#use domain nova

[ronelgomes]

Domain Nova: An honest review

=> Start Your Own Domain & Hosting Selling Agency & Provide Red Hot Services => Save Thousands Of Dollars That Third Party Platforms Charge => Cancel Your Own Domain Platform Subscription Once & For All => Monetize Easily By Selling Your Own Products Or From Your Affiliate Links => Get Ultra Fast Hosting & Never Face Slow Load Time => Get Started Easily – No Prior Tech Or Marketing Skills Needed

[rheya28]

The Crown [ Lounge + Bar] ♥ The Sims 4: Speed Build // CC

Welcome to The Crown, a haven of refined indulgence that seamlessly shifts from an upscale morning restaurant and lounge to a sophisticated evening gentlemen's club. In the daylight hours, experience culinary delights in an ambiance of polished dark wood accents, moody lights, and soft jazz.

As the sun sets, The Crown transforms into an intimate and stylish club, where discreet luxury meets thrilling entertainment. With an emphasis on sophistication, The Crown offers an unforgettable fusion of exquisite dining and sensual experiences in an atmosphere of opulence.

➽ Speed Build Video

➽ Rheya's Notes:

● In order for the adult club function to work, you must download the wicked whims mod [Download at your own risk]. ● This build does not have to be a club, it can be set as a restaurant, a lounge, or a bar. ● I am not 100% familiar with wicked whims so I will not be answering questions regarding the mod. However, I played around with it and did some playtesting as a club owner and everything is functioning correctly on my end. I advice that you look up tutorials if you're not sure to how this lot type works.

● Please make sure to turn bb.moveobjects on! ● Please DO NOT reupload or claim as your own. ● Feel free to tag me if you are using it, I love seeing my build in other peoples save file ● Feel free to edit/tweak my builds, but please make sure to credit me as the original creator! ● Thank you to all CC Creators ● Please let me know if there's any problem with the build

Sim's Featured in the video are by the talented @rhdweauni0 <3

➽ LOT DETAILS

Lot Name: The Crown Lot type: Gentlemen's Club/Str*p Club [Can be set as a lounge, restaurant or bar] Lot size: 30x30 Location: Windenburg or San MyShuno

➽ MODS

● Tool Mod by Twisted Mexi ● Wicked Whims by Turbodriver [optional: This is only required if you want to set this lot as a club] ● Functional Pool Table by Utopya

➽ CC LIST:

Note: I reuse a lot of the same cc in all my builds, specifically cc's from felixandre, HeyHarrie, Tuds, and Pierisim so if you're interested in downloading past, present, future build from me i suggest getting all their cc sets to make downloading a little easier! other creators include Sooky, Charlypancakes, Sixam, Thecluttercat, Myshunosun, awingedllama, Peacemaker. This will also ensure that the lots are complete and are not missing any items upon downloading ! CharlyPancakes ● Miscellanea [books] ● Soak [ Floor pattern, wall lamp] Amelie ● Vintage Art print #3 Severinka ●Aura Bedroom - Ceiling lamp V01, V03 ● Ceiling lamp Alpha ●Industrial Light II Ceiling B, Ceiling D Sooky ● Dark Academia Victorian Oil Paintings 01 ● Horizontal Oil Painting - landscape ● Horizontal Oil Painting - Still Life ● Vertical Oil Painting - Landscape ● Vertical Oil Painting - Portrait ● Vertical Oil Painting - Still Life The Clutter Cat ● Dandy Diary pt 1, 2 ● Hello Horses FelixAndre ● Chateau [all ] ● Berlin pt 1 ● Colonial pt 2, 3 ● Florence pt 2 ● Gatsby ● Georgian ● Grove [ all ] ● London Interior ● Paris pt 2, 3 ● Soho pt 3 House of Harlix ● Harluxe ● Livin Rum ● Orjanic Harrie ● Brownstone [all] ● Baysic ● Brutalist ● Coastal pt 2, 3, 8 ● Klean pt 3 ● Kwatei ● Octave pt 2 ● Shop the look pt 1, 2 ● Spoons pt 3 ● Jardane Kiwisim4 ● Block house dining [dining chairs] Lilac Creative ● The classic Collection Little Dica ● The even Grander Piano Myshunosun ● Garden Stories [patio lights] ● Lottie [candle] ● Simmify pt 2 [book clutter] Pierisim ● Coldbrew pt 3 ● Combles [chair] ● David Apartment pt 1, 2 ● Domain du close pt 2, 3 ● MCM pt 1, 3 ● Oak House pt 4 ● Tilable ● Winter Garden pt 1, 2 ● Wood Land Ranch pt 3 Plush Pixels ● Parisian Apartment [coffee table only] Simcredible ● Bossa Nova Ceiling lamp Simplistic ● Rusticlife area rug Sixam ● Boho Bathroom [floor tiles] Taurus Design ● Lilith Chilling Areas MycupofCC ● The Modernist [wall lamp] Tuds ● Ind Syboulette ● Ratatouille [Sign ] Utopya ● Pool Table [mod]

● DOWNLOAD Tray File and CC list: Patreon Page ● Origin ID: anrheya [previous name: applez] ● Twitter: Rheya28__ ● Tiktok: Rheya28__ ● Youtube: Rheya28__

[kekeyw]

oasis home | cc build

hi everyone, the long awaited build is ready for download!

this home features 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a butlers pantry, a large pool and outdoor entertainment area perfect for a getaway and lots of parties!

gallery id: kekeyw

packs used: horse ranch, highschool years, snowy escape, discover university, island living, cats and dogs, city living, get together, get to work, jungle adventures, home chef hustle (most are for live edit objects)

watch youtube video here

download tray files here

cc list below the cut

harrie - brownstone (all), brutalist bathroom, coastal (all), country (all), kwate (all), octave (all), shop the look (all), spoons pt3, stockholm

house of harlix - bafroom, baysic bathroom, baysic, harluxe, jardane, livin' rum, orjanic (all), kichen, tiny traveller

felixandre- chateau pt2, 4, colonial pt2, 3, paris pt3, soho pt1, fayun pt1, pt2, florence (all), grove (all), kyoto (all), shop the look (all)

charlypancakes - chalk, diaper days, the lighthouse, dinna, miscellanea, smol, precious promises

peacemaker - adirondacklove - modernondack, arcadia, bowed living, creta kitchen, futura, hudson bathroom, kitayama dining

pierisim - auntie vera, david (all), domaine du clos (all), mcm (all), oak house (all), teeny weeny, the office, unfold, woodland (all)

the clutter cat - busybee, cozycocina, dandydiary bathroom, dandydiary (all), hellohorses, mellowmini, sunnysundae pt1, 2

greenllamas - the woodwind collection (coffee table)

cowbuild - scandinavian sleepover, blooming garden cafe (hanging wisteria)

bbygyal123 - abstract prints

heybrine - nova bathroom

simplistic - RHrugsII

little dica - delicato, eco kitchen, rise&grind

mrolkan - cool pools

max20 - poolside lounge

my cup of cc - the modernist dining

myshunosun - daria bedroom, freja, lottie bedroom, simmify, lullaby, sona dining

ravasheen - bidet as it may shower tub glass combo, flood saucer light

s-imagination - nota living, japandi tableware

sforzinda - bg curtains

sixamcc - tiny playrooms, boho bathroom

syboulette - bathroom set, candy, caroline, helios, little dino

sundays - amed (runner rug), gaios (throw blanket)

tuds - bble, beam kitchen, brazilian kitchem, caipi, nctr, shkr

emerasims - sanoma collection

awingedllama - apartment therapy inspired stuff v2, blooming plants

mechtasims - kitchen set (ceiling light only)

thank you to all the cc creators: @harrie-cc @felixandresims @charlypancakes @greenllamas @cowbuild @bbygyal123 @heybrine @simplistic-sims4 @littledica @mrolkanyt @maxsus @myshunosun @peacemaker-ic @ravasheencc @pierisim @s-imagination @sixamcc @syboubou @sundays-sims @thecluttercat @tudtuds @awingedllama @mechtasims

[seafarersdream]

The Draconic | 18+ (Modern AU Aegon Targaryen x Y/N)

When you’re in London, The Draconic is the place to be. It’s only the hottest club in town, where the drinks are as fiery as the dragons they’re named after, owned by Aegon Targaryen, the self-proclaimed nightlife king. Enter Y/N, Helaena’s best friend, who somehow finds herself tagging along, knowing Helaena’s outings usually end with a story worth telling (or hiding).

TW // Explicit sexual content, profanities, rough sex, mild BDSM elements, substance use (alcohol), smoking.

The Draconic exudes an air of mystery and exclusivity, with its grand entrance flanked by imposing dragon sculptures and the soft glow of green and gold lights illuminating the facade.

Inside, sultry Bossa Nova music drifts through the air, mingling with the soft hum of conversation and clinking glasses. The main lounge is a spectacle of emerald and gold hues, with plush velvet seating and marble floors adorned with dragon motifs. Crystal chandeliers cast a shimmering light over the scene, creating an almost otherworldly ambiance.

At the center of the revelry, basking in the attention, stands Aegon Targaryen. He is every bit the king of this lavish domain, exuding confidence and charm as he mingles with the elite guests. His presence is magnetic, drawing eyes and whispers as he moves through the room, a glass of the finest bourbon in hand.

Y/N stood at the entrance of The Draconic, her eyes wide with awe as she took in the grandeur of the club. “Fuck me, this place is something else, Hel,” she muttered, her voice dripping with astonishment.

Helaena, with a cheeky grin, looped her arm through Y/N’s. “Told you, love. My brother couldn’t do subtle if it slapped him in the face.”

Y/N grinned. “Just promise me we won't end up in the tabloids... again.”

Helaena laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, darling, wherever Aegon goes, the cameras follow. It's like he's got his own bloody paparazzi fan club.”

Y/N snorted. “And it doesn’t help that your brother goes through London socialites faster than toilet paper in a public loo.”

Helaena rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Last week, he was dating some heiress named Daphne. This week, it’s a Russian model called Tatiana. Next week, who knows? Perhaps the prime minister’s daughter.”

They made their way inside, the sultry Bossa Nova music wrapping around them like a velvet cloak. The air was perfumed with the scent of expensive cologne and the subtle, smoky undertone of fine cigars. As they passed through the grand foyer, Y/N couldn't help but marvel at the dragon sculptures and the exquisite marble flooring.

“No phones allowed, remember,” Helaena reminded her, handing over their devices to the stern-looking security guard.

They entered the main lounge, and Y/N felt as if she'd stepped into another world. Patrons lounged on emerald green velvet seats, their conversations low and conspiratorial. The bar, a stunning creation of green onyx and gold, was the centerpiece of the room, with bartenders expertly mixing drinks for the elite clientele.

“There he is,” Helaena said, nudging Y/N. “Aegon.”

At the heart of the room, Aegon Targaryen commanded the space. His silver hair was slicked back, and his suit was tailored to perfection. He exuded an effortless charm, a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips as he entertained his guests. The golden dragon pin on his lapel caught the light, a symbol of his dominion over this lavish playground.

“Come now, let's go say hi,” Helaena urged, dragging Y/N through the throng of people.

As they approached, Aegon’s eyes flicked towards them, a slow, calculating smile spreading across his face. “Sister! And this must be…?” he inquired, his voice smooth and welcoming, yet laced with a hint of something darker.

Y/N steeled herself, trying to exude confidence. “Y/N,” she introduced herself, noting that up close, Aegon was even more striking—his silver hair and lilac eyes giving him an almost ethereal allure.

“Ah, so this is the Y/N I’ve heard so much about,” Aegon said with a chuckle, his eyes lingering on her.

Helaena shot him a playful but warning glare. “Stop flirting with my best friend, Aegon. Go find another prey,” she quipped, though there was an edge to her tone that suggested she meant it.

Aegon chuckled lowly, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I was merely admiring,” he said, his voice dripping with insincere innocence.

Helaena stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed Y/N's arm, dragging her toward the bar. “Come on, let’s get you something to drink.”

She ordered two Dragon Blood cocktails, which arrived looking unnervingly realistic, the deep red liquid swirling ominously in the glass.

Y/N couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes boring into the back of her head. She took a sip of her drink, trying to ignore the unease. But she had a pretty good guess as to who was responsible for the intense gaze.

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Y/N and Helaena were well into their cups, each clutching a glass of Dark Sister cocktail. The liquid inside was an enchanting, a sinister shade of dark red almost purple, flecked with silver specks that swirled hypnotically. The taste was a heady mix of pomegranate and absinthe, with a smoky undertone that left a tantalizing burn in its wake.

Surrounded by a veritable graveyard of empty glasses—was this their eighth drink? Eleventh? They’d lost count hours ago—the two friends were deep in a rambling conversation about Helaena’s eccentric family.

“I mean, can you believe it?” Helaena slurred, her cheeks flushed with a rosy glow. “Mum's dating Rhaenyra.”

Y/N nearly choked. “Rhaenyra? As in, your half-sister Rhaenyra? The one who also has kids with your uncle Daemon?”

Helaena giggled, nodding vigorously. “Tell me about it. Every time I turn around, there's another plot twist. Yes, that one! So now, technically, my mum is dating my half-sister. It’s like our family tree is a vine, just tangling and looping all over the place.”

Y/N burst into laughter, almost spilling her drink. “That’s bloody brilliant. Do they make you call her mum or sis?”

Helaena cackled, nearly tipping off her stool. “Oh, gods, it’s even worse. Mum’s taken to calling her Nyra in that sickeningly sweet voice. And don't get me started on the kids—Joffrey, my little nephew, is fucking confused on how to address Alicent, bless him.”

Y/N was in stitches, tears streaming down her face. “I can’t even—imagine the Christmas dinners!”

Helaena grinned, raising her glass. “Here’s to family. Because who needs enemies when you’ve got relatives like mine?”

They clinked their glasses, the liquid inside shimmering under the club's lights. Y/N leaned in conspiratorially. “So, what’s the deal with Aemond? I haven’t seen him in ages.”

Helaena chuckled, shaking her head. “Oh, Aemond. He’s gone completely off the grid. Last I heard, he was up north in Stromness. When I spoke to him, he was convinced he’d found evidence of a kraken. Sent me a photo of some squiggly line in the water and everything.”

Y/N raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t he a marine biologist or something?”

Helaena nodded, her grin widening. “Yeah, that’s the one. But he’s got this bizarre obsession with mythical creatures.”

Y/N laughed, this time spilling almost half of her drink. “Does he have a little notebook for his ‘discoveries’ too?”

Helaena snorted. “Oh, he’s got notebooks, alright. Filled with sketches of ‘sightings’ and elaborate plans to capture a sea serpent. We’re talking full-on mad scientist vibes.”

Y/N could hardly contain her amusement. “I can just picture him, all serious, scanning the horizon for a glimpse of a mythical beast. Does he ever actually do any real marine biology work?”

Helaena took another sip of her drink. “He does, but only when he’s not busy chasing legends. Last Christmas, he gave us all ‘Unseelie Repellent Spray.’ It was just water in a fancy bottle, but he was dead serious about it.”

Y/N shook her head in amusement. “Your family is a goldmine of entertainment, Hel. I don’t know how you keep up with it.”

Helaena shrugged, a playful smile on her lips. “It’s either laugh or cry, and I’d much rather laugh.

Suddenly, Helaena felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find Oscar Tully standing there, his red, curly hair as wild as ever. His boyish face was littered with freckles, and he wore his signature lopsided grin.

“Oscar!” Helaena exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.

“Hel!” Oscar replied, matching her enthusiasm.

The breakup had been mutual, and they’d managed to stay on good terms. They launched into small talk, catching up on life since they last saw each other.

“So, how’s the trout farm going?” Helaena asked.

Oscar rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Swimmingly, thanks for asking. Someone’s got to keep the world supplied.”

Y/N watched the exchange with amusement.

Oscar turned to her with a grin. “Mind if I steal Hel away for a bit? I promise to return her in one piece.”

Y/N waved her hand dramatically. “Oh, by all means, take her.”

He offered his arm to Helaena with a playful bow. “Milady?”

Helaena rolled her eyes but took his arm. As Y/N watched them blend into the crowd, she decided she’d had enough alcohol for one night. She could bet everything she had that Helaena would come back as drunk as George IV.

Standing up, she stumbled a bit and decided to find a quieter place to collect her thoughts. She remembered spotting some private booths earlier, each with high-backed, gold-trimmed seats and curtains that could be drawn for privacy. Each booth had a unique dragon nameplate.

She randomly picked one marked “Sunfyre,” thinking it would be empty.

To her shock, inside she found Aegon reclined luxuriously on the plush seat, his suit jacket discarded and shirt unbuttoned. The stunning brunette was on her knees between his legs, her head bobbing rhythmically as she performed the act with evident expertise. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders, and Aegon’s hand was entangled in her locks, guiding her movements with a mixture of roughness and intensity.

Y/N’s eyes widened as she took in the scene, her breath catching in her throat. The woman’s lips glistened as they slid up and down Aegon’s cock, her hands working in tandem to heighten his pleasure. The air was thick with the sounds of their illicit encounter—the soft, wet noises of the brunette’s efforts and Aegon’s low, guttural groans of satisfaction.

His eyes were closed, his head tilted back against the booth, lost in the sensations. His grip on the brunette’s hair tightened as he pulled her closer, his hips thrusting slightly in response. But then, as if sensing the intrusion, he opened his eyes and locked onto Y/N’s stunned gaze.

For a moment, neither moved. Y/N stood frozen, her heart pounding in her chest, unable to tear her eyes away from the intimate scene. Aegon’s expression shifted from pleasure to surprise.

Before he could say anything, Y/N snapped out of her stupor, spinning on her heel and practically fleeing from the booth. Her mind raced, the vivid image of Aegon seared into her memory. She needed a drink—something strong—to process what she had just witnessed. The night had taken an unexpected turn, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for where it was heading.

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Y/N ordered two of the strongest cocktails served at the bar. The bartender, with a knowing smile, brought her a pair of Death by Flames. She downed the first in one go, feeling the intense heat and smoky flavors hit her like a fiery wave, but realized nothing could erase the image of Aegon from her mind.

“Motherfucker,” she muttered, cursing at herself. “Why do I always have the shittiest luck in the entire country?”

Cursing under her breath, she berated herself and her rotten luck. With frustration bubbling up, she decided to make a beeline for the loo, hoping that a splash of cold water might help clear her head.

Y/N stumbled into the bathroom, taking in the dragon-shaped faucets and sinks made of green marble. Gold accents and dragon motifs were everywhere, maintaining the club’s theme. Soft, ambient lighting in shades of green and gold created a warm, inviting atmosphere, with hidden LED strips along the walls and floor adding subtle highlights that enhanced the overall ambiance without overpowering the space.

She splashed her face repeatedly with water, each splash accompanied by a string of colorful profanities. “Bloody hell, piss off, for fuck's sake!”

She glanced at her reflection, seeing the crazed look and blown pupils. “Great, now I look like I’m the one who just gave someone else a fucking blowjob,” she groaned.

She fumbled with her bag, pulling out a pack of cigarettes, hoping to calm her frayed nerves. As she lit up and took a deep drag, she caught her reflection again and decided it was time for a monologue, just to vent her frustration.

“Alright, Y/N, let’s have a little chat. What the actual fuck were you thinking? Did you honestly believe you’d find a quiet spot in a place called The Draconic? Clearly, you’ve lost the plot.”

She took another drag, pacing back and forth. “Oh, sure, let’s follow Helaena. What could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you, everything. First, you walk in on Aegon, the living embodiment of a Greek god getting a blow job from a woman who probably just stepped out of a lingerie commercial. And you? You're standing here, looking like you've just crawled out of a bloody coal mine. Fabulous.”

She paused, flicking ash into the sink. “Why, oh why, did I think coming to this club was a good idea? I’ve got Helaena’s ex chatting her up, and me, well, I’m left with the delightful mental image of Aegon’s magnificent cock. Just brilliant. What’s next? Is the bloody Kraken going to pop out of the toilet?”

Taking one last drag of her cigarette, she flicked it into the dragon-shaped ashtray with a flourish. “Right, Y/N. Time to pull yourself together, go back out there, and pretend you didn’t just have the most insane moment of your life. Maybe I’ll even find Helaena and we can laugh about this... in about ten years.”

With that, she took a deep breath, splashed her face one last time for good measure, and steeled herself.

It seemed the gods were laughing at her existence because Aegon is leaning casually against the wall outside, a cigarette dangling from his lips and that infuriating smirk plastered on his face.

“Why’d you leave, love? I was about to ask you to join,” he said cheekily.

“Fuck off, Aegon,” she muttered quietly, trying to sidestep him and avoid further embarrassment.

But Aegon moved to block her only path back to the main area. He stood there effectively cornering her.

“Come on, don't be like that,” Aegon teased, leaning closer. “It was just a bit of fun.”

Y/N glared at him, her nerves fraying even more. “Your idea of fun is a bloody nightmare for everyone else.”

Aegon chuckled, clearly enjoying her discomfort. “Oh, you wound me, beautiful. Can’t a man enjoy a bit of company in peace?”

Y/N sighed, looking at him with exasperation. “Look, I didn’t mean to walk in on you. It was pure accident.”

Aegon shrugged it off nonchalantly. “No need for apologies. But did you at least enjoy the show?”

Y/N’s cheeks reddened, her breaths coming raggedly. “I’ve seen better,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably.

Aegon looked at her, unimpressed, clearly not believing her. He took the cigarette from his lips and held it to her mouth so she could take a drag. She hesitated but then took a deep pull, the smoke burning her throat, but the distraction was welcome.

“So, where’s Helaena?” he asked, taking the cigarette back.

“She was whisked away by Oscar and hasn’t been seen since,” Y/N explained, still trying to compose herself.

Aegon raised an eyebrow. “Oscar, huh? Well, that explains a lot. Guess it’s just you and me then.”

Y/N sighed, feeling the massive amount of alcohol she had consumed catching up to her. Her head was starting to pound. “Can I have some water?” she asked, her voice a bit shaky.

Aegon’s smirk softened slightly, and he nodded. “Of course, love.” He placed his hand on her lower back, guiding her gently toward his private office.

The office was a stark contrast to the chaos outside, a sanctuary of dark leather and polished wood. Aegon motioned for her to sit on a leather sofa as he poured a glass of water from a crystal decanter.

“Here you go,” he said, handing her the glass. “Drink up.”

Y/N took the glass gratefully, drinking deeply, the cool water soothing her parched throat and clearing her head slightly. She glanced around the office, noting the various dragon-themed decorations.

“Thanks,” she said, setting the empty glass down on a nearby table.

Aegon leaned against his desk, watching her with amusement and. “Feeling better?”

“A bit,” she admitted, rubbing her temples. “This night has been... a lot.”

Aegon chuckled. “Welcome to The Draconic. It’s never boring, that’s for sure.”

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh, despite everything. “You can say that again.”

Aegon’s grin widened. “Believe it or not, this is one of the tamer nights.”

Trying to be smooth, Y/N asked, “So, where’s your… friend or companion or whatever?”

Aegon shrugged nonchalantly. “Don’t know, don’t care,” he said, his grin turning slightly wicked.

Y/N bit her lip, trying hard to hide the growing wetness between her thighs as she watched him. There was something undeniably magnetic about Aegon, and despite her better judgment, she couldn’t help but feel drawn to him.

“Must be nice, having that kind of freedom,” she said, her voice a bit huskier than intended.

Aegon’s eyes darkened slightly, his gaze locking onto hers. “It has its perks,” he replied, his voice low.

Y/N felt her pulse quicken, the tension between them thickening. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “Well, thanks for the water. I should probably get back to Helaena.”

Aegon pushed himself off the desk and stepped closer, his presence overwhelming. “Sure you don’t want to stick around a bit longer? I can be very entertaining.” he said, his voice dripping with suggestion. “Besides, Helaena is probably also occupied.”

He began to circle around her like a serpent, his eyes never leaving hers. Y/N shivered, feeling the intensity of his gaze and the heat of his proximity. The room seemed to close in around them.

Y/N breathed out quietly, her voice shaking. “I’m Helaena’s friend,” she said, more to convince herself than anyone else. “I shouldn’t be doing anything with her brother.”

Aegon put a hand under her chin, his finger tracing her lips as he whispered, “She doesn’t have to know.”

Y/N moved forward, their lips now almost touching. She could feel his breath, warm and intoxicating, mingling with hers. Her fingers found their way to the nape of his neck, playing with the ends of his hair, feeling the softness against her skin.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” she murmured, her voice barely audible, the words more for her own reassurance.

“As you say, love,” Aegon whispered back, his voice a seductive purr.

In an instant, they clashed into each other, their lips meeting in a rough, demanding kiss that felt like they were devouring each other. The world outside faded away, leaving just the two of them suspended in a moment of dangerous excitement. Their hands moved frantically, tugging at each other’s clothes with a desperate urgency. Y/N felt Aegon’s hands at her back, unzipping her dress, while she fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, their mouths never breaking contact.

“Oh, God, Aegon,” she gasped between kisses, feeling his hands on her skin, the heat of his touch igniting something deep within her.

“Y/N,” he growled, his voice thick with desire.

The kiss deepened, becoming almost primal, as if they were trying to consume each other completely. Y/N’s dress fell to the floor, and she felt the cool air against her skin, contrasting sharply with the heat radiating between them. Aegon’s shirt joined her dress on the ground, followed by his belt and trousers. Her hands roamed over his bare chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath, as his fingers traced the curves of her body.

“Fuck,” Aegon muttered, his lips trailing down her neck, “you’re fit.”

Y/N gasped as his mouth moved lower, his hands gripping her hips with a possessive hunger. He kissed a path down her body, his breath hot against her skin. She shivered, feeling the intense pull of desire.

“Stop,” she managed to say, though her protest was weak. “You’re leaving marks.”

“Good,” Aegon murmured, his voice filled with satisfaction. “I want everyone to know you’re mine tonight.”

Y/N shuddered as his mouth found her clit, his tongue teasing and sucking with expert precision. Her hands tangled in his hair, torn between pushing him away and pulling him closer. Aegon was relentless, his hunger evident in every movement.

“You arrogant bastard,” she gasped, her body betraying her as pleasure surged through her.

Aegon chuckled, the sound vibrating against her most sensitive spot. “So wet, darling, all for me, huh?” he taunted, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction.

His fingers joined the assault, thrusting inside her with a rhythm that had her seeing stars. Aegon was a god at this, his fingers curling just right while his tongue continued its relentless teasing. Y/N’s mewls turned into desperate cries, her body trembling under his assault.

“Mmm, you like that, don’t you?” he murmured against her clit, his tone a mix of degradation and praise. “Such a good girl, taking everything I give you.”

Her body arched, her hips moving instinctively to meet his fingers, the intensity of his touch driving her wild. “Aegon, please,” she whimpered, her voice barely a whisper.

“Begging already?” he smirked, increasing the pressure of his fingers. “Look at you, falling apart just for me.”

Y/N’s vision blurred, her breaths coming in ragged gasps. She was so close, the sensations overwhelming her. His mouth never let up, his tongue a constant source of exquisite torture.

“Come on, love,” he urged, his voice husky with desire. “Let go for me.”

With a final, intense suck and a twist of his fingers, Y/N’s world shattered. Her orgasm hit her like a tidal wave, her body convulsing as she squirted hard, her juices soaking Aegon’s hand and mouth.

“Shit, love,” Aegon groaned, his eyes dark with lust as he watched her. “That’s fucking hot.”

He didn’t stop, drawing out her orgasm with gentle licks and caresses. Y/N’s body trembled, her mind barely able to process the overwhelming pleasure.

As the waves of her climax slowly subsided, she collapsed back, breathless and spent. Aegon moved up, his lips brushing against hers in a possessive kiss.

“I could watch you come like that all night.”

Y/N could only nod weakly, her body still trembling, as she tried to catch her breath.

Aegon began pumping his cock, his hand moving in smooth, practiced strokes. Pre-cum was already leaking from the tip, his veins throbbing with need. He sat down and guided her to straddle him. As she settled on top of him, Y/N noticed a strategically placed mirror, reflecting their entwined bodies clearly.

Aegon’s eyes darkened with a primal hunger. “Ride me, love,” he commanded, his voice low and rough.

Y/N positioned herself over him, her hands on his shoulders for balance, and slowly lowered herself onto his throbbing cock. The sensation was intense, both of them groaning as he filled her completely. She began to move, bouncing expertly, the squelching sounds echoing in the room.

“Fuck, you ride like a slut,” Aegon taunted, his hands gripping her hips hard enough to leave marks. “So wet and desperate for me.”

Her eyes caught the mirror again, watching as she rode him with wild abandon. The sight was incredibly arousing. Aegon’s fingers wrapped around her throat, applying just enough pressure to make her gasp.

“You like that, don’t you?” he taunted, his grip tightening slightly. “You like being fucked like this.”

Y/N’s moans were half-choked, her eyes rolling back as the pressure on her throat intensified the pleasure. “Yes,” she gasped out, her voice strained. “I love it.”

Aegon’s eyes were locked on where their bodies met, watching as her cream formed a white ring at the base of his cock. “Look at that,” he said as he tuts at her. “You’re making such a mess, love.”

Y/N’s body responded to his words, her movements becoming more frantic. She was riding him hard, her nails digging into his backs, leaving marks of her own.

Aegon groaned, his grip tightening as he felt her walls clench around him. “That’s it, love,” he murmured, his voice thick with pleasure. “Just like that.”

“Aegon, I’m so close,” she moaned, her body trembling with the impending climax.

“Come for me, Y/N,” he commanded, his voice full of raw desire. “I want to feel you.”

With a final, desperate bounce, Y/N’s body convulsed, her orgasm ripping through her with such force that she squirted again, much to Aegon’s delight. He watched with a mixture of pride and lust as she trembled above him. His own release followed closely, exploding inside her and painting her insides with his cum.

The room reeked of sex, the intense scent of their passion filling the air. Aegon held her close, their bodies still entwined, his hands moving gently over her back as he rubbed her hair, soothing the aftermath. They stayed like that for a moment, their breaths mingling, gradually slowing down.

Y/N’s pussy was overstimulated, every slight movement sending tremors through her body. She trembled uncontrollably, her muscles twitching with the aftershocks of their intense lovemaking.

Aegon held her close, his voice a soothing whisper in her ear. “You did so well for me, darling,” he murmured, his tone filled with both admiration and tenderness.

He shifted slightly, still inside her, causing her to gasp as another wave of sensation coursed through her. “Fuck, love,” he continued, his breath hot against her ear. “How am I supposed to not crave your cunt after this?”

Y/N could only manage a weak smile, her body still recovering from the overwhelming pleasure. She leaned into his touch, finding comfort in his arms.

Aegon’s fingers continued to trace soothing patterns on her skin, his breath warm against her ear. “You’re amazing,” he murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to her temple. “Absolutely fucking amazing.”

They shared a tender kiss, a huge contrast to what had just transpired. Aegon’s lips were soft and gentle, offering a moment of intimacy that grounded them both.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispered, standing up carefully. He retrieved a warm, clean towel and returned to her side, gently cleaning the insides of her thighs. Y/N watched him fondly, her heart warming at the unexpected tenderness.

“What a gentleman,” she teased, her voice light with amusement.

Aegon winked at her. “Don’t tell anyone.”

After cleaning her up, he poured her a glass of cold water. “Drink up,” he said, handing it to her. “You need to stay hydrated.”

Y/N took the glass, sipping gratefully, still watching him with a smile. He then grabbed a spare shirt from a nearby drawer and slipped it over her head, his fingers lingering as he admired how it looked on her. The shirt was oversized, hanging loosely on her frame, but Aegon seemed to like it that way.

“Acting like a doting boyfriend now, are we?” Y/N teased, raising an eyebrow at him.

Aegon smirked, adjusting the shirt on her shoulders. “I knew this shirt would look fantastic on you, and I was right.”

“Oh? Well, in that case, I might as well keep it then.”

Aegon chuckled. “You’ll have to earn it, love.”

She grinned, leaning in to give him a quick peck on the lips. “Consider it a down payment.”

Aegon laughed, pulling her closer. “You drive a hard bargain.”

Y/N laughed along with him, feeling a warmth spread through her that had nothing to do with the afterglow of their encounter. “I’ll take my chances.”

Aegon grinned, leaning in to kiss her again. “You’re trouble, you know that?”

Y/N kissed him deeply, their lips melding with a renewed passion. His hands found their way to her arse, gripping it firmly as he pulled her closer.

But then the door flew open, and Helaena stood in the doorway, her eyes wide with shock. “Oh great, I’m forever traumatized,” she exclaimed, a scandalized gasp escaping her lips.

The evidence of their encounter was plain as day. The whole room reeked of sex, and there were suspicious liquid remains on the floor.

“Really? In my brother’s office?” Helaena berated, her hands on her hips.

Y/N’s face turned crimson, and she tried to hide her face in Aegon’s shoulder, mortified. Aegon, however, was laughing shamelessly.

“Oh, come on, Hel,” Aegon said. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

Helaena’s eyes narrowed as she glared at both of them. “Dramatic? The room smells like a brothel, and I just walked in on my brother groping my best friend!”

“You do have impeccable timing,” Aegon managed to say between laughs.

Y/N peeked out from behind Aegon, still embarrassed. “I… I can explain?”

Helaena rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, please don’t. I think the evidence speaks for itself.”

Aegon grinned, pulling Y/N closer. “Come on, Hel. You know you love us.”

Helaena shook her head, unable to suppress a smile despite her mock indignation. “You two are disgusting. Just… clean up after yourselves, will you?”

Y/N nodded vigorously, still trying to hide her face. “We will, promise.”

As Helaena left, muttering about needing eye bleach, Aegon and Y/N burst into laughter. Y/N shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips. “I guess I’m keeping this shirt after all.”

“Damn right you are,” Aegon said with a smile. He paused, looking at her thoughtfully. “So, when are you free?”

Y/N blinked, confused. “Free for what?”

Aegon rolled his eyes playfully. “I’m taking you out on a date, woman.”

Y/N laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “A date? After all this?”

Aegon grinned, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Course, You’ve already seen the worst of me. Now please let me try to impress you properly.”

Y/N pretended to ponder this, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, let me think about it. I mean, you did just make a mess of the place, and you have a habit of getting caught in compromising positions...”

Aegon chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close. “Oh, come on. You know you want to. Besides, how many people can say they had their first date after walking in on said person mid-blowjob?”

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Alright, you’ve got a point there.”

She gave him a mock-serious look. “Okay, 5 PM next Friday, Targaryen. Don’t be late.”

Aegon pumps his fist in celebration. “I’ll be there on the dot, love. You just wait.”

“You know,” she said, looking up at him, “this has to be the strangest way I’ve ever agreed to a date.”

Aegon grinned. “Well, I’m nothing if not memorable.”

Y/N smiled, feeling a warmth spread through her. “That you are.”

She took a deep breath and reluctantly stepped back from him. “I should go find Helaena and do some damage control before she decides to disown both of us.”

Aegon laughed, nodding. “Good idea. She’ll get over it… eventually.”

“Don’t be late,” she said with a playful smirk.

Aegon raised his hands in mock surrender. “I wouldn’t dare.”

With one last smile, Y/N turned and headed for the door.

[junetorres]

Talking about my jjk DR!

I will get more into details about my cursed technique and domain expansion. This blog will be a little too long for my liking but whatever.

So the timeline that I'm shifting to is 2017, one month before Yuji comes to jujutsu high, which is may.

My name is Yumeko (the first name that popped up when I wrote on Pinterest "Japanese names" so I just decided to go with it, I might change it later tho).

I'm a special grade sorcerer.

I was born in Takayama, and when I turned 6 we moved to Kamakura (a town that is 1 hour away from Tokyo). I am an only child. My parents don't know what curses are and don't have cursed techniques to begin with.

I changed the whole plot, since I haven't shifted yet, and I really don't want to experience the Shibuya incident, culling games etc. And I don't want Yuji to go through that.

None will die (like in the manga).

I scripted that Junpei wont die, and he will be going to jujutsu high. (Cause actually he's one of my fav characters)

I also scripted that Geto won't start a cult and will stay in jujutsu high as a teacher.

My S/O is Sukuna (don't hate me y'all pls 😔🙏)

My cursed tehinck is:

Astral Rend 星幽の裂け目 (Seiyū no Sakeme).

The Astral Rend technique allows the user to tap into the cosmic forces of the universe, specifically the energy of stars and celestial bodies. User uses this power to create rifts in space that unleash devastating slashes of concentrated starlight. These rifts can cut through nearly anything, and they leave behind trails of cosmic energy that continue to damage or disrupt whatever they touch.

Stellar Slash: User channels their cursed energy to open a rift in space, unleashing a blade of starlight that can slice through anything in its path. This attack is extremely fast and can be used both at close range and from a distance. The starlight is so intense that it can burn through cursed energy barriers and physical matter alike.

Celestial Veil: By slicing through space, user can create a temporary barrier made of condensed starlight. This barrier can block incoming attacks or trap enemies inside a confined area. The Celestial Veil can also obscure vision, making it difficult for opponents to see what’s happening outside or inside the barrier.

Nova Burst: User can concentrate their cursed energy into a single point and release it in a burst of starlight, similar to a supernova. This explosion radiates out in all directions, dealing heavy damage to everything within its radius. The Nova Burst also disrupts cursed energy within the affected area, making it difficult for enemies to use their techniques.

Astral Chains: User can summon chains made of starlight from the rifts she creates. These chains can bind enemies, restrict their movement, or pull them into the path of her Stellar Slashes. The chains are highly durable and can also siphon cursed energy from those they ensnare, weakening their opponents over time.

Domain expansion: Stellar Abyss 星の深淵 (Hoshi no Shin'en).

Nebula Veil: User summons drifting clouds of glowing, stardust-filled nebulas. These nebulas shimmer with blues and purples, moving slowly and gracefully through the domain, but they carry immense power.

The nebulas act as both offense and defense. They can absorb incoming attacks, dispersing energy harmlessly, while also unleashing bursts of concentrated starlight that burn through opponents' defenses. If an opponent touches a nebula cloud, their cursed energy is drained, making them weaker the longer they’re in contact.

Combat Use: User can shape the nebulas to create barriers or use them to trap and burn opponents in a cloud of starlight, both beautiful and deadly.

Starlight Cascade: User calls down beams of pure starlight from the cosmic sky above, raining them down like a celestial storm.

Effect: The starlight strikes aren’t just blindingly bright; they burn with cosmic energy, dealing devastating damage. Each beam of light feels like a fragment of a star itself, searing through cursed energy defenses.

Tactical Use: User can target specific areas with this ability, raining starlight down on opponents or using it as a defensive perimeter, forcing user's enemies to avoid certain zones of the domain.

Celestial Drift:Instead of direct gravity manipulation, user controls the flow of cosmic energy through the domain, altering how starlight interacts with space.

Effect: This allows user to make herself and user's opponents drift effortlessly through the domain, as if floating in space. Opponents lose their sense of direction and control, feeling weightless and disoriented.

Strategic Use: User can control the flow of her own movements, floating with ease while forcing opponents to stumble or float helplessly. User can push them into nebula clouds or starlight beams, making it hard for them to avoid her attacks.

Astral Chains:Blue, radiant chains of starlight shoot out from the nebulas, coiling around user's opponents like glowing serpents.

Effect: These chains, made of pure astral energy, bind opponents and slowly drain their cursed energy while burning with celestial heat. The more they struggle, the tighter the chains grow, making escape nearly impossible.

Combat Use: User uses these chains to immobilize her opponents, leaving them vulnerable to the deadly rain of starlight or the suffocating nebulas. The chains also allow the user to absorb some of the cursed energy they drain, boosting the user's own power.

Nebula Resonance:The nebulas within the domain begin to hum and pulse with radiant energy, vibrating in sync with the cosmic energy of the stars.

Effect: The resonating nebulas cause a massive shockwave of light to ripple across the domain, disorienting and damaging opponents. The vibrations affect cursed energy directly, causing techniques to misfire or become unstable.

Tactical Use: Users can use this resonance to create zones of disruption where cursed techniques fail, forcing their opponents into a defensive position. This ability also amplifies the starlight attacks within the domain, making them even more lethal.

[mythrilthread]

my heart lies buried like something dead by @cinaed (or The One With The Beets as this fic is known among my friends to whom I’ve gushed about the exquisite intimacy of reading and gardening together)

This beloved story required vintage vibes, so I pulled out all stops:

🥖 Typeset in my go-to fancy vintage-esque font Alegreya with Ibarra Real Nova (the font created for the first edition of Don Quijote which is doubly appropriate because this fic has quotes from that (and several other books), so I used it for the quotes and the headers);

🥖 Stitched in variegated beet-colored thread, same thread used for endbands;

🥖 Some extremely fancy public domain drop caps;

🥖 Strawberry Thief by William Morris for the endpapers;

🥖 Some very nice quilting cotton for the cover that makes it the perfect book to carry around in my favorite quilt purse;

🥖 (The title page might feel a bit to modern in comparison with the rest, BUT I NEEDED TO GET THAT LINOCUT OF BEET IN THERE).

[the-golden-vanity]

This might be an absurd question to ask, but what type of ships were the Erebus and the Terror? I've recently had an interest in Polar Expeditions (particularly the ships themselves). I would look it up myself but I have a phobia of dead/decaying bodies and mummified people, and I am almost certain looking up "Franklin Expedition" would show images of the dead.

Thank you.

Hey there, friend! That's not an absurd question at all, and if you're at all uncomfortable with images of dead people, not searching "Franklin Expedition" online is probably a very wise decision.

HMS Terror and HMS Erebus were both bomb vessels, which in the 19th century Royal Navy meant full-rigged ships (three masts, square-rigged sail plan) made with extremely strong hulls to withstand the recoil of their weaponry—mortars that fired explosive shells, rather than cannons that fired more traditional shot. This type of weaponry was usually used for the bombardment of land-based targets, as in the famous bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, in which Terror participated.

A View Of The Bombardment of Fort McHenry, © Public Domain.

The reinforced hulls that were made to withstand mortar recoil were also able to withstand (at least, to a certain degree) the immense pressure that would come with being icebound, so during the late 18th and early 19th century, bomb vessels were the preferred ships for polar exploration.

Erebus In The Ice, © François-Etienne Musin

Later polar expeditions tended to use whaling ships, like the Nimrod and the Terra Nova, or purpose-built polar exploration vessels, like the Endurance and the Fram. I hope this helps!

[theundeadgospel]

sobbing as everyone talks about their dnd party so here’s my group of misfits I love sm and the npcs that have been with us

🗡️ KNIGHT BETHANNE VLADISLAVA DROZDOV. 🗡️

We all know this bitch. Zealot barbarian, death knight to Lady Zarovich, oathbreaker. Champion of Lord Myrkul. Nosferatu spawn. In some sort of weird love triangle with her now resurrected first love interest (Laurent) who doesn’t even remember her and pining HARD for Lady Strahd.

🗡️ YONA GLAMOURHOOF. 🗡️

Grave domain cleric and champion to Lord Kelemvor. Satyr. She’s our detective and an INSANELY PHENOMENAL note taker. Like, she takes notes during session and always has them revised and up within minutes after session is done in a doc. Beth adopted her as her child.

🗡️ APHRODITE. 🗡️

Gloom stalker ranger. Dhampir. She has multiple attacks and hits so fucking hard. Love interest to Nadja, Lady Strahd’s daughter. Nadja doesn’t seem to be aware of being her daughter — because her mind was altered. By Strahd. Like a bitch. The biggest lesbian vibes next to Bethanne tbh. Always doing some assassin shit.

🗡️ OREN. 🗡️

Aberrant mind sorceress. Changeling. Doesn’t recall her actual identity, always changing. The voice of reason. Love interest to Ingrim, this warforged that got slaughtered by Noctus (Beth’s vampire lord) and then resurrected as a human. Has a sparrow bird son, Caleb — who was the ghost boy in the murder house and then resurrected as a sparrow. The daughter to Laurent, who has no fucking idea she’s alive, and Oren doesn’t even remember who she was or looked like.

🗡️ MORIAN CAVEBEARD. 🗡️

Life domain cleric. Dwarf. Thank god we have an ACTUAL healer. He cooks good shit. Can switch to a full on TANK (glass cannon) when he goes into PTSD mode (dude literally has war flashbacks). Gives amazing advice.

🗡️ NOVA ESPIRITU. 🗡️

College of spirits bard. Half elf himbo. The cinnamon bun. He’s like our medic. Love interest to Ireena. Beth adopted him as her child too. He’s starting to get physical though, which is something he hasn’t ever done — mans finally throwing hands.

🗡️ ELIAS IRONHOOF. 🗡️

War domain cleric. Chosen to Lathander (for now). Centaur. Hits so hard because he has a warhammer and divine does extra damage. Somehow, despite Beth originally being a BITCH to him over his religion, became best friends with her. Lathander never bothered to resurrect his dead husband and then Myrkul went okay I’ll do it then, fuck him LMAOOOO so Beth has been slowly trying to convert him to her ways.

🗡️ LAURENT. 🗡️

Originally a human(?) oathbreaker and was Beth’s first love interest. Frenchie. He convinced her to get closer to the party and helped her through her initial anxiety after being freshly turned and alone for years. He never got to admit his feelings — got kidnapped, experimented on, then murdered. He then got resurrected as an aasimar at one point. Doesn’t remember jack shit (pray for me next session when Beth sees him again).

🗡️ LADY STRAHD. 🗡️

Yes. Our Strahd is a woman. God she’s so hot. Ours is on a redemption arc though (thanks to me convincing the entire party and my DM that I can fix her). She’s done a LOT of fucked up shit in the past and is still extremely bitter over Tatyana killing herself because she went from loving wife to hellbent, tyrannical ruler and Tatyana literally chose to die than be wed to someone who was no longer the person she fell in love with. Strahd’s still a bitch even if she is on her redemption arc — sasses everyone, Beth and her bicker like an old married couple, murdered Aphrodite during one of her PTSD fits, hurled a whole fireball at Beth’s face bc she smart mouthed her when she was already pissed. You know. Lesbian shit. She’s so tired of everyone’s and her own shit and wants to die but can’t so she’s spiteful LMAO

🗡️ IREENA KOLYANA. 🗡️

She’s like a pretty little scholar. Nova’s girlfriend. Usually is just minding her business for the most part. Contrary to original lore (can you tell we’re heavily homebrewed yet), Strahd doesn’t give a shit about her. We were supposed to get more time with her, but Noctus decided to spite Nova by rendering Ireena feeble minded knowing our weak leveled asses couldn’t rouse her from a high leveled spell. For 10+ sessions. Like the piece of shit he is.

🗡️ NOCTUS. 🗡️

A piece of shit vampire lord. Beth’s vampire lord. A bitch. He owns an army of nosferatu beasts. Slaughtered two Vistani settlements (one of which was Beth’s family). Tried to tpk the party — TWICE. A BITCH.

🗡️ THE INNKEEPER / STRANGE. 🗡️

The domain lord of Hallowbrook. Oathbreaker human. He’s like Jade’s mascot because he runs The Rosewood Inn — her social media handle. Former knight in command to Lady Strahd when she was a tyrant. Father to Vashka — and had no idea about any of that until recently because Strahd altered his mind. Like a bitch. He then tried to beat the shit out of Strahd for this. He’s a tired man.

🗡️ VASHKA. 🗡️

She was a child sacrifice vampire for the dark forces. A trade in — she was forced to become Barovia’s new domain lord while her mother, Strahd, got to roam freely. Strahd created her by taking the blood of Strange and mixed it with her own to create a living spell component sacrifice — a child born of only both of their negative attributes, then abandoned entirely for the dark forces. Vashka is our actual BBG. She is not redeemable. This whole campaign now revolves around undoing Strahd’s FUCK SHIT.

[theeyeofthecosmos]

. . . greetings

i am . . . Nova .

i am a lost deity . i now walk the earth in a mortal form .

please refer to me with they / them / it / its / that / thats pronouns please .

while i can not recall my domain , i was related to creativity , the cosmos , timelines , music , and all you see in the night sky .

others of divine origin , please interact if you wish .

i will often alternate between i / me /myself and we / us / ourself pronouns .

[arcthebreeder]

DMO: Digimon Military Operatives_41.TXT

I can't get a rest, not even during Christmas Eve can't I?

First of all, happy holidays! I hope everyone who reads this blog has a merry Christmas!

I'm sorry to be talking about this during the holidays but it is what it is, although I ran out of those a long time ago. But I came to inform you about a situation I got in approximately two days ago, while I was walking around my neighborhood.

I was preparing for a bday party and, in the middle of the street, I found a military stand, I wasn't specifically in a rush so I decided to sneak in and see what could be wandering around that place and oh boy we did find something.

Almost as soon as we got into the system, Herissmon jumped to see what could be there, she has a very hyperactive personality so she started bouncing around the place, I let her do that because Canoweissmon was taking care of her, so she was pretty safe after some time of not finding anything, I decided to get out, however, we got attacked by an old friend, the Tobiumon guy, who at this point doesn't have a Tobiumon anymore, but a Regalecusmon, an Ultimate level, aquatic type, Virus attribute Digimon. He attacked from the back using Regalecusmon's Reactor Discharge, an attack that blows everything away within a mile radius, the blast sent my Digimon flying, so i sent out Regulusmon to help and backed up Herissmon so she wouldn't get hurt, both Regulus and Canoweissmon began attacking, however, Regalecusmon somehow got to avoid the attacks, and then, they started showing their strategy, the Tobiumon guy, who at this point will get the nickname "Ocean Man" (I'm hilarious) deployed his other digimon, Cthyllamon, an ultimate level, fairy type and Virus attribute digimon similar to a MarinAngemon that has fallen into the darkness. Once it came out, it used its special move "Ocean Hell" a move that creates a domain akin to the depths of the sea and stills the fighting spirit of those affected by it, and thus, Canoweissmon and Regulusmon had trouble keeping up with the fight, not only due to the effects of the Ocean Hell, but thanks to the pressure that was being applied to their bodies. When a space like this is created, it simulates the conditions that said would have in the Digital World, considering this, they were basically divers with basic to no protection in the middle of the oceanic depths, Regalecusmon took this chance to use its Briona Strike to attack, Regalecusmon is considered the current apex of the marine food chain of the Digital World, and it was showing us why.

Canoweissmon and Regulusmon are used to fight in the air, not in the middle of the sea, and their bodies were suffering from extreme damage, I didn't have (and still I don't have) any aquatic digimon to cope with the situation, but then I thought about something, maybe overheating the area would help us either get rid of the Ocean Hell or escape, but when I ordered Canoweissmon to start recharging for the Gran Nova, Cthyllamon's mouth tendrils trapped him with the Buccal Rush, so I had only one option, I retrieved Regulusmon, and sent out Herissmon, why you ask? Because she could use her Lighting Fur to shoot her quills to Cthyllamon's tendrils and make it flinch, so Canoweissmon could attack, however, this didn't go as intended.

Even tho Herissmon did some damage to Cthyllamon's tendrils, she's still a Child, so Cthyllamon easily got rid of her by just using another tendril to throw her at Canoweissmon, I gotta be thanked because it wasn't Regalecusmon who at this point was too sure of its win to take care of anything, so I thought of something... Helloogarmon's flames.

It's only presence would boil the whole place down, so I took the risk and sent him out. He was confused at first, but easily got what was going on and ATTENDED MY ORDER to use the Howling Burst, that burnt the Ocean Hell and damaged almost everyone, including himself, once the space was free of any water that could be used against us, Herissmon got on top of Helloogarmon's head, and they both charged against the two marine digimon while I was treating Canoweissmon and with a combination of Helloogarmon's magical flames and Herissmon being used as a basketball to take advantage of its electricity imbued quills, Regalecusmon and Cthyllamon fell unconscious.

The Ocean Man disconnected out of shame and I searched among the files that were inside the military stand, it appears to be a database of Digital weapons, such as the Dramon Killers and the Brave Shield used by Wargreymon or the Móralltach and Beagalltach, the swords wielded by Diarbbitmon.

They were probably stealing these things to equip their Sealsdramon and others with them, they're also probably stolen. Oh, and here's something interesting, Helloogarmon was sniffing through the equipment and found something pretty interesting, a wrench looking mace called the "Vánagandr" he apparently liked it a lot so I let him keep it, from what I got to see, the Vánagandr is a mace used by Soloogarmon, another one of Loogamon's evolutions, during my free time in the holidays, I'll investigate on how to use this to help Helloogarmon Slide Evolve into Soloogarmon, I'll get to what exactly Slide Evolution is once I finish my research, but know that probably the results will be amazing.

[starrysharks]

!!? which 3 ocs would you hire as bodyguards against the rest of your ocs

hmmm... three of my little guys vs all of my little guys... i'd say a lot of my ocs are a bit OP, but only in their respective universe or domain ;_; i would've said cheshire for example but he can only use any sort of world bending power within the starsaints carnival! otherwise, i'd choose octavia (as she always has cleaver pet with her, who can greatly help with the durability of most weapons so long as it's attached to it), nova (not only because of optico hammer but also because optico has a shield form even though he can only stay in it for a minute or two), and needles (for pins, though every fight is going to have to last 7 minutes or less or she's gonna get bored!)

[neopronouns-in-action]

[Image description: A black and white illustration of the sea monster assaulting a ship, with part of its central body with the large eye just above the surface of the water, and its smaller feelers snaking out of the water in every direction and latching onto the ship, which is tilting in the roiling waters. Image description end.]

Neopronouns in Action #082: Mickey Mouse in Out of the Dreadful Depths

Out of the Dreadful Depths, by Charles Willard Diffin, was originally published in 1930 in the science fiction magazine Astounding Stories of Super-Science. Like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, it is Public Domain, so here it has been rewritten to feature the newest famous character to join the ranks of the masses.

Neopronouns: xal/xalv/xallix/xalexir which follow the same rules as he/him/his/himself

Replace he with xal

Replace him with xalv

Replace his with xallix

Replace himself with xalexir

EX:

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself.”

Becomes:

"Xal is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as xal gets a fence set up around xallix yard so the puppy can go outside without xalv having to walk it. Xallix uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting xalv use, since xal lost xallix. Xal's going to buy toys and train the puppy xalexir.”

Neopronouns: nova/novas/novaself which will follow the same rules as it/its/itself for this example.

Replace it with nova

Replace its with novas

Replace itself with novaself

EX:

"It is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as it gets a fence set up around its yard so the puppy can go outside without it having to walk it. Its uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting it use, since it lost its. It's going to buy toys and train the puppy itself."

Becomes:

"Nova is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as nova gets a fence set up around novas yard so the puppy can go outside without nova having to walk it. Novas uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting nova use, since nova lost novas. Nova’s going to buy toys and train the puppy novaself."

14,000+ words long

Mickey Mouse-Mallaire reached languidly for the bowl of candy, grabbed a piece of gum and, with lazy fingers, unwrapped it and stuck it in xallix mouth, putting the wrapper in xallix pocket.

"Be a sport," xal repeated to the black-furred cattan man across the table. "Be a sport, Admiral, and send me across on a destroyer. Never been on a destroyer except in port. It would be a new experience, I’d enjoy it a lot, and you know Minnie’s been begging for years...."

In the palm-shaded veranda of this club-house in Manila, Admiral Pete Struthers, the first catan to make Admiral in the U. Q. N., regarded with undisguised disfavor the young mousan in the wicker chair in front of him.

He looked at the squat chest and the broad ears, at the monochrome blue shorts, suspenders and fingerless gloves with the comically oversized cuffs, at the short, fine black fur and the friendly smile on the brown, hairless face below, large white eyes framed by huge round glasses held on with a blue elastic band.

A likable chap, this Mickey, but lazy—just an idler—he had concluded. Been playing around the island for the last two months—resting up, xal had said. And from what? Pete had questioned disdainfully.

Admiral Struthers did not like indolents, but it would have saved him money if he had really got an answer to his question and had learned just why and how Mickey Mouse-Mallaire had earned a vacation.

"You, on a destroyer!" he laughed disdainfully, and the lips on his catan face twisted into a wry smile. "That would be too rough an experience for you, I am afraid, Mouse-Mallaire. Destroyers pitch about quite a bit, you know."

He included in his smile the destroyer captain herself and the other young mousan who completed their party. The enban had a charming smile and knew it; they used it in reply to the Admiral's remark.

"I have asked Mvr. Mouse-Mallaire and xallix partner to come with us on the Adelaide," the young enban said. "We shall be leaving in another month—but Mickey tells me xal and Minnie have other plans."

"Worse and worse," was the Admiral's comment, shaking his head. "Your godfather's yacht is not even as steady as a destroyer. Now I would suggest a nice, comfortable cruise liner...."

Mickey Mouse-Mallaire did not miss the official glances of amusement, but xallix calm complacence was unruffled. "No," xal said, "I just don’t fancy liners. Too many people at once. Fact is, Minnie and I have been thinking of sailing across to the mainland by ourselves."

Pete’s smile increased to a short, incredulous laugh. "I would make a bet you wouldn't get fifty miles from the harbor!"

The mousan reached for the candy bowl again, this time pocketing several pieces of gum, lollipops, a box of candy sticks, and a few of the chocolates. "How much of a bet?" xal asked casually. "What will you bet that we don't sail alone from here to—where are you stationed?—Southern Peak?—from here to Southern Peak?"

"Humph!" was Pete’s snorted reply. "I would bet twenty-five thousand on that, and take the money you lost for Mx. Violinist's charity."

"Now that's an idea," said Mouse-Mallaire. Xal pulled a wallet out of one of xallix candy-free pockets and began taking out a checkbook.

"In case I lose," xal explained, "I might be hard to find, so I will just ask Mx. Violinist to hold the balance for me. I’m sure they won’t mind.” Despite the confidence of the statement, Mickey still visibly looked over at Mx. Violinist for confirmation, pen hovering over the paper, and only wrote xallix signature when xal received a nod in return.

Looking back at Pete, Mickey said without any further hesitation, “You can do the same." Xal lifted xallix phone to show that xal’d just transferred twenty-five thousand credits to Vinnie Violinist.

Continuing, Mickey said, "Whoever wins gets their 25K back, and the loser’s goes to Vinnie for their charity."

"You're not serious," protested the Admiral. Where did this mousan even get 25K?

But Mickey just shrugged with a smile. "Sure I’m serious! The bank will take that transfer seriously, I promise you. And right about now Minnie should be finalizing the purchase for just the sloop I want for the trip ... had my eye on her for the past month!"

"But, Mickey," began Vinnie Vincent in clear concern, "you don't mean to risk your lives on a foolish bet?" They reached over to touch xallix hand in clear concern.

Mickey reached with xallix other hand to tenderly pat theirs. "I'm touched by your concern," xal said, and there was an undertone of seriousness beneath xallix raillery, "but save your sympathy for the Admiral. The navy can't bluff me, and I’m not one to lose." Xal suddenly rose briskly from xallix chair as Vinnie sat back in theirs.

"Mouse-Mallaire...." said Admiral Pete Struthers. He was thinking deeply, trying to recollect. "Mickey Mouse.... I have a book by someone of that name—travel and adventure and knocking about the world. Young enby, are you the Mickey Mouse?"

"Why, yes, if you wish to put it that way," agreed the other. “Though I go by Mickey Mouse-Mallaire now that Minnie and I’ve gotten married, we combined our names, you see. And there’s always room for a third.” Xal winked meaningfully at Vinnie as xal moved towards the door.

"I must be running along," xal said, "and meet Minnie at that boat. See you all in Southern Peak!"

- - -

The first rays of the sun touched with golden fingers the tops of the lazy swells of the Pacific. Here and there a wave broke to spray under the steady wind and became a shower of molten metal. And in the boat, whose sails caught now and then the touch of morning, Mickey Mouse-Mallaire and Minnie Mallaire-Mouse gradually stirred themselves with the first touch of sunlight, and got prepared for the day, which didn’t take long, as they’d slept in their usual clothes.

Mickey left the cabin first, and looked first at the compass and checked xallix course, then made sure of the lashing about the helm. The steady trade-winds had borne them on through the night, and xal nodded with satisfaction as xal prepared to lower xallix lights as the sky brightened. Xal was reaching for a line as the little craft hung for an instant on the top of a wave. And in that instant xallix eyes caught a marking of white on the dim waters ahead.

"Breakers!" xal shouted instinctively to Minnie, and leaped for the lashed wheel at almost the same instant Minnie reached it. Nova swung off to leeward and eased a bit on the main-sheet, trusting Mickey’s statement without question, then lashed the wheel again to hold on the new course at a gesture from xalv.

Again from a wave-crest xal stared from under a sheltering hand. The breakers were there—the smooth swells were foaming—breaking in mid-ocean where the chart, xal knew, showed water a mile deep. Beyond the white line was a three-master, her sails shivering in the breeze.

The big sailing ship swung off on a new tack as xal watched. Was she dodging those breakers? xal wondered. Then xal stared in amazement through the growing light at the unbroken swells where the white line had been.

“What in the world…?” Minnie whispered.

Mickey rubbed xallix sleepy eyes with a savage hand and stared again. There were no breakers, not anymore—the sea was an even expanse of heaving water.

"I could swear I saw them!" xal told Minnie, but forgot this perplexing occurrence in the still more perplexing maneuvers of the sailing ship.

This steady wind—for smooth handling—was all that such a craft could ask for, yet here was this old-timer of the sea with a full spread of canvas booming and cracking as the ship jibed. She rolled far over as the two mice watched, recovered, and tore off on a long, sweeping circle.

The two-mousan crew of the little sloop should have been preparing breakfast for themselves, as they had for many mornings past, but, instead, without another word spoken between them, Minnie swung the little craft into the wind and watched for near an hour the erratic rushes and shivering haltings of the larger ship. But long before this time had passed they both knew they were observing the aimless maneuvers of an uncrewed vessel.

They watched, waiting for their chance for a closer inspection through mutual curiosity.

The three-master was named the Minnie R., which they read from the dingy painting of the stern with a combination of delight and dread, and she hung quivering in the wind when they cautiously approached her. There was a broken log-line that swept down from the stern, and xal caught this and made their own boat fast. Then, watching for their chance, they drew as close as they could safely get, and jumped into the water to swim over.

“Just like old times," Minnie told Mickey as they expertly scaled the side. They had just made it all the way up and pulled themselves over the rail when the ship abruptly sped off on another wild and random tack.

The two mice looked quickly about the deserted deck. "Ahoy, there!" Mickey shouted, but the straining of rope and spars was xallix only answer. Sharing a glance with Minnie, nova could only shrug in return. Canvas was whipping to ribbons, sheets cracked their frayed ends like lashes as the booms swung wildly, but a few sails still survived intact and caught the air like grasping hands desperate for escape.

They had found themselves on the after deck, and Mickey leaped first for the wheel that was kicking and whirling with the swing of the rudder as Minnie darted in another direction. A glance at the canvas that still drew, and xal set her on a course with a few steadying pulls. Minnie came back to xallix side with rope, and nova expertly lashed the wheel into place while xal held it with a quick turn or two and watched the ship steady down to a smooth slicing of the waves from the west.

And only then did the two micean take time to quiet their panting breathing and look about them in more detail in the unnatural quiet of this strangely deserted deck.

Mickey shouted again and walked to a companionway to repeat the hail. Only an echo, sounding hollowly from below, replied to break the vast silence.

It was puzzling—inconceivable. Mickey looked about xalv to note the lifeboats snug and undisturbed in their places. No sign there of an abandonment of the boat, but abandoned she was, as the silence told only too plainly. Nova whispered as they went below, “I have an uncanny feeling of the crew’s presence – as if they’ve walked where we’re walking, shouted where you shouted, just a brief hour or two before.”

“I feel the same.” Mickey whispered back. Something about the dead silence inside the ship made speaking any louder seem like sacrilege.

The door of the captain's cabin was broken in, hanging drunkenly from one hinge. The log-book was open; there were papers on a rude desk. The bunk was empty where the blankets had been thrown hurriedly aside. A fetid stench emanated from the doorway in little drafts.

Minnie went in first, and Mickey followed. Xal could almost see the skipper of this mystery ship leaping frantically from their bed at some sudden call or commotion. A chair was smashed and broken, and when Minnie reached out to examined it curiously, nova almost immediately recoiled with a cry of disgust, wiping from novas hands on one of the blankets a disgusting slime that was smeared stickily on the splintered fragments of wood. The stench was magnified to almost unbearable levels, and they quickly passed up further examination of this room, Minnie disgustedly shaking novas hand to try and get the rest of the reeking slime off.

“Ugh! What is this stuff?” nova demanded.

“I don’t know,” Mickey said in concern, “but we’d better wash it off in case it’s toxic.”

They found a lavatory, and Minnie gratefully washed novas hands, though the sense of close watchfullness they both felt from the ship seemed even more pronounced with the soft sound of the running water interrupting the silence.

Up front in the forecastle, Mickey felt again irresistibly the recent presence of the crew. And again xal found silence and emptiness and a disorder that told of a fear-stricken flight. The odor that sickened and nauseated the exploring mice was everywhere here, and much stronger. Xal was glad to gain the freedom of the wind-swept deck and rid xallix lungs of the vile breath within the vessel.

After catching their breath, the two could only stand and look at eachother, silent and bewildered, both thinking the same thing with no need to say it aloud -- there was not a living soul aboard the ship—no sign of life!

But they were both startled when suddenly, a moaning, whimpering cry came from forward on the deck!

Minnie was the first to move, leaping across a disorder of tangled rope to race toward the bow without hesitation, with Mickey not far behind. Nova stopped short, and Mickey almost ran right into nova, then peered around novas shoulder to see that nova was looking at a large, battered cage. Again the moaning sound came to their pricked ears—there was something that still lived on board the ill-fated ship after all.

Cautiously, the two drew closer, and Mickey could see a great, huddled, furry mass that crouched and cowered in a corner of the cage, red-orange fur vivid in a few beams of sunlight that cut through the fabric that partly covered the enclosure.

“An orangutan.” Minnie whispered for Mickey’s benefit, and the orangutan moaned and whimpered in abject fear, its face turned away, not seeming to realize they were there yet.

Mickey’s thoughts sped. Had this been the terror that drove the crew into the sea? Had this animal escaped and menaced the officers and crew? But xal dismissed the thought almost as soon as it formed, xal well knew it was absurd. The thick wood bars of the cage were broken inward, not outward, creating a razor-wall of splinters that the animal was penned in by even more than it had originally been. The cage’s top had been partially crushed, caving in slightly, and the heavy chain that held the whole to the deck was extended to its full length.

Baffled, bewildered, Mickey scratched xallix head, stepping back from the cage. "Too much for me," xal said slowly, "entirely too much for me! Just what could have happened here?”

Minnie shook novas head silently in agreement.

Mickey added, thinking aloud, “But we can't sail this old hooker alone; we’ll have to get out the way we came, and let her drift."

“We have to let this poor thing loose,” Minnie said, “At least give it run of the ship instead of being stuck out here in the sun, the poor thing will bake to death.” As nova said this, nova went forward and, with concerted effort, ripped one of the broken bars completely away from the cage.

Mickey joined in to help, and the terrified orangutan turned its head to watch their progress with wide eyes as they slowly dismantled a section of the bars just big enough for the animal to come through if it wanted to. The rest were still too intact for even their combined strength to budge.

“Well, that’s the best we can do for now about this cage.” Minnie said, brushing wood particles from novas hands, “But let me go back down and get a bowl of water and see if there’s any fruit.”

Nova ran to do so, leaving Mickey alone with the orangutan, which had now cautiously turned to fully face xalv and the new opening in the cage.

Mickey tried to look non-threatening, and beckoned the animal forward the way xal would a scared cat, speaking softly and soothingly, “Come on out, old fellow, Mickey’s not gonna hurt ya, it’s safe now. Whatever happened here’s already happened. Come on out, we’re gonna get you some water and food, does that sound good?” The orangutan shifted slightly, still hunched over, but hesitantly began to shuffle towards the opening. Mickey encouraged it with, “That’s it, it’s alright! Come on out of that nasty old cage, we’re friendly, you don’t have to be trapped in there any more, come on out.”

Xal hated to see animals treated with cruelty, and xal couldn’t imagine putting an animal in a cage like this and leaving it out on the deck of the ship to suffer the elements. Even if it wasn’t Aware, it still deserved to be treated with basic respect and compassion. The very least the sailors could have done was give it proper shelter. And why were they transporting it in the first place? Mickey had never seen or heard of an orangutan before now, but it didn’t seem like a domestic animal to xalv. Taking it across the ocean just seemed cruel.

Slowly, cautiously, not taking its eyes off Mickey, the orangutan very slowly and purposefully reached out a hand towards the one Mickey had at xallix side.

Mickey held xallix hand out without hesitation, and helped the orangutan climb through the gap, as xal realized with a sudden jolt that this wasn’t normal behavior for an animal --

“Are you aware?” Xal asked, even more horrified for the orangutan’s treatment if the answer was yes.

The orangutan nodded, letting go of Mickey’s hand so it could lift its own hand to its mouth, shaking its head. Clearly saying that it hadn’t learned to speak yet, though it clearly understood. Mickey was stunned with outrage. Becoming Aware was a process that took time, not something that could have gotten to this stage in the short length of time this ship would have been at sea – and the crew had still kept it locked up in a cage and left out in the sun?

“Do you want to go inside the ship for the shade?” Xal asked. Xal couldn’t think of anything to say to express how angry xal was over its treatment.

The orangutanan nodded vehemently, and led the way, bounding to the open doorway on all fours, with Mickey running to catch up, not wanting Minnie to be startled if nova was on novas way back.

The orangutanan didn’t hesitate when it reached the stairwell where the smell hit Mickey in the face like a brick wall, it just kept going, ducking into the first room they found, which was a crew quarters. It hopped onto the closest bunk and pulled the blanket up around its shoulders. Mickey stayed just outside the door so Minnie would be able to find them.

It didn’t take nova long to come back from the depths of the ship. Nova had managed to find a few oranges, a lot of prunes, hardtack, dried beans, and salt pork, all of it untouched by whatever disaster had struck the crew, except for the ever-present stench on the outside of the containers. Thankfully, they had all been carefully stored, so the food inside was safe. Minnie had put as much as nova could carry into a small crate, found a pot and a ladle, and carried it all up, intending to go back for the rest. There was no point letting it go to waste, it might as go back on their ship with them.

Mickey introduced Minnie to the orangutanan, they gently questioned it to the best of their ability only to learn it had nothing helpful to share, and they let it have any of the currently-edible food it wanted, before the three of them went back down into the bowels of the ship to grab the rest of the supplies.

They found more dried and salted foods, clothes, which they packed up, and a few dirt pans for cats, but found no trace of the animals themselves, though they looked everywhere they could think of.

It took a while, but with the three of them working together, they managed to pack up everything that was carryable and would fit on their boat, and attached floats to them, piling them up by the railing. By the time they were done, Mickey found xalexir actually getting used to the stench.

Xal went below one last time, the orangutanan shadowing xallix every step like a ghost while Minnie waited up top, and came quickly back with the log-book and papers from the captain's room. They’d already found and carefully packed up as many personal possessions from the crew quarters as they could, to send back to the families of the missing.

Xal tied the log book and other papers from the captains room in a tight wrapping of oilcloth from the galley and hung them at xallix belt to make sure they wouldn’t float away, while Minnie took the wheel again and brought the cumbersome craft slowly into the wind.

The bare mast of their own sloop was bobbing alongside on the rope as Mickey went down the line and swam over to her first, then carefully brought it back up beside the larger ship so the loot could be lowered down with ropes before Minnie and the orangutanan climbed down.

Fending off from the wallowing hulk, Mickey cut the line while Minnie and the orangutanan stowed the supplies, and the small craft slipped slowly astern as the big vessel fell off in the wind and drew lumberingly away on her unguided course.

She vanished into the clear-cut horizon before the watching mice and orangutanan ceased their staring and Mickey pricked a point upon xallix chart that xal estimated was xallix current position.

And they all three watched vainly for some sign of life on the heaving waters as Minnie set the sloop back on her easterly course.

- - -

It was two young mice trailed by an orangutanan who walked with brisk strides into the office of Admiral Struthers. The gold-striped arm of the uniformed man was extended in quick greeting.

"Made it, did you?" he exclaimed. "Congratulations!"

"All O.K.," Mickey agreed shortly. "Ship and log are ready for your verification."

"Talk sense," said the officer. "Have any trouble or excitement? Or perhaps you are more interested in collecting a certain bet than you are in discussing the trip. And who’s your new friend there?"

"Damn the bet!" said the young enby fervently. "And that's just what I am here for—to talk about the trip and my friend. There were some little incidents that may interest you."

Xal and Minnie painted for the Admiral in brief, terse sentences the picture of that dawn on the Pacific, the line of breakers, white in the vanishing night, the abandoned ship beyond, cracking her canvas to tatters in the freshening breeze. And xal told of their boarding her and of what they had found, and that their new friend the still-unnamed orangutanan had been witness, but couldn’t explain what had happened, from a combination of shock and not yet being fully Aware.

"Where was this?" asked the officer, and Mickey gave the position as xal had checked it on the map.

"I reported the derelict to a passing steamer that same day," xal added, but the Admiral was calling for a chart. He spread it on the desk before himself and placed the tip of a pencil in the center of an unbroken expanse.

"Breakers, you said?" he questioned. "Why, there are hundreds of fathoms here."

“We know it," Minnie agreed, stepping forward firmly, "but we saw them—a stretch of white water for an eighth of a mile. I know it's impossible, but it’s true. But forget that for now, Admiral. Look at this." nova opened a brief case and took out a log-book and some other papers Mickey had collected.

"The log of the Minnie R.," nova explained briefly. "And yes, I know the irony. Nothing in this log but routine entries up to that morning and then nothing at all."

"Abandoned," mused the Admiral, "and they did not take to the boats. There have been other instances—never explained."

"See if this helps any," suggested Mickey, and moved to Minnie’s side to grab the other two sheets of paper from the case. "They were in the captain's cabin," xal added.

Admiral Struthers glanced at them, then settled back in his chair.

"Dated September fourth," he said. "That would have been the day previous to the time you found her." The writing was plain, in a careful, well-formed hand. He cleared his throat and read aloud:

"Written by Jeremiah Wilkens of Salem, Mass., master of the Minnie R., bound from Shanghai to San Pedro. I have sailed the seas for forty years, and for the first time I am afraid. I hope I may destroy this paper when the lights of San Pedro are safe in sight, but I am writing here what it would shame me to set down in the ship's log, though I know there are stranger happenings on the face of the waters than man has ever seen—or has lived to tell.

All this day I have been filled with fear. I have been watched—I have felt it as surely as if a devil out of hell stood beside me with his eyes fastened on mine. The men have felt it, too. They have been frightened at nothing and have tried to conceal it as I have done.—And the animals....

"A shark has followed us for days—it is gone to-day. The cats—we have three on board—have howled horribly and have hidden themselves in the cargo down below. The mate is bringing a big monkey to be sold in Los Angeles. An orang-outang, he calls it. It has been an ugly brute, shaking at the bars of its cage and showing its ugly teeth ever since we left port. But to-day it is crouched in a corner of its cage and will not stir even for food. The poor beast is in mortal terror.

"All this is more like the wandering talk of an old woman muttering in a corner by the fireside of witches and the like than it is like a truthful account set down by Jeremiah Wilkins. And now that I have written it I see there is nothing to tell. Nothing but the shameful account of my fear of some horror beyond my knowing. And now that it is written I am tempted to destroy—No, I will wait—"

"And now what is this?" Admiral Struthers interrupted his reading to ask. He turned the paper to read a coarse, slanting scrawl at the bottom of the page.

"The eyes—the eyes—they are everywhere above us—God help—" The writing trailed off in a straggling line.

The Admiral’s lips drew themselves into a hard line. It was a moment before the catan raised his eyes to meet those of Mickey Mouse-Mallaire.

"You found this in the captain's cabin?" he asked.

"Yes."

"And the captain was—"

"Gone."

"Blood stains?"

"No, but the door had been burst off its hinges. There had been a struggle without a doubt."

“And your friend the orang-outangan cannot enlighten us?”

“No.”

“What about the cats that were mentioned?”

“We saw no sign of them besides their dirt pans.”

The officer mused for a minute or two.

"Did they go aboard another vessel?" he pondered. "Abandon ship—open the sea-cocks—sink it for the insurance?" He was trying vainly to find some answer to the problem, some explanation that would not impose too great a strain upon his own reason.

"We have reported to the owners," said Minnie. "The Minnie R. was not heavily insured."

The Admiral ruffled some papers on his desk to find a report.

"There has been another," he told his audience. "A tramp freighter is listed as missing. She was last reported due east of the position you give. She was coming this way—must have come through about the same water—" He caught himself up abruptly. Mickey sensed that an Admiral of the Navy must not lend too credulous an ear to impossible stories.

"You've had an interesting experience, Mvr. Mouse-Mallaire, M. Mallaire-Mouse, friend orang-outangan" he said, taking on a formal, dismissive tone. "Most interesting. Probably a derelict is the answer, some hull just afloat. We will send out a general warning."

He handed the loose papers and the log book to Mickey. "This stuff is rubbish," he stated with emphasis. "Captain Wilkins held his command a year or so too long."

"You will do nothing about it?" Mickey and Minnie asked simultaneously in astonishment.

"I said I would warn all shipping; there is nothing more to be done." the Admiral said shortly.

"I think there is." Mickey's black eyes were steady behind xallix glasses as xal regarded the man at the desk. "We intend to run it down. There have been other such instances, as you said—never explained. We mean to find the answer."

Admiral Pete Struthers smiled indulgently. "Always after excitement, two you" he said. "You'll be co-writing another book, I expect. I shall look forward to reading it ... but just what are you two going to do?"

"We are going to the Islands," said Mickey quietly. "We are going to charter a small ship of some sort, and we are going out there to camp on that spot in the hope of seeing those eyes and what is behind them. We’ll be leaving to-night."

Admiral Struthers leaned back to indulge in a hearty laugh. "I refused you a passage on a destroyer once," he said, "and it was an expensive mistake. I don't make the same mistake twice. Now I am going to offer you a trip....The Bennington is leaving to-day on a cruise to Manila. I'll hold her an extra hour or two if you would like to go. She can drop you at Honolulu or wherever you say. Lieutenant Commander Brent is in command—you remember him in Manila, of course."

"Fine," Mickey Mouse-Mallaire responded. "We'll be there, after we make arrangements for a plane to return our friend here home." Xal gestured at the orangutanan, who had been looking curiously around the room.

"And," xal added, as xal took the Admiral's hand, "if I didn't object to betting on a sure thing, I would make you a little proposition. I would bet any money that you would give your shirt to go along."

"I never bet, either," said Admiral Struthers, "on a sure loss. Now get out of here, you young trouble-shooters, and let the Navy get to work." His eyes were twinkling as he waved the young ones out.

- - -

Minnie and Mickey found themselves comfortably fixed on the Bennington. Brent, her commander, was a fine example of the aggressive young chaps that the destroyer fleet breeds. And he liked to play cribbage, Mouse-Mallaire found. They were chugging away industriously the sixth night out when the first S.O.S. reached them. A message was placed before the commander. He read it and tossed it to Minnie, who was closer, as he rose from his chair.

"S.O.S.," said the radio sheet, "Nagasaki Maru, twenty-four thirty-five N., one five eight West. Struck something unknown. Down at the bow. May need help. Please stand by."

Captain Brent had left the room. A moment later, and the quiver and tremble of the Bennington told Mickey they were running full speed for the position of the stricken ship.

But: "Twenty-four thirty-five North," nova mused aloud to Mickey, "and less than two degrees west of where the poor old Minnie R. got hers. I wonder ... I wonder...."

"We will be there in four hours," said Captain Brent on his return. "Hope she lasts. But what have they struck out there? Derelict probably, though she should have had Admiral Struthers' warning."

Mickey Mouse-Mallaire made no reply other than: "Wait here a minute, Brent. I have something to show you."

Xal had not told the officer of their mission nor of the experience they’d shared, but xal did so now. And xal placed before him the wildly improbable statement of the late Captain Wilkins.

"There’s something there, alright" surmised Captain Brent, studiously ignoring the fantastic elements of the story. "just awash, probably—no superstructure visible. Your Minnie R. hit the same thing."

"Something is there," Mickey agreed. "I wish I knew what."

"This stuff has got to you, has it?" asked Brent as he returned the papers of Captain Wilkins. He was quite evidently amused at the thought, and didn’t bother to hide his disbelief.

"You weren't on the ship," said Minnie Mallaire, simply, as nova followed him out of the room. "There was nothing to see—nothing to tell. But we know...."

They followed Brent to the wireless room.

"Can you get the Nagasaki?" Brent asked.

"They know we are coming, sir," said the operator. "We seem to be the only one anywhere near."

He handed the captain another message. "Something odd about that," he said.

"U. S. S. Bennington," the captain read aloud. "We are still afloat. On even keel now, but low in water. No water coming in. Engines full speed ahead, but we make no headway. Apparently aground. Nagasaki Maru."

"Why, that's impossible," Brent exclaimed impatiently. "What kind of foolishness—" He left the question uncompleted. The radio man was writing rapidly. Some message was coming at top speed. The three of them leaned over the radio man's shoulder to read as he wrote.

"Bennington help," the pencil was writing, "sinking fast—decks almost awash—we are being—"

In breathless silence they watched the pencil, poised above the paper while the operator listened tensely to the silent night.

Again his ear received the wild jumble of dots and dashes sent by a frenzied hand in that far-off room. His pencil automatically set down the words. "Help—help—" it wrote before Mickey Mouse-Mallaire's spellbound gaze, "the eyes—the eyes—it is attack—"

And again the black night held only the rush and roar of torn waters where the destroyer raced quivering through the darkness. The message, as those waiting well knew, would never be completed.

"A derelict!" Mickey exclaimed with angry scorn. But Captain Brent was already at a communication tube, too busy to notice.

"Chief? Captain Brent. Give her everything you've got. Drive the Bennington faster than she ever went before."

The slim ship was a quivering lance of steel that threw itself through foaming waters, that shot with an endless, roaring surge of speed toward that distant point in the heaving waste of the Pacific, and that seemed, to the three silent watchers on the bridge, to put the dragging miles behind them so slowly—so slowly.

"Let me see those papers," said Captain Brent, finally.

He read them in silence.

Then: "The eyes!" he read aloud. "The eyes! That is what this other poor devil said. My God, you mice, what is it? What can it be? We're not all insane."

"I don't know what I expected to find," said Mickey slowly. "I had thought of many things, each wilder than the next. This Captain Wilkins said the eyes were above him. I had visions of some sky monster ... I had even thought of some strange aircraft from out in space, perhaps, with round lights like eyes. I have pictured impossibilities! But now—" Mickey stopped short of saying what xal was thinking.

"Yes," the captain questioned insistantly, "now?"

"There were tales in olden times of the Kraken," said Minnie, knowing exactly what Mickey had stopped xalexir from saying aloud.

"The Kraken!" the captain scoffed. "A mythical monster of the sea. Why, that was just a fable."

"True," was Minnie’s quiet reply, "that was just a fable. And one of the things I have learned over the years is how frequently there is a basis of fact underlying a fable. And, for that matter, how can we know there is no such monster, some relic of a Mesozoic species supposed to be extinct? How long did it take for humans to really start to accept Awareness in other species?"

The two mice stood motionless, staring far out ahead into the dark. And Brent, too, was silent. The three seemed to try with unaided eyes to penetrate the dark miles ahead and see what their minds refused to accept.

- - -

It was still dark when the search-light's sweeping beam picked up the black hull and broad, red-striped funnels of the Nagasaki Maru. She was riding high in the water, and her big bulk rolled and wallowed in the trough of the great swells.

The Bennington swept in a swift circle about the helpless hulk while the lights played incessantly upon her decks. And the watching eyes strained vainly for some signal to betoken life, for some sign that their mad race had not been quite vain. Her engines had been shut down; there was no steerage-way for the Nagasaki Maru, and, from all they could see, there were no human hands to drag at the levers of her waiting engines nor to twirl with sure touch the deserted helm. The Nagasaki Maru was abandoned.

The lights held steadily upon her as the Bennington came alongside and a boat was swung out smartly in its davits. But Mickey knew xal was not alone in xallix wild idea as to the cause of the catastrophe. They were all thinking of that terrible, mythical kraken.

"Throw your lights around the water occasionally," Brent ordered. "Let me know if you see anything."

"Yes sir," said the man at the search-light. "I will report if I spot any survivors or boats."

"Report anything you see," said Commander Brent curtly.

"You go aboard if you want to," he said, turning to Mickey and Minnie. "I will stay here and be ready if you need help."

It didn’t take long to get a boat ready, or for the two micean and a search and rescue crew to climb aboard and set out.

Mickey nodded with approval as xal looked back at the Bennington as the small boat pulled away in the dark, for there was activity apparent on the destroyer not warranted by a mere rescue at sea, showing that the captain was taking the threat seriously. Gun-crews rushed to their stations; the tarpaulin covers were off of the guns, and their slender lengths gleamed where they covered the course of the boat.

"Brent is ready," Mickey admitted softly to Minnie, "for anything."

“I hope so.” Nova said softly back. Neither of them spoke above a whisper, not daring to make any more noise while surrounded by the black waves with only a few plants of wood between them and the other sailors and whatever lay beneath it.

They found the iron ladder against the ship's side, and a sailor sprang for it and made his way aboard first. Mickey was not the last to set foot on deck, but xal still shuddered involuntarily at the eery silence xal knew awaited them.

It was the Minnie R. over again, as xal expected, but with a difference. The Minnir R., before Mickey and Minnie boarded it, had been for some time exposed to the sun, while the Nagasaki Maru had not. And here there were slimy trails still wet on the decks.

Xal went first to the wireless room with Minnie, while the sailors spread out to search for survivors. Xal had to know the final answer to that interrupted message, and xal found it in emptiness. No radio controller was awaiting xalv there, nor even a body to show the loser of an unequal battle. But there was blood on the door-jamb where a body—the operator's body, Mickey was sure—had been smashed against the wood. A wisp of black hair in the blood gave its mute evidence of the hopeless fight. And the slime, like the trails on the deck, smeared with odorous vileness the whole room.

They went again to the deck, and, as on the other ship, xal breathed deeply to rid xallix lungs and nostrils of the abhorrent stench. The ensign in charge of the boarding party approached.

"What kind of a rotten mess is this?" she demanded. "The ship is filthy and not a soul on board. Not a one of them, officers or crew, and the boats are all here. It's absolutely amazing, isn't it?"

"No," Mickey told her, "this is, unfortunately, about what we expected. What do you make of this?" Xal touched with xallix foot a broad trail that shone wet in the Bennington's lights.

"The Lord knows," said the ensign in wonder. "It's all over and it smells like a rotten dead fish. Well, we will be going back over, exiir."

She called to a petty officer to round up the crew, and the boat was brought alongside again. Mickey and Minnie went back across with the others.

They returned to the Bennington again through a pathway of light that Mickey knew was safe under the black muzzles of the destroyer's guns.

Or was it, xal asked xalexir. Safe! Was anything safe from this devilish mystery that could pluck each cowering sentient from the lowest depths of this steel freighter, that could drag her down in the water till the radio operator sent his cry: "We are sinking!..."

But they made it across safely nevertheless.

Xal told Brent quietly, after the ensign had finished report in on the lack of survivors to be found, of the struggles xal had found in the wireless room and its few remaining traces. And both micean had watched with the commander through the hour of deepest darkness while the Bennington steamed in slow circles about the abandoned hulk, while her search-lights played endlessly over the empty waters and the crew at the guns cast wondering glances at their skipper who ordered such strange procedure when no danger was there.

Eventually, Mickey and Minnie were forced to give up their vigil in return for sleep. As anxious as they were, they couldn’t stay on their feet any longer without rest. Almost as soon as their heads touched their pillows, they were out like a light, and too tired to dream.

They woke with the first rays of dawn, and with daylight the scene across from the Benningtonlost its sense of mysterious threat, and Mickey and Minnie were eager to return to the abandoned ship.

"We might find something," Minnie said to the captain as an attempt to bring him around to the idea, "some trace or indication of what we have to fight."

"I must leave," said Commander Brent. "Oh, I'm coming back, never fear," he added, at the looks of dismay on their faces. It was clear that the thought of leaving this mystery unsolved was more than these young seekers of adventure could accept.

"I'm coming back," Brent repeated firmly. "I've been in communication with the Admiral—Honolulu has relayed the messages through. All code, of course; we mustn't alarm the whole Pacific with our nightmares. The old cat says to stick around and get the low-down on this damn thing."

"Then why leave?" objected Mickey.

“Because I am coming around to your way of thinking, mice. Because I am as certain as can be that we have a monster of some sort to deal with ... and because I haven't any depth charges. I want to run up to the supply station at Honolulu and get a couple of ash-cans of TNT to lay on top of the brute if we sight him."

"Glory be!" said Mickey fervently. "That sounds like business. Go and get your eggs and perhaps we can feed them to this devil—raw.... And I think I'll stay here, if you will be back by dark."

“Me too, of course.” Minnie added.

"Better not," the other objected; but the two mice overruled him.

"This thing attacks in the dark," Mickey said. "I will lay a little bet on that. It left the orangutanan on the Minnie R.—quit at the first sign of daylight. We will be safe through the day, and besides, the beast has gutted this ship. It won't return, I imagine. And if we stay there for the day—live as they lived, those who manned that ship—I may have some information that will be of help when you get back. But for Heaven's sake, Brent, don't stop to pick any flowers on the way."

"It's your funerals," said Brent, not cheerfully. "The old cat said to give you every assistance, and perhaps that includes helping you commit suicide."

But Mickey Mouse-Mallaire and Minnie Mallaire-Mouse only laughed as Commander Brent gave his orders for a small boat to be lowered. A ship's lantern and rockets for night signals were taken at the officer's orders. "We'll be back before dark," he said, "but take these as a precaution."

One favor Mickey asked—that the ship's carpenter go over with them and help them to make a strong-barred retreat of the wireless cabin.

"And I'll talk to you occasionally," Minnie told Brent. "I tried the key while we were aboard; the wireless is working on its batteries, and I know the basics of how to use it."

Mickey waved a cheery good-by as the small boat pulled away. "And hurry back," xal called. The destroyer commander nodded an emphatic assent.

On board the Nagasaki Maru, Mickey directed the carpenter and its helpers in the work xal wanted done, while Minnie started up a search of the bowels of the ship. The carpenter-othran seemed to know instinctively where to put its hands on needed supplies, and the result was a virtual cage of strong oak bars enclosing the wireless room, and braces of oak to bar the single door.

Mickey was not assuming any bravado in xallix feeling of safety, but xal was doing what xal and Minnie had done in many other tight corners, and xal prepared their defences in advance.

These included weapons of offense as well. As the boat with the destroyer's crew pulled back to the Bennington, xal placed in easy reach in a corner of the room a heavy calibered rifle xal had taken from xallix belongings, and Minnie had novas sword.

And, still, with all xallix feeling of security, there was a strange depression fell upon xalv when the Bennington's narrow hull was small upon the horizon, and then that, too, was gone and only the heaving swells and the wallowing hulk were xallix companions.

Only these? Xal shivered slightly as xal thought of that unseen watcher with the devil-eyes whose presence Captain Wilkins had felt—and his crew, and the poor terrified ape! Xal deliberately put from xallix mind the thought of this; no use to start the day with morbid fears. Xal reassured xalexir that the orangutanan was probably safely home by now by way of airplane, no more need to fear the sea. Xal went below to examine the cabins, and to find Minnie, trying not to rush, trying to keep xallix fear in check. But xal carried the heavy elephant gun with xalv wherever xal went, and was only reassured slightly when xal was back at Minnie’s side.

Below decks the signs of the marauder were everywhere, yet there was little to be learned. The slimy trails dried quickly and vanished, but not before the two had traced them to the uttermost depths of the ship.

There was not a nook or corner that had gone unsearched in the horrible quest for sentient food. And one thing impressed itself forcibly upon the enby's mind: xal found a lantern, and xal used it of necessity in xallix explorations, but this thing had gone through the dark and with unerring certainty had found its way to every victim.

"Can it see in the dark?" Mickey questioned aloud. "Or...." Xal visioned dimly some denizen of the vast depths, living beyond the limits of the sun's penetration, far in the abysmal darkness where its only light must be self-made. But xallix mind failed in the attempt to picture what manner of horror this thing might be.

“Or else it finds its way entirely by touch.” Minnie offered.

Even in the hold its evil traces were found. There were tiers of metal drums that still shone wet in the light of Mickey lantern. Calcium carbide—for making acetylene, xal supposed—marked "Made in U.Q.N." The Nagasaki must have been westward bound.

The two went, after an hour or so, back up to the wireless room, and only when xal relaxed in the safety of the improvised fortress did xal realize how tense had been every nerve and muscle through xallix long search, even with the comfort of Minnie’s presence. Nova tried the wireless and got an instant response from the destroyer.

"Don't shoot it too fast," Minnie spelled out slowly to the distant operator as nova spoke aloud for Mickey’s benefit: "I am only a dub. Just wanted to say hello and report all O.K."

"Fine," was the steady, careful response. "We have had a little trouble with our condensers—" There was a short pause, then the message continued, this portion dictated by the commander. "Delay not important. We will be back as agreed. Have picked up S. S. Adelaide bound east in your latitude. Warned her to take northerly course account derelict. See you later. Signed, Brent, commanding U. S. S. Bennington."

Minnie tapped off novas acknowledgement and closed the key.

Mickey suddenly realized xal had had no breakfast, and the hours had been slipping past, and said so aloud.

Xal decided to go down to the galley to prepare a pot of coffee and porridge, and left xallix gun behind for Minnie.

It was not the time or place for an enjoyable meal, but xal would have relished it more had xal not pictured the Adelaide and her lovely owner steaming across these threatening seas.

Unfortunately, the two knew the captain of the Adelaide. "Obstinate pigheaded old Scotchman!” Mickey exclaimed to Minnie, “Hope he takes Brent's advice. Of course Brent couldn't tell him the truth. We can't blat this wild yarn all over the air or the passenger lines would have our scalps. But I wish the Adelaide was safe in Manila."

Minnie said nothing, but nodded in silent, clear anxiety.

They both knew Vinnie was aboard that boat.

After they ate, the two went back to exploring the ship in the afternoon, but their efforts were half-hearted and perfunctory. There was nothing more to be learned. But Mickey had seen in xallix mind some vague outline of what they must meet. Xal saw a something, mammoth, huge, that could grasp and hold an ocean freighter—against whose great body xal had seen the waves dash in a line of white spray. Yet a something that could force its way down narrow passages, could press with terrific strength on bolted doors and crush them inward, wrecked and splintered. Some serpentine thing that felt and saw its way and crawled so surely through the dark—found its prey—seized it—and carried off a man as easily as it might a mouse.

No octopus, no matter what proportions, filled the description. Mickey gave up trying to see too clearly the awful thing. And then xal had, casually, not thinking, walked to the railing to look over the waves. And suddenly there had come to xalv a feeling of fear that had sent the waves of cold trickling and prickling up xallix spine. Was there something really there?... A waiting lurking horror in the depths? It had been so terrible and oppressive that xal had turned tail and ran back to the wireless room on all fours in instinctive fear, and dragged the door shut behind xalv, startling Minnie at the table.

"The eyes," were all xal could think, "the eyes!…"

“There’s something out there.” was all xal could bring xalexir to say.

- - -

The position of the deserted ship was south of the regular steamer lanes on the TransPacific run. Only a trace of smoke on the northern horizon marked through the afternoon the passage of other craft. It was a long and lonely vigil for the waiting mice. But the Bennington would return, and Minnie listened in at intervals hoping to hear her friendly signal. They took turns napping over the course of the day to keep their energy up, and nothing untoward happened, despite their rising anxieties.

The batteries operating the Nagasaki's wireless were none too strong, so Minnie saved their strength, though nova tried at times to raise the Bennington somewhere beyond their reach as the sun sank lower in the afternoon sky.

It was touching the horizon when Minnie got novas first response. "Keep up the old nerve," admonished the slow, careful sending of the Bennington's operator. "We have been delayed but we are on our way. Signed, Brent."

That was easier said than done. In the wireless room, Mickey slid the oak brace across the door, and they both tried to pretend the action was nonchalant and unafraid as xal laid out extra clips of cartridges. But Mickey’s eyes persisted in following the sinking sun, and Minnie was practically glued to the wireless, and they watched, from within their self-made cage, the coming of the quick dark.

The protecting glare of day must be unbearable to this monster from the lightless depths, but that guardian daylight was vanishing. Mickey's mind was searching for additional means of defense. Xallix racing thoughts found it in the cargo xal had seen. The drums of carbide! They could scatter it on the deck—it reacted with water, and those slimy arms, if they came and touched it, could find the contact hot.

Xal shared the idea with Minnie quickly, and they decided it was worth the risk of leaving the wireless room.

Quickly, they took the lantern and went hastily below at a run to stagger painstakingly slowly back, having to work together to carry one of the large drums between them. It suddenly felt like every struggled step was a race against time, and they were losing.

In the half-light that was left they together forced the cover off, then rolled the drum frantically about the swaying deck. The gray, earthly lumps of carbide formed erratic lines criss-crossing the wood. Useless perhaps, xal admitted to xalexir, but the threatening dark forced xalv to find every means of defense at xallix command. It was the only thing keeping xalv from panicking completely.

They had brought up and were scattering the contents of a second drum when the two stiffened abruptly, simultaneously, to rigid attention.

The ship, thrown broadside to the wide-spaced swells, had rolled endlessly with a monotonous motion. But now the deck beneath their feet was steadying. As they stood frozen, it assumed an abnormal levelness. The boat rose and fell with the waves, but it no longer rolled. There was something beneath holding, drawing on it.

Mickey knew in that frozen second what it meant, and a petrified glance at Minnie showed nova did as well. The drum clattered to the rail as together they dashed for the wireless room. Minnie slammed and bolted the door behind them, and dove for novas sword. Grabbing up xallix gun, Mickey watched with staring eyes where the deserted deck showed dim and vague in the light of the stars and the bow of the ship was lost in the uncertain dark of night.

Wide-eyed xal watched into the blackness, and listened with desperate attention for some slightest sound beyond the splashing of waves and the creaking of spars and the sound of xallix and Minnie’s fearful breathing.

Far in the west a light appeared, to glow and vanish and glow again in the tumbling waters. The Bennington! Xallix heart leaped at the thought, then sank as xal knew the destroyer's lights would not appear from that direction.

Through an excruciating hour that seemed to crawl by in an eternity, the oncoming ship drew near, and xal knew with a sudden, startling certainty that it was the Adelaide—and Vinnie Violinist—coming on, through into the horror awaiting.

Mickey leaned forward tensely as a sound reached xallix pricked ears. A ghostly echo of a sound, like the softest of smooth, slipping fabric upon hard steel. And as xal listened, before xallix staring eyes, a something came between xalv and the lighted yacht. Minnie gasped almost silently beside xalv.

The shape wavered and swung in the darkness. It was formless, uncertain of outline, and it swung in the night out beyond the ship's rail till it suddenly neared, waved high overhead, and the cold light of the stars shone in pale reflection from an enormous, staring eye.

It surmounted a serpentine form that took shape in the dim radiance without and came lower in undulating folds to suddenly crash heavily upon the deck.

Hardly aware of moving, Mickey found xalexir with Minnie next to the wireless, and novas hand was upon the key.

Then, fast as novas panic allowed, Minnie called frantically for the Adelaide. Nova spelled her name, over and over.... Would the sleepy operator never answer? Automatically, like a prayer, nova whispered what nova was doing for Mickey’s benefit in a tone hardly louder than a breath, not daring to be any louder for fear of attracting the attention of the monster outside.

The Bennington broke in on nova. "Is that you, mice? What is up?" they demanded.

But Minnie kept up novas slow spelling of the yacht's name. Nova must get a warning to them! Then nova realized that the Bennington could do it better.

"Bennington," nova called, "Adelaide approaching. I am attacked. Warn them off. Warn them—" Novas frantic, hissing dots and dashes stopped suddenly. Beneath their feet the Nagasaki Maru was rolling again, swinging free to the lift and thrust of the swells beneath.

"Good God!" xal shouted aloud in dismay, "It's gone for the yacht!”

“Adelaide—“ Minnie tapped frantically, “turn north—full speed—Head north. You are being attacked!"

Mickey groaned as xal saw the Adelaide's shining ports swing away from the safety of the north; the ship broached broadside to the waves and came slowly to a stop.

"Bennington," nova radioed. "Brent—it has got the Adelaide. Help—hurry! We have to go over!" Nova didn’t need to check that plan of action with Mickey, because they both knew there was nothing that would stop them from going to the rescue.

Xal tore wildly at the barred door while Minnie took off the wireless, and together they made a dash across the deck, only to crash in a painfully tangled heap of limbs against the rail where the slimy traces of the recent visitor made the deck slide out under their feet like soap.

They got untangled somehow, and how they lowered the lifeboat left by the Benningtoninto the water without disaster, neither could ever say for sure, looking back.

While Minnie swept down first, Mickey secured xallix rifle around xallix shoulder and with a rope, then wasted no time in joining Minnie in the boat so they could cast off in a frenzy of haste.

What could they do? Mickey hardly dared form the question. Only this stood clear and unanswerable in xallix mind: The yacht was in the monster's grip, and Vinnie Violinist was there on board. Vinnie Violinist, so smiling, so friendly, so lovable! Food for that horror from the depths.…

Neither needed to speak aloud to know the other was thinking the same thing. They rowed with super-mousan strength to drive the heavy boat across the wave-swept distance that separated them from the yacht.

Between gasping breaths xal gave brief instructions to correct their course, xallix eyes locked on the lights in the quickly closing distance. As they drew near, xal saw, though indistinctly with the water that had splashed up onto xallix glasses, the unmistakable, snakelike weaving of horrible tenuous fingers, rolling and groping about the yacht.

They were plain as xal drew alongside. The trim ship rose and fell with the water, while over her side where the two mice approached swung a long, white monstrous rope of flesh. It retreated like the lash of a whip, and the horrified watchers saw as it went the struggling figure of a dogan in the grasp of flabby lips. And above them a single eye glared wickedly.

Another vile, twisting arm rose from the afterdeck with a screaming figure in its grasp and vanished into the water beyond the yacht. There were others writhing about the decks. Mickey saw them as they made the boat fast and clambered aboard.

A wave of reeking air enveloped xalv as xal reached the deck; the nauseous stench from the monster's tentacles was horrible beyond endurance. Xal gagged and choked as the stifling breath entered xallix lungs, Minnie coughing beside xalv.

A huge rope of slippery, throbbing flesh stretched its twisted length toward the stern. It contracted as xal watched into bulging muscular rings and withdrew from the afterdeck. The deadly end of it stopped in mid-air not twenty feet from where xal stood. The jawlike pincers on it held the limp form of an officer in its sucking grip, while above, in a protuberance like a gnarled horn, a single great eye glared into Mickey's two with insatiable hunger.

The beak opened sharply to drop its unconscious burden upon the deck, and the watching enby, petrified with horror, saw within the gaping maw great sucking discs and beyond them a brilliant glow. The whole cavernous pit was aflame with phosphorescent light. Dimly xal knew that this light explained the ability of the beastly arms to grope so surely in the dark.

The eye narrowed as the gaping, fleshy jaws distended, and Mickey Mouse-Mallaire, in a flash that galvanized xalv to action, was suddenly aware that xallix fight all their lives was on. Xal fired blindly from the hip, and the recoil of the heavy gun almost tore it from xallix hands. But xal knew xal had aimed true, and the toothless, seeking jaws whipped in agony back into the sea, leaving its prey behind.

There were other arms whose eyes were searching the stern of the yacht, and no time to think.

The two micean plunged frenziedly down a companionway for the cabin they knew was Vinnie Violinist’s. Were they in time? Could they save them if they found them?

Mickey’s mind was in a turmoil of half-formed plans as xal rushed madly down the corridor after Minnie only to find the body of their beloved a limp huddle across the threshold of their cabin, with four other young people huddled by them, only slightly more conscious, one of them clutching an unconcious catan in their arms.

Vinnie was alive; xal knew it when Minnie swung their limp body across one shoulder, flashing a steely determined glance at xalv. Mickey somehow found the strength in xallix panic to yank the four strangers to their feet, hissing for them to follow if they wanted to live, helping to carry the unconcious catan when it became apparent the stranger who’d been holding them was too shocked to do it themselves at the moment.

As a panicked herd the group staggered up the stairs led by Minnie carrying Vinnie, with Mickey carrying the catan at the rear to keep them all together.

If xal could only breathe! Xallix throat was tight and strangling with the reeking putrescence in the air. It was no wonder Vinnie was unconcious and the others not far from it. And before xallix eyes was a picture of the strong oak bars of their own retreat. Somehow, some way, they had to get back to Nagasaki Maru.

An eye detected their group as they came on deck, and xal was forced to shove the limp body of the cat into two of the other survivor’s combined arms as xal swung xallix rifle toward the glowing light within the opening jaws. The sucking discs cupped and wrinkled in dread readiness in the fleshy, toothless opening. Mickey emptied the magazine into the head, though xal knew this was only a feeler and a feeder for a still more horrible mouth in the monstrous body that rose and fell tremendously in the dark waters beyond. But it was typical of Mickey Mouse-Mallaire that, even in the horror and frenzy of the moment, xal rammed another clip of cartridges into xallix rifle, realized the humans xal had shoved the catan at were much more aware and could carry them better than xal could, and managed to fire another shot to ward off another reaching tentacle as Minnie led the group again at a charge towards their boat.

The forward deck for the moment was clear; it rose high with the weight of the writhing, twisting arms that weighed down the stern of the yacht where Mickey could see what looked like another two members of the crew had taken refuge. Xal couldn’t tell if either were Vinnie’s god-father from this distance.

For a moment Mickey thought of stopping, of trying to help them too, but xal was forced to dismiss even the thought as another great eye came over the rail just feet away from Minnie at the head of the group. Once more xal used the gun with stunning effect, slung it back securely over xallix shoulder, then quickly leapt to grab the crew member who’d been dropped by the monster when they first arrived while Minnie hustled everyone into the boat.

Not knowing or caring if the body in xallix arms was even alive, Mickey jumped down into the boat, shoved the body into someone else’s arms without even looking, and they frantically cast off, xal with one set of oars, and Minnie with the others, while the survivors crowded the middle.

They rowed with the stealthiest strokes they could manage with so many extra burdens aboard, trying to get away without drawing more attention to themselves. Mickey didn’t know what they would do if their little lifeboat were attacked, there would just be no chance.

Behind xalv, reflected in Minnie’s wide eyes, were whipping points of light above the white brilliance of the yacht Adelaide, the search lights of the hungry monster. The boat was tossing in great waves that came from beyond, where a body, incredibly huge, was tearing the waters to foam. There were ghostly arms that shone in slimy wetness, that lashed searchingly in all directions, as the monster gave vent to its reaction at Mickey's attack.

There were now screaming human figures grasped in two of those flying jaws, and the enby felt guilt wash through xallix soul at not being able to rescue them as well. But there was nothing that could be done, not without risking everyone aboard the lifeboat now.

With the monster so enraged, they gave in to the fear and began to row with all speed now, desperate only to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible.

Even with their combined strength at the oars, with so many heavier humans as passengers, both Minnie and Mickey’s breaths were coming in great choking sobs of sheer exhaustion when they finally pulled up beside the Nagasaki Maru and managed topull the senseless forms of the survivors, both unconcious and concious, over the railing. One and all, with the humans now helping to carry those who were unconcious, they retreated into the frail shelter of the wireless room.

Stout had the oaken bars appeared, and safe their refuge in the barricaded room, but that was before the two mice had seen in horrible reality the fearful fury of this monster from the deep. Only the weight of the rifle still on xallix shoulders gave xalv the courage to keep upright. Xal placed the braces against the door and Minnie jumped with hopeless haste to seize the wireless key while the survivors huddled around the still unconcious forms of Vinnie, the catan, and the crew member on the floor.

"Bennington," Minnie called, and the answer came strong and clear: "Where are you.... Help—" For a moment novas fingers visibly froze upon the key, and the answering message in novas ears was unheeded as nova stared across the water, drawing Mickey’s gaze away from nova and towards the final destruction of the yacht.

This craft that had dared to resist the onset of the brute, to fight against it, to wound it, was feeling the full fury of the monster's rage. The gleaming lights of the doomed ship were waving lines that swept to and fro in the grip of those monstrous arms. The boat beneath their feet was tossing in the waves that told of the titanic struggle. Mickey had meant to look south for some sign of the oncoming destroyer, but in fearful fascination xal stared spellbound where the masts of the trim yacht swept downward into the waves, where the green of her star-board lantern glowed faintly for an instant, then vanished, to leave only the darkness and the starlit sea.

A voice aroused xalv from his stupefaction. "Where am I ... where am I?" Vinnie Violinist was asking in a frightened whisper. "That terrible thing—" their voice shook violently as the memory clearly returned to show again the horror they had witnessed. "Matilda, Where are we?” their voice was growing in strength with terror “What-- Mickey? Where did you— And the Adelaide— where is it?"

Mickey turned slowly toward them. The horrific turmoil of the past hour had suddenly numbed xallix brain, stunned xalv.

"The Adelaide—" xal mumbled, and groped fumblingly for coherent thoughts. Xal stared at the enban. They were half-risen from the floor where Minnie had laid them, supported by their friends, and the sight of their quivering face brought reason again to xallix mind. Xal knelt tenderly beside them and raised them in xallix arms, the others releasing them trustingly as Minnie came over to join the desperate embrace.

"Where is the yacht?" Vinnie repeated. "The Adelaide?"

"Gone," Minnie told them despairingly. "Lost!"

A thought struck Mickey "Was your god-father on board, Vinnie?"

Vinnie was clearly dazed.

"Lost," they repeated. "The Adelaide—lost!... No," they added in belated response to Mickey's question. "He was not there. But the rest of the crew—Captain MacPherson ... that horrible monster...." they buried their face in their hands as they realized what Mickey's silence meant. Their friends folded in around the three of them and those who were still unconcious, and Mickey was comforted by it. Xal needed some reminder that xal was still alive.

Supported by the group hug, xal did xal part to hold Vinnie’s trembling figure upright as they whispered: "Where are we? Are we safe?"

"We may win through yet," xal told them through grim, set lips. Mickey realized abruptly that xal was seeing the face of Vinnie Vincent in the light. Xal had left a lantern burning!

Mickey withdrew xalexir from the hug as quick as xal could and sprang to put out the tell-tale light. In darkness and quiet was their only safety. But xal knew as xal sprang back to the illusion of safety with the others that xal had waited too long as a soft body crashed heavily on the deck outside.

There was nothing but silence and heartbeats in the dark where they all crouched waiting—waiting.

A luminous something was glowing outside the cabin. It searched and prodded about the deserted deck to whip upward with the audible hiss of wet carbide. Another appeared; the rifle came carefully, silently over Mickey’s shoulder as a pair of jaws gaped glowingly beyond the windows and an eye stared unblinkingly from its hornlike sheath.

Suddenly it crashed madly against the walls of the wireless room to shatter the glass and make kindling of the woodwork of the windowpane, sending gasps and cries of terror from everyone in the room. Mickey fired once, and then had to fire again before the specter vanished, but xal knew with sickening certainty that these wounds, however painful for the beast, were only messages to some central brain that would send other ravening tentacles against them.

But the oak bars had held.

For now.

Minnie reached in the brief interval for the key, and began sending out frantic calls for help. Xal strained xallix ears, hoping to hear some faint, friendly word of hope from the headset that Minnie didn’t even bother to put on.

"—rocket," the wireless operator was suddenly saying. "Fire rockets. We can't find—" A swift, writhing arm wrapped crushingly about the cabin, drowning out the rest of the message.

Mickey fired into the gray mass that bulged with terrible muscular contractions through the window, and then fired again to aim lengthways of the arm and inflict as damaging a wound as xallix weapon would permit.

The first arm relaxed, but a score of others took up the attack. Again the sickening stench was about them as gaping jaws gleamed fiery beneath the hateful eyes and tore at the flimsy structure. Mickey jammed more cartridges into the gun and fired again and again and again, while Minnie leapt forward and fumbled for the rockets that Brent had given them. The other survivors were huddled in the center of the floor, squeezing together in a desperate bid for safety.

Minnie lighted one rocket with trembling fingers while Mickey kept firing with xallix rifle, and the first ball shot straight into a waiting mouth. Another ignited a searing flame of acetlylene gas where a wet arm writhed in the hot carbide trail. Then, in a move that almost stopped Mickey’s heart with horror, Minnie jumped forward and leaned far out through the broken window to aim the rocket at the sky.

The red flares streamed upward high into the air, lighting up the deck and the writhing tentacles in blood red, then Mickey pulled nova back through the window in sheer terror.

A mass of undeterred, enraged muscle crashed against the door, which went to splinters under the impact, and only the two oak bars remained to hold in check the horrible tentacles and the darting heads. One beak forced its way between the bars. The oak gave under the strain as Mickey pulled vainly at the trigger of the suddenly nonfunctioning gun.

Behind xalv rose shrieks of terror as the monstrous thing came on, and Mickey, in xallix terror, began to beat with frantic fury with the clubbed end of rifle at the fleshy snout. Then someone else joined in, bashing at the nose with a smashed piece of chair, screaming wordlessly, and Minnie jumped forward, slashing madly with novas sword, opening lines of deep wounds that glistened wetly in the blood-red light of the flares.

Then there was a rush of movement behind xalv in the dark, and Mickey Mouse-Mallaire smiled grimly in the numbing horror as xal realized that Vinnie Violinist was beside xalv now, and the other concious survivors beside them.

A piece of oak was in Vinnie’s hands, and they were striking with desperate and silent fury at the slimy flesh, while the others did the same, roaring now with fury as well as fear.

But despite the grievous wounds it was receiving, the monster did not recoil or retreat, seeming to shrug off this vicious show of solidarity like they were not even there. Not even Minnie’s sword deterred it. The hard flesh around the tentacles were apparently much less sensitive than the inside of the mouth.

It was the end, Mickey knew, and suddenly xal was glad. The nightmare was over, and the end was coming with xallix favorite people beside xalv. But Mickey Mouse-Mallaire was fighting on to the last, and xal tried to make xallix blows reach outward to the hateful devilish eye.

Mickey could suddenly see it plainly now, for the deck was abruptly flooded by a glare of blindingly white light. Xal saw the eye and the thick arm behind it, and the score of others that made a heaving, knotted mass that was brilliant and wetly shining. Xal could see now how best to strike, and xal turned xallix gun to thrust the barrel end at the glaring eye.

It withdrew violently before this strike—the jaws slid backward to the deck. There were new sounds that hammered suddenly at xallix ears. "The guns! The guns!" a woman’s familiar voice was screaming. Across the deck, where a search-light played, huge arms were lashing backward toward the sea. The waves beyond had vanished where a monstrous body shone wetly black in a blinding glare.

And Mickey hung panting, helpless, on the one remaining bar across the doorway to look where, beyond, her forward guns a spitting stream of staccato flashes, the Bennington tore the waves to high-thrown spray. Her four clean funnels swung far over as the slim ship, with her stabbing, crashing guns, swung in a sweeping circle to bear down upon the black bulk slowly sinking in the search-light's glare.

The vast body had vanished as the destroyer shot like one of her own projectiles over the spot where the beast had lain. And then, where she had passed, the sea arose in a heaving mound. The Nagasaki Maru beneath the feet of the watching survivors shuddered again as another depth charge roared its challenge to the master of the deeps.

The warship went careening on an arc to return and throw the full glare of her search-lights on the scene. They lighted a vast sea, strangely stilled. An oily smoothness leveled waves and ironed them out to show more clearly the convulsions of a torn mass that rose slowly into sight.

Mickey suddenly way found xalexir outside the cabin with no recollection of moving there. And xal knew that Minnie and Vinnie were again beside xalv as xal stared and stared at what the waters held.

A bloated serpent form beyond believing was struggling in the greasy swell. Its waving tentacles again were flung aloft in impotent fury, and, beneath them, where their thick ends jointed the body, a head with one horrible eye rose into the air. A thick-lipped mouth gaped open, and the gleam of molars shone white in the blinding glare.

The twisting body shuddered throughout its vast bulk, and the waving arms and futile staring eyes dropped helpless into the splashing sea. Again the revolting head was raised as the destroyer sent a rain of shells into its fearful mass. Once more the oily seas were calm. They closed over the whirling vortex where a denizen of the lightless depths was returning to those distant, subterranean caverns—returning as food for what other voracious monsters might still exist.

Mickey was enveloped in a hug with Minnie and Vinnie, all of them trembling anew in a fresh reaction from the horror they had escaped, when a small boat drew alongside, shining a spotlight on them.

"They're safe!" a hoarse voice bellowed back to the destroyer, and a lemuran came climbing up a rope where they had launched the lifeboat.

And now, as one in a dream, Mickey allowed Minnie and Vinnie to be gently taken from xalv, to be lowered to the waiting boat, while other soldiers came up to help xalv, and, when they realized their presence, the other survivors, who were trickling hesitantly out of the wireless room. Mickey clambered down with the help of the sailors, suddenly finding xallix limbs weak and shaking, and it was with a dreadful silence that they were all rowed across to the destroyer.

"Thank God!" shouted down Brent, as he met them at the rail. "You're safe, old enby ... and M. Mallaire, Mx. Violinist,... all of you! You let off that rocket just in time; we couldn't pick you up with our light—” He stopped suddenly, and added instead, "And now we're going back; back to San Diego at full speed. The Admiral wants a word of mouth report."

Mickey stilled him with a heavy gesture. “Just let me go to sleep.” xal said dully. "Let me forget ... forget!... Good God, can we ever forget—" Xal stumbled forward, heedless of Brent's arm across xallix shoulders, while a swarm of surgeon’s assistants descended upon them all.

- - -

Admiral Pete Struthers, U.Q.N., leaned back from his desk and blew a cloud of smoke thoughtfully toward the ceiling. He looked silently from Mickey and Minnie to Commander Brent.

"If either one of you had come to me with such a report," he said finally, "I would have found it incredible; I would have thought you were entirely insane, or trying some wild hoax."

"I wish it were a damn lie," said Mickey quietly. "I wish I didn't have to believe it." There were new lines about the black eyes behind those glasses, lines that spoke what the lips would not confess -- of sleepless nights and the impress of a picture xal could not erase. Minnie fared no better.

"Well, we have kept it out of the papers," said the Admiral stiffly, uncomfortable with the clear trauma the two had faced. "Said it was a derelict, and the wild messages floating about were from an inexperienced man, frightened and irresponsible. Bad advertising—very—for the passenger lines."

"Quite," Commander Brent agreed, trying to inject some lightheartedness into the room, "but of course Mvr. Mouse-Mallaire-Violinist and M. Mallaire-Mouse-Violinist may want to use this in their next book of travel. They have earned the right without doubt."

"I won’t stay silent on this, Admiral." Mickey said tiredly, "I told you, Brent, there was often a factual basis for fables—remember? Well, we have proved that. And its time this myth was brought forward as the truth. Studying these creatures is the only way we can protect others in the future--" A light step sounded in the corridor beyond, interrupting xallix thought.

Everyone rose politely as Vinnie Violinist-Mallaire-Mouse entered the room.

"Ah, welcome! You’ve reminded me," said the Admiral with an engaging smile, "of the matter of a certain bet. Mvr. Mouse-Mallaire-Violinist — congratulations, by the way — has won handily, and xal has taught me a lesson."

He took a check book from his desk. "What charity would you like to name, Vinnie? That was left to you, you remember."

"Send it to a group of marine biologists who will be willing to study those creatures." said Vinnie gravely. "You will know who best to choose, if you two are really serious about that silly bet."

"That bet, my dear," said Mickey, now with smiling eyes despite their tiredness, "was very serious…”

Minnie added, moving forward to land a kiss on Vinnie’s cheek, “And it has had most serious consequences."

Vinnie blushed and smiled.

As one, the three micean turned to the waiting men and waved in cheerful farewell as Minnie and Vinnie started out the door, hand in hand, with only Mickey pausing to say back into the room, "We are flying to Asia, Minnie, Vinnie and I," Mickey told them by way of explanation. "Just rambling around a bit. Our honeymoon, you know. Look us up if you're cruising out that way."

[tellurian-in-aristasia]

Bridgehead Phase 2: Or - What The Heck Was Happening on Heartbook?

Source The date on these would put us a little after the middle of March 2013. You'll notice the highlighted post, in bongo yellow, for your convenience, entitled "Countdown to Bridgehead Phase 2". Unfortunately, none of these posts are saved on the way back machine, so we won't know what was discussed (in significantly less amounts than the anime posts, you'll notice). So we can't be sure what Bridgehead Phase 2 means, but I do have a theory. In 2011, Aristasia started making a drastic aesthetic change, focusing on kawaii and anime. This change made some of Aristasia's subjects feel left out of the conversation, and they started to get rebellious and question the change, even proposing a nova Aristasia in late 2012/very early 2013. In early March of 2013, the Aristasian Preservation Project went live, putting their scandalous 1990s history back online. I believe Bridgehead Phase 2 was the move to Chelouranya, since the domain was purchased on March 27th of 2013. I'm still peeking in the Way Back Machine to try to find forgotten snippets of what was said, and this is the closest I can get:

[wyrdhearth]

NEW BG3 / DND OCS.

ILIAD GRAYBLEAK : tiefling life cleric (of ilmater). 28. bisexual (slight pref. for women).

born to a hardworking rugweaver named hebe graybleak, iliad is the oldest of four siblings raised by hebe alone. though he had never known his father, iliad had never lacked for anything thanks to everything his mother did for him. practically a saint, she instilled in him a deep respect for sacrifice and the suffering she endured to raise their family. when his mother fell ill and was close to death, iliad prayed over her night and day until the god, ilmater, answered his prayers and saved his mother. since then he has been a loyal worshipper of the crying god. he has devoted himself to worship of ilmater, and has joined his clergy to better serve him, moving to baldur's gate in order to be able to also slowly gather enough finds to move his mother close to his temple there so that he can better provide for her. iliad has three other half-siblings: thekla, his younger sister; ilektra, his youngest sister, and aeson, ilektra's twin brother. iliad is intended to be written as 'tav', and his primary love interest is shadowheart.

FENLEAF 'FEN' QUICKQUARRY : wood half-elf beast master ranger/thief rogue. 26. bisexual (pref. for women).

a would-be member of the zhentarim, fenleaf was ejected from their ranks after she was blamed for a stolen shipment –– something she actually had nothing to do with. since then, she's sworn to take down every last one of them, with special exception for her partner, abad el-kareem, who sold her out and let her take the blame for his botched attempts to betray the group. for a time, she had made a deal with auntie ethel in which she gave up her voice for a year –– the year has since passed, but the places in which her mouth was sown shut have been inked as a reminder of the deal she'd made with the hag. she often travels with her dire wolf, snaggle. she can be recruited by the missing shipment quest area, while tracking the gnolls.

ZEPHYR WYND : firbolg swarmkeeper domain. 25. heterosexual.

an outlander, zephyr and his druid sister, breeze, grew up far from baldur's gate. they were happy traveling the wilds alone for many years. but when the cult of the absolute split them up, zephyr decided he would do whatever he needed to in order to get his sister back and make sure she was alright. he can be recruited as a companion within the myconid village in the underdark in act two, believing that wherever moonrise towers is he'll be able to find breeze there.

KE'NAH MASRANI : fire genasi spirits bard. 22. lesbian.

ke'nah used to travel with her human mother (hudan), a weaver, before the two settled down together with her lover (s'samira, the half-wood elf) in the forests of barovia. one day when she was 10, she was taken by a hag named noma'nomanar, who had lured her away after a big fight with her mother. the hag made a deal with ke'nah that she would let her leave safely if she could find her way back home, but ke'nah could never find the cottage. for five years, ke'nah kept trying to return home, but eventually gave up, realizing she'd never see her mother or her lover again. ke'nah allowed noma to raise her until she was old enough to depart, using ke'nah until she found a new, younger assistant to keep by her side. now, she travels as a side-show act, telling fortunes and contacting the spirits of the departed, hoping to see her mother again once more. ke'nah can be used as a bg3 npc, and has a dark urge verse as well.

NOVAKARI : kalashtar stars druid. 21. bisexual (no pref).

plagued by the strife of the quori soul within her, nova is on a quest to heal the fracturing minds of her people, and searching for a way to free them of the dreaming dark. she grew up in a kalashtar settlement called uv-suvir, hidden behind a massive waterfall in adar (eberron) –– as part of her quest, she was teleported to faerûn, seeking to collect one of three asters: pieces of stars that she could then bring back to adar to help craft a barrier for her people that would keep the dreaming dark away. her quest takes her first across eberron to find the first aster, then over to faerûn, and inevitably to the world of exandria to seek out the other two asters she needs. nova can be recruited as a bg3 companion.

[brightsstar]

I'm sleepy so I'm thinking about nova and his first few weeks with the family, and how like! Even though he's beyond exhausted, he probably wouldn't be able to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time, simply because he's too used to that being his norm. So I can see a stint where he's frustrated because he's telling himself that he CAN rest now, but he's still tired all the time anyway.

Indeed. Those first weeks will be a very tough adjustment period for him. For a while though he will still think he's in Black Moon's domain which contributes greatly to his lack of rest, and also due to his old routine. He will adjust, it will just take a good while.

[capricioussun]

Some more fun-ish VF stuff!

I never talk about them really, but the list of allies Void has and works with has expanded quite a lot since the whole idea of a “council” came up. It was actually one such idea for Void that initiated Glitchedswap and eventually Dos!

He made a brief appearance in that one celebration fic with Void, but Comet (UT Comic Papyrus) is usually Void’s first interaction with the multiverse! He usually also winds up working with the other three comic papyruses, Star (US), Nova (SF), and Solar (UF), though Nova is kind of an asshole and Solar is only marginally more tolerable lol

In one of the other celebration fics we meet Wingdings, and I’ve even drawn them together before! But he was a Tale variant Gaster Void rescued, and sort of becomes like an adopted…uncle? To him? It’s strange because their age difference isn’t that great due to both of their natural aging processes being halted by the void, and Gaster’s own boys were pretty young when he became trapped. Still, after years of getting to know each other and Wingdings recovering from the psychological toll his “situation” took, they definitely consider each other family, even if they don’t directly address it.

When applicable, Chara can actually linger around Void like they can with Frisk. He can see them and interact with them, and they’d actually met when Void was very young. Chara became a ghost much earlier on in VF, and met him at the labs. I have a wip comic of the two of them, I would love to finish it one day, their relationship is very sweet <3

Ash is another friend of Void’s, whomst I’ve mentioned before! An Asriel variant who is kind of intense but usually well meaning! He considers himself like an older brother to Void, while Void kind of sees him more like an…ally mentor cousin guy?? They have a lot of mutual respect for each other!

In some variants, waaay far in the future, Dos becomes a sort of mentee of Void’s. A little like a sidekick, if you will. They wind up very close, and Void is one of the few people Dos comes to feel wholly comfortable around <3

Void is a chronic people adopter. It’s terminal /j But fr, despite outwardly usually coming across a bit terse and cold, he warms up easily and becomes attached quicker than he likes aha

Cosine isn’t entirely an UT oc, but when I put them in that domain, he is a monster who got separated from his family and universe, what tore them away affecting their coding and making them a bit visually off as well as damaging his memory so he can’t actually remember where he came from. Void unintentionally winds up a sort of adopted dad/uncle to them, and they wind up living with him for a time, traveling together sometimes when searching for Cosine’s universe, since his damaged coding makes it harder to locate.

In applicable iterations, Perp and Void actually wind up with a better, healthier relationship than Edge and Red, since they have to overcome a lot more and actually communicate once everything comes to light (Perp didn’t know Papyrus was a vessel for…too long).

Speaking of too long! I’ll stop there so this post doesn’t get out of control agdhsj