Magic Stone lets us imbue three pebbles with magic (or perhaps, in this case, kinetic energy?) for 1 minute. We can then use the pebbles ourselves, or give them to somebody else. On a successful hit, the target suffers [1d6 + our Intelligence modifier] bludgeoning damage and the spell ends on that particular pebble.

Prestidigitation is a cantrip of plenty varieties, which very well could be disguised as the Doctor's tinkering with his sonic screwdriver. It can be used to warm or chill food, clean or soil objects, or perhaps lighting and snuffing our small flames.

We start with two 1st-level spell slots, and we get three 1st-level spells:

Alarm sets up a secured perimeter, no larger than a 20-feet cube, for 8 hours. Whenever a create not-designated as safe while setting the spell, crosses its boundary, we get a signal informing us about the intrusion, which also wakes us up if we're sleeping. The signal can be set to inform only us, or everybody around.

Detect Magic informs us of any magical activity within 30 feet of us for 10 minutes (concentration). We sense magic lingering on objects, people, as well as locations, and we can determine the type of magic present (but not a particular spell, for example, we sense that a spell on the object is enchantment-type, but not that it's Power Word: Kill).

Identify is... pretty much the one function of the sonic screwdriver we've all seen. It lets us learn about an object we choose, including its magical properties (if any) and if it's affected by any spells. And it works on wood!

With a spell list like that, we can safely say

Level 2 - Artificer: We continue with the Tech Savvy Class, and we learn the Artificer's signature skill, Infuse Item. It lets us bestow magical properties onto mundane items. Similarly to Warlock's Invocations, Artificers have Infusions they can select and put into items. Starting from this level, we can infuse two items at once, and we get to pick four Infusions from the list. For the Doctor, let's pick:

Replicate Magic Item: Bag of Holding is probably the most useful infusion in the early game. The infusion does exactly what it says, and a Bag of Holding is always a good item to own (just watch out for the Bag Man!)

Enhanced Defence infusion puts some extra protection (+1 to AC) onto an armour or a shield.

Mind Sharpener is a helping hand for any spellcaster. The infusion put onto an armour, or woven into a robe, sends a jolt to re-focus the mind. When the wearer fails a Constitution saving throw to keep their concentration, one charge (out of four) of the infusion expends, to make them succeed instead. The charges are refilled at dawn.

Returning Weapon gives a +1 to attack and damage rolls of the weapon it's applied on and makes it return to the wielder's hand immediately after it's used to make a ranged attack. With the keyword "immediately", it gives your Rangers and other bow-users infinite ammunition with just one arrow.

We can also get one more 1st-level spell: Disguise Self changes our appearance for 1 hour, or until we choose to dismiss it as an action. The spell affects our body, clothing, and items we carry (including weapons). It is not a physical disguise, just an illusion woven around us; if we make ourselves thinner than we really are, and somebody was to touch the space where our regular body would be, they're going to feel the body, albeit invisible. For the Doctor, this seems like a combination of psychic paper and the Chameleon Circuit.

Level 3 - Artificer: At this level, we get the Right Tool for the Job feature. If we have thieves' tools or artisan's tools in hand, we can create any other set of artisan's tools.

We also get to pick our subclass, our Artificer Specialization. The Doctor is no alchemist, and we'll probably build Tony Stark at some time in the future, therefore we're picking Battle Smith. Those tinkers are masters of protections, being able to put up defensive mechanisms on the spot. Since the Doctor is a diplomat first, runner second, and combatant very close and reluctant third, focusing on support is a good option.

As a Battle Smith, we gain proficiencies with smith's tools, and we gain some more magic with Battle Smith Spells:

Heroism imbues the willing creature with bravery. Until the spell ends (1 minute, concentration), the target is immune to being frightened and gains Temporary Hit Points equal to our Intelligence modifier at the start of each of their turns (AKA every six seconds). When the spell ends, any Temporary Hit Points remaining are lost.

Shield creates an invisible barrier as a reaction to getting hit. It adds +5 to our AC until the start of our next turn.

Although a reluctant fighter, the Doctor as a Battle Smith also gets the Battle Ready feature. We gain proficiency with martial weapons, and when we attack with a magic weapon, we can use our Intelligence modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity for attack and damage rolls.

Finally, Battle Smiths get the Steel Defender. With our tinkering, we create our first companion, a steel defender; it is friendly to us and our companions and obeys our commands. With that, we got ourselves the one and only K9

Level 4 - Artificer: At this level, we get our first Ability Score Improvement! However, instead of upgrading our abilities this time, we'll grab a feat. The Telepathic feat from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will represent the Doctor's limited psychic abilities: we increase one of our non-physical abilities by 1, let's go for Intelligence. We can speak telepathically to any creature within 60 feet, but the creature cannot reply (unless they're telepathic too, of course). Finally, we can touch a Detect Thoughts spell once per long rest, without a need to expend spell slots. Give your target a good headbutt, and learn their surface thoughts.

We also get our final spell: Catapult turns one inanimate object that isn't worn or carried (and weighs from 1 to 5 pounds) and turns it into a remote projectile. The object flies in a straight line for 90 feet before losing its momentum and falling. If it hits a creature, they have to make a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 bludgeoning damage. Distract your pursuers with a head of cabbage flying at their heads.

Level 5 - Rogue: We say goodbye to the Artificer, as we move onto Rogue for the rest of the build. Rogues use the same Hit Dice as Artificers, so nothing really changes when it comes to our Hit Points. We already have proficiency with light armour and thieves' tools, but we can pick one class skill – let's pick Acrobatics for better running and parkour chances when escaping aliens and responsibilities.

Rogues start with Expertise, which lets us double our proficiency bonus (NOT ability modifier) for two skills of our choice: let's boost Insight and History, to best utilize our centuries of living. We also learn how to speak Thieves' Cant, a special system of phrases and signals used by other Rogues to communicate without revealing their secrets. Finally, we have Sneak Attack: once per turn we can add 1d6 extra damage if a) we have an advantage on our roll, or b) the target is within 5 feet of another creature hostile towards it. The attack must be done by either a ranged weapon or one with the finesse property (like a dagger or a rapier).

Level 6 - Rogue: We get Cunning Action, which let us turn some Actions we can do in combat into Bonus Actions. That way, we still have an Action to spare if we decide to use Dash, Disengage, or Hide. Considering how much running the Doctor does, it's good to have something else to do just in case.

Level 7 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack changes to 2d6.

We also get to pick our second subclass, our Roguish Archetype. Now, initially, I considered going Swashbuckler, as it combines nimble footwork and gives us some charm abilities. However, since we're going with the build that emphasizes support and actual combat as a last resort, we'll go with Inquisitive.

We start this subclass with Ear for Deceit, whenever we roll Insight checks to determine if a creature is lying to us, we treat each roll of 7 or lower as 8.

We also get Eye for Detail. This is mostly to be used in combat (or if your DM runs dungeons in Initiative Mode), as it allows us to use Perception or Investigation checks as a bonus action, where it would normally take an action.

Finally, Inquisitive Rogues get Insightful Fighting. As a bonus action, we can make an Insight check, contested by the enemy's Deception check. If we succeed, for 1 minute we can use our Sneak Attack on the target even if we don't have an advantage or the target isn't near another of its enemies.

Level 8 - Rogue: Time for another ASI! Let's raise our Intelligence by 1 point, and use the spare one for Strength.

Level 9 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack changes to 3d6.

We also get Uncanny Dodge. Whenever we're being hit by an attack, we can use our reaction to halve the damage dealt.

Level 10 - Rogue: Halfway through the build, and we get another shot at Expertise. Once again, we get two skills to which we can double our proficiency bonus. Let's go with Perception and Investigation.

Level 11 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 4d6.

We also get one of the better abilities in the game, Evasion. If we're being targeted by an AoE attack that would deal half damage on a successful Dexterity saving throw, we take no damage if we make the save. What that means is, we can now take a Fireball face-on, shrug it off and loudly proclaim

Level 12 - Rogue: We get another ASI. Let's improve our Dexterity by two points this time.

Level 13 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 5d6.

We also get another subclass feature. Steady Eye gives us an advantage on Perception or Investigation checks if we move no more than half of our movement speed on our turn.

Level 14 - Rogue: Time for another ASI. Let's focus on getting some more Hit Points this time, and get +2 points to Constitution.

Level 15 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 6d6.

At this level, we get Reliable Talent, which upgrades our abilities to almost anime protagonist-level. Whenever we make a check for a skill we're proficient in, we treat all rolls of 9 and lower as 10.

Level 16 - Rogue: We're getting one more ASI. Let's raise our Dexterity again, putting 2 points in it.

Level 17 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 7d6.

We get our final subclass upgrade for this build, the Unerring Eye. We can now sense illusions and magical tricks within 30 feet, as well as shapechangers not in their original form. We can detect there is an effect trying to trick our senses around us, but we don't know its nature (i.e. if we meet a creature that activates our sense, we cannot distinguish whether it's a Disguise Self spell, or a natural shapeshifting ability, or a Druid's Wild Shape).

Level 18 - Rogue: We get another one of the best abilities in the game, Blindsense. We can now detect the presence of invisible and hidden creatures within 10 feet radius of us.

Level 19 - Rogue: Our Sneak Attack becomes 8d6.

Our mind becomes more slippery with Slippery Mind. We gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.

Level 20 - Rogue: Our build's capstone is Rogue 16, which is also our final ASI. Let's finally cap Intelligence, as it should've been from the start when it comes to Time Lords.

---

There it is. My take on how to play as the Doctor in Dungeons & Dragons. I believe I've covered most if not all of the important features the Doctor has, but let's see:

Let's face it, we're not a frontline fighter... we're not even a backline fighter. We support. With 14 AC (without armour), 151 Hit Points on average, and a +4 to Initiative, our job is to manoeuvre, around the battlefield and let our friends take care of the enemy, while we do other things. With Reliable Talent and Expertise we are great at sweeping the room for clues and hints, even if in the heat of battle. Thanks to Unerring Eye and Blindsense, our senses aren't that easy to fool.

Unfortunately, our Strength is not great, and that means some weapons are just a hindrance (unless we pick a finesse weapon, which replaces Strength with Dexterity). While we have late-game proficiency in Wisdom saving throws, throughout the earlier stages those might prove a little problem.

---

And that is it for this build. I hope that you guys enjoyed it, and I'll see you for the next one!

- Nerdy out!

[sometipsygnostalgic]

adventure time wizard city liveblog

 well here we go

my last adventure time liveblog, i havent actually done one of these in MANY years... probably not since 2014

this takes place at the same time as obsidian?

DID-- DID CHOOSE GOOSE JUST DIE

DID BUFO JUST KILL CHOOSE GOOSE

yeah i know that’s bufo, they only made it enormously obvious, tsk tsk

@spaceacepearl​ joked about us seeing choose goose get sent to hell but i diDNT EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN

This music is i assume by one of the many musical artists Adam Muto listed on twitter, it rocks. It’s not as hardcore as Obsidian’s intro, but it’s suitably chill for the scene. 

“get offa my bus kid”

Those wizards in the left and far right groups appear to be new! 

OH MY GOD--

HELP?????? NEW PROFILE PIC TIME

HAHAHAHAH

THE MUSICAL CON DID ME GOOD, I DID REALLY LOUD AUDIBLE LAUGHTER

i bet hanna and co had fun making these signs

my favourite is the cat with “FAMILIARS HAVE RIGHTS”

cadorka..... wow

We’re not even four minutes into the ep and peppermint butler has already killed someone in front of a large group of witnesses

“this smells of DARK MAGIC” “yall kids know thats illegal right” peps watches the other kids nod before later joining in, LOL

i cant believe pep started the great gum wars and got killed by golb

SOMEONE has been playing Overwatch... 

i-- i still cant believe choose goose is fucking dead

how long was he stuck in hell for, or was that recent to together again after new death showed up 

i have to admit im not a big fan of spader, too perfect, and not in that funny way either. i hope they give him some characteristics that make him stand out. 

im getting flashbacks to OK KO and Owl House here...

Cadebra using music is a reference to Abracadaniel’s love of interpretetive dance in Play Date. 

“they only laugh because youre different” “i know” “SO STOP BEING DIFFERENT” oh my god it’s like talking to my own parents cadebra is actually... a LOT like me, less in her hyperactivity but more in her nonchalant enthusiasm and almost acceptance of the inevitable bullying because it means more time in people’s consciousness

ahhh - it’s quietly revealed here that she is responsible and a skilled magician, she is just bored of magic! i like that she parents abracadaniel instead of being downtrodden by his ramblings. 

PEP NO--- oh i see the problem, he hasn’t got his Bug Milk... sorry Martin Olsen fans, no Hunson today. At least we get one more Phil Face for the road! 

candy people in their natural habitat

Ahhh that’s Doctor Calidoneus! The voice actor was at the recent Distant Lands panel alongside Pep and Blaine’s actors. 

“pretty sure hes just trashcandy” - i like you, sassy antler lady

the mystery of how he gets clothes

and once again spader is proving to be the most irritating distant lands character of the lot, there is no subversion here. where is the subversion?  

NANI

what is going on here? are pep and peppermint the same person or not? im sure they must be, but there is something going on here with peppermint butler’s soul being trapped in the body of his child self who hasn’t got the same memories. 

OH, HYNDEN WALCH DID A NEW LINE yes this is what im here for, special over 

peppermint butler cursed himself... of course he did - Shado was correct!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

ROCK STUDENT, BLESSED ROCK STUDENT, WAS THAT POOR GUY WHO LOOKS LIKE A JAWBREAKER

love the reference to astral plane, of course pep cant astrally project because cursed pep is still inside of him 

wow, blaine, wow

they have a crush

LITTLE DUDE! COLE SANCHEZ!

i love the dynamic between cadebra and abracadaniel, imo so far it’s the heart of the special. im not really gripped by peppermint butler’s school troubles. i imagine someone else probably will be but i want to run past that shit as far as possible. 

TRDGFYGHJH

WE

WE MADE  A PREDICTION THAT WAS JUST LIKE THIS

PEPPERMINT BUTLER GETTING TURNED INTO THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF PEPPER MINT BUTT LURE WAS IN THE WIZARD CITY PREDICTIONS ART DRAW THAT HASNT BEEN POSTED YET

ILL SHOW YOU WHEN NICK POSTS THE VIDEO and then ill tell you who made the prediction because i... think it was nick himself, insanity 

who plagiarized finn’s signature???

turns out pep really DID take over wizard city!!!!

i love this band

i understand your pain peps

you probably have a bit too much in common with your mother, and i imagine it isn’t easy being turned into a kid and not being able to do stuff that came so easy. you’re disappointing yourself! (he’s literally disappointing himself)

I’m less than halfway through the special, what the fuck. I wasn’t wrong when I said Wizard City had a lot on its plate. It’s noit that I’ve been particularly gripped up to this point, though to be fair I didn’t pause at all during the other specials barring Obsidian. 

that... that poor kid is still a rock

and then the preview happened and bufo casually revealed to the audience that, yes, he killed choose goose

i dont know whats happening with pep but it seems he needs to be exorcised of... pep. which is a shame. i hope they learn to coexist. 

i have to say the background work in this special is really good! like, really damn good. 

WH

WHAT

DID SPADER JUST DIE

IS THIS WHY PEOPLE THINK PEPBUT KILLED HIM 

oh thats right - abracadaniel is cadebra’s uncle! this must be abracadniels sister. sorry, folks, he doesn’t fuck. 

Where are they? Is this anywhere near Wizard City? It’s an unpopulated prewar wasteland. 

THESE ARE JUST HUMANS

OF COURSE SHE WANTS TO PERFORM TO MILQUETOAST HUMANS

my child

is this an art style choice or did they get the people from that one studio to make this

HANNA FINALLY GETS TO FULFIL HER DREAM OF INSERTING KANEDA INTO ADVENTURE TIME

the red jacket he wears and his head pill shape is a big kaneda reference actually, which i suppose makes sense considering he’s a rival to our protagonist, but it’s a bit on the nose

bufo killed one of his own students? but why????

“MY UNCLE’S A COP”

“no one likes a rat”

i actually really like blaine, though im confused. did their VA change halfway through the special?

HOW NATURAL, NO WASTE, IT IS AN ENDLESS CHAIN

did doctor caledonius steal the trophy,,,? 

EVIL SNAIL EVIL SNAIL

MONMSTER HUNJTER DISCOVERY NOISE, this time it’s a tetsucabra

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HAVE QUESTIONS

god i wish this is what this special was about, i miss adventure time

these remind me of the comics with their art style :) i wonder who designed them? the one on the right with pb and pep, in particular, very comics-y. 

fdgfhgf because he’s like 500

“pep can be kind of a jerk but he wouldn’t kill anyone”

sorry, cadebra, i have news for you

is doctor calednoius the true villain? if bufo’s out of the picture, she MUST be, 

ANTS

oh no, he might gbe stuck in wizard city :( 

HELP

the writing on the wall...

SPADER LITERALLY FUCKING DIED OH YM JESUS CHRIST

PEPPERMINT BUTLER’S OWN CULT????

THIS IS JUST OK KO NOW

okay im not surprised all the teachers at wizard city are cultists in worship of peps, maybe they killed spader and bufo because they bullied peps T_T

wait no, they thought spader had the potential, but sadly not

HE FUCKING KILLED HIMSELF

sorry, i was distracted by the pretty dope fight sequence and now the special is over????

fucking jesse, hes probably at least partly responsible for the cult nonsense

This credits art is by Maya Petersen!!!! Holy shit it’s adorable!

LRETGFDRGTFGMHGFHFG

LEAF MAN

DO YOU THINK THEY PUT HIM IN RETROSPECTIVELY

DO YOU THINK MAYA PETERSEN DREW THIS AND ADAM PUT IT IN THE EP RETROSPECTIVELY

HE LIVES

MAYBE THIS IS WHY CHOOSE GOOSE WENT TO HELL

okay, it’s over :) 

first thoughts out of the way: not a big fan of this special. it’s like watching a completely different show. it’s not got the PZSHAHH of the normal wizard city stuff and there weren’t a lot of funny jokes or even hearty moments in the thing. 

it suffers from a lack of invested character interactions, much like BMO did. there was not a single main cast member in the whole thing! and like i said before, much of peppermint butler’s character in the show is based on his very sweet relationship to his mother, princess bubblegum, so when they showed a single (hilarious) photo of them together it made me sad we didn’t get any scenes with them together. it would have STOLEN this episode. and they teased the hunson golf photo, and death!!! and jake appeared in a photo T_T last jake appearance. 

it also suffers because Peppermint Butler is clearly not himself, imo he was way more entertaining in the Together Again special, where we seem him back to his “normal” self. 

i dont think peps being a dark wizard was something to “kill off” exactly. i wonder what was going on there? was that actually peps, or was that a spirit he cursed himself with based on himself? we at least know in the future he does become a dark wizard again, and even princess :) this special didn’t answer those questions but lol. 

THE GOOD STUFF, because yes, there was a lot of good stuff! 

God, I’m with Aracle and Maya on this - I LOVE Cadebra and her relationship to Pep. I wish she was even in more of this - I would love to watch the adventures of Cadebra and Pepbut in their first year of school, like in the end credits.

That, imo, is where the heart of the special lay - Peppermint Butler’s attempts to impress himself, versus Cadebra’s self acceptance and desire to follow her dreams of being a goofy goober, no matter what other people thought of her. 

It turned out that Cadebra is a responsible student and family member. I really liked that. Her scenes with Abracadaniel were, somehow, my favourite in the entire special! 

I like that theres a lot of cool magic towards the end of this special, and a lot of HORRIFYING DEATH. It wouldn’t be adventure time if you didn’t randomly kill off child characters. Poor Spader, I hated you but damn, what a grim fate. 

I like that Bufo and Caledonius had this crush/hatred thing going on, but they were part of the same cult in the end. 

I didn’t like the giant peps scene at the end, the monster was extremely milquetoast compared to the madness we usually get in AT. Obsidian, for example, had the awesome Larvo design. Nemesis had some INSANE dark magic!!!!  I wish they drew more from that episode. 

Considering how much Steve Little appears in this special, I do feel bad for Mace (little Peps). He said he would have really benefitted from coaching, but recieved none. He had to re-record his lines 3 times! Judging from his description of events, Wizard City was a hard time for him. 

The wizard school did remind me, heavily, of both The Owl House and OK KO. Personally I was hoping AT would offer me something more insane, but I do love both of those shows, and I know Wizard City was on a really tight schedule. 

I think they should have spent less time on the school bullying plot, and skipped straight to MURDER. 

We did have a cold opening, not on par with Together Again’s at all, but damn!

I am wondering where I would put this in the watch list? I do think it should sit after Obsidian as the third special. The intro scene makes it clear this takes place at the same time as Obsidian!!!

Well, that was it, the last ep of AT for the next few years at least T_T

i think together again was the better finale, definitely. but wizard city feels pretty detached from AT for me, despite the familiar characters it tonally isn’t like the show other than the awesome brutal death scenes. I thought the last 11 minutes was easily the best in the special! Which, honestly, is how it should be, though I do wish it gripped me more. Maybe I’m just not the target audience for Wizard City? It feels like something I would find very compelling if I was a bit younger! 

[intergalacticwanderer]

The concept from this post of Molly haunting the M9 but disappearing when the Tomb Takers resurrect Lucien is something that I just. Keep thinking about.

First realizing something is up when Molly accidentally possesses Beau during the assault on the Sour Nest. Everyone being very confused after the fight as to why Beau is so agitated and shouting at nothing. Finally put two and two together that Molly is THERE but can only be seen or heard after possessing someone and there’s a bunch of sudden body hopping and even more shouting. Caduceus being very apprehensive and warning everyone else about the potential dangers but settles for being watchful when they insist it’s okay.

Molly hovering anxiously around Yasha while waiting for her to wake up, but not being able to explain the situation to her before visiting the grave and her still leaving the group in grief. Heavy conversations at the grave about what things are like for Molly now and that honestly, he really doesn’t like being a ghost, but not seeing a way out of it besides being destroyed because he doesn’t even know WHY he’s a ghost. Making an informal goal to fix things for Molly somehow, and Caduceus calmly and comfortingly offering to help him find a way to move on if he’d prefer to do that instead. A coat is still left behind as a promise.

Yasha meeting them again after they travel to the coast and the emotional moment where they’re finally able to explain what’s going on. The whirlwind of the next few weeks and months as they all travel together, Molly spending short stints riding along with someone else so he can at least FEEL something for a little while. Acting as a scout and look out for danger for the rest of the group, but everyone else being careful to not say too much about him around others.

(Standing on the deck of their ship, looking at the night sky splashed with stars and waves crashing around them and Molly longing, aching for the chance to feel the sea breeze in person. Wanting to chase the horizon and new experiences, bound to nothing and no one except for what he chooses.)

Being forced to watch, helpless, as Yasha is taken by Obann. A turning point as Molly insists on staying behind with Yasha, staying with her even as she’s controlled, he knows what being possessed looks like, that’s NOT her. It’s dangerous, yes, but less dangerous to him, he can stay with her, do his best to keep watch, she’s worth the risk. Truly splitting up for the first time since he started haunting them, barely seeing each other, connecting for a few frantic moments during a tense chase through the woods at night before Molly is gone again, following Yasha and Obann as they teleport away. Not realizing as they enter the Folding Halls of Halas that that was the last time they’d see him.

A hard fought but victorious battle at the Chantry of the Dawn. Yasha returned to them, only to be followed by that horrible moment of, wait, I thought he was with YOU, what do you mean he’s not with you? But Molly is no where to be found. By anyone. The realization that he might truly be gone for good, and no one was even there to see it happen.

Delayed grief hits home and it hits HARD. They lean on each other, be there for each other, and try to keep themselves occupied with the next tasks in front of them. A dinner with a possible new friend. Tricking a hag. Visiting the Menagerie. A betrayal, returning Nott to Veth, a party, a tough conversation with hope for the future, ending a war. Finally making their way to Traveler Con and Rumblecusp, memories slipping away under a strange influence (there was a coat), stopping that strange influence once and for all and receiving a vision more important that any of them could realize.

Going home and looking for information while deciding what to do next. Eventually coming to the decision to visit a grave for answers. Wondering if this might finally be the chance to give their friend what he’d been looking for, a chance to live, to feel again, but also guilt that they couldn’t do it sooner, worry that it might already be too late. They start digging for the body.

A body that’s not there.

A body that’s not there because he’s already alive again.

There’s elation and shock but also confusion and wariness. Why was the coat left behind? Why had no effort been made to contact them, to contact Yasha? What is going on?

Finding out what's going on several days later with the abrupt murder of Vess DeRogna and everything being thrown into chaos. Giving chase to figure out the answers to all the new questions, and upon finally catching up to this mystery, the person with the face of their friend? No memories, no recognition. Not Mollymauk. Lucien.

Being told that Mollymauk had just been a fragment of a larger whole, an insignificant speck that didn't matter (but he mattered to them) and has been reabsorbed. Putting two and two together with the timing of Lucien's resurrection and Molly's disappearance. Grappling with the implications of what this might mean, what does this mean for their friend? Not knowing the answer but pushing forward anyway, knowing that Lucien has to be stopped, and hoping somehow, someway, they might get their friend back, but not seeing how.

Traveling together is unexpected and even more confusing. Seeing echoes, reflections of their friend in Lucien, seeing the roots of where he came from but simultaneously seeing the ways he is NOT him (let her have her?!) and not knowing what to do with it. Having the choice made for them in the night, chasing after and fleeing away for their lives. Finding safe haven with a guiding star.

Taking only a moment to breathe before rushing ahead. Nearly tripping and falling when Caleb’s past comes calling but (barely) managing to get up again, returning and making their way into Aeor with Essek at their side. Felling three of the Tomb Takers and then the chase is on, racing against the clock and Lucien before catching up with him and Cree at a gate. Noticing something strange in how Lucien reacts to certain words, keeping it in mind as they jump after him into the astral sea.

Dealing with the figurative and literal nightmare that is Cognouza, stopping Cree, plane shifting a threshold crest, saving Yussa. Witnessing a coup by Lucien, who, for some reason, still tells them to run. Leaves them alive (why did I leave you alive?). A battle for the fate of the world.

Fighting back, talking back, and something inside him listens. Hears them as they reach out. Hammer, hammer, hammering away with both weapons and words in the hardest fight of their lives. Some even losing their lives, until, finally, they triumph, Cognouza Incarnate slain. Two lost lives restored... and one more left to try. To give another chance.

It fails.

They mourn, heartbroken. Figuring that if nothing else, he's no longer trapped. Wishing that they could have done more. Hoping that he will be able to rest. Caduceus sending up a prayer.

It succeeds.

Elation, shock, reunions, tears. Single words that speak volumes. Showering with love, they did it, they kept their promise, they did it! Returning to the Blooming Grove hand in hand, all nine of them at last.

Checking in with their restored friend that night and the next day. Coming back to himself and yet not. Memories are gone but he's not blank either, knowing he's with friends but not knowing how he knows. A mind that can't remember but a heart that does, feelings instead of names. A new name and a new start.

Danger follows them, briefly, but it is smacked down, dealt with. Humbled and brought low and given the amount of respect it deserves, which is to say, none. They exhale, exhausted but accomplished. Taking time for much needed rest.

Noticing things about him during the rest. Hugs that linger, clinging a little too tight. Hours spent lying in the grass, hands running through the blades over and over while watching the clouds. Visits to flower after flower, touching petals and breathing deep. Almost crying over a new food, a new taste before eating himself sick. Leaning in at any music, any song, attention lost towards anything else. Closing his eyes and listening to the sounds of nature in the evening, just being. Existing. Living.

Later traveling to Nicodranas. Him watching the ocean, transfixed. Walking to the shore, closing his eyes and breathing in as the sea breeze blows through his hair. Starting to cry without even knowing why. (His mind can't recall the memory, not yet, but his heart does, aching at the clarity. An ache that can hopefully be soothed, now that that longing has been fulfilled.)

Not even questioning it when he joins the crew of the Nein Heroez. Parting ways, but also knowing that they will ALL be seeing each other again soon (too much love amongst them for anything else), starting the next journey. Getting a second chance.

Living life. Being happy. And knowing that he will never have to be alone again.

[shslrose]

Angel - Gundham Tanaka x Reader

Request:  gundham x female!reader, please!! i’m not very good with scenerios so i guess just go wild, but could the reader be on the more sensitive, motherly side? thank u in advance!

a/n - i hope i did this justice! thank you so much for the request!! <3

You had awoken from a nightmare in a cold sweat. A quick glance out your cottage window told you that the sun had only just begun to rise. You tried to fall asleep, but the thought of being killed haunted your mind. Would you be stabbed, like Byakuya? Or perhaps it would be blunt trauma, like Mahiru? You felt you had no other option, so you quickly left your cottage, wearing nothing but your white nightgown, deciding that you needed someone to help comfort you.

It wasn’t long before you arrived at Gundham’s cottage. For a moment, you hesitated to knock, fearful of disturbing his sleep. The fear of being alone crept back into your mind, and your hesitation dissipated. You had hardly begun to knock on the door when it had swung open, revealing your closest ally, Gundham Tanaka.

“Y/N…?” He said sleepily, a hint of surprise in his voice. He looked at your appearance, and in turn you looked at his. As he took in the sight of you, standing before him wearing a nightgown that was borderline indecent, a blush came over his face. At the same time, you analyzed his appearance; he wore a simple, yet flattering white t-shirt that clung to his body, and boxers. You also noticed the dark bags that had formed under his grey eyes, his red contact nowhere to be seen. 

“Wh..what are you doing here, Y/N?” He asked, looking away from you. He longed for his signature scarf, which had been discarded many hours ago and now hung next to his coat, for he could feel warmth rushing to his face. “Do you intend to challenge me, the Supreme Overlord of Ice? A foolish choice of action, if so, for I will not hesitate to defeat any challenger...even if it is an angel, such as yourself.”

“C-challenge? No..no I..I was just...scared,” you said quietly, looking down at your hands. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have bothered y-”

“Nonsense!” He declared, before gesturing with his left hand for you to enter his cottage. “You are no bother, none at all.”

You noticed then his left arm was uncovered, a distinct change from it’s usual status of being covered in bandages. You also noticed several small bite marks and scratches. As you entered the cottage, he must have noticed your gaze while closing the door, since he spoke again.

"Ah, truly you must be in possession of the All Seeing Eye! To notice such a detail… truly, you are an angel!”

It was your turn to blush then. Angel. He called you that frequently, and it never failed to leave you flustered. “Gundham… your arm, did your devas do that?”

“Fuhahaha,” he laughed, uproariously. “Tis but a minor injury, and of no consequence to a being such as myself!”

“But still… I’m no Ultimate Nurse, but will you please allow me to wrap your arm in bandages?”

“I… Well… It’s not a good idea, for an angel such as yourself to come that close to a dark creature like me,” he said nervously. It was too late, your caring nature had already kicked in and there was no way you were giving in. Without warning, you reached out and held his hand.

“See? It’s okay.” You said, with his hand in yours. In that moment, Gundham had never blushed so hard before in his life, but you hardly noticed. “Now, sit down please. I need to wrap your arm, so you can heal properly.”

Normally, Gundham would’ve protested, but he could hardly think straight, not while you were holding his hand. It was almost as if… you cared for him? But no, that was impossible. How could someone like you ever care for him…? So he simply obeyed, sitting down on the edge of his bed. You let go of his hand then, moving towards his dresser to grab a bandage, and he felt an immense sense of disappointment. How he yearned to feel your warm touch again…

It wasn’t long before you returned to him, and began carefully tending to his arm. For a short while, the two of you sat in silence, but it wasn’t long before you spoke up.

“Gundham?”

“Yes, Y/N?”

“I was just wondering… why you… why do you… call me an angel?” As the question escaped your lips, you couldn’t bear to make eye contact with him. 

“Why do I call you an angel? Hmph. Do you also ask why red roses are red? Some things in nature simply are what they are.” He paused for a moment before continuing, as though he was considering whether or not he should. “I have told you before, I am the product of an angel and a demon, and as a cursed halfbreed I am destined to unleash true hell upon hell itself…! My mother was an angel, and so I can see that angelicness reflected within you. True kindness lives within you, I can see it in your aura! Truly, you are an angel!”

“Oh, so it’s because I’m kind? Just as your mother was?” You asked, simply. You had finished wrapping his wounds, and now the two of you sat side by side.

“Well… there is also the matter of your appearance,” he continued, shyly.

“My...appearance?”

“It… it is obvious that you have an...angelic appearance... on this astral plane,” he said, stuttering slightly. One glance over at you was already too much for him, the sight of you, sitting on his bed, wearing that enticingly thin nightgown...

“I.. I don’t understand…?” You asked, although a small part of you did understand.

“I...I mean to say that.. well… you are… quite.. beautiful,” he mumbled. 

“You.. think I’m beautiful?” 

“D-do not make me repeat myself!” he declared suddenly. “Is it not clear that I… find you to be… attractive..?”

That was all you needed to hear: you leaned over and pressed your lips against his. The kiss was short and sweet, lasting only a moment before you pulled away. A surprised expression was plastered on Gundham’s face, and for a moment you wondered if you had made a mistake.

“Did.. did you not want that? I-I’m sorry, I just thought-”

Before you could finish, he kissed you. He pulled you onto his lap, and then you were on top of him, straddling him as you made out. Passion override your mind, and the fear you had felt earlier was erased.

As time went by, the sun rose fully, and it was time for everyone to gather at the hotel restaurant. Well, almost everyone.

“Where’s Y/N?” Chiaki asked. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday… I think.”

Geez, that girl seriously needs to get more confident in her statements, thought Hajime.

“Ah, and Gundham is missing as well!” Nagito pointed out. “I hope a murder has occured. A new class trial needs to start soon, so we can overcome desp-”

“Shut the fuck up, you bastard!” Fuyuhiko exclaimed. “What kind of sick fuck hopes there’s a murder?!”

“If a murdered occured,” Hiyoko called out, “I bet it was that nasty trashy pigshit, Mikan, who did it!”

“W-w-what?!” Mikan cried.

“Everyone, please calm down!” Sonia shouted. “I shall go to Gundham and Y/N’s cottages and retrieve them!” Sonia, along with Kazuichi who volunteered to go with her and Fuyuhiko who agreed to come along in order to prevent any of Kazuichi’s perverted antics, left the restaurant. She was eager to find her lost classmates, but upon entering Gundham’s cottage, she was extremely surprised to find you there, lying in his bed alongside him. 

“Y/N! What are you… the two of you…how disgraceful…!”

Kazuichi, who was just seconds behind her, gasped. “G-gundham? Are you kidding me? Gundham landed Y/N before I nailed Miss Son-”

“Shut your fuckin’ mouth,” the yakuza interrupted, “or I’ll shut it for you!”

The trio stepped out, allowing you and Gundham to get dressed. You had nothing but your nightgown, so Gundham lended you one of his shirts. Outside, Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi were still bickering. The five of you made your restaurant, with you and Sonia trailing behind the boys.

“So, Gundham, how was she? C’mon, you gotta tell us everything! Did she let you touch her b-”

“Cut it, Soda!” Fuyuhiko shouted, before cracking a small grin. “Really though, Gundham, nice going.”

The idea of talking about you with them was true hell to Gundham, so he simply blushed, covered his face with his scarf, and muttered out some excuse about not knowing what they meant. 

As he walked, he thought of nothing but you. Truly, you were his angel.

{please send in any danganronpa requests! i will write literally anything for literally any character. also, like / reblog / follow if u enjoyed <3}