#she would of course have a gun as her magical staff whatever | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

realmackross · 10 months

Text

PARTIES: @thenavysealkie @realmackross TIMING: July 12th at Hollow Point Armory SUMMARY: Two strangers come together to help a crotchety old store owner with the promise of free weapons as payment. WARNINGS: unsanitary tw and just know there's a big ass spider involved.

“After his previous encounter with that zombie from the ocean, Marcus couldn’t help but feel much more vulnerable. He had let his guard down and allowed himself to feel too safe and secure in Wicked’s Rest. A stupid thing to do, he figured, in a town full of supernatural creatures. If the hunters don’t get you, the water ghouls will. If he was going to stick around here permanently, and he planned to, then he was going to need better protection.

He entered in through the doors of Hollow Point Armory and was amazed at the selection of firearms available. While Marcus always preferred to fight with a knife, a little strength from a distance couldn’t hurt. From his time in the navy, he had enough training to be confident and accurate with a pistol and rifle. Still, he was mostly in need of a new blade. He examined the one his father had given him on his 18th birthday, the handle in the design of a sea serpent, coming up to a brass hilt. The blade itself was rather short at about 4 ½ inches long, and made of iron, in case any disgruntled fae came after him for sapping their magic. However, the handle had lost its grip and the blade had started to lose its edge. It was becoming more of a liability to try and use than it was a source of protection. Besides, he would want a longer blade to put more distance and who/whatever it was that was trying to kill him.

One knife grabbed his attention, easily double the length of his current one, with a practical black wooden handle. The surface of the handle was gritty, ensuring Marcus that he could maintain a good grip. The blade itself looked razor sharp, and granted him enough distance to command much more room in a combat scenario. His heart sank a bit when he saw the price of the weapon. He figured, if it saved his life, then it would be priceless. But “priceless” sure was a lot of money.

Call it boredom or call it Llama just needing something to relieve her mind, but somehow she had found her way into Hollow Point Armory. It was the last place she had expected to find herself, but considering she felt completely alone in the world and without protection, it was probably the best place. For years she had the comfort of knowing her bodyguard had been on speed dial if she had ever needed anything, despite the fact that she was pretty well versed in martial arts. But Wicked’s Rest was turning out to be a completely different ball game with challenges that California just didn’t seem to have.

Perusing the aisles slowly, she let her eyes scan the shelves and cases for anything that struck her fancy. She knew the ease guns could bring by aiming, pointing, and shooting, but she had a true and passionate hate for the weapons. So when she had come to the gun section of the store, she easily passed it up. However, to her surprise, two aisles over, Llama had found exactly what she was looking for…katanas, nunchucks, and other various tools she had been familiar with.

Slowly rubbing her cold fingers across the hilt of a really nice katana hanging up, Llama’s mind went back to the time she had first held one. It was intimidating, and she had hesitated, but once she had gotten the hang of swinging the sword, she instantly fell in love. Of course, the realization of where she was standing hit pretty hard. Did she really want to leave the store with a sword in hand? Normally, she would have been all for it, but considering some of the most recent rumors that had been spreading in the media about her, she didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. Maybe a bo staff would be the better choice?

Marcus’s concentration was broken when he sensed movement on the other side of the store. He had assumed it was just him and the store owner in the building, and curiosity got the better of him. He looked over to find a pale woman staring longingly at the katana selection. She definitely seemed to have good taste, he gave her that. While Marcus always thought katanas were a badass choice of weapon, he figured they were a touch impractical as opposed to a knife, which was more portable and versatile.

He watched the woman’s gaze shift from the katanas over to the bo staffs. To be honest, Marcus knew nothing about fighting with a staff. He figured if there was no bladed end, it probably wasn’t going to do much damage without a lot of effort. Still, he had to admit the additional range the weapon provided had to have its own uses.

The woman seemed…well not like the type of person you would see casually perusing through lethal weapons. She didn’t appear like the rough and tumble type of woman that he came to see quite often around town. Instead, she looked as though an influencer had been airdropped into a combat site. And yet, she certainly did seem to have at least some idea of what she was looking for. Knowing that this was a dangerous town, and having weapons experience himself, he chanced approaching the woman, being sure to grab her attention from a distance so he didn’t startle her with a weapon in her hand.

“Excuse me, did you need any help finding anything in particular?”

Llama’s eyes continued to stray to the katanas and without second thought, she decided to pick one up. Easing it off the rack, she pulled it into her hands. The weight was familiar. It had been a little while, but it felt good. She so desperately wanted to swing it, but knew better than to in a public place with the risk of someone approaching her. And about the time the thought entered her head, she heard a voice.

Looking up and letting her eyes meet his, she spoke, “Uh, no. I think I found my section. Not really a gun person. But it’s really the question of do I want to buy this, a bo staff, or nunchucks.” She hadn’t quite been a fan of throwing stars. If someone knew how to use them and could use them efficiently then Llama had respect for them, but they just didn’t give her the relief she so desired. “What would you recommend?” She wasn’t sure if the man she was talking to worked here or was just another wandering customer like herself, but she did value hearing his opinion, especially knowing that he had no idea who she was.

Llama gently held the sword out to him, “I mean I like the weight of this, but I’m really looking for something for a meditative purpose, I think. But, like, also something that’s going to keep me safe.” She was starting to get somewhat nervous, afraid that he was going to judge her for being in a weapons store, even though she had every right to be. She may not have looked the type, but Llama could drop a man to his knees in a heartbeat, if she felt threatened.

Katana, bo staff, and nunchucks? All she was missing was a pair of sai and she could do a one woman recreation of the ninja turtles. Marcus had to admire her proficiency in different weapons, even if they were a bit obsolete by today’s standards. Given her Hollywood looks, something about her holding the katana reminded him of that scene in Kill Bill. The one where Uma Thurman rampaged through 88 people without taking a scratch. Yup, definitely badass, he decided.

She was asking him for a recommendation and asked for something “meditative?” What exactly did that mean? He conjured in his mind the image of monks meditating. They used staffs, right? That’s at least what the movies would have him believe.

“If you’re looking for something more meditative and less stabby, the bo staff seems like a good option. But if you want strong protection, I’d have to recommend something with a little more stopping power.” He walked over to a pair of nunchucks, a little surprised that the store even carried them, and picked them up, feeling their weight. “These are quick, less awkward to maneuver, and if you smack somebody at just the right spot in their temple, they’ll go down fast. Only problem is you can hit yourself too, so I’d recommend getting some good training in with these if you’re gonna use them”.

In actuality, Marcus hadn’t been trained in any of these weapons. But he did watch a lot of action movies, especially the old karate theater films from the 70s and 80s, so he figured that mixed with his actual combat experience pretty much made him an expert.

She hung on his every word. He seemed to know what he was doing and talking about, and she could appreciate that. She had seen all the ways you could get lost in twirling a bo staff, and the idea had relaxed her, but the point he made about the nunchucks was legit too. Llama didn’t know how much trouble she could possibly get into, but if it was anything like the crystalized creatures she had seen lurking around town, she certainly didn’t want to be without protection. Plus, with the nunchucks it would be a little more discrete. They could be tucked into the back of her pants, in one of her huge hoodies, or her Chanel tote (but that one was only for special occasions).

Llama followed him, but made sure to keep her distance in case he started swinging. There was nothing like getting hit with a pair of nunchucks. She remembered having three stitches to the forehead, and after that, she made it a priority to never hit herself again. Listening carefully as he explained things, the young actress kept a content look on her face and nodded in agreement, “You do have a point. I mean no copious amounts of blood. Easier to carry around then a bo staff or Katana. Do you mind if I see a pair?”

Stepping forward, she picked up a pair from the shelf. She didn’t want to offend him and the advice he was giving her, so Llama made it a point to look them over carefully, “Nice bit of weight to them. Good grip. Seems like they’re pretty easy to handle.” Moving back away from the man she had just met, and making sure nothing was around her, Llama let one of the nunchucks drop, so they were ready to use, “So you just kinda…swing ‘em around?” Okay, at this point she was totally messing with him. She had been training in martial arts since she was thirteen. Though it had been a hot minute since she had picked up a pair of nunchucks. This was either going to go really well or really poorly, but either way, at least it would be entertaining.

Starting off slow, she let the windmill motion start to build momentum. She had enjoyed her brain smoothie not too long before coming into the store, so her mind was sharper than normal. As the nunchucks started to swing faster, Llama began flipping them and rotating them in different directions, even catching the free side behind her back in her opposite hand. It was all coming back to her naturally, and it was a rush she had missed. When she finally finished, she let the free end swing up under her arm, “Yeah, that felt good. I think I’ll take the nunchucks…”

Marcus observed the woman pick up a pair of nunchucks and get a feel for them. He got nervous when she asked if she’s just supposed to swing them around and became even more anxious when she started doing just that. His eyes darted over to the nearby shelves, hoping she wouldn’t break anything. He would try and grab her arms to stop her, but the risk of getting hit was much too high.

His anxiety gave way to astonishment as he watched the woman artfully handle the nunchucks, even throwing in cool flairs and tricks. She handled the weapon like an absolute seasoned pro and he could do nothing but stare slack jawed at the performance. When she finally finished her routine, she very casually said that they seemed like a good fit. He couldn’t tell if this was an extreme case of “being a natural” or if he was being played, but either way this woman continued to impress him. Still, he didn’t particularly appreciate being shown up by a woman whose skills he had discounted again. Was everybody in this town a secret super soldier?

Marcus cleared his throat. “Right, definitely seems like you can handle them pretty well. I hope whatever you need protection from will-”, he was suddenly cut off by a voice towards the back of the store yelling out. “DAMMIT! NOT ANOTHER ONE!”, the voice shouted. The store owner stumbled out from the back, seeming surprised to find customers in the store.

“Sorry folks, didn’t realize anybody was in here. You’ll have to excuse the noise there’s a…a bit of a situation in the back. Don’t worry, I have a hunter who's been coming in to deal with these pests.” Then under his breath, Marcus could hear the man say “he’s just so expensive”. Finally the man perked up again and said “Anyway, if you want to bring those purchases up here, I can-” before being cut off by a loud crashing sound in the back again. The man sighed and said “If this keeps up much longer it’s gonna trash my store!”

Llama was fighting back the urge to laugh, but there was an apparent grin on her face. She had almost forgotten how much enjoyment she had from flipping nunchucks around. She would definitely be purchasing those, and thanking the man, whether he was an employee or not, for helping her. But before she could explain herself and the experience she had, the loud crash and booming voice coming from the back.

Narrowing her eyes, Llama glanced over to the man next to her, before seeing the store owner walk out. She listened to him apologize, but also the use of the word hunter had seemed strange. Was that the name of a Pest Control service offered in Wicked’s Rest? Normally they were just called exterminators, where she was from. And she had known of a great one, but that was back in California.

Again, Llama was going to speak as she began walking forward, until she heard another crash. Turning her attention back to the weapon’s expert, she finally spoke, “Should we do something or call somebody? I know an exterminator back home, but he lives in California. Maybe animal control or…I’ve just never heard of somebody calling for a hunter to take care of a pest problem” She wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but she could hear the desperation in his voice. “I mean, how hard is it to catch a loose squirrel or something?” She shrugged, the nunchucks still in her hands.

Marcus watched the girl in front of him, looking more and more lethal with those nunchucks in her hand. She did have a point, how hard could it be to take care of a small pest problem? If he was really desperate and short on cash, he’d be more than willing to try and help him out. If the woman in the store with him wanted to help out, then that would be even better. Who knows what kind of damage she could do with those nunchucks? While he didn’t fancy the idea of killing anything, preferring to relocate, he also understood the damage that some critters could cause.

He glanced sideways at the woman next to him, who also looked eager to help in any way she could.

“Maybe I could help with your little pest problem? After all, I’d hate for you to have to pay the rates a hunter charges just to deal with something small,” Marcus offered to the store owner.

“Oh it’s nothing small,” the man said, shaking his head from side to side. “It’s…well probably better if I showed you first. If you still want to try and kill the damned thing, be my guest. I’ll give you that knife free of charge if you can take it out. I’ll just have you sign a waiver beforehand stating that I take no responsibility for any injury, dismemberment, or death that may occur as a result of you taking on this job. Just legal formalities, I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

That certainly didn’t put Marcus at ease, but he was also never one to turn down a challenge. He nodded his head at the man, conveying his willingness to accept even though his nerves now made it difficult to speak. What on earth could be holed up in this shop that’s so dangerous?

“And how about you, girly?” The man said, now turning to face the woman with the nunchucks. “Wanna join in? I’ll, of course, have to get you to sign the same waiver. Same deal, you get to walk out of here with those nunchucks, free of charge. Whaddya say?”

Llama listened to the conversation going on between both men. It was still odd to hear them both refer to exterminators as hunters, but maybe it was an east coast thing. She wasn’t here to judge. And the term hunter became the least of her worries when the owner hinted at the creature not being small. What in the world was he dealing with? Big Foot? And on top of that a waiver would have to be signed? If her agent and lawyer had been present they would have told her no. Turned down the offer in a heartbeat for her and pulled her out of the store. But they weren’t here, and she wasn’t exactly acting at the moment. But did she still want to possibly get dismembered over a set of nunchucks she could easily just purchase? No. But maybe over the idea that her life didn’t have to be so closed off here in Wicked’s Rest. She could still do stuff. She just had to be careful.

“What the hell? Count me in. Where’s this waiver I’ve gotta sign?” She eagerly moved towards the older man ready for an adventure. I mean she had discovered with Mateo and the fireworks that body parts did grow back. Slowly if it was bad enough, but with the right amount of food, she would be good. Llama just wanted something, anything that would keep her from being curled up alone in a huge house away from everyone.

Looking back over to the man behind her, Llama let a sly grin slip over her face. This was either going to go really well or really poorly, but at least neither one of them would be alone, “Let’s do this.” Spinning the nunchucks again, before pulling them back up under her arm, the actress was ready to take on something new and exciting. It was as if she had been offered a part in a new horror/action movie, and she was going to take the role as seriously as she possibly could.

Marcus was pleased to hear he wouldn’t be going into this alone, especially if it was with somebody who at least seemed to know what they were doing. Still, the waiver definitely concerned him. It was bad enough he was in danger, but now somebody else was too? He remembered Nora and the rush of excitement they got upon slaying the monster on the beach. How bad could this creature be in comparison to that?

He glanced over at the woman, and nodded his head. Before following the shopkeep back, he shook the woman’s hand and introduced himself. “Marcus, by the way. Figure if we’re gonna go into the belly of the beast together we may as well know each other’s names' '.

“You two gonna keep lollygaggin’, or are you gonna follow me? I ain’t got all day”.

Marcus took a little offense to the man he figured he was doing a huge favor for suddenly rushing them. Still, his feet carried him forward through a narrow corridor. At last they got to a back room which he presumed was used for storage. It was a tall wooden double door with two brass ring handles. It looked like something out of the 16th century that would lead to a monarch’s bedchambers, yet the wood and metal were both in stunningly good condition. He could hear a skittering sound inside, followed by the sound of more boxes crashing to the floor.

“The beast is just through here. Good luck! If yer not back in 20 minutes, I’ll assume it went ahead and ate ya. Now get in there and give it hell!”

Llama stuck her hand out and gave him a firm handshake in return, “It’s nice to meet you, Marcus. I’m Llama. Long story for another day. Right now we’ve got a beast to slay.” It was as if she had gone into character mode. She was focused, and she didn’t want to break that focus by explaining how she came to have the name Llama in the first place, which was still hard to wrap her mind around.

Hearing the request of the man caused the actress to narrow her eyes. This guy had definitely sounded like one of the many pushy directors she had worked with in the past. It usually made for an awkward day on set, but she had learned to push past stuff like this. Besides, it wasn’t like this guy was going to be calling the shots much longer. He was just going to send them into the dark to face something that could probably eat their face and call it a day. Despite her instincts telling her to turn around though, Llama let her curiosity and need for something exciting and dangerous to pull her forward.

As they approached the back, Llama found herself confused by the sudden change in scenery. Leaning in towards Marcus, she couldn’t help but make a comment, “Did we just step back in time or something?” But before she could say anything else, she found herself facing their fate with an encouraging warning to give the beast hell!

Llama looked back over at Marcus as they stood in front of the door, “You know, I’m rich, and I can just buy this shit and anything else you want in the store, and we can call it a day…” All sense of adventure was quickly leaving her body with the threat less than 10 feet away behind a door that looked like it was meant for something other than slaying dragons.

Llama. Now that was a very… unique name. Marcus was going to question how somebody could have come to be named Llama, but growing up on the west coast he wasn’t all too surprised. The hippie flower children naming their kids after trees, rivers, and animals. It was only a matter of time until they ran out of good ones and had to start settling for “Llama” to still make their kids seem unique. He just hoped she wasn’t bullied too badly during her school years.

“You come from a lot of money, eh? So do I, actually. Although a lot of that money is sort of tied up at the moment”. While the navy brass was off his trail for now, withdrawing from his accounts would certainly draw suspicion. While he felt comfortable letting his loved ones know he was okay now, he would have to get access to his money some other way once more time passed.

“Explains the looks. I, uh, mean that in a good way.”

He had to admit that he also felt very nervous as well, not that he would allow himself to show it. He looked over at Llama and simply offered “How about this? We peek our heads inside just to get a look at it. If it looks too scary, we run. After all, we signed a waiver, not a contract. But if you’re looking for that rush, that sense of adventure, and it looks weak enough, then I say let’s go for it. Plus, we’ll have the peace of mind knowing we’ve done a good deed.” Granted, that good deed was being done for a very rude person in risk of their own safety, but Marcus’s sense of duty was a strong one. In his mind, he couldn’t turn back now. It would go against his very nature to do so.

Marcus carefully pulled on one of the handles and, slowly, the doors began to creep open. Marcus peered through the small opening and saw only a dark room. He could see in the dark well enough, but only saw knocked over shelves with items strewn across the floor of the room. There were definitive scratch marks on the walls. And yet, he didn’t see any sort of creature. It was as if the beast they had been warned about had simply…vanished. In typical bad horror movie fashion, Marcus slowly walked inside. As he moved towards the center of the room, taking care to step over the knocked over merchandise, he found his arm caught in some sort of invisible force. As he struggled, he soon found his entire body unable to move.

“I’ve made a lot of money in my career so far.” It was true. Llama had a net worth of around $25 million, but that was nothing anybody in Wicked’s Rest needed to know. Of course, it’s not like it couldn’t be googled, but still. It was his comment about her looks that left her giving him a narrowed glare, “Uh huh. Well if we’re going off of looks and weapons knowledge, I’m gonna go military for you. And I, uh, mean that in a good way.” She may have looked like the epitome of young Hollywood in a small town, but Llama was pretty smart and observant when it came to people. However, online was a different story, considering her name was now Llama.

Though she was slightly offended, Llama let it go because they had bigger fish to fry, like whatever was lurking behind door number one. And with his proposal on the table of taking on a good deed for the day, she felt like she couldn’t turn back now, “You’re right. We didn’t fully commit to this or sign our lives away.” Her mind was starting to jump back to the term the two men had been using earlier, hunters. She definitely was no hunter, but she did have combat training from multiple credible sources. She could do this.

Llama made her way in slowly behind Marcus after he had opened the door. What little light there was had given way to all kinds of damage and scattered boxes, and she couldn’t help but grip her nunchucks a little tighter. However, as he moved deeper into the room, Llama found herself stopped and staring wide-eyed at what appeared to be a giant spider hanging from the ceiling with its 3845345934 eyes staring back at her, “Uh, Marcus…I think…I think we should…” She had started to slowly back up, readying herself to flee, “I think we should maybe cut our losses and just go somewhere else…”

Marcus couldn’t help but roll his eyes as his newly found partner’s warning came far too late. Sure, he thought to himself, NOW we’ll cut our losses and run. When I physically can’t. He struggled further against the webbing, but it pulled him back no matter how hard he tried. Frustrated, he looked up towards the ceiling, trying to see if there was anything hanging down that he could use to grab on and pull himself away. And that was when he saw it.

A mountain of eyes, disturbingly large fangs, and eight long spindly legs covered in fine hairs. This wasn’t just any spider. This was Aragog on steroids, and Marcus soon began to realize he had become the creature’s prey. He struggled further, much more panicked now, but it was no use. Slowly, the creature moved its head towards him, all of its many eyes focused directly on him. He reached toward his waist to try and grab his newly acquired knife, but he couldn’t maneuver it out of its holder.

Now Marcus had a good education, so he knew how spiders devoured their prey. First they sunk their fangs in and injected a paralytic venom into their victim. Then they inject an acid that dissolved their prey from the inside out. Seemed a bit counterintuitive towards actually eating their catch, but it was one way to make sure they were dead, and probably made their meal a lot easier to get down. That was about the extent of what he knew about them.

He didn’t exactly fancy being turned into soup, especially when he’d be alive for the souping part of it. Just great, he survived one brush with danger, only to meet an even worse fate. In an act of defiance, Marcus spat in the creature’s face. Human signals of disrespect and contempt apparently didn’t translate well to the arachnid world, as it simply reared its head back a little bit and wiped the spit off with one of its legs. It held the saliva up to its face and…sniffed it? Do spiders smell? He didn’t think they had noses. Whatever it was doing, it only afforded him a few moments of reprieve, and Marcus braced for the impact of its fangs.

When Llama realized Marcus wasn’t responding or coming, she paused. She could just leave. Run. Cut her losses. Be done with it. But what kind of person would that make her? A horrible one? An even worse one than she already was? But was she really even a person anymore? She ate brains. Her fiance’s brains. Other people’s brains. She was literally standing there having an existential crisis while Marcus was about to be made into spider food. “Dammit! I am not that kind of person! Fuck!”

Closing her eyes and taking in a deep, unneeded breath, Llama gathered her courage, and then the idea hit her. Her phone! The LED flashlights on those things were ridiculous, and she knew shining it at the bug would probably startle it! Hopefully! Pulling out her phone and turning it onto the brightest setting, she held the device up all while tightening her grip on the nunchucks still in her hand, “Marcus. Are you still alive?”

Llama moved closer and shined the light around, until she saw the creature once again, and this time her plan worked…almost. Once it laid eyes on her - about a thousand of them - it awkwardly lost its grip from where it was dangling and plopped down onto… “Marcus?!” Seeing its lumpy and weird shape springing back and forth in the tight, nearly invisible web it had weaved with her new spider combat buddy bouncing around with it, Llama didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or take a running swing at it! The latter it would be.

Letting out a war cry, the living dead actress held up the phone to guide her and started swinging her nunchucks ready to knock it off of her friend, but before she could, Llama came to a screeching halt as it and Marcus springed back in her direction much like a slingshot except the contents staying stuck, sending her to the ground and her phone and nunchucks flying off in another direction, “Oh sweet Nick Jonas don’t let it eat me! I’m too young to die again!”

Marcus watched his would-be savior fall to the ground, her weapons crashing helplessly across the other side of the room. Great, not only was he going to die, but he got somebody else killed too. What was that she said about dying again? People only died once, didn’t they? Unless…no. This woman was far too attractive (conventionally speaking) to be undead. Usually they had some evidence of decomposition, not unlike the creature on the beach. Then again, Marcus didn’t have much experience with undead beyond the occasional vampire hunting him down for his seal blood.

Marcus still had his hand around the handle of his knife, the tips of his fingers barely able to reach. Carefully, Marcus rolled his fingers up along the handle, slowly bringing it up towards his hand so he could grip it more firmly. Awkwardly, he bent his wrist in a way that was just barely able to reach the webbing holding him in. He first cut the web holding his shoulder so he had more range of motion. This allowed him to make short work of the rest of the webbing while the giant spider was focused on Llama.

Marcus attempted to sneak up and stab at the spider right at the top of its abdomen while it was still distracted. In spite of looking like a fairly new and well sharpened knife, attempting to stab the beast was like stabbing stone. His blade clanked uselessly against the armored exoskeleton and the opposing force knocked Marcus to the ground. Once again, the eight legged monster turned its many eyes to Marcus, creeping forward as it had before. This was it, Marcus had his second chance and he blew it.

Shaking his head, he decided this wouldn’t be the end. In a last ditch effort, he made a leaping strike towards the creature’s many eyes. If he could blind it, it would give him and Llama a chance to regroup and take down the monster. The only downside is the eyes were dangerously close to its monstrous fangs. Meaning, if Marcus wanted to fling his blade towards its eyes, he would have to move its body close to its fangs. The whole paralysis and liquefaction process played over again in his mind, and fear started to overtake him.

He had decided he would rather go down fighting, protecting a newly found friend, than standing stock still and pissing himself in fear. With a great leap, Marcus lunged at the spider, being very careful to keep his lower body tucked upwards as much as he could, like an olympic high jumper. He saw the blade enter into one of the beast’s many eyes, as green liquid squirted out from the wound. The beast let out a mighty yell as Marcus grabbed on and attempted to stab at its other eyes. Unfortunately, with one forceful shake, the beast knocked the knife out of Marcus’s hand, causing it to clatter uselessly across the floor. However, Marcus did keep his grip and remained more or less on top of the creature, almost making the scene look like some giant spider rodeo.

Scrambling on all fours to the other side of the room to retrieve her phone and nunchucks, Llama paid no attention to what was going on behind her, until she heard the loud cry of the beast! Whatever Marcus had done to it had wounded it and just as she was about to retrieve her own weapon, she saw his knife come down from the sky as if a higher power was giving her an opportunity to strike.

Bending down, Llama scooped up the knife in her hands and quickly spun on her heels to see quite the sight. Marcus was being flung around like a cowboy trying to prove his worth in a horse arena. But maybe if he could keep a tight grip on it, the distraction would give her enough time to stab what appeared to be its meaty underbelly, “Keep it distracted, Marcus! I’m going for the gut!”

Llama narrowed her eyes in determination and waited for the right moment, before running to gain momentum and throwing her body down onto her hip to slide under the massive spider. Just as she had planned it, she ended up where she needed to be to shove the knife in it’s soft belly sending the pointy end through it’s skin, but she hadn’t anticipated just where her position would put her. As the creature let out another ear piercing screech, Llama felt its fangs sink into her own stomach injecting copious amounts of venom, before she lay motionless on the ground; the knife slipping from her grip and hitting the floor once more. It was up to Marcus now to take the huge-ass spider out.

He heard Llama call out for him to keep it distracted while she went for the gut. A brilliant idea, shouting out your strategy and giving your enemy a warning that you’re about to stab them. Marcus held on to the giant spider for dear life as it kicked around like a bucking bronco. He was starting to lose his grip, and was flung off. His body slid into a corner of the room, and he bonked his head on one of the shelves that was knocked to the ground.

He sat back up just in time to see Llama stab the beast right before it sunk its giant fangs into her. He heard a cry from her and then watched her body go stiff and motionless. He couldn’t believe it. His sense of adventure had gotten an innocent albeit adventurous soul killed. He made a mad dash to the other side of the room, towards Llama’s body. The spider’s movements were clumsy and Marcus took advantage by slipping away from various lunges that it took at him. By the time he got to Llama’s body, he saw she was still alive, but unable to move.

He picked his knife up from off the ground and stared the giant spider down. It was definitely weakened from the stab it had already taken, and this meant that its underbelly was its weak point. Marcus planted one foot on the ground, and pounded on his chest, as if daring the monster to charge. It was as if he were a matador trying to outmaneuver a particularly scary eight legged bull.

The spider took the bait, and Marcus sidestepped its ungraceful attempt at a charge. It crashed, bashing its own head into the wall. It backed up, very clearly dazed, and Marcus took that opportunity to strike. Marcus slid in underneath the creature and took several more deep stabs at the beast. More screams, and more green liquid poured out of the creature. He could feel the beast’s incredible weight coming down on him, so he quickly got out from underneath it. He fled to the other side of the room as he watched the beast roll onto its back and curl its legs up towards the center of its abdomen, still bleeding, but no longer moving. He was satisfied it was finally defeated.

He then looked back towards the center of the room, at the unmoving body of his partner in crime. He was hoping for any signs of life from her.

“Llama! Llama are you okay? Talk to me!”

Llama could feel herself fading. Her body was rigid as the venom absorbed itself into her stagnant blood stream, but ironically, she could feel an overly alarming rate of heartache. It was like losing Brody all over again, and while it wasn’t quite as bad, it was close. But it was taking longer for the deep puncture wounds to heal and there was an odd warmth around her midsection. The venom was trying to work, but it wasn’t having any success as her blood wasn’t spreading the poison like it should have. However, she could still hear the commotion going on around her. Muffled at times as she faded in and out, until she heard her name being called.

She softly groaned as the warmth was beginning to fade and the fang wounds were slowly starting to close up, but she could feel her appetite growing. It wasn’t to the extent of the firework incident and she wasn’t losing her mind quite like she was afraid of, but Llama knew if she didn’t feed soon Marcus and the owner of the store would both be in trouble.

“Marcus…” Her eyes barely opened as if there was weight resting on them as she scanned the dark room for any sign of the spider. Seeing a large folded up lump, Llama started to recognize what it was, “Did you kill it? Is it over?” She could feel her muscles loosening up and relaxing meaning she would have range of motion back soon. Already in the short amount of time she had been in Wicked’s Rest, she had started to feel like Kenny from South Park. Was this what it meant to be a zombie? Was she the universe’s own personal Barbie doll to throw around and abuse? If she was, she didn’t like it.

Marcus was very relieved to see his new friend had miraculously survived. In fact, it seemed as though she was recovering remarkably fast.

“Yeah, we got it. It’s all over, thanks to you. Just stay where you are, I’ll call for help. That bum ass shop owner isn’t going to be much use so I’ll get an ambulance for you.”

“Hey now, I’m no bum!” Marcus heard the shop owner behind him, turning to face the man who sent them both to their deaths. “We made an agreement, and here we are. One dead spider, and you all get to walk out with your weapons.”

Marcus was incensed by this attitude. He grabbed the shopkeep by the collar and dragged him over to Llama’s body. “Does it look like she’s going to be doing much walking? She needs to get to a hospital man, STAT”.

“Well then you’d better call an ambulance instead of yelling at me! Take your wares and kindly leave whatever way you see fit. But I think I’ll stick with a hunter service from now on, they’re much neater about it”.

He wanted to punch him. Slam his fist right into his face. But right now, his friend needed him. He couldn’t risk getting kicked out and losing sight of her. In a huff, he turned around and began to dial 911.

Llama let out a soft sigh knowing it was over. They had killed the first, and hopefully last, giant spider. This town was really starting to get under her skin and not in a good way. First the discovery of mares, then being shot with fireworks, and her name being stolen, and now this?! And she couldn’t forget Nora. That child was like the walking epitome of a nightmare. But somehow throughout all of it, she was starting to make friends, especially right here and right now.

Letting her eyes drift over to the confrontation that was happening, she watched as her new friend stuck up for her well being. She definitely wouldn’t be shopping here again. That was for sure, but it soon hit her like a ton of bricks. She couldn’t go to the hospital. She’d be found out. Instead, Llama slowly forced herself up onto her elbows. It was like the weight of the world was hanging over her and trying to push her back down, but she had to keep her secret safe, “Marcus, stop.”

She looked towards him with sad pleading eyes. If her heart could race, it would. Llama was about to reveal one of the biggest secrets of her life to a complete stranger, but somehow she felt safe around him. They did just fight and survive a giant arachnid after all, “There’s something I have to tell you…”

Marcus’s thumb paused before it hit the last “1” on his phone screen. Stop? Why did she want him to stop? He stole a glance over at the shopkeep and gave him a look that told him to give them some space. Thankfully, the shopkeep put up his hands in surrender and left to give the two a private space to talk.

“What do you have to tell me? I mean whatever it is I’m sure it can wait. You’re really not looking well and need some kind of medical attention. Just stay down and try not to exert yourself too much.”

He had seen people like her before in the field. People hit with artillery shells, incendiary flares, bullets. Pale, weak, shaking, looking completely on the verge of death. He’d call them walking corpses, but usually they crawled. Just Llama, still on the ground, on death’s door. What could be so important that she’d tell him to wait to call an ambulance?

This was either going to go really good or really bad. She had never told anyone before. Well aside from her assistant, Taylor. And it wasn’t like she really had a choice then either. As for Mateo, he just sort of found out on his own. But if Marcus had dialed the last ‘1’ and the paramedics came and started to work on her… “They’re not going to find a heartbeat. If you call 911 and they come, they’re not going to find a heartbeat.” Llama paused for a moment, “I’m already dead, Marcus. I died about two years ago doing a stunt for a TV show I was working on at the time.”

It felt so strange saying it outloud to someone she really didn’t know. At least Taylor had truly known Mackenzie. Not Llama, but Mackenzie. There was a chance this guy could blab it to the world, but it was too late now. He already knew, “I guess, the technical term is zombie? I still don’t really understand all of this, and don’t really know if I want to believe it’s real, even though I guess it is…” An evening of laughter, excitement, and even fun, had turned into something nerve-wracking, but in a weird way, cathartic. At least in the moment. She would probably regret it later, when she was back home alone sitting with her thoughts all night while some stupid show was the only source of light flashing off the walls in her huge empty and lonely house.

Groaning as she struggled to sit all the way up, Llama kept her eyes on Marcus, “Look I understand if you don’t want to be my friend after this. I’ve done stuff I’m not proud of since this happened and the only thing I could think to do was run from my problems. I’m not a good person, I know that. But tonight was, for lack of a better word, fun, and the first time I haven’t really felt so alone since being here.” There had been other times, sure, but this just felt different, especially considering she wanted him to know what she was, “But this took a lot out of me, and if I don’t eat something soon, I’m afraid of what might happen, so if you want to leave, then it’s not going to hurt my feelings. I just want you to be safe. Even that asshole shop owner who almost got us killed.”

Marcus had thought there was more than what meets the eye to this woman. After all, her fighting skills and remarkable durability seemed a bit out of place to him. He thought it was odd that a famous actress could die during a stunt without it being a huge media story, but then again he didn’t follow pop culture news very closely. For all he knew, her face was all over every major media outlet and he was none the wiser.

Still, a zombie? He couldn’t say he’d ever met a zombie, or even knew them to actually exist. It came as a major shock to Marcus, but one thing he didn’t feel was fear. They had just taken down a horrific beast together and managed to walk away. She had her chance to either let him die or take him out at multiple different points, but she didn’t. Instead, she saved his life. There’s no way he’d run away from her now.

“This is a lot to take in, Llama. I’ve also never heard of any actresses named Llama so I must have missed the memo about you being dead. But look at you, you saved my life. You helped me take down that…thing in the corner over there.” he said, pointing at the giant carcass. “You could probably eat that, right? Either way, I don’t want to walk out on you here. I really appreciate you telling me all of this actually. And if you do want to munch on some people, I’m hoping you’ll take care of the shop owner before me. But uh…start with the spider first and see how you feel”.

“Oh, and by the way. You’re not the only one with a secret.” With that, Marcus held up his pelt, currently on loan from William. “I’m a selkie. Or…a seal person if you’re unfamiliar. I’d transform and show you, but there isn’t any water here so I’d just kind of flop around like an idiot. There are a lot of folks around here who are more than they say they are.”

She sat quietly waiting for his reaction. It had taken a lot for her to come clean. Her entire undead life was at stake, including her career, friends back home, and even her family. And while she couldn’t help but let her mind go to the negative side of things, Marcus had really surprised her, “You’re not mad or afraid?” Llama’s expression softened, and she let out a sigh of relief, “Thank you, Marcus. You don’t know how much this means. And my name…it’s not really Llama according to the entire internet and half the world apparently. Some weird guy supposedly took it? I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out how to get it back, but if you want to go by everyone else, my name, according to them, is Mackenzie.”

Llama laughed softly at the comment about the owner, “As much as I want to right now…it’s probably best that I do…eat the spider instead.” Regardless of whether or not she had a gag reflex, the young actress shuddered at the thought of consuming the eight legged corpse lying just over in the corner. Luckily, she got a few more minutes of not having to consume Mr. Harry Legs when Marcus had surprisingly admitted a secret of his own.

Just like him, she was shocked. She had never heard of seal people before. Llama had always loved looking at the seals down near the water back home in California, but the fact that humans could actually change into seals was amazing. She let her eyes shift from him to the pelt he was holding, “So do those come in like designer brands or is it a sort of one style fits all?” She had to lighten the mood a little, especially after the last thing he said. “Wow, so this town really is haunted.” She looked away from him, before returning her eyes to him along with a solemn expression, “I promise to keep your secret, but in return can you please keep mine? If this gets out, I’m done. My entire life, or whatever it is now, will seriously be over.” She just wanted to know that he would stay quiet, at least before attempting to down the giant spider.

Marcus was, if nothing else, a man of his word. After all, it wasn’t like he stood to gain anything from revealing her secret. He was actually quite relieved that she met his confession with the same level of acceptance with which he met hers. She seemed more curious than anything.

“You have my word, Mackenzie, or whatever your name may be. You’ve got a lot left to learn still about this town, it would seem.”

It would make sense that someone new to all things paranormal wouldn’t know about fae and their tendency to steal names. He’d have to give her some pointers on how not to get tricked by them. They were a crafty bunch, and even he found himself fooled every now and then. Of course, they fooled him for survival purposes, trying to keep their magic secured. They fool poor unsuspecting folks like Mackenzie for the sake of…you know now that he thought of it he wasn’t really sure.

“These are kind of a ‘one pelt for one selkie’ kind of deal. Each one is tailored specifically for its owner, although that’s not to say other selkies can’t use pelts that belong to different people. It’s just heavily frowned upon.”

He smiled down at her, sensing her relief.

“Again, I will never share your secret. And all I ask is you do the same for mine. I have a lot of potential enemies out here if they knew what I really was.”

So they were in agreement. These two misfits who just happened upon a strange town and met out of pure fate. Maybe it was something higher pulling them together or maybe it was just coincidence. Whatever it was, Llama wasn’t complaining, “Thank you. So fucking much.” She snorted softly, “Yeah, just a little bit.”

His explanation about the pelts made sense. It had to have been like slipping on the perfect leather jacket that felt made just for you, and as he had previously mentioned, she did have a lot to learn, including the different rules and ways of life about other creatures who weren’t zombies. Hell, Llama still had a lot to learn about herself, but she was about to discover one thing…could she handle eating a spider carcass?

“I promise. If it’s one thing you have to be good at, working in Hollywood, it’s keeping a secret. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a spider to choke down.”

Still weak and body feeling heavier than normal, Llama scooted across the floor over to the oozing, dead spider. It was another instance where she was grateful her senses were mostly dulled, especially because she was pretty sure the green ooze leaking from the creature probably smelled like ass. But with each passing moment of hesitation came the longing to feed and the possibility of becoming a threat to Marcus.

“Fuck. Okay.”

Grabbing one of the legs, Llama lifted it up to her mouth and took a huge bite. It was a little tough at first gnawing through the exoskeleton and its leg hairs kind of tickled in an odd way, but her zombie instincts soon took over and before long she was elbow deep in spider belly surprisingly enjoying herself and even the green goo that had once left her lying motionless on the floor.

From what started out as a night of obsessing over a katana turned out to be one of the most valuable days spent in Wicked’s Rest and knowing Marcus was now by her side, despite watching her consume one of the grossest things she’d ever encounter, Llama had an odd feeling that everything was going to be okay. But it totally could have just been the leg whiskers tickling her throat as they went down.

#thenavysealkie #wickedswriting #para: arachNOphobia #para: marcus #unsanitary tw #{that's not my name; plot}

6 notes · View notes

omni-scient-pan-da · 3 years

Text

How I personally would've had Rise of the Titans go

Spoilers under the cut

Alright so, first of all, Douxie wouldn't have lost the seals at the end of Wizards to begin with

After having Charlie read the ancient draconic, Douxie would've kept Merlin's staff intact and decided to break it ONLY when they needed it as a bargaining chip or something

When Douxie returns to see that all his friends sans Krel have been taken, he works with Krel to build the time loop machine thing and maybe we get some extra scenes of them being cute together

He lures the order to the shop again, but instead of ACTUALLY GIVING THEM THE SEALS he creates an illusion of some sort, maybe something made in conjunction with Akiridion tech so the enchantment lasts longer and the Order doesn't find out what's up, and he tosses that into the time loop instead

The rest of Wizards basically goes as planned with Douxie and Nari going on the run, Claire keeps Merlin's staff as the only other one that can do magic and as a failsafe in case the Order ever realizes they don't have the real seals

ROTT starts fairly similar, the team has divised a trap to stop the order once and for all, the team fails and Nari and Douxie swap again, because Douxie is a self sacrificing bitch that would rather be in danger himself than see his friends get hurt

They all regroup, James panics, Striklake engagement reveal, maybe Barbara asks Claire to be her maid of honor? 👀 And they try to figure out a way to get Douxie back

Aja shows up and like I've seen a bunch of other people saying, the seven kisses thing is an engagement ceremony rather than a baby making thing, Steve and Aja both panic, especially when Steve realizes this makes him king(? Prince consort?) Of Akiridion-5, cue line from Krel about how their planet would be doomed if the blonde oaf ended up ruling alongside his sister

Krel and Aja actually get a moment to catch up since it's been a long time since they've seen each other

They go to save Nari and of course Claire and Douxie are there because neither one of them is going to sit behind and they don't trust leaving the staff on Camelot because they're paranoid and somehow, in their attempt to free Nari, the staff breaks

The real Genesis Seals are revealed for the first time and they escape with Nari and one of the seals (because there's like three seals right? I had no idea why all three were in the same place it would've made more sense to separate them don't you think?)

The other two seals are with the Order and things are not looking good, the gang is panicking and they realize that running from the Order forever isn't going to work and that maybe they're not the best at setting up traps

Instead they outfit Nari with some magical/Akiridion mind-control resistance just to be safe and try their hand at setting up another trap with the anti-magic ray thing

The trap once again fails and this time the Order kinda knows what to expect so they end up with Nari and the remaining seal and are able to unleash the Titans, except this time Nari isn't completely brainwashed and they're able to help her break from the orders control quickly

Varvatos arrives with the Gun Robot and teams up with Nari to defeat Skrael's Titan, leaving just Bellroc to defeat

James realizes what's wrong with the amulet but instead of needing some cryptic message from Nari to tell him how to get the sword out of the stone, he remembers the whole "WE are the Trollhunter" speech he gave back in like S2, and that's how he figures out how to get it free

Everyone gives it their all to help Nari's Titan fight Bellroc's and through sheer force they're successful, but at the cost of Nari herself

However they did hear about the kronosphere or whatever it's called from Nari before she died so they hunt down that to try and figure out what the heck she was talking about

It takes a while but they're able to figure out how to combine Merlin's staff with Akiridion tech and part of the Heartstone because they realized how powerful it was (also symbolism for the characters from the three shows coming together) with the kronosphere and manage to make a device that lets them travel through time

This also triggers the memories of the Trollhunter gang and the 3 Below gang from the Porgon incident and they're all like "Hey! Would you look at that"

Anyways, with the rigged up Kronosphere they're able to go back in time and save people (Draal, Vendel, Nari, Merlin, Morgana,etc) just before it's too late so it doesn't have an effect on the timestream (think like the Lost series from Margaret Peterson Haddix where they pull people from the timestream like right before they're about to die so nothing bad happens to time)

The movie ends with the Stricklake wedding, and Jim and Claire are both like "that's gonna be us one day" and everyone lives happily together as one giant found family

#panda posts #trollhunters #3 below #wizards #toa #toa wizards #tales of arcadia #rise of the titans #rott #trollhunters rise of the titans #rott rewrite #staja #krexie #jlaire #Stricklake

265 notes · View notes

moonlitceleste · 3 years

Text

straight up villain (Villain AU)

This is a songfic based on “Villain” by K/DA ft. Madison Beer and Kim Petras. There’s really no plot to it; I started with a vague idea and just went along with whatever my brain told me. It kinda jumps around and I didn’t proofread this at all, so sorry if it’s confusing!

I’d suggest listening to the song and watching the visualizer video because it’s honestly such a vibe. If I could animate I’d totally make a video full of epic fight scenes, but unfortunately I don’t have that talent learned yet.

This version of the song is a little more chill, so if you find the original too intense you can always listen to the slowed one instead.

On the low Only love myself, no more Take you to the grave, I'll ghost I know I can be so cold In the dark Where I like to keep my heart Know I'm all bite, no bark Like to catch you way off guard

A shiver ran down the crime boss’ spine.

His eyes darted around the room, searching through the darkness.

Shadows flickered. He swore he could see movement in them.

The night was crime’s time to rule; people feared the darkness it brought.

Now, he was the scared one.

I'll stay so deep inside your brain And take you somewhere far away

“Who’s there?”

A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead, revealing his false bravado.

Shaking hands gripped the gun around his waist, knuckles turning white with pressure.

Creeeakk.

The man whipped around, heart hammering in his chest.

Who—or what—was lurking in the shadows?

A snap echoed through the air as he fired a round.

Silence.

The only sound came from distant echoes of Gotham’s nightlife and the frantic beating in his throat.

He swore he had seen something sweep out in the corner of his vision, if only for a moment.

Perhaps it was the paranoia.

He slowly lowered his gun, shoulders relaxing—

Only to whip around when he felt a phantom hand brush his shoulder.

A pair of eyes flashed in the darkness, gone the next second, but he knew what he had seen, what he had felt.

Icy fear seized his body, taking hold of his limbs.

Something was watching him.

Time to roll the dice, you know I'm the type Type to risk my life, not afraid to die Type to make you cry, type to put a price All up on your head, do just what I said I'm a straight up villain, straight up villain Yeah, no feeling, yeah, no feeling Straight up villain, straight up villain Yeah, no feeling, yeah, no feeling

“Stop toying around.”

The gravelly voice was met with a cackle, almost cat-like in nature.

That was his only warning before it stepped from the shadows: a creature out of his nightmares, shrouded in darkness like part of the night itself.

Sharpened black claws glinted under the streetlights, and dark black orbs pinned him in place as it slunk forward. He couldn’t move, frozen like a deer in headlights.

The thing was so human-like in shape, but it was too monstrous to be one.

A wicked smile spread across its face, and his face blanched as he caught sight of the fangs protruding from the top.

The creature stalked forward like a predator chasing its prey.

Then, it pounced.

I'm alive, but I'm dead Hear my voice up in your head Watch it fill you full of drеad 'Til you go pow

It was common knowledge within Gotham’s criminal underworld that the Arkham Knight worked alone. He played by his own rules, merciless in his distribution of justice.

But lately, it was rumored that the Knight had an ally.

There was no proof of this, no sightings to go by, but there was a subtle shift that could be felt—an underlying sensation of imminent danger.

Gunfights and confrontations lessened, and the Knight’s enemies started disappearing without a trace. No blood, body, or evidence of struggle could be found; it was as if they had simply ceased to exist.

Whoever this new player was, they were dangerous.

Is it really a surprise if I'm playing with your mind And I treat you likе a prize, then I throw you to the side? And am I really that bad if l love to make you mad? And get happy when you're sad, only care about a bag

Jason shook out his hair, metal helmet in his hands, and leveled a glance at his companion.

“Did you really have to take so long to kill him?”

The two were in one of their few safe houses, recuperating after their long night of fighting.

“It’s the thrill of the chase.”

Marinette, no longer transformed, stated this as if it were obvious—which it was. Jason had been with her long enough to understand her concept of fun. She leaned forward and stretched, looking much like the animal after which her magic ring was themed.

“We can’t waste time playing around. There are more important things to be done,” he growled.

Marinette simply giggled, bounding over to bat her eyes at him with mock innocence.

Jason’s eyes narrowed. “You know what you’re doing.”

Her smile grew wicked, arms darting out to wrap around his waist.

“You look so good when you’re mad,” she purred.

Jason leaned down, and their lips met in a kiss.

In control That's how I like it and I'm never letting go, nah Never had a soul (soul) So you ain't taking nothing from me when you go, nah

Crack.

Marinette smirked as her staff made contact with the target’s skull.

Normally she would use Cataclysm for a more swift kill, but the remains were needed in order to send a message to Arkham Knight’s enemies.

They were growing more volatile, more desperate to expose whatever they thought she was.

Phantom Killer, they called her. The name sounded like something out of a badly-written horror movie. Marinette much preferred the one she had already: Reine de L'ombre.

Of course, she didn’t need a title, but Jason had come up with it. She was pleasantly surprised by his naming skills—it meant Shadow Queen, for she was a queen, and Jason her knight, as he put it.

She didn’t feel any remorse as the pile of bodies below her grew. Perhaps this made her soulless, but she didn’t need one anyway.

Marinette had all she wanted right beside her.

I'll stay so deep inside your brain And take you somewhere far away

“...you do what you gotta do, am I right?”

Marinette nodded at the man standing across from her, a smile on her red-painted lips.

He had been leering at her from across the bar the whole night, and although that was the goal, she was still disgusted. He had to be at least twenty years older than her. Heck, he was old enough to be her dad.

The intel she and Jason had acquired said the businessman had a thing for younger women, which was apparent. According to the same source, the company he ran was also a front for trafficking and drug rings.

Marinette wanted to see him bleed.

“How about we take this to my room?”

The comment was abrupt, and Jason would probably kill her for her indiscretion later, but she was getting tired of the man’s blabbering.

Her hand moved up his arm, the expensive material of his suit cool against her fingers. She bit her lips seductively, which seemed to convince him.

Bingo.

Time to roll the dice, you know I'm the type Type to risk my life, not afraid to die Type to make you cry, type to put a price All up on your head, do just what I said I'm a straight up villain, straight up villain Yeah, no feeling, yeah, no feeling (yeah, yeah) Straight up villain, straight up villain Yeah, no feeling, yeah, no feeling

Marinette gritted her teeth as the man tried to reach for her butt again.

She attempted to stop him by saying she wanted to wait until they entered her room, but he was persistent. She couldn’t wait to get rid of him.

As soon as she opened the door to her hotel room, she shoved him inside and up against the wall. He seemed to be expecting a kiss, but she punched him hard. For a crime lord he certainly wasn’t a good fighter. Maybe it was the drugs she slipped into his drink earlier that contributed to his quick defeat.

Marinette cuffed his arms behind his back with a pair she had stashed earlier. She could have waited for the man to undress so she could ensure he didn’t have any weapons, but she had gone through enough torture already. Her eyes didn’t need to see that.

She turned him around, giving him a smile that promised warmth and kindness, before pulling out a dagger and pressing it to his throat.

“Now talk.”

I'm alive, but I'm dead Hear my voice up in your head Watch it fill you full of dread 'Til you go pow

“Claws in.”

Marinette’s black suit faded away, revealing her now blood-spattered red dress.

She flopped onto the couch, not bothering to remove her shoes or dirty clothing.

After hours of trying to get information out of the businessman, she only managed to wring a few coded phrases from him. He seemed to only be a figurehead of his shady organization rather than its actual leader.

A Cataclysm later and here she was, back to the drawing board.

“Jay?” Marinette called.

It was unusually quiet in the safe house; usually after solo missions they’d greet one another with a kiss. Now, he was nowhere to be seen.

“Jason?”

Silence.

Marinette huffed. She knew exactly what this was about.

Bang, bang You can do anything No fear, no pain Listen to your brain go Go stupid, go dumb, go stupid and Then we go insane, woah Just do what I say Follow me, I'll lead the way

“Are you jealous?”

Jason whipped his head around, caught off-guard by the appearance of his girlfriend in his doorway. It seemed as if she wasn’t wasting any time.

“I’m not jealous. That guy couldn’t get you if he tried.”

“Then why are you mad?”

His jaw clenched.

He wished he hadn’t agreed to let Marinette extract the information alone; Jason almost wished he was there to see the man in pain.

“He was putting his hands all over you.”

“It was for a mission. Besides, I thought you said he couldn’t get me even if he tried?”

Her last words were said with a lilt, and Jason knew she was riling him up. He couldn’t stay mad, anyway—she had a point.

He deflated and leaned forward to brush his lips against her. Marinette smiled into the kiss, then pulled away. She looked him up and down, a glint in her eyes.

“I guess I’ll have to make it up to you, hmm?”

She paused, then wrinkled her nose.

“After I take a shower. I don’t want this guy’s blood on me any longer.”

Maybe they acted stupid sometimes, but the two always followed one another in the end.

Time to roll the dice, you know I'm the type Type to risk my life, not afraid to die Type to make you cry, type to put a price (Woo-ah) All up on your head, do just what I said I'm a straight up villain, straight up villain Yeah, no feeling, yeah, no feeling Straight up villain, straight up villain (Yeah) Yeah, no feeling, yeah, no feeling (Woo-ah!)

Marinette panted deeply, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

A mass of bodies surrounded her, but she wasn’t paying attention. This wasn’t just a battle. It was war.

It was a fight for her life, and she wasn’t going down now.

Reine de L'ombre tore through her enemies like a terrifying force of darkness, one after the other. The Arkham Knight fought by her side, fueled by pure destruction.

Maybe they wouldn’t make it out, but they wouldn’t go down without a fight.

I'm alive, but I'm dead Hear my voice up in your head Watch it fill you full of dread

'Til you go pow

A week later, a couple rose hand-in-hand from the ranks as new rulers of the Gotham Underworld.

Reine de L'ombre and the Arkham Knight—a queen and her king.

PERMANENT TAGLIST @avengerthewarrior @enternalempires @freesportspalacesalad @h1sss @nathleigh

#maribat #celestewrites #jasonette #cel's fics

126 notes · View notes

afewnovelideas · 3 years

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, DCU (Comics), Batman (Comics), Young Justice (Comics), Robin (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Kyubey (PMMM), Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle Additional Tags: Tim Drake-centric, Tim Drake is Robin, Tim Drake is Not Okay, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake Gets a Hug, Alternate Universe - Madoka Magica Fusion, Soul Gems (Madoka Magica), Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Magical Boys, Origin Story, No Beta We Die Like Mami, Don't Have to Know Madoka Magica Canon, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent Series: Part 1 of Eques Magi: Originem - Magicka Knights: Origin Summary:

"The Labyrinths of Gotham City are so tightly concentrated, no human born here can escape the influence of at least one or two Witches, if not more. Despite the aura of despair and the constant work of the Witches' various Familiars, there are still those souls who persist in clinging to hope and will do whatever they can to try and make this city a better place, even though all their efforts will ultimately fail in the end.

"It's the perfect environment to find a new Magicka Knight."

---

"Have you ever seen an albino cat?"

Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, glanced over at Batman's newest Robin curiously. She hadn't been expecting to cross paths with him, but since it was obvious the Big Bad Bat was out of town and Nightwing hadn't shown up at all in the past week, she decided to keep an eye on the new kid for at least the evening. He certainly wasn't like the previous Robin. This thirteen-year-old boy was quiet and thoughtful, which had been quite a change from the previous brash impulsive kid Batman had been mentoring a little over a year ago before they were murdered by the Joker.

She also noticed that this Robin was glancing over his shoulder at something on the rooftop on the other side of the street. "An albino, huh?" she said as she tried to follow his gaze. However, despite using her binoculars to zoom in on the far rooftop, she couldn't see any sign of any animal, feline, albino, or otherwise. "I've heard of them, but never seen one in person," Selina admitted casually as she put away her binoculars. "They are extremely rare." She smiled at Robin. "Have you seen one around town?"

Robin leaned against his bo staff thoughtfully. "I think so, but I'm not really sure."

"Not sure?"

The boy looked up at Selina earnestly. "Y'know how a cat has two pointed ears about here?" Amusingly to the professional cat burglar, Robin made a vague pair of cat-ear shapes with his hand at the top of his head. She smiled affectionately.

"Yeah. It's kind of a defining cat trait, having pointy ears."

Robin pouted slightly at the teasing tone he caught in Catwoman's voice. Then he continued. "Well... This cat I've been seeing... It looks like they have a second set of ears too."

"A second set?"

He nodded. He made a motion with his hands that seemed to make another vague shape that started at the base of where the cat's ears ought to be and downward along either side of its head. "Yeah. They kinda start out here and go all the way down there."

"Are you sure what you're looking at is an albino 'cat'? That kinda sounds more like a white rabbit to me."

"But it has pointy ears like a cat," Robin argued. "And its got a long fluffy tail, and its legs are like a cat's." The young teenager frowned slightly. "It's really weird looking."

"Well it does sound like a unique creature, whatever it is," Selina said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's some sort of cryptid or mutant? This is Gotham after all." She smiled at Robin. "Tell ya what. If you can catch a photo of the critter, I promise I'll take a good hard look and let you know if it's a cat, a rabbit, or something completely different." Then she gave him an almost stern maternal look. "But be careful. Don't get too close. If it does turn out to be something 'not normal', it could be dangerous."

"Okay."

---

It was two nights later and Tim Drake, fully decked out as Robin for another solo patrol, had just finished trussing up a pair of would-be carjackers. As soon as he placed the anon call to the Gotham PD for pickup, he glanced up to fire his grapple gun and froze.

There, on the rooftop above him, was a familiar white shape with two sets of ears and red eyes. The "cat" was peering down. He could see the animal's long fluffy tail swishing this way and that. Tim's breath caught in his throat. This was the closest he'd ever seen the animal come to him before. Rather than risk his grapple gun startling the animal and scaring it away, the young vigilante quickly indulged in some impromptu parkour up a garbage bin and a chain link fence to reach the metal fire escape attached to the side of the building.

When he pulled himself on the rooftop, Tim was disappointed to find that it appeared to be empty. Not a trace of red eyes or white fur anywhere. He walked across the roof slowly, scanning the area for any sign of the small creature as he pulled out a small portable camera from his utility belt. "Hey there," he whispered softly. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty. I'm not going to hurt you. C'mon out please. I just wanna take a picture."

When no one came out of hiding, Tim tried a different tactic. He reached into another pouch on his belt and pulled out a small package of beef jerky. He shook the bag temptingly before opening it and setting it on the ground before stepping away from it. "Got some food here if you want. All for you."

"Thank you, but no. I'm not hungry."

Tim froze. Then he glanced around himself as quickly as he could before zeroing in on the form of the albino "cat" sitting on top of a large A/C unit just a few yards away from him, its white body practically glowing against the cloudy night sky of Gotham City. This close, Tim could see this was not a normal "cat". It did appear to have two sets of ears, but the two longer rabbit-like ones had golden rings attached to them and were tipped in pink with red spots. Its tail also appeared to be unnaturally long as it swished back and forth casually.

"Did you... just... talk?"

The cat-like creature flicked its smaller pointy ears. "Of course I did!" it said in a childlike voice without moving its mouth at all. Its long white tail finally stopped swishing and settled into a question mark shape behind it. "How else am I supposed to introduce myself?"

---

Tim Drake gave up caffeine for the rest of the week. When the boy returned to the Cave from patrol and declared that he was quitting cold turkey, Alfred asked about it curiously. All the old butler got from the thirteen year old was a confusingly vague answer about talking albino cats with pink ears and clearly not enough sleep with too much stress before marching himself into the showers before he would make his eventual way back to his bedroom.

---

Unfortunately for Tim, giving up his favorite sodas, teas, and coffee did not stop the appearances of the strange cat-like hallucination that had introduced itself as "Kyubey" and seemed hell bent on following him and talking to him both day and night, in and out of uniform.

"You think I'm a figment of your imagination?"

Tim sighed as he reached over the creature sitting in his high school locker in order to grab his workbooks for math and english. "I'm not talking to you here," he whispered as he slammed the locker door in hopes of locking the hallucination behind it.

"It's probably better that you don't, at least not out loud," Kyubey agreed, after reappearing on the top of the locker to look down on Tim. "If people catch you talking to something they can't see, they might think you're losing your mind."

Somehow, Tim managed to choke down the near hysterical giggle that wanted to bubble up at that matter-of-fact remark. Kyubey had made it quite clear that night on the rooftop that no one else could see them except Tim.

"Besides, why waste your breath?" Kyubey said as they trotted along the top of the lockers, keeping pace with Tim as he walked to his next class. "We can speak telepathically just fine."

Tim paused at the end of the lockers and glanced at Kyubey. "Telepathically?" he asked experimentally without voicing the word.

"See! Easy!"

"Oh my god, I AM losing my mind," he thought with a grimace before sighing and stepping into the classroom and tried to ignore Kyubey as best he could for the rest of his school day.

---

"So why are you here?" Tim finally asked Kyubey after tossing down his pencil and finally giving up on trying to concentrate on his homework. "What is my subconscious trying to tell me?"

"I'm not your subconscious, and I'm not a hallucination. I'm a messenger of magic."

Tim raised his eyebrows at Kyubey as he echoed incredulously, "A messenger of magic?"

The cat-like creature made themself comfortable on Tim's bed. "That's right."

The teen noted with a slight measure of concern that he could see the disturbance Kyubey's form made on his pillow and blanket, proving that, at least right now, they had a solid physical state. Still, he was not about to reach out and try to touch the creature. "I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why is a 'messenger of magic' in Gotham City, and why am I the only one who can see and speak with you?"

"I'm on a mission to find people with the potential to become Magicka Knights to fight Witches and save the Universe, and you have that potential."

"Seriously? Magical knights? Actual witches?" Tim shook his head as he scoffed lightly. "This sounds like the plot of some generic magical girl anime."

Kyubey titled their head to one side. "And you and your mentor go out at night in masks to fight criminals who can control plants, have freeze guns, are living clay, and are occasionally half reptiles. How is that more believable than Magicka Knights and Witches?"

Tim snickered awkwardly. "I guess I'm in no position to throw stones in glass houses."

"You really aren't."

---

Finally! Bruce was back from his Justice League mission and he was going to go out on patrol with Tim. Batman and Robin flying through Gotham City for the first time in over two weeks.

At least that was the plan until a call came through from Oracle barely an hour into their patrol.

"A report of potential Joker gas exposure has been put out by the GCPD in Chinatown near the Dragon's Den."

Batman and Robin paused on the roof of St. Peter's Cathedral. Tim felt a weight settle in the pit of his stomach as he took in the tightness of his mentor's jawline. He knew what was coming next.

"Go home, Robin."

"But B--"

"It's the Joker. I need to handle this alone."

"You don't have to. I can stay out of the way and watch your back. Make sure no one gets the drop on you."

Batman shook his head. "Head back to the Cave, Robin."

The leather of Robin's gloves creaked a little as he clenched his hand into a fist and turned away from his mentor. "Fine."

Without even looking, Tim could tell when he was left alone on the cathedral's roof with just the gargoyles for company.

Then, he wasn't alone.

"He doesn't trust you?"

Tim looked up to see Kyubey sitting on the head of a nearby gargoyle. He sighed. "It's not like that," he said telepathically. No need to risk Oracle or Agent A overhearing him talking to Kyubey. Not like the mic would pick up the magical creature's voice anyways. Still, better safe than sorry. "The Joker is really dangerous. He killed the Robin who came before me. B just doesn't want to risk me being anywhere near him."

Suddenly, Tim heard a pinging from his comm link, a sign that Oracle was attempting to signal him. "Yes O?"

"I know B ordered you home, but do you think you could swing by Amusement Mile along the way? I got a report on a Mad Hatter sighting there."

Tim brightened visibly at the prospect. "Sure!" He reached for his grapple gun and loaded a cartridge. "Any idea what he's up to?"

"There have been earlier reports over the last few months of missing girls fitting the Hatter's preferred victim profile. Children with long blond hair under the age of twelve. But since the children are usually street kids or runaways, most attempts to investigate by the police have been half-hearted at best. Those that have tried haven't found anything but dead ends."

"Well, that's going to come to a stop tonight." Tim declared confidently.

"Be careful Robin," Oracle warned. "Focus on recon tonight. Don't engage Hatter unless absolutely necessary."

"Understood!"

---

"What's this?"

At Amusement Mile, Tim was just in time to stop a kidnapping in progress. While the sudden appearance of Robin was enough to send the Mad Hatter scurrying away into the shadows, the young vigilante reluctantly let him go in favor of caring for the victim, a child of eight or nine who appeared to be in a catatonic state.

However, nothing Tim did seemed to be able to wake her up. He was about to notify O to call an ambulance when he noticed a small red mark, like a tattoo, on the girl's neck, right above her pulse point. It was about the size of a quarter and looked like the symbol used in chess to designate the Queen piece.

"Hey O. I found a weird tattoo on the girl. Sending you a pic now." Tim quickly snapped a photo and sent it electronically to Oracle. A moment later, he got a response.

"Are you sure you sent me the right photo?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's no tattoo in the pic. All I see is a bare neck."

Tim opened the monitor of his camera and his eyes went wide. Even on the camera, the girl's neck had no tattoo. He took several more pics to be sure, but despite being able to see the crown icon with his own eyes, they defied being photographed.

"Not sure what's going on, but I can't take a pic of it," he told Oracle. "Maybe it's some sort of weird ink that comes up invisible on cameras?"

"That's not it."

Tim glanced at Kyubey, who was sitting beside the girl. The white creature sniffed at the tattoo. "That's a Witch's Kiss."

He felt his chest tighten a bit at Kyubey's words. Tim carefully masked the sudden nervousness he felt in his voice. "Can you call an ambulance to pick up the girl? I'm going to investigate the area and try to find out where Hatter ran off to."

"Will do. Be careful."

Once the comm was silenced again and after the EMTs came to pick up the rescued child, Robin backed into a secluded alleyway and hid within the shadows before addressing Kyubey telepathically.

"What's a Witch's Kiss?"

"It's a mark used by Witches and familiars to control the minds of their prey."

Tim felt a shiver run down his spine. Still he continued. "Is... the Mad Hatter a Witch?"

Kyubey tilted their head thoughtfully before shaking in the negative. "No. I think he's just a familiar being used to bring humans to a Witch's Labyrinth."

"Why? Why would a Witch want a human child?"

Kyubey sighed. "A Witch is a creature that feeds on misery and sadness," they said very matter-of-factly. "What could be more delicious to a Witch than the grief and fear of a kidnapped child? At least this one seems to prefer the despair of children in particular."

A sudden sensation of dread settled over Tim. "That's.... That's horrible! We can't let this continue!"

"But you can't stop them."

"Why not?" Tim's righteous indignation flared up. "Batman's stopped the Mad Hatter dozens of times. Why can't I?"

"Most likely it's because your mentor has never captured him near his Witch, and never within an actual Labyrinth." Kyubey stared at Tim with their round red eyes, their stoic tone never wavering. "You're just a human being, and so is he under all that armor. Even with all your training, there's no way your frail human bodies can endure the strain of fighting a Witch and their familiars in their own Labyrinth. If you get trapped in a Labyrinth, there's no way out until either the Witch is dead or you are."

Tim watched the retreating lights of the ambulance carrying the nearly kidnapped child away. Then he took a deep breath and released it slowly.

"Can you help me find the Witch's Labyrinth?"

"I can."

---

He was going to die.

Tim leaned against the wall and watched helplessly as his blood flowed freely from beneath and between his fingers to pool on the floor under him despite the pressure he tried to keep on the wound in his stomach. The Witch's familiars, not just the Mad Hatter, but a March Hare and other fictional characters pulled straight from the story Alice in Wonderland, had been too numerous and too merciless for him to fight off alone.

The Witch herself, in the guise of a twisted Queen of Hearts, shrieked for his head through the twists and turns of her Labyrinth.

͙̹̫ͪ̆̏͝ "̶͚̜̪̣̬͇ͭ͑ͅOͩͫ̄͏̬͖̳ Ḟ̖̝̟̜͖̭͑͢ F̡̜̼̰͓͍̟͎͇̆̾̐ ̨͚̫̗ͮ̚ͅ W̐ͧ̑͏͍͎͍̖̤̥ͅI͓͙̤͔̺̦͌̓̌̍͠T̖͍͒͛͢H̡̳̪̭̹̺̒̓̿ ̹̥͉̟͙̝͓̅ͫ͝H̸̝̬̘͕̩͙̤͇̾ͥ͂Į̯͔̦͖̳̣ͥ̌͆̂S͆̑ͪ͏̦̥̭̺̞̳̪͔ ͙̪̯͗̑͞Hͧ͏̤̯̪̩ E̶̯̣̰͌̆ͨͯ A̬̦̻͍͒͝ͅD̖̹͂͒͟ !ͫͯ́͆҉̺̦̩̹̺

̠͓͈͎ͧͨ͡Ō̵̪̻̭̩̯F̣͙̲̖̈́̋͝ F̌̅̾̓͏̭̺̰͉̹̖̯ ̡̮͔͇͚̬͎̝͊̆ͪͅŴ͙̠̽ I̘̬͇̖͑͂̏̂͞ T̨̗̫̜͙̩̖̮͒ H̴̙̝̀ͥͣ̚ ̘̯̮̺̥ͣ̑̄H̻̭͇̮̮͕͗͗ͬ̊͠ͅ Iͮͪ͋͏̬̺̖̝̥̭̘ͅ S̵̝̖̙̿ ̛̬̳̠̪̰̑͗̽ H̸͙̟̱̝̳̰̄͑̃̊ Ě̳͓̝̗͎͟ A̴̤͖̬̖͓͇̖͗̆ͫ́Ḋ̜͚̬̐̋͟!̨͇͚̞̩͚̗̣̿

Ơ͚̹̜̥ͮͥ͑̏F̴̯̤̮͉̰ͫF͈̱͍̌ͩͥ̍̕ͅ ̧͎͕̱͚͍̥͔̐W̩̦̯̹̏͊̏̌̕I͐҉͕̪͔̥̞̭͈̲T̖̝̖̪̑̿̓͢H̤̠͍̣̻̠͚ͧ̍̐̿͢ ̴̲̖̫̫̺ͭH̗̤̒̆͆͡Î̤͓̭̻̝Ș̵͉͔͙̗̝̌̍̍ͬͅ ͎̫͉̞̲͆͡Ḫ̨̪̅ͧ̏E̵̮̲̩̤͓̱̙ͦÁ̻̦̘̜̂ͩ͝D̸̯͖̦͔̲͕̠̜̓̓̆̚!̨͖̓̐̈́ͪ̏ͅ҉̬͉̰̫"̙̺̬̯̹̦͖͛͗͘

Her magic.. too powerful.

His… everything... too weak.

Trapped in this magical Labyrinth that resembled a scene from Wonderland, he couldn't even get a signal out to call for a rescue. He'd tried early on to call Oracle... Nightwing... Agent A... Batman... But the only thing he got for his troubles was static.

Tim felt tears flow down his cheeks as his vision became dark and hazy around the edges and his limbs began to grow numb. He could hear the sounds of his pursuers coming closer, searching for him, and he just didn't have the strength anymore to run. All he could do was hide and wait for the inevitable.

Batman was going to lose another Robin.

Dick was going to lose another little brother.

Jack Drake was going to lose his only son.

He was going to die.

"Oh dear. I was almost too late."

A set of dainty white paws walked into his sight line, contrasting starkly against the pool of crimson blood on the floor. Weakly, Tim lifted his gaze.

"Kyubey?"

The magical creature stepped closer to the fallen teenager and took a seat in front of him. They tilted their head slightly. "I tried to warn you. A normal human isn't able to fight a Witch. Only a Magicka Knight has the power to defend against a Witch's curses and attack them in kind."

"I know," Tim whispered. "I should've listened to you."

Kyubey titled their head to the other side. "It's not too late. You can still listen to me."

Despite the cold feeling in his limbs and the shadows in his vision, Tim did his level best to keep his gaze locked on Kyubey, on the one bright spot in his dying world.

"If you enter a contract with me, you can become a Magicka Knight." Kyubey explained. "You'd be duty bound to fight Witches, but in return I can grant you one wish. Anything in the world your heart desires."

"If I become a Magicka Knight, I'll have to fight this Witch right away, right?"

"I'm afraid so. It's the only way to escape her Labyrinth."

"And there's no guarantee I'll win?"

"I won't lie to you. Turning you into a Magicka Knight is not a promise of victory. But at least you'll have a fighting chance."

Tim closed his eyes and smiled sadly. "Then I want to make a wish that can outlive me, in case I die." When he opened his eyes, tears slipped down his cheeks again. "I wish Bruce Wayne's son, Jason Todd, was alive."

Kyubey's round red eyes seemed to shimmer in the darkness, and the twin gold rings that encircled their longer set of ears started to glow brightly even as Tim's vision finally faded into blackness. As his consciousness slipped away, he heard Kyubey's voice, as if it was very far away.

"As you wish."

---

"Dinner was great, Alfred. Thank you." Tim set down his fork and watched as the kind old butler retrieved his dirty dishes.

"Will you be heading out with Master Bruce this evening?"

Tim got to his feet and placed the cloth napkin that had been on his lap onto the table, though he fidgeted with it a little before finally letting it go. "'Fraid not. B wants me to stay in and 'do my homework'."

Alfred gave him a knowing compassionate look. "I see. Well, if you want to take your dessert upstairs to have while you work on your homework, I'll allow it for tonight. If you need anything else, I'll be in the Cave on comms tonight..

"Thanks Alfred," Tim said with a smile and a quick side-hug. "You're the best!"

Tim made his way upstairs with a small plate of cheesecake topped with strawberries. Once in his bedroom, he closed the door behind him with a sigh.

"Bruce isn't letting you patrol again tonight?"

The teenager glanced over and watched as Kyubey unwound itself from the fluffy white ball it normally curled into while it napped on Tim's pillow. Tim couldn't help the fond smile as his little friend stretched leisurely and indulged in a wide mouthed yawn.

"Nope. He's still got his cape in a twist over Jason's whole empty grave thing." Tim shook his head before making his way to the window seat and making himself comfortable. "I think he just wants to make sure I don't wander off either, but it's still annoying! It's been nearly a month and B still won't let me go on any solo patrols."

"Well, look at the bright side. Now you can get a full night of sleep and wake up early to go Witch hunting before school."

"I suppose."

Tim and his sullen mood weren't alone for long at the window before Kyubey leapt gracefully from the bed to his shoulder. The startled expression on Tim's face lasted only a second before it melted into one of amusement as Kyubey headbutted him affectionately against the cheek. Once they'd managed to wring a chuckle out of the boy, Kyubey hopped down to the window seat where Tim had placed the cheesecake and began sniffing at the selection. Tim watched as his friend picked up the reddest strawberry it could find and popped that into its mouth first, eating it with obvious relish. Then he looked out the window and thought back about the night he became a Magicka Knight, about the moment he set foot back in the cave after defeating his first Witch and claiming his first Grief Seed.

---

"Where have you been?!"

Batman had stormed up to him the moment Robin pulled up on his motorcycle into the Cave. Tim froze the moment he saw his mentor barrelling toward him. "You're back already?"

"The Joker gas was a false alarm," Bruce said as he pushed back his cowl and grabbed Tim by his upper arms, Tim was startled by the frantic way Bruce's eyes were darting over him. "Where were you?! Barbara sent you to investigate a Hatter sighting, then you didn't check in for hours! It's nearly sunrise. Where have you been?!"

Tim swallowed hard. "I... I got lured into a maze trap by Hatter," he admitted quietly. "The place had some weird interference so my comms were scrambled. Hatter got away and it took me forever to find my way out. I'm sorry."

"Are you hurt?"

Tim shook his head. "I'm fine B. Just... tired. It... was a really long night."

After another long moment of Bruce looking over him, the older man finally seemed to relax. He released his hold on Tim's arms and raked his fingers through his cowl-mussed hair. "Please don't go running off like that ever again, Tim. If anything had happened to you--"

"I know," Tim murmured, his eyes focused on the floor even as he wrapped his arms about himself tightly. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"Master Bruce?"

Both Bruce and TIm turned to see a shaken Alfred coming toward them with a phone in hand.

"What's wrong?"

"Commissioner Gordon is on the line."

Bruce and Tim shared a confused look. "Why is he calling at this hour?"

Alfred swallowed hard. "He needs 'Bruce Wayne' to come to the precinct as soon as possible. There's been a robbery."

"I don't under--"

"Someone broke into Gotham Cemetery tonight. They stole Master Jason's body."

As Bruce immediately went after Alfred as the old man gave him the phone, Tim stood in the Cave in shock before daring to glance at Kyubey, who had materialized at his heels.

"My wish... It really came true?"

Kyubey curled their tail around Tim's legs in a comforting gesture. "Of course it did. We made a contract."

---

"I wonder where Jason is," Tim mused aloud as he continued to stare out the window. "I thought he would've come straight home. Bruce has looked everywhere. I've looked everywhere..." He looked at Kyubey who had taken a delicate bite of the cheesecake itself. "Do you have any idea where he went after I made my wish?"

Kyubey looked up at Tim, a curious tilt to their head as they stared back at him with their round red eyes. "I was with you in the Labyrinth when the wish was made," they said matter-of-factly.

Tim shrugged. "Yeah. I know... I guess I was just hoping... Well, I hope he's alright, wherever he is."

Quietly, Tim studied the new silver ring encircling the ring finger of his right hand as well as the green alchemical symbol of Mercury that was now on his fingernail. The small emerald gem inlaid within the ring itself shimmered with magic. With a smooth motion, Tim turned his palm up and the ring morphed before his eyes into a brilliant green gem encased in an intricate cage of gold, just like a faberge egg.

His Soul Gem. The source of his power as a Magicka Knight.

For several minutes there was nothing but a comfortable silence as Tim watched the swirling glow of his Soul Gem and Kyubey ate their fill. Once the plate was empty and their paws and muzzle were thoroughly cleaned, Kyubey trotted onto Tim's lap and laid down comfortably. Unconsciously, Tim began to stroke Kyubey's soft whilte fur with his free hand.

"I just hope Jason comes home soon," Tim said as he finally put his Soul Gem away, turning it back into his ring. "That way, he and Bruce can reunite, they can be a family again, and I can step away from being Robin so I can devote myself to being a Magicka Knight instead."

"In the meantime, it's not so bad for you to be both Robin and a Magicka Knight," Kyubey mused. When Tim glanced down at them, they continued. "You have to admit that nearly every night you go out on patrol as Robin, you stumble upon one or two Labyrinths. Even if we can't get to them immediately to flush out the Witch, at least we know where they are for later!"

Tim grinned. "Yeah. I guess there is a silver lining there." Impulsively, he picked up Kyubey and gathered them into a gentle hug. "Thanks for staying with me."

Kyubey nuzzled the underside of Tim's jawline. "Of course I'm staying with you. You're my Magicka Knight. We're in this together." Kyubey flicked their short pointy ears cutely. "Besides, it's not like Bruce or anyone else can separate us. You're the only one here that can see and hear me."

"I'm glad," Tim said. "It's nice to not be alone all the time." He smiled gratefully at Kyubey. "And it makes being grounded by Bruce easier to swallow when I've got you for company."

Then he glanced back out the window at the dark outlines of Gotham City's skyline when the appearance of the Bat-signal lit up the night sky above it. "Still--" he mused. "I really hope Jason shows up soon. I can't wait to meet him."

#au: kcmk #kyubey cursed magicka knights AU #fanfiction #crossover/fusion #pmmm au #dcu au #tim drake #kyubey #batfamily #batfam #batfam fanfic

20 notes · View notes

regicidal-defenestration · 4 years

Note

Please tell me more about the mechsworld (discanisms?) Fic ideas

GLADLY

Under a readmore because it got ~long~ fdhfd

So this is split into three parts because unfortunately that’s the kind of person I am dfjghgj

Mechs + Death

According to Ao3’s word count, I have exactly 7306 thoughts on what would happen if the Mechanisms met Death (you know. The skeleton)

Because the thing is, Death (capital D) understands death (lower case d) perfectly well. He understands the process of life ending, he understands you go one way and only one way. After all, he’s got plenty of experience.

But! All of a sudden you’ve got this crew of eight people who definitely don’t stay dead like they should, plus the Toy Soldier, who’s a different deal entirely jdfghj

Now this doesn’t lead on to my next point really, but I’m moving on anway!

Death is a creature of belief, and so doesn’t obey the laws of physics as regular people. My favourite example of this is the Poker, which goes right through him, but does hit Teatime. Who else do we know that is powered by Belief (well. Narrative reasons (well. nanobots (well. Whatever fits best at the time)))

The Mechs!

All of them (Mechs and skeleton both) are powered by the story, and that is an incredibly interesting alley to explore

Also it’s fun to write situations where Death is inconvenienced .

Must there be “plot”? Is it not enough to imagine the Luggage, running full pelt towards you, the Toy Soldier riding on it’s back?

As the title kinda suggests, I have a bunch of ideas that aren’t full plots (and will likely never be because sometimes ideas just stay Ideas) but are fun to imagine

Ashes O’Reilly and Moist von Lipwig. If ever they started working together, basically you’d be fucked sdfgjhjk

They’d be terrifying at swindling, quite frankly, and if you compare their ability at maths and the like to that of the average Anhk-Morporkian well- it’s hardly a challenge at all

Of course, Ashes may well just take over the Post Office like they did the Acheron and all power to them!

Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson and Jonny d’Ville!

Jonny is the absolute opposite of Carrot in every conceivable way. Carrot wouldn’t hesitate to put him in jail as soon as he physically could and if Jonny thought it’d be funny to cause more problems inside rather than outside of jail he’d let himself be captured. They would not get along

Except

Except if they dealt with children

Carrot “organised the most deadly gangs of kids on the streets and got the to play football without fatalities” Ironfoundersson and Jonny “read to kids in a hospital (and only shot the annpying ones!)” d’Ville would find a grugding sort of respect there

Carrot would be explaining the rules of some game, and the kids would listen because it’s Carrot and you can’t not (and also stood behind him is Jonny and more accurately Jonny’s gun)

Speaking Susan Sto Helit into existence because I love her

Idk she meets the Toy Soldier in Biers

TBI (Discworld Flavour)

So this is much more involved than everything mentioned previously, where I just took characters and moved them around as needed. This is something I very much want to write, and am in the process of planning and, more specifically, finding explanations for a few Fairly Large Plot Points that at the moment I’m kinda hand waving away dfhghjk

TBI (Discworld Flavour) is basically me thinking “hey. What if I rewrote TBI but set it on the Disc, and went from there”

Inspector Second Class Lyfrassir Edda doesn’t exist as a single character (apologies to the Lyf fans who’ve read this far fdghjk). Instead, I think it’d work to split their role across a range of characters, namely Vetinari (and a newspaper) for the narration parts, and the City Watch (specifically Sam Vimes, Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs) for dealing with Raphaella, Marius and Ivy in prison (those three remain unchanged, because the other three, Vimes especially, would have one hell of a time trying to deal with them)

Odin is a wizard (because, with all respect to Sir Terry Practchett, this is My Town now and wizardry and witchcraft aren’t gender specific (which he did get at, in Equal Rites, but over 41 books there wasn’t much deviation from Male Wizard Female Witch (also non-binary people exist!)). Also Many more people aren’t straight). She’s head of a project to run a train from Anhk-Morpork to the Hub in three hours rather than three days. Naturally, this involves lots of magic, and this magic attracts the attention of Things from the Dungeon Dimensions (which, like Yog-Sothoth are heavily inspired by the whole eldritch Lovecraft stuff, so that all fits nicely) Another thing that fits nicely is the fact that they can “infect” wizards (hence Odin), and also they really Cannot survive long in this world, whch gives a nice way to end this thing

No Asgard, so instead the passengers on the train are the staff of the Unseen University (yes, even the Librarian) Of course, they won’t die in this one, but the Bursar has a gloopy Thing land on his face after the Lecturer in Recent Runes booted it across the traincar so not much difference (/j) dfhfd

Loki, Thor, Sigyn and possibly Kvasir (though they also may not exist as a character, and instead be a name for the engine) are all UU students (hence why the passengers don’t care for them) They are the ones that Do Things, and likely study in the High Energy Magic building, so are actually qualified to deal with this sort of shit

Then: shit happens! Odin dies, Loki Thor Sigyn die and meet Death and have some sort of ConversationTM about the power of stories. It’s all very touching

Obviously, the Disc doesn’t get destroyed - the Things get driven back. Ivy, Marius and Raphaells do still escape, of course, and, in the immortal words of everyone’s favourite human(?) Nobby, Mr Vimes goes spare

#god this. this is so long dfgjhjsk #the mechanisms #discworld #Anonymous

40 notes · View notes

sacchariinity · 3 years

Text

Hello again, Halloween Town! Let’s see what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into this time!

Oh man, oh man! This trip was always one of the greatest during the year! Summer break was cool, swimming was fun, but people always yelled at her when she splashed them or shot them with water guns. Winter was nice, but apparently not everyone enjoyed being pelted with snowballs packed with ice for some reason? Spring was... well, it was her favorite, pink cherry blossoms and all of that... but nothing happened during spring! It was the middle road of seasons! Easter was a thing, but that was just budgeted Halloween!

Halloween, though? Especially Halloween Town? She could do anything she wanted and it fit in with the theme of chaotic nightmares! Smash pumpkins, shoot people with a magical pistol, swing a knife around!? Sure! Who was gonna stop her, huh? She got to be a magical girl last year for crying out loud! She... sorta wished the regular candies of trick-or-treat were more prevalent in the town, not all the weird monster food they served, but Camille could circumvent that by packing a whole month’s worth of candy in her pocket space!

Oh, this was going to be the best spook-filled month ever! Transporting over, mind rushed with the possibilities of what she’d turn into this time. It was a staple of Halloween Town, y’know. Your inner demons being brought out and shaping you into the form best suited for this frightening environment? Boy, she hoped it was a magical girl again, that was so cool. Being a ghost would be neat, too, she supposed. Maybe an imp with bat wings and pitchfork? As long as she got to be a cute imp. Or...

Or... n... nothing? It’s an excited stare downward at her clothes to see the pretty pink dress and magical staff she was expecting. Only to get... her regular skirt and cute pink sneakers. Well, that’s... disappointing. Did the transporter miss a spot this time around? Should she go to the big bat man and file a complaint?

...Mmph, despite how much she loved complaining, she was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked. What... Oh! Oh, something like this happened last year, now that she recalls! Her change wasn’t as obvious until she checked her items! Yeah, her clothes were altered, but the biggest modifications came to her equipment! Her witch pistol, her scythe-esque axe, her trusty crooked stick. Mhm, that’s what’s happening, head nodding to herself. Well then, hands enter pockets, feeling around for just what surprise she was in for...

This... time... Where were her items? Hands wiggle through pockets, thinking of her axe, her slingshot, her shovel, stick, turnips, watering can, literally anything.

Only to turn up flat. Okay... okay, alright. Now it was freak-out time.

WHERE WERE HER ITEMS?! There was a shrill shriek that carried on for miles, fitting rather nicely with the spooky atmosphere, in retrospect. BUT THE ONE SCREAMING WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE HER! Hands fling from pockets and begin to pat herself down. Back pockets? Chest pocket on a shirt that didn’t have chest pockets? Anything?! Wh... what?! What’s going on!? Her candies! Her Keroppi plush she tied a witch hat onto just for this occasion! It’s all gone! Did some brave soul fishing to die again steal from her? But she can’t be pickpocketed! That’s literally impossible!

Panic was beginning to set itself inside the chest, because of course it was! She didn’t expect to start any true fights here, but she was completely defenseless out here if she didn’t have her equipment! Sure, she could throw a mean left hook, but that wasn’t going to stop some humongous mummy or whatever they have in this stupid town!

Hands gestured as violently as the torrent whipping inside her body. She needed her axe! Her staff! Her

Her hand slashed through the air, pink shimmering lights cutting through the air as she did. And from the gesture, the spawned energy would congeal and coagulate, collect into an amalgamated mass and form... A Keroppi plush with a witch’s hat tied to its head. The display put frothing rage and confused fear on pause, body stepping closer to the amassed item, quietly poking it with her shoe to make sure it wasn’t, like, possessed or something, and then... picking it up, clutching it tightly to her chest for a hug. That... that was nice.

Though, she pulled back, face still plenty confused. Um... alright?? It was a start, she supposed, but that pumpkin guy was about to take a bunch of people to that hotel castle place again and... she needed somewhere safeish to sit down and figure out what in the world was going on.

#(IC.) ''So sweet and disarming~!''#(EVENT.) ''Halloween Town? Terrifyingly Mischievous!''#event: spooky smashing fun #((we're a wizard; harry))#((magical girl but with a capital 'm' in Magical))#((items are so last year; let's just Conjure what we want))

4 notes · View notes

aethersea · 4 years

Note

fake married + poorly timed confession + the leverage ot3? or any component ship, i'm not picky xD

as it happens, I was already planning on writing a fake married fic for the ot3! so this is more fic than fic description, though I couldn’t really convince myself that any of these three would full-on confess in the middle of a con which is, of course, the most poorly timed you can get. but here you go and please enjoy, mind the cut!

for this ask meme, which is still open

Parker and Eliot crash a senator’s garden party, posing as a married couple so they can be each other’s cover while each one sneaks off in turn. When Eliot needs to take a quiet moment to get rid of the guards on the roof, he excuses himself from the conversation in the parlor with a grin and a, “Better go make sure the little lady’s not having too much fun without me!” This wins a round of chuckles, and Eliot rolls his eyes as he turns away.

Parker, a few seconds later and out in the garden, just blurts out, “I’m going to look for my husband,” and clomps off.Sophie, keeping the senator busy at the buffet table, turns her eyes to the heavens in supplication.

Eliot meets Nate on the roof once the guards are dealt with, and leads him down to the senator’s bedroom so he can lie in wait and be all spooky when Sophie sends the senator up to look for his watch. Parker, meanwhile, is raiding the senator’s office safe for something Nate can blackmail him with. It’s a tightly timed con, but Eliot has a good four minutes to get himself back to the garden before the house guards notice that something’s gone wrong on the roof.

Or so he thought—they must have better failsafes in place than they’d realized, because Parker almost gets caught on her way back from cracking the senator’s office safe. Eliot, who’s half a corridor away and only just done getting his shirt and hair back in order, huffs in exasperation and rushes to intercept the guards about to reach her.

He rushes fast enough that he reaches her first, and instead of letting him barrel past her, Parker grabs him and swings him up against the nearest wall.

When the guards turn the corner, they find the two of them passionately making out. Parker pulls away from Eliot and says, with a drunken giggle, “You boys here to join the fun? Careful, my man here’s mighty possessive.” She lays her head on Eliot’s shoulder, and he takes the hint and glares the guards away.

- - - - - - -

Eliot does not talk to Hardison about this. The absence of that talk is a palpable weight in the van as they drive away from the senator’s house. Nate and Sophie can feel it too, he knows, from Nate’s wince and Sophie’s brief but sympathetic smile. It’s not like Hardison and Parker are—It’s not that they don’t—Well they are, actually, but—

Eliot takes a deep breath and lets it out through his nose. Hardison and Parker are dating, and even before that Parker had really only ever kissed Hardison on cons, but Hardison isn’t possessive, no matter the spike of horror that flashed through Eliot at Parker’s words to the guards. He has to know that Eliot would never try anything with Parker, would never hurt either of them like that. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine.

Still, he’s deeply relieved when Nate says that their next angle of attack is going to involve Hardison and Parker handling the real estate agency, just the two of them, while Eliot provides backup for Sophie almost all the way across town.

- - - - - - -

That relief means that Eliot is not even remotely braced for it when, at the last minute, the plan changes.

It turns out that the mobster’s cousin runs the real estate agency. This explains why the agency’s involved in the first place, but not how, so they still need to get Hardison in there to do his magic on their servers. “Alright,” Nate says, “Eliot, you’re switching with Parker. The mob might be hiding the drugs at the agency, so keep an eye out for guards.”

Hardison groans. “Come on, Nate, I already booked the appointment for Mr. and Mrs. Dallanby! Newlyweds, they just got back from their honeymoon in Kenya, I—I set up the facebook pictures, man—”

“We’ll just have to hope they didn’t do a background check,” Nate says, and Hardison grumbles but Eliot hears keys clicking on the line as he switches the personas around. “If they did, you’ll just pull a Bogota Chop Shop on them.”

So Eliot has to gun it across town to meet Hardison in front of the realtors’. (Parker, making the same trip in reverse, reaches Sophie a full five minutes earlier, because she is a maniac who should never be allowed behind a wheel.)

Eliot and Hardison still have not talked. Eliot tries not to think about that as he pulls into the agency parking lot and Hardison hops out of Lucille to join him. Somehow he is still trying not to think about it when Hardison takes his hand, pulls him through the front door, and introduces them as “Mr. and Mr. Dallanby, oh were you expecting a Mrs. Dallanby? Of course you were, of course, why do I even—I guess we should go somewhere else, hmm, what do you think about that? Come on honey, we’re leaving! I’m so sick of—”

Eliot finally pushes past the weird anxiety that won’t let go of his brain and manages to say something empty and reassuring, and then the receptionist is nervously insisting it was just a typo in the system and offering them coffee while they wait, and Hardison grumpily allows himself to be pulled away toward the waiting room couch.

He doesn’t drop the act there, though. He leans against Eliot and—and snuggles up against him, and somehow Eliot’s arm is around Hardison’s shoulder, and something inside him panics and tries to pull away but Hardison grabs his hand and yanks it down and hisses, “Look the goddamn part!” and there’s nothing Eliot can do but sit there and take it.

They still haven’t talked. Eliot can feel the tension in Hardison’s shoulders. He swallows hard and tries not to think about it.

- - - - - - -

No one at the restaurant opening should recognize him, but Eliot keeps out of the serving area anyway. It’s not hard—whenever the owner comes out and says someone wants to meet the chef, he just snarls that he’s too busy and ignores the woman until she goes away. It’s a lie—he’s only had three days with this kitchen team but he must grudgingly admit that they’re on top of things. Eliot keeps an eye on it all anyway, making sure the prawns don’t overcook and the beef doesn’t boil, with only half an ear for the drama happening in the serving area.

Hardison and Parker are building up to a fight. Eliot does his best to tune out Parker’s insults, Hardison’s anger, and Sophie’s careful coaching on when to escalate and when to wait. He’s not on until later, when the senator shows up; for now his biggest concern is fixing the garnish on these flounder fillets. Something’s still not quite right––maybe some shallots…

The argument in his ear crescendoes and crests. Hardison storms off in a rage. Parker fakes a few weirdly convincing sobs. For such a wooden grifter, she’s surprisingly good at pretending to cry. It’s barely a minute before the divorce attorney sitting behind Parker turns around to offer his services. Eliot can practically hear Sophie’s smug smile.

Hardison goes back to Lucille, or so Eliot thought. When he admits to himself that he’s micromanaging the kitchen more than he needs to be and retreats to the pantry, ostensibly to fetch some carrots but really to cool down, he finds Hardison leaning against the door, fiddling with his phone and munching on an apple.

Eliot almost snatches it out of his hand. “Don’t take those,” he snarls. “They’re for the chicken waldorf, not for you.”

Hardison shrugs, that slow grin of his spreading across his face. “I’m a thief. What do you expect?”

Eliot rolls his eyes and shoves past him to get the carrots. When he turns around, Hardison is framed in the doorway, blocking his way out. Before Eliot can snap at him, he says, “Hey man, are you okay?”

Eliot raises his eyebrows, unimpressed. This is a long con, but not a difficult one. And he got to punch out three of the senator’s security staff just a few days ago. He’s fine.

“You’ve been kinda off these past few days. And you disappear the moment we break for the day.” Hardison doesn’t shrug or quirk a smile to take the edge off his words, like most people would. He looks steadily at Eliot, eyes gentle, and keeps his voice soft and calm. “You know we’re here for you, right? If you’re having trouble with something, or if you just want to talk, we’re here. You’re not alone anymore.

“Our mikes are off,” he adds belatedly, gesturing with his phone. “Just us here.”

It’s a special kind of courage, being entirely sincere with someone, opening yourself to the possibility of whatever they might throw at you. Hardison screams when Parker drops him off of even two-storey buildings and panics at the first threat of violence, but in his own way he’s braver than the rest of them put together. It’s admirable. It’s terrifying. Eliot glares, feeling his fingers clench around the carrot leaves, and knows that there is nothing he can do to intimidate Hardison even a little bit.

It’s not out of fear, then, that Hardison lowers his gaze and steps aside so he’s no longer blocking the only exit. It’s a concession, freely given.

Eliot has a brief, violent internal argument.

He can still hear Parker keeping the lawyer busy and Sophie advising her on how much to flirt, but after all these years of practice it’s easy enough to tune it all out and just listen for his name. He takes a deep breath, and then another.

“You and Parker are good together,” he says. Hardison’s eyes flick up, surprised but almost managing to hide it. “And I’m—I’m so happy for you both.” He doesn’t notice the way he ducks his chin a fraction until after he’s done it, bracing for a punch he knows won’t come. “And you know that I don’t—that I would never—Look, she’s your girlfriend, I’m not ever going to…to even try to…”

This whole being brave thing isn’t working out too well. Hardison is watching him with patient incomprehension. Eliot squares his shoulders and opens his mouth to do this right, but before he can, someone in the hallway cries out, “Girlfriend?!”

Hardison jumps. Eliot lunges forward to grab him and shove him into the pantry, so Eliot is between him and whoever this is, but it’s too late, there’s a hand reaching out and shoving Hardison’s chest, pushing him away from the door—

The hand is followed by an angry waitress—Jenna? Jamie?—who is utterly and bafflingly furious. “You asshole!” she yells over Hardison’s confused spluttering, “I hope she does divorce you!”

Eliot puts out an arm to block Jemima’s rampage, and she turns her look of absolute disgust on him. “Chef, were you aware this jackass is married?”

“Eliot!” Nate says in his ear, at the literal worst possible moment. “You’ve got incoming!”

“Married!” Joanna screeches in Hardison’s face. She’s not quite straining against Eliot’s arm, but she’s conveying through body language and intonation that she’s about three seconds away from violence. “And you have a girlfriend!”

Hardison’s face is absolutely priceless. At a better moment, Eliot would stop to appreciate it, but right now there are three mobsters rounding the corner just a couple feet behind Hardison, and they recognize Eliot from the real estate agency. “Mr. Dallanby?” one of them says, sincerely confused.

Hardison jumps again and glances over his shoulder. “Mr. Dallanby?” another mobster says.

The third one gasps. “You have a girlfriend?”

“He does!” Jen crows. “He’s a goddamn cheater!”

“Oh that’s messed up,” the first mobster says. The other two mutter their agreement. They step forward until they’re looming menacingly behind Hardison. The second mobster turns to Eliot and says kindly, “Are you okay, Mr. Dallanby?”

Hardison is stiff as a board, his eyes wide in a silent plea for Eliot to do something. Eliot, absolutely nonplussed, opens his mouth and closes it several times before he manages, “I’m fine, thanks. It’s—we’re working it out.”

There’s an unintelligible commotion in his ear and Jackie is starting to realize that something’s up. Eliot wonders desperately if this is a nightmare. The first mobster, who seems to be in charge, steps forward and offers, “If you need a hand, son, or if you need a moment to process this—”

“That’s okay,” Eliot says hurriedly. He’s trying to parse the jumble in his ear, and it’s not working but he’s pretty sure the main concern is that he and Hardison have gone off comms and not gone back on again. “I’m—we’re good.” He steps forward and grabs Hardison’s hand, pulling him away from the mobsters.

This, unfortunately, puts him right next to Janice, who declares in strident tones, “Oh no you are not! You have a wife back there, asshole, you can’t just cheat on her and expect—“

At that precise moment, the senator walks around the corner behind the mobsters. “I thought we were supposed to meet in the—Ted Dalton? What are you doing here?” Because of course, they had to be conning the one senator in all of Congress who actually learns the names and faces of every guest at his garden parties, well enough to recognize Eliot three entire days later and dressed as a chef.

The mobsters frown. “Wife?”

Parker, skidding around the corner behind Eliot with an audible squeak of tennis shoes on linoleum, says quietly, “Oh shit.”

#finx writes #leverage #leverage fic #leverage ot3 #I'm planning on cleaning this up and putting it on ao3 #but if I am lazy I may just put it up as is #I do rather like how it came out

160 notes · View notes

duhragonball · 3 years

Text

Hellsing Liveblog Ch. 2-3

Chapter 2 is a flashback to the origin of Sir Integra Hellsing. As established in Chapter 1, the Hellsing Organization is a secret anti-Halloween-monster task force. From what I’ve been able to tell, they have a small army of guys and they all live and train in a big mansion, and the Hellsing family runs the whole show. It’s sort of like the X-Men except they actually do cool shit and you only have to keep track of four or five characters.

It’s implied throughout this manga that the Hellsing Family is descended from Abraham Van Helsing, the vampire hunter seen in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. Shoot, I just remembered I wanted to read the novel so I’d know what this manga was referencing, but it’s too late, I’ll just have to do that later. I’ve been meaning to read the Great Gatsby for several years, too, and I just never get around to it.

On the other hand, Integra claimed that her family had been at this since “ancient times”, suggesting that they predate the events of the Dracula novel. If Abraham Van Helsing was part of their line, then he may have only been carrying on a tradition instead of founding a new one. I think the conceit of Hellsing is that it regards the Dracula novel as part of its canon. That is, in this fictional world, the events in the novel really happened, more or less. I don’t know if that means the novel exists in this world or not.

Whatever the case, it was Arthur Hellsing running the organization up until 1989, when he suddenly took ill. On his deathbed, he named his daughter as his successor, and asked his brother Richard to help her run things, since Integra was like, twelve, at the time.

Instead, Richard waited three days and staged a coup, forcing Li’l Integra to hide in the ventilation ducts. He has to act quickly, and kill her before the whole staff finds out what he’s up to, but if he can kill her, he’ll assume control and be set for life. I’m not really sure what Richard wants out of this. Maybe he just really wants to run the family business, or maybe he wants to shut the whole thing down and just be a wealthy nobleman without all the monsters. Anyway, the search for Integra leads to the “underground sector”, which hasn’t been used in over twenty years, so I guess 1969 is about when it was shut down? It houses a dark arts lab, a library, speciment room, torture chamber, dissecting room, and a dungeon. That last one tips Richard off, because before he died, Arthur told her that she could find something that would protect her.

But all she finds inside is a corpse, and then Richard and his goons show up shortly after. He plans to kill her slowly to punish her for wasting his time, but when he shoots he in the arm, some of the blood splashes on the corpse, and then it comes to life.

Just like Frosty the Snowman, only horrifying. Richard tries to kill it, which seems pretty stupid, considering how they thought it was dead a minute ago. That goes about as well as you’d expect, and after slaughtering the goons and taking Richard’s arm, the corpse kneels before Integra and addresses her as “Master.”

Richard apparently knew nothing of this, but the corpse seems to recognize him, at least as far as a Hellsing who’s not fit to head the family. As Integra shoots Richard dead, the corpse introduces himself as Alucard, the name her family has always called him.

One thing I find interesting here is that I could have sworn the Hellsing Ultimate anime established that Richard had poisoned Arthur, presumably thinking he would have a clear shot at the inheritance. But it’s never mentioned here. Maybe this was something they added in, because honestly, it just makes too much sense. The implication of this flashback is that there are certain secrets in the Hellsing Family that only got passed down from parent to child. Arthur and Richard’s father must have known about Alucard, and Arthur was likely the one who sealed him up in the basement in the first place, but neither of them said a word about him to Richard. Maybe if they had, Richard might have thought twice before trying to take over. Like the Cheddar Priest, he thought he had it all figured out, but he didn’t know what he didn’t know.

Back in the present day, Alucard is on the shooting range with Seras, teaching her how to shoot. Seras already knows how to fire a gun, but Al wants her to hit targets at greater distances, using The Force a vampiric “third eye.” He demonstrates by shooting a target one kilometer away, and hitting it perfectly. For some reason, Integra is reading the paper nearby, and reminiscing about the her first meeting with Alucard ten years ago. For some reason, she takes umbrage with the idea that she’s not still a “little girl” like she was back then. Seras even ribs her a bit, which ticks Integra off. Of course, Seras wouldn’t think Integra’s a “little girl”. Integra’s a few years older than she is.

The main point of all of this is that it establishes why Alucard works for Integra, and what they did with Seras after Alucard turned her into a vampire. One way or another, Seras is just drafted to fight the Vampire Wars, or whatever they call it. I find this kind of unsatisfying, because the anime didn’t expand on it either. Seras just wakes up in the mansion, and Integra tosses her a uniform and says “Get dressed, kid, your shift starts in twenty minutes.”

I think Seras wants to work for the Hellsing Organization, partly because she has nowhere else to go, and partly because she admires Alucard and wants to join his cause. But it’s never established that Seras has a choice in the matter. It’s implied that Alucard is magically bound to the Hellsing family. Integra called him “the research” that her “father and the others were doing.” Like, you can’t just have a vampire work for you, you have to do stuff to him to make him obey. I don’t think they’re mind-controlling Al per se. He seems fully aware of what his role is, and he’s totally comfortable in it. But he’s not just doing this voluntarily, either. Integra has some sort of power over him, and my assumption is that Seras inherited that same quality when Alucard turned her. So now she’s bound to Integra’s orders in the same way.

But there’s a lot of unanswered questions in this. I would think Alucard would be expressly forbidden from making his own ghouls or vampire broods. Yet he drank Seras’ blood without any problems. Maybe he’s allowed to do it if he has permission? That might be it. But then he brings her back to Integra, and I assume she has to make the decision to either keep Seras or destroy her. I mean, Seras is handy to have on the team, sure, but if this was a good idea, why didn’t they have Alucard do this before? I guess the situation just never came up.

I think a lot about what might have happened if the Cheddar Priest had turned her into a vampire. Would she have become loyal to him? He said she would have free will, but she’s pretty deferential to Alucard, so what’s that about? And if she had become a vampire and turned against the Priest, would Al have allowed her to live? He was on a mission to destroy vampires, so I would think he would have shot first and asked questions later. Well, let’s move on.

Chapter 3 jumps ahead to August 12, so Seras has been with the team for a little over a month now. A bunch of murders have taken place in Birmingham (England, not Alabama), and this time no one waits around to call in Hellsing, though they are still surprised to find out she’s a woman.

This time, the culprit is on the move, and Integra deduces that they’re choosing specific households full of “devout Christians” and spacious walls to write “blasphemous anti-Christian messages.” Since they’re moving along Route 17, Integra has a rough idea of where they’ll strike next.

I don’t know what the point of the “blasphemous messages” or seemingly ritual killings is supposed to be, since the killers are just this young vampire couple who only seem to be interested in this for immortality and power. Their goal seems to be to kill thirteen families, and “they’ll” see to it that they get stronger. I don’t know if this means some other party has put them up to this, or maybe they mean “they” as in all the families they’re killing. It’s like this is an initiation ritual or something, except we’ve already seen Seras become a vampire, and she didn’t have to do anything like this to seal the deal.

Then again, maybe the point of this chapter is to demonstrate that vampires take a while to get all their powers. When Alucard confronts them, he scolds them, not for their string of murders, but for their lack of conviction, and their inability to transform or fight without guns. So maybe this couple was trying to jumpstart the process by feeding on several dozen people in a short span of time. But Al seems to think that isn’t how it works. I don’t fully understand his moral code, but he doesn’t seem to object to vampires on principle. Being a vampire is fine with him, so long as you have a purpose to it. If you’re only in it for immortality and power, with no other reason, then he doesn’t respect you. Seras wanted to live, but not necessarily forever, and I think she wanted power, but only enough to fight against evil. That’s what sets her apart in Alucard’s eyes.

So he kills the boy, but the girl escapes out the window, but Alucard already had that move scouted.

I’m not sure who’s saying “No!” here. Maybe the girl vampire running down the road. Anyway, Alucard put Seras on the roof of the house before he went inside, just in case anyone tried to make a break for it. So all she has to do is shoot down the runner before she’s out of range. Except she’s 600 meters away, it’s night time, and Seras doesn’t have a scope for her gun. But Al reminds her to use her “third eye” and it works.

After it’s over, Seras realizes that she didn’t even feel the recoil of the gun, and she can see in the dark with no trouble at all. She wonders what’s happening to her, but that seems like a dumb question to ask one month after turning into a vampire. I’m guessing the first few weeks of it didn’t feel all that different to her, and she probably knew she’d get stronger and better at shooting guns, but now that it’s actually happening it feels a lot stranger than she expected it to be. In the anime, Seras also points out that she can hear Alucard talking to her in her mind, which is also weird, but I guess she’s got plenty of other weird stuff to process now.

Back at the base, Integra considers the recent increase in vampire attacks. They’re all jobbers, like this couple Al and Seras killed, and none of them have any particular agenda, except to kill people. She begins to wonder if someone’s making all these vampires just to cause trouble. Hmmm...

So, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here, but this foreshadows Milennium quite nicely, but are we saying Milennium made vampires out of that boy and girl? Were they behind the Cheddar Priest as well? Also, “two” doesn’t seem like a huge increase in vampire incidents, so I guess there have been some other vampires running around between Chapters 1 and 3. Oh well.

#hellsing #2021hellsingliveblog #alucard #seras victoria #sir integra hellsing #peter farguson... is not invited #haha you're not in the hellsing manga farguson you suck

16 notes · View notes

black-streak · 4 years

Text

Waiting for the Worms- In the Flesh.

Part 16

No editing, we die like men: ill prepared and confused. Did I read this over even once before posting? Nope.

Warnings back fully into effect. Have triggers? Just go ahead and avoid this. Don't want to spoil anything, so I wont say which, but guys, you've seen my other chapters for this. You know better.

This was actually fun to write with my weird view point that's both in the moment and yet so disconnected.

CLOSED list of hooligans: @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Following Damian back into the living room, she saw the group all gathered around their phones, whispering amongst themselves. Approaching soundlessly, she peeked over Juleka's shoulder, catching sight of the screen at the same time Jason did.

The Joker. He had escaped Arkham once more and now held a broadcast, obviously attempting to get the attention of the Batman. Apparently he set up a new game for them to play. To make matters worse, the prize for winning? The return of Robin. A young looking boy in a different form of the Robin suit was shown for only a moment, glaring at the camera in his face. The timer was set and the broadcast cut.

That location, it was far closer to their own location than the Wayne manor. Bruce wouldn't make it. It was her and Jason all over again.

Jason.

Turning on her heel, she took a deep breath and swallowed hard to settle the anger rising in her throat and took command.

"Damian, see to Jason, keep him calm. The pit is about to take hold," she spoke calmly, Damian nodded and lead the taller man away as she turned towards the group watching her every move, "I'm setting out. Jason is likely to come with me. You'll watch over Damian in my absence. I do not expect any of the kwamis to wish to transform with me, but if you decide to, you'll need to be morally ambiguous unlike Tikki or Plagg. Neither of us will be held back or redirected. You'll have to accept whatever comes of this," looking away from the kwamis and to the bristling teens in front of her, she hardened her gaze, "Unless one of you has experience with the Lazarus Pits and their effects, you will stay away from either of us or that building. Judging by the gasps I hear from the kwamis, they will enforce this for me if you decide not to heed my words."

Stalking into her room once more, she started to drag out bags, open compartments in drawers, pull off seemingly decorative pieces from the walls. Longg approached her carefully from the side.

"I will transform with you. The others would feel more comfortable if one of you were superpowered and I'm morally gray unlike the main set."

Nodding, she took his piece carefully, "I need you to make my suit stealthy. I will not be caught due to bright colors."

"The suit will match your will," he reassured.

Transforming, she took in the multiple shades of grey and black lining her body in waves, selective holding pouches hidden within the fabric. Placing her knives about her body, she found a retractable bladed staff along her thigh. Perfect, one less large piece to carry.

Grabbing a mask, she slipped out to find Jason mostly calm. Taking his hand in hers, she led him to the bathroom and handed him his own clothes back from the league missions.

"He won't be transforming?" Marc inquired.

"His body is more riddled with madness. It's less than it would be had his soul been dipped as mine has, but I've had time to tame and curb the insanity. He hasn't. Add superpowers to the mix?"

"He'll level a city," Plagg spoke up.

"Exactly."

"And you're taking him with you?" Kagami growled out, obviously against the idea.

"Would you rather I leave him here so he can accidently kill one of you and hate himself for the rest of his life? Besides, he has no attachment towards Damian yet. I'm not risking it," her tone brokered no arguments and Jason emerged in that moment. He immediately went into her room and pulled out a gun from her side drawer, muscle memory letting him navigate the place as his own. He put it in the holster on his thigh and went towards her equipment, still out and waiting for him, sifting through until he found a larger set of machetes, grabbing them and a second mask before rejoining her at the window to the fire escape. With just a glance towards the other they knew their minds were in sync.

"Damian, stay and watch them," Jason ordered, the kid nodding at his given mission, turning towards the team with crossed arms.

With that, they climbed out and took off across the rooftops.

…

The run went by in a blur of motion neither could remember. Now they crouched on the edge of the building the Joker was supposedly in, scoping out the entrances. She could feel Jason practically vibrating at her side and traced spirals along his spine to keep him mentally in place.

"Shhh, focus on my instructions Jason. Those voices aren't as important as our own," she murmured, finding an unguarded door. The idiot never used obvious doors, so of course the clown wasn't focused on them as much as the windows, basement and roof access. The door she found looked like an old employee entrance, easily overlooked.

"Jay?" Before she could finish the inquiry, he moved forward and picked the lock, letting them in, keeping in front of her.

"Based on the lighting in that video, I'd guess they're keeping him further up. What do you think?"

"Likely midway up, seventh or eighth level."

They skirted their way up staircases, quietly knocking out anyone they found on their way up. Occasionally they stopped to practice deep breaths, as the further up they went, the more vivid the green in their eyes glowed. Both could sense the impending catalyst and tried to press the insanity back. They wanted this to be on their own terms.

At about the sixth level, Jason found himself having to hold Mari back, having almost torn out a guys throat for simply struggling too much in the takedown.

"Not worth it. Not yet."

Breathing heavily, the voices dropped back to reasonable levels, allowing their continued movement. Mari found herself meditating as they went, recentering herself. One of them had to stay fully self aware and she knew it had to be her. Jason needed someone to watch out for him in his first true rush, not to panic in the middle when no one could hold them back. She would be there the way Talia had been for her. As Damian normally was.

At the ninth floor, they found their target.

Marinette felt borderline insulted at the difference in treatment.

The current Robin was swinging upside down, bound in rope and gagged.

They had been chained to an operation table, beaten to a pulp with every moment too long the bat took. This boy didn't even have a guard on him. Sure, there were boobytraps set all over the damn place that they painstakingly dismantled one at a time, but even still. Not a scratch on the kid's face. Shaking the thought, Mari chided herself. Her anger was reserved for the people who put them in this situation, not some boy that was obviously dragged into the adults' personal issues. She knew when they escaped and the madness leveled out, relief for his unharmed state would course through her like a tidal wave. For now, she felt contempt and resignation. When the last trap finally fell apart, they heard his voice.

"Batsy! So you finally decide to show on time for one of your pretty birds?" It called, still not in view.

Jason bristled in her peripheral and she yanked him around quickly to focus in on her, aware of the hanging kid's eyes trained on them.

"Save Robin. He can't. He won't. We know this. Do what he didn't for us. Save. Him."

Jason's pupils blew under the mask and a growl tore from his throat as he turned towards the masked child, letting the anger direct itself into righting the injustice done unto him.

Marinette turned back towards the voice, creeping forward, bladed staff withdrawn and extended. She watched its shadow as it twisted along the walls. Finally, it turned the wrong corner and she slammed the side of the staff against him, letting the staff glide along their body as they were forced back, the tip catching their chest and opening a gash through his suit.

Joker jolted, gasping and confused, "You're not Batsy."

A feral grin grew upon her face, "No, but I'm so much more fun, wouldn't you say?" she activated wind dragon, blowing him further back across the room until he stumbled and fell onto his back. He quickly grabbed up a device and smiled maniacally, holding it up to view, starting a spiel about what it would do if he pressed this particular button, blah blah blah. She wasn't here for his rambling. Activating electric dragon, she launched herself into the device, shorting it out into a useless hunk of metal. Reappearing in front of him, she drew out her blades, only to hear quiet feet land in the room over.

"And what exactly did you have in mind, girly?" He asked, licking at the corner of his mouth in a weird tic sort of a way.

Placing a grin to rival his own across her face, she tilted her head, "It is not what I'll do that should concern you. Rather, what I'll allow him to do," she watched annoyed confusion flicker across the clownesque features as Jason appeared at her side, a second set seeming to approach her from behind. Reaching back, one hand grabbed a thin shoulder in a harsh grip to keep the kid in his place, the other went to her side to grip a broad shoulder in a more crushing grip to keep Jason from moving too soon. She turned and looked into masked, violently green eyes.

"Do you want to?" A nod. "Will you regret it?" A shake. "Will you take back your mind when it's over?" Another nod. "He's all yours, Bird. Get it out of your system, find me when you're done." A growl.

She let go and turned towards the kid, bodily backing him up into the other room, out of view.

"You don't want to see this."

"Who are you?"

"Does it matter?"

"No, I'll figure it out either way. Be nice if you made it easy though."

"Hmm, how does one become a Robin? Oh yeah, the previous one either leaves or dies."

"You don't mean," the kid's eyes widen.

"He shouldn't of allowed another one. Isn't one child dying for his cause enough?"

"It's not like that," he grew defensive.

"Isn't it though? Whether you wanted it or not, if anything happens to you, it's because he decided another child could fight actual murderers."

"That's beside the point, I need to stop them," he tried to push past her only for her to activate wind dragon and pick him straight up and out of the building to another rooftop, letting him go at the top, though grabbing his grapple as she reformed.

"Do you recognize this part of the city?"

"What are you doing? Let me back in there," he sounded panicked.

"Breath, little bird. Do you recognize where we are?"

"I- yes. I recognize it."

"Do you know how far it is from Wayne Manor?"

"What does that-" he attempted playing dumb.

"Do you?"

"Of course I do!"

"I know you do. You're a smart little bird. Very well learned. You know how long it takes to get here from the Manor as well don't you? And what time the broadcast went up?"

The kid's face darkened, and while he obviously didn't want to admit it, he could obviously make the calculations.

"He wouldn't have made it on time."

"It was on purpose. Joker wants to remind him of his greatest failure," the teen, she realized, rationalized.

"Batman isn't the only one Joker reminded. People don't take kindly to reminders of their dying day."

"So you two are?"

"Undead? In a funny way, yes. And absolutely riddled with destructive insanity."

"You don't seem it."

"I've had time to repress it. Learn control and stability. Him, not so much. This is his first relapse. There's no preventing it. Only directing it. I figure taking out an actual child murderer, who has tortured and ended the life of hundreds, including the sick and dying would be an alright outlet."

"It's immoral."

"We both know the only reason Bruce won't kill is that he wouldn't stop once he started. He'd lose control entirely. It's nothing to do with morality. Otherwise he wouldn't turn a blind eye to the select hits Alfred made in his time."

"How do you know so much?"

"How do you?"

"I figured it out on my own and decided for him."

"Very clever of you. But you didn't decide for him, he let you and took advantage of your determination. I'm sure in more ways than this one." She picked his arguments apart, remembering the way Talia detached Damian from herself. She didn't like the idea of manipulating a kid into disowning his own family, but a toxic situation was still toxic. She'd contact Alfred later to get back in touch as well as a better read on the situation.

As the teen became frustrated once more, he moves towards her to get back his gear only for Jason to drop next to them, breathing heavily with blood dripping down his arms and from the blades across his back, down onto his legs and the ground surrounding.

He seemed to slowly come back from the insanity, leaning into her, "I killed him. Fuck, I killed him," he gasped.

Marinette reached up and stroked his head in soothing motions.

"It's okay, Jay, it's okay. He deserved it. You hate taking another's life and feel the weight of it, but it wasn't a life that was regrettable to end," she whispered, remembering the words that assuaged her own guilt.

"The-the Joker is dead?" The teen before them whispered.

Jason peeked up at the little Robin before them, the green sparking for another moment, "He made another? Replaced us? The mantle should have died when you did. Dick should have stopped him," he groaned out, hatred and fear pulsing in waves.

"Oh shit, you're the last Robin. Jason," the teen's breath caught, half in awe, half dread.

"Yeah, the last. Why? You shouldn't be here," his voice quivered.

Mari handed the grappling gear back over, looking him directly in his hidden eyes, "I know you're going to tell him Jason's back. That he killed the Joker. I'm sure you'll even mention me. But I'm sure he'll notice our own message."

"And what would that be?"

"We were the ones to save you. Not him. Let me know if you ever need an escape from that nightmare."

With that, she lead Jason away, having heard his breathing even out and calm moments before.

"Let's go home," she whispered in his ear, getting a soft nod and taking off back across the roofs.

#jasonette #maribat #ml x dc #WFTW #part 16 #Robin response.exe has stopped responding #hes a little shocked #thats why he no fight harder #if anyone wants me to actually write a snippet of Jasons killing let me know #be warned it would be needlessly graphic

447 notes · View notes

k7l4d4 · 3 years

Text

Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 5 Part 8

Here is the next chapter to Midnight Striga. I hope you all enjoy it. Thank you.

Lilith was lost in the haze of memories. It was understandable, really, when you took into account what had happened. Her sister, who she had steadfastly looked down upon and seen as inferior in terms of ability and power, doubly so when counting her curse, had utterly dominated her in a Witch’s Duel, publicly solidifying her place as greater than the head of the Emperor’s Coven. Greater than Lilith. It was a bitter pill to swallow, one she’d been denying for years.

It was funny, really, how much of a farce it all was; the illusion that she was a great and powerful witch. Oh Lilith was certainly strong, that was without question! But she was so far from being her sister’s equal that it was anything but funny, by itself. Each and every fight, every confrontation, looking back, they always ended the same. Edalyn would show up, causing trouble as she pleased, and when Lilith arrived to confront her, they briefly battled, Eda cracking jokes and being witty, before pulling a stunt at the last minute to escape. In none of those conflicts had Eda ever shown serious effort or treated their battles as anything other than a way to pass the time or a chore to work around.

Eda may not have held back against Lilith, but she had never once seriously fought Lilith in all her years in the Emperor’s Coven; each fight was nothing more than Lilith attempting to sooth her own ego, and Eda indulging her because she could. It was sobering, to realize that you were so small. Muffled screams echoed in her ears, but she paid them no mind. Edalyn was there, clearly she could take care of it, and not a weak failure like herself.

Better to sink into the veil of her memories, where she could do no harm.

“So, why do you want to join the Emperor’s Coven?” “Isn’t it obvious? Because I’ll be able to help people, of course! I could do so much to make the world a better place!” “Heh, good luck with that!”

“There is only one opening for the Emperor’s Coven, you two will have to fight for it.” “”WHAT!?””

“No! I refuse to battle my own sister! I’ve decided covens aren’t really my style. Hey, don’t forget about me when you're a big shot, sis.”

Even her own memories conspired to reveal what a fool she was. Even back then, Eda would’ve never challenged her, her sole motive for joining the Emperor’s Coven being to support Lilith and retain her magic, nothing more. The curse was pointless, nothing but the petty jealousy of a child. She still was a child, in the end, a stupid, spoiled, beligerent child who refuses to accept their flaws for what they are.

“Gah!”

Was that Edalyn? No, surely not, nothing on the Isle, bar Belos, could challenge her, not truly, of that she no longer had any doubts. But, what if…?

“I do what I want to do, nothing more… nothing less…!”

Lilith paused in her thoughts, forcing herself to focus on the present. Screaming, laughing, explosions and fire, echoing all around her.

“But for all that I hate Bonehead… I love the Isles… and the people who call it home…!”

Lilith winced at the sheer volume of it all. Taking a deep, slow breath, she tried again, tugging at her senses, pushing herself to the surface of her mind.

“So if you think I’m just going to stand back… and let you kill people because you feel like it… then you’re even crazier than you look!!”

Her eyes snapped open. They flew across the stands, her already pale skin dropping in palor at the horror surrounding her. Death, injury, and suffering. Witches, Demons and Witchlings battling for their lives. Where were her subordinates, where were the guards!? ...Where was Edalyn?

Lilith’s head snapped to the side, eyes widening at what she saw, and what she heard.

“Even if I die, I’ll have died fighting for my freedom. Give it your best shot, you two-bit bully.”

Edalyn, held in ice-clad hands by the throat, her captor rearing back a fist filled with jagged ice, ready to run her through. This. Would not. STAND.

As the stranger lunged to attack, Lilith sprung, her staff intercepting the blow. Staring into eyes as cold and blank as death itself, she hissed out. “Stay. Away. From my sister.”

“Ah, so the prodigal daughter comes to challenge her betters.” Reticulus hissed, amusement coloring his voice. “I see you conquered the tests I sent your way without issue!”

“Tests?” Willow said, voice hushed. “YOU CALL ALL OF THOSE ATROCITIES TESTS!??” She screamed. The look of rage mirrored on her friends’, and Amity’s, faces.

“But of course.” He replied placidly. “Everything I do, I do for the sake of building the most perfect body. So why would I not implement tests to find out who is worthy of joining the art that is my form?” He stated, his tone no different than if he had said that he was breathing, or that he enjoyed food. He turned to Luz, amusement dancing in his (most likely, if not definitely, stolen) eyes. “Have you come to return yourself to our care again? Or will you offer up your form to join my work in a futile display of resistance?”

Luz paused, glaring in deepset hatred, before doing something that surprised them all. She started laughing, chuckling really. “You know something? I honestly forgot how much of a pretentious piece of shit you were.” She said, her laughter having subsided, lazily cracking her neck, a glow building in her hands. “You were this big bad monster in my memory, this unstoppable thing I could never hope to face. But now? You’re still a monster…”

She leapt into the air, clapping her hands together, palm to fist, to cast. “BUT YOU’RE A MONSTER IN CAN KILL!” She screamed. “Light-Make: Parliament!” A flock of owl constructs ripped through the air, slamming into Reticulus’ body, drawing roars of frustration from the mismatched madman.

“Impudent wretch!” He growled. “Arteriel Assault!” The flesh of his arms rippled and shifted, the arteries in his arms ripping out from his skin, morphing into the shape of gun barrels. Luz’s eyes barely had time to widen as pressurized bullets of blood ripped through the air, her hastily cast shield barely blocking the spray. Turning his gaze to her team, he cast again. “Rib Bunker!” The flesh of his torso peeled back, his ribs shooting forth like homing rockets, each one screaming towards them.

Eyes widening, Amity and Willow quickly called up their defenses, Amity’s Abomination grabbing the ribs from the air in concert with Willow’s vines, Gus covertly casting a layered illusion, just in case. Moving to the offensive, Amity directed her Abomination to tackle Retic’s legs, the oozing form of it entangling the limbs and seeping into the ground, binding it, however crudely. Joining Amity in the attack, Willow summoned her plants, blasting into Reticulus with a barrage of launched thorns and vine-based whip strikes. To their disgust and morbid fascination, Willow’s vines managed to dig into the seams of Reticulus’ stitchings, pulling them open, exposing the muscle and bone beneath.

“How dare you worms harm this form? The culmination of my life’s work!?” He screeched, the flesh of his limbs morphing into a bevy of blades and spears. With a scream of rage, he attacked again, his fury only barely restrained by his desire to see how competent these wretches truly were.

“Yeah, that’s kind of the point, we are trying to kill you, so of course we’re damaging that patchwork of corpses you call a body!!” Luz retorted, another spell building. “Light-Make: Peacock!” An elegant bird crafted from light soared forth, it’s ostentatious form twirling through the air, cutting through the flesh-formed weaponry Reticulus was deploying. As Retic’s attention was drawn by the flashy construct, Luz ran forth, tucking into a slide. As she passed underneath Retic’s legs, she gave a feral grin. “Light-Make: Radiant Durendal!!” The colossal spear ripped upward, slamming into Retic’s groin and torso, prompting the depraved maniac to scream in agony, flying into the air from the force of the blow.

Sliding back, she braced herself for whatever counterattack he cooked up. Willow shouted, summoning a massive vine which latched onto Retic’s leg, slamming him into the ground, a sickening crunch echoing from his body.

“THAT IS ENOUGH!!” He screamed, his body pulsing and swelling in all directions. “Living Corpse Cannon!!” With a horrific shriek of tearing skin and ripping muscle, bloody holes opened all over Reticulus’ body, bone, blood, and extra organs launching with the force of a machine gun every which way. Panting, Reticulus turned around, and burst out laughing. Luz and the others lay broken, bloody, limbs shattered all around him. “THAT IS WHAT YOU FOOLS GET FOR CHALLENGING ME!!!”

“You know, I always regretted how I left Oroboros.” Luz’s voice croaked out.

“Oh?” Reticulus smirked, leaning forward in condescending glee. “Does the wayward doll realize how foolish it was to challenge our whims?”

Luz weakly snorted. “Not hardly, you bastard.” She choked out. “I always regretted… that I wasn’t strong enough to take her away from you all. If I was stronger, braver, maybe I could have saved her, and we’d have both gotten away.”

“Pfft. And the difference between then and now is… what, exactly?” Reticulus mused, leaning close to her broken form.

“This time,” Luz smirked, blood seeping from her lips. “I’m not afraid of dying in the process.” In a burst of light, she and the others exploded, rematerializing ten feet further away, injured for sure, but nowhere near as broken as he had seen, a truly massive light building in Luz’s palms. “And I’ve got friends with me… to stop you!” She shouted, Amity and Willow shifting into action. Amity’s Abomination surged forth, slamming into his legs, holding him fast. Willow’s plants ran up the length of his arms, seizing him and pulling his arms tight and immoble.

“You may be stronger than us.” Amity stated, still composed, even as blood streamed down into her eyes, her left arm visibly dislocated.

“But we just need to hold you still!” Willow grunted, swaying roughly, blood coating her hands, a small trickle flowing from her mouth.

“And I’m using my illusions to get everyone to safety, and away from your goons!” Gus declared, blood leaking from his ear, heavily favoring one of his legs over the other.

“Which means I’ve got all the room I need… to do this!” Luz shouted, the light bursting forth. “Light-Make: Owl Beast!” In a flash, a colossal form burst forth, careening into Reticulus’ mishmash of a body, the force ripping it free from his bindings… but without the bound limbs in question.

“NO! NONONONONONONO!!!” Reticulus screamed, blood streaming from the broken stumps that used to be his arms and lower torso. “YOU CANNOT DO THIS!! I AM RETICULUS CREEVES!! I AM THE MASTER OF FLESH!! THE SHAPER OF FORMS!!! YOU CANNOT CHALLENGE ME!!!” He screamed, raging against the beast that slammed his broken form into the wall, blood splattering with each impact, its talons and beak ripping and tearing away the stolen flesh of his body. As it dug deeper, his screams and protests grew weaker, and weaker, until all the kids could hear… was a whimper.

As the approached the crater that held whatever remained of Reticulus, they peered inside. Their stomachs turned slightly at the sight; all that remained of the vicious Mage was his collar and head, still alive only by the nature of his magic and his sheer stubborn desire to live.

“Any last words?” Luz asked coldly, the pain and rage from her time working with this monster surging back to the forefront.

“Just two.” The head gurgled. His lips twisted into a horrific smile, mocking and hateful. “She… lives…!” He burst into uproarious laughter, hate and madness bleeding through, as Luz froze, images flashing through her mind, tears building in her eyes. It couldn’t be true… it had to be a lie… right!? It probably was… but whether true or false, the bastard had completed his goal when he said the words: he had hurt her at her core. As Luz fell to her knees, the others crying out in worry, she turned to the heavens, tears pouring down her face, and screamed herself hoarse. And then, she knew only darkness.

Staff whirling, Lilith slammed it into her foe’s cranium, grinning in satisfaction as he reeled back in pain. Turning to Eda, she demanded. “What’s happening?”

“Well, nice of you to wake up, Lily,” Eda snarked, before growing serious. “This bastard and his pals burst in, and said they were going to kill everyone. They probably have more in the rest of the Center, but the group they brought with them here is brutal enough.” She said, pointing up to the stands.

Lilith’s retort died in her mouth as she finally gained a clear look at the carnage surrounding them. Over a quarter of the spectators in the stands, including several children, lay dead, with those closest to them encased in ice. Her guards had been brutally butchered, many of them in multiple pieces, some of them melted, others burned to ash, but all of the guards she had brought in with her were dead. On a slightly more positive note, Principal Bump, Titan bless him, was managing to fend off the remaining soldiers this beast of a man had brought with him, directing multiple Abominations to intercept their attacks and retaliate. From what she could tell, he had managed to suffocate and slay at least ten attackers, leaving fourteen remaining.

“We have to stop this.” Lilith breathed out, fear and pain coloring her voice at the horror surrounding them.

“No duh,” Eda deadpanned. She held up a hand as Lilith moved to retort. “I don’t know why you got stuck in your head like that, and I don’t want to know. People who could still be alive right now if you hadn’t are dead because of that. We need to crush this bastard, and then we can go back to hating each other. Deal?”

Lilith bitterly nodded, unable to challenge the point. “Deal.” She turned to their foe, who was building up ice-based armor around himself. “What can you tell me about him?”

“He calls himself Rudolph, uses something called Frost Magic; if you touch it, it clings to you, saps your strength and your magic. I’m almost spent. We have to finish this fast.” Eda said gravely.

“Then you focus on offense.” Lilith stated clearly, twirling her staff. “And I shall focus on defense. Acceptable?”

“Perfectly.” Eda grinned. Nodding to each other, they lunged for their foe, Rudolph screaming in anger as bolts of ice ripped out from his armor.

“You fools cannot stop my symphony of death!” He cried, blades and spines bursting forth from his armor and the ground. Moving quickly, Lilith threw up her barrier, absorbing the blows. Smirking, Eda jumped into the air, a ball of flame forming. With a shout, she threw it, cheering as his armor was forced to absorb the blow. “You dare play games with me!?” He thrust his arm forward, a spear of ice ripping towards Eda.

“I said stay away!” Lilith shouted, whipping her staff upward. A bolt of magic crashed into the spear, changing its trajectory rather severely. The spear went careening, crashing through two of the attackers. 12 left.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gone big with yourself, eh Frosty?” Eda joked, spinning her staff against the ground, a massive tube in Hooty’s image (a recurring nightmare of Lilith’s actually) ripping out of the ground.

“What the hell!?” Rudolph shouted in baffled rage, the spell forcibly wrapping around his armor, and constricting, drawing a roar of pain from the sadistic Mage. Eda lunged again, summoning bolts of flame to blast into the armor, craters appearing at each collision, with Lilith adding her lightning to stun the armor and draw a few more screams out of Rudolph.

Sharing a glance, the sisters nodded, pulling their staffs back. With a furious cry, the two launched their spears into the armor, shattering it, Rudolph plunging to the ground, a disgusting crack sounding upon his landing, followed by a pained scream. Crawling out of the crater formed by his landing, mad rage filling his eyes, Rudolph attacked. “Winter Spray!” He cried, launching multiple bolts of ice at the two witches. Eyes narrowed, Lilith intercepted, expertly deflecting each bolt into the crowd, each bolt driving through the bodies of one of Rudolph’s followers. The attackers now numbered 4.

Seeing that their attackers had shrunk considerably, the crowd rallied, dogpiling on the remaining Mages, magic being called up to hold them.

“No!” Rudolph yelled. “This shouldn’t be happening! You are supposed to be weak, helpless! We are the powerful, the strong! We are supposed to dominate!!” His ranting was cut off by Eda clocking the raving Mage across the head, the image of him killing that child from before so casually flashing before her eyes.

“Dominate that, you psychotic asshole.” She growled.

“Oh, Edalyn.” Lilith sighed.

#the owl house #fairy tail #owl house au #fairy tail au #owl house crossover #fairy tail crossover #luz noceda #lilith clawthorne #amity blight #eda clawthorne #gus porter #willow park #magic

4 notes · View notes

jonathanvik · 3 years

Text

Starlight Dream - Chapter 4

Takako shook her head, eyes wide. “What the heck was that?” She shuddered in revulsion. “Ugh, he had hairy legs and everything. He could have at least shaved. How did someone like him become a magical girl!” Nothing remained of the second floor after the magical girl’s assault. The entire area had been vaporized. The gang members of Lotus Butcher cowered in terror, fearful the girl might unleash her wrath on them next. “They’re gone, yet I still detect that strange presence.” The fairy said, turning his attention towards the frozen Seina. Sweat trickled down her brow, realizing how helpless she was at the moment. “I feel it too.” Takako twirled the guns in her hands in thought. She sent a frosty glare in Seina’s direction. “You must be the real magical girl.” I need to do something. If they’re evil, I can’t fight while frozen. An idea popped into the magical girl's head. “Hey, can you unfreeze me?” Seina whispered towards Masato, who trembled in terror. “We might be next. She really hated your boss. Who knows what she’ll do to his men!” Seina wasn’t being entirely truthful, playing on his fears, but she needed to free herself somehow. Much to her relief, the thug nodded. “I can! Please save me! I don’t want to die!” Masato whimpered pathetically before striking Seina in the neck. Much to her relief, movement returned to her body. She released the thug’s arm. Her grip had left a nasty purple bruise, leaving Seina a little guilty, promising to be more gentle with normal folk in future. Even if this one had sort of deserved it. “Why didn’t you do that sooner? You could have saved yourself from getting thrown into a cement pit. I would have saved you.” The thug blushed embarrassed, before coughing into his fist. “Didn’t occur to me. But hey, now you can defeat that evil magical girl! We had a deal!” Masato ran behind Seina, using her body as a shield. Takako watched this entire exchange in amusement. “So you’re the magical girl of this universe? So lame. You allowed a bunch of thugs to get the better of you!” “Very lame.” Her fairy said, nodding in agreement. Seina grunted in annoyance, not liking their tone. “Who are you, anyway? What do you want? What do you mean the vampires should be running the planet?” Takako rolled her eyes, exasperated. “You don’t get it? Did your partner not explain anything?” Seina bunched her hand into a fist and opened her mouth for a nasty retort, but two newcomers paused her words. “Seina, thank goodness you’re okay!” Colten said, landing on her shoulder. “Sorry we’re late. Those thugs gave us more trouble than we expected.” Mr. Kiyojiro said. “We saw the strange explosion.” “Seina, who are these people?” Colten gave the new magical girl a wary eye. “Call me, Lily Annihilator. Just the baddest, most evil magical girl around.” Takako spun her weapon around and ended in a stylish pose. “Nier, partner to her badness!” Her fairy added. “Why did you defeat the vampires? Explain.” Takako asked. “Because they’re bad guys, and it’s the right thing to do?” Seina replied. It still shocked her that this girl had proclaimed that magical girls existed to cause suffering. The world was terrible enough already. Why add to it? “The right thing?” Takako broke into mocking laughter, unable to believe her ears. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those lame hero types. How embarrassing!” “She even looks lame. Who wears pink?” Her fairy companion added. “Pink is my favorite color,” Seina replied, her tone terse. What was with this girl’s attitude? “Too bad. Now I’m here to fix things.” Takako said. “At least someone is taking our magical girl duties seriously.” Seina clenched her teeth. After spending a moment to regain her composure, she gave Colten a meaningful look, pleading for some answers. Were magical girls just villains all along? “Not, now.” Colten’s little voice broke. Guilt washed over his tiny features and he turned aside. “We need to deal with her first.” Takako snorted and slung one of her pistols over her shoulder. “If you can. I’ve been a magical girl for almost three hundred years. You’ve been one for what? A few weeks? You can’t compare to me.” “Well, uh, wait, what?” Seina asked in alarm. “Uh, did I forget to mention that magical girls are immortal and don’t age?” Colten gave a nervous laugh. “Colten!” Was she stuck in a ten-year-old’s body for the rest of her life? She didn’t want that! Humans just got the ability to drive cars again. They’d never allow her behind the wheel now! “Now’s not the time. Evil magical girl!” Colten said, pointing towards their common foe. “Okay, you’re right. But we’re having a serious decision after this.” Seina let out a breath, centering herself. She couldn’t afford any distractions. After extending her hand, she summoned her staff. Takako blinked before she snorted, fighting back laughter. “Is that a bubble blower, really?” “It’s a staff, and it’s a perfectly valid weapon.” Seina straightened her posture. “You’re a strange one.” Takako tilted her head. “Your aura is bizarre. I couldn’t even tell you were a magical girl at first. Ah, well. It’s about time I kick your butt.” “Yeah, you’re about to die, poser!” Takako’s fairy friend said. Here it comes. Seina tensed. This was her first fight against someone on her level. Could she win this? “I’m getting out of here!” Lotus Butcher’s thugs ran for the hills, fleeing before everything got out of control. The dark magical girl didn’t bother stopping them. Instead, Takako focused her attention on Seina, mouth extending into a confident smirk. In an impressive display of skill, Takako spun her guns around before pointing them at her opponent. “Goodbye!” The walls around Seina exploded, leaving nothing but rubble and an enormous crater. None of the bullets, however, even touched Seina. “... Ha, very impressive! You have some guts. I admire your gusto, newbie!” Takako said, puffing out her chest, though Seina detected some red on her cheeks. “You’re just saying that so we don’t notice that you completely missed her. Can you even aim with those things?” Colten replied. Come to think of it, when she shot up Dreven, she just shot in his general direction not really aiming at him. “Shows what you know! I never miss!” Takako shot back. “You’re just too lame to see it.” Now’s my best chance! Seina darted forward, catching her opponent completely off guard. Takako howled in pain as her staff struck against her chest and sent her flying across the city. Seina blinked. “That was easier than expected. I hope I didn’t hurt her too badly.” Several minutes passed, and Seina feared the worst. Thankfully, a bloody Takako dragged herself back to the scene of the battle. It took several minutes for her to reach Seina, her limp making it difficult to walk. “Lucky shot.” Takako’s voice was ragged and held a great deal of pain. “Nothing compared to me of course.” “Are you okay?” A concerned Seina asked. “Wow, we hurt her pretty bad. Maybe you should run off somewhere and treat your wounds?” Colten said. “You don’t know who you’re messing with. No one can defeat me!” Much to everyone’s shock, the dark magical girl turned her white pistol against herself. “Healing shot!” Green light surrounded Takako. Like magic, all her wounds disappeared. Her breathing returned to normal, appearing good as new. “How did you do that?” Seina asked, amazed. “It’s my power,” Takako replied. “I can make my bullets do whatever I want. Creating a bullet that completely restores my health is nothing. Your little lucky shot was worth nothing!” “Magical girls are amazing!” It made Seina feel stupid that she could only smack things with her staff. Takako was on another level entirely. “Seeing how you’re quaking in your boots, how about you run off and cry somewhere?” Takako said. “Uh.” Seina blinked, unsure how to respond to that. Did the magical girl think she was winning already? Takako snorted and twirled her twin pistols around. “Well? Ready to run, or what?” “We could not fight? We could be friends instead?” Seina asked. Despite everything, she was grateful that the magical girl had saved her from Dreven. The situation might have turned nasty if she hadn’t arrived. “You don’t want to fight, huh?” Takako puffed out her chest. “Already lost the will to fight, have you? You aren’t worth bothering with. Let’s go, Nier.” Without another word, the magical girl vanished, leaving a baffled Seina behind. “Eh?” Did I lose? What was with that bizarre tough girl act? “What a weirdo,” Colten said, flying up to her. “Seems like you scared her away.” Though Mr. Kiyojiro seemed troubled and Seina could guess why. Did this mean more magical girls would come to fight them? “Let’s round up the rest of Lotus Butcher’s gang and return home,” Seina said. Colten still owed her some serious explanations, but the bad guys came first. The vampire’s gang had vanished. Only Masato remained, huddling in a corner. “Who is this Lotus Butcher, anyway? We owe them a butt-kicking for impersonating you!” Colten said, his tiny mouth twisting into a snarl. “Uh, I’m sure you’d believe me if I told you.” Before Seina explained further, Takako appeared from nowhere above her and fired her pistols upon her. Much to Seina’s surprise, the bullets exploded into nets. They wrapped around her, fastening themself to the stone floor. “You again?” The evil magical girl smirked and flicked her hair. “Did you really think I would leave with defeating you? I knew if I made you lower your guard, you’d be easy pickings!” “That’s just dirty.” Seina struggled against her bonds. Despite her enormous strength, they proved too difficult to break. Trapped, again! I need to stop dropping my guard. “You got her, great!” Nier said, hovering around Seina’s head. “Emiyo will be most pleased,” Takako said. “Seina!” Colten’s tiny paws pulled at the nets engulfing his partner, but they proved too difficult to break. Mr. Kiyojiro stood to the side, helpless. Takako’s black pistol fired again, and a further net appeared, trapping the fairy alongside his partner. “Colten!” “I’m sorry.” The fairy looked down. “They’re going to take us home, a place I never wanted to return.” “Too bad, traitor!” Nier said. “I’m not sure how a lowly fairy like you created a magical girl, but you know the consequences of betrayal. The Devil Princesses’ retribution will be quick and merciless.” “Seina.” Colten sniffed. “Never!” Seina refused to allow these Devil Princesses to harm a hair on her new friend. Despite what Colten may think, he’d brought nothing but good to her life. Because of him, she’d tasted freedom for the first time in her short life. “Huh?” Takako screamed in pain as Seina suddenly threw herself forward, striking her opponent’s face with her forehead. Despite the force of the blow Seina remained trapped in the netting. “Hey, I can move a bit!” Seina hopped around the empty warehouse. She wasn’t completely helpless! “You little!” The evil magical girl wobbled on her feet, grimacing in pain. “I’m not finished yet!” Seina bent down and threw her body headfirst towards Takako’s torso. Her opponent gave a strangled cry and disappeared into the distance. “Takako!” Her fairy partner flew after her. “Oops, I might have overdone it.” Seina hadn’t intended to hit the other magical girl that hard. She still had a million questions that needed answering. Much to her relief, the bounds around her body disappeared moments later. “Uh, you think she’s okay?” Seina gave a pensive look to a distant point on the horizon. Despite her claims of being the most evil being around, Seina detected no malice from the boastful magical girl. It left her very confused. “Oh, she’s fine.” Colten waved a dismissive paw. “Magical girls aren’t so easy to kill.” “She’ll be back, and she’ll bring reinforcements.” Mr. Kiyojiro gave Colten an icy glare. “It seems you haven’t been entirely honest with us.” Colten tensed before sighing. “I know.” “We aren’t angry with you, Colten.” Seina grabbed her partner’s paw and squeezed. “Just tell us the truth.” “Okay.” Colten’s expression turned pained. He wouldn’t enjoy what he’d say next. “The truth is, fairies are creatures of great evil. Magical girls are their instrument of destruction. They enter dark pacts with evil-minded girls to spread their horror and terror. They live in a world between reality called The Starlight Dream.” “Hold on.” Nothing about this story made any sense. “You aren’t evil!” Her fairy friend gave a weak smile. “I’m just some weirdo without the stomach to do anything bad. Back home, fairies hated and bullied me about it. I ran away to be anywhere else. That’s how I came to your universe.” “Oh, Colten.” Seina gave her friend a well-deserved hug. “I think you’re fantastic.” Mr. Kiyojiro nodded. “You’re better than any of them.” Colten sniffed, tears welling in the corner of his eyes. “Guys.” Masato gave his own empathic nod, patting the fairy on the shoulder. “Sounds rough. I wasn’t too popular with my family either. My folks kicked me out when I couldn’t live up to their expectations.” Seina jerked. She’d totally forgotten the thug was still here and glared at him. “Get out of here! You aren’t part of this conversation!” “Yeah, leave! We don’t care about your backstory!” Colten said, flying around in an irritated, erratic pattern. “I’m leaving.” The enormous man shrunk under the magical girl and her bodyguard’s angry glares and slunk away, ashamed. “Still though, it still stuns me you even became a magical girl, Seina. I’ve always been told only evil girls can become one. When your brooch appeared, I feared the worst, wondering if you were as wicked as the others, but you proved me wrong.” “Why did you leave out the genocide in my transformation chant?” The sudden inclusion of the horrible word had shocked Seina when Takako had used it. “It was in the vain hope transforming into a magical girl wouldn’t turn you evil.” Colten gave a pained smile. “I’m not very knowledgeable about any of this magical girl stuff. I’m no one special back home.Still it amazes me how powerful you are!” Colten said, flying happy loops around his friend’s head. “I was certain we were a goner when that evil magical girl showed up. There’s something about you.” Mr. Kiyojiro gave a thoughtful look. “That girl mentioned someone named Emiyo. Who is that?” Right, I’d forgotten about that! “And what did Takako mean when she said vampires should be running everything? Did magical girls cause vampires here?” Before the darkness’s arrival, the monsters had only been a myth used to scare children. “I’m not sure. Maybe?” Colten replied. “I’m not privy to the higher echelons’ plans. But I know who Emiyo is. She’s a lieutenant of the Four Devil Princesses. They rule Starlight Dream with their fairy companions. They’re bad news. Their powers are beyond anything we can face. Takako and Nier were only minor minions. I’ve heard stories that they can shatter entire universes!” Seina looked down. “So, more magical girls will come to fight me.” “I’m afraid so. They’re probably going to kill us and destroy this planet to make an example of it.” Much to Seina’s surprise, Mr. Kiyojiro’s expression hardened. “I refused to allow that to happen.” “Huh?” “There’s an old gym a couple of miles from your apartment.” Mr. Kiyojiro replied. “It’s the perfect place to train.” “Eh?” “We’ll show these princesses we aren’t such easy prey.” Mr. Kiyojiro’s voice held a remarkable intensity. “Those monsters won’t touch you or our world.” Seina stared for several long moments before nodding in agreement. She couldn’t afford to get sloppy. If those monsters wanted to hurt her world, they’d have to pry it from her cold, dead hands first. Somehow, she’d win this! --- Lilha yawned. As usual, the hateful sun blazed over her, making every moment its own torment. But it didn’t make her days any less uninteresting. Few people had approached her for ice cream, leaving her with little to do. She listened to some passersby jabber on about nothing in particular, laughing to themselves, and Lilha hated them for it. How dare they enjoy themselves while their rightful queen suffered so? I could murder them on the street for fun! She imagined people screaming in delightful terror as her victims’ blood spattered the pavement below. Her wonderful, imaginative image shattered when reality struck hard. And Seina would come and kill me. Lilha sagged and allowed her potential prey to pass unmolested. A strange sound caught her attention. The ex-vampire queen glanced up to see a figure hurtling towards a nearby beach. What the heck is that? Had that been a person? Lilha ignored it, turning back towards her ice cream stand. It was probably a dumb vampire thinking they could pick a fight with Seina and now paying the price, their tradectory certainly didn’t seem under their own control. Presumably they’d been sent flying by one of her nemesis’s blows.There probably wasn’t much hope for them if that was the case. Still her stand was empty of customers, and the fool might not be dead. She might gain an ally. Anyone powerful enough to survive an encounter with the magical girl must be someone worthwhile, right? After some searching, Lilha found a deep skid mark on the ground, flowing towards an empty beach. What the vampire found at the end of the trail shocked her. The young girl wore a similar dress to Seina, except this girl’s dress was black, and wore skull-shaped earrings. For crying out loud! Not another one! Or was this some sort of copycat? Lilha hid behind a nearby trash can as the girl stirred. A moment later, a black fairy in a skull mask flew down to help the magical girl. “Takako, are you okay?” The fairy said in alarm. The magical girl sported a nasty bruise on the head, bloody oozing from her mouth. With a shaky hand, the girl raised a pistol to her chest and shot. “Healing Shot!” Much to Lilha's astonishment, the magical girl’s injuries healed like they’d never existed. The black magical girl whirled on the fair. “What happened, Nier?” The girl said. “How is she so powerful?! She crumpled me with a single hit!” Huh? She isn’t a friend of Seina’s? “I don’t know, Takako!” The fairy threw up his tiny arms. “Her fairy was just some peasant! Not elite cool people like ourselves!” The black magical girl crossed her arms and looked away, a pouting expression on her face. “This is so lame. Next time, she won’t be so lucky! She just caught me off guard! ” What was going on? Were magical girls not the pillar of goodness Lilha had believed? “Next time?” Nier replied. “You’re not thinking of facing her again? We need to get Emiyo. We can’t defeat her by ourselves!” Takako whirled on her fairy companion, pointing a finger into his chest. “No, we’re doing this alone. I refused to return to Starlight Dream, begging for help. I have a reputation!” The magical girl’s jaw firmly clamped shut, refusing to argue on this subject. “Fine.” The fairy sighed, landing on a nearby rock. If they’re also fighting against Seina, then they’d be useful allies. Lilha might be finally rid of that hateful girl forever! “Well, if you’re an enemy of Seina, perhaps we can help each other,” Lilha said, leaving her hiding spot behind the trash can. “Who are you?” Takako raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. “My name is Lilha. I am the Queen of Vampires.” She replied, standing up proudly. “Really?” The magical girl’s skeptical eyebrow rose even higher, eying Lilha’s ice cream vendor uniform. Lilha’s face burned hot, fighting back her embarrassment. “It’s a disguise. It helps me blend in so Seina doesn’t recognize me.” “She has an evil aura, so I don’t think she’s lying about being a vampire at least,” Nier said, flying up to examine the newcomer. “Why do I need some vampire’s help?” Takako asked. “You’re the one so incompetent you couldn’t stop a single girl from taking the world back from you.” Excuse me?! Didn’t you just lose to her too?! After taking several deep breaths, Lilha calmed herself, remembering the bigger picture. Too much was at stake. She couldn’t afford to lose a valuable ally. “Nevertheless, you’ve seen her power,” Lilha said, crossing her fingers, praying this would work. “Without a solid plan, you won’t be able to defeat her. Seina can’t be defeated through brute force.” “She might have a point.” The fairy replied, nodding. “Okay.” Takako rolled her eyes. “I refuse to lose to that goody two-shoes loser again. Besides, a sidekick wouldn’t be too bad.” Sidekick?! Again, Lilha fought back her annoyance, forcing a smile. I hate magical girls so much! “Good, I think I know someone that might help us. Together, Seina doesn’t stand a chance!” Besides, even if they failed, another magical girl would eventually arrive and put Seina’s head on a pike. Either way, vengeance would soon be hers!

#fiction #anime #anime stories #starlight dream #fist of the north star #humor #parody #magical girl #written story #vampires

3 notes · View notes

potatotrash0 · 3 years

Note

Your DR magic AU, hand it over 🤲

Okay I have two other anons and I’m just gonna split the character ideas among the three asks. I don’t quite have a plot thought out, and most of these characters’ concepts have only existed in my head up until now...bare with me skdjksjfkd

Mm I talked about them briefly in Prom’s ask? But here’s a more in-depth thing of the THH fighting styles.

Makoto is a mage-type. (I used fighter, support, and mage to describe the various adventurer types it’s temporary just roll with it) Again, he can’t really hold magic for very long? He’s got a large mana reserve but it’s hard to activate and harder to control, so he’s currently working on mastering the little bullets. In the future, I imagine large barrages of bullets would sort of circle around him like they would in the barrel of a gun.

He probably got in accidentally? I’m not entirely sure about this, but I think there’s an entrance exam for Reserve Courses and he was probably forced in on Komaru’s behalf for some reason.

He was basically running the entire time until the very end when he panicked and suddenly the entire field was wiped clean from him waving his arm. HPA saw that, decided that he was worth training, and put him into the Main Course. He doesn’t feel very good about getting in that way, but HPA isn’t exactly empathetic like he is. Again this is like one of three ways I think he could’ve gotten in with the rest of the cast because I’m indecisive skdjsjf

Kyoko is another mage-type, in general the Main Gangs of each game have various themes. THH’s trio has a magic theme, they all use magic. She doesn’t use a weapon, though I’m thinking her gloves act as a limiter of sorts?

As a general rule, more mana means less control, and being half-demon gives her a lot of it. Her gloves help her regulate her mana output so that she doesn’t use too much of it when attacking and tire herself out. Later in the timeline, I imagine there might be a scene where she takes them off and fights off some enemies to buy the rest of the class time to escape something? She would get trapped in the process, but I think this would happen after she’s worked with Makoto for a while and she would trust him enough to believe he would come back for her if she didn’t return.

Oh this isn’t related to her fighting style but on the topic of her being half-demon, that’s mainly because I thought it was boring for everyone to be human and I’m a big sucker for fantasy species so yeah. She’s a cambion.

She has purple-tinted skin, horns that curl up and are fairly close to her head, a thin pointed tail, pointed ears, her pupils are slitted, she’s got carnivore-style teeth, her nails are longer and sharper by default. Whenever she uses the full extent of her magic, her scleras turn dark purple and her irises turn white. Oh yeah her scars came from an accident she had when she was young where her magic got out of control and burned her hands. Her mom’s the demon by the way, for no particular reason, I just thought that the Kirigiris would stay human in this and I don’t know anything about her mom’s side of the family.

I just realized I never said Makoto’s race skdjks he’s human!! He and Komaru just happen to be a special case and have a lot of mana. Most other humans in this AU aren’t so lucky. (cough hinata cough cough)

Byakuya, again, uses magic. He’s the only one who uses a weapon in the Trio, he uses a staff specially made by the Togami family. He also knows how to use a sword and a bow.

I haven’t put too much thought into him, but I know for a fact that his adventuring outfit would have a big sweeping cape later in the timeline. In the beginning though, he just has a stupid expensive suit. The cape comes in later as he, Kyoko, and Makoto start to group up more and more.

I’ve decided that adventurers in this AU group up just as often as they go solo, and while Byakuya would initially be solo, he would deem Makoto and Kyoko strong enough to work with whenever they’re taking on a difficult job.

Groups would change to have matching designs the longer they’re partnered up, and capes/cloaks happen to be the THH Trio’s Thing, as in all three of them would have a cape/cloak of some sort. Byakuya because he’s pretentious, Makoto because he thinks it looks cool, and Kyoko because she uses the cloak for practical reasons like storing things and keeping a low profile when needed. Oh and Byakuya’s bloodline is of royal elven descent, their business is selling spellbooks, runestones, potions, reagents, any magical item you could think of.

Sayaka is a half-siren mage! She mostly uses charm and illusionary magic, as well as healing so that she can support her allies. Later on, she might learn water magic so she can actually deal damage as well. I haven’t decided on her weapon of choice, perhaps she uses a lyre or casts spells from a book. I’m also debating having her learn hand-to-hand combat instead of water magic?

I just like the idea of someone coming up and trying to challenge her, thinking they’ll beat her easily, and barely getting a hit in before she kicks their legs out from under them and tosses them over her shoulder like they weigh nothing. She deserves to take out people twice her size and be menacing, as a treat for the amount of disrespect she gets in the fandom. And I want her to take Leon down a peg because he definitely acts a little like a cocky frat boy sometimes.

Speaking of Leon, we’ve got our first fighter-type!!! I could have him use a baseball bat but that’s boring so I’m thinking he might utilize items as well as a weapon? Bombs or grenades that look like a baseball and explode on impact, baseballs that ignite when thrown and act as fire balls. Alas, I don’t think about him much so this is all just me throwing ideas to see what sticks.

Whatever the case, the main thing I know would happen is that he frequently gets help from Kazuichi and Miu because he just cannot for the life of him stop breaking his equipment. He’s reckless and rushes into battle and now that he doesn’t have Kanon to stop him from setting stuff on fire all the time, he gets detention a lot. (And no she isn’t into him like in canon, I refuse to acknowledge that she ever was.)

Chihiro......they can’t fight djfjsjfjjf. They specialize in making tech and weapons, and in the beginning, would mainly use robots that they programmed to support their allies. Though, they do end up training with Mondo, Sakura, and Aoi to help them become better at combat, and eventually they join everyone else on the front lines as a ranged fighter/support type.

Also, the robots would kinda follow them around like pets. Cute little guys that can also shoot lasers. The robots are powered by mana crystals and each one has a different personality and magic type! Sometimes they follow around different people, the electric one took a liking to Mondo and you’ll see it floating around while he works out. They’re buds.

On the topic of Mondo, he’s another fighter-type! He’s more hand-to-hand combat. A controlled berserker, if you will. Probably started out fighting guys in his hometown and progressed to clearing out monsters when Daiya got concerned about his temper? Perhaps. Maybe. I do not think about Daiya I apologize.

Oh wait hold on. I’m looking at his character art and he’s got a hammer.........it’s decided he uses a warhammer, the biggest one they’ve got, and it’s probably a mana-based weapon. Specifically electric. He and that lil robot wipe the battlefield with their opponents >:D

Taka is probably a fighter-type? I can’t for the life of me find where I read this, but apparently he’s really good at self-defense so I imagine he does hand-to-hand combat as well as sword-fighting for the Noble Paladin Aesthetic.

Hifumi was originally a mage-type, but upon second thought, I’m making him a support-type who uses items and potions and stuff! I like the idea of him making fun little bottles and potions themed after his favorite animes and mangas..........he also definitely helped everyone design their adventurer outfits. He’s the only reason that Makoto’s outfit isn’t boring as hell.

Celeste is, of course, a mage-type. She’s Miss Lolita of course I have to make her an ethereal magic user alright also I love her and I love mages let me have this skfjdkjf. As for her weapon, my first thought was her having playing cards that she throws HxH style?

Or she could summon goons to fight for her, playing into the whole loyal servant dream she has. They would be vaguely themed after the cards, so there would be a jack, king, queen, and joker, all of different magic types depending on the suit of the card she throws. Electric for a spade, fire for a heart, ice for a diamond, something along those lines.

I’m also considering having her little...finger armor thing? I’m thinking of having that cross into her magic, where she attacks with claw-like things formed out of mana. Of course she could also just. Use the cards to cast spells directly skdjksjfkhf

Sakura is definitely a fighter-type. Again, hand-to-hand style, but I imagine she’s more controlled and strategic than Mondo. I can’t see her using a weapon, so I guess she’s like one of the only characters to fight exclusively with fists.

Mukuro’s a ranged fighter-type, but she can also do melee. She uses magic-based guns, ones that shoot mana infused bullets. They have a variety of effects depending on the type of bullet and magic. (I’m not a gun person so take this with a grain of salt.)

Bullets that break apart might be laced with electric magic so that they can shock a target from several points, or fire magic if she’s aiming to start a fire quickly. Exploding bullets are usually used with fire magic, but she might switch to ice if she wants to create a barrage of ice shards for...some reason, I don’t know. There’s more combinations I could probably make, but I’m. Not here to spend an hour researching guns. Not right now at least, who knows what I’ll want info on in the future.

Mmmmmm I’m starting to lose patience here so forgive me for the shorter explanations. I might throw in a fun fact about them for ✨ flavor ✨

Junko’s a fighter/mage-type! She uses a scythe and laces the blade with magic. She could combine it with fire magic to create a flaming scythe and go nuts with it, or she could just channel general mana and slam the blade into the ground to create a big crack in the ground.

There’s about an 80% chance she gets several weapons later in the timeline. Her scythe, a spear, possibly a gun. Monokuma probably exists, I like to think Junko ran into a smarter monster and tamed it and kept it as a slightly feral pet.

Also, yes, she’s still a big adrenaline junkie who gets off on despair. If you see her fighting things she knows are out of her league, mind your business.....actually, call someone to help before she gets herself killed. Please.

I haven’t decided what Aoi will be just yet? I’m veering towards fighter/mage-type, she could use water magic and maybe a leg-based fighting style. Possibly judo or taekwondo. I.....do not have any ideas for her. However I do know that she and Sakura would have a bunch of combo moves together dkfjkejfkdjjd

Toko is a mage-type! She probably uses a book to cast spells from. Or just uses her hands. She would fight ranged, I don’t think she’d want to be up in the action. Too much stress for her, y’know? I

As for Syo, she fight differently than Toko! She technically uses dual swords, but the swords can also connect to create a giant pair of scissors. Again, this is just sort of a fun character thing, but she gets to hate Byakuya in this AU. They have arguments and get on each other’s nerves a lot, but I think the rest of the class usually separates them before anything serious happens.

At some point after Toko befriends Komaru, I like to think that Syo gets a proper fight scene with Byakuya where she rips into him. I don’t think Toko would want to hurt anyone though, even him, so Syo would probably leave him with a few minor cuts at most.

Afterwards, I think Byakuya would quiet down with the insults with Naegi and Kyoko’s requests. (Well. Naegi asked him to try and be nicer because he was worried that they might fight again. Kyoko just bluntly told him that he needed to stop being a jerk and start considering everyone else’s feelings.)

Skfksjfkdh ah. I also like to think Komaru and Toko were initially partnered up by HPA for a job. They were assigned to deal with a couple of school kids wreaking havoc on a nearby city with some monsters they semi-tamed?

But after finishing the job, they decided to partner up permanently on their own. They probably have a few combo moves that Komaru came up with, Toko tweaked them to make them actually possible with their skill set and weapons.

Hiro is...possibly a mage/support-type? He’s probably a bit cowardly and freaks out when on the front lines, but he can use a crystal ball to attack from afar. I’m also considering giving him tarot cards so that he can toss them and attack from several points at once?

Or the ball could shatter at some point during the story and he could just roll with it and spread the shards out during battle to attack from several points at once. They could also be used to create a magic cage of sorts, like electric fence but only electricity.

Okay that’s everybody oh my god. I have plenty more stuff about this au, this isn’t even half of it trust me lmao. I’m sorry about this being so long I didn’t realize it’d be this wordy!!!!!

12 notes · View notes