#the holy see berserk

[sweatytyrantobservation]

Actual brainrot

[polka-spots]

I can't stop thinking about Dain Bornhald, they actually made him semi-likeable in the show whereas in the books he has such a hate-boner for Perrin it's ridiculous. Interested to see how this goes in the show.

[monstersqueen]

i dont know personally when i think about sakura i find it easier to write off illya's murder of shinji

[bakasurvivor]

THEY FUCKINF........... REDID THE ORIGINAL BORDERLESS ZOLA ZOLA SONG WITH THE NEW VOICEBANKS IM ACTUALLY TEARING UP FROM NOSTALGIA...

[bones4thecats]

Hi, happy new years! I was wondering if you could do a platonic TFA story. I am making a book based on my request and I would like to see how you would write it.

The reader is a baby Predacon that was in an egg, and the egg hatches, and the first thing it sees is Optimus and thinks he is their mama, and just follows him everywhere and overprotective of him.

Optimus is stressing a bit because now nit only does he have to lead his group, take care of Sari, but now he has to be a parent to a baby of an extinct race of Cybertronian, and he doesn't think he's doing good and they deserves someone better to raise them. Then one day, the baby is missing, and he's just stressing out and going berserk. It wasn't after the baby Predacon was found that he relaxes and confused when he acted like that when Ratchet tells him that it was because of parental protocols that Cybertronians get when they get attached to something that they see as their own, meaning that he is perfect for them.

Bonus scene about the baby being overprotective:

Baby sees a big blue robot with a big chin being mean to mama? Say goodbye to your ankles! *Chomps*

Get a tingling feeling that something or someone is disturbing mama's happiness? Suddenly is by mama's side and sees its the big, blue chinned bot. *CHOMPS!!* The ankle bitter is back at it again. Nobody messes with mama and gets away with it.

Sentinel demabds Optimus to punish the baby bot (Optimus secretly gives them treats instead)

┗ Mama; TFA! Optimus × Sp.! Reader ┛

Characters: Optimus Prime (Transformers Animated) A/N: This took longer than I anticipated. But, I did enjoy writing it. You had an amazing request, and I hope you like how I interpreted it, @random-fandom1984! ⇘ Summary: After finding a pod with a Predacon sparkling inside, the Autobots take them in. But, this sparkling attaches themselves to a specific member of the team: its leader.

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⚔️ When a pod crashed one day just outside of Detroit, the Autobots set off to find out what it was. Optimus was the one who opened it, declaring it his duty as leader to protect his team.

⚔️ The others watched, weapons ready as he opened the pod. But, instead of there being anything truly dangerous, a tiny, sparkling-size Cybertronian jumped out of a broken mechanical-shell, gripped onto Optimus' arm, and refused to let go.

⚔️ Ratchet stared, wide-eyes as he tried to go through his medical training on what this Cybertronian's sub-species was. They certainly weren't an Autobot, and not a Decepticon, since they were too small, and too... animalistic.

"By the Primes..." he said, realization washing over him. "That's a young sparkling of a Predacon!"

"A Predacon? Didn't they go extinct millions on years ago?" Prowl asked.

"Did they somehow come back from the dead like a zombie or something?" Bumblebee added.

"Impossible. The only thing that could do that would've put them in a far more decomposed and demented state."

"They look like a baby possum holding onto its mama!" Sari said, smiling as she saw the baby Predacon hold onto Optimus and begin to purr lowly.

⚔️ Well, they have an issue now.

"If it wasn't brought back from the dead, how are they alive?" Optimus questioned Ratchet.

⚔️ Ratchet looked at the pod and walked up to it, dragging his servo along the outside of it, trying to rub something off to read the description of what was supposed to be contained, or maybe find out what it was built for.

⚔️ As he looked around, Bulkhead looked at the sparkling and smiled, waving one of his large servos at the youngling. Unfortunately for him, they took it as a threat and tried lunging at him.

"Holy Primus!" Bumblebee yelled as he and Bulkhead strayed from the baby. Thank goodness Optimus caught it in time.

"Talk about primal urges."

"I think I found what the Predacon came from." Ratchet said, making everyone look at him in confusion.

⚔️ He pointed to a projection of a large Predacon with a crown on his helm, one that appeared to transform into the Earth myth of a dragon, and listened as he spoke.

"To whomev'r finds this pod enwheeling the sparkling, hark carefully. This is the offspring of I, Predaking, Leadeth'r of the Predacons of Cyb'rtron, and mine own sparkmate, Luminate."

⚔️ A feminine-looking Predacon then came into view, a crown on her helm as well as he began to tearfully speak into the camera.

"In Predacon's CNA th're is one code f'r younglings: whomev'r those gents attacheth to first is th're rais'r, their parent. If 't be true those gents doth this to someone, prithee, raiseth those folk well and keepeth those folk safe. Not just f'r mine own sparkmate and I, but f'r the fate of all Predacons past, presenteth, and hopefully future."

⚔️ Yells erupted from the video and everyone began to become wide-eyed from what they were seeing: a war. Predacons falling from behind as Predaking yelled for his sparkmate to run and get the pod ready for evacuation. But, before this happened, he looked into the camera and smiled gently, before saying;

"Valorous luck in the future, mine own dearest offspring. Moth'r and fath'r loveth thee."

⚔️ The video then cuts as the pod's recorder then put up the words: RECORDING FINISHED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH AGAIN: YES. NO. in Cybertronian.

⚔️ Optimus looked down at the Predacon sparkling, who was still gripped onto his arm, and he smiled, lightly petting its head as it purred louder and rubbed against his servo.

"Well, looks like we have a new addition to the team."

═══════════════ ⋆★⋆

⚔️ Optimus opened his eyes, groaning as he felt his frame tweak and creak with his movements. That fight with the Decepticons yesterday really screwed him up. Maybe he'll just go for a little drive with the Predacon-

⚔️ Where is the Predacon? OH PRIMUS, WHERE IS THE PREDACON?!

"Ratchet!" Optimus yelled he sprung out of his room and towards the living room where the team was relaxing and healing.

"What's going on, Prime?" He replied.

"I can't find the Predacon!"

"WHAT?!"

-- A few hours later...

⚔️ Four hours. It took four hours to locate the Predacon. They were looking at the animals moving around the forest with sparkling optics, only to see Optimus and sprint to him, latching onto his leg like how they did with his arm just a few days prior when they were found.

"Y'know, you kinda acted like a Mother-Bird to them." Sari said as they drove back to the base.

"A 'Mother-Bird'? What do you mean?"

"Well, when you found out the Predacon was gone, you freaked out. Y'know? Now, you're calmer then Prowl when he's meditating."

"Then what does a mothering bird have to do with my moods?"

⚔️ Sari groaned and looked out the window, just telling Optimus to speak to Ratchet about it when they got back. He just agreed and kept driving, finally coming to a stop once inside the factory-made-base.

"Ratchet? May I speak to you?"

"Go ahead."

"Sari compared me to a mothering bird on the way back. She said when I went from being panicked to 'calmer than Prowl when he's meditating', it reminded her of it."

"That's because you were acting like a parent who lost their child. In other words: you love that thing just as much as it loves you. Don't worry about your skills at raising them, it's obvious you're just the Bot to take the reigns." He assured, patting the younger Cyberronian's shoulder before walking to his room to recharge.

⚔️ Optimus looked at his servos and silenced the rushing thoughts in his head. Ever since day once, the Predacon had been right by his side. And as he wondered if he was doing good enough for them, they just doubled their love for him by the thousands. Maybe... he was doing enough for them?

═══════════════ ⋆★⋆

⚔️ Another treat was tossed in your direction, a smile plastered on your face as you jumped around happily, grabbing all of the treats with a vigor matching a human child.

⚔️ Earlier that day, the Elite Guard had come down to see the Predacon sparkling and examine it for anything dangerous. Though, Sentinel, in true Sentinel-Fashion, began insulting Optimus the moment they touched down and gained contact.

⚔️ You growled from the Autobots' leader's shoulder as you listened to Sentinel speak. You may not speak like they do yet, but you understood them well enough.

⚔️ When Sentinel, Jazz, and Ultra Magnus made it to the base and began to speak about your conditions upon discovery and everything from then, you sat with Sari, watching her play around with one of her machines. Your spiky, colorful tail wagging as you watched happily.

"Well, it needs to come back with us to Cybertron for further testing, right, Ultra Magnus?" Sentinel spoke.

"They're not an 'it', Sentinel. They're a living, sentient being. Not some data-pad."

⚔️ Sentinel rolled his Optimus as he scoffed.

"Yeah, right. Look at it, Optimus. You think that thing can produce a single cognitive thought? You've gotta be kidding."

"They do produce cognitive thoughts, they're extremely intelligent."

"Oh please. It's being raised by you of all Cybertronians."

⚔️ At those insults, you stood, spread your wings, and lunged at Sentinel. In the time, you managed to scratch one of his optics and bite his ankle hard enough to draw energon.

⚔️ He screamed and jumped up, swinging you around as you held onto him. His big chin annoyed you at first, but his insults just solidified his place on your 'Bitch List'.

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" He screamed.

⚔️ Jazz watched with wide optics, trying to calm Sentinel down. Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus sighed and motioned for Optimus to handle the sparkling.

"Y/N. Hey, come here, sweetspark. I'm right here." He called, holding his arms out in the signal for an embrace, which you could never turn down.

⚔️ You ran into his arms and hugged him, wings tucking in as your upper legs held onto his shoulders and your lower were held by his other servo.

"It seems the Predacon has become attatched to you, Optimus Prime." Ultra Magnus spoke.

"Yes, they have, Sir."

"Then, I see no need to take them from you. It's obvious you have control of the situation."

"Thank you, Sir." A large smile formed on Optimus' face as he felt you nuzzle into his chest.

"And, you named them, I heard? Y/N?"

⚔️ Your head perked up as your tail slightly wagged. Ultra Magnus looked a little bit like Optimus, and you really liked Optimus.

"Lovely name choice for them." He said, a slight smile on his face as he stroked your helm once before ordering for the Elite Guard duo to get the ship ready to depart back to Cybertron.

"But, Ultra Magnus, Sir! The Predacon-"

"Will be handled by the ones who discovered them. Now, get ready to leave."

"Yes, Sir..."

⚔️ Nobody messes with Mama Optimus and gets away happily. Nobody.

[eternalera]

ngl im not upset that izuocho is canon because that means tha bkdk isnt canon or togachako isnt canon (although im a little sad i wouldnt say upset. because ofc people are gonna be a little disappointed when soemthing they want doesnt happen)

im more so upset about how fucking bad their get together was like holy shit. or how little they interact or how just not close they seem to each other. like they were always shown admiring each other, but it always felt like they were doing so from afar.

whenever ochako was saying how much she admired izuku and wanted to be like him, even changing her costume to match hers it reminded me of izuku making his first costume like All Might and uh... you see the problem there? she changed it because she admired him and because she admired him she loved him. it wasnt she loves him so she admires him and that always made their relationship feel so distant

then whenever they did interact it just felt like all might and izuku's team ups and stuff like that. even with the blushing i couldnt get into their relationship because they hardly interacted and when they did their relationship always felt so surface level to me that i couldnt get into it

also not even mentioning that literal SHIGARAKI himself says how BAKUGO is the closest person to izuku, NOT ochako. which is... you'd think the person you love/get together with should be the one that you're closest with but thats just not the case here

he's closest with bakugo and with ochako she was closest with tsuyu or toga for that matter.

toga and her bonded over their love for izuku and while yes it was romantic they saw past that and loved each other (whether you think of it as platonic or romantic). they literally saw that and cared for each other. toga valued ochako's opinion and we're shown this when she asks ochako if ochako would kill her in s6 and when she says yes thats when toga basically becomes a 'full fledged' villain

like its so clear that these two are not each others #1's and are NOT each others first thought or anything. yes they're blushing when theyre around each other, yes theyre cute together, but in terms of who they develop the most with? who they're always with? who's on their mind pretty much 90% of the time?

its not each other.

hell whenever izuku goes berserk its because bakugo gets injured and yes he would do it for any of his classmates but it establishes their relationship a LOT more and states bakugo's importance to izuku more than anything.

idk anyways thanks for coming to my tedtalk lol-

[ventique18]

Cliché but demon lord 🐉 and goddess 🌸♀️ who constantly fight for centuries because their kind wants to see the other extinct. No one ever wins though because they're equal in terms of power.

That is false. He is stronger. They just keep up this stupid charade because they're secretly married and meet up every night. They also make love everywhere they could (they are in no place to be choosy) and their subordinates would simply implode if this scandal came out. The holy ones, for example, would go berserk and demand the evil king not to lay his filthy claws on their virgin queen.

That is false. She has not been pure for three centuries. And she was the one who initiated it with him, by the way.

The evil ones, on the other hand, would hurl fire at the holy ones' wings and scream at them that their "pussy ass" would never influence their king to feel the nauseating love and sympathy that they've been harping on about since time knows when.

That is false. He likes to go on faraway vacations with her and pretend to be a domestic husband who cooks for and massages his wife. He also enjoys being submissive once in a while.

So when their annual "faceoff" at the border approaches once again, both stare at each other and breathe a long, centuries-old sigh. Oh, what they wouldn't give to just play dead and run away together when everyone else falls asleep while mourning their corpses.

[tekumaniac311]

Open Arms: Mission Part 2

As the menacing monsters approached, the Riders took a stand and attacked. FixFox swung a wrench at a Bloodline Picky as it came at her, it's head split open from the swing. "Looks like some of these are unfinished or weaker than others!"

Picky meanwhile tried to punch at the Bloodline Dogday but it barely flinched, until Hoppy jumped up and kicked it in the face, Leopardaisy then phased through the roof above and kicked it in the back of the head causing it to collapse down "These are really just ugly." Leopardaisy said "Aye" Picky replied "Look out! Another!" She then added, they ducked to avoid the Bloodline Kickin that came at them and prepared to attack it.

Bobby, Crafty, Berserkerine and FixFox were struggling with not one but 4 Bloodline Hoppy's. "Bes, I think you need to overdrive.." Berserk removed his helmet and clicked his neck in confidence "Got it." with that Berserkerine stepped forward towards the approaching Bloodlines sparking with gold electricity. Fox, Crafty and Bobby watched as Berserk's body changed fur colour to a black starry mist with gold lightning, the Bloodlines stepped back in fear. "Bad move, bub." Berserkerine snarled. Fully becoming his Overdrive mode he roared at the Bloodlines and started decimating them.

"Holy.." Bobby and Crafty muttered. "Yeah, he's only allowed to use it as a last resort." FixFox explained.

Avoiding rampaging unfinished Bloodlines left and right was Lemur, ducking to avoid another, he was pulled back by Mama Mammoth just in time "Stay close to me, Lemur!" Bubba then put his hand on her shoulder "And you better stay close to me!" The three then ducked to avoid a rampaging Bloodline Bubba. "No, YOU stay close to me." Mama sternly said to Bubba.

"Mama! Bubba! Look!" Lemur said, pointing. Several cultists ships were taking off "Looks like their escaping." He added. "Their not worth the trouble, honey. Let's focus on the mission" Mama said to Lemur.

Elsewhere deep in the bowels of the factory, Dogday, Z, Catnap and Drago approached a large door "Stand aside, i'll burn us through." Drago said as he brandished a ball of blue fire and hurled it at the door, melting it open. There they found...no one strapped to the wall?

"Dogbite??" Dogday called out as he looked around "No..she can't have..." Were they too late for him? Did the Seraphim take Dogbite with him? Dogday began to sink to his knees in defeat until.."WATCHOUT!!" Catnap yelled but it was too late.

The four where swung into the wall by a Bloodline monster, gathering their bearings they see it was a Bloodline Catnap along with a Bloodline Dogday, Hoppy and Kickin. The Bloodline Hoppy looked at the wall in confusion, as if saying: Wasn't our prisoner supposed to be here?

A loud yell came from above the Bloodlines as a very-alive Dogbite hurled a sunblast at them and landed in front of the team. "Dogbite!" Dogday said relieved. Dogbite turned to his older brother "Oh hey big bro...guess you heard of my dumb decision." Dogday simply put his hand on his shoulder "Dogbite, you've just been mislead, that's all. We've all come to save you...heads up!"

They swiftly dodged the Bloodline Catnap and made quick work of them with their powers. As the other critters meanwhile were fighting more Bloodlines off, Dogday contacted them "Everyone, I've got Dogbite!" Craftycorn replied "Copy that, captain! We've got to go!" The other Riders received the news to and with that, everyone headed out the base back to their cycles, meanwhile the two brothers got on their cycle.

"Hey...Thanks for..coming after me, we're even now." Dogbite spoke "Brother's don't keep score." Dogday replied smiling and they flew back to the Critter ships, with them clear FixFox pressed the detonator and the entire factory was destroyed, the mission was a success.

Later, both teams were in the ship congratulating eachother, Dogday and Dogbite meanwhile were talking "So yeah..i've really just been my own worst enemy, it's not a competition, it's a war...I've really just been..."

"An arrogant douche?" Z asked crossing his arms. "Z!" Dogday barked, on the defensive. Dogbite sighed "What he said, big bro. I've just been that the whole time since forming my own crew, we're on the same side and my alienating only strained my teams relations. My ego got too out of control..." He looked down at the ground, ashamed. Dogday and Z looked at eachother, Z then approached and lifted Dogbite's chin to look up at him "Hey, acknowledging your issues and wanting to fix them are always a start, bud."

With that, the hologram of Poppy and Mr Ludwig himself appeared via the meeting table. "Mr Ludwig? Poppy?" Drago asked them. "Congratulations to all of you, this had put a major dent in the Cult's work. A job well done." Dogbite then walked up to the table "Hey, director. You were right all along about me, I was indeed getting too reckless and competitive, it's what got me captured in the first place, all I can say is how sorry for how stupid i've been."

Mr Ludwig gave a gentle nod to Dogbite "I am relieved you have learned your lesson Dogbite and understood the big picture that we are all working to a common goal, not competing against eachother." Dogbite smiled and his ears raised at Ludwig's comment.

"But your still on suspension." Ludwig added

Leopardaisy, overhearing stepped in "Ah, come on boss! Our captain learned his lesson but he still can't lead for a while?" Ludwig sighed "Suspended is suspended." Dogbite looked down, a little sad "however..I will shorten the suspension to just two weeks. He will be back in time for the upcoming gala." He added with a smile. "Have a good day, Riders." He said as the transmission ended.

"Guess I'll see you guys in two weeks" Dogbite said to his brother who put his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright now little brother. Go back to Eden, chill out, enjoy yourself and freshen up."

The two brothers then shared a hug with everyone watching.

TO BE CONTINUED

AU by @onyxonline

[kob131]

So because people are apparently taking this image seriously-

1- It does happened every 40 or so years in the Fuyuki system. It's just that the Fourth Holy Grail War didn't end properly so the system restarted early.

2-The supposed 'variance' in the number of Servants is because the Fuyuki Grail is corrupted by a unique Servant that was summoned through breaking the rules of the system.

3- You DO summon historical figures like 80% of the time. 5% is summoning a guy to fill in for a mythical figure that never existed but is functionally that guy. 5% is summoning an idea in the form of a Servant that has impacted humanity. 5% is FGO fanservice bringing in characters from the franchise which doesn't happen anywhere else and the last 5% is just odd/comedy cases.

4- No, you summon Servants from the Throne of Heroes which records the deeds of notable actors in history then preserves their souls to be summoned as familiars. The thing is, the Throne of Heroes is outside of time so it can pull people from anywhere in time so long as they are recorded. You usually summon people with a catalyst so naturally people ASSUME it's just heroes from the past. Also humans in the modern era tend to lead such insignificant lives that almost no one gets recorded.

5-No, you get 3 Command Seals and that's it. The Church Overseer retrieves any unused Command Seals but is supposed to be a neutral party that doesn't use them. Kirei just breaks the rules cuz he's supposed to enforce them.

6- Motherfucker, did you not see Kirei command fucking CU CUTHULANN to kill himself? Those Command Seals DO command Servants. The are only a few cases of Servants ignoring those Command Spells. Saber did it once because she was THAT resistant to magic and couldn't resist TWO. And Berserker of Red did it because that's whole shtick. Anything else is working around loopholes and how you need to be VERY specific with your commands.

7-Not the actual Holy Grail and people just assume it's all powerful. It's got god-like power but even it can't, say, magically wipe all conflict from existence.

I though we all knew this was a joke but apparently I had to say all this.

[ideas-4-stories]

Cross Guild Romance prompt: During negotiations with a rich island, someone drugs Buggy's drink, but somehow Crocodile ends up drinking it. The drug is a scary substance that simulates death, but actually leaves the victim alive. Crocodile collapses and Buggy and Mihawk desperately try to save him but to no avail, Crocodile "dies". His body is taken to the hospital tent morgue while Buggy and Mihawk, both enraged at the loss of their love, go berserk together and nearly sink the whole island before their crew finds a way to restrain them somehow. Buggy and Mihawk are absolutely devastated. Later in the dead of night (pun intended) Crocodile with his devil fruit metabolism suddenly comes to, very much alive, confused, and wondering why he's in the freaking morgue. He drags himself outta their and stumbled home to the residence he shares with Mihawk and Buggy, who are both awake and grieving deeply. Imagine their shock when their giant sand man shows up and asks what the freaking hell is going on?

I say Crocodile wasn’t looking at the drink he was reaching for, taking Buggy’s drink for himself. Holy stars, that must have been terrifying for everyone there. That person or people who tried to drugged Buggy is probably wishing they didn’t do that.

I feel bad for everyone because what happened. I’m sure the island is now on lockdown for the time being. Because Crocodile just randomly collapsing and “dying” after drinking something isn’t normal. I wonder if the person was caught yet or not? Did the person get punished or is Buggy and Mihawk waiting until they are more collected to do a punishment?

Then Crocodile wandering into their residence, wondering what the hell happened more than anything now that he walked into their semi destroyed room to see wailing clown and non-responsive vampire. When Buggy and Mihawk is there, shit going to be even chaotic.

They work it out in the end… If anyone saw Crocodile coming from the morgue will probably faint from it.

[intrepid-fictioneer-7]

Recent chapters of the underrated Fate spinoff Fate/type Redline got me in my feelings so I had to talk about it at lengths, even moreso now that it hasn't updated in months (the mangaka, Ryouji Hirano, has health problems I believe). Spoilers obviously.

Now, when I call type Redline, "underrated", it's more of a subjective than objective assessment. Despite being a manga and thus far more accessible than the untranslated visual novels or light novel series of TYPE-MOON, I see it discussed fairly rarely. At the very least, as far as I know, there hasn't been much big posts analyzing it, so I believe this should be one of the first.

Just don't expect something really deep, these are mostly my musing, rambling observations.

In fact, for a long time, I didn't really have a well-articulated thought about Redline's themes. The contrast of a Holy Grail War taking place in the middle of a world war simply had me chalk it up to the tried and true "war is hell" and not think any deeper (which was a bit intellectually lazy of me). And there is certainly that, but it's a bit more elaborate than that, or else I wouldn't find Redline as interesting. And it all reached a thematic "climax" of sorts in the recent chapter as of the time of writingé

In reality, the story signaled its central theme from the very start, I just wasn't paying attention. One of the first chapters ends with this page:

At first, I thought this was just about Nobunaga. But it turns out this specific page and its text will become the precursor of how the manga is going to present Servants, and how this presentation fits into its larger representation of what war is.

Something you hear somewhat frequently when people mention Redline is "it made Servants scary again". It is only half true, Servants have usually only been "scary" in specific circumstances (Bluebeard in FZ, True Assassin in FSN, and Jackie in Apo come to mind). What they actually mean is that Redline shows Servants as above human again, and it does so by showing them brutally go through lots and lots of human bodies, when Fate is usually about Servants fighting each other. You see Servants vs. humans sometimes, but it's usually 1v1 deals. The only notable exception I can think of is Clan Calatin against Alcides in strange Fake.

There is also Apocrypha, but they are up against armies of homunculi, golems, and animated skeletons, so the dynamic is a bit different than with modern armies. It does however say this.

Indeed, Lancer of Red could burn to ash and crush the stakes with his flames and divine spear. But the Red camp's odds of successfully opposing the Black camp's overwhelming amount of material resources were fifty-fifty. Fighting a force of twenty thousand was beyond the capacities of even a mighty Heroic Spirit. Even then, there would have been no problems if they were alive, but right now they were Servants. The more they consumed prana in great quantities, the closer they approached death. (Apocrypha volume 2 ch.2)

Which is interesting in light of Redline's story, but I digress.

But here, in Redline, because it's during the Second World War, and members of the military are using Servants to do their bidding as well as planning to use them to win the war, there are a lot of interactions between Servants and modern human armies, usually violent ones, to catastrophic results, as Servants go through lots of human meat like cheese. The picture above is after Oda Nobunaga shoots down an entire fleet of American planes heading to Japan.

It's a type of interactions we only ever really saw when Berserker Lancelot in Zero overtook a JSDF fighter jet to fight Gilgamesh on Vimana, while the other plane got eaten by the Lovecraftian horror Caster summoned. The militarized forces of Faldeus in FsF mostly only go after human mages and steer clear of Servants.

And that makes for an interesting contrast that Redline is all too happy to highlight time and time again. When they say "Servants are scary", they mean "Servants are above human", in every sense of terms. No normal human can harm them or even pose a challenge to them, for they are above human strength and capabilities: they are superhuman, they are inhuman.

And that does not just mean inhuman power, but also inhuman thinking.

One of the main conflict throughline of the manga is the relationship between Kanata Akagi, our main protagonist, and his Servant Okita. They don't clash as such, it's not like Fate route Shirou hindering Saber from doing her job, nor is it like Kiritsugu disregarding Saber. It's more low-key, like a misunderstanding that can never be solved. Okita was a warrior in life, and this Holy Grail War in war-torn Japan is just another battlefield to her. Kanata however was born and raised in a Japan long after the war ended, in more peaceful times where he never had to kill. And it's this fundamental difference in lived experiences and mindset that stops them from ever reaching an understanding about how to approach the war:

Even later, as the war goes on, after Okita almost killed potential allies (more on that later), and Kanata reveals to her he comes from the future and what his goals are (ensure his grandma doesn't die and he can come back), and they decide to have a more honest partnership with each other, it's still not enough.

Because when Okita kills a human soldier again, this time a soldier wounded by Berserker who charged Kanata because he was a Master and he blamed magi for how pear-shaped the whole situation has become, this time she does a 180 and instead of convincing Kanata to become ready to kill, she instead wants him to think of her as his tool to kill in his place and take the burden upon herself:

Kanata can only ask her if she's really fine being a sword to be used by someone else and nothing more, to which she replies that's all she needs.

Do note how completely obscured, borderline blank (save for a small, thin-lipped smile), Okita's face is as she says this. As if Kanata and us readers really can't tell how she actually feels about her own words.

This is not the first time the manga does this with Okita.

Coming back to the almost aborted alliance I mentioned earlier, what happened is that, a few chapter before this, the Rider of this war, Sakamoto Ryouma and Oryou, met with Okita to ask her and her Master for an alliance to stop the war from spiraling further and kill more innocents. It would be normal to be suspicious of their intentions, especially since Ryouma initially hides from her that he is a Servant.

But that's not the reasoning Okita uses to reject the alliance and subsequently attack them:

"There is only one path for me (war)." And here it is again: "She's not human."

And it happened even earlier too. When Servant Assassin (Okada Izou) fights Okita, he grows more and more disturbed as he doesn't feel fear, anger, or exaltation as he fights and cuts her, feeling nothing at all from her aside from the scent of blood. Okada's thoughts are interspersed with Kanata's own thoughts about visiting his dying comatose grandmother in the hospital as a kid. And when Kanata touched his grandmother's hand, just like when Okada faces Okita, all it felt like was that:

As you can see, a lot of emphasis, both textually and visually, that Okita does not feel human, and her way of thinking is so alien people can't comprehend her.

And it's not just her, Servants in general are portrayed this way throughout. You saw the pilot's words about Nobunaga at the start of this post, but it occurs later as well. When she was first summoned in the previous war a few years ago by the Imperial Army, her summoner was an arrogant dude who tried to get her to submit and she casually beheaded him. Following that is this page:

Nothing showing on this blood soaked face except for elongated eyes like those of a monster. And after that, everyone in the room prostrate themselves before her like she is a god they worship.

She picks her Master from the crowd, the half-Japanese girl Kaname Asama, and she treats her surprisingly decently from what we see throughout the manga, giving the shrinking violet of a girl respect like she is her attendant, unlike Kaname's boss Magatsu (more on him later) who threatens her and even hits her.

So you would think they have a cordial relationship? Well, maybe they did, but that was until the recent chapter, which has Magatsu's Berserker fight Lancer, and instead of helping their ally, Nobunaga wants to leave, which leads to this exchange:

The same face and eyes again. Kaname doesn't understand her Servant, nor can she tell what she's thinking, just as Nobunaga's face loses all expression, making it impossible for us to tell as well.

(This is not exactly new in regard to Nobu: Keikenchi, the original author of Koha-Ace and the mind behind Redline, already made a Koha-Ace oneshot previously focusing on her, and in it it was shown that, when she was alive, Nobunaga could not "hear" the voices of other people, other humans, and it's her being unable to understand other people that contributed to both her rise and fall)

Another Servant serving as a good example of this is Berserker, which obviously makes sense when it's the Class that from the very start of the Fate franchise in Fate/stay night was there to be impossible to communicate with. But interestingly, everything that surrounds Berserker, not just the Servant itself, reinforces this theme, as if the story employs irony in making the maddest of them all in a war full of mad people the more in-depth examination of the idea instead of being the most obvious.

But I need to scale back a bit to explain.

The Master of Berserker is Major Magatsu, the head of the Imperial Army's magecraft division and one of the main human antagonist. He is kind of interesting in how it's not just his Servant, but his own actions that act as a fulcrum to demonstrate the point. See, in these last stages where it is clear Japan is going to lose, Magatsu wants to keep the war going. His main goal is that he sees the war as not just for the glory of Japan, but as an opportunity to create a world where mages stand at the top, even planning to orchestrate a secret coup within the Japanese military. He is able to amass a great number of men under him, all fanatically loyal to him due to a mixture of his own charisma and appeal to nationalism as well as cigarettes laced with suggestive tobacco making the soldiers smoking it pliable. His followers are so loyal in fact, that when a team of them comes back defeated after facing a Servant trying to deal with Team Kanata, they beat the only survivor up and torture him for his failure and for failing Magatsu, without Magatsu's knowledge or consent (in fact, he is slightly disturbed by this and thinks to reduce the dosage of the tobacco).

But that doesn't deter him from his tactics. Even when he has to hasten his coup after being forced to when pro-war proponents in the war ministry are assassinated, leading to his enraged troops to blame the proponents of suing for peace within the ministry, he still keeps with the easily pliable and fanatical troops even though it is clear he can barely control them. "When the madman runs, any man not mad starts running" is written on a banner hanging on the wall of the magecraft division's headquarters, and Magatsu, who doesn't know who wrote it, finds it a good quote, not knowing how prophetic the words would become. Regardless, Magatsu has made the entire magecraft division and then some fold under his command by making them believe he will be the hero to save Japan. He makes many speeches about saving the nation and how the preservation of the Empire is vital to the preservation of the soul of the nation, and can easily drive crowds into nationalistic frenzy with talks of using Archer and Berserker to fight on mainland Manchuria, and clearly invoking the spirit of complete sacrifice to the nation like in banzai charges and kamikaze, even if not explicitly:

Sometimes, an ordinary and unrefined person will defeat their fear of death and become a noble person with the resolve to throw away their own lives. This phenomenon, which one could call a miracle, is occuring at this very moment, in various places within Japan. War allows all sorts of miracles to exist.

For these reasons, the Colonel, the so far unnamed high-ranked Nazi who is Magatsu's main ally, praises him for "having a knack for understanding human nature", which is why he gives him Berserker, as he believes that, if he experiences the war from the same position as Servants, Magatsu may be able to come to understand them...especially, as he notes, Magatsu completely failed to have Nobunaga pay him any attention:

Magatsu, for all his charisma and servile attitude, completely fails to have Nobunaga pay him any attention even once since her summoning years ago. When summoned, she ignored him in favor of going to Kasame. She doesn't follow his orders nor does she even acknowledge him as a faithful follower: he might as well be air in her eyes. Not only that, she only talks to his subordinate Kaname Asama, whom he disdains for having foreign blood due to being half-Japanese. And the Colonel rightly realizes that Nobunaga's lack of interest makes him seethe. Magatsu seethes so much in fact that he comes to the conclusion that he doesn't need to understand Servants, especially to win when they don't seem to care what he's they're fighting for, so he would rather settle for Berserker than the unruly Archer, believing he can control him thanks to the Heroic Spirit Restraining Device provided by the Nazis. Very predictably, it goes pretty poorly.

As soon as he's summoned and out of the tank he was put in, Berserker immediately begins to indiscriminately kill soldiers of the magecraft division for no reason, and when Magatsu attempts to use his Command Spells on him, he cuts off his arm and crushes it, making the Command Spells disappear. Berserker then engages in a rampage throughout the magecraft division base, gleefully killing every soldier in his way, yet does not kill his Master despite his failed attempt to restrain him:

Magatsu is unwittingly along for the ride as Berserker carries him in his arms as he goes about his "fun".

Naturally, Magatsu's men try to slow down and stop Berserker using "anti-Servant" weapons (lol) that obviously do jack shit. But they use too much firepower and seemingly ignore Magatsu's cries for help, which leads him to believe that they are trying to kill them both. Berserker agrees in his twisted logic, and enacts more violence as he believes his Master is in danger.

The reality is actually different: when Kaname Asama try to get to exercise more caution so they do not accidentally hit and hurt the Major, when he is clearly an hostage, one soldier slaps her and rebukes her, madly stating that there is no way the savior of Japan would ever get hurt by these weapons.

They keep throwing weapons and men at Berserker, which eventually confuses Magatsu, because weren't they trying to kill him? Why then are they wasting their lives against a Servant?

Which is when the point is made.

As this massacre rages on, Magatsu is telepathically contacted by the Colonel, who congratulates him on summoning Berserker and says that the Restraining Device is working wonderfully saying as the major's mana and life are still intact. Magatsu, enraged, accuses the Colonel of having done something to his men, maybe brainwashing them to kill themselves, which is a fair accusation considering it is the Nazis who did assassinate the war hawks and forced Magatsu to accelerate his coup plans.

Except the Colonel says he had nothing to do with it and the reason for the soldiers' actions is far simpler: they admire Magatsu, they truly, genuinely do. The Colonel explains that his accomplishments, from taking control of the war to making a Servant protect the capital from air raids, made him look like a true messiah in the eyes of his men, and Magatsu was too blind to see it. Of course he denies it and calls the Colonel a liar, until he sees one of his men approach and try to reach him, only to be pierced by Berserker's spear for his troubles, and as he lays dying, Magatsu hears his last words on his bloody lips: "Glory to the Major."

As the one-sided battle against the human waves of martyrs continue, the Colonel throws Magatsu's earlier words about the war "allowing miracles" back to his face, bringing the whole arc to its logical conclusion, and I will transcribe the speech in its entirety since it intersperses scenes of the battle and that's too much images to for this post:

How about you open your eyes to reality for once? The only sane person in that battlefield is you. War is cruel. It burdens its victims with a detestable fate. But look at them. They do it for their country, for you. Their madness calls forth even more madness. All these men rush forward, knowing well only death awaits them. War takes these ordinary men, and turn them into martyrs. War allows all sorts of miracles. I thank you. You've allowed me to witness something beautiful. Did seeing people die finally get to you? Feeling remorse? I suppose you didn't have what it takes to be a soldier. This is no time to be losing your mind, Major. It's not everyday you get to experience war from such a safe position. Revel in it a little more. You are at the center of a miracle. That which creates miracles, and gathers people's faith. What do you call that, Major? Do you know? A God. Congratulations, Messiah. In this exact moment and place, you are the one closest to a God.

Just as the voice of God can't reach mortals, your voice can't reach these men. For alas, there are none who can hear it. Raise your head, Major. The curtain has fallen at last. And you should now be able to understand her a little more.

Archer arrives, looking down at Berserker and Magatsu standing on the mountain of corpses of all the men of the magecraft division, and Magatsu tries one last time to get her to look at him by calling for her help, as all he ever wanted was to prove he was worthy to stand at her side...and she laughs in his face. She mocks him for thinking he could ever control a Servant and finds his tear-stained and snotty face hilarious.

And Magatsu, at this last straw after everything, breaks.

As he begins to laugh maniacally, his Servant joins in, and as Archer, Berserker, and him laugh, it's as if the corpses of his men, their mouth frozen in bloody leering rictus by rigor mortis, are laughing with them. Magatsu finally realizes it was wrong to think to use Servants in a war, because they could never be measured by human standards.

It's not that Servants can't be understood, not solely. This sequence of chapters shows it goes deeper than that: it's war that turns everyone mad, and thus makes understanding impossible among humans. And Servants are humanity writ large, the highest of the high and the lowest of the low, because you need to be larger than life to be remembered for eternity in the Throne of Heroes. Which means that, where war turns humans into mad monsters, it makes the Heroic Spirits standing above humans into the embodiments, the apotheosis, the personified concepts of madness.

They are mad gods.

The World War and the Holy Grail War are both founts of insanity, because that's what war does. The average soldier's brain briefly brushes with the eternal sublime, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans that turns humans into figures of worship recorded and enthroned for eternity beyond space and time. And this brief contact with the Absolute gives them the divine language that makes them unintelligible to other men. Their visages, like Moses' after descending the mountain, can no longer be looked upon. They are completely obscured to us who don't live and breathe for war, for violence is their domain now.

War makes Berserkers of us all.

Is it any wonder that the Classes of the Holy Grail War by design favor warriors and warmongers? This war is rife with adepts of violence: a warlord (Nobunaga), a warrior (Mori), a secret police assassin (Okita), a plain assassin (Okada), and a martial artist (Li Shuwen). All of which mad in their own way and choosing the path of violence over any other options.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that the sanest and most "normal" Servants we have seen in Redline not only belong to the Classes less obviously about violence or weaponry, Rider and Caster, but their identities are also not famous for violence: the Rider was a politician and diplomat, while the Caster is a scientific thought experiment about the laws of physics.

I don't know how this will conclude or shake out, but I have my suspicions. Our protagonist Kanata comes from the peaceful post-war Japan and has so far always been repulsed by violence, despite attempts by his Servant and his grandmother to get him to get used to it to be more effective in the war. In fact, he reaffirms that he wants to win the war without becoming a remorseless bloodthirsty killer.

I can see potential routes the story can take depending on whether he slowly succumbs to war's madness or he heroically resists its call. Especially if he is pitted against what seems to be one of the main antagonists, the Nazi Colonel, clearly war's most fervent prophet, whose face is always obscured.

We'll see. The latest chapter as of the time of writing is the fight between Lancer and Berserker. Even the pair that seems to get along the best, Team Lancer, has the Master threatened by her Servant for almost "interrupting" his fight by trying to heal his wounds. And her (current) last words are a perfect encapsulation of the manga and my whole thesis:

[sweatytyrantobservation]

Lord have mercy

[dreamii-krybaby]

Theory on Nori’s actual personality

Ok but what if it’s revealed that Nori isn’t necessarily malicious or evil or satan’s spawn, like specifically during her time at the labs and camps.

Like yes I know she seems to be enjoying herself after the core collapse thanks to the pictures in EP4 and at the interview shown in EP6 despite Alice going berserk and smashing her own head and Yeva hurting and terrified. Not only her body language but also the fact she is resting her arm on one of the sentinels as if they were mere pets gives her almost disney villian vibes

Because to me she could be somewhat similar to N. She is a beacon of positivy, it may be simply her personality or a developed coping mechanism

It could be that her chill and cool vibes are astonishing. So it’s not that she doesn’t care or anything, she simply isn’t aware of the gravity of the situation or takes things easy.

Plus the fact that the goddam sentinels are so chill around her that even one of them lets Nori put her arm on top of them can maybe be seen as the sentinels not perceiving Nori as a threat, and more as a companion, maybe even as a friend.

Her EP6 appearance may be a red herring or is purposely made so we draw the wrong conclusion.

Bc most of her bad actions where when she was under the influence of the AS:

- Like before the core collapse happened we clearly saw in EP6 that Nori was fully possessed bc of her yellow eyes. And we in the footage you can see drones or even human limbs scattered around her, so all of that was when she was possessed.

- after the core collapse she shows to be quite friendly, it could be that she doesn’t remember a lot after her possession. Unlike Yeva who probably was still processing everything.

Tho tbh I can cut her some slack if she indeed was happy after the humans perished after the core collapse. Since you know, she was experimented and probably witnessed a lot of fucked up shit.

- When Alice mentioned that she left them to die, she also later added she had yellow eyes, again, Nori was possessed at that time. Alice probably didn’t know that the one who probably left them to die was the AS, not Nori

- Now this more of an assumption, but the fact that in Nori’s closet Khan kept boxes and boxes of “happy family memories” it probably meant their relationship was pretty good.

- And things only went south when Nori started to get visions(?). Also she constantly told Khan to build doors against the coming sky demons. Clearly she was trying to protect herself, Uzi and Khan, and probably the rest of the colony (which also included Yeva, which would go against the interpretation that Nori didn’t care much for Yeva). Also remember, it was Khan who wasn’t there for Nori, she needed him, she tried to warn him.

-Its also worth mentioning that Yeva might have not been harmed by Nori during the interview shown at EP6. Bc first there is no sharp object that could potentially be used against Yeva. (Wait now that I think about it, there is a JCJenson pen, and if u remember the pilot, that pen could have actually been used to cause Yeva’s injury but it seems to be lacking oil stains)

And its a higher possibility that Alice could have done it, as it seems she has gone berserk and drew with her own oil on the walls and is clawing at the wall, and maybeee she also used Yeva’s oil to draw.

Also Nori couldn’t have used the AS directly on Yeva due to both having the AS. And a interpretation made by @capnsaltsquid said that Yeva’s eye got damaged by the AS itself, it fucking blew up, due to her body not being very “compatible” with the AS. (Yeva my poor gal :( )

Again I think it all depends on interpretation.

Now does this mean she is a pure holy saint? No. Murder Drones is a show where most ppl aren’t really a saint. Yes..probably not even my gal Yeva. But Nori could be that at the end she wasn’t evil or smth. She could have a similar situation to Cyn.

Now personally would enjoy if she actually started off as antagonist or even villian when she got the AS at the labs and had to unfortunately learn the hard way about the dangers of the AS later. Wouldn’t mind at all if she occasionally showed moments of villainy.

And me being me, how about devil’s advocate?

Maybe she was indeed a son of a bitch at her time at the labs maybe she was happy after the destruction she caused after the core collapse.

What if Nori actually planned to get possessed? What if the AS offered her freedom by getting rid of the humans. Bc the AS drawing below her shown on the EP6 footage surrounded by body remains gives me “summoning the local Eldritch god inside of my body to do silly stuff” vibes

For all we know the AS could have given her a sense of control, power, and superiority and for a lab rat surrounded by robo-raptors and other, more aggressive lab rats, that must have felt amazing.

Also it would be nice to have a villian who fully embraces the AS, even for only a period of time.

Before you say we have Doll, I don’t think so, well partially:

-She immediately feels sorry for Uzi upon learning she also has the AS, and she promised her to help her once she finds what she is looking for.

-She also calls the AS a “sickness” via Tessa’s comment on EP6.

-A lot of ppl and myself included infer that what Doll is looking for is a cure for the AS

-Even if she uses the AS a lot more than Uzi I think Doll is simply taking advantage of it while she has it, its the only ready available tool she has. But I don’t think she necessarily likes having it. Plus Doll has more control over her body over the AS unlike Uzi.

So I would love for Nori at the beginning to embrace the AS, that loves it. Sees it as a blessing rather than a sickness. That feels a rush of control when using it.

Or we could go the more, chill route, she uses it more due to carelessness and ignorance.

And perhaps for her later go “Well maybe I don’t want this thing anymore”

But realistically from what I gathered, I see her someone who is chill, open, easy going, sociable and perhaps, careless.

Tho am begging on my knees for her to be a morally grey sassy lady.

[cardinalcyn]

otona precure rant post

spoilers for otona precure if you give a shit

but tbh i don't really care that much, you're better off not watching it

credit to sagiri asuka on pixiv for this cool art!

anyways uh. go under the cut for salt

bell from otona precure is the most terrible villain i've ever seen in a piece of media. ever. EVER ever. bar none, the worst.

i need to explain what i mean here. see, this isn't a rant about irredeemable "complete monster" type villains. i actually LOVE villains who are just horrible people for the sake of it— not all the time of course, but every so often there's a piece of shit so rancid that you just can't help grinning at the thought of the heroes taking them down. AM. william afton. ridley. pennywise. junko enoshima before DR3 ruined her

bell's not that.

tbh i think i probably would have liked her a lot more if she WERE meant to be irredeemable

the reason why she's so terrible is simple: her evil plan is complete nonsense. it's so brain-dead that if i travelled back to the 1920s to call her an idiot, just so that could actually mean something, it would still be an understatement.

if you've never seen otona precure, here's the story. there's some fuckass city with a bunch of ex-magical girls called precure who are all working ordinary adult jobs now (wasted potential but that's another rant). all of a sudden these weird Shadows start attacking people. now the magical girls have to figure out what the fuck's going on before these abominable CGI turds figure out how to move quickly enough to actually hurt something besides the viewer's eyeballs from beyond the fourth wall

bell is the "brains" behind the shadow attacks, and the one summoning them.

do you want to know why this woman is forcibly turning people into ugly shadow zombies?

because climate change.

no that's not a shitpost.

bell saw what happened to the city decades in the future because of climate change TRAVELLED BACK IN TIME TO THE PAST and instead of warning anyone maybe pulling a luigi or two

"here's how i'm gonna stop climate change," says the extraordinary time-travelling angel who can shapeshift and lives in her own personal pocket dimension. "i'm going to turn everyone in this city into shadow monsters so they stop polluting"

BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY, YOU CAN PREVENT THE SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTION OF THE ENTIRE PLANET BY CASTING A SPELL ON ONE GODDAMN FUCKING CITY. THAT'LL SOLVE EVERYTHING! SOMEONE GET HER A FUCKING NOBEL PRIZE ALREADY!

as if this wasn't already the most colossally stupid thing in all of anime, bell somehow FAILS TO MENTION ANY OF THIS until there's only one episode left in the season, and spends the rest of the time acting like a generic moustache-twirling big bad evil guy and hiding behind cryptic riddles. SHE CAN READ MINDS. IT'S NOT HARD TO TELL THE MAGICAL GIRL WHO JUST TAUGHT HER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE ANIME ITSELF WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO PULL. instead she's like "i'm going to make you lose your will to fight me oooooooooo i'm so evil"

and when she's finally cornered, explains everything, and all the precures are understandably like "what the fuck??? why did you choose to go about this in the most convoluted stupid way possible", she decides the only way to make them realize how foolish and naive they are (holy projection, batman!) is by MAKING ALL THE SHADOW MONSTERS INTO A FUCKING KAIJU AND SICCING IT ON THEM. the kaiju proceeds to go completely berserk and vaporize everything in its path. like, the buildings just vanish into nothingness from one touch.

AND THEN.

WHEN A TEAM OF LIKE 12 MAGICAL GIRLS, PLUS THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP OR WHATEVER, IS FINALLY ENOUGH TO KILL THE KAIJU

BELL'S LIKE

"oh."

"shit"

"i guess i fucked up huh"

"okay i'm good now. im gonna go fuck off to my pocket dimension now"

YOU DO NOT GET TO HAVE A LAST-SECOND REDEMPTION ARC AFTER NEARLY BLOWING UP THE PLACE YOU WANTED TO PROTECT OUT OF SELF-RIGHTEOUS STUPIDITY. WHAT THE FUCK TOEI

oh yeah also there's a stinger scene after the entire rest of the show has wrapped up its dogshit excuse for a plot that pretty much implies the shadows are gonna be a permanent problem now.

congratulations, bell.

now they're gonna have to deal with climate change

AND the monsters you conjured from the depths of your nonexistent grey matter

AT THE SAME TIME.

tl;dr local "guardian angel" causes more problems by trying to solve them in the most stupid and short-sighted way imaginable

[itsupermanti]

Written for @howi99, for a story idea that I helped him develop on Discord, relating to these posts.

The Black Knight of Remnant

Oscar(eyes wide at the sight of a blond knight in black appearing from the glowing circle in his barn): What the…?

???(arms crossed over his chest with his eyes closed): I’m Berserker, a Servant who will be protecting you for the coming Holy Grail War. And I must ask of you.

Berserker(opening his eyes to reveal his amber irises): Are you my-

(Artwork not mine)

Berserker(his right brow rising in confusion as he sees the Farmboy before him): Wait a minute, Oscar?

Oscar(eyes going wide in alarm as his hold on his pitchfork tightens): How do you know my name?!

Berserker(looking around in confusion): This isn’t Haven, where are we? Where are the others?

Berserker(turning back to Oscar): And why are yo-

TING!!!

Berserker(glancing down at the pitchfork that failed to stab through both his aura and his black and red chestplate): D-did you just…?

Oscar(backing up and dropping his pitchfork in fear): AH!!!

Berserker(merely raising a brow at the young boy): Did you just try to stab me in the chest? Through my METAL chestplate?

Oscar(turning around and running out of the barn): I’M SOR-

Oscar(tripping over his own foot): WOAH!!!

Oscar(hitting his head against the side of the barn door): Gah!

Berserker(crying out as Oscar’s consciousness starts to fade): Master?!…Oscar!…

Berserker(as Oscar blinks and sees the knight standing over him): Don’t…orry…I kn…to do…ang on…

Berserker(chanting as Oscar finally succumbs to sweet unconsciousness): For it is in passing…

____________________________________________

He dreamt of a castle, and a field of flowers…

He saw a blonde woman donned in silver and blue armor, wielding a beautiful lance against countless Grimm, a man with silver hair loyally fighting alongside her.

He saw a younger blond in red and silver armor swinging a blade covered in red lightning, a hooded figure with a cloak swinging a flaming blade, and a smiling man in a white jacket with a shining white sword with an ornate blue guard.

He felt great admiration for them, his family, his parents and siblings.

He had a twin, a sister, whose soul shone with a pure, and bright light that welcomed and cherished everyone. But his soul could be considered the opposite, oppressive and dark to those who dared to threaten those he cherished.

If she was a Saint who welcomed others out of the darkness, then he was the Knight who would willingly dirty his hands in said darkness to protect those in the light.

He was his family’s Black Knight, a sword to be aimed at an enemy, and he was content with remaining as such.

Until he met, her…

A smaller more, honest soul…

One almost as pure as his own twin, who admired heroes just as he did, a kindred spirit with innocence in her silver eyes.

“That’s why we’re here, to make everything better…”

She kept him grounded, reminded him that he was more than a weapon, he was a protector, a leader, a Prince.

____________________________________________

He dreamt of flames, and ruins. Of a kingdom burning. And the loss of someone close to them. But most of all he felt…

RAGE!!!

“Cinder…”

Rage against the one person responsible…

“Cinder.”

Rage against a woman who selfishly put herself above others.

“Cinder!”

A witch with burning amber eyes who had the audacity to believe herself untouchable!

“CINDER!!!”

He’d show her that to anger a King, is to face the full wrath of his kingdom!

“CIIIINDEEEEEEEER!!!”

He suddenly sees an ornate black sword with glowing red circle patterns on its blade come into view, resting within a stone among various other weapons.

(Image is not mine)

“Sink into the mountain of corpses!”

The red patterns on the blade begin pulsing with power as a red and purple aura starts seeping out of it.

“Collapse…”

The blade erupts with an overwhelming power that would make even the oldest of Grimm cower in fear.

“Excalibur…MORGAN!!!”

____________________________________________

Oscar(suddenly jolting awake in a cold sweat): GAH!!!

Oscar(placing a hand on his forehead): It was all a-

Oscar(trailing off as he sees some red gear tattoos on top his hand): -dream…

???(speaking within his mind): Good, you’re awake…

Berserker(as he fades into view before the startled farm boy): I awakened your aura after that tumble you took yesterday, don’t want it happening again, right?

Berserker(walking towards Oscar with his hand outstretched): Now get up, we got a lot of ground to cover if we want to get to Beacon in time.

Oscar(jumping out of bed and away from the armored blond): YOU!!! WHO ARE YOU?!?!?!

Berserker(holding his hands up in a calming manner): Woah, woah! Calm down kid! Your Aunt’s still asleep! And I already told you yesterday.

Berserker(pointing at himself): I’m Berserker

Berserker(a pensive look on his face): Er well, one of them at least…

Berserker(holding his hand out to Oscar): I’m here to keep you safe and help you win the upcoming War.

Oscar(raising a brow): War? What War?! And how am I supposed to trust you?!

Berserker(shaking his head as he tosses Oscar a bag): I’ll explain everything on the way, but we have to get going.

Oscar(still confused as he catches the empty bag): Going where?

Berserker(giving Oscar a small smile): Why to Beacon of course!

Oscar(tossing the bag onto his bed): Why? And who are you?

Berserker(placing a hand on his chin): Well, if you want something to call me, you can call me “Jaltur”.

Jaltur(flashing Oscar a small smile): As for your first question…

Jaltur(as he sees Oscar’s eyes widen in shock): We’ve got a world to save, kid.

Jaltur(smirking as he leaves the room to let Oscar pack): Hope you survive the experience…

To Be Continued…

[mjrtaurus]

Even when they were separated, Crocodile was on edge every time he heard Dragon was spotted in or near Big Mom's territory. He had the misfortune of sailing with that woman for years, so he's very familiar with how she treats rare races and animals like collectible dolls. And of the three races who don't live in Tottoland, one of them is the winged humans. If she ever got wind of Dragon being Shandoran, she'd either try to stick him in a giant bird cage or throw half of her daughters at him to get him to marry into the family.

Linlin always said she'd contribute to the Revolution's cause, but Dragon could see right through that shit. Frankly, she's almost as bad as the Celestial Dragons in his eyes. A spoiled child who never grew out of her bad behavior because everyone around her enabled her worst traits, only with the added caveat of being so physically strong that people were afraid to contradict her.

(Also it seems heavily implied, at least to me, that whatever is going on with Big Mom's hunger pangs is connected to the giant kids at Punk Hazard who had those same rage episodes when denied NHC-10 laced candy. This woman was potentially born as a result of gigantification experiments and suffered from untreated hereditary chemical dependence and was later almost trafficked to the same organization who caused her condition before eating her whole family due to said condition, holy SHIT, Dragon did not think the World Government could continue to sink so low).

Charlotte Linlin… to this day the name still sends an unpleasant shiver up Crocodile’s spine.

There comes a certain point in the life a person who refuses to acknowledge that they are sick in the mind that they can very easily transfer over to the role of an abuser. This was the case with Charlotte Linlin.

He is loathe to admit it, but her dream grew twisted and ugly in much the same way his had, but that is where the similarity ended. He was still a conniving, cold-blooded old bastard, don’t get him wrong, but at least he wasn’t hoarding people like shadowbox curios under some shoddily applied veneer of peace. He had standards.

Not many, mind you, bit he did have them.

The idea of Dragon being put in a not-so-gilded cage and treated as little more than breeding stock for her perfect little candyland flavored hellscape was enough to have him burning through his cigars like more of a madman than he already is.

They were long estranged, yes, but he still loved the man, dammit! That was the father of his child!

When they eventually reconcile, one of the conditions of that reconciliation is that if Dragon is ever, ever having to be in or near Big Mom’s territory (he’ll only ever be convinced that the witch is dead if someone brings him her head, and even then he’ll still have his suspicions) that he will call before he goes in and after he goes out.

He is not losing him to that berserking old hag.