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themitalipatel · 8 months

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CHAINETH

Chaineth is an N-in-a-row abstract strategy game that combines elements of strategy, placing and moving attempting to create a layout of n of your pieces in a straight line.

Welcome to our blog, where we unveil the captivating journey of creating an abstract strategy game. In this concise series, we'll take you through the evolution of our game, from concept to conquest, without skimming over the valuable lessons and reflections we've gathered along the way.

Game Stats: Players: 2

Age group: 9+

Playtime: 30-40 mins

Synopsis: ‘Chaineth’ is a two player game involving a hexa-triangular grid wherein the players have to strategically place their pieces aligning with the specific rules of the grid, in order to make long horizontal chains using diagonal placement, while blocking the other’s chains from getting longer. Each end-to-end chain has a bonus while counting points. The game has a fun old school competitive feel to it, with a modern touch and is a good brain teaser/ exercise for people of almost all age groups!

Components:

Rhombus shaped game board with a hexa-triangular grid played in the orientation of a diamond.

Player’s marker set of 41 pieces each of their respective colors.

One ring shaped marker for each opponent to track moves.

How to play:

Set up: Place the game board aligned such that the longer ends of the diamonds face the players. Keep the assigned color marker pieces on both sides where the players are seated respectively.

2. Progression/ Gameplay Rules:

Placement:

The first player starts by placing a piece in any empty space on the hexa-triangular grid defining the opponent’s next move.They must mark their placement with a ring each move they make.

The next player must place their piece only in diagonally intersecting rows of the opponent’s piece.

A player cannot place a piece in a cell adjacent to the last two pieces placed which will be marked by the rings after the move has been made.

Movement:

Players can, instead of placing a new piece, choose to move their existing piece on the board into any free spaces within its own intersecting diagonals. This will be counted as a move and must not be followed by another movement by the same player.

A player can not place their moved piece into the opponent’s intersecting diagonals.

Movement can only be done while there is scope to make a placement within the diagonals too.

Version 1

Objective: Creating as many long horizontal chains as possible.

Situational Rules:

If a horizontal chain connects both sides of the board, the player gets two bonus points.

If a player has no scope for placement then the game ends regardless of scope for movement.

End: The game ends exactly when there is no scope for placement after the opponent’s turn, regardless of scope for movement

Scoring:

The scoring is done based on the no. of horizontal chains of three or more each player has made.

No. of points for each chain is equal to the number of pieces in it.

The final score is the total points on both sides.

Two Bonus points are then added for each complete chain that touches both sides of the board.

Win/Lose Condition: The Player with more points wins.

Version 2

Objective: The players must make horizontal chains that have to touch the board on both ends.

End: The game ends exactly when there is no scope for placement after the opponent’s turn, regardless of whether there is scope for movement.

Scoring:

The scoring is done based on the no. of horizontal chains touching the board on both ends.

Each such chain counts for one point.

The final score is the total points, on both sides.

Win/Lose Condition: The Player with more points wins.

Game Developmental Process

Iteration 1: Narrative

Dreamers answered experimenters' questions or solved simple math problems, showing that complex two-way communication between the dreaming and waking world is possible.

Number of players: 3

Components:

A three tier circular inner board and a hexagonal tilted other board

1 reality piece and 3 dream pieces for each player in respective colours

Chance cards

Obstacle cards

Dice

Objective: To kill your opponent in reality.

Gameplay:

Players are assign their area where they can place and start, they place one reality piece in the hexagonal board and three in the dream circular board.

A player rolls the dice that determines the number of tiles a piece will move in reality board and the tile they land upon determines the number of tiles the dream pieces move.

One can land on an obstacle tile or a chance tile which further directs on what one is supposed to do. The players are supposed to obstruct the path of their opponents and push them inwards in the dream board to get them eliminated.

The pieces I dream can move anyway: clockwise, anticlockwise and inwards.

One wins when it is the last ma standing.

Play test 1 Feedback:

Lack of theme essence and relatability of both the boards.

No incentive to play.

Players need to be more incharge.

Situation cards can be introduced.

One element needs to be linear.

Board Explorations

Iteration 2: Annihilate

Number of Players: 2

Components:

A hexa-triangular game board with alternate triangles in black and white.

10 solid triangular tiles for each player in their respective colors (yellow or pink).

Objective: The objective of "Diagonal Dominance" is to eliminate all of your opponent's tiles before they eliminate yours.

Setup:

Place the hexa-triangular board on a flat surface.

Each player takes 10 solid triangular tiles in their chosen color (yellow or pink).

Players sit on opposite sides of the board, with their tiles aligned on the starting triangles of their own territory.

Gameplay:

Players take turns, starting with the player using the yellow pieces.

2. On a player's turn, they can do one of the following actions:

Move: Move one of their tiles one space at a time along the diagonals. Tiles must always be moved diagonally.

Horizontal Move: In their own territory (triangles of their color), a player can make a horizontal move, meaning they can move their tile to an adjacent triangle of the same color horizontally.

Safe Spot: There is one safe spot marked in each of the opponent's territories. Tiles cannot be jumped over while on a safe spot.

3. Tiles change color when entering the opponent's territory:

A player's tile remains on their own territory color when on their ground.

A player's tile flips onto the opponent's color triangle upon entering their territory halfway across.

4. Elimination:

A tile can eliminate an opponent's tile by jumping diagonally over it, but only when there's an empty space to land on diagonally beside the opponent's tile.

Once a tile eliminates an opponent's tile, the eliminated tile is removed from the board.

If a player's tile reaches the opponent's end of the board, it starts moving backward using the same rules.

5. Winning:

The game continues until there is only one opponent's tile left on the board.

The player with the remaining tile is declared the winner.

Note:

This was intended to be a game of strategy, where players must carefully plan their moves to eliminate their opponent's tiles while protecting their own. Use tactics and clever positioning to dominate the board and claim victory.

Play Test 2 Feedback:

There should be ease in reaching the final tile.

Restrict killing and keep all the tiles within the board without elimination.

Change the objective.

The game is lacking conflict or dynamicness.

Identify more ways of winning other than killing.

There is no progression and less build-up to keep people interested.

Play test 3 Feedback:

The game seems continuous.

Purpose is not clear.

Moves are not dynamic enough.

The safe spots are too close, defeating the advantage.

Different objective for winning would be better.

Would like a little diversity in the tiles.

Add more elements.

ANALYSING GAME MATERIALS

A hexa triangular grid provides inherent balance and symmetry. Each hexagon has six equidistant neighbours and so does each triangle has three. The grid’s geometry adds spatial complexity. Players need to consider both the horizontal and vertical aspects of the grid, here diagonals.

The grid is composed of several geometric elements: Hexagons, triangles, vertices, edges, diagonals, centres, symmetry lines and area relationships (the total area of the hexagons is equal to the sum of the areas of the triangles within them).

Shape formation: hexagon, triangles, parallelograms, diamond/ rhombi, irregular polygons, patterns, modular map design.

The grid allows for multiple movement options where players can move along hexagonal or triangular edges, which provides a variety of routes and distances. Potential movement: Rotation, Adjacent triangles (triangles that share an edge with the current triangle), Reflection/ Flip, Zig zagging, Looping and other edge movements, symmetry operations

Potential game mechanics: Tile placement and territory control, Pattern matching, Movement and pathfinding, Tessellation puzzles, Maze, Abstract strategy game, Connectivity and network

Iteration 3: Building Bridges

Number of Players: 2

Components:

A hexa-triangular game board with alternate triangles in black and white.

45 solid triangular tiles for each player in their respective colors (yellow or pink).

Objective: The objective is to build a bridge of triangles connected by at least one side, ultimately connecting opposite faces of the board while blocking or taking over the opponent’s tiles.

Setup:

Place the same hexa-triangular board on a flat surface.

Each player takes 45 solid triangular tiles in their chosen color (yellow or pink).

Players sit on opposite sides of the board, with their tiles.

Gameplay:

1. Players take turns, any color can go first starting from the safe spot.

2. On a player's turn, they can do one of the following actions:

Move: Move one of their tiles one space at a time about the vertices of the triangles.

Place: Players can place their tiles in any open space

Safe Spot: There is one safe spot marked in each of the opponent's territories. Tiles cannot be jumped over while on a safe spot.

4. Elimination:

A piece or chain can eliminate an opponent's piece or chain by jumping diagonally over it, but only when there's an empty space to land on diagonally beside the opponent's piece.

The eliminated pieces are removed from the board.

5. Winning:

A player wins the game by creating a bridge of connected triangles from one opposite face of the board to another and having most tiles covered with their pieces.

Use tactics and clever positioning to dominate the board and claim victory.

Play test 4 Feedback:

There is no incentive for conflict.

Restrictive board, half of the board is not being utilised.

Game starts getting static.

Making an army (a longer chain) is restricting the movement.

Review winning conditions.

Iteration 4: N-in-a-row Connect

No of Players: 2

Components:

Rhombus shaped game board with a hexa-triangular grid played in the orientation of a diamond

Player’s marker set of 41 pieces each of their respective colors.

Set up: Place the game board aligned such that the longer ends of the diamonds face the players. Keep the assigned color marker pieces on both sides where the players are seated respectively.

Objective: Creating as many long horizontal chains as possible while blocking others’.

Gameplay:

Placement:

The first player starts by placing a piece in any empty vertice on the hexa-triangular grid defining the opponent’s next move.

The next player must place their piece only in diagonally intersecting rows of the opponent’s piece.

A player cannot place a piece in a space adjacent to the last two pieces placed.

End: The game ends exactly when there is no scope for placement after the opponent’s turn, regardless of scope for movement.

Scoring:

The scoring is done based on the no. of horizontal chains each player has made.

No. of points for each chain is equal to the number of pieces in it.

The final score is the total points on both sides.

Win/Lose Condition: The Player with more points wins.

Playtest 5 Feedback:

It's a task to keep track of the previous piece placed.

First movers advantage.

Objective seems a little vague.

Playtest 6 Feedback:

First movers advantage.

Review point system (longer chains and clusters should have advantages).

Pieces should be dynamic.

Visual progression of victory.

Playtest 7 Feedback:

No incentive to move.

Limiting pieces can favour moving.

Capturing the pieces will be more engaging.

Goal needs to be clearer.

Playtest 8 Feedback:

Keeping track of the last pieces’ placement or movement.

It was strategic for one and casual for other; both the players had different goals set for themselves, one was trying to make the longest chain and other was strategically placing in order to block the opponents chain by placement or future placements.

Iteration 5: Chains (inverse rules)

Playtest 9 Feedback:

Diagonal chains are forming better with this method

Restrictions are too heavy and unbalanced

Progression is in reverse (decreasing)

Feels more like a puzzle

Feels incomplete

Objective could be formations instead of chains because placements is open ended in a way

Playtest 10 Feedback:

Game seems confusing

Rules are too complex

The diagonals are all the same size if end to end

Defeats the fun

This gameplay would be better on a different board size

Objective could be different for this gameplay

Iteration 5: Chains (Single tile movement)

Movement: Players can move existing pieces by one space per turn if they choose, instead of placing a new one. This is possible only into spaces that are free around it.

Playtest 11 Feedback:

The current board material- paper is fun to play on

The pawns are fidgety, helps with thinking

They had fun playing it

The single movement makes the game slow, should be worked on

Can the movement be consecutive or does it need a break?

Good brain exercise

Playtest 12 Feedback:

It is a fun game and engaging.

It needs a little more pacing because it is very slow move by move.

Experiment with limiting the pieces

Feels like a simple gbut complex game, has good suspense

Capturing opponent’s pieces could be tested

It is challenging to keep track of last moves and next moves at the same time.

Iteration 5: Chains (Free movement)

Playtest 13 Feedback:

Would like to have markers to keep track of the last two moves of both players’ before making the next one

There should be extra points for a chain connecting both ends of the board

Shouldn’t move consecutively maybe

Challenging game can unfold multiple ways

Various ways to approach this strategically (liked)

Iteration 6: Chains (Ring placement optional)

Playtest 14 Feedback:

Noticed that the more you keep moving pieces, the lesser pieces you have on the board, so it is a good risk point.

Rings personally made it slow, would like to have it as an option.

The organic paper feel iof the board is nice.

Feels like an old school classic abstract strategy game.

The game is serious but the coloured stationery paper balls as pawns make it more fun, engaging and less serious.

Would definitely play it again.

Fabrication

The final board was explored in MDF and Acrylic sheet. The pieces individually were also explored in MDF with varying radius, acrylic and marbles.

This project was done as a college assignment by Mitali Patel and Riya Chedda, 4th year Communication Design students of National Institute of Design, Assam for Game Design module guided by Swapnesh Somaiya.

The course has emphasised the importance of learning from experiences, ethical considerations, and the value of collaboration, providing a holistic approach to strategic thinking that can be applied across various industries and domains.

The course encouraged us to consider a wide range of factors when making strategic decisions in games. This includes assessing competitors, understanding player psychology, and accounting for various in-game variables and to consider a wide range of factors when making strategic decisions in games. This includes assessing competitors, understanding player psychology, and accounting for various in-game variables. This systems thinking approach can be applied to understanding and improving processes, whether in organisational management, engineering, or logistics.

The course goes beyond linear thinking by fostering a more diverse, layered, and in-depth approach to problem-solving making us better equipped to analyse complex scenarios, consider multiple variables, and make well-rounded decisions that account for a wide range of factors.

Credits: Suvendu Shekhar Das, Akash Baruah, Abhigna Chintala, Tanvin Badireddi, Aswin SG, Muhammad Razak, K. Harish Singh, Prithvi Sheela, Shreya Maheswari, Kashish Gulati, Priyanshi Mehta

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telecomgreys · 2 years

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Super mario 64 ds rom extender

SUPER MARIO 64 DS ROM EXTENDER WINDOWS

Princess Peach, as she appears in the ending, has a behavior for being talked to you can do this by placing Peach in a map with a level editor and going up to her and pressing A or B.

Sometimes it is just how they react to metal characters, but sometimes they have unique behavior for the powerup (mostly just being destroyed).

Some enemies have a behavior for touching the character when they are huge, even if you cannot become huge in that level.

The warp is also smaller in the early room, to fit the smaller window. In the final room, the exit is set to entrance 0x0 - falling down to the center of the main castle floor, which is also used for when you lose a life or get a star in the "? Switch" level. In the early room, the setting of the exit that defines the entrance the player returns to after losing a life or getting a star is set to entrance 0x00 - standing on the center of the main castle floor, which is also used when the player exits a level via the pause menu. The sign has the same settings as the final room.īy removing the warp behind the door in the foyer that goes to the map containing the new room, setting the door so it goes to area 6 (the area the original room is in), and adding collision data, the player can enter it.

SUPER MARIO 64 DS ROM EXTENDER WINDOWS

The DS remake replaced this with a much larger room in a separate map with the sign, two stained-glass windows - with the one on the right warping to the slide, doors that allow you to swap characters, and a door going to Peach's Rec Room.ĭespite this, the original room is still a part of the castle model, complete with the sign and Secret Slide warp, though most of the textures are incorrect and it doesn't have any collision. In the original game, the room containing The Princess' Secret Slide is a small hexagonal room with a sign and three stained-glass windows of Peach. The names for the unused maps come from the crash debugger/map select and model/directory names, respectively. The levels don't have proper star select screens, so they just display text from other parts of the game. Either input the Action Replay codes listed on the Notes page, then hold Select when loading a used save file, or use the map select. file-id - Unknown, may be the last file ID that was read from the ROM's file system.The first number is the type ID (in the above screenshot it is 3, which corresponds to STAGE). ProfName - Identifies which actor type caused the problem.LoopProc - Which part of the main loop was running at the time of the crash corresponds to a specific virtual function on the problem actor.PlayerID - The character that was being used at the time.The BUILDTIME text file is printed on the top of the screen.Here's an explanation of some of the info on it: It was used by the developers to debug crashes and other errors in the game since it helps pinpoint exactly where an issue occurred in the code. This screen also exists in Animal Crossing: Wild World and New Super Mario Bros. Super Mario 64 DS is a remake of the N64 original, adding minigames, new playable characters, new areas, improved graphics, and 30 more Stars to collect. This game has hidden development-related text. Also known as: Shényóu Mario DS / 神游马力欧 DS (CN)

#Super mario 64 ds rom extender

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rootlong · 2 years

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Super mario 64 d s cheats

#Super mario 64 d s cheats how to#

#Super mario 64 d s cheats full#

#Super mario 64 d s cheats windows#

Princess Peach, as she appears in the ending, has a behavior for being talked to you can do this by placing Peach in a map with a level editor and going up to her and pressing A or B.

Sometimes it is just how they react to metal characters, but sometimes they have unique behavior for the powerup (mostly just being destroyed).

Some enemies have a behavior for touching the character when they are huge, even if you cannot become huge in that level.

Update it with a new source or upload the unused actors behavior and Princess Peach unused animations via video/gif on here. The warp is also smaller in the early room, to fit the smaller window. In the final room, the exit is set to entrance 0x0 - falling down to the center of the main castle floor, which is also used for when you lose a life or get a star in the "? Switch" level. In the early room, the setting of the exit that defines the entrance the player returns to after losing a life or getting a star is set to entrance 0x00 - standing on the center of the main castle floor, which is also used when the player exits a level via the pause menu. The sign has the same settings as the final room.īy removing the warp behind the door in the foyer that goes to the map containing the new room, setting the door so it goes to area 6 (the area the original room is in), and adding collision data, the player can enter it.

#Super mario 64 d s cheats windows#

The DS remake replaced this with a much larger room in a separate map with the sign, two stained-glass windows - with the one on the right warping to the slide, doors that allow you to swap characters, and a door going to Peach's Rec Room.ĭespite this, the original room is still a part of the castle model, complete with the sign and Secret Slide warp, though most of the textures are incorrect and it doesn't have any collision. In the original game, the room containing The Princess' Secret Slide is a small hexagonal room with a sign and three stained-glass windows of Peach. 13.1 Multiplayer Castle's Outdoor Garden.5.3 Multiplayer Stairs and Barrier (0x0128 & 0x0129).If you know about any cheats we don't have, or you have some tips not listed below please let us know and we will add them, crediting the submitter. Get 120 stars then jump into the cannon outside the castle, shoot yourself onto the roof where you will find Yoshi, speak to him and he will give you a more powerful triple jump ability and 100 lives! Go to the end of this level and defeat the boss, when you defeat the boss you'll get a key which unlocks the room with Wario in. To do this you need Luigi, first go to the room with the mirrors - in this room there are two power flowers, take one of them go through the mirror, go through the painting and you will end up in a land of ice. With Luigi in Mirror room, hop into Wario's Painting and defeat the giant ice bully

#Super mario 64 d s cheats how to#

There are a number of keys available to unlock in Super Mario 64 DS, here's a table of the keys and how to get each one Key nameīeat King Boo in Luigi's Painting on the 3rd Floor of Big Boo's Hauntīeat Boomboss behind 8-Star Door in the Rec-Room

#Super mario 64 d s cheats full#

If you've taken some damage, jump into water that is deep enough to submerge you til the breathing indicator comes up, then rise to the top again and you'll have full life.Īt Cool, Cool Mountain go down the slide at the cottage, when you leave the cottage and kill the Goombas outside pick up their coins, you can then go to the warp and repeat the process over and over until you have 255 coins, which is the highest amount the coin counter goes to. At the cannon there are three 1-up's, a cap and Luigi's rabbit.Ĭircle the wooden posts found in some levels a few times and five coins will come out, it usually takes three circles around them In order to access the cannon outside the castle you need to get 150 stars. Get all 150 stars and then return to Cool, Cool Mountain where you will find that the penguin has become obese, and you race him again as a fat penguin. You can find below all the cheats and tips we have available in our database for Super Mario 64 (Nintendo DS) Super Mario 64 (Nintendo DS) - Cheats & Tips

#Super mario 64 d s cheats

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theplaycomputer · 2 years

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Let Your Kid Appreciate the Beauty of Mathematics

Your kid could be one among thousands of kids who hate maths. What may surprise you, however, is that the problem may lie not with the kid but with the way Mathematics has been taught in schools all along.

Imagine if children were to become naturally interested in Mathematics and enjoy it instead of fearing it. It could open up plenty of possibilities, especially when the world is moving toward automation and STEM education, robotics for kids and coding for kids are in great demand.

Students and Mathematicians Think Differently About Maths

What is Mathematics? The answer to this question receives markedly different responses from students and mathematicians.

Students often think about mathematics as a subject of numbers and calculations by following specific rules or procedures. On the other hand, mathematicians consider maths a study of patterns and describe it as a creative and aesthetic subject. This difference doesn’t crop up in descriptions of different subjects, such as English literature.

This difference has a lot to do with how mathematics is taught in schools. Children consider it as a performance subject, where they are required to find the correct answers to the question in a given time. It is seen as a test subject to get maximum questions right. This constant testing leads students to think that is what mathematics is

Mathematics need not be that. It could be visual, full of uncertainty and made of connections and creativity. It is about exploring and making new interpretations and not about definitive answers. This makes school mathematics very different from real mathematics. Understanding maths in this way can lead kids to appreciate mathematics’s beauty better.

Mathematics is About Patterns

Mathematics is about seeing patterns, connections and relationships. A mathematical study can help us understand patterns and create new knowledge. Mathematical patterns are used in navigation, space missions, and cellphone networks. Thus, these patterns touch our everyday lives and are an integral part.

Going beyond seeing mathematics as finding the correct answers to questions would require kids to look into the mathematics of nature. Patterns could be observed in wildlife, animal behaviour, weather etc. Snowflakes, for example, are formed in hexagonal shapes. And it happens because when water freezes, water molecules form a hexagonal pattern.

Mathematics in Animals

Animals too extensively use mathematics. Take spiders, for example; they follow mathematical patterns to build efficient spider webs.

When a spider starts building a web, it begins by first building a star shape between two supports. After creating the star shape, the spider moves on to building a spiral. The catch is that the loop needs to be completed as quickly as possible to strengthen the star shape. To save time, therefore, the spider follows a logarithmic pattern. In a logarithmic pattern, the distance between each subsequent turn around the star’s centre increases by the same factor.

Following this pattern allows the web to expand more quickly as it gets larger. The logarithmic design leaves significant gaps between successive layers of the spiral. To counter this, the spider starts spinning a second spiral, following an arithmetic pattern. In an arithmetic pattern, the distance between successive turns remains the same. Thus, the circle is denser with small gaps, enough to allow the spider to catch its prey in the web.

Dolphins make clicking sounds, and then the sound echoes after hitting an object. The dolphins then use the length of time it took for the sound to reach back and the sound’s quality to determine the distance at which other dolphins are.

A Different Approach

Mathematics exists everywhere, in nature, art, and the world. As parents, your work would be to make kids realise this. It will help them see the breadth of the field of mathematics; Mathematicians aver that maths is not about finding answers but about asking the right questions.

Research studies have shown that when students get a chance to pose mathematics problems, considering a situation and asking a question from it makes the subject more interesting, and kids can engage more deeply with the topic.

This approach to learning real mathematics is quite different from how it is taught in classrooms. Well-known mathematician Stephen Wolfram proposes working on mathematics using a four-step method:

1.Pose questions 2.Developing a mathematical model 3.Performing computation 4.Going back to the real world to see if the original question was answered

It starts with asking the right question, then setting up a mathematical model to solve the question, performing a calculation and finally seeing if the solution works in the real world. In schools, too much emphasis is placed on the third step of the calculation, which a calculator or a computer can perform.

The ability to calculate or compute has dropped significantly in importance. However, top mathematicians possess the ability to ask good questions, develop models and analyse results. These are also the skills that will be in demand at work.

Mathematics is collaborative work. What is needed is the ability to reason mathematically to prove or disprove theories. Debating about ideas, forming logical conclusions and arguing with other mathematicians is what mathematicians do. In schools, students are made to solve problems alone, and there is no classroom discussion about the topics. Such discussions encourage students to think critically, engage them, and develop new mathematical pathways.

As parents, you can focus on making your kid’s mathematical learning a collaborative work with more focus on asking the right questions and the ability to reason through the answers. Don’t let your kids remain trapped in a limited understanding of Mathematics, Let them see the beauty of it.

This article was first published here: https://playcomputer.org/let-your-kid-appreciate-the-beauty-of-mathematics/

Play Computer (Pee Cee) is India’s First Open Source Programmable Electronic Platform specially designed for kids. It is designed to promote STEM Education & Learning for Kids in a fun way.

With this pocket ninja, kids learn about Robotics, Coding, AI, and IoT through practical projects. Kids are not only learners but also become creators and problem solvers who are not afraid to test their creativity and try something new.

#Playcomputer

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honeycherrydohnuts · 3 years

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listen u guys solitaire is so good, spider solitaire is such a good game trust me, i haven’t been able to stop playing it over the past few weeks

#dohnut speaks #specifically the clubhouse 51 games version #its so good to just put music on and arrange the cards its very chill #im starting to think that i actually enjoy puzzles........like an old person or something #my mum got the local paper yesterday and she gave it to me like 'thought u might like these puzzle pages'#and i did #i was actually excited #it had sudoku and crossword and arrow word!!!#also theres this one puzzle they have in the weekend tv guide thats like a bunch of hexagons #and u cant put a number more than once in a hexagon #and the numbers are the same where the hexagons touch #idk what its called but id love a big book of them #also yes im in lesson yes im posting on tumblr ssshhh dont tell my teacher

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twistedtummies2 · 3 years

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A Feline Valentine (Che’NyaXReader; Stuffing)

HUZZAH! It took me writing well into the night last night, but I was able to complete my Valentine’s Day Special after all! Hope you all enjoy! :D

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Six o’ clock. Tea Time. You really wondered (with a sigh) how Riddle got along so well with your boyfriend at times like this. Granted, you loved the fluffy-eared gremlin to bits, but if there was one thing he never seemed to care about… …Well…actually…he cared about very little. It was probably part of why Riddle didn’t dislike him for going to Royal Sword instead of Night Raven; the Cheshire Cat was by no means a hero…but he was also by no means a villain. And he was certainly by no means punctual. You paced around the table you had set up in the Tea Garden of Heartslabyul. In the light of the golden afternoon, you paused to look around. You had to admit, you’d always found Heartslabyul to be one of the most beautiful dorms; if the historic Rose Garden owned by the Queen of Hearts was even half as beautiful as the one Riddle Rosehearts and his pack maintained, it still would have been perfectly enchanting. It was an unseasonably warm afternoon, but with a light breeze that whistled through and cooled it pleasantly to a perfect temperature. The heart-shaped topiary sculptures and vibrant red roses that poked from the great green hedge rows were the perfect natural decoration for a day like today…only helped by the special scarlet paper lanterns that had been strung up, in place of the usual blue and yellow. The paper was patterned with images of hearts. Similarly, instead of the black, red, and white bunting that was usually set out, you had purposefully selected pink and purple flag streamers, which lightly fluttered and flapped in the delicate wind. You frowned as you looked back to the table; you were actually starting to feel a little worried. You’d taken a lot of time to prepare this occasion. Riddle had even allowed you to make use of his personal table; he claimed it was due to Rule 214, but he never explained WHAT Rule 214 was, so you didn’t know why that was. You checked your cell phone to see the time; it was now a couple minutes past six, you still found no sign of hide nor hair from him. You bit your lip as you stuffed your phone back in your pocket; had something happened to him? Even on a day like today, when everyone was spending time with their special someone (presuming they had one), Night Raven had plenty of troublemakers out and about…and while your beau was no pushover, especially for the “pompous, pampered little princes” who stayed in the Dorms of Royal Sword Academy, you didn’t want to risk he’d run into beasts somewhat fiercer than himself. He only had eight lives left, after all. “Come on, kitten,” you mumbled to yourself, tapping your foot with impatient nervousness. “Where are you…?” “Twaaaas brillig, and the slithy Toves did gyre and gimble in the waaabe. All mimzyyyy were the Borogoves, and the Mome Raths outgraaabe!”

You knew that strange, up-and-down, melodic voice, naturally. You knew that song, too, and therefore knew who was singing it. You glanced about curiously, but you saw nothing; this wasn’t surprising, however. Your boyfriend from Night Raven’s rival college had a habit of being non-corporeal. “Che’Nya?” you called out, then smirked. “You might as well show yourself, that ‘ghostly singing’ thing isn’t as impressive as you think it is.” A pouting meow was heard, from seemingly everywhere at all. “I thought you liked my singing. In fact, I thought you said it was The Cat’s Meow!” You blinked dully. “Those puns are going to get you in trouble, you know that, don’t you?” you droned. “I suppose it ‘hiss’ possible.” “That one,” you snapped out, lifting a finger in emphasis. “That one was ‘Meowsy.’” “Awwww, my little bunny is making cat puns now, too!” crooned the voice of the Cheshire neko. “I’m so proud!” You rolled your eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I learned from the best,” you drawled, waving a hand dismissively. “Now come on out!” A pause. No response. “I’m waiting!” you called out, louder. Right on cue, you felt a tap on your right shoulder. You turned…and spotted nothing. Then came a tap on your left shoulder. You rolled your eyes, turned again…and once more spotted nothing. Then you started to turn around…and found yourself almost eyeball-to-eyeball with two large, glowing, golden eyes. “BOO!” “GYAH!” You yelped and jumped about six inches into the air, catching yourself on a nearby chair as you stared up at the disembodied head floating before you, a few feet above the surface of an empty table. The head giggled in a high-pitched, half-hysterical way; an unhinged but not necessarily dangerous sort of laugh, followed by a teasing grin filled with many large, sharp white teeth. “Gotcha! Nya!” sing-songed the fair-skinned face of your beau, his purple ears twitching where they sprouted from under his equally purple-haired head. A faint jingle came from the ears, courtesy of the little brass piercings shaped like signposts in each. You blinked…then frowned, blushing a bit at being caught off guard so easily. “Very funny,” you grumbled. “I thought it was!” chirruped the Cheshire Cat-Boy, his head spinning in place a full three-hundred-sixty degrees. You quivered. “How do you do that?” you muttered. “A good meow-gician never reveals his secrets!” “A GOOD magician,” you responded dryly, “Would be on time and not make such terrible jokes.” “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m not one of those!” “…Yet you won’t reveal your secrets anyway.” “Nya-ope!” “…Your jokes just get worse from here, don’t they?” Your boyfriend giggled and rolled his eyes, then his head swooped forward. You went stiff as he sniffed at your hair, and his head began to orbit around your own. It was an unsettling feeling, and you squirmed a bit, blushing as he meowed and leaned close, the lone head nuzzling your cheek as you heard the big kitty purr. “Awww…no need to be so mean, my little bun-bun,” he crooned…then licked your cheek and rumbled as he added in a whisper: “It makes you taste less sweet, you know.” You blushed bright red, and he giggled more. “Awww, bunny-bun is so cuuute when they’re flustered!” he mewed, and once again came around to your front. “Don’t worry, my little rabbit! This big kitty won’t gobble you up! Today, anyway.” “That’s a shame…” “Hm? Nya? What was that?” “Nothing, nothing,” you said, shaking your head, then tilted it as you added: “Can you make your whole self visible? It’s…weird chatting with a talking head.” You had a feeling your significant other shrugged, but since you couldn’t see his shoulders at that point, you weren’t sure. In any event, slowly but surely, the physical body of Alchemi Alchemivich Pinka – alias, Che’Nya the Cheshire Cat – finally began to fade into view. He looked the same as he always did: dressed in a white dress shirt that was several sizes two big, under which he wore a pink-and-purple-striped t-shirt. A ring with the image of a smiling cat’s head was on one of his fingers, each of which ended in short-but-sharp claws, painted the same shade of purple as his hair. A matching purple belt held up the blue jeans he wore; it bore a silver buckle, and the words “Can You Stand on Your Head?” stitched into it with silver thread. All over the legs of his blue jeans were various colored patches, resembling mushrooms, trees, and Mome Raths – strange creatures that inhabited the realm of the Queen of Hearts. Purple boots with black laces were on his feet; they were decorated in gold chains with pendants that spelled the phrases “This Way” and “That Way.” Your boyfriend smiled and blinked his huge yellow eyes. His two canine teeth stuck out from his mouth, and with his large eyes and the way he cocked his head, you couldn’t help but smile; he really did look so much like a big, curious kitten, bushy purple-and-pink-striped tail swishing behind him and all. “Can I ask you a question, Bunny?” he mewed, as he hopped down and sat the wrong way on a chair. “Sure,” you nodded. “Oh, good!” grinned Che’Nya. A pause. “…So?” “So what?” “What was it?” “What was what?” “The question!” “What question?” “The one you just asked!” “I asked a question?” “Yes, you asked if you could ask a question!” “Well, then I already asked you a question, didn’t I? In fact, I think I just asked…” He tilted his head and counted on his fingers. “…Six! A half dozen questions! Now, isn’t that great? OOH! That one makes lucky number seven!” “But…that…that doesn’t…!” Che’Nya grinned and placed his head in his hands, his chin against the back of the chair, eyes half-lidded. Try me, bunny, his smile seemed to say. Go ahead. You blinked…then grumbled and reached out, booping him on the nose. Che’Nya’s smile fell. He blinked…then sneezed, and pouted as he covered his nose. “Heeeey, no booping!” he meowed, childishly. “Then stop talking in circles.” “I don’t talk in circles,” he smirked. “I talk in squares, triangles, occasionally hexagons, and even a few parallelograms, but NEVER circles!” “You’re impossible.” “Hardly,” Che’Nya chuckled. “I do believe in Six Impossible Things before breakfast each morning, though…then I usually go out and eat them.” He winked and licked his lips as he added: “For instance…Thing Number Five this morning was believing I had the best little human in the world as my S-O. Now, doesn’t that seem impossible?” You blinked. “…I can’t tell if that was a compliment or not.” “Then I have done my job,” Che’Nya said. So saying, the Cheshire Cat got up from the chair and hugged you close. You froze up, not expecting the sudden show of affection…but when he started nuzzling your neck and purring, you smiled and returned the hug. “You may be impossible…but you’re MY kind of impossible,” you whispered. “Awww…bunnyyyyy, you’ll make me blush,” mumbled Che’Nya. “Then I’ll have done MY job,” you teased. Che’Nya giggled. “Touche! Nya!” he sang out, then pulled back and grinned at you excitedly, tail twitching as he clapped his hands. “Oh! Oh! I almost forgot! I wanna show you a trick! Can I, can I? Huh?” You chuckled and smiled; his exuberance never ceased to make you grin almost as widely as he could. Almost. Aside from maybe the Leech Twins, no one could smile as wide as the Cheshire Cat…and certainly no one could do so and NOT make it absolutely mortifying to behold. “Sure,” you said, and sat down on a chair, figuring the big event could wait till after he’d gotten it out of his system. “Go ahead, kitty.” Che’Nya let out a “squee” of delight, then made a show of clearing his throat. He then adopted a dramatic pose and waggled his fingers as he tugged on his baggy white sleeves. “Nothing up my sleeves!” he declared…then reached out with one hand. “But something back here…” You smirked and rolled your eyes as he reached behind your ear; this was an old trick, you knew how it- “Boop!” You let out a mousey squeak as suddenly something bopped your nose…then blinked as you realized, instead of a coin, he had pulled what appeared to be a golden pocket watch, tied to a matching gold chain, and had gently tapped your nose with it. Che’Nya grinned as he then lowered the watch into your waiting hands. You blinked as you looked at the gold watch; the outside was etched with your name, and when you flipped it open, the ticking watch hands inside were designed to look like Che’Nya himself (as the minute hand), with you as the hour hand…chasing him with a newspaper. You blinked…then looked up. The catboy’s eyes were very wide, and he was fidgeting anxiously. “Nya? Do you like it?” he meowed, sounding more nervous than you felt he wanted to show. “I…I do! It’s…it’s lovely!” you chuckled, and chastised yourself for using a word like “lovely,” before going on: “How did you get it? Did you…make it?” “Nope. But I have a friend who actually makes clocks and watches. He’s a bunny – actual bunny, not just cute-bunny-like-human, the way you are.” He took a moment to smirk at your blush before going on. “He gave me a discount, so I asked him to make that for me, custom. Oh! And there’s more!” Che’Nya added, and reached into the pocket of his jeans, sticking out his tongue as he focused on trying to fish something out. It took him several tries; he pulled out a yo-yo, a bag of jelly beans, a teacup, and a kitchen sink (you were NOT going to ask), before finally finding what he was looking for. “Aha! Purr-fect!” he exclaimed, and smiled as he handed over a large paper card. It looked like an oversized Ace of Hearts. Curious, you took the card, and realized it opened up; a greeting card. You looked at the words written inside; they were written over an image of a huge, cat-toothed smile. You read them aloud. “Keep Smiling, Bunny. Happy Valentine’s Day.” You looked up; Che’Nya’s eyes were very, very wide again, once again looking anxious and eager. You smiled and stood on tip-toe, kissing him on the nose. He mewed and you chuckled. “Thanks, kitty. I appreciate it a lot.” “Hey, it’s Valentine’s Day,” Che’Nya smiled back, swishing his tail happily as his ears twitched again, once again making the piercings tingle like little bells. “I would be a pretty meow-sy boyfriend if I didn’t get you a gift and a card.” “Now you’re just stealing MY puns, that’s plagiarism.” “I think you mean…” Che’Nya paused…then blinked…and tilted his head. He mouthed a few silent nothings to himself…then shrugged. “Never mind. I can’t think of a pun with that. There’s glory for you!” You crinkled your nose, and remarked, “I don’t know what you mean by glory.” “Of course you don’t, till I tell you,” Che’Nya sniffed, and explained: “When I said ‘glory,’ I meant ‘there’s a tough puzzle for you.’” “…Um…glory doesn’t mean ‘a tough puzzle’ though.” “When I choose a word,” Che’Nya responded, sagely, “It means precisely what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less.” “Yeah, but the question is whether or not you can make a word mean-” You were stopped by Che’Nya placing a finger on your lips. His smile was indulgent, as if he were talking to a child. “The question,” he said, gently, “Is which is to be the Master. That’s all.” You were much too puzzled to respond to that properly…so you instead reached out and gave the mischievous kitten a tickling poke in the tummy. Che’Nya mewed and giggled backing up and placing his hands on his belly to protect it. “H-Hey! No! No tickling!” he meowed, blushing a bit. You smirked triumphantly…but your triumph was short lived, as the moment was broken by a deep, gurgling rumble from the belly you had just poked. GRRROOORRRLLLLBG… “Oooh,” murmured Che’Nya, wincing a bit and giving a more strained sort of smile as he scratched the back of his head with one hand, the other clutching his belly more tightly. “H-Heh…I think you woke up my tummy. I, um…I might have skipped lunch today…” “Awww, poor kitty,” you cooed, teasingly, then grinned back. “Well, thankfully, I asked you over here because I have my own Valentine’s Day gift for you.” Che’Nya’s ears perked up and he smiled wider, yellow eyes brightening. “Nya? You did? How purr-fectly wonderful of you, bunny-bun!” he sang, clapping his hands together in joy, and looking around. “Where is it? What is it? Show me, show me!” A twinkle was in your eye that might have made the Cheshire Cat proud as you stepped aside and gestured to the long table under a tree in the Tea Garden. Che’Nya stepped forward to inspect the table…then stopped in place, eyes widening all the more at what he saw. You chuckled as you looked to the fruits of your labors: with help from Trey, you’d gotten quite the little feast prepared. Half of it was store bought, the other half homemade. Given the spirit of Valentine’s Day, it was a feast that was sugar saturated: the only things not involving a great deal of saccharine sweetness were a basket of chicken tenders from Che’Nya’s favorite restaurant, and a Salmon Filet that you had gotten from the Mostro Lounge. Of course, Che’Nya’s love of tuna was renowned (right on par with Grim’s taste for it), so you had to have tuna at the table…but in the spirit of the holiday, you’d taken a different route than usual. Trey and yourself had looked up a recipe for CANDIED tuna: strips of the fish cured with salt, pepper, and maple sugar. From that point on, everything was sugary: a box of gourmet chocolates and a vase of chocolate roses were obvious must-haves for a Valentine’s meal. Vanilla cupcakes with purple hearts made in icing were also prepared, set beside a box of marshmallow bluebirds. A carton of Neopolitan ice cream was on the opposite side of the cupcakes…and last, but certainly not least, the favorite food of EVERYONE in Heartslabyul, and second only to fish and poultry for Che’Nya’s tastes: strawberry tarts, crisply cooked, and so fresh they were still steaming. You looked back to Che’Nya; his expression reminded you of a meme of a kitten looking at Christmas Tree lights for the first time, and you couldn’t keep the soft “d’awww” that escaped from you. “Like what you see?” you checked. Che’Nya blinked…then looked back at you. “You do know all that sugar is going to go to my hips, right?” “You say that as if it would discourage me.” Che’Nya smirked, and this time HE tapped YOUR nose. “Naughty-naughty, funny bunny,” he sing-songed. You blushed and grumbled to yourself as you brushed his hand away. Che’Nya sniggered, then made a show of cracking his knuckles and neck as he strutted towards the table, big bushy tail whisking about behind him. “Well…you know what they say: time to take the tiger by the horns.” You started to agree…then paused when you actually digested (no pun intended) that saying. “Wait…that’s not-” “ITADAKIMASU!” meowed Che’Nya, as he hopped into his seat at the table…and without so much as another word, grabbed hold of the cupcakes and began to eat. Ten cupcakes had been placed upon a plate, organized into a heart shape. The Cheshire Neko snatched up one of them and, without even the slightest ado (nor any sense of decorum) stuffed the entire cupcake into his mouth. NOMPH! You watched, wide-eyed and very still, as Che’Nya’s cheeks bulged with the cupcake inside his mouth; his eyes closed as he chewed slowly – GRUM, GRUM, GRUM – tail swishing, the look on his face like that of a very happy kitten as he purred softly at the flavor…then – GRULPH! – swallowed the cupcake whole. He licked some crumbs off his cheeks…then, his jaws opened wide again – wider than many would think should be physically possible – fangs parting as he began to shovel the remaining nine cupcakes into his mouth at record-breaking speed. CHOMPH-NOMPH-GROMPH-HROMPH…! You slowly began to approach the table, watching with something approaching awe as the half-cat tore through the pastries like famine was fast approaching. It wasn’t the first time you’d seen your kitty eat so much and so fast, and you knew it was only the beginning…but that never made it any less phenomenal. Between himself and some in Savanaclaw, you wondered if it was just a cat thing to be a living bottomless pit…though while some in that dorm preferred tons and tons of meat, Che’Nya was more well-known for his sweet tooth, when it came to his appetite. The cupcakes had soon been guzzled; Che’Nya next turned his attention to the chocolate roses, there were three in the vase. He plucked one free, and began to untie the wrapping around the chocolate bulb in thin strips… “Hmmm…my bunny loves me…he hates me not…he loves me…he hates me not…” You smiled as you pulled up a seat beside him and kissed the hand holding the rose playfully. “Either one works,” you shrugged cheerily. Che’Nya let out a giggle, and finished unwrapping the rose…before popping the chocolate into his mouth. He smirked around his closed mouth, winked…and then – SCHLUPK! – pulled the rose free. Only the plastic stem, wrapped in green paper, came out…he had managed to ingest the entire piece of chocolate. Che’Nya rumbled and moaned around a closed mouth; you watched as his right cheek bulged, and then his left, as he swirled the chocolate around, letting it melt in his mouth for a few moments…then, he swallowed faintly – GLURK – and you watched as his throat rippled every so slightly, Adam’s Apple rising and falling subtly, as he let the melted chocolate trickle down his throat. “Mmmmm,” he murmured, as he plucked a second rose up. “Roses are red, violets are blue, chocolate is tasty…” He paused…then you let out an “eep!” of surprise as he leaned forward and licked the very tip of your nose. “…And so are yooouuu,” he sang, with a big, teasing smile. You blushed and half-heartedly swiped at his ears. He cackled and dodged, then chomped down on the second rose. You heard his teeth saw through the chocolate before he swallowed, then treated the third and final rose in much the same manner. This was evidently enough sweetness for the catboy, at least for the start, because the next item he selected was the salmon filet. As he pulled it closer, you reached to helpfully grab a couple of plastic utensils from a box you’d provided… …Then stopped short as the cat tilted his head back, and lifted the entire filet up over his head. His jaws fell wide open, tongue rolling out like a red carpet…before he dropped the pinkish-red fish meat in and slurped it up noisily before swallowing it all in one bite. SCHLUGULP! You watched, eyes tracing the bulge the salmon made in the Cheshire Cat’s throat as it slithered down his esophagus, before dropping past his chest, and vanishing into the belly behind his shirt. The shirt fit very loosely, so you couldn’t tell what it was like behind the garment…which only made you feel a bit disappointed… …No matter. Very soon, that would be changing. “Ahhhhh…tasty fishy!” chirruped Che’Nya, and blinked his big yellow eyes at you, one ear flicking as he asked: “Did you get anything to drink?” You nodded and held up a finger in a “one moment” gesture, before reaching under the table; you pulled out three large bottles, each containing three liters of cherry soda. Che’Nya clapped his knuckles together his grin widening and eyes all but sparkling at the sight. “Oh, YAY! My favorite flavor! Thank you, bunny-bun!” “Don’t mention it,” you chuckled, and cracked open the bottle for him. The playful feline made grabby-hands at you as you offered him the bottle, which he wasted no time in placing to his lips as he began to chug down the bubbling, fizzing, dark red liquid within. GLUG, GLUG, GLUG… With every swallow Che’Nya took, his neck bobbed and pulsed, the super-sweet, tangy soda pop gushing down his gullet almost by the cup-full. You admitted it was slightly surprising that cherry was Che’Nya’s favorite soft drink; based on color, you would have presumed he’d prefer grape. But then again, the Cheshire Cat was nothing if not frequently surprising. As the soda sloshed down his throat, your eye fell towards the feline’s abdomen again; you could actually hear the fruity beverage dropping down, cascading like a waterfall into his burbling belly. Finally, you saw a sight that made your heart sing and brought pinkness to your cheeks once more: that baggy, ill-fitting white shirt began to became more taut and stretched around the middle of the Cheshire Cat’s lean, lithe midsection. It was finally starting to press out… …And it must have been by quite an amount, because as soon as he finished off the bottle, pulling it away with a somewhat dramatic “Pah!” and tossing it away (one of you would pick it up later; littering was against Rule Thirty-One), he grunted and reached down, adjusting his belt and loosening his waistband, sighing as his stomach no doubt sagged from the weight within… …If that knowledge didn’t make you blush enough, what happened next as the pressure was released slightly did. “BRRRRRUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRP!” the Cheshire catboy burped, surprisingly long and loud for such a slippery creature. He blinked, seemingly surprised at the volume and power of the eruption, one ear flicking…then laughed childishly. “Hoo hoo hoo! I think my tummy’s getting a little bit bubbly,” he cooed, then smirked at you and reached out, taking one of your wrists. “Hmmm…c’mere…feel.” Even if you had wanted to resist, the firm grasp on your wrist denied you that privilege. So, instead, you scooted closer…and blushed more than ever as Che’Nya managed to lift up the veritable blanket of his oversized white shirt…revealing to you the pale, silky skin of his normally concave belly, now swollen by a few solid inches till it looked like he had swallowed a small melon or some sort of ball. The Cheshire Cat meowed softly as he guided your hand to his belly…and then released your wrist as your fingertips, and then your palm, rested over the curve of his midsection. His belly was textured softer than velvet, warm as a heated pillow. When you pressed upon it, it gave ever so slightly under your pressure. Che’Nya hiccuped and then stifled another burp, catching it in his cheeks… “HIC-MMMRRRRRLLLLPH…phoosh.” …Before teasingly blowing the gas right in your face. You coughed and blushed, tears springing to your eyes as Che’Nya smirked lazily at you. “…C-Cat Breath,” you gasped out. “You know you love it,” cooed Che’Nya, licking his fangs and winking…then giggled as he lifted one arm. “Hey, check this out…” He waggled his fingers…and, before your very eyes, the hand that had been there wasn’t there any more. There was no flash of light, no puff of smoke; one second the hand was there, the next, it wasn’t. “Nothing up my sleeves again!” he sang out. You rolled your eyes…then yelped, momentarily allowing your hand to leave his belly (which you instantly regretted, perhaps more than you cared to admit aloud), as the hand reappeared, floating in mid-air, and holding the basket of chicken strips. You looked from the hand and the basket, and back up to Che’Nya…who, with his one remaining hand, gave you the biggest, widest “kitty eyes” he could…and then pointed into his mouth. “Feed me?” he meowed, innocently. …You couldn’t decide if that was cute, attractive, or both. You decided on both, and nodded with a wide smile, taking the basket from Che’Nya’s…disembodied…floating…hand (yeah, having the Cheshire Cat for a boyfriend was WEIRD sometimes), and placed it in your lap as you adjusted your chair. Che’Nya “recalled” his hand (it vanished from thin air and reappeared back in place at the end of his arm), and happily wiggled as he reclined slightly in the well-padded throne Riddle usually occupied. You dimly imagined Riddle complaining about cat shedding all over his cushions, and couldn’t help but snicker as you lifted one of the crispy, perfectly seasoned tenders from the basket. “Open wide,” you said. Che’Nya was only too happy to oblige, closing his eyes and letting his mouth fall open expectantly. You could have sworn a puff of steam came from his salivating jaws as he did so…you opted not to comment on it, for numerous reasons. You blushed as you had a very good look at the deep red, saliva-dripping interior of his maw, framed by pointed white fangs, including those two elongated canines that had a tendency to stick out in an (adorable) overbite…fangs that were primed to cut and rip into anything that got too close and tasted delicious… You quivered, suddenly imagining yourself being dangled over that wide maw like a mouse…and shook your head quickly to clear it before holding the chicken strip over his mouth. Your lips quirked as you saw his nose twitch in a decidedly catlike way, ears pricking up happily as he no doubt smelled the spices and seasonings used in the batter to bread the tenders. Without any further ceremony, you let the chicken tender drop…and Che’Nya quickly scarfed it up in three fast bites, like a cat snarfing down a very fat rodent. He rumbled pleasantly, sighing through his nose as he chewed, teeth piercing into the juicy white meat…before – GRULP! – swallowing it down in one bite. Your eyes followed the lump in Che’Nya’s throat as it vanished…and you let out a soft squeak as the cat let out a low, rumbling burp, once again right in your face. “Uuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrp…hoo-hoo, excuse me…more, please!” You didn’t have to be told twice. One by one, you fed the boy with the catlike ears all of the chicken tenders. There were eight in total; the first four, Che’Nya chewed up happily…but with the last rest, he didn’t seem to chew at all, wolfing them down (ironically for a big cat) and swallowing them whole. Hot, moist breath pelted your face, steadily smelling more and more strong as you added food to the organic cauldron deep within the catboy’s core. As you watched him scarf down the last chicken strip, and put away the empty basket, the purple-and-pink tail of the felid hybrid swirled out and swept up the heart-shaped box of gourmet chocolates you had chosen, and carefully desposited it into your hands. You smiled and opened the box. “Any you would like first?” you said, offering to show him the contents…but Che’Nya shook his head, looking quite excited. “Surprise me!” he meowed happily. You chuckled and looked into the box briefly, trying to decide…before plucking up the chocolate of choice: a simple mini-bar drizzled with a spiral of white chocolate. Che’Nya stuck out his tongue, and you blushed as you placed the chocolate onto the tongue directly…then yelped, barely having time to pull your fingers away before the tongue retracted and the sharp teeth snapped shut. Che’Nya chewed a few times and purred. “Mmmmm,” he murmured, and swallowed before commenting: “GULP…orange crème! Yummy! More, more!” You smiled wider, and, just as you had with the chicken strips, began to feed the big kitty one chocolate at a time. The orange crème was followed by one of raspberry crème, which was then followed up by caramel, then nougat, then a chocolate truffle… GLUPP-GLUPP-GLUPP… The purple-and-pink-haired catboy happily swallowed each chocolate, purring pleasantly as each morsel was placed inside his mouth and sent rolling down his neck and into his stomach, melting into cream and pooling in his tummy, which gurgled in a happy, high-pitched sort of way as the sugary, milky confections plopped half-solid into the pit. Every so often, his slippery, sloppy, somewhat sandpapery tongue would brush against your fingers, slurping over your hands…the first couple of times, this MIGHT have been accidental…but after the third slurp, you caught the hungry gleam in his golden eyes, and knew it wasn’t. There were two dozen chocolates in the box; two of each kind available. Ironically, the last chocolate you gave to Che’Nya turned out to be identical to the first: an orange crème-filled morsel drizzled with white chocolate in a spiral shape. You reached out to place it in his open maw… NOMPH! “YEH?!” You yelped in surprise and instinctively tried to pull back…and blushed when a playful growl and firm resistance met your efforts. You felt as if steam might be pouring from your cheeks, as Che’Nya had somehow managed to wrap his mouth around your entire hand. You felt his tongue slurp over your fingers as he suckled on you with a deep rumble; you barely even noticed the moment when the chocolate was flicked away and sent tumbling down his throat to join the rest in his guts. Finally, Che’Nya released you – after what was probably less than a minute, but felt like more than an hour – and you absent-mindedly wiped your hand clean with a napkin. Che’Nya licked and smacked his lips, before letting out a short, sharp sort of belch. “BRUPK! Mph…yum-meow!” he declared, snickering at his horrible pun. You blinked slowly. “…Are you referring to the chocolate, or me?” you asked, dryly. Che’Nya grinned and winked. “Yes.” God dang this teasing cat. You grumbled and tried to bap him on the nose…only to swat at thin air as his head disappeared from his shoulders. Just as you registered this anomaly, you nearly jumped a foot in the air as a loud, abrasive noise blasted like an airhorn in your ears from behind you. “BOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAP!” “GAH! D-Don’t…don’t DO that!” You panted, startled and blushing all at once. The belly of the headless body of Che’Nya bounced as his disembodied head spun around in mid-air, laughing good-naturedly. “Sorry, sorry!” he chuckled out, and winked teasingly. “No need to LOSE YOUR HEAD about things.” You grumbled and huffed, trying to show him you were ABSOLUTELY mad at him, yes, totally. He blinked, and meowed…then his floating head nuzzled your shoulder. To anyone else, this would have been surreal and disturbing. To you…at this point, it was just Sunday. “Will you feed me those bluebirds if I say I’m sorry?” he mewed, glancing towards the marshmallow birds and giving you his most innocent eyes. You blinked at him…then smiled, and scratched him behind his ears. He purred happily, a cheery smile on his face at the attention. “Sure,” you said, in a warm, simple voice. There was a pause. “Well?” “Nya?” Che’Nya murmured opening his eyes as his head pulled away and floated just out of reach. “Well what?” “Say you’re sorry!” “I already did!” he grinned happily. Your mouth opened and closed a few times…but you finally just gave up, throwing your hands up and half-sighing, half-chuckling before reaching for the marshmallow birds. Che’Nya smirked triumphantly, and his head flipped clear over yours before landing back in its proper place atop his neck, fingers drumming over his already bloated tummy, which inched out further and further… You opened the box of candy bluebirds; there were only a half dozen of them in total. Feeling rather playful yourself now, you mouthed the word “Catch” to your half-cat boyfriend, and lifted one of the marshmallow treats, preparing to throw it. Che’Nya nodded, catching onto what you were thinking instantly, and opened his mouth. You thus tossed the six birds – once again, one by one – into his mouth.

Che’Nya did not close his mouth nor swallow till all six of the marshmallow goodies were dropped into his craw…then, and only then, did he shut his jaws tight. He chewed three times, grinding away at the squishy, spongy stuff…and then swallowed it all in one go. GLULP! A thick, round, distention formed in Che’Nya’s neck. He grunted and thumped his chest as it passed behind his ribcage…then sighed and patted his belly, which let out a deep “glort” as the food was dropped into place. “Oof…nya…I think I need to wash that one down,” he mumbled, and grabbed hold of the second bottle of cherry soda himself. He cracked it open, paused to allow the pressurized air to settle…then unscrewed the cap and rapidly began to swill down all three liters. His Adam’s Apple bobbed and bounced as if suspended in tumultuous water… GLUG, GLUG, GLUG…! You listened to the sound of the soda pouring down into the Cheshire hybrid’s belly. GLORSH, GLORSH, GLORSH…your mind began to wander, conjuring up a mental picture of what it must have been like inside that swollen stomach, as it continued to expand, creaking against the waistband of the cat’s trousers, the pulled-up shirt draped over its upper curve. Dark…swampy…slimy…smelly…the walls ever moving, always working to stir up the contents of the beast-man’s bowels…you imagined being squeezed in-between them, the soda pouring down over your head as the stomach growled hungrily in your ears… …The rumbling belch from your boyfriend snapped you out of it. “GWWWUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRP! Ahhhh…you chose the BEST soda, bunny!” Alchemi smiled widely, tail flipping happily behind him as he grunted and once again adjusted his belt, groaning with relief as his gut was allowed more breathing room. “Ooof…I’m feeling kinda heavy now…mmmmrrrrroooowwwwl…” “I’m not surprised,” you mumbled, eying that engorged stomach, which was now bigger than a basketball, tightly compressed behind the waistband of the kitty-boy’s patched pants. Your fingers twitched and fidgeted, but you somehow restrained yourself, watching as Che’Nya rubbed over his belly himself, claws lightly brushing against his sensitive, supple skin… “Oooooh…soooo full already,” he half-moaned, half-purred. “I can feel it all getting sloshed and churned around in there…” He patted the side of his belly and hiccuped before sighing and going on. “HIC! Ohhhh…all that sugar’s making my tummy feel all hot and heavy, too…I might not have much money, but I’m gonna be a literal ‘fat cat’ when it’s all done, I know it…” “One can only hope.” “Nya?” “Nothing, nothing,” you said, shaking your head…then reached for the dish of candied tuna strips, holding it out with a hopeful smile. “Sure you don��t have room for more?” Che’Nya blinked; one of his ears flickered and he leaned close, innocently sniffing at the dish; his gut let out a powerful, NEEDY roar as the scent of maple and that wonderful fishy odor all cats seemed to like teased his tastebuds. He licked the very tips of his jagged teeth. “…Well…no, I don’t have any room,” he admitted. You turned your head down, a little disappointed…not only because you wanted to see your boyfriend even more stuffed than usual, but because you’d really been looking forward to him trying the tuna… …But your spirits were lifted when Che’Nya added, “But I think I can fit more in my belly. Always space for tasty fishies!” “But…you just said you don’t have any room.” “I don’t,” the Cat sniffed, somewhat snootily, and gestured about with his ring hand. “We are here in the great outdoors, and there are no rooms out here! MY room isn’t even at this CAMPUS, so therefore, I can’t have it. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t space…” He poked his belly with one finger; it wobbled. “…In. Here.” You squirmed a bit and let out a whimpery noise…which you immediately covered up with a cough. Che’Nya tilted his head, as if confused by your reaction…but you waved him off and simply offered the plate again. “Whatever…go ahead and dig in, you silly kitty.” “I can’t dig without a shovel; I’d get dirt under my claws!” pouted Che’Nya. You responded by giving his belly a light shove…which resulted in him grunting and burping crudely out the side of his mouth. “Mph…BWWWOOOORRRRRK! Heeey, not nice!” he huffed, brushing the burp aside. “Actually, that sounded VERY nice to me,” you muttered. Che’Nya’s face immediately became a smirk, and he playfully tousled your hair. You swatted at his hands with a half-hearted sneer, and he chuckled before finally beginning to eat the candied tuna, picking it up two strips at a time and dropping them into his wide open mouth. He growled, the caramelized coating on the fish creating a sweet-and-salty taste that ignited his tastebuds, making the feline’s golden eyes roll in his head as he crunched them up like pieces of bacon – MUNCH, MUNCH, MUNCH – before swallowing and chomping down on two more slices. There were eight pieces of candied tuna, just as there had been eight pieces of chicken. After four rounds, Che’Nya put the empty plate down on the table, and purred as he licked and sucked on the fingers of his other hand. “Mmmmm…sooooo tasty,” he crooned, and grinned widely at you. “One of the best things I’ve ever tasted! It’s purrrrrrr-fect! Can I have more of that? Pleeeaaase?” “Some other time,” you chuckled, smiling very wide at the exuberance of the kittenish imp, and pointed to the table. “There are still two more courses left.” Che’Nya nodded, and hummed thoughtfully, one hand scratching his chin, and the other scratching his “slorshing” belly as he tried to decide between the tarts and the carton of Neopolitan ice cream. “Hmmmm,” he murmured…then, seemingly out of nowhere, summoned a silver coin into his hand and looked to you. “Quick! Heads or tails?” “Uhhh…h-heads?” you exclaimed, taken off guard. Che’Nya flipped the coin and caught it again, checking it quickly. “Well?” He looked to you…smirked…and you blinked as his head AND his tail both disappeared. “That,” his disembodied voice answered, “Would be telling.” So saying, his tail suddenly reappeared, and tickled your nose. You sneezed and glared half-heartedly as his head returned with a laugh, and he reached for the ice cream, as well as a plastic spoon. He opened the carton, dropping the lid onto the table…then smirked at you as he scooped up a spoonful from the strawberry side of the carton. “Nya…THIS is ‘digging in,’ funny bunny,” he winked…and proceeded to shovel the ice cream at record-breaking speed into his mouth, arm practically a blur as he gobbled up the cool, creamy dessert dish… GLOMPH-GRULPH-NOMPH-MRULPH…! Globs of ice cream chased each other down the Cheshire Cat’s gullet as he guzzled it up as fast as he could; it was like his esophagus had become a cooled conveyor belt. Idly, you marveled at how he didn’t seem to get brain freeze from slurping it up so rapidly. Che’Nya alternated between the three flavors in a rhythmic pattern: strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, chocolate…he chowed down, lapping up the melted cream like a cat might lap up milk before continuing to virtually inhale the more solid stuff. He soon finished a quarter of the carton…then half…then two thirds… “Guh…oooof…fffaaahhhhaaaa…” Che’Nya panted, dropping the spoon into the empty carton, and then dropping that into the grass at his feet. He panted, clutching his belly with one hand as the ice cream sat heavily in his belly; his guts sounded like a processing vat at a factory, stirring and swirling the thick mush within, thickened by the sweet, cold cream he’d pumped down into the pit. “BLLLLUUUUUURRRRRRRLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUGLP!” he belted out, and sighed deeply. “Nyaaaaa…tummy’s sooooo – HIC-URP! – so gurgly…I feel – HIC! – so heavy…” You were red as a strawberry as you glanced between Che’Nya’s face and his belly. He seemed to know what you were thinking, as he looked to you with his widest, most innocent, most pleading “kitty eyes” and mewed sweetly. “Tummy rubs?” was all he said. That was all the invitation your twitching fingers needed, as you had to hold yourself back from lunging at his bloated gut. You reached towards his waistband; he rumbled curiously as you unfastened his belt, and then the button of his pants… ZZZRRRIIIP! BLORGSH! “NYYYYYYYYYYAAAAOOOOORRRRRRUUUUUUUUUEEEHHHUUURRRRRRRP! Ahhhhhh…sooooo GOOD…” Your eyes widened as Che’Nya’s belly poured out like a huge ball of dough into his lap, completely freed from restraints, surging forth from under the draped portion of his baggy white shirt. His navel was stretched into a tight ellipse, and you felt your heart pound faster in your chest as you looked upon the bloated mass of his middle. “…Eeee…eeeeeeeeeeeeee…” “Awwww…bunny liiiiikes?” Che’Nya breathed out, eyes half-lidded as he grinned at your expression and let out a giggle; his gut sloshed and jostled with his mirth. “C’mon, bunny-bunny…it’s nya-ot gonna rub itself…” Once again, you needed no further invitation. Your hands soon found their way to the warm, soft belly one of them had been pressed to earlier, and you began to tend to your boyfriend’s big, bulbous belly. Across the silken surface, your fingers caressed the softest, most tender portions of the belly of the beast-boy, and kneaded and massaged at the tenser areas. You let your hand wander to the side of the burgeoning belly, the size of a large medicine ball, and gave it a few hearty pats; each little slap made a satisfying thump, like smacking the sides of a ripened gourd. Che’Nya meowed and purred deeply; for several moments, he didn’t move or say a word, eyes closed as he just enjoyed the wonderful gut rubs you were giving him: a gift almost as good, if not better, than the bountiful, super-saccharine feast you had prepared. He lay limp and totally relaxed, crooning and meowing a few times as you scritched and scratched at the upper curve and the sides of his globular gut…being pampered was soooo good… …Then his nose twitched…and he opened one yellow eye. The glimmering golden iris smoldered like a dying candle as he eyed the last dish on the table. An arm draped over your shoulder, momentarily stopping you…and you watched as Che’Nya pointed with his other arm at the strawberry tarts. There were five of them arranged on the plate in a neat little array. He said nothing, but simply pointed into his open mouth, then poked his giant belly with one finger. You smiled, nodded, and paused to grab the plate. You placed it upon his gut…and with one hand gently rubbing back and forth over the center-part of his gastric globe, you used the other to feed him the tarts. The first tart was finished in just two bites…but after that, the cat ate more slowly. His teeth sank into the crispy, warm, buttery crust and pulled away the strawberry filling within with a growl as he chewed steadily before GULPing down huge mouthfuls…but the mouthfuls came with greater gaps between them. The feline breathed more heavily, even letting out little keening sounds as he went on: the second disappeared into his guts in another two bites, though more widely spaced out…but the third went down in three bites. The fourth went down in four…and, at last, the fifth and final tart was eaten in a number of bites that matched the pattern. Che’Nya licked his chops, lapping up some stray crumbs…then coughed and grimaced. “That…th-that last one was…a little dry,” he panted out, clearly finding it harder to breathe from the sheer weight in his bowels. You nodded and reached for the final bottle of soda, offering it to him. Che’Nya eyed it almost distrustfully, very much like a spoiled pet cat not sure what to make of a new brand of cat food…then shrugged and took the triple-liter, cracking it open and slugging it down as he had the two before. GLUG…GLUG…GLUG… The half-cat drank more slowly as he began to drain the final three-liter of strong-and-sweet cherry soda. You watched as it flooded down his gullet in waves. Unable to contain your flustered curiosity, you carefully lowered your head, and rested it upon the belly of the beast-man like it was your own pillow. The first thing that registered was the wonderful warmth of your kitty-cat’s body…then, you could hear the gurgles, louder than ever. The splashing noises as soda slushed down into bubbling mire, making it froth more than ever as the muscular contractions swished the fluid and sludge inside. You closed your eyes, and you could almost imagine those sounds surrounding you…the borborygmi a peculiar lullaby, making you feel as if you could melt away and forget your problems… …Not literally, of course. You were kinky, not suicidal. And besides, while Che’Nya may not have been the most heroic student of Royal Sword…the fact he chose that over Night Raven said something about his ethical viewpoints. With some, like Leona Kingscholar or Floyd Leech, you had no clue if their threats to devour and digest you were truly jokes or not. With Che’Nya, there was always that safety blanket: he really was just a big, fluffy kitten at heart. “Gruh!” grunted said fluffy kitten, as he polished off the last of the cherry soda…and you could actually hear the gases in his belly ROAR as it rumbled deeply before a HUGE eruption sounded off just above you. “BYYYUUUUUUUUHHHHHHUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLPK!” Che’Nya sighed deeply and let out a long, moaning meow before speaking: “That…was…a GOOD meal..mmmmmmmaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…” You smiled and gave his bloated tummy a chaste kiss. He mewled and wiggled a bit under you, gut sloshing and bobbling more as a result. “I’m glad you enjoyed it, kitty-cat,” you said, and nuzzled against his belly lovingly. “Mmmm…I think I’m enjoying my own way right now…heh heh…” Che’Nya gave a lazy, languid smirk…and rested a hand over your head. He didn’t press down, didn’t exert any force at all…he just let it rest there. That was fine. You were in no hurry to move your head away from his pillowy, plumpened gut. “So…how do you feel?” you asked, tracing circles around his belly button. “Satisied?” Che’Nya growled deeply; you swore you could hear his toes curl in his boots. “I feel – HUUUURRRRP! – ohhhhh…I feel like I ate away one of my eight remaining lives…” He slurped over his lips and added with a low, bubbling belch: “Worth it.” You chuckled and moved your hand down towards the underside of his gut; the softest, warmest, most sensitive part of his belly. He gasped sharply…then sighed, melting at your touch as you carefully moved your hand with a feather-light sensitivity over that region. “Nyaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaa…so THAT’S why you’re my favorite human,” he mumbled out, slurringly. You sniggered and gave the underside the very softest of pats, biting your lip and pressing into it slightly, just to feel how very, very warm and tender it was. “I try,” you said, simply, and paused before adding: “It helps that you’re my favorite kitty.” “Well, I’m clever and adorable, so I better be.” You smirked, and responded by giving his gut a shake and saying: “Well, you’re not very humble.” “BUUUUURRRRRRP! Ahhhh…humble is not in a cat’s vocabulary,” Che’Nya responded with a shrug. “Or have you ever known a cat that didn’t show some level of vanity?” You felt this could not easily be denied, so you just decided to stick your finger in his navel and move it around in there to distract him. Che’Nya’s eyes fluttered closed and his tongue flopped from his jaws. He panted heavily, tail flopping limp as he relaxed all the more. “Ooooooooh…bunny? Have I ever told you you’re the Cat’s Meow?” “On many occasions,” you answered, choosing not to remind him he’d used that joke already, too. “Mmmm…well…telling you one more time won’t hurt,” Che’Nya murmured with another shrug, twining his fingers in your hair. You rolled your eyes with a loving smile. There was a pause. “…Thank you.” “Nya? For…mph…for what, my bunny?” “The pocket watch. And…and for just being you. Every greedy, confusing, fun, silly, wonderful thing that is you. I…sometimes feel like, since we’re from different schools, so I can’t see you as often as I like, you may not realize how much I-” The hand in your hair gently lifted your head…and the other hand placed a finger on your lips. Che’Nya smiled with a half-lidded, affectionate light in his eyes. “I realize, bunny. I realize,” he said, simply. Those were all the words you needed, and you gave him a peck on the cheek. He blushed and mewed before letting go of your hair and letting out a deep yawn. “Nya…I think I need a catnap…wake me up before it gets dark, so we can clean up. I don’t want Riddle to have a cow…or a horse…or any other farmyard animal. They’d make an awful mess…” You rolled your eyes, but said you would. “Rest easy, my kitty…and Happy Valentine’s Day.” Che’Nya smiled, but he didn’t say Happy Valentine’s Day back. His eyes had closed, and he had already fallen asleep…but the warmth in his smile, the way his arm tightened around you protectively and possessively, and the lustrous purr that thrummed through his core, said everything for him. You smiled just as warmly, then shook your head with amusement and closed your own eyes as you rested your head happily against his sugar-laden stomach once more. “Heh…asleep within seconds. I guess that’s a cat thing, too…”

The End

#disney #twisted wonderland #kink fic #stuffing #belly #belching #burping #implied vore #fanfic #valentine's day special #che'nya #alchemi alchemivich pinka #cheshire cat #alice in wonderland #royal sword #royal sword academy #we're all mad here

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fireflyhwufanficwriter · 3 years

Text

My thoughts on Dr. Stone’s Chapter 182 (“Diamond Heart”)

My thoughts after reading Chapter 182:

01. Wow, the placement of the Medusas on the stealth ship looks even more deliberate when you look at the ship from above!

02. Kohaku on the first page again! She’s been getting more screentime lately, which is great! 😁

03. Senku and Dr. Xeno’s poses remind me of that classic Senku and Tsukasa shot where Tsukasa’s asking him about the situation 😁

04. What's the "TMP TMP" sound effect on Page Three supposed to sound like? People walking on the deck? The ocean waves?

05. “Science over politics” = “I wanna play with shiny things, too!” I know what you really mean, Dr. Xeno 😆

06. They’re only pushing back their chairs, but their arms make their movements looks way more epic 😆 The frame and the angles of their arms reminds me of the “powerful Senku vs. powerful Ryusui frame in Chapter 143 😁

07. They have microscopes 😲 Their lab is even closer than before to modern labs, and that’s just the odds and ends they managed to bring with them after having to abandon the Perseus 😲

08. When they said that each diamond had a different blackening pattern, my theory was that the blackening patterns were coordinates for which part of the planet that specific Medusa would cover 😁 But… they were all in the same place, so that’s probably not it 😆

09. Chrome has so much to contribute, even when he’s disadvantaged compared to Senku and Dr. Xeno! Exactly what you’d expect from the inventor of the very first post-21st century technology in existence! 😁

10. Kohaku’s quick on the uptake – she was already looking for a “good” Medusa while the others were discussing what they needed!

11. She can see a diamond fragment THAT small?? Kohaku’s eyesight is INCREDIBLE 😲

12. I went back to Chapter 121 to see if I could find a hexagon like the diamond shard they’re looking at. I couldn’t… but, there’s a very specific part of the Medusa that the light came from – from the part that looks like the end of the section that looks like a test tube or like a gun.

13. Kohaku tried Senku’s “test it immediately” method from Chapter 181, down to the exact numbers. They both said, “One meter, three seconds” 😁

14. While Dr. Xeno was talking about cracks, Senku and Kohaku were the only ones in the background. It’s nice to see the two of them side by side in the same frame like that 😊

15. Kohaku can see the cracks, too?! Such powerful eyes… 😲

16. Making a DIAMOND… 😲 I thought nitric acid was hard enough, but a DIAMOND… 😲

17. It’s nice to see Yo have so much faith in Senku! 😁 And funny to see him imagine Senku as his diamond creating minion 😆

18. Senku’s eyes are so clear and earnest when he says that science is for everybody! 😊

19. That’s a really professional-looking label for that methanol… rectangular paper, that font… Dr. Xeno really does go for elegance…

20. Wow, look at Magma remembering tungsten, and Kinro talking about it so authoritatively! 😁

21. Nikki’s a really good, motivational leader for Corn City! 😊

22. When Yuzuriha said, “Maybe some air got in there, and that’s why it blew up…” is that common knowledge? Or did Senku influence her to be more science-y? 😁 And Nikki talked about the air, too! Do people just know about that? (Same with the accidentally connected wires thing… do people who aren’t me just KNOW all of these principles??)

23. Kirisame and Kinro talking about the temperature and electricity… when you think that Kirisame used to not know what glass was (probably), and Kinro used his spear against a bubble… everybody’s come so far! 😊

24. Magma’s really into electricity now, huh? 😆

25. That large picture… is that what diamonds look under microscopes or jeweller’s glasses or something?

26. I like that small touch at the end of Yuzuriha being the one to tell Senku the good news 😊 And Yuzuriha and Senku’s eyes – they both look so happy and proud! 😢

https://firefly-hwufanficwriterrrrr.tumblr.com/MyDrStoneEpisodeMangaThoughts

#dr stone #ishigami senku #senku x kohaku #senhaku #kohaku #dr stone kohaku #kohasen #dr. stone #dr. stone kohaku

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atomic-taco-muffin · 3 years

Text

The Lost Princess Chapter 71

Warnings: same as the last chapter

Rating: SFW

Somewhere in Radiant Garden, Vexen was talking with Demyx.

“WHAAA--?!” Demyx asked. Vexen clamped a hand over Demyx's open mouth.

“Quiet, you dunce!” he hissed. He looked around warily and Demyx released his hand.

“But, dude, why would you pick me?” Demyx asked.

“I cannot let the chosen catch wind of this, understand?”

“Oh, I see! It's because I got benched!” Demyx waved a finger in Vexen’s face.

“I got ‘benched’ too!” Vexen yelled.

“Wha--” Demyx covered Vexen's mouth this time. “Hey! Quiet!”

Vexen looked around again and Demyx let up. Vexen coughed awkwardly, regaining his composure, and sighed, turning away from Demyx.

“Okay, man, look. Real talk? Backstabbing those guys would be stupid. If they find out, we are yesterday's toast. I mean, what's in it for me?” Demyx said.

“Forgiveness,” Vexen said.

“Huh? For what?”

“Men like us--in the pursuit of science, we sometimes make terrible mistakes. Lose sight of our mission to help people. But now I can help someone with my research. Now, I can atone.” Demyx narrowed his eyes.

“I'm not a scientist,” he said. He turned away, but Vexen rushed after him.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Vexen said as he grabbed Demyx by his shoulder.

“C'mon, dude. I'm useless, I'm chicken, we're not friends. I can count the number of times you and I have hung out on one hand--LESS than one hand! I didn't even KNOW you in the old life!” Demyx said.

“Fine, FINE! But listen,” Vexen said. He waved Demyx closer and whispered in his ear.

“Huh? No way!” Demyx said.

“It's true. The whole thing was HER idea,” Vexen said.

“Huh? No stinkin' way.”

“She wants to atone too. But, she is one of the chosen, so her hands are tied. Hence my actions on his behalf, hence my need for you to act on MY behalf should all go awry. As you said, we are far from friends. No one would ever suspect you. And we must protect the royal bloodline.”

“Hmm... So I'm not doing any fighting?”

“Correct. And more importantly, no benchwarming.” Demyx smiled and did a small leap.

“Ha! Yeah baby! Sign me up,” he said. He swung around making happy fists in the air as Vexen rolled his eyes. “Yes! Demyx time.”

You and your team accompanied Aqua down a foggy road.

“You sure about this, Aqua?” Celina asked.

“If you want, we can take you back to Master Yen Sid's tower to rest with Riku and the King?” you asked.

“Uh-huh,” Sora said.

“Thank you. But...Ven's expecting me. I promised to wake him. Said I'd be right back, but I'm not even close. I'm in for an earful,” Aqua said. She smiled to herself and you and your team exchanged glances as you all arrived at Castle Oblivion. Aqua took a deep breath with her hand over her heart. Donald looked from Aqua to the castle, then back to Aqua. Then the castle. Then Aqua. Then he started getting impatient, tapping his finger on his arm. Just as he decided he's finished waiting, Goofy clamped him up, muffling his squawking, as Aqua summoned the Master's Defender. Donald tapped on Goofy's hand to get his attention. You all watched as Aqua aimed the Keyblade at the castle doors, a Keyhole appearing with a dazzling light. Donald broke free from Goofy's grip and you and your team stared in amazement. The wind whipped around you all and Aqua steeled her resolve. She thrusted the Keyblade forward and a beam of light sparked forward into the Keyhole. You and your team shielded yourselves from a burst of wind, while Aqua stared unblinking as the seal on the castle broke. A projection of her former home rose on the face of the castle and the many towers and floors readjusted themselves to match the projection, untwisting and untangling the endless halls, everything clicking into place. The shadowy darkness of the clouds around the castle were pushed back to reveal the brightest blue sky of the world knows as The Land of Departure. You all walked forward in awe of your surroundings.

“I remember this place,” you said.

“Mhm. You and I used to make flower crowns here,” Aqua said. Inside the castle, you all walked through the entrance hall taking in its splendor. Aqua turned to face you and your team.

“Ready?” she asked. You and your team nodded and you all walked through the golden halls and ascended the stairs to the Great Hall, where you all found Ventus sleeping in the center of three large chairs. Aqua and Vanitas rushed to his side.

“Ven,” they said. Aqua touched his face and placed her head to his.

“I'm sorry it took so long,” she said. He didn’t stir and Vanitas tried to shake him.

“Ven, wake up. Open your eyes, please!” he said but he still didn’t stir.

“Wow. That’s gotta be the first time I’ve heard him say please,” Roxy said. You and Yui elbowed her and he growled in annoyance.

“Why? Your heart never found its way home?” Aqua asked.

“That was a neat trick,” a familiar voice said. You and the others turned to see Muki walk in.

“Mom!” the twins said. Vanitas rushed forward, glaring.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt your touching reunion, but surely you won't begrudge me a moment with your friend?” Muki asked. You and your team summoned your weapons and rushed at her. Muki chuckled and vanishes as you all reached her. She reappeared behind you all, but before Sora could react, she disappeared again. Aqua searched the room for her, but she reappeared on top of Ven's chair.

“What?!” Aqua asked.

“So Venty-Wenty wants to keep sleeping. What am I ever going to do with you?” Muki asked. Aqua summoned her Keyblade.

“Shut up!” she said. She leaped up at her, pulling back the Keyblade for a great swing. She whipped it forward but it was met by Muki’s gun. She pushed against her, but she fought back. The twins ran over and helped Aqua the best they could.

“You better settle down there, ‘Master,’” Muki mocked. Aqua and the twins jumped away from her, flipping backwards to land on her feet, as she pursued them to the floor.

“Aqua, we’ll handle her!” Yui said.

“No. I'M ending this,” Aqua said.

“You don’t know her powers like we do! We inherited them!” Roxy said.

“Besides, you haven't recovered yet,” Yui said.

“Sorry, but you've seen me too weak, too often. Now it's my turn to shine,” Aqua said. She pushed the twins out of the way and created a hexagonal barrier around herself and Muki. You and your team moved backwards as it expanded. You, Vanitas, and Sora placed a hand while Goofy banged his fist on the barrier. Roxy and Celina tried to break the barrier with their body.

“Aqua!” you and your team cried. Muki readied to fight and summoned Anti-Sapphite. Demonstrating years of honing her craft, Aqua fought circles around Muki. All of the darkness she could muster failed to snuff out her light. In midair, she swung her Keyblade forward knocking her away, both fighters falling to the floor. Muki turns her head toward Ventus and cackled. She brought her gun back behind her head, pulling the trigger and sending a bullet straight toward Ventus, creating a deep crack in the magical barrier. Sensing her plan, Aqua leaped to guard the weak point just as Muki sent a second bullet to finish the job. Aqua slammed to the ground, her Keyblade vanishing, as Muki released a dark laugh. You, Vanitas, Celina, the twins, and Sora watched, helpless, as Muki walked over to Aqua and pointed her gun at her.

“Aqua!” you and your team cried.

“Mom, don’t do this!” the twins shouted.

“Aunt Muki! Please!” Rumi cried. Sora felt a sudden tug in his chest. Above the stained glass in Sora's heart, Ventus floated, his eyes closed in sleep.

“I...have to wake up...” Ventus said.

“Yes. Tell me what to do,” Sora said.

“The power of waking...”

“I can't. I still don't have it yet.”

“You never lost it... It sleeps...until someone needs it... Call to it...”

“I am calling...with all my heart.” The stained glass platform shined with a light and Sora appeared. He lifted his Keyblade and the tip glowed. A Keyhole appeared on the floor in front of him and light rippled through the stained glass. Sora rose off the platform and the Keyhole shined brilliantly. Soon, thousands of white birds took off from the Keyhole, the light growing along the glass, revealing Ventus's platform. Sora aimed his Keyblade, shooting a beam of light at Ventus's heart.

“Thank you for always keeping me safe, Sora...” Ventus said. His eyes began to open as Sora watched Ven's heart ascend, finally released. The light shining from Ven's body caught Muki's attention as Ventus smashed through the barrier.

“Aqua!” Ventus shouted. He struck Muki’s gun, clenching his teeth, and the clash between light and darkness spilled over, shattering the barrier. It settled around them in magical shards and you and your team rushed forward. Muki bit her tongue and leaped over you all silently.

“Three guardians is more than I care to face. But now that you’re awake...I'm just certain that he'll come to visit,” she said. She disappeared in a corridor of darkness and you and your team dispelled your weapons. Ven helped Aqua stand.

“Aqua, are you all right?” Celina asked.

“Yes. I'm fine, Celina,” Aqua said.

“Good.” Celina then started punching Aqua’s shoulders. “Then what the hell were you thinking?!”

“I agree with Celina. What the hell was that?!” you said. Ventus looked over and saw Sora and Vanitas standing next to each other and summoned his Keyblade.

“Why is Vanitas here?” he asked. You and Celina ran in front of Vanitas and stopped Ven.

“Wait! He’s our brother!” you said.

“Brother?” Ven asked.

“It’s a very weird and complicated story,” Celina said.

“But why does that boy look like him?”

“That’s Sora,” Vanitas said.

“Huh?! You're...Sora?”

“Yup. Hey, Ventus,” Sora said as he extended a hand.

“I get it. You were my second chance.”

“Huh?” Ventus smiled, shaking the thought away, and took Sora's hand.

“Call me Ven.” Aqua touched his head.

“Good morning, Ven,” she said.

“Good morning, Aqua,” Ven replied. He looked over and spotted Rumi, who was currently blushing up a storm. “Is she okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. She’s okay. This is what happens when she meets someone she likes,” Yui said.

“Likes?!” All of you giggled and headed back to Master Yen Sid’s tower.

#kingdom hearts #kingdomhearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kingdom hearts iii #khiii #kh 3 #kingdomhearts iii #kingdomhearts 3 #kingdom hearts imagine #kingdom hearts imagines #kingdom hearts x reader #kingdomhearts x reader #kingdomhearts imagines

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musicnoots · 5 years

Text

Hold Me Tighter

Babe Heffron/Reader

Requested by anon: “Hey! If your requests are still open, would it be ok to request some good ol babe fluff? I’m having the worst time at uni right now and could really use some babe cuteness to cheer up”

A/N: Major sleepy Babe fluff. Hope you feel better anon <3

Synopsis: A sleepless night in the Ardennes leaves Babe restless and curious when he asks you a tricky question.

Tags: @gottapenny @croatianbagudna @dustyjjumpwings @higgles123 @wexhappyxfew @curraheev @medievalfangirl @bandofmarvels @those-dusty-jump-wings @majwinters @junojelli

“Are you comin’ with me to Philly?”

His voice is breathy, raspy and tired. His hands shake under the cold January night sky, eyes looking out at the snow right in front of his foxhole as he pulls you closer to his side, thin army-issued blanket spread from shoulder to shoulder.

Babe is tired, restless, and almost at the brink of tears when it comes to sleeping. Usually, he’s out like a light once the sun sets and the sky turns into the dampest shade of a black, but tonight, he can’t find himself to take the angels’ hands into slumberland where the sky is pink and the ground is as fluffy as the clouds.

He asks you the question like it isn’t the pink elephant in the room, fifteen different tangents going off in his head as he stares at the pile of snow in front of the foxhole. You shoot him a quizzical look, hand gripping the edge of the worn out blanket spread across your laps. “What?”

“Like, after the war? I mean—damn, I shoulda phrased it differently,” he stutters and his cheek start to grow red under the darkened sky. “Are you comin’ with me? Am I comin’ with you? Where we goin’ after the war?”

“You’re asking me this now?”

“My Ma always said it’s better to be prepared than sorry,” he yawns for the first time in hours since the sun said goodbye to the stars. Babe has this fear of losing you—not to bullets and grenades, no. He’s afraid he’ll lose you because of something stupid he did, like not telling you how much he loves you or if you wanted to come back to Philly with him. “And I’m kinda in love with you, y’know? I don’t ask you to come and cuddle with me in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere for nothin’.”

A small part of your heart, that isn’t frozen from the cold, warms up a little bit and your stiff lips curl up into a smile. “I feel your love so hard right now, Babe. So romantic. I love you, too.”

“Yeah, yeah, but tell me—where we goin’?”

You shrug. “I don’t know, I was thinking about going back home and just relaxing for a bit. War’s a tiring workplace, bub.”

“Aw man, so no Philly?” Babe whines, and you giggle, not sure if it’s the real Babe or the sleep deprivation clouding his head. “I was really hopin’ for Philly, Y/N, not gonna lie.”

“Alright, then it’s settled. It was nice knowing you, Babe.”

“Wait, nuuuuhhh—” He turn towards you and rests his head on your shoulder. He was going to caress your cheek like the gentleman he is, but he’s way to comfortable in the position he’s in under the blanket—slight warm and cozy next to your presence. “Y/N, I love you. A lot. And I am the man of your dreams. You don’t wanna be with the wrong guy, ‘cause I’m the right one for you.”

His words are slurred and his eyelids are droopy, obviously way too sleepy at this time of the night, but he fights against it to stay awake, sniffling as he tries to find the right words. You hum, squeezing his hand under the blanket as he drifts in and out of consciousness. “Well, Edward Heffron, what makes you the right one for me?”

“Well,” he tried to sit up but fails and ends up slumped against your side like a fat fish on land, “number one, I’m cute, and you like cute guys.”

“I do?”

“Yeah, a...nd I am very talented and romantic. You remember that heart I drew in the mud a while ago? That’s my Da Vinci side.” He draws a heart in the air with his pointer finger, giggling at the memory of him presenting you his masterpiece. You weren’t in the best mood back then, a little bit pissed at everyone when he dragged you out just to show you a lop-sided heart drawn with a twig he found laying around. “What else am I good at...um, I make a mean banana and peanut butter sandwich. The recipe is from my Ma, but I always pass it off as my own—shhhhhh, don’t tell her. What else...oh! I can also fart on command. Wanna see?”

“No,” you chuckle and wrap your arm around his shoulders, fingers rubbing hexagons on his cheek gently and softly and he melts into your touch.

Babe can just sit here and fade into dreamland while you play with a strand of hair peeking out from his helmet—this is his favorite way to fall asleep. With you right by his side and him snuggling into you like a cat on a rainy day, knowing that he’ll be safe in your arms. He always thinks about this moment, not in a war setting, but in a domestic setting where he is fast asleep on the couch of your shared Philly home with hot chocolate on his upper lip as you keep him by your side. He thinks about it way too much than he likes to admit, but if it’s that life he wants, then he might as well just marry you right here, right now and put a ring made of leaves on your finger.

He hums at the feeling of your fingertips on the nape of his neck so comfortably, he feel like he’s home. “I think ‘bout this all the time.”

“Baby, I know you like it when I play with your hair.”

“Yeah, I do. Can you move your hand just a little further ba—yeah, that’s the spot,” he moans as you he tug the little tuft of hair on the back of his head, eyelids screwing shut as he feels lighter than the clouds. “But I always think ‘bout us just living together. A small little home just for the two of us, a garden in the front—it’s mine, by the way—and a cat. I want a cat, Y/N. I don’t want a car, I want a cat.”

“Mm, and what would you name this cat?”

Babe is silent for a moment, and you think he’s asleep until his lips twitch. “I wanna name ‘im Sergeant Purrkins. Get it? ‘Cause...Perkins…” he yawns.

“Maybe it’s time for you to go to sleep,” you say, reaching to pull the blanket up but he slaps your hand away.

“Nooooo, I’m not finished yet!” he whines. “I need to tell you about our lives back home! You got me sidetracked, Y/N! Now I can’t remember what else I was thinkin’ about!”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry.” You kiss his cheek, and Babe instantly forgives you. He loves it when you kiss him, especially in front of the guys—it makes him feel special. “Go on.”

“Thank you, as I was sayin’—I’m gonna marry ya. Gonna marry ya in the world’s biggest wedding with ice cream instead of cake because I’m cool like that. I’m gonna be the best husband in the entire world because I make good food and I love everything about you. Boobs and ass mostly, but I enjoy your lovin’, too.” He yawns, way too tired at this point to even continue on because it’s way past his bedtime. “So whaddya say, Y/N? You comin’ with...me to…”

Babe doesn’t even finish the sentence before he’s silent again. Eyelids shut tight, and snores escaping his parted lips as he finally falls asleep in the early hours of the morning in your arms. He dreams of that life back home with you—the one where you live comfortably with a ring on your finger, drinking hot chocolate by the windowsill as it rains outside. Sergeant Purrkins walks on the dining table as Babe pulls you into his lap and smothers you in kisses, your hand running through his locks just the way he likes it, and he will never grow hungry, just satisfied knowing that you’re his in the moment and for the years to come.

“Yes, I’ll go back to Philly with you,” you say, and he’s already fast asleep when you say it. So when you call it a night and find yourself sleeping just minutes after, you dream of the same life with Babe in Philly.

#band of brothers fic #band of brothers imagines #band of brothers imagine #band of brothers fanfic #band of brothers fanfiction #band of brothers #easy company #hbo war #babe heffron #edward heffron #babe heffron x reader

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undoundue · 4 years

Text

a season in hellsite - chapter 1

chapter 1. in which horatio and bacchus play chess

now the tale tells that darkness gave way to light, or else light filled a space where light had not recently been. the issue is theologically contentious, and at the time no one could be sure.

the light played an important role in the events that were to come. first it hit bacchus’s eyes. then it hit horatio’s eyes. then it hit bacchus’s eyes again, then it hit horatio’s eyes again, and this process repeated several thousand times in the next few seconds, until the light took a break.

the light did not hit the same spot each time, because of angles. it hit a narrow circle very well, and then a wider circle less well, and then an even wider circle far worse than that, because light is by nature a specialist.

now individually, these halos were not exciting, though everyone had his or her preference: but the width of the aureoles varied intriguingly, unlike the areas the light had not touched, which were all the same shade of black. so the boys ascended their subjectivities, refracting the light from their convex lenses as it bustled to describe the scene.

we may morbidly wonder how horatio and bacchus felt in this moment as the red sun dawned and with it their damnation. however, it took them a minute to realize what they were looking at, and in the interim they did not have interiority, so we cannot truthfully comment upon their thoughts or feelings, though we can surmise that in a certain qualialess way they too felt the soul-crushing dread of existential freedom—this being the onus upon all souls who wander the afterlife accurst, unguided by the voice of instinct that, after all, is only borrowed from God.

but what the tale says with confidence is this: one day horatio and bacchus looked up and noticed that they were in hell. neither of them remembered how they had gotten there, but neither of them were surprised.

“—,” horatio said, and he moved as if to speak, but then he saw bacchus starting to speak, so he stopped.

“—,” bacchus said, and then stopped for similar reasons.

“—,” horatio said, starting up again, but then he saw horatio starting up again, so he stopped, and then bacchus stopped as well.

“your move,” bacchus said.

“sorry, i was developing interiority,” horatio said.

“it’s ok,” bacchus said.

“yeah it’s okay,” horatio said: and he played 1. e4.

now when it was bacchus’s turn he did not blithely reach for 1…e5, nor the sicilian. oh no. instead he conjured two quartz goblets and poured in blood-red wine.

horatio said, “where did you get the wine?”

bacchus said, “i can infinitely generate wine, it’s one of my god powers.”

(note at this juncture that bacchus is class DYING-AND-RISING GOD, level 1, while horatio is class GEOMETRICA FRAUDULENTUS, level 1.)

“what the fuck,” horatio said.

“yeah, it owns,” bacchus said. “except it doesn’t really affect me because my blood is like 30% GABA at baseline? but it’s cool at weddings and such.”

so they drank. and bacchus made like he was going to move 1…e5, but instead he just grazed it and said “j’adoube.” horatio gave him a look.

and bacchus said, in a voice of ambiguous irony: “if i did move that piece, we would be much akin to those frozen center pawns: stuck in the zugzwang of existential freedom.”

“and also we can only capture on our diagonals,” horatio said.

“yeah,” bacchus said, “or, i don’t know, man. i suspect it's my history of epub piracy—that, or sometimes i've said something that sounded like it was nice, but by adhering too close to the letter of the law, i was actually deconstructing that niceness, mocking it, and God knew. that, or it was a sin of omission. that, or—and here's what's most likely—every decision i’ve ever made has been five degrees off-course. i trusted my instincts, and my instincts were good, but then i ran into the error margin, and unfortunately, i was too consistent, too kantian, too tragically good, perhaps, which—and i’m not trying to exculpate myself here, because if i did something wrong i would be the first to admit it—which could happen to anyone.”

now bacchus drank. and he stood and dusted the knees of his toga, and looked up at the heavens, and down at the earth, as if the two had been briefly confused.

“look,” horatio said sagely.

“yeah?” bacchus said.

“in the field of anthropology, it has been found that nearly every system of morality prohibits acute angles,” horatio said.

“yeah?” said bacchus.

horatio said: “so i suspect i went wrong in a similar way.”

now horatio took a drink. and from whence he was prone, he rolled supine, and felt the wind move over him: west, then east, then west, then east, a little weaker with each breath, folding in on itself like a blanket.

“also, my only charitable cause was wikipedia,” horatio said.

“same, of course,” bacchus said.

“dude, seriously,” horatio said, “it’s your move.”

but bacchus did not want to move. and so a long time passed in which they were kind of bored and did not know what to do. every few days one of them would feel the urge to eat or sleep, and so they would do

that, though the summoned pad thai got samey after a while and sleep was a time-skip without rest or even a recuperative panel of black, and their ghostly eidolons didn’t have to eat or sleep or perform any other bodily function for that matter, but it was a distraction. even so, now and then they looked up and noticed they were in hell: and neither of them were surprised.

“okay,” horatio finally said, “do you want to play a chess variant?”

so they played:

courier chess (german chess)

fortress chess (russian chess)

xiangqi (chinese)

jangqi (korean)

scottish chess (white moves once, then black moves twice, then white moves three times, and so on)

senterej (ethiopan; both sides start playing at the same time and make as many moves as they like until the first capture)

shatranj (persian)

shatar (mongolian; in which the king cannot castle, and the knight cannot deliver mate),

and then they briefly played connect 4. they thought about but did not play scrabble. they played checkers. and then they played:

turkish checkers

canadian checkers,

and then they dropped canadian checkers like so many rules and played go: go was fun, but lacked a certain je ne sais quoi; they switched to blue-red hackenbush. then they played chess. they played:

shogi (japanese chess), including but not limited to: micro-shogi, whale shogi (pieces with variant movesets, named after whales), tori shogi (birds), hasami shogi, trishogi, hexshogi, masonic shogi, space shogi (nine 9x9 shogi boards stacked vertically), and taikyoku shogi (402 pieces of 209 types on a 36x36 board)

atomic chess, kamikaze chess, avalanche chess, dunsany’s chess, and hexagonal chess (variants: brusky’s, de vasa’s, mccooey’s, shafran’s, gliński’s);

meanwhile bacchus kept them amped on high-tannin wine—tossing aside used goblets and summoning new ones—it was a cantrip that cost him not a soul point (SP), the class equivalent to horatio’s knack for summoning abstract games.

"do you think tannins are funny?" bacchus asked shyly. then, hearing his voice and finding it mellifluous, he became bold: “yeah…i'm thinking tannins are funny.”

“tannins are kinda funny, yeah,” horatio said.

name prime numbers (basically, they competed at naming large prime numbers, but eventually horatio named the biggest one and they had to stop)

but they felt like they were running out of steam. so they played all the games listed above, but as drinking games, wherein every time one spotted a pattern one had to take a drink. as a consequence of this behavior they became quite drunk.

“i don't know…….” bacchus said dysarthrically, “i feel like i messed up….…”

“what is this! i thought you didn’t get drunk!” horatio exclaimed.

“no!…i said, wine didn’t affect me,” bacchus countered, “but my ebriety [vocab word] can still be perpetuated by the endogenous, xanax-like molecule that floats in my ichor, i.e. the blood of the gods…!"

bacchus tripped and then caught himself. he smiled at gravity with the warm antagonism one holds for a cartoon villain, then turned his 18 charisma on horatio. but horatio, whose alignment was lawful neutral, was unimpressed.

“well, you did mess up,” horatio said, “you’re in hell.”

“yeah, but i don’t think i should have to feel guilty on top of that,” bacchus said, “guilt is un-dionysian! it’s bluepilled!”

“okay, so then don’t,” horatio said.

“okay,” bacchus said, “then i won’t!”

“okay!” horatio said.

“okay!” bacchus said.

they both felt better after this interaction. soon bacchus was puking into an ink-black river.

"yeah, i'm feeling it," bacchus said.

"you're feeling it?" horatio said.

"yeah, i'm feeling this is dionysian as fuck," bacchus said.

now the river was utterly opaque to light, so one would expect it to have the consistency of tar, but the boys were surprised to observe that to the touch it was thin as water. so they went uphill and upstream to a slow-moving pool and rinsed their hands and splashed their faces and hair. in the pool, dark nymphs with sporty swimsuits swam until they became silly with paresthesias; and the satyrs leapt in chortling menacingly like hoo hoo hoo and ho ho ho and the nymphs would giggle with elusive allusive illusive knowledge, and within a few minutes both had forgotten lifetimes, staring at each other like babies in a warm and curious fog.

by the time the boys had looked up from the river that did not show their image, they had forgotten most of the engrams their souls had contained.

“word,” bacchus said; though this should have come earlier.

“yo,” horatio said, “i’m pretty drunk.”

“yeah,” bacchus started to say, but for some reason he stopped and instead stared blankly.

“yeah,” horatio thought about saying; but he was too tired, so instead he stared blankly too.

the next one hundred years were spent in a hangover.

some of the games they played during the hangover include:

moving their hip flexors

moving their knee extensors

moving the plantar-flexing muscles of the feet

moving their hip extensors (meta-breaking)

moving their knee flexors

moving the dorsi-flexing muscles of their feet

by this point their enthusiasm for the lower extremities had dimmed—horatio bored when he had solved the path to the game’s solution, bacchus discouraged when the flapping of the map recalled to him the territory—and the psoas and quadratus lumborum muscles were given only a cursory trial.

their attention moved superior (we are skipping over the reflex arcs and smooth muscle contractions that took place automatically, such as laughter, sneezing, and vasodilation, though the boys became skilled at those too) as the boys practiced other forms of iterated narrowing choice: the brash trapezius giving way to the stoic biceps, the careful flexors, the presumptuous precision of fingers and thumb closing three pixels away from the yearned-for dimensionless point. they considered past encounters with such discrepancy: ah yes, these were the angles who ached to lose themselves in intersection. three pixels. electricity clenched efference on no choice at all.

“we could play chess,” horatio attempted to say.

but he had forgotten how to speak. horatio gestured with his hand (though not in a way that was interesting or original or which had semantic meaning) and briefly he felt good (due to dopamine) because he had moved (which felt like an accomplishment) but soon he stopped moving (and the dopamine faded) and then he was still.

“uhn,” bacchus said.

to explain these profound deficits is difficult. we must note that, in addition to the known amnestic effects of alcohol and the river lethe, their circadian rhythms were off. managing the boar-driven chariot that drew the sun across the sky was not a highly-sought position: the black sun rose during the day, and the red sun rose at night; but the red sun did not rise every night, and though the black sun was more timely it was directionally impaired: rising in the south and setting in the north, rising in the northwest and setting in the northeast, or rising in the north and taking a strange zig-zag pattern to the south and back—possibly an attempt to draw a “cool S”. we can also say with confidence that the grayish vapors disseminated from the cracked obsidian of the forsaken earth did not have a salubrious effect. finally, we must note that the boys’ amnesia could have resulted from the omnipresent rule of demonic soul magic, in which what is attended to becomes real, and what is not attended to, does not.

now at this time horatio and bacchus girded themselves with determination, even though it caused them sadness, and tried to recall language. it started with a sharp inspiration and then a slow expiration, “ooooooo”; which got a laugh, and with pursed lips they varied the number of oo’s for a while before settling upon 6 to 8 as the optimal (i.e. funniest) range. then they widened the distance between their lateral commissures to make eeeeee, and they dropped their mandibles and flattened their tongues to make aaaaaah, and these too were amusing, if admittedly juvenile in the way of all unperturbed air. hence the consonants: one would lead off with a gggggggg and the other would breathe the metronome of expectation and listen to gggggggggggggggggggggggg continuing past all semantic purpose until with some internal wrenching of sockets this noise would give way to eeeeee, and they would laugh.

various orderings of consonants and vowels were tried as the sophistication of their humor increased. now with words they recalled meanings, and with meanings they became capable of irony, and shortly thereafter they were back to their old ways.

“1…e5,” bacchus said.

“holy shit,” horatio said.

and so the boys continued to game systematically, but not as systematically as they once had; and they continued to drink, but sometimes in moderation.

“do you think there's a psychological typology of chess openings?" bacchus asked, “like, certain types of people prefer certain openings, to clarify?”

“yes,” horatio said.

“yeah, i think so too,” bacchus said.

2. Bc4 Nc6

3. Qh5 Nf6??

4. Qxf7#

now by this time horatio fundamentally understood bacchus, and bacchus fundamentally understood horatio, but not in the way that allowed them to make predictions about individual actions, so they kept being surprised. for it was evident that the light that limned them had exhausted innumerable other options before settling upon this one, because the scene had purpose and harmonious proportion. and even though the light vacillated across moments of perception, in each moment, it seemed that it could be no other way.

“yeah man,” horatio eventually said, “my take is, you can be in a bad place, and still make a good thing of it.”

horatio tilted the white queen and rolled her base across the fatal square.

“in fact, maybe it's better to have a good time in a bad place, on your own terms, than to be in a good place, conditional upon doing what you’re told,” he said.

“well,” bacchus said, spinning the board, “maybe.”

and with a desultory sweep, horatio brought pawns and knights errant to the frontier of their steady-state, while bacchus, kneeling, with three arcs of divine manumission lifted pawn, queen, and bishop directly to their native squares.

chapter 1 - END

#a season in hellsite #ash #horatio #bacchus #chess

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brianandthemays · 5 years

Text

The Earth and the Moon (Brian May x reader)

A/N I know the deadline for A Night at the Fandom isn’t until next week but I just can’t wait anymore!!!

Thank yoooou sooooo much to @zodiacal-dust-and-curls for helping with the writing and for beta reading for me! I appreciate yousoooo much!

For @freddiedearfriend I hope you love!

Word COunt: 3.3k

Warnings: Sciencey? A little angst, some drinking, fluff!

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What happens when the earth falls in love with the moon?

You slouched over you desk, chewing on the end of your pencil as you struggled with the reaction in front of you. Your partner, Roger Taylor, on the other hand, seemed to be whizzing through the reactions in front of you. When you decided to major in Biology you’d forgotten about Organic Chemistry, and these organic reactions were going to be the end of you. You scribbled down the rest of the reaction before glancing over at Roger’s paper. Similarly, he leaned over and looked at yours.

“Oh, love,” he tsked, shaking his head. “You put the electrons in the wrong place again.” You groaned loudly, setting your pencil down and burying your face in your arms. Roger placed a hand on your back sympathetically. “Hey, on the bright side, if you fail out of organic chemistry, you can have room for an art minor. Your hexagons are great.”

“Roger! Not helping,” you snapped, snatching up your pencil and erasing furiously at your paper. “I’m never going to pass this class and then I’m never going to graduate, and then I’ll never get accepted into medical school and then I’ll be sad and lonely forever.”

“Now that is an over exaggeration,” Roger replied, plucking your pencil from out of your hands and beginning to draw the correct hexagons on your paper. “I’ll let you cheat off my final.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that,” you deadpanned, watching him work.

He drew the answers so seamlessly it made you irritated. This stupid pretty blonde was actually intelligent meanwhile you could remember where stupid electrons went on a hexagon. You’d drawn so many circles and hexagons over the past few months that you were starting to hate all shapes. You cringed whenever you saw a stop sign. But the subject seemed to come naturally to Roger, and that wasn’t the only thing that’d come naturally to him.

“You should meet my mate,” he muttered, continuing to work on your paper. “His name’s Brian, he’s in… uh… astro… astro… blimey what’s the word.” He paused for a second and stared into the desk, his forehead creasing in concentration.

“Astrophysics?” You offered, raising an eyebrow at him.

Roger’s eyes lit up and he flashed you a smile. “Yeah! That’s it, you heard of him?”

Had you heard of Brian? Brian May? Your silent study buddy who sat diagonally from you in the library. Every Tuesday and Thursday from six to eight in the evening, you would study ‘together’. His soft complexion and kind eyes drew you to sit next to him the first time and since then, you’d been too afraid to actually hold a conversation to him. One time, you bought him some chips and he’d thanked you with a soft blush but that was the extent of it.

“Uh, yeah… I think I’ve seen him around.” You shrugged, tapping your fingers on the table, not looking in any particular direction.

Roger nodded turning back to the paper. “Yeah, well. He seems like your type. Smart, likes stars, stuff like that.”

“Oh, and that’s my type?” you scoffed, resting your hand on your chin to watch him.

“I just think you’d get along is all I meant,” he clarified, wiping away the excess eraser and sliding your paper back to you. “There you go, good as new.”

“Thanks Roger, I really owe you,” you admitted truthfully, glancing over the paper. Roger smirked and sat back in his chair. “Seriously Roger. You’re a life saver.”

“Ok, come see my band,” he said, glancing back over at you.

“Band?”

“Yeah, I’m in a rock band with Brian.” He shrugged as if it was the plainest thing in the world. “I’m a drummer.”

“Brian?”

It was hard for you to grasp that Brian was in a rock band. He seemed so reserved and preforming in front of a crowd did not seem like his kind of thing.

“Yeah, he’s really good. Plays guitar,” Roger told you, turning back to his paper. “Now help me with number 6.”

“What about me makes you think I can help you with that?” you chuckled, leaning over to look at the reaction on the paper. He laughed and shook his head, beginning to scribble out a hexagon. “My hexagons are much better than that.”

For the earth to circulate, she needs the moon, and for the moon to have an orbit, he needs the earth.

Tuesday night, you found yourself in the library as always. Tonight, you were studying profusely for your Histology class. Yes, the class was interesting but that didn’t make it any less a pain in the ass. But tonight, was different; Brian wasn’t there. 5 minutes into your study sesh, you’d noticed his absence but brushed it off. 30 minutes in, you began to worry. An hour in, you were thrown off. You were so used to having his presence across from you that you were finding it physically hard to concentrate.

You stared at the open textbook, trying to will yourself to read, but just found yourself rereading the same paragraph over and over again. You blew air quickly through you mouth, burying your hands in your hair.

“You okay there?”

You looked around wildly, trying to find out where the voice came from. Your eyes fell on a saggy mop of hair, smiling sheepishly at you. In his hands where two cups of, what looked like, coffee. He glanced down at the coffee before placing one down next to you.

“I didn’t know how you took it,” he admitted with a tight smile. “So, I hope you like cream and sugar.” He took his place diagonally from you and plucked his own textbook out of his bag.

“Thank you… Brian.”

At that he smiled. A bright smile. Almost blinding in the dark lighting of the library. The realization that you knew his name was exciting to him though he didn’t quite know why. He just nodded shortly, turning to his book. A silence falling over the two of you. A kinder silence than the one you had put yourself in before. But you couldn’t help but glance over at him, staring at his complexion. The curve of his nose leading his eyes down to the paper before him, his sprawling fingers over the edge of the paper that at remnants of white finger nail polish on them.

“I know your mate…” you said softly, dragging your eyes up to his. Surprisingly, they were already planted on you. “Roger… we have classes together.”

Brian blushed, a warm pink covering his pale cheeks as he nodded slightly.

“He told me about you too,” he told you. “Kept insisting that you were –"

“Your type?” you finished, your lips curling up into a grin. You scooted your chair a little closer to his as you grew more comfortable with conversation, your feet almost touching under the table. “He told me the same thing earlier today. Right after he told me you were in a band with him.”

If you though he was pink before, this was something else. His whole face, from his neck to his forehead, turned a bright shade of red as he began to stutter.

“Oh well—it’s nothing special—I just—in my spare time—”

You reached out and placed your hand on top of his. “Brian, it’s okay. I think it’s cool.”

You stared at each other for a moment. His eyes darted between you and your hand on top of his. You quickly realized exactly what you were doing, and pulled away your hand, placing it in your lap.

“I just didn’t take you as the type,” you finished, looking down at the table.

He seemed frozen in close, still looking at where your hand had once been as you silently kicked yourself for your stupidity.

“It’s just a hobby.” He shrugged, turning back to his textbook. Things were quiet after that. An odd tension that you’d never felt before settled over the room. And though the tension lingered, your concentration did not. You found yourself stuck in the same rut as before just this time, there was no one to blame but yourself. Finally, you just had to say something. Something to ease the growing pressure in your chest.

“Well, I’d like to see you play sometime,” you muttered, playing with your hair.

Brian looked back over at you, seemingly surprised that you had spoken up.

“You… you would?” he questioned, cocking his head.

“Uh, yeah,” you confirmed, finally looking back up at him. “Besides, I kinda owe Roger for helping me not fail Organic Chemistry”

Brian chuckled, picking at the nail polish on his nails.

“I also owe Roger a few favors so I understand,” he agreed thoughtfully. “This Friday… we’re having a performance with our new bassist.”

But sometimes, the Earth can’t see the moon; they become separated from each other.

“Oh my god! You like him!” Roger shouted, eyes widening quickly.

You often grabbed lunch with Roger after your noon class and were currently sitting outside of a restaurant you frequented and across a plate of fries. You were retelling the events of the night before, the coffee, the hand touching, the awkward tension. Now, Roger was giggling like a school child who had just gotten in trouble with their teacher.

“Why do I tell you these things?” you groaned, throwing a french fry at him. He chuckled and knocked the fry away.

“Okay, okay, okay, tell me what happened again,” he questioned, leaning forward to grab a fry. You glared at him and flopped your head down on the table in front of you. “Oh cheer up it’s not that bad. He’s smashed for you too.” You twisted your neck up so you were looking at him in disbelief. “I’m serious! He talks about his silly study buddy all the time!”

“Don’t lie to me to make me feel better,” you mumbled, pulling the plate of fries closer to you.

“No, it’s cute. It’s really adorable,” he mused, smiling down at you. “You’re adorable.” He poked your nose. You scrunched your nose, blowing furiously through your nostrils. You sat up and rested your chin on your hand tracing shapes into the condensation on your glass.

“It’s literally the first time we’ve ever had a conversation,” you mumbled sadly. “And I blew it.”

Roger stared at you sympathetically, still munching on a french fry.

“I wouldn’t say blew it…” he started, causing you to look at him, hopefully. “Just, mildly… messed up.”

“Why would you phrase your sentence that way!” You shouted in exasperation, flinging your hands wildly. “And with a pause in the middle!”

Roger’s grin dropped suddenly, his eyes widening as his focus shifted to something behind you. Then, his lips twisted into a playful smirk as he returned his gaze to you.

“Don’t look now but Lover Boy is standing right behind you,” he snickered, nodding his head to the right.

You whirled around in your seat, turning to see Brian standing outside the door to the restaurant. You gaped, you eyes turning in saucers as you saw him. Of all the things that were going through your brain right now, this was not what you needed.

“I told you not to look,” Roger sneered, hitting you arm. You looked over your shoulder and glared at him. “I’ll call him over here, you two can sort this out yourselves.”

“Roger, wait, don’t-”

But he never did, he just sat there staring at where Brian was,the playfulness leaving his eyes. He grabbed your hand and stood up quickly, starting to drag you in the opposite direction.

“Roger, what are you doing.” You yanked your hand out of his and stood walking

“Let’s just leave. C’mon you’ll see him tomorrow,” he insisted, trying to grab at your hand again.

“Roger, what’s wrong?” You started to turn around but Roger grabbed your shoulders and prevented you. “Roger, let go of me.”

“It’s nothing, just please… don’t turn around.” He seemed so sincere. His big blue eyes were laced with concern and you were confused. He let go of you and you turned around. There was Brian, standing now with another girl, she laughed at something he said before she reached up and kissed his cheek. That’s when your heart broke.

“Oh.”

You didn’t realize exactly how much you had fallen for him until you saw that. It hurt… a lot. You found yourself struggling for words or some real reaction other than ‘oh’. Then you felt a tear roll down your cheek. You didn’t even know you had teared up, and now you felt the entire force of sadness hit you.

“(Y/N), I’m sorry-- I don’t even know who that is-- maybe there’s--”

“Please Roger I just want to go somewhere else,” you choked out, tearing your eyes away from Brian and the girl.

Roger nodded and began to lead you towards his car.

But no matter what, the Earth and the Moon always make their way back to each other

Why you were standing in the back of a damp pub on a Friday night you didn’t even know. Somehow,

Roger had convinced you to come and hear Brian’s side of the story, promising that he wouldn’t leave your side all night. Reluctantly you agreed because you really did want to know how they sounded. Unsurprisingly, they were great. Especially Brian. Seeing him up there was unbelievable. It was like he was a different person. His fingers flitted so seamlessly across the fretboard over his beautiful guitar.

Roger was brilliant too, of course. And as per his promise, as soon as the concert ended he was by your side. Much to the dismay of a few girls but you knew he wasn’t super interested in that. He never had a dry spell but he also wasn’t one to give it away to anyone who asked.

“Well, what’d you think?” he shouted over the noise of the pub.

“That was amazing, Roger!” You threw your arms around him, laughing happily. You moved to pull away but before you could, Roger pulled you closer and held you close to his body.

“Bri’s staring,” he murmured in your ear before pulling back. You glanced over your shoulder and met the pair of hazel eyes watching you. You felt your chest start to swell with emotion and you tore your gaze away, back to Roger.

“You alright?” He asked, concern lacing his features. You nodded, not quite trusting yourself to speak just yet. “You sure?” He placed a hand on your arm, brushing it up and down to soothe you.

“Yep, yeah, I’m good, “you replied quickly, closing your eyes for a moment. Then you opened them, determined. “I just need a drink.”

“That I can get you.” Roger smirked, pulling you towards the bar. And, as per promise, he rarely left your side. The occasional fan or girl would come up to speak with him and he would amuse them for a time but then always turn back to you.

You were introduced to Freddie Bulsara (Mercury?) and John Deacon, the other two members of the band. Roger told you how John was finishing his trial run tonight and seemed to be a good fit for the band. Freddie immediately complemented you on your outfit and demanded you come visit him and Roger at their retail shop in Kensington.

You were beginning to think you’d be able to get through the night without having to face Brian and you were perfectly okay with that. But then Roger left to use the bathroom. Leaving you alone at the bar.

“I feel like you been avoiding me.”

His voice made you flinch. You whirled around quickly, looking up at him. You let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of your neck.

“That’s crazy… sorry about that,” you offered, trying to back away.

“I’m glad you came, I actually wanted to ask you something—” The rest of his sentence was cut off by a man walking between the two of you, earning a glare from the both of you.

“Sorry I didn’t hear you, Brian.” You shook your head, feeling a body bump you forward, towards him. “I should probably find Roger he’ll be—”

“Are you and him… ya know…”

“Oh, no. He’s just my—”

Again, another body walked in between the two of you. You huffed and took a step back, when did this pub get so busy?

“Is your girlfriend here?” You asked, leaning in slightly.

Brian’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Girlfriend? I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Now it was your turn to be confused. “But Roger and I saw you at—”

Both of you groaned as yet another person moved through your conversation and Brian finally placed an arm on your shoulder, guiding you to the side.

“I- I don’t have a girlfriend,” he repeated, looking at his feet.

“Oh,” was all you said. All the pent-up emotion and anger you had dissipated. The ever-present squeezing of your head that had grown over the past few days started to loosen.

“I actually… um…” he cleared his throat. “I was wonder… uh”

“Yes?” you pressed, tapping your foot.

“Iwaswonderingifyoumightwanttogooutwithme,” he rushed. It was so quick you almost didn’t understand him. But when you finally processed what had been said your eyes widened. You started shaking your head adamantly. Brian began to panic his eyes darting around fearfully. “I’m sorry that was out of place I shouldn’t have—”

“Brian you can’t like me. There’s nothing… there’s nothing… I’m nothing…” you were struggling to process this. All the feelings you harbored for Brian were reciprocated. All the scenarios you’d thought up, this had never been one. “I’m nothing.”

“Nothing?” he echoed, leaning back slightly.

“Yeah, I’m just the girl who sits across from you in the library,” you sputtered. “And you’re Brian. Brian with the frizzy hair that he tries, and fails, to straighten. Brian with the pretty Hazel eyes that look so bright on his pale skin. Brian who chews on his pencil. Brian who likes pretzels. Brian who doesn’t even know I exist outside of the library.” You took a step back and shook your head again. “I just don’t believe you.”

Brian took a step towards you again, his eyes considering your words. There it was again. The tension. The tension from the library the other night. And this time it was magnetic. Brian leaned down and you found yourself leaning towards him.

“May I kiss you?” he muttered, reaching up to brush back your hair, cupping your cheek in the process. You nodded, wanting nothing more. His lips were soft, like a pillow. He moved slowly against you, parting your lips with a nudge of his tongue. Your heart was imploding and there was nothing you could do but wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him down closer to you. Finally, you broke apart, panting for breath as you try and grasp what just happened. Brian rested his head against your forehead, looking into your eyes so passionately. “You are so much more than the girl from the library.” He breathed out a laughed. “You’re so gorgeous, even on your busiest days you still look so beautiful. You’re so intelligent even though your think you aren’t. You’re kind to every person you meet, even if you just met them. I know you give pretzels to people you barely know because their stomach is making whale noises.” You giggled, your face flushing. “Please, tell me you understand how much you’ve enchanted me.”

Because the entire time the Earth was watching the Moon, the Moon was watching the Earth.

“Yeah, I do,” you replied.

What happens when the Earth falls in love with the Moon?

“Then you’ll let me kiss you again?” He mused, smiling.

The Earth will continue to spin and the Moon continue to watch.

“Yes.” You smirked, pressing up to press your lips to his.

But the Moon will shine a little brighter, lighting up the Earth with every night they’re together.

#Queen #Queen Imagines #Queen x reader #Bohemian Rhapsody #Bohemian Rhapsody x reader #Bohemian Rhapsody imagines #Brian May #brian may x reader #brian may imagines

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unlockthelore · 4 years

Text

To Fool One’s Eyes

As Rin prepares to depart on a journey, she seeks counsel and comfort in the sky.

From the series Affections Touching Across Time on Ao3, and part of the It Takes A Village fic. For more updates, follow the affections touching across time tag on this blog. For more of this fic, follow the it takes a village tag.

When Rin opened her eyes, the world was tinted in shades of blue and black. Shadows etched in the high wooden beams and dashing across the floors where the light filtered by the shoji couldn’t reach. A long corridor stretched before her, flecked with blue dawn light and shadow. Several soldiers stood at the walls, armed with spears tipped sharply and piercing eyes trained upon her. Sighing softly, Rin laid her hands against her lower stomach and turned on her heel.

The tatami’s texture was lost on her but not the awe instilled by landscapes painted on the shoji paper, drapery adorning the walls in reds and whites, high above the stoic faces of the soldiers. A familiar crest upon the double-wide doors behind her — three white hexagons drenched in red with a four-petaled white flower in their centers.

Rin sighed softly, recalling that crest fondly. Rippled on the long flowing sleeves and collar of a kimono, tucked beneath silver hair and spiked armor looped at the shoulder. There was none other like it and she knew it as if it were her own.

Relief rushed through her at the success of her journey and she clapped her hands together, drawing a few smiles from the soldiers surrounding her. One stepped forward and she turned to greet him with a slight bow. It was difficult to discern his expression from beneath the drape of his helmet but Rin could have sworn she saw the corners of his lips twitch as he raised his hand quietly, shaking his head.

“Our Lady has been expecting you, Lady Rin,” he said, lowering his hand shortly after the words had been delivered. His voice, oddly boyish for someone so tall, was quiet and gentle though edged with amusement.

Jamming her fist in the crook of her hip, Rin tried to peer closer and catch a glimpse of his eyes beneath his helmet. He made no move to step away from her or look aside but his lips pressed together in a firm line, trembling and twitching upward at the corners as her stare lingered.

“You are one of the brothers,” Rin muttered softly, tucking a knuckle beneath her chin thoughtfully. “And yet which one, I cannot tell.”

This earned a few scattered chuckles amidst the other sentries including a sputtered one from the soldier she assessed.

“Let’s see… the last time I visited like this, it was Ushio who greeted me first,” Rin tipped one finger toward the western wall where four soldiers exchanged small smiles. “And Umihiko was guarding the Eastern Wall, including a vulnerable array of snacks in the kitchens that Lady Inukimi wasn’t keen on parting with until after we spoke.”

The soldier Rin spoke to nodded. “He was given the utmost important job of keeping a thief from stealing the pastries meant for Our Lady’s guest.”

“Even if said guest was horribly deprived of their dessert?” Rin tossed an amused exasperated look at the snickering soldier standing by the wall leading down the corridor.

“I am afraid so, Lady Rin,” the soldier said, not sounding apologetic in the slightest, and the twitch of his lips proved unbearable as he smiled heartily. “When thief and guest are one and the same.”

Rin laughed heartily, the sound resonating off the wooden beams and the walls, returning to her as the soldiers one by one broke their stoic masks to chuckle and nudge one another. The one standing at Rin’s side reaching up to pull off his helmet though before it could slide free of his head, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Listening for the slide of metal and the soft tap of his spear’s hilt against the tatami to open them.

“It’s good to see you,” she said, opening her eyes to the sight of a dark-haired young man smiling back at her.

Long tresses of inky black tied up in a bun cinched tightly with a closely wound band of pearls, tiny and glittering in the blue dawn, twin green-scaled fin-like ears tipped with white pressing close to his head. His eyes, iridescent and alight with mischief, a sea foam blue reminding her of the sea at daybreak and matching the tint to his skin. Cracks between the rainbow-colored scales shifting, becoming darker then lighter with every breath.

“Might I also remind, Lady Rin, you were in the company of Lord Sesshomaru during your last visit,” the soldier said, tucking his helmet beneath his arm and bowing his head to her, the second translucent lens closing over his eyes before his eyelids did. His smile showing a sliver of teeth, pointed and gnashing, eliciting a giggle from Rin. “It isn’t often that you visit us alone or in the form of a spirit.”

Rin bounced on her toes and pressed her fingertips together behind her back, listening to the chuckles and mirthful exchanges amidst the soldiers. “Perhaps I should visit more often in this form,” she said, the watching soldiers hushing as she spoke, seeming to hang eagerly of her every word. “I may have better luck with raiding the kitchens.”

Grinning toothily, the soldier standing before her chortled. “I should tell the cooks their larders are safe for now.”

Cocking her hip and folding her arms, Rin’s brow raised. “Now who decided that?” she asked in a teasingly lilting tone, attempting to keep a smile from betraying her.

Before their merrymaking could continue, a deafening howl of wind cut through the corridor and rushed til it brushed shy of Rin’s nose. A gentle breeze caressing her chin and curving around the back of her neck, fluffing her hair in the process before it receded. Drapery fluttering and flowers trembling in its wake, the soldiers exchanging glances before returning to their posts. The one standing before Rin straightening his posture, his toothy grin and luminous eyes tamed into an impassive gaze.

“Our Lady waits in her sanctum,” he said solemnly, sweeping a hand toward the corridor where the shoji paper still rippled and the wooden doors trembled. “Let us not keep you any further.”

Rin shifted slightly, mindful of the change in their demeanors, and the apologetic gazes boring into her back as she padded across the tatami. Stepping out of the dimly lit foyer and into a swath of light, Rin held her hands close to her stomach then turned on her heel. Eyeing each of them and the dark imposing figures they cut with a warm smile.

“Thank you, it was nice to see all of you,” Rin said, the mood in the room shifting and a few smiles appearing beneath the helms. Regarding the soldier that she’d spoken to who returned to his post at the eastern wall, she allowed herself to smile. “Including you, Ukito.”

Despite the summoning and the call to arms, Ukito stammered forward and endured the jeering of his peers. “How were you able to tell? We were thrice as careful.”

Rin’s eyes drifted to the shoji and the twisting paintings beckoning her to walk on. A curl of warmth beneath her chin, turning her head toward the looming darkness further down the corridor. She felt something within her tighten, warm until it seared hot in her gut then release. Leaving only strangeness and cold in its wake.

“Your voice, when I tried to steal those pastries from before, it was you that called out to Lord Sesshomaru when he came looking for me.” Rin said, beginning the arduous yet short journey past the hall of sliding doors and to the castle’s inner sanctum. “I’m sorry that our first meeting is a little short, but I’ll come back to talk to you another day and thank you for helping.”

As the breeze guided her further down the hall, the soldiers’ stares and murmuring grew distant, and Rin realized after looking over her shoulder — they were no longer there at all.

Some unreadable emotion flickered through Rin’s eyes, and for a moment, she felt the darkness pooling around her beckoning her into its embrace. Just a little further, she told herself as the number of shoji doors lessened bringing her to a hall entirely submerged in darkness. Her footsteps non-existent against the tatami and hands swinging her sides when they fell, the breeze beckoning her forward receding in a whispering hiss between two large doors. A rushing of wind heard from behind them bringing Rin a step closer.

Gathering her wits and her breath, she was unable to see her hands as she lifted them. Her skin warming and tingling as silvery wisps began to trace along the outline of her fingertips, traveling further until it covered her wrists. Palms, a ghostly pale white, outstretched toward the door where they laid against the aged wood smelling of jasmine and sandalwood. Inhaling the scent deeply, Rin exhaled heavily, the silver wisps traveling on her breath and pooling in a cloud of mist.

Warmth seeped into her hands causing them to shake almost violently, forcing the mist cloud into the wood. Her arms trembling as an outline of the hexagonal sigil began to fill in with silvery light, etched into the doorway and gradually becoming full, until they shone bright enough that Rin shielded her eyes. A heavy thud followed a loud boom, the doors shuddering as they slid open.

“Enjoying your games with my soldiers, little bird?” A melodious, yet bored voice asked, stoking familiarity in Rin’s heart with cooling relief.

Lowering her hand from her eyes, she peered into the inner sanctum and sighed softly. From the blue glow of the walls to the dawn light from the circular windows depicting a wondrous view of the lightning sky, she was mesmerized. Lanterns suspended in the air, drifted over her head as she walked inside, ignoring the heavy trembling of the doors as they slid shut behind her. Moons carved into the lanterns’ paper brightening and dimming in time with the luminous stone floating in the center of the room. The light seeming to circle around it as if drawn into its orbit, and the stone itself swirled with energy that both called out to Rin’s own and repelled it.

She breathed in heavily, hearing the whistling wind rushing through the room and wrapping around her, spinning her to one side. Amidst the shelves stacked high with all manners of tomes, scrolls, and trinkets, a demoness lounged across a long sofa with her legs crossed at the ankle and a sprawling scroll draped over her lap. The wind that’d spun Rin in circles receded and rustled the demoness’ silvery hair only slightly, slender fingers tipped with claws brushing the stray locks behind pointed ears. Her golden eyes, striking and reminiscent of another’s, drifted across the scroll as if none other mattered.

Recognizing the demand, Rin stifled a laugh with a swift bite to her lower lip. A fine silver brow arched as the demoness’s gaze flicked up to her. Cold struck Rin in the center of her chest and if not for her resilience to the demoness’s weighty gaze, she might have fallen to her knees beneath her glare.

Mindful of the charged silence, Rin eased her lower lip from between her teeth and took a step closer to the demoness who lifted her chin in response to the closeness. “As enjoyable as they can be when I’ve lost the element of surprise.”

The demoness’s eyes drifted to her, lazily regarding her with a curious hum echoing throughout the room and reverberating into Rin’s own ears. “I know your presence as if it were my own, did you believe you could slip within my halls as easily as you would someone’s purse?”

“It would be a dull day if I did not try.” Rin said, stretching out her hands, brushing her fingers over one of the passing lanterns.

Where others would have paused as the silver-haired demoness, equally intimidating as she was enchanting, rose — Rin smiled unabashedly and spun on her heel to admire the sheer number of weapons and tools adorning the walls and leant against the table where a great map was spread about with several points upon it. At the corner of her eye, a quick flash drew her attention to the violet gem of the necklace around the demoness’s neck.

As if pleased by Rin’s recognition of the stone, the demoness smiled primly and rolled one end of the scroll. The other half carefully returning to join with it. Her hand winding the string to keep it closed with a quick pulse of youki to seal it, the familiar howling catching Rin off guard for a moment. Then, from the corner of her eye, the demoness regarded Rin coolly.

“That it would,” the demoness replied, with neither derision nor affection, a heavy hardened edge to an otherwise blunt tone. Carefully, she rose from the lounge. The drape of her kimono, adorned with green and yellow butterflies, brushing against the tatami with every step. Fur pelt along a dark coat rippling as she tossed her hair over her shoulder with a backward flick of the wrist, approaching with slow sure steps.

“It isn’t often you are without my son.”

Rin, unperturbed at the lessening distance between her and the approaching demoness, clasped her hands behind her back and swayed from one foot to the other.

“As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder…” She said, her gaze drifting to the paper lanterns painted with moons and stars, recalling the solitary figure drifting among them in the dusk sky over Kaede’s village. “Besides, it isn’t so much as me following him nowadays as it is so much the other way around.”

If the demoness was perturbed by her lack of decorum, she didn’t say. Her silence retained until she stood before Rin, effortlessly towering over her in both presence and height, but lacking in arrogance in either. The demoness waited patiently as Rin took to observing the room’s effects. Golden eyes keenly observing and boring into every crevice of Rin’s being until she turned, meeting the demoness’ piercing gaze unflinchingly. As if amused, the silver-haired demoness nodded and tucked her hands within the sleeves of her robe.

“Yes, so often is he attached to your side.” The demoness said with unparalleled clarity, clipping Rin’s thoughts with a ghost of a smile on her lips. Her voice evened, the amusement gone in place of something far softer and worn. “Tell me, what is it you have come here for, little bird?”

Concern was easily dismissed by most but the demoness had ways of getting under Rin’s skin. From the closeness of her presence to the way that she stood by Rin’s side rather than before her, looming and quietly boasting strength. Lanterns drifting overhead cast shades of amber-blue light over them, outlining her sharp features and familiar golden eyes equally parts curious and worried. She offered no touch or word other than the question and the nickname’s sentiment, and Rin couldn’t help but smile.

While Kaede would deign to touch her familiarly, although with respect to her own privacy, the demoness offered no such aid. Having grown used to one another during her days of trailing after Sesshomaru, those were long past. A budding warmth building in Rin’s chest was cast aside as she turned her gaze from features, both familiar and nod, sighing softly.

“Aside from conversation with you, Lady Inukimi?” Rin scuffed her heel against the tatami, her form tangible enough that her foot didn’t slip through the floor, but her movements made no sound. Instead, she focused on the humming of the radiant stone overhead and the fires roaring in the lanterns to gather her thoughts. “Advice, counsel, and peace of mind, if possible.”

The corners of her lips tugged downward as each word drifted into the air, both allowing her to breath easier and sinking her heart. From the window at the study’s northern wall, she could see the clouds drifting by in a sky still dark. Glittering stars fading one by one without their moon and taking with them her fear of dreams. Rin tried not to keep her eyes open for long but she also did not want to close them, instead allowing her body to rest while her spirit wandered.

“Respite from… life,” she finished, voice barely above a whisper, heavy with remorse.

For a moment, nothing was said but Rin felt Inukimi’s gaze linger atop her head, once again observing her but this time her eyes were trained somewhere below her nose.

“What has been troubling you?” Inukimi asked. “You’re hardly ever this serious, and it doesn’t suit you to frown.”

Surprised, Rin covered her mouth with a hand and Inukimi chuckled with a mirthful gleam to an otherwise uneasy gaze. “Perhaps you’ve picked up one of my son’s odd traits.”

Huffing, Rin waved a hand dismissively as if batting the comment from the air between them. “Lord Sesshomaru doesn’t frown all the time,” she said, recalling strongly a ghost of a smile on his lips quickly gone before it could be called upon. Fleeting ones throughout her memories, obscured by the length of his hair or his palm.

Inukimi shook her head, the pearls on the necklace knocking together lightly and drawing Rin’s eyes to the gleaming stone embedded in its medallion. Swaying hypnotically until a hand clasped around it. “Not for you, perhaps,” Inukimi said, the words holding no trace of arrogance or malice, simply fact.

Rin glanced aside, turning her head from the nearing lantern and the demoness’s knowing gaze. “Be that as it may, what troubles me are my dreams. Some a little less sweeter than others,” Rin’s eyes shuttered and for a moment, she was there in the dirt where the wolves laid her low. Unable to think further than the last moment, salivating wolves, darkness at her heels and the blurred faces of her family, her mother’s outstretched hand beckoning her to the other side. “Then there are others that are far too bitter. As of late, it’s been easier or at the least the easiest it can be.”

Gaunt faces, hollowed eyes and gaping mouths, shouting and whispering their regrets in her ears. Unable to move on. Unable to find peace. All because she survived.

“Tell me of them,” Inukimi said, her voice cleaving through the chanting and drawing Rin back to the present graciously. Her eyes were cool and calm, voice impassive but despite the lack of a warm touch or a kind word, Rin felt relieved to have this space.

Drawing herself half into memory, the aged image of an injured daiyoukai hissing at her when she neared overlapped with his strengthening form. A stoic expression giving away very little, golden eyes lingering as he asked.

Where did you get those bruises?

Happiness blossomed in her chest then, warm and overwhelmingly bright to where she couldn’t help but smile. A glow of it resting in her breast and Rin laid her hand over it, feeling the gentle beat of her heart.

“You know how Lord Sesshomaru and I met…” Rin stepped forward and gathered one of the lanterns in her hands as it floated closer to her, the amber-blue light reflecting in her eyes, nearly blinding. “The village I lived in, its people weren’t kind to me.”

“Why is that?”

Rin clenched her jaw, remembering the laughter and jeering of bandits ransacking the village. A few of the women hiding with their children while others were armed with sickles and rakes. They were naught but farmers, earning a simple living through toiling the land. Their hands were not made to handle swords but the ones who came for them cared little for a fair fight.

Her brother, young as he was, knobby-kneed and rosy-cheeked, braced her shoulders with hands firm enough that they felt like claws pricking her skin. He held her gaze, his face swimming in a blurred vision. Words muffled and drowned by the screaming of women, children crying, men shouting, and laughter.

Her mother’s arms wound tightly around her as she yelled for her brother to come back inside. An axe that’d once been in the stump outside their home for cutting firewood held tightly in his hand, his jaw set and stern, seeming more like their mother than their father who stood with most of the men yelling for the intruders to leave. For a brief second as he stood in the doorway of their home, Rin wanted to ask him to obey their mother. So often had their mischief brought her grief and no small amount of lectures. But her brother was ever at her side.

“We’ll share the blame, alright, Rin?”

He glanced at her, holding her gaze, and the world was quiet for a moment. The faintest twitch of a smile before he was gone from their mother’s outstretched hand. Disappearing into the chaos beyond the yard of their home and its safety.

Her mother’s heartbeat, wildly racing, short puffs of breaths as she mourned her son with eyes shut tightly. Then with a ferocity, she yanked Rin away from the doorway and slammed it shut so hard that it rattled on its hinges. Her father’s back and her brother’s dark hair dancing on the breeze, fading images as her mother rushed through their home, pushing open the door sunken in on its hinges leading to the back of their home. Rin clung to her desperately, trying to drown out the screams with her face buried against her shoulder.

It was so loud. The air was thick with blood, ash, and musk, threatening to suffocate her with every breath. Her mother’s hands clutching her hair so tight that her scalp throbbed, tears springing to her eyes. Swallowing a sob as her mother hushed her and ducked beneath the shadows of other huts, hiding from the rushing silhouettes, unable to discern whether they were friend or foe.

“Father…”

It isn’t often that Rin saw her mother with tears in her eyes, calloused hands from working the fields running over her cheeks and brushing away her bangs from her eyes. Touch tender despite the roughness of her mother’s palms, embracing her cheeks, her cracked lips dusted with salty tears and dirt pressed to the middle of Rin’s forehead.

“You will see him again, father and Hitoshi…”

“Mother…”

“Ssh, ssh.. It will be alright, Rin.”

It never occurred to her before. How oft her mother’s smile warmed her heart until it was no longer there. But in that moment, ragged with grief and calming a weeping child amidst the destruction and plunder, her mother’s smile had never been more beautiful.

“Hold to me tightly, Rin, don’t let go…”

She clung to her mother desperately, mimicking the claw-like grasp her brother had upon her shoulders before he left them. Her mother, winding through the village’s roads, avoiding men with blades and catching the eyes of women shielding their own children or lying dead in the streets. The sounds Rin heard chilled her and her mother clamped a hand over her ear, whispering for her not to listen. To just hum softly in the same way they did when she combed her hair at night, and hold fast to her.

Darkness, ash, and blood were all that Rin knew aside from her mother’s gentle humming. She could pick out voices of the other villagers, howling and anguished screams. Among them, a smaller voice that she recalled calling out to her from the base of a tree, yelled in agony. Her head jerking upright and hands pushing at her mother’s shoulders. From between the gap of two houses, she saw the back of her brother’s kosode. His legs swinging uselessly in the air as he tried to force himself away from the man grasping him by the throat. The axe in hand was held by another, the men laughing and jeering as he struggled.

It wasn’t until Rin looked to her mother that she saw her staring. Having stopped where she was, eyes wide and misted over, either unseeing or disbelieving.

“Please no…” She gasped with a watery cry, hugging Rin painfully tight.

Hitoshi reared his head back and with the determination brought on by desperation and hopelessness, he threw it forward, colliding his head with the bandit’s own. The axe-wielding one jumped away as his companion stumbled backward, Hitoshi falling into the mud and turning over to hand and knee. He looked up then, and Rin could see him —

Through the fields, showing her how to weave together the stems of daisies.

Beneath the comforter they shared as a family, telling stories of his dream of being a samurai.

Carrying her on his back, her knee skinned from falling out of a tree and his words comforting in her ear.

It’s okay, Rin. Brother is here, you can cry if it hurts.

And it hurt. It hurt as one of the bandits kicked him onto his back then stamped his foot against his stomach. The pain resonating in her own as if she’d been kicked herself, and her mother’s horrified cry muffled in her hair. In the firelight, the axe gleamed.

Rin closing her eyes as it came down.

“Father!”

Her eyes shot open. Hitoshi scrambling to his feet in the slick mud, reaching for their father struggling for the axe. The two men wrestling in the dirt while the onlookers, entertained by the man’s desperation, jeered and hooted. Hitoshi grabbed by the back of his kosode and held with an arm around his throat. Their father, a man Rin had never seen without a kind word and a smile, roaring louder than thunder as he forced the bandit to his back. Driving his fist into his face until the axe was dropped and his movements stopped. A few of the bandits coming to grab him by his arms and hold him back.

“Hitoshi! Let him go, let him go!”

“You killed one of ours,” the grinning-mouthed man holding Hitoshi shouted and it was as if the world deafened. “I believe we deserve compensation.”

A chorus of cheers sounded from around them and her father struggled harder as the axe was pried from the dead man’s hand, its blade held to her brother’s stomach.

“He’s just a boy,” her father sobbed brokenly.

Hitoshi’s squirming having stopped and though Rin couldn’t see it, she felt the dread pooling in her stomach for him.

“And if he grew to be a man, he’d be a killer, just like his father.”

Their father screamed as Hitoshi was forced to the ground and the axe cleaved through the air. Her mother’s scream drawing the eyes of the others. Her breathing, short and gasping, did little to make up for the deafening sound. Rin’s ears still ringing and she could see a few of the men beginning to make their way between the huts toward them. Her mother hugging her tightly and her father’s shout echoing over them until the axe was forced into his own stomach, his eyes never leaving Rin’s own even when he was pushed to the mud.

Her mother hissed a cry and darted off toward the forest, hugging Rin as tightly to her as possible despite the limpness in her hands and legs. Her father’s emptied gaze, her brother’s head lying crookedly from body.

“Rin, Rin.”

Returning to focus, Rin stared up at the tree boughs overhead as her mother turned down a familiar road toward the river where they gathered water often and came to play or catch fish. A small cave, big enough to fit her, is where her mother set her. Pressing her hands to her cheeks, wiping away the tears that gathered at the corners of her eyes unbidden.

“Don’t make a sound until I call for you, understand?” When she didn’t speak, her mother clutched her shoulders tighter. “Rin, do you understand?”

There was no cruelty in her words, only desperation. A mother trying to save her daughter from a cruel fate.

Don’t go.

Her mother pressed another kiss, this one bruisingly harsh, to her forehead. Pushing her further into the opening before wandering backward, making quick work of her headscarf and tossing it to the river. Her dark hair flowing freely and wildly over her shoulders, hands braced at her sides and trembling as the bandits crept from the forest as quiet as wolves.

“You there,” one said, the same grinning-mouthed man. His hands stained and Hitoshi’s obi in hand, balled up after he used it to wipe his hands then threw it aside. “Why leave so soon?”

Two of the men flanking him laughed and her mother gritted her teeth, widening her stance.

“Ooh, do you mean to fight us?”

Her mother seethed. “You will pay for this. For every drop of blood my husband and son shed, I hope your pain is tenfold.”

The men shared a look of surprise, their laughter amused as her mother shuddered and brazenly held her ground.

It’s why I fell in love with her. You see, your mother is the strongest woman I’ve ever known. I hope you grow to be like her one day, Rin.

One of the bandits stepped forward to seize her mother by the arm, and her fist swung, connecting to his cheek with a sickening crack. He stumbled backward, grasping at his face and the other two advanced toward her. One grasping at her arm while the other seized her leg as she thrashed wildly, kicking her opposite leg. Her foot connecting with the grizzled jaw of the grinning-mouthed man, sending him reeling. The bandit holding her arm seizing the other.

“Settle, you she-devil!”

“Go to hell!”

She jerked her head back, catching him in the chin. The bandit she punched standing and rubbing at his jaw, unsheathing his blade as her mother broke free of the hold with a hard push to the one that’d been holding her sending him toppling to the river. Rin’s eyes widened and the sound rushed from her chest, a warning on her tongue as her mother turned around only to nearly be slashed by the blade. Her feet shifted unsurely at the river’s bank, sliding and catching on the rocks.

“You’re going to regret that, woman.”

Her mother spat on the ground at his feet, the epitome of rage upon her face.

“And when we find that girl you had —“

Her mother loosed a cry, sounding so much like her brother that for a second Rin thought she might have seen Hitoshi by their mother’s side. Her mother grasped the bandit’s wrist as he swung at her, the blade inches from her hip. The pair scuffling in the dirt as she pushed back against him, crying out as he pulled her hair, jerking her head to the side. Her elbow thrown back, connecting with his throat.

“Don’t talk about my daughter,” she hissed, gripping his ponytail and yanking his head down to meet her fist. The sword clattering to the ground between them and the back of her hand meeting his cheek. She was standing over him, holding him by the blood-stained chest plate he wore. “This is for my husband.”

Her fist connected once with a sickening crack, a gurgling yell from him as he clawed at her arms. Bloodied knuckles and tear-filled eyes as she raised it once more, struggling against him to hold him in place. Her knees on either side of him, hand around his throat as he clawed at her sleeves.

“And this is for my son.”

Her fist came down again and this time, a choked sputtering sound arose. His clawing slowing and her mother’s fist raised again, the world seeming to slow as a blade cleaved through the air and struck her mother in the back. Her mother’s eyes widened, in that one sliver of breath between life and death, their eyes met but the words her mother might have wanted to convey were lost in the crimson coating her lips as she toppled over beside the wounded bandit she’d struck. The grinning-mouthed man was no longer grinning, rubbing his jaw and staggering toward her with sword in hand.

“You fight like a demon,” he said, glaring down at her with a swift kick to her side. “But in the end, you’re only human.”

Her mother refusing to groan despite the pain contorting her face, squeezing her eyes shut as she settled on her back, glaring up at him. Blood ran down her lips, dripping off her chin in rivulets, staining the star-printed kosode Rin’s father had given her. It was her favorite, she tended to it every time it’d grown too threadbare. With the same hands, knuckles blistering an angry red, and fingers stained red.

Tipping his head to one side, the bandit asked almost innocently. “What is your name?”

Her mother’s chest rose and fell deeply and she coughed, seething a breath and humming angrily as he stamped his foot against her stomach. Leaning down with the sword inches from her mother’s breast.

“I want to remember it when I tell your daughter the one who made her life hell.”

“You will never find h—“

The words died as the blade plunged into her chest, a terrible earth-shattering cry cut off as she laid there, eyes wide and hands left open. For a moment, the bandit lingered over her until he turned his gaze away to his injured companion struggling to his feet after regaining consciousness.

“Search the woods,” he ordered, dragging his blade against the belly of her mother’s kosode then sheathing it.

The bleeding man holding his nose with a disdained glare at her mother, kicking her side. “Ito..” He said, looking toward the river.

“Good as dead.” Their leader glanced back toward her mother’s corpse, hocking and spitting on her with a grimace. “Bested by one woman…”

Staggering up the river bank, he shoved his companion as the man tried to lean against him. The two disappearing into the trees.

Time was non-existent. Rin’s eyes never leaving her mother’s own, wide and unseeing, frozen with a look of impending doom. Her hand outstretched, fingers splayed as if reaching for her but Rin couldn’t bring herself to come any closer. The sun must have fallen by the time the voices came, a man trudging down the river bank with a lantern in hand.

“Rin?” He called, cupping his hand around the side of his mouth. “Kasumi!”

Painstakingly trying to tear her gaze away from her mother, Rin neglected to answer. She couldn’t. Her mother hadn’t called for her. And she would. She had to.

“R—“ The man came closer, as did the light, and Rin recognized who he was but that mattered little. His gaze softened and he lowered the lantern, reaching for her mother’s corpse though his hands did little but hover over her. As if unsure where or if he should touch.

“Oh… Kasumi.”

Trembling, he pressed his fingers together and brought them to his forehead, bowing his head for a quick prayer. Opening his eyes and gathering the lantern, he slowly stood until he looked ahead right to where Rin was staring back at him. Making herself as small as possible as she shied from the coming light.

“Rin? It’s alright, girl. Did you hear me calling for you?”

He offered his hand but she made no move to take it even as he reached to pull her out. Her hands and legs limp, eyes never leaving her mother. Carefully, he slipped his arm around her and hiked her up on his hip, taking her further from her mother in body but her soul felt left in that small cave.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed. A week. A month. The home that she’d known for so long was now empty, a place where she could reside with the other villagers looking after her. But they soon grew weary of her silences, the vacant way in which she sat before her families’ graves. Unweeping and without a word. Stealing from the larders, taking from the nets, enduring beating after beating only to haul herself to the hut upon the embankment to stare into the waters silently.

“You have to speak if there is something you want, Rin.”

Those words were so common and when she refused to speak, they gradually gave up on her one by one. All of them had lost someone during the bandit’s appearance.

But life went on.

Don’t make a sound until I call for you.

Just hum the songs we sing together.

It’s okay to cry if it hurts, Rin.

It went on for all others but her.

“… They couldn’t understand,” Rin managed to say, dots floating in the corners of her vision from staring too deeply into the lantern’s glow, allowing it to drift away. “Some nights, I dream of them and their questions of why it is that I survived when they died.”

Unworthy. Unappreciative. Undeserving.

Her parents fought hard to ensure the others survived, and her brother lost his life with his last words being a blur in her memory. Wrong as it felt to consider the remnant’s words, Rin couldn’t help but lend to their curiosity. Why had she survived when all others died?

“If you ask yourself that question, little bird, you will never find peace.” Inukimi’s voice split the melancholy drifting through her, and beckoned Rin’s attention with no hope for disobedience. Once their eyes met, Inukimi’s calm and cool gaze matched that of her words. Crisp and clipped. “You lived because you survived.”

A disbelieving bark of laughter, no more than a puff of air, was punched through Rin’s chest at those words. “Survived?” Rin echoed, self-loathing bettering her words as she raised her hands. Her translucent body reflecting the amber-blue light as if she were a ghost herself.

Perhaps she’d already been. In some ways, she was much like that young girl whose life bled from her drop by drop as her family met their end. In others, she was something much different.

“I died twice. Lord Sesshomaru brought me back with Tenseiga, then you with the Meidō Stone. Surely knowing that someday neither of you will be able to aid me in cheating death,” Rin shuddered, clenching her jaw as she recalled her mother’s vacant eyes. Her brother’s resilience. Her father’s desperation. Jaken’s tears. Kohaku calling her name. Sesshomaru’s hand cupping her cheek. “And will bury me or scatter my ashes on the wind.”

Drawing a breath when Inukimi said nothing, Rin cursed and bit her lower lip harshly. Pacing to one wall where a shelf stacked to the ceiling with scrolls greeted her. Her hand opened and closed at her side as she glanced to the side, marveling at the wide curvature of the blade mounted to to the wall. It’s balance would have thrown her off and the curvature of it reminded her almost of Tessaiga. Her hand itching at her side, coming to rest over her lower stomach.

“Tenseiga is the Heavenly Rebirth Fang, a sword that can resurrect one hundred souls in a single stroke,” Rin recited, curling her fingers tightly in her sleep yukata. “Yet twice, twice, Lord Sesshomaru attempted to use it just for one little girl. Even I want to know why.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Inukimi’s voice was so close that Rin could have almost mistaken she’d spoken in her head. Though once she turned, she saw the demoness standing where she had before. But where there had been a coolness to her gaze now softened with an unreadable emotion. “He cares for you, little bird.”

The lanterns drifting overhead dimmed their lights, floating out of her path as she walked toward Rin with slow certain steps. “His father was similar in his ways of showing affection, and though Sesshomaru inherited less of his charm and more of mine, his actions speak louder than any word he could say.”

As she stood before Rin once more, she lifted her hand and a powdery violet aura outlined her fingertips.

“If your life wasn’t valuable to him in some form, I assure you,” She reached out, slipping her fingers into Rin’s hair and palming her cheek.The silvery wisps of Rin’s own energy beginning to tint violet and the touch warm to her skin. “Sesshomaru would not have gained the power to use Tenseiga as a weapon. Or spared your life. But I think you know this…”

Sesshomaru would not have returned ye to life, nor would Tenseiga have responded if not for your effect on his heart.

You will never find her.

Rin shuddered, her heart beating harsh enough that it might have escaped her chest if possible.

“It takes a compassionate heart, one that knows both fear and sorrow of loss, to value life,” Inukimi explained, her thumb brushing beneath Rin’s eye and tipping her head up. Golden eyes burning brighter than the sun, the unreadable emotion only growing stronger but Rin still could not place its name. “And you taught him the meaning of life… regrettably, through your death.”

Rin scowled. To die more than once was a feat in itself. But the reminders were ones she carried every day. Miracle though it was that her life was restored, fear and terror weren’t so easily dissuaded.

“First, at the hands of the Northern Lord’s wolves,” Inukimi said. “Secondly, through Sesshomaru’s own desire to seek power. He abandoned Tenseiga in the Underworld, choosing instead to cling to your corpse. But in the time between, the days you lived separately and with him, you were meant to fend for yourself.”

Rin’s eyes widened. Her gaze inquisitive and reproachful but Inukimi merely raised a brow in response, continuing on as if she hadn’t implicated anything.

“Scavenging, stealing, evading, you are far more clever than you believe.” Inukimi drew her hand back to her side, taking with it the warmth that budded in Rin’s chest, leaving only a faint reminder. “And it’s through your clever and earnest ways, the change and growth you experienced, that you endeared yourself to those around you.”

Rin’s eyes softened and she weighed the words carefully on her tongue before speaking them. “And to you?”

In the briefest glimmer of vulnerability, Rin could have sworn that she’d seen affection in Inukimi’s eyes. The trace of it gone before she could probe any further and the demoness turning her head away, beckoning one of the lanterns closer with an upraised palm. “Now that your doubts have been eased, tell me. What of the other dream?”

“How did you know…”

With as casual as the words were spoken, Rin had little time to put up her guard before her secret fled from her lips. Inukimi’s lips quirked at the corners, a mischievous look in her eye as she glanced her way. The lantern resting on her palm held between them.

“I didn’t, you just told me.”

Realizing she’d been had, Rin sucked her teeth and looked away from the lantern, inching from between the bookshelf and Inukimi to keep herself from being cornered. The violet tinge to her energy lessened the greater the distance between them became until Rin found herself standing beneath the luminous stone, gazing up the tiny particles of light drifting around it.

“… It may be nothing. Symbolic, perhaps.”

“Symbols mean something, little bird. You’re stalling.”

Rin’s eyes drifted down and for a moment, she said nothing. Inukimi wouldn’t drag answers out of her by force but her stubbornness was outmatched. Loathe as Rin was to admit it, she had come to her for advice and counsel. Keeping appearances would only take away from that. If only that made it easier for her to speak.

“… In my dreams, I see a crow.”

Gazing up at the stone’s glow, her mind wandered to a dark looming figure perched on the barren bough of an aged tree. The crow’s beak glistening despite the lightless sky and its wings tucked closely to its hulking frame, baring down upon her with voids for eyes. A chill pricked the hairs at the back of her neck and she swallowed thickly, fear and uncertainty bitter on her tongue.

“Not a normal crow, and not the Shibugarasu, I asked Kagome and she killed it years ago…”

From Kagome’s account, the Shibugarasu was a crimson beady three-eyed beast with a barbed tail that swallowed the Shikon no Tama, inadvertently starting her adventures with Inuyasha when she struck it thus shattering the jewel. Worry lingered in her eyes as she recounted the story. One hand clasping over Rin’s own when the silence stretched for longer than her comfort.

You aren’t having dreams about it, are you? Inuyasha —

No. It’s not that, and don’t tell aniki, he’ll just worry needlessly.

It’s not needlessly, Rin. We care —

Rin breathed in deeply, cutting off the ghost of Kagome’s words and the warmth of her hand. Instead, gazing into her memory of those voided eyes.

“This was… something else. It appears in my dreams often, and when I look toward it, I feel like I’m sinking away from my body and being pulled…”

With rapt attention, the bleakness of the crow’s eyes drew her further even in memory. Beckoning her to take a step forward. To cross some imaginary line. The dread that filled Rin’s stomach stirred anew as she took a step forward in the sodden earth, hearing the wind rustle, and the bleak feathers trembled. A void opened as the crow’s beak parted. Cold stealing her breath and freezing her heart mid-beat.

“Into an endless abyss.”

Snapping back to focus, Rin staggered forward, throwing out her hands to keep herself from colliding into the table before her. It’s a painfully long moment that passes before she turns. Inukimi staring at her, neither moving from where she stood or seemingly unruffled.The lantern in her hand casting an unearthly glow over the marks on her cheek, her eyes seeming to shine brighter than the stone above Rin’s head.

Inukimi’s posture eased, her wandering eyes raking over Rin shamelessly as if she were a mystery to be solved. Never one to falter beneath scrutiny, Rin straightened her spine and braced her hand against the table’s edge, the frayed edges of the map beneath her fingertips.

“Curious,” Inukimi said, utterly expressionless. “Tell me, when the crow leaves you, to where does it fly?”

Rin furrowed her brows, unsure of the meaning behind the question. She was quiet for a second, glancing down at the map then to the demoness. “The sky.”

“And from where does it descend?” Inukimi continued, allowing the lantern to float aside. She didn’t wait for an answer, walking toward the sliding door and laying her hand on the wood. The insignia pulsing and filling out with a violet light, sliding open quickly for its mistress.

“… The same,” Rin answered, her voice quieter as the demoness stepped strode into the dimly lit hall with only one of the lanterns to follow her. “Lady Inukimi?”

When she was given no response, Rin followed in earnest, slipping past the door before it slid shut and rattled on the hinges. The glowing violet insignia dimming. Gazing down the hall, only Inukimi and the lantern could be seen. Even the hall itself seemed different and Rin crept warily until she was close to the demoness’ back enough to follow behind her longer strides.

“You know what it means?” Rin asked,

“An idea,” Inukimi clarified, an absentmindedness to her words as if she were speaking to Rin and not. Not once did she deign a look toward her, instead gazing ahead with a murmur in her voice. “A child who has died twice over, lingering in the world of the living with tethers to the dead, dreams of a crow.”

Coming to terms with the demonness speaking of her but not to her, Rin decided her attention was better off elsewhere. Holding her hands out with a silvery wisp of energy to call the lantern to her palms, she peered around at the walls. Wooden, not a bit of shoji in sight, or drapery. This hall was different. She couldn’t even feel the presence of the soldiers guarding the inner sanctum.

“The hall changed,” Rin mused aloud, scrutinizing the walls and the flooring, brushing her fingers against the wood and stopping to examine the grain. “Where are we, Lady Inukimi?”

As if realizing she was joined by someone for the first time, Inukimi looked back at her. Her golden eyes glowing in the darkness and Rin quickly held up the lantern to shed light on the rest of her. Far too unsettled by eyes following her in the dark, for comfort. A flicker of concern showed in Inukimi’s eyes and she reached out, curling a finger to beckon Rin closer.

Hesitantly, she approached and stood by the demoness’ side, allowing her to ease the lantern from her grasp. The brush of their fingers electric against Rin’s palm. Her hand snatched back and gaze averted when Inukimi eyed her quizzically.

“There is nothing to fear here, little bird.”

Rin rolled her eyes and gestured to the semi-somnolent darkness around them. “Aside from not knowing where I am?”

Inukimi chuckled dryly. “You may be lost but you are safe, calm yourself and the path will light its way.”

After a few seconds of pushing away choice words for the demoness, Rin took a few steadying breaths and waited by her side with the lantern floating between them. Particles of amber-blue drifting from its opening and floating in separate directions, seeming to catch on torch along the walls, lighting up a corridor leading in four different directions. Rin glanced behind her then forward, taking a few hesitant steps forward to peer down the western and eastern corridor. Leveling her hand with her eyes and attempting to peer into the darkness of the path before them. Nothing could be discerned, the only lights being the torches at the cornerstone of each path.

From behind, Inukimi stood and Rin could feel the amusement rolling off her in waves. “You know, I always found it funny how you call me ‘little bird’.”

“Why is that?” Inukimi asked with an innocent airs that set Rin’s hair on edge, her footsteps soft while she strolled forward and stood by Rin’s side.

Rin breathed in deeply , wishing that instead of the high wooden beams and identical corridors, lush green plains and bountiful forests were in her view. Alas when she blinked, all she could see were the corridors and Inukimi awaiting a response.

Eyeing her dubiously, Rin sighed when the demoness did nothing in reply.“I used to be afraid of the sky, it was so big and I was so little… It was funny, just a little. A bird afraid to fly, just wandering about on the ground…”

Just as the water in the river by her hut was so deep and she could only go so far without being swept off. Bitterly, more than once, she told herself none would care if she had been. Swallowing the thought, she kept her gaze focused on the demoness instead.

Inukimi’s eyes weren’t unkind but they were hardened with a care that Rin had seen twice before, in Kaede’s eyes and her own mother’s. “Do you know why I called you that?” Inukimi asked, and the question was so softly spoken that Rin almost forgot that an answer was prompted til the demoness lifted a brow.

Canting her head to one side, Rin muttered. “.. Well, no.”

Inukimi’s lips twitched at the corners and in the glow of the lantern, a small smile showed itself. Genuine, faint, and so warm that Rin felt the chill pricking hairs on the back of her neck dissipate.

“You reminded me of a baby bird when we first met. In need of someone to care for you, provide you shelter…” A glimmer of amusement showed, the marks on her cheeks shifting as a tenderness touched her voice. “As you grew, I watched your wings grow and you take flight. But to me, you’ll always be that chirping little bird. The same way that my son will always be my baby…”

Slowly, tentatively, Rin nodded. A wave of calm swept through her and the fear that’d been built alongside doubt and shame was washed into the reaches of her mind.

“I like you too.”

Whether it was her vision swimming or the impossible brightness of the lantern’s glow, Inukimi’s image grew hazier around the edges as the feeling in Rin’s chest grew stronger. More fragments of light dissipated into the air and Rin found it easier to breathe as the shadows caved.

Covering her eyes when the light became too bright, it was until Rin heard a soft call of, “Here we are,” that she uncovered them.

The four cornerstones around her came into view blearily but they were no longer connected to corridors but instead shelves. Shelves stacked high with scrolls piled atop one another, leaning against tomes of different sizes, and neatly arranged. The path ahead of her, the one to the west and the east, were all bookshelves. A strange look must have shown on her face because Inukimi covered her mouth with her sleeve to hide her mirth and stifle a laugh.

“Really, child, have you never been inside of a library before?” She asked, then seeming to remind herself, shook her head. “No, I suppose you haven’t.”

“It’s…”

Indescribable. The shelves themselves were far taller than Rin and when she peered down the path that they’d come, she could still see the outline of the door leading to the inner sanctum. Perhaps the path had changed but the destination was connected. From overhead, the wooden beams joined toward what Rin thought was a hole in the roof. A view of the now pale blue sky, thick with clouds drifting past, providing light accompanied by the lantern lighting torches along the sides of the shelves.

“The stories may have depicted my husband as a warmonger,” Inukimi said, her lips thinning into a grimace despite the warmth in her voice. “But he was a man who loved to tell and read stories. He believed legends were real, and that in all stories, there is some grain of truth.”

Rin was careful not to wander off in the seemingly endless maze. There wasn’t only four shelves but numerous and she wasn’t sure for how long the room stretched or how deep it went, from the winding staircase she saw in between two of the shelves they passed.

“Has Lord Sesshomaru been here before?”

“When he was a boy. He often followed at his father’s footsteps, and to bring him rest, Touga would read to him throughout the night.”

It was a little hard for Rin to think of Sesshomaru as ever being a child but his mother was proof that he’d once been small. And she had no small amount of stories to embarrass the daiyōkai.

“So, what does being here have to do with my dreams?” Rin asked, soft and skeptical.

With one slender finger raised, Inukimi silenced her from any further questions then gestured between two bookcases. Coming around the bend then holding up a hand to stop Rin in her tracks. After peering at the scrolls, scanning them with a claw tapping along their knobs, Inukimi seemed to find the one she was looking for and pulled it free. A small cloud of dust arising and calmly swept aside to where it nearly puffed in Rin’s face, a light breeze causing it to drift away.

Rin glanced up at Inukimi and the demoness held her gaze for a moment, the corner of her lips quirking with amusement and Rin rolling her eyes in response.

“You sneeze like a kitten,” Inukimi said, holding out the scroll to her.

“What’s this?” Rin asked, pointedly ignoring those words and turning the scroll over in her hands, her thumb fiddling with the tie.

“It should help with your dreams.” Inukimi said, though her voice held a certain ambivalence that roused Rin’s curiosity. “Or perhaps provide insight into what may be plaguing you.”

“… What is it about?”

Inukimi smiled thinly, though she covered it with her sleeve and a thoughtful tap to her cheek, her eyes crinkling at the corners in her amusement. “You will just have to find out, now won’t you?”

Rin made a face and sighed wearily. “I didn’t exactly bring a robe with me, or an actual body.”

“Surely the priestess who’s been teaching you has shown you a few of her tricks,” Inukimi said, plain amusement showing in her eyes.

Rin sighed, exasperatedly fond. It was an uphill battle with Inukimi remembering anyone’s names it seemed and she was certain the demoness was doing it on purpose. Though at least she didn’t call Kaede anything offensive as she often took to doing with Jaken.

“Follow me, you’ll need to concentrate for this and we’ve spent too much time inside as it is.”

Little complaint was given as Rin followed. Wanting to see the sky more than anything after too many brushes with the abyss. Tucking the scroll closer to her, she brushed her fingers against her sleeve and pushed it upward, distantly wondering how her skin could feel so cold when she wasn’t there. Inukimi provided no insight, walking ahead until the library and its light distanced, the torches snuffing out one by one until Rin could no longer discern the shadows of the shelves or the light above them.

As they walked, Rin noticed the walls seeming to change around Inukimi as her energy drifted from her with every step. The shoji and its paintings returning as well as the room of soldiers, jarring Rin immediately as she whipped her head around.

“How did you…”

Inukimi gave her a knowing smile and shook her head, walking along. “You’ll understand one day what it means to step into a yōkai’s domain. I believe that’s one of your slayer mentor’s lessons, isn’t it?”

Rin winced. She wasn’t sure that mentioning learning about the clan of demon slayers around other demons was wise but none of the soldiers they passed seemed bothered. In fact, some even seemed amused or interested with little smiles quickly dissipating as Inukimi stepped in their vicinity. The doors opened, this time without the sigil’s glow and a rush of wind swept Rin’s hair back. Her mouth opening wide and lips pulled back into a cheery smile, the scroll clutched tight in hand as she bounded down the steps and across the tiled floors toward the large staircase. The expanse of the sky opened up before her and she marveled at it.

“You’ve seen this sight every time you come here,” Inukimi said, seemingly affected by Rin’s cheer with a quiet thoughtfulness to her tone.

“And it never gets old,” Rin replied, never looking away from the sea of clouds.

They stand there in silence for some time. Both lost to their own thoughts and allowing the world to drift past. Rin’s attention, drifting to the scroll, helps her draw her energy to one point. The silver aura inching across the scroll’s knob, outlining the length of it until it shone, becoming translucent.

“So you have been learning.”

Sheepishly, Rin ducked her head with a little grin. “A bit. Everyone has their own way of helping me. Lady Kaede teaches me how to control my energy, Aniki — er — Inuyasha, has been teaching me how to fight with a sword. And Aniue — gah — Miroku, does meditations with me in the morning.”

Inukimi didn’t mention the endearments although from the look in her eye, she surely hadn’t missed Rin’s stumbling over them. After so long spent in the village, the others had become a family to her although she was a little hesitant to admit it out loud.

“And the slayer has taught you her ways, while the girl found in time taught you hers.” Inukimi stated, thoughtfully. The joy in Rin’s chest cooling with pinpricks of anticipation long wrought from a sense of danger. A threat looming, not physical but emotional, reaching her ears before she could steel herself. “But the rest, the faces of those you loved and lost, that is your own guilt.”

Rin met Inukimi’s gaze calmly, and the demoness’ eyes were gentle though her words were piercing in every way.

“You fear love.”

Swallowing the sticky ichor building in her throat, Rin grimaced.

“Affection.”

Kaede’s touch ghosted on her shoulder, the hesitance in her hands, which could have just as easily pulled Rin close as they could push her away. They both knew why she wouldn’t take the next step. They hadn’t talked about it and likely wouldn’t for some time. Half-spoken sentiments and soft words filled her mind and lingered, washed away as she breathed in deeply.

“And you fear life but you love it. You want to live but you feel guilty for it,” Inukimi stated, her voice knowing and Rin almost wondered if the demoness could see into the core of her being. Or if she had been that obvious in the years between. For a moment, neither of them said a word. Rin clutching the scroll tightly until she felt the paper begin to crinkle beneath her knuckles. And Inukimi glancing down at her hand, watching it tremble impassively, then looking away toward the lightening sky.

“You will have to come to peace with it. If you wanted to die, then you would have. It’s as simple as that.”

Pressure settled deep in Rin’s chest.

You lived because you survived.

You are lost but you are safe.

“A bird cannot remain in one place for long,” Inukimi said, a softness to her voice almost akin to that of a mother cooing to her child. Rin heard that sound many times after delivering a child, and each time it soothed her just a bit more. Whether unaware of the effects of her words or not, Inukimi continued on. “While the flow of time cannot be stopped, the time that you have can be controlled.”

Rin’s brows furrowed and her hand cupped at her chest. Though she couldn’t feel the beating of her heart, she knew that she still drew breath in the world below.

“There is no guarantee Sesshomaru will outlive you.”

Rin’s gaze snapped up to meet Inukimi’s own. The demoness staring at her resolutely, a heaviness to the slight downward twitch of her lips as they thinned tightly.

“He may die tomorrow just as easily as he could watch you die once more. Even your friends, human and yōkai, may meet the same end. Unless you make a decision, time will come for you to fly and you will fall to the forest floor when you were meant to soar.”

Rin swallowed the bile. A number of protests on her tongue though all of them were moot. She knew Inukimi was right. Deep down, she knew her time had been limited from the moment she was revived for the second time. Life was a precious thing but it was so fleeting. And she lived her life in accordance to her own laws and desires, including basking in the presence of those she loved.

Inukimi’s hand settled on her shoulder and a wave of calm swept through her, cracking and draining the ichor from her being. Releasing the breath built up in the swell of her chest, Rin blinked away the budding tears and looked up at the demoness with a stern jaw.

Nonplussed, and even somewhat pleased, Inukimi returned her gaze. Shifting her hand to cup the underside of her jaw, her claws grazing along Rin’s cheek tenderly.

“Nevertheless, Rin. No matter the fate you choose, I only ask you to protect yourself,” she said. “And if you should find yourself in need of advice once more, you know how to find me.”

With that, she drew her hand away and took with it her warmth and the faint outline of violet. “And if I want to talk?” Rin asked quietly, steeling herself for the rejection that might come.

Inukimi’s face took on a thoughtful look and the smile she wore was the faint and gentle one, rare as it was, Rin committed it to memory with the others. “I suppose I don’t mind your company…”

Perhaps a bit too gleeful, Rin smiled, ignoring the heaviness in her heart to step toward the demoness. “May I push my luck just a bit further?”

Raising a brow with a wary look, Inukimi tucked her hands into her sleeves, the gleam of the Meidō Stone drawing Rin’s eye. “I suppose it depends on what you wish to push your luck with.”

Rin squared her shoulders as if she were preparing to fight, the scroll held out in the palm of her hand as she opened her arms. “A hug?” She asked with the same hopefulness that often won her many sighs and less lectures.

Inukimi regarded her silently, raking her gaze up and down before glancing aside a way that almost reminded Rin of Sesshomaru.

“… One.”

Rin would have squealed if she hadn’t thought it would have robbed her of this moment. Despite the demoness’ terse words, there was a relief. A breath of fresh air and perhaps a chance. Inukimi was many things, but she was never without purpose, much like her son. As Rin slid to the demoness’ side and tucked her arms around her in a tight embrace, the scroll was clutched tightly in her palm. A giddy laugh bubbling from her throat betraying the weight of her heart.

From above, she heard a small fond sigh and felt the arm wind around her shoulders to return the embrace.

After some time, Rin shuffled a bit to look up at her, smiling almost impishly. “So, out of curiosity, when will you tell me your true name, Lady Inukimi?”

“Do you not prefer that charming little alias you’ve given me?”

“Master Jaken was horrified when I spoke it for the first time.”

“Ah that he was, perhaps that’s why I’m fond of it.”

They shared a laugh and stayed together, watching as the sun began its ascent. With one last squeeze, Rin pulled away slowly and nodded to Inukimi with a tired yet appreciative smile.

“I should be returning now, if Lady Kaede finds I haven’t woken and my spirit energy missing, she’ll worry.”

Inukimi nodded in turn, gently patting down her hair, tracing the curve of her cheek to her chin with a little smile playing at her lips. “Safe travels, little bird.”

Rin nodded, taking a deep breath. “Until next time,” she promised, her body beginning to glow and unravel in threads of light. Inukimi and the view of her castle, the wide expanse of the sky, and all else fading away.

When Rin opened her eyes, the wooden beams of Kaede’s hut caught her eye along with a hole in the thatched roof. She made a dull note in mind to fix that, taking a few testing breaths to ensure her soul had returned to her body. Glancing aside at the silhouette of Kaede still tucked beneath her comforter, Rin smiled and shuffled her arm from beneath the blanket.

The scroll resting in the palm of her hand just as it’d been when she was in Inukimi’s domain. Sighing softly, Rin pushed herself upright.

She could keep this to herself for now. Although, she knew that it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

#inuyasha #rin #sesshomaru #inukimi #fanfiction #my fanfiction #affections touching across time #it takes a village

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