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sfehvn · 7 months

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intruder part 2

Part 1 | Part 3

Description: A year has since came and went following Astarion's ascension ritual. He is no longer himself, but then... Where is he? A/N: Forewarning, there is a brief portion detailing non-con voyeurism. Hope you all enjoy :) Rating: M (18+ minors DNI) Word count: 1656 Characters: ascended!Astarion x Tav

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

“What do you think you will do once this is over?” Astarion’s head rested in your lap, your fingers running through silky white hair.

“I suppose I’ll just-” You stopped for a moment hesitantly, “Well, I’ll just follow you. I’ll follow you wherever you go. Whatever that entails.”

The large tub of warm water offered your mishandled skin the slightest inkling of comfort. Your bones ached to jump out of your skin, discomfort settling deep and unforgivingly. Unsure if this was the work of cruel touches or the utter disgust you felt for whatever was puppeteering Astarion around. You stare at the ceiling as if the answer to the problem in your mind is etched into it. Astarion was in there, trapped. You try to imagine what he must be thinking. Feeling.

You can’t help but notice the similarities of where you two have ended up. While Astarion was stuck in darkness in the literal sense, you are trapped in a different type of darkness. Shrouded by the darkness of the other Astarion’s thumb. You were a plaything, a pet, a toy.

“Eyes on me.” Astarion grunts out, buried deeply in a twenty-something human’s cunt. The sight turns your stomach viscerally. It’s not him, you try to remind yourself. You watch from the oak chair in the corner of your bed chamber, allowing yourself to dissociate entirely. The woman was beautiful.

Hair of sunshine and eyes of the vast waters, you knew of the woman’s fate. To end up another spawn for Astarion to toy with. Humans in the area who had come to learn of Astarion’s true nature came with the proposition of trades in exchange for immortality. You felt pity for her. If she knew what she was getting into, she would never have come here, indeed. Nobody could want this.

“He would have liked her too.” Astarion taunted as he led the woman to your bed, plans to desecrate the one place in the manor that you were able to find an ounce of comfort in. “Maybe I’ll let the dear old Astarion come out for a bit of fun.” Your heart sinks to your knees. The thought of another using Astarion’s body and soul for their own heinous intentions. You couldn’t bear it.

“Please don’t.” You pleaded with him.

Astarion tuts as he presses you down onto the chair. For whatever reason, he doesn’t follow through with his threat. Was it mercy? No, that can’t be it. Perhaps he simply wanted the enjoyment of watching the pain on your face while he used the body of the man you love to hurt you. Maybe he wanted the fun. You would never be sure.

You’re brought back to the present, the events of last night spinning in your mind. Your punishment for entertaining the incident. That’s what he called it, anyway. You longed to free him, to free yourself along with him. To leave this cursed manor and never return with the real Astarion in tow.

How?

The question that had been on your mind since your meeting with Astarion as you prepared for bed. How does one free a soul from a damnation such as this? Out of all the beasts, villains, and monsters you’ve fought, none had prepared you for a feat of this nature. On the precipice of jumping into the unforgiving sun and turning yourself into ash, that was no longer an option. Your beloved needed help. You weren’t going to abandon him.

The opening of the door jolted you from your thoughts, and you let out a sigh of relief upon seeing your chambermaid. “Lady Ancunin, may I be of assistance?” You nod, allowing the woman to approach the tub. You sit up to give her access to your wet hair. There was silence as she worked the knots from your strands, only sounds of meager discomfort when she tugged too hard, always followed by a heartfelt sorry from her. “What was he like?” There was a pause with her words, almost as if she expected to be scolded. Though, you both knew you wouldn’t dare. “I mean before-” She trails cautiously.

“Wonderful. He is wonderful, Alodia.” Your eyes were glued to the bath water that engulfed your body. Lowering your voice as if someone other than her would hear, “Maybe you will have the pleasure of meeting him someday.”

Alodia nods, “I bet he was a real gentleman to have someone such as yourself.” She couldn’t comprehend why you were with him, you could tell. Someone with such a kind soul forever paired with another who may as well be a devil ruling the Nine Hells.

“Careful.” You whisper, eyeing the door. No conversation went too long without Astarion’s knowledge, not even amidst nothing but the bars of soap that clean you. Alodia understood and continued to work through your hair without another word. It was clear you were just as much a prisoner as her.

Once your hair was tied into two careful braids and an obnoxious velvet gown clung to your body, you sat in the manor’s library. With Astarion out for the night, you made yourself comfortable with every piece of literature between the walls of your confinement. The stack of books grew as the night grew darker and darker. How much time had passed, you were unsure. You slammed down the last book and glanced around. A frantic sob erupted from your chest, heaving. You laid your head on the table before you and wallowed into the oak of the desk.

You were defeated. Hopeless. This godsdamn library had every composition, novel, and prose that you could think of, and not one aided you. Trance-like, you stood from the desk and made your way to the entry of the manor. A voice briefly stops you, “Lady Ancunin, I don’t believe Master Ancunin has granted you-”

“Tell Master Ancunin to burn in the Nine Hells.” You spit back, making your exit.

It had been too long. Once you’re out of the manor’s view, you breathe in the fresh air about you. As you get further into the heart of the city, chatter cultivates. Even in the middle of the night, it was lively, bringing you a hope you had not felt for a long time. Even reflecting on what punishment may await you once Astarion learns of your absence, you deemed this worth it. Of course. You would have preferred the warmth of the sun. Given your ailment, the beauty of the moon did just fine.

Strolling to Elfsong Tavern, you hummed an incandescent tune to yourself. My, this must have been the most airy you’ve felt in just shy of a year. The little bit of gold you managed to snag from Astarion’s stash may have just been enough to get you a drink and, if lucky, a room. You knew it was only a matter of time before he came looking for you. Maybe you’ll be banished to the dungeon. You didn’t allow yourself the time to think too hard. You approach the barkeep, looking at the selection behind him. “Wine? Have you got red wine?” You were a tad rusty in the socialization department.

The man behind the counter chuckles, “We do indeed.” He retrieves a bottle from behind the counter, preparing a glass. “What troubles you?” He inquires as you watch the red liquid spout into spotless glass.

“Whatever could you mean?” Your lips are pursed, accepting the drink as he offers it. You dig into your coin purse, “How much do I owe?”

“On the house.” He smiles. Alas, it would be warmer without the pity that lies so evident beneath the surface. You’d forgotten how ill you must have looked. Astarion’s words played over in your head.

“Gods, what has he done to you?”

“Alan Alyth.” The man offers. An introduction? It had been well over a year since you had the pleasure of introducing yourself.

“Tav Carmine.” You return before making your way to an empty table in the corner of the lightly occupied room. You bring the glass to your lips, and the dry liquid soothes your nerves for the time being. I will enjoy this, you thought to yourself.

“Gods, you’re beautiful.” Astarion declares, his fingertips gliding across the delicate skin of your hipbone, up to your chest, cupping your exposed breast in his hand. His thumb moves in careful circles around your nipple. He sits upon his knees, watching the way your body reacts to even the smallest of his touch. His other hand moves comfortably onto your cheek, almost as if he’s relishing in the warmth that radiates from your body.

“You’ve only told me fifty times today. Are you feeling alright?” You teased, welcoming his cool touch across your eager body. His head dips, meeting your lips lovingly. One of your hands knots gently into his hair, and you shift so a leg rests on either side of his toned body.

“I suppose I’ll have to work on it tomorrow. Tonight, I’ll be making love to said beautiful woman.” His words are a prayer against your lips, and your heart flutters against your ribcage.

“I’ve been expecting you.”

The unknown voice causes your head to snap up in attention. “I’m sorry, have we met?” You try to recall the face, maybe someone you became acquainted with during one of many adventures, but you just cannot place them. You tip the glass to your lips, eyes never leaving the stranger in front of you.

“I don’t believe we have.” They helped themselves to the chair across from you. “I believe I can help you. I know what ails you.” The man is older, with brown hair peppered in grey roots. His eyes radiate a sort of enthusiasm.

“You couldn’t possibly know what ails me.” You chortle, though the sarcasm is evident in your laugh.

“Everything has led you straight to me. Try me.”

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

#ascended!astarion x tav #ascended!astarion x reader #astarion x tav #astarion x reader #astarion #x reader #bg3 #reader insert #ascended astarion

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forest-hashira · 11 days

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Lost & Found

hiiiii everyone! this is my third entry for @threadbaresweater's "summertime (and the livin' is easy)" collab event! the prompt i chose for this one was shoko + selkies. everyone say thank you to cal ( @dr-runs-with-scissors ) for the idea & for looking it over before i posted it. i hope you enjoy!

also please note this fic takes place in scotland, but shoko still very much looks japanese. i would never whitewash her.

read on ao3 | wc: ~1.9k | cw: gender neutral reader, brief mentions/consumption of alcohol, shoko is a selkie but reader doesn't know that

You don’t remember how old you were the first time your mother told you about the spirits and beings that filled the world, just out of sight from humanity, but you felt as if you’d known about them from the moment you’d taken your first breath. Regardless, you’d always kept a watchful eye out, hoping to catch a glimpse of something – anything – from the stories you grew up hearing.

As the years went on and you grew older, everyone around you seemed to stop believing that any of those stories were more than fairytales and legends, based in fantasy rather than reality, but not you; you were stubborn, and you held steady in the belief that at least some of those stories had to hold some grain of truth. You were vocal about it, too, until you’d nearly come to blows with another student over whether any of those “baby stories” were real when you were about twelve. After that you learned to keep your thoughts to yourself, lest they land you in trouble again.

Even in your silence, you remained hopeful; hopeful the stories really were true, and hopeful one day you’d have proof, even if it was only proof to you. You never stopped searching for a glimpse or a sign from any of the beings from your stories, no matter how much time passed. Over the years, you stopped seeking them out as much, and you ceased your searching entirely when it came time for you to start your university education. Even still, you looked for things out of the corner of your eye anytime you were outside the city.

Your years at university came and went, still without spotting anything: no sightings of kelpies splashing in the water; no Fair Folk, though you were sure you’d spotted plenty of fairy rings over the years; no distant wailing or shrieking of banshees – though that was probably a good thing; not even a glimpse of the Loch Ness monster when you and your friends had gone up for a weekend trip. What you were most disappointed in not having seen any sign of yet were the selkies; the tales of the seal folk had always been your favorites growing up, and you wanted to see one of them in the flesh more than anything. The stories never left your mind or your heart, though, and you were always more aware of things that seemed a little different than anyone else you knew.

Which is probably why she stood out to you as much as she did that night at the pub.

She was beautiful – stunning, really. Brown hair flowing over shoulders, the skin beneath her eyes washed in purple, as if she hadn’t slept well a single day in the last year, the way she moved across the building to the bar to order a drink, slipping and gliding through people with an ease and grace you were a bit envious of.

“Just go talk to her.”

The sound of your friend’s voice almost startled you, and you turned to face her a bit sheepishly. “Talk to who?” you asked, trying to play dumb and hoping she’d go along with it.

She rolled her eyes, then indicated the woman you’d been staring at with a tilt of her head. “Her, obviously. You’ve been staring, it’ll be better for you if you go up and talk to her before she catches you staring and thinks you’re a weirdo.” Her words were light, and she was clearly teasing you, but you knew she was genuinely trying to encourage you; in all the years she’d known you, you’d never had a relationship that lasted more than a few weeks, and all of them left you feeling dejected and convinced love wasn’t real.

“I dunno. I mean, she’s gorgeous, obviously, but I don’t know if—” The rest of the sentence died in your throat when you looked across the pub at the woman again and found her already staring at him, her expression unreadable from this distance.

“Busted,” your friend teased, then bumped your foot lightly with her own. “Go on, you don’t have an excuse now. She knows you were looking at her.”

With a small groan, you downed the last sip of your drink, then stood from the booth and carefully picked your way across the pub to join the woman who had caught your attention.

Once you were closer, you noticed a few more things about her: she had a small beauty mark on her cheek, under her right eye; despite the bags under her eyes, her gaze was warm as she looked you over; and her expression, unreadable from across the pub, you could now tell was a little guarded, but curious. She was even more stunning up close, with striking features and a mysterious air about her.

“Well?” she asked, once you’d gotten close enough to hear her over the din of the other patrons. “I hope you have a good reason for staring at me from all the way over there.”

You felt your face begin to burn, worried that you’d let yourself get drawn into a confrontation, rather than a conversation. “O-oh, I, uh, I just… I haven’t seen you here before, and you’re really pretty and—”

Her soft chuckles cut you off mid-ramble, and you only felt more embarrassed. Before you could turn and walk away and attempt to salvage your dignity, though, she reached out and placed a hand on your arm.

“I’m sorry,” she said, still chuckling softly as she smiled at you. “I’m not making fun of you, I promise. People just usually aren’t so nervous to talk to me. It’s cute.”

She seemed genuine enough, but a bit of your embarrassment still lingered. “If I don’t run away with my tail between my legs, will you tell me your name?”

There was a glint in her eye when she answered you. “I’m Shoko.”

Her accent was a little more pronounced when she said her name, and it made you smile; made you want to listen to her talk forever, too. Remembering your manners, you introduced yourself.

“Would it be odd if I offered to buy you a drink now?”

Shoko tilted her head a bit, looking you up and down for a moment before she spoke. “Only if you’ll get one for yourself, too.”

And so you did.

Conversation came much easier than you expected, the two of you talking about a little bit of everything. There were some topics she danced around when you asked about them, but you didn’t push any of them; she was probably just looking out for her own safety, and you couldn’t fault her for that.

You learned that you were half right when you’d assumed she wasn’t from the area, but the only detail she was willing to offer was that she lived “on the coast,” which felt very fancy to you, for some reason. She told you she didn’t get out much, that she tended to stay closer to home, which intrigued you.

“Anything special about tonight?” you asked, only half joking.

She shrugged, smiling at you over the rim of her glass as she sipped her drink. “Something in the water,” she said. “The weather’s warm, and I figured tonight was as good a night as any to shake up my routine a bit.”

“Fair enough,” you chuckled, taking a sip from your own drink. Before you could say anything else, though, Shoko glanced down at her watch and, despite her already fair complexion, visibly paled.

“Oh my god, I’ve got to go,” she said, a bit frantically, though you couldn’t tell if she was talking to you or just to herself. “I’ve got to go, I can’t be late.”

Before you could question her cryptic words, even just to ask if she was already, Shoko was rushing for the door, her movements still graceful and fluid in a way that almost didn’t feel human. You watched with a frown, then glanced at the seat she had just been occupying; there was a coat draped across the back of it – a rather nice coat, actually, a deep brown that looked like some sort of high quality leather – and you realized it must be hers, despite the warm weather outside.

After checking with the people around where you’d been sitting with Shoko to make sure the coat didn’t belong to any of them, you dropped a couple bills on the bar to cover your tab and grabbed the coat; she’d only just left, maybe you could still catch her.

Your exit wasn’t nearly as slick as Shoko’s had been, and you apologized as you pushed through a few patrons on your way to the door. Once you were outside, you looked around, just barely catching a glimpse of Shoko as she rounded the corner of the building.

“Shoko!” you called, hurrying after her; you weren’t sure why, exactly, returning the coat to her felt so urgent, but it did. “Shoko, wait, you forgot your coat!”

The brunette stopped dead in her tracks when she heard your words, and she whirled around to look at you, wide-eyed. “You found my coat?”

“Yeah, you left it on your seat,” you confirmed, stopping once you reached her. “It looks expensive, and I can tell you wear it a lot from how broken in the material is. Didn’t want to risk someone else snatching it.”

You extended the coat to her, but all she did was stare at it for a moment. Eventually, she blinked, as if coming out of a trance, and she gingerly accepted the coat from you.

“Thank you,” she said, meeting your gaze again. “You have no idea how important this is to me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d gotten home without it.”

“Not a problem,” you assured her. “I don’t want to keep you, though, I know you were in a rush to leave. Stay safe, yeah? I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, offering you a slight smile as she turned away. “See you around.”

A few days later, you decided to take a walk to the beach. It had only gotten warmer since you’d met Shoko at the pub, and though you hadn’t seen her around again yet, you were still hopeful you would.

It didn’t take too terribly long to reach the beach once you left home, though you kept walking until you found a more secluded spot to sit and enjoy the view for a bit; you weren’t dressed to get in the water, but you knew a bit of sunshine and fresh, if salty, air would do you good.

You stopped when you found a spot that seemed comfortable enough and was mostly shaded, and settled down with a soft sigh. Your gaze wandered over the waves as you sat there, but what you saw when your eyes reached the shore again surprised you a bit.

Pushing up your sunglasses, you squinted a bit as you looked ahead, wondering if you were seeing correctly. There was a small pod of seals about ten meters from you, and while most of them were a familiar grey color, one stood out from the rest; it was hidden in the middle of the group, but when it lifted its head you knew your eyes were not deceiving you.

In the middle of the pod was a seal that was a distinct dark brown color. It seemed to stare right at you for a moment, and though at your current distance you couldn’t be sure, you could have sworn it winked at you before making its way back into the water.

the end of this is intentionally ambiguous in case i ever want to come back to it! i think it's a fun idea and has a lot of potential for more later, but. for now i'm happy with it like this!

taglist: @mitsuristoleme @sugurei @peachdues @ghost-1-y @witchbybirth

@marinnnnnnnnn @dr-runs-with-scissors @enchantedforest-network @benkeibear @threadbaresweater

dividers by @/benkeibear & @/cafekitsune

#fallon's fics #ieiri shoko #shoko x reader #shoko ieiri #shoko #jjk shoko #shoko jjk #jjk ieiri #ieiri shoko x reader #jjk fanfic #jjk fanfiction #jjk au #jjk x reader

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anglingforlevels · 9 months

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Through the Mountains (Paranormal Investigator Reader x Yan!Creatures)

A small concept blurb about a paranormal investigator that attracts the supernatural. Reader is honestly having such a good time doing it that they’ve thrown the horror genre out of the story.

CW: Death, Light Body Horror, Not Proof-Read, Not really a story just a concept, Yandere (more suggested than shown in this), monsterfuckery, Reader's morality is dubious at best.

Minors DNI

Humans have always been both fearful and drawn by the unknown, looking to the vastness of space or the depths of the oceans. But we know very little about the earth we stand on – hidden in creaks and shadows, or sometimes even plainly in sight, lies the unknown, beckoning us forth.

And you have never been one to ignore a call.

Already from an early age, you had noticed things, oddities that set themselves apart from what others believed to be possible or real. You didn’t particularly believe in magic, anything could be magic as long as it was unknown, but you didn’t care much to unveil the science of these oddities either, you were simply enthralled by what you didn’t know.

And the unknown seemed enthralled by you as well.

From the curious pebble-figures there’d wander through the gardens to move rocks – and who had left many small presents for you to slithering and clicking creatures there’d cling to your shadow, melting it to the ground so that you were forced to stay.

All manners of creatures, from harmless to terrifying to downright confusing, flocked to you, which was perfect for someone with your enthusiasm. It was obvious you’d make use of this to study them in full, traveling around with your notebooks and gear, hoping to study a new oddity every day.

Some days were more difficult than others, some creatures more persistent than others. You were much flimsier than they were, happy to fly from one thing to the other, it was the way you preferred. One oddity was far from enough, you needed to see everything the world had to offer. They were much more content with just you, and rarely willing to let you go on your merry way.

Alas, as someone setting out to be an expert in this field, you welcomed the challenge. It only meant that you had to be thorough in learning about the creatures, as to foil their attempts at keeping you, so it wasn’t much more than further encouragement to you.

Besides, it was a fair trade-off for getting the chance to meet them to begin with.

You were tracking through the mountain forests presently, returning from the peak of the mountain, which you had visited to get some good readings and pictures of the place to better understand the habitat of the oddities who made this place their home. Though the equipment was heavier than you cared for, thus you had hired a helping hand from the local town at the foot of the mountain.

Tally, a fit twenty-something that had wanted the extra cash and had the needed youthful hubris to disregard the warnings of their elders, who had grown up with the tales of dangerous monsters and disappearing trekkers in the mountains. They had shrugged it off as old wives tales, and you were grateful for that, because every other young adult you had asked, had assumed it was wild animals.

They wouldn’t go far in life with that attitude, but you appreciated it greatly.

“How are you so familiar with the mountains?” Tally asked, as you decisively led the two of you through the terrain. It was a fair question, there was no man-made paths here, after all, people did tend to go missing in the mountains.

“Oh, I’ve been here before, but I usually never bothered with the village beyond restocking. But I needed extra muscle this time around.” You explained while fiddling with some of the pictures from the instant camera you also had brought along.

“See,” Tally said with a satisfied smile, “I knew all those stories were bu-“

You shushed them. “No swearing, remember?”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Force of habit.” Tally apologized. When you had hired them, one of your set rules was no swearing in the mountains. “So, what exactly have you been studying since you visited here? Is there some kind of animal native to this mountain or something?”

“I don’t know about native, but most of them have probably been here longer than your village at least. At least, that’s what suggested by the stories your town tell.” You weren’t really paying much attention till you realized Tally had stopped up.

They groaned. “Stories? Don’t tell me you’re here to look for monsters.”

“Of course not.” You waved your hand dismissively, earning a sigh of relief from Tally. “I’ve already found them, well, most of them I’m guessing. I just wanted to know a bit more about their living habitat, I may not look it, but I’m a professional.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’ve been told that jokes aren’t my strong suit, so no.” You simply said, growing a little impatient at the fact Tally still wasn’t walking.

“Right… If these things were real, don’t you think you’d be dead by now.” It was a fair point, albeit Tally’s dry delivery hurt a little.

“Most of the things in this mountain only act if provoked, besides, they like me. Death is usually the only thing I don’t have to worry about, they usually try to take me rather than my life. But I’m very good at what I do, I don’t mess up, so I always manage.” At this, Tally lifted an eyebrow, looking perplexed and completely unconvinced.

” So, if you slip up, even once, you might be taken by any given one of these so-called "monsters"?"

“The quotation marks hurt a bit but yes. But what other choice do I have but to continue? Either risk being whisked away eternally to the obsessive whims of creatures who work on moral and biological systems beyond humanity’s ken or not go looking for weird creatures?”

“…See, that sounds like a very easy dilemma.”

“Exactly, I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

“This is so fucking dumb.” They sighed.

“Ah,” you sighed with a troubled smile, “Swearing is off limit in this forest, remember?”

“Huh? Uh, sorry it was a- grh!” They let out a pained grunt, their eyes traveling down to their legs, where something beneath their skins were rapidly crawling up their legs. They fell to the ground, howling in pain.

“Yeah, the thing in this forest really took that youth pamphlet about not doing drugs or swearing to heart, it considers swearing a sign of hostility.” You explained though they did not seem very interested in what you had to say.

“Do something!”

You scratched your neck awkwardly. You did feel bad, it looked very painful to watch small bulges and bony finger push against their skin, traveling upward their bodies. But… “It’s contagious at this point, I don’t want that thing in my body. Trust me, even when it’s not trying to kill, it’s a hassle.”

If they had a response to that, they never got a chance to say it, as their eyeballs were pushed out of their head and bony, tree-like fingers poked through their cheeks and mouth. They collapsed on the ground, the gear they had been carrying clattering to the ground.

“Guess this means I’m carrying all of this back myself.”

#yandere #yandere monster #tw body horror #bad writing #tw monsterfucking #tw death #not proofread #concept #yandere x reader

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contentloadingandstuff · 1 year

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Breaking up with them - Kujou Sara

CW: Minor violence, Male!Reader.

Kujou Sara had a tough exterior, but beneath all of her formality and responsibility she was just like any human. You've come to learn that through the few years of your relationship. You took your time with her, giving her lots of space and time to get comfortable, at her own pace. She opened herself up more and more, until a golden ring found her finger. Sara welcomed it with great happiness. It was all perfect, and everyone wished you well.

Until the decrees were established.

With the introduction of the Sakoku Decree nothing changed. She was still yours, and you were still hers. The problems started when the Shogun announced the Vision Hunt Decree. All Visions, the proclaimed "obstacles of eternity" were now illegal to have - including your Electro one.

You got it in the early years of your relationship. Sara was out on a walk with you, and a group of Hilichurls attacked you, a Lawachurl among them. She fought valiantly, protecting you, a mere sword in hand, from the monsters. But it soon proved to be far too much, and escape was not an option - the retreat was blocked by vines summoned by a Samachurl. Both of you were about to die, but then the Shogun granted you one of her Visions, letting your shield Sara from harm.

The Vision, the sign of divine recognition granted by Inazuma's Archon herself, was the essence of your love for her. It contained all of your hopes and dreams, all of the beautiful memories you shared, all the laughs and tears… Everything. Losing it would mean losing your goals, your memories, and along with them - the bond between you and her, as well as the future you could share.

You couldn't let it go. For her own good. For Celestia's sake, The Shogun herself granted you the Vision! Why would she now want to take it away?

The Vision was your very soul, your love for Sara. There was no way you would let it be taken, no matter if it would cost you your life. Living without love, without her, would be pointless anyway.

You've vigilantly kept your ear to the ground, looking out for any early warning sounds. Before any of them hit you, you established a connection with the Kamisato Clan that promised to keep you hidden and smuggle you out of Narukami should things go south. Soon enough, you started hearing about Visions of family members of officials being confiscated. You alerted Ayato, and packed your things in secret.

Things got uneasy between the two of you. Shared meals were ominously quiet, until one day she just told you that your name was on the list. You kept your true intentions hidden, pretending to be okay with giving it away. She fell for that.

—

The day finally came. Sara arrived at your shared home in the middle of the day - a thing she would not have done without a clear, important reason. She always believed that time of work should be entirely devoted to it, free of any distractions. Those "distractions", of course, didn't involve your daily lunch break.

You heard her come through the front door, and quickly went over your equipment again. Feeling that everything was in place and ready to go, you drew a shaky breath. The execution of your plan would require nerves of steel and no hesitation on your side.

Sara stepped into your bedroom. You didn't bother to turn around to meet her eyes. You knew what her next words would be.

"Let's… get this over with, Y/N. Please." She sounded exhausted, defeated. Yet just the fact that she was standing here proved that her loyalty lie not with you, but with the Shogun.

She valued an abusive, neglectful god over the love of her life. At your inquiry, Miko revealed all. She revealed that Ei, the real Archon of Inazuma, probably didn't know that your girlfriend even existed. Sara was blissfully unaware of that fact. She didn't even dare to question the sudden change of heart her superior had. She never reflected in how evil the Decree was. She just executed orders, preferring not to doubt her ruler's judgment.

You sighed, clenching your fists to keep your voice steady. Emotions raged within your body. Stress. Sadness. Anger.

You turn to her, gaze finding hers. Without a word, you unattach the gemstone from your hip, and push it into her chest. Despite all your preparations, despite all the times you went over this scenario in your mind, tears still found their way into your eyes.

Sara was visibly hesitant to take the Vision. Perhaps the consequences of her actions and beliefs momentarily made their way into her mind. The mind of a blind executioner. The mind of a tool, a card played by her idol.

Your heart was beating fast as you walked past her. She just stood there, tears flowing down her cheeks. Her mind was still struggling to process the tragic choice she faced, and the decision she made. Your heart ached at the sight of her so distraught, but you knew it wasn't a time for weakness.

You were doing this for her, even if right now she was your opponent. Maybe, you hoped, maybe someday she will understand the error of her ways.

You silently turned around, and raised your right arm. She was too deep in thought and emotion to notice the shadow on the floor rising.

With a quick and powerful movement, you hit the side of her throat with your forearm. She yelped and staggered, but another hit caused her to fall face first into the bed, and slide harmlessly to the floor. You checked to see if she had a pulse, and found it. The Shuumatsuban taught you well, it seems.

You had to move quickly, she wouldn't be unconscious for long.

With practiced ease, you pull out the small spool of rope from your pockets and move to tie her hands in front of her chest, followed by the legs and ankles. You stuffed her mouth with a clean sock and secured it in place with a cloth over her mouth. You picked up your own Vision, moving to take hers as well. Not out of malice, however. You needed an effective cover for your escape. Picking up the bag that you prepared beforehand from the closet, you spoke to the unconscious Sara.

"I'm sorry. I hope you will understand."

You march out of your house with a racing heart. The most painful part of the plan was completed flawlessly, but you needed to fool the guards she undoubtedly brought along as well. Behind the front door you saw them - two armored samurai with grim expressions and weapons on hand.

As you closed the door, their attention immediately turned to you. You moved towards them quickly, making your best effort to appear confident. You grabbed the hand of one of the surprised men, and placed Sara's Vision in his palm. The soldier inspected it for a second, before he calmed down. A sigh left his lips and he looked up at you.

"Thank you for your cooperation, sir." He said, his voice nearly a whisper.

"The general is still inside. She needs a moment." You said with a steady, authoritative voice. Then, you groaned. "You have what you came here for. What else do you want? Maybe you'll rob me of my material belongings as well?"

The men were slightly taken aback, but their experience told them this was nothing out of the ordinary. Before they left, one of them inquired about the rucksack you carried.

"I need time away from all of this mess. I am going to stay at my parent's old house in Ritou. If she tries to seek me out, tell her it's futile."

They nodded solemnly and left. When their forms disappeared amongst the street goers, you breathed a sigh of relief.

You made it.

Arriving in front of Komore Teahouse, you walked around to the back. Seven knocks on the back door caused a woman dressed in a red kimono to emerge. She looked at you, a hint of compassion glimmering in her irises.

"The sparrow seeks a new nest." You spoke, and she nodded. She leads you further back, away from the safehouse. When you got to the cliff's edge, she pointed at a nearby bush and left. You moved your foot around the foliage until it hit a wooden bundle. With a firm push, the rope ladder was deployed. From the top you could see a Waverider, its capitan sitting on a log on the shore.

Before descending, you turned around to catch a final glimpse of your home. Along with the vocal crowds and falling petals were memories, images of you and her. Her smile, her tears, her embraces, her kind words…

You wiped a stray tear from your cheek.

You were doing this for the greater good, for both you and her.

Perhaps Sara would understand in time.

Thanks for reading!

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin x male reader #genshin impact x male reader #genshin impact angst #genshin angst #angst #genshin impact kujou sara #kujou sara #kujou sara x reader #kujou sara x male reader #kujou sara x you #kujou sara x y/n #kujou sara angst

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cheemscakecat · 2 months

Text

Missing in Action 9

Chapter 9: Boiling Point

Spy plays a prank he should not have, Scout has a realization, and something goes wrong.

TW: Heavy Angst. We’re at the turning point people

Overall, the last two weeks were a breath of fresh air for Jeremy. New Spy was very aware of his comedy potential, and every time he went into battle he outdid himself.

Something changed on that first Monday after those weeks.

There was this one BLU Scout from the Appalachians, in some hillbilly town or whatever. He had a reputation for talking about the woods like it was a rich person’s house. Talkin about some kind of monsters who ran the forest, who he was Buddy-Buddy with.

So in other words, he was a superstitious nut job that even Demoman didn’t take seriously. He always made a big fuss about how his team acted in the forest -any forest- like they were gonna offend “the owners”.

Jeremy disliked the guy because he also talked smack about “city boys”, and being from Boston he was the main target of that smack-talk. And people called him annoying…

They happened to be stationed in some forest in Colorado when New Spy got to fight this BLU Scout and his team. So that meant BLU Scout was being extra annoying to his team, and Spy noticed fast.

He turned invisible and started following the App Scout around the battlefield, saying spooky stuff like he was a forest ghost getting mad about the teams. And at first, it was really funny listening to BLU Scout try and get along with the ghost. Until it wasn’t.

His team turned off their comm links because they were annoyed with his warnings. And Appie started to panic. Spy stopped saying stuff, but that didn’t help much because BLU thought his team was about to get punished for being in the woods. Jeremy had been following them in case something went wrong, but he’d been expecting an angry breakdown, not fear and crying.

They knew Merasmus was real, but Jeremy had never thought something really lived up in the Appalacians. Now that he had to see the man horrified, it seemed a heck of a lot more believable. For all he knew, there was some kind of forest guardian out there, it wasn’t like he’d been to the Apps!

“Please don kill my team. I know we’re mercenaries, but we ain’t the ones who chose the battlefield. An they ain’t from the forest, nobody ever taught em to respect the ones in charge here. Please don make em disappear, they don know what they’ve done to yer home!”

Spy turned visible to the crying BLU Scout and dropped his weapons. BLU stared at him blankly through his tears. “I am sorry. I did not think this was so serious.” Thankfully, Spy also knew the joke had crossed a line and he wasn’t afraid to try and apologize. But Appie was furious.

Spy got slugged in the jaw and Jeremy had to knock out the BLU enemy to protect him. Scout learned a long time ago that this guy’s underfed lookin body was way stronger than it looked. And he had that anger adrenaline. He grabbed Spy by the arm and ran off before BLU Scout could wake up.

————————

Them boys messed with the Appalachian Scout and his paranoid beliefs. Engineer knew he and the grown teammates should’a warned Spy not to do it, but they were all used to his older self. The one who wouldn’t try the forest spirit prank. But in any case, Spy looked haunted by what he did, and Scout brought him to learn more about the weird mountain beliefs.

Engineer was from Texas, which was a melting pot within a melting pot, dependin on where you lived. He’d met people from that area. He knew enough to talk to the boys.

“Well, not everyone believes in it, but that forest has a strange feelin to it. Eerie, like your bein watched by something that ain’t human. Some of the locals insist that if you’re polite, the supernatural won’t bother you none. Unless it starts whistling at you.”

Yeah, there was a reason why Dell wasn’t superstitious. At least not to most things people believed in. But he did have to wonder if that mountain plain would be a good place to look for Merasmus. He’d have to mention it to the others as a potential lead.

“Anyways, that there BLU Scout has been workin as a merc for years. He oughta know by now that other forests don’t work like the Apps, even if the stories are true. So try not to feel too bad about your little prank buddy. We know you won’t try it again.”

Somehow, that didn’t seem to snap Spy out of his funk. But he forced a smile and a polite thank you anyway.

————————

The only bad thing about the past two weeks was that Scout still had Spy dreams. It was like his mind was twisting itself into a pretzel to try and pretend like he should miss Spy. And these last two weeks, it had been mostly dreams about their time in Teufort prison.

Jeremy almost missed the hanging nightmares, because at least those reminded him why he was so angry at his deadbeat dad. He was never planning to tell the truth the old coward. Not even when they were on death row. And he didn’t say anything or look when Scout got dropped on the gallows.

Maybe it was dumb, but he kind of wished Spy turned to look at him on instinct, lookin all concerned. Instead of not lookin at all. Cause the only people that did look were the drooling, stupid townsfolk celebrating the hanging. Their eyes all hungry, holdin their stupid hanging merch.

Then again, there was a reason Jeremy lengthened the chain on his dog tags. And stopped wearing a shirt to bed. And kept his blanket below his nipples so it wouldn’t touch his neck. He didn’t know what he’d do when it snowed. Ok fine, maybe the dad dreams were better.

This batch of Spy dreams took place when he still had the broken arms. He hated not being able to move like normal, even something as simple as squatting was a bad idea without the whole use of his arms. There was a lot he couldn’t do on his own, and Spy ended up helping him.

To Jeremy, it felt like his dad was just cherry-picking easy things to do for him, to pretend like they were on good terms and he was a good parent. It was gross. It should be gross. And he shouldn’t miss Spy for doing the bare minimum when they were trapped together for months.

About a week before, Scout had dreamt about the first time Spy combed out his hair. He didn’t want to be babied, especially in front of another inmate they didn’t know, but Spy was insisting. Jeremy remembered their argument.

“Spy I don’t need your help, stop it!” “Nonsense, you can’t lift your arms to comb it yourself. And if you get angry enough trying, you’ll break that metal contraption on your back.” Way to have faith. “Shows what you know. I’ve had this haircut my whole life. Trust me, it never gets matted.”

Scout felt Spy hesitate for a second. “How do you know that?” Something about the way Spy asked made Scout feel the same worry as when teachers asked him too many questions about home. So he explained, against his better judgement. “Well, Ma had a lot of little sons and not enough time to comb all our hair. So she had all our hair cut like this so even if we ****ed up combing it, it wouldn't get matted.”

Spy went quiet and stopped combing for a long time, and Jeremy could tell he was staring at the wall because he didn’t feel eyes on him. “Well all the same, I’d rather do this than risk your cast getting broken. These Teufort people either know how to work a taser or fail to tie their shoes, and there’s no in between. I don’t trust them to fix your cast.”

It took Scout waking up for him to realize Spy was judging his Ma for the hair thing. As if he had any right, when he wasn’t there or giving her the money she needed! Besides, Jeremey turned out fine! Yeah he’d never had longer hair and learned to style it, and yeah new Spy’s hair looked really cool, but he was fine.

He- he didn’t want to judge his Ma for anything. She was the one who was there for him, and she had enough ungrateful children already. Even if he did wonder what he’d look like with New Spy’s hairstyle.

This dream on the night of the Appalachian Scout’s freak out was a doozy. It had been real difficult to sleep in the prison bunk with the stress of being hung soon, and the people being weird. But it was even harder for Jeremy because of the metal connector on his cast.

It wasn’t like they set him up with one of those fancy hospital beds for hurt people, it was just a normal bottom bunk. So the metal dug into his spine and the soft skin between his shoulders. He’d wake up from that digging feeling then fall right back to sleep.

But one night about two months in, he woke up and didn’t go right back to sleep. It was hard to crane his neck with the cast, especially lying down, but he saw Spy standing next to the bunk bed ladder on their shared bed. He was facing away into the whole room, with his back to Jeremy’s head. Didn’t even notice he’d woken up.

Naturally, he didn’t feel great about Spy just freaking standing there all night, and he wasn’t moving. So he piped up.

“What are you doing?” He whispered. Spy turned to face him in surprise, and then they heard a heavy thudding noise further in the room. Spy went back to facing into the room and Jeremy heard Joey Murders grumble. What was he doing up? It was the middle of the night.

“I’m an insomniac by nature, and this cheap bunk isn’t helping. So I’ve been practicing good posture.” Seriously? “Do you have to stand at the foot of my bed?” “It’s not the foot if your head is laying over here. And this bunk belongs to both of us, so I’m well within my rights.”

“So let me get this straight; you’ve been standing like a creep at the head of my bed for two months, and you just chose not to tell me?” If Scout didn’t believe that Spy had his ability to fart removed by Medic, he’d be really grossed out by the chances of getting farted on in his sleep with his mouth open. He had too much experience with his brothers pulling similar crap growing up.

“I thought it would only annoy you, and we only own this side of the room. If I were at base, I could just stay up in my smoking room and read, but here I’d bother you and our roommate. Besides, this way if you need help going to the restroom, I’m close.” It bothered Jeremy that Spy wasn’t facing him to talk. And that he didn’t have a great argument for chasing him off. It was quiet for a moment.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you, Scout. It’s your bunk too.” “Well, uh. Thanks for helping me with crap. At least I’m not super old and peeing all over the place, but still.” “It’s fine. And even if you were old, I’d prefer that over Sniper marking his territory. But you should get some more sleep.”

It took Scout waking up to think about how dumb it was that Spy hadn’t been sleeping, and how obviously he was lying. After Jeremy got his casts off and had a few days to get used to his arms, Spy told him he was going to try to sleep more and stop standing around like a creep. And he did. He started sleeping a lot more.

But then he remembered that Joey Murders was awake that night. And that Spy had been staring off towards his side of the room. It made him stop and think for a moment.

Joey Murders was a civilian serial killer who probably killed some women or people who were not strong enough to win a one on one battle with him. Scout had always assumed that his strange roommate was also on his best behavior in prison but… Murders didn’t have anything to lose. Even in Teufort, the cops had to have found some reason to suspect him.

Maybe he was the kind of guy to attack him and Spy. His old man had been eating with his back turned to Joey when he up and stabbed him. At the time, Jeremy got mad at Spy and said he was getting them in more trouble. But maybe he killed Murders for good reason.

Murders kept trying to sneak up on Scout when he had his arms broken and was fast asleep. So Spy had been staying up and standing in Murders’ way to keep him safe. And he hadn’t figured that out until now.

But Spy also didn’t baby him after he could use his hands again. After he could move his legs into a better angle for kicking Joey’s face into mincemeat. He trusted him to take care of himself. Jeremy sat on his bed feeling a lot of confusing emotions about it, not knowing if he should be angry at Spy, or worried, or missing him more.

The sound of new Spy screaming snapped him out of it.

———————

Something was wrong with new Spy, and the whole team could see it when they arrived at the smoking room. Chairs were overturned and Spy was screaming in French, pacing, and pulling on his hair.

“Vhat’s wrong?” Heavy asked. Spy snapped his head towards the biggest teammate, and they could all see how pale and undead he looked. There was a wildly hateful look in his eye, which only grew as he broke a full bottle of wine on the side table. Purplish red wine spilled on the old wood and rug like blood. Spy gripped the broken bottle like a knife and charged at Heavy.

Medic reacted fast and turned on the Medigun in time to heal Heavy right as Spy stabbed him through his vest, aiming for his heart. Everyone was shocked, so shocked that Spy had time to ignore Medic as an obvious target and glare at Sniper. Thankfully, Heavy was fine and caught new Spy before he got the change to attack again.

For about half a second, they thought Heavy’d be able to hold Spy down with his big arms. But Heavy moved slow, and Spy was hopped up on hatred, adrenaline, and fury. He started kicking almost as fast as Scout could, and shuffled his arms around at full strength. Heavy tried, but it was like trying to carry an angry street cat, and Spy got loose.

Spy jammed his fingers into Demoman’s eye, then when he was still distracted lifted the right blast guard so he could punch him in the nuts. Medic was rushing to help Demoman, but Spy ignored him again; choosing to pick up an armchair and throw it at Pyro’s head. Engineer rushed to help Pyro, and again, Spy ignored a teammate for no apparent reason.

New Spy picked up the glass bottle that he dropped, dodging Heavy as he tried to catch up. Then he went after Sniper with it. Snipes did a good job escaping a backstab and any other fatal attacks, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop Spy. Jeremy noticed that Spy hadn’t targeted him either, so he crossed his fingers and charged in to try something.

He grabbed Spy from behind and lifted him like 3 inches off the ground. Then he started spinning in place to make them both as dizzy as possible. Spy still had the bottle, but didn't actually stab at him with it, so the dizzy trick worked.

Demoman and Engineer each grabbed one of Spy’s arms after Scout let go, trying not to puke. But instead of struggling to free his arms like a normal idiot, Spy twisted his torso and legs to get them off balance, and then pulled on his arms so they’d bump heads and let go.

Soldier finally got the memo to attack their teammate [it was actually good that he didn’t do it on instinct], and grabbed Spy by the throat to strangle him or break his neck. It would be bad if he succeeded, but at least Medic was there, and they were at base. Oh wait, was the respawn machine even on at night? Pauling had a lot money decisions to make and-

Spy choked Soldier right back, apparently at full force because Solly didn’t immediately snap his neck. Then he let go with one hand so he could rip off Soldier’s helmet and started punching him in the face. And he was punching real hard and fast, so fast Solly didn’t have time to react before getting dizzy again.

Sniper and Pyro ran over to try and separate them, but Spy just picked Soldier up and threw him at them like Scout’s idiot brothers cheating at bowling. The problem was Spy was out to kill, and everyone else really didn’t want to hurt him [Soldier did, but that wasn’t news]. Jeremy had a plan though.

”Engie, Medic! Follow my lead!” He ran towards new Spy and grabbed him in a firm hug. Like he expected, Spy wasn’t attacking him. He didn’t attack Engineer or Medic when they also started hugging him, even though Medic was still as creepy as ever.

“Calm down man, we’re not gonna hurt you.” Spy choked out something half-sad half-enraged in French. “Herr Spy, we do not understand what the problem is. And I wish I could say we speak French, but we don’t. Please breathe for a moment and tell us why you are so angry.”

Spy hesitated and started to breathe better, which made him think better too. Some of the color returned to his face and he seemed to break out of whatever hate trance he was in.

“Ze smoking room? We were not.. you three were not..” He looked around at the shaken teammates and Soldier, who was fine somehow. “Oh- Oh God, it wasn’t real, was it?” Spy sank to his knees and the trio took the chance to let go of him, and make room for the others to come over. “I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry!”

”What happened lad? You lost yourself for a bit.” Nobody was mad, thankfully. They were really more worried than anything. Spy hesitated to answer. “I do not know if I should say. Clearly it was a night terror I should not have believed… But I did.” “I think ya owe us an answer, mate. If yer having nightmares that bad, we gotta know for next time.” Sniper was right. They didn’t; know what set Spy off, or if it would happen again. And new Spy knew it.

“Is this room bugged? With ze same cameras as the rest of ze Base?” He really thought deadbeat Spy would leave cameras around his rooms? Well, to be fair, he didn’t know the guy. “Naw. He wouldn’t leave the Admin’s cameras in heah. Liked his privacy.” So did Sniper, who lived in his van. Helped him avoid the cameras. Spy sighed and held his legs to his chest with his arms.

“Then I will say. And I hope it will not offend you. It was a stupid nightmare, but it felt real.” Spy swallowed hard. “Medic, Engineer and Scout were not there, but we were told ze whole team was soon to die. You did not care at all, and…” It took Spy a while to continue. Nobody bugged him about it, clearly he was worried about cameras for a reason. When Spy did look up and start talking again, he was on the verge of tears.

”And my.. my two year old son was there with you. You had convinced him that death was.. fun. He was saying things that were not good, not health-ful.” Nobody knew what to say to that. Jeremy really wanted to say something nice, but he didn’t have words. Why the Hell was he having nightmares like that?! Nobody on the team was crazy enough to hurt a baby like that, not even Medic and Pyro! New Spy sobbed, surrounded by the broken glass and spilled wine and hurt teammates. “I thought it was real. I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry, you are very nice people!” Without thinking, Jermey found himself getting on the floor with Spy and hugging him. He didn’t really do hugs that often. He hugged Pauling when she turned out to be okay on Grey Mann’s island. And sometimes he hugged Ma.

His brothers thought hugging another guy was weak behavior, even if it was with another brother. And even though he didn’t agree with them, their stupid judgement stopped him from being a hugger a long time ago. But not this time. And he figured he was right, because Spy leaned into him and kept crying.

Somehow, he didn’t feel like a man beating people up and then crying was weak behavior at all. Especially if it’s for his kid’s sake.

———————-

Medic was right about that de-aging curse. It was probably meant to make Soldier hurt or scare Zhanna when confronted with something he didn’t remember.

They knew part of the nightmare had to do with the last wishes, the not caring about death thing that made grown Spy colder to the team. But not the baby being in danger. They didn’t know what triggered that idea. And they sure as Hell didn’t like it.

They were gonna tear Appalachia apart if they had to, that stupid wizard needed to pay. And Spy needed to be turned back into his normal self before he had another cursed episode.

Engineer told them about the possible lead and they sent a message to Pauling the next morning.

#tf2 #dadspy #tf2 spy #tf2 scout #sad lad hours #angst fanfic

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echantedtoon · 2 months

Text

Waning Obsession(Yandere Kokushibo x Reader) Ch1 Fated Encounter

When the shadowed moon turns to a full eclipse that blocks out even the stars, the monster comes out to claim the maiden. The wound Cupid's arrow caused by piercing his dark heart bleeds out for her, so he would seek what his body needed to heal. The waning desire pangs him so.

This is a semi rewrite for In The Moon's Shadow/ Eclipsed Starshine. I wasn't very happy with how either turned out so I'm reediting the old chapters to be better and adding new ones and getting rid of some completely. With new plot points added in and a few other things. Again there's a few things that you need to know about so please read the points below!

1. This is a Yandere-ish story. I in NO way support any of that kind of relationship in real life!

2. This is a story with Demons from Demon Slayer so expect there to be some fighting, cussing, blood, mentioned killing, and other such things. Although they WILL be way toned down.

3. Kokushibo isn't going to be much of a yandere and more of having no idea how human relationships work but that's because Im not used to writing full blown yanderes. So the relationship will be non-toxic.

4. This IS an AU. So barely anything will be cannon.

5. If any chapters have warnings please read and heed them.

(Warnings: Some Hate and discrimination against demons. Demons don't eat humans in this au but most aren't very pleasant.

EDIT: Fixed previous spelling errors plus added one or two details.)

To say the least you had a pretty consistent, normal life.

....

......

No. Really. You did. There really wasn't anything else to describe it. Just that. Normal. Plain. Average. But calm and quiet. A normal every run of the mill life. As simple as that. Your life wasn't too different than the other average woman's. There wasn't anything that stood you out from another person.

And that's EXACTLY what you loved about it.

For as long as you could remember it had always been pretty peaceful. You were raised by a kind older couple along with many other children they took in. You had a happy normal childhood, and when you turned fourteen you were offered an apprenticeship by your tiny village's local fragrance maker. It wasn't the most exciting life but as you grew older into adulthood you learnt to appreciate the calm and quiet of your job. Learning from your tutor to carve the carefully crafted hand made soups and candles into different shapes, learning the best ways to store incense, and slowly learning how to make perfumes. Although you hadn't gotten a hand for the liquid scent sprays yet. But you didn't mind. You were always surrounded by delightful fragrances.

Overall your life as an adult was everything you could've asked for. A peaceful village with plenty of good people. A calm life away from waring clans and big crime. A job that pays well. And a small home you could call your own. There wasn't much for you to really worry yourself over except for the stares. You couldn't pretend that you didn't get many stares from the men in the town. Many offers of marriage declined. And many more people becoming angry but only a select few had gotten violently aggressive and they were all taken cared of one way or another. So there really wasn't anything much else in your town to worry about-

"The fighting has gotten worse to the east of here."

The sounds of broom bristles sweeping across the floor stopped in their actions. Your hands paused in their task of cleaning the shop entrance to look up and over. The small shop was quiet again today. There was hardly any customers in at all other than sweet old Mrs.Tenshi whom had stopped by to by a few rose scented candles for her study. Not a sound to be heard except for your body stepping around to sweep the floors and the wind chimes hung just right outside of your boss's shop. You figured today was a perfect day to sweep and mop the store front and dust the shelves to keep the store looking clean and enticing to customers. But hearing the words of the older woman sitting just in front of a small table had made you pause and turn to her.

"What?"

Her wrinkled face frowned harder in a scowl aimed at nothing in particular but clearly upset very much at something troubling her. "The fighting to the east of here has gotten worse. The peace talks between the warlords hasn't provided anything. Soon their fighting will continue on."

That's right. The war. You nearly forgotten about that. Two of the biggest nations there was around here had been fighting for almost three years now. Wars were full of death and misery and destruction and chaos. However your little village nestled away in the hills and forests had remained entirely unaffected by anything the two nations had done being just outside of both. Far away enough to escape any negative side effects but close enough to still hear news of what was going on with the wars. Sometimes you'd even see soldiers walk through town to buy supplies or sake from the local markets before leaving. Their armor and swords clanking heavily. Their bodies usually covered in scars and healing wounds. And their powerful war horses stomping down the paths. You've always made it a habit to avoid interaction with those men as much as possible even if most of them had been actually quite friendly to who they spoke to. You just didn't want any trouble with anyone. So you always played it safe. But even the soldiers visiting was a pretty rare occurrence. You hadn't seen any for the last year now even. So you were never really too concerned about what what those men did miles and miles away from you. It wasn't affecting you so you didn't see any reasons for concern.

"Oh my. That is awful. Those poor men must be very tired by now."

"It is not the men who concern me." The older woman rose a shaking hand out to place down a small bar of lavender scented soap she'd been mindlessly fiddling with for the past ten minutes as her mind wondered off on its own. "A human I can have no qualms against but it's the beasts that make me feel concerned."

"Beasts?" Was she perhaps referring to the soilders? You heard these warriors could be ruthless in battle and blood thirsty enough to rival a bear's appetite.

Her eyes flashed dangerously at you. "Demons you naive girl! Demons! The blood lusting animals that dare walk amongst us and act like we are equals when they are nothing but mindless savages!"

You had nothing to say against that. Mostly because you didn't know what to say to that.

Demons.

Yes. Yes you've heard of such people. People who were not human. Beings with horns like dragons, fangs like a wolf, multiple eyes and arms like spiders, and all kinds of other rumors. Everyone always pointed at demons for things that went bump in the night. Rumors said that they were supposed to be nothing but bad news for anyone. Blood thirsty and being able to harness dangerous powers. But you'd never met one before. Oh you knew they existed alright. How did you know? Well you never saw a demon before but you HAD seen a man that claimed to have demon heritage. He had the truth written all over his face..Or quite plainly his forehead where a third eyeball had been stationed in the traveler's face. All three very much real moving and blinking at everyone. The town's people hadn't taken too fondly of the traveler with most of your village giving him stares or out right ignoring the man asking about any inns nearby. He had gotten the unwelcoming hint and left before nightfall. You felt bad for the poor man but never spoke to him since you both hadn't interacted one on one. That was the closest thing to excitement you had gotten around here. The closest thing you'd ever seen to a real demon. And you weren't sure you actually wanted to meet one.

"It's rumored that one of those warlords are paying for the beasts to be mercenaries for war!," she spat continuing on with her disdain for the demons.

"Well that's only rumored right?" You changed the subject politely not wishing to continue listening to her ramble on her hatred. "You shouldn't believe gossip about something like that if there's no real proof. Otherwise you'll be worrying about nothing."

You turned back to the hardwood floor and started up your broom again making your boss scoff at your words. "Rumors or not you'll soon learn that being vigilant about these things can and will save you later on in life. It's how I survived for so long."

"I'm sure it is," you politely said back not in the mood to argue about such things.

It was stupid to argue with someone so bullheaded anyways. The old were stuck in their ways and would die on their hill before admitting defeat. Energy was better spent in productivity and getting work done now rather then letting it build up later.

Days of beautiful cloudy skies and warm weather transitioned to warm nights with the moon shining brightly in the dark. Blissfully life went on. Peaceful. Hard working. Serene. And safe from any harm that might've been taking place mere miles away and hopefully it would stay like that. The thoughts of danger and of Demons wasn't too concerning but it always looked in the back of your mind like a pesky fly not willing to buzz off but as always life goes on. Summer was in full swing, and the enjoyable warm weather would not be wasted on worrying about what ifs or possible scenarios that might not even come to pass. The warm weather should be taken advantage of. To be enjoyed to the fullest. To be appreciated and enjoyed.

"Will you be going night fishing again tonight?"

The smell of lavender fragrance filled the air as your hands carefully guided a small carving tool over a purple hunk of soap. The hands holding it currently in the process of carving the small soap hunk into the shape of a flower, to be placed on the shelf later for a customer to buy and take hone. Your eyes blinked up at the older woman. She was already grabbing a few previously carved soaps in different shapes, patterns, and forms up in her arms to place on the shelves as you finished up the one you were currently holding. But you had stopped to look up at her as she spoke.

"Yes. It's less crowded that way." Your eyes followed her form as she slowly stood up and walked over to a nearby shelf her older form shuffling along slowly. "The waters are always crowded with men and boys during the day. It's a favorite past time for them....and not many of them appreciate a woman intruding into their 'territory.'"

The elder hummed. "It's a dangerous thing to do, walking around at night by yourself. Especially for a girl."

"I only do it when the nights are clear and warm." You smiled widely at her back before the hands continued their task of carving. "I'll be safe near the village. A few good meals of fish will be worth losing a few hours of sleep."

She hummed placing a cat shaped soap bar on the shelf. "I still say it's foolish...but if you're insisting on going out tonight, pick up some wild basil for me. I'm starting to run low."

Your lips smiled wider. "I will. There's some near a small pond not too far outside of the village."

"Hm. I just hope you know what you're doing."

"I'll be alright. You'll see."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You should have heeded the warnings.

Warm blue skies faded to make way for her dark sister to claim for night. The sun kissing the horizon good night as it's last few rays of light disappeared from sight. Mothers called their children inside their warm houses to sleep in their cozy beds safe and sound until the next morning. The silence was peaceful on the warm summer night breezes. The calmness soothing the crickets to sing their lullabies to the dimming lights of the homes. Lantern lights being put to sleep after a long usage. The bustling town settling down and falling asleep soundly.

Your door opened quietly and you stepped out of your house and into the quiet, barren streets. The moonlight shining down and kissing your form. A shiver running down your spine from a warm breeze ghosting over your form. It would be a good night to fish. The door closed softly as you started walking towards the woods outside the village, fishing line curled up within your right hand. The moon shown down upon the forests illuminating the night bright enough for you to see and watch as the trees swayed im the warm breezes and hear the peaceful rustling of their leaves and lullabies of the crickets. It was just so beautiful and lively. You always loved doing this. Free from crowds of people and being able to peacefully just live in these moments.

The sweet smells of flowers and grass were encouraging your lungs. Combined with the warmth of the summer air warming your muscles and urging them on. Both made you feel as light as a feather on your mere feet and the ground felt soft under you. You were smiling. Arms out splayed against the wind blowing around your hair like crazy and cooling your body against the warm heat beaming down on you. Step after step. Faster and faster. You joyously started to run through the pathways and around a corner of a house as soft dirt pathways turned into grassy floors of forests as you excitedly entered the beckoning woods. The moonlight being blocked out a bit because of the swaying trees and branches but you could still see perfectly fine. The small pond so many people liked to fish at during summer wasn't too far from where you entered. It was just nearly a quarter of a mile into the woods. You loved coming out during these warm months and gathering the natural resources the forest provides your small village. It really was a perfect place to live being so abundant in resources and stationed within such a secluded and safe location. The way you found the decently sized pond was walking through a bush and having to blink when a flurry of sparkling lights glared your eyes for a second.

Blinking your eyes adjusted to the beautiful and wonderful sight of a dark beautiful pond reflecting the moon on its surface and sparkling as if the reflection had its own stars and consolations within its ripples. Completely untouched and waiting for you to touch its soft silence. Soft footsteps approached the gleaming water and a carbon copy of a woman appeared in the gleaming reflections. She smiled up at the original mirroring the actions of the woman above. The woman's fiddled with her line and the small contacts she brought along with her. A hook with a big, juicy worm stabbed on the end of it dangled over the woman in the dark reflection before dropping into the water and rippling the reflection woman away back into the darkness of the waters.

The night was a beautiful thing if you needed it to be, or if you wanted to make it become that way. And in a way, it was both to you in the end. The sweet smells of flowers and grass filling your lungs. Combined with the warmth of the summer season warming your smaller body as you walked along the forest back towards your small home. Tonight was the perfect night to go fishing within the woods as it was warm, full of food, and a wide variety of other items that you could harvest. Wild berries to be picked. Old fruit trees long forgotten. A small pond with plenty of fish that only you knew. It was perfect for someone like you who loved these nights. Even taking time to pick up a few stems of basil and what fruits were left by the hoards of hungry men who flocked through here during the day. You could just harvest and hunt whatever you needed even if you lost track of time and it was fairly dark now. It shouldn't take you too long to get back to your village, but even then it'll be darker and later before you got back anyways. Not that you were too worried about still being in the woods when night fell, after all there wasn't really anything dangerous like bears or tigers where you lived. They usually didn't go near human settlements. The most dangerous predator in these woods was the hawks and owls with the occasional fox here and there. You doubt a bird or tiny fox would even want to bother you, you were much bigger compared to them and it wouldn't be worth the fight for the food you carried when they could easily hunt their own. So no. You weren't worried at all. And it was beautiful outside tonight, a warm breeze in summer and the moonlight being your companions for the long trip back home.

You had nearly made it out when a curiosity caught your eye. A light within the darkness ahead of you. One that wasn't the moon or stars in the sky and it certainly wasn't the fireflies. A flickering dancing light that was blocked by a wall of tall bushes. That... wasn't supposed to be there. It had caught you so off guard that you nearly dropped the few fish you caught on your line in your hands. The bold brightness of the light was mysterious but... enticing. Enough to get you walking forward towards the wall of bushes. Hand slowly reaching out to grab a handful of soft leaves on the bush to pull back. You were expecting perhaps a start of a forest fire or perhaps a hunter camping out here enjoying the warm weather like you were.

However you were not expecting seeing was a fluttering purple and black haori coat moving with the cool breeze or the man who was using the fire as his companion for the night. The woman's body ran cold as she realized he was standing just a few inches away from her own face and loomed above her form and it took you longer to figure out one thing. He had been staring in your direction this entire time. It took you off guard once the realization hit you, and it caused you to pause staring back at the still chest of the man. For a long time there was nothing but silence not even the crickets dung. Only the fire behind the dark figure, the wind, and the rustling of leaves to save you from total silence.

"A woman."

You flinched at the Deep monotone voice above you. There was a clicking sound in the dark that had your eyes darting to the right in search of the source, and ice flooded your veins when realization struck you. Two strong looking hands had let go of the familiar sight of a sword tied to the side of the flowing purple and black checkered haori. This man, whomever he was, had been gripping onto that weapon with intent to strike. The clicking noise had been him resheathing his sword.

Dark fear enveloped in your mind as your eyes darted away and back to the middle of the man, one hand still clutching onto the hilt of the weapon. "I-Im sorry. I-I had no idea s-s-someone else was out here. I didn't m-mean to scare you."

You couldn't make out his face entirely, the fire was too small to produce enough light and he stood mostly in darkness so you couldn't make out exactly what color the eyes that looked back at you were, not that you could anyways refusing to look up at his face. But you could tell he was young, maybe mid or late twenties by the sounds of his voice.

"A weak thing like you did not scare me." You flinched at his blunt, harsh words. "Who are you?"

"I'm from the village. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be out here hunting," you somehow managed to stutter out from the intense atmosphere this man radiated.

"I am not hunting." His head tilted slightly and bore into the sight of the line of fish still strung in her hands. "Is that what you were doing?"

"N-No ..I-I was fishing."

"Fishing?" You nodded. And finally the other hand slowly dropped from his sword much to your relief. "A woman should not be in the forest late at night."

"I-Im ok. I d-dont live too far from here. H-honestly I didn't know another hunter w-was out here."

"I am not hunting."

"But if you're not hunting, what are you doing all alone out here?"

"That is none of your business." Again you fell silent from his blunt tone that left no room for arguing but he did seem to pause taking in the sight of the woman before him. "...Is there a town nearby here then? Or does your family live out here alone?"

"T-There's a town," you squeaked out.

"With businesses?" You nodded quickly and silently making the man above you hum. "... Excellent."

He spoke strangely. Very slow and with pauses between his words. Strange. Maybe he was tired from traveling. It was turning night after all.

"Oh. Well I won't disturb you then-" A gurgling growling noise stopped you in your tracks from backing away as the man stiffened up. You both stood there. You slowly blinked and your eyes lowered to his mid section. "....Have you eaten anything?"

"No."

"Then here." The man seemed surprised when you reached out to the line you were holding, snapping off one of the fish, and held it out to the darkened figure. "It's not much, but traveling on an empty stomach isn't good for your strength. Take this and make some food out of it...Wait. You do know how to cook fish, right?"

You finally looked up at his face and.... couldn't make out a single feature of his face. It was too dark and the hat he wore blocked out even more light cloaking it further from view, although you could make out long hair poking out from his hat and pool near his neck. Bangs maybe?

The stranger remained silent for a long moment just looking at the fish dangling from your hand seeming to contemplate for a long moment. "No and I Don't need it but I will take it since you offered." A hand reached out and grabbed it from the darkness. You noted how much larger they were compared to yours and the strange pointed nails but didn't comment as the hand pulled it back into the darkness and away from your sight. The man's head turning away downwards to you assumed to look at the food you had offered him. "...This will suffice for now." He then turned back to you. "What will you do now?"

"Go home of course." Your head nodded further up into the woods back towards your village and his head turned following your direction. "Wait. Did you just say you couldn't cook fish?"

"It is unnecessary-"

"No it's not!" Your rise in volume made him turn back to you, not surprised or anything but his brow rose at your frown. "Don't you know eating raw meat isn't good for your body? Or are you trying to save it for later?"

"I will reserve my hunger for later travel-"

"By then the meat will be bad and unsuitable for consumption. That'll just make you even more sick regardless if it's cooked or not!" You wanted to facepalm this stranger despite your earlier fear. It was instead replaced with a ridiculous feeling at this situation. You didn't know him at all, but he wasn't the brightest it seemed, or being tired and hungry is clouding his judgement. You extended your hand. "Here. Give it to me. I'll cook it for you then."

The darkened face tilted more at you. "YOU will cook for me?"

"Yes. Because I gave you the fish, if you refuse to eat it properly then it'll be on me if you get sick. There's a fire here and plenty of sticks from the trees, so I'll be able to cook it for you the same way I cook it for myself."

He didn't say anything, but after a couple seconds, a hand slowly held out the fish back out to you and you took it back, only to drop your small bag and other fish to the ground and wonder off towards the woods still carrying the fish in one hand. All the while his head followed your every movement from your form walking into the darkness, to your hand picking up a stick and jabbing it into the fish, to you walking back and just placing the entire thing into the fire with a part of the long stick safely out of the way of flames. And then the silence resumed for what seemed like hours as he just watched your actions which included using the stick to flip the fish over onto the other side after a long while. After a long while more, you completely pulled the now fully brown fish from the fire and held it out to him with a smile.

"Here. It should be good to eat now, and don't try to save it for too long or else it'll go bad." There was another pause from the man who just stared at the food you offered before the same hand reached over and took it from you once again. Seeing it as your job being done here, you quickly grabbed your things, thanked the gods for a chance to leave, and turned away from him. "Will you be leaving soon?"

"That is none of your business and neither is my travels."

Ah. So another traveler heading up there. There was a few in your limited years of living here and they all traveled past your village on their way over the mountains ...Although it was a bit strange this stranger was armed. He might've been another soldier and that thought frightened you. It was best if you distanced yourself. Either way it was none of your business. Your business was to get home now and get some sleep before you had to work again tomorrow. But still....he seemed hungry.

"Is your destination far? You might need some more food if you're stomach is growling."

"I will be fine."

That was a no then. You contemplated something in your head and picked up your remaining fish and bag only to toss it at his feet with a thud. He looked at it, then up at your face in obvious question. "It's full of wild fruits and vegetables. They might taste a little bitter, but they'll last you a couple days. I can just come back and get more for myself. And if you need more, you'll find some around the pond back there-" you pointed back from where you first came from. "-if the men hadn't all gotten it first." He didn't say anything, not that you were expecting him to, but you took that as your cue to leave, so your body bowed at the waist. "May you have a safe journey."

With that you turned and began walking back off towards the direction of your village, with less food for your hungry self, but you could always come back and get more. Right now you wanted to do nothing more than to get home and put distance between yourself and the man. The strange man watched your form until it disappeared from his sight and slowly turned back to the fish in his hand....And taking a rather large bite with his inhuman fangs.

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snootlestheangel · 9 months

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Cheers to the Unknown Pt.2

Monster/cryptid au ft. Just A Dude!Ghost; canon-divergent, alternate universe. More details here (parts are not a coherent story necessarily just scenarios as they come to me !subject to change!;all tagged under "cheers to the unknown") TW: some body horror, language

Meeting The Team

John Price being an inhuman probably would have upset Ghost more had he not been so numb to the world. Ghost had been officially born; Simon Riley was dead, along with his family. Crude, ugly scars twisted his face into a mock grin, something he learned is called a Glasgow smile. If Ghost himself could not bear to see them in the mirror, why would anyone else? How could anyone else? So he took to covering his face. Thus Ghost was born.

Now, Simon Riley had worked with John Price before his supposed death, but it wasn't for long and he still didn't really know the man. He knew Price to be a good man, however, and was rather pleased to hear he'd be working under the captain.

The mission itself was a simple infiltrate and extract operation, one that Ghost could probably do perfectly well on his own. But alas, given the novelty of his new identity, many higher ranking personnel refused to allow him solo for the time being. At least Ghost was stuck with someone relatively decent from his limited experience, and a fellow human.

Or at least Ghost thought he was with another human. He was due for a very nasty reality check when he happened to glance over at the Captain while tightening his tac vest. Ghost stopped all motion as he watched with sickening horror as Price's appearance contorted into a lowly guard for the site they were infiltrating. Price groaned a bit as he popped a few joints in adjustment to his different body.

"You alright?" Price asked in a noticeably different voice as he noticed the wide eyes of the lieutenant.

"Fine, sir." He snapped out, perhaps a bit too quickly. He wasn't all that shocked to be honest, a man of Price's reputation can't possibly be human, and it validated Ghost's feelings of uncanny valley when interacting with Price. It had seemed his intuition that something was different proved right. He wasn't shocked, no, more angry that no one bothered to tell him.

"I thought you knew." Price spoke quietly, almost sheepishly, at Ghost's sharp response.

"Quite frankly, sir, I don't give a shit. We've got a job to do, and I take it you've got a plan." Ghost meets Price's eyes, his expression earnest despite being blank. Price smirked back, slowly nodding.

"That I do."

~~~~~~

Ghost never enjoyed being assigned to various teams of rather inexperienced soldiers, especially ones run by cocky, know-it-all sergeants. He had arrived after the team to assist them with the stealth aspect of their assignment, since their last one had apparently gone haywire. Granted, it wasn't a real assignment, but rather a simulation and Ghost was there to teach them where they went wrong last time. Ghost scanned the clearing where the men were gathered, the cold spray from the sea chilling him even through all his layers.

"Glad you could make it, Lieutenant!" The sergeants, Ghost couldn't be bothered to remember his name, waved in greeting. Ghost resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead remained quiet as he took his place.

"Do you have a plan for getting inside the walls?" Ghost asked, and the sergeant nodded, briefly patting the air tank in front of him.

"There's a locking system under the water against this side gate. I can easily be in and out. The gate will open and I'll meet the men on the inside." Sergeant Daniels, as Ghost suddenly remembered, said rather matter-of-factly. Ghost frowned at him. The plan didn't make sense, but he didn't want to say anything until after the fact, so as to avoid getting into an argument before anything has a chance to go wrong. Sergeants like this one loved to argue. Ghost didn't.

"Have you checked the tank?" Ghost asked, and the sergeant's eyes widened a bit before he bent over to check. Ghost did roll his eyes this time, and instead let his gaze wander to the small team. Most of them looked as green as they probably were, but one didn't. Instead of looking apprehensive like his counterparts, he seemed at peace, his stance relaxed and a small, almost knowing smirk on his lips. He met Ghost's eye and vaguely nodded his head towards Daniels, only to match Ghost's eye roll.

He hated to admit it, but Ghost already liked this kid. He was a corporal, given the markings on his uniform, but he still seemed to know more than the Sergeant.

"Um, there's a problem with the air tank. I'll lose more air than I get to breathe if I take this down." Daniels's nervous voice drew back Ghost's attention, but before he practically snapped his neck to look, he noticed the subtle face palm from the corporal.

"Got a spare?" Ghost snapped, and Daniels shook his head.

"That's mistake number one. Never under prepare. Better safe than a dead man." Ghost barked out, barely containing his anger. He really didn't want to be spending his weekend like this.

"I can breathe underwater." A different voice spoke up, and Ghost felt a bit of relief seeing it came from the corporal.

"How well can you see under there?" Ghost asked and the kid fought back a grin, settling for a small smile.

"Pretty damn well, I'd say." He responds, and Ghost nods. He turns back to glare at Daniels.

"You'd better be fucking grateful he volunteered. You won't be so lucky next time." He said, as dark and threatening as he could be without scarring the idiot for life. Daniels nodded strongly before taking a step back to allow Ghost full authority.

"Got a name, Corporal?" Ghost asked, and the man opened his mouth and closed it again before he gave a formal response.

"Kyle Garrick, sir." Ghost quirked a brow in question.

"Did you have something else to say?"

"I was only going to be smart-ass with your question, sir." Garrick responded, standing a bit straighter as if expecting the already agitated lieutenant to snap.

"Well then let's hear it." Ghost replied, surprising even himself.

"Was only going to say, no, I actually don't have a name." Garrick quipped back, and Ghost nodded, almost solemnly.

"A fellow unloved child, I see. Good to know." Ghost said, and Garrick let out a small laugh in shock.

"Permission to dive, sir?" He asked and Ghost scanned him briefly. The corporal really wasn't dressed for the weather, but given the fact he can apparently breathe underwater, Ghost supposed it didn't really matter.

"Can you disable the lock and alarm system?" He asked, and Garrick confidently nodded.

"Go for it." And with the lieutenant's permission, Garrick gracefully slipped into the water with barely a sound. Ghost shook his head after briefly glancing at Daniels, deciding not to push anything for his own sanity.

It wasn't long at all, rather only a minute or two, before the corporal resurfaced, giving them the go ahead. The rest of the simulation was a disaster on all fronts that didn't include Corporal Garrick. Ghost had yelled himself raw afterwards, and he even allowed Garrick to slip away before the berating began. Afterwards, as Ghost headed to his temporary quarters for the night, he passed the corporal.

"You did good out there, Garrick." Ghost said, half expecting the corporal to not have heard him approach. Instead, he gave Ghost a smile and a nod, seemingly already aware of his presence. It was times like this Ghost was jealous of his inhuman counterparts for their uncanny abilities to detect subtle changes around them.

"Thank you, sir. And, most people call me Gaz." He responded, his smile brightening. Ghost frowned at him, uncertain as to why he felt so drawn by him. He must've stared too long, as Gaz's face suddenly twisted into embarrassment. Iridescent scales slowly faded into view along his cheek bones and along the crest of his nose.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting some species are more... susceptible." Gaz muttered, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. Ghost didn't understand why Gaz had said species instead of humans specifically, as that was more likely to be the case, but he didn't question it. He also didn't question what he meant by susceptible, but he refused to ask for his own peace.

"Well, good night, then. Hope to work with you again, Gaz." Ghost mumbled, and Gaz smiled once again.

"Thank you, sir. I hope to work with you, as well."

~~~~~~

Meeting Sergeant MacTavish was an... interesting experience for him, to say the least. Ghost had heard stories of the sergeant with the ability to produce lightning from his fingertips and a knack for blowing shit up. Yeah, because that's the perfect man for a stealth op.

Perhaps it was because Ghost had underestimated him, or perhaps it was the typical pre-mission jitters he still hasn't gotten used to, but something put him on edge when he saw the sergeant. Every hair on his body stood on end as the man approached him, a confident, if not cocky, grin stuck on his face. Thunder rolled in the distance, and something quite literally flashed in the Scotsman's eyes.

"Let's make this one a win, yeah Lt? Save you a seat, sir." Soap said, punctuating his sentence with a light punch to Ghost's shoulder that sent a harmless, yet startlingly shock through his body. Ghost watched him saunter away and onto the carrier as his heart beats loudly in his chest.

He'll never catch a break, will he?

Taglist: want added? Say so in the replies ;) @tacticaltaxonomist @cthulhusstepmom @cathnoneofyourbusiness @thorougly-melted-brains

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kalianos · 6 months

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Context: So ages ago I ran a game in one of my custom worlds. It was a False Hydra game. Kept the players in the dark about it. Along the way I had kept some light notes pointing out bits here and there I felt were important. These eventually made it to the scene I am going to describe below.

As you walk along the town, the ropes tied around your waist. However everyone alive hear and feel the rope snap and sounds of heavy slapping. Along with the distinct chink of something small bouncing on the cobblestones.

Party starts to immediately asking who died, who they don't remember anymore. I calmly tell them that they are fine. Except the druid. I hear an exasperated groan from the player thinking he died since he was at the end of the rope. I tell him no, his character is still alive and as he looks back. He see's another length of rope behind him that wasn't there before. Leading to a mess of half-eaten green skin, bright armor and a book covered in blood on the ground.

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

Upon looking at the journal. They found this in the book. It's a bit lengthy.

1994 DR, 14th of Midwinter’s Torment

The adventurer’s guild has tasked us again. We are holding out a campaign against some rogue goblin elements outside of town. I have my doubts about the job. Acanthes is a chill human at least. He still smells like the swamp though. Somehow got saddled with a warrior from Chaton. Chaton! How the feth did he make it over the many fathoms?

Must have paid an orc ship all his coin to be taking work with the adventurers’ guild.

1994, 16th of Midwinter’s Torment

We made camp at the edge of the their base. It took a two days and a night to get here. By Moradin, The rogue we brought along has cheese. I suspect she is part of the “cheese makers” in more ways than one. She can be useful. Kai is a decent sort. Got too sharp of a tongue. Sharp dagger as well thankfully. In hindsight it was funny how well she threw a dagger into that goblin scouts skull. The tabaxi is being quiet.

1994DR, 17th of Midwinter’s Torment

We managed to break into the first barricades. The guards have been taken down. The patrols are aware of us now unfortunately. I have only a few vestiges of my power left. By Moradin I wish I was stronger to channel his divine will. Time. Time is all we need. They are banging on the doors.

1995DR, 4th of Summer Song

We have gone on for so long. We only had a few days rest from taking down the halfling raids to the north along the steppes. Those plains scare me. We passed by a few ghost towns. Ravaged by the halfling mongrels, taken down by Gnoll war bands. Or worse. Being consumed by the false hydras.

Since we have earned bronze rank over the last several months. We were warned that our jobs are now going to be “real” jobs. True monsters and terrors can now be assigned to us. It can’t be all bad right? I heard in the officer lounge while being debriefed that a blue dragon is potentially going to recruit some of us to acquire a rare gem for a courtship ritual. Apparently we would be guests of honor at the wedding if it goes well. I like weddings. Though I don’t think anyone knows how dwarves wed themselves. Buying themselves from their significant other’s parents, crushing gems under their iron boots. Growing up as a half-orc in the tunnels was interesting. Strangely did get a few interested lookers.

1995 DR, 11th of Summer’s rest

I am fuming now. I had slight hope we would get the deadly mission to help out the blue dragon, I could have worn a pretty formal chain-mail shirt or maybe plate armor. I had even looked into our major library to learn how blue dragons interacted and proper protocol.

All for nothing. Ackerson had come down pale and shaking after the letter flew in and he handed me the pack. I noticed it was much thicker than usual. Usually a manifest was just, “Supplies, guild resources rented, gold reward, gold reward deductions, and a small line for our major injury expenses to be compensated.” All on a single sheet of paper, then the outline written by a desk jockey with no legs. This was a full blown book in size. When I asked what it was about Ackerson just leaned up and whispered into my ear the one thing I didn’t want to hear ever in my existence.

“There is a report of a false hydra by guild watchdogs up in Ohmsford. Your team is the only one capable at the moment to handle it. We have taken measures and given you major bonuses to increase your chances of success. We need you to do this, and…I’m sorry. In case any of you fail, the stone of false hydra adventurers has already been carved upon so we will at least know you all in name and what your designations were in the grand library.”

I’m scared, no I’m terrified. Reading this book made by two wizards accounts is the most terrifying thing ever. These monsters are born from lies in folklore but we have no idea how they spring up? The drawings and the life-cycles of these things are downright horrific.

This is the most I’ve written in this thing in a long while but I can help but think; that I am sending us to the worst kind of death imaginable.

I took precautions just in case. I sent my adoptive father a memory stone explaining everything. Remarking that if he forgets his emerald treasure that its because she died fighting one of the most horrifying monsters of this world for their safety.

I’m going to tell the rest of the party later. Right now they are just going to be aware that its being caused by some cultists at the moment.

1995 DR 12th of Summer’s rest

We are having a last blow out party in the town. Drank myself silly. Kai brought in some amazing cheese. Had a fondue fountain and everything. We were only a little miffed when we found Acanthus floating a maple leaf boat through it. Claimed it would help give it more depth of flavor. I think he’s just being dumb. It does taste mapely though. Lucky bastard that I like maple syrup.

1995 DR, `13th of Summers Rest

Fucking potatoes, cabbage, farm lands and wheat for miles. I don’t want to eat ever again for as long as I live. Well except for pork. Never can give that up. Met some weird farmer named Perry. Claimed he had a scarecrow problem. Exorised it easily enough though Weevil got a small cut. After that a Slaad had erupted from the ground. How the hell this farmer survived with a Slaad on his land I will file into “most definitely an agent of chaos” column. Dispatched it well enough. Had to cast a spell of some power to cure Kai though. She got hit with the chaos disease. Was not interested in having to mercy kill my own party member at the start of the adventure.

We decided to make our way as fast as we could through the evening to the mountains. I knew a place that would give us a good deal on room.

Turns out I was right. The dwarf still remembers me from the good old days down in the caves. Got my friends set up in their own suite while I spent extra for my own private one.

I’ve never enjoyed a bath like this in so long. I’ll have to ask Harriet for a crystal. She finally perfected in making light crystals for the caves and it looks beautiful. I’m sure dad would like one. Who knows, if I managed to send it in time it’ll be a good marker for my memorial on the memory stone.

1995 Dr, 14th Summers rest

Bloody chilly, hellish sky whale. And those two idiots nearly drowned themselves trying to get light crystals when I told them that they were buyable. Claimed it was for the adventure of it and effort. I think they were just being stubborn.

Going into town, everything seemed off. We parked our mule and cart in the stables next to an inn. Ordered drinks as our Tabaxi went upstairs to do his ritual armor cleaning. The rogue managed to convince our druid to steal from an old man who looked like a banker. Greedy morons. Didn’t they see all the guards on high alert everywhere? They were caught by of all things another thief. Chatting with the bartender illuminated a lot. Whatever this is, it started in the northern-western area of town. I asked what the local authority here is. He could only shrug and tell me that it was the Captain of the Guard, Wilma; who runs things as usual. In a weird way it made sense. But it doesn’t make sense. I know there is a big mayoral estate here for a local authority.

1995 DR, 15th of Summers Rest

Dealt with a tailor who had been attacked. The halfling that sits in front of her shop is a creepy old hag of a woman. While here the tabaxi had claw daggers from the slaad start being made. On top of that I managed to convince them to make a nice maul in the old style but big enough for me. The dwarf was amenable when I spoke to him in the tongue of our fathers.

We talked with Leah for a bit. Our rogue tried to do some weird mind trickery that seemed to do something. It appears that not all memories can be completely erased I guess even by magic. The mind is a funny thing. While searching around, I found the picture of her husband and two children. It was hidden in the nightstand drawer. I think she didn’t know what to make of it and it disturbed her.

We met the local cheesemaker by accident. He had been ransacking the town since perfectly fine magic shops and alchemists were just there. Seeing as how the people who run them probably don’t exist anymore to the world. I am letting it slide. Moradin forgive me. Habbakuk and Zeboim as well to appease my sea orc ancestors.

We fought a troll. I burned so many spells and kept a wall between the troll and the everyone else. I got banged up pretty hard. Still that troll got a few lucky swipes on the druid and samurai. They’ve never seen a troll before and I hope they get to remember what happens. Felt prudent to spend most of my spells on healing. There is still a Troll colony here and they are completely feral apparently. I asked about trolls to the Town Captain who apparently has “always ran this town.”

She claims that Trolls are a very rare minor problem that only happened recently. This resort town can kiss my green ass.

Was told to investigate the retirement village for adventurers on the other side of this box canyon. I acquiesced to this request since we being paid. Paid to go and ask questions in that will help our initial investiagion no less. I love when the stars align to throw us a bone.

Met Gloria. She seemed nice. She had a love of ale that rivals some of the heavy drinkers back in the caves.

Acanthes got knocked out something fierce from a quarter shot. He came too and told me he had a weird dream. I suggested he follow his heart which he determined to mean go and meditate to the green father. What he told me afterwards is a puzzle of itself.

A shimmering pillar above the city? The singing I belive is from the false hydra. But this shimmering pillar? What does it mean?

We dealt with an Alemental. Talked to the Destroyers. A nice couple. Maybe I can find a strong man someday. Heh, will it be a man of the earth or a man of the sea like my ancestry wants?

The witch has a crazy love obsession with purple. Quisayle is a strange one to be honest. She seemed more fascinated than concerned about the false hydra.

Mentioned that there is an old tower to the northwest ohmsford that probably held a wizard of some report. She only mentions it because she has no memory of anyone living yet it’s a very nice tower. She is scary good at putting two and two together apparently.

1995 DR.

Had a nightmare. I was back at the inn room with some lady. A giant pale white face came in through the open window and gorged itself on her. As I tried to help another face and long neck came through and tried to eat me. I’m too strong and punched it back.

Woke up in a cold sweat over it. I’m writing this in the morning due to the oddness of this dream.

I clutch my holy symbol of Moradin. The warm glow of his forge comforts me through it. I run my finger over the engraving. If I am going to disappear this will be the one thing I will make sure to survive. It holds the needed identifier for the memory stone and for the guilds false hydra stone. Actually, I should keep this journal out and keep writing in it!

As long as I can see the thing in the moment, I can write about it! By the hammer fall! I can trust myself to keep a good record. I should share this with the group. I also devised that we can use a length of rope to keep us together slightly. This way we know if we have been attacked at least.

Itsafterusanditstryingtoeatmeohmoradinthisis bad. Its tailing us. Dropping its song to attack us!

Oh this is bad. I don’t know what do. If I had a decent mace on me I could beat the hell out of this thing. SHIT TH~

This journal is covered in blood. Inside is a portrait of a Large Half-Orc proudly displaying a Silver rank medal towering over the rest of you looking happy showing off your bronze medals.

A caption below it reads, “ The Squad”

So throughout the campaign they had encountered random weird oddities. Helpful people offering healing, random potions just...inside wolves. All explained away as just some weird quirk of a world they hadn't seen yet. When actually it was their Half-Orc Cleric they never knew they had. I had shamelessly stolen the idea from a D&D community when they were brainstorming about how to bring out a false hydra to be fair. But I think the execution was alright.

#D&D #dnd #dungeons and dragons #false hydra #5e #I should run this again

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catholic-character-tournament · 1 year

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Round 1 - Side A

Propaganda below ⬇️

Pastry

GOD girlie gets a vision of the past showing her the truth of her and all cookies creation, and chooses to keep believing the lies she was fed because she doesn’t know any other way

this girl SO TRAUMATIZED IT'S UNREAL. She's on the tipping point from cult victim to cult persecutor and it hurts sooooooo bad. So Cookie Run Kingdom Tower of Sweet Chaos spoilers but it's unclear what happened to her to make her join, or if she was born into it, or something else, but it *is* clear that she's completely unaware of modern society outside of the Order and is 100% convinced this is how all Rational And Correct people act (hint: It's Not) so she acts all confident and rational but she's actually paranoid as FUCK. She's constantly quadruple checking every single thing she does, every single thought she has and emotion she feels, to make sure it's in line with the Order's expectations of her. She wants that praise and affection SO BAD because everyone's literally SO connection starved!!! And to make it worse, she's sent on a mission to purge all the Cakes living around the Oven the Cookies & Cakes were created in, and on it she encounters the overarching antagonists (this is so in depth but it's literally a micro-plot the lore of this game is INSANE. Sprawling fantasy, political drama, CRK is incredible) and is made aware of the fact (along with the player, whom probably is flipping their shit) that THE COOKIES WERE CREATED BY THE WITCHES SO THEY COULD *EAT THEM.* So her entire life has been shattered but also she's still under the impression that THIS IS ALL SHE HAS. From her perspective it's either this or she becomes what she thinks is a terrible horrible evil worst person on Earthbread Ever. So she goes back and she's like Reverend Mother (real name) I found out the most horrible thing. And her superior is like Ah. *I know.* And she convinces her that she's learnt some horrifying secret that nobody else can know otherwise it'll hurt them too, so SHE STAYS AND GETS WORSE. It drives me CRAZY this place is so bad. This is in motherfucking COOKIE RUN KINGDOM. This game is so dark and graphic it's unreal. Also literally everyone in the Order is a girl for some reason and it's never explained why??? Do they not recruit men??? If they're self sufficient what do they do with the men??? Do they kill them??? Do they convince them they're Actually Just Girls But Different??? Neither would surprise me at this point like actually

hope she explodes

She’s a cookie nun belonging to an order that worships the witches who baked the cookies. She later learns that cookies were baked to be eaten and that all this time she’s been worshipping MONSTERS AND HAS A FAITH CRISIS. RELIGIOUS TRAUMA AF

Angel

I don’t remember if he was Catholic as a human (he was Irish like a few hundred years ago so probably) but his guilt complex as a vampire is so fucking massive it has to be Catholic lbr

well he's from 1700s ireland so. theres that. he's (for most of the series) the only vampire with a soul and he uses that soul to feel really guilty for everything all the time. he moves to LA and starts saving people from demons to try and atone for everything he did while he was a soulless vampire

he makes exactly one facial expression and its |:<

#pastry cookie #cookie run #cookie run kingdom #angel buffy #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series #cct polls #tumblr tournament #tumblr bracket #tumblr polls

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zooophagous · 10 months

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The change in temperature was always so sudden from the earth to the sky. Especially when nude. The damp updrafts of summer air cut through Strauss’ sparse fur and the cold of it was making his joints ache. No matter, he was in a time crunch. The watch in his knap-sack was still pinging his location, and Artemis wouldn’t be able to talk security out of chasing him down for long.

Luckily, he wouldn’t need long. He was sure of it. Sylvain’s odd… obsession, for lack of a better word, would finally be a plus. Maybe he could finish this outing without broken bones. He did have a penchant for breaking things as soon as he foolishly left his safe house.

Finding her wasn’t his immediate problem, really. The largest immediate problem was that he was currently a giant bat, and being seen by the populace might land him a spot on the nightly news. That thin lipped snarky reporter with the bad suit would talk about him. He hated the thought. There had to be a place to land that was simultaneously well hidden while still being close enough to town to quickly find Sylvain before he could be darted and hauled away like a marauding grizzly bear.

A line of trees in a field, a “shelter belt,” as Troy had called them, offered the only real shelter on this piece of plain. He swooped low towards it, and finally touched down onto the grass, leaving a trail in the silver dew that sparkled in the dim moon. He dropped his bag from his jaws as he descended. He had no sooner made ground then he had begun his painful regression back into his human form.

Holding the shape of the great bat took energy and concentration. Releasing it felt like dropping a heavy weight. His back and shoulders ached and burned as muscle and tendon and bone slipped back into itself. His dark fur fell out in sweaty clumps. It stuck to him. He grunted and scraped the foul texture from his skin with his claws. He ran his hand along the dew drops and collected what water he could to wash it from himself.

Next time he had to do this, he resolved to remember to bring a towel. He retrieved his dropped bag and began the task of dressing himself while still covered in cold water and wet hair. The sensory stimuli of it was enough to put him in a biting mood. Thankfully there was currently nobody to bite. He was well hidden, yes. But still too far from town.

At least this time he was prepared. If nothing else, he at least had a shirt. One of his band shirts, the Rolling Stones this time, and a pair of blue jeans, with a comfortable pair of practical sneakers. It was the perfect disguise. He slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way towards the highway.

He’d seen this in a film before. The American phenomenon of the “hitch hiker.” Usually these things were the set up for some hapless fool becoming cannon fodder for some movie monster. Strauss wondered if he would make a good movie monster. He was a vampire, after all, but perhaps too mild mannered.

Perhaps he was better suited to the role of the hapless fool.

He stuck his thumb out in a pantomime of the hitchhiker and walked backwards, facing traffic, trying to make eye contact with a passing car. Hypnosis wasn’t an option, with the cars flying by at a high rate of speed. He would have to make due with his old standby. Charity.

With any luck, the first truck to pass by wouldn’t be Ursula with a taser. Headlights beamed into his face and momentarily blinded him. He blinked the green afterimage away. The wind of passing cars swept his hair. He was jealous, a little. He still hadn’t learned to drive one himself. Not for lack of desire, either, but being trusted with a vehicle was a tall order.

He wasn’t having much luck. Despite the trappings of an ordinary human, there was no hiding his height and his gaunt appearance. No doubt he was a creepier hitchhiker than most. He began to feel worry creep up in his throat when finally, a chariot arrived.

A white pick up, one that even Strauss recognized was a “beater,” but it slowed as it passed him, and finally stopped on the road up ahead. He jogged to meet it. Americans were perhaps stupid, but he could usually count on at least one of them to be kind.

Every nation had its redeeming qualities. He approached the door timidly. The window rolled down to reveal a round, jovial looking face within, illuminated by a cigarette. The man reminded him of Troy, though the hair color was all wrong. He smelled worse than Troy. Smelled of alcohol, really, which would explain perhaps why he was less than cautious about a stranger on the road.

“Hey buddy. You need a lift?”

Strauss hesitated. The car stank, and he was already heavily annoyed by his itchy clothes. He was reluctant to push himself. But time was of the essence.

“Yes… I am a transient. I am trying to make it to St. Joseph, up the road.”

“Well shit. You’re in luck then. I’m heading that way.”

“Excellent.” He glanced down at the door. “May I come in?”

“I stopped for you didn’t I?”

It was as explicit an invitation as he would get. He climbed into the grimy truck and immediately fought the urge to make a rude face when his hand slid over the slightly oily cloth texture of the nicotine soaked seats. The stranger was kind, and the ride was short. It would have to do.

“Danke sir. My name is Mr. Strauss. I am fortunate to have found kindness on the road this evening.”

“Mr. Strauss huh? Don’t have a first name you’re willing to start with? You can call me Jonny.”

The stranger snuffed his cigarette and started down the road while Strauss fumbled with his seat belt. “Transient huh? Where you from, then? And what are you doing out here after dark? It’s dangerous to be walking the highway in the dark. I was worried you’d get hit.”

“I am actually from Germany, sir. I am a ‘recent transplant’ to this state, I suppose. I had a bit of… an emergency this evening. I need to get to town to find someone.”

“Germany? Explains why you talk so damn weird. My mother was a German. Maiden name was Schumacher. You know any Schumachers?”

“I cannot say that I do. It is a large country.”

“Large? Pssh. Your little European countries basically all fit inside Texas. It ain’t that large.” Jonny snarked at him. “So, who is it you’re trying to find in the middle of the night so bad you had to walk down the road to go get em?”

“It is difficult to explain.” Strauss rubbed his neck shyly. “Suffice to say, Mr. Jonny, I am looking for a woman.”

“Oooh I get it. Girl troubles.” Jonny laughed. “I know all about that, bud. She what got you here all the way from Germany?”

“I suppose she did, in a way.” Strauss shrugged. “I very much desire to speak with her. I am not so sure she will be so happy to see me.”

“Eh, you’ll be fine. You’re tall and sort of effeminate, chicks love that sort of thing. That goth emo thing. And the accent. You can win her over.”

“I am glad one of us thinks so, sir.”

“So, this girl. What’s she like? Gotta be special to get you so worked up, hm? She got a name?”

“She is quite unique. A sort of rare breed, similar to myself. Her name is Sylvain. She is petit, she has a tan skin tone, very long black hair, and a wide smile full of razor sharp teeth.”

“Hah! Oh man, you should write romance novels. Sylvain you say? That’s another interesting sounding name. She French?”

“I am not sure.”

“Well, maybe if she is you two can bond over pastries and wine or whatever it is Europeans talk about. Soccer I guess. Or do you call it football?”

“It is called football. The entire world calls it that. Only Americans call it soc-”

Jonny hit the brake hard. Strauss’ words were crushed by the seatbelt that locked tight across his chest. The truck began to fish-tail and finally stopped.

“What was that about?” Strauss demanded. He grabbed the seat belt and with a firm yank, something internal had snapped and he could once again move freely.

Jonny sat stock still, hands on the steering wheel, staring blankly ahead.

“Mr. Jonny?”

Strauss tapped his arm. Perhaps his choice of substances had caught up to him. He turned his gaze out the windshield to meet the truth.

Just beyond the halo of headlights was a dim figure. She stood in the middle of the road, slightly illuminated by the truck, but with her face shrouded in night, except for her eyes, which burned like embers in her smiling face.

Strauss sat still, except to re-buckle his seat belt. Sylvain made her way to the driver door and forced it open. She put her hand on Jonny’s shoulder.

“Get out.”

And he did. And immediately fell face first onto the shoulder, before rolling to the ditch. Sylvain climbed in to claim his spot, and spent a moment adjusting her seat and steering wheel.

“So good to see you again Lu. It’s ok if I call you Lu, right?” She grinned as the vehicle slowly made its way back up to highway speed.

“You could have picked a nicer fucking ride, Lu. I’m gonna need to shower after this.”

“Did you just steal a car?”

“Hardly the worst thing either of us has done.” She rolled down her window and casually hung her arm out the side. “About time you showed up. I was worried you were avoiding me.”

“I was.”

“So what’s got you out and about looking for me, then? You had to know you’d bump into me.”

“I had a hunch.” Strauss replied quietly. He was definitely correct earlier, in this set up, he was very much the hapless fool.

“Don’t be so cagy about it. Did the VanHelsings cut you loose? Set you free? You’re rehabilitated enough for society now?”

“Not quite. Frau Harker will no doubt be on the hunt for me shortly, if she is not on the road already.”

“So this must be something important then, if she wasn’t enough to scare you into staying put.”

“I do not want to lie to you, Sylvain.” Strauss looked out the window, away from her. She was difficult to maintain eye contact with. Perhaps her advanced power of suggestion went so far as to affect even other vampires. “Listen. We need to talk.”

“I thought you’d never ask, Lu.”

She turned and smiled wide at him, showing off a grin of shark-like teeth. Both a greeting and a threat.

“Talk, then. But first, you and I are going to have some fun.”

#wayward souls #writing

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leagueofgardens · 5 months

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The Origins of Assault Lily

In 2005, Obanazawa Kenei (the original creator of Assault Lily, which officially launched much later in 2013) posted a description of a setting that he called "Private!¹ Yurigaoka Girls' Academy" on his blog. Later, he put up an expanded write-up on the website of a model dealing partnership he was a member of. This is an English translation of the expanded write-up.

In translating it, I tried to be as literal as possible while also conveying the rather casual tone that most of the original writing has.

I translated this because I think it's genuinely interesting to see how some of these ideas continued into Assault Lily, while others were changed or discarded. I have assumed that Obanazawa doesn't mind people reading this because it's still online and he has mentioned it in interviews about Assault Lily, but if he ever indicates that he no longer wants it to be public, I'll delete this post.

¹ Private as in "Yurigaoka is a private school", not as in "Obanazawa didn't want anyone to see this."

Yurigaoka Girls' Academy — Setting

In the 23rd century, because of various changes in the planet's environment, living things have also rapidly mutated and evolved.

Some of them have turned into monsters that prey upon humans.

Developed countries have invented new weapons to oppose these monsters, and it's the responsibility of all of humanity to use these weapons. This is so that every single person has the means to defend themselves.

Teenagers are the best at learning how to become warriors, and to train them in advanced fighting techniques, the high school curriculum now includes combat as a subject of study.

Japan is no exception to the state the world is in, and the Ministry of Education oversees the new curriculum. It's been 30 years since that happened. The story begins in 2230, when the belief that humanity can't survive without fighting has spread throughout society.

Yurigaoka Private Girls' Academy… a missionary school for girls that moved to Ikuta² after the new education requirements were implemented.

It's an elite high school that's recognized for teaching its students everything from advanced tactics and strategy to one-on-one fighting, training in the use of the latest weapons, and more. Atop a low hill stands its beautiful cathedral, and its gate rises towards the heavens. A garden in which the chosen maidens gather… that's what Yurigaoka Girls' Academy is.

The setting of Private! Yurigaoka Girls' Academy

Well, it's the year 2200, and all sorts of creatures on the planet have evolved, in a bad way.

So you see, humanity isn't at the top of the food chain any longer. Uh-oh, lizards got all big, so there's dragons and stuff now. Other wacky creatures (you know, monsters! The real gross kinds! Ones with tentacles and stuff!) are spreading all over the place. That means that by the time people are high schoolers, they've gotta be stronger than anyone believed possible! They'll already be drilling like soldiers! Because that's how strong humanity is, y'know? Everyone on the planet is a warrior, that's what this is like! But there hasn't been a world war or some kind of disaster that destroyed the Earth, so civilization is still moving right along. There was a lot of inequality in the world once, but when the monsters showed up, they wiped all that away. So things aren't like that any longer. Anyway! Civilization's progressing in all sorts of ways. Humans aren't Night Heads³ anymore, for the most part. Almost everyone can use over half of their brainpower now. And among those hidden powers, people have plenty of abilities that are a lot like magic and superpowers. So now, with these powers they've gotten that completely ignore the laws of nature, humanity is fumbling for a way to try and remove themselves from the food chain once again. Even in this world, Yurigaoka Girls' Academy is amazing. Guns of all sorts, swords, hand-to-hand fighting—their graduates have all found a way of fighting to call their own, and are throwing themselves into the battle to protect humanity.

Yurigaoka's Unique Educational Systems

1: The Schutzengel System

This is a system where an older student becomes the Schutzengel (meaning guardian angel) to one of her juniors. It's a system dating from the time when Yurigaoka was a Christian school. Well, this part is just like it is in "Someone-sama is Watching"⁴, hee hee. This is a parody, after all, so please excuse the silliness. Anyway, the three school years are known as Erzengels (archangels, 3rd-year students), Schutzengels (guardian angels, 2nd-year students), and stray sheep⁵ (1st-year students), with students from each year taking care of the younger ones. This is a big deal for the party system, which I'll talk about later, and other things too.

2: The party system

At Yurigaoka Private Girls' Academy, there's a system where three people will join up into a party. Of course, the girls in a party together have a super-strong bond! Students can form whatever parties they like, as long as at least one member is a senior. Fighting monsters isn't so easy that three inexperienced girls from the same school year could get together and do it, after all.

3: Sororities⁶

Sororities are a bit like social clubs, but it's not like everyone has to join one. They're like any other club or after-school activity. There are a whole bunch of sororities at Yurigaoka, but five of them are officially recognized by the school, and these five all have their own requirements to join. Being a strong fighter or a good student, that sort of thing. Sororities are an opposing force to the Student Council, which has immense power, and the fact is that it's their presence that allows the school to operate in a democratic manner. The leaders of sororities are called "Masters", and each of them has inherited one of the several special deposited⁷ weapons that are called Gears.

Yurigaoka's Curriculum

Year One

Yurigaoka uses a credit system, and the first year is used to determine the aptitude of new students. Basic fighting skills, handling and practical use of their main weapons, simulation games, mock battles and so forth are all used to choose the best warriors among them. The available electives are equipment training (with missile launchers, bombs, communication gear and so forth.) The most important thing is for students to find a fighting style they're good at. They're also trained to fight in the parties they'll be in later. Normally, during this year, every student will find a Schutzengel who she'll call "Onee-sama." Second-year students also believe that to become a proper student, they need to choose a stray sheep to guide, so they'll be looking for a younger girl who they like during this time. But those who enter into an oath with one another also usually join the same party, so it's not solely about liking or disliking each other personally.

Year Two

It's well known that Yurigaoka is strict with allowing only those who have earned it to graduate, and advancing to the next school year is equally challenging. To progress to their second year, students must have mastered the Deposition⁷ Synchro-System. The Deposition Synchro-System, which allows someone to instantly materialize various weapons, serves as proof that one is a senior Yurigaoka student. (This is a rip-off of Gavan.)⁸ The students will continue advancing the skills they learned during their first year, as they begin fighting real battles as parties. Second-year students also study, as a required subject, the Deck Battle System that uses Sealed Card Decks. By collecting cards, each of which has a special technique with unusually potent offensive ability sealed within it, they'll get highly effective attacks they can use while fighting monsters, although there's a limit to the number of times they can be used. (This is a rip-off of Kamen Rider Ryuki and Blade.)⁸ Notably, the reason that the 13 special weapons used to protect the school are considered special is that because they can take cards that are unusually powerful and effective. These 13 special weapons, called "Gears", belong to the leaders of the student council and the masters of the sororities, and are passed down to others through various means.

Year Three

All the third-year students of Yurigaoka, with their amazing powers, hold the future of Japan in their hands. They've gotten even more accurate and proficient with the Deposition Synchro-System they learned in year one, and the Deck Battle System they learned in year two. They can now elevate party battles to new heights. Third-year students don't need to use wild strategies. They can just charge right in and overwhelm the enemy. That's the true mark of a third-year. As many important positions in the school as possible are held by third-years, like the three student council presidents (the Yellow Lily, White Lily, and Red Lily, hee hee.)⁴ If you hear a girl say without hesitation that she'll take on a thousand enemies, you know she's a senior Yuri girl.

Later On

Graduates from Yurigaoka Private Girls' Academy can proceed straight to Yurigaoka Girls' College. The college's clubs also attract strong fighters who aren't students there.

Weapons and That Sort of Thing

It's not part of the curriculum, but Yuri girls are expected to take many credits' worth of electives during their three years at the school. Depending on their decisions and how motivated they are, they can earn a lot of credits doing this. The electives include weapons training and live combat courses. Oh, and also, the weapons should be the futuristic sort, but the near future. The reason is that I don't know a thing about weapons, hee hee! The only gun I know about is the P-90 from Gunslinger Girl! The only thing I know about warships is some are called Aegis warships! That's why! So keep in mind this is fantasy, in a lot of senses of the word! Someone lend me their brain here! Weapons! I know nothing about them!

The Location

Well, Yurigaoka Girls' Academy is near Ikuta Station on the Odakyu Odawara Line (but this story takes place in 2200, remember? Don't try to find it!) Not Mukogaoka Yuen! Ikuta! The school's on a small hill, where there used to be an experimental facility⁹ used by the old Japanese Army. Yeah, that place! You think the neighbors know about it? By the way, the only trains on the Odakyu line nowadays are those "Romancecar" express trains¹⁰. What's with that?

Gears

These are the 13 special weapons. Not only are their fundamental abilities an order of magnitude better, they have special card readers which can read advanced decks called High Rankers' Decks. They're the latest weapons used to protect the school, and can only be used by people whom they themselves deem worthy. It's impossible for anyone else to use them. Those who can use the Gears also become able to use High Rankers' Decks. The case holding the decks has a thin LCD display that can be used like a touch-sensitive PDA. By entering the right password, you can use super special techniques! The passwords are things like 555, 333 and 000. (This is a rip-off too.)⁸

Yurigaoka Girls' Academy Character Illustrations

I've chosen not to repost Obanazawa's illustrations here because I don't like reposting illustrations that belong to people and not corporations. But you can see them on the original website.

These are characters that I, Obanazawa Kenei, drew.

My scanner is broken, so I took and uploaded these with my mobile phone's camera!

It's crazy, I know! But even if they weren't photos they wouldn't be great!

1: Ruri and Miki¹¹

On the left is the model for this kit. She's a new student who just entered Yurigaoka by passing the high school entrance exam. Yurigaoka has a junior high school, high school and university, so it's pretty tough to enter midway through. But fortunately! Ruri has a gentle, yet sometimes strict onee-sama to guide her! (Yeah, yeah…) On the right is her onee-sama, Miki, a second-year at Yurigaoka. Miki is one of the student council presidents. She's a remarkable person who will soon be one of the pillars supporting Yurigaoka! Oh, and she's rich enough that it'll blow your mind!

Text on the first image My scanner's busted as usual, so I took this on my phone. On the left is the main character, Ruri. I imagine her voice as Saito Chiwa's! On the right is the girl who becomes her onee-sama, Miki. I imagine her voice as Hitomi Nabatame's! My drawings don't have a pattern to them, huh? I can't tell them apart myself!

2: The Commander of the Tricolor Lilies! Shigure Hisae

Yurigaoka's student council has three presidents, and one of them is her, Shigure Hisae. She's a straight-laced person who seems like she's similar to a samurai, but she's one of the most capable student council presidents of all time. She's especially skilled with swords and uses the Gear "Mistilteinn."

So, this girl, before I get too into things, I want to say she's based on Signum¹²! It's fine, isn't it? I just can't say "Laevateinn!" Oh, and watch out for the tentacles, hee hee!

Footnotes

² Ikuta is a train station in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture on the Odakyu Odawara line. It's two stops before Yurigaoka (the station called that, not the Garden, which in current canon isn't even in Kawasaki.) ³ "Night Head" refers to the 70% of their brain that most humans (supposedly) don't use. Those who can use more of their brain have psychic powers. The term comes from a 1992 Japanese television series of the same name. ⁴ This is a reference to Maria-sama ga Miteru. ⁵ Obanazawa wrote this as "stray sheep" in English, otherwise I'd have translated it as "lost lambs." ⁶ I haven't talked about them on this blog before, but this concept survives in Assault Lily as the "Labyrinth Sorority", a clandestine society that acts as a check on the power of Yurigaoka's student council. They operate an unofficial legion, LG Ginnungagap, whose members are registered with the school as freelance Lilies and sortie together. ⁷ Deposition (in Japanese, 蒸着, jouchaku) is a reference to the tokusatsu show Space Sheriff Gavan, where the titular sheriff yells "Deposition!" to have his spaceship encase him in Granium particles that form into his combat suit. In physics, deposition is when a solid surface is coated by individual molecules of another substance (metal plating is one type of deposition.) ⁸ Just to be clear: Obanazawa actually wrote these things here himself. They're not some kind of editorial by me, the translator (the only things I added were these footnotes and the sentences all in italic.) ⁹ This seems to be referring to the Noborito Research Institute, which is now a museum. ¹⁰ I think this is Obanazawa complaining about the real world, not anything related to the setting… Can't be sure though. ¹¹ Ruri's name is almost definitely Ruri, but I'm less sure about Miki. It's not as likely, but the kanji in her name could be pronounced Mitsuki or Miyuki instead. It's impossible to tell from what's written here. ¹² From Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's.

#assault lily #asslily #assault lily lore #yurigaoka girls' academy

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truedairship · 2 months

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Tell me more about your horse, please?

Ooohh boy never ask someone about their horse or they won’t shut up. Okay. I have no idea how much you know about horses, so I’ll try to keep the horse terms to a minimum.

Getting her is a bit of a funny story really. And kind of relevant. But background info: Us mere mortals can’t afford horses competing at the higher levels. Your only chance is basically to buy a promising youngster, train them yourself and hope that the stars align and that in a few years you can compete at the level you wanted. But most of those horses are quite expensive as well. Everybody wants those with good blood for a reason (blood = lineage, breed, how reactive yada yada).

I wasn’t even gonna buy a horse back then because I knew I would be moving abroad a year later, and I already had my pony. (Whom I had considered selling to afford a horse but whatever). Anyways, I helped my trainer break in her youngsters, they got an extended summer break after, and come winter she called me and asked if I wanted C. Because they didn’t get along. She had been a… special cookie… to break in, but an incredibly fun one. So yeah. I got a good horse real cheap because she’s crazy.

She’s… well, she’s a brat. A stubborn, explosive bitch that’s too damn smart for her own good and the biggest goddamn drama queen the world has ever seen. She’s also one of the most hardworking, powerful and talented horses I’ve ever ridden. Her teenage years were eventful to say the least, and it has been a lot of work to teach her some proper manners. I could probably fill a book with all the stupid stunts she’s pulled over the years. But at the same time, that’s kind of the charm. You never have a boring day with her.

Despite her attitude and the drama, she’s genuinely very kind. She just doesn’t show it if she doesn’t have to😅 But she never wants to drop her rider, I’ve only fallen off because we stumbled over an xc-jump and she almost did a somersault. And while she usually is too impatient to stand still, whenever there’s small kids around she won’t move a leg, but you can see her literally twitching because that is tiny human. Must not move. Tiny human fragile, stepping on will injure. She was also the one who accompanied youngsters on their first forest hacks at my old job, because, while hacking out usually is a rollercoaster ride of jumping away from invisible monsters hiding behind stones (thoroughbreds in my heart<3), when the kiddos came with, she was super cool and they could even run into her and she didn’t even bat an eye. Because they are her adopted siblings now and Ohana means family.

So yeah. She has quite the personality but this is already getting long. And when it comes to riding, well, attempting to avoid using technical terms, you can teach just about any horse to move fancy, but riding a horse that does it naturally is just something else. She does everything with such ease and such power. And she loves to learn new stuff, which to me is the most important part. I’d rather ride an eager horse with zero talent than an unmotivated one. Because having to force them to work… nope.

Generally with horses, if you have a bad day, it’s 50/50 whether you’ll have one of the nicest rides of your life because the horse notices that you’re not at your best, or you’ll have what feels like the worst one ever because nothing works and the horse decides that if you’re not gonna try your best, they won’t either. 9/10 times, she’s the first type (and considering that we sometimes can spend the entire warmup discussing whether the chair in the corner will eat us or not, that’s saying something)

That’s also kind of why I’m selling her. I don’t have the time to ride her everyday. So when I do, she’s super duper happy and energetic and it makes me feel all guilty that I can’t ride her more. And it breaks my heart every time she comes running towards me in the field all eager, only for me to give her a pat and a carrot then leave (makes me feel like a parent that doesn’t have time for their kid so they spoil them with toys instead😅). I usually give her a kiss on the nose as a goodbye, but lately she refuses to let me do it unless I have ridden her first. And no, that’s not an exaggeration.

Tl;dr: She’s a bitch, she’s amazing, she drives me crazy and she’s my best friend. Being allowed to ride her is an honour. (and unfortunately she’s aware of that😆)

#sorry this got really long #though you did ask so I’m not fully to blame #asks #thank you for the ask!

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midnightmissionarchives · 2 months

Text

Werewolf by Night Issue 33

Encryption status: decrypted

Opening files...

Now for the thrilling conclusion of Marc Spector's first ever appearance as he does battle with the fearsome werewolf, better known as, Jack Russell.

Let's dive in! This is a long one so buckle up!

When last we left off Marc was hoping to avoid the authorities after he had successfully subdued the beast...or so he thinks! (as if the cover of the comic doesn't give it away).

One thing I'd like to mention before getting in too deep. While Marc was fighting the werewolf near the end of the last issue, Frenchie had gone to locate Jack's sister. So like a gentleman...he lands on the roof of their building, kicks in the window, and asks Topaz and Lissa which one was which and if they didn't want to answer...they would both have to go with him. What a classy man.

Kinda makes me wonder if Marc planned to split the money with him...

I can ask the boss later.

Moving on!

Pretty funny how the police were shocked the caped weirdo with a helicopter didn't do as they were told and stopped trying to get away. I'm sure they weren't but...still.

You can really tell the kind of relationship Marc and Frenchie have by the way Marc sasses him.

Even back in his first appearance, Marc is pretty dramatic and sassy (don't tell him I said that...he might has the Mission get me stuck in a loop or something). He's just so clever with his words like "you stupid idiot".

Of course Jack is no idiot, the werewolf just doesn't like being captured and still is pretty angry at this weird guy that's been beating him up all night.

Moon Knight and the werewolf are thrown from the ladder and into the waters below, narrowly missing the pier. After exchanging a few blows under water, Marc manages to drag the, as he calls him, "mangy freak" up onto the dock. Now back on dry land, the werewolf takes his chance and goes for Moon Knight again.

With being so close to the water while trying to fight each other the two end up in the water a couple more times all while Marc tried to "pound" into the werewolf's head that he's to be taken alive. The last time Marc pulls himself from the water he struggles to catch his breath, but doesn't have much time as the werewolf is right behind him and has the Moon Knight at his mercy...but doesn't have a chance to reap his reward as the night slowly fades to the day causing him to turn back into the human, Jack Russell, right before Marc's eyes much to his disbelief.

Hearing someone approach, Marc thinks it might be the cops, but no it's a presumably homeless drunk that is just taking an unsteady stroll along the pier, leaving after advising Marc that him and his friend shouldn't be swimming in the polluted waters.

And you know what this absolute dork does? Now remember everyone, this version of Marc was merely a hired hand to hunt down the werewolf. He was told "wear this suit and call yourself this silly name when you go and get this monster", he does not at this time have any real attachments to any moon god or anything...

But this dork goes and says this...

This guy who's only been "Moon Knight" for what? Maybe 24hrs?? If that!! is saying things like "thank the moon". He lives for the drama and he is feeling this masked identity.

Even the committee guy is like, "wow, you've really committed to the bit haven't you?"

On a more somber note, a couple panels before we learn that due to the extensive damage Jack had done to his best friend, Buck, while he was the werewolf has unfortunately put him in a coma. He did wake briefly and muttered Jack's name as well as Button's mom's name, Elaine. Buck Elaine had apparently only been out on one date.

Now...back to the committee and Jack's fate...

The committee was indeed stalling all day because they were trying to wait until night time to see if Jack would transform. It's then we learn that the committee intends to use Jack as a sort of weapon when he's transformed into the werewolf to kill political/business rivals and really anyone else that would get in their way. And once they determine which of the girls is Jack's sister they intend to do the same with her, presumably.

Jack turns his attention to Moon Knight calling him out for his role in all this, asking him if he's shocked to find out he's just a normal guy the rest of the month. He then emphasizes his plight by saying that being a werewolf is a far worse cage then the bars he's currently trapped in. And with that, night falls and Jack is transformed yet again into the werewolf, much to the committee's shock, horror, and satisfaction.

But Marc doesn't seem to happy with his job well done...

Even from the very beginning, Marc has always had a good sense for what was right. Sure he's a mercenary doing odd jobs for money, but when faced with real injustice he can't seem to be content with just standing by and washing his hands of it.

So he unleashes the werewolf. As it turns out the werewolf only has one target in mind...the man who caused him so much pain...Moon Knight. But, Marc isn't going to go down so easily. Knocking a gun out of one of the frightened committee member's hands and dodging the werewolf, sending him flying into another committee member, Marc remembers the girls and how they're practically sitting ducks. With practiced aim, he throws his moonarangs, cutting them free and urges them to run to safety, ensuring that Jack would be fine.

Together, Moon Knight and the werewolf take out each member of the committee, including the fatso leader.

With that, issue 32 of Werewolf by Night comes to a close. Jack is off to do werewolf things, Marc pocketed 10 grand and got a cool new suit and moon obsession out of it. Overall, I'd call this a win.

Alright everyone. If you made through this file, you're a trooper. It was long for sure, but a lot of action and character related things happened in this issue that it was hard to trim the fat, so to speak.

I think with this issue we really start to get a better idea of the character "Marc Spector" that was taking shape, like a figure solidifying in the fog. In issue 32 we learned about who Marc was on a surface level, but in issue 33 we start to get more a sense of who he is. We get a sense that he's not some greedy meat head who's only driving force is money. He's someone that can and does care about innocent people and doing what's right and just. Jack was never really his enemy, he was just a target to be aquired and once Marc learned just what was instore for Jack, it just didn't sit right with him. And yeah, kidnapping Lissa and Topaz isn't a good look, but him and Frenchie had no intentions of hurting them and when the moment came Marc made sure they could get away to safety.

I'm interested to see how the character begins to grow and develop from here, especially once the "personas" (that's how they seemed at the time) of Jake and Steven get introduced.

Even this very rough simple form of "Marc Spector" is still a very complex character, or at least shows the great potential to be a complex character.

Thank you for joining me as we dive into the archives. Hope you enjoyed the read! We may skip around a bit with the next files that are being decrypted, maybe something a little more recent.

See you then!

#moon knight #marvel #marvel comics #midnight mission archives #werewolf by night #jack russell

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