#the powers don't come with a manual. you would always be wondering what you could and couldn't do and it'd be an awful burden :)

[givehimthemedicine]

I truly don't understand the appeal for b*lers who are rooting for either El to die or Will to get powers like El's. in fact if I wrote for that ship that's exactly the au I'd write, because I love putting characters in the hydraulic angst press. I'd make El die sacrificing herself for Will specifically, give him powers, and put him and Mike together. in that order.

it's very sad about El, but with her and the supernatural stuff gone, Will can sorta pretend these years were a bad dream and he's skipped right to the good ending of old-time normal. he got the boy and can shoot wizard fireballs or whatever. for a while, that's awesome.

but ultimately it's monkey's paw shit. Will is miserable. deep down he worries whether Mike just likes whoever has superpowers. Mike swears that's not it, and it probably isn't, but the timing will always be suspicious. he thinks about faking losing them, but that might just make it worse.

he worries he's just a second-best consolation prize. he worries that Mike never truly chose him over El.

he's plagued by the scenario of El coming back somehow. of Mike honoring his commitment but secretly wishing to be with her instead - because that would be worse, honestly, than Mike just leaving.

at first it's just her name or photo that stir up feelings. but in time, she's haunting him from the corners of book pages, his wristwatch, the ending digits of his first credit card which he seriously considers calling the bank to ask changed.

he does love her, of course he does, but he lacks the luxury of the simple mourning and missing that all their friends gets to feel for her. he lives in guilt about the fact that he feels dread, more than as much as joy, at the concept of El somehow coming back.

the worst part is: he's only 99.989% sure it's not within his new powers to bring her back.

[luvhughes43]

all-american b!tch | hughes!sister

guts masterlist🦋 - luvhughes43 masterlist🌙

summary: hughes!sister dealing with the success of her brothers, online hate, and her feelings of having to be strong all the time.

note: little bit of luca fantilli x reader

word count: 1.9k

and i am built like a mother and a total machine

i feel for your every little issue, i know just what you mean

and i make light of the darkness

i've got sun in my motherfuckin’ pocket, best believe

yeah, you know me

y/n hughes is the kindest girl you’d ever have the pleasure of meeting. as the youngest and only daughter of one of the most iconic hockey families, yn grew up in a turbulent world where she had learned to thrive. she plays the family sport, had to navigate through the hardships of being associated with her brothers, and she would be the first to tell you that her experiences had made her a better person. 

“okay trevor listen,” yn hughes or, as referred to by trevor, tiny tot, leaned in closer to the aforementioned boy. “it's quite simple… ghosting the girl will only make her trust you less. i know the podcasts have said that getting close to a girl then ghosting her will make them fall for you but seriously, that's such a bad idea” 

trevor nodded along to each word, pulling out his phone so he could draft a text to “the girl” in question. “okay so like… what should i say then?”

“hmm” yn loomed over the side of trevor's phone as she watched his fingers drift over the keys. once he had finished, he tilted his screen over to her so she could either approve or deny his message. 

there was a brief pause, “i can't tell if you're joking or not,” yn responds, causing jack to giggle as he paused to read the message over both yn and trevors shoulder. 

“I always wondered why you were better at meeting chicks at bars…” jack chuckles, “they never had to read one of your messages”

“its not that bad!” trevor whines loudly as he attempts to grab his phone back from you. 

you hold the phone away from him, swiftly raising your free hand to stop him from moving any closer towards the phone. “don't worry i can fix this,” you speak smoothly to which jack bursts into another round of giggles. 

“bro you cannot tell a girl that you-”

trevor clamped his hand over jacks mouth, effectively stopping him from reciting the awful text to the room full of their friends. “shush, the master is working” 

you rewriting trevors text was just one of the many things you did for the people you considered family. you would sit with luke for hours, letting him rant to you about his move to NJD back when he was still at michigan with you. you would have weekly recaps with your best friends and teammates about their lives, always making sure to help any of them out if needed. 

forgive and i forget

i know my age, and i act like it

got what you can’t resist

i’m a perfect all-american

despite the positives, you got an overwhelming amount of hate for just… existing. you could be the most perfect person, and people who didn't know you would still come after you online. 

you would never admit to anyone that the hate and harassment bothered you but… it always stung. in the beginning, when you first “came into the public's eye” when you started playing on the umichs womens hockey team you couldn’t avoid the hatred. people from school had started using you for your connections to all the boys you knew, and before you had the time to go private on socials (you’re now public again), you would spend hours reading through hate and manually deleting all the messages. 

ynhughes86 posted 1 year ago

liked by luca.fantilli, lhughes_06, edwards.73, and others

ynhughes86 welcome to the den🐺️🗣

tagged: umichwhockey, teammates,, and more

view all comments

teammate1 GO BLUE🗣🗣

lhughes_06 #goblue

jackhughes andddd everybody screamed!!

jackhughes number lookin fresh

liked by ynhughes86

_quinnhughes 〽️

trevorzegras tiny tot making moves🫡

ynhughes86 youve gotta let that go..

user03 the power of being a hughes💀💀

removed

user82 did daddy and mommy pay ur way in?

removed

user21 not surprised that shes playing for umich… lets be real no other team would take her. shes a hockey nepo baby fr

removed

user44 ??? have u even looked at her stats and plays? shes definitely good lol

user09 shes nowhere near her brothers levels lets be real

removed

user77 looks like she cares more about partying than she does about hockey... surprising.. not!😒🙄

removed

i am light as a feather, i’m fresh as the air

coca-cola bottles that i only use to curl my hair

i got class and integrity

just like a goddamn Kennedy, i swear

with love to spare

after a few months of going through hate comment deep dives, you promised yourself that you wouldn’t let them bother you anymore. In celebration, you made your instagram public again and paid absolutely no attention to any of the hateful people in your comments and dms. 

yhughes86 just posted !

liked by jackhughes, umichwhockey, dylanduke25, and others

ynhughes86 just your average roadie🫡

tagged: teammate5, teammate2, and others

view all comments

ynhughes86 special shoutout to trevorzegras for losing our bet! without u i wouldn’t have been able to do what i do🙏 aka spend money at the mall

liked by trevorzegras

teammate5 we should never be let loose in the mall ever again

ynhughes86 we should never be allowed off the bus

lhughes_06 dub after dub

ynhughes86 oh u know it💯

luca.fantilli is this why you were teaching me about girl math? u were trying to justify your purchases?

ynhughes86 … no comment

user32 using trevors money… wow. so she's a gold digger too?

user91 u guys are so lame let a girl live

ynhughes86 just posted !

liked by teammate, jackhughes, _quinnhughes, and others

ynhughes86 all the love at the banquet tonight

view all comments

teammate1 love uuu my forever girl

ynhughes86 love u more!! u looked so good tonight

luca.fantilli girl in the last pic is kinda cute idk

ynhughes86 kind of? 

luca.fantilli girl in the last pic is very cute im 100% sure of it

ynhughes86 the cute girl in the last pic thinks youre 100% cute too

lhughes_06 the guy in none of the pics thinks you guys are disgusting

user44 no style no game

user81 grow up loser

i’m a perfect all-american bitch

with perfect all-american lips

and perfect all-american hips

i know my place and this is it

ynhughes86 just posted !

liked by luca.fantilli, colecaufield, _quinnhughes, and others

ynhughes86 perfect all-american or whatever olivia rodrigo said

tagged: luca.fantilli

view all comments

trevorzegras that's right no swearing for you tiny tot

ynhughes86 😐

user57 “or whatever olivia rodrigo said” yeah she hates women

user91 thats why she's so close to the guys but u didnt hear that from me!

user16 if u guys dont leave this girl alone…

teammate2 OHH BFF LOOKS SO HOT

teammate3 please marry me

luca.fantilli 🤤🤤

liked by ynhughes86

lhughes_06 nope. 

i don't get angry when i’m pissed

i'm the eternal optimist

i scream inside to deal with it

whenever something bothers you, you keep it in. you hold all of your troubles and worries so deep within you that eventually, they float away and come back to haunt you when you least expect it. you thought that if you ignored all of your problems, that they would somehow fix themselves without any intervention from anyone else. 

it wasn’t always helpful. 

all the time

i’m grateful all the time

i’m sexy and i’m kind

i’m pretty when i cry

“they only ask me about my brothers, lu” your sniffles were quieted by the fabric of lucas sweater as you pressed yourself against his chest. you had played possibly the best game of your career, and the post interview questions were all about your brothers and family. questions wondering about their training and practices and how that had impacted you, how their game influenced yours. it made you feel like you were irrelevant in your own career. 

“i am so grateful for my family and how they’ve helped me grow as a player,” you responded politely to the interviewers' inquiries. it's not like you weren’t grateful. you knew that your family had a huge impact on your skills and you were glad that they were there to help you. but nobody ever wondered what your individual experiences were. all your training had to be a direct reflection of your brothers. your playing style, even unrelated, had to do with your brothers. your wins were a direct result of their greatness. nothing you would ever do or succeed in would be solely yours. 

“i love them,” you sob, “i really do! i just want people to see me” 

lucas' arms tightened around you as he started brushing your hair away from your face. “i know, baby” he whispered into your ear, holding you close as he waited for your breathing to calm down. 

“i just wanna be me!” you slumped against lucas front, who carefully pulled you over to your bed so you could sit down on top of him. 

you could hear the loud pop music blaring from the speakers downstairs, and you listened in silence to the people trudging up and down the stairs as they no doubt looked for a bathroom. 

“have you talked to your brothers about this?” lucas' soft voice cuts into the silence. 

you pull away from him slightly so you could look at him in the eyes. “no…” you admitted quietly. “they wouldn’t understand,” you leaned your head against lucas shoulder as you cuddled into him. 

he hummed quietly to you, a hand running down your back to help further soothe you. “i think you might feel better if you open up to them,” luca hedged. both of you knew that your previous statement was a lie. 

“i don't want them to think of me like that…” 

“like what?” luca questioned, his hand never leaving your back as you continued to prop yourself against him. 

you sighed. “i just… they always come to me. i don't want that to stop or for them to think that im weak” your words were quiet as you finally admitted your true feelings to your boyfriend. 

“they could never think you're weak,” luca murmurs reassuringly. “luke talks all the time about how he thinks you're adjusting to life here better than he did,” you look up at luca inquisitively. “and quinn, he is so proud of you! he talks so highly of you all the time… and jack, i mean come on. they all love and support you so much. they won’t stop asking for advice or talking to you because you're having some troubles” luca explains. “also, there’s nothing wrong with being weak. you should let yourself be open with your brothers just like they are with you. you deserve that”

“have i ever told you that i love you?” you tearfully smile at the boy who was always so good at listening to you.

luca smiles back, “not enough” he jokes as he presses a soft kiss to your cheek. 

you brush a few strands of hair out of his face. “i'll call them tomorrow,” you add, reciprocating luca's kiss on the cheek. 

luca smiles, happy that you're no longer worked up and that you’ll finally tell your brothers your struggles. 

you spend the rest of the night hidden away from the raging party downstairs, wrapped up in your boyfriend's arms as you think about everything you try to hide. you didn’t have to be just one thing. you were allowed to be kind and to have complex emotions. you could be upset and angry without being a mean girl. perfect never existed, and you were glad that you were finally open to letting others see the cracks in your walls. 

lucas’ hair was soft as you ran your hands through his locks. “i love you,” luca mumbles. 

“i love you” you whisper to your boyfriend, placing a kiss on his shoulder as he shifts to lay his head on the middle of your chest. 

you easily fall asleep comforted by the fact that you were allowed to be flawed, and that no matter what, you’ll always have your people by your side.

[hotheadrednecksimmer]

Vault Tec Legacy Challenge

In the Overseer's Office

Jameson: They've been gone for well over a month! What are we going to do?

Saylor: I'm not sure, I'm still adjusting to Alexia's notes and reading through all she wrote over the span of 15 years.

Ben: I'm not sure there's much else to do except keep the Vault running and taking care of the Dwellers.

Jameson: Keep going on like as if they never were apart of the Vault? That's my wife.

Ben: Are you going to leave the Vault and go searching for her and leave your kids without a mom and a dad?

Jameson: That's not fair.

Ben: That would be the only option other than to keep on living, Jameson.

Jameson: You've got a lot of nerve to get smart with me.

Saylor: That's enough from both of you.

Ben and Jameson stare at each other with sour faces.

Saylor: Unfortunately, there is not a lot of options for us to do other than to keep on living. I don't want to send anyone else out in the Wasteland and potentially lose them too.

Jameson: So, are we just assuming that Ellis and ... *Jameson pauses looking at the ground* Alexia ... are ... are dead?

Ben: I don't think that we necessarily have to assume that they're dead, just not here.

Saylor shifts in her chair: We have other issues. I'm hesitant to even say this but according to what I've read from Al's notes, the generator that powers the Vault has never ran more than 50% capacity. The power flickers are getting worse. The two people that were engineers and knew how to fix it left.

Ben: I could start doing research and possibly find a manual about how the generator works?

Saylor: I couldn't find one. I've already looked.

Jameson: Al always kept that kinda stuff in her terminal.

Saylor: I'm still going through her notes, maybe I'll find something soon.

Jameson: If you find something or hear something from Al and Ellis, let me know. I'm gonna go find Mabel and Bellamy.

Saylor: Will do.

Saylor and Ben move to the couch in the Overseer Office.

Saylor: I'm sure they are still alive and still searching for things to help the Vault and Kenzie. I can't imagine that they would come back empty handed.

Ben: Knowing Alexia, she's stubborn as hell and determined.

Saylor: She's going to come back and be okay. I have to believe that.

Ben: Is it true about the generator?

Saylor: Yeah, it's true. No wonder Al was so stressed out. I didn't realize how much she had on her plate. As I go through her notes, it just keeps piling on with responsibilities and more things breaking. She installed a water filtration system herself a couple years ago because the water was only filled halfway.

Ben: It lost that much water within 10 years of us living in the Vault?

Saylor: Yeah, it's not a very good system. Al really did improve it. I don't know what we're going to do without her.

Ben: We'll manage and hope for the best. That's all we can do, right?

Saylor: She can't be dead. She's my best friend, I can't do this without her.

Ben: She's going to come back, she's going to be okay, honey. She's too stubborn to die out there in the Wasteland. She'll survive out of spite, surely.

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ First | Previous | Next

╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Updated Character List

[land-of-holly]

Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 7 Liveblog

I heard we would have less Numenor in this episode. I feel like they're already doing more characterization spots than actual plot advancement, though that may be because I already know where the plot is going so it doesn't FEEL like advancement

Maybe more Arondir tho? Pls?? I miss him

I think we may be doubling down on the implication that the nine's mithril is actually Sauron's own blood. Isn't visual storytelling fun?

The fall of Ost-in-Edhil, as promised

Poor Tyelpe...

Somebody who knows more about metalcraft tell me how he is doing all of this hilariously wrong

Hello Mr. Mouse! He looks very polite, you should let him stay

THAT'S CREEPY PUT HIS REFLECTION BACK THE WAY IT WAS ANNATAR

Tyelpe unfortunately Annatar is going to have to ask for crunch time from you to cover for his own poor scheduling ability

Always love how media siege weaponry use seems to have no other strategy than modern artillery, ie keep hitting until you obliterate the entire fucking thing

Oh now he's "saving" them from their lord's neglect. Asshole.

DISNEY'S MULAN WAS NOT A TACTICAL MANUAL JFC ROCKS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY

That's the kind of thing you accomplish with WELL PLACED DYNAMITE

Arondir! Where did you come from?

(Seriously this show has no respect for time or distance)

I do appreciate every ring having its proper gem.

Warn him, Mr. Mouse!

T_T he's trying to find reality!

Time is money, Narvi! We need to cook dig!

Yayyyyy! Narvi!

Elf? Elf?

ELROND HOW DID YOU GET HERE

Honestly if he's not also here to defy his king I'm starting to wonder why

Nope it's not my audio, the drumbeats are actually not visually in synch with the soundtrack. What the hell, guys?

Elf! Extras! With bows!

Oh no is the mouse in a time loop?

Is Sauron's reach finally exceeding his grasp?

So it's on to strategy number 2, admit that he did it but pretend like it's all fine

"This is hardly a gift" nnnggggggg

We're in trailer territory fam

Lol it's all falling apart

This is absolutely the kind of thing I would expect to see in a good Silvergifting fic, and I mean that as the highest praise. The manipulation! The betrayal!

It's the black goop!

Noooo RIP Tyelpe

Gotta say, roughed up and bleeding looks reeeeally good on Charles Edwards

Come ON Mirdania, I know he comes off a little weird but you don't trust that fucker either!

Unfortunately Tyelpe is a little too harried to remember that blood color is literally THE easiest tell to hide with illusion magic

ANNATAR WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

wow i'm so glad i'm watching this at 7 am

JUSTICE FOR MIRDANIA

It's threats now

Tyelpe please tell me Feanor taught you about decision theory, you CANNOT respond to threats, that just leads to more threats!

Three armies?

ELF EXTRAS

WAR ELROND

Fine, fine, show off the Orc makeup

Ignore her, Elrond, she brought this on herself

Is Adar actually magicing away the sun and making shade just for his children? They do a lot with light in this show but that was a little heavy handed

STOP TALKING ABOUT HIS BEAUTY LEAVE HIM ALONE

Invoking Melian's wisdom is a really low blow. Everything could have gone so much better if anyone ever listened to her.

Elrond knows how to hit back where it hurts! How much do these guys really matter to you, Adar

ELROND IS A MASTER NEGOTIATOR!

Ew. This is some Twilight shit. He goddamn well better have had that ring in his mouth.

Because you always go into a negotiation with confidence, Vorohil!

That helmet needs like a chin strap, but I know those aren't sexy. Letting him have the helmet on at all is a huge ask for most of Hollywood

Durin Jr is a great leader!

Do not make your horse do that wtf

More surprise sinkholes

See??? He can't steal your helmet and show us all your pretty pretty face if you had it strapped on!

Elrond that was kinda cruel, take a deep breath dude

Battle battle fight fight

Now were seeing some tactical macinery use

You are gunning for a patricide my dude

She cannot be caged!

Time for Galadriel to grow an empathy??

I'm still not sure if Galadriel speaks Black Speech. I would assume so, it's useful

Arondir! Where have you been?

So she does know how to motivate people in a positive way

Narvi!!

Unfortunately Middle-earth works on narrativium, not statistics

Someone take away Sauron's literal Christian bible, please

Always focused on the end. Analysts are gonna have a field day with this

Opening up about the torture? I HAVE READ THIS FANFIC I STG.

THAT IS NOT A COMPLAINT

Literally some DARVO shit

THROW IT INTO THE FIRE

unfortunately I think that will not work

they're not even hot

come on Tyelpe you know there's only one way out of this shackle how many times did you see the aftermath lets go LETS GO

dear movie THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

oh no the artillery just has it out for poor tyelpe

I am Appreciating Galadriel declaring Celebrimbor Lord of Eregion

I can accept replacement of escape with the Three by escape with the Nine. They set it up well enough, and the emotional thrust remains

Of course the difference is this plan is doomed

Okay but have these guys accepted that they are dumb as fuck and eminently susceptible to Sauron's manipulation?

Acceptable last words by poor Tyelpe

Rian MVP!

Damrod? Damrod??

You think a few swords can stop this guy?

See? Dumb as fuck, and very manipulable.

And now the torture, I assume

I never know what language these elves are going to be speaking when they open their mouths, it's great

Killing a hill troll is a group effort

War Gil-galad??

Glug is looking more and more treasony

Dwarves? No dwarves?

AEGLOS LETS GO

arondir no

you can't kill him girl your diversity

don't try to out loremaster elrond that's mean

hey that doesn't belong to you

put that back

WOW I didn't think it was possible for a show so overproduced to simply have a bad first season but they are really showing improvement in the second IMO! Can't wait for the finale!

[coolbeesbro]

You know I always like the idea that in the cult of the Lamb universe have weather gods that control the weather but in some lands they need a little bit of help cleaning or preparing things up for a new season

Like helping knocking down leaves for the fall and winter, helping break the ice and cleaning up the snow for spring and summer.

Just imagine former bishops and god of death having to help out without the use of their own powers that they don't have anymore, like they want to help but they don't know how to do it manually

But if they do exist I wonder what animals they would be, the only idea I have is that the god of spring is a deer and the god of winter is also dear and their siblings

That's a cool idea! The idea of a weather god could *technically* be canon when you consider the fact that there use to be hundreds of them before it was whittled down to the five remaining of the old faith a hell of a long time ago in game universe. They could also just be associated with specific weather conditions. Like monsoons, hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, etc.

I could see the god of autumn as either a cat, crow or turkey since they have a pretty close association with the season. And summer could be a cicada since they come out during the summer (I can't think of summer without hearing the loud droning/buzzing sound they make when it gets super hot out). And potentially if you want to mix up spring so you have something differing from winter, you could go with a rabbit, monarch butterfly or a bird?

I do also recognize that my thoughts and ideas are from an American pov so seasons are probably associated with different animals and stuff in other places around the world which could work as well.

[moonfeatherblue]

Here's the notes from our lovely brainstorming stream so all the wonderful MacGuffins don't need to trawl through the VOD to write their incredible gas-phase-state-telekinesis-related stories ~

I haven't tried to tidy them up, so they're a mess, but they're exactly what we finished with. So very much looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! Remember, use #MacGuffinsUwrite to share your work here on Tumblr or over on Twitter to make sure I can find it to read out on March 16 (or another nearby date if for whatever reason the 16th doesn't work out) ~

Brainstorming

“Gas Phase State Telekinesis”

Random Thoughts

Oh no, so many hyped-up electrons

If you think cats are hard to herd, wait till you try sub-atomic particles

Air-bending/Wind Elemental Magic – except applies to all gases, not just air

Same level of control as air-bending/wind elemental magic, or does gas phase state telekinesis have to be more concise, more subtle, etc?

Could the soul be considered a gas (if that’s true, there are many, MANY potential evil applications)

The word ‘chemistry’ is derived from the word ‘alchemy’, borrowed from Arabic, ‘al’ being Arabic ‘the’ – symbolism??

Silly/Cute/Annoying Uses – Various Shenanigans

Moving the gas particles of unpleasant body odours to other individuals to pass the blame…

Mess with barometers (very annoying to meteorologists)

Mess with various other instruments of measurement

Show off making miniature tornados

Turn neon signs on and off

Push someone’s sneeze back up their nose…

Have fun with helium (surreptitiously get in people’s systems and bask in the rising voice)

Creating gas light shows

Choreograph kite displays

Keep knocking the wind out of someone’s kite…

Make a laser pointer?

Make own bubble of ideal air pressure/weather/etc

How Could This Work

Mind can generate wells of low/high pressure to push/push gases, gathering and moving, like weather patterns – less controlling the gas and more creating force to move the gas?

Does the mind affect individual gas molecules? Very difficult because so spaced out and they’re moving so fast

Can you pick out and differentiate between different gases in the same area and affect only one type?

Can you control what the gas is by controlling/changing its elements/atoms in its molecules e.g. creating water by combining hydrogen and oxygen

Mix and match atoms to create the gases you want?

Innate understanding/sensing of air pressure?

Could plasma be considered a gas?

Difficulties/Limitations

Seeing/senses/finding gases to control (besides oxygen/all the gases that make up our atmosphere) – how to wrap your mind around them

Is there a way to learn how to sense different gases – e.g., smell; colors

How much can they move/what’s their gas load limit/how specifically can they grab, e.g. individual molecules

Are some telekinetic people naturally more gifted? Can they train to improve their limits?

A gift that requires A LOT of discipline to be able to do anything – lots of gas telekinetic people who are never discovered/can’t ever do anything because they don’t have the discipline

Can you control the speed of the gas – those who are very good could probably move as fast/slow as they like, but those less skilled are more cumbersome

Can only people with gaseous telekinesis use products made with/requiring gas telekinesis, or is there some way to imbue the telekinetic power in the items/make the gases stay in place?

HOW TO IMBUE WITH THESE POWERS/MAKE IT SO THEY DON’T DISPERSE OR DISAPPEAR

Everyday Applications

Official flag blower – so flags always flapping majestically

Filling sailboat sails, etc

Lifting flying machines before mechanical planes existed; flight would have been around a lot sooner;

Official gas checker

Applications with windmills, turbines, etc – electricity production

Gas works – can transport gas without containers; can easily load containers

Manual control of gas stoves

Using gases as a mode of measurement

Firefighting – can remove noxious fumes; can suck oxygen from a space so there’s no oxygen to burn (must be sure the space is empty)

Medicine – doctors, nurses, pharmacists; improved resuscitation

Sensing high oncotic pressure, finding lung punctures, etc

Applications in alleviating the symptoms of asthma

Operation of various medical scanners that use e.g. helium

Can this be used to circumvent certain diseases; is there a way to safely grab the air around viruses, etc, in the body and pull them out without depriving the body of oxygen?

Chiropracting – popping joint gas

Gardening applications – help regulate plants; create perfect atmosphere for plants in greenhouse

Applications in perfumery – the gaseous state of perfume is what gives it its aroma; also other fields of smell

Applications in natural gas mining

Radon – control radon to treat cancer, etc

Make your own water when thirsty

Everyday alchemy – could we make gold from anything by messing with elements while gaseous and then letting them reach solid state?

Blind uses of gaseous telekinesis could use their abilities to sense the world around them

Gas merchant – can sell concoctions; perfumes and poisons and new elements…

Lamp selling

Using self-made helium to make things float – childcare applications?? Keeping kids entertained; venturing into the realms of normal telekinesis

Demolitions expert – safe controlled explosions

Applications with sound – diminishing sound, making it louder, etc; if we’re messing with gases, it could affect sound; knock people out with sound? Break glass with sound – amplify a normal volume enough to break things?

Play an ENTIRE WIND ORCHESTRA

Projectile guidance – messing with air resistance, etc, ensuring projectiles hit their targets

Making gases denser or lighter

Criminal Applications

Waft gases into spaces to knock people out and clear the way for crime

Explosions extraordinaire – blow up anything you need at any time; need to carry what you need; be able to store in whatever size containers you need

Suck the air out of lungs

Moving other gases in the body to cause problems

Create air bubbles in blood

Give someone the bends

Get-away driver with hot-air balloon (probably too silly…)

Pop eardrums

Subtle poisonings

Radon – control to cause radiation poisoning

Nuclear bombs (please no more detail)

Make a vacuum and explode a person due to differences in pressure

HOLD AN ENTIRE PLANET HOSTAGE by threatening to deprive of oxygen

Make a person breathe pure nitrogen so they don’t notice they’re asphyxiating and they’ll simply pass away after a few minutes

Arson

BIG Applications

Affect the ozone layer (for good or evil)

Affect the weather – cyclones/hurricanes/typhoons; tornados

Reduce effects of wind-based natural disasters?? Could that kill you??

Reduce some effects of wildfires

Carry own oxygen supply into space, keep it around you, wrap with ozone to survive the void of space; possibly extend to others; huge applications for distant space travel; require many different things working in synchrony, creating atmosphere with enough pressure (so we don’t explode…), correct mixture of gases to allow natural breathing; need to continually produce ozone; lots of training involved, one of the most highly-skilled jobs in existence; lots of young gas telekinetic people dreaming of doing such a cool job

Grab the air around airborne viruses/bacteria to move away/towards populated areas (for good and evil); use in war scenarios, pandemic scenarios

Help end world hunger by creating perfect atmosphere for growing crops

Can capture radiation and store somewhere safe/send it out into space

Help solve water shortages

CREATE MORE OF GASES NEEDED IN THE WORLD AND/OR CREATE NEW GASEOUS ELEMENTS

Pollution control – boost gas containment; bubble and send into space; is there a way to change the bad gas into good gas?

Rescuing planes, etc, that are falling

Terraforming inhospitable planets to make the air breathable

High-Fantasy Quest-y Uses

Transportation – controlling a hot-air balloon

Equivalent of air-bending/wind elemental magic

Uses various gases as weapons – physical or chemical

Carry bottles of gaseous poisons and attack using the fumes

Control dragon breath – make a dragon swallow its own breath

Combine gases with other magical properties e.g. pixie dust

Are there certain smells that can dispel evil spirits, dangerous magical creatures?

ALCHEMY

Projectile guidance – messing with air resistance, etc, ensuring projectiles hit their targets – our archer would never miss

 

New Industries??

Making hoverboards, etc

Personal heaters/coolers

Controlling giant mechanical steampunk-style suit??

Floating platforms – revolutionise city designs

Superhero/Supervillain Uses

Create uplifts of oxygen to slow/prevent people from falling

Flight?

Affecting air pressure (what are the uses for affecting air pressure)

Clearing noxious fumes

Light generation

Use of gases to distract enemies

Use of gases for battle support/medic uses

Uses gases to help circumvent obstacles e.g. moving helium under an object so it floats

Uses gases to make things float (let’s make our own helium)

Exploding people

Making explosions

Projectile guidance – messing with air resistance, etc, ensuring projectiles hit their targets – perfect aim

[alias-sam]

Pierced by a Golden Soul

Chapter 9. Punching Can't Solve Every Problem

Platonic Jojo's x Reader

Summary: Fate is a bizarre concept with countless more bizarre implications. In life sometimes such extraordinary events happen that the only reasoning left must be fate. The tragedies that constantly befall the Joestar bloodline for example may be the unluckiest series of cards drawn in human history, or perhaps the work of a greater power. There is no way to tell for sure. Had Dio Brando or Jonathan Joestar moved slightly on a divergent path the world itself would be left very different. The fate or luck of the noble Joestar bloodline has led to destruction of evil likes of the Pillar Men and DIO. This story is of a similar caliber to that of the other Joestars (as I am sure you are familiar with them). This is a story of lost souls, compassion, hope, and above all fate.

Word Count: 1,610

(Crosspost from Wattpad, full fic is already posted there.)

You shut your bedroom door before flopping onto your bed and burying your face in a pillow.

"Why do I keep doing this to myself?" You groaned. It was like you couldn't stop getting involved in things that were bound to be trouble. Learco couldn't hear what you said and stood aside as you had your mini mental breakdown.

"So...are you gunna keep moping? Or are you going to help me?"

You stayed in bed for another second before getting up.

"Yeah." You sighed. "I just didn't want to be using my stand out in the open." You said, summoning Golden Soul, reeling back, and having it punch him.

"Ow!" Learco yelled as he was sent flying backwards through a wall. Much to your dismay and disappointment he came floating back. If looks could kill, you'd be dead three times over. "What the hell was that for?!" You looked between Learco and your stand.

"I'm really sorry about that! In my defense: I really thought it would work."

"What?" Learco growled.

"I don't know! I thought since I punched you to activate the ability, I could punch you again to deactivate it or something!" Now that you were saying it aloud you realized the flaws in your logic.

"Do you understand how STUPID that is?!" Learco yelled, his right eye twitching wildly. In that moment you were glad to be the only one who could sense him.

"Shut up! I don't know about you, but my stand didn't come with an instruction manual! Besides, your stand is just a piece of overgrown farm equipment!"

"I-" Learco stared at you flabbergasted, but snapped back to the problem at hand. "You seriously thought punching me would solve the problem!?"

"You haven't given me many clues to work with! I can always just leave you like this if you want to keep complaining!" There was something about this guy that just ticked you off. You were pretty sure the feeling was mutual.

"You are insufferable."

"Right back at ya." You collapsed back into your bed as you tried to think of something else. Learco looked no worse for wear for a guy who just got decked. "Did that even hurt?"

"A little bit. I'm mostly numb though." Learco was examining your bookshelf and the other trinkets scattered around your room, pretty similar to the way Golden Soul liked to. He moved to pick up a book on your shelf but growled in irritation when his hand phased right through it. "Your stand is the only thing I've been able to feel since you did this to me."

"Now that I'm thinking about it..." You trailed off as you aimlessly looked up at the ceiling. "What happened to your body? I distinctly remember leaving you in the alley."

"Oh right. Thanks for that." Learco said sarcastically and glared in your direction. "I was taken to Saint Rosewater General Hospital. That's where I stayed before looking for you. The doctors think I'm in a coma or something."

"Interesting...I wonder if deactivating my ability would work if I was closer to your body?" While you sat in deep thought about your stand ability, Learco poked around your room some more.

"What the hell happened over here?" You sat up to see what he was talking about. Learco was floating above the pile of glass, he had come across your broken window.

"Some guy attacked me with his stand last night." You sighed, immediately falling back onto your bed.

"You don't seem all that shaken up by it." Learco observed your listless demeanor.

"Oh no." You closed your eyes even though you were desperately fighting off sleep. "I've been anxious about it all day, but if I focus on it for too long the existential dread will kick in." The bullet that was shot at you was mere inches from hitting your heart directly. The fact you had been so close to death had stricken you with a sense of impending terror. You felt eyes on you all day, someone or something was keeping tabs on you, it was just a matter of time until you figured out who or what.

"What was the stand?"

"Some sort of toy-"

"Y/n?" Senora Jones knocked on your door and entered, despite your lack of consent. She looked around your room in confusion. "Who are you talking to?"

"Nobody!" You shot up from your bed. "I was talking to myself."

"If you say so.... I came to tell you dinner is ready sweety." Nervously, you glanced at Learco as your mother walked through him. She placed a hand on your forehead. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes! I'm fine." You responded just a little too fast. Despite the fact your mother couldn't see Learco, it felt like being caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Senora Jones looked you over with concern and an air of skepticism. Learco floated over to you.

"I'll go for now." He whispered. "If I find out anything new, I'll come to you." He then floated through your wall and out of sight.

"Y/n? What in the world are you looking at?" Your mother waved a hand in front of your face.

"Noth-"

"Don't you dare say nothing. What has gotten into you recently? Is it drugs! Please don't tell me its drugs!" Your mother asked frantically, but you had a feeling she was joking.

"What? No!" If anything, you would've preferred the explanation be drugs. "I just thought I saw a...uh...bug." You lied.

"I guess that makes sense given your window is in smithereens." Senora Jones stared you down with the intensity that only a parent could. Your blood ran deathly cold.

"Y-you noticed?" You asked sheepishly.

"Y/n do I look like I'm blind?"

"No ma'm." You kept your eyes on the floor, shame evident on your face.

"I'm not mad." Your mother's stony expression quickly softened. She could never be mad at you for long. That was the kind of guardian she was, firm when it was needed, but supportive and understanding no matter what.

"Just disappointed I didn't say anything?" You finished her thought with a nervous smile.

"Bingo." Your mother laughed, placing a hand on your head, lightly smoothing out your hair. "We'll get this fixed, but I'm making you work a few of my worker's shifts in order to pay for it." She looked at the mess on your floor. "Should I even ask what happened?"

"It was an accident. You know how clumsy I can be." You deflected, Senora Jones sighed and started leaving the room.

"I'll help you take care of the glass later. Get cleaned up. I made risotto al nero di sepia for dinner." You smiled to yourself as Senora Jones left the room. There was a lightness in your mood that hadn't been there in a while. Somehow amongst all the stress of what was going on your mother unintentionally found a way to lessen the twisting sensation in your chest.

"Thanks mom."

..........................................................................................

After finally making it to the kitchen Senora Jones handed you a plate.

"So, how has school been?"

"I-interesting..." You stuttered, busying yourself with plating your half of the meal.

"I've noticed you walking with that girl from the other day." Your mother smiled. "What was her name again? Jaya, right? Are you two getting along?"

"I'd like to think so." You said, subconsciously running your fingers over where the bullet wound was before Jaya healed it. "She's nice." A ghost of a smile crossed your face.

"That's lovely." Senora Jones smiled, having noticed the small ways you'd changed your daily routine so you could meet with Jaya early in the morning.

The lights flickered once, you and your mother stopped where you were. Again, the lights flickered, but longer this time. Curious, you set aside your plate and approached a nearby window. Outside you could see other buildings were also going dark.

"What in the world is going on?" You muttered as you looked out on the town's lighting malfunction.

..............................................................................

Tim leaned against a light pole breathing heavily.

"W-what.... what is going on!" He placed a hand over where a gaping puncture wound once was. The pain was starting to slowly ebb away. The lamppost above him went out as a glitching aura surrounded him. "W-what the hell i-is happening to me!" He screamed, causing every streetlight in the surrounding area to flicker. Tim flinched when the glitching around him brightened. It all faded to reveal something had appeared in front of him.

It was a massive mess of colorful wires and cords, all tangled and spreading out along the sidewalk, slithering around wildly, struggling to support a large box television screen. The screen swiveled around in an unbalanced and clumsy fashion. Its wires extended as far as they could away from where they were connected to the base of the tv screen.

Tim backed away from the strange...thing? It moved like it was alive, but each part wiggled and zagged in its own direction. It didn't look like any kind of creature Tim had seen before. It looked almost like it was transparent at certain angles. Tim took another step back. This time the thing noticed. It quickly felt across the ground with its wires and cords, clumsily ambling to where Tim stood, wrapping itself tightly around his leg. In a panic, Tim wished the thing would disappear. Just as the though occurred to him, the thing was gone with a glitchy flash.

Tim looked around frantically for where it went. Intrigued, Tim willed the thing to come back. Much to his surprise, it did reappear. The thing started climbing the light pole, Tim watched as it reached the top it plugged its wires and cables into the light. In just a moment the lights around him started flickering again, but more erratically. Tim smiled up in wonder at the thing he was apparently controlling.

"I can work with this."

[roll4hari]

"I need you to peel 50 potatoes"

It was your first time cooking for the brothers. Though you were intimidated by all the new devildom food that would usually be considered predators in the human realm, you were determined to adapt to the exchange program. You had to eat for the year after all.

You head to the kitchen, where Lucifer holds out an apron for you with the words "best big bro"—no doubt his—but he couldn't be sure how messy the new human was. You await the first instruction, ready to cook a meal for seven people.

"Where do you want me boss!" You say, hands on your hips as the firstborn gives you an unimpressed look, ignoring the small feeling of pride at being referred to as "boss". At least the human knew their place.

"I need you to peel 50 potatoes." He says, getting to work on the meat for the rest of the dish.

"Excuse me? Like for the month or something? Are we meal prepping?" You ask incredulously, looking at the pile of potatoes that nearly reached your waist and the comically small peeler he handed you.

"Meal prepping? With Beelzebub? You jest. Now get to work unless you want to be eaten." Lucifer deadpans, no amount of 'jest' in his own voice. You thought you were making dinner not starting a soup kitchen.

You start to peel the potatoes, your arm getting sore after about 10, which was about 8 more than you've ever done in your life. Lucifer looks back at you with a giant cauldron of stew already halfway ready, while you were still only a fifth of the way through with your one task.

"Diavolo below, I gave you one task." He rolls his eyes before snatching the tiny peeler from you and peeling the potatoes at inhuman speeds. In fact demonic speeds because what took you half an hour to do, he did in seconds. He tosses the potatoes in and hands you the giant ladle and asks you to stir. You briefly consider throwing yourself in the pot and ending your misery but you remember you would just come right back to the devildom after you died and would have to continue seasoning like nothing happened.

You hear a blood-curdling scream as Lucifer drops something into the stew and you look up at the unbothered demon in horror, wondering if you were just imagining the screams of the damned.

"Its Mandrake. For flavour." He explains as if you had never seasoned food in your life.

He leaves the stew to simmer as you stir and you quickly felt like a a prisoner of war, rowing in the galley of a ship as Lucifer aesthetically cooked some rice like a domestic little housewife.

By the time dinner was ready, you crawled out of the kitchen looking like you just completed a marathon, carrying all seven brothers on your back. You collapse into your seat while everyone digs in.

"Could use some salt," Satan muses and you fight the urge to strangle him - not that you would win by any means against the avatar of wrath but you would go down with dignity.

"The human made this? Oi! I'm their damn guardian. I don't wanna see any of you touching the food they made for ME!" Mammon declares though you barely did anything worthwhile in the kitchen and there would be no way he would be able to finish more than a plate anyway. You were already full from one serving.

You couldn't deny it was good though. Whether it was the power of love or the ingredients that would kill you given the chance, the food was filling and comforting and almost worth the manual labour that you considered ending your life over.

You look over at all the boys, either bickering or rambling as no one listened but eating nonetheless. Levi and Mammon taking bites between putting each other in chokeholds, Satan eating quietly while reading, occasionally piping up with a snarky comment aimed at the firstborn, Lucifer who ate between the ignored lecture to his brothers and Asmo who delicately ate bites between taking pictures for his devilgram.

You then look over at Beelzebub

The avatar of gluttony who somehow always has food on him was eating with the same inhuman speed and vigor that the food was cooked with. You watched in fascination and slight horror as he practically unhinged his jaw to inhale plate after plate of stew. You didn't doubt that he would eat you too if you were close enough. You quickly understand why you had helped make enough food fit for an army.

That guy was a fucking tank.

[lowkeyerror]

I Know You

Diana Prince x Reader

Word Count: 1.2k

Warning: None

Summary: You're pretty sure your best friend is Wonder Woman, so you confront her.

Masterlist

There were things in life you didn't often question. Why do people put blueberries in their pancakes? What kind of person takes lactose intolerance seriously? Would aliens even care about human life?

Those were things you let the universe handle. However, there was one single question that circled endlessly around your mind.

Was Diana Prince Wonder Woman?

Diana was a friend of yours. A friend that you wanted to be more than friends with. A woman that was the epitome of perfection. She had the brains, the beauty, and the confidence.

Yet it seemed that Diana didn't have many other friends. She kept you close, but still at arm's length away from her. It was as if she was trying to protect you from herself.

There might have been a more logical reason as to why things were that way, but you did not come up with it. You had seen Wonder Woman in the press and even up close in person.

The resemblance between her and Diana was uncanny. It was so startling that the first time you saw Wonder Woman, you had actually called her Diana. To your surprise, she looked at you and then continued her fight.

There wasn't a manual about confronting your possibly super powered friends. If there was, you would've found it by now.

You invited Diana over for dinner, which she gladly accepted. Acting normal was harder than you thought. Every nerve in your body is on edge.

" Y/n, is everything alright," she asks as the two of you sit on the couch.

The thought blurts out of your mouth without filter," Are you Wonder Woman?"

Diana's eyes widen as she sputters to answer. You cut her off before she speaks," What is this reaction? This is not a regular reaction."

Diana tries to cover it up," Well, that's not a regular question."

You scoff, "Not if you're actually her. I mean, anyone else would've looked at me like I was crazy, but you… you looked exposed."

" The questions caught me off guard. One second we're sitting on the couch and the next you're accusing me of being Wonder Woman."

You point at her," Which you still haven't denied."

Her efforts at playing coy only make you more suspicious," Of course I'm not Wonder Woman."

" You don't sound too sure. Let me borrow the lasso of truth to see if you're honest or not."

For a second, you can see the thoughts zooming through her head. She looked as though she was going to actually present you with the lasso of truth.

You stand, "Ah ha! I saw that. You were reaching for the lasso because you have it."

Diana shifts in her spot," Y/n I am not Wonder Woman and you know that. Come on, you know me."

" I do know you, but there are things you keep from me. Things that you are extremely guarded about. Like for example, your love life."

This causes Diana to blush," My love life? I'm not seeing anyone."

" Exactly, Diana! That doesn't make any sense. You looked like you were carved by the gods themselves. Your vast knowledge of literally almost anything is beyond impressive. The compassion you have for even the shittiest people is only something I can describe as hero-like. You're telling me no one wants to date you?"

By the end of your spiel, Diana blush has spread over nearly her entire face," Did you ever think about me not wanting to date anyone?"

You nod," I did, and the reason you don't want to date anyone is because you're Wonder Woman. That could put them in danger, and you'd never forgive yourself if anything happened to them."

Diana sits back on the couch a bit and closes her eyes," If that was the case, would it be so wrong."

You sit back down next to her," If that were the case, I think it would be unfair to yourself."

" Why?"

Your hand slips into hers," Because Diana, you deserve to be loved."

She speaks softly as her thumb traced the back of your hand," I can't keep anything from you, can I? You're always figuring me out."

Now it was you blushing at the tone of her voice, "Is that a bad thing?"

" No, but how did you even find out?"

You laugh lightly," For one, l you look just like her. The second thing is that Wonder Woman looked at me when I called her Diana."

Diana facepalmed," I knew it, if it wasn't, you calling I wouldn't have even looked."

Though it was your theory, you were still pretty stunned," I can't believe you're her. Diana you're amazing."

" You flatter me too much."

You shake your head," I don't think I've done it nearly enough."

The way your eyes were focused on her made Diana want to melt. The adoration you had for the woman next to you was captured in your stare.

" You want to see the lasso?"

" Of course I want to see the lasso," you clap your hands together.

The lasso glows as she removes it from its hiding place. You reach out to touch it and gasp when Diana wraps the rope lightly around your wrist.

" Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

The hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you nod your head. Diana smiles at your obedience.

" Would you ever tell anyone that I am Wonder Woman?"

" No," it leaves from your mouth without your permission. You look down at the rope, in disbelief.

Diana chuckles at your amusement," It compels you to tell the truth, if you're ready or not. Does my power scare you?"

" No, it's intriguing," you feel your skin heat at the admission.

Diana looks into your eyes, bottom lip between her teeth," Why do you always look at me like that?"

Your eyes widen, and you wish you had been free of the rope," Because you are the most fascinating person I've ever met, and it would've been utterly impossible for me to not have fallen in love with you."

Your hands fly over your mouth. The rope hangs loosely around your forearm, nearly forgotten.

" I didn't mean to say that," you mumbled into your hands.

Diana was cautious as she reached for both of your hands, holding them in hers. The warmth of her hands felt welcoming in your cold ones.

" Y/n, you mean more to me than anyone has in centuries. I would love nothing more than to call you mine… but I must warn you. Whether I like it or not, I have to be a hero first. I'd like to always be here for you, and I'll try my damnedest, but I can't make you that promise. If you don't want this, I understand, but if you will have me, I can promise you my eternal love."

You caught the most powerful woman in the world by surprise as you yanked her into you. Your lips pressing against hers in a needy fashion. Her hands squeezed your waistline as yours circled behind her neck.

When the kiss broke, your foreheads were pressed together. You pecked her lips again, enjoying the weight of her on top of you.

" I will have you as long as you allow me to."

Her eyes were pure as they peered into yours. Diana's hand caressed your face," You are my person."

You melted under her gaze, holding her close as possible. You were prepared for whatever trials and tribulations you had to go through. As long as you had Diana, you knew the tough times would pass.

[spockandawe]

Another Ianthe thought! It's idly bothered me since reading Nona the Ninth that she would so willingly board the immortality train without Coronabeth. Not in a this-is-bad-writing way, but like I'm missing a little puzzle piece. If Ianthe actually wanted to escape Coronabeth, it would make sense, but if the codependence cuts both ways, then I was missing something critical. But that post about whether Ianthe modded Corona to be extra extra beautiful has stuck with me, and it shook something loose.

Now I'm wondering if Ianthe wasn't planning to be immortal alone, and instead she was planning to manually drag Corona along for the ride as well. All the other necromancer/cavalier pairs we see, it's a massive emotional deal to consume someone you were so close to, we get hints that Augustine and Mercymorn were trapped into it via suicide pact, it's so strange that Ianthe was so much more READY than any of the other necromancers to eat her cavalier.

And you know how this idea does make sense? It makes sense if Ianthe was already willing to do the work of two powerful necromancers to keep Coronabeth with her as they were growing up. Clearly Ianthe could have been terrifyingly competent on her own and only slightly less Aesthetic, and it would have just taken one instance of leaving Corona hanging out to dry and outing her as a non-necromancer, and instead, they kept up the act even to the point of arguing their way into the first house together.

Corona is crying as she asks why Ianthe didn't eat her, and I was with her at first, my best guess for why Ianthe was so eager to bail was resentment (and I still think that's an ingredient in the codependence soup, just not the key one here). But I'm forgetting someone! Yes, he comes in last place in that three-way dynamic, as well as the third house narrative, in a way that is fascinating to me, but the two of them are as intimately tied to Naberius as any necromancer is tied to their cavalier. More than most, arguably, Judith is pretty harsh on the cradle cavalier dynamic the third house apparently leans into, and he's been helping all along to hide that Corona isn't a necromancer.

I've fairly well convinced myself at this point that Ianthe was so ready to devour Naberius not just for the sake of ambition (though, again, I think that is an element). But once she's solved the mystery of lyctorhood, then she's confirmed for herself that Teacher was right, there's no path forward for both of them... as lyctors. I would have expected anyone else in the cast to agonize much harder over killing their cavalier, so does that mean Ianthe and Naberius don't have that particular relationship? No, I don't think that's it, I think they are attached in an alarmingly intense way (her guest to her birthdays was always who would annoy him the most), just like a typical necromancer and cavalier. It's just that this degree of attachment is dwarfed by how much Ianthe and Corona revolve around each other. What's really key is her ability to keep Coronabeth intact, and like, sure, it would be nice to keep Babs with them in SOME capacity, but there's a clear priority order here, and eating him means he's still technically around.

In summary, Ianthe became a lyctor without Coronabeth because she intended to bring her sister along manually if necessary. Consuming Babs is an incredibly easy decision if it means Corona won't be able to die and leave her, and he's still here, kind of, which is close enough. Obviously I could be off base and I will be delighted to read whatever character notes taz muir lays in front of me in the next book, but in the space of writing this post I took myself from 'hm, I wonder if this makes sense' to a pretty firm headcanon, so here we are.

[opalai-pixel-witch]

Part 3 ;)

A part of the message I finished translating ^^ And I'm glad I can talk to you about these things ^3^ ❤

"That makes a lot of sense to me, also I wonder if the state of Bjørn’s body when she resurrected him has anything to do with his condition? The scene where Bjørn decides to put it back together before passing on is quite strange I think, is he actually reattaching them there or…what’s really happening?? Because I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to reattach a severed limb to a body just like that, especially with only your bare hands >o>"

"I feel that maybe his body constantly falling apart after his revival might have less to do with Pesto’s botched spell and more to do with the shape it was in after he died, a bit like those souls you see getting jobs from the gatekeeper in Manual Samuel (I feel kinda bad for them too…do they have to feel that pain or deal with that injury all throughout their afterlife?? I’m thinking about that one Helheim Hassle trailer with the impaled guy, uuuughhh) Again I fail to see how his limbs would remain attached to his body after just putting them back where they were but maybe after he died and came back to life his body adjusted himself somehow so that it’d be slightly more resilient???"

  --- About how Bjorn's body works, if we're realistic he shouldn't even be able to move XD

Losing limbs has to do with how he died and I think Pesto's bad spell makes them work like that, they stay in his body as if he were alive but they come off relatively easily

It's seen that by going to hell the victims aren't cured but I think they don't feel pain because no one is complaining

I mean, there's a guy with acid in his body and he's standing there like nothing, they get their jobs in hell and they're like "Ah, ok" (Except for the thief who complained about his eternal job XD)

  "He doesn’t care if he’s not as skilled in fighting, he will do his best for the one he loves!! Even though they’d both really be better off if he just let her handle it :P"

  --- Did you see Inuyasha? Well, there is a scene where the main character, Inuyasha, is very hurt and has his sword in his hands, one of the villain's henchmen tries to get closer to take out the sword, but he can't, still hurt and unable to move, Inu is able to use the power of the sword to attack anyone who gets close

  With this scene I made a story with the horsemen:

Milky and his team managed to capture Death and Fam, they had Death submerged in holy water and Fam was tied with a blessed chain, War went for Death and Pesto for Fam

Without further details, they succeeded, both had to carry them almost on their backs because Death was so bad, almost unconscious and Fam had his legs broken by the chains

The fact is that it's obvious that Milky's team found out they escaped and went after them

The only way for everyone to return was Death use his scythe, he tried but at first he couldn't, gathering all the energy he had left, he moved his scythe and they disappeared before Milky's team caught them

They all ended up in the hell hospital and the worst was Death, who used everything he had left to teleport his family to hell

  (Yes very strange, with that sentence you made me remember that little story I did a while ago ^^; )

--------

Of course!! I’m always happy to talk with you about stuff ^o^

True, I’m probably overthinking it |D That makes sense to me though! Yeah they don’t seem very bothered by their conditions at all, but I wonder if it’s different for souls going to different afterlives? Or maybe there was something up with the impaled guy’s soul in that one teaser that made him continue to feel pain as Odin was talking to him >A> Either way I feel bad for him

I’ve never seen it, but I hear it’s a very popular anime o:

That sounds really interesting actually!! I am a bit surprised that Pesto would rescue Famine after what they’ve been through, but I guess if a situation is bad enough anyone can band together o: For all I know though they could be friends deep down and the Helheim situation just stressed everyone out :P

[sailordiamondkitty]

So... I've been on "PAW Patrol Movie" in cinema recently. And as much as I don't like the animated series (too childish for my tastes), I simply ADORED this movie. The soundtrack, the animation, the story... All PERFECT 🥰 Well, except of the fact that some scenes were less than perfect and needed some redo... So I grabbed the pen (keyboard) and wrote my version 🙃 It's a bit more angsty than original and I definitely wouldn't put it in kid's show. But it was fun to write nevertheless 🙂

The scene I'm talking about is 'Chase rescues Ryder' scene. So I started with that and went my way a few minutes after 😉 Enjoy

Oh and for the ones not familiar with the movie, here's the original scene:

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

Ryder waited impatiently for the elevator to reach the top of the ridiculously high tower. He huffed irritated, as the idea of building something such high was as crazy, as it was dangerous. The soft ping indicated that he finally arrived at the destination and the door slid open.

‘Mayor Humdinger?’ He called out, stumbling out of the elevator, the storm outside easily swaying the already unstable tower, his eyes searching the office.

‘Yes, how can I help you?’ The man suddenly appeared behind the desk at the far end of the room, laying his hand casually on the flat surface of the table. The demeanour changed drastically when he noticed a person by the door. ‘Ryder? What are you doing here?’ He snarled furiously, his pack of cats hissing, sharing the despise for the boy with their owner.

‘This tower isn’t safe!’ Ryder called, trying to stabilize his movements. ‘We’ve got to get you out of here.’

The moment he finished speaking, the lights blinked and went down, darkness enveloping the room in an instant.

‘Oh no, the power’s out. That means the elevator’s dead. We have to go now!’ The boy tried convincing the man again, turning on the flashlight on his suit, the small light giving him at least a bit of comfort.

‘Nice try!’ Humdinger answered, crossing his arms. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you!’

Suddenly the room swayed again, this time harder and the sound of metal breaking sounded from outside. They were running out of time. Humdinger seemed to finally understand that, quickly lifting himself from the chair.

‘Okay, fine! I’ll go with you’ he decided, trying not to sound scared. He made his way toward the elevator, his cats attaching themselves to his legs, restricting man’s movements. ‘But I want to make it very clear, this is not a rescue! It’s… uh... an assisted exit!’ Humdinger exclaimed imperiously.

‘You can call in whatever you want, as long as you get in the elevator now’ Ryder replied, resisting the urge to roll his eye at the man’s antics. ‘I’ll release the cables manually from above’ he explained, using Mayor Humdinger’s body to lift himself up to the elevator’s hatch. ‘Once I’ve lowered you down safely, I’ll repel down the elevator shaft.’

‘Hmph, show-off’ Mayor murmured to himself, correcting the cylinder on his head.

Ryder bit down the reply as he looked down on the man in the elevator.

‘Even though we’ve had our personal differences over the years, I take no pleasure in doing this’ he said instead, his hand on a lever.

’Doing what?’ Humdinger asked warily. Ryder didn’t answer, instead pulling the lever, releasing the elevator as it started falling down at a rapid speed, Humdinger’s screams feeling the air.

‘Heh, actually that’s pretty satisfying’ he laughed to himself, eying the disappearing shape of an elevator and counting. ‘Three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand’ when counted to five, Ryder quickly pushed the lever back, stopping the elevator before it could crash at the bottom of the shaft.

While attaching grabbling hook to the metal bar, Ryder opened the communication channel.

‘Hey pups’ he called out ‘Humdinger’s out, I’m coming down.’

‘Nice job Ryder, see you on the ground’ came a reply, as he started descending.

Suddenly a gush of wind broke a part of the shaft, metal panel smashing on the other side.

‘Whoa, that’s not good’ boy commented, worry on his face. The next two panels above broke, nearly hitting him, as they fell. ‘Oh, that’s very not good!’

He continued descending, this time at a much faster pace, trying to leave the attached tower before it would, inevitably and definitely sooner than later, break completely. Wind howling through the shaft shook the rope, throwing Ryder over the shaft walls as he descended. He stopped the movement, trying to stabilize himself and that’s when another panel was torn out, this time right next to him. He stared at it for a few seconds, scared, trying to quickly decide how to best omit it. Suddenly the tower screeched, the metal holders finally loosing the battle with hazardous weather. Ryder’s terrified scream broke through the howling wind, as the tower fell, burying itself into the next building.

Ryder coughed, looking over the surrounding. Falling with the tower was not a pleasant experience and he made a mental note to try and avoid it for the future. He absentmindedly pushed the emergency beacon on his suit, red light flashing steadily. He eyed the debris that blocked his leg, stopping him from moving away from the site. He tried pushing it away, although with no avail. Ryder huffed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

‘Looks like I’ll have to wait for the rescue’ he told himself, the pain in his crushed leg indicating it was most probably broken.

At least the storm wasn’t bothering him here, the remains of fallen tower successfully blocking the wind. Some small parts of debris and dust fell from the ceiling and he coughed again.

‘Ryder?’ he heard a concerned voice from the side, a familiar one. He looked that way to see Chase descending the debris, running towards him.

‘Chase!’ he called, happiness in his voice. ‘I can’t believe you’ve found me.’

‘You can always count on me, Ryder’ German Shepherd puppy exclaimed with confidence as Ryder turned off his emergency beacon, switching it back to flashlight.

The broken wires shot a spark of electricity and Chase looked at them, worried.

‘Come on’ puppy said, turning his gaze back to Ryder. ‘We gotta get out of here’

‘I can’t , I’m stuck’ the boy replied, trying to push the large debris off his leg.

‘On three, pull as hard as you can’ Chase decided quickly, jumping over the broken rubble and positioning himself behind Ryder. ‘One.. Two.. Three!’

Ryder pulled the leg as Chase grabbed his shirt in his teeth, trying to help. After few seconds puppy fell backwards, as his teeth slid off the cloth.

‘It won’t budge’ the boy exclaimed, looking back at his friend, feeling hopeless. So even their strength combined weren’t enough.

‘One more try!’ Chase decided and Ryder obeyed, pushing the rubble again. At the same time, German Shepherd pup circled around, sliding under the fallen part, pushing it from underneath. They struggled for a while but finally managed to free boy’s leg. As he stumbled backwards, Chase quickly run from under the debris, managing not to get crushed by it. They breathed heavily, catching breath after the struggle.

‘We made it! Ryder, we made it!’ Chase jumped in the air happily, running over to his friend. He stopped abruptly though, seeing the pained expression on boy’s face. ‘Ryder..?’

‘I think it’s broken’ his friend answered, pointing at his leg. ‘It won’t be easy for me to get out of here in this state’ he added.

Chase immediately positioned himself at Ryder’s hurt side.

‘Lean on me, I’ll help you downstairs’ he exclaimed. Ryder didn’t hesitate, as he put his hand on puppy’s back, stabilizing himself.

‘You’re a good friend, Chase’ he smiled, as they took a few small steps toward the exit.

‘You are always there for me. It’s my turn to help you this time’ German Shepherd replied with honesty.

They were halfway through, when the nearby lighting shook the building. Some dust have fallen from the ceiling and Ryder looked up. He noticed the cracks all over the ceiling, small debris falling already.

Another shake and it was too late.

‘Watch out!’ Ryder shouted, pushing Chase away mere seconds before the rubble collapsed on the boy.

The weather finally stabilized when Skye crushed her helicopter into the machine, successfully ending the abnormal storm. She used her jetpack to fly down to the street, joining the cheering, as other PAW Patrol members surrounded her.

‘Do you see Chase or Ryder anywhere?’ Zuma asked, looking around to find the missing friends.

‘No, maybe they’re somewhere else’ Liberty wondered.

Suddenly there was a buzz on the comms and Chase’s worried voice came through.

‘Puppies, we need help!’ he almost shouted ‘We’re on the other building. Ryder’s crushed under the debris! I… I can’t get him out! And he’s not answering me either!’

‘We’ll be right there!’ Marshall replied. ‘Liberty, get some men to help us out, I’m not sure our strength would be enough to free Ryder. And call an ambulance too, it might be needed. Rest of you, follow me!’

The puppies rushed to the entrance of a building, as Liberty carried on her part of a mission. They didn’t have much time, as Ryder needed medical attention. Luckily the power in the city was back on as soon, as the storm ended, so they hastily made their way toward the elevator.

‘Chase, which floor are you on?’ Zuma asked, as the door opened.

‘15th, please hurry’ came a quick answer.

‘Don’t worry, we’re on our way’ Skye reassured him, as the door slid close and the elevator moved upwards.

‘Liberty, when you’re finished, join us on 15th floor’ Rocky called the Adventure City’s pup who became the newest member of PAW Patrol just recently.

‘I’m on it, see you at the top!’ she answered, the sound in the background indicating she’s already on her way with a backup. ‘The ambulance will be here shortly too, just finished the call.’

‘Good, we’ve arrived already, looking for Chase and Ryder’ Marshall said as the elevator stopped and opened.

‘Chase, where are you?’ Rubble called. The place was filled with fallen debris and parts of what used to be Mayor Humdinger’s tower.

‘Over here’ German Shepherd emerged from behind one of the biggest piles of rubble. ‘Quick, help me get him out!’

Another ping indicated that Liberty just arrived at the scene. They joined other puppies and together hastily made their way toward Chase.

The debris was huge and all they could see of Ryder, was his head and one arm, the rest buried underneath fallen parts of walls and ceiling. He was unconscious and bruised all over, from what was visible.

‘I tried to pull him out but I’m not strong enough’ German Shepherd pup explained.

‘And it’s a good thing you didn’t’ replied a tall, brown-haired man, one of the few accompanying Liberty. He crouched next to the puppy, eyeing the debris. ‘We need to carefully remove all of the rubble’ he instructed his companions. ‘Make sure not to move the boy, we don’t know how bad are the injuries.’

The work went swiftly, although not as fast, as the puppies would have wanted. About halfway through the work, the paramedics came and helped remove rest of the debris. Ryder was then moved carefully on the stretcher, the medics quickly looking for any visible injuries.

‘Well, his left leg is definitely broken, no doubt about it’ paramedic exclaimed, motioning the men to pick up the stretcher. ‘And probably right arm too. I don’t like the bruise on his forehead but it doesn’t seem to be very serious, hopefully. He’ll be fine, no grave injuries” he added, seeing the worried looks on puppies’ snouts, especially Chase’s. He leaned to pet pup’s head.

‘You did great, we’ll take it from here’ said the other medic, as they made their way towards the elevator.

The party exited the building, an ambulance parked not far from the entrance. People crowded the street, watching Ryder being put inside.

‘Poor boy…’ some lady gasped, while other nodded, agreeing with her.

‘He’s still just a child’ another added. ‘It should not have happen.’

‘It’s Mayor Humdinger’s fault!’ a man from within the crowd shouted, and people suddenly parted, showing the purple-dressed men in a middle of escaping.

‘What? How is this my fault?’ he argued angrily, the cats hissing by his side. ‘I didn’t ask to be rescued in the first place! Why should I be responsible?’

But nobody listened. Angry shouting escalated, people closing in on Humdinger. He screamed, scared, as he was enveloped by the crowd.

Chase didn’t look at the commotion, his attention solely on a unmoving frame of Ryder in an ambulance. As the paramedics began closing the door, he rushed forward and jumped inside.

‘I’m going with Ryder’ he exclaimed, laying next to the boy.

If the medic was surprised by a sudden movement, he didn’t show it. He closed the door and made his way toward the front of the car, as the other started the engine.

‘Come on, let’s follow them in our vehicles’ Liberty decided. ‘Skye, you take Chase’s police car, since your helicopter is broken.’

‘Yeah, will have to ask Ryder for a new one’ Skye answered sheepishly. ‘I really hope he got an insurance for it.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll figure something out’ Rocky cheered her up, putting his paw on her. ‘For now let’s focus on getting to the hospital.’

Other puppies barked with an agreement and split to get into their vehicles. Then they followed an ambulance, not noticing the frantic escape of Mayor Humdinger, as he managed to get free from the crowd. Not that it mattered. All it mattered now was Ryder.

First thing that Ryder felt was pain in his left leg. Broken, he remembered. He tried opening his eyes, but a bright light from a lamp caused him to close them again. He grunted, as he prepared himself for another try. This time slower, he let his eyes accustom to the lighting. He was in a room, hospital, judging by the look of it. There was something on his right, warm and fluffy, pressed to his side. Ryder moved his head carefully and saw Chase sleeping next to him on a bed. Boy’s moving must have woken him up, as he shifted and yawned, stretching his paws. Eyes locked with Ryder and puppy jumped up.

‘Ryder!’ He shouted happily. ‘You’re okay!’

‘I guess I am’ the boy answered, laughing softly. ’What happened?’

‘I freed you from the debris, we were trying to leave the building’ Chase answered. ‘You… there was a lighting nearby. It caused the ceiling to collapse. You pushed me aside but…’ German Shephard’s eyes filled with sadness and regret. ‘Liberty got some citizens to help us remove the rubble, then they moved you to an ambulance.’

‘Oh, Chase…’ Ryder moved slowly, embracing the pup. ‘It’s alright, we’re alright.’ He reassured him.

‘But you were hurt! I couldn’t do anything to help you!’ Chase argued. ‘I failed you…’

‘No, Chase, you didn’t fail me!’ answered the boy with a shock on his face. ‘You are the bravest pup I’ve ever met. I mean do you know any other who would jump over to the next building to reach me? I sure don’t. If it wasn’t for you, I would be still stuck there.’

The door suddenly opened, and a doctor entered a room with rest of the PAW Patrol behind him. He looked up from his notebook, noticing Ryder and Chase. A warm smile appeared on his lips.

‘Ah, Ryder, I see you’re awake now’ he said, moving to stand near the bed.

‘RYDER!!’ cried the puppies in unison, jumping on a bed to cuddle with their friend, licking his face happily.

‘Alright, alright, if you want him to get healed properly, I advise to give him a room to breathe’ the doctor laughed. ‘How are you feeling, my boy?’

‘Well, my leg and arm hurt and I’m a bit sore’ Ryder answered after a while, when puppies finally decided to stop licking him. ‘Other than that, I’m good.’

‘You’ve had an amazing luck. Except broken leg and arm, as you noticed, you’re uninjured. I advise lot of relax and you should be back to normal in about few months.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him, doc!’ Liberty barked happily, swinging her tail. ‘Hear that, Ryder? No missions for you!’

Ryder laughed at that, along with doctor. Everything was fine.

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So there it is, hope you liked it 🙂 I noticed a few things I could change here and there, as I posted, but I decided to not rewrite the whole thing again 😅

[hologramcowboy]

//Though his look and presence are much more powerful than Chris will ever have.// - well this is definitely just your opinion and very subjective (it’s your blog you can say whatever you want but stating opinions as facts is always a bit off putting). I don’t see that personally. Jensen’s “presence” changes all the time.. off screen at least... on screen.. I personally don’t see the range but again, that’s my opinion (I honestly don’t know if you were talking about acting performances or him as a person). His acting is scene stealing but doesn’t lend itself as well to long term leading man. Which Chris does have. He can lead a show or movie and can hold up through the whole thing. I think he even recently said he PREFERS the supporting role vs leading man but he can definitely do both. I personally have a hard time watching Jensen as a lead for a long period (season 10… ) and find him so much more enjoyable when he’s supporting vs leading. And his look? He is very attractive and looks great for his age but there are a bunch of other guys out there who look like him.. plus looks fade… he can’t rely on them forever (it seems like he’s relied on his looks pretty heavily throughout his career) and he needs to work on his actual skill set because one of those other guys who looks just like him is probably younger and hungrier and more willing to do the work. Chris puts in the work and is confident in his abilities (at least that’s how it comes across). He’s also consistent with who he portrays himself to be as a person. We know his brand, he is a clearly defined persona. Jensen? He doesn’t even seem to know who he is and he changes with the wind depending on who he’s hanging out with. To me none of this says “powerful presence” it says guy who doesn’t know who he is or what he’s doing.

I don't think I can write every phrase with an instruction manual and origin story to why I made the choice of words so I am deeply sorry if anything offended you but please know I meant what I said and stand by it. I'll try to explain below so hopefully you'll get where I was coming from. 😳 Jensen has a more powerful look, I am speaking from the point of view of cinema, of course. He has the ideal look for the superhero genre and if it wasn't for his poor training, he would have been a top choice, I am certain. I am aware of how casting works, I never state something without doing my research. Jensen's voice is also ideal for that type of storytelling, there's a reason he is now the world's most favorite Batman voice, especially within the Voiceover community. Jensen's presence, like him or not, is also extremely powerful on camera. Though his acting may cancel him out at times. You don't need to have a formed eye to see how captivating Jensen is on camera, you don't even have to like him. Some people have this special quality of being extremely photogenic and magnetic on camera, Jensen is one of those people. Chris is wonderful but he lacks a certain 'je ne sais quois' that makes other leads more powerful and charismatic in presence than him. Don't get me wrong, he was the Perfect choice for Captain America, precisely due to that energy. He was perfect for the role but not every role has the same essence as Steve's. So while Chris is good looking and well trained, I humbly consider that there's an element of dynamic performance as well as energy missing. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate him but I cannot list him among the most powerful leading men because, in my opinion, he's completely right in feeling more comfortable as a supportive character because he is more ideal for those types of roles. I could go on but it would really turn into an unrequested workshop about the leading man type and what it implies. I get that hellers and AA are always making up false praise, false ships and so on but I fail to see what that has to do with my blog. Everything I've written anyone with a little good sense can research and verify very easily. So I am going to keep posting my opinions confidently, that doesn't mean they are the law. On the contrary, they are just my unique perspective on things filtered through experience, beliefs and, of course, preference. So, as always, please take what resonates and ignore the rest. By the way, Chris is an amazing performer in his own right and I love his uniqueness, he's built a beautiful career, I just don't see him in certain roles just like most Casting Directors don't see Danneel, for example, ever playing a good character due to her energy. Fully agree with your observation on Jensen, he needs to develop his brand. Now that I have ruffled your feathers, what are your favorite Chris movies? I don't think I've seen all of his movies yet so if you have a recommendation, I'll watch. Sending you lots of love.

[itsbenedict]

Two-Faced Jewel: Session 7

A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]

Last time, Saelhen and Looseleaf continued their scouring of the evil torture wizard's evil torture tower for clues as to the identity of the murderer terrorizing the towns of Barley and Wheat. They found a bunch of mysterious documents of ominous character, but they've yet to check out the tower's hidden basement- and the ne'er-do-well lurking within...

The basement doesn't immediately contain any horrors, unless you're the type to get the jibblies from a messy room. There's dirty dishes (recently used), empty beer bottles from a Zeishus Brewery, and discarded clothes everywhere. It's very lived-in, and whoever lives-in here doesn't seem like they were expecting visitors.

Saelhen takes a look at the desk nearest the stairs, next to a well-used recliner and a recently-extinguished candle. She gets a nat 20 on her Investigation, and finds that the desk has been rotated to face the wall, concealing a drawer that doesn't look like it's been opened in some time, judging by the cobwebs.

What's inside is mainly more of the sort of thing they found on the sixth floor- technical notes on neurology and pain magic. With the critical success, she's able to piece together that the odd numbers on the abrasive letter found upstairs were some sort of pain measurements the letter-writer was providing to Lumiere.

They also find a less academic, more personal note, expressing frustration with his own research.

"Why would the Burnscreamer's rituals require Abyssal? Even a god like him shouldn't have any connection to the demons- what is he playing at?" "If I could just correct the sigil, I could bypass so much of this nonsense..."

Saelhen then gets a nat 1 on her Religion roll to know what that means, and assumes the Burnscreamer is the frontman for a metal band her dad likes.

As they search the rest of the room, they notice- at the bottom of the central shaft- a circular basin in the stone floor. It's stained red, but it's dry- not as much blood as you'd expect to see given the carnage on the sixth floor, so it seems like it's been recently emptied or cleaned out.

Oyobi, meanwhile, checks the locked door by the stairs, and finds it... cold? I wonder what that means vis-a-vis-

The extremely sneaky +9 Stealth person hiding braced against the walls of the central shaft fucks up right about then, and slips a little, letting out an involuntary "Gh- shit!", alerting the party to his presence.

Saelhen tries to chase after this person by parkouring off those same walls, gets a 9, and faceplants in the blood basin, leaving the issue to the party member who has wings. As the hider flees through one of the doors in the shaft, Looseleaf uses her darkvision and 24 Investigation roll to pick out the right door and give chase.

(Meanwhile, the rest of the party heads up the stairs normally- and Saelhen orders Orluthe to bust down the front door, so they can go outside and catch anyone trying to escape by rappelling down the side of the building. This turns out to be unnecessary, because when Looseleaf detected that the front door was magic and assumed it was a trap, this was incorrect.)

Benedict I. (GM): ("who knows what kind of trap could be on this magic door? better go up and through the window into the room full of traps, instead") (i was laughing so hard) (it's just an automatic door!) Looseleaf: Honestly, the people in town oversold this place. They made it sound like such a deathtrap and really it was just a bunch of spiky bots. And knives. And comfy pillows. Benedict I. (GM): Well, when they were there, there was a living evil torture wizard actively trying to take them prisoner and torture them.

Looseleaf botches her Investigation roll to search the torture lab she emerges in, but... that doesn't stop her from just checking each and every possible hiding place one by one, manually. She alights upon the correct solution swiftly- checking inside the broken remains of the iron maiden.

bBenedict I. (GM): Anyway, Looseleaf, inside the corpse of the iron maiden, you find. A rather heavy man, performing a downright heroic feat of contortionism to suspend himself inside the door without getting impaled on the spikes. Arnie: "Uh." "Can you pretend you never saw me?" Looseleaf: "That depends on what you're doing here, I guess. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: oh that is a nervous man Arnie: "No one. Nothing. I'm, uh, supposed to be like, dead, probably." "So I'm not here." "Yeah?"

Arnie Zeishus is the deadbeat husband of Cassie, the innkeeper from Barley, who fled town a while back. He explains that after fleeing his responsibilities in Barley, he tried to set up shop in Wheat running a brewery, but got in trouble flouting the brewing regulations of the Ecumene of Harmony. So after getting arrested there and breaking out of prison, he decided to sneak into the torture wizard's tower and lay low as a squatter in the guy's basement. He figured he might get caught and tortured, but it couldn't be worse than what the townspeople wanted to do to him.

Except, as luck would have it, the torture wizard was already dead when he arrived! So he's been making a home of the place with Lumiere's old animated housekeepers, using the torture wizard's fearsome reputation as a way to keep anyone from tracking him down and making him do stuff like clean up a distillery explosion or pay child support or what have you.

On the other hand, someone has been sneaking around his tower doing something sinister on the sixth floor that results in blood pouring down into the basin periodically, and he's stressed out of his mind wondering who the hell is doing that and how he's supposed to avoid getting caught and/or killed by them.

(He notes that the "KEEP SHOUTING" sign was his attempt to get intruders to at least give themselves away by making noise, after they were clearly ignoring the "KEEP OUT" sign he put up.)

Looseleaf also takes the time to ask if Arnie here knows anything about someone named Choss.

Arnie: He looks surprised. "You know Choss?" Looseleaf: "Let's say that Choss is a figure of importance in this investigation." "Anything you could tell us about how they arrived in town and what they did in town would be appreciated." Arnie: He shrugs. "Choss was there before I was- she's a real weirdo." "Knows how to party, but- gotta say, her stuff's a little too strong for me." "A crazy high at first, but it gets- whoof, intense." Looseleaf: "She's an apothecary of some kind?" Arnie: He laughs. "You could say that. She's got herself a little drug lab in town, always smells like burning. Don't know how she gets away with it- some of that stuff's gotta be illegal." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And how old is she, approximately?" Arnie: "Eh? She's- hard to tell with lizardfolk, s'not like you can read the wrinkles..." Looseleaf: Ah, of course. Lizardfolk. Saelhen du Fishercrown: yep Arnie: "Seems youngish, though? Party girl through and through." "Just, uh, if she offers you a blend, don't take it unless you're ready to spend the next hour feelin' like fire ants are chewin' their way out of your skin." He shudders a little. Looseleaf: "Hm. Sounds painful." Arnie: "You have no idea," he laughs.

They also inquire about the locked freezer room- and why Arnie would hide out here, in dangerous torture tower, rather than just running off to a city, which is a little weird that he didn't do. Arnie claims there's just groceries in there, and no stolen wine bottles whatsoever, he certainly isn't a thief and he definitely hasn't been lying low out here because if he goes to a city some old pals from Thunderbrush might find him and want him dead, no sir! He would never ever commit a crime, ["wink wink" in hand-signed Thieves' Cant].

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Of course. I can't imagine we have any thieves here." [Nudge nudge.] Looseleaf: "In the meantime, Mr. Zeishus, you mentioned having done something that.. makes going anywhere where you might meet someone from Thunderbrush a dangerous thing?" Arnie: He fidgets. "Uh, well..." "I, I try to leave all that behind me." "You just... don't want to get involved with the ghost dryad mafia. Just a tip."

He drops a little bit of exposition about something that may be coming up- apparently, Thunderbrush used to have these huge skyscraper-sized trees, but they got chopped down in some sort of war or raid a while back, and now the Stumps are ruled by the necromancer ghost dryads of those trees who used the last vestiges of their power to cheat death. Apparently Arnie was strongarmed into doing crimes for various ghost dryad mafiosos and made too many enemies, so he fled to Barley to shake the heat.

Looseleaf also comes to a realization regarding some hints dropped earlier in the townsfolks' tragic backstories:

Looseleaf: (actually, wait, i just realized: choss is probably chitch's daughter, the timelines there line up perfectly and maybe this whole dragonborn business is a total red herring we invented for ourselves) (what the shit, lumiere, you kidnap a guy's daughter and raise them as your own child? that's fucked.)

Looseleaf occupies this Arnie guy by interrogating him about these things, while Saelhen slips downstairs to try to pick the lock to the freezer room.

Eventually, after a bunch of failed rolls and more small talk from Looseleaf to keep Arnie occupied, Saelhen pops open the lock. Inside, she finds a fairly large and frigid room. There are meathooks hanging from the ceiling, empty. There are shelves lining the edges full of frozen food.

And to her right, there's another door- this one out of place with the rest of the construction, made of a strange stone shot through with rivulets of glowing orange. There's a symbol on a stone circle embedded in the door:

Before she checks that out, though, she checks the darkened back of the room- which contains some tubs filled with ice.

And those tubs have corpses in them, with the four-pointed wounds.

It is not especially likely that Arnie had no idea these were here, in a room he claims to use to store groceries and has the key to.

Looseleaf, meanwhile, attempts to read Arnie's spirit to determine his alignment and general intentions. His Deception beats her Insight, but what she does manage to get is...

Arnie is afraid. He is filled to bursting with terror and desperation more intense than you've ever felt from anyone before. And the fear does not seem directed at you.

Meanwhile, Saelhen tries to get that door open. What's the deal with that thing, huh? There's no handle, so... she has the bright idea of slapping her mysterious god icon bracer (the one that when previously slapped against a magic thing opened a pit to infinite bats) against it, see what happens. And I get very excited, because ohohoho, I didn't expect that, I had to think through the ramifications of doing that, and...

...then I work through those ramifications, and what I realize is that, as far as the players would know, the end result is just that the door slides open, and nothing else of note occurs.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Why am I even here I just wanted to help a nice little girl show up her dipshit inquisitor mom now I'm in a pain room investigating pain machines..." Looseleaf: (looseleaf warned you about getting involved in the case, she warned you dog)

There's also a bunch of weird machines, and more of Lumiere's notes, which Saelhen goes and nabs as many of as she can. Then she beats feet immediately, not wanting to spend any longer than necessary in the hell lab. The problem is, she doesn't want to leave any sign she was in there, so...

Saelhen du Fishercrown: Does tapping the exposed bit of stone with the bracer again close the secret hell door? Benedict I. (GM): Nope. Saelhen du Fishercrown: hmm. poking it with her finger? Benedict I. (GM): Ouch. Nope. Saelhen du Fishercrown: physically pulling the stone upwards while muttering "fuck fuck fuck ow ow ow"? Benedict I. (GM): Oh, hm, yeah, that would work. At first there's no effect, but as you continue to pull and the pain gets worse and worse... Roll me a Constitution save. Saelhen du Fishercrown: 16 CONSTITUTION SAVE (3) Benedict I. (GM): That'll do it! Your pain feeds the door, and, satisfied, the mouth closes. Looseleaf: How extremely concerning!

Cool!

So Saelhen goes back upstairs, the party secretly confers and exchanges information, and... something has to be done about Arnie.

His expression changes, suddenly.

Arnie: "You don't know what you're talking about." "This doesn't have to happen."

Looseleaf continues to try to offer help to this guy, inferring that he's being forced to do someone else's dirty work. She rolls a 20 on Persuasion! So... what happens following them cornering and exposing the culprit is not the rolling of initiative. Still, though...

Arnie: Arnie... backs up a step. "You're morons." "You have no idea." "You're talking like you can help me?" "That's impossible. No one can help me." "I- I'm fucking cursed, dammit!" Looseleaf: is he? i have magic sense, he is clearly not actually magically cursed, right Arnie: "What are you clowns going to do about it? Nothing!" "What are you going to do, kill a dragon?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "You are entangled here. If Looseleaf says so, then I trust her intuition and her investigative prowess. This doesn't necessarily mean you're entangled in such a way that there is no way out for you." Saelhen shrugs. "Theoretically, the device on my arm is responsible for drowning a small city in vampiric monsters from beyond the stars. And yet there was a way out of that, and a genuine silver lining into the bargain." "I want you to understand that I am absolutely sincere when I say: There is always a way out." Arnie: "That's- there's no way! There's only one way out!" "He'll free me from the curse if I do what he says, and that's the only way!" Looseleaf: ...That is not how dragon-curses work at all. Benedict I. (GM): Not as far as you're aware, no. Doesn't seem like anyone's told Arnie.

They continue to try to convince him that there's hope, that he doesn't need to do what the dragon says, that they can help him. And Arnie just keeps pushing back, refusing to acknowledge any of it, weeping and shouting and doing whatever he can to avoid believing that he didn't have to do any of that, that there was any other way- because if there was, he'd be a monster, right?

Meanwhile, Vayen... is standing a ways away and staring at them all, as usual... but this time, he's smiling. No one here has ever seen Vayen smile before. He looks like his birthday came early. And as they're on the verge of a breakthrough...

Arnie: "Fucking- you don't think I know that?" "I know that! I know he's manipulating me!" "But what else do I do?" Vayen: "You could kill yourself," Vayen suggests. Looseleaf: "Vayen what the FUCK?" Arnie: "What the fuck- shut up, asshole!" "I'm not dying! Not here, not nowhere!" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...Vayen, you are placing a remarkable number of ticks in the 'leave you at the side of the road' column." Vayen: Vayen shrugs. "It's the most reliable way to neutralize a dragon's curse." "It's the sensible thing to do, if you don't want to cause collateral damage."

It's as though he deliberately picked the one thing to say to ensure that this argument would keep happening, and not reach a friendly resolution. The hell is his problem?

Still, the party keeps trying to talk this guy down.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "And -- Arnie, surely you don't think the dragon would hunt you down? Dragons don't go out of their way to punish us; they just use us to accomplish whatever it is they're planning. He'll make it someone else's problem." "I know the type. Arnie, it wouldn't care enough to hunt you down. What seems like a personal connection, like it caring about you -- if it tries that at all -- it's just an implement. It's a way of getting you to do what it wants. Go to ground effectively, and it won't bother to spare the effort." Arnie: "What are you, talking like some kinda dragonologist? The hell do you know about dragons?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "...I am not a dragonologist, no," admits Saelhen. Looseleaf: "...Are you a dragonologist?" Arnie: "Of course it could hunt me down! Damn thing's got magic items out the ass and it flies faster than I can run!" "As soon as it saw me going somewhere it didn't tell me to, I'd get turned into a midnight snack!" "And then I go to ground, and the curse kicks in, and I end up dead or worse anyway. Sounds great." "Or, I stay here, gut a few self-righteous fucks who treated me like dirt for a while, and maybe the thing keeps its end of the bargain and lets me go!"

Yeah, that's a confession, and like, not one that makes him look great. Still, given this guy's weirdly high rolls on physical stuff, and his apparent aptitude for murdering people, they're not super sure they want to fight this guy- on top of just, not exactly wanting to fight this guy.

What are they going to do? They have to come up with a plan- and their plan has to take less than three weeks to pull off, since Arnie only has six corpses left in the bathtubs, and the dragon wants two corpses a week to prove he's still doing the job.

(And is it even worth going to all that trouble just to protect this guy from the consequences of his actions?)

Next time: a plan is hatched, and the party gets back on the road.

[pippki-writes]

An Ill-Fitting Name: Snippet 15

NOTES:

Snippet 1; Snippets 2 & 3; Snippet 4; Snippet 5; Snippet 6; Snippet 7; Snippet 8; Snippet 9; Snippet 10; Snippet 11; Snippet 12; Snippet 13; Snippet 14

Word Count: ~2k

Faoust belongs to @thebiggestnerd - she writes him; Isaiah and everyone else here are mine.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%

A lot of things can happen in five short days. Like you find out your murder-friend-with-benefits got killed, and brought back by the god of Chaos on the condition that he had no memories of the love of his life. And maybe Chaos encourages your friend to pay more attention to you instead of the man he had loved. And maybe you go along with it—even though you know, right there in front of his actual love, that it’s so fucked up of you, that it won’t last, that it’s all just going to go horribly wrong. You fall into it anyway.

Hasn’t happened to you? Oh, just Isaiah then.

Isaiah still can’t explain to himself why, when Faoust asked, he agreed to try being something more for one another…first Isaiah agreed to come home with him, not to fool around more but to simply…spend time together? And then, what a day later? After spending the night, spending the day together, after a second fantastic tumble in as many days, just laying together spent in bed, there Faoust was saying insanely sappy things, about how Isaiah understood him, and how he liked being around him, and wondering about whether they were destined to be together? That sort of bullshit made Isaiah laugh. He doesn’t believe in destinies—no. A man controls his own fate, choices, actions. This was no destiny. Just Isaiah, who liked what they had already. Who didn’t want to ruin an already good thing. But who decided, finger pressed to Faoust’s lips to shush him from a string of “this is stupid”s, Faoust trying to backpedal his feelings while Isaiah simply needed time to think…who decided to go for it anyway.

It wasn’t a perfect five days. Saccharinity—a sweet kiss, a gentle touch of his face—made Isaiah feel uncomfortable—was not for him, not the dynamic he was used to sharing, not with Faoust. He had no desire to be exclusive either, the two of them, though he could sense the disappointment when Faoust agreed to it. That should have been a stronger clue how none of this was real. Before Chaos intervened, Faoust was living a quite comfortably open polyamorous life. Why would he suddenly want to forsake that for a monogamous life with Isaiah? Not that Isaiah would want such a thing anyway, even if he didn’t feel so uncomfortable with the idea of genuine commitment.

And then there were the appearances from Chaos itself, its terrifying hold over Faoust, fucking with his mind, inviting Isaiah to join it? Isaiah didn’t want to think about the horrible, too-toothed smile and the way it held Faoust. The way it smoothed over Faoust’s memories to free him from pain, to keep him from remembering.

Ah, and then the fifth night. When Isaiah had gotten attacked by Faoust’s true love, Dorien, over a bit of a misunderstanding (yes, ok, he can objectively admit how it might look to burst into a room and see Isaiah with a knife in his hand straddling Faoust, with Faoust covered in a mess of bloody cuts, but it was consensual), had gotten thrown against the wall and attacked over and over, Dorien screaming and slashing Isaiah’s arms. Faoust had had to save him from Dorien, had told him later he’d been scared Dorien was going to kill him. Someone caring whether he died? That was new.

And then, Isaiah hadn’t even bothered to ask how, he didn’t care, later that night, Faoust got his memories back. The hold Chaos had had over his mind had broken. He was back to the way he’d always been. Isaiah woke from a half-sleep with a start, remembers seeing Faoust peeking in awkwardly. Isaiah realized as he woke up that Faoust was at the door, rather than still in the bed with him.

“Hm? Where’d you run off to?”

“So,” said Faoust, “I have some good news and bad news.”

Isaiah knew. He knew by the tone of Faoust’s voice that this was it, that this—whatever it was—was over. “Ah, just say it.”

“I’m back. I got my memory back…all of it.”

“Is that the good news, the bad news, or both?”

“Little bit of both. Ah…” Faoust decided, after a pause, to just come out with it. “Chaos was manipulating my feelings for you. I don't..I don't feel any differently than I did before I died. I still care about you. A lot. But I was comfortable where we were.”

“Yeah, it…yeah.” Isaiah sighed. “Are you mad at me for going along with it anyway?”

Faoust smiled a little sadly. “Not at all.”

A bit more banter exchanged between the two of them. Isaiah claimed Faoust’s bed for the night, since he had very recently gotten a beat-down from the man Faoust would be eagerly waiting to run back to. They said the expected sort of things to say between people hoping to shift back to something they’d had before with as little damage as possible. Wouldn’t work out anyway. Better for both of us. Faoust seemed inclined to keep talking, as if to make up for this—whatever breaking off this was. But Isaiah didn’t want this pity, this strange compensation, this consolation prize of conversation knowing that Faoust was just waiting for Isaiah to seem ok so he could leave again. Isaiah finally chased Faoust off with a good-natured “stop bothering me, I’m sleeping,” rolling away from him and spreading himself out on his stomach across as much of the whole bed as he could, waiting for Faoust to leave.

Once Faoust was gone, Isaiah rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.

Yes.

Best for both of them.

Isaiah isn’t meant for soft, kind things.

Murder and magic. That’s what he’s good for.

Now, Isaiah sits on his porch, legs kicked against the railing, thinking. His hands hold a stick and his knife, slowly worrying the bark away with the blade as he tries to make sense of his mind. It hadn’t even been love, they’d both said that, even when Faoust was completely under the control of Chaos, he’d never said he loved Isaiah. And even if he had, come on, Isaiah had been loved before.

But no. That wasn’t quite right, was it?

Vespar had been loved. And Elios before that, and Redrik before that, and so on down the line until you hit the bedrock of Isaiah, who had never been loved. Not by his mother. Not by his father. Not by anyone.

No one had loved him, and especially no one had ever known him, really him and all the things he did, and loved him. Not even come close. This thing with Faoust, it hadn’t been love. But it had been something that could have come close.

But no. It had all just been based on lies and manipulation. He knew that. He’d known it going in. So why does he feel so…hell. He doesn’t even know how to describe what he’s feeling.

Isaiah’s reverie is snapped by the sound of someone approaching. Any other time, a stranger crashing through the trees to his hidden home, calling out, “Isaiah James?” would have been great cause for concern. But here, today, right now, feeling things he isn’t even sure how to describe, the distraction is welcome. Isaiah stands warily, letting the stick fall, holding the knife ready in his hand.

The man stops at the edge of the clearing, holds up a hand to shade his eyes from the sun in spite of the cheap aviators on his face, to glance at Isaiah, check the phone in his hand, and back to Isaiah. He’s wearing a coat, though the day is a bit warm for it, and projects a solid confidence as he starts walking towards the porch.

“I’ve been looking for you, Isaiah James,” the man begins, “and hell have you been difficult to find. Would have figured you for dead, if I’d been able to find a body. But your mother—“

At this, the man freezes. Something in Isaiah snaps, this man speaking a name he shouldn’t know, mentioning his mother. He wants to hear no more, and without even needing to think about it he found his hand quickly tracing out the sigil in the air, the words across his lips, his will being imposed on another, binding the man in place. Isaiah closes the distance between the two of them, in the quiet of the trees, the traffic and the rest of the world distant and muffled by this little place where Isaiah has made a home.

“You should have found me dead,” Isaiah hisses, his thumb rubbing against the heel of his blade, using his magic to jerk the man down to his knees, wide-eyed and still frozen. “They sure as hell won’t find you.”

Isaiah draws the blade hard and deep across the man’s throat, one fierce quick motion, but stops before sending the body hurtling down into the earth where no one will find it. He grabs the phone, still clenched in the man’s hand, and holds it up to the man’s wide eyed face to unlock it.

The screen is on a missing persons poster, with side by side images—a sullen-looking 14-year-old boy with short, sandy curls, and the uncanny, unnerving imaginings of a computer algorithm of what that boy might look like now at 33. Still unsmiling, eyes hollow and dead. Have you seen him? asks the poster. Isaiah James.

Isaiah eyes the image critically. A facsimile of himself, hair too short, eyes (both of them, but hah, how could a computer guess he’d be missing one?) without any hint of mischief or trouble, an alternate Isaiah that could have been. Maybe, if Isaiah had been any kind of normal.

Isaiah swipes to the man’s messages to see what else he can find.

He has no intention of telling the bitch ahead of time, but Isaiah James has decided to come home. browser tabs, but it doesn’t look like the man told her where he thought Isaiah was. Not even where he was looking.

The man was a private investigator, apparently. Not from around here, by what Isaiah can glean from the details on his phone, and so, Isaiah thinks as he dips a finger in the man’s blood to start drawing a sigil, not likely to be missed soon. It’s so much easier to send someone hurtling into the earth right when he kills them, drawing upon the power of the bloodshed in the moment. Waiting requires this extra step. Manual, he thinks, rather than automatic. He considers keeping the phone, but no. He’s seen enough. A cell signal is a liability. He uses his magic to bury the phone far away, deep within the earth, and to send the man disappearing into the ground below, never to be found.

Back by the road, Isaiah finds a rental car. Tedious, he thinks, hotwiring the car and driving it off somewhere dark and without the pesky interference of video cameras. He can’t just leave the car near his home—that would inspire searches. Questions. Shit he doesn’t need. He drives it a few towns over, to give a different police force something to puzzle over, and slips back home through the shadows.

Perhaps, if he had been in a different sort of mood, Isaiah would shrug it off. To hell with his mother and whatever the hell she wants with him. It surely won’t be anything good. But right now, Isaiah feels…uncertain. Bothered by things he doesn’t know how to even identify. Needing something else to turn his mind to, to distract him from the confusion inside. He snaps his knife shut, sliding it in his pocket, and goes back in to grab his truck keys.

He wants to know. He needs to know. What the hell does she want?

He has no intention of telling the bitch ahead of time, but Isaiah James has decided to come home.

- NEXT SNIPPET -

[deckof-dragons]

Firstly I absolutely love your writing. It's really detailed and creative! Secondly I have a suggestion, but you don't have to do it if you rather not too. What if one of Hat Kid's family members show up to take her back after Snatcher adopted her? I think her family wouldn't have been the best if a child about 7-9(I headcannon her around that age) is going around in space alone with time pieces.

Thank you for the request! This is a direct prequel to one of my other drabbles: Haunted. If you have read that then you know how this fic ends and if not I suggest reading that fic after this one because this ends in an angsty place that is resolved in Haunted. It does require a spoilerly warning though: Hat Kid dies in this fic and becomes a ghost. It’s pretty graphic, far more so than in Ghost Kid, so just a head’s up on that. I apologize if you had something much lighter in mind when sending in this request but it just fit so I went with it because I wanted to. I also kinda recommend reading Guilt before this one if you want a bit more context on the situation because this is also a sequel to that fic. (I have a whole timeline thing going on with these drabbles, multiple in fact, this one is the biggest and the one that have the most connections between some of the fics.)

Visitors

Hunting for traitors normally fell to someone else but this one was personal. This traitor was the Headmaster’s own granddaughter, left to him when his failure of a son had died. It was a shame she’d turned out even worse than him despite her initial promise; she’d risen through the school’s ranks, reaching the final test in record time – only one other student even came close to comparing. But then she’d failed the test and upon learning that had turned traitor and ran away.

It had taken the Headmaster’s men far too long to finally locate her. She was on a tiny out of the way planet with no access to space travel. It was the perfect place to hide; if it wasn’t for the beacon hidden on her ship, revealing its location to a scout ship entering the system, she probably never would’ve been found.

Now was the Headmaster really about to descend upon the planet to capture his granddaughter and bring her home to be executed as a traitor? If his wife were still alive, she’d insist on it. She wasn’t though so he might take pity and spare the child because of the promise she’d shown before but only if she came back with him without much of a fight.

“Sir,” the man he’d sent to scout the situation on the planet said upon stepping into the command room to report. “Apparently the child has been adopted by a powerful being known as the Snatcher. As you ordered, I did not get close enough to be seen by her and thus I could not determine much about this Snatcher person. Only that he is very powerful and lives in a haunted forest, presumably the same forest the stolen ship is parked in. What are you orders?”

“We wait until the child is alone in the ship, beam to it and deal with her however best we can and then leave.” They were on a mission hunting a child and thus they hadn’t brought much fire or man power. They still might be able to deal with the Snatcher though, depending on just how powerful he was, but it was best not to risk it if they didn’t have to. They were here solely for the kid after all, they could send someone back for the ship later after she’d been secured or dealt with if needed.

***

Hat Kid checked her mailbox upon returning to her ship. It was empty, meaning Snatcher’s newest contractor hadn’t yet been given the mail delivery task – normally she or a Subconite did it but whenever a contractor was around Snatcher made them do it instead. It should come tomorrow though which was exciting because this time around she’d added a whole human ribcage to the bone mailing game. The Subconite she’d sent it to better appreciate it because she’d worked hard to find it.

She skipped merrily up the ramp and into the ship, using the door in the window. Rumbi rolled over as if to greet her but really it just wanted to vacuum up the little bit of dirt she’d tracked in from outside. She smiled and gave it a little pet anyway because it had been her only companion for a long time before finding this planet.

Now off to the kitchen she went in the search for food. She was at the base of the ladder when she heard the distinctive sound of someone beaming in behind her. No one on this planet but her should be able to do that unless they’d stolen her phone. There was also no ‘Intruder Alert’ over the intercoms, meaning the ship’s sensors recognized whoever it was.

As she snapped around, she pulled out her umbrella. Despite her suspicions her heart still sunk at the sight of the Headmaster and five of his men standing in the middle of the room. How had they found her? And why had the Headmaster himself come? Wasn’t he too important to hunt down a traitor, especially a child? She wasn’t that dangerous, was she?

“I recommended putting down your weapon,” the Headmaster said with that same air of superiority he always used that she hated so much. “It won’t do you any good. Come with us peacefully and I might be willing to forgive you traitorous actions.”

If given this option a couple years ago, shortly after she’d first run away, she probably would’ve taken it. She’d never wanted to become a traitor or run away from what had been her home for all her life. But she’d since found a home here and honestly, she liked it more than her old home. People actually liked and cared for her here, she had a family now – a very odd one sure but who cares? – and friends. She didn’t want to leave them.

“No, I don’t think I will,” she said, putting on her own haughty attitude to counteract his. “I’m not going anywhere with you so how about you just leave and never come back?”

She frowned at her, making his already ugly wrinkled face uglier. “Well, we gave you a chance. I guess we’ll just have to take you by force.” He gestured and his lackies all started reaching to pull something out of their cloaks.

Hat Kid didn’t wait to see what it was before switching to the time stop hat. Activating it, she dashed at them and whacked the Headmaster’s shin hard enough that he should lose his balance. She didn’t wait to find out for sure though as she continued past them and back outside through the door.

Time resumed its normal flow as she reached the bottom of the ramp. She kept running. They undoubtedly had better weapons than her so she didn’t stand a chance against them by herself. But Snatcher should be here soon so…

A loud bang filled the air. Suddenly she was falling to the forest floor with a pain worse than any she’d ever felt before piercing through her body. She tried to push herself back up but for some reason all the strength was gone from her limbs. Oh gosh it hurt so much. How was it even possible to be in this much pain and still be conscious? Well… that at least wouldn’t last for long, darkness was already taking her.

***

There were suddenly more living things in the forest. They’d just appeared there, much like how Hat Kid did when porting back to her ship. It was even about the same spot as her ship. Snatcher would go investigate after he was done dealing with this contractor.

It was a Mafia goon, the most common type of person to wonder into the forest due to their lack of intelligence. But they were good for manual labor projects like unclogging the damn well for the umpteenth time, and repairing parts of the swamp walkway, it was getting too dilapidated lately. And running mail too of course just because it was there and needed to be done so why not?

“There, that ought to do for now,” he said with a grin as he snapped his figures, magicking the freshly signed contract away.

The Mafia goon said something in response but Snatcher suddenly wasn’t paying attention because over by her ship, Hat Kid was using one her hats. He was familiar enough with their magic energy signatures by now to know it was the time stop hat. Not one she used often and typically only when in combat or dodging it.

She was probably fine. She was more than capable of taking care of herself but…

“I have something I need to attend to,” he said, looking back at the Mafia goon. “Talk to my minions about directions to the swamp and where materials for the walkway are.”

He didn’t wait for a response before teleporting over. As always, he placed himself a distance away from whatever was happening and hidden so he could get a read on the exact situation before jumping in. And he didn’t want to interfere if he wasn’t needed.

Hat Kid was running away from her ship as a man wearing a uniform of some sort poked himself out the front door of the ship with something in his hand pointed at her. There was a loud bang and suddenly Hat Kid stumbled and fell onto her front. She put a hand under herself as if to try to push herself back but didn’t. In fact, after that she didn’t move at all. She went limp, as her blood pooled beneath her, soaking into the ground. Her life faded fast, far quicker than Snatcher could even try to do anything about.

She was dead. He’d just watched her die. How… how as that even possible? She couldn’t die, she was… she was Hat Kid, seemingly nothing could kill her, not even Snatcher himself had been able to do it. And… she was his, he didn’t let things that belonged to him die or be destroyed, ever. So… there was no way it was real because it just couldn’t be.

“You shot her,” an angry voice cut into his shock. A group of men were exiting the ship. The one speaking was an old man and clearly the leader of the group. “I told you we were taking her alive you fools.”

“Sorry sir, I acted on instinct.”

“And we were going to execute her anyway so it doesn’t…”

With a snarl, Snatcher summoned a burst of power under their feet. It pushed them back away from Hat Kid’s body as it hit, making them scream in pain and surprise. He immediately summoned another and another and another as he got closer. Taken completely by surprise, they didn’t stand a chance and all of them were dead after the third blast. He didn’t even bother snatching their souls as they departed. Instead he kept summoning blast after blast after blast until he had a little crater filled with magic fire born purely from the energy of his magic. But even that wasn’t enough, he was going to…

The sound of a child gasping in shocked fear came from behind him. He snapped around to see the horrid sight of Hat Kid’s lifeless body again but that wasn’t all. A small ghost hovered a few feet above it: Hat Kid. Her form even still had the hat and cloak. She was staring at her body, hands pressed to either side of her face in utter horror. The silence held for a couple seconds before she let out a sob of despair.

Snatcher jerked back into motion, swooping in front of her both so she could see him and so she could no longer see her corpse. “Hey kiddo,” he said with a pathetic attempt at a smile. “It’s okay… or uh well it’s not okay but…” He really didn’t know how to handle tears or what to do to console someone who’d just died. It was an awful experience and he’d certainly hadn’t had anyone nearby when he’d died willing to offer to comfort so he didn’t have anything to even try to imitate. So he was at a complete loss. But… “You’re a ghost, that’s… not good but… it means you’re still here so…”

“Dad.” She hugged him, wrapping her arms as far around his neck as she could and burying her face in his mane as she continued crying.

He sighed, giving up on cheering her up as he lifted a hand to pat her back. Being a ghost meant she was still here and for that he was grateful… was that selfish though? Didn’t matter because they were here now, he couldn’t change anything.

He teleported to his private reading hollow, bringing her with him. He settled in the chair with another sigh. He didn’t know what to do or say so he’d just let her cry on him and hope this was enough to console her at least a little bit.

For this drabble event.