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scary-grace · 2 months

Note

For the milestone thingy with shigaraki, 24 and 28!

Thank you so much for the prompt! I went a little crazy with this one, and I hope you like it! If anyone else wants to prompt me from this list for a Shigaraki fic, please feel free.

When a child from your settlement goes missing, you go willingly into the woods to rescue him from the entity that dwells there. You're not at all prepared for what you find. Based on the tale of Tam Lin. 7.1k words, afab reader, warnings for dubcon + smut. Prompts: 'whispering in their ear, lips touching the skin' +'feeling for each other in the dark'

Izuku’s been missing since noon, and you and the others are out of places to look. You’ve searched high and low, crawled into every closet and tight corner, and checked every building, outbuilding, and hole in the ground. You even risked the radio, calling to the next settlement fifty kilometers away, on a wild hope that someone had found him and taken him to the wrong place. You’ve asked everyone if they’ve seen him, and got the same answer – not since noon. Now the sun is setting, and you’re out of ideas. Except one.

You’re the one who raises it, because no one else will. “What if he went to the woods?”

“Why would he do that?” Yue looks at you like you’ve lost your mind. “He knows better. They all know better.”

“Something could have enchanted him,” you argue. “We have to think of everything –”

“Nothing that’s supposed to stay in the woods ever comes out of it,” Rumi says. “That’s why we’re here instead of somewhere else.”

So much of the world is haunted now. You and the others are old enough to remember the way it was before, but the little kids have never known anything different. Fear of the woods isn’t learned for them, it’s instinctual. It’s hard to imagine that a kid like Izuku, a kid who follows the rules to a fault, a kid who’s always eager to please, would do something like this. But if there’s anything you know about the world as it is now, it’s that you can’t trust the rules to stay the same. Soon enough, they bend and warp, and there’s enough space between them for Hell itself to slip through.

Some say the creatures that claimed half the world seven years ago are demons, drawn up by humanity’s sins. Others think they’re aliens who’ve been watching Earth for eons, choosing to step in now for reasons incomprehensible to anyone but themselves. It’s easier to believe those things than the truth: They’re the Fair Folk, creatures of myths and fairytales the world over, who burst from hiding all at once and forced humanity to the brink in a seven-day war. Seven days. To you it shifted overnight.

Millions were lost. Any space where nature had been left to flourish became a stronghold for the Folk – forests, beaches, streams, mountains, fields, lakes. Deserts. Oceans. City parks. What the Folk couldn’t overrun, they destroyed; what they couldn’t destroy, they transformed. Even iron can’t protect against them, when there are enough of them, and they targeted the cities and towns first. That’s why you and the others were sent away. The Folk’s armies are merciless. The Folk who took up residence in the wild places are – less.

There are no truly safe places, but the settlement is as close as it gets – a cluster of buildings in the midst of a square mile blasted clean of anything wild, on the edge of a forest whose fey inhabitant never ventures out. As long as you don’t go into the woods, look at the woods, think about the woods for too long, you’re safe from him.

Or you thought you were. Fuyumi’s coming around to your way of thinking. “If Izuku’s in there, we have to go get him.”

“Are you crazy?” Natsuo crosses his arms over his chest, shakes his head. “I love that kid as much as any of us do, but if we go in there, we’re dead. That thing in there wants us more than it’ll ever want him.”

Manami wraps her arms tightly around herself, shivering. “Maybe we should call the grown-ups.”

“No,” you and everyone else says at once. Rumi keeps talking. “The radio’s too risky. The Folk can distort it. And we can’t distract them. What they’re doing is too important.”

“Besides,” Yue mumbles, “they left us in charge. We’re the grown-ups now.”

The military was decimated in the first round of fighting. Now the military, such as it is, consists of every able-bodied adult, no matter who they were before. Every able-bodied adult includes the parents of every single kid in the settlement, but someone has to take care of the kids during the three-quarters of the year where the adults are away. The older kids got the job, because in spite of the fact that all of you are old enough to vote and all of you could theoretically fight, you still count as underage in the eyes of the law. That makes you children to the Fair Folk. The Fair Folk love human children too much.

“We can’t call the adults. We looked everywhere. We can’t go to the woods,” Fuyumi says. “What are we supposed to do?”

“We don’t have proof he went to the woods,” Keigo says, speaking up for the first time. “Nobody goes in unless there’s proof.”

“How are we supposed to get proof?” Yue asks. “We already asked everyone.”

“Let’s ask again,” you say. “And let’s hurry. Whatever we do, we have to do it before dark.”

You and the others split up. Natsuo and Rumi go to quiz the oldest kids, while Fuyumi and Manami and Yue go to talk to the middle-graders. Keigo aims for the youngest kids; you go to the ones who would be in primary school if the world hadn’t ended. It’s Izuku’s age group. Even though he’s not popular, they’re more likely than anyone else to know where he is.

You asked them already, but this time, you’ve got specifics. “I know you don’t know where he went,” you say to them, once you’ve herded all of them into a corner to talk to. “I want to know what he’s been like over the past few days. Has he said anything about the woods?”

The reaction among the kids is instant, and it strikes fear and guilt into you like you’ve never felt before. “What did he say?” you ask. Head-shakes all around. “I need you to tell me. Izuku might be in big trouble. We can’t do anything to help him if we don’t know what happened.”

More head-shaking, from all the kids but one. Katsuki’s looking away from you, his arms crossed over his chest, his jaw set. Of all the kids, Katsuki’s the one who likes Izuku the least, who picks on him the most. You and the others try to stop him, but you can’t be there every second. “Katsuki,” you say. He looks quickly at you, then looks away again. “What did Izuku say to you about the woods?”

“Deku’s a coward. He wouldn’t do it. I just said I’d stop if he –” Katsuki’s voice wavers. “I didn’t think he’d really go.”

You feel sick to your stomach. “Did you dare him to go into the woods?”

“And bring something back,” Katsuki says. “To prove it.”

It all comes together in your head, an awful picture you can’t look away from. What Izuku wants more than anything is to belong with the other kids, to have friends, and Katsuki’s the one who won’t let it happen. Promises hold more weight in this world than they used to. If he promised to leave Izuku alone, Izuku had good reason to trust it. But he dared Izuku to break two rules at once, two rules that are guaranteed to seal Izuku’s fate. Humans don’t trespass on the Folk’s territory without consequences. And they definitely don’t steal from them.

But you know where Izuku is for sure. Now there’s something you can do. “Stay here,” you order the kids, and you run to find the others.

“No,” Yue says, even before you’ve finished explaining. “We still can’t go in there.”

“We have to,” you say. “He’s just a kid –”

“So he’ll be safe,” Natsuo says. You stare at him. “If the stories are anything to go by, that thing’s not interested in kids. But you can bet he’d be interested in us.”

“The stories also say he can be bargained with,” you say. It gets quiet. “There’s no story about Tam Lin where he doesn’t let you make a deal.”

Part of the reason the settlement is here is that Tam Lin doesn’t leave the woods. The other part, never said but known all the same, is that unlike the other monsters from folklore, an encounter with Tam Lin doesn’t lead to death. You can walk away alive, so long as you and he come to an agreement. “No,” Keigo says. “Nothing ever goes well bargaining with the Folk. Especially not at night.”

“So you’d go in the morning?”

“I’d go in the morning,” Rumi says. “We could all go – or most of us, since somebody has to keep an eye on the kids –”

“What if he doesn’t have until morning?” you ask. It gets quiet again. “Time runs differently in their territory. We only know how long he’s been gone out here.”

“That’s just a rumor,” Natsuo says. “I say we go, some of us. In the morning.”

It’s a solid plan. You’d probably agree with it if there wasn’t this awful feeling in the pit of your stomach, the one that says Izuku has less time than you think, the one that says waiting until morning is waiting too long. There’s fear, and at the same time, there’s guilt. Guilt when you imagine Inko, Izuku’s mom, coming back from eight months of war to find her son gone. And even if it wasn’t for Inko, you know what kind of kid Izuku is. You know that if someone was in trouble, he’d run to help them, no matter how dangerous it was. You owe him the same.

“You can do what you want,” you say to the others. “I’m going now.”

“Are you crazy? You can’t just –”

“I know the stories. I know the rules. And I’ve still got things –” You touch the necklace your mother gave you before she died, the bracelet from your grandmother around your wrist. The idea of letting them go makes your heart ache, but for another person’s life, it’s not a question whether you’ll make the deal. “I still have things to trade. I can’t live with myself if I don’t go now.”

“You want to go get snatched by a faery? Fine.” Natsuo turns away, his jaw clenched. “My dad and my brother both tried this shit. You know how it went for them.”

“They didn’t try it with him,” you say. Natsuo walks away, and you face the others, forcing a smile onto your face. You hope you look brave. “Take care of the others. If I’m not back by nightfall, I’ll be back by morning. And so will Izuku.”

Promises made carry more weight in the world now. You take it as a good sign that you’re able to get the words out of your mouth without choking on them.

Crossing the border into the woods feels like entering another world. The Folk’s magic is so thick in the air that it’s hard to breathe, and you stumble against a tree before you’ve taken more than a dozen steps, your head swimming. You’ve never felt their magic like this except once before, and you do what you did then; small, paced breaths, taking sips of the air rather than gulping it down. Your lungs will adjust if you give them time, and once the knot in your chest loosens, you straighten up again. There’s a path before you, almost certainly a trap. Is it still a trap if you go into it purposely?

It doesn’t matter if it’s a trap or not – it’s Tam Lin’s trap, and you want to find him. You step onto the path and follow it into the trees.

Each step seems to take you centimeters forward at most, and at the same time, you can feel time passing in a way that’s not quite normal. It skips and starts and pauses, and panic begins to well up inside you as you feel yourself getting tired. On either side of the path are logs covered in soft, pillowy moss, hollows at the base of trees that would be perfect to curl up in, all inviting you to stop and rest. You ignore them, the same as you ignore the shimmering flowers a few meters off to the side, the same as you ignore the deer that follows along beside you close enough to pet. They’re all tricks made to stop you. You won’t stop until you find Izuku. And you won’t find Izuku until you reach Tam Lin.

The path terminates in a clearing, and you nearly stumble into it before you catch yourself. Instantly you know you’ve found the right place. The glade is covered with roses, a few of them white but most of them red, and Izuku sits amongst them, bound hand and foot in thorny vines. You call out to him, remembering only at the last minute not to use his name, and he looks towards you. There’s panic on his face. “Run,” he says. “This is his place. He’s here. If you take another step –”

You look more closely at Izuku. He looks terrible, dehydrated and exhausted, and worse than all of that, he looks thinner. Like he’s lost weight. Like he’s been here much longer than half a day. There’s a white rose clenched in his hand, bound there purposely by the vines. He’s made both mistakes outlined in the stories – trespassed in Tam Lin’s territory, and plucked a flower. Tam Lin has him. You wonder if he’s offered Izuku a bargain, and if he has, why Izuku didn’t take it. “Have you seen him?”

“He won’t show himself, but I know it’s him.” Izuku is crying now. “Please just go. This is all my fault. I don’t want anybody else to get hurt.”

“It’s too late for that.” A voice rasps out from between the trees on the far side of the glade. You see a pale figure there, just out of clear sight. “Listen to the boy. Run while you have the chance.”

So Tam Lin can entrap only one person at a time. You think through the rules of bargaining with the Folk, slowly and carefully, knowing that a mistake will cost Izuku everything. Tam Lin must have offered him a bargain. He must have refused it. And if he’s still here, it means that Tam Lin offers only one chance. It means you’ll get only one chance, and it’s the only choice you have if you want to save Izuku.

It’s not a choice at all. You take a deep breath, shaky enough to rattle your entire body, and step forward into the clearing, ignoring Izuku when he protests, noting the way the shadow in the trees startles. You bend down and grasp a red rose, snapping it free of its vine. “I’ll make you a deal, Tam Lin,” you say. “Let the boy leave the woods alive, safe, and whole, and I’ll take his place.”

Izuku protests again, or tries to. A vine wraps around the lower half of his face, clamping his jaw shut, as Tam Lin steps from the shadows at last. He looks nothing like the Folk are meant to, beautiful and healthy and whole – instead he’s gaunt and deathly pale, his skin dry and ashen and laced with scars. His clothing is ragged, and his hair, even paler than his skin, hangs lank and tangled around his face. His face is scarred, too. His eyes are bloodred.

You catch your breath in horror at the sight of him. He scoffs. “If you dare to offer that bargain again, it’s yours,” he says. “But I don’t think you will.”

“You think the way you look will make me forget why I’m here?” You let out a scoff of your own. “Let the boy leave the woods alive, safe, and whole, and I’ll take his place to bargain with you.”

Tam Lin’s lips are dry and cracked. When they curve into a smile, blood spills from them, dripping from the corner of his mouth to stain the collar of his tattered shirt. “Done.”

The vines unwrap from around Izuku, and you turn towards him, clamping your hand down over his mouth before he can say anything that will put him in Tam Lin’s clutches again. “Go home,” you order. Izuku’s eyes are welling up again. He shakes his head. “I know what I’m doing. I made your bargain, not my own just yet. Promise me you’ll go home now.”

If he promises you here, he won’t be able to break it. You lift your hand away from his mouth. “I promise,” Izuku whispers, and you breathe a sigh of relief.

The vines slip away from him at last, and with them, Izuku moves to drop the white rose. You fold his fingers around it. “Keep it,” you say. “Show Katsuki. Make him keep his promise, too.”

Izuku nods. “Go now,” Tam Lin rasps from behind you, as you help Izuku to his feet and turn him in the direction of the path. “Not that way. Here.”

He points to a gap between the trees, one that travels straight and true. At the far end of it, you can see the light of the setting sun. Izuku stumbles towards it, then steps between the trees, takes a single step – and vanishes. At least, that’s what it looks like from your angle. When you race through the vines to peer into the gap yourself, you see a small figure, dwindling rapidly, disappear into the light.

“You think I’d break my word?” Tam Lin’s come up behind you without warning. He speaks with his lips pressed against your ear. His breath is cold, and you freeze in terror. “Remember, I can’t lie. Unlike you.”

“What makes you think I lied?” You step forward, away from him, turning so you’re face to face. “If my bargain for his life wasn’t true, you wouldn’t have accepted it.”

“That’s right, but you didn’t lie to me,” Tam Lin says. “You lied to the boy, when you told him you had another bargain to make. You knew it was a lie when you said it.”

“I knew,” you admit.

“Then why?”

“So he’d leave without trying to help me.”

“Is that all?” Tam Lin tilts his head, studying you. “I think you lied so he wouldn’t think about the bargain you truly made.”

“That, too.” There’s no point in lying about this. You sealed your fate the moment you pulled the red rose. You let it fall from your hand to rest among the vines. “I don’t want him to think about what you’re going to do to me.”

“You offered yourself to me,” Tam Lin says – snaps, almost. “I gave you the chance to leave. You refused.”

“Yes.” You knew what you were offering, and he knew when he accepted. Why is he still talking? “Let’s get this over with.”

You have the brief satisfaction of seeing Tam Lin’s jaw drop. “Get this over with?”

“Don’t be dense,” you say. You made your deal with him. What else can he do to you? “When someone trespasses and steals from you, you take their virtue or the most valuable thing they have to offer. I made my bargain already, so I don’t get to choose. I don’t want to stand here waiting all night. Let’s get this over with.”

Tam Lin is staring at you like you’ve gone insane. The magic permeating every centimeter of the woods must be making you insane, because you’re standing here in a faery’s haunt, telling a faery to hurry up and – you can’t even finish the thought. Maybe you won’t need to finish the thought if you take control. “Well?”

Tam Lin looks away from you. “Take off your clothes.”

You think about it for a moment, then decide against it. You’re out of choices when it comes to this, except for how it goes, and you don’t want it to go like this. It must not be what Tam Lin wants, either – he’s still looking away, visibly uncomfortable. You cross the space between the two of you, reach up, and turn his head back to face you. He startles when you touch him. His skin is cold. So are his lips, when you rise on your toes to kiss them.

Tam Lin stays frozen, maybe in shock, maybe in disgust. When you draw back, you can read nothing on his face. Maybe this isn’t how the people whose virtue he steals usually react. You kiss him again, and he doesn’t stop you, but he doesn’t respond. You haven’t done a lot of kissing, but you think the person you’re kissing is supposed to do something back. “Do faeries not believe in kissing?”

“I’m not a faery.”

He expects you to believe that, when he has faery magic, when he lives in the middle of a haunted forest, when he’s bound by the same rules that bind them. “Then what are you, Tam Lin?”

“I’m not a faery,” he says again, and you remember, suddenly, that he told you he can’t lie. His hands rise to grasp your waist. They’re thin and bony, almost skeletal, and cold just like the rest of him. “And my name’s not Tam Lin.”

“Oh.” You can’t manage much more of a response than that. “What do I call you, then?”

Not-Tam Lin, not-a-faery, leans in close, presses his lips to your ear again. “Tomura.”

You start to repeat it, to make sure you’ve heard it right, and Tam Lin – Tomura – covers your mouth with his hand. “Not out loud,” he says. Then why did he want you to know it? You kiss the palm of his hand and he flinches. “What are you doing? I told you to take off your clothes.”

“I have to at some point.” Your stomach clenches with discomfort at the thought of exposing yourself here, exposing yourself to him. “But you were right, before. I offered myself willingly. I should act like it.”

Tomura still looks confused. He looks frustrated when he’s confused, or else he’s confused when he’s frustrated, and either way, the whole virtue-stealing thing is taking too long. Your resolve could break at any second, and then this will be awful and painful and terrifying instead of simply awful, simply awkward. You’d rather he acted while you could both still convince yourselves that you want this. You watch Tomura’s expression shift, see the moment when he comes to the same conclusion. This time, when you lean in to kiss him, he kisses you back.

Cold. His kisses are ice-cold and unrelenting, even as his lips split against yours and blood spills between you. You lick it away on instinct and his grip on you tightens, and worse when you swipe your tongue across his lower lip again. Tomura’s lips part at once, and although you’ve done nothing more than read about this in a book, you lock your mouth against his. He’s so cold. But when your hand slips to rest against the side of his neck, you can put your fingers against his pulse. Whatever else Tomura may be, he’s alive.

The thought comforts you ever so slightly, but whatever peace or comfort you feel evaporates when Tomura’s grip on you shifts. He lifts you off your feet with a strength you wouldn’t have imagined he possessed and lays you down amongst the thorns. Amongst a spot that’s clear of them. You can see the vines retreating out of the corner of your eye a moment before Tomura pins you down. His mouth crashes against yours, and the way he’s stretched out on top of you forces you to part your legs, just enough that one of his can fit between them.

You chose for this to happen. You offered yourself willingly, and still you squirm to get free. Tomura shifts his weight so he’s no longer pinning you quite so heavily, but one of his hands slips beneath your shirt, pulling one cup of your bra down to clear his way to your breast. “Hey,” you protest. “What are you doing?”

Tomura doesn’t answer. He seems fascinated, too fascinated to even kiss you, as he cups your breast in one hand, gives an almost experimental squeeze. Your nipples harden, more from the cold than anything else, but of course he notices. He pinches it lightly, and your body jerks. An unfamiliar sensation runs quickly through you. “Hey,” you protest again, softer this time. “I thought you just were supposed to take my virtue.”

“I want everything.” Tomura’s leg presses harder between yours as he pinches your nipple again, tugs at it for a moment before circling it with the rough pad of his thumb. Your body jerks a second time, forcing your hips up to grind against his leg. “You’re warm –”

Warm, bordering on hot, and the way he’s yanked your bra aside is uncomfortable. You shove lightly at his shoulders as he wrestles with the other cup. You shove weakly at his shoulders, and he gives you an annoyed look. “Let me sit up,” you say. “I need to take it off.”

Tomura lets you up just long enough for you to take it off and pull it out from under your shirt, but as soon as it’s gone, he pushes you back down again. This time his mouth finds yours as he plays with your breasts, and when you squirm against the sensation running through you, there’s nowhere for you to go. If your back isn’t arching into his touch, your hips are rolling against his leg, your motions growing more urgent as he toys with you. He has to stop. He has to stop, or he’s going to –

“Tomura,” you gasp against his mouth, and you feel him shudder. So that is his name. So you do have something, after all. “Tomura, please –”

He stops, which is what you wanted – and at the same time, it’s not what you wanted at all. He sits up, draws back, and before you can protest, he’s tugging at the waistband of your pants. You start to sit up, but he pushes you back. “I need to take off my shoes,” you say. He gives you a skeptical look. “I said I’d take my clothes off.”

“I want to do it.” Tomura pushes you back onto your elbows, then pries your shoes off your feet, along with your socks. Then he’s back to your pants, pulling them down along with your underwear and casting them aside. “I told you. I want everything.”

He’s still fully dressed, but his shirt’s in tatters, barely concealing anything. You thought he’d undress more, but he’s already pushing your legs apart, sinking down between them. Too far. By the time it occurs to you what Tomura’s doing, his mouth is between your legs, his tongue cold in contrast to your heat. His fingers are the same, when two of them slip easily inside you. Your legs are shaking from a few laps of his tongue against your clit. Your body tenses, forcing a sharp gasp out of your mouth. You feel exposed to an awful degree, horrified at how helpless you must look, how helpless you are – and at the same time, the sensation of his touch feels so much better than anything you’ve felt before.

You sit up on your elbows, but your face goes up in flames at the sight of him between your legs, and you fall back, staring up at the sky instead. Even then, you can’t shake the image of him with his eyes shut, face buried between your legs, completely lost in you. You can’t fail to hear the harshness of his breathing, the sound he makes when you clench tight around his fingers and come so hard your eyes go blurry. Even if you could, it would be impossible to miss the fact that he keeps licking you even as your body goes limp, that it takes you shoving at his shoulder to make him pull away – and even when he does, he’s reluctant in a way that makes you cringe with embarrassment.

Tomura sits back, and you sit up. When you make eye contact, you see that his eyes are dilated, and that his pupils are round rather than vertical. He wasn’t lying. He’s not a faery, but the way he’s looking at you means you can’t look at him for long. You look away. He catches the hem of your shirt and peels it off, and you do the same before unbuttoning his pants and pulling them down. You don’t know the first thing about cocks, but you’d have to be an idiot to miss that his is hard already.

You reach out for him and he pushes your hands away, shaking his head. “Don’t. I can’t if you –”

If you touch him? You’ve barely touched him. Why does he look like he’s about to come already? You lie back and Tomura follows you down, knocking your legs apart and lying down between them. This is what you were steeling yourself for, an eternity ago when you told him to get on with it, what you planned to grit your teeth and bear through. But Tomura sinks into you easily. Your legs shake where they’re hooked over his hips, but that’s nothing new. Tomura, with his gritted teeth and flushed face, looks like he’s having a harder time with it than you are.

You wrap your arms around his neck on his first unsteady thrust, pulling him down for a kiss that tastes the way you must. You don’t know how you feel about that. You kiss his neck instead, then his jaw just below his ear, and Tomura moans. You know how you feel about that – heat rushes through you, and you kiss him again. He’s almost frantic in the way he fucks you, no control, all need. Almost like – the thought’s absurd – almost like it’s his first time, not just yours.

You know you won’t come a second time. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good to have him like this, to be the reason why he’s desperate, why he’s panting for breath, why some trace of warmth has returned to his icy skin. There’s no way you can touch him that won’t unbalance him somehow, no matter how light or gentle you are. When you cradle his face in one hand, run your thumb over a scar on his lips, he leans into your palm for a split second before seizing your wrist and pulling your hand away.

But he doesn’t let go of your hand. You pull your wrist free, then lace your fingers with his, and you see his eyes go wide. “Tomura,” you say, and he looks at you.

You have no idea what you look like, and no idea what to say next, but it doesn’t matter. He shudders, curses, his grip on your hand tightening to the point of pain as he comes. His grip doesn’t loosen, not even when he pulls out and slumps against you. The fact that he’s still holding your hand is the only proof you have that he’s not completely unconscious.

Even though he’s warmer than he was before, you’re still cold. And naked. And lying on the ground. You start trying to escape, and you get as far away as sitting up and reaching for the nearest item of your clothing before a not-quite-so-cold hand closes around your wrist. “No.”

“I held up my end of the deal,” you say. “You can’t keep me here any longer.”

“The woods aren’t safe at night,” Tomura says. “Not from them. Not for you, and not for me. I can’t stop you from leaving, but if one of them finds you, they’ll do worse than anything I could.”

You remember what you said to the others before you left – you’d be back before nightfall, or else tomorrow morning. It looks like it’ll be tomorrow morning. “All right,” you say, and Tomura’s grip on your wrist relaxes. “I’m still putting on my clothes.”

Somehow, getting dressed again makes things more awkward, not less. Even with your clothes on, you can’t forget that he’s seen you without them, or anything else about what happened between the two of you. You’re hungry and thirsty, but even if Tomura offered you food, you couldn’t eat anything that’s passed through faery hands or come from the Fair Folk’s domain. It’s dark, and you’re tired. Once you’re dressed again, you go looking for somewhere to sleep.

“Here.” Tomura is shadowing you, never more than a hairsbreadth away. He points out the hollow of a massive tree, more than spacious enough for three people, let alone two. Inside it you can see a collection of objects, scattered in the corners, decorating the walls. “This is where I sleep.”

“So I should sleep somewhere else,” you say, but your attention’s drawn to the objects. There’s no rhyme or reason to what they are, no common thread. Jewelry and watches hang on walls beside folded pieces of paper, books lay in piles on the ground next to stacks of CDs and old cameras – and phones. There are more smartphones piled up under this tree than you’ve seen since the end of the world, and suddenly it clicks. “These are from your trades.”

Tomura nods, and you study the objects, feeling sick to your stomach all over again. The most valuable thing a person had – in the war and immediately afterwards, it would have been their phone, because everyone still hoped they’d start working again. Then photo albums, picture frames, even missing posters, reminders of people who’d been lost, and after that, simple objects. A CD, because things with batteries still work. A favorite book, because no books will ever be printed again. A piece of jewelry, gifted by someone a person loved. Like what you would have traded to Tam Lin, if you’d had a chance to choose.

You get a little fixated on a dog’s collar, well-worn, with a tag still dangling from it. It’s all too easy to imagine the person who would have carried it with them. “This is cruel.”

“They had a choice.” Tomura takes the collar out of your hand and sets it back among the rest, arranging it just so. His hands are covered in scars, just like the rest of him. “They chose this.”

Something occurs to you. “How many of them chose it?” you ask. He glances sideways at you, then looks away. “How many of gave something to you, and how many of them –”

You aren’t sure how to describe what happened to you. Tomura doesn’t answer, and you think about the world before the war, the world after. Of how many people still cling desperately to the scraps of a world that will never come back. You know the answer to your question. You wished you hadn’t asked in the first place, and the idea of sleeping here makes your skin crawl. Sleeping here next to him feels even stranger.

But you don’t know what else lives in the woods, and while you can’t trust Tomura, you know at least that he has his end of the bargain to uphold. You crawl into the hollow beneath the tree, keeping as far from Tomura as possible. Tam Lin’s glade shimmers even in the moonless night, but within the tree, it’s ordinary darkness. Somewhere within it, Tomura speaks. “Out there. What’s it like?”

You don’t know what to say. “I asked that boy,” Tomura continues. “He wouldn’t tell me. Is it a secret?”

“It’s not a secret,” you say. “He knows better than to talk to faeries. All the children do.”

“For how long?”

“Why does it matter?” you ask. Tomura scoffs, shifts in the darkness. Your eyes have adjusted enough to see his shoulders hunched, his almost-skeletal limbs folding in to make him smaller than he should be. “You’re one of them. Shouldn’t you know?”

“I told you I’m not a faery.” It’s quiet for a few moments. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you. How long ago did it start?”

“Seven years this October,” you say, and on the other side of the hollow, Tomura sits bolt upright. “Does that mean something to you?”

Tomura doesn’t answer that, either. He sits there, frozen like a statue, and you turn away. It’s been a while since you slept on the ground, but you’re tired enough that it won’t matter, and you feel so strange. Your legs hurt, and you’re sore between them, and when you lick your lips, you find Tomura’s blood still staining your mouth. Lying down on the far side of the hollow with your back to him doesn’t feel like the right answer, but neither does trying to talk to him, let alone going closer. You lie down, fold your arms against your chest in an effort to keep warm, and close your eyes.

Your eyelids have just begun to grow heavy when Tomura speaks again. “Seven years,” he says, and his voice sounds wrong. “Are you sure?”

“I remember the day it happened,” you say. “I know.”

You were thirteen. You remember the way the weight and taste of the air changed, the icy winds that whipped through town ahead of the advancing armies. You remember running, then hiding, hearing but not seeing what was done to the people who were caught. Izuku and the others will never know what the world was like before, but even if you don’t cling to the past, you can never forget what the Fair Folk tore away. “I know,” you say again. “Almost seven years.”

“Seven years.” Tomura takes a deep breath, or tries to. You hear it catch and rattle. “I didn’t think –”

His breathing rattles again, and a sense of foreboding sweeps over you. There’s something he knows that you don’t, something you have to get out of him – but then he takes another rattling breath, and you match the sound to the reaction. It’s not one you’d expect from the Fair Folk, and it’s what convinces you at last that Tam Lin’s not one of them. The Fair Folk don’t cry.

You shouldn’t care at all, not when you’re sitting amongst the precious things he’s stolen from so many in exchange for their freedom, not when you’re one of his – victims? – yourself. But ignoring it feels wrong, wrong in the same way as waiting until morning to look for Izuku was. You sit up, reach out across the hollow, but the distance between the two of you is too great. You scoot closer, feeling for him through the darkness until your hand encounters a frozen, shaking shoulder. The question you were going to ask him dies on your tongue.

Whatever this is, it’s not something you can fix. You wrap your arms loosely around him instead, feeling him startle the same way he did when you first kissed him. You lie back, pulling Tomura with you, until the two of you are sprawled on the ground. It’s uncomfortable, still. Tomura’s still cold. You still don’t know how you feel about what happened between the two of you. But you know you feel better like this. Things feel better when you aren’t alone.

You don’t remember falling asleep, but when the sounds of the forest wake you up, it’s dawn. Tomura hasn’t stirred, and he’s lying on one of your arms, which is numb and full of pins and needles as you try to work it loose. Tomura sits up before you’ve freed yourself. The darkness wasn’t kind to him, but in daylight, you’re struck by just how terrible he looks – thinner, paler, skin dry and cracked and scarred. He’s hard to look at. Harder to look away from.

You look away and get to your feet. “Which way do I go to get out?”

“The low road.” Tam Lin is slower to rise, and as he does, the same passageway that Izuku left through opens on the far side of the glade. “Don’t leave the path.”

“I won’t.” You straighten your clothes, then turn to look at Tomura. What are you supposed to say to him now? Thank you for not hurting you, for letting you fulfill your side of the bargain your way? “Goodbye, Tam Lin.”

“That’s not my name,” he says. “The other one. Do you remember it?”

“Of course,” you say, and Tomura’s shoulders relax ever so slightly. “I won’t forget.”

“It won’t matter anymore, soon,” Tomura says. He turns away. “Go.”

You have questions – questions, and a strange twist of worry within you – but you also made a promise to the others in the settlement, and you have to keep it. You turn away from him and cross the glade, heading for the opening between the trees, not stopping even when you hear his footsteps behind you. One hand grasps your waist again, stopping you in your tracks, while the other arm wraps around you. There’s something in his hand. You look down and see the rose you plucked last night, as perfect as when you pulled it from the vine.

“Here.” Tam Lin’s voice is less than a puff of air against your ear. “You won this. Take it with you.”

You take it from him, and his hands fall away from you. The urge to look back is there, and it’s strong. You step forward instead, crossing out of the glade – and three steps later, out of the woods and into the bright morning sun.

It’s not long before one of the others spots you – Keigo’s always had sharp eyes – and he calls for the others. As they race towards you, you decide what you’ll tell them. You spent the night bargaining with Tam Lin, the same as the hero in another folktale spent her night as wife to a murderous king telling stories to keep him interested, and eventually you won your freedom. You’ll say nothing of the bargain you really made, nothing of what happened between you and the being the world knows as Tam Lin. They’ll look at you differently. They won’t understand. You barely understand yourself.

You’ll keep it to yourself. When the others reach you, you ask your question first. “Did Izuku get back? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Fuyumi says. She looks you anxiously up and down. “What about you?”

You’re conscious of the woods behind you in a way you never were before. You’re still holding the rose. “I’m glad Izuku’s okay,” you say, because you are. And then you lie, because you can do that, because they don’t need to know how you returned – just that you did. “I’m fine, too.”

#shigaraki tomura x reader #tomura shigaraki x reader #shigaraki x reader #shigaraki x you #x reader #reader insert #tam lin au #man door hand hook car door #a bisquared production

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catsharky · 3 months

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Wanted to post these separate from my Art Fight post because I spent too long on these references (really just Fallstreak's tbh) to keep them hidden away on the AF site. Also cause I love these guys and I haven't really talked about them much on here.

So for anyone who was curious about the previous art I posted of these OCs, have some actual information about them!

Nell

Full name Abnell Roache (will also accept 'Nella', but loathes being called 'Nelly'). A health and safety inspector for an interstellar cargo company, Nell becomes stranded on an ocean planet when the ship she's auditing- the ACS Endurance- experiences a catastrophic engine failure and tears itself in two.

Adrift on an endless alien sea with no guarantee of rescue and little emergency food, she has to survive with the help of Bas: an (illegal) AI inhabiting the chassis of her life pod's survival assistant. With her only goals being survival and finding any other survivors, she's unprepared to find herself making humanity's first contact with another sapient species; an alien biologist named Fallstreak who has also found himself trapped on the planet.

She's thrilled to learn about Fallstreak and his people, as well as teach him as much as she can about humanity, and if she has an immediate, massively obvious crush on the tall faceless alien? Well, the only other person there to complain is Bas. Which he does. A lot.

Bas (Pronounced 'Baz')

An illegal AI inhabiting the chassis of a life pod survival assistant (though to clarify, in this universe all true AI are illegal because they require a human brain scan to be made and that's a legal rights nightmare). After years of only knowing his 'father', Richter (the engineer aboard the Endurance who purchased and programmed him), he boots up to find his home destroyed, his father dead, and himself in the company of a total stranger; Nell.

He has a lot to deal with: keeping Nell alive, figuring out how to interact with someone other than Richter while also mourning his death, and acting as a middle-man/interpreter between Nell (who he has rapidly developed what seem to be romantic feelings towards) and Fallstreak (an alien biologist who's captured Nell's interest without even knowing what he has).

And to top it all off? He has a text-to-speech Australian accent.

Fallstreak

An alien biologist with a bio-mechanical body, named after the cloud formation (look up 'Fallstreak holes', they're neat!) that most closely resembled an event that occurred on the day of his birth.

Extremely curious and wants to learn everything about his two new companions, as well as share his knowledge with them. Verbal language is all but entirely unused by his species, however, so the language barrier between Fallstreak and Nell+Bas is a large one. Thanks to Bas' assistance, he's able to understand spoken communication fairly well, and speaks (in very broken sentence structure) by vibrating the membranes in his gill openings, resulting in a voice that sounds somewhat like early English vocaloids; understandable but clearly not a natural voice.

Living a fairly solitary life isn't uncommon for his species, and he hasn't had the opportunity to experience romantic interest before, so when he meets Nell and begins to fall for her, he's more than a little confused (oblivious) about what his emotions are doing. Unfortunately draws some jealous ire from Bas as a result, but is pretty oblivious to the AI's attempted rivalry.

All three of these guys are from a WIP comic called The Rive that I hope to finish some day. I have most of the story figured out, and quite a bit of it scripted and ready to go, I just need to actually draw the damn thing.

#ocs #oc: nell #oc: bas #oc: fallstreak #The Rive #alien boyfriend #sharky art

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littlelesbinonny · 20 days

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The Devil's Den

Chapter 47: In Which Pieces Get Set For Motion

You can read this also on Ao3 at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46831621/chapters/150347506

You stood looking at the entrance to Alcina's city from the steps of the church's hall that lead to its underbelly.

You knew the way. Sort of. You had your cell phone for a flashlight and figured there were really only so many ways you could get lost. At least until another vampire or lycan found you. Though you didn't know if that would be a good thing, either. But, it was also only 3 in the afternoon; shouldn't they all be sleeping?

"I've never been there myself," Father Sullivan said, now beside you with his hands folded neatly, "but you're welcome to stay here as long as you like if you're wary of the trek."

A soft sigh escaped your lungs and you glanced over at him, "this if my first venture by myself," you admitted, "I'm not really needed down there until tomorrow, but."

"Your nerves are getting the better of you?" He offered at your hesitance.

"Little bit."

Father Sullivan smiled and straightened his sturdy back, "Lady Dimitrescu does that for all of us here," he grinned wider, "though I don't think it's her you're so nervous about."

Your blush was muted but you felt the warmth, "no, not her... but she definitely has that immobilizing intimidation thing going for her though, huh?"

"Indeed!" He laughed, "though I am grateful for her potency. Effective should be her middle name."

"You know, I think it actually is."

"It would not surprise me in the slightest."

The two of you shared a laugh and then you took a big breath, releasing it with an even more embellished sigh.

"Good luck, miss," he nodded at you, "give the Matriarch my regards."

Welp, if you were looking for a nudge or a send off, that was good enough.

Goddamn it was dark. And eerily quiet.

It became progressively cooler as you made your way further and further down and you were glad you were wearing what you were. You could recall that it was chilly the last time you were here, but at the time you had enough adrenaline pumping through your veins it didn't bother you in the slightest. If Alcina wanted you to move down here, there'd be some serious accommodation issues to be addressed.

A hint of firelight from the torches you remember from your walk with Alcina finally leaked into the darkness, a bigger smile coming to your lips as you rounded the corner to this lit area that reminded you the entrance to the city was only 3 more turns away.

As you stepped carefully through the tunnel mouth, placing your hand carefully on the intricately carved stone banister of the large stairwell down into the city, you took a good moment to really look at it.

It really was beautiful. In its haunting, quiet, and macabre sort of way.

Hundreds of years of hard work went into creating this. Uncountable hours making everything as beautiful and mysterious as the inhabitants therein. Humans used to make living art like this, but now everything was boxes and boring. It gave you nostalgia you'd never felt before. This place could almost feel like home.

Taking silent steps, you descended the many stairs and realized only when you set foot onto the familiar cobblestone streets that the bite of cold in the air was now very comfortable. You sighed pleasantly.

With no real rush to get to Alcina's manor, you took advantage of the empty streets and admired the many structures as you went.

Most of them seemed to be made of the same stone that made up the underground itself; dark and shiny, almost coal or obsidian like in the right light. While others were made of a lighter stone; a type of granite perhaps. And others, though very few it appeared, were made of wood that had been either stained or painted over with darker colors like forest green, ocean blue, and you spotted one or two further off that looked merlot in tone.

Some homes, and what you assumed were gathering places like what would akin to a bar for the human world above, were 2 to 3 stories high. The architecture of many of them felt very much like the French Quarters one would find in Louisiana, others were very gothic-cathedral like, and some were as ornate and beautiful as a Victorian mansion you'd seen pictures of.

There were only 3 buildings that stuck out apart from the rest in height; one you knew as City Hall which could be seen from every corner with its massive imposing, sharp domed peak, the Matriarch manor that was far to the left, and one in the far back that you hadn't noticed before. It stood taller and wider than everything else, had hundreds of tall glass windows, and had a most beautiful amber glow emanating from each of them. Another council hall maybe? A hotel? Your brain chuckled a little at that thought, but it really didn't seem so far fetched; while these beings were undead, they were still human, they still traveled, did most of the normal things you did, didn't they?

As your train of thought continued down the tracks, it was derailed quite loudly as you approached a very large familiar gate.

Fuck.

How exactly were you going to get in? You knew this thing was damn well locked, and you didn't have a key, nor any way to alert Alcina you were there.

Your hands carefully pressed to the thick heavy metal but all you got was defiant resistance in return.

Fuuuuuck times two.

Perhaps your wild hair to show up early could have used a little flat-ironing.

Dropping your gaze to your feet in a bit of sheepishness, the idea of sitting like a lost child in front of Alcina's gate until someone noticed felt pretty embarrassing. But, suddenly there was a disturbance in the air and a soft whoosh as you looked up to find a brilliantly smiling Cassandra right in your face on the other side of the bars.

"Hi," she grinned, "you're early."

"Uh - yeah, a bit, sorry - I hope that's -"

"You're eagerly awaited!" Cassandra smiled even wider as she opened the gate and waved you in.

Well she definitely seemed eager and you weren't sure how exactly to receive it, but you nodded shortly and stepped through, "oh, ok, well, thank you for let -"

"Of course." She cut you off, latching the gate and ushering you towards the manor, "mother hasn't returned yet, but my sisters and I are up so you can relax with us until she's back," Cassandra continued, a more devilish smile gracing her lovely face as you entered the house, "let me take your coat, and you can put your bag right here," she more or less instructed as the front door shut and she reached for your article before you'd even began removing it.

You were still registering the pace in which you got in here by the time two more bodies showed up behind you.

Bela, the blonde, was smiling much more warmly and comfortably than her brunette sister, and the redhead who was almost right in your face had the same devilish, although slightly more chaotic, grin slathered on her facade. She looked far too pleased to see you than you had anticipated and you swallowed.

"I hope you weren't waiting at the gate long," Bela chimed in trying to inch Daniela back a little, "we weren't expecting you for a while, but we're glad you're here."

You nodded through a short smile, "yeah, sorry, I guess I -"

"No need to apologize," the redhead beamed, "we can show you the rest of the manor and hang out until mother is back!" She bounced.

Cassandra snorted as she walked around the side of you to walk past her sisters with a wicked smirk, "I think I smell a little guilt in that excitement there, Dani," looking back and eying you pleasingly, "she's the one who found you and drug you to the club that night, you know."

Well that was one hell of a revelation. You'd not really considered how you'd ended up at the club for the longest time, and now you were half mortified and curious as all hell.

Daniela's entire demeanor plummeted into the ground, her face blank, eyes wide as she looked at you then shot her sight at Cassandra, "why would you tell her that?!" She blurted breathlessly, her hands now on her face in embarrassment, "I - We - I'm -"

"Jesus Christ, Cassandra," Bela stated starkly, moving in and wrapping her arm around Daniela, exasperatedly shaking her head as her sister disappeared down the hall then looking to you regretfully, "I'm sorry... and welcome to our home where that one," she motioned her head down the hall, "has no filter or any couth AT ALL, and the other three of us live in utter madness at all times when Cassandra's in a mood."

Ah. So Cassandra was ruthless. Duly noted.

Daniela was still quite beside herself and unsure where to look and you felt so badly. Even if it was true, that was a sharp way to throw that information at everyone's feet. You'd never had siblings but you had heard plenty of stories of how brutal the relationships could be. Being undead probably allowed for a whole new level of brutality to ensue.

You reached your hand out to Daniela and touched her arm briefly but reassuringly, "it's all good," you offered with a warm smirk, "I guess by technicality I should be thanking you, really, for the new life I've got and whatnot."

Her eyes were flipped from upset to beaming hope in a split second as she stared at you, "r-really?"

You shrugged with a bigger smile, "pretty much. I'd never have met Alcina or had any of this happen if you hadn't... ya know. So, yeah. Thanks."

The haphazard hug you received from Dani was just tallying up the unexpected event points you'd had in the last 10 minutes and you just chuckled, hugged her back, and decided everything from this moment on was likely going to be just as unpredictable and giving into that would just be easier than not.

"Ok, good," Dani huffed, grabbing the sides of your arms hastily after releasing you, "if you hated me because of that I would be so upset, I mean, you have every right to be, but it wasn't intentional, I mean none of the choices are intentional for the most part so you were just more or less collateral, which sounds insensitive, but I don't mean it to be! You just -"

"Dani," Bela stopped her barrage of blurting thoughts, "maybe go find our guest a human drink, like one of those bottles of wine mother likes that doesn't have blood in it?"

The redhead looked at her sister briefly, then to you, flashed a humble smile, nodded and then dashed off in the same direction Cassandra had gone.

You, still processing, took a deep breath.

"I am so sorry," Bela offered once more, "she's not used to interacting with humans. Or any type of normal interaction, really."

You chuckled, "it's ok. But I sure do have questions, although I think I'll just save them for much later."

Bela smiled warmly and waved her hand down the hall, "that might be best... We really are happy you're here, though. But please take Cassandra with the most miniscule grain of salt. And Dani will calm down eventually, but until then, I'll play mediator as much as possible."

You had been given a glass or normal wine as the showcase of the manor began. Cassandra was mostly reserved through the adventure but added in quips as she saw fit while the tour went on. Daniela was the main storyteller and Bela was the stability you leaned on when those two got into it over whatever happened to come up at any given moment. You loved the banter and couldn't help but imagine what it was like for Alcina raising them back into the women they were today from where Mother Miranda had left them. You could see her strength, resilience, tenacity, and spunk in each of the girls, even though they were all uniquely themselves. It was warming.

The 4 of you were now in the turret, your second favorite room in the manor, as the conversation and interactions had gotten much more smooth and comfortable.

Settling into one of the couches, Bela sat adjacent you on a plush leather sofa, Cassandra perched directly across from you on what you assumed was her chez lounge, and Daniela had hopped off to grab you another glass of wine. You really didn't need another one but she was so happy to be of service so you couldn't say no.

"So," you began tentatively, "have any of you ever been part of a grand council like what's coming up?"

Cassandra ran a hand through her long hair with a scoff, "god no," she chuckled, "and thank fuck, because to hear how mother tells it, they're fucking awful."

"They're not awful," Bela stated with a look thrown at her sister, "but taxing would be a better word. These councils are strictly for those in charge; leaders of clans; sometimes the heads of military, but never anyone else, so no, luckily we haven't. I bet you're not looking forward to it."

"I'm going into all of this completely blind, so I'm pretty hesitant and nervous."

"Ah, just zap 'em with your fae powers if they give you any shit," Cassandra grinned, "and believe me, there are several who will."

Bela rubbed her forehead, "stop trying to freak her out."

"I'm not! It's true," Cassandra rebutted, flinging her hand to her sister dramatically, "how many times has mother returned from the yearly meeting talking about how annoyingly confrontational that French bitch, oh what's her face - Margery, Margaret - "

"Marguerite?"

"That bitch!" Cassandra slapped the arm of the lounge, grinning at Bela, "she's always starting shit with mother - the biggest gossiper outside of Pablo - although Pablo is hilarious. He's the head of the coven in Spain," she went on, looking at you, "he's incredibly handsome, very vain, and so snotty, but he has comedic timing like you wouldn't believe."

Daniela had returned with your other glass of wine and handed it to you with a glimmer in her eye, "what'd I miss? Who's so funny?"

"Pablo," the other sisters answered in tandem.

"Ohhh, yeah. He's awfully self centered though." Daniela added, plopping next to you, "but god is he cute."

You couldn't help but chuckle, but as you were going to ask another question your phone dinged in your pocket. Pulling it out there was a text from Malka on the screen but you'd ignore it for now. At least, you could. There was a redhead within breath range of you as you looked over and you watched her gaze as it fixated on your phone.

Daniela's eyes snapped up to you, "oh my god, that's a nice phone," she smiled, "do you have any cool games on there?"

"Uh, yeah I've got a merging game on there I play from time to time." You replied unable to hide your amusement.

"Oooo, what's a merging game?"

You had to remind yourself they didn't have cell phones and games like you had at your fingertips everyday, so her childlike curiosity made your smile grow even wider, "want me to show you?"

"YES!" Daniela squeaked.

Cassandra rolled her head back on her headrest and groaned, "my god she's unbearable."

"It's no big deal," you said as you opened the app and leaned into Daniela's space, "here, it's called Merge Dragons."

You let her watch the load screen with awe at the colorful, cuter than necessary dragons and scenery unfold, and when the game started you just handed the phone over to her, "so, see these?" You pointed to a couple squares that had identical items, "find another one of those and place it in one of these squares - " Dani did just as you instructed and the 3 merged into a new upgraded item, "and that's basically the jist of it."

Daniela's eyes were even bigger as she pulled your phone screen closer to her face with utter glee, "THIS IS SO COOL!"

Her fingers started tapping and dragging away and you just chuckled, "well play away, I haven't been on that in weeks."

"Thank you!!" She squeaked one more time before huddling into the other side of the couch, continuing to play.

Bela smiled at you warmly, "she's obsessed with technology."

"But mother won't let us have any." Cassandra whinged.

"Yeah, so I've heard. Why is that?" You asked.

"Hell if we know; you'd think for her ancient ass she'd have kept up with times a little better, but no, apparently cell phones are the devil."

Bela rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time tonight, "mother is old fashioned, and it's not like we're hurting for it."

"She's boring."

"You just want a cell phone so you can hunt the easy way and be lazy," Daniela chimed in slyly, glancing over at you only briefly to resume the game, "dating apps, you know?"

You raised your eyebrows high at her comment but quickly regained your composure.

"Oh piss off Dani," Cassandra spat, "it's not being lazy, it is literally broadening my horizons in the vastest way possible! I have expensive tastes but sometimes I like fast food."

Cassandra winked at you and you so wanted to understand what the hell that meant but you also were pretty sure you didn't at the same time.

"ANYWAY," Bela cut off the conversation, setting her sight back to you, "the council meeting - I think you have little to worry about, really."

You took in a deep breath and nodded, "thanks, I've not heard much else from Alcina about what I need to do or who all these people are so... my overactive mind has been pretty occupied with it."

"Well, if my memory serves me, now that Miranda is dead, there's only eight clans with leaders, so... that leaves mother with ours, the Shadowed Dominion. Then there is Marguerite, from France, her division is called Les Chevaliers des Ténèbres, or the Knights of Dark. And then there's Pablo's faction; La Bella Damned. The Dutch lady, uhm, Belinda, with the Eternal Dominion. Escamillo and the Kiss of Shadows clan. Verona Giordano, whom you will love! She's from Italy, such a wild woman with a feisty personality, and her clan is called the Nightfall Legion. Then there's Ishaan, he's over the Moonlight Bearers - and lastly, Auguste with the Fallen Devil's clan... at least, I think that's all of them."

Cassandra leaned over languidly, "you got the Escamillo wrong, it's Emiliano with the Kiss of Shadows."

"Oh... yeah that sounds right; Emiliano."

"But yes, Bela is right; you'll love Verona. She's like our honorary aunt. Very loud. Very in-your-face. Love that woman."

"She sounds fun," you replied, "her I'm looking forward to."

"For real though, steer clear of that French bitch," Cassandra added, "she's a nightmare."

You'd take her advice and do just that, but likely with most of them, just for safety sake.

Karl stumbled into his shop with several full oversized bags slung over his shoulders, though he was met with the light already on and a figure in the shadows of the corner where his best comfy chair resided. Dropping the bags with a thud he flipped the rest of the light switches on aggressively to see who had invaded his space.

The person in question was certainly not who he'd expected.

"The fuck you doin' in my shop, murder mittens?"

Alcina dropped the book in her hands to her lap with a flump and arched her brow fiercely, "you want the truth?" She asked flatly.

"No. I love being lied to - the fuck you mean; do I want the truth - DUH."

She sighed heavily as the burly, disheveled lycan made his way over to her and uncrossed her leg, eyeing him with less scrutiny and more calculation, "this is the only place the clan leaders won't think to look for me."

Karl stopped dead in his tracks and looked blankly at Alcina. Then he started to laugh. Guffawing would be the better word.

"For god sake would you keep it down," she scolded, "this is why I hesitated to even tell you!"

He regained himself slowly, then plopped next to her on the neighboring stool and shoved his hands under his suspender straps, "oh damn Alci, you could not have hit me with a funnier mental image; big tall scary vampire hides from much smaller less fierce vampires in the lycans shop to avoid responsibility - I love it! You can hide here all you like, shnookie-ookums!"

"Oh dear Christ, Heisenberg, you're mental alright."

"Ah, c'mon, we rebels look out for each other, so don't get your titties in a twist - I got your back."

He was so crude, Alcina just rolled her eyes and closed her book, "you can leave my tits out of all of our conversations, if you please... have you had the pleasure of running into any of them yet?" She asked, referring to the leaders and changing the subject as fast as she could.

"Nah. Heard a gaggle of commotion as I passed around the back of City Hall so I assume Donna's got them all wrangled like the heard of gobbling geese they are. This week should be interesting, eh?" He nudged, "but I swear to god if they find out you're here and they start snooping 'round here all the time we're gunna have words."

Alcina blinked, "for both our sakes, I promise they won't find out." She leaned back and huffed once more, "and yes, this week, and likely many more will prove to be incredibly eventful. Dmitri, my men, and yours, are still pilfering through Miranda's labyrinth of chaos and uncovering more and more each night... I'd rather not deal with it at all, but alas, duty prevails."

Karl nodded and took off his hat, tossed it onto the nearby counter and shrugged, "I say burn the whole thing down, all of it. We already know she was psychotic, why keep any trace of it."

He had a point, but as much as she didn't want to admit it, she wanted answers just like everyone else.

"If it were up to you and I, I'd actually let you," the look of pure surprise and a cocky esteem boost made her choose her next words carefully, "however, it's not as simple as we both want, so cool your jets. But if burning it down comes to the surface, you'll be the first to know."

Karl smiled, "now that I like to hear." He reached for a beat-up metal box and opened it, plucked a cigar, lit it, and eyed the book on Alcina's lap, "whatcha readin', toots?"

"Twilight."

His brows shot for his hairline, "don't make me have you committed."

Alcina actually snickered, "please, I'd rather gouge my eyes out with red-hot pokers," she smirked wickedly, "it's one of your machining books I found on the shelf in the back..." Peering down at the cover she sighed, "almost as eventful as Twilight - "

"Now hear hear," he grumbled, reaching for the book and grabbing it up, "them's fightin' words." He tossed it onto the counter and took a long puff, offering it in Alcina's direction, but after she softly declined he tilted his head, "hey, when's your better half coming back down here? Seems weird not having the spicy little fairy running around."

Once more Alcina's brow arched, "tomorrow night."

"Did you give her a prep talk for what's she's getting into?"

"Well, I suppose you could call it that. But I don't foresee her 'getting into' much. If someone decides to pick a fight, they will be sorely displeased at their choice..." she smiled broadly, "now that I've got blood on my hands, I'm not opposed to doing it again."

Karl just grinned, "feral you is so satisfying," he cackled, "it's always been my favorite version."

"I'm so pleased," Alcina mused, "but, I do suppose I should get home to my daughters. It's nearly nightfall and I'm sure they'll be readying to go out. Lucky shits get to roam freely while their mother is strapped to responsibility."

"Yeh, definitely not the funnest thing to be strapped to. Personally I prefer a four-poster bed with - "

"Well that's enough of this conversation!" Alcina said hastily, cutting him off none too soon, rising off the chair eying him stoutly, "good night."

He waved amusedly at her as she walked her way out and chuckled under his breath, "night, night! Get fae-bae to strap you down instead!"

Alcina's grumble was barely audible to him as she quickly made her escape but he continued to laugh as he began to go back about his business in his shop.

Getting through the city undetected was more difficult that she had anticipated, and having to act like she wasn't trying to go unnoticed by the passerby's was just as aggravating. But after her best calculated detours, she finally was far enough away from the hot spots of the city to move freely and get home.

The lights were on in the turret and she smiled warmly to herself as she slipped in through the gates quietly as possible. She was certainly tired, but knowing her girls were awake and she'd get to see them before a few hours of shut-eye gave her a much needed mood boost.

Alcina halted for a split second as she stepped through the threshold of her home; the undeniable smell and feel of you permeated her senses and she almost audibly sighed at the relief that you were here. And then a pang of anxiety thudded against her; dear god please let my daughters be behaving.

With silent swiftness and agility Alcina scaled the stairs to the turret, and with great relief found the 4 of you lounging in the middle of the room talking, laughing even. She folded her arms across her chest and leaned on the archway, admiring a scene she wasn't sure she'd ever see in all her years. You. Her daughters. Together. A whole new tidal wave of emotions she hadn't prepared for about bowled her over, but it was such a comforting sight she could barely breath, unwilling to shake the image in front of her.

Cassandra, whom she was most worried about, was doing most of the talking with you, and Bela was smiling from ear to ear, and Daniela... Daniela was... playing on a phone? Alcina narrowed her eyes at the girl and the intensity of the focus seemed to beckon her awareness.

Daniela's eyes shot up, and at the sight of her mother in the doorway unshuffled herself from the huddled ball in the nook of the couch with phone in hand and gasped; "mother!"

All eyes turned to the smiling matriarch and everyone rose to greet her.

"Well, isn't this a nice surprise," she cooed gently as her girls came to kiss her cheek, those silvery slate-colored eyes looking you over so fondly, "I hope the three of you have been nothing but hospitable to our guest?"

"Yes, mother," Cassandra drawled, "although Dani stole her phone and hasn't given it back since she got here."

"That's not true!" Daniela argued, warily handing your phone back to you, "she let me play on it, I didn't steal anything."

Alcina looked to you for confirmation, or something of that sort, and you obliged with a nod, "yeah, no it's fine. She leveled me up like 5 times, hell of a gamer that one." You smiled at Dani. She beamed.

"Mmm, I see," Alcina mused softly, "well she and I have quite a bit to discuss now that she's here... are the three of you headed out soon?"

Bela shrugged, "I'm in for the night I think."

Cassandra, in a less than obvious fashion, nudged her sister in the ribs with her elbow. Hard.

"U-Uh, uhm, actually, yes, yes I think we're all headed to the park tonight," Bela recovered, snagging Dani by the arm, "so, we'll see you two later."

Cassandra joined the link and pulled her sisters with her down the stairs, a jumble of 'byes' drowning out as the girls took off.

You were still shaking your head with a chuckle as you looked up at Alcina, feeling very out of place still, but happy and relieved to be with your vampire feeling less and less vulnerable as the seconds passed.

"You came early," she cooed as she stepped forward, grabbing the sides of your face gently, planting a tender, needful kiss to your lips.

Instinctually, your arms slipped around her waist and you sighed into her kiss, "yeah," you muttered, "was getting antsy up there above ground without you."

Alcina could feel the weight of her weariness pressing down on her now, having you here, the worries of you being away, gave her reprieve that she didn't know she was needing so badly until now. She sighed, pressing her forehead to yours, "did you have any trouble getting into the city?"

"No, it was pretty empty when I got here."

"Good. And the girls? They were nice to you?"

You giggled, "yeah, they were great. Cassandra is very feisty, Dani is adorable, and Bela is definitely the diplomat between the two."

Alcina laughed low and warmly, pulling back to smile at you, "there is rarely a dull night in this house."

"I can absolutely see why."

"Come," Alcina smiled through her sigh, reaching for your hand, "I want to change into something comfortable."

With Alcina now dressed down to a simple yet elegant white slip of a night gown, and matching robe to drape over her bare shoulders, you admired her from a far as you unpacked your bag and placed your things in the drawers next to 'your side' of the bed, as Alcina had pointedly told you. It was weird. But it was wonderful. Feeling like you had an actual spot for your own things here with hers; in her home; your heart swelled a little with how permanent this was all starting to feel.

The two of you had spoken about your afternoon with her girls, Alcina's busy day with Dmitri, Donna, and Gerard, all while successfully not interacting with any of the leaders that had made their way into her city, and how tomorrow would, hopefully, pan out.

"... everyone will be accounted for tomorrow, now when the meeting itself begins, will be another story," she explained, sipping on a glass of blood wine you'd silently escaped to grab her as she was changing, "but it will be simple; you will accompany me to City Hall, sit at the table beside me, introductions will be had, and depending on how the council converses, next steps will be had according to vote. I know the lot of them will demand to see Miranda's lair here, and likely her abode in Connecticut, which while I'm curious of myself, would rather not have to babysit these imbeciles without knowing what I'm also getting into."

Her sigh was heavy and you scooted closer to her on the lounge, running your fingers over her arm you could see how tired she was. She'd gone almost a full 20 hours without sleep and you could already tell she wasn't intaking blood wine in a manageable fashion to keep up her strength. You had a feeling you'd be babysitting her just as much as she'd be doing for them if this is how she was taking care of herself this far in.

"Well, I don't know how much real help I'll be, but whatever you need me to do, just tell me." You reassured her with a smile.

"Ah, draga mea," Alcina cooed, "you being here is the best help I could ask for already."

Taking initiative to act on your offer to help, you took her empty glass from her, placed it on the glass table in front of the chez lounge, and carefully straddled her lap, peering down into her eyes.

"You're wiped, I can tell," you said, stroking the sides of her face, "and if you've got to be at the ready here in about 6 hours, I think you should drink from me, and then we should cuddle and sleep while we can... then tackle those pesky leaders, hm?"

Alcina's hands grasped to your hips as she hummed over your suggestion, feeling her desire for you and your blood rising in her bosom, "just cuddle and sleep? I do believe I enticed you here early with my promise to ravish you in my bedchamber, dragoste... Did I not?"

Her wink made your cheeks blush, "ok, mmmaybe a little, but - " you tilted your chin up, "your wellbeing comes far higher on the importance scale than getting fucked silly... besides... I don't plan on going anywhere too soon, so... we have plenty of time."

Your smile made her absolutely weak, just as much as your admission did, "really?" Alcina asked airily, "you're not rushing above ground as soon as you get the chance?"

Shaking your head you leaned down and kissed her bare lips, plush and still as soft as ever even though they were missing their crimson paint, "my plants are watered; my crows know where I am; I'm here for a while, if you'll have me."

Alcina hummed low in her chest as her hands mapped their way further up your sides, pulling you into her as she peppered kisses along your collarbone, "I would like that very, very much."

Her lips crept further and further up your neck until your lips were pressed together again, breathy 'I love you's' exchanged as she wrapped her hands under your thighs, rising with you off the chez to drop you into the bed with her, languid, passionate, truly comfortable kissing commencing as clothes were removed and naked flesh pressed close as the two of you settled into a perfect fitting mess of tangled limbs. Not shortly after you felt the nip of her sharp teeth nibbling at your wrist, the icy prick of her bite causing your eyelids to flutter shut as she drank, the fueling sensations it bestowed both of you satiating the hungers within you. And then within the darkness, she wrapped you up in her arms and in such rhythmic perfection, the two of you fell fast asleep. The worries of what came in 6 hours shoved to the wayside.

#alcina dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu/female reader #alcina dimitrescu/original female character #alcina dimitrescu/reader #lesbian #f/f #fanfic #wlw #fic #karl heisenberg #daniela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #bela dimitrescu

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yourlocaltreesimp · 8 months

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Chapter one: The something that is

Part i : Of mortals and men

First *ੈ✩‧₊˚ Next

Saviour of Souls masterlist

tw: Blood, Violence, implied death

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“At the beginning of every story there is nothing- at least, nothing noticeable. To have this nothing… It is something of a necessity. For with it, it gives everything meaning. You appreciate that you have so much more when you had nothing to begin with.

Much the same to our own universe, at the beginning, there was nothing of particular note. A vast sea of this nothingness —potential— with no one to observe it. Such things may not be inherently nothing themselves, existence gives meaning. But observation makes meaning. An existence of something means nothing if there is no one to appreciate it. And so was the fate of our universe, to lay dormant. That is, aside from three sisters. Their minds grew restless with the potentiality of their lives. To sit, and to wait until something changed at last. And within their vast expanse of nothingness, they combined together the best of their attributes to make something. To make a change.

Din, the eldest of the three, with her fiery persistence and rage moulded earth. She made rock and mountains, a raging volcano left as the mark of her magic. With all her power, she created land. The middle sister, Nayru, known for her wit and intellect, doused the stiff earth with water. She softened the grounds and made rivers, oceans, clay and soil. And with the water she brought upon the world, she placed her magic within the highest, coldest peak. With her knowledge, she nourished the earth so that it may persist. And the youngest sister, Farore, known for her strong will and bravery, used her magic to inhabit the land. She made trees for Din’s earth and fish for Nayru’s rivers. She populated every plane and mountain with a small piece of her magic. With all her courage, she made gifts to the world, rather than a gift to herself.

For a while this world was content, and the goddesses watched adoringly as the earth would shift, eras coming and going, tides pushing and pulling. But with their gift of creation, they brought destruction. With somethingness, there was nothingness. With light, there was dark. With life, there was death. This absence pulled at them, punishing them in some odd way for their creations. The void gave birth to the sisters, its power split between the three and equal to that of itself. But in making their world, they’d tipped the even scales of fare past what the gods could control.

Watching their beloved creation fall apart, the goddesses agreed to use their power to keep their creation whole. They scattered what was left of themselves, leaving parts of their divinity marked upon the world. And though their power was thinned and death clawed at their fading forms, they left two final gifts to us. They left the triforce, their very presence focused down into nothing more than a relic, capable of granting any wish. It’s said to hold a shard of each goddess’s heart and is bound together by their love in one another and for the world they managed to make. But such power could not coexist with the destruction seeping across the world. They created a protector, Hylia. A goddess so kind that she embodies the best attributes of each goddess. She holds Din’s burning determination, Nayru’s sense of keen judgement and Farore’s daring kindness. Through the seams of reality, that evilness that festered in the cracks of the world had not settled, and too, gave two faults. Ganondorf, a being of Demise, hungering for the power of the triforce that he’d stop at no mortal law to possess. For every kind gift the goddesses gave, Demise sought to destroy. And the grace of Hylia bore Nir. A goddess of fickle wishes and born without a heart. Where our goddess brings us light and life, Nir brings darkness and death. But so with the world, light prevails. Ganon struck down by a hero wielding a blade of divine light and Nir chained down by Hylia’s spirit. Now, Hyrule as we know it lives in content balance. And while the night still falls, we can revel knowing that the sun will soon rise.”

Link smiled down at the group of kids all crowded around his feet. Their scrawny, underfed frames contrasted by beaming wide grins with missing teeth. The sight was uncomfortable. The children of Castle town were far different. Their clothes had no holes and he couldn’t see their bones through their skin. He’d never have stopped here if it weren’t for the spirit sightings. Sure, the kids were cute, but he’d have to watch his rupee bag.

“Oh! Is that how you got your sword?!”

“What about Zelda?!”

“I wanna know more!”

Soon, each little child chirped up, hungering for another story atop the many he had already told. The children at his feet bickered with one another as he tried to pick a story out that would satisfy them. The stories of his predecessors? Perhaps. But the Heroes of Legend were well known throughout even the smallest secluded hamlet. It made no difference this one was wartorne. He hardly even made it past that thought before the door to the small hut was slammed open, the rotting wood splintering.

“Th-There’s-“ The old man at the door sputtered and held his abdomen as one of the children ran at him.

“Opa? Opa!” The old man slumped over, sinking to his knees and rasping out bloody breaths. Link moved before he could’ve thought to stop himself. Such a skill had afforded him his life when he killed ganon. Sometimes, bravery leaves no room for forethought. Such is the way of courage.

“Sir, what happened” The man hacked and hacked, his hands trembling as they clutched his ribs. Removing the cold bony joints was probably not wise to the room full of children, the skin greying and peeling from his wound in a fashion Link had come to know well.

The dusty streets weren’t bustling with idle chatter and the poor folk running their errands as he’d grown accustomed to during his stay. There was a stark silence like that of nightfall, when the world is supposed to be still. His blade was familiar in his hand, ready to cut down what opposed him. There was an ear-splitting screech and his gut sank. Skin stealers. He felt the chipped teeth gnawing at his skin, sawing past his clothes. It skittered to the ground with a fleshy smack, its hollow eye sockets flexing around nothing. It chittered its teeth, waiting for a sound to hunt down. It’s bones popped and cracked as it circled, a warbled coo coming out of its undulating throat. Link didn’t let the waste of a soul live. The grey patchwork of its skin wouldn’t likely let it anyway. Its death would bring it back to Nir. Where she’d find some way to send her wicked beasts upon him again— he’s sure. Looking at the bony corpse, Link felt curiosity above the disgust. Such vile things waited until night until they could not be watched by Hylia. They preferred the silvery glow of Nir and her cover of darkness. But this one was out among broad daylight. The cloudy sky cleared and the voice of his goddess was warm in his mind, drowning out the panic of his thoughts.

“Hero…”

“Link…”

“Hear my call upon you…”

“… Or the sun may set on Hyrule again”

#legend of zelda #loz sos #sos au #Legend of Zelda: Savior of Souls #link x reader #link x you #fir’s library

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everrainrp · 5 days

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I may have missed this in my perusing of lore, but do leaders of each Clan have multiple lives, and if so, where do they come from? Since their spiritual beliefs vary so widely, is it different for each Clan?

Hello!

This is something I need to add and talk about, but to keep things minimally confusing between each Clan, each leader does indeed have multiple lives!

And with the idea that none of their spiritual beliefs are necessarily wrong, they still receive their lives but in different ways and rites. In the end, they act very similarly to cats of history giving lives in the form of some sort of leadership ideal, ie. a spirit granting a life and willing the leader to lead with wisdom.

Rite of the Changing Tides

Shoreshimmer prospective leaders, both Landbound and Seabound, are to go to the bleached whale bones found on their southern shores, and sit within them as they face the ocean. From here, they will spend a full day and night in meditation, watching the ocean and it's tides, contemplating life and death and how everything is intertwined. This symbolizes their patience and understanding of the rise and fall of the tides and the ocean and it's cycles. From here, they will enter a tidal cavern called Tidal Keep that is only accessible at low tide. As the tide rises and ocean water laps at their paws as sea spray and mist fills the cavern, it is here that the souls of the cycle will appear to the leader. With each beat of the waves, a new soul will appear in the sea mist and grant the leader a life, and with each life the leader feels a new thrum of energy and invigoration, as if the ocean itself was pulsing in their veins. This will last until it is once again low tide and the leader may exit the cave and return to camp, which they are welcomed as a new and official leader.

Rite of the Drowning River

Torrentfall prospective leaders must go through one of the most dangerous rites of their Clan, of which symbolizes their acceptance of the raw power of the water they deeply revere, and their willingness to push for survival and sacrifice. Prospective leaders are lead to the "Thunderpool", the most dangerous location within their territory where the water is composed of the raging and cascading waters from surrounding waterfalls, creating a dangerous, swirling pool. From here, they must enter the river and submit themselves entirely, in mind and body, to the currents. They are dragged deep under, and must not fight the pull, and as they descend further and further into the frigid waters, they will slip into unconsciousness. When awaking, it is not in the physical realm, but the afterlife, the Endless Currents, where the water is still and shimmering, creating a serene picture. Ancestors and deceased loved ones and kin will approach the leader one by one and grant them their lives. As opposed to the life giving thrum of Shoreshimmer's life ceremony, Torrentfall's feels as though they are being crushed by the weight of the water before feeling breath returning to them each time, granting them grit and resilience needed to rise from the depths again and again. Once over, the cat will resurface and be pulled to the riverbank by awaiting Clanmates who will bear witness to the first breath the cat will take as new leader.

Rite of the Veiled Whispers

Mistshroud prospective leaders will proceed to a moss covered boulder deep within their territory and consume a liquid blend of herbs that induce vivid dreams and a trance like state. The prospective leader will fall into a trance upon the moss covered boulder, named the "Veil Stone", and upon entering this trance their soul will appear in the mists of their territory. From here, they are tasked with navigating a maze with nothing but their senses and instincts, back to the location that camp would be. Instead of being greeted by their living kin, in the camp they are greeted by past ancestors and deceased loved ones that inhabit the mists of their world. From here, the spirits will grant the leader their nine lives, but this is often done in silence as those passed believe wisdom is best conveyed without words. Once this is complete, the leader will wake from their trance like state, and return to camp in reality, where they will be greeted as the new leader of the Clan officially. Not only do they carry the nine lives, but also the unseen and quiet wisdom of past lives.

Rite of the Hunt, the Howl, and the Heart

This rite revolves around their pantheon, the great boar Thornmaw (survival and the hunt), the quick wolf Silverhowl (unity and pack loyalty), and the regal stag Bravehart (leadership and compassion). Prospective leaders of Thornrush Clan must go through several trials pertaining to their pantheon before receiving their nine lives. To start these trials, they must fall into a deep sleep under a natural stone arch found in their territory called the "Traversing Stone". It is here that when they awake, that they awaken in Thornmaw's Hunting Grounds, where the greatest and most honorable of their ancestors reside in the afterlife. Their first test begins here, the test of the Hunt, where they must track and hunt a fox, a symbol of survival and cunning and a direct mirror to Thornrush Clans willingness to outlast and outlive challenges, made out of roots and brambles through the hunting grounds. A group of spirits wait underneath a great redwood tree for the leaders success and proof. From here the next test begins, the test of the Howl. The leader must lead the group of spirits through rugged and treacherous terrain, ascending the side of a mountain to reach Silverhowl's den. No cat must be left behind and one must be willing to ensure every spirit makes it, even if it means sacrificing their own comfort or safety. As Silverhowl embodies the belief of strength in unity and that a leader must never abandon their pack, this test is done to ensure that the leader can lead in unity and trust in the group. Upon arrival to Silverhowl's Den successfully, it is time for the test of the heart. The test of the heart symbolizes Bravehart's leadership and compassion, standing tall with a regal air even in the face of adversity. This test will have the leader making a symbolic sacrifice that would be for the good of their Clan. This sacrifice will vary greatly between leaders, and often revolves around something that they are unwilling to let go of. Upon successful completion of these trials, the spirits that the leader had guided in the test of the Howl, approach one by one to grant their lives to the leader as well as place a crown of thorns upon their head, allowing the leader to bear the weight of leadership and feel it. These lives are filled with power and greatness, the very same bravery and honor that the spirits hold embodied in each life given. Upon awakening, the leader will bear a crown of thorns, and may return to camp where they will be greeted as the newfound leader.

Rite of Ascension

In Skyreach Clan, prospective leaders must ascend, both physically and metaphorically, to their new rank. This is done on "Star's Summit" , one of the highest peaks bordering Skyreach's territory. The prospective leader must make this climb alone, exposed to the elements and the high winds as they hike up the ledges of the mountain. This symbolizes their willingness to rise above the struggles of below for their Clan and what they are willing to do for their kin, as well as their readiness to reach for what may otherwise be out of reach and go beyond, and to ascend to be closest to their ancestors. Upon reaching the very top, there is a cave that they must enter where many cairns are stacked by previous leaders, the amount of stones symbolizing how many years a leader had led. Few cairns are stacked due to the age of the overall Clan, but a new leader will begin a new cairn. It is here that they must fall asleep in the frigid temperatures, closest to their ancestors. When they awaken in the spiritual sense, the stars will descend to the peaks, falling rapidly through the skies leaving blazing trails behind them. But instead of brutal impact, these stars gently touch the ledge and take on the form of their deceased loved ones, as they file into the cave, turning it into almost a planetarium of sorts as stars and stardust fills the empty space. As the spirits gather, they bestow upon the leader their lives, each life filling them with a sense of wonder and willingness to carry themselves and their Clan far, each life making the cat feel as though they are drifting through the clouds on open wings with nothing to stop them. Upon waking, they may return to camp, where as the rest of the Clans, are welcome as a new leader.

#asks #clan. all #clan. torrentfall #clan. mistshroud #clan. skyreach #clan. shoreshimmer #clan. thornrush #clan. religion

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rwby-encrusted-blog · 8 months

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What's your favorite DND Multiclass and why?

Mine, personally, is a Paladin/Barbarian, because Paladin is my favorite Half-Caster, and both Barbs and Paladins provide really interest Personal journeys, from changing and breaking oaths, to how a Rage manifests - My favorite character was a Path of the Beast/Oath of Ancients Warrior Princess Triton, whose title was very very long, but was Generally called "Gnash" for short

The Path of Beast states the origin; Such a barbarian might be inhabited by a primal spirit or be descended from shape-shifters. You can choose the origin of your feral might or determine it by rolling on the Origin of the Beast table.

As a Triton she of course lived in the Sea, with her Beast part being Flavored as a Thresher Tail, a Goblin Shark Jaw, and "Brine Crystal" Claws, Naturally.

The sea, if you didn't know, is generally a very dark place, with the Tenets of the Ancients being

-Kindle the Light. Through your acts of mercy, kindness, and forgiveness, kindle the light of hope in the world, beating back despair.

-Shelter the Light. Where there is good, beauty, love, and laughter in the world, stand against the wickedness that would swallow it. Where life flourishes, stand against the forces that would render it barren.

-Preserve Your Own Light. Delight in song and laughter, in beauty and art. If you allow the light to die in your own heart, you can't preserve it in the world.

-Be the Light. Be a glorious beacon for all who live in despair. Let the light of your joy and courage shine forth in all your deeds.

They're all about Light.

and you might think "Oh that's an interesting contradiction" but the thing is, There is light at the bottom of the ocean, in Anglerfish and Algae and Hydrothermal vents, and there is life to celebrate in the ocean - her whole deal was that she was very nonchalant about everything until someone did something that threatened the ocean - Excessive Trawling, Dumping waste, generally disrespecting the land and sea.

Her and Her siblings were forces of Nature.

Gnash Represented the Life of the Ocean. She Bared their Teeth and Scales, to Rake and Cull those who disrupted the balance.

Her younger Sister, Surge, represented the Tides and Currents. Roared with the waves and hummed to the drowned, giving comfort to the lost and doing her best to guide whatever soul found itself in the ocean to where it needed to be, whether it was abyss or home.

Their last Sibling, Sessile, the youngest, represented the Cycle of the ocean - the Spawn and the Whalefall. They were, as their name implies, the least active of the three, but by far the most Ornery about their position.

Gnash, The Physical - Fight for the Ocean

Surge, The Emotional - The Ocean Fighting

Sessile, the Material - The Cycle of Death and Detritus.

#dnd #paladin #barbarian #path of the beast #oath of the ancients

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catofadifferentcolor · 1 year

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Terrible Fic Idea #61: The Old Guard, but make it Stargate

One of the very few things I dislike about the 2020 TOG movie is how little forethought the escape from Merrick's headquarters appears to show. We see dozens of samples taken... and as far as I can tell, all those samples and the doctor who took them survived the firefight. And if her results were being pushed to the cloud? That's one big problem left unresolved. Not to mention a firefight in the middle of London's business district - inside a business that does dealings with the US military at that - is bound to be thoroughly investigated regardless of the strings Copley pulls to cover it up.

All of which came together in my head to ask: What if, six months post-Merrick, The Old Guard gets picked up by Stargate Command?

Just imagine it:

One of the things I love best the Stargate universe is that it takes place so very definitively in the 90s. It's settled in its time period, not some hopeful, impossible future. But for that sake of this AU let's push everything forward 20 years make it so the events of SG1 S4's "The Curse" happen in the same week as the escape from Merrick.

From the outside looking in, there's a lot about the Old Guards' flavor of immortality that looks like having a goa'uld symbiote. This means when the SGC goes looking for other possible goa'uld on Earth after Osiris' escape, they think they find five in the shape of the immortals, with Nile possibly being the latest host for the symbiote that Quỳnh once carried.

The more the SGC looks, however, the less clear it becomes. Daniel is able to recreate most of Copley's research and then some, stretching as far back as written records will allow. Their next thought is tok'ra, but those haven't been around long enough to account for Andy. Maybe she's the queen of a similar group that's been stuck on Earth for a long time and the others are her surviving offspring? There are records of a god matching her description on the Western Steppes in ages past...

With that assumption in mind, six months post-Merrick SG-1 is sent to make contact with the guard, hoping to gain more allies against Apophis.

The meeting itself is both extremely tense and a comedy of errors. Both groups are on completely different pages as to why they're meeting and what's at stake, and it very nearly ends in a firefight before Daniel goes into an impassioned speech (at gunpoint) as to why the guard should help humanity fight the goa'uld... to which Andy goes what the fuck are you talking about?

Once every gets on the same page and assurances are made that there will be no human experimentation whatsoever, the guard end up joining the SGC as independent contractors. Officially they are SG-21, assigned to search and rescue/covert ops, but mostly they continue to fight for what we think is right, just on a galactic scale. They nominally check in every few weeks, but are largely left to their own devices. This makes the rare occasions any of them are in the Mountain memorable.

A selection of those memorable visits include: 1) Daniel being hogtied, left in a closet, and not found for 15 hours after asking Andy one too many questions about ancient cultures; 2) Sam stumbling upon Joe and Nicky having a deep conversation in a patois of languages in the middle of the cafeteria about how much the Earth and their place in it has changed in their lifetimes, from Jerusalem being the center of ancient world maps to an ever expanding galaxy inhabited by people just like them. It should take vaguely the same tone as Sagan's Cosmos before being completely derailed by one of them asking so, do you think endlessly asphyxiating in the vacuum of space is better or worse than endlessly drowning at the bottom of the ocean? This too should be discussed at macabre length, possibly going into their personal ten worst ways to die lists - but in mostly English, throughly disturbing their fellow diners; and 3) Nile encountering someone she once knew in the Marines for the first time during the events of "Heroes" and having to do the say, I can get killed but don't stay dead speech for the first time herself after dying midway through the mission and coming back to save the day.

Once again, that's all I really have - just lots of scenes of the characters of both fandoms interacting but very little change to the plot lines of either.

Bonuses include: 1) The guard initially being offered commissions in the US Marines for their work at the SGC. These are turned down for a variety of reasons, the last one jokingly being that Joe and Nicky have never gone longer than a week without saying something unbearably romantic to each other and it'll save them the trouble of having to immediately cashier them both out. Extra bonus points if this leads Nicky on overwatch to send a warning shot past the speaker's ear before anyone can bring up the DADT repeal. 2) Booker having been grounded rather than exiled. This should be paired with Nile occasionally slipping into an exasperated yes, Mom whenever Joe and Nicky get overprotective, leading to much confusion as to the guards' family dynamics when they first join the SGC. Some Marines convinced for years that the immortals are, in fact, like the tok'ra and that one of the men is the host for their queen; and 3) The base quartermaster having absolutely no fear of any of them and publicly chewing them out on multiple occasions for the sheer amount of clothes they go through.

Honestly, I have tons of little scenes of this crossover in my head and no coherent storyline to it all, so it may end up as a drabble collection if the bunny stays around long enough. Otherwise, feel free to adopt this bun. As always, link back if you do anything with it.

More Terrible Fic Ideas

#plot bunny #fic ideas #the old guard #tog #stargate #stargate sg1 #sg1 #crossover #andromache the scythian #nicolo di genova #yusuf al kaysani #sebastian le livre #nile freeman #immortal husbands #samantha carter #daniel jackson #goa'uld #stargate command

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dead-orbit-llc · 2 months

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[Looking through the data packets that are offered to you, you find on on the 'geography' of the local star system.]

Liaos System

a simple graphic of the system

The Star of the Liaos System, Brilliance.

First planet of the Liaos System, Lunidae.

Atmosphereless, barren, dusty. The planet is the smallest of the system and is practically worthless if it wasn't for the material that can be harvested from it and the occasional subterranian station the planet is pockmarked with.

Second planet of the Liaos System, Regent's Stand.

An inhabited world primarily covered in deep oceans. It has become the site of most of the internal conflicts within the system, being the only world that can be lived in without much difficulty. The planet used to be the military forward base of Remnant, but with the fall of Remnant, it quite frankly has suffered. It was not designed to be self-sufficient.

Recently, would-be warlords and system despots have been vying for what little land can be found on Regent's Stand. Though mechs are rare for these conflicts, they are not unheard of, and they have begun scouring the system's carcass for more mechs, parts, or means of constructing them. Some of the influential warlords have power armor, not quite mechs, but close enough if you've never seen one before. The rest have barely bullet-resistant hard case armor. Officially, the company takes the side of none of these warlords.

An Urdain footsoldier, one of the more influential of the warlords.

The Aunic presence in the system is concentrated on this planet, an orbitally fabbed fortress church that was then dropped into the ocean of the world, the 'Leadlight Panacea' it has been called.

Supposedly, the Aunic symbol.

The asteroid field known as Remnant used to be the third planet of Liaos, it now has the Dead Orbit space station within.

The planet used to be the center of power for the sector, but after a series of cascading NHPs across the entire planet which turned into a series of unshackling NHPs, it has been reduced to this, leaving behind a station that was about to fall into the atmosphere and break apart, and a small rift in space-time.

The asteroid field itself possesses more mass than the planet possessed by over a factor of two hundred, has a shockingly large number of preserved ruins hidden within the dusty ring on some decently sized asteroids, and even occasionally has a breathable atmosphere within a pocket or two.

Sebastian Brine, Renowned Duster.

There are two people who live within the belt, the first group we call 'Dusters'. They are scavengers who simply are trying to eke out a living. Please try to talk with them before firing on them, they are generally a reasonable sort.

The second group call themselves 'the Voladores'. They are tall (like really tall) and enigmatic. We only deal with one of them, though they do have a large ship that seems to live within the cloudy ring of Remnant. The ship is apparently called 'Bóveda de Cristal', whatever that means.

Miguel, the Exotic Goods Trader. He has two biological arms crossed under his shoulder poncho thing that he never uses.

Third planet of the Liaos System, Liaos-4.

Liaos-4 is now the third planet of the Liaos system since Remnant is no longer a planet. The planet is the largest of the system and possesses a highly acidic atmosphere. There are a number of orbital stations around the planet and on its moons, some were for research, some were for habitation, and others for storage or work. They have long since been abandoned, now only for the purposes of scavenging.

Fourth planet of the Liaos System, Lancaster.

To the knowledge of the company, there isn't anything to note on this planet, or orbiting it, besides the Union Expansion Reps. Though many believe that there is something of value here.

The symbol the Union Reps have on everything of theirs.

Fifth planet of the Liaos System, Void's Edge, the third gas giant and final planet of the system.

There is supposedly a rather well-stocked interstellar colonization station in the atmosphere of this world, though since the creation of Remnant, few if any have been able to confirm or deny that myth, and fewer still are willing to risk the interference and potential of getting lost within the mists.

#creative writing #lancer #lancer ttrpg #lancerrpg #west marches #lancer rpg #worldbuilding

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olli-online · 4 months

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6, 9, 13, 22, 24, 27, 34, 48, 65, 69, 78, 86, 96, 100 (sorry for sending so many jsksbvs)

NOOO DONT SAY SORRY THIS IS PERFECT EHE

6. furthest you've ever traveled from home?

turkey!! i miss it i miss my turkish friends real bad. been well over a decade

9. favourite flavour of juice?

hmm it changes but right now i could drink a gallon of apple juice

22. what "bad" smell do you actually like?

is a bonfire one? i love the smell of fire

24. what type of tree is closest to you rn?

cherry tree :3

27. do you like looking at the shapes in clouds?

i do :) i took a pic of a cloud that had the shape of a bird a couple weeks back but i'm too lazy to find it rn

34. mountains, forest, or ocean?

pitting nature's beautiful creations against each other...each have such distinct things i love. mountains make you feel small and appreciative for the little things, sitting at the top of a mountain even a relatively small one brings a feeling that can be matched by nothing else, the air is colder and the wind is stronger i just want to let it hold me. forests can be so quiet but are so lively, so many creatures inhabit one space and coexist and it's so beautiful to me. trail cams the best invention for letting us have a small glimpse into that world that hides itself from us, animals travelling with their young or seeing the young curiosity about the camera and how it mirrors our own existence. i get lost in the small things that connect humans with every animal its 3am i don't need to cry about that rn. and the ocean...it terrifies me but that's also an aspect of it that i love, i love how little i know and i love how little we know. i love hearing about a species being discovered or confirmed to not be extinct, so much being untouched and destroyed by us hopefully it will outlive us entirely and stay as it was meant to. it's a whole different world in there and its unlike anything else we can ever see on land.

48. do you do any arts/crafts by hand?

not currently but i've always enjoyed sketching and woodworking. i deserve a little woodworking set up for all my fun needs

65. what's your most recent special interest or hyperfixation media?

dunmeshi 😞 i woke up thinking about it

69. if you could choose one of your life's problems to solve with the push of a button, what would you fix right now?

so many of my biggest issues could be resolved if i just stopped fearing everything. fear controls so much of me i need it gone

78. what bad habit do you wish you could enjoy without it being bad for you?

bad posture 😭 i cannot stop slouching or sitting in terrible ways man

86. what little thing from your culture/region/country do you love?

ughhhhhhhhhh straining to think of something. i enjoy the river the runs through the my town

96. do you like carnival rides?

I DO!!!!! only one i don't like is the one that goes up and then drops you like the one in zombieland pfhdjfhf i remember watching my sister go on this really big one and the entire thing was leaning and it freaked me tf out for life

100. what's on your anti-bucket list?

genuinely cannot think of anything. i wanna do everything i can it would feel foolish to put something entirely off limits

#thiswas fun ehe

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usagirotten · 6 months

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Series Review: Ark: The Animated Series, the excellence between games and dinosaurs

Dinosaurs and their prehistoric world are something that has continued to fascinate the audience for decades, each reinvention in their stories and presentations, whether in films, television series, documentaries, comics, novels, collectible figures, video games, etc., has its place and success among locals and strangers, with children being the ones who have enjoyed these colossal creatures the most. Whether there are original stories or adaptations, it is difficult for everything to be and feel authentic and credible, for what we are going to see hear or read to capture us and take us on a journey where we can interact and feel part of a world in which that we interact with the main characters and of course the dinosaurs. Steven Spielberg is largely to blame because dinosaurs have been reinvented and modernized. In 1992 he adapted the popular novel written by Michael Crichton for the film Jurassic Park, already considered a science fiction classic and which gave way to a long franchise. cinema and video games have not been the exception, cases such as the Turok, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Dino Crisis, Primal Rage, and Ark franchises have been very popular on consoles such as Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation, in which as players we can defend and defend ourselves against these creatures. In the very particular case of Ark (2015) things are reinvented, and in 2024 the popular game releases an animated series that is deceptively not for a children's audience, promising that what will be seen is explicit and violent entertainment for adults.

What is the series about?

Helena Walker (Madeleine Madden) is an Australian paleontologist who suddenly wakes up and finds herself alone in the middle of a vast ocean. After being attacked and escaping from a megalodon, she arrives ashore on a strange island where she meets Bob (Karl Urban). ) and a wild Dodo, together with them she will discover a strange new world inhabited by dinosaurs, warring tribes, and strange technology, making new allies and new enemies Helena will do whatever it takes to survive and hopefully find a way to return to his world and his time. As an audience that is apart from video games, the premise immediately reminds us of the animated series Primal (2019) created by Genndy Tartakovsky in which we see a prehistoric man and a dinosaur living dangerous adventures and facing ruthless enemies, we could say that this is not It is so original and that it falls into the modern cliché of we already know that they will survive but at the same time we enjoy the emotion and action. Although we know that the genre of science fiction and action films based on video games have not had the expected success among the public, some of them have been strongly criticized for their lack of originality and a good story, unlike others that have the opposite problem, a story that is too long, this has been compared in a way where for example a few hours of gameplay can cover the same amount with ten minutes of the film, resulting in a much longer adaptation in which explore different perspectives of the same story. Ark: The Animated Series has a long and concrete story that still gives a lot to adapt, the concept of narrating in a non-linear way allows itself to be longer and cover more seasons to know the greatest part of the game's story and this in turn can be divided so that it can work in a television format for all those who do not know or have not played the video game. The latter is the highest point it has to present, everything is explained in each of the 6 episodes that make up this first part of the first season: Element 1 Paleontologist Helena Walker wakes up on an island full of strange beasts where she will have to adapt and survive along with Bob.

Element 2 Helena flees from the explorers/hunters led by Nerva when she meets a new ally named Meiyin who will help her discover this new and dangerous world.

Element 3 Helena and Meiyin along the way find new allies in a tree-dwelling village led by a Lakota warrior and his adopted daughter, a disease that ravages the villagers brings everyone together in a quest to find a cure.

Element 4 Helena and her allies try to free prisoners in a mining camp, when Helena's plans go awry, she and Alasie are captured.

Element 5 Nerva unleashes a harsh surprise attack against John's village, the casualties among the population are noticeable and he will have the help of someone unexpected.

Element 6 On the verge of discovering how to return to Helena's time and place, John and Henry risk everything to rescue Meiyin from Nerva's cruelty.

During the development of these episodes, we meet the characters from different periods of history between the past and the future, Helena meets and befriends Meiyin Li (Michelle Yeoh) an archer from the Chinese Han dynasty who tries to free the people of Ark from the tyranny of the Roman general Gaius Marcellus Nerva (Gerard Butler), Nerva is a conqueror who intends to dominate the entire island, there is also the Lakota archer (Zahn McClarnon), the young Inuit healer Alasie (Devery Jacobs). Together, they will also try to fight against the true villain of this series, Sir Edmund Rockwell (David Tennant), a Victorian scientist who betrayed Meiyin and seeks to exploit Ark in his way and who with the alliance he has with Nerva and the help of the three artifacts, (Green, red and blue) plan to take the army they have made in Ark out of that time vortex and conquer our time and reality. Comparisons and changes between the series and the video game are inevitable. If we put it in another context, the story is told differently and has a freer adaptation. The story of these episodes, just like in the game, requires a dose of graphic and explicit violence that characterizes it, this being a material for adults that is completely removed from a typical story, mixing elements of the past with technology from the future makes it have a plus point in its development even though this element is not entirely original. At the end of episode 6 we are already clear that Ark is a prefabricated world with a specific purpose that is at a point between the past and the future where it serves as a training ground for something bigger that we do not yet know, this is the part in which screenwriters Marguerite Bennett and Kendall Deacon Davis join forces with video game creators Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak to create an alternate story that contains different elements and can be seen from a freer perspective that gives them the opportunity to do things that They were not contemplated for the game saga, nor is there a moral message that empowers women or that what is important is love, family, collaboration, friendship or that praises their inclusion and diversity and blah blah blah, it is very Of course, this is an audiovisual show with a deep background that involves and focuses more on survival than on the path of a hero, which there is but it is not something that has to be present at every moment, there is so much to see and There's so much to tell that they don't waste time on situations that lead nowhere or on filler sequences that only get in the way and don't contribute, here they get straight to the point. The structure of its main story allows each character to have a presentation, a motive, and a clear and concise characterization. As the story progresses, the mysteries develop subplots that involve everyone and a more general and broader visualization is offered. of what this world is and what we as viewers can expect, seeing with care and detail so many characters from different times, spaces and cultures coming together to defend their habitat is a feat in itself and a great achievement, each one has a personality defined that makes them unique. As an adaptation of a game that complies with the rule and the main objective of the protagonist which is survival, we see that Helena, being alone in a wild and dangerous world, needs Meiyin and her group to carry out this main mission, the environment of Ark It is relentless and constantly changing as Helena and Meiyin have to face different dangers to find food, shelter and allies, which means they must stay alert at all times and test themselves how far they will go to stay alive. alive and able to escape this world and return to his time. The structure of its story and subplots is what allows itself to have a non-linear development in which we see flashbacks where Helena continues to remember the loss of her partner Victoria (Elliot Page). Although we know that she is not alone and that he has new friends in Ark, pain is always present and is what he uses as a motivator to get out of each of the dangers, if before he had the cowardice of wanting to commit suicide, now it is the opposite, his desire to survive and returning to where it belongs is stronger than anything else, a more realistic representation of post-traumatic stress disorder in a more nuanced and understandable recreation, the dinosaurs play a vital supporting role, they are not only beasts of burden but they are also part of the environment, whether domesticated or wild, those that are at the service of warriors and those that are pets, and their best moments are when they bond with humans. The animation is a mix between traditional and very moderate CGI, which makes it visually impressive, having a great aesthetic reference from anime with Western influence, each shot made by directors Jeremy Stieglitz, Jay Oliva, David Hartman, Sebastian Montes, and Chase Conley It looks and feels realistic, all the characters resemble historically real people and the aesthetics of their time, creating a feeling of unity within this great diversity, the design of the dinosaurs is carefully cared for in detail, giving them a texture and personality So that they look and feel as real as possible within what their animation allows, we see them dirty, with scales, with feathers of varied and bright colors, with movements and expressions closer to the representations that we already know. The sound design is another element that plays greatly in favor of the plot, sounds of animals, fauna in general, clashes in fights, the humming of insects, and even the waves of the sea are felt and appreciated as something that They were taken from a real world, each sound is strategically designed and recorded to be remixed and provides indispensable support to what we see, together with the animation the work results in something impeccable. The impressive voice cast includes Madeleine Madden, Gerard Butler, David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, Jeffrey Wright, Karl Urban, Elliot Page, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Tudyk, Vin Diesel, Russell Crowe and Monica Bellucci. each one understands their character and they do the best they can with the script, each one of them works very well with their character perfectly in their role, from subtle and harmonious voices to those that are stronger, dominant, and authoritarian, and important detail to What is worth mentioning and what must be celebrated in a production like this is that each Australian indigenous or aboriginal character has a voice actor appropriate for their race. Gareth Coker is the perfect composer for the music of this series, his previous works include Ori and the Blind Forest, ARK: Survival Evolved, ARK: Survival Ascended, and Halo Infinite, it has pieces that very subtly sample what was made for the video game having these his personality and participation in each episode, which makes it a complete and very entertaining audiovisual show, an impeccable work that helps its plot and does not remain just background noise. Despite the delay due to the global situation of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the lack of promotion by Paramount, the series arrives at a time when this platform can consolidate its productions while being up to date. height of what Apple TV has done, they are not just filler programs, they are products that can be very well positioned to the audience's taste, compared to the HALO live-action experiment that did not work, this series works better than anyone could expect exceeding any expectations. In conclusion, Ark: The Animated Series shows us that good adaptations of video games with a good story can be made in the right hands, works like this are the ones that pleasantly surprise us when we are looking for something different and exciting in a very misunderstood genre in a time in which any adaptation, sequel, prequel or reboot is already synonymous with failure, although the series is not so original, its concept is very well managed and focused on what it wants to convey to us, it is not just more entertainment, it is a job which dignifies its genre and gives the possibility of having more seasons, which we are already looking forward to. Ark: The Animated Series arrives on the Paramount + platform this April 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeDurRFxXTI Read the full article

#Paramount+

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egg-emperor · 1 year

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Eggman's pollution of countless ecosystems isn't too farfetched since in real life there are many companies that pollute ecosystem, some even cruelly test on animals (not even for medical purposes) , just to make a quick buck. The animals live short miserable lives. Don't get me started on the logging companies that destroy countless amazonian rainforests (and kill the inhabitants both human and animal) all out of greed.

Yeah while Eggman has done a lot of crazy out there things that'd be impossible in real life like awakening giant monsters, blowing up the moon, breaking apart the world, etc- but one of the big things he's been the villain for since the beginning with the damage he does to nature, wildlife, the environment, and the general theme of animal abuse has always been very realistic and makes him a very serious threat.

Every level of the dead and polluted bad future in CD is the best example of the horrible state the world would end up in if Eggman had his way and how even his poor robots will be lay to waste all broken down and sad looking, let alone the fact that poor animals are being used inside

He also owns an ocean of oil and it wouldn't be surprising if an element of his greed was also in there and he sold some for money

He has nature burned and bombed and it likely kills tons of wildlife too

And deforestation with his robots cutting down trees

And of course there's tons and tons more all throughout the series, he's infamous for it. It's the very first thing that tells us he's the bad guy in the series. It's unfortunate how a lot of fans in recent years have tried to find reasons why this actually isn't so bad and harmful or that he has good but misguided intentions in it, it's missing the whole message.

I've also somehow seen claims that he's gotten better and doesn't do that anymore? Lol. The last time he used animals in robots was Lost World, just two games ago,

he also didn't care about damage caused by his machine that sucked life from the world to selfishly use for power in his creations as long as they're was still something left for him to conquer,

it was also literally the whole focus of his Forces propaganda video was him literally advertising a polluted world as beautiful and desired by showing a happy healthy world and saying "why have THIS-"

"when you could have THIS"

Then the rest of it was him promoting a fucked up way for people to survive without clean air, by giving up their free will and becoming mindless robot slaves with his robotomy treatment- which is all he really cares about instead of actually helping people. That's another way he specifically desires to damage and pollute, because of that benefit.

And all the destruction of how everything was set ablaze, the desertification drying up waters, and the operations for deforestation going on in the actual game of Forces too all begs to differ on the claim that he's stopped lol

Credit for that last cool detail

It's still very much a thing in his character. That also gives a very important message against harming the environment and that humans are capable of harming and using it for many greedy reasons and destroying it carelessly for selfish gain. They don't have a good reason, they don't think they're doing the right thing, they're doing it just for profit and gain and don't care.

Eggman does extreme damage to nature, the environment, and wildlife, on a global scale multiple times too- to the point he's broken the entire world itself apart. He represents a dark part of humanity that sees the world as nothing but resources to use up until they're gone in selfishness and greed and are also apathetic towards the damage done in general with pollution and waste.

It is very realistic and terrifying, it's a huge part of what makes Eggman such a dangerous threat and diabolical villain! In that particular area of evil, he is a very real person that could exist- and there are people like him that do exist and cause harm in similar ways. Just because we've become so used to it happening in the world, doesn't mean it isn't bad or should be downplayed or dismissed in fiction!

#asks #dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #my post #pollution #sonic forces

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honourablejester · 9 months

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Numenera Campaign Concept: Gateway Terminal

Some thoughts for a Numenera Campaign, or possibly thoughts for an anthology of related Numenera Campaigns. Um. Okay. Has anyone here ever read the Heechee Saga, by Frederick Pohl? Specifically the novel ‘Gateway’?

Because. I wanted a campaign concept that originated in the Steadfast, just to play on the established infrastructure and worldbuilding. But. A lot of my favourite bits of the Steadfast are maritime or coastal. And Numenera is about discovery, in a couple of big ways. And the Steadfast, specifically, is broadly analogous to medieval Europe, with a techno-religious papacy holding a collection of feudal kingdoms together. And there’s the in-game category of ‘discoveries’, which are big pieces of prior world technology that are too big to be used by PCs and are of more worldbuilding impact, and one of the suggested discoveries is a ‘fully-functional hovertrain’. So. Transport systems are a type of discovery you can make. Including portal systems, there’s one that links the Steadfast to the Dawnlands, on the far side of Numenera’s supercontinent, that has only recently been discovered. But let’s go back maritime, ourselves.

So. The starter setting is the Steadfast. We’re a medieval society of nine kingdoms held together by a techno-papacy who has recently declared a crusade against our northern neighbours. We inhabit (though we don’t know this) a relatively small portion of the southwest corner of a massive Pangea-like supercontinent that, aside from at least one known island archipelago, is the only landmass in a vast world-spanning ocean. And recently, very recently, somebody made a discovery within our kingdoms that might change everything.

We found a hidden automated ancient ferry terminal. On our own shores. That contains several prior-world oceanic vessels designed to go to unknown and pre-programmed destinations.

Has anyone read the Heechee Saga? Gateway, the novel, is about humanity discovering an asteroid that was hollowed out by the Heechee, an unknown alien race, and this asteroid contains hundreds of pre-programmed starships. Each ship has a destination database, but no translations, so you can set a destination, but no-one knows where it goes to, and trying to change destinations mid-flight has, after considerable trial and error, always gone horrifically. So. You get in, you set your destination, and you roll the dice on whether the destination or the trip itself is survivable. Maybe you’ll find a viable habitable world. Maybe you’ll pick a destination that’s too far for that particular starship to reach. Maybe you’ll pick a destination that’s too far for your provisions to reach. Maybe you’ll pick one that’s lethal to humans, but was perfectly fine for Heechee. Maybe you’ll pick the one starship that’s secretly lethally broken after thousands of years without maintenance. You don’t know. So if you choose to get in one of these ships, you are choosing to gamble your life on the potential, the vanishingly small potential, of survival discovery.

And Numenera … Numenera is a setting about discovery. This world, this medieval Ninth World, is built on the strange, near-magical hyper-technology of a billion years of prior civilisations. Some spanned galaxies. Some rewrote the laws of reality. Some broke through to other dimensions. Some completely reshaped this planet in entirely literal ways. The known parts of the setting are a tiny corner of a single supercontinent on a world where literally anything could be waiting out there.

And I love the POV shift inherent in that. The medieval fantasy outlook of the current Ninth World layered over the mindboggling science fiction concepts of the prior worlds. And yes, this medieval fantasy world has adapted to the ruins of the ancients. They’ve built around them, they’ve made use of many of them, they’ve sensibly stayed clear of others. They know that these things exist, and that they’re vast and incomprehensible and also occasionally useful and potentially the sources of vast personal and political power, if they can be used right.

So going back to the Steadfast. Going back to this medieval collection of kingdoms, run by a papacy, perhaps not too far away from our historical Europe … on the verge of the age of discovery? With all the potentially horrific political consequences that could have. And this setting discovers … a gateway. An incredibly risky and potentially deadly gateway. To the entire rest of the unknown world. Or, well. At least some of it.

The thought I have for this is that someone, a small expedition, discovered a disguised artificial harbour carved back into what they thought was a known cliff face. Let’s say it was masked by hard light/holographic technology, so the cliff seemed fully real and physical and interactable, but if you could find the secret entrance, you could slip beyond it. Why was it disguised? Was it a military installation? Or was it an aesthetic consideration, to mask the environmental impact of the port behind a pretty hologram of the natural surroundings? Dealer’s choice. But there’s an entire artificial cavernous port behind that hologram, carved back and underground from the cliff face. Maybe it has an ancient lock system to raise vessels up to sea level to sail outwards, giving us room to expand below ground and make it massive without overly disturbing the land on the surface above it.

It was the discovery of a lifetime, and there was more. This vast artificial harbour contained ships. Strange prior-world ships. That appear to be somewhat alive, or at least capable of speaking. And these ships are still operable. I want to say that someone tried to activate one. Perhaps the ship’s AI asked them to, for its own reasons. But someone activated one of the smaller ships. Because I want someone to have realised that the ships are pre-programmed. It moved on complete autopilot through the lock system, made it to the surface, sailed out past the holographic cliff face, and then kept going. And nothing they could do could stop it once it was activated. It sailed off westwards into the open ocean, and literally no one has seen it since. The only reason we know about it is that one or several of the team that activated the ship jumped overboard when they realised they couldn’t stop it, and at least one survived to make it back to shore afterwards.

So. Here’s where we are now. A team of ruin-delvers in a Steadfast kingdom have reported finding a vast coastal facility. This facility contains prior world ships that can be activated, BUT cannot be controlled. These ships have minds of their own and unknown destinations that they’re pointed towards. And it’s possible that someone could board them, and discover what those destinations are.

I kind of want the ferry terminal to be in Ancuan. Specifically the Scorpion Reach peninsula. It does have the background for it: “This sprawling peninsula is filled with the ruins of the prior worlds. Known for its weirdness and mysteries, it is frequented by explorers, discoverers, and numenera scholars.” It’s full of weird shit and crawling with explorers, it would absolutely make sense for there to be teams in place to find this thing. But I want it to be in Ancuan because of the nearby presence of Kaparin and the Redfleets. An entire organisation of rogue pirate scientists and oceanographers. Because. They would jump on this. Not necessarily on the facility itself, or even the ships, the Redfleets don’t care much for numenera, but because of the potential for oceanic exploration. They’ve lost the capability to make their own submergine bioships now that their creator is dead. These ships have so much potential for them.

These ships have so much potential for a LOT of people. The facility is probably still broadly secret, but I think there’s five factions in particular that have picked up on it, and it’s massive political potentials.

The first is obviously the Amber Papacy, the Order of Truth. An aeon priest was likely one of the initial discoverers, and this is the Order’s whole deal. Prior world technology, understanding it for the betterment of all, and keeping hold of a political bombshell that could deeply damage the fragile peace between the kingdoms of the Steadfast. They’re going to be all over that.

Then the Convergence, the Order’s eternal foes, to control this new technology for themselves and their own causes.

Then Ancuan itself, as a kingdom. It’s theirs. It’s within their borders. It could potentially open up trade and expansion corridors to gods know where, it could let their kingdom win an edge over the others, particularly nearby expansionist nations like the Pytharon Empire. Ancuan tends to be a very self-sufficient kingdom that doesn’t pay a lot of attention to King Asour-Mantir, but he probably is interested in this discovery, and it’s potential ramifications.

The fourth is the Redfleets, because they’re right next door, and if anyone saw that first ill-fated voyage of an unknown ship in the vicinity, it was probably them. And this … this has so much potential for them. They want in.

And the fifth, I think, is the Sea Kingdom of Ghan. Because remaining the main source of maritime trade in the Steadfast is one of King Laird’s overriding concerns. He’s the one who’s interested in expeditions to find the rumoured archipelago of the Rayskel Cays and set up trade with them. Maritime exploration is a big deal to him and his people, as well as making sure that they’re the ones who go places first and set up trade routes with them. So if rumours reach him about a prior-world ship cache with pre-set trade routes, that would definitely be something he’d send people to investigate.

So there’s a lot of people interested in sending people to investigate this new discovery, both the facility and the ships inside it. There’s people interested in controlling this facility. There’s people interested in breaking into it. There’s people interested in hijacking one of these ships and just seeing where it goes. There’s people interested in launching official and well-planned, well-provisioned expeditions on these ships. There’s people interested in investigating the rest of the facility itself, the ferry terminal. Does it have connections to other facilities? Could communication exist between them? Is there something in the facility that would allow them to learn or even change the destinations of the ships? Would it have a database of where it’s sending things?

So there could be a campaign here, or an anthology of linked campaigns. Does the party want to go on an expedition? Do they want to explore the facility? Do they want to play a group determined to destroy it, to prevent invite risk and destruction on the Steadfast, or do they want to play a team sent to stop that from happening? Would they like to play spies sent from various Steadfast political powers to learn about and potentially use this facility themselves? Do they want to play the aftermath of a successful expedition?

Which. On that subject. Where are these ships going? And, for that matter, how many ships are there, and what kinds?

Because I’d say there’s a couple of big ones. Maybe three? About the size of modern passenger ferries or small cruise liners. There’s a couple of ships in there that could hold small cities worth of people, and outfitting those would be a massive undertaking, especially when you don’t know where or how far they’re going. How would you provision them? And on the bigger ships, especially when self-driven, they can also function as their own mini-dungeons, facilities to explore in their own right, with potentially a lot of secrets in their bowels.

Then there can be several of various smaller types of vessel. Submarines? Research vessels. Maybe things analogous to coast guard cutters or small military patrol vessels. Each with their own unique challenges and purposes, and thus internal arrangements and uses. Exploring each ship and its secrets can be its own whole set of quests, trying to identify what’s inside them all.

And then. If anyone wants to try activating them. If the PCs want to be sent on an expedition into the complete unknown. Where do these ships go? Some thoughts for that:

Short-range trips. Maybe some of the vessels, like the coast-guard equivalents, have patrol routes. Maybe there are facilities out there in the ocean very close to the Steadfast itself that no one knows about, and these ships can reveal them. Or some of them are automated ferries to relatively nearby areas. Say, in Lostrei? The lands north of the Cloudcrystal Skyfields that the Papacy has just declared a crusade on? You get on a ship and it sails you straight into enemy territory, what do you do? Does it sail you back? What does either your country or the enemy county do with that knowledge? Or maybe the ship sails south, past the Frozen Lands, into the strange polar seas. What do you find down there? Or does it go out to the Rayskel Cays or even other, unknown island chains, and thereby set up those potential trade routes the Sea Kingdom of Ghan wanted?

Long-range trips. What if one of the ships, probably one of the larger ones, is designed to circumnavigate the supercontinent? What if you get on this ship, and it literally circles your world. All that blank empty space on the map that you have no idea about, that in most cases, for an explorer from the Steadfast, you didn’t even know was there? You get on this ship, and maybe you’re never coming back, but you will see wonders before you die. Or there’s the open ocean. There’s all the wonders of the world away from the land. Is this continent the only one? If it is, what’s out there in the vast uninterrupted ocean on the far side of the world? What kind of facilities would the peoples of incredibly technological prior worlds have put out there where there are no people to be hurt? If you have a planet where all the civilian inhabitants are on one half, what do you put on the other?

And then there’s other sorts of trip. A lot of these, if we’re imagining a transport hub facility, would be known routes. The fully automated ships, sailing common routes to nearby or further afield locations. But maybe a couple, one or two, of these ships are not fully automated the same way. Maybe they have more independent AIs or other means of choosing their destinations. Maybe some of them are research vessels. Maybe they’re designed to roam relatively freely, and just examine things. I’m sure if the Redfleet could ID one of those, they’d be delighted to take it over.

I know, this isn’t really a set campaign as such, it’s more of a setting element that I want to throw into the world and then build probably several campaigns around. But. It’d be cool, right? You could gauge what your players are vibing with. Have them pick a faction, the Redfleets or the Aeon Priests or the Sea Kingdom of Ghan. Or independent Ancuani pirates who’ve gotten wind. Do they want to play politics, or roll the dice on potentially vast exploration? Do they want to start small, just figuring out what one of these ships is? Or is it high exploration on an unknown vessel with potentially lethal lurking secrets after a million years without maintenance sailing out on a potentially one-way trip to god knows where? Are you a Redfleet crew bringing several of their own smaller submergines onboard for the finest oceanographic expedition ever mounted? Are you a small group of spies trying to infiltrate this facility on behalf of the Sea Kingdom of Ghan, or the Convergence? Are you a group of Aeon Priests delving into the bowels of the hidden port itself in search of secrets or databases or ship manufacturing facilities? Are you all members of a cult who want to take one of the huge ships and build a seafaring kingdom of your own, like Taracal, out in the wild blue yonder?

IDK, I feel like there’s potential there, for a lot of things. I wouldn’t mind playing around with the idea. Heh. An oceanic Numenera campaign centered on a lost prior world automated ferry terminal.

Numenera: The Gateway Terminal.

#numenera #campaign concept #ttrpgs #discovery #heechee saga #maritime exploration #age of discovery #fun with worldbuilding

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