#she knows he is waiting for her to go fully insane; to be the scourge again

[eighthdoctor]

What about Lor'themar? He still talks to her and isn't incompetent. They're practically best friends by Horde standards.

Ehhhhh sort of. I'll pull the relevant Lor'themar quotes:

Sylvanas could command from the rear, but that’s what Lor’themar is for. She’s far too useful in the front lines to seclude herself, and she…trusts…Lor’themar. Mostly. Enough. He can handle command.

“Without you to lead? Who did you leave in command, Lor'themar?” “Who is a competent, if not inspired, general.”

Proudmoore snorts. “Would she listen to Lor’themar if he told her to fall back?” Under her eyes, the Stormwind infantry moves forward and the orcs charge without waiting for orders. To the rear of the Horde a figure just identifiable as Lor’themar begins gesticulating angrily. Geya’rah listens to Sylvanas because she values her own life. Lor’themar doesn’t inspire that sort of fear, and Geya’rah, like so many orcs, suffers from an excess of honor and a remarkable lack of sense. Grudgingly, Sylvanas says, “She would not.”

Will Baine and Lor’themar care enough about the Forsaken to support their position? She can’t say.

So what can we take from this?

Sylvanas is comfortable leaving Lor'themar in command of the Horde army, even though there's no real sin'dorei presence and so he's technically outside his bailiwick. She has faith (borne out in Interlude 1) that he won't get too creative or reckless and will do the best he can, but she also doesn't believe he can keep Geya'rah in line.

Overall: Pretty good confidence in Lor'themar as a military leader.

Unfortunately: Approximately zero confidence in Lor'themar's willingness to go out of his way to help the Forsaken.

In other words, Sylvanas trusts Lor'themar to help her when it's in his own best interest. She does NOT trust him to do anything even moderately inconvenient that would benefit her, which is fair because he wouldn't.

Trust is easy when you're trusting someone to do something that benefits them. It's much, much harder when you're hoping they'll put themselves at risk to help you.

#blorbos from my games #the power to manipulate belief #asks for ts #Anonymous #also shoutout to sylvanas being unsure if baine would support the forsaken #guess who doesn't know he's on a boat right now #that'll be a fun surprise for her later #worth remembering that at this point in bfa literally every horde leader EXCEPT geya'rah (hysterically) #is at least privately considering What If A Different Warchief #this includes lor'themar #(and thalyssra. who has instead been nerdsniped into helping.) #anyway so to come back to the original ask: #in addition to the obvious reason to not date lor'themar (wrong gender) sylvanas is also not willing to be vulnerable around him #she knows that he'll use that against her if things go badly enough #while with jaina she can't. not. she STILL thinks jaina would use it against her but she can't stop herself #she also KNOWS that lor'themar thinks she's vaguely unstable #(this is to be fair to him a vast step up from everyone else who wouldn't use 'vaguely' there) #she knows he is waiting for her to go fully insane; to be the scourge again #(SHE is waiting to become the scourge again; it's that or the maw) #so the idea that now. now we're getting to jaina looking at sylvanas and SEEING HER AS SHE IS. #not as she was; not as rumors; not as her worst actions #just as a complicated and deeply traumatized person #THATS super new

[ninjakasuga]

Sonally Celebration Week, Year 3, Day 2: Mystery

Day two has come for the celebration of one of the best furry OTP’s ever~. @gojira007 ‘s celebration blog @boundforfreedomsonsal of Sonic and Sally continues and here’s my second entry. Enjoy all~

Sonsally Week, Year Three!!

Day 02: Mystery

Foreword: This episode is still set in the Archie-Verse depicted in my fics of last year and day one’s story. This one is set some years after the fall of Eggman, when peaceful times finally settled on Mobius for the first time in ages. Of course, peace doesn’t always equate to ‘easy’, especially when babysitting two spirited scamps.

“Sonia, Manic- WHERE THE FREAKING BLEEP ARE YOU?!!” Shouted an irate, and clearly frustrated blue hedgehog as his right eye twitched something horribly. Standing in the town-square of the rebuilt Knothole Village, his gaze shifting back and forth from the trees, and the various huts of the quiet village. While mostly destroyed during one of Dr. Eggman’s devastating attacks; the entire village was rebuilt as it was during the war era of fighting the original Robotnik. With a few Eggman era buildings kept, and one or two new additions. Knothole was mainly a tribute to the village that sheltered the survivors of the fall of the original Mobotropolis, and became home of the resistance that would become the Freedom Fighters. Mostly a standing all-may-come museum to pay homage to the place that started as a Royal Retreat/shelter, but became so much more. A few of the huts were still livable, home away from home for certain members of the Freedom Fighters who occasionally would return to Knothole with their families to celebrate and remember those days.

Today, it was host to a game of hide and seek, giving the two instigators of the game a plethora of hiding places. One that was driving the elder brother of Sonia and Manic Hedgehog, one Sonic the Hedgehog, former hero of Mobius, crazy!

After tapping his foot rapidly for a scant few seconds, Sonic cupped his hands together again and shouted as loudly as he could manage. “MANIC! SONIA! FOR BLEEPING FRACK’S SAKE YOU BETTER GET YOUR BUTTS OUT WHERE I CAN SEE EM’! AIN’T FUNNY NO MORE!” It really wasn’t, Sonic nor his lovely wife, had agreed to hide and seek, but his two younger siblings opted to begin a game without anyone’s consent.

A voice soon called to him, followed by familiar footsteps. “Is there a reason you’re using frack and bleep? Is that a new sibling code of some sort Sonic?”

Speaking of lovely wife’s, there she was. Turning to face his wife, Sonic shrugged with a sheepish expression. “It was censor myself or risk using words I don’t think Mom nor Dad would care for two nine-year-olds to repeat.”

“That is probably for the best.” Agreed Sally, with a tired sigh as a hand went to her rounded stomach. She wasn’t far enough along in her own pregnancy; her movements were not hampered; but the extra weight of the two passengers in her belly was sapping her energy. “Whew, I’ve just been walking but I feel ready to kick back.”

Concerned, Sonic walked over and touched her shoulder. “All the more reason I’m not too happy they started this ‘game’ when I made it clear you can’t be as play-happy as usual because you’re pregnant.”

Shaking her head, Sally reached over to place her hand over his, giving an assuring squeeze as she managed a smile. “They’re just kids, it’s alright Sonic. They probably just want to get some last playtime with us before I’m truly an invalid.”

Sonic had to admit she had a point but his ire was not fully dissolved. “Maybe, but this is still too much. Even Mom n’ Dad told em’ to not get carried away.”

Smirking, Sally lifted an eyebrow as she glanced at her husband. “Sonic, they’re ‘your’ siblings. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. There seems to be an innate sass-o-meter in your family. Pushing buttons seems to be something of a religious doctrine.”

Opening his mouth to counter, Sonic slowly shut it, frowning deeply. “... Fair nuff, but I still say you’ve rubbed off on them if we’re going for sass influence.”

“ME?!” Sputtered Sally, an incredulous frown, forming over her face. Beautiful blue, eyes narrowing almost dangerously. “How pray tell, do I count as a bad influence toward Manic or Sonia?”

Smirking widely as he got her goat, Sonic yanked the chain more, counting off with his fingers. “Well again, you’re the Queen of Sass and not just the Kingdom. When you gotta be right, you will argue til’ the cows come home. Plus you’re good at being playful when you want something, Manny’s baby-of-the-family routine is killer thanks to watching you. N’ Sonia’s all about emulating her Sis-in-law’s fancy mannerisms, and silver tongue. Just the other day she was in trouble and convinced Mom to let her off the hook light with a buncha big words she got from you.”

Almost mirroring Sonic, Sally opened her mouth, then closed it as she thought better of it. “...Touche’, but that doesn’t excuse the bad habits you’ve given them love-of-my-life.”

Laughing, Sonic gave her a big, if careful hug. Letting her have that one as, one it was true, and two, he knew jerking her around too much with hormones a-flame was a bad idea. “Of course, of course, but they also picked up on my coolness factor.”

“Truly…” Replied Sally in a dull, drawl that spoke volumes of how little she believed that. “I just hope our own bundles give us something of a break compared to these two. I can see why your parents are all-too-eager for us to babysit when we can.”

“Knowing us, they’ll drive us insane cuz they’ll be just like us in ways, but we’ll love em’ anyway.” Sonic mused, placing a hand to her belly and leaning in to kiss her gently. Sighing in a content manner, Sally melted into the kiss and hug, feeling a bit of the weight of impending motherhood ease off her shoulders to a degree.

Almost as if on cue, a duo of childish voices are heard uttering, “Eeeew gross!”

Instantly, both Sally and Sonic broke the kiss, angled their heads upward, and pointed as they both cried out in triumphant unison. “AH-HA! THERE YOU TWO SCAMPS ARE!”

“Aw crude!” Muttered Manic, as he and his sister clung to one of the large tree branches, quite a ways up that was connected to one of the tree house type huts.

“Well we gave them the ghost for a good twenty-minutes I’d say we won.” Stated Sonia in a rather faux-haughty manner. The more purple-blue of the two, whipped back her-pink hair? Wait, Sonia was blonde! Plus some of her fur looked more magenta-purple now?

In fact, why was Manic’s fur and quills more of a green-ish tinge than the light-blue they should be? Not to mention that punk-esque quill style... Eyes narrowing, Sonic let go of Sally, zipped into the hollowed out large tree with a hut built around the base. With the same speed, he charged up the ladder within the hollowed out tree, allowing him to come out at the point where the tree-house hut was, and lean out where the landing gave way to a natural, thick tree branch. 

“Oh no, you two did not!”

Putting on the best coy, innocent face he could, Manic twiddled his fingers together in a playful manner. “What’re you talking about Big-Bro?”

“Seriously Sonic, you need to use clear, concise words.” Snickered Sonia.

“You both dyed your hair and fur!” Sonic pointed between each sibling. “Mom’s gonna have kittens!” Growled their elder brother as his mind swam with images of a none-too-pleased Bernadette Hedgehog glaring at her son and daughter-in-law.

Arms crossed, Sally tapped her foot, in a manner not unlike her husband. “You two sneaks lost us to go and do the dye-jobs yourself didn’t you?”

“Maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe.” Both twins chorused.

Sighing Sally frowned more. “Manic, Sonia, you do realize your Mother and Father are going to tan the crap out of your hides. They both told you, neither of you could have such radical dye jobs until you were fifteen, thirteen at the earliest if you both proved responsible enough! Plus, Manic, sweetie, why are you intent on making yourself look like Scourge?!”

“Hey!” Manic cried indignantly, a pout forming on his lips. “I just like the color, it’s not my fault Sonic’s scrub of a doppelganger had the same color-job! It screams ‘me’! Plus I don’t have sharp teeth or those evil eyes like he does, plus my quills are cooler lookin!”

“I’ll give you that li’ bro, on the being cooler looking thing, but dam-er dang it!” Sonic grabbed his own head-quills, mussing them up some in frustration. “Urgh Mom n’ Dad ain’t gonna let us watch you two ever again if you pull crap like this again!”

“He’s right.” Sighed Sally, rather dramatically. “We’ll be seen as so irresponsible they will forbid us from ever seeing you again!” She put a hand to her heart, and the other against her head. Truly, piling on the dramatic flair. “They may even question if we’re fit to be parents ourselves and have our babies taken from us.”

While Sonia rolled her eyes, Manic’s went wide as panic took over his earlier nonchalant attitude. “R-really?! We don’t want that!”

“Manny, bro she’s trying to guilt us!”

“Well it’s working! I didn’t wanna get them in that deep of trouble!”

“Manic she’s the QUEEN!! Mom and Dad can’t do jack to her!” His (slighty) older twin argued, seeing her partner-in-crime was about to fold.

“Wanna bet?” Sonic crossed his arms, smirking fully as he saw the sliver of doubt in the two’s eyes. “Mom can be scary when she wants and Dad, Dad is aaaaaaaaaall about the ‘subtle, quiet big stick’ kind of approach.”

Now even Sonia was doubting if they’d gone too far, especially as it pertained to how much trouble this might land her and Manic. Maybe she underestimated her ability to talk her way out of trouble. “M-Maaaybe we got a little carried away?”

“You sure did you two scamps, now if you come with me down the tree, we might ‘might’ convince Mom and Dad to let you both stay the night, and we can wash out the dyes and treat your fur so they never notice.”

Nodding as they both climbed fast, but still safely across the branch to Sonic. The two younger hedgehogs cling onto his legs. “We give, we give!!”

“Smart choice!” Laughed Sally from the ground, smiling at the won tag-team victory of talking the kids into doing their bidding. “If you two behave onward, there might be my special ice cream sundaes after supper.”

“Really?!”

Maybe handling kids wouldn’t be so hard after all? Sally thought before speaking aloud to them. “Cross my heart!”

“N’ you know Sal’s promises are good as gold.” Quipped Sonic as he guided the two once they stood up towards the ladder down to ground level. “Also, expect to help do some chores as further punishment for this stunt.”

“What?! Oh come on big brother-!”

“Nope, nada, don’t even try to talk me down Sonia!” Sonic cut her off as he coaxed first Manic, then Sonia to climb down the ladder. “Sal’s gotta take it easy and I need help doing this and that.”

“But you guys got a staff at the castle to do stuff!” Pipped Manic, his voice echoing through the hollow tree.

“It keeps us honest to do our own chores.” Quipped Sonic, watching them both get halfway before he started down the ladder himself. “Plus if you want us to keep quiet about the dye-thing-.”

“Oh fine!” Both younger hedgehogs huffed, giving up arguing.

“Being a big brother has its perks.” Chuckled Sonic to himself as he made his way down. Maybe in a few years, Sally and he could return the favor and foist their own kids on Manic and Sonia to babysit. Oh the payback will be sweet!

#boundforfreedom #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sally Acorn #Sonally #Sonsal #Archie-Sonic #Manic Hedgehog #Sonia Hedgehog

[kektrain]

The broken vail: Those who walk after and the future

#Neo Astil RP stuffs. #Gettin that Shadowlands train rolling

[motheatenscarf]

ANYWAY, before I got, uh, COMPLETELY DISTRACTED by the return of a certain character (also Kira, hi, I missed you too, you’re great, my Jedi literally named her son after you but that was the son she had with Scourge SO... I’m sorry) I was gonna talk about how much I fucking love the little posse you’ve got developing in the Republic faction?

I mean, let’s start off strong here with Tau and Arn. I already fucking loved Tau from Ossus and she only continued to endear me with what a great teacher she is and how much she already clearly adores her padawan. She’s fantastic with him and props to Gnost Durall for having the smarts to bring two wounded, questioning people together to help heal each other and build on one another, goddamn I love them so much. Individually they’re great on their own too, I’ve talked about how much I love Tau’s conflicted feelings about a Jedi’s role in conflict and her own use as anything other than a killer. And now Arn is just a SWEET BABY BOY, I’m so glad we get an actually decent depiction of trauma through him for once. Yeah, I could do without the whole “cybernetic character is MAYBE GONNA GO DARKSIDE” cliche AGAIN but it’s nowhere near as egregious as I thought it was gonna be. He’s not some bitter, broken, hate fueled “morally gray” character, he’s sweet and thoughtful and unsure of himself and even timid- he just has hella PTSD and lashes out in his trauma when he’s literally triggered like a war veteran. So to put him under Tau’s tutelage, where she knows that EXACT feeling and can help him through it, is brilliant. 

And I LOVE how good she is with him, I cannot stress that enough! When he fucks up she doesn’t yell at him or talk down to him or lecture him, she helps him through it and you as the player get to do the same. It’s absolutely pulling on my goddamn heartstrings. She’s SO KIND, I love a Tau, I love the her so much. I want to romance her so badly. If my track record post-Scourge holds true, I just have to wait until about 2026 for that Tau Romance. I specifically made Vane to romance Tau. Sometimes a family can be a beat up old Colonel, a sad wise beautiful statue of a Jedi, and their fully grown baby boy son.

Also Arn sends a message about how he immediately spotted how he could ease some of Jakarro’s discomfort but didn’t want to presume to tell him his business when he doesn’t know him so he passes the message onto you and asks if you can tell him. He’s such a good!! What a sweetie. I love this boy, I want to protect him.

I continue to love Gnost Durall and even his interactions with Lana were surprisingly endearing. I hate to see how much happier Lana is in the Republic than Theron is with me even pretending to still be loyal to the Sith as a saboteur. 

Also I really like the new Chancelor! And that Senator on Onderon. And honestly, even the 3 new Dark Council Members (well, they’re not NEW, they’ve been established, they’re just new to their seats of power). Bioware, writing a sensible woman in power who isn’t power hungry or “insane”????? What universe did I walk into?????

And of course Daerun continues to be an absolute fucking delight, I like his odd little friendship with Gnost Durall and he’s the perfect flamboyant, devastatingly tactical foil to Vowrawn. Jake compared him to Iroh earlier and that’s exactly the kinda vibes I get from him, it was a spot on comparison.

They did a fantastic job with making all of these characters likable and memorable, I am genuinely fond of all of them and their interactions only make them seem like stronger and even more endearing characters. I know everyone keeps talking about how “The Sith have changed, the Sith have changed” but they don’t seem to show any real change except that maybe they aren’t actively committing resources to screwing each other over the way they were the last time they invaded Corellia. Meanwhile, the Republic has somehow gotten its fucking shit together and created not only a functional government with a competent military structure (the SIS aside, Jesus fucking Christ Jonas why did you call my Warrior IN THE DARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS?) and a Jedi order committed to supporting each other through their darkest times without fear or judgement???????????

So yeah, Aerasuni went back to the Republic. I was actually very surprised that they were willing to grant full citizenship and ignore the criminal records and wartime activities of my underworld and formerly Imperial characters which... holy shit? Just makes me honestly that much angrier about the Saboteur route.

Having played both, the only thing I liked better about the Imperial Story was that it starts the player out as an active protagonist, you’re sent to Onderon on the mission that starts the fucking plot. Republic faction, you go there just because Arn needed someone to drive him to meet Tau and you know Tau and are nice, so why not let it be you, I guess, and then plot happens around you and you just sort of fall into it. 

I was okay with the KotFE/KotET/Iokath/Traitor arc stuff because it was all stuff that was very relevant to Tallia, who is my main and whom I adore, but I think going forward I’m just kinda gonna have to handwave uh, everything, if the Republic stuff continues to just run laps around the Imperial content. And the Empire stuff wasn’t even bad! It was just sort of okay. I imagine if you’re playing a loyalist it’s immensely satisfying but that’s not my jam, I’ve been playing lightside weenie reformists since 2013 (I say, even as they lop the heads off of slave trading Sith on the Dark Council jesus FUCKING christ that was intense). Ain’t gonna change now.

I’m gonna think on how this might affect Tallia’s story, I’ve been toying with the idea of her defecting for realsies and just saying she does the Republic story stuff with Aerasuni, but wasn’t sure how I’d even handle that. Because I mean, no way in hell they’d ever welcome all these ex-Imperials into the Republic, not without some heavy strings, and oh wait, they did. They did... exactly that. Huh. Welp. I guess that’s that then.

I’ll have to think on this next week though because we have a Halloween one-shot in D&D this week where the theme is undead maffia so I’m obviously going to be playing a shambling charismatic zombie with cinderblock boots named Jimmy Coffin.

#Caitlin Plays SWTOR #SWTOR spoilers #Onslaught Spoilers #6.0 spoilers

[percywinchester27]

Unconventional Roommates (Epilogue)

Word count: 2.6K

Pairing: Dean X Reader

Warnings: Fluff

Series Summary: Now that his brother is at Stanford, for the first time in his life, Dean does something for himself. He takes a step towards chasing his own dreams and moves away from Lawrence to start college, which is both thrilling and scary at the same time. Only catch, in this unknown town, he is stuck with the MOST infuriating female on the planet- the roommate from hell!

A/N: Here we are! Thank you, guys. Your love kept me going <3

This couldn’t have been possible without the incredible @deanssweetheart23. Thank you so much for everything, Athina. You rock, my princess <3

Unconventional Roommates masterlist

"This is a horrible fricking idea!" Dean grumbled, getting out of the car.

Y/N merely smirked, and Dean had to admit that the expression had never looked so alluring on anyone else. "You're just nervous. This is the coolest thing I've ever done."

Dean adjusted his tie. She looked so happy that he would have done anything to keep her smiling like that. This wasn't a big deal as it is. He was only nervous because he had never done this before, and also because he was about to walk in with the best girl he knew.

Incidentally, the reason for Y/N's excitement was same as his nervousness. She had never done this before either.

The building was colored in flashing crimson and purple lights which reflected on Y/N's face. Dean couldn't help but be reminded of the fair, when they were stuck in the Ferris wheel. She had looked beautiful then, and she looked beautiful now. The black wig that she was sporting suited her perfectly, so did the dark lipstick. She looked something else.

Just before they could enter the hall, Dean caught hold of her hand and pulled her back.

"Have I told you that you look absolutely stunning?"

Y/N looked down, smiling shyly. It would still take him time to get used to her reacting like that instead of glare down at him like she was about to pull out a butcher's knife.

"You don't look bad yourself, Romeo!"

"Are you kidding me?" Dean complained, touching his slick black hair. "I look like a clown."

"No you don't," she said, running her hand over the lapels of his coat, fussing over him. "You look hot." She licked her lips. "I'd kiss you, but I don't wanna ruin the look with my lipstick."

"Screw the look," Dean said, reaching out for the small of her back and pulling her close. "I don't give a damn about the look."

He leaned in, but she put a finger to his lips. "If you kiss me now, we'd have to go right back home to finish what we started, and I don't want to miss tonight. It's such a big day for you."

Dean could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. She was so proud of him.

It wasn't a big deal. They were launching the paper today, but they all did it every month. For him, though, this was the first time. They had loved his pictures so much that a couple of them were being used in tonight's Halloween party as a backdrop with some Halloweeny stickers. Y/N had been delighted to know about that. It was right after telling her that, that Dean had asked her out to the party.

She had been excited about it from the get go, especially the dressing up part. Dean found it amusing that she was so excited about dressing up even though she did it for a living. That was until he found out what she was planning to dress up as. Honestly, he shouldn't have expected any less of her. She had somehow convinced him to dress up as Gomez Addams, complete with the temporarily colored black hair. He might have to take a couple of days to wash it off completely, but again, her happiness was so palpable that he didn't want to take it away. She was ravishing as Morticia.

All things considered, it was still better than her idea of dressing up as Ted Bundy and Clementine Barnabet. Dean had to talk her out of it. He loved that she was still wearing the printed socks that he had gifted her. The skull beanie had been a constant up until tonight.

As the day approached though, despite her initial reaction, Y/N seemed to grow a little anxious about it. Not enough to curb her enthusiasm, but definitely enough to not fully enjoy it. They had had fun with putting together the ensembles. For the past week, since their evening on the beach, Dean had woken up at ungodly hours to catch Y/N's closing act of the night. All eyes in the club hungered for one look at her, but her eyes only searched his, and Dean felt like his chest widened a couple of inches each time.

After each show, he'd wait behind the curtains to welcome her when she came back, not believing that the Nymph was his. The other girls were happy for Y/N. They were all around her age, but she had mentored almost all of them. It made him clearly see her for who she was- a giver. She did so much for the girls who could very well end up being her own competition, and she did so much for all those little girls in Mia's school, too. Seeing her interact, he also realized that she was a natural teacher, she loved to share what she knew, selflessly.

They scourged through the fancy costumes at the Elixir, trying to try out funny hats and coats, entertaining the girls who had been exhausted after entertaining people all night long. Y/N's eyes shined when she saw him accepting her life and everyone in it so easily. She kissed him harder that morning in the car.

They did find the perfect costumes for Gomez and Morticia, too, there.

Other girls passing them were dressed as nurses or hot assistants, making the most of the opportunity to wear revealing clothes without it being questioned and more credit to them, but there was something very endearing about Y/N's childish excitement about dressing up in two full length layers.

"C'mon!" He grinned, pulling her by her arm, but she didn't move.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?"

Dean huffed. "Now you're having cold feet about this? After you made me spend 2 hours in the bathroom trying to get the hair right?"

"No… Dean," she said, voice abruptly serious. "It's not that, I mean…"

"Hey," Dean put his hand against her soft cheek. "You alright? You're not feeling sick, are you? I told you not to overdo the shifts. In fact, you can take it easy now. Anyway you're quitting the job next month when all your installments for the apartment are paid."

"Dean. Listen." She put her hand over his… the one she was already holding. "Do you want to be seen here with me?"

"Y/N!"

She was quick to put up her hand. "Look… I'm not doubting you. You're like God's personal blessing who just happened to creepily drop into my apartment, but not everyone is as accepting as you. Someone might recognize me… and I'm used to all sorts of slurs, but you're not. I don't want to put you through that."

Her voice had consistently risen, and her eyes were widening with every said word.

"Shhh… Just stop panicking," he said, pulling her against his chest. "You're missing the whole goddamned point here. You think I'd be ashamed if someone said anything about you? Don't you get it by now that I'm just beyond thrilled to be with a fantastic person like you? The first night when I found you at Elixir, I didn’t leave because I was mad at you, I left because seeing me there was distracting you. I thought you knew that."

She shook her head. "I do know that, and I know you won't be ashamed… I thought you'd be more like… angry."

"If someone called you a bad name?"

She nodded meekly against his silky black lapels.

"We could always make them a customer in our newly furnished torture room," he shrugged. "Bet that will teach them to talk crap about hard working people."

She laughed, breaking completely free of the dismal Morticia façade. "You're crazy."

"Says you!" He said smiled, pecking her cheek. "That's very rich, don't you think?"  

This time she let him take her in.

If it was a rainbow disaster outside, the inside was how the fairy world would look in the scene of an Armageddon. It was insane. Dean didn't know where to put his eyes. Wasn't Halloween supposed to be incredibly gloomy? Why was it so colorful?

"Hold me!" Dean said, grabbing Y/N by the shoulders. "I think my retinas are screaming for a savior."

"Shut up, it's not that bad," she admonished. "Besides, bright flashing lights are supposed to make you bold and all that. People dance without stopping to think what they look like."

"Seems fair." Dean looked at the centre of the floor where couples were trying to dance along the jazz tune.

"You wanna go out there?" She jerked her neck towards the floor.

"What? No!" Dean said, flustered. "I can't dance to save my life."

"It's not that hard… come, I'll show you."

He rolled his eyes. Of course she could.

Y/N pulled him towards the dance floor, but still away from the centre. She guided his hands to her waist and put both of hers on his shoulders. "Now you just sway from one side to another. See? Like this."

"I'm just gonna step on your dress and pull us both down," he warned trying to follow her. It wasn't fair that she was doing it so effortlessly and he was left to struggle.

"OMG, Y/N!" Hannah exclaimed, walking up from behind. "I didn't know Dean was gonna bring you along! You both look great."

Hannah was dressed like a Vampire… at least that's what Dean made out of the fangs and blood crusted lips.

"Cas, Meg!" She called out. "Look, Dean's here and he bought Y/N along."

Soon enough Dean's other two friends were there. Meg was wearing a red and black bodysuit with horns and tail, while Cas was dressed in a white suit with attached feathered wings, a halow perched on top.

"Angel and Demon?" Y/N asked. "That's very original."

"Hey, it wasn't my idea," Cas said, pulling her into a half hug. Dean wasn't really sure Y/N was the hugging type, but Cas just gave the vibe.

"You turned out to be way more badass than we gave you credit for," Meg grinned, nudging Y/N in the shoulder. "And there we were wondering how you could rock that limbo so hard."

It was hard to tell in the flashing lights but Y/N seemed to blush.

The DJ changed the song to a more upbeat one Meg pushed Y/N towards Dean, "C'mon, you guys, move it!"

"You wanna move it?" Y/N wiggled her eyebrows, grinding against him. Dean laughed but before he could reply, his eyes fell on Nick who was eyeing them from the sides.

"C'mere!" Dean pulled Y/N tightly against him, one hand sliding down her back to grab her ass, the other fisted in her hair, holding her to him. He brought his lips to her temple, kissing her softly, then deliberately dragged it along her cheek and down to the base of her neck. Sucking a mark exactly where he knew affected her the most. Y/N's moan was both muted and involuntary.

"Dean!" She giggled. It wasn't something she did often, but Dean loved the sound. He didn't stop there…. He let his lips travel along the column of her neck, hands roving all  over her back.

Y/N's fingers gripped his coat tightly, her chest rising and falling against his own. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Nick had disappeared.

"Who are you putting on a show for, Winchester?" She said, reaching up to kiss his lips, not caring about the lipstick anymore apparently.

"No one of importance," Dean shrugged. "You mind putting on a show?"

"Nope… not at all. I do that for a living."

Dean didn't care if he had put Nick in his place, or not. Nick had sure tried to ruin it all for Dean, but ultimately hadn't it worked in his favor after all. For all he cared, Nick could go screw himself. He had Y/N, there would never be a bigger victory than that.

"So about Thanksgiving," Y/N said, "I can't really cook a turkey. I mean we invited all these people, and I can't cook to save the world."

"It's okay, we'll figure something out," Dean replied. "There's like a million cookbooks out there. Besides we can always order, and everyone is getting something or the other. If the turkey sucks, we can eat the mashed potatoes."

"But counting Mia and the girls, Sam and Jess, Cas, Meg and the couple of girls from the club, there's like 12 of us. Our apartment isn't big enough."

"Y/N. Stop panicking!" They had both stopped dancing by now and were just holding each other's hands. "We have almost a month to go. By then you'd have signed the papers for the building and we can do it in the basement."

She still didn't look convinced.

"Hey," Dean lowered his face to look into her beautiful eyes. "Even if they don't like the turkey, the newly minted torture equipment will keep them from saying anything." He winked.

"Seriously, Dean," she said, "I've never done this before. I don't know how to talk to people… what to talk to people about. I just- this feels so normal and I've never had normal before."

His heart broke for her. She wanted this and yet she was so scared of the unknown.

"You know the girls, Y/N. And Meg and Cas are friends. They like you. You know that!"

She nodded absent-mindedly. "What about Sam and his girlfriend?"

Dean scoffed remembering the conversation he'd had with his brother. "Sam thinks you're way out of my league. And Jess? I've met that girl. You don't need to talk, she'll talk enough for everyone in the room."

"Mhmmm…"

He pulled her back against his chest and they started moving in slow circles again.

"You'll have your dream, Y/N. We'll have a studio downstairs and Mia can live here. You can study something else at the University in the day and I'll get a job in a few years down the line. We can eat crappy food, play scrabble on weekends and have long walks on the beach. That is normal, right?"

"That doesn't sound too bad," she mumbled, and her voice was so hopeful, Dean was tempted to take one look at her face to know what she was really thinking.

"Do you want to head home?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head. "Let's stay a while. This feels normal and I like it."

She put her head back against his shoulder as swayed on the same spot. Dean didn't know what tomorrow held. Hell, all of this was so new to him that he couldn't even estimate what the next minute was going to bring. But as long as he was with Y/N, he knew he could do it. He could do anything. Dean was happier than he had ever expected to be in his life.

He was learning what he loved, his brother was happy and doing good in life and there was an incredible girl in his arms.

To say he was content would be an understatement.

He was fucking ecstatic.

Dean bent down to kiss Y/N's forehead. He could get used to it…. in fact, he would be the luckiest guy in the whole wide world, if this unconventional life became his normal.

*************************

A/N 2: This is it, guys! We are done with one more series. My immense gratitude to everyone who has commented, sent asks, and words of love. It’s meant more to me than I can ever tell you. Thank you so much!! Much love <3

So, did you guys like it???

A/N 3: Please do consider reblogging my work and leaving feedback. Reblogging helps spread it, and also helps against the “best posts first” option tumblr has. The more the notes, the less chance of it getting buried beneath others posts. And the comments are what keep me going. I love you guys and I’ll be in forever grateful <3

Here’s my side blog @percywinchester27-writes. You can give that blog a follow and turn the notifications on to know about updates.

UR taglist:

@deanssweetheart23  @captainradicalpassion  @docharleythegeekqueen  @sleepless-sin    @mrsdeanfuckingwinchester  @ohgodwhybloggg  @roxyspearing  @oneshoeshort  @theofficialduke  @wildlandfox  @mrswhozeewhatsis  @emoryhemsworth  @dslocum89  @justacinnamonroll  @fanfreak07  @dustycelt  @serienjunkiegirl   @thinkwritexpress-official  @babykalika2001  @daskleinevolk  @jayankles  @blacktithe7  @pensysto  @iyannamckague  @shamelesslydean  @crystallstaircase  @melonberri  @commander-meghan-shepard  @trenchcoat-angel  @smiling-meerkat  @sprnaturallover  @violinbetty  @fandom-trash-worth-it  @grace-for-sale  @katsanders  @samwinchesterfanfic  @bluestarshining  @torn-and-frayed  @adaliamalfoy  @anathewierdo  @gabavaldman  @brindz30  @heavymetalhauswife  @sdavid09  @hatemeup  @plaidstiel-wormstache  @deannawinchesterpie  @kit-kat-katie99  @jessieray98  @mlovesstories  @thing-you-do-with-that-thing   @directionernullneun  @yoursmilemakesmeloveyou  @theoriginalvicki  @angelessquirrel  @thereisnolumos  @julie121899  @mikid2000  @freekryptonitecloud  @padasteph-nie  @luna-plena-venandi  @tiffy119  @linki-locks11  @mirandaaustin93  @pjofangirl18  @hunterswearingplaid  @cookiechipdough  @superlock-on-pc   @daughterleftbehind  @abumbling-bee  @savanna1899  @imweirdandobsessed  @emilycollins11  @diariesofthebeautyobsessed  @bakabozza  @imascio08  @luvspnandphan  @stormisamystery  @atc74  @aiaranradnay  @bellastellaluna  @deansgirl215  @xristina-gkika  @almostelegantfire @infinity-dreamchaser  @roonyxx  @ericaprice2008  @akshi8278  @leatherandapples @ceisbill  @alwaysdreamingforthebest

#dean winchester x reader #dean x reader #reader x dean winchester fluff #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester reader insert #anawrites #anawritesspn #Ana writes UR #Ana writes Dean #ur epilogue #q

[cutegirlmayra]

Ember Commission Receipt

@marydragneell​ commission for another continuation of Ember the Immortal Wolf series - The Fire’s Scourge.

Time: After hearing what was desired for the chapter, I began researching and plotting points together. Then I wrote about 44 pages for the overall story. It has been through one round of Author edits before the rough draft was presented to the customer.

Review:  OMG I FUCKING LOVE IT,  I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOOOOOOOOOVE IT AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. Ember is the right amount of badass and sassy, but at the same time just perfect with the jokes. Protective sibling shadow🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 And manic just awesome and want to be flirty and affectionate 💚💚💚💚but since the bro is there he just try to not show it XD. That part was so cute and hilarious at the same time XD I think it’s my favorite part of that chapter, shadow being like " wtf is going on with those two".  Like always its perfect ^^ - @marydragneell

Note: I love you too, Mary! ^^ It’s always fun writing for you and Ember! You’re so sweet and I always work hard so I can see your happy comments. You’re adorable, my friend!

Paid amount: 50$ (This price was offered by the Customer, I’d like to thank her for her generous decision. ;//wn//;)

Product preview (ROUGH DRAFT ONLY, with permission fo the customer):

The Fire’s Scourge.

Commission for the lovely Marydragneell

By: Cutegirlmayra

Dear Manic,

Your song lyrics are so funny, not everything has to rhyme or sound like a poem. But I appreciate it, it’s great to read. I’d rather hear it though! Or at least sing it! When do you plan to visit me? It’s gets boring here sometimes… especially when Shadow bosses me around about being all ‘responsible’ and ‘acting my age’. I’m the same age as him! I was even created before him! I’m practically the oldest… anyway, I’m grumbling on paper, haha! Send me a mix-tape sometime and don’t be afraid to write back. I enjoy these letters.

I enjoy scrapping my claws against the thin paper as I write to you.

Sincerely, The most epic wolf you’ll ever know! Ember

P.S: Ember is easy to make songs out of, try and be more creative next time!

It was the last letter she had written Manic… before the letters stopped coming.

Ember lightly made sure her claws wouldn’t crease too much of the paper, deciding to write another letter in hopes he may respond this time. Like he used too…

The letter folded neatly into an envelop as Ember sealed it with a lick. She held it close to her face, letting it touch her nose as she excitedly withheld herself from getting her hopes too high.

Again…

She had been pen-paling Manic The Hedgehog, Sonic’s brother, for a little while now. Ever since Rouge gifted her a writing kit, trying to make peace with her since they sometimes had to work together, she’d been writing him back and forth like this.

She hopped down from the G.U.N HQ’s desk she was at and went to put it in the mail chute when Shadow stormed up to her.

“Where were you?”

His voice sounded annoyed, not like his normal, causal brooding…

“I was… um…” she hadn’t told Shadow about her little crush…

He looked at the letter in her hands, but she quickly stuck it in her tail and smiled nervously to him, “I’m just writing Santa!”

“Hmph.” He shot air out of his nose at her humor. “When are you going to start-“

“Acting my age?” Ember rolled her eyes, “Get to work? Be nice to Rouge? Hang out with people? I thought we were passed this already, I’m a grown woman! Let me live my life!” she folded her arms before exaggerating her independence, “I do jobs for G.U.N, don’t I?”

“Speaking of which, there’s been a portal breach near where you’re supposed to be patrolling.” He glared her down, seeing her trying to wiggle the letter out of her fluffy tail and get it in the mail chute.

When she saw him staring, she pretended she was just wagging her tail in excitement.

He pinched the middle bridge of his nose, “What am I to do with you?”

“Love me?” She moved back a bit, not sure if he’d find that funny.

His look certainly showed he didn’t.

“If you’re not going to take this mission seriously, I’ll go myself.” He grabbed what looked like a brown, dirtied cloak with rips all throughout it, but Ember immediately reached forward, grabbing a bit of it.

“No!”

“No?” he pivoted, “What do you mean, no? I thought you were ‘enjoying your life’?” he seemed to be spitting the same wording she had used in previous discussions right back at her.

Ember sweated a bit, seeing how angry he really was at her, but realized he was trying to cut her some slack. “You’re a good brother, Shadow. Whether you want to be or not.”

He raised an eyebrow, but she slowly began to tug the cloak off of him.

“And you do make a valid point… I need to prove I can handle this. You’re always worried about me-“

“-And for good reason.” He fully faced her, his tone full of distain.

She gulped, folding the cloak in her arms and continuing as she draped it over her arm. “B-but that’s why I’m going to show you I can do it! I’ve done big missions before, I can do some recon too.” She stood confidently, placing the cloak back on the hanger and tugging her own tighter onto her back, flexing it forward. “Trust me a little, I won’t let Eggman kidnap me again!”

Shadow’s eyes turned softer then, his shoulders going limp.

“Sonic said you passed out, turned insane again… how can I-?”

“I do reckless things, but most of the time, I’m only trying to make you proud.” She took his hand, shaking it lightly. “And do what’s right.”

“…Do you even comprehend what’s right?” He muttered the sentence out, but worried about her maturity level…

It was more tender a question than she had realized, and she quickly was caught off-guard.

Not wanting to continue the topic further, feeling a bit of hurt by those untrusting words, she let his hands go and tried to look chirpy.

“Well, brother. I promise to at least try and not get into trouble… of my own accord… if I can… deal?” her inputs made it all the more unbelievable.

He shook his head but conceded with a shake.

“I just don’t want you getting hurt…”

“I won’t!” She embraced him, knowing he wouldn’t embrace her back but still.

Shadow flinched at the touch, but relaxes after a moment, knowing this is just how Ember shows her affections.

She only gave hugs like this to him, anyway.

He was about to put a hand up to her head, attempting to reciprocate some family love before Rouge intervened, flying down with a sweet smile on her face.

She stretched her wings out a moment before retracting them back behind her. “Aww… look at the cute little siblings… finally getting along?” she teased.

Shadow quickly turned his head and hand away. “Ugh…”

Ember released him and glared at Rouge, sticking her tongue out. “You ruined our moment!”

“Oh? Did I?” Acting innocently, Rouge placed a finger up to her mouth. “Hadn’t noticed.” She winked, being playful. “Shadow, command wants to know about that portal…”

“Ember’s on it.” Shadow looked over his shoulder at her, and then back to Ember. “I hope.”

“Hope is enough!” she waved him off and dug through her tail, getting the letter she stashed out and dumping it in as quick as lightning.

“What was-?” Shadow peered down the mail chute but Ember was already booking it away.

“Bye, bro!”

“Wait! Ember!” He called after her, but she had already raced out.

“Wild one. How ever are you going to tame her to be a good little soldier like ourselves?” Rouge put her hands together and struck a very fake pose, she was clearly mocking the fact that Shadow was in charge of Ember’s training.

He sighed, still watching where she had run off too. “Sometimes… I worry I don’t know her full strength… as well as I pretend too.”

“You of all people should know her best. She doesn’t hide anything from you.” She walked up next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, showing more comradery than teasing now. “To her, you’re family.”

“…She is the only thing I have to an actual family.” He muttered out, as though admitting it aloud for the first time.

“Oh my! What a declaration.” Rouge took her hand off him and covered her mouth, but smiled at his tender comment. “Such a softy under all those quills…”

“Hmph.” He moved away from her, trying to signal he was done talking but she flew off after him anyway.

“Do you know who she’s writing with my little present?”

He froze, looking back at her.

“Someone who may be close… but differently, compared to you.” She fluttered her wings and took off, giving him just enough to drive him crazy with questions.

He openly showed his teeth, frowning deeply. “At least she has a friend… that’s what she meant… wasn’t it?”

However…

Below where the letters are delivered, a few shadowy figures lurked. One suddenly caught the falling mail and tapped it against his shoulder, opening it up and pretending to barf. He shredded the letter and snickered, writing his own back with a click of a pen.

“Hehehehe… Dear Manic… Get lost.”

The other shadowy figures snickered a moment.

The mailman came and the new letter was sent, as the old one’s remains drifted down in steady, shredded pieces…

“And now, boys… let’s go catch a spark of flame~” A devious voice spoke through the darkness, and the gang all raced out to follow Ember’s figure disappearing into the woods…

----

Ember couldn’t remember much, which she wasn’t used to with such a profound memory. She could only recollect something hard had struck from behind, knocking her out pretty hard and leaving her mostly unconscious. Now, as she woke up, she noticed the jerking of a brown, dirtied bag squishing and bobbing her between mysterious footfalls that carried her in the bag.

“She’ll probably have portal-lag. Might as well set her down here till she wakes up.” The voice wasn’t familiar to her. It wasn’t from Sonic or from his gang, so she figured she was just kidnapped.

‘Kidnapped!?’ she plugged her mouth immediately after thinking that awful thought. ‘No, no, no! I just told Shadow I wouldn’t be kidnapped! Ohhh! Now I’m mad!’ She squirmed a bit in the tight space, her tail taking up most of the free space. ‘I’ll thump’em! I’ll trounce them! I’ll- I’ll-!’

“Are you mad?” Suddenly, she did pick up on a voice. Her bag was gently lowered and she could feel the swinging weight of her body finally rest upon cold ground.

Was that… Sonic?

Was this a joke!?

“We have a powerful entity on our hands… I just want the fiery babe to feel comfortable enough to not burn the whole place down to smithereens!” His sudden tone change,… that sarcasm,… the joke about the portal-lag…

Was she in another dimension?

“Tsk. I don’t see why you’re so fixated on chaos power again.” Another voice spoke out a grumbly tone, feminine this time. But…

Could she maybe..?

She tried to wiggle her finger around the opening of the bag, seeing if her claw could get the band on the bag a few more inches loose.

“…You don’t get it?” Sonic’s voice turned dark again, and she flinched a minute as her ears tried to adjust to the strange rhythm it had. Sonic was always full of life, vigor, and general velocity in his actions and words to match his quick feet. This… couldn’t be Sonic.

She felt a shift and the bag toppled over. Ember had to keep silent but could feel a breathy ‘yelp!’ escape her lips just barely. She instinctively plugged her mouth again, and quickly.

“What do you think I’m running here, Fi? You worthless Destructixs are in this for me. Got it? We broke out of jail for the sole purpose of lighting this world on fire with my iron fist pounding it into submission! To light the world… we need a match.” Ember could hear a fist pound into something, probably the other hand, but felt the shift in atmosphere… as though eyes were on her.

‘Light the world on fire..?’ She thought a moment, ‘Destructixs? Where have I heard… Ah!’ Ember suddenly recognized this speech pattern wasn’t Sonic’s at all! She remembered perfectly the name, where she had heard it too. Immediately, she decided she couldn’t—No, wouldn’t stay quiet and hide forever!

She had faked her unconsciousness to get information, but now, she was getting impatient.

‘Gerald Robotnik created me for good! To defend! I know who these guys are now…’ She flexed her claws, getting ready...

It only took a moment of further silence before the bag was shredded in seconds, and Ember rose up with a quick swipe toward where Sonic’s voice had previously come from.

“Scourge!” she cried out, “You rascal!”

“Woah. The kitty’s awake.” He smirked, stepping back to dodge her assult before tugging on his black, flaming jacket. “Boys?” he gestured to the gang as Ember’s arms were thrown behind her.

“Pfft. Who thinks they can hold me down—Ohhhhh…” She struggled a moment before turning her head around to look up at a large, imposing figure. “A big boy.”

The extremely large and tall giant growled down at her, at least, that’s how she saw him.

“Simian, make sure our guest knows her place.” He began to walk toward what looked like a stone throne. Around Ember was a large, black and blue stoned castle, or the remains of what looked like one.

She was able to fight a bit back and get her arms almost away from her back, but Sgt. Simian’s strength was certainly a match for her.

“Okay… Not so easy to break out of.” She grumbled, disliking the change in the situation.

“Stone, babe.” Scourge tapped the stone beneath them, looking at her over his shoulder. “Want to have a go at making this place light up?” he teased, moving over to his throne and sitting rather reclined in it. “Welcome to my realm. Not much. But all mine.” He put a hand up to his chin to rest his head on, “Well… anymore.” He snickered as the rest of the team seemed to chuckle back.

He motioned for the rest of the gang to come forward. “You know how hard it is to track down a little firefly like you?”

Ember spat on the ground, “Call me a firefly one more time…” she tried to resist being dragged forward from behind, her feet scuffing at the stones below her, but there was no traction strong enough to withstand Sgt. Simian’s brute strength. He basically dragged her towards Scourge at his request like a vacuum cleaner across a rug.

“Tsk. Like I care!” Scourge responded, watching as she was pushed forward towards him.

In protest at being man-handled, her feet began to spark against the stone, but no fire was produced.

‘Shoot!’ she thought to herself, ‘I’m surrounded! And on top of that? I’m not even in my own realm! Guess back-up’s out of the question…’

“You think we have time for a new carpet? This place is fireproof, baby! Hahaha!” He leaned his head back and laughed and laughed.

“Whoo… I have to hand it to ya. You’re one hard dame to find…” he clapped a little with his hands, as though congratulating her and rubbing some ‘tears’ out of his eyes after his such a good laugh. “Had to send every mercenary I could intimidate on the hunt for you. Glad you remember me though.” He winked.

“So… I was kidnapped, I’m in a different world, and you’ve sent spies to figure out where I was. Am I missing anything?” Ember raised an eyebrow, being rather composed as she relaxed. She was hoping it would make Sgt. Simian’s grip on her arms loosen, at least let his guard down, but that didn’t seem to be the case…

A red fox walked up to Scourge, turning around to face Ember and folding her arms, clearly not liking the other girl’s presence. Ember assumed this was the girl he called ‘Fi’, simply because she was the only girl in the group. So? Deduction stands that she must be the feminine voice she had heard previously...

“Show some manners and don’t directly talk to the king.”

“Wow. You even got her playing pretend.” Ember snapped a quick line back as the girl tensed up, her tail flicking in rage but Scourge just raised a hand.

“Feisty, feisty, feisty… I like it. But you’d do well to remember what situation you’re in.” he took his raised hand and leaned forward, snapping. “Snap!”

Suddenly, there was a harsh spark of pain in her arms. Ember was lifted up in a painful hold as Sgt. Simian held her suspended in the air.

Her eyes flinched, but she kept any grunt or utterance of pain at a minimum.

“Aaaaannnddd… Hold for dramatic effect… Snap!”  Scourge reclined again and snapped, having Sgt. Simian put her down again.

Her arms twitched under the uncomfortable position, and she swore a few jerks would have had her shoulders pop out of their sockets.

“Do I have your attention now, little spark?”

“It’s Ember.” Ember gritted her teeth. “And when Shadow finds out what you’ve done-!”

He suddenly rose to his feet, “I’ve defeated Shadow! And Sonic! At the exact same time!” he swiped his arms out, growing annoyed. “Don’t you dare think you can threaten me!!!”

“Tsk.” Ember emoted, not seeming to have known that before. She sweatdropped, nervous now if Shadow could even jump realms… ‘Maybe I should have laid low a little longer…’

“Scourge.” A hawk stepped forward, as though gently reminding his leader of his purpose.

“Hmph. I know!” Scourge dismissed the comment, swiping a hand at him, “In my own due time!”

He turned back to his throne, “As you recall, I was trying to lure out Sonic through a staged ‘setup’ if you will…”

----

It was a vivid memory—though Ember’s memory never failed her anyway. No matter… how hard she would try and forget.

Scourge had run into her vigilante G.U.N attire, not having fully recognized her as she continued to foil his criminal activities of trying to seize control over the world. Sonic and his friend would naturally call upon the Freedom Fighters to put a stop to his plans, but this time was different.

G.U.N had actually assigned her to stop a village fire,…

Little did she know it was a trap.

The citizen’s screamed in terror as wood and falling debris littered the skies, their homes and city collapsed around them in the flames.

Their city was deep within a crater formed in the earth, with sharp, jagged cliffs encircling them. There seemed to be a drainage system in place for floods, but for some reason, the drains had been clogged and the fire had no where to escape too. If they tried using water to put out the massive fires, which started up sporadically in different locations, then they would be trapped within the crater.

What made matters worse is that the fires had burnt the electrical powers, so even their way out was blocked besides long, carved stairwells which would be too dangerous for a mass of panicked people to scale in an efficient manner.

So what was Ember to do..?

“Help! Someone!” A woman cried from within a building as Ember quickly leaped up and scaled the tall skyscraper with her claws.

“Haaannnggg ooonnn!!!” she ripped through the flaming surroundings and grabbed the woman, rushing down and helping her to safety. “Does anyone know who started this?” Ember set her down lightly as the woman frantically turned around, wanting to aid as much as possible now that she was out of harm’s way.

“They called themselves ‘Destructix’. They said-“ as the woman began to cough and mutter, a voice suddenly rose from the flames atop a hill.

“Too bad! Looks like Blue didn’t have time to save any of you. Guess you’ll just burn straight to the underworld then!!!” A figure stood looming above on a cliff. He looked like a light green hedgehog with bright sunglasses, having the city’s flames dance in their shades, tugging on his jacket. He flicked his wrist as a few other figures came up: a monkey, red fox, frog, dog, hawk, and wolf. They stepped ahead of him and poured what looked to be gallons of gasoline down onto the streets below.

Like a skillet having oil poured on it, firing up everything for a split second of pure horror. The flash blinded the citizens as the heat swept their breaths up and burst the rest of their hope they had at survival.

People shrieked as he smirked, turning away before Ember’s rage couldn’t contain itself anymore.

Her fingers twitched, head pulsed with trauma as she saw children rushing away from the quickly moving flames…

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

She couldn’t control it. It was too much on her heart.

The cursed emerald pulsed, cloaking her in a bright white as her eyes covered in pitch black smoke that rippled along her eye sockets. In this hysterical super form, she covered herself in chaos energy and burst through the trailing gasoline.

It was like an arrow through water, she would thrust one hand out and burning gasoline would splash out of her way onto the buildings and away from the cowering citizens. One hand at a time, she propelled herself through the streets. Her power turned the flames into nothing more than burnt oil stains against the city’s skyscrapers, extinguishing them as fire swarmed her being. With enough force, she had spared the majority of the city while they continued to evacuate. Some had burns, but it looked as though no one had died, miraculously.

“B-Boss!” The shaking hand of the Wolf gestured behind him towards the powerful streak of Ember’s power charging like a swift beam of light towards them.

“…Hmm?” Scourge turned around, his glasses suddenly shining with the light she was emitting as he strode back up to the edge and peered down at her. He smirked, his eyes completely consumed in the image of her magnificent flaming display of power and skill.

She scaled the ledge, climbing in a ferocious tantrum towards them. Below, people cheered and huddled close to their loved ones, scaling the escape route out from their precious homes now destroyed to mere ash.

Some of Scourge’s men got ready to fight, but he rose a hand up to stop them. “Wait!” His sharp teeth glistened when his tongue licked over their dry frames. The chaos energy and the flames left a streak of dry wind, smoky to the smell, and excited Scourge for a moment.

“Well, well… I think I remember you.” He backed off, “We’ll meet again, little spark!” he then escaped in the nick of time, just before Ember ripped through the skyscraper in her way, leaping straight through it, and landing off into the mountain’s cliffside. She attempted to pursue him in her fury, but his buddies and him had portal capabilities, and were gone without a trace.

Ember huffed and puffed, standing away from the fires still licking at the lightly fuming city before she collapsed and gripped her head. “How could… How could people like that still exist..? I thought… G.U.N was the only organization capable of being so cruel… I’ll find them. I’ll stop them no matter what it takes!!!” Ember’s oath was never forgotten, but she hadn’t found a rumor about the mysterious Destructix’s since.

----

So while Scourge finished his recollection of the story, Ember was still locked inside her own perfect memory of the event. The smoke that rose from that black pit… the reports of missing individuals that some witnesses say they saw escaping up the stairs… the families being left with nothing but soot on their faces and half-burnt clothes on their backs…

Scourge didn’t seem to notice her shaking pupils, but did see how quiet she was, staring off at the ground as she began to realize what a mad man he really was.

He took off his sunglasses, his eyes widening in glee. “That power was something else, babe. Mind telling me why you’re not summoning it now?”

She flicked her nose up, ‘Is that what he’s after?!’ and looked away. ‘At first it was to find Sonic… but now he might do something horrible like that… to find me.’ She couldn’t bare to think about it, biting her jaw tightly shut as she tried to hold in her rage. ‘What… what awful things did he do while he searched for her instead of Sonic..? Was it her fault..? That more people were hurt by his crazy, terrorist attacks?’

“Playing coy?” He teased, jumping down from his throne and walking over to her, standing by her side and checking her out. “That power’s not asleep, is it? Hate to wake it up…”

His threats fell on deaf ears, which she twitched to show her ignorance of his roaming eyes…

Her tail maneuvered itself between Sgt. Simian’s legs… waiting for a good opportunity…

“I remember how you looked, sweetheart. Covered in the light of flames and spouting oil this way and that.” He gestured with his hands, flinging them out left and right to show a live demonstration of her feat. “You almost made me think you cared for all those people down there…”

She growled.

After seeing his eyes light up at her reaction to him, she forcing her mouth shut again, but she refused to let him taunt her.

He wanted a fight, but she wouldn’t give it to him.

He put his glasses back down over his eyes, his smirk fading slightly. “You’re not one to talk back or pick fights, are you? Caution is the most annoying trait, babe.”

Ember sighed, “You want my power. That’s annoying in and of itself too.” She lowered her head, playing into the ‘I give up’ motive and waiting for Simian to drop his guard.

She felt his hands loosen with her bending body and knew the moment wouldn’t be too far off now.

Just a little longer…

“Well, yeah. I find it hot.” He suddenly lurched forward, straight at her face. It startled her, but he reached directly at her chest and grabbed her emerald, sticking just slightly above her shirt as she felt the Master Emerald’s power suddenly rejecting it, inflicting Ember’s essence with its powerful, pure chaos energy.

“AHHHH!!!” she flung her head back as he poured some of his chaos energy into her, causing immense pain as the cursed emerald seemed to be repelled when it wanted to fight back and defend itself.

“Hahaha! So it is cursed!” Scourge kept his grip tight, laughing as the fox girl saw where his hands were and quickly grew defensive.

“That’s enough, Scourge!”

Her jealous burst made him stop laughing, turning to look at her with a frustrated expression as his hand released Ember.

She fell to her knees, taking a moment to recover from that torture before she felt Sgt. Simian’s hand let go of her, now holding her with one. He did so to avoid falling with her, since he was much larger than her anyway.

Now was the time, she just needed her strength first.

“Fiona, baby, I’m working here.” Scourge began to walk up to her, seeming calm but Fiona knew his act all too well.

She stepped away a moment, seeing him immediately grow hostile and grab her neck.

He screamed in her face, dipping her down and gripping her to him, hollering down her throat. “Don’t interfere!”

When he let her go, she fell and coughed, clutching her sore neck before pointing towards Ember, “She’s nothing! You’ve seen me take down stronger foes than her! Let me fight her! I’ll prove how useful I can be-!”

“Pfft. Save it, toots. You and I both know little spark’s far more devastating than some freaky kung fu moves.” He waved her off, making Fiona look down and slam her fist to the ground.

“She’s the freak with the moves… I can do it. I can beat her if you’ll let me just-“

“Quiet!” He swiped an arm out, silencing her again. “You’re getting on my nerves. Take a chill pill and walk, Fi!” Immediately, as though understanding the context of his words, some of his men came up behind Fiona. She looked behind her, getting upset as she struggled and glared to Ember.

Ember didn’t have anything against the girl, besides that she followed a lunatic, but the look she gave her made Ember feel even more irritated.

Fiona shook off the men’s arms and got up, silently walking away with the men, clearly having some resolves.

“Hmph. Women, am I right?” he folded his arms and then looked back to Ember with a joking, sinister smile.

Now!

Ember tripped up Sgt. Simian, wrapping her strong tail around a leg and pulling him back to fall down behind her. He was already bending over to keep one hand on her, it was his own fault for thinking she couldn’t recover fast enough.

She got her arms back and pounced towards Scourge, raising a clawed hand up. “HAAA!!!”

“Oh! Something interesting!” he chimed, jumping back and out of her way as her claws dug into the concrete of the old castle, near his throne.

The stone bricks flew out of place and crashed all around, tink, tink, tinking onto the ground as rubble and chalky dirt launched everywhere into the open air.

Scourge wiped his mouth of the grey dirt and readied himself, looking thrilled at some violence. “Finally… I was thinking you were just gonna lay down for me, sparkz.”

“Ember.” She growled.

“Right, right. Well, you either have two options. As far as I see? It’s join me-“ he flicked off some rubble that was sticking to his shoulder, “Or death.”

Ember also got into a fighting position, summoning all her strength she had regained from resting a moment to her hands and feet.

“And it’s not really a request…”

Ember felt her power soar through her being, the cursed emerald still pumping chaos through her in a means to recover after that last attack.

She flung her arm out again, but it was a feint. Soon as he tried to dodge, she gripped the ground and swung a foot into his stomach.

“Offph!” She watched him recline back from the pain, his lips pushing forward at the intensity of the hit.

“Heh.” She had the advantage and wouldn’t let it slip away! “Here’s a taste of my power you want so badly! Have itttttt!” she roundhouse kicked, knocking his head back but he lifted an arm up to grab her other leg as she circled for another blow and threw her down.

Quickly getting back up, she saw his hands come together and slam down on the concrete where she had just rolled away from.

‘This is gonna take more than strength…’ she recognized that his strength was equal to that of her powered cursed emerald. He must have been powered by the Master Emerald too… but how?!

She didn’t have time to dwell on that. She wanted to prove, not just to herself but to Shadow too, that she could complete a mission on her own!

She summoned some power to her chest and filled her claws with chaos energy, making them grow out like beams of light. “Try dodging this, don’t underestimate me!” She leaped up and feinted a swipe as though about to cast Shadow’s Chaos Spears.

It worked. Scourge recognized the familiar motion and went to dodge what he thought was the onslaught of chaos energy spears, but she pushed off the wall nearest to her, her eyes twitching, ‘There! An opening!’

She kicked off the wall and threw herself fully at him, “Haaaa!!!!” she slashed his already permanent scar with fresh new claw marks across his chest.

“Agh!” he was blasted back, the pulse from her Chaos Claws sending the cursed emerald’s power through his body and having it repel his own stolen Master Emerald power.

The two didn’t mix well, the power kept blasting the other back, but at least she knew she could push him back if she summoned her power faster than he could counter it.

He still had that advantage… but for that moment, he wasn’t using it at its full potential. Even Ember could see that…

She landed a bit away from him, watching him grip at his chest. He seemed surprised to see no blood. “The damage was more to your energy.” She slowly rose up, the power in her claws fading as she returned to her usual twitch of sharpening her nails. “But I still got’cha…”

Indeed, she saw the wounds reopen on his chest, only a little blood oozed out but just enough for Scourge to look down and see the delayed reaction.

His face shifted to lines of anger stretched up from the dip in his narrowed eyebrows.

As though refusing to let loose his full power just yet, his energy subsided and he just looked back up at Ember, fixated on her form.

“Interesting…” he licked his lips, getting up. “Very interesting…” he still held his chest, some blood on his glove now, but the bleeding would stop momentarily as the chaos energy began to reform again.

She disengaged and stepped away, feeling the power in her claws slowly dwindle. “Tsk.” She kept sharpening them as sparks flew around her. ‘His attack on me from before weakened the cursed emerald… I can’t do what I normally can now… is that why he so directly attached the Master Emerald’s power to it? By doing so, he probably knew it would cripple me somewhat… I’ll have to play a bit of a waiting game to get my lost power back.’

She smirked.

‘Perfect. I’ll keep him talking…’

“So? You really think you’re going to somehow get me to join your little uprising?” She decided to play along, swishing her tail and moving back as to lure him up and think she wasn’t going to strike anymore.

“Heh… do you really think me that stupid?” He growled. She could feel his own chaos power recharging, and knew he was probably adopting the same strategy.

“You’re lucky, you know… I haven’t even begun to fight!” he suddenly let loose a Chaos Blast, shattering the ground and exploding outward as Ember couldn’t react fast enough to block against it.

She was blown into the wall, crashing hard against it and getting a headache when she landed back to the ground with a hard thump!

She groaned, trying to sense her surroundings again when a foot was pressed on her back, keeping her down.

Then… she felt a hand move through the back of her hair, gripping some strangled strings as smoothly as moving through water. But then her head was ripped back, forcing her to turn toward him.

“Erk!” it hurt like none other, but she could hear him shifting his muzzle through her hair, pulling her head back to lean and press against it.

“My, my… Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” he mocked with an alluring pleasure to his voice. “I’m not.”

“Back off!” she threatened, flailing a moment but his touch never wavered.

“You’re so enticing, Ember… like a warm fire that burns anyone who dares to touch it.” His words hissed in a pleasure-seeking tone that made her uncomfortable. What was that? Some sort of intimidating praise or actual flirting?

From back in the front of the castle, the gang watched on, having all scattered back after that fight.

They knew when not to intervene with Scourge, but Fiona couldn’t contain herself.

She lurched forward, only to have a hand grip her shoulder and the frog shake his head. This time she gritted her teeth, seeing how they all weren’t keen on Ember, but wouldn’t dare disobey Scourge again.

She held silent reservations, but looked on and held herself back. “I hate her…” she mumbled.

The rest of the team sighed in tense pockets of air, letting them go gradually. They seemed to be silently agreeing with her.

Maybe this girl was more a problem than a useful pawn…

“You know what’s crazy good about you, Toots?” Scourge smelled her hair in a deep, creepy whiff. Ember reached her hands back to get him off her hair but he gripped her wrists and spun her around, pinning her on the ground.

“Ack!” she felt the cruel stone scrape against her back. Her clothes survived the Chaos Blast, but some of it had ripped somewhat.

“You know what..?” He moved close to her face, his fangs skimming her forehead as his tongue taunted her eye.

It was disgusting, she twitched her eye and finally turned away, giving into some fear deep inside herself.

“After I broke out of jail for the hundredth time… I decided, hey, wonder how my dear emotionally distraught castaway was doing.” He pulled back and winked. “Found you again… a dog to those goody-two-shoes, and it’s been sparkz ever since, Cinder~”

“Ember.” She growled, as though cursing loudly, she tried to push against his strength.

For a moment, it was working. She could feel her power returning to her, inching him off little by little and getting her hands to lock in his own and steadily push him away.

But he only smiled, watching her struggle must have looked like a game to him.

“Whatever. Still on fire.”

“Ugh, What is?”

“My heart and your body, babe.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’ll make a fire in you, alright… one that burns you to a crisp!” she started to summon her own Chaos Blast, struggling under him.

However… his head jerked down and his fangs gripped her emerald.

“Ack!” she blushed before another huge wave of the Master Emerald’s power shot through her and electrified her body. “AHHH!!!”

Again, Fiona could not remain still, so as she went to leap forward, about to call out his name when the rest of the Anti-gang grabbed her and pulled her back, covering her mouth.

“Tolerate it.” the Lynx threatened. “He’s only getting what he wants.”

Her eyes were green with jealousy, but her face was red with anger and revenge.

Scourge let go and Ember collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily as it felt her entire insides had been fried.

“Ever since you raged from that burning town,” He wiped the spit off his mouth, letting her go and looming over her. “I’ve always had the hots for ya.”

She coughed and breathed heavily, sliding herself out from under him and leaning against the stony wall. She gripped it for support, rubbing her imbedded cursed emerald before gathering enough strength to speak again. “Me? Or my power?” she turned back to him, playfully folding her arms, faking that she was fine.

“Boo, it’s all in the same body.” He lowered his sunglasses down to get a better look at her. “What’s the difference?”

He must have called her bluff, because he moved right back where he was, pinning her against the stone and letting his nose skim her muzzle. He whispered, “What to do… what to do…” As though taunting her feeble state. “What ever should I do to you first..?” he smirked, looking back at her.

Ember ignored the power-plays, quickly changing the subject and trying to restore her strength back, struggling to push him away again. “My power isn’t me. I-I mean… I’m more than my abilities!” Her head rolled a moment, feeling nauseated from the two chaos powers conflicting each other.

“Sure, sure. But my abilities could send you to a whole new world…” He gave her a suggestive eyebrow movement.

Ember couldn’t let him just toss her around like a ragdoll! No matter how much his chaos power repulsed and diffused her own… she would have to fight!

Ember chuckled, trying to still play cocky as best as she could, even if she was stuck against a wall and a madman. “I’m already in another dimension.”

“I know, right? Exciting, isn’t it?”

He suddenly let her go.

It was then that Ember felt her body fall back to the ground. Was she unable to keep going?

She tried to slide her feet under her, but they skid back to being weakly shaken upon the ground.

She began to panic. ‘No… No-no-no, get up! You can’t let him win!’ She was growing more and more anxious and worried, but he just watched her face as her internal struggle grew more and more dire.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Someone can’t admit when she’s beat.” He chuckled right back, turning his head a bit upside down to get a better look at her. She hid her face and he gripped it with his hand, forcing it back into view and up to look at him.

He stroked with his pinkie the side of her cheek, still humming a bit of gleeful victory before flicking his head, flirtatiously. “Join me and we can have a bonfire later tonight~”

He moved dangerously close to her lips, “You and me… no sounds but the constant cries of you wanting more…”

She gagged. “Do you honestly think girl’s fall for that?”

Fiona had been taken away, pushed against another wall by her comrades, her fierce rage rising with each sentence she heard from the other room. She gripped at her captors backs and threatened to scratch and peel their skin off, but for her sake, they didn’t let go. “Sorry, not into ‘green’ fads.” Ember spat out.

“Ouch.” Scourge’s smirk was replaced quickly with a frown. “Touchy, touchy.”

“You seem to be.” Ember tried to bite at his wandering hands, but he pulled them back, apparently turned on her by actions as his eyes widen with intrigue.

His head perked up, and he mimicked a cat’s ‘rawr’.

“Ohhh… look who’s talking back. I like you.”

“Clearly…”

“Only… my love’s a little conditional. Pricey as it seems, I’m a man of material desire.” As he slipped a hand around her waist, she punched him back, summoning everything into that blow that forced him away.

“Grrk!” he gripped his eye, where she had punched.

Ember rose up and began to deal more hits, taking him off-guard as she spun and whacked him with her foot, leaving him prone before diving onto him with her knee, continuing the onslaught.

As though summoned by the sudden shift, the Anti-gang pounced and let Fiona go.

“W-what!?” Ember was tackled down, fighting for her life again as the Anti-gang began to beat down on her, protecting their so-called, ‘king’.

When they moved away, Ember was left utterly beaten and weak. Bruises forming along her muzzle and arms now… The only visible ones, anyway.

“Y… You cheated.” Ember stated, gritting through the pain as she crawled to try and get back up again, but was failing miserably. “I overpowered you… overcame… I would have won if-!” she was kicked across the room by Fiona, leaving her rolling along the cobble floor. “You… played fair.” She finished her sentence, but at what cost? She gripped her stomach and got up to her knees, panting as Fiona’s face looked like seconds away from murder. The Anti-gang turned to Scourge, who was getting up with a wobble in his step, gripping a hand over his eye.

“I’m starting to lose patience with you…” he muttered under his breath. “You say you don’t like green… but I know a certain hippie drummer boy you tend to write through G.U.N’s mail delivery service..! Too bad most of those letters don’t always end up in his hands…”

Ember was confused at first, not understanding before her eyes widened. “Are you talking about..?”

He didn’t let her finish, “I’m not one to be jealous, honestly. Only possessive. Which brings me back to my earlier demand…”

Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds floated out from behind Scourge’s flowing jacket, revealing themselves as they gently swayed in a circle around his body. He approached his throne but stopped, turning his head back to her with another evil look of desire and pre-victory gloating.

“I want you… but all of you.” He turned back around and spread his arms out, the emeralds stopping their turning and remaining still… his presence was extremely intimidating, and Ember could feel she wasn’t at full power yet… The healing would need more time!

‘He knew about Manic? What else did he know!?’ She couldn’t continue on like this. Her panic was reaching its maximum capacity. She could feel the Cursed Emerald wanting to retaliate with the dark madness she knew all too well. ‘He knew how to reverse the Cursed Emerald’s power onto me… He knew about G.U.N, Shadow… what else is he hiding up his sleeve?!’ she felt the world caving in on her. ‘Shadow… Sonic… Manic…’ she closed her eyes, remembering her dear friends she had collected along the way. ‘What if they can’t save me..? He clearly gathered and stole all the Chaos Emeralds from our world… he’s… so powerful now. He can trump me at every turn!’

She looked to his team, slowly withdrawing with a sick sense of gloating in their boss’s power, staring at her and waiting for him to deal a finishing blow. ‘I… I can’t do this, can I? Shadow was right…’

Then… a letter returned to Ember’s memory.

Those words…

“Won’t happen.” She suddenly felt a courage spark in her.

“I won’t let you win.” She felt her fist tighten. The words her friend wrote her sang in her ears now, the last letter she had read from Manic…

Dear Ember,

What’s up? Sorry I haven’t written in a while! I hear it’s been pretty rough for you. Shadow sounds a bit like a downer, man. In all honesty, you gotta keep your head up. No matter what rain falls in the summer, it just turns to snow in the winter, and then a pleasant shower in the spring. I guess that’s super poetic, heh. But you like that kinda stuff, right? Anyway, what I mean is, don’t let things that seem hard keep you down. You have a really unique spirit, Ember. Kinda like your name, you’re a spark to the flame. Riding and gliding, you’ll always be the same, but evolve toward your name. Ember, Ember. Spark and shine. Embers and cinders, lighting the night! It’s hard not to write lyrics for ya, I know you laugh at me when I do, but it’s so easy for me to get inspired off of ya. You must be some kind of muse to me. Is that okay? Whatever, I’m not a very good letter writer, but I hope you know…

You aren’t just the embers, but the spark to the flame.

- Manic The Hedgehog

Her head reared up, his lyrics giving her strength as her heart pumped rapidly and her power swiftly returned to her.

“You want to see fire and brimstone?” She blasted her energy out, her super form taking effect again. It would cost her this time… but for once, she felt her mind just a little more clearer—it peeked through the haze of crazy power, and gave her the confidence to remain calm.

“We’ll see about that.” Scourge’s evil, scheming smirk reappeared. He lowered his eyes, attracted to her rebelliousness but also trying to not get frustrated again. “I’m not very patient.”

“I’m not very outspoken, and yet, here we are.” She smirked back, unwilling to be intimidated by his confidence. She proved she could beat him once. Time to do it again…

“This time, I’m going to push you around!” She took a few steps forward, her power sucking away at her now, like one last shot of adrenaline to end it all or be ended herself. “I’m speaking out against your bad fashion sense.” She egged him on.

“That’s it! I’ve put up enough with this! I’ll just take you here and now!” he blasted a deep purple, much like her Cursed Emerald’s power. His chaos had turned negatively charged and dangerously unstable.

At least she had some practice with being an uncontrollable mass of destruction.

“Bite me.” She threw her hand out, spiking out artificial chaos claws a few inches ahead, glowing purple in radiance once again. Her white form and black eye-sockets fanned like a raging fire, waiting for him to come at her.

“I’ll try!” his smile turned devilishly crazy, as though it was blood-hungry now.

The two clashed in what looked like an array of lights, flashing and blinding the other Anti-gang members as they held their arms out to shield themselves from the aftermath. The force tossed them back and around, skidding on their feet to avoid falling back.

“They’re gonna kill each other!” One of them shouted out, but it was hard to tell who with the constantly clashing lights that blinded their sights, and the rapid whipping of force pounding them in different directions as Ember and Scourge duked it out with everything they had.

“Dang it, Scourge! He’s going to take the whole fort down with him!” That one sounded as though it was Fiona, but before anyone could say anything more…

There was a large explosion, blasting the stone walls as Scourge shoved stones off of himself. He looked enraged, huffing and puffing a moment, wiping some blood off his chin.

“Heh… heh… Okay, doll. You’ve got my attention.” He breathed as though exhausted, bruised up and singed in different locations on his fur. “That power has a kick to it. Mind if I take a bit of it?” He shot up through the air, “Or how about all of it!?”

He rocketed down to Ember who had let her super form take over her actions. Though she was conscious and aware of herself, her reflex was stronger than her mind could keep up with. It was the ultimate instinct, a great offense to his aggressive—and unconcentrated—attack style.

She was battered and bruised though, but countered most of Scourge’s hits. This wasn’t looking good for either of them. They had different ways of utilizing chaos energy, both in dangerous ways, but with grave consequences on both of them. Especially mentally…

“Urk!” Under his sunglasses, which had fallen with the swing of his head down to his eyes, he suddenly winced in a bit of fear. “W…What-what gives you all this power!? Why won’t you just give in to me!?” It was almost pathetic, his sudden realization of how far Ember’s power could take her, but Ember liked to hear she was getting the advantage again.

She strained against his energy, him charging at her again, her pushing him back and holding her own as she tried to summon enough strength and sanity to speak again.

“It’s… because…”

Shadow… Sonic… Rouge.

“I have…”

Cream, Amy, Knuckles, Tails…

“P-people…”

Her memories, Maria… Dr. Gerald Robotnik.

All of her experiences.

All of her strife and happiness, pain and sorrows.

…Manic…

“I want… to protect!”

She sent a large energy wave out of her, rippling through the air as he remained stunned at the intensity of her Cursed Emerald’s power.

It was almost as though her very chest was shaking, the Cursed Emerald looking as though it was being rocked from her very core. Her soul taking full swing at him, him locked in her grip as she refused to let go.

“How’s that possible!?” he cried out, but it was too late now…

“I have all 7 Chaos Emeralds! You have only one!”

“Guess you didn’t do your research, but this little emerald was cursed for a reason!” She formed a beam at the tip of her protruding emerald, Scourge’s eyes glazed over with its wild radiance as he pulled his head back, whincing as he knew…This was gonna hurt. A lot.

“HAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

She spread a beam of dark purple energy out from her chest, propelling it into him as she held his fighting hands in place. A direct shot. A finishing blow. All she had left to give.

 She left him with nowhere to dodge.

 She had grappled him, causing his flimsy form to fly out in front of her, being forced to remain in the shock-blast of her immense power.

To keep from having the power push her back against the wall, she dug her feet into the ground of the cobble floor.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” the hit finally died down and caused Scourge to fall flat down on his face when she released him and backed away.

She gripped her arm, feeling the fatigue as her form disappeared and she fell down too. “You may be ticked… hah… hah… but no amount of fighting… hah… will keep me from forgetting… hah… hah… my friends.”

That was all. The last of everything. At least, she thought it was. Her vision so blurry and her body so numb.

The Cursed Emerald faded… as though Ember was left only to her mortal capabilities now.

“Grr…” he gripped the ground beneath him, “…Ow.” feeling the Chaos Emeralds shoot out from him, he forced his crisp self to get up, still steaming from the hit.

 “YOU LITTLE-!” he reached out to her. “Whether you join or not, I’ll just kill you and dance on your corpse!”

While the two were distracted, they didn’t notice a portal open and his Anti-gang getting beaten in their attempt to block out their powerful and heated light energy.

“You can’t win! Ahh! Ow! Hot! You can’t burn me! I’m raw to the core, babe! I’m-… I’m not done,… I’m well done! Haha! Ouch… Get over here…” he began to crawl to her, and it was pretty impressive that he had even survived her attack.

‘How?’ Ember’s eyes were too exhausted to shake in fear, her body too tried to fully react to his advances toward her. ‘He’s totally beaten… He can barely move… the Chaos Emeralds… He must have used them to block some of the attack… but they’re drained too. How… How powerful is this guy?’

“I won.” She countered.

He fidgeted in his painful crawl towards her.

His face and belly were scraping against the floor, his knees skidded with fresh burns that only made the stone sting further against the cold, rough touch. The surface was like sandpaper on his blackened hide, but he kept moving, he kept crawling… his gloves ripped and his sunglasses blasted like a comic book page’s BAM. He kept coming. He wouldn’t back down.

“I’m not just gonna lie down and die! I’ll take you with me!” he raised a crazy eye and gripped her head.

She was powerless to stop him, she could barely move her body, let alone keep her eyes open.

“You… cheated.” She muttered again as he attempted to use her head to push him off the ground, but she didn’t have enough strain and just toppled with him.

“Dang it…” he finally let out what sounded like his own acceptance of his defeat. “You and I… we’re too alike.” He just managed a smirk. “You and I… we’re bad to the bone.”

“No…” Ember breathed out and managed to look him in the eye.

“I’m nothing like you.”

Then…

“Scourge!”

Scourge stopped in his pursuit, still gripping Ember’s head. She was so close to fainting that she couldn’t move out of his grasp.

He turned to the sound and noticed his gang tied up and on their knees, looking ticked at three figures who walked into the shadows of the room.

Scourge quickly removed his hand and grabbed Ember by her neck, forcing himself up while pulling her with him.

He wobbled to his feet, clearly annoyed and struggling to find a joke in the situation. “So much interference… Can’t a man feed his ambitions first?” he licks his lips. “What is this, the Calvary?”

The figures halted.

“Heh. Might as well make a lasting impression, hmm? Fire girl’s mine! You’re too late to save anyone!” He was fibbing. It was all a fake show to mask the fact that he knew he was beat. He couldn’t do anything and neither could Ember now. His strength to rise to his legs was nothing but a mortal attempt to look like a god. He was really just a rag-doll with his stitches coming undone, the fluff of powerlessness inches from snapping out of him and spreading like dandelion fuzz around the air.

For a last kick, a final punch, icing on the cake of trying to reclaim an authoritative stance, he leaned in to kiss her…

“I… won’t… lose…” his façade was failing him, he was about to collapse. He pushed his thumb up to get her chin to rise…

A moment away from some petty form of victory… not willing to admit defeat…

But a noble drumstick hit the side of his cranium.

His eyes blinked, dazed and confused.

One figure stuck a hand out into the light where Ember and Scourge had made the ceiling fall apart, but some of it dared to stay intact.

One pointer finger rose up and wagged itself in broad daylight. “No, no, no… that’s no way to treat a lady, dude.”

Scourge squinted his eyes as Ember slowly began to go limp in his hold.

She was too exhausted to try and look and see who it is, but ever ounce of her felt it knew that voice. Like a steady drum beat… like a rhythmic pound within the sound of the man’s voice.

“And you are?”

“When Ember’s letters started turning sour, I figured something wasn’t right.”

That voice… She knew that voice…

“Sonia said they were forged when we compared handwriting with previous other letters she had written me.”

It couldn’t be… but Ember’s eyes struggled to force themselves open just a little longer…

Hoping for a glance of him…

Of…

“I went to Sonic for some answers. Turns out Shadow was looking for her too and well,” he shrugged, but his voice was immediately recognizable to Ember.

 “M-…Man...ic?”

 “Well, now we’re saving my luscious lady from your filthy little hands!” Manic, Sonic, and Shadow both stepped out of the shadows, revealing their forms as Shadow narrowed his eyes, a deep glare upon his broad brow as he noticed the state Ember was in. Sonic was also acting a bit more serious than Ember had ever seen him look before, but that soon changed to a proud smile when he noticed Scourge was thoroughly beat-up by her before they had even gotten there.

“L…Luscious?” she could barely get any air to escape her throat and respond to him, but he seemed to be proceeding with caution, noticing her frail state. Still, it made her want to chuckle, bringing a corner of her lips up to a smile at hearing his ridiculously outdated talk start-up again. It wasn’t nearly as annoying as Scourge calling her ‘spark’ or ‘baby’. She’d rather hear Manic say it than him.

“It means you’re rocking!” Manic drummed the air, hearing her faintly whispered reply to his shenanigans. “But in a- ‘pretty and wonderful personality’ kinda way.”

“This is annoying.” Scourge lowered his eyelids, tilting and trying to regain his lost balance again. It was clear he wasn’t ready for a round 16… as he had previously already taken Ember on a good number of times.

“This is the bozo I have to rival with?” he looked comically to Ember, as if not understanding her taste. He pulled on her hair again to get her to look up at him, and through the pain, she laughed a moment.

“He’s the right… shade of green.”

Scourge showed his fangs on that comment, not liking it one bit.

“I can still take him.” Ember protested, but weakly pawed her claws at him. This only made the scene funnier and more desperate.

“Right. Don’t mean to steal your thunder, babe, but let me and my bros handle this.” Manic turned back to the Anti-Gang as Sonic and Shadow leaped forward.

Scourge’s eyes widened, not ready for this new encounter at all.

With that last comment, Shadow darted up and launched a Chaos Spear, which forced Scourge to jump back. He released Ember, leaving her to drop like dead-weight on the ground, flopping a bit and not even trying to stop the fall… even just a little bit.

She wouldn’t call out for help though, she just tried to keep breathing and keep her eyes from fully shutting. She wanted to see this. Shadow kick some butt, Sonic do his thing, and Manic… she just wanted to stare at him as long as she possibly could.

It was good to see him again. So, he didn’t hate her? All those sent letters never reached him? What awful things was Scourge writing to him, under her name?

Scourge was injured and woozy, so when Shadow’s feet hit the ground, he was still unsteady.

Shadow dealt a number of powerful blows, causing more noticeable blood to spit out from Scourge’s mouth, revealing the internal injuries were getting just as bad as his outer appearance…

The Chaos Emeralds were flung from his being— Pik, pik, pik!

They bounced against the ground, tumbling, and finally rolling through a half-demolished wall’s jagged holes where stones had been hit out of place.

Sonic watched the emeralds scatter and raced along the still remaining walls, letting his hand skim their grainy exterior before rolling into a ball and ducking into the holes of the same wall after them.

“I’ve got Scourge, you get Ember!”

Sonic’s voice rang out as he sped through the barely hanging walls of the destroyed castle, revealing his super from as he blasted the remaining structure away. With that wall gone, the whole place started to shake and loosened stones began to fall around them.

The Anti-Gang looked up, realizing the whole place was about to go down.

Scourge’s super form immediately faded with a knee to the face as Sonic easily began to pummel him down while Shadow turned his attention back to Ember.

Right before she fainted, she felt Shadow quickly scoop her up. A tight, firm grasp upon her sides made her flinch a bit in pain, but his words made her happy in their weird way. “Stupid girl, what did I tell you about making enemies!?”

“Only twice a day?” she joked, and then her eyes rolled and she fell unconscious.

She only vaguely remembered voices. Shouting from Scourge, mostly. She did hear Manic and figured he must have been the one who rushed over, skidded to his knees, and felt her face…

But she could have imagined it…

The next morning, she admitted what she had done was reckless, and should have tried to escape instead of fight.

Manic had tended to her wounds with Rouge and other G.U.N officers, but Sonia was the one who helped create the portal to get her out of that mess.

She personally thanked her before Sonia had to return and govern her own kingdom that Sonic and Manic willingly gave off to her. Neither wanted to rule, but Sonia was a natural leader who was born for the role, quite literally.

Laying on the gurney, she slowly blinked her eyes to adjust to the light, having taken a long rest since then. Shadow, Sonic, and Manic had stayed at different times to check on her as she dozed off repeatedly back to her deep, recovery slumber. However, this time, they all seemed to be in the room.

She immediately opened the conversation, weakly and groggy at first, with a gentle explanation of her behavior for why she didn’t try to run but fought instead.

“I just wanted to see how far our little ‘game’ would go.” She withdrew herself back from Shadow’s glare as she rose from the gurney. “Who defeated him in the end… might I ask?”

In her heart, she still believed she succeeded. “Cause honestly,” she began, unable to keep it to herself. “He cheated.”

The men had different reactions to that. Sonic chuckled while Manic rolled his eyes with a smile on his face, and Shadow just grumbled something under his breath… probably a curse she was glad she didn’t hear. Maybe he was holding back..? Due to her condition?

Shadow turned to Sonic, who looked back at him and then over to Manic. They seemed to be thinking the same response…

“We all kinda chipped in.” Sonic stated, before Shadow shook his head and sighed.

“Far to modest… I completely obliterated him.” Shadow immediately bit back at Sonic’s rather ‘humble’ comment.

“What!?” humbleness went out the door as Sonic suddenly spun to confront Shadow’s claim, “We all fought him! And besides, I beat him up waaaaaay before you or Manic stepped in!”

“I believe you have failed to recall how I dealt with him swiftly first. You’re the one who called me off to get your own share of the action.” Shadow folded his arms, turning at an angle away from Sonic’s childish behavior. “Honestly, you’re no better than her at claiming all the glory…”

“You’re the one making a fuss!” Sonic pointed an accusing finger before looking over to Manic, “Well? Am I right? Or am I right!”

“I’m a peacemaker, yo. A pacifist at heart.” Manic drummed the side of the gurney, refusing to be apart of the contention. “But for you, I couldn’t help but summon my old drum set. Sent beats of righteous justice his way.” He winked to Ember, admitting that he did join a little bit in the fight, even if it was indirectly and through the power of his sick, twisted beats.

“You were ranged, but still effective.” Shadow still didn’t know how to address the fact that his so-called ‘Sister’ was writing a complete stranger. To him, anyway, he didn’t know anything about this ‘Manic’ fellow but trusted him after all he’d done to find and save Ember. “However, you have yet to explain your side of the story…” Shadow turned to Ember again, “How exactly do you two know each other?“

“It’s been a while since you’ve fought, Manic.” Sonic smirked, turning his attention away from Shadow’s stubborn crossed-arms, not willing to admit it as a team effort, but also avoiding his brother and his possible girlfriend from having to admit anything.

“I did most of the work, though…” Sonic muttered through the side of his mouth, pulling up a hand to side-mouth the statement towards Ember, grinning widely as he winked to her.

This only made Ember smile, seeing them all try to lighten the mood for her.

“You merely distracted him as I got Ember to safety and defeated him only after I had stepped in.”

“I had to let you have a few blows, you were acting like the angry big brother all the way there! And what? Are you trying to look ‘cool’ in front of your sister now or something?” Sonic teased, calling Shadow out with a hint of casual backstabbing.

He leaned towards Shadow, lowering his eyelids with a wicked sense of pleasure on his face, waiting to see Shadow’s reaction to his words.

“Why?” Shadow closed both his eyes, refusing to give Sonic what he wanted. “I have no need for that. She already looks up to me far more than she should.”

“Yeesh, what a double-edged sword.” Sonic sweat dropped a bit, flinching back at how arrogant Shadow could be when provoked.

But… Ember noticed that he didn’t protest Sonic’s words too severely… It made her heart lighter than air… hearing him accept her being called his little sister without too much of a complaint.

“We searched a few realms before finding the right one. Sorry for being a tad late—not so fashionably—But it was far out and about, man.” Manic twirled his drumsticks into a holster and walked over to Ember, subtly reminding the other men in the room that it was about Ember, not them.

He leaned on her bedside, “Just glad you’re alright.”

His smile melted her worries away, and she tilted her head towards him, wishing to be closer to that positive aura his smile gave off. She tilted her chin down with a faint blush…

Then something crossed her mind, just as quick as her blush disappeared.

“T-those letters, though… the fake ones. W-wha-what did they say?” Worriedly, Ember’s face turned sorrowfully up to him with regret. “If I had known…”

“Don’t worry about it.” He flicked a finger under her chin, tapping it playfully but remaining at a distance. Especially with Shadow around… she took a quick glance at him before pulling a bit away from Manic, respecting that he was just as nervous with being affectionate around her with Shadow in the room as she was towards him. “I’m just glad we were able to nab that bad dude. He should be in prison now, right?”

“Him and his goonies.” Sonic nodded as Shadow took a few more turns looking back and forth between Manic and Ember.

‘Just what the heck are you two, anyway!?’ was the expression on his face, leaving Ember to awkwardly look away and wag her tail as Manic scratched behind his head and nervously laugh the constant double-glances Shadow gave him away.

----

Far away, and in a dusty jail cell, Scourge and his team were separated.

He was thrown into quarantine with a ripped-up jacket that freed his arms from their insanity hold around his waist, gripping the bars. “I vow to never rest till Ember’s blood is burning on my hands, or at least something of hers..! I will have my REVENGE!”

“Keep it down over there!”,

“Ahhh, shut up!”,

“Is that..? Ah, man. Why’s he back with us?”

The other inmates could hear his ranting cries clear across the courtyard, where Fiona and the gang pop some bubble gum. She stuck it to a nail file and threw it up over the wall. Quickly moving through the bars of his small, rectangular window, it flipped a few times before descending and clinging its gummy, pink, and spit covered substance against the wall.

It stuck to the inside of his cell, slowly being pulled down by the weight of the nail file and stretched towards him. Finally, with Scourge leaning up against the wall, grinding his teeth together in frustration, he heard it tink just above him.

He stopped scowling and looked up, seeing the metal gleam in his eyes, his sunglasses upon his head also reflecting their bright, silver exterior.

“First freedom.” he smiled with evil glee.

“And then, that day… will come soon.”

Laughter echoed the walls of the isolation unit.

End.

#ember the immortal wolf #cutegirlmayra #commission #me commission #commission receipts #sonic oc

[tearlessrain]

part 2 of me watching Dracula: The Dark Prince and complaining about it the entire time

when we left off, the power ranger villain (who I guess is called the scourge) had kidnapped xena 3.0 (who confusingly may actually be named xena), lucien the roving misogynist is the chosen one, and dracula sits in his castle brooding about how much he doesn’t like strangers even though he forcibly brings them to his home.

anyway, here we are back at the castle of timely thunderclaps, brought to you by playmobile and LED lights.

oooh they just zoomed in on remfield’s face and played some ominous music. he’s secretly plotting something. to be honest I should have picked up on it before because he was super sketchy but I thought it was just bad acting

the scourge has just arrived with an ineffectually struggling xena 3.0, and the flamenco-dancing ceiling angel has opinions about it

I wish I could comment on what just happened but honestly it was completely incomprehensible. I think the takeaway is that the scourge used to be a young boy who helped dracula kill the dudes who killed his wife, but that might have been remfield. the editing is too confusing to tell. also I’m not sure what any of this has to do with xena 3.0

“my friends will come for you, I however will continue to not do shit”

ooh he’s giving her the Edward Cullen Stare™ this poor woman attracts the weirdest guys

“what is you name?” TELL HIM. THE PUBLIC WANTS ANSWERS. WHAT IS YOUR NAME.

TELL HIM. TELL HIM. TELL HIM.

Oh okay it’s Alena, not Xena. Fair enough, at least she has a name now. honestly at first I thought she was the sidekick and esme was the main character.

“go ahead, kill me. free me from this horrible movie”

all right we all know she’s the reincarnation of dracula’s dead wife but sure let’s pretend it’s a mystery

REMFIELD, ESCORT HER TO THE ROYAL WING, AND SEND HER OUR FINEST LESBIANS

meanwhile, lucio and esme get a pep talk from leonardo, the only level headed person on earth, and someone finally mentions that esme and alena are sisters, which maybe should have been established half an hour ago but whatever

let me tell you I did not have high opinions of lucio’s chivalry and honor, but now that his band of roving misogynists has been killed off, he has somehow still managed to disappoint me. 

like I don’t want you to be in this movie either dude but you were the one who made out with a main character in act 1

meanwhile, dracula gestures dramatically at a portrait of his dead wife, which burns his hand for unclear reasons

“are not the women of the castle enough to... sate your appetite?” remfield asks as he, apropos of nothing, stands awkwardly close to help dracula undo his cravat. nevermind he’s not planning anything shady he’s just gay and possessive.

why is this shot so funny to me they’re just having a conversation like this

what the fuck who’s using a hedge trimmer and why is everything pink

oh that was what the director of this movie thinks conveys the concept of a nightmare. okay.

alena looks very confused to be in this room considering she was fully awake and cognizant when she was brought here

they either need to get better cgi or stop showing zoomed out shots of thunderclap castle

meanwhile, some of the ambient lesbians cuddle sensuously. once again, no reason for the scene’s brief presence in the movie is given and we just cut back to alena, who is still just going to chat with remfield.

“you know the stories” “yes but I never believed them to be true” THEN WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING FOR THE ENTIRETY OF ACT 1. WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU THINK THE LIGHT BRINGER WAS FOR, ALENA.

okay alena, zombie alexa already told us all this, you don’t need to repeat the entire prologue story.

“what do you know of love?” “god is love, eveything else is a pale shadow in comparison” well yeah you would think that since you go for guys like lucio.

“god has no power here” so that’s the reason for the ambient lesbians. christian repelling forcefield. sensible security system for a vampire tbh.

okay remfield we get it you’re in love with dracula, chill.

oh of course lucien is a descendant of cain. also I disagree with almost everything he’s said in the entire movie but “please spare me the whole family tree” is a mood.

“there they are, the carpathian mountains”

........ where

“it’s fitting that cain killed his brother with a scythe, he was a farmer, you know” I mean. yes. but he didn’t, it was a rock. he killed him with a rock. and it probably would have been a normal scythe without a magical blood-activated articulated blade propeller on the end. because, you know, he was a farmer. was this his special murder-scythe. I was actually more willing to accept this weapon’s existence before you tried to explain it.

wait apparently if dracula (descended from abel) gets it, its power reverses and it brings the dead back to life. which implies that its default power in the hands of cain’s descendants is to make the living dead. which uh. is also what regular scythes do if you hit someone with them. I’m becoming less and less sold on the magical powers of this thing. 

alena is trying to convince some of the ambient lesbians that dracula is evil and they’re not buying it.

“he’s nice to us! come, I’ll show you!” wait are we finally going to get an explanation about the lesbians. are they taking her to the secret magical lesbian chambers where they have the lesbian meetings.

OH MY GOD I WAS JOKING

there’s like. chipper flute music and they’re all dancing and twirling her around and bewitching her with their lesbian magic

she seems cautiously into it though, which isn’t surprising since her last kiss set a real low bar

apparently he’s only nice to them when they don’t try to seduce his reincarnated wife. I love how he doesn’t look furious so much as exasperated. he’s just like “ugh, this shit again”

also shoutout to the token twinks in the background there, I assume they’re just here for remfield’s benefit

ooo the lesbians do not like remfield, he’s mean to them. I’m calling it now he’s gonna get eaten and not in a fun way.

oh my god there’s a little village comprised entirely of monster/demon slayers

this is literally the town from The Ballad of Edgardo

his name is Andros, son of Cormac the Wolfslayer, a demon hunter from beyond the frozen seas, and after five seconds I already like him better than any other character in this movie. I want a movie that’s just him and Leonardo wandering around hunting demons. that would be a better movie.

“what we are seeking is no ordinary demon... but a vampyr”  

[O M I N O U S  C H I M E]

“lord dracula is as cunnink... as he is stronk.” - leonardo van helsing, my second favorite character

“to be bitten and not drink of dracula’s blood... is a suffering.. without end...................... so! my friend! is this danger a price you are willing to pay? :)” -also leonardo

see look how much fun andros and leonardo are having. this movie would be so much better if lucien wasn’t here being a wet blanket and moping because they won’t give him alcohol

MAKE ANDROS THE CHOSEN ONE. MAKE ANDROS THE CHOSEN ONE. DEPOSE LUCIEN.

cue yet another timely thunderclap. seriously, every time.

“only the lord god can give eternal life! what you’re doing is blasphemy!” “DAMMIT, WHAT ARE WE KEEPING THESE LESBIANS AROUND FOR”

“here try on this ostentatious necklace that belonged to my dead wife, no reason just do it”

and there goes the floaty piano music again, this girl will fall for literally anyone.

so nobody knows where dracula’s castle is, which is weird since it’s huge and has a loud thunderstorm going on for miles around it at all times that constantly lights it up like a beacon. but I mean the entire mountain range it’s rumored to be in is apparently invisible, so who knows.

dracula: I have a loneliness inside my heart

remfield, visibly suffering from his eternally unrequited crush on the only straight vampire in existence: let me guess. miss alena.

ambient lesbians: [twirl and sashay past in the background]

oh noes, the scourge is attacking demon hunter village. I’m sure this will end well for him.

I fucking love andros

so lucien killed the power ranger villain with his scythe of inaccurate biblical allegory, and somehow it hurt dracula. I may never understand what that thing and his relationship to dracula actually is. ah well, he’s dead now.

andros is fine and that’s all that matters.

okay, never before has a movie contained so much concentrated insane bullshit that I had to split it into three parts, but I think that’s what I’m going to do with this one. lucien and esme have run off to go save alena, and the Murder Uncles, sadly, are staying behind to defend the village for when the squeaking goblins return in force

tune in next time to find out whether any of this comes to any sort of logical or sane conclusion. it probably won’t.

#tearless liveblogs #now with 60% more ambient lesbians

[mooncaps]

Okay, so shout-outs to the anon (or maybe multiple anons) who told me to read Marcy’s Super Secret Scrapbook. I freaking loved it! I’m also glad I read it at this point and didn’t wait until after the whole series. It makes such a good companion piece to the Stakes mini-series.

The Enchiridion was...not quite as exciting, but still had a couple of neat tidbits. Simon’s notes are nice. The Wizard section was fairly interesting. Some nice lore and world-building. I kind of wish the Bestiarum Vocabulum section had a bit more to it. And I must admit I was slightly disappointed that the Enchiridion did not, in fact, explicitly state that you should not strike a foe who’s raised their bottom to the sky. The Scrapbook is so in line with the mini-series; it would’ve been nice if the Enchiridion could’ve incorporated that as a little nod. They cover their bases with the explanation that there are multiple editions and even strongly imply that Finn’s was an earlier edition, but it still would’ve been neat.

A far more glaring omission is the Empress. Hierophant and the Vampire King are both mentioned in the Scrapbook, but the Empress isn’t. She knew both Marceline and Simon. Marcy had her power of invisibility so she must have staked and absorbed her at some point. My best guess is that the Empress enthralled Simon at a point when Simon was still writing the notes and it was on one of the pages he pulled out before he left. Or maybe Marceline just didn’t write it down for some reason. Or the writers just dropped the ball and didn’t catch this little continuity hiccup.

Those are my general thoughts. I’m also doing the whole images of my some of my favorite stuff interspersed with my reactions and commentary thing, but since this is gonna be an extra-extra long post, I’ve decided to actually use a read more cut this time.

Marcy and Bonnie talking about Simon in the margins. Give me some of that in the show.

This is the kind of lore development I like to learn about.

Does that mean the writers have thoughts about more Shoko development in future episodes and didn’t want to burn up their ideas in the side material?

International crisis. I mean that was more-or-less implied by the irradiated world, but I like learning more info. Also, he’s already talking about going North. It fits that they paired this with the Scrapbook. The notes follow through for tracking Simon’s progression into madness.

Sure. Again, kind of vaguely implied already by the series, but nice to know.

Now all I can think of is “long ago the four nations lived together in harmony...” Thanks to whoever sent that ask.

I may wanna get these on buttons or patches for my coat to go with the Avatar symbols.

Not sure what to make of this. I feel like it’s some kind of lore for the show. Maybe something to do with Prismo?

Hoo boy. Here we go. The feels train is pulling into the station.

This relationship is just so moving. I’m a sucker for found families.

More world building. Bring it on.

Even if Simon’s story hadn’t been tied to Marcy’s, it would still be one of the most interesting parts of the show. And that first paragraph feels like something that should’ve come up in the show by now. They really haven’t explained quite enough about Betty for my liking. Learning that she has a history of studying these kinds of things helps clarify why she’s so willing and able to take the approach she’s been taking.

After Bonnie and Neddy, I can only assume that this is the Mother Gum in its early days.

Mmhm. Sure. Matter’s more pliable. I can dig it.

The vibrational talk reminded of that bag of miniature people that Magic Man planted on Finn that one time. And he had to shake them to speak to them on their vibrational plane or whatever. I wonder if that’s ever gonna come back with some kind of added significance.

Reminds me of when Life kissed Death.

Wonder if that was a deliberate nod or not.

This. Relationship.

Again, I’m glad I read this now. The thing I couldn’t quite puzzle out after Stakes was where Hunson Abadeer fit into things. This is filling in some of the blanks quite nicely.

You know, after seven seasons of Grob Gob Glob Grod, it was a little jarring to actually see the word “God” here. I’ve got a pretty good recall for character voices, so I could basically hear Tom Kenny saying it as I read it. Of course it makes sense that Simon would have God in his vernacular. Somehow, after the phrase being conspicuously absent for so long, it seems to punch up the impact.

She celebrates her birthday around the time Simon found her! This precious child!

Oh, I can hear it in her voice. My heart!

“I don’t think I’ll ever see him again. Ever.”

There’s no mention of her encountering him again in the scrapbook. I’ve already mentioned the Empress, conspicuous in her absence. And she alludes to other meet-ups in the episode “I Remember You.” I can only assume those meetings take place after the last page of the scrapbook.

I’d love to know more though. I’d love to see her first discovering that Simon’s still alive, but completely insane now. And I’d love to know how we get from this:

To this:

There’s so much of the story that’s still untold.

That moment in Bad Little Boy where Ice King was like “Gob, I’m sorry I doubted your power” kind of takes on a new dimension when you think about how Simon’s from a different time.

“I hope these bring you comfort now that I’m gone, and remind you that you are loved.”

Just fuck me up, why don’t you?

“I want to feel her holding me in her arms and hugging me again like that.”

JUST FUCK ME UP, WHY DON’T YOU?

Again, this ties in so well with the Stakes mini-series. This was exactly the right time to read this for maximum emotional resonance.

Oh, Marcy, you poor, sweet, confused, little angel.

Well, I wanted to know where Hunson fit into things. Should’ve known it would be bad times.

Yeah, I can kind of relate to not having a great father but still wondering how much of who you are is from him.

Deep. Especially at her age. Simon did say she was smart. And of course she had to grow up fast, given that world was a wreck.

“He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

I concur.

I can also kind of relate to giving your not-so-great dad another chance and getting burned again. I suppose it’s not really a shock that I gravitate toward characters who have poor relationships with their fathers.

I never really gave any thought to how difficult it would’ve been to even find fries at that time. And the fact that it was the first time he stole something specifically from her also gives it a little more weight. Like I’ve said before, it’s hard to tell when something’s just a throwaway gag and when something’s gonna come back later with added perspective and significance. I have to wonder how much they thought about in advance and how much is just them looking back and saying “we can expand on that.”

There must be at least some of it that they knew they wanted to develop even from the very early stages.

It’s interesting to figure out where Hunson comes into the picture, but I still don’t fully understand all of it. Primarily: How could a human woman see enough merit in Hunson Abadeer that she would want to sleep with him? What stopped him from immediately sucking out her soul? Why was he even on Earth shortly before or during the Great Mushroom War? There’s still a lot of room to grow on here.

Oh, honey, you’re the most interesting person in this universe.

“I still hope for a living friend.”

I was kind of hoping I might get the story of how she met Bonnibel, but I guess they’re saving that for the show. Must be after the events in the scrapbook.

Gimme all the lore. And Marcy wandering through an abandoned sunken mall full of skeletons shouting for Simon is an absolutely heartbreaking thought.

This angel child deserves nothing but happiness.

THIS. RELATIONSHIP.

She found a puppy! Ahhh! They’re so precious!

Yas, Queen!

This poor girl can just never catch a break.

This backstory is fantastic.

RIP, my dude.

Rise, Marcy the Vampire Slayer.

Let’s go!

Oh no, what’s wrong with Schwabl?

Marcy defending the last of the life on Earth against the scourge of the vampires. I’d seriously watch a whole series of this.

“Staking vampires, protecting the last remaining humans. It felt like I was protecting you. It was the only thing that brought me happiness during those years.”

Fascinating.

It’s rough watching a character who’s so good go through so much pain.

No, not the puppy!

Save the puppy!

Also, that time she almost went feral on Jake was probably really terrible for her because it would have stirred up these memories.

Another good reason to pair the Enchiridion - and particularly Simon’s notes - with this. Who would’ve thought that Marcy owned it for a time?

Thank goodness something turned out okay in all of this.

Wild. So is this Simon and the Crown, or some other force causing it? Does it affect the whole planet, or just the continent Marcy’s on? What about all the humans who were leaving on the boat? Can they survive an ice age? Is it a full “400 really boring years” like in Finn’s wish world? Longer? Shorter? This side material raises at least as many questions as it answers.

So Simon found the Enchiridion and took notes on it for a while before finally sending it to a museum in Scandinavia just was the international crisis that would become known as the Great Mushroom War was ramping up. Then some wizards found it. Then Marcy found the wizards and took it from them. Now the Enchiridion is with Marcy in hibernation. Then somehow it ends up with a minotaur later and Bubblegum is the one who tells Finn where to get it. There’s another chapter in between there and I feel like it involves both Marceline and Bubblegum. Marcy’s life after the ice age could probably fill another book or two.

Precious angel child.

Oh snap, it’s actually written by the people who play Marceline and Hunson.

That was a trip and a half to read. I love the backstory and world building so much. Even in the early episodes I suspected that there must be some kind of substance to this universe for the show to go on for as long as it did. Based on the early stuff though I had lowered my expectations and never imagined that this universe would gain so much depth, complexity, and (above all else) tragedy.

Marceline seems so carefree, but she’s been through SO. MUCH. Most of it while she was still a small child. The people of Ooo are absolutely blessed to have someone like Marceline in their world. And they’re also quite fortunate that her trauma didn’t push her to the full-on dark side. Even after a thousand years of so much confusion and loss, however chaotic she may get, she still has such a good heart.

And wow does reading this ever reinforce my desire for them to figure out a way to save Simon. “He didn’t deserve what happened to him” is so right. Although if it hadn’t happened to him, he never would’ve been able to protect Marcy. He probably would’ve died in the Great Mushroom War like almost everyone else, and Betty would’ve died too. Maybe you could chalk it up to Marcy’s mother’s last prayer being answered or the universe working in mysterious ways or possibly even retrocausality that Simon was able to survive and care for Marcy. Even so, I’m about four seasons beyond ready for the heroes and protagonists to help this poor old man get back the sanity that was stolen from him.

I feel like Finn’s the key somehow. The Crown seems to be possessed by a ghost or spirit. Gunther’s unfinished ghostly business was Evergreen and Evergreen’s unfinished ghostly business was the Catalyst Comet and Finn’s the reincarnation of the Catalyst Comet and all of that’s tied up with the Ice Crown. It seems like there’s some kind of puzzle taking shape there. Betty’s studying psychometric energy, magic, and Glob’s freaking helmet...Glob who was last seen facing off against, once again, the Catalyst Comet.

And just from the Doylist perspective, the writers have been spinning out this tragic tale of Simon Petrikov for a long time and it would be emotionally unsatisfying if they never save this poor man’s mind. I’m worried they might make me wait until the end of the show to fully resolve it though. I was worried for a while that getting his mind back would kill him, but after the events of the episode “Betty” I don’t expect them to take that route.

Simon and Marcy are such tragic characters and I feel for them both. I love learning more about them, even when most of what I learn breaks my heart. The two of them embody so much of what gives this universe its heart and brings it to life.

#Adventure Time #my first thoughts on this

[definitelyameatbag]

The Knight of the Lady in Green

A rogue meets a slightly unstable champion of a trapped princess.

Wordcount: 1861

It was the late evening in the small hamlet. The work of the day had been done, the merchants were packing their carts, the homes and shops where shuttering their windows, the fires of the wives’ hearth were heating just as the flames of the smiths’ furnace were being allowed to cool. Only one place was going to see business tick up as the Sun went down, and that was the tavern.

Amethyst played with the coin in her hands, twirling it between her fingers.  She grimaced at the sound of merriment from across the street. The single copper was all see had, and it would afford her neither beer nor bed.

She needn’t complain, her stomach took up that job already. All the troll-holes she could find in a week’s ride had been picked clean, the days of easy loot seemed to be ending. She’d need to go back to hunting if she was going to have some of the finer things, again. Not animals, of course, she didn’t like hurting what she wouldn’t eat, and it’s not good money, anyway.

No, there was a reason she was waiting outside the tavern.

The noise picked up inside. Amethyst stopped twirling the coin. This seemed to be it.

The tavern doors swung open, and the barkeep – a man made strong from a lifetime of lifting inebriated adventurers – stepped out and threw what seemed to be a patron with a slight figure onto the mud in front.

“Don’t you be coming back ‘ere, causing ruckuses and recruiting drunks out of my bar!”, the barkeep boomed at the person he had thrown.

The person immediately sat up and pointed to the rails for hitching the horses, and bellowed “Barkeep, what of the feed for my horse?!”

“That old nag?! It’s ready to keel over dead! I’d tell ye to find someone more foolish than yeself to buy it alive, but seeing as yeself on your lonesome is the most sorry lack of sense I’ve ever come across I’ll tell ye that the butchers is down that there street! Good night to ye!”, and with that the door was slammed shut, leaving the figure and Amethyst as the only two in the street.

Amethyst grinned. A fool, and a fool that seemed to have been thrown out for causing trouble rather than running out of coin. She rubbed her chin, trying to decide on the scheme she was going to pull on this soul to relieve them of their money.

“Greetings!”, a voice screamed in her ear, nearly making her jump out of her boots.

“Gods in- what’s your deal, bub?!”, said Amethyst, spinning to meet the voice, one hand on her sword in its hilt.

It was a woman, clad in cloak and armour. Unlike Amethyst’s own cheap tunic, this armour seemed like it was worth something when it was new, but now it was horribly rusted, Amethyst couldn’t imagine it not making an awful creak whenever the woman moved in it, which made her wonder how she snuck up on her. Which made her realise, the figure thrown out of the tavern was gone! Unless…

“Your astute reflexes tell me you are of the quality that I require!”, the woman spoke, in the same voice that argued with the barkeep, “I seek the aid of the brave and the bold in this land to follow me in the recovery of a treasure!”

Amethyst eyed the woman’s face. She was smiling, the kind of smile that often quickly led to a village being burned down.

“Uhh, is this…”, Amethyst had a hunch that she needed to answer carefully, “…is this treasure yours?”

“‘Mine’?”, the woman looked away, “My heart is rich in courage, the coffers of love I hold for my sweet is vaster than any treasury owned by mortal kings, and my mind is encrusted by the tales of valour and dignity of the distinguished heroes of our shared past, but my purse, alas! there is not a penny in it, and I would have it none other way.”

“‘Does she always talk like this?’”, thought Amethyst, beginning to squirm under the stare of the woman. She wasn’t quite sure if she had yet blinked, “Then, uhh, what’s the treasure? I’m down for, heh, ‘recovering’ treasure. What’re we looking at, what’s the haul?”

The woman shook her head, “No, no, to even try to value it would insult its true preciousness. No relic, no jewel would ever be its match. For it is--

“Yeahyeahyeah, I’m in! Jeeze!”, Amethyst had scammed nearly everybody else in the hamlet and this odd woman was broke, in possibly more than one sense of the word, so she decided she had nothing better to do, “Let’s go get this treasure!”

“Excellent!”, said the woman, “You might have sensed that I am a knight, and I have had trouble keeping down a squire. These honourless days will be our ruin. But you, so bold to begin an adventure that you have little true grasping of, you have the makings of a squire in the first rate! In our time you will earn riches and renown, and everlasting glory will be your final prize, for you shall be the squire to Madam Lazuli, Knight of the Lady in Green!”

The woman, Madam Lazuli, ended with a flourished, leaving Amethyst nearly agape.

“OK.” Amethyst started, slowly, “Only 20% of that, tops, sounded good. For now, I’m in, but I want the details.”

Lazuli, somehow, grinned even wider, “Of course, my dear…umm, what was your na--?”

“Amethyst.”

“Amethyst! My dear Amethyst, a captain of men in arms never hides details from them that they are fully capable of understanding. He decides the course of action and they follow, to the death if needed, his hiding the course will only sow doubt in them. What castle walls could be so solid as the will of those riding to what they know to be their glorious doom?”

A bead of sweat ran down Amethyst’s neck. The started walking to the horse rails, Lazuli’s arms around her.

“Our quest is simple, but the prize is matched by none other. You needn’t worry of not gaining handsome reward even if I forgo my own, the Lady is fair and wise and will know what you’ve done for her.”

Amethyst scratched her ear, feeling the nerves in her head beginning to tingle in worry, “And, uhh, what are we going to do for her, exactly?”

“We’re going to kill a dragon.”

“And where is this go-- wait, WHAT?!”, Amethyst shook away, “A DRAGON?! WHAT DRAGON?!”

The Madam Lazuli stared rather blankly at her new squire, not foreseeing the sudden change in attitude, “Why, the Dragon of Caste Beta, of course. Alexinus the Horrible, Refuse of Hell, Her Most Damneded Impoliteness. Our Lady is trapped by that monster, and we shall serve her by slaying it. Where is your horse?”

Amethyst could feel a blood vessel trying to pop. She tried to see if Lazuli was at all drunk, if Amethyst was after all just enrolled in some extended joke. She saw nothing in the taller woman’s eyes, aside from a window into utter sobriety and a glimpse into a will that completely terrified her. Somehow, she knew that this woman meant it when she said she was going to the dragon that had been the scourge of the neighbouring land for many years, and even more bizarrely she felt the need to talk her out of it.

“But…but…have you…like, even seen a dragon before?!”

She wanted to smack her head against a wall for sounding so lame.

The Madam Lazuli replied, “My dear Amethyst, I assure you, I have read extensively on the slaying of dragons, and we have all that we need to face this one and a thousand more like it! For we do not draw our swords in fear or hatred, we take arms to aid the weak and defend the innocent.”

Amethyst was on the verge of a heart attack. “Yeah, that’s great and all, but like, you know what a dragon is, right? ‘Claws of spears, teeth of swords, an inferno that can fly’, also have severe anger issues and not really keen on us little guys with our swords and our wanting their big piles of gold?”

Lazuli’s face suddenly looked bileful, “‘Their piles’. The dragon we shall kill owns not a coin that it sleeps on, every last piece is that of the Lady. Worry not, I have seen this dragon, and this Lady is real, as I see in your eyes you doubt she exists.” Her face now softened, “But oh! with how I speak of her, how could she be real? Ah, but she is, my dear Amethyst! It was in my earliest days as a knight, when I first took to sword and saddle to aid whoever I came across. I passed near the castle, long conquered by Alexinus, just far enough away to not rouse the beast, when I saw her, in her tower. Her flowing green dress, her golden locks, how she shone like the brightest lighthouse, held within the cruelly charred tower. She looked upon me, a knight lost in her travels, and she spoke. She had given me my purpose, Amethyst, to free her by destroying her captor. There is nothing I desire more than to do this task. I could never take a bounty again after I receive what she deemed worthy of me, even if it was only the order to go on my way. I love her, you see. Yes, it seems ridiculous, but I love her completely, my heart is hers. I scorn every moment I used the world ‘love’ before the day I first saw my Lady.”

“…you don’t know her name. Do you?”

Lazuli waived Amethyst’s comment, “Bah! No name to my mind, and I know many fair names, could surely do her justice! But enough talk, I ask again, where is your horse?”

“I, wait, wuh…”, Amethyst’s mind was going numb at trying to comprehend the lunacy of this woman. Her insanity was like the Sun. Difficult to directly look at. Hence, she was quickly getting used to avoiding it, “I don’t have a horse.”

The Madam Lazuli grimaced, “Then Pumpkin shall need to carry us both.”

Amethyst started shaking, “Wh-who’s Pump--“

Lazuli stood before a brown horse at the rails, an old and sorry looking creature worn down by years. However, it’s golden eyes, more youthful than it’s body, flashed in the evening light, “Pumpkin is my loyal steed. She and I would go to the gates of Hell, so long as it was together.”

Pumpkin lifted her head and licked Lazuli’s face.

Before Amethyst could back away and try to forgot this evening, Lazuli had her picked up and mounted on the horse. “Wait, what’re you doing?! I signed up for plundering loot, not--“

“Hold tight, my dear Amethyst! For we ride!”

As Pumpkin galloped out of the settlement with her passengers, Amethyst quietly debated to herself.

Who was crazier? The crazy woman, or the sane woman who followed her?

#steven universe #fanfic #steven universe au #lapis #lapis lazuli #famethyst #lapamedot #@drawbauchery

[nightiingaled-a]

Lunarius Decoded.

A collection of Lunarius’ personal reports seized and translated from an old Niflheim code

M.E. 751 - April 23rd – [handwriting is erratic and hard to decipher]

I’m really dying this time. The scourge has gone too far. I ache. Mother, please send it away. Spare me this suffering. My fingers can barely hold my blade. The cadets are violent, they are cruel. They see my weakness. They have beaten me until I’ve coughed black, twice already.

Anatolius said we are leaving tomorrow.

He is going to execute me. I know it. I am afraid of death. I am so afraid.

M.E. 751 - April 25th – [handwriting is far neater]

The Oracle is so beautiful. She must be an Astral herself.

M.E. 751 - June 3rd

It’s gone. I think it’s really gone. The Oracle did it. I have waited a month–more–afraid that it would be a dream. I have not known a life without the scourge running through my blood.

I feel clean. I feel strong.

 I wish mother could’ve met her. I wish father had known–she could’ve lived.

[the page has been burned, most, including the date, is indecipherable save for a few words; date assumed a few days after last entry]

██████Anatolius ████████████████████████my fault.

████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

I’m not safe here. No one can save me. I’m alone.

M.E. 752 - February 15th

Marshal Cor Leonis. They call him the Immortal. Remember his name. He is your greatest threat.

M.E. 752 - February 16th

I attacked the Marshall. No reason except he made me angry and I wanted to. I had no hope of winning but I know a little more about him now. Not enough to condense, not yet.

Be careful now, don’t push too hard. He’s far too observant.

M.E. 752 - April 26th

Assume the Marshall is 5 steps ahead at all times.

M.E. 752 - June 2nd

The Marshal is….growing on me. He is as stubborn and hard to please as the commanders, but his guidance is helpful. He cares??? He wants good soldiers, not perfect killers.

I hate him. i hate him i hate him.

M.E. 752 - December 20th

I met the daughter of the King’s Shield, Clarus Amicitia. He and the Marshall questioned me for long periods a few months back, about my background, again. I am afraid they are suspicious, though nothing has come of their hunt. Perhaps it is routine. Perhaps they think time will crack my mask. No such luck. I have but one mask and it has not cracked in years.

The girl though. Young. Ten-Eleven. Protection detail. More like babysitting. There were a hundred Crownsguard in the ballroom. Nowhere safer, except right next to me. She’s a spunky brat.

I could use her, if necessary, to escape the city. Or for petty revenge. If I go down, I’ll take the girl with me. Cripple the Shield, you cripple the King.

M.E. 753 - April 5th

Zhu Xiaowen. Fabul Refugee. I want to make an ally of him. But I’m ashamed.

I’m beginning to question what I know of Niflheim. Lucis is not what I believed. The Lucians are scared. They are not things of of child’s nightmares. I am beginning to question if I have been the monster all along.

I need to go to the archives some more.

M.E. 753 - September 25th

Anatolius arrived. I believe he is here to kill me on behalf of the Empire. I have not made a report since late April. I will have to convince him to trust my word or I will have to kill him.

I’m afraid that tomorrow I may die, I do not know if I am strong enough to make that kill.

M.E. 753 - September 27th [handwriting incredibly erratic; needlessly spread out across the page; largely print]

Not safe. Not safe.

                              Not safe.

   can���t see.                       scared.    run. run.

 run. must. run.

too dark. feet hurt.                               breathe. cant. cant breathe.

                                           am i dead????

M.E. 753 - October 3rd

Xiaowen visited me in the infirmary today. Confirms I’ve been mostly unconscious for the past week. I don’t even remember the last entry, must’ve been drugged. I can’t believe I’m alive. I can’t believe Anat is dead.

It hurts to breathe. My eye is still swollen. They said there was blood on my brain for a short time. I should be dead. Why? Of all my bad luck, why now? I don’t think I want to live. 

M.E. 753 - October 5th

The Marshal questioned me today. If he suspects anything I cannot tell. Maybe it is routine. I do not wish to be found out now. Not when it is official. I’m a traitor to Niflheim.

I hope my parents are proud.

M.E. 753 - October 7th

Xiaowen has kept me company this week. It’s been nice. He brought sweet steamed buns again. He is such a kind friend. I want to tell him. I need to tell someone, it’s driving me insane. Everything I’ve known, everything…I’ve given it all up for them.

For Xiaowen, for the Crownsguard. For the Marshal. I can say nothing. No one can know or I’ll be arrested, or killed.  Or…worse. I remember what Niflheim did to my mother. They same would happen to me. But I hate lying to Xiaowen. He deserves better.  

M.E. 753 - October 9th

The nightmares are worse. I think I’m going to request a return to duty.

I am not fully healed but I cannot dwell any longer on these nightmares without a distraction.

M.E. 754 - January 4th

This winter has been strange. I know Niflheim has not forgotten about me and yet their grip seems so far. I feel strangely safe. It will not last, but I’ll enjoy it while it is here.

M.E. 754 - January 10th

Another ball. A waste of time surely, a false play in politics and safety. I don’t know. The Crownsguard must all attend. Cor didn’t change from his usual attire, lucky him. I was guarding the Amicitia younger once again. She’s actually an interesting girl. There’s a weight on her shoulders though, heavy for someone so young. 

M.E. 754 - January 13th

According to Gladiolus and I quote “Iris has adopted you.” I didn’t know preteens could adopt 20 somethings but here we are. Lucis is so strange. She always so cold and I keep using my magic to help her stay warm. Girl needs like 6 jackets. 

I fear Niflheim will take my reports and use them against this family. But if they do, I already know I would give my life to protect her. 

M.E. 755 - January 11th

I had a nightmare last night. Niflheim captured the Crownsguard. They offered to spare me. Just kill one. Kill him and be spared. I…did it. I killed him. I didn’t question, I didn’t hesitate. I killed him like nothing had ever changed.

I’m not like that right? Not anymore. I wouldn’t. Even if they took the city tomorrow, I would never betray them.

M.E. 755 - January 12th

Who am I trying to fool with that lie? I’m not anyone’s friend. No matter what side I’m on now I will always be the enemy. I’m selfish and I want to survive and I would kill anyone to do so. That’s all I am, it’s all I ever will be. I’m lying if I believe any different.

M.E. 756 - May 14th

This treaty can only mean trouble. I think the King already knows, it’s why we’ve been ordered out of the Citadel. I’m going to talk to my friends, I want them to get out of the city. They’ll argue it’s desertion, but…the King is already a dead man. Can’t they feel it?

M.E. 756 - May 15th

Would it be a punishable offence to kidnap someone to save their life? This treaty will end badly and the Amicitias will be at the center of it. Iris does not have to share her family’s burden or their sacrifice. Not yet. Can I get her out of the city in time? By myself? I might not get out of the city alive, but I can say I tried?

#♜ drabble ⇾ adri. #this is a journal collection #unreality cw

[mysterious-prophetess]

FF XV Thoughts with the new information Gleamed from the latest two rounds of DLC

I won’t spoil the ending of Episode Ignis, so don’t worry about that. But I will be getting spoiler-ish with some of the extra lore they gave us, so the majority will be under a read more.

So months ago I wrote in response to two other people’s thoughts on Update 1.16: https://mysterious-prophetess.tumblr.com/post/166028494228/the-biggest-lie-this-116-update-tries-to-get-away

Some of the points I made and some of the points I agreed with back then have been rendered irrelevant in the months since.

So, here’s what we know now:

The Astrals are little bitches whose powers cause more harm than good.

The Scourge, a direct result of the Astral War, cannot be defeated by the Astrals alone. They need to wait for a human king to do it for them as their sacrificial lamb.

How da fuq does that make any sense? Short answer: it doesn’t.

They’re said to be the embodiments of STARS.

The only thing in the universe that stars can create that stars cannot destroy is a fucking black hole and nothing destroys one of THOSE. Not even LIGHT can escape one. So, unless the scourge was a black hole, the “living embodiments of stars” should have been able to do SOMETHING. Having them be powerless to stop this does two things:

It shows a profound laziness in the world building in an attempt to justify their bullshit plot and ending (which I have criticized previously) and it also paints the Astrals as worthless.

Why have them at ALL if they cannot fix a problem one of their own kind caused upon the world.

They’re also weak as shit since humans have proven they can kill incarnations of them with the right amount of persistence and technological supremacy.

Hell, I’m half convinced the FF X summons could kick their asses and those were the spirits of PEOPLE who weren’t allowed to pass on. PEOPLE not gods.

So, they’re certainly not deserving of reverence and Noctis didn’t actually NEED their help in the end of this. All he needed was the condemned souls of his ancestors and that stupid crystal to harness the Light.

Getting their blessings seemed like a waste of time. What was he doing? Proving to his ancestors he was worthy? That would be wrong. 

The sentient Crystal chose him fully. It would already give him its Light. All he really needed were the weapons of his ancestors and the Ring, and time to absorb all that power into the Ring. All of which he could have had without the stupid Astrals. Sure, they rally and put the Glaives through that trial at the end of the Comrades story arc, but that’s seemingly all they do. 

Shiva showed up to kill Ifrit, but I bet even without that covenant, the guys could have won. The Empire killed a pure giantess Shiva with technology. 

This was a scourge addled Ifrit. Corrupted by his very resurrection, Ifrit should have been far weaker than the average Astral. 

Then Bahamut says in this little vision via Pryna,

“A Power even greater than that of the Six, purifying all by the Light of the Crystal and the Glaives of rulers past.”

And this bit from the Crystal itself (or what I think is the Crystal it’s just called “Mysterious Voice.”)

“Once the Ring is replete with power, the True King will complete his ascension. Only then can he banish the blight upon our star. By the power of the Light alone is the Chosen King made manifest.”

“With the Glaive of Kings, The Stone of Legend, and the Ring of Light in hand, the Chosen’s power will surpass that of even the gods themselves.”

Notice what is NOT mentioned as an ingredient to Noctis’s ascension? The Astrals. 

If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, it’s to say that Luna’s role is actually made pointless by the revelation that the Astrals are shit. It also makes her death equally pointless and her fate after death more of a dick move.

Before she seemed to have the vital, if deadly, role of forging these oh-so-important covenants between these beings whose powers Noctis needed and her tragic death served a purpose. 

Now it would seem that, in the end, Noctis doesn’t need them to beat back the darkness. They aren’t used to beat back the darkness. They’re pointless plot diversions for all sides. Or just plain pointless.

Sure, that mysterious voice claims the gods of Eos were “fending off the darkness’s blight.” Aside from Titan holding up a meteor and Bahamut blessing a single family line with the power to heal the scourge, and using the other blessed line to power up that Crystal, what of all of that says the Astrals were doing anything?

If you go into the bestiary for Bahamut, it’s outright stated that the other Astrals slumbered leaving Bahamut alone awake and Titan holding up that meteor (though I think he as also slumbering). So....yeah so much for them “fending off the darkness’s blight” in their slumbers.

The Comrades DLC still makes little sense as to how the Glaives exist until you find out in Episode Ignis that the Crystal is somewhat sentient, and the Kings (and Queens) inside still have some sort of agency to confer their powers. So that hole is filled in, mostly. Why they chose to resurrect the traitors is still a bit off, “punishment” they claimed. Still seems highly sketchy, but then again life is harder than death.....

Ignis gets a fucking AWESOME character arc. 

The Ring of the Lucii is a deus ex machina device for this game.

Though we now have a more reasonable motivation for Ardyn to be basically playing into the Astrals’ hands: 

Ardyn is just plain insane and might have always been unworthy and that’s why the Crystal told him to get fucked because it, with its sentience, could tell he wasn’t pure enough to use that power of Light properly.

Side note: HC Confirmed! Ardyn is the brother of Noctis’s direct ancestor.

One another note: Somehow, what Nyx did is common enough knowledge to get referenced. Did Libertus get out a really good press release or something to everyone who should know how awesome his buddy was?  Nyx was fucking awesome and deserves to have his heroics known, but how?

This also begs the question, if the power of the Ring can disperse/temporarily kill Ardyn, why couldn’t the pointless Astrals at least attempt to do something to keep him in that condition to help the Chosen King out (because Ardyn’s death at the end had him questioning if he was going to get to stay dead)? Right, I answered that: because they’re pointless. 

They manipulated Noctis to his death because they’re fucking weak. 

Come to think of it, the prophecy said he would outstrip them in power; I think they didn’t want a being like that sticking around for too long. 

Especially considering, if Noctis had been given a chance to breath and think, perhaps he might have put two and two together like Ignis did (sort of).

So, it would have always BEEN the Astrals’ ideal plan to let the shitty sacrifice go forth because they were too weak to stop the scourge and the people at large would never know it once the only thing stronger than them, and the scourge, was also dead cleaning up the mess another Astral made.

Because the Astrals don’t like being questioned, and also seem to like being revered as gods despite the fact that they are even weaker than the demigods of Greek Mythology when one gets down to it. 

At least those were able to kill the monsters.

So the Tl;Dr: The Astrals are shit, Luna didn’t need to die, and Noctis was being manipulated by these weak AF Astrals because all the world needed was him, the Crystal, and the Ring and not Them and that’s why no attempts at alternatives were sought.

#ff xv #spoilers #the astrals suck

[his-lost-horn]

unifyingspark: But oh gosh that little tiny in Cyclonus’s arms when she’s all painted and decked out, maybe at a rare formal function that Galvatron orders Cyclonus to attend with the babies to show them off. Gorgeous Cyclonus with his baby, in a crown his mate wove of things to protect her and keep her aura clean, painted with crimson shiny paint to match her optic and claws, dripping in jewels from conquered worlds of black and red. Just gorgeous and delicate and perfect. (Now /that/ I’d like to commission shitssssss). His darling little baby could not be cuter.

unifyingspark: Galvatron giving one of his speeches (and he is a fantastic public speaker). Jealous glances at Cyclonus, the cherished mate and bad tempered right-hand of the Empire. Then he can read mouths and sees someone lean towards the helm of another and say, ‘doesn’t matter how hard they try, he and his sparkling will always be hideous, what does Lord Galvatron see in him? He still has his birthing scar on his chest from budding, why polish your armor and leave that front and center? Primus pity that femme, awful thing, she sends a chill down your spinal struts, doesn’t she?’

unifyingspark: ‘Maybe he’s one of those weird bots who thinks its attractive to reproduce like a disgusting organic’

unifyingspark: ‘The little mechling is very handsome but a beastformer, did you know?’

unifyingspark: ‘Maybe Galvatron will have other offspring though I could bow to a beastformer, times have changed. Careful, the right-hand is looking at us.’

unifyingspark: ‘No he has a trained military stare, he looks broadly so it seems like he’s looking at you, he’s not trust me. Everyone in power learns to look into a crowd like that. He’ll go back to his ship, Camadal told me he’s afraid someone will try to hurt his babies so he moves about constantly. Coward.’

unifyingspark: ‘The femme moves abnormally.’

unifyingspark: ‘Twitchy.’

unifyingspark: ‘He’s looking, I swear, we should move further into the crowd.’

unifyingspark: // and then the after dinner meet-and-greet turns into "Little ones, would you like to have fun with Papa?"

unifyingspark: Cyclonus being a gossip favorite is prolly normal, I bet another reason he never wants to go to any of these things esp when the children are small, just sucks.

vxtum: Oh my god.. That is going to hit Cyclonus something cold - suddenly New Cybertron isn't so new after all

vxtum: Memories of his youth flooding back full-force

vxtum: But this time, he's got a horrific temper

vxtum: And he has no issues gutting people, even in the middle of Galvatron's speech

unifyingspark: LMAO really in the middle of the speech

unifyingspark: Oh god please, Galvatron would be trailing off watching Cyclonus slide into the crowd like water in a stream

vxtum: Watching Cyclonus on a hunt, having passed Tetta to Scourge, kissing her helm and murmuring that he will be back shortly.

unifyingspark: But Galvatron won't punish that kinda thinking -.- as insane as it is since he has a beastformer in his family and a little son with a beastmode, he doesn't make the links Cyclonus does... Galvatron longs for the old world. He means no malice, and if Cyclonus pushes him (and well Cyclonus has power, he can prune and lay down the law with an equal hand, he can help shape things to run the way he wants)... I know he'll protect his babies

unifyingspark: but oh god you know how scared shitless most everyone must be of Cyclonus, he must love when he catches someone who needs to die in one of those meetings

unifyingspark: standing in the back, silent, watching, waiting, hoping someone is fucking stupid enough to reveal themselves

unifyingspark: and sure as shit, always an idiot in Cyclonus' sight

vxtum: Galvatron smirking from the stage, watching Cyclonus track two or three of a group always making a point to keep distance between him, "Would seem someone has upset Lieutenant Cyclonus tonight. How.. /ordinary/. Run, you fools. He is just going to kill you." and then goes back to his speech

unifyingspark: Scourge hissing at him as he starts, "Cyclonus must you?"

vxtum: "Yes."

unifyingspark: Galvatron would enjoy it though, knows Cyclonus knows how to weed a garden har

unifyingspark: Near everyone hates little Tetta, I love it though it's horrible, because she's so cute and others see and feel the voidthing and are repulsed. Cyclonus must want to keep her away from that when she's small, no Carrier wants to feel his child feeling happy and thinking she's pretty because her parents told her she's pretty, then those outside their family are turning away to make a face, commenting she's hideous and creepy.

unifyingspark: Gravitas would get a little dig here and there about the beastformer shit but I think before the twins are grown Cyclonus has killed those bots (or Dinobot has as well), same with the ones who don't like mini-bots and such, that old world racism Cyclonus so hates.

vxtum: I mean, honestly. He can't and won't try to make it a thought crime to talk shit about his children, his family, and himself.. but if you're fucking stupid enough to do it in his proximity, then you're not intelligent enough to be a part of their empire.

unifyingspark: Galvy won't kill for those things either, he doesn't give a fuck what anyone is saying as long as they obey his orders and get the job done the right way.

unifyingspark: But Galvatron also lets Cyclonus do whatever the fucking fuck he wants (as always)

vxtum: Gravitas doesn't fucking care either, not when he's a teen and onward

vxtum: But he'd kill anyone who said anything about Tetta

unifyingspark: I don't think most mean it, they can't see her. They feel the Void and they're afraid, as they should be. Or whatever bad emotion, perhaps not everyone feels fear. If she didn't have a voidtaint, I bet many would think she was a cute little thing.

unifyingspark: Prolly, in the end, is good she has the taint. It makes her scarier than she is.

unifyingspark: Kind of an extra protection, I'm sure it starves trouble more than causes it

unifyingspark: Dinobot picking Gravitas up, showing him the crowd and saying loudly, "Look Prince, herd animals. What do we do with herd animals?"

vxtum: Gravitas' large optics brightened with excitement, surveying the surrounding individuals who had turned to look at them curiously, warily, and he tried to make a fierce, scary expression, baring his dentae and leaning forward, tiny servos bracing on his sire's arms. "EAT THEM! RAHH!"

unifyingspark: Dinobot snored loudly, proud of his beastformer quirks. "You are every bit as smart as your twin," He said, finding no fault in the young one. "Perhaps your Carrier will allow us to eat the idiot of the group, that is only fair..." He bent, long fingers fully encasing the boy's upper body, snug, safe. He set Gravitas down. "But you could sniff out the weakest link, you will not tolerate weakness in your pack. I am sure your Sire would appreciate you identifying a drain on his inner circle.”

unifyingspark: Scourge trying not to pass Dinobot an outright evil eye as he listens to the cranky old beastformer encourage Gravitas to sniff out weaklings for eating. I’m sure Dinobot let Gravitas eat a ton of sweets beforehand too, make sure the little one is extra jazzed up to fuck with Galvatron’s most loyal of New Cybertron. Really Dinobot wants to see if Gravitas picks out the same dickhead he wants to eat because that would make him so proud.

unifyingspark: god everything asshole about adult Gravitas is fucking Dinobot's fault *laughing

unifyingspark: Pushing instinct and wildness, yammering on about “his pack” and he being the big mech alpha wolf, rewarding individuality and selfishness and aggression, excusing bad behavior/defending him from Cyclonus’ cane, telling Gravitas he is just the most fucking special little fuck that has ever graced the universe and everything he does/thinks/wants is perfect, and then actually teaching Gravitas a shitload of very solid skills and skills most bots do not have, lost things, old world rule, survival, how to be both Cybertronian and animal and warrior--- but not enough to take away his individuality, never making it law, setting it all out and letting him pick

unifyingspark: You have the right to the universe and everything in it.

unifyingspark: Then Galvatron seals the final blow, that the mighty rule and make the laws.

#unifyingspark #[chat commentary] #[tw: long post] #au: twins