#warrior is wearing the goggles from their memory

[danelloevee-sky]

I love the Aurora spirits

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Outbreak Pt 2 (LU in Healthcare)

Legend slurped on his energy drink, anxious to get to work. He and the entire night shift had been called in early to attend some training for this new virus that was potentially a problem. Administration mandated everyone attend to see how to don and doff personal protective equipment.

It was mildly exasperating, as it had cut into his sleep and he'd run out of time to really grab an actual breakfast. But whatever. He paid attention as best he could, leg starting to bounce with nervous energy. When his phone buzzed, he glance down, distracted.

The name Zelda was on the screen, and he immediately tuned out everything around him.

They hardly messaged each other, really. Birthday wishes, the occasional "are you alive" text, that was about it. It was hard to maintain much of a good relationship sometimes, given... well, everything.

Hey. So. I have this patient. Heart attack, CABG, pathway, blah. But he's got family who knows you?? I just want to make sure??? Like he seemed legit but still. Says he goes by Wild.

He... the heart attack patient from yesterday...

Shit.

Legend texted quickly, gaze flicking between his phone and the person wearing a gown in the front. Yeah, I know a few people named Link, so we go by nicknames.

His sister's reply was practically instantaneous. Still not over the fact that you call yourself Legend LOL you're so lame

Legend huffed, feeling his cheeks flush. THERE'S A REASON OK

Uh huh. Sure. So this Wild dude is legit then? I didn't let some random stranger into my pt's room yest right?

Sighing, Legend replied, Nah he's legit. Good guy. Wish he could've told me his dad was here.

Because it had to be his father, right? The more Legend thought about it, the more it made sense. The man looked just like Wild, except for being older and more worn out. He'd been reaching out to Wild, calling out his name, in a frenzy. Wild had been acting strange. The long drawn out gaze with Time. All of it.

"Legend."

Glancing up, the travel nurse saw Warriors standing over him, looking grim. "Uh... Wars, you good?"

"Hope you paid attention to the training," Warriors said. "That patient who got diagnosed with Arfy at the urgent care is here. You're taking him."

Legend blinked. "He's--he's here? Did he get worse?"

"Yeah. They're intubating him now."

Great. As if his stomach wasn't in knots already. Warriors gave Legend the room and said that would be his only patient to try and decrease cross contamination with other rooms. Legend ran the training demonstration in his head, now mildly panicked that he'd ignored some of it in lieu of talking to his sister, but it was fairly straightforward. Everyone was already masking as a precaution, he just needed to start wearing gowns and goggles and face shields too.

Time to get to work.

XXX

Wild paced in his bedroom, simultaneously annoyed and thankful that he had tonight off. Everyone had texted him by this point asking if he was alright, and while he appreciated the sentiment, he really had no way of conveying that he desperately wanted and needed to keep his past separate from his present.

He hardly knew his life before Castle Town. But what he did remember was enough. He couldn't--he couldn't go back to that life. He'd lost everyone, and it had been his fault. As his memories had come back, he'd doubled down on avoiding his past, including his family.

How could he possibly reconcile the old him with who he was now, after all? He just wanted to close that chapter of his life. He just wanted closure, period. He was terrified of seeing his family again. What would they think of him? How could he have left them like he had? How could he ever return to them?

He... he wanted to check on his father. But he knew by now the rest of his family was likely at the hospital, and he did not need to see them. Guilt twisted his gut as he stared out the window, watching the cows graze in the pasture.

Sighing, he went downstairs, catching sight of Malon watching the news. He distracted himself with asking her what was up, and she said, "There's ten more cases of Arfy in town."

Wild blinked. Ten? Hadn't there just been one yesterday?

That... didn't bode well.

Before Wild could comment, Wind skipped in, having mentioned he was dropping by for dinner. "Yo, you guys should see the picture Legend just sent me of this guy's chest x-ray!"

Wild and Malon both crowded around Wind's phone to look at th eimage, and Wild asked, "So what am I looking at?"

Malon hissed, staring at the image. "Those lungs look awful."

"Right?" Wind glanced up at the OR nurse. "I'm surprised they have any compliance."

Wild stared at the pair dully. "I take it it's bad."

"His lungs are shot," Wind emphasized. "Like... they look like they're rocks. Legend said they can barely get the guy to oxygenate."

Wild felt a new twinge of anxiety in his chest. This new illness had been tearing through some cities in the Gerudo Desert, and now that it was in Castle Town...

As if he didn't have enough to worry about. He sighed. Hopefully his father would get better quickly and his family would leave before anything truly terrible happened.

Hopefully nothing terrible would happen at all.

[kafkaoftherubbles]

Crack-ass Hypotheses Record #1/ 致命脑洞记录 (一） 

Eko has her clay pot. I have my crackpot.

This is where I gather my current To Your Eternity hypotheses and speculations that are wild (low probability) and have minimal-to-no concrete in-lore evidence or arguments per what the story currently shows. Over time, some might get promoted to formal hypotheses (IPA pronounciation: ˈram-bəl) if the evidence pools to its favor, but for now, take 'em with the same copious amount of salt as needed to make marinated Nokkers to serve unsuspecting Human Nokkers. Yum! 

Dolly has 32's brainwaves, including a copy of her consciousness/personality (at the time of her copying), uploaded into its AI module. It is still loading in the background. 

Dolly has 32's brainwaves and some bits of Left Hand Nokker's consciousness. Ironically making it the latest Hayase "rebirth." 

Dolly has 32's brainwaves because she is (forcefully) uploaded into the doll to leave her actual vessel for Left Hand Nokker to completely dominate. Dolly is 32's last-ditch attempt to remain "human." 

Dolly is a hybrid of 32 and Left Hand Nokker's consciousness as the Left Hand Nokker's latest attempt to "be human." Hence the panel "I've become human." 

Dolly is the Beholder's Orb (a rather popular one in the fandom as it stands, but it's personally placed rather low on my probability scale) 

AD and 32 (+ other Mizuha clones) had a very important relationship. 

AD was one of the Mizuha executors. 

 All Kaibara's most dirty-working executors have no stars. 

AD is frequently depicted as wearing goggles because (1) he has soft expressive eyes which, despite the intimidating physique, can easily betray his emotions. (2) his eyes are distinctive enough that revealing it will make readers recognize his lineage or connection to past characters. (3) a fashion statement. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. 

The Mizuha Massacre was conducted because Left Hand Nokker has finally perfected its vessel and it no longer needs these "Hayase's rebirths" anymore.  

Left Hand Nokker's perfect vessel is constructed or engineered from scratch the way designer babies like Andy are, but with materials from the Left Hand Nokker itself such that for the first time, it can say this is its body. This is its first time as an independent human being, "free" from Hayase and her "incarnations."

There could be a grand revelation of the true nature of Hayase's rebirths, which the Left Hand Nokker recounts to taunt/spite Fushi. Perhaps the revelation that the rebirths have always been arbitrary and socially constructed and that only the Left Hand Nokker is the constant. In other words, Kahaku could have just been a normal Yanome boy without all that baggage—and self-hatred—all along.  (very wild if true; for now, very low on the probability scale despite how much I like this one)

There will be a World Tour of sorts, with each immortal warrior's personal theme and life story coming to full circle and perhaps even dying. It will make this part of the Wish Era mirror the Previous Era's emotional gut punches.  

The tundra will return (whether it's still the tundra or not... well, climate change might beg to differ). The NAMELESS BOY (ooh, didn't need to capitalize that) and Joann both will return to the story in some form.  

As they are Fushi's earliest memories and life impetus, to the point of being pre-Hayase, they are the ones most connected to the Beholder's Orb. 

Nameless Boy is (or the base of) Fushi all along. It doesn't change the fact that Fushi is "everyone", though, but in some philosophical-spiritual-scientific-whatever-sticks way, Nameless Boy and Fushi are "one person."  (Also very wild if true, but also very low on the probability scale despite how much I like this one to bits)

Fushi would make do with what they promised Left Hand Nokker back in the Present Era and "become its vessel."  

That's it this time! I wonder what everyone's crackpot theories are as of now?  

Thank you for reading my ramble.  

[wangwill66]

里察雷迪

H：星際硬漢從星際傳奇開始，怒星人反轉稱王，再被遊逐，生存本能。20230610W6

星際傳奇馮·迪索 飾 里察·雷迪，超世紀戰警

Riddick

超世紀戰警：闇黑對決

維基百科介紹：

Riddick (character)

Fictional character

Richard B. Riddick, more commonly known as Riddick, is a fictional character and the antiheroic protagonist of the Chronicles of Riddick series, including the animated short movie Dark Fury and the video games Escape from Butcher Bay and Assault on Dark Athena. Actor Vin Diesel has played the title role in all of the Riddick-based films and video games thus far.

Quick Facts First appearance, Created by ...

Within the canon of the series, Riddick is shown to have a vast number of skills, which include great mobility, stealth, killing abilities, survival in harsh conditions, prison-breaking, and piloting. Despite his criminal nature and background, he is sometimes shown to perform moral or even atypically heroic actions, usually against his own better judgment and survivalist nature.

Despite his Human origin in Pitch Black, in subsequent sequels his race was changed to Furyan, a warrior race of adapted humans obliterated by a military campaign that left his home planet of Furya desolate and is one of the last of his kind. One of his most defining features are his eyes, a characteristic inherent in a certain caste of his species (the Alpha-Furyans), although he implies in Pitch Black that they were "shined" by a back-alley surgical operation. This allows him to see clearly in the dark, but also makes him vulnerable to strong light; he wears tinted welding goggles for protection.

Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force, and later a soldier.

Biography

Early life

Riddick was born on Furya. Before Riddick's birth, a Necromonger officer named Zhylaw (who would eventually become the Lord Marshall) consulted an Elemental seer, who told him that a Furyan male would be born that would be responsible for his downfall. This prompted Zhylaw to attack Furya and attempt to massacre all male children, going so far as to personally strangle newborn infants with their own umbilical cords. Riddick was among those presumably strangled, but he survived.

In later life, Riddick repressed his memories of Furya, including those of the massacre. He came to believe that when he was born, his mother attempted to strangle him and left him in a trash bin behind a liquor store. Despite this, he periodically received visions and messages from a Furyan survivor named Shirah, which he thought were signs of mental instability. [citation needed]

Little is known about Riddick's childhood, save that he had no formal education and seemed to have been in trouble with the law from an early age. He claims to have been "educated" in the penal system.

Pitch Black

Main article: Pitch Black (film)

In the premiere installment in the franchise, Riddick is introduced as a notorious convict en route to a penal institution with his captor, a bounty hunter named William J. Johns. By impersonating a cop and traveling with a group of settlers aboard the nondescript transport cruiser Hunter Gratzner, Johns hopes to safely convey Riddick back to a prison colony and collect the outlaw's enormous bounty. However, the ship inadvertently passes through a comet's tail while on autopilot, forcing it to crash land on an unknown planet with three suns. Soon the survivors find themselves fighting for their lives against a predatory species called Bio-Raptors, and by the end of the film there are only three survivors: Riddick, a young girl called Jack, and Imam.

Dark Fury

Main article: Dark Fury

Shortly after escaping the planet from Pitch Black, Riddick, Jack, and the Imam are picked up by a Mercenary spacecraft. Although Riddick attempts to conceal his identity from the mercenaries by impersonating William J. Johns (in Pitch Black) over the intercom, they quickly voiceprint and identify him.

Captured by the mercenaries, the trio of survivors discover that their captors have unusual plans for Riddick. The ship's owner, Antonia Chillingsworth, collects criminals, whom she freezes and keeps as statues that are, in her view, art. Although the criminals are frozen, they are alive and conscious. To her, Riddick is the ultimate "masterpiece" for her collection. Riddick, Jack, and Imam must fight their way through the army of human and alien creatures at her disposal or they will meet a fate crueler than death. Once they have killed most of the mercs on the ship, the trio takes one of Antonia's shuttles and heads for New Mecca (although at one point the navicomp shows a potential course for Furya), where Riddick leaves them before heading for the planet UV 6.

The Chronicles of Riddick

Main article: The Chronicles of Riddick

Five years later, Riddick has remained in hiding on an Arctic planet called U.V. for its harsh ultraviolet light. Meanwhile, Imam, learning that his own planet, Helion Prime, will be invaded by the twisted religious crusade of the Necromongers, recalls the story Riddick told him of his Furyan origins, and betrays Riddick's location to the Helion Prime leaders. Initially, Riddick is reluctant to become involved in the struggle between the Necromongers and the world they seek to conquer. But when Imam is killed, Riddick sets out on a mission to avenge him, eventually overthrowing the Lord Marshal (with help from Jack) and inheriting his office.[citation needed]

Riddick

Main article: Riddick (film)

Dissatisfied with his role as Lord Marshal, Riddick attempts to find Furya, but is instead abandoned on a desolate planet. After spending some time on this world, Riddick finds that he will soon be overtaken by a vicious storm that provides cover for countless predators. Using the communication system from a mercenary outpost, Riddick lures two ships to the planet, intending to commandeer one of them; but his plan is complicated when he finds that one of the arriving mercenaries is the father of his old enemy, Johns the bounty hunter. Riddick uses the approaching storm to force the mercenaries to cooperate, but he is left surrounded by enemies and nearly killed. To his surprise, the elder Johns rescues him and allows him to leave. Riddick praises Johns for being a better man than his son.

Powers and abilities

Eyeshine

See also: Tapetum lucidum

According to Riddick, while in Butcher Bay he received eye surgery (a "surgical shine job", as he calls it) from a doctor who gave him permanent night vision in exchange for "20 menthol KOOLs". The surgery made his eyes more sensitive to normal light, requiring him to wear welding goggles to protect them (although he has also been shown without the goggles in a regularly illuminated room).

In the flash movie on the Pitchblack.com website, Riddick gets the eye-shine to give him more of an advantage following an encounter with humanoids called "shiners". Referring to Riddick as "darkeye", they have had the same operation to see in the dark bowels of the Ursa Luna prison where the guards do not tend to go. The eye-shine surgery seems to be performed by a bovine veterinarian on board a prison facility where Riddick arrived only a few hours before and from which he is already in the process of escaping. Riddick elects to have no anesthetic, despite the procedure involving cutting the cornea and drilling through the eye to inject a reflective substance behind the retina. The cost quoted to Riddick is 1000 creds. Having no cash, Riddick offers down payment of a pack of Kool cigarettes which he earlier took from a guard. He also takes some welder's goggles from the facility.

The video game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (which serves as a prequel to Pitch Black), clarifies that Riddick's eyeshine is more than just something he picked up in a prison. After helping a character called "Pope Joe" retrieve his "blessed voice box", a radio that picks up religious programming (including a Necromonger Talk Show), Riddick goes into a den to get stitches for an injury. After he is finished receiving stitches, Joe tells him how to escape, and, perhaps coincidentally, warns Riddick not to "trust [his] eyes"; at that moment, a ghostly voice informs Riddick that he has "been blind for far too long..." and that he is to receive a gift. It is at this moment that Riddick receives his eyeshine. The mysterious voice belongs to a character named "Shirah", who appears to serve as a sort of spiritual guide to Riddick, helping him awaken the Furyan abilities that lie dormant within him. In the Chronicles of Riddick film, Jack/Kyra angrily tells Riddick that when she was sent to prison, she found out that it is impossible to find anyone who can perform a "surgical shine job" at any price and accuses him of lying about how he received his night vision.

Light amplification surgery, somewhat similar in effect to Riddick's eyeshine, has been patented in real life.

Wrath of the Furyans

Aside from helping Riddick unlock his eyeshine, the character Shirah also either allows or helps Riddick discover his ability to unleash a sort of energy wave. It is shown in the director's cut of The Chronicles of Riddick after she lays her hand on Riddick's chest, leaving a glowing blue handprint, and says, "this mark carries the anger of an entire race... but it's going to hurt". After either receiving a shot from Vaako's energy handgun or a fraction of a second before the discharge of said weapon, she immediately emits a large blast of blue energy from Riddick (or Riddick himself does so with her guidance), leaving the group of surrounding Necromongers dead. This ability is also displayed off screen in Escape from Butcher Bay.

Physical abilities

Aside from his more supernatural skills, Riddick is in superlative physical condition and is an exceptional fighter with or without the use of his eyes. Whether as a result of his Furyan heritage or simply training, Riddick is stronger, faster, more agile, tougher, more resistant to damage and injury, possessing more acute senses, immense stamina, and superior healing when compared to most humans; he is shown on more than one occasion dislocating his limbs for brief moments with only slight signs of discomfort, although he was in more obvious pain when his leg was broken in a fall, and had to use a heated rock to cauterize a wound when he was impaled in the chest by a creature's sharpened tooth. In general, Riddick possesses an abnormally high threshold of pain and psychologically channels what pain he does feel into anger. His ability to cope with toxins is also heightened; when a merc team was attempting to take him out with horse tranquilizers, it took four darts just to make Riddick stop running, and he still remained conscious until he was hit in the head. His ability to cope with pain, stress and situational panic is most likely the main reason behind his success, which combined with his sharp intelligence gives Riddick the ability to escape from any situation.

Riddick's abilities at hand-to-hand combat is a mix of Krav Maga, Hapkido, Eskrima, and Ninjutsu; he uses his formidable fighting skills while confronting one of the night-creatures of Pitch Black with only a shiv he had made, killing it with relative ease, as well as defeating one of the Lord Marshal's best Necromonger warriors in a matter of seconds in Chronicles. Also, he was able to hold off the Lord Marshal and even injure him which the Lord Marshal admitted hadn't happened in a long time. While Riddick was no match for him in speed, he was able to hold off the Lord Marshal for several minutes.

Intelligence

Despite his harsh upbringing and violent attitude, Riddick has been shown to have a certain knack for deduction, rapidly deducing what had happened to the original inhabitants of the mining base where he and the other crash survivors had been staying, as well as finding the creature's blind spot in Pitch Black and swiftly deducing what had caused the firefight between the Warden's and Toombs' men in The Chronicles of Riddick. He has also been described as having "a knack for escape", surviving not only the Lord Marshall's purge of the Furyans when he was an infant but subsequently escaping from various prisons over the course of his life. He is also able to quickly judge the quality of, and find even seemingly minor flaws in most weaponry, down to very specific details. In one case, Riddick concluded that the prized dagger of a Necromonger was "a half gram too heavy on the back end" after an inspection lasting all of a couple of seconds, although the tone of voice in which he delivered this appraisal suggested pre-fight bravado rather than abstract fact. His only weakness (other than light sensitivity, leaving him in pain when in daylight without his goggles), as stated in the Pitch Black DVD, is his soft spot for children and anyone who really grows on him (those people become his friends), which resulted in his capture by the bounty hunter Johns (Cole Hauser). While he may be a ruthless killer, when necessary, Riddick has never been shown to kill anyone who was not actively trying to kill him first and has been known to help people in need only if they don't slow him down or make him vulnerable. The only exception to this was when, in Pitch Black, he returned with Carolyn to help the others, after she pleaded with him. He also mentions on board the Dark Athena that people he helps often end up dead. In The Chronicles of Riddick, he considered it an insult, when he discovered the bounty placed on him was around a million of the currency for most planets, and when Toombs has a small crew to capture him (it was originally four crew members, then it was five).

In addition to raw analytical power, Riddick is generally an astute judge of character, especially in the dark side of human nature. A killer himself and resident of several maximum-security facilities, he is often able to predict an individual's negative impulses before they act on them. He has been known to be surprised on occasion, such as when Carolyn Fry in Pitch Black altruistically gave up a fast escape to save Jack and Imam from the alien creatures. Riddick was also surprised when he underestimated Jack's (Kyra's) affection toward him between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, only learning of it after she had become a mercenary and resident of a maximum-security prison in order to see him once again. Otherwise, he correctly predicted which of the group in Pitch Black would turn on each other (in particular that Johns would try to double-cross Fry), and that the mercs and guards on Crematoria would turn on each other prior to his escape attempt. In Riddick, he appeared pleasantly surprised to learn that Johns' father was a better man than his son, complimenting Johns' nerve when he came back to help Riddick when he didn't have to.

Willpower

One major characteristic of Riddick is his indomitable will. Despite finding himself in situations where the odds of survival and/or escape would seem insurmountable, Riddick always pushes forward and never gives up. Faced with several creatures far more powerful than himself, or any human for that matter, he has shown himself to be capable of evading, killing, or even taming them. He has escaped out of prisons when most prisoners would resign themselves to captivity. When Riddick was mentally probed by the Quasi-Dead of the Necromongers, he not only resisted them, but also retaliated, the Quasi-Dead's containers actually exploding from the strain of trying to process Riddick. Given the Necromongers' apparent faith in and respect for the power of the Quasi-Dead, this is a very impressive feat. Perhaps even greater was his ability to resist the Lord Marshall's attempt to steal his soul. The one time his will seemed to waver was when Kyra was killed, sacrificing herself to save him and help him defeat the Lord Marshal, and even then, he channeled his loss into new strength.

Weapons

Riddick is deadly with any weapon that he can get his hands on, but his weapon of choice is undoubtedly a knife. However, Riddick's most famous weapons are surely a pair of Ulak blades that he is seen using during his escape from Crematoria in The Chronicles of Riddick.

He has also been known to use anything from Necromonger gravity rifles, teacups and anything in between. Riddick can also kill efficiently without using a weapon. In the second film, he used the knife he took from Irgun as his weapon during his fight with him and the Lord Marshall, killing both with it. The third film sees him predominately relying on a bone-sword he made from the remains of a creature he had killed.

Other appearances

Riddick's first appearance outside Pitch Black was a guest appearance and potential recruit in Fallout Tactics. He appears in the game during a random special encounter, aptly titled Pitch Black. Like his movie origin, Riddick is a stealth focused melee fighter with advanced hand-to-hand fighting skills and the ability to see in the dark.

Riddick has appeared as a playable character in the Xbox game Deathrow. He is one of the final players available on the Convicts team and has the highest amount of strength and aggression of all recruitable Convict players, although he has the equal-lowest teamplay rating in the game.

Behind the scenes Richard B. Riddick first appeared in Pitch Black: Slam City, a Shockwave prequel comic on the official Pitch Black website, one month before the release of the movie. In the film, and in all subsequent appearances the character has been portrayed by Vin Diesel.

In Jim and Ken Wheat's original script for Pitch Black, the Riddick character was a woman named Taras Krieg.[citation ne

[roseverdict]

drops this here and runs lmao

〜

Splinter was jolted awake by a crashing sound, followed by multiple unfamiliar voices.

"Ughhh…what'd that thingy do? My head hurts."

He scrambled from his chair and bolted for the voices.

They were coming from the boys' room.

"Well, if you'd been listening to me, you'd know we should have teleported to April's house! Considering the fact that someone decided to switch out my fuel source, though, who knows where we ended up?"

Splinter hadn't attempted to use any of his childhood training in a couple years, but silence still came to him almost too easily as he approached the boys' room.

"Ack! My phone's being all weird when I try to check my texts! Guess letting Apes or CJ know we're having a problem is off the table. Greeeat."

"Can somebody turn on the lights? I've got color vision, not night vision!"

Splinter tried to assure himself that, while he could barely make out anything of what the teenaged voices were saying, what little he did understand seemed to point to them unintentionally arriving in his home rather than purposefully breaking in where his boys were napping.

…somehow.

His tail darted into the room and flicked the light switch.

The voices all squawked at the sudden light, but Splinter just froze.

His eyesight had yet to recover fully from his mutation, but even the blurry shapes and colors were enough to light a fire in him.

They were big. Far too big.

It was impossible.

The four large turtle shapes scrambled upright, and Splinter found himself staring at each of them in shock.

The largest of them, standing easily head and shoulders above Splinter's original height, back when he could still call himself Lou Jitsu, with a unique little snaggletooth in the corner of his mouth, and wearing a red bandana over his head like a traditional Hamato warrior.

The smallest of them, just a few inches shorter than Splinter was now but with stickers decorating his plastron that were familiar in the way the colors popped, even if Splinter had never actually seen the stickers themselves before, and with an orange mask tied around his eyes and ending in a bow.

The two in-between their brothers' heights, one with red markings peeking out from a blue mask and standing with a fake nonchalance, the other with a purple bandana and metallic goggles shifted up onto his head.

"My boys…? What…?" Splinter breathed.

For their part, the four turtles all shared a wince.

Purple frowned and inspected a glowing panel hovering by his forearm. "Hm. You know, after Casey first showed up, we probably should have expected more time travel to be on the agenda. In retrospect, I'm shocked it took this long."

"Wait, wait, waitwaitwait, real time travel?" asked Blue in disbelief. "Not some sort of trip down mystic memory lane, but actual time travel?"

"Affirmative," Purple said.

Orange got a starry-eyed look to his face that only hammered home that these were definitely Splinter's sons. "Coooool…"

"Mikey, you're forbidden from trying your mystic hands to get us back to the present unless we've all agreed there's no other option," said Red with finality, as if pre-emptively cutting off the idea.

"Seconded," added Blue. "Definitely a last resort only sorta dealie, there."

Orange saluted. "Aye-aye, capitáns!"

"So…it's really you?" Splinter asked, looking between the boys as the realization fully hit. "Wait- where are the babies?"

"Babies?!" Red squeaked.

The four looked around in shock for a moment, then Blue swallowed. "Well, the good news is, I don't think we squished 'em. Er, us."

Purple was already consulting his glowing panel again. "If my readings are correct- and they're my readings, of course they're correct- then it looks like when my equipment surged and sent us back, it also brought four ninpo signatures forward that are identical to ours, save for their miniscule size and unawakened status."

"So we swapped?" asked Orange.

Purple nodded. "Correct."

Instantly, the boys relaxed, and Red turned to Splinter. "You- uh, well, our you- was with us when the accident happened, just a bit further away. He oughta be aware of the swap and able to get Baby Us out of Donnie's lab and somewhere he can keep an eye on us. I think we're as safe as we can be."

"Aside from the inevitable mass of blackmail photos that April takes once she realizes she can dress Baby Us up in every single overly-adorable outfit she can find," Blue moaned.

Splinter frowned thoughtfully. "You've mentioned that name twice now, this 'April.' Who is she?"

Blue took out a small rectangle- clearly, this was his 'phone,' though it was nowhere near as blocky as the phones Splinter saw humans carrying these days- and tapped at it for a moment, then turned it to face him. "She's the one Mikey's squished up next to here."

Splinter took the device and inspected the massive display.

Shown in full color was a photo of what could only be himself and his boys, lit by the golden rays of sunrise. Or possibly sunset- it was difficult to tell.

Also featured prominently were two humans Splinter did not recognize in the slightest. One was dressed in a cloak and a mask that was flipped away from his face, and he and Blue had arms over each other's shoulders.

The other had, indeed, squished her cheek up next to Orange's, both of them beaming.

The version of himself in the photo was older and grayer (and shorter…and plumper…), but he was smiling in such a way that Splinter realized he knew about the humans' proximity to his boys and was glad for it.

"How old are Baby Us? We should probably know before we say anything else too indicative of events that have yet to pass for you, since we didn't come back in time with the intent to change it," Purple explained, cutting off that train of thought.

Splinter turned his attention away from Blue's device and looked up at his sons. "Orange is one, Blue and Purple are two, and Red, you're three."

"Overly-adorable baby outfits," repeated Blue in a horrified whisper.

"Fourteen years back, eh?" Purple said at the same time. "Not particularly ideal, but I can work with that."

Fourteen years…so that meant Orange was fifteen, and the others were a year or two older than even that.

Splinter handed Blue back his oddly-thin phone, then looked, really looked, at the boys.

Purple stood stiffly, his eyes never leaving the panel on his arm as he tapped away. Part of it was just his natural way of motion, Splinter was sure, but occasionally he would shift in place and wince, as if his shell rubbed up against something he disliked. Yet he was only wearing armor accented in his trademark color- most likely of his own design. Curious.

There was a shimmering patch in Red's carapace, just over his left shoulder, and there was a scar along that very shoulder that seemed to have come from the same injury. Additionally, Red's right eye seemed to have a hard time focusing in sync with his left whenever he turned his head.

Blue seemed the worst off, in terms of how many physical injuries he seemed to have. The faintest rings of bruising dotted his skin between yellowish crescents that more closely resembled natural coloration. Hairline cracks spread from multiple places in his plastron, thin enough to clearly be already on the mend but numerous enough for Splinter's heart to skip a beat.

Even Orange had not escaped whatever-had-happened unscathed. Scarring in a geometric pattern that Splinter could have recognized in his sleep extended from his fingers all the way up to his elbows, and with a minute gasp, Splinter realized that Red and Purple each had an arm with matching scars.

And Orange's hands trembled, even as he smiled and seemed completely happy.

Orange loved to work with his hands, even as small as he was supposed to be.

Splinter didn't realize he'd taken Orange's hands in his own until he was already folding the boy's fingers back to steady them.

"Pops…?" asked Red quietly.

Splinter swallowed. "Oh, my sons…what has happened to you?"

I am in the need of an au/fic in which the rottmnt boys switch places with their kid selves

I mean post movie, overly traumatized mystic teenage turtle boys switching places with small kids who have no idea what's a head of them

I really want to see past splinter be fucking broken when he learns about all the shit his son's have gone through. He'd probably feel like he failed, he failed to protect them from his family legacy, he failed to keep them safe from all of the shit the world put them through, he'd probably have a full break down because of it

Meanwhile present splinter is enjoying the presence of his younger boys while also bieng mildly concerned for his older ones

Also we need draxum to hang out with the tots no exceptions

[cult-of-the-mothman]

The Maxianade

Back in the 80s, after Mad Max (more specifically, The Road Warrior, ‘cause no one likes the original) became a huge hit, a number of Mad Max clone films started popping up, especially in Italy but really everywhere. For lack of a decent name, I’ve decided to term the broad genre of Mad Max-like Post-Apocalyptic media that has appeared since then Maxianades.

Maxianades possess a few key traits, most of which are admittedly surface-level things.

A scavenger world. Maxianades portray a world built on and of the ruins of the old. Maxianades aren’t subtle about this, mind you, or realistic. A Maxianade wastelander doesn’t live in a house built of old scrap wood; they live in a house clearly patched together from currgated iron sheets and old highywayside billboards with ironically cheerful slogans. A Maxianade warrior wears armor cobbled together out of stop signs and Pepsi bottles, and wields a club made of a baseball bat and three bicycle gears. His tattoos are engine block schematics, his coat is sewn together from a dozen sets of gym shorts, and his goggle are swim goggles augmented with sink strainers for armor. Whatever junk works.

Warped memories of the Old World. Pre-War nations are ‘warrior tribes.’ Dry Land is a myth. Mickey Mouse and Joseph Hazelwood are saints. Coffee mugs are ritual implement. Etc. We laugh to see it, and we weep, because everything we know is warped and lost.

Punk Will Never Die! Mohawks are in, as is black leather and kink gear. Where did they get the hair dye? Does it make any damn sense? Who cares!

Action, action, action! Maxianades have their philosophical sides, sure, but the big draw? People fight! A Maxianade is almost always full of heart-pounding action and adventure! A quest for Dry Land, a Road War, a band of marauding Raiders!

Themes upon themes. Maxianades, however, do tend to have heavy themes- the fragility of social bonds, the need for people to stand up to brute barbarism, the nature of humanity, and especially the nature of hope.

A Lack of Realism: The Maxianade is, at it’s heart, pulpy as hell. Heroes are two-fisted, villains are named Gutripper (hell, even heroes are named shit like Gearshift or Oxidative Damage), people are wearing Old World stuff (or more accurately bizarre Wasteland outfits cobbled together from vastly different types of Old World stuff) that should have rotted away a decade ago and no one has rediscovered weaving or tanning or blacksmithing or masonry because if they did, it wouldn’t look Wasteland any more. Is that a bad thing? Hell no! The story requires it!

The Mad Max films are the quintessential Maxianades, but a few other popular examples are:

Fallout. Uh, duh.

Waterworld.

The Postman.

Doomsday.

Mortal Engines, a very British example.

Too many damn zero-budget Italian 80s knockoffs with cover art far cooler than the films to name. Wasteland Weekend is, of course, an interactive Maxianade in real life!

The Book of Eli.

The Wyrmwood films

Salute of the Jugger/ Blood of Heroes

Any other examples would be appreciated.

[therisingphoenixden]

Prompt #28: That Surprising Vanity

Prompt: Vainglory

Characters: Berude Eijinn (WoL), Thancred Waters, Urianger Augurelt

Content Warnings: Shadowbringers spoilers.

Author’s Notes: I really won’t lie about this one. I wrote this after my brains had been scrambled by the intricacies of inventory management and AP figures while at work, then while waiting for my sleep meds to kick in. Which they did. Unexpectedly. So I kind of rushed this in an attempt to wake myself up this morning before I head off to my day job.

For as long as Berude had been a member of the Scions, it was rare to ever see Urianger out of his cowled hempen robe and usual goggles. For two years during the worst of the Primal threat, the defense of Eorzea against Garlemald, and the confrontation with Nabriales, not once had she seen him without his signature outfit. Even more recently, after the rescue of Raubahn, restoration of the Sultana, and Y’shtola’s rescue from the Lifestream, he had not deviated.

Yet once she felt the Ruin bolt dispel the Warrior of Darkness’ chains binding her and her friends and heard the Warriors of Darkness’ mysterious ally speak, she knew. He could hide behind new robes that accentuated his figure far too well for her liking and a mask, but she knew that deep, almost musical voice.

Her hands balled into fists that almost immediately relaxed when the mask was torn away. Her jaw dropped as he drew his scholar’s tome while caressing it fondly and convinced herself to chase away the traitorous thoughts brewing in the back of her mind. She wasn’t quite a widow, nor was it a new pain, but thinking such things about Urianger, of all people, suddenly felt traitorous to Haurchefant’s memory.

She was all too grateful when Alisaie spoke up with a plan to deal with the Warriors of Darkness.

–

Several years had passed since that inciting event and Berude found herself walking through the floral fields of the Fae Kingdom of Il Mheg on her way to Urianger’s home among the pixies. The ever-present light and the odd warmth it brought had her shed the heavy cropped vest and multiple belts and wraps that made her monk’s raiment.

“Glad you made it,” Thancred grumbled as he took in her state of undress. “Let’s go. He should be in.”

She frowned at this new taciturn Thancred, although she supposed it was better than drunkard Thancred. “Lead on.”

The interior was cozy enough, with several couches and armchairs scattered about. But they were nothing compared to the books and parchment scattered over every table and flat surface. It appeared her friend had at least been keeping himself busy, she reasoned as she looked at one of the sheets of parchment. The tiny scribbles were nearly enough to make her start to go cross-eyed when she heard it.

“ Unto a world weary of heroes, a hero wends her way…”

She hadn’t realized how much she had missed hearing his voice. It had only been a few weeks, just barely a moon really, since he had collapsed at the Rising Stones. But it was a relief all the same to hear his poetic words in that rich voice once again. He was here, he was alive, he was…

…wearing a black sleeveless robe decorated with chains, gemstones, and star charms with golden bangles and rings adorning his arms and hands. Around his neck was a thick golden gorget inlaid with garnets.

Her jaw dropped and all she could do was stare at him completely dumbfounded.

The conversation was almost a blur to Berude, so focused was she on this new look for Urianger. This was her friend, and he was showing an almost entirely new side of himself to her. One that beckoned trust and welcome.

The fact he now wielded a star globe and a thin holder for his own deck of sixty hadn’t escaped her notice either.

His smiles were much more freely given when she correctly identified the hand-drawn chart on the wall as one of the elemental forces of Eorzea. And once she had been caught up on the vision of her demise and what the true end goal was to save this reflection of their Star, he had pulled her aside as Thancred went to fetch Minfilia from her hastily-assigned chore.

“My friend,” he began, those intense golden eyes boring into her very soul, “ere I speak of the task at hand, there is a question I would pose to thee.” For a moment, she almost thought he was preening a little. “What thinkest thou of mine appearance?”

Berude bit her lip to keep the silly grin from her face, but she knew she was blushing from the way her cheeks burned. Perhaps a little revenge was in order for startling her with such a radical new appearance. “I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Come now, ‘tis scarce the first time thou hast beheld these fair features.” He returned her jab with one of his own, and they eased back into the familiar.

“I’ve never known you to be quite so…vain? Is that the right word?” Was it just her, or did the tips of his ears start to turn pink? “But, I like this. The new robes and this new openness.” Out of all the Scions she had reencountered on the First, his were the changes she liked the most. Despite his initial preening and her complete lack of comprehension upon first glimpsing this new side to her friend, there was a certain trust in shedding his old clothing for this new garb that left him so exposed. It wasn’t born out of vanity, she realized, but out of the loss of trust he had experienced. “Astrology suits you as well, I think.”

“T’was thine own studies that inspired mine own.”

That surprised her, and she found herself preening a little under his gaze. Curse her traitorous tongue for tying itself in knots at this moment! Luckily, Thancred swooped in at just the right moment to ask about the task of appeasing the pixies.

Back to business as usual.

[notapaladin]

Obsidian and Blood, an overview

Do you like fantasy? Do you like mysteries? Do you like Mesoamerican mythology? Do you like ALL OF THOSE THINGS TOGETHER, set against the lush backdrop of Tenochtitlan in 1480? (Or maybe you just want to know more about the series I have been going feral over since August.) Then buckle up, because oh boy have I got a series for you!

*drumroll, please*

OBSIDIAN AND BLOOD, written by Aliette de Bodard (better known for her Xuya and Dominion of the Fallen series)

There are two kinds of people: Those who see the words “Aztec fantasy/murder mysteries set in very well-researched 1480s Tenochtitlan BUT WITH MAGIC, investigated by the HIGH PRIEST OF THE GOD OF DEATH” and immediately ran off to buy them, and those who clearly need convincing. So here I am, shamelessly plugging my new hyperfixation!

Obsidian and Blood consists of three semi-standalone novels and three (free!) prequel short stories, all featuring 30-year-old Acatl as our first-person POV mystery solver. Acatl is not, however, your average historical detective; aside from being set firmly in Tenochtitlan in 1480 with all that implies re. the acceptability of slavery and human sacrifice, he also is the High Priest of Mictlantecuhtli in a universe where the gods regularly meddle in mortal affairs and magic spells are powered largely by rituals and blood—animal, human, or your own. You’d think this would make Acatl really, really good at solving murders, but you’d be wrong. He is the least of the Triple Alliance’s three High Priests, and his god doesn’t come at his servant’s beck and call. Not to mention the other gods, who have their own deadly agendas. That’s not even getting into the people around him, who might be the most dangerous of all. Luckily, he has more allies than he thinks—if he has the strength to actually reach out to them and admit he could use the help!

(He doesn’t need to reach out to his student Teomitl. Teomitl, a confident young warrior of imperial blood, keeps volunteering. This gives Acatl roughly one heart attack per book.)

You will like them if…

I did just say “magic murder mysteries in 1480s Tenochtitlan,” right? It’s real Precolumbian Mexico hours up in here! The history of the Aztec Empire and their Triple Alliance actually forms multiple key plot points throughout the series!

you’re into Aztec history/culture in general

if a DnD fan, you are REALLY into the Raven Queen

you think blood magic is super cool and wish it wasn’t treated as the realm of The Bad Guys

you get incredibly hyped over lesser-known mythologies treated respectfully but also very awesomely (the thing where the Aztecs thought human sacrifice kept the sun in the sky? Yeah, in this universe it is literally true and plot-relevant)

you are big into chaste heroes, lots of snarky asides, highly opinionated narrators who let their own prejudices destroy them, “from an outside perspective this is cosmic horror but for the characters it is a Tuesday,” mysteries with twists you will NOT see coming, and themes of trauma/memories/family legacies

you love reading about dysfunctional family relationships in various states of repair/further destruction

you’ve ever thought “hey this historical mystery is cool but what if there was MAGIC”

you like noir detective stories but want them with magic

you like urban fantasy but want them to have historical settings instead of vaguely modern-day ones

Plot/character summaries below!

SHORT STORIES (prequels to the novels, blurbs by me)

Obsidian Shards

Warriors have been found dead in the town of Colhuacan, obsidian shards embedded in their hearts. Acatl, priest of Mictlantecuhtli, suspects a creature of the Underworld—one he already calls a foe, for it slew his first and last apprentice.

Beneath the Mask

In the Tenochtitlan suburb of Coyoacan, Acatl’s childhood friend Huchimitl begs him to save her only son’s war captive; the man whose sacrifice will make the boy a proper warrior is paralyzed from an unknown curse, unable even to rise from the floor. But who could have cursed him, and is it connected to the mask Huchimitl now wears?

Safe, Child, Safe

A toddler is slowly wasting away, the mark of the Underworld on him, and Acatl is tasked with finding the cause. But no creature of the Underworld kills so slowly, and so Acatl must turn his investigation to the living.

THE BOOKS (blurbs taken directly from the book listings, you don’t HAVE to read them in order but I do recommend it)

Servant of the Underworld

Year One-Knife, Tenochtitlan; the capital of the Mexica Empire. Human sacrifice and the magic of living blood are the only things keeping the sun in the sky and the earth fertile. A Priestess disappears from an empty room drenched in blood. It should be a usual investigation for Acatl, High Priest of the Dead—except that his estranged brother is involved, and the more he digs, the deeper he is drawn into the political and magical intrigues of noblemen, soldiers, and priests—and of the gods themselves...

(Neutemoc: I didn't mean to sleep with her! It was an accident! Acatl: I don't understand. Did you trip?) (Acatl: I don't want a new apprentice! Teomitl: :D? Acatl: ...I will make an exception)

Harbinger of the Storm

The year is Two House, and the Emperor of the Mexica has just died. The protections he afforded the Empire are crumbling, and the way lies wide open to flesh-eating star-demons—and to the return of their creator, a malevolent goddess only held in check by the War God's power. The council should convene to choose a new Emperor, but they are too busy plotting against each other. And then someone starts summoning star-demons within the palace, to kill councilmen...Acatl, High Priest of the Dead, must find the culprit before everything is torn apart.

(Teomitl: I've only had Acatl and Mihmatini for a year, but if anything happens to them I'll kill everyone in this room and then myself) (Quenami: Playing With The Big Boys.mp3)

Master of the House of Darts

The year is Three Rabbit, and the storm is coming. The Mexica Empire now has a new Emperor, but his coronation war has just ended in a failure: the armies have retreated with a paltry forty prisoners of war, not near enough sacrifices to satisfy the gods. Acatl, High Priest for the Dead, has no desire to involve himself yet again in the intrigues of the powerful. However, when one of the prisoners dies of a magical illness, he has little choice but to investigate. For it is only one death, but it will not be the last. As the bodies pile up and the imperial court tears itself apart, dragging Teomitl, Acatl's beloved student, into the eye of the storm, the High Priest for the Dead is going to have to choose whom he can afford to trust; and where, in the end, his loyalties ultimately lie...

(Teomitl: I am no longer Baby I want Power) (Acatl, to Teomitl: What have you got there? Nezahual, gleefully: A coup! Acatl: NO!)

THE MAIN CHARACTERS (in order of appearance)

ACATL “By my face and by my heart, I’ll bring you justice.” High Priest of Mictlantecuhtli, god of death and the underworld. As such, his duties include both the obvious ones of arranging funerals and standing vigils for the dead, and the less obvious ones of investigating magical crimes and keeping the boundaries between the heavens, Earth, and the underworld intact. When Servant of the Underworld begins, he’s only recently been promoted and hates it. Has a strained relationship with his living family, due largely to not having lived up to his (dead) parents’ desires for him to become a warrior like his brother Neutemoc. Bitter, cynical, and grumpy, but devoted to justice and fairness.

Has an official character sheet.

CEYAXOCHITL “Everyone has to grow up and take responsibilities. Even small, humble priests.” Guardian of the Sacred Precinct and wielder of the power of the Duality (Ometeotl), which makes her the sworn protector of the Mexica Empire and its Revered Speaker from all sorts of mainly-magical threats. Somewhat past middle age but still very strong in her magical abilities, and something of an antagonistic mentor to Acatl. (She nominated him for the position of High Priest. He is not appreciative.) Serious and devoted to her duty, with a keen eye for potential in others. Dies in Harbinger of the Storm and you WILL cry.

NEUTEMOC “Priests hide and run away. Warriors don’t.” Acatl’s older brother, a Jaguar Knight with five children and a failing marriage. Resents Acatl for not helping to support their aging parents by becoming a warrior like he did. The central suspect during most of Servant of the Underworld’s plot, though by the end he and Acatl have begun to repair their relationship. He is strict, stern, and bitter, but truly loves his family. (In the case of his younger brother, that love is buried very deep down.)

TEOMITL “If we don’t believe in ourselves, who is going to?” Acatl’s student, an enthusiastic warrior who yearns to prove himself worthy of his power and noble rank, as well as live up to the memory of the mother who died birthing him. During Servant of the Underworld he swears himself to Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of fresh water and lakes, gaining (among other things) command over the man-eating water monsters called ahuitzotls. He is courting Mihmatini during Harbinger of the Storm; by the time Master of the House of Darts takes place, they are married. He is abrasive and proud, but also honest, loyal, and brave. And very, very ambitious. You will want to punch him several times. This is normal. (Also, I will swear that it's not just my ship-goggles being on too tight that has me thinking his relationship with Acatl is much more weighty and personal than the one he has with his ACTUAL WIFE.)

MIHMATINI “Better laugh, and smile at the flowers and jade. Life is too short to be spent grieving.” Acatl and Neutemoc’s youngest sister, a powerful magic-user who finds herself thrust into the position of Guardian during Harbinger of the Storm. Though she has no great ambitions herself—she mostly just wants to be a mother and raise children—she is ferociously protective of her family and will fight anything that threatens them. Even themselves. (Especially themselves.) Kind, caring, and light-hearted, but her acid tongue and sharp temper are not to be dismissed. "Fuck Around And Find Out" given human form.

ACAMAPICHTLI “We have always endured.” High priest of Tlaloc and a reoccurring thorn in Acatl’s side. Though he’s primarily out for his own gain and has no patience for Acatl’s refusal to play on the field of Imperial politics, they eventually form something like an uneasy truce following the end of Harbinger of the Storm. He is snarky and sardonic, but truly cares for his clergy. During Master of the House of Darts he somehow became one of my favorite characters.

TIZOC "I've always known that priests couldn't be trusted. You have just exceeded my expectations." Teomitl’s older brother, first Master of the House of Darts and then Revered Speaker. (Look, it’s not a spoiler if you can Google it.) He is cowardly, ambitious, and the closest thing this series has to an overarching antagonist. Among other things, tries to have Acatl executed during Harbinger of the Storm. Events at the end of that book only manage to make him measurably worse. "Ah There He Is, That Motherfucker, What A Tool" #1.

QUENAMI “Oh, Acatl. Such lack of tact. You are so unsuited for the Court.” High Priest of Huitzilpochtli, appointed by Tizoc between Servant of the Underworld and Harbinger of the Storm. Comes from a noble family, and is much better at diplomacy and playing politics than he is at magic. When push comes to shove, however, he can display some surprising determination. He is arrogant, scheming, and takes joy in cutting Acatl down, but presumably has some good qualities...somewhere. "Ah There He Is, That Motherfucker, What A Tool" #2.

Maps of the series’ primary setting

Setting Primers

Official Character Index

Glossary

[botw-oneshots-and-other-bs]

The Divine Beast

Chapter 2 - Vah Ruta

A/N: Chapter 1 is right here. I highly suggest you read it before this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy! <3

A full season had passed since Alyss decided to follow Robbie and Purah to the Ancient Tech lab and Alyss had to admit, she was having a lot of fun. The training that Robbie put her through was exhilarating and reminded her just how much she enjoyed fighting enemies. So far, she has only fought Moblins, Bokoblins, and Lizalfos, and her need for larger enemies grew by the training session. After every fighting session and at least once a month, Purah gave her a physical check up to make sure that nothing was changing drastically, or not going back to normal, which weirded her out at first but as their friendship grew she started to not mind them. 

Alyss had become great friends with Purah over the months and often they would sit down and chat with one another over a nice cup of tea. Today was no different. As Alyss sat giggling with Purah over the latest bit of gossip they had heard about two Sheikah scientists hooking up the other night, Robbie came bursting in through the door to the study. 

“It’s been found,” he all but shouted as he jumped up and down on his tippy toes. He looked like a gigantic toddler to Alyss and honestly it made her giggle a little at how insanely cute it was. Over the past season she had found herself lowkey crushing on the eccentric scientist. She would have told Purah but she wasn’t ready to face her emotions, and to be quite frank she wasn’t even sure if her feelings were romantic or platonic. In order to keep them under wraps Alyss would make sure she didn’t look at or spend too much time with him, but that didn’t stop the sideways glances she would give him or the double entendres she would catch him saying to someone while glancing at her. 

Purah jumped up, almost knocking over her plate of honeyed fruit and ran to him, “oh snap no way,” she pointed a small finger into his face. “If you’re lying to me I will end you.” 

Robbie laughed and threw his hands up in defence to the small woman’s playful aggression. “Purah, why would I lie to you about this?” He looked behind her to Alyss who he playfully raised his eyebrows at a couple of times. His goggles blocked most of his silly gesture, but he did notice the way her face lit up in a small pink blush and how she tried to hide it by taking another sip of her tea while pretending not to notice.

Purah jumped back and waved her hands happily as she turned to Alyss and grabbed her hand to roughly pull her up from her chair. “Well then we shouldn’t waste any time! Where are we going?” 

“The Zora’s Domain,” he responded, leading the two women out of the study to prepare for the long trip. 

After a long night of packing, Alyss, Robbie, Purah, and two Hylian Guards were packed and ready with their horses to head for the Zora’s Domain. Everyone was excited and ready to head out and get the field work under way. According to the letter Robbie received along with the news of Vah Ruta’s finding, they were to meet with the Princess, her knight, and her consort when they passed through Castle Town. Alyss wasn’t super excited about meeting with the Princess but not for any reason she had given her. Alyss knew it was selfish and unfair of her to treat the Princess of this time as though she was the one who sealed her away, but it was hard for Alyss to dis-associate her with her ancestor. 

The small group of scientists rode in a comfortable silence the entire way from the Royal Tech Lab to the walls of castle town, but when they got to the town Alyss was the first to break the silence. “Do we have to go to the Castle?” 

Robbie looked over from his beige stallion at her question. He studied her stoic face and heard the dread in her voice at her question. He moved his horse closer to hers while avoiding villagers who were going about their lives on the streets so that he could talk to her respectfully. “I do believe we are meeting them at the gates but you don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

Alyss sighed heavily and shook her head at the mere thought of entering the castle once again. She had too many memories there. “No, if everyone else is going it would be rude of me not to…” she grumbled. 

Silence passed for a second as they rode closer to the entrance of the Castle, but it was quickly broken as Robbie held his hand out to her. “I’ll wait with you. How does that sound,” he asked with a warm smile. 

Alyss could tell that his crimson eyes were smiling with the rest of his face even through his brown goggles he was always wearing. Looking from the sincerity on his face to the hand held out in between their horses, Alyss smiled thankfully and placed her smaller hand in his. “Thank you Robbie,” she whispered, truly touched at his gesture of comfort. Little did she know that a certain eccentric scientist was listening to their conversation in front of them and smiling to herself. She knew that there was something going on with Alyss as she would catch her little glances here and there and how she would blush when he spoke to her directly, but she was starting to think maybe there was something there with Robbie as well. Making a mental note to herself, Purah continued to the Castle leaving the other Sheikah behind. 

Alyss slid off of the saddle that was positioned on her teal horse’s back and searched through her bag to find a bright red, juicy apple for the horse. Walking to the front of her horse, Alyss rubbed her horse’s mane and face as she fed her the fruit. “Good girl Sea Foam, eat up. You need your strength.” Sea Foam gave a small nudge to Alyss’s hand happily as thanks for the apple before she walked to a nice patch of shade to lie down and cool off. The Summer sun shining over Hyrule had reached just past it’s peak, but that didn’t make the heat dissipate any. 

“So, enlighten me,” Robbie started as he sat down in some shade and placed his hand behind his back to keep himself up right. He watched as she turned back to him from where she stood watching her horse. “Why do you not like the Castle? You said it yourself, it’s completely different from what you remember, so why avoid it?” 

Alyss sighed and joined him in the shade. Pulling her knees to her chest, she rested her chin on them and picked at a small blade of grass at her feet. “I have some pretty bad memories here. That’s all.” 

“Oh come on there has to be more to it,” he laughed, “but you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” 

Alyss looked over to Robbie for a minute and laid her cheek on her knees. “Well… I actually grew to call this place, er, the Castle I knew, home when I left Kakariko Village to train. All I wanted was to be a knight in service to the Princess, but when I offered myself to the King he turned me away. Princess Zelda interjected and said I could be of some use. That I could help defeat the Calamity.” She looked over to see Robbie looking right at her, egging her to continue. 

“I was taken to a laboratory and undressed. The scientists took my blood - which hurt a lot - and laid me down on a gigantic slab of stone over a blue furnace. All I remember is being told that I was going to be their greatest invention yet and that Ganon didn’t stand a chance before everything went dark. 

“When I woke up I felt normal, a little sore, but normal. The Princess stood next to my bed and treated me like royalty, and it wasn’t long until I grew to love her as I imagine I would have loved my sister. She was my best friend, my confidant,” Alyss smiled happily in fond remembrance as she continued, “I trained day in and day out here at the castle against all kinds of people. Great warriors from across Hyrule came to test my strength before they started pitting me against all kinds of monsters. I loved it as much as I love when you send me into battle, but it didn’t last long.” 

Alyss took a deep breath and buried her head in between her knees. This was still hard for her to think about but she figured talking about it with someone she trusted might help take the burden off of her shoulders. With a shaky breath and clenched fists she continued her story, “I lost myself. The beast inside of me took over. All I heard was a sickening voice taunting me, telling me my friends and family would die, and I couldn’t save them. It drove me crazy, I couldn’t escape, and I almost killed someone,” she whispered. She could feel the familiar tightening sensation in her chest as her anxiety started to skyrocket. She felt her nails starting to dig into her legs and her skin started to bristle as it did before it turned scaly. “I tried to get away, to make it stop, but I almost killed the King,” she whispered, horrified at herself as tears started to form in her eyes again. “It was a mistake, I would have never done it on purpose, but the voice. That voice, it-” She was broken out of her trance when she felt a strong hand lay itself on her arm and pulled her sideways. 

She didn’t register that Robbie had gripped her arm and pulled her into a warm and comforting hug until her face was pressed flush against his bare chest and the scent of his robes were gracing her nose. “R-Robbie,” she said in astonishment as her face blushed a bright red.

“Is this what was bothering you all those months ago?” he asked, trying to piece together how long she had been dealing with this information alone. He felt his heart break for her, he saw her skin turning and how tightly she held herself. This was not the first time he had seen her like this, but he couldn’t imagine the memories she held inside were that bad. Robbie got no vocal answer to his question, but he took the way she wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to pull her into a tighter hug as his answer. 

Resting his forehead against the top of her head he tried to provide the most comforting hug he possibly could. “You have been alive a very long time according to the scroll we found, and Alyss from what I have personally seen in the past season is nothing short of someone who is an amazing and a wonderful person. Please don’t beat yourself up over something you did ten thousand years ago, especially if it was an accident.” 

Robbie received no answer, but he was ok with that. He cared about this woman and he wasn’t sure just how much yet, but what he did know was how bad his heart hurt for her in this moment. It didn’t take long before he heard the voices of his colleague, the Princess, and Impa heading closer to them from the Palace. He watched as Alyss removed herself from his embrace before anyone could see and went to attend to her horse, picking herself up emotionally the best she could. 

As they left Castle Town’s protective outer wall, Alyss listened to the Princess and her Consort, Impa, talk to the rest of the group about the newly found Divine Beast. She rode Sea Foam beside Link, who made sure he stayed in front of the Princess at all times, and stiffly stared ahead. 

            "Vah Ruta is an amazing Divine Beast," Zelda continued as she filled in Purah and Robbie. "It is absolutely breathtaking and I wonder what secrets it hides within it’s walls.” She was practically jumping out of her saddle with excitement, like a toddler presented with her favorite toy, at the discovery of this beast that it was impossible to not share her enjoyment.

“However,” Impa interjected, “when we used the Sheikah Slate to try and activate it, nothing happened. We tried everything we possibly could to get it up and running, but eventually we decided that you might have better luck.” 

Purah touched her hand to her chin and snapped as though she had a eureka moment, “I wonder if Alyss would be able to activate it.” She looked back to Alyss who had perked up at the mention of her name in curiosity. “After all, she has ancient Sheikah technology residing within her. Maybe this is the reason she woke up at the start of our journey?” 

Alyss shrugged, “I guess I could give it a try, but I don’t really know what I would do.”

“Oh don’t be so hard on yourself,” Purah cooed from in front of Alyss, completely missing the way her face deadpanned. “I’m sure you could think of something the rest of us haven’t. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to try.”

Alyss sighed and threw her hands up in defeat. “Ok, ok, I will do my best.” This seemed to satisfy the others as they all murmured different ideas and ways of going about activating this newly found ray of hope. 

The moon was high in the sky by the time the company rode up to the gigantic horse head that resembled peace and restoration. The horse stables had come to be a welcoming sight as Alyss got more and more accustomed to this land and their ways. Dismounting her horse and giving Sea Foam a light pat to her silver mane she headed into the inn with the rest of the group. The mere thought of food was on nobody’s mind as the Princess paid happily for everyone to have the comfiest beds. Alyss stood next to Link and let out a yawn that turned into a smile as she watched Purah happily run to a bed and jump on it. 

“Hey be careful,” her sister called out claiming the bed to the right of Purah. “These beds will break, you know!”

Robbie chuckled as he walked up to the group and wrapped each arm around Alyss and Link’s necks. “Oh I’m sure these beds have been through much more than Purah jumping on them. I bet they’re really sturdy, right Alyss?” 

Alyss furrowed her brows as she tried to piece together his off handed attempt at flirting in her sleep deprived mind, but her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud. Looking over at Purah laying on the floor, Alyss let out a hearty laugh as the eccentric scientist tried to pull herself back onto her bed. She barely noticed Link choking back his laughter and the light punch to the side he gave to Robbie as he removed his arm and took his bed closest to the entrance to the inn. It took her a moment to process his flirting, but by the time she had got it, Robbie had already moved to his bed on the other side of Purah. He was letting his hair down to it’s natural length and removing his backpack and goggles that would be uncomfortable to lay down on. Alyss blushed when he looked back to her and winked before laying down on his back with his arms behind his head. 

The only bed left was beside Robbie and as Alyss moved towards it she could feel his eyes following her body. Alyss felt her hands and legs start shaking as though she was wet from head to toe and stuck in a cold breeze. What was this feeling? She was nervous, her hands were clammy, and the mere thought of what could possibly be going through his mind made her shiver harder. Why was she feeling this way? Turning her back to him she let her hair down and shakily placed the clips and rods on the bedside table. 

“Are you ok?” she heard him ask in a taunting tone. It was almost as though he knew exactly what was on her mind. She felt as though she was as transparent as water and he could read every single emotion that ran through her body, every thought that passed her mind, as easily as he could see the rocks sitting at the bottom of a creek. Alyss turned and locked eyes with his. Opening her mouth she racked her mind for any possible retort, but she was exhausted and the only thing on her mind right now was confusion and him. Sighing, she shed her robe, leaving her in her blue tunic. She couldn’t sleep in her entire outfit like everyone else in the group could, but she knew she couldn’t get one-hundred percent comfortable like she could at the Royal Tech Lab as these were open inns and privacy wasn’t exactly a thing. 

Alyss sat down on her bed and pulled her leg up to take off her stocking, ignoring the look Robbie was giving her the best she could and trying to not be so obviously affected. Mustering up some sort of courage, Alyss gave him a side-eyed look and lifted her chin in the air slightly. “Enjoying the show?” She asked to which she received a low hum in response. Alyss laughed softly at him and moved on to her other leg, exposing the soft skin she kept hidden day in and day out. 

“You’ve got nice legs,” Robbie murmured lowly, trying to not wake any of the others on the other side of him. 

“Thank you,” Alyss responded as she discarded the other stocking to sit next to the white one on the table. Laying down, Alyss turned onto her side and faced Robbie. The sleep she so desperately needed was quickly calling out her name, but she was determined to stay awake just a bit longer. She had finally gathered up the courage to ask her question that had taken over her mind. “What is this?” 

Robbie raised an eyebrow and sat up intrigued by her sudden question. He could tell she was quickly falling asleep but if he could get some clarification he would. “What is what?” 

“What is this feeling...” Alyss sighed as she slowly blinked. Her eyes barely registered his gaze upon hers, but still she continued her sleep induced thoughts. “I feel so weird around you Robbie. Are we friends or…” Opening her eyes she looked into his intense gaze and giggled happily, letting the intense wave of sleep she felt drag her further down. Little did she know that her words impacted Robbie deeply. 

Once he was sure she was completely asleep, he quietly slid off his bed and grabbed the folded blanket by her feet, unfurling it, and placing it over her body. He took his time to allow himself to really study her features from the way her legs curled closer to her body when she slept, to the pieces of hair that fell down over her closed eyes. He gently kneeled down to be face to face with the Sheikah woman and traced her jaw down to her neck. “Good night Alyss,” he whispered before placing a gentle kiss upon her cheek and heading back to his own bed to sleep.

The next morning came bright and early for the company. Link made a delicious breakfast of Crepes and simmered fruit for them all as they got themselves and their horses ready for the rest of the trip up to the Zora’s Domain. As they walked, Alyss did her best to keep her distance from Robbie as the memories of last night came to her in bits and pieces. She was embarrassed at how easily he had affected her with nothing but his look and it did nothing to ease the frustration and fear she felt growing within her mind. This is why she found it best to just push herself away from the rebellious scientist and stick closer to Impa and Purah. This put her a little closer to the Princess but she was easy to ignore as well. 

She noticed the confused glances he gave her the few times they had to look at each other as they stopped for breaks throughout the day, but she did her best to shrug them off and pretend as though nothing was wrong. By the time the sun had started its descent and the moon was rising into the sky, the Company could see the Zora Domain which was welcomed like a fresh cup of tea after a long day of hard work. Alyss was watching the full moon rise when the Company stopped halfway across the Luto Crossing. She almost ran her horse into the others but thankfully Sea Foam stopped and whinied. 

“Goddess look at that,” Purah whispered in awe as she stared over the bridge down into the lake below. “It’s even more magnificent than I could have imagined.” 

“I bet there’s loads of information and data on that Divine Beast that I’m dying to get my hands on,” Robbie commented as he rubbed his hands together like a starving man about to tear into the flesh of a perfectly roasted turkey. “Alyss, come take a look at this,” he called out as he looked over his shoulder at her. 

Dismounting, she walked between Purah and Impa, not really paying attention to what was down below them, but when she saw it she gasped. Memories flooded her mind as she once again gazed upon the magnificence of the Divine Beast Vah Ruta. She remembered her mother and father helping make the layouts for the beasts. She remembered when her and Princess Zelda would sneak out late at night to mess around with the prototypes of the Divine Beasts. She remembered talking to the spirit of the Beast as though it was her sibling and the memories they shared as Vah Ruta would shower her with water from it’s trunk. “Ruta,” she whispered softly. Looking down at the water below, her stomach twisted, but she wanted to get to Ruta. She needed to touch her again, but before she could climb over the railing and jump down into the water below, Link had grabbed her hand and pulled her back. 

She quickly turned around to snap at him and tell him to let her go, but when she saw his expression of warning she shut her mouth. Pulling her hand from his calloused touch she held it close and turned back to the Divine Beast giving it one last look. 

“That water is treacherous if you aren’t a Zora or gifted Zora’s armor,” Princess Zelda started with a small smile towards Alyss. She knew how frustrating Link could be, but at the same time she also understood why he pulled her back from the railing. “Do you know Vah Ruta? Do you have any information you can give us?” She asked, trying to be friendly, but she was met with an annoyed expression from Alyss. 

“I don’t remember much that would be useful,” the Sheikah said curtly and very obviously lying. Her expression said otherwise, but it was late and the Princess didn’t want to push just yet. They still had time and the questions could wait until they were safely near Vah Ruta. Alyss climbed onto her horse and squeezed her with her legs to tell her to move forward. The rest of the group followed not too far behind her, but Purah was quick to catch up with her. 

“Alyss, you were there when they were built right?”

Alyss nodded her head. “My parents helped create their insides.” 

Purah laughed and clapped her hands together once. Even though it was nighttime and everyone was starting to get tired from the long journey, the excitement of the Divine Beast provided a nice adrenaline boost for Purah and Robbie. “Insides,” she practically shouted out looking at Alyss and not where she was going anymore. 

Alyss smiled at her and nodded. “I vaguely remember that the insides were extremely complex, but I was just a child when they were being built. Zelda and I would frequent the Divine Beasts as we got older and while she made sure they were holding up well and their pilots were adjusting well, I would talk to them.” Alyss had a far away look as they came upon the main bridge leading into the Zora’s Domain, but the current Princess Zelda’s voice broke her thoughts.

“Talk? They can talk?” She asked, expressing everyone’s question at this new found information. 

“Well, not exactly,” Alyss continued. “It’s been so long I bet they’ve forgotten me. I had most of a connection with Vah Medoh to be honest, but it’s Champion didn’t really like anyone going up to his Divine Beast without his permission,” Alyss scoffed at the annoying memories of the Rito Champion, “What a frustrating man…” 

“What about Vah Abyss?” Zelda asked which caused Alyss to slow down tremendously deep in thought. They had come upon the Zora’s Domain which was practically silent since most of the Zora were sound asleep in their beds, but as Alyss reiterated Zelda’s question as a question of her own, a Zora warrior approached them and bowed deeply to the Princess. 

“King Dorephan has been awaiting your return, your Highness, Lady Impa,” the warrior stood back up and held her spear close to her body. “Shall I escort you to him?”

“Yes, thank you,” Zelda answered politely as the Princess of Hyrule was expected to do. Dismounting her horse and handing it off to another Zora to take care of while they did their work. Motioning to everyone else to do the same, she nodded to the Zora Warrior to lead the way. With this the Zora warrior seemed satisfied, turned, and started to lead the group of people into the Zora’s Domain.

Alyss looked around at the beautiful architecture of the Zora’s Domain. Everything from the dark blue foundation that had not changed one bit from the Zora’s Domain Alyss remembered, to the ginormous fish on the top of the King’s Throne room was beautiful. The waterfalls that cascaded down the sides of the main level of the domain added a soothing ambience that made the entire Domain feel at peace and untouchable by evil and wrong. Alyss followed the group as they climbed the light blue staircase that glowed under her feet. They were almost to the top of the stairwell when a small puddle of water caught Alyss off guard and sent her falling backwards. Alyss let out a small cry as she felt herself falling backwards, but was caught by a pair of strong arms.

“Careful my Lady, these floors are wet and can be dangerous.”

Alyss looked back and smiled kindly at the forest green Zora that had caught her fall. “Th-Thank you, um,”

“Councilman Muzu,” the stingray Zora responded with a warm smile. “I am the Royal Advisor to the King and teacher to the Princess and young Prince. It’s nice to make your acquaintance.” 

Alyss smiled and thanked him as he helped her stand back up right. “Thank you, Councilman, it’s very nice to meet you.” Alyss watched as Muzu bowed and walked up the rest of the stairs to the group who stood with the King watching the two interact. Alyss joined as well but failed to see the frown that darkened Robbie’s face at the sight of Alyss in another man’s arms. He had no reason to feel this way, there was nothing between them except gratitude at him saving her from pain, but that didn’t make the annoyance any less. Was he angry that she should have watched where she was going or was he angry that he should have been there to catch him? Perhaps he was just annoyed she was ignoring him for some reason. No matter the reason, Robbie pushed it deep down to deal with at another, more appropriate time. 

King Dorephan commanded the room with the clearing of his throat and spoke to the Company in his deep, time-worn voice, “Princess Zelda and friends, I assume you are here to research Vah Ruta am I correct?”

Zelda bowed slightly in respect to the King of the Zora, “Yes, King Dorephan. I have brought two of our royal scientists who have logged countless hours into their research to try and reawaken the Divine Beasts powers. I believe that we will be able to mount Vah Ruta and acquire some sort of knowledge that will help us, as long as we have the permission of the Zora people to do so of course.”

When King Dorephan chuckled, the floor underneath the group of Hylians and Sheikah rumbled. He leaned over and smiled down at the Princess. “Do as you need, Princess. We all have our part to play in defeating the Calamity. If you need anything from me or my people we will do all we can to aid you in your research.”

“Thank you King Dorephan,” Princess Zelda bowed. Shortly after their interaction with King Dorephan, the group was led down to the inn that resided in the Zora’s Domain. They were given beds free on orders of the King but the Princess insisted she give the innkeeper something for their trouble. The innkeeper thanked her for her generosity and led the group to their finest water beds. While everyone was preparing to head to bed, Alyss quickly found a bed near Purah and closed her eyes. 

Robbie was confused by this. The entire time he watched Alyss head to bed, not even disrobe and get comfortable just lay down, he couldn’t help but entertain the feeling that she was avoiding him for some reason. What had he done to warrant her avoiding him he wondered as he laid himself down a few friends down from the girl in question. Robbie recounted everything that had taken place the last few days trying to find any reason she would be ignoring him until his eyes eventually closed from exhaustion.

“You wish Mipha to be the Zora chosen to pilot the Divine Beast?” King Dorephan asked Princess Zelda who stood before him.

“Yes, if you would allow it,” the Princess continued in her polite request.

“I’m sorry, Princess. The Divine Beast isn’t up and running and all efforts until now have failed to get it to work. Knowing this, coupled with the information that the Knight who will seal the darkness has not yet appeared, I cannot put my only daughter up against the Calamity. It is too dangerous.” 

Princess Zelda turned to Impa who was behind her in a silent plea for any sort of help to which Impa could only shake her head and offer none. Turning back to the gigantic whale, the Princess nodded solemnly, “I understand your majesty. Thank you for allowing us your time.” With that, the Princess and her consort left the throne room of the King of Zora’s Domain and regrouped with Robbie and Purah in the middle of the common area. 

“I take it he said no,” Purah asked, placing her hands on her hips to which Zelda could only nod. “Well… What do we do now?” 

“I guess we do the only thing we can do,” Robbie continued. “Let’s go see if we can find out anything about the Divine Beast, but…” he looked around, “... has anyone seen Alyss?” When everyone shook their heads no, Robbie nodded and headed back towards the inn where he found Alyss sound asleep on the water bed she chose the previous night. He laid a strong hand on her shoulder and shook her gently so as to not spook her awake. The last time he did that he got smog to the face and it took him a good bit to recover from that blow. “Alyss.” 

Alyss groaned and buried her face into the soft pillow clearly signifying she did not want to wake up. 

Robbie pursed his lips and furrowed his brows as he decided how he should approach this situation. Apparently he wasn’t thinking straight as he gripped the bottom of her blanket and ripped it right off of her body. He watched as Alyss sat up and glared daggers at him, her eyes were purple but her pupils were slits. The area around her eyes was that of reptilian skin, but there was surprisingly no smog this time. Crossing his arms as though he was a stern father of a teenager, he tapped his foot and raised an eyebrow over his goggles. “Morning sunshine,” he spat a little more harshly than he meant it to come out as he was still a little sore over the events of last night. 

“You have three seconds to tell me why you woke me up so early or you’re getting smog to the face Robbie,” she groggily groaned, rubbing her eyes to relieve them of their reptilian skin and slits.

“We need to go examine the Divine Beast, and for your information-” he began as he tossed her blanket back at her forcing her to remove it from her face and glare at him. “-it’s a little after noon.” He walked out of the inn leaving behind a very confused and very frustrated Sheikah. 

It didn’t take long for Alyss to join the rest of the group excluding Lady Mipha and Link who were off doing their own thing together. That made Alyss wonder, did Link and Mipha have some sort of connection he never mentioned? Her thoughts were cut short as they arrived at the edge of a large cliff to the South of the Zora’s Domain and facing the Divine Beast Vah Ruta. 

“Now, Alyss,” Impa started as they broke themselves out of their astonished stupors. The Divine Beast was much bigger than the scientists had anticipated it to be as it easily met their gazes on the top of the cliff. “All you have to do is take the Sheikah Slate and try to activate the Divine Beast, but the only problem is that you have to be able to board it and none of us have succeeded at that yet.” 

Nodding Alyss took the Sheikah Slate into her hands and stared down at the inactive screen. With one tap the screen burst to life but so did Divine Beast Vah Ruta. Alyss’s head snapped up to look at the Divine Beast that had now turned blue and let out a loud trumpeting sound. This forced the company to cover their ears to not be deafened by the noise, but they didn’t expect it to be accompanied by a violent Earthquake that lasted only a few seconds and was forceful enough to throw everyone to the ground. A stunned silence befell the company as they watched Alyss stand up cautiously and walk as close as she could without falling off the cliff. “Vah Ruta,” Alyss whispered, receiving another loud trumpet from the magnificent elephant shaped machine. “It’s been a long time my friend,” Alyss said, smiling happily. Her infectious laughter rang throughout the air as Vah Ruta raised it’s trunk and proceeded to shoot water straight into the air causing it to rain freezing cold water down onto the group as a whole. 

“Ruta, that’s cold,” she exclaimed as the elephant moved it’s trunk back down into the water and let out another loud trumpet. Water dripped off of her body as she held out her hand to touch the curve of Ruta’s trunk that was moved closer to the edge of the cliff. Once her hand made contact she felt a surge of sadness that Vah Ruta must have been feeling being buried for ten thousand years. “I’ve felt your pain,” Alyss started in a lower tone. She was trying to sympathize with the divine beast as she petted it’s trunk the way she used to do all those years ago. “They locked me away as well, but I’m here now and you’ll never be alone again.” 

Zelda finished wringing out her hair and took a small step forward, astonished at the conversation that was taking place. “So this is what you meant when you said that you could talk to them. Alyss, can you ask it about a pilot?” 

Alyss looked at the Princess and tried her best to not just straight up say no, but she knew this was important so turning to Vah Ruta, she asked, “Ruta, do you have a pilot?” She waited for a second but got no trumpet or response of any kind. Furrowing her brows, Alyss stroked Ruta’s trunk and turned to Zelda shaking her head. She turned back to the Divine Beast and asked it if they could board it to which Vah Ruta responded by moving closer to the edge of the cliff. Alyss looked back at Purah and Robbie and motioned with her head for them to follow her into Vah Ruta to which they gladly obliged. 

Once stepping foot inside Alyss looked around in shock. “This is what they built,” she asked in awe. There were pools of water, there were podiums, she had come to recognize through Purah as terminals, placed in many awkward places. The number of spinning cogs that were of numerous sizes was outstanding to Alyss as she reveled in the work that her family did to create these beasts. 

Purah raised the Sheikah Slate she had taken back from Alyss when they boarded and placed it against the terminal directly outside of Ruta’s body where they had entered. The light underneath her feet turned a bright blue she had come to associate with ancient Sheikah technology and with a glance at Robbie, she walked inside to join Alyss. “Holy crap,” she muttered in awe as she looked around with Alyss. “This thing is ginormous!” 

Robbie walked in as well and furrowed his brows making a mental note of multiple pieces of technology he saw. Before he could say anything, Purah was trying out the Cryonisis feature on the Sheikah Slate to open the gate sitting in water. This caught the attention of the rebellious scientist and Alyss as they turned to follow her under the gate and to the terminal. 

“I think we should activate as many of these as we find,” she spoke her thoughts as she placed the Sheikah Slate face down onto the terminal. It’s activation made the three Sheikah’s gasp as a detailed diagram of the inside of Vah Ruta was pulled up on the Sheikah Slate’s screen. 

“This is aMAZING,” Robbie hollered out in excitement as he took one half of the Sheikah Slate in his hand and stared at the screen next to Purah. “What are we waiting for, let's get to it!”

Hours passed as the trio of scientists worked through Vah Ruta to activate the six terminals, but when it came down to activating the main control unit none of the scientists were able to. “I think we have to call it a day,” Alyss muttered as she placed the Sheikah Slate on the main terminal unit again making sure nothing would happen. Sighing, she walked back to Purah and Robbie with a dejected face. 

“Hey, don’t look so down! We made great progress today and I bet we will make much more when we get a pilot for Vah Ruta. It’ll be a SNAP,” Purah shouted, throwing her hand to her face in a rock and roll hand sign. This made Alyss smile and laugh as she agreed with the progress they had made. 

“Let me go tell Ruta goodbye and we can go give the Princess our findings,” Alyss said as she turned to walk towards Vah Ruta’s head. 

Robbie tore his gaze away from Alyss and started walking back to the entrance of Vah Ruta where they entered earlier without a single word to either of the females, but he was quickly stopped by Purah who skipped to catch up to him. “Hey, hey, where are you going?” She had asked when she caught up to his side. Not sparing her a glance since it wasn’t her fault he was feeling this way, Robbie opened his mouth to speak until he was cut off by a loud trumpeting. This made him a little frustrated, but he continued talking, “Well, there’s nothing else I can do here.” 

Purah furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and stepped in front of him only to be sidestepped, “Yeah, but our friend is still up here,” Purah said motioning to Alyss who was walking back towards them and taking her time. She turned back to see Robbie stepping out to the cliff from the entrance to the Divine Beast without saying another word to her. Purah scoffed in shock as she had never seen Robbie act this way before, however when Alyss joined her and asked what was wrong, Purah decided to drop the issue as it was none of her business. Shaking her head and smiling, she and Alyss left the Divine Beast. 

As the sun rose again on their second day in the Zora’s Domain, Alyss had made her way back to the Divine Beast to sit and keep it company. As she reached the cliff they were at the day before, Alyss dropped to the ground with a sigh and put her chin on her knees. “Ruta, can I talk for a bit?” She waited for a brief second to see how Ruta would react, but when she got nothing out of the Divine Beast she continued, “I have all these memories from a long time ago, and I’m afraid to move on with my life. What if the Princess decides to follow in her predecessor’s footsteps and shut me back in that wet cavern? Ruta, they buried all of us under the ground and forgot about us, and now we are here to defeat Ganon yet again. How am I supposed to ignore the thoughts I have and do what’s expected of me?” 

“Well, I think Vah Ruta feels the same way,” a sweet, quiet voice answered her rhetorical questions from behind her. When Alyss turned around she saw two red Zora walking her way, they both had silver headpieces adorning their heads, but one was much smaller than the other. “I’m sorry, not to be rude, but this is kind of a private conversation,” Alyss murmured as she turned back to Vah Ruta who still hadn’t made any attempt at responding to her. The red Zora stopped a little behind her, “ah, yes, I’m sorry to intrude. I came to introduce myself. My name is Mipha, I am the Princess of the Zora, and this here is my little brother Sidon.” 

Alyss turned and stood up bowing slightly as she had seen was the custom of this land, “I am Alyss. It’s a pleasure. Pardon me for my previous rude attitude Princess. I have a lot on my mind.” Alyss looked down to the ground where she saw Sidon smiling back up at her sweetly. The sight made her heart warm and a smile grace her face as she has always had a soft spot for children. 

“Well, I wish to not intrude. I will leave you to your conversation,” Mipha said as she turned and started to walk back the way she came, but Alyss stopped her.

“Wait,” Before Alyss could continue her thought Vah Ruta let out a loud, harsh trumpet making Alyss turn around. A large group of enemies were charging towards Zora's Domain from a distance which made Alyss’s eyes widen. Vah Ruta was not only warning them of the danger, but it said Mipha’s name. This gave Alyss an idea. Running to her and grabbing her hand, Alyss shoved the Sheikah Slate into her grasp. “Princess, take this. Board Ruta and make your way to it's inner chamber. There you will find a large terminal that resembles a flower bud. Use this Sheikah Slate and activate Vah Ruta. You can defend your people and defeat these enemies!”

Mipha turned her head to the side where she heard a loud growl. A large group of electric Lizalfos were charging the area where they stood. 

“I will protect Sidon, you must go and Pilot the Divine Beast,” Letting go of Mipha’s hand, Alyss ran to Sidon and formed a ring of poisonous smog to surround the two of them. “Go!” Alyss shouted as she started taking out the Lizalfos.

The rest of the group stood in the throne room of the Domain going over the information they had gathered from the Divine Beast the previous day with each other, when a Zora warrior ran in shouting about a large group of enemies. Before anyone could move into action, a loud trumpet was heard from the side accompanied by loud shaking steps that everyone soon recognized was a result of the Divine Beast. Thinking it was Alyss they ran outside to check, but what they saw shocked everyone. 

“Mipha,” King Dorephan cried out, but all he could do was watch as his daughter moved Ruta towards the enemies, shooting rays out of it’s tusks destroying multiple enemies at once. It didn’t take long at all for Mipha to wipe out every enemy attacking the domain, and everyone had to admit they were completely shocked. 

“Where’s Alyss and Sidon,” Princess Zelda asked looking around. She didn’t see her anywhere and she knew that Mipha went to talk to her and introduce themselves. 

Before Zelda could ask anything else, Link, Robbie and Purah were off to try and find the scientist and the young Prince. They ran into a good number of lizalfos and moblins that had come down from the mountains during the onslaught. With Link leading them, they were dead within seconds, but this didn’t do anything for Robbie’s nerves. Sure he was jealous and a little hurt, but she was important to their research and a good friend. When they arrived closer to the area, they could see a large ring of smog and a bunch of dead Lizalfos surrounding the two, but as Alyss’s main concern was the Prince and not hurting him, she was quickly becoming overwhelmed. 

“Sidon,” she spoke as she kicked back a Lizalfos into the smog, “leave me!”

“What, no, I can’t!” He shouted back to her. 

“Listen, you’re small enough to break through unnoticed! I will draw their attention, but you have to run and get help,” she tried to encourage him without scaring him. A moment passed as she knocked a Lizalfos back, it’s weapon grazing her arm resulting in a pained hiss. The moment, however, was enough for Alyss to let down the ring of smog. She growled, drawing all of the ugly bastard’s attention to her. She watched as Sidon escaped out of the corner of her eye but while knocking Lizalfos down she noticed Sidon had stopped. “Sidon, run! What are you doing!?” 

“Alyss!” She heard someone shout out before another yell drowned them out. As this shout sounded out, multiple Lizalfos fell at her feet. She looked up to see Purah waving her towards them while Robbie and Link ran towards the young Prince to scoop him up and take him to safety. Smiling, Alyss ran with the rest of the group back towards the Zora's Domain. When they were far enough away from the ugly lizards, she stopped and turned to wrap the rest of the enemies in a large cloud of poisonous smog quickly choking them out. 

After they started to fall, she turned and caught up with the rest of the group. The entire fight took an hour or so at most, but it was a big turn of events for almost everyone. When Mipha brought the Divine Beast back to a cliff easier for her to access and entered the Zora’s Domain once again to join everyone the first thing she did was hug her brother. “Sidon, I’m so glad you’re alright.” Sidon smiled a bright smile and brought his fist up to his face in an “alright” motion. Mipha turned to face the rest of the group and her father who had been quiet through the entire exchange. Bowing, she spoke, “Father, I’m so sorry, I-” 

King Dorephan held up his hand and chuckled, “Mipha, it seems that I have been proven wrong. I’m certain you will make a fine pilot for the Divine Beast as long as you make one promise,” he finished looking at the Princess. “Keep my daughter safe.” 

Princess Zelda smiled and bowed deeply to the King of the Zora’s Domain. “You have my word.”

[tay6119]

The Lost City of Mizu

I’m watching live today guys!

Don’t mind me, just waiting for immortal Dream confirmation.

Also, of course George doesn’t wanna be apart of the first one with real lore smhh so predictable.

Let’s get into it shall we?

- “4 average fisherman” Dream I’m still sus of u, there’s no way ur not immortal 

- ofc as soon as karl undeafens quackity is speaking in autotune

-  oooo their skins (let’s acknowledge quackity kinning george with the goggles) (Maybe he’s gog descendant /j)

- wait karl is one of the fishermen.. so where’s Dre...

- I like how BBH is reading the book omg

- Ok so the plot is that like they don’t know if current smp is true or not cause they’re just stories passed down? And they gonna find proof? ok so Dre isn’t here yet IS HE THE PROOF

- Karl doesn’t know how coords work kuyjtre

- Ranboo’s first time operating a boat... he is a fisherman..

- THE BUlID LOOKED SO COOL IN THAT LITTLE CLIP BUT OMG THIS IS EPIC

- Quackity does not know how to read

- LMFAOOOO WHY IS THERE AN EMOJI ON A MAP

- so they don’t have new names which is interesting lore wise... I wonder if we’ll learn who they’re the descendants of tho or if it’s literally just themselves??

- Mention of the Disc Wars ooooo wait wtf smiley faces everywhere

- This one is more lore heavy but it is still as chaotic as ever haha love u Big Q

- DREAM BUT WAIT WHY IS HE HALF WHITE AND HALF BLACK???? AND IN A SUIT? RANBOO KINNIE??

- Wait Karl = Isaac, BBH = Benjamin, Ranboo = Charles, Dream = Ranbob???????/???, Quackity = Cletus

- Quackity sniffing Dream

- Ok so the city was built pre-Ranbob

- Dream’s character is so very informative lmfaooo

- BLOOPERS: Slime opens the door lmfaooo

- Subway is canon

- KFC is canon

- PICTURES OF GEORGE LMFAO AND HE IS CALLED AN UGLY MAN

- Ranbob says George was the greatest king to have ever ruled inch resting (simp Dream leaking through)

- ERET KILLED GEORGE? The pictures of george all around the SMP were proof of people worshipping

- GUIDE ON HOW TO STOP BEING BULLIED ABT BEING COLORBLIND LMAO

-Dream is confirmed descendant of Ranboo oooo that’s so pog!! Memory boy >:)

- The room is SAPNAPS?? So this city was made while he’s still alive?? Oh no wait it’s dedicated to him

- LMAO SAPNAP HAD A LARGE LOVE FOR PETS AND STARTED THE PET WARS FOR THEM

- Gog is rent free smhh so many pictures of George, oh? Quackity’s character obsessed over a pic of George??

- REAL SMOOTH KARL REAL SMOOTH LOL

- “What is this” “I forget” DREAM PLEASE U WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT UR FAMILY’S GREAT MEMBER

- Cletus the Klepto

- “Cletus are u wearing thigh highs” BBH PLEASE

- Fundy room next ooooo

- *Quackity falls* “oo that would’ve been canon”

- “still unsure if fundy was a person or a pet” exrdcvgbhuk

- Quackity room key.. why am I nervous

- Dream is on the struggle bus trying to figure out where to go I-

- “Technoblade joined the game.”

- A PROLIFIC NUDIST WHO IDOLIZED SKEPPY LMFAOOO

- BBH HAD MANLY CHARM

- LOVE TO SEE THE ART CREDS KARL I STAN U

- SKEPPY AND BBH BESTIES <333

- “BBH was known for the excessive amounts of porn on his hard drive” DREAM PLEASE

- “That looks like Pitbull” IN  REFERENCE TO NUMBER 1 FROM KND

- Ranboo’s wife owes him money “that’s why you sign a prenup pal”

- TOMMY/TUBBO KEY LETS GOOOOOOOO I WANNA SEE WHAT IS SAID ABT THEM OMG

- “I trust this man fully” RANBOO PLEASE

- Tubbo room is so cute omggg, bees and flowers IM SOFT a pic of l’manberg people ahhhhhh

- Tubbo most experienced leader and warrior B) TUBBO ATE BEES WHAT

- A PICTURE OF THE QUEEN IN TOMMY’S ROOM “that was his wife”

- “collector of plates damaged with a hole in the middle” yuyjthdrgy

- BBH and Karl patting themselves on the back lmaoo

- RANBOB IS GONE CRAB RAVE

- Calling it now, secret room is for Dream and/or dnf shrine (the latter is a joke.. unless?

- Cletus’ personal possessions consist of a picture of “pitbull” and George

- Wetube.com/CletusParkour

- CLETUS IS GONE CRAB RAVE

- Isaac x Benjamin??

- LMAO BBH DOESNT WANNA DO THE PARKOUR CAUSE OF HIS EXP

- BENJAMIN IS GONE CRAB RAVE

- I WAS RIGHT IT’S DREAM;S LETS GOOOOO

- Ranbob’s idol was dream smh ofcccc

- DREAM WAS A VERY GOOD MAN MY ASS

- THEY DIED AND THE SCREEN WENT BLACK WHAT I-

- C!KARL???????

- OK WOAH WHAT C!KARL HAS A SECRET ROOM WITH ALL OF THE TALES WHAT WHAT WHAT MORE TIME TRAVELER LOREEEE IM GOING INSANE

- Karl loses memories when he time travels? :oo

- he just wants to prevent bad things :(((

- THE SECRET ROOOM IS IN THE UNDERWATER BASE BRUHHH IM GOING FERAL OVER THIS

THIS WAS REALLY COOLl, I like how most of the history of the SMP is kinda scuffed because it’s funny and is accurate to how we never truly know what happened ages in the past and we’re gonna get things wrong. Major props to you Karl!!

[blackswaneuroparedux]

“Woman can, if she will”: the Van Buren Sisters as the road warriors of Americana

In the summer of 1916, the United States was poised to enter the First World War. Two New York sisters, Augusta Van Buren, 24, and Adeline Van Buren, 22, were eager members of the Preparedness Movement, a campaign dedicated to strengthening American military readiness at home in anticipation of joining the conflict in Europe. Gussie and Addie were born into privilege and a life of high society but nevertheless had a pronounced adventurous streak. They learned to fly airplanes, could handle themselves in a boxing ring, raced horses, and rode motorcycles. The sisters decided that though the military wouldn’t allow women weren’t near combat lines, they would make excellent dispatch riders - motorcycle couriers, basically - racing between intelligence outposts and the front lines to deliver necessary communications. Gussie and Addie figured this would be a way into serving the military during wartime, as they’d free up men for combat duty.

These were dangerous positions, as they’d be valuable targets, riding in dismal conditions, but the Van Burens were confident their motorcycle skills and toughness gave them all the experience they’d need. First, however, they’d have to convince the military that women could serve that role successfully.

The sisters decided to ride coast to coast, from New York City to San Francisco, as a demonstration that women could serve as dispatch riders as well as any man. This at a time when female motorcyclists weren’t exactly unheard of but were still rare enough that only a decade before, the magazine Motorcycle Illustrated ran a headline that read, simply: “Detroit Has a Female Motorcyclist.” As in one. In all of Detroit.

This was also long before paved highways and the infrastructure to support motorised travel existed across much of the United States, especially in the West. There were few places to get fuel, water, or food. The sisters decided to follow the newly christened “Lincoln Highway” stretching from Manhattan to the southern shores of the Golden Gate in San Francisco, but “highway” today denotes perhaps a grander road than actually existed then. Much of it was simply rough dirt tracks. They’d be on their own, left to figure out how to navigate, resupply, source petrol, and defend themselves. Bandits still held up stagecoaches in the more desolate parts of the highway.

To prepare, Gussie and Addie went on long-distance rides in New York, growing accustomed to long days in the saddle and exposure to elements, testing their gear and clothing, gradually increasing the distance they rode until finally they were ready.

On July 4, 1916, the sisters climbed aboard their top-of-the-line bikes, courtesy of Indian Motorcycles. They each rode the Powerplus model (which sold for $275), a 1,000cc machine with a top speed of 65 mph, a webbed frame that allowed for a bit more suspension travel, and gas headlights (likely acetylene), which meant they’d be able to charge ahead through pitch black nights in the still almost completely rural West. These were simple but rugged motorcycles capable of mixed terrain travel. They wore only leather caps, sturdy goggles, leather jackets and britches, and calf-high boots. From Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay racetrack, they set off, bound for San Francisco, some 3,800 miles of hard riding away. Just three days earlier, in France, the horrific fighting at the Battle of the Somme began.

“There were no road maps west of the Mississippi,” their great-nephew Robert Van Buren once said of his aunts’ trip. “The roads were just cow passes, dirt trails, wagon trails, things like that.”

After an uneventful beginning of their journey, things took a turn for the absurd and difficult once they reached the Midwest.

At the time, in many towns, especially in rural America, women wearing pants was a serious violation of the social order. Gussie and Addie were just out of Chicago, barreling west through the ring of small townships that radiated from the city through central Illinois, when they were pulled over by police for their scandalous dress and cited for wearing men’s clothing. This pattern was repeated several times as the sisters roared into towns unaccustomed to women on motorcycles, especially women unaccompanied by men, and definitely not accustomed to women on motorcycles, without men, wearing pants. Still, they persisted.

Though they’d hoped to reach San Francisco by August, the sisters, delayed by weather and repeated run-ins with the law, arrived in the Rocky Mountains in August, a month after they’d set out. Gussie and Addie, in a “to hell with it” moment, decided to take a detour and ride to the summit of Pikes Peak, at 14,109 feet, not an easy ride with the motorized vehicles of their day. In doing so, they became the first women to reach the Pikes summit by any kind of motorized transport. From there, they beelined as west as they could over the Rockies, trudging up isolated trails softened and slickened with mud during torrential afternoon rains. Eventually, their motorcycles stuck fast in sticky mud and the sisters were forced to abandon their bikes and walk on foot to Gilman, a mining town filled with men shocked to see two young women emerge from the hills, freezing and wearing mud-splattered leathers.

The miners helped the Van Burens free their motorcycles, which they proceeded to dump repeatedly in the impossibly wet trails, as they headed further west. The arid high desert near Salt Lake City nearly proved to be the end of them after they lost their trail in a dust storm and became disoriented, stalling their progress. A passing prospector, his horse-drawn cart loaded with water and food, quenched their thirst and pointed them in the direction of safety.

Finally, on September 2, the pair rolled into San Francisco. They’d covered 5,500 miles and taken twice as long as they’d hoped to arrive, but braving horrendous conditions and the consternation of befuddled policeman along the way, the Van Buren sisters had become only the second and third women to complete a coast-to-coast motorcycle adventure. Still, with a bit of gas in their tanks, they decided to extend the trip even further, motoring south along the coast, clear to Tijuana, Mexico.

The media cheered the Van Buren sisters upon completing their journey, but a great deal of attention was paid to the motorcycles, not the riders. Some newspapers accused them of play-acting, galavanting around in tight khaki trousers and boots to “display their feminine counters in nifty khaki and leather uniforms.”

Worse yet, for the Van Buren sisters, the military rejected their application for duty as dispatch riders. Three years before women won the right to vote, many sectors of society still weren’t ready to accept women in unfamiliar roles.

Unfazed, they went on to fulfilling lives. Gussie served as a pilot and a member of Amelia Earhart’s Ninety-Nines, a group dedicated to burgeoning the ranks of women pilots. Addie earned a law degree and became an attorney at a time few women went to college, let alone practiced law.

Still, they left their mark on motorcycling and adventuring. In 2002, the sisters were elected to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Today, women and men go on memorial cross-country rides in honour of them.

And a line Gussie once told a reporter about their trip, is oft-printed on t-shirts and bumper stickers: “Woman can, if she will.”

[owlespresso]

Mechanist’s Machinations/Stephanivien

Warrior of Light/Stephanivien Spice below the cut! If you like what I do, consider supporting me via ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/owlespresso

Twice a year, during each solstice, the high clans of Ishgard held a ball of changing seasons. Being new to the civilization, you had yet to experience one fully. Stephanivien both waxed poetic to you about the glimmering atmosphere and fully admitted to the stuffiness of that came with the formality, but even he could not deny the fairytale-esque nature of such events. The ballroom opened wide. Paintings depicting legends of eld spanned across the domed ceiling, prompting you to crane your neck as you stared up in abject awe.

Perhaps you could have committed more of the stunning view to memory had the toy nestled between your legs not twitched and buzzed. Your thighs squeezed and tightened inside of your grandiose dress, gaze snapping back down to earth as you sought your mischievous partner. 

“Keep your eyes ahead of you,” Stephanivien’s heavy palm pressed to your lower back. Amusement was all too obvious, primely displayed in the curl of his lips and the low set of his eyelids. “Lest you bump into Archombadin de Dzemael a second time.”

“The first was your fault,” you hissed under your breath, gently elbowing him as the two of you made your way into the gathering proper. The rich sound of the orchestra bounced off the rounded walls, filling the room with beautiful music. Nearly every one of your senses was accosted by the pure majesty of the scene… except for touch. The presence of the toy between your legs was painfully obvious to you. Your pussy walls clenched desperately around it, your stance stiff as you accompanied your lover into the incredible ballroom. 

You have to pat yourself on the back for deciding not to wear heels to this occasion. If you had, you would be on the floor in mere moments with the stunted penguin steps you’re taking.

“That much I will concede,” Stephanivien replied, a glimmer of fondness in his gaze. His hand spanned across the small of your back, never once leaving your body lest he lose you in the crowd. You fancied yourself a woman who could take care of herself, but if you were to become separated from him whilst this goddamn thing was in between your legs, you would lose your mind. “My deepest apologies, love. Allow me to make it up to you.”

“Oh, you’ll be making it up to me plenty later,” you scoff at him with a small scowl, a pout turning the corners of your lips softly downwards. If he feels any semblance of sympathy he’ll have no problem with you shoving his face in place of the goddamned toy when you get him alone. 

Simply accompanying him to the ball had been enough of a favor, but going along with his hare-brained sex play was another thing entirely. You feel unnaturally naked and exposed despite the lengthy dress you’ve picked out for tonight. It’s a stunning number that hovers just above the floor, the corset laced firmly yet not uncomfortably, supporting your bust without breathing your back. 

Sharply dressed waiters and waitresses wove through the thinning crowds as the guests spread to different areas of the room, carrying platters of hors d’oeurvres and flutes of golden pink champagne.

You plucked one of the slender glasses as one passed by, giving the waiter a kind smile and a thankful nod. Goddess only knew you couldn’t make it through the night sober. You lifted it to your lips, wincing ever so slightly as the cool taste doused your tongue and slid down your throat, the alcohol melting into a slight, sanguine burn. 

The vibration between your legs spiked at that very moment, causing you to gasp and splutter. Your grip on your glass tightened, the back of your throat itching as you worked the liquid down the correct pipe. 

Several passerby jolted at your sudden fit, causing your cheeks to grow warm. 

“I’m fine,” you assured them with a strained smile.

“Are you sure?” At your side, Stephanivien cooed. He looked to you tenderly, sympathetically. His lips curled into a concerned frown. He played the role of the caring spouse to a picture perfect level, from his dewey sweet tone of voice to the strikingly genuine expression he sported. The large hand on your back brought you close, leaving merely an ilm between you… but it also allowed you to see the mischievous glint in his eyes. The smug bastard was shameless, and the need to retaliate in some way gripped you so thoroughly that your jaw clenched.

“One-hundred percent,” you gritted out. One of your gloved hands perched on his upper arm, giving a squeeze. What could be taken as a reassuring squeeze soon turned into a vice-like grip that had him reeling in place, eyes widening as you held him tighter—a silent threat. His partner or not, you were still the Warrior of Light and you could still kick his ass six ways to Sunday. He paled considerably and nodded.

“...So glad to hear that, my dear. Shall we head closer to the dancefloor? I think I see my father entangled in deep conversation with count Fortemps,” he inquired, motioning in the direction of the aforementioned individuals with his shoulder. The sight of Edmont was a welcome one, but speaking to anyone whilst this damned toy is busy tormenting you sounded like a terrible idea. It was practically asking to be humiliated. 

“And let you make me look a fool in front of my adoptive father and future father-in-law?” you inquire, making sure to sound as incredulous as possible. “I think not, Stephanivien!”

 “I think it would help my father grow accustomed to the idea of you as my wife if he were to see you at one of our formal events.” Stephanivien coaxed, gently nudging you with his shoulder. “Taking part in Ishgardian tradition is a sure way to secure a stronger bond with him. And maybe it would help the both of you get along better. If I remember correctly, you described him as ‘stuck in his ways’?”

You gave an exasperated sigh, leaning into his side. As much as you hated to risk it, you had to admit Stephanivien was correct. There wasn’t anything his father could do to separate the two of you, but having his blessing would make the relationship easier. Ishgardians, despite the way their culture preached modesty, were unabashedly nosy when it came to their family members and said family members’ love lives.

Getting close to his father would make the process of courting seem less taboo. The man had already struggled with accepting you, a foreigner, as a proper bride for his son. If there was to be an official wedding in the coming days, having the current count’s approval was key.

“Alright,” you acquiesce (as though you could ever refuse him in the first place). Before he could take the initiative, you pointedly grasp his hand and lead him in the direction of the two. “Come along, then.” They chatter busily near one of the many buffet tables, both wearing relaxed expressions, a good sign at the very least. House Fortemps and Haillenarte have always been close, so you’ve been counting on Edmont putting in a good word for you.

Edmont greeted you with a wide, welcoming smile—the kind that made you feel like you belonged.

The conversation lasts no more than five minutes before the bastard subtly raises the intensity of the toy. You gasp mid-sentence, barely managing to cover your ass with a half-hearted excuse before you scurry towards the refreshment table, readying a slew of insults to sling Stephanivien’s way as soon as the two of you reach private quarters. 

He follows you seamlessly. A few of the noble folk recognize and greet him, whilst others have certainly noticed your presence and make haste in your direction. It’s not everyday you make yourself available to Ishgard’s upper class (with the exception of the Fortemps), so the party’s other attendants are more than likely to interact with you whilst they can. The very idea of entertaining the uppity rich folk nearly sends a rickety shiver down your spine.

Still, you do your best to make a good impression. The steady buzz between your legs only climbs in severity and to your relief, Stephanivien steps in sooner rather than later. He must have noticed your growing fatigue. When he steps forward to brush away the enthusiastic trio of bouncy noblewomen who have done nothing but cling and fawn over you for the past fifteen minutes, he sends you a knowing and apologetic look.

“My deepest apologies, ladies, but I promised the Warrior a dance and I must deliver it to her. I’m sure you understand,” he says with a teasing smile. The women giggle as they bustle away, doubtlessly eager to gossip about the relationship between yourself and the Haillenarte heir.

The vibrant chandelier light catches on his blond locks. His head is absent of his trademark bandana and goggles, hair done in an elegant braid. 

“Couldn’t have stepped in sooner?” you jibe at him a little bit, reaching up and tugging lightly on the aforementioned length of hair. He winches, but you hold no sympathy for him. He’s earned it, after the hell he’s put you through.

“Why? You seemed to be enjoying yourself… and if you’re going to be living here, then you’ll need to grow accustomed to the people,” he says, a palm pressing to the small of your back. He leads you seamlessly through the crowd, heading at last for the exit. You’ve only been here for a little more than an hour, but you’re already exhausted. You only have so much energy to spend talking to the rich and privileged before your brain starts giving out on itself. 

“Regardless, I’m proud of you for lasting as long as you did,” he admits with a small laugh, “Even I grow weary of all the posturing and negotiating and gossiping. The nobility lacks most of the problems that plague the lower class, so they invent their own. Lady Dzemael has been fitting about her supposedly stolen croquettes as of late.”

“I suppose the impending threat of a dragon attack was second to that on her list of concerns,” you remark wryly, resisting the urge to roll your eyes at the melodrama.

The ballroom, in all its incredible extravagance, disappears behind you. Stephanivien continues to idly banter with you, distracting you from both conversations held inside the ballroom and the toy incessantly teasing your pussy.

The orchestra becomes vague background noise as you head down the winding corridors, too focused on the lone task of returning to the Haillenarte manor to pay much attention to your surroundings. Your panties are near soaked through, cunt throbbing around the intrusive toy nestled inside.

You tense and rub your thighs together every chance you get. If he notices, he does not say anything.

-

Your little secret makes you feel giddy as you scurry down the hallowed halls of the mansion, pressed against him, as close as you can get. His hand is perched on the small of your back, his voice jovial as he shepherds you to his room with tantamount urgency. None of the staff dare interrupt your rushed journey, all likely knowing what you’re about to do. Normally you might muster up some sense of sheepishness, but you’re too hot and bothered now.

Only when the door of his room shuts behind you are you able to feel at ease. A weight lifts off your shoulders… as do the straps of your dress. 

“Eager, are we?” Stephanivien inquires with no small amount of smugness, as though he isn’t also feverishly disrobing. He has an easier time of it. No zippers to fiddle with, no corsets to unlace. 

“Again, that’s your fault,” you accuse with no venom in your voice, beginning to shimmy out of your formal attire. The dress, as lovely and comfortable as it is, has got to go… though you’ll most likely need his help to untie it.

“As humorous as it is to watch you wiggle around like a mermaid on land, I must offer you my humble assistance. It is the least I can do after all I have put you through, tonight,” he offers. When you glance back at him again, he’s disrobed down to his boxers. His suit and pants have been haphazardly tossed to the side of the room. He’s seated on the edge of the mattress, looking up to you with imploring eyes. His arms are open, elbows resting on his knees.

“It really is the very least you can do,” you remark. Even while sitting, he’s your same height, if not a tad taller. It’s enough to send a flush of heat to your already aching cunt. 

You go quiet as you shimmy over to him. As soon as you’re able to, you rest your hands upon his shoulders and make a small jump to stand in between his legs, using him as a baseboard. The force of you pushing down on him makes him give a small ‘oof’, but he’s otherwise unbothered, too large and well-muscled to be bothered by someone of your size. 

His countless hours at the workshop have served him well. There’s definition to his shoulders and arms, to his abdomen that might lead you to believe he’s been training on the side. Your absentminded gaze reaches it to the v of his hips before he grabs you by your own and abruptly turns you around.

The suddenness makes you squawk.

“Hush. You will have plenty of time to ogle me in just a few moments, I assure you,” Stephanivien says. His nimble fingers dance up and down the back of your dress, expertly untying and unlacing the top garment with practiced dexterity. Mere moments later, it crumples to the polished wooden floor at your feet.

Unabashedly, suddenly, he manhandles you to face him again. You prepare another teasing barb to throw his way, but the words fall from your tongue the moment you see his face. He looks to you with unspoken ardence, a worshipful admiration decidedly different from the way anyone else has seen you with. It quiets and humbles you, to the point where you don’t speak even as he hooks his thumbs underneath the sides of your panties.

“Utterly divine, my love,” he coos. He pulls you forward by your hips, gaze slowly traversing down your body. He starts at your chest, admiring the curve of your bust before reaching your stomach. It’s as though he’s trying to memorize every inch of you, leaving you feeling more exposed and overanalysed than ever… and that’s before he pauses as he reaches your sodden panties. His head ducks, his lips curled into a torrid smirk. His left hand releases your hip and slides across your thigh, long fingers reaching up to caress a single stripe down your still clothes cunt, gently jostling the toy.

The sudden movement inside your already oversensitive cunt makes you jump and gasp, fingers curling tight around his broad shoulders. The shock is instantly replaced with irritation borne of his insufferable teasing.

“Gods, just fuck me already,” you grumble, thoroughly vexed by his sluggish examination.

“Forgive me,” he beseeches, eyes glimmering with untold mischief. “I was so taken by your beauty that I lost myself for a moment. Will you indulge me for the final time tonight, my love?”

“Depends. You’re already on thin ice,” you reply, tilting your head to the side. The hand that teased your cunt navigates around your body, his palm settling over one of your cheeks. His long fingers span over it entirely, giving you a loving squeeze. Your eyes screw shut as you hold in a moan, your cheeks growing even hotter as you realize what he’s asking of you. 

“As rapturous as you are from the front, I believe I can get a better grasp of the toy’s overall performance from the back? Are you feeling up to that, tonight?” The low buzzing in between your thighs is deriving you to the point of incoherence. In the midst of your frustration, you agree with a wordless nod.

“As long as you hurry up and fuck me already,” you try to put extra bite in your words, but any and all threat in your tone is dulled by your currently nude state. 

“Splendid.” Those long fingers tap against your hip, and he gently urges you to the side. “On the bed, my dear. The sooner you get into position, the sooner I can give you what you want.”

You need no further encouragement to scramble atop the blankets, coming to rest upon your hands and knees, sopping cunt and ass presented for his use. A brief sequence of noises behind you, namely the sound of a drawer opening and shutting, let you know he’s suspiciously prepared for this. 

“Lovely. You’re doing so well for me.” There’s jolly humor in his voice and it nearly makes you roll your eyes. He makes quick work of your panties, sliding them down your thighs until they rest in the crook of your knees. Slicked, chilled fingers lightly work their way to your bottom hole, your voice choking around a gasp as he teases it. The toy still buzzes eagerly between your legs, even the slightest bit of stimulation enough to make you push back into his touch. 

“Fuck,” you curse, face pressed to the sheets as he works a single, nimble digit inside of you, working you open. The series of gentle thrusts in and out make you begin to melt, body desperate for any attention he’ll give it. You relax for him, you loosen, gasping and whining, melting into little more than a puddle beneath him. The slicked lubricant chills against your exposed skin, sending goosebumps sprawling over your legs. 

You pay it no mind as you work a hand underneath you, beginning to tease your clit with practiced strokes. Your growing noises of pleasure pitch higher and higher… and then turn into grievous whines as he pulls his fingers away.

“Hush,” Stephanivien soothes, lips brushing the back of your neck. He adorns your unmarked flesh with kisses and nips, occasionally stopping to suck a deeper mark. “I’ll give you what you so desperately crave, I promise. Just be patient. Intricate processes like these require proper preparation.”

The hot press of his cock makes a sudden breath rattle harshly from your lungs as he nears your twitching hole. The tip presses gently to it, beginning a slow slide inside. His fingers are long and practiced, but his cock is decidedly girthier. You don’t realize you’re shaking until he begins to murmur sweet nothings to you, a warm hand stroking up and down your side in an attempt to soothe you. The sudden nerves settle gradually, every muscle relaxing around him as he pushes deeper, deeper until his pelvis presses firm against your ass. 

“You are a wonder,” he says into your hair, his shaking voice betraying his rattled composure. Even the scion of an Ishgardian noble house cannot remain unflinching in the throes of pleasure. The thought somehow soothes you as he pulls back… and thrusts in again. The pace he sets is slow and measured, yet deep and thorough. It’s the kind of mind-melting measure that frustrates and defeats you, the kind that makes your fingers tremble on your clit as you struggle to cling to coherent thought. 

The constant, unrelenting pressure he applies is enough to keep you pinned entirely to the sheets. 

“You’re excellent,” he moans and growls his praise, voice muffled against your shoulder. His words are spaced between frantic, wet kisses. “Truly. Taking me so well after all you’ve been through, tonight. Can you cum for me, darling? I think you can. I know so.”

The raw satisfaction the praise pushes through your worn mind is somehow enough to undo the coil between your legs that’s been wound so tight. The constant teasing has had you dangling on the precipice from the very start, so it should be no surprise when you finally cum, howling your bliss into the sheets as your body jerks and writhes. The toy relentlessly vibrates through it, devastating your plush walls until you at last reach to wrench it out. 

Your entire body shakes as he fucks you throughout, pushing you so far into bliss that you begin to squirm away. His fingers curl tight around your hips, pulling you tight to him. His rhythm falters and his words fail him. You only realize these tell-tale signs of his approaching orgasm moments before it crashes into him. His hips still as he spills inside you. His teeth find purchase on your shoulder as he bites, sucking a brutal mark onto the blank patch of skin.

The blankets pull and nearly tear as you grip them, shaking like a leaf in his grasp. The strength has been all but sapped from your body by the physical and emotional strain of the night. Who knew talking to so many of Ishgard’s most powerful people could exhaust you so much? In the stillness and clarity of your post-orgasm, you can’t help but feel immensely grateful that you’re not in that stuffy ballroom, anymore.

“Forgive me,” Stephanivien says against your shoulder. His soft lips press up against the spot he had just bitten, and his grip on you loosens. There will be bruises where he held you tomorrow, but you can’t find it in yourself to be upset about that. Knowing that proof of tonight will still linger beyond this encounter is satisfying in a strange and animal way. “I was too… ahem, drawn into the moment. I should not have been so brusque with you.”

“No, it’s alright.” Your voice is hoarse as you assure him. “It was good. Really nice.” You grasp for more sophisticated words, but your head throbs the moment you do.  

What you will have to do is see how obvious the hickies he left are going to be. As proud as you are to be involved with him, you can’t waltz into your workplace looking like you’ve just been near choked to death. Heavens could only imagine the way Tataru would tease and badger you for the dirty details. Not to mention Stephanivien’s father… though you’re quite sure he already knows the details of your relationship with his son. 

Being the Warrior of Light has its perks, one of which being that not even the staunchly traditional nobility of Ishgard can take issue with you marrying one of their own. Not after all you’ve done for them.

“Ah. Full glad am I to hear that, my dear.” He raises from his close position, gently shifting you to lay on your back. The toy lays abandoned only a few ilms away, and you wince at the sight of it coated in your juices. He’ll be the one to clean that up, you decide. It’s the least he can do after all of tonight’s shenanigans. His little invention causes you more trouble than you surely deserved. He reaps what he sows, as far as you are concerned.

You allow yourself brief smugness, knowing he’ll be helpless to refuse. For as dominant as he can be, there’s very little he will deny you. Whilst you strive to not take advantage of that good nature, there are times where you think it’s only appropriate to seize what you’ve so painstakingly earned.

Perhaps you should take a shower, you muse to yourself, staring up at the ceiling. The warmth of the afterglow settles over your tired body. The day’s anxieties are done and over with, put behind you. There are no balls to dread attending, no high social interaction for you to worry about. Perhaps you should have something to drink, too. It wouldn’t do for you to go to bed dehydrated—

Something hard and hot presses ever so gently against the outer lips of your cunt, causing your gaze to snap downwards. Stephanivien at least has the good sense to look sheepish after his unabashed ravishing of you, his lips curled in a decidedly boyish smile. His cock, however, is not nearly as shy. 

“What.” You say, doubtlessly looking as incredulous as you feel.

“I cannot help my hopeless attraction to you, my dear. I think you should know that by now,” he wheedles, batting his eyelashes. “You’re up for another round, aren’t you? The night is only so young, as are we, and we should enjoy ourselves while we have the chance—”

Your face warms as his gaze roves up and down your body, worshipful and lustful all at the same time. Whilst he rants about the finer details of your physical form and soul, those large palms and long fingers come to cup your hips, thumbs rolling slow circles into your cooling skin. Like this, both bared to each other, you’re hard pressed to say no. The simplest of touches sends another spark through you, your already overstimulated cunt throbbing. 

He’s impossible to resist. Utterly, irritatingly impossible. 

So, you make a show of throwing your head back and sighing, staring pointedly up at the ceiling.

“If we must,” you say, but the upturned curl to your lips betrays you.

“What would I ever do without you?” he says. Those clever hands have already drawn you closer, the tip of his girthy cock kissing your entrance. You’re already plenty slick from the toy’s… loving ministrations. He slides inside easily, yet slowly, still careful to give you time to properly adjust. The toy’s size pales in comparison to his, but the preparation and lubrication are more than enough. You keen as he presses close, hips canting in a desperate attempt for more of that blessed, sanguine contact. “So receptive, as well.” 

Your back arches, your eyes flutter shut as your walls clench and loosen around him. He presses up against every special little spot, touches everywhere you want him. His very presence is toe-curling, mind-melting in a way you have trouble describing. 

“With an attitude like that, we’ll put an heir in you yet.” he teases, voice lapsing into a playful little lilt. “Would you like that, my dear? Would you like to be bred and round with child?” His jesting tone of voice is at odds with the fire that gleams openly in his gaze. A million thoughts and possibilities seize you at once.

Your answer is lost in a jumbled gasp as he sets a faster, rougher pace. You are sent mindless into a sea of bliss, wave after wave knocking the breath and coherency out of you.

The very idea of his proposal, however, sends a very raw abet confusing wave of heat straight down to your cunt. The logical part of you halts completely at the suggestion, any rational thought shut down by the swift gyration of his hips. Your hands grip the sheets for dear life. Your walls clench around him. Your eyes squeeze shut. 

This will be a long night.

[cassandraclare]

flash fiction

The July piece of flash fiction about Chain of Gold is here, this one focusing on Christopher Lightwood, Henry Fairchild, and science! (Chris isn’t wearing his glasses in the illustrated scene by Cassandra Jean because they don’t fit under the goggles!)

One of Christopher Lightwood’s earliest memories was of his mother, Cecily Lightwood, being rushed to the infirmary after a fight with a pack of Raum demons. Christopher and his older sister Anna were at the London Institute at the time, being looked after by their aunt Tessa and uncle Will while their parents were out on patrol. Tessa whisked Christopher away quickly, but not before he saw the worried look on Will’s face as he went to summon the Silent Brothers.

Later, Christopher sat by his mother’s bedside as she recovered from the Raum poison. She drifted in and out of consciousness, waking and smiling when she saw him and then falling back into sleep. Uncle Will waved his arms about a great deal, despairing that his sister was entirely too brave for her own good. Christopher’s father, Gabriel Lightwood, reminded Will that courage against all odds was what made them Shadowhunters, wasn’t it? This caused Will to splutter. But Christopher could tell that his father had been truly frightened, and was deeply relieved that Cecily was recovering. Christopher leaned against his father.

“Is hunting demons scary?” He asked.

Gabriel sighed, and drew Christopher closer. “It can be scary, but a world overrun by demons is much scarier.”

That made sense, but Christopher continued his line of questioning. “Fighting them with swords and daggers, that is scary. But what if there are other ways to fight them?”

His father looked puzzled. “Like with ranged weapons? Bows and arrows?”

Christopher couldn’t explain the ideas that were rushing through his head. He didn’t have the language for them yet. Instead he just smiled. “Not exactly,” he said. “But don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”

When Christopher was eight, his father and his uncle Gideon shut themselves in the study and talked in loud important voices about Christopher’s aunt Tatiana, and Tatiana’s boy Jesse. Christopher understood that Jesse was a cousin who he had never met, and that Jesse was sick.

Only a short while later, they received word that Jesse had died. Christopher’s father tried to visit aunt Tatiana, but she would not see him. When Gabriel came home, Cecily put her arms around him, and he cried. Christopher was shocked, less by his father’s tears than by the fact that they’d had a cousin who they’d never been allowed to meet, and now never could meet. Thoughts kept running around in Christopher’s mind. This is all wrong. If we had met him, we might have been able to help him. To save him. But when he said this out loud to his mother, Cecily only smiled sadly. “You are a brave and daring boy,” she said. “The world needs more minds like yours, Christopher. But you cannot take on the responsibility for saving every life. That is too heavy a load for one person to bear. The Silent Brothers were with Jesse before he died, and they are the wisest among us. Surely they would have saved him if he could have been saved.”

Christopher thought, But the Silent Brothers only hold certain kinds of wisdom. What if there was a different kind that could have saved Jesse? But he held his tongue.

Then, when Christopher was ten, Anna was bitten by a demon, and the wound became infected. The whole family was frenzied with worry for a day and a night over Christopher’s older sister. ...

The fever was the problem that lasted, the problem that loomed in his mind demanding a solution. Far too often in his life, Christopher found himself thinking the same thoughts he had the day Jesse died. This is all wrong. Something must be done about this.

Christopher had many cousins. Matthew wasn’t a cousin, but their parents were friends and they were as good as family: that was always understood. Christopher had called Matthew’s father uncle Henry since he could talk, and had always been impressed by the intriguing chair Henry got about in. Then one day Christopher got into Henry’s laboratory, which he found even more intriguing than the chair. Henry had left out his notes for an experiment, and Christopher promptly tried to perform said experiment.

You never forget your first explosion.

“Oh, well done, most well thought out,” said uncle Henry, but then aunt Charlotte had ‘a word’ with him. It was actually many words. Christopher didn’t see why people were so inaccurate.

After the many words, uncle Henry said that Christopher was too young to be causing explosions, and the laboratory was a dangerous place, and Christopher wasn’t allowed to touch anything in it without permission. Nor was Matthew, but Matthew didn’t want to. Matthew was interested in talking about mystifying things, like how Uncle Henry should ‘eat more’ and put a stop to a brilliant experiment for a foolish reason like ‘everything is on fire.’

Christopher was impelled by true scientific curiosity. He thought over the problem, and gave himself permission to touch whatever he wanted in the laboratory. Sometimes Uncle Henry locked things up away from Christopher, so Christopher was forced to break into cabinets.

It was all quite vexing, but scientific progress was an avalanche that must not be stopped. Christopher read Marie Curie’s papers on radium, the element that could destroy tumors. He read John Snow’s essay on how cholera might spread through a public water pump. He attempted to write his own piece, on Henry Fairchild’s invention of the Portal. These were the people who were looking at the world inventively, seeking the root cause of the problems that plagued humanity.

“Who do you think is the Shadowhunter who has saved the most lives, boy?” the Inquisitor asked him, when the Inquisitor was visiting the Consul at her London home, and Christopher emerged from the laboratory to have a snack. “I suppose you think it’s your papa.”

“No,” said Christopher after a moment’s thought. “I would say my Uncle Henry.”

The Inquisitor appeared thunderstruck.

“I performed an analysis,” Christopher said peacefully. “If Uncle Henry had not invented the Portal, there is a strong possibility that our numbers would be less by a third. I believe you yourself would have died nine years ago, during the Dantalion attack on the York Institute. Since Portals will exist long after uncle Henry is dead, I expect he will end up having saved more lives than any other Shadowhunter, including Jonathan Shadowhunter. Unless I can invent something which will be as useful. Which naturally I aspire to do.”

Christopher returned to the laboratory thinking about demons. How they walked between worlds, how stabbing them was a temporary solution at best, since they could always re-form in their own home worlds and return to wreak more havoc. How no one else seemed to be looking towards the root of these problems. Well, almost no one.

“Does it ever bother you?” Christopher asked Henry tentatively, a few hours later. “The way our people are? What they value, and what they… don’t?”

Henry laughed. “Does it matter if it bothers me? It doesn’t change the fact there is work to be done.”

It was a sensible and practical answer, but for once Christopher found himself wanting more. Henry understood him, the way Henry always seemed to.

“I know what I value,” Henry said firmly. “I do not think we are as separated from the ways of the Nephilim as you think. We are all warriors, charged by the Angel to keep the world safe in our different ways. We won’t win if any one of us fights alone. What do you want the most?”

“There is so much wrong with the world,” said Christopher. “I want it to make sense. I want to put it right. I want to find the solutions that are overlooked by others.” He gazed upon the diatom arrangements, the shining brass of their microscopes, the weapons they were trying to modify and the devices they were attempting to invent. Matthew talked about truth and beauty a great deal. This was where Christopher had always found his.  

“This was what I felt most called to do,” said Henry. “I always thought it was right to use my mind, the best weapon I have, for the cause I believe in. It is a joy to see you reach for the weapon I reached for.”

“So I should join you in all your experiments, then,” Christopher said triumphantly.

“Yes,” Henry said. Then he hesitated, and for a moment Christopher thought he might deliver a lecture about being careful and preventing explosions. But Henry didn’t. Instead he just said, “Yes, we should.”

From then on, Christopher regarded science as not only that which he loved but as his Shadowhunter duty. Perhaps nobody else would ever think it, but he knew he was dedicated as an Iron Sister, a Silent Brother, a warrior stepping forward to face a field of demons.

When he was tired, or people were unreasonable, or his little brother wailed outside his door, Christopher remembered the smile on the face of the Shadowhunter he respected most, and Henry saying “Come, Christopher. Take up your best weapon, and fight your best fight.”

[foretoldblood]

five times kissed 💕

y'shtola is sharp as a tack, one of the most intelligent people he'd ever had the fortune to meet, and he's utterly captivated by her. they get along like fire and oil, catching from the very second they're left alone in the room together.

but urianger is quiet and speaks in riddles and y'shtola is loud and speaks with action. he composes unwritten symphonies of words and she manifests results with her own might. they spend hours upon hours together, arguing, debating, researching, and it all feels like mere moments.

the day after he receives the mark, near to the end of their time in sharlayan, he walks into louisoix's foyer, his head and eyes uncovered as his face is still far too tender to wear his usual attire. his heart soaring with accomplishment, a smile breaking through his stoic demeanor. she's the only one there, and so it seems little surprise that she takes his face in her hands and presses a kiss right to the sore skin.

"so you would be beautiful were it that you were not so secretive, urianger," she says, tapping the tip of his nose with the pad of her finger. there's mirth in her eyes, mingled with pride and affection. and she lingers a moment longer, the opportunity is there.

he wants to kiss her, but he doesn't. just as he wants to kiss moenbryda but doesn't. urianger freezes instead, stiff as a board, and she lets go with an understanding that somehow makes him feel worse.

they don't talk about it afterwards.

-

the next time is years later, days after prophecy comes to life. they've hunted through the battlefield for hours now, trying to find bodies but there's nothing. simply nothing. nothing but bahamut's rage, frozen flame twisting around the landscape and the memory of a man haunting them.

louisoix is gone.

they are lost.

but there is still a mission to accomplish. the world does not stop because the greatest among them are gone.

urianger allows himself this moment to mourn - but only that moment, remembering all that is still left to do. the empire is on the borders of a broken realm and the threat of primal summoning upon them.

y'shtola finds him sitting against one of the frozen spires, his head in his hands. he looks up as she kneels, and she bends and presses her forehead to his, their grief unspoken and shared.

butterfly kisses he thinks as damp eyelashes brush together.

they rebuild.

-

but perhaps the foundation is cracked.

their methodologies had always differed - that was why they had been brought together, but louisoix had been the cement that bridged their gaps.

urianger retreats further into himself. he keeps secrets and she knows. the rift is subtle at first. y'shtola goes from nearly always at his side, reading over his shoulder, to across the room.

they don't acknowledge it. they feign normalcy, trying oh so hard to pretend like everything is fine.

in the quiet moments after he's rescued, all goes back to normal. she sits at his bedside and calls him a fool, how worried she was. he smiles ever so faintly and lifts her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm where her nails have worried the skin.

-

loss ruins their victory.

they're all gone in one fell swoop. urianger regrets being reclusive, regrets staying behind for if he'd gone perhaps he could have changed it. the warrior and alphinaud seek to solve ishgard's problems and he throws himself into finding them.

they pull her from the lifestream and he sits at her bedside, trading shifts with y'mitra until she wakes.

and oh, the price she's paid.

y'mitra tells him when she wakes, of her condition, and he feels ill with guilt.

she can't see the tearstains on his face. can't see the bags underneath his eyes. the toll that this has taken on him. the cowl and goggles are abandoned and he is simply exhausted.

but relieved beyond measure.

his fingers entwine tightly with her own.

"do not," he rasps softly, "frighten me like that again."

this time she presses lips to his knuckles, a laugh on her lips.

"i don't think i've ever heard you use so few words. have i lost the favor of your verbosity?"

"thine most recent reckless stunt hath left mine soul bereft of poem," he folds his free arm under his chin, letting his eyes shut. their hands stay entertwined. "when we see the dawn of peace once more, 'tis thine duty and thine alone to see it replenished."

she laughs. and he decides he would die a happy man should that be the last thing he ever heard.

-

it happens in the crystarium. after years of avoiding each other, months of travelling together and pretending all is well in front of others.

but it isn't.

she's furious at him for keeping secret after secret. for minfilia before this, for siding with the exarch after that, for the warrior of light now. they argue in private where they can't be overheard.

"do we mean nothing to you?" she spits. "have you so little trust in us?"

"this is not about trust or meaning," he says, his voice scarcely raising but the fire is burning. his lack of reaction always infuriates her more than were he to give a human reaction, to crack and yell.

she knows he's capable of it. she better than most.

"no, no i suppose not. it's about your godsdadmned need for control," she hisses.

"nor is it about control," his voices rises. a theory is confirmed.

"it is, urianger, and no one else is willing to take you to task. you've spent so much time in the shadows you shrink from the light even now," she snarls. "and yet you throw yourself upon the sword the moment it presents itself! you blame yourself for things beyond your control, and you think cartineau would have been different if you had kept a tighter grip on -"

"y'shtola."

she's wrong, but not wrong. her words strike home and lay him bare. the words hang between them, regret so thick in the air it has them both choking. he looks away from her, towards the gift of the night sky given back to this world.

slowly he turns back to her. to the silver glow of her eyes that he blames himself for. to the grief they've both wrapped themselves with. to the mark fewer and fewer of them still wear.

he crosses the room.

gathers her hands in his. his head lowers - his eyes burning. it's killing him that they fight like this, that he has this secret. all he can do is squeeze her hands gently in his.

"this is the last time," he says, his voice terribly raw. "i do not expect forgiveness for this, nor do i deserve it. but i believe i have earned enough goodwill for you to trust my judgement."

his leans down, pressing his lips to her forehead. lingering for a moment, feeling himself tremble ever so slightly. trying to convey all he can.

"regardless of what follows, i shall not keep anything more from you... should you still find yourself willing to have me."

-

they wake in mor duna, losing years in the span of seconds. their muscles are weak and their bodies tired from the act of simply opening their eyes, but they are delighted to be alive and that's all that matters.

she sits on his bed. a vision of loveliness even in the darkness of the rising stones.

he telegraphs his intent. she reads him like a book. he wants her to know his heart, his secrets lain bare. no more, no more, and she trusts him enough to allow that chance, leaning against him.

he touches a hand to her chin and tips it up, her eyes flutter shut.

their lips meet in the middle.

[cinna-wanroll]

Kenobi Script

Heavy panting and clanking of soldier’s footsteps.

J-Cut:

Camera on white armor-clad feet, running.

 Scale up on bodies with blasters against a tan backdrop.

A voice accompanies the scene as we continue to pan through a series of shots of the soldiers running through indistinguishable sand buildings.

A few splashes of color pop from signs and banisters, resembling a street chase.

Voice (V.O.)

Hiding. That is what my days are like. Alone, perhaps to die, although I hope not. I can’t. The galaxy rests on my shoulders now, even though I’m not certain it always hasn’t. I meditate just to find myself broken inside, shards of memories finding their way to the surface, and my mind strays to fix the past- although my body has long since left the scene of who I once was. Now, I no longer reside on the front lines. No, I am refined to watch as the glorious Republic that used to be deteriorates around me. All that’s left of who I am- or who I was- are the sparks I can feel across the galaxy, dimming out quickly. And I can still feel their pain, too.

A brief pause as some action occurs on screen. Pan up to reveal dead end and a cloaked figure, chased by Stormtroopers. 

We see the figure draw a GREEN LIGHTSABER, ready to defend themselves.

Their face is in a fierce snarl, all calculated focus. And for a minute, the Stormtroopers hesitate.

Suddenly, the JEDI is lifted off the ground, choking. 

Pan down to ground as a dark silhouette approaches, and a RED GLOW ignites, a hum the only noise we hear.

J-Cut:

To black.

Voice (V.O.)

But however misshapen I may be, however hidden away I am, I cannot reverse my instincts- my purpose. I can hear it whispered to me through the Force, a tug in my spirit. Warrior. Fighter. And even though I go by a different name, it still finds ways to remind me of who I was- who I still wish to be.

Smash Cut:

On intense grey-blue eyes, opening as the camera focuses.

Voice (V.O.)

And it tells me I am still Obi-Wan Kenobi.

A beat begins to crescendo in the background as we cut away

EXT. TATOOINE- SUNSET

Soft hues melt into the horizon as Tatooine’s suns finish setting. We can see the shadow of a figure riding a measly mount in the distance, sand softly moving across the dunes.

Cut to a closer up of Obi-Wan, holding a pair of ELECTROBINOCULARS up.

We see into the green-tinted view, revealing THE LARS HOMESTEAD. We can see a soft light emanating from entryway, but nothing else. 

Cut back on Obi-Wan, taking the Electrobinoculars away from his face and looking thoughtful and frustrated.

Obi-Wan 

Well, Rooh, this whole surveillance business would be a lot easier if I could see anything.

He pats the eopie’s side gently.

Obi-Wan

(Sighs) I’ll just remember to get here earlier next time, then. 

He closes his eyes briefly and we see the wind blowing his hair gently, the breeze picking up around him. Soft drums in the background.

Obi-Wan

(Opening his eyes) I sense nothing of danger here. Some sand people to the north, maybe. But they’re not likely to come anywhere around here, at least not after last time. 

He leads the eopie away from the homestead and pulls his cloak tighter around himself.

Comp. as night begins to fall upon the desert, Obi-Wan riding silently across the dunes. 

Creature noises echo across the empty desert, and we see how truly alone Obi-Wan is out here.

Focus on Obi-Wan’s lightsaber as it clinks against his hip, silver and heavy.

Obi-Wan stops Rooh abruptly, pulling back on the reins, suddenly alert.

Obi-Wan (Whispered)

Easy girl, shh. 

He squints at the distance, hand shifted to his belt where his lightsaber rests. A small shadow approaches over the dune and out of the darkness, silently.

Obi-Wan remains quiet and calculated, trying to gauge if whatever it is is a threat.

 An ominous beat strikes up in the background.

We see a young Luke Skywalker, no older than six, approaching.

Zoom as Obi-Wan’s eyes widen in surprise.

Obi-Wan (Startled)

Luke!

The young boy gazes up at the older man, shuffling nervously with wide blue eyes.

He’s wearing simple, layered clothing and goggles that sit awkwardly upon his blond, ruffled hair. He has on a small orange and blue poncho, knitted and a bit large.

Luke

Do I know you?

Obi-Wan

Well no, not really. But I do know your parents. What in the blazes are you doing all the way out here?

Luke (suspicious)

Why do you wanna know? 

Obi-Wan

Because you’re a young boy out in the desert alone, at night!

Luke

Why are you out here alone at night?

Obi-Wan’s gaze hardens sternly at the boy. He’s not playing games.

Luke (crossing his arms, indignant)

Well, they’re not my parents, they’re my aunt and uncle, and I’m not alone.

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow and tries to squint into the distance.

Obi-Wan

Who are you with, then?

Luke

Well… I was with my droid, but then I got lost and- well, I guess now I am alone.

His shoulders slump and his hands fall to his side as he yawns.

Obi-Wan looks at him with worried sympathy, his own face tired.

Obi-Wan (hastily)

Well, we best get back to your home then, your aunt and uncle must be worried sick.

He leans down to help Luke up, but Luke pulls away, pleading.

Luke

Wait, we have to go back for E6-97!

Obi-Wan (confused)

E6-9…

He realizes what Luke means, and we can tell he’s reminded of Anakin here. His gaze turns sad and dark. Of course, his expression seems to say, always with the droids.

Obi-Wan

No, no, there isn’t any time. It’s much more important that you get home now, and then perhaps you can look for your droid in the morning.

Luke takes another step back, stubborn.

Luke

I can’t! E6 is my best friend! I don’t wanna leave him out here to be destroyed in the sand, or scavenged by the Jawas!

Luke bites his lip worriedly. Obi-Wan can see that there’s no changing the boy’s mind, but he tries again with more force.

Obi-Wan

Luke, no droid is as important as a person. And right now, we need to get you back home. Like you said, it’s dangerous out here and-

He’s cut off by Luke, tears welling in his eyes.

Luke

How could you say that? E6 is just as much a person as anyone else! I won him myself, at Bestine in a dice match! I’ve had him forever now, and I can’t afford to lose him. He helps me and Uncle Owen run the farm, he tells us the weather and everything! Please, please, please, you’ve got to help me. If I lose him, I don’t think my uncle’ll buy me a new one.

Obi-Wan sighs, looking away.

Obi-Wan (softly to himself, cracking a smile)

I’ll bet that droid has a lot to report on the weather here.

Luke (crossing his arms again)

He does. He tells us when a sandstorm is coming. And if you don’t help me, then I’ll run away. 

Obi-Wan frowns and turns back to Luke, finally nodding.

Obi-Wan

Alright, since the last thing I want is to be on a wild goose chase while you run yourself into Sarlacc pits. But only on one condition.

Luke (hopeful)

What?

Obi-Wan

You can never, under any circumstances, come out here again without supervision, understand?

Luke nods vigorously, excited.

Luke

Okay!

Obi-Wan

Very well.

He hoists Luke up onto Rooh, who grunts under the added weight. He grabs hold of the reins and makes sure Luke is secure in front of him.

Obi-Wan

Now, which way did you go?

EXT. DESERT- NIGHT

Focus on Obi-Wan and Luke, riding together in silence as Obi-Wan picks up his Electrobinoculars every now and again, searching for Luke’s droid.

Obi-Wan (putting down his binoculars)

Why were you out here in the first place, young one?

Luke (sighing)

I got mad at my Uncle, so I said I was going to run away. He said fine, and that I should take my useless droid with me. That I should leave just like my father before he died.

Focus on Obi-Wan’s pained expression here.

Luke (cont’d)

 So I started to, but then my Aunt Beru told me that my Uncle was just being ridiculous, and that he would never want me to leave. So I decided not to go, after all. But then when everyone was about to go to sleep, I decided I would get out and explore a little. And maybe if I found some place better, I would stay there.

A brief pause as Obi-Wan furrows his brow, concerned.

Obi-Wan

Does your uncle not treat you well?

Another brief pause.

Luke (thoughtfully)

No, he does. Treat me well, I mean. My Aunt says that he really just wants to protect me. But he just doesn’t understand that I want some excitement every once in a while, ya know?

Obi-Wan gazes thoughtfully up at the stars, pan out for full sky view. Thousands of twinkling lights are scattered about in the dark, vast emptiness.

He knows, perhaps better than anyone what that feels like. But he also knows the consequences better than anyone, too.

Obi-Wan

Maybe your uncle has a point.

Luke (surprised)

What? 

Obi-Wan

Someone I cared about once craved the same thing you do. Change, excitement.

He says the words as dryly as he can, trying to convince Luke that he believes what he’s talking about, that he is immune to the pull of adventure. His tone is sad, remorseful as he pulls his gaze back down and nudges Rooh forwards again. 

Obi-Wan (Cont’d)

So he kept craving more and more. He danced with danger.

A fire ignites in Obi-Wan’s sad eyes, memories you could almost touch.

Obi-Wan (saddening)

But then, it was easy for him to believe in the next adventure, and he forgot all about the real reason he was there in the first place. 

Luke looks back at Obi-Wan, curious.

Luke

Why?

Obi-Wan

Because he was different than most people. He needed to be somewhere with people who understood him. But the more time he spent venturing further, the more people he found. And some convinced him that he wasn’t where he needed to be, even though he was. He left his place.

Luke

What happened to him then?

Obi-Wan (softly)

I had to leave him, too.

Luke (disappointed)

Oh, that’s sad.

 Obi-Wan nods and lifts his Electrobinoculars up again, hiding his expression.

Obi-Wan

A little adventure goes along way, Luke. But if your spirit leads you somewhere, follow it. Just remember who you are and try not to stray off your path.

Luke nods, serious.

Obi-Wan looks back and smiles weakly.

Obi-Wan

I think I’ve found your droid.

Luke (perking up)

Really? Wizard! Lemme see!

Obi-Wan hands Luke the Electrobinoculars and guides his direction, until we transition into Luke’s POV.

Back in the green-tinted view we see a SMALL, SEMI-CIRCLE DROID whirring across the top of a nearby ridge.

Focus back on Luke, grinning from ear to ear.

Obi-Wan

Is that it?

Luke nods and turns around to face Obi-Wan and hand him back the binoculars.

Luke

What are we waiting for?

Obi-Wan can’t help but return the boy’s smile.

Obi-Wan

Nothing, I suppose.

Beat picks up

Pan out back view of eopie and riders, until we see the large expanse that lays before them.

EXT. DESERT- NIGHT

Obi-Wan and Luke approach the ledge that we previously viewed, the wind speeding up and the outcropping jagged and rocky, rough terrain. Luke has donned his goggles an Obi-Wan has lifted a hand up, shielding his eyes.

Obi-Wan

We’re almost there. Can you see anything?

Luke

Not yet. (Pausing) I wanna go home.

Obi-Wan’s facial expression is the definition of an inaudible groan.

Obi-Wan

We shouldn’t turn back now.

Luke

I know, I just wish I hadn’t left.

Luke wraps his arms around himself, shivering in the cold.

Obi-Wan takes off his cloak and wraps it around the young child, bringing Rooh to a halt. 

Obi-Wan

I’m going to check the motion scanner on here, give me a moment while-

He’s interrupted by the distinct sound of a TUSKEN RAIDER CALL, extremely close. His face falls.

Luke whimpers.

Obi-Wan (seriously)

Stay here.

Luke tries to protest, but stops as Obi-Wan begins walking away.

Invisible cut through sand:

Obi-Wan comes up on a patrol of three TUSKEN RAIDERS with their bantha mounts, prodding at E6-97, which moves uselessly in circles around them. They turn to see them, raising their weapons angrily and calling out.

Obi-Wan (calmly)

Hello there, friends.

The Tuskens don’t pick up on his friendly demeanor, instead focusing on his lightsaber. They howl in fear and rage and hold their GADERFFII in defensive positions. Obi-Wan winces.

Obi-Wan

Listen, that droid there-

He points to E6, which stops abruptly.

E6-97

Yes?

Obi-Wan

It’s mine. And I require it. It’s of great importance to me. I would be happy if you could let me take it and leave, and I’ll promise not to come near your territory again.

E6-97

I’m flattered, but I’m afraid I belong to Luke Skywalker, who won me fair and square at a dice match on the-

Obi-Wan

 Do hush.

E6-97 shuts up, and we wait for the Tuskens’ response. 

One of the Tuskens lashes out at Obi-Wan, leaping with their Gaderffii and almost striking Obi-Wan, who dodges swiftly but does not ignite his lightsaber. Instead, he grabs hold of the Tusken’s Gaderffii and uses it to knock them off of their feet. 

SLO-MO.

His gaze is intense as the wind slows around the scene, stars decorating the background and the distant sounds of animal life echo around the cavern. We hear the breaths of the Tuskens and Obi-Wan, almost unified in a way. A haunting beat plays as we get a taste of the force, the energies from both sides intense. 

Obi-Wan (still calm, pleading) NORMAL SPEED

I do not wish to hurt you!

Back to SLO-MO

TOGETHER. The Tuskens move as one towards Obi-Wan, bringing their Gaderffii above their heads and howling.

Obi-Wan closes his eyes and reaches out towards the two with one hand, stopping them mid-air. The hang there as he repeats himself again, the sound echoing across the expanse of the desert and reverberating around. The banthas groan in fear and buck.

The music swells.

Obi-Wan

I do not wish to hurt you! Lay down your weapons and seek peace. I’m only here for the droid.

He sets them down gently, and no sound is heard. 

NORMAL SPEED.

The Tuskens are shocked, shaken to the core.

It’s quiet as they put down their Gaderffii and mount their still alarmed banthas, riding away into the distance. 

Obi-Wan breathes a sigh of relief.

E6-97

Thank you, sir. Whoever they were, they were quite rude. However I’m afraid I cannot go with you. 

Obi-Wan looks at the droid flatly and says nothing as he hoists it up into his arms and carries it away.

E6-97

Or I can, but I would prefer not to. I must warn you I’m a rather old model so be careful please. You might not get as much use out of me as you think.

Obi-Wan

I’ve no use for a droid. I’m bringing you back to your owner.

E6-97

Oh really? Thank you! Of course, no one of mature age really needs a droid if it’s not in their line of work. Often times companion droids like myself aren’t needed because you have people you can hang out with. I was programmed to play with children, mostly. But I can do some organizational things and give relevant reports, so-

E6 pauses. Obi-Wan looks forward in focus, fighting against the wind.

E6-97

Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize I’d lost your interest.

Obi-Wan (chuckling)

Well, that would be the first time a droid has ever said that to me.

E6-97

I am programmed to pick up human emotions through my receptors and sensors. I could also tell that you’re upset, but I didn’t want to say anything.

Obi-Wan

I’m not upset.

E6-97

Okay.

A beat.

Okay so this is a first draft cuz I had no time to edit but I hope you guys enjoy!

[pops-and-kids]

5 per commander THIS BE A LONG POST BOI LET’S GO

Pops:

Only somewhat decent with math. He didn’t really get an education and instead learned on the go by book. Most of his math related knowledge revolves around ship related things as he was already on a pirate crew at a young age.

NEVER. FORGETS. A NAME. How he does this no one knows, but he ALWAYS can put a name to a face, even after only meeting them once.

He can sing pretty well, and because of his larger than life lung capacity he can sing for quite a while without having to take a breath.

Whitebeard isn’t against female pirates, but the courtesies from when he was younger, like “open a door for a lady” and “offer to take a ladies coat for her” are so ingrained in his mind that he prefers they stay out of the line of fire and protect them. Of course this doesn’t apply to every woman on the ship as they are capable fighters and he wouldn’t hold them back against their will.

Loves picking up and holding his children. If someone needs attention or is having a rough time he will pick them up and hold them close; Unless they’re too large in which case he’ll just hug them.

Marco:

Has made a bird joke about himself once and regrets it. Thatch will never let him live it down.

Whenever someone yells his name to get his attention there’s at least 5 people who yell out “polo” in response at all times.

Actually somewhat nearsighted and needs glasses but refuses to wear them.

When the crew was smaller he used to turn into his bird form and sleep on Pop’s shoulder. Now he won’t unless they’re in private.

He has a bad leg. Despite his healing abilities his right leg tends to ache after fights.

His neck acts the same in human form as it does in bird form when he’s not paying attention and coffee deprived. It’s kind of both hilarious AND unsettling.

Ace:

There’s a billboard in the dining hall to remind people to catch Ace before he face plants in his food during a narcoleptic episode. Do people listen to it? No, but it’s there.

Was shipwright enemy #1 during the 100 days of trying to kill Pops. It’s still joked about to this day.

Can actually fly with his fire but hasn’t trained with it enough for it to be viable.

He can control fire, but only to a certain extent. If there’s a cart on fire he can try and drag it to him, but a forest fire or a large house is impossible. His own fire can be put out easily by his will, but non-devil fruit related fires has a will of their own.

Had never seen a horse before and Haruta took advantage of that fact, convincing him they didn’t exist. Naturally, when he first saw one he freaked out and legit thought they were some mythical or extinct creature.

Jozu:

Loves hard candies because of the baffled and horrified expressions everyone gives him as he cracks through 3 jawbreakers like it’s nothing a la diamond teeth.

He’s well known for throwing himself over his family to protect them. In cases were the Moby is taking canon fire suddenly and there’s people too close to the railing he wont hesitant to yank them out of the way and turn himself into diamond to protect them.

When scared or startled he will freeze up like a deer in headlights. It would be funny if his fight or flight instinct didn’t kick in seconds later and now there’s a human shaped hole in the wall.

Wears tank tops and jeans on a daily basis. That armour is stuffy and you think he wears it 24/7? Hell no.

Nervous eater.

Thatch:

Has like 40 recipe books and knows which one has what recipe he wants.

His memory isn’t as impressive as Pops, but he KNOWS when he recognizes a face, even when he has no idea what their name is.

Keeps track of what you like and dislike religiously.

How did he get that scar? Who knows! It’s a different story each time

He just wants everyone to be happy and feel loved, which has led to him earning many scars both physically and emotionally.

Vista:

Sings in the shower 100%

GREAT during parties on islands! Not only does he have plenty of tricks to show but he can mix a damn good drink as well.

Would 100% be that one kid in drama club that takes things too far.

Scarily good actor and it’s a good thing he’s naturally honest. If he were to lie in your face you wouldn’t know unless he told you.

If you hear “Do you want to hear a story?” prepare for a roller coaster of emotions.

Blamenco:

WILL GIVE YOU THE BIGGEST HUG IN ALL THE LAND

Soft boi

His weight fluctuates with how much is in his pockets. If he’s near empty he’s much thinner and muscular looking, but carrying a lot and he has his signature lorge friend shape.

Can’t hold a living creature in his pockets for too long without it feeling too weird.

Doesn’t hold items for Haruta and Thatch all too often due to unknowingly hiding weapons of war (aka prank items)

Not a hoarder despite what one may think upon seeing his devil fruit

Rakuyo:

Macey is a demonic chain chomp and you can’t say otherwise.

He’s constantly added more details and layers to his outfits. He’s not into fashion, but he definitely has an eye for it.

Takes the quickest showers out of anyone

Has daggers under his clothes. Never unarmed.

Room is tediously cleaned except when he’s having a fit. You can always tell his mental state by the state of his room.

Namur:

Never hated humans like some fishman, but was very wary of them before meeting Pops.

His division has other fishman in it, but they mainly stay in the water and are rarely seen on the ship.

Any jokes about cannibalism because of the ‘fish’ side of fishman will result in a retort about him maybe being a cannibal of the ‘man’ side. He’s scared newbies half to death with this.

His room has been mistaken as a bathroom as he doesn’t have a bed or bathroom but instead a shallow pool with shells and coral from the sea.

Has fought to the death with other fishman to protect his family and has seen his family fight to the death with other humans for him. He’s not proud of it and hates how things get that far.

Blenheim:

Carries family around on his shoulders often because he can.

When he has a task he hyper focuses on it, even if it means he pulls an all nighter to finish.

Loves obstacle courses and if it weren’t for his immense size would probably complete Wipe Out or American Ninja Warrior in record time.

Is very indecisive about things outside of work. Knows EXACTLY what parts be needs to keep the ship going but has NO idea what the hell he wants for lunch.

May seem intimidating but is very much a teddy bear on the inside

Curiel:

“WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T FILL A SUPER BIG GULP CUP WITH FIVE HOUR ENERGY AND CHUG THE WHOLE THING”

Has a manic episode at least 3 times a week.

Colour blind. His goggles are tinted red because of a formula that allows him to see colour. They’re also a hybrid of eye protection and glasses.

Is covered in scars from both childhood and projects gone wrong, mainly on his back and legs.

Has invented a duck-themed weapon just so he can yell “DUCK” and it actually be a duck. A duck that is a bomb, that is.

Kingdew:

Has an AMAZING singing voice and can play the guitar. When the crew has parties he’s always nominated to play.

Has written songs before but is too shy to share them. Thatch stole one of his song sheets before and ended up in the nurse's room after a thorough asswhooping.

Soft boi x2

Is farsighted and needs glasses to read small print, but he doesn’t need them outside of that.

The rings that seemingly bolt his cape to his shoulders are actually there for medical reason.

Haruta:

Partially blind. Their eye colour isn’t like that for no reason. They aren’t fully blind however, and can still see distinct features, silhouettes, and some very watered down colour.

Because of their partial blindness Haruta actually has some of the strongest haki out of the whitebeard crew as they use it to navigate around. Started haki training under Marco and Izou and it grew very strong as they developed.

Learned their double sword technique from Vista, who is also their closest brother.

A complete lil shit. An absolute gremlin. 100% a memelord.

Has a hoard of assorted doo-dads. They have bags full of stuff that seemingly has no purpose, but they have it. Also has a very extensive bottle cap collection!

Atmos:

The jolly green giant.

Loves partying and drinking and likes to live in the moment.

Need a hug? Go to Atmos, he’ll hug you and let you cry it out while telling you some nice stories.

“MY HELMET IS STUCK” “Maybe you shouldn’t CHARGE LIKE AND ACTUAL BULL then”

Braids his beard when nervous.

Jiru:

Dyslexic. He was trying to fix this before he met Pops as he truly did want to be a doctor, but couldn’t because of his condition. When he met Pops, however, he not only gave him a chance, but assisted him in overcoming it.

Since his division is 85% nurses he knows ALL the ship gossip and rumors. And he WILL use it against you if you refuse treatment.

Goes stir crazy when not on an island for a long time. The boy needs to run free!

Is allergic to cats but he must pet them each time he sees one. Who cares if he’s sneezing for the next hour and can’t see, he got to pet that cute calico!

He’s tried to get his siblings to use shields, but so far only a handful do. A shield isn’t just for protection, it can also be used as a weapon and he wishes more people saw them as less of a cheap cop-out and more of a defensive tactic.

Fossa:

Is the quietest commander, not for shyness or lack of things to say, but because he prefers to plan his words carefully and watch those around him.

Works at a steady pace and encourages others to do so to lessen injury and stress.

Always has a cigar on him and a collection of lighters.

Pops may be their father but Fossa is very much the uncle of the crew and some see him as a second father figure.

The flaming sword was an accident but it’s a perfect intimidation weapon, especially for when he doesn’t actually feel like fighting.

Izou:

The designs he has on some of his guns were made by him and done by Fossa.

Has been accused of wearing a wig before because of how perfectly kept his hair is. The accuser was tied to the mast for 3 hours until the shipwrights could figure out how to undo the knots.

Got gossip? Izou already knows.

Will sell your soul for a cornchip if you piss him off badly enough.

Doesn’t wear kimono’s 24/7 despite what you may think. That’s his go-to outfit, yes, but his wardrobe is expansive, going from from crop tops and shorts to expensive suits and elaborate dresses and kimonos