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hitory--chan · 3 years

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Day 5: Queen of the Garden

(Ranked T)

Title: In my withered roses you lay resting

Around the forest there were always legends of all kinds, about fantastic creatures and horrifying monsters beyond human imagination, about nymphs, fairies, werewolves and giant snakes that would devastate the entire town in a few minutes if they wanted to; they were just legends, stories to amaze or scare whoever would listen to them, hypnotizing the virgin ear that listened to them with their magnetism, leading their victim to demand more, driving them mad in the search to satisfy that need.

But there was one in particular, the biggest, the most fantastic, the most sublime and the most terrifying no one ever dared to tell, the one whose existence was only known to the oldest of the town who defended tooth and nail its veracity, but nevertheless only tell each other, remembering and crying the intense agony that each word conveyed.

The legend of Hinata, the queen of the garden in the heart of the forest, and Sasuke, the infamous king who without any army was able to penetrate the invulnerable barriers that protected the queen.

The king who never returned.

“My King!” One of her courtesans shouted. "Please, I beg you to reconsider!"

He ignored her, tightening the draws of his armor as the guards placed the shoulder pads and handed him his helmet, which he took.

It was still dark, the moonlight hanging over the entire sleeping kingdom as he prepared to leave.

"My lord, he turned, now listening to his first officer, Kakashi, who was speaking to him "Are you sure this is a good idea? Going into the forest alone?"

"It's not something I didn't do before, Kakashi, you should know" he replied without much interest as he grasped the reins of Onyx, the majestic black horse that had accompanied him for years.

"I understand, but it's not the same, your majesty, it never got beyond the Stone River" the man said, his voice so slow and dull as if it was something he was trained to say, but Sasuke knew him better than many as to know that there was concern hidden behind those dead tones “It is a great risk to take to find a woman that we do not even know exists”

"People are dying Kakashi, of hunger, of disease ..." He inclined his head a little towards his first officer, not enough to really see him “If that woman, that… witch exists, it will be our chance to solve all the evils that afflict us, if I find her, then I save my people”

“And if you do not find her, my lord?”

“Then we will have to take more drastic actions, actions that I don't think we're ready for right now, Kakashi”

The silence that followed told Sasuke that the man knew what he was referring to.

They had recently fought a war against a rival kingdom that wanted to take over all his lands. They attacked in the middle of the night, cowardly seeking to have the tactical advantage darkness gave them without expecting the surprise that they were ready to fight back with much more violence than would be expected of a small kingdom that barely prospered in comparison to others. Many lives were lost on both sides, but his army had kept the slightest advantage over the invaders and captured the main officers of the intruders, executing him right on the battlefield as he had ordered them to do, closing any openings to negotiation the rival might propose.

They rose above them and conquered, drove the remaining invaders from their lands and proclaimed their victory, but they had not come out without casualties, as happened in any other war.

Their crops were burned and their women desecrated. Bodies of infants who had adventured out of their hiding spots now laying among the corpses of their fathers and men who sacrificed their lives in the name of the king's sovereignty, waiting to be buried or burned while their mothers, wives, and brothers mourned their losses.

Soon after came the diseases, plagues so violent that even the best physicians in the kingdom had succumbed to permanent contact with the infected and were now lying in beds, signaling with weak voices to proceed to their charges.

The only hope was the woman who dwelt in the depths of the forest, a queen in her own right, the oracle told him, whose miraculous fingers brought life to everything she touched. A witch, servant of the devil, counterattacked the priest, who would only bring bliss before plunging them further into misery.

A queen, a witch, Sasuke didn't care, he only wanted her hands to heal his people, determined to cut them off if necessary to save the few that were left.

Then Sasuke mounted his horse and reached out his hand, taking the sword that Kakashi had prepared for him and fastening it to his waist strap, where it would remain with him throughout his journey.

"Itachi will be in charge while I'm gone" he decreed, looking at his court, who looked at him in surprise and disbelief.

“My king, my lord!” The woman spoke again “His majesty is very ill for this task, I fear that his condition is too delicate to carry the role, your highness!”

“My brother already ruled once in a worse state than the one he currently is in while waiting for me to grow up to cede the throne, he certainly can do it a bit more while I'm gone”

“But sir…!”

"In case his condition worsens ..." he interrupted, with a tone of voice as icy as the look he gave the woman "in case he´s not an act to continue, then Kakashi will make all the decisions in my absence and my brother's disability”

Several indignant murmurs were heard from the other members of the court, annoyed by the possibility of a military man would rule them, but with the same look he gave the insolent woman, he quieted them all.

"Kakashi" he called and the man walked with him towards the limits of the kingdom that served as the border of the forest, trotting slowly as his first officer followed him with great ease "I trust you to keep everyone safe, especially my brother” he said, stopping his steed and staring at the man.

"My king's orders are my perpetual la," Kakashi recited, quoting the motto of imperial strength as he brought his right hand to his heart and bowed to him.

Sasuke nodded, but before starting his horse again, he spoke for the last time.

- And Kakashi ... execute her

Kakashi bowed again and Sasuke pulled the reins of his horse to start running, going into the forest when the first rays of dawn hit the ground, and knowing his order would be carried out without hesitation.

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

Inside the forest the thick trees hid any trace of the sun, giving the illusion that it was still night even though Sasuke knew it must be after eight.

Still he didn't back down, mentally reciting the directions the oracle had given him to find the mysterious woman.

“Once crossed the river of stone, the road will split for you, one more dangerous the other, competing for the new prey that appears before them. Be guided by the horrendous noises that make the bones of the strongest of men tremble, by the trail of perdition from which your eyes will not be able to turn away, from the putrid stench of those who defied the sanctity of the earth who stepped on impure feet.

Along the way you will find death's favorite resting place. Do not drink or eat the natural delicacies that will be shown for you, instead you must use your senses, facing the great beast that will attack from the shadows.

If the combat is satisfactory, then the beast will show its respects by leading you to its queen, otherwise, there will be the place of your last rest"

Naturally, oracles liked to be cryptic with their words to the point of making them indecipherable, but the more than a century old woman who had served three generations of her family had put those fanfare behind her, preferring to be as clear as possible in her revelations than risk a bad future for the kingdom because of misunderstandings out of her tongue.

Upon reaching the Stone River, he took a moment to observe the waters peacefully.

That river had been named this way not only because of the rock formation that simulated a natural bridge in the center of that great pool, just covering its surface with a thin layer of water that made it extremely slippery, but also because of the rock at its bottom, arranged in the shape of spikes so sharp that even the slightest fall on them could cause fatal injuries to the unfortunate victim.

He allowed Onyx to drink some of the water before venturing across the stone bridge.

His horse, fearless just like his owner, also had some afraid. On rare occasions he’d tried to cross that path through the waters with the equine, but his partner had acquired a phobia at that particular step when, being very young, he slipped on the stone and it was almost impossible for him to get back on his feet, almost falling to the bottom of the river when with desperate movements he slid to one side before finally reaching the bank of the river and climbing, being completely exhausted on the grass, all under the frightened gaze of his owner who had remained on dry land while his horse struggled.

He remembers that, after that, he had remained with Onyx there for longer than he ever was in that place, being found by the royal guard and brought to the castle only to remain expectant all night at the possibility of having to sacrifice the animal.

Now, Onyx was a majestic and imposing stallion with more history than half his stablemates, but from time to time he would turn back into a fearful foal when they were near that place.

However, while he normally wouldn't push him any further than he considered Onyx could take, this time around he couldn't afford to be understandable to his horse or to be left without a mount for the rest of the way.

“Come on boy!” He encouraged him, shaking the reins several times and smiling as Onyx, refusing at first, approached the rock and put his front legs on it, whinnying loudly as he took small terrified steps.

Even in the slippery material, the new horseshoes he had had his horse put on were being especially helpful in preventing the equine's legs from slipping over the rock even when Onyx's steps were somewhat shaky, leading the horse to gain a little confidence with every step until he was finally on the other side.

“Well done, Onyx!” He congratulated the horse, patting and stroking his neck before pulling out an apple, which he happily accepted.

He wasted no time and continued with the journey, reaching the place where the road divided in three.

At first glance they did not seem dangerous at all, leading him to wonder if the oracle had been wrong with her interpretation or if he had deviated from the correct path himself, but the sudden sound of something sliding on the ground caught his attention and put his whole body on guard again, waiting for any sign of attack.

Instead what he received was the cawing of birds, crows, he recognized, noises of something sliding and the screeching of bats that flew directly to his face at that moment, causing Onyx to panic and stand up on his two hind legs, almost making Sasuke to fall.

When he regained his balance and Onyx was back on all fours, Sasuke looked at the central path, remembering what the oracle had said and thinking that this should be the way to go, so he made the horse move forward, despite the reluctance of the animal.

The putrid stench started only a few minutes on the road before dead animals began to appear on the road, being replaced only a few meters later by human corpses in various states of putrefaction, from skeletons to bodies that should barely have been there for a few days. , and even recognized the uniform worn by the third-rank guards in his kingdom, only stuffed with bones, each corpse wrapped by vines and other local weeds.

He was forced to breathe as little as possible when the stench became impossible to bear, coming to vomit in the section where everything was strongest, without having the opportunity to breathe until the road began to clear of so much death, showing to his sight a great stone plateau clothed with climbing vines and rosebuds.

He got off his horse and gave him another snack, tying the reins to the tree farthest from the ferns and other plants full of fruit that he knew they shouldn't eat.

Slowly and carefully he approached the great structure, gazing at it in fascination. Up close, he noticed the spines that protruded around the roses of different sizes that decorated the plateau, which, he noticed, were deceptively sharp, cutting him at the simple touch and spilling a thick drop of blood that bathed the thorn that caused his wound.

The sudden tremor in his spine appeared as the slight trembling of the earth beneath his feet, accompanied by the sound of something sliding - something that must have been big and heavy, from the way it sounded - and then deafening silence was present. .

“Onyx!” He shouted, turning around when he heard the horse whinny and stop suddenly, expecting to meet the animal where he had left it, however in its place he found another type of animal, giant and with shiny black scales, which were only cut with the three red lines of scales on the tip of its tail, raised in the air with a swaying motion.

The gigantic snake kept its eyes fixed on his, hissing and showing off his forked white tongue.

Eyes wider than they had ever been in his life, he diverted them just a little to the rest of the great reptile's body, almost growling in pain at the bulge protruding from where, he guessed, was the stomach of the immense snake, sure it was the product of his horse swallowing.

Feeling the flame of fury ignite and grow in him, he grasped the hilt of his sword in a slow motion and drew it lightly, as the serpent rose a little higher above him.

With one swift movement he pulled it out completely as the snake lunged at him, barely being fast enough to avoid its jaws, but not fast enough to dodge its tail, which slammed it against a tree and left it stamped there until he nailed the sword almost halfway.

Even his powerful armor hadn't been enough to shield him from that blow, catching his breath cut short by the pressure of the limb that had held him captive, but he had no time to think about that as he tried to get away from the great perimeter that covered the snake.

The injured tail slammed into the ground next to him, causing him to stumble from the din it caused.

The reptile's head also collided with the ground a few feet from his back and then glided at high speed towards him, using its nose to push him up when he collided with him and sent him flying into the air as the snake rose again, now with its jaws open.

But Sasuke was able to hold on to the tip of the animal's nose and avoid being swallowed as he had done with his horse by resting his feet against the bottom of the snake's mouth and giving a little jump before it closed it, being helped by the impulse that the same reptile gave him before the abrupt movement it made while trying to make him fall.

Sasuke stayed on the snake's skull and held onto its scales as best he could before stabbing his sword - which he had clung to as much as he could during the attack - into one of the animal's eyes, which let out a shrill and strange sound before, to Sasuke's immense amazement, it made a 180 ° turn and threw himself hard against the floor, taking him with and crashing him on the flat surface, a blow so violent that it caused him to lose his helmet, his mobility and his strength.

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

Only seconds before he lost consciousness he saw the towering snake - now one-eyed - rise above him before launching itself with his jaws open just as Sasuke's eyes finally gave up.

When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was the immense throbbing pain in his head that only got worse when he tried to open his eyes, being hit by the brightest sunlight that forced him to close them again.

Where had so much light come from?

After a while, and when he was sure he could resist it, he opened his eyes again.

It took him a long time to regain the clarity of his sight, but once everything was clear he was astonished at what he saw.

In front of him a large colorful space, green above all, stood proud in all that light. Huge trees were here and there, casting great shadows, covered with fruit in great quantity.

A few meters from him was a lake with crystal clear waters, reflecting everything that was shown from above.

It was only when a slight movement behind him caught his attention that he realized he had been leaning against something cold, and when he turned around he felt as if his entire being had left his body when he found himself face to face with the giant eye yellowish that he recognized instantly.

He backed away quickly, grunting in pain as his muscles protested at his sudden movements, but instead of stopping to ease them, he fought them and reached for his sword at her waist, surprised not to find it.

The snake stared at him for a few seconds before lazily deflecting its head toward the center of the thread that had turned its body.

—You must not fear, it will not hurt you

He turned quickly and looked around, searching for the soft voice that he had said those words.

"Onyx" he breathed out, seeing the mate he had thought he lost, now lying on the grass, asleep on the other side of the lake.

Naturally those words were not said by the animal, but by the other person next to it, who was gently stroking the mane of his horse.

Their eyes met and he forgot how to breathe, incredulous of the moons that were his pupils, beautiful, and that without a doubt were looking directly at him.

The woman stood up and he could see her completely: snowy skin, long dark hair that swayed with every step she took. Her body was covered in leaves, branches and flowers that clung to her like a second layer. The upper part of her was covered by vines up to the middle of her breasts, being enough to cover the most. The lower part was a skirt, much less rigid than the upper one as it was made entirely of green leaves in different sizes, stopping only a few inches above her knees.

A long vine rested in the center of her abdomen, joining the two pieces as one.

She was barefoot and her hair was decorated with the most elaborate flower crown he had ever seen in his life.

As he passed by the lake, he stopped, crouching in the direction of the water, taking from the ground a large leaf of a plant that he did not recognize - and which he had not realized was lying there - and wrapped it gently until it formed a bowl that she plunged into the water until filled it, rising again and resuming its way towards him, now with the makeshift pot that spilled tiny drops from its bottom.

When she finally got to him, he saw her more clearly: thin and natural pink lips, a small and upturned nose, perfectly shaped eyebrows and long eyelashes that only marveled her appearance even more, also highlighting the lack of the slightest freckle on her face.

She offered him the bowl but he did not take it at first, still fascinated and hypnotized by the beauty of the woman in front of him until she pushed it to his chest, forcing him to hold it as she took one by one his hands between her smallest and drew them to the sides of the blade, releasing it when she made sure his grip was firm.

She, with one of her index fingers, touched the surface of the water three times in different parts, and when her hand lowered three different flowers grew in the water: a lotus, a calla and a water lily, which immediately disintegrated and mixed with the liquid, giving it a color that ranged from pink to purple.

"Take it" she said, looking into his eyes "it will help you heal."

He didn't know why, but he obeyed her and took the entire tonic in one gulp, grimacing when the bitter taste of it touched his tongue and she slid down her throat.

She smirked and turned around, walking back to where Onyx was now awake, looking at them wearily.

"It's you" was the first thing that came out of his mouth, looking at her completely uncovered back as she walked away from him “The witch”.

Her walking stopped and she turned around again, looking at him now with a frown, offended.

“That's very rude!. I am not a witch" she protested "My name is Hinata Hyuga, and I am the queen of this garden" she said proudly, turning to resume her march as if her statement was enough to deny his word.

But he would not be fooled; he had witnessed for himself what she had done in the water she had given him to drink.

He looked around him and his sight fell on his sword and armor, arranged neatly on the grass near the giant serpent's tail.

Slowly and careful not to be heard he approached his things and took the sword at the same time that with difficulty he took three steps back as the snake's tail moved to hit the ground and then returned to its original position.

It took a bit of trouble, but he was able to raise his sword and hold it with both hands, directing the tip in the direction in which that woman - that witch - was, now again sitting on the grass, stroking the back of his horse, looking at him unimpressed.

"Witch, you will come with me" he demanded "Everything will be easier if you do not resist, you will get a decent treatment: you will sleep in the softest bed, you will wear the finest clothes ... otherwise, if you resist, you ... you ..." He stopped for a moment, not for lack of words, but from shortness of breath —If… if you resist… the dungeon… the smallest and dirtiest dungeon will be…

"You’re hurting them" she interrupted, and he didn't understand.

The witch looked down and he followed her eyes, stopping at the sword that was now stuck in the middle of a small group of flowers.

When had he lowered his sword?

“What did you do to me?” He growled, aware of the progressive loss of strength to which he was subjected.

"It's the medicine" said the witch, calmly "for your body to heal, it must first rest”

And as if that were a command, his body fell apart, causing him to fall to the floor on a tall grass bed that he could swear was not there a moment ago.

- Witch! ... You will pay...

Unconsciousness welcomed him.

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

When he woke up there was still sunlight, quite clear, so he thought that maybe he had only slept a few seconds, but the environment felt different from before and he could hear the distinctive galloping and neighing of Onyx, going here and there as his footsteps slightly covered the happy laugh of the female.

He could not move his body freely, only just his fingers, and mentally he cursed himself for having taken that concoction that this evil woman had given him, clearly using her sorcery to weaken him.

“Your body still needs rest” he could have shuddered at the sudden voice if it weren't for the fact that he was paralyzed, shortly afterwards the witch's face appeared in his visual range, tilted from above so he could see her “you´ve been very hurt by your confrontation with Munda, your injuries will take a little longer to heal”

He grunted, annoyed.

“Why have you risked your life to get here, mortal?” She asked him, now in a more serious tone.

Then and once again without really knowing why, he began to tell her about his kingdom, about the moments of wealth and prosperity before the war struck, about the deaths and the lack of food that besieged them, making their situation worse. He told her about his brother and his mysterious bedridden illness, about the sudden barrenness of his lands, and how he had preferred to make this trip alone rather than take away much-needed protection in case they tried again to invade them during his absence.

In her face there was no sorrow, annoyance or joy for their misfortunes, instead it was pure curiosity what he could see while he finished explaining the reason why he was looking for her.

"Okay, I'll go with you" she answered with conviction.

He, who had gradually regained mobility to the point where he could now sit up and the waves of heat attacked him insistently, looked at her in surprise, unable to avoid questioning her decision.

"I'll go with you" she confirmed again "However, the starting path is more dangerous than the one you traveled to get here, so you will have to make a full recovery first" She stood up and looked at him “I cannot be away for long, this place depends on me, so I will help your people and leave immediately, it is my only condition”

He watched her, almost denying immediately that he could leave that easily, but he was quick enough to bite his tongue before speaking.

"Okay, then we have a deal" he agreed.

She nodded pleased and stood up, walking away from him and up a tiny hill where she began to press with her fingers the closed buds and the withered flowers that surrounded her, opening and coming back to life with the simple touch of her.

Despite having accepted, in his mind they only danced ways of how he would interrupt her departure, it would be very foolish of him to let her go that easy, a person with her abilities, whether witch or not, was unique, one in a million , and no self-respecting kingdom would let her go that easily.

He could try to convince her by showing her everything that she obviously didn't have in her "garden", the wonders of modernity, and if that couldn't convince her, well, he had dungeons at his disposal that he could trick her into or even without them, but surely he would not lose those abilities from his hands.

Satisfied with that plan, he began to touch the back of both of his hands, searching and removing the splinters that he did not know how he has nailed himself.

Even though Hinata's tonics were helping him recover faster than he normally would, it felt like it was actually taking forever.

There, the days and nights seemed to last longer than normal, as if the clock had 36 hours instead of 24.

Each remedy that Hinata gave her were different and she healed something different, like the one she used to make his bruises disappear, which were a combination of wild flowers and citrus fruits that melted in the water as soon as she created them and released. Those bruises that would normally take a week or more to fade, she had done it in almost three days.

The problem is that she could only give him a tonic for one thing at a time, along with the first one that she had given him so his body relaxes and rests.

Now he was drinking one that she claimed would help with his internal ailments, and he guessed she was referring to the bruised bones that barely allowed her to walk or breathe. This was particularly bitter and she had to take it several times a day, which was a mini torture considering that these wounds would take even longer to heal.

He was washing his armor when he heard her scream.

“No! Go away, you can't be here!”

His skin prickled when she heard it. Had someone entered that place? An ally or an enemy? The great snake that was supposed to be the only one that could make someone else reach that place, Munda, hadn't moved from the rock it had spread on the day before, almost looking dead if it weren't for the hiss it left escape from time to time, maybe someone had found a way to enter without facing the great reptile?

“No! Get away!”

Wasting no time he dropped the piece of armor he was washing into the water and instead grabbed his sword, gripping it tightly and ran - or rather, he limped quickly - looking beyond the trees and bushes until he saw her midnight hair, covered with small flowers of various colors, and he went quickly towards her, who kept her fists clenched and her arms stiff down, slapping the floor with one foot while she kept yelling at whoever was there to leave.

But as he got closer to her, he still couldn't see anyone else; maybe it was some invisible person? It would not be unreasonable to think about that.

Finally, when he got to her side, he saw whoever caused her annoyance.

"This… creature…" she began, making an exasperated gesture with her hand at the wild boar that nonchalantly ate the blackberries from the orchard it raided "This annoying creature won't go away!" I've tried everything but it keeps coming back”

He looked at her in disbelief.

“So much fuss over a wild boar?”

“Is this the name of this demon spawn?” She asked him, looking at him intensely "Do you know him?"

"It's a wild boar, there are hundreds of them in the forest" he said more calmly, dismissing the accusation of her previous question.

“Hundreds?!” She gasped in disbelief.

"Calm down, just ... get rid of him."

“I´ve tried it! But this ... boar keeps coming back”

He let out an exasperated sigh, thinking of suggesting of making her pet snake eat the animal, but dismissed the idea as he thought the reptile was pretty useless when it don´t came to attacking and killing unsuspecting humans and their horses near the plateau of stone.

Since he first woke up he had only seen it move a few inches and change position, so another idea occurred to him.

“Can you hold it?” He asked him “with your ivy?”

She looked at him curiously and suspiciously, but instead of answering vocally, she raised a hand and made a few short movements with her fingers before clenching her fist, catching the animal that began to screech in panic.

He approached it, and with a certain movement, cut off it head.

When he heard her loud gasp he looked back and there she was, her brows furrowed, her eyes staked and both of her hands covering her mouth.

He looked back at the now dead animal, grabbed it head and raised it before asking.

“Do you know fire?”

Sasuke sat on a rock while at the same time bringing the now cooked boar meat to his mouth, biting off a large chunk and tearing it from the rest so he could eat it.

Sitting on another rock on the other side of the bonfire he had made, Hinata found herself with her arms crossed and her brow furrowed, looking at him with such intensity as if she wanted to make his head explode with just her powerful gaze.

She was upset with him, that was clear. Since he had killed the animal and cut its meat into smaller portions so he could stick them into branches and put them on the fire to cook.

The turning point, however, was when he gathered branches and leaves and started the fire that he had surrounded with rocks of different sizes as a barrier so that the fire did not spread.

Apparently, she could forgive him for killing an animal even if she was clearly against it, but lighting wood and using leaves as a burning material was where she drew the line, practically declaring enmity at the prolonged silence she had maintained.

It was funny to tell the truth, even if preparing that meat and the dressing he had bathed it with to give it a little more flavor had been torture for his sprained wrist, it was worth it if I could see her normally relaxed and smiling face distorted with annoyance and disappointment, her lower lip sticking out childishly.

Furthermore, and despite the wide variety of fruits she had been feeding him - more delicious than he had ever eaten - he had really missed the taste of meat on his palate.

“Hey!” He called her even though it wasn't necessary, since she hadn't taken her gaze from him for a second. "Try a little" he said, spreading some meat even though he was too far for her to reach.

That scandalized her.

“I will not do it!” She vigorously refused, looking quite offended by his proposal “I'm not a savage!”

"Me neither" he said, shrugging even though he wanted to burst in laughs at her expression.

“You are eating a living being”

“You eat the children of your plants, but I don't judge you for doing that”

The expression on her face finally overcame him, making him laugh.

With difficulty and care, he rose to his feet and walked around the fire, sitting next to her and extending with his good hand the piece of meat he himself had previously been eating.

"Try a little" he repeated, but she pursed her lips and turned her face away, refusing.

“No, I do not like”

"You can't say you don't like it if you haven't tried it yet" he told her, repeating the words his mother had repeated so much to the fussy eight-year-old he was.

But she kept refusing, so he took another approach they used to use with him when he was especially difficult to feed: negotiation.

"How about this" he began “If you try a little of this, I promise I won't complain and take all your strange meds even if they taste like hell itself, you don't have to like it, just try a little”

She looked at him scrutinizingly, apparently looking for some kind of dishonesty, but he just brought his injured wrist to the center of his abdomen, in a well-camouflaged dirty little manipulative move, which he knew was working when she looked at his wrist and then again to in his eyes.

“Just a little?” He nodded "And will you take the medicine without complaining?" He affirmed again.

Hinata closed her eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out again in the form of a long sigh.

She opened her eyes again, now with a look of determination and nodded.

He smiled and brought the meat to her mouth.

“W-wait!” she yelled, holding his wrist.

He was really having a hard time not laugh again.

Without letting go his wrist, she barely opened her mouth and bit into some of the meat, chewing it and stopping after swallowing it.

He looked at her expectantly, watching as she frowned again and sudden tears began to fall from her eyes.

Was it really that bad?

He began to feel guilty for forcing her to do so, but he was surprised when she now took a bigger bite, taking the meat from his hand to grab it herself, saying between sobs

"It's good!" she sniffed and cried harder as she ate more of it.

________________________

That night he woke up because of the pain that attacked his healthy wrist, grunting and looking for the reason for that, and when he looked at it, he was surprised and out of breath to see how a bracelet of branches wrapped him, which would not be a problem if it was not for the fact that they seemed to come straight out of his skin.

________________________

Another few days passed and he had kept thinking a lot about his situation.

Due to his suspicions, he decided to do an experiment.

For a few days he stayed especially close to her, touching her skin with his fingertips in the most subtle way he could, leading him to offer help during the moments when she did her self-imposed tasks that were not really necessary - there was not much to entertain herself with, he supposed — and despite confusion at his sudden need to help, she agreed and directed him what to do, frustrating him when any of those tasks kept him away from her.

But at the end of the day he touched her enough without going overboard - tapping her shoulder to get her attention or patted it awkwardly as he congratulated her with a "good job" - and then he walked away from her and went to the makeshift cot she had created for him, leaving her more confused than at first.

The first night he waited awake for something to happen, for the branches to start coming out or for his skin to turn green, he wasn't entirely sure what could happen, but he waited.

And he received nothing.

He repeated the experiment several more times and nothing happened, so he thought maybe it was a side effect of the last potion she had given him to drink? It would make sense that his body is no longer producing more vegetation by changing the type of medicine she was giving him, and it would also make sense that she did not know that effect as something out of the ordinary, since her own body seemed to produce by itself the plants that dressed her.

Then he forgot the topic, classifying it as a one-time occurrence.

Until he wasn't.

That morning, when he no longer had any kind of ailment and was beginning to feel he was finally regaining his strength, he had helped Munda - who, he learned, was really peaceful when he was not protecting the entrance to that garden - to get rid of the little debris that had stuck to him after his last shedding of skin.

"Good work," Hinata said, patting him on the shoulder as best she could since he was significantly taller than her “Munda's shedding of skin is usually a disaster because it is more resistant than normal, so I always have a hard time cleaning it when it's in season” she revealed, now with her hand fixed on his shoulder “you are very good at that”

He accepted her congratulations with a small hint of pride on her chest.

They passed the day with normally, and at night, while taking a bath in the lake, a sudden pain attacked his shoulder.

When he tried to move his shoulder in circles, he couldn´t, the pain and stiffness prevented him from the slightest movement, then he brought his other hand over said shoulder to try to massage himself, but when he felt his fingers prick, He stopped.

Surprised, he looked at his shoulder and couldn't believe what he saw: it was covered in thorns right where Hinata had touched it.

The fire of anger ignited in him and spread like forest fire, was that it? Her hands? Were her hands causing his body to produce leaves and thorns as if it were a simple plant? Although, now that he thought about it, he had been a fool not to realize it before, after all, she was nothing more than a witch whose hands could grow trees and flowers out of nowhere.

He had been fooled. He had let his guard down and this witch was turning him into another plant in her garden.

Who many more had she done this to?

He looked at the surrounding trees for the hint that any of them were once a man, but he had done his job so well that there was not the slightest trace of a previous humanity in them.

Angry, he left the lake and put on his pants, not caring they were dirty and dusty from the activities he had done that day. He dressed in his armor and took the sword with him, searching for Hinata and finding her, as always, in the center of the small flower-covered hill that surrounded her.

His quick and heavy steps caught his attention, turning and smiling at him when she saw him approaching, but that expression quickly changed when he entered, stepping carelessly on the flowers that she loved so much.

"Sasuk ..!"

"In two days we will leave," he interrupted, placing the sword under her chin and applying enough pressure so the tip dug lightly into her neck, hurting her “I have already lost a lot of valuable time with your stupid games, as of today, I command”

He turned around without giving her the opportunity to speak and went to the farthest part of that garden, where he found what seemed to be the oldest tree of all, the most leafy, where he sat down and pressed his back against it, crossing his arms with his sword still in his hand, quickly creating in his mind all the logistics of what he would do next.

______________________

The desperate neighing of Onyx woke him up.

He hadn't realized when he had fallen asleep, but it seems as if the apocalypse had taken place once he closed his eyes.

He blinked, trying to clear the blurry view of him until everything was terrifyingly sharp.

In front of him, Onyx kept crying, rising on his hind legs and then dropping the front legs in heavy blows, kicking up the dust with each fall.

It was daytime, he could tell, but the whole environment was so bleak that his brain had a hard time understanding it.

He looked around him, all the space that had previously been green and colorful had turned to the darkest gray he had ever seen. The trees shed their leaves at an impressive speed, the same ones that were now on the ground, surrounding him.

He tried to take one, but the blades were so brittle they broke with the simple touch.

"Onix, take it easy" But the horse ignored him; instead, he whinnied louder as if urging him to stop and then ran, leaving him behind.

He walked carefully, looking everywhere: the bushes were dry but still held some of their fruits, of which he took one and put it in his mouth only to spit it out instantly, disgusted by the horrible taste of the previously delicious blackberry had taken. As he walked, a foul stench began to fill his nostrils, aggravating the closer he got to the lake, until he realized that was where it came from. The waters, previously clean and clear, were now as black and thick as tar.

What was happening?

It didn't take long for him to find the cause.

Still on the small hill was Hinata, motionless and with her head bowed, the flowers around her were wilted. Munda surrounded the hill, making a great circle with its whole body, as trying to be a wall of protection for her owner.

The great snake gave him a warning hiss, glaring at him, now with both of its healthy eyes, as if it was challenging him to come closer.

Even with the threat of the reptile, he did, he knew how protective he was, but he had learned that in here Munda was more like a puppy playing at being brave than the gigantic and terrifying snake really was.

Already within the circle of protection of him everything was more horrible, here the flowers were not withered, and instead they seemed burned. Hinata's body remained immobile, not even seemed to breathe, and when he surrounded her and was face to face with her, he was surprised by the horrible state that in just a few hours she had gotten.

Her skin was as gray as the rest of the earth, her previously pink lips were now dangerously close to black, almost all the flowers in her hair and crown had lost their petals and the ones that remained would fall at any moment. Her eyes were open and she kept them that way, without blinking, and the only sign that told him there was still life in her was the trail of tears that fell without stopping.

He crouched in front of her and called out, but he didn't get the slightest bit of recognition from her.

He grabbed her face and winced at the ease of movement he had from her, even if her body seemed stiffer than could be possible.

Then the dark green trail that fell from her throat to her abdomen caught his eye, and he felt as if he had been hit with the strongest metal as he remembered what he had done.

Was this his fault?

"Hinata," he called her, lifting her face so he could look into her eyes, which seemed to be empty. "Hinata, I'm sorry."

But his attempts were in vain because she did not respond or make the slightest movement that indicated she would do it at some point.

Desperation began to fill him and he didn't know what to do, stroking her face and trying to wipe the tears away, but they kept falling and instead, sliding over and around his thumbs, mocking his unsuccessful attempts to stop them.

Then, in a moment of utter despair he did something he had only thought would happen in his dreams, and kissed her.

His lips froze over the cold, chapped of hers, and all ambient sound that he had previously not actively noticed disappeared. He made no move, just stood with his lips joined, praying inside his mind for a reaction, until her lips trembled.

One sob left them, then two, until it was totally a symphony of wailing.

He hugged her and pressed her to his chest, quietly apologizing to her and preferring to hear her cry than remain in the deathly silence of moments ago.

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

Recovery was slower than he could have imagined. While it took less than one night to produce the disaster, fixing it was a matter of a long time.

She avoided talking to him and he couldn't blame her, not after all that he´d caused.

She was just getting back to her normal color and at the same time so did her garden, slowly returning to the green it was when he had arrived.

He hadn't given her a reason for his action in the first place, and he didn't think he'd do it sometime soon - never, if he could.

He just helped her silently, discovering that when he kissed her, she recovered a little more.

So he kept doing it, morning, afternoon and evening, until the pink on her cheeks appeared and the flowers in her hair began to bloom.

That, however, came at a price, and it didn't take long for him to realize that the mere touch was more powerful than that of her fingers.

It first reflected on his nails, which turned brown and their textures became like that of a tree trunk. Then on his chest, where leaves and thorns came out again.

It was a much faster process than he had thought.

"I think we can leave tomorrow" were the first words she spoke to him after days of silence, smiling shyly at him, speaking in a low voice.

He nodded as best she could, his neck stiff from the changes taking place in him.

That day his feet stuck to the ground, and pulling them off felt as if he had lost a limb.

"Sasuke" Hinata called him the next morning, worried about what she was seeing. "Since when has this been happening?"

He looked at her, but he didn't answer.

He was still lying on his grass cot, trapped by the ivy that had tightly encircled his arms, torso, and legs to keep him in place.

"Wait." The desperation in Hinata's voice was palpable, but he could barely recognize anything.

With her hands, Hinata touched the plants on top of him, but was surprised to see that instead of obeying her and disappearing, they seemed to tighten around Sasuke.

She looked at her hands without understanding what was happening and tried again, her eyes clouding over as she obtained the same result as the first time.

The tears left her eyes and the sobs soon appeared the more she tried and failed, becoming more energetic and miserable with every second more.

"Hinata," he called out, barely a hoarse whisper as he felt a new plant grow from his stomach and slide its roots through his esophagus, slowly exiting his mouth "There is no time for me…”

“Do not!" She shouted shakily" Don't say that!”

“S. Save them ... my people ...” he said, barely breathing.

"I-I will, but-but first ..." A sob interrupted her "you first..."

Sasuke wanted to deny, but he had neither the strength nor the mobility to do so.

"There ... there is ... no time for ... me" he repeated.

“Sasuke”

“Please”

Without finding the words to answer him, she just nodded.

Sasuke smiled and looked at her, grateful as a single tear slid down the side of his face as more roots came out of his mouth.

"Thank you" he said, his voice cracking, closing his eyes, "I lo ..."

But he couldn't finish his sentence, losing the last breath he had and finally letting the roots slide out of his mouth and dig into the ground beneath him.

A heartrending scream came from Hinata's mouth, the loss, for the first time in hundreds of years, completely ripping her apart.

She cried over his body, feeling a pain much worse than that of a few days ago completely invade her, feeling again how she was fainting rapidly.

But she still had one last promise to keep.

Unwilling to leave him, Hinata placed both hands on the ground and gathered all of her strength, screaming as she transferred her power beyond the forest, filling all around with the life that he had come looking for.

The earth shook and great thorny walls rose above all of her garden, joining in the center without closing completely, and leaving a small gap through which the sunlight entered.

Exhausted, she walked to where Sasuke's body lay covered in roots and she dropped down beside him, placing a hand on his chest, slowly closing her eyes and melting into him.

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

From the highest tower of the Uchiha castle, the cries of the courtesans invaded the room of King Itachi, whose body was covered by a white sheet as his court surrounded him.

"You did it, my king," Kakashi whispered, watching from the window as the kingdom began to fill with the vivid green of the growing plants and the colorful buds of flowers and fruit that followed them, though his attention was really fixed on the large bud that it had formed in the farthest part of the forest.

While, at the gates of the kingdom, Onyx the steed without his king arrived.

@sasuhinamonth

#sasuhina month #sasuhinamonth2021 #day 5 #sasuhina #queen of the garden #theres a spanish vertion #but im not publishing it here #too long

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thedevilsmemes · 3 years

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PINTEREST QUOTES I USE IN MY MUSINGS BOARDS ~ A SENTENCE MEME - PART 2

Change pronouns as / when needed to preferred pronoun.

“I do not do justice, I do damage. I do not do empathy, I do damage. I do not do forgiveness, I do damage. I do not do mercy, I do damage.”

“Like, you can boss me around in sexual situations but you better not try to tell me what to do in regular life.”

“I’m fine, I’ve had worse.”

“I’m meaner than my demons.”

“If I cannot bend Heaven, I will raise Hell.”

“Well, aren’t you a little ray of pitch black?”

“He was like a storm.”

“You want to play dirty? Fine, let’s play dirty!”

{ feels an emotion. } “Who the fuck authorised this?!”

“What the fuck? What the fuck is this? What the fuck?”

“Judge if you want. We are all going to die. I intend to deserve it.”

“Goddamn right you should be scared of me.”

“They wanted a monster; I decided to give them one.”

“Seduce and destroy.”

“What the fuck is intimacy? How does that work? Letting… people be close to you? What the fuck?”

“You couldn’t kill me if you tried for one hundred years.”

“I’ll do this my way.”

“I am severely emotionally unstable.”

“What, from the bottom of the heart, the fuck?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t take any orders. I barely take suggestions.”

“I send my best regards from Hell.”

“I like my coffee how I like myself: Dark, bitter and too hot for you.”

“Me and God, we don’t get along.”

“Be brave, Angel.”

“Self care is drinking three pots of coffee and getting into a knife fight with God.”

{ takes gulp of vodka straight from the bottle } “My day was fine.”

“Have I stabbed you? No. Then I am being nice.”

“Holy Shit! I’M the demon living in my house.”

“Sir, that’s my emotional support knife collection.”

“I want an ancient elaborate dagger with my name engraved into the blade as a gift. The only romantic gesture.”

“ ‘Are you a top or a bottom?’ I'm a threat!”

“Stop being so defensive! I’m just trying to hit you with weapons.”

“The more knives you have the more valid you are.”

“She’s strong but she’s exhausted.”

“She loves moonlight and rainstorms and so many other things that have soul.”

“My darling, you can’t see it can you? How like the moon you are. Both of you so timid in yourselves; hiding pieces from the world. Then, there are those rare moments when you are both full, and it becomes hard to look away. You are beautiful.”

“Calm her chaos but never silence her storm.”

“She wears strength and darkness equally well. That girl has always been half Goddess, half Hell.”

“She has been through Hell, so believe me when I say, fear her when she looks into the fire and smiles.”

“She’s proof that you can walk through Hell and still be an angel.”

“She is both hellfire and holy water. And the flavour you taste depends on how you treat her.”

“Even the mountains can not hold all you have been carrying.”

“Storm with skin.”

“She’s thunderstorms”

“Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.”

“You have a heart of gold.”

“Butterflies are the Heaven-sent kisses of an angel.”

“She who is brave is free.”

“Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.”

“Shut up. I wear heels bigger than your dick.”

“Girls who run in heels should be feared.”

“Family is everything to me.”

“She’s an old soul that believes in chivalry, romance, and love.”

“I hate getting flashbacks from things I don’t want to remember.”

“I run on coffee and grace.”

“I’m glad I’ve got boobs… the last thing I need is people making eye contact with me.”

“Tell me to put on my big girl panties one more time… and I’ll take off my thong and strangle you with it!”

“Please read all my posts in a sarcastic tone. You know, for full effect.”

“I have one nerve left and you’re dry-humping it, go away.”

“If I offend you, cry me a river. I’ll bring snacks and a raft. I will literally float down your tears, eating chips and working on my tan.”

“When she is happy, she can’t stop talking. When she is sad, she doesn’t say a word.”

“Music becomes my best friend when nobody else understands me.”

“Act like a lady, think like a boss.”

“I know I have friends but I feel I have no one to talk to about the shit that goes on in my head.”

“She was special. She combined a mean angel and a kind devil.”

“So much pain for someone so young.”

“She’s one of a kind.”

“Red lips and wine sips.”

“Brave girl, it’s time to love again.”

“She is intelligent.”

“Sometimes, when I say ‘I’m okay.’ I want someone to look me in the eyes, hug me tight, and say, ‘I know you’re not.’ ”

“Because I’m not the kind of girl guys fall in love with.”

“I fear I will spend my life, waiting for a love story that doesn’t exist.”

“You’re a woman, use it; bring every man you meet to his motherfucking knees.”

“She denies it but, the truth is, she’s falling in love with him.”

“Hearing your heels click on the floor sounds like power.”

“She loves deeply, regardless of the love she gets back in return and it’s both her biggest strength and biggest weakness…”

“Experience raised her. Hurt taught her. Neither defined her.”

“She was not fragile like a flower was, she was fragile like a bomb.”

“Life is short; make every hair flip count.”

“I’ve always been someone who looks ‘too deep’ into something or someone. That’s because I realised from a young age that there’s always more than what meets the eye.”

“If I say ‘first of all’ Run away because I have prepared research, data, charts, and will destroy you.”

“Underestimate me, that’ll be fun.”

“You think I’m sarcastic? You should hear what I don’t say!”

“She’s a combination of sensitive and savage.”

“Stay classy, sassy and a bit bad assy.”

“She’s battling things her smile will never tell you about.”

“Ain't you ever seen a princess be a bad bitch?”

“I was told I was dangerous… I asked why? They said ‘because you don’t need anyone.’ That’s when I smiled.”

“She’s been through hell and came out an angel. You didn’t break her darling, you don’t own that kind of power.”

“Watch me. I will go to my own sun and, if I am burned by the flames, I will fly on scorched wings.”

“Her messy hair is a visible attribute to her stubborn spirit. As she shakes it free, she smiles, knowing wild is her favourite colour.”

“She’s strong. But in the back of her mind she doesn’t think that she was meant to be this strong for this long. And she wonders if there is a man out there, somewhere, who understands this.”

“She’s not for everyone and she knows it. People find her different and strange. She dances in the rain, she laughs when she cries and loves through her pain. People fear the unknown and they never knew a girl like her.”

“Don’t tell a girl with fire in her veins and hurricane bones what she should and shouldn’t do. In the blink of an eye, she will shatter that ridiculous cage you attempt to build around her beautiful bohemian spirit.”

“You provoke her until she roars and then get upset at her for becoming the monster you created.”

“Rip out his ego with your fresh nails.”

“She isn’t the sunrise; she’s the fucking sun.”

“You can’t touch a woman who can wear pain like the grandest of diamonds around her neck.”

“Watch your tongue around her. She will bear her fangs and tear you apart with all the grace of a Queen.”

“If you won’t embrace her madness, then you’ll never taste her magic.”

“Beauty may be dangerous but intelligence is lethal.”

“She is water. Powerful enough to drown you, soft enough to cleanse you, deep enough to save you.”

“Heavy is the crown and yet she wears it as if it were a feather. There is strength in her heart, determination in her eyes and the will to survive resides within her soul.”

“I wish that I could say that I am a light that never goes out, but I flicker from time to time.”

“Spoil me with loyalty. I can finance myself.”

“Shoutout to all the people with brown hair and brown eyes! We basic as fuck but we cute!”

“I feel a nap coming on.”

“Is horny an emotion?”

“I just really like thigh-highs.��

“Even though she looks innocent, she is really a perverted demon.”

“She didn’t sob or wail. Her pain was horribly discreet but as persistent and almost as silent as bleeding from an unstitched wound.”

“I don’t rise from the ashes, I make them. I’m the whole fucking fire.”

“Beautiful but destructive.”

“I’m aiming for the ‘she’s a badass and cute as hell but I wouldn’t touch her without asking’ look.”

“Loving me must be so fucking hard and I’m so sorry.”

“Some women are lost in the fire. Some women are built from it.”

“You glow differently when you’re actually happy.”

“She’s magic, that one.”

“Kicked out of Hell.”

“Red hair: the crown you never take off.”

“You’ve got a fire inside.”

“She doesn’t need a warrior, she is one. What she needs is a devout heart, and strong arms to hold her after her battles are won.”

“You are the love that came without warning: You had my heart before I could say no.”

“You want battle? I’ll give you war.”

“True evil is, above all things, seductive.”

“The Devil’s got nothing on me, my friend.”

“Haven’t I fallen far enough?”

“I’m not like them, but I can pretend.”

“I don’t like being told what to do.”

“Now I grow wings and rage, and learn how to kill.”

“Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.”

“Though she be little, she be fierce.”

“I know what this is; It’s just myself, talking to myself, about myself.”

“You underestimate my power.”

#roleplay memes #rp memes #roleplay sentence starters #sentence starters #rp starters #sentence memes

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platonic-prompts · 3 years

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Creatures from Folklore: Slavic Region A-D

You ever need different creatures to base things off of, or just want some legends for a setting? Or heck, you ever just want to chuck a creature at someone and say you’ll figure it out? Well, do I have the posts for you. This one will focus on the Slavic Region but I’ll make more at a later date

Ala are considered to be demons of bad weather in several folklore, including that of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Their main purpose is to lead thunderclouds that produce hail towards fields, vineyards, or orchards to either destroy the crops or to loot and take them. They are very voracious and really like to eat children. Though one shouldn’t assume they limit their tastes to Earth, no. They sometimes try to devour the sun and moon which lead to eclipses and if they succeed it means the end of the world. People who encounter one may find their mental and physical health as well as their lives at risk. It is, however, possibly to gain her favor by approaching with trust and respect. These good relationships can be very beneficial since she (the ala) can make those with her favor wealthy and save their lives if they are in danger. Ala can take on many different forms: black wind, giant creatures with no distinct form, a monster either humanlike or snake like witha huge mouth, a female dragon, a raven, various human and animal shapes. Ala can also possess people’s bodies. They live in the clouds or in lakes, springs, hidden remote places as well as caves, inhospitable mountains, forests, or even a huge tree. Usually hostile towards humans, they have powerful enemies capable of defeating them like the dragons.

Alkanost have an incredible voice, capable of making anyone who hears her song might forget everything in their search for paradise. A creature of good who resides in the garden of the gods or whatever version of heaven required, the alkanost has the head and bust of a woman and the rest of the body is that of a bird. Sometimes this creature lays eggs which assist in the changing of winter to spring. Basically she wouldn’t sit on her eggs just dump them into the Ocean-Sea and when they reached the bottom the weather would turn fair. Though i think that takes her out of the running for parenting awards.

Anchutka is a small malevolent spirit, residing most often in water or a swamp. Even without wings, it is capable of flight. One of its nicknames is the one without heels. This is a common theme to look for, as oftentimes evil forces have a limp. Though in some storied this spirit has lost their heels because they got bitten off by a wolf. This spirit is often a sidekick to a water spirit called Vodyanoy, and as such you should never say its name aloud since it will always show up.

Aspid, a type of dragon with a beak and other birdlike elements, resides primarily in the mountains, preferring solitude. When it invades a region, nearly always it caused universal devastation.

Baba Yaga: I’m pretty sure a lot of people know about Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in a hut with chicken legs and goes around in a mortar and pestle. She does carry a broom though, but she only uses it to sweep away her tracks.

Bannik is a spirit who rarely does any good for anyone. A mischievous spirit that has the appearance of an old man with long claws, he’s a spirit that inhabits the banya (steamhouse). Whenever people bathed in the banya, they would always leave on the third or fourth session to let Bannik have his privacy. They would leave him offerings of soup and regularly thank him. Bannik had the power to tell the future and if asked a question he would softly touch the askers back if it was a good future or flay it if it was a not so good future. Oh and Bannik, when angry, would claw off the skin of those who annoyed him. The banya was also the place of Russian childbirth, so there were measures taken to keep him from interfering. Part of the midwife’s job was to keep him away. And with good reason. Legends say that he ate or flayed children. So therefore the midwife would dip stones in the water and throw them in the corner to distract the steamhouse spirit.

Bauk hide in dark places and holes and abandoned houses. There they wait to grab, take away, and devour their victims. They have a clumsy gait and can be scared away by light and noise.

Babay, possibly the same thing as the bubak, isn’t often described so children will come up with what is most terrible for them. But despite this, Baby has been described as a black and crooked old man. When he is descibed he tends to have some traits such as muteness, lacking arms, or walking with a limp. He carries with him a bag and a cane. Baby lives in a forest or a swamp or a garden only to come out at night to walk the streets and scoop up the children he meets. He will walk close to windows and watched the children sleep. If they aren’t he’ll scare them with noises. Or sometimes he even hides under kids beds to take them away if they get up.

Błędnica is a forest demoness, who leads people astray before leaving her victims alone in the midst of the forest to die of starvation or be eaten by animals. She is usually described as a young and pretty girl. The only way to chase her away is to use strong spells or to sacrifice something at home or during your hunt.

Blud is a fairy in Slavic mythology. An evil deity who causes disorientation and leads a person around and around aimlessly.

Bukavac lives in lakes and pools, coming out at night to make a loud noise. A six-legged monster with gnarled horns, it would jump people and animals and strangle them.

Bubak is often represented as a scarecrow with a skeleton as frame, which is connected with darkness, it is a type of boogeymen used to scare children. The skeleton often is describes as wearing a heavy black coat where it hides the children it steals.

Cikavac, a mythical creature from Serbian mythology and it kinda feels like a basilisk but way weirder. This thing is a bird that has a long beak and a pelican-like sack. You can acquire one at the low low price of your sanity and clear face. For you see, in order to get one, you need to take an egg from a black hen which a woman now needs to carry under her armpit for 40 days ( is now a good time to note that chicken eggs hatch after 21 days or so) and one cannot confess, cut nails, wash their face, or pray. After that the cikavac would suck the honey from other people’s beehives and suck milk from other peoples cows and then bring it back to their owner. It would fulfill its owner’s wishes and it would allow its owner to understand the animal language.

Chort, a demon or a humanlike spirit in Slavic folk tradition. They are not exactly evil characters. Yes they try to trick people into selling them their souls in exchange for useless gifts. Yes those people are carried off into hell. But they are sometimes tricked into doing such things as building castle walls in a day. Sometimes is depicted as trying to bring evil characters to hell. A small, hairy man with a tail, horns, and one or two hooves. But due to shapeshifting abilities, the chort is able to appear in nicer forms and tries to trick people while in them. Though these transformations aren’t and can’t be complete, so there’s a way to know if one is dealing with a chort whether it be by small horns in curly black hair or a hoofed leg hidden within high boots. Though they share similarities, a chort is not the devil.

Čuma, aka kuga, is a personification of the plague in Serbo-Croation myths. Typically appears as an old woman wearing white, though in some cases has been depicted as a young woman. Direct mention of them were avoided and were usually referred to by godmother or aunty. According to belief, they lived in a far away land where they came from to infect people. Due to their hatred of dirtiness, if they found a dirty household they would be eager to infect it. Due to this, if a plague appeared,every house and its occupants must be thoroughly cleansed. In addition one could make offerings to of food, clean water, basil, and a comb.

Domovoi are household protectors, generally seen as kind spirits though they would harass the family they protect if said family was rude or unclean. This usually took the form of pulling small pranks until the family corrected their behavior. While domovoi are shape shifters, most depictions show them as small, bearded masculine creatures which are reminiscent of hobgoblins. In order to complete his chores and to fulfill his duty of protecting the house, the domovoi would assume the shape of the head of the household, sometimes working in the yard while the real head of household was asleep. (Guess spirits don’t have to worry about identity theft charges). They were also capable of turning into animals, rarely taking the form of a dog or a cat. Another facet of the domovoi was their ability to act as an oracle. Predictions are as follows

Dancing and laughing= Good fortune would come

Rubbed the bristles of a comb= a wedding would happen soon

Extinguished candles= Misfortune would fall upon the household.

Dziwożona, a type of female swamp demon from Slavic mythology, sometimes called Mamuna or Bognika, who lived in the thickets near rivers and streams and lakes. Thought to appear with foul weather around trees and swamps, they are known for being malicious and dangerous, and usually were previously living humans. Several types of people would be at risk of turning into one after death, such as: midwives, old maids, unmarried mothers, pregnant women who die before giving birth, and abandoned children who were born out of wedlock. Some depictions include an ugly, old woman who had a hairy body, long straight hair, and I quote “breasts so huge she uses them to wash her clothes”. I don’t know what that actually means and I don’t want to find out. She also wore a red hat with a fern twig attached. In case she wasn’t weird enough, she’d watch women with their little children. Just chilling around making the kid sick and making schemes to get the mother away from the kid when she’d replace the kid with one of her own, a foundling/changeling.

#i spent 5 hours on this #you better appreciate me lookigng through a bunch of stuff only to find exactly what was on wikipedia #info post #not a prompt #Creatures from folklore vol I #that's what im gonna call this part #part 1 of...idk 3 4 or 5

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unokins · 3 years

Text

No Truth Left - part 6

CW: N/A

Link to Archive

Maverick mentally shook himself. Now was not the time for self doubt. He needed to act with confidence.

Further ingraining himself into Chie's arms, he searched the pile. The pain made moving her difficult, making the simple task all the more annoying. Bodies were such an inconvenience, though Maverick knew he had dealt with such things before, however recalcitrant he had been. Pain was a sensation best experienced by those who were not him.

Several minutes of searching finally yielded a suitable result. Rings were too unnoticeable, necklaces and tiaras too bulky. But Chie's hands held up two gold bracelets. Maverick pressed a clasp and the bracelets swung open to snap around the wrist. Two thick rings of gold provided the support for the worshipping Deep Ones that danced around the metal.

Maverick clamped one on Chie's wrist, then the other. They were lightweight and ran halfway up her skinny forearms. Maverick shook her arms, bouncing the bracelets around bony wrists.

The gold shuddered and squeezed, becoming flush with Chie's flesh. Not tight enough to cut off circulation, but they no longer hung loosely. The golden Deep Ones glinted menacingly against Chie's brown skin.

That's fine, Maverick thought to himself, letting Chie's arms drop as he pulled away. The needling pain vanished and he sighed. That's fine.

Chie awoke several minutes later with a breathless wheeze. Groaning, she sat up, body shaking from cold, head pounding, and chest burning.

Took you long enough. Maverick sounded impatient and Chie sighed.

"How long was I-" she stopped, incredulousness pulling her face down as she stared at her wrists. "What are these? Shackles? How did I-" She demanded.

They’re bracelets, came the exasperated reply. They should give us some measure of protection. The Deep Ones should think we're worshippers. Well, that you're a worshipper, anyway.

"No way," Chie started, examining the jewelry. There was the latch and Chie clicked it. "Last time I listened to you, I almost drowned. These-"

She pressed the latch again. It didn't release. “Oh, come on.” She pressed and pulled the bracelet at the same time. Nothing. Using her nails, Chie dug into the hairline crack where the ends met with futility.

"Shit."

We can worry about getting them off later. Get up and move. We've got a moment alone.

She could feel scrapes on her belly, shoulders, and legs throb. That tunnel had been so- Don’t think about it. Her fingernails were torn and chipped from where she had- Don’t think about it. Bracing herself against the wall, Chie stood. Her legs wobbled and her head spun. What did almost drowning- Don’t think about it. If she wanted to live, she couldn’t afford to think about it.

Once the world settled, Chie clicked on her flashlight and explored the cavern. It was like many of the other tunnels she explored earlier, just wider. Sloping walls surrounded her, and a few puddles dotted the floor. The piles of gold were new. Some stood at knee height, others stacked in disarray to waist height. They dotted the tunnel like haystacks in a farmer’s field, and Chie weaved around them, trying not to disturb them. The air was brisk and waves lapped against stone gently. Even though the rank, fishy odor still hung in the air, it wasn't as overwhelming as the island's topside.

As Chie passed one of the many piles of gold, she lingered. Admiration for the details was marred by a feeling of grotesque discomfort. It almost felt as if there was something more within the angled lines and swirling metal, as if she should be putting something together. But the more she tried to piece something together, the more it slipped away.

Shaking her head as if that could rid her of the unease, Chie took a step forward and felt her leg buckle. She shut her eyes, bracing herself against a stalactite as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Her throat still stung from earlier, and she didn't want to vomit again.

Keep moving, Chie, Maverick prodded. She could almost feel him poking her in the small of the back.

"Give me a minute." Slow, deep breaths. If she took it slow, she'd be fine.

We can't afford a minute. Move!

"I almost died, Maverick!" Chie snapped at him. "I almost died." Chie blinked back tears and focused again on breathing. It came crashing back with terrifying clarity, refusing to be ignored. Her shoulders shook. "I need a minute."

And the more time you spend moaning about it, the more likely something will find you.

Chie's muscles tensed. "If I'm not moving fast enough, why don't you take control and move me?" Chie paused for a remark, but none came. "If I'm such a spineless pushover, then take my body from me!"

Maverick was silent. Chie didn't push him, slipping to the ground.

"I almost fucking died and you just..." Chie laughed weakly, running her hand over her face. Did her parents know where she was? Her friends? Would they have spent years wondering when she'd come home, only for her corpse to be stuck in a flooded tunnel surrounded by monsters? "I'm- I just-"

You're alive. Maverick sounded chastised, and his words had the strained tone of someone who wasn't used to being patient. Steady yourself. Spiraling won't save you.

"You suck at giving advice," Chie muttered. Maverick didn't reply and she was thankful. A moment for herself wouldn’t kill them. While water dripped from the ceiling above, she could hear no slapping footsteps approaching.

Chie breathed deep, and slipped to the ground, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in them. Would she lose everything important to her? The burning in her chest refused to relent, and Chie coughed. She coughed again, as if there was more water to expel, and tears tracked down her cheeks again. She didn’t want to be here, where monsters were real and death was closer than she ever imagined.

Several minutes of feeling sorry for herself wasn’t as fulfilling as she thought it would be. When the tears ran out, and Chie’s breathing steadied once more, she just felt hollow. There was nothing for her here except answers as to why this happened, and she wouldn’t find them sitting on the ground and moping. Chie pushed herself up. She was still alive. She kept moving. Maverick's satisfaction hummed from within.

Turning a corner led Chie to a new, larger cavern. Smooth ceilings sloped down to walls filled with both carvings and multiple tunnel entrances. Large pillars, boasting more of those strange carvings, ran from floor to ceiling, and Chie wondered if they were the same pillars she saw on the surface. Perhaps giving them a wide berth was the smart idea.

The back of the cavern opened to the vast ocean stretching beyond the reef. There was no shore, just a short, sharp drop from rock to water. Shadows from the overhanging cliff danced on the murky water. Thankfully, no Deep Ones stalked the area. Chie picked her way to the ocean, weaving around shallow pools and discarded gold jewelry.

While the gold was stacked more orderly against the stalactites and carved rocks here, they had been set aside like a child's least favorite toys. Grime marred the jewelry, and bits of ill-looking moss had begun to grow at the bottom of some of the piles. She frowned, running her finger along the maze-like lines of a beautiful tiara. A thin layer of muck was cleared away from the once gleaming surface.

Chie, look up!

Her head twitched, and Chie’s eyes widened with awe. While she had seen boats run through the river Miskatonic, she had never seen a ship like this before. It was more decay than wood, and a large hole gaped in the bow where it was moored against the cavern's stone floor, several dozen feet from a stone dock. One large mast jutted up from the deck, the other two broken fragments of what they once were. White sails were rotted to grey tatters that clung stubbornly to their riggings. No longer fit for sailing, but Chie was in awe of how majestic it must have been decades ago. The name Sumatra Queen was faded but still visibly painted on its side.

Chie paused in front of the ship, shining the flashlight up into the massive hole. Shadows clung to the dark wood, but she could see stairs leading to the rest of the ship.

To your right.

Chie looked over to the dock. Next to the dock stood a metal and plastic folding table that held a battery powered lamp, papers, and pens. As she walked over to it, she saw more sturdy nylon rope on the dock. A frown tugged at her lips.

Let’s see what these say.

Chie turned on the lamp and picked through the papers. Laminated star charts, maps, spreadsheets, and receipts littered the tabletop and the more she looked, the more confused she felt. She examined a star chart, eyes methodically moving over the grid.

“While I’m not an astrology buff,” she started, glancing over another chart. “I should be able to pick out some constellations. But I can’t find anything, not even Polaris. Do you recognize anything?”

Vaguely, Maverick replied with a hum. It’s… strange. I’m not too sure what, exactly, I’m looking at.

“...Stars?” Chie asked as she looked at receipts. Iron, chisels, old books…

I don’t think they’re any stars of this world, Chie.

“We are not going to unpack that right now,” she replied bluntly, tossing the receipt back down. “Just who are you, Maverick?”

Wish I knew. He paused. Hey, there’s a letter.

Chie picked that up. It was less of a letter and more of a to-do list. Hastily scrawled notes, some scratched out, others circled, covered the paper. Some of it was illegible. Other parts didn’t even seem to be written in English.

“Gather materials. Prepare the gates,” Chie read out loud. “Innsmouth, Arkham, Ipswitch…”

Looks like the rest are just coordinates. Probably not near any cities, Maverick said.

Chie pulled out one of the maps and picked a coordinate. “Here,” she said, pointing to a red circle drawn on the map. It was a few miles into the open ocean, just off the Devil’s Reef. “And… Here. Dunwich.” She frowned, pulling up a world map. “This one has marks… all over the place. More in America, some in the UK. Russia, Brazil, Antarctica, Egypt… More just… in the ocean. What is this?”

I don’t know. With each question Chie asked, Maverick’s annoyance flared. But I do recognize the name Ipswitch.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Chie said, looking at the to-do list again. Contact J.H., contact N, find M. “I went there for a school trip once. Decent sized town. Nice historical district.”

No, I mean it feels… personal, in some way. I remember… an address. Maverick paused, and Chie could feel him thinking, almost mouthing the words to himself to pull any more familiarity from them. 97 Washington Ave.

“Hm…” Chie lingered on the to-do list.

We need to go there next.

“Hold on,” Chie said, shaking her head. “I thought we were supposed to get answers here! We just have more questions! I can’t just go galavanting all over Massa-”

The gentle hum of an engine cut her off. It was quiet, but fast approaching, the sound echoing all through the cavern. She couldn’t see it yet, but knew if she didn’t hide somewhere fast, it would get her.

Chie dropped the list and stepped away from the dock. She lingered. That was an actual boat. With an engine. No fish monster would need a boat to travel over the water. Which meant people.

The engine’s puttering grew louder.

No, Chie, Maverick cut in. You need to hide. You don’t know who these people are. And if they’re coming out to the Devil’s Reef, they’re going to be trouble.

“We’re out at the Devil’s Reef,” Chie returned as she held up her hands, bringing the bracelets into plain sight. “And what was the point of putting these on if you want to hide? If this person thinks we’re on their side, maybe they’ll help us.”

He’s going to hurt us.

“Maybe they’re just a fisherman. Maybe they saw our boat. ”

Chie! Go hide!

>Hide >Wait

#horror #writing #horror story #choose your own path #choose your own adventure #original writing #ocs #original characters #lovecraft #lovecraftian horror #lovecraftian #lovecraft horror #let me know in the replies or reblogs what they should do #thank you everyone who continues to read my writing #no truth left

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quazartranslates · 3 years

Text

Welcome to the Nightmare Game - CH84

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

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Chapter 84: Castle Cry (XI)

Fear, endless fear, Qi Leren moved in panic, and the shadows crawling at his feet moved. They dragged him to the ground with incredible strength and he could not move. The dagger inlaid with holy runes had no effect on the shadow. Qi Leren ruthlessly cut his left arm with the knife, and blood gushed out. The rune on the dagger gave off milky white light, which made his blood carry a weak holy power. The shadow crawling all over the ground paused for a moment, and then came upon him again.

Damn, how could he deal with this thing without form? As the power of the shadows wass getting stronger and stronger, Qi Leren was pulled down and he couldn't stand up. Looking up, the crazy lady was less than five meters away from him!

Save? Or should he use another spell?

No, it wasn’t the time to save. Try again!

A miniature bomb was thrown out and exploded nearby. On the ground, Qi Leren felt the impact, and all the candles nearby went out, leaving only a few candles scattered in the deepest part of the basement.

Qi Leren looked up. After the smoke dispersed, he saw the crazy lady lying on the ground in the distance. She was still, as if she had died in the explosion.

Had she died just like that? Was it over?

Qi Leren was in a state of dreamy unreality, and the shadows had disappeared. He slowly got up from the ground and staggered towards her... Either way, he should make sure with the dagger first.

After the explosion, the miniature bomb had left a pit in the basement. Qi Leren bypassed it and carefully came to the crazy lady's side. She was lying on the ground, her face covered with blood, her eyes closed, and her long golden hair scattered, as if she had lost her vitality.

Qi Leren walked towards her in the dark, and the remaining candlelight in the distance was ethereal, but it could not reach his feet. He came to the lifeless crazy lady's side, clutching the dagger in his hand and slowly lifting it…

Kill her and finish this mission.

Qi Leren's heart beat so fast that even his eardrums were shaking, and his wrist holding the dagger trembled gently because of the fierce struggle just now. He felt as if he was wrapped in a sticky dark, and countless questions, metaphors and plots were glued together, which locked him firmly. But as long as he swung the dagger, everything would be punctured by a sharp blade, and everything would end rudely.

As long as it was over.

With a dull pain in the back of his neck, the seed reminded him that this was a place full of demons, and he couldn’t delay any longer.

Determined, Qi Leren tightened his hand holding the dagger and stabbed it hard!

The wrist was firmly held by a thin and pale hand, and a temperature as cold as ice froze him. When Qi Leren realized what was holding his hand, he jolted like he’d been given an electric shock - his wrist was clasped, and he couldn't escape at all.

He didn't know when the dead crazy lady had opened her eyes. The intact left eye and the right eye that has become a bloody hole "looked" at him together, and the corners of her mouth rolled up in a strange angle.

"Ah, you are not Adeline." The crazy lady sighed and said, "She was a kind, obedient and stupid woman - while she was still alive. Your skin is so warm, this is the temperature of the living. You are not Adeline."

Her intact left eye was also empty and held no focus.

"Are you my Johann?" The crazy lady's other hand slowly touched Qi Leren's cheek, and the hand stained with blood and ashes smeared the smell of death on his face. "My dear, dear Johann. Do you still love me when I am no longer kind, gentle, and beautiful?"

Blood, blood with a demonic smell, was wiped on his face, and the seed of slaughter was like a river that burst its banks, which plunged down from the dam of rationality and instantly washed away his will.

At this moment, Qi Leren only had time to save. At the moment when the save was finished, the seed of slaughter living in his back neck jumped instantly, and spread to his whole body along the spine. The demon power filled his whole body, and a bloodthirsty desire for killing invaded Qi Leren's mind.

Kill her!

Qi Leren's caught wrist filled with strength. He swung his backhand and grabbed his crazy lady, and threw her away. The crazy lady screamed and flew a few meters, and her body collided with the wall beside her, knocking away some candles that had already been extinguished.

"Monster... You’re a monster!" the crazy lady suddenly screamed in horror, trembling.

Qi Leren stood up, his eyes empty, and walked to her step by step.

The crazy lady screamed horribly. In the banshee-like high-pitched sound, the extinguished candles lit up again, and the huge basement shone brightly. In this dazzling flickering candle light, countless shadows recovered again, flocking to Qi Leren like a tide.

Qi Leren was still moving forward, and those crazy shadows were shaking and flapping like branches in the wind, but at the moment when they come into contact with Qi Leren, they seemed to be blocked by invisible barriers, unable to ensnare him, and could only struggle and twist around him in vain.

Low magic, ah.

In Qi Leren's mind sounded a voice that didn't belong to him, or it wasn't a voice at all, but a stream of consciousness that suddenly appeared in his mind. He knew what it was saying, even if it didn't resort to language.

The seed of slaughter, talking.

Qi Leren was aware of this, but right now the controlled brain and body couldn't make any response to the problems he was aware of. It is like a letter that had been written but then forgotten to be sent, and thus it couldn't get a response from the recipient.

He came to the crazy lady, caught her neck with his right hand, and lifted her up.

The crazy lady with blood on her face opened her mouth wide, her feet were off the ground, her face was ferocious and twisted, and her whole body weight remained on her fragile neck, which could break at any time. Her legs struggled to kick, but her strength was weak. Those crazy shadows surrounded her, twisting and changing the shape terrifyingly as she struggled.

However, all this had lost its effect. Qi Leren threw away the dagger inlaid with holy runes in disgust. The metal dagger fell to the ground and bounced twice, then went to sleep quietly. But his hand clenched around the crazy lady’s neck became harder and harder, and it closed like a vice - a crisp crack sounded, and the struggling crazy lady quivered before going limp. Demon energy gushed out from her, and was swallowed up by the seed through Qi Leren’s hands.

Qi Leren loosened his hand and watched her turn into a pile of dead meat, which then quickly rotted into a pile of bones amidst the candlelight.

Wake up quickly.

Wake up!

Trapped in the depths of his consciousness, he shouted, and Qi Leren's fingers twitched. He was trying to compete for control of his body with the seed of slaughter, but unlike the last time he awakened the seed of slaughter, this time it had absorbed new demon power and became stronger and more greedy.

He only had a few seconds at most, and Qi Leren suddenly broke out and bumped into the rough wall. The sharp pain made him wake up instantly, and the seed of slaughter entrenched in his consciousness unwillingly receded. Reason and control once again returned to his body.

Qi Leren collapsed and sat on the ground, blood dripping slowly from his forehead, which smeared half of his face. But at this time, he couldn't take care of it, and fatigue surged up from the bottom of his heart, making his body dull.

Blood flowed through the corners of the mouth and tasted salty. The dormant seed of slaughter seemed to be stirring again. Qi Leren took out the holy water from his inventory and took a sip of it, suppressing it back.

The holy power in the holy water injected a little vitality into his body. At least he had the strength to stand up.

The wound on his head wasn’t serious. Qi Leren directly covered it with a towel. He was ready to go out later and let Dr. Lu bandage it simply, to try not to waste his skills. Only, the cut on his arm was a bit deep. He bandaged it tightly to avoid massive bleeding. He tentatively opened his palm and clenched his fist, and found that there was no nerve damage, so it didn't seem to affect him in battle too much.

He picked up the rune dagger that had just been thrown aside and held it in his hand. Qi Leren walked deeper into the basement.

Earlier, a little baby had been put on the rocking chair where the crazy lady was located. When he got close, he found that it wasn’t a live baby, but a doll. Its shape was rough and it seemed to be sewn with cloth. Qi Leren hesitated and picked it up.

"Ah--!" The doll let out a piercing scream, which scared Qi Leren, who threw it on the ground and stepped on it.

Under his foot the doll struggled to twist up, like a living creature. Qi Leren both wanted to and didn’t want to use the dagger to stab it down, and once stabbed by the dagger, the doll sent out a sad cry then ceased to move.

A small pool of black liquid seeped out of the doll's body, like a pool of blood.

Qi Leren kicked it, and the doll finally stopped moving and looked like an ordinary toy.

It should be dead? Qi Leren was concerned. What evil thing was this, to give off such a strange and ominous feeling?

Qi Leren rummaged through the basement, and soon found a hidden compartment on the wall behind the rocking chair. After opening the hidden compartment, there was an embedded cabinet with two drawers. Qi Leren's heart beat faster, and he had a wonderful premonition,but also an ominous premonition.

Opening the first drawer, there was a tin box, and the system prompt reappeared: "Obtained the sacrifice of the devil 3/6".

When the tin box was opened, it was a bloody eyeball, which had already been covered in a layer of gray and looked cloudy and disgusting. Qi Leren immediately thought of the crazy lady’s empty right eye. Why was her eyeball here? Who dug it out?

Suddenly, there was a glimmer of light behind him, and Qi Leren turned his head and once again saw the phantom - the phantom that appeared every time he found the demon sacrifice.

The crazy lady who couldn't see her own face lingered in the cellar and yelled at the cellar door: "Open the door! Let me out! You poor, rebellious slaves! Who allowed you to lock me up here! "

Outside the cellar came the sound of a key unlocking. The crazy lady looked at the cellar door with delight. The cellar door above her head opened, and a basket containing food was lowered down by ropes and fell to the ground.

The crazy lady looked above her with bitter eyes: "Nina, have even you betrayed me?"

A trembling voice came from outside the cellar door: "Madam, I didn't ... It was the Master’s order to have you stay here."

The crazy lady cried furiously, "I am your master! I am! Let me out! I order you! Let me out!"

Nina sobbed in a low voice outside the door, which could not be heard over the roar of the crazy lady. Soon the crazy lady was tired and sat down on the ground, staring overhead and looking at Nina.

After a long time, Nina, who had stopped crying, whispered, "Madam, I have to go… but I will forget to lock the cellar door. If you… want… I am willing to help you go back, I am willing… to do anything for you as long as you get better."

The crazy lady looked at her in confusion and didn't respond to her words. When the cellar door closed again, she suddenly giggled and slowly put her hand on her intact right eye…

"One more, one more, dear, I can... ha ha ha ha ha..."

The phantom gradually faded, and together with the whispered mad words, it went silent before Qi Leren’s eyes.

The eye in a bloody and rancid state in the tin box made Qi Leren feel sick. He wrapped it in cloth, stuffed the things into his own inventory, and prepared to hand them over to Dr. Lu for safekeeping. The demon power on the tin box made him feel uncomfortable, and the crazy phantom of Mrs. Sarah also made him feel uncomfortable.

There was another drawer in the dark room…

By dim candlelight, Qi Leren slowly opened the drawer: the reflection of metal first caught his eye, then a familiar trademark. With wide eyes, Qi Leren flung open the drawer and stared at the contents.

For a moment, he felt that he was dreaming. He must be dreaming, because only in dreams could such absurd things happen.

Here, he had actually found the origin of this nightmare.

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[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

#Welcome to the Nightmare Game #欢迎来到噩梦游戏 #danmei

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dwollsadventures · 4 years

Photo

As requested by theLOAD, here is a family tree of all the beings included in the "Nix" family, or how a bunch of water horses, a river dragon, and a violin playing devil are all related to each other. Line-art version because I will never be satisfied with colors here.

Before I get into that, however, I should say that this shouldn't be taken as absolute fact. Firstly, it's absolutely incomplete. There are many, many, many different water horses in Western Europe. I kind of just lumped three of them together in the bottom left corner. One could argue that the Welsh Ceffyl Dŵr should be on here, as well as the Belgian Kludde or the Breton Mourioche. There's a whole lot of them. Secondly, it isn't as cut and dry as the tree makes it seem. The knucker didn't spontaneously turn into a dragon, it was probably influenced by dragon folklore in the area before the name stuck. Outside influence is all over the place. Were water horses in Britain derived from English and Saxon sources or did the occupying Norse bring them? It's unclear. As well, there's probably a lot of internal influencing going on. It's hard to tell when exactly nixies came about. Were they influenced at all by the Scandinavian nøkk? When? Making family trees larger than this is hard. It would be all tangled up. For now though, let's look at the creatures that are on there right now.

The oldest of the bunch are the Old English nicor and Old Norse nykr. I couldn't find much about the nykr specifically, but the Icelandic and Faroese nykur was probably the best bet for what the Norse believed about it. The two share an old, old name, and based on the common characteristics it was probably similar to these two. Both the nicor and nykur are water monsters. That's basically it. Outside of Beowulf, the nicor is mentioned rarely if at all. There it's no different from any mundane water creature, and the word could also be used to refer to hippos as well. It's an ambiguous water monster. If specific characteristics existed, they probably haven't survived to the modern era. Judging the nykr by its Icelandic equivalent the nykur, it was primarily a water horse. A creature which mimics a regular horse standing by a river, beckoning weary travelers and children at play to ride it. Then the riders find themselves stuck as the horse leaps into the water, drowning and devouring the unfortunate soul. The nykur is a shapeshifter, rarely known to take human shape as well. It can be discovered by looking at its hooves, which are backwards.

From there, we split the two into Britain and Continental Europe. Britain has the most regional variants of water horses. They are very much similar to the nykur of before, with some local flair or quirks. The mischievous nuggle of the Shetland Isles has a wheel-shaped tail, while the spiteful, kidnapping tangie can equally appear as an old man covered in seaweed. In Scotland kelpies, the each-uisge, and the Manx glashtyn are all quite similar, being equally water horses while also taking the form of men. Strangely, one branch of the tree led to the knucker, a Sussex water dragon. While certainly different from its cousins, it does bear a resemblance to the ambiguous nicor of yesteryear. Knuckers are slippery fiends with monstrous appetites. The most famous one was killed by feeding it a poisoned meat pie. Knuckers live in knuckerholes, round kettle-like bodies of water that stretch deep into the ground.

Then, continental Europe. Here the water horse still lives, but was overshadowed by its more humanoid forms. Brook horses are found across Scandinavia and mostly act the same as their counterparts in Britain. A regional trait is that some (I believe Danish or Swedish) can extend their bodies if a large group of victims want to ride it. Pretty nightmarish. This horse just extends and then jumps in the water and kills you. The other form is the nøkk* (Norwegian/Danish), neck (Swedish), nakki (Finnish), or fossegrim/strömkarl. This is a man-shaped being that sits in rivers and waterfalls, usually playing a violin. The music lures people into the water, where he then drowns them. Fossegrim is also an accomplished shapeshifter. His usual form is that of a naked young man, but he can also become a brook horse at will, or simply melt into the water. Regardless, there's usually one part of him that signals his true nature (horse hooves, an inhumanly crooked nose, a third eye, hairy legs). While usually malevolent, killing or kidnapping people, some have been able to coax music lessons out of him. He could also act as an omen for drownings. In Germany, the nix or nixie is similar in that they will sometimes use their enchanting voice to lure people to their deaths, usually in rivers and lakes, even the Rhine itself. Nixies can also be pretty chill though. They can equally be male or female and even take human form. The one give away is their sopping wet clothes. And no I did not unintentionally lift the design from the skin deep comic I swear please don't send me to jail.

*(also, language lesson! sometimes you'll see it written as nøkken in english. this isn't a variant of the name, but "nøkk" in its definite form, basically meaning "the nøkk")

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mrsunderhill678 · 3 years

Text

Woops, I wrote again

"What a shame it is, ta recognize the fingers that pulled back the hammer. What a shame it is, when the man in the mirror's the one who shot the gun." - Darnell Bronko

"They tell ya heaven's in hiding and lead you to the edge of your sanity, whispering, "Jump, heaven sits at the bottom." And as you fucking fall, you begin to realize that angels never fell, they jumped and thought it paradise." - Jess Mercikal

"I'm a grave dug too early, digging up my own bones, always wondering why the different are damned whilst the powerful are celebrated for their indifference. But I guess that's just how it goes, huh? The boy who cries wolf is loved by the predator, for he falls easily into his maw. But as he begs for a savior, everyone passes the different boy by because "He asked for it." - Havio Bonecross

"There is no beauty more pure than the release of life, the gasp of the heretic soul whispering like smoke on the edge of the saint's holy knife." - Vareeth Gospel

"She was a delusion of the worst kind. Of the breathing, haunting kind that digs it's fingers into the recesses of your skull and crushes every thought, every memory with dream slathered hands. And she was the worst kind of evil that consumes, and consumes, and consumes until there's nothing left but the girl that was, but is no more." - Zacharia Von Shelrick

"My mind drifts back ta the days'a pain, and every time I see brokenness reflected in the eyes'a that old orphanage. And I can't help but think'a that little girl, chokin' on darkness and delusions before she ever had a chance ta live. And that's what pain does ta ya. It kills innocence and replaces it with himself." - Clayborne Pettygore

"In the eyes'a innocence decayed I met young evil, killin' a young girl from the inside out as if that old eightball had whispered she'd fall inta the darkness without a damn doubt. And every now and then, my darkness reminds me that in some ways, I'm just like that little girl. Dead too soon. Corrupted too young. A grave before I ever crawled." - Sampson O'Connel

"Some men get choice. Men like me get ta follow fate's river as it fuckin' sweeps em away." - Wyval Killsrift

"Son, I'd go inta the dark gently if I were you. Her teeth are sharp and she likes the kinda prey that fights back and dances on 'er tongue." - Wyval Killsrift

"I've got a knife in the back of my throat, and it coats my words in blood." - Wyval Killsrift

"Peel back my skin and tear me apart in search for redemption. In search for beauty. But all you'll find in the remains of my ribcage is a heart faded to black where all the red used to be. I'm a power lusting, sin starving, wretched beast, preying on his own flesh just to survive who he's become. But I like it that way. I always have. There are many forms of death that don't end in a funeral. A kind of death you can only see in the flickers of emotion in a cruel man's eye." - Totalis Sinsbad

"Evil wears many faces. But the evil I met, she wore only one." - Bob Smyke

"I don't think you ever really leave that first high. I was just young and dumb when I went on my first trip. I soared through the air on acid wings and smoke. My eyes spilling with tears that tasted like blood on my whiskey scarred tongue. And I'll never escape that memory. That addiction to the liminal. To the blurred edges of reality. I've grown so achingly tired of this body. I just want to fucking escape myself. And that's what my addiction gave me. But I the snake tongued devil, shaped like pills and needles never told me he'd carve small pieces of me off as I slept and dreamt of greater things." - Mieda Brushvaker

"Escaping reality's a deadly, thing. First, you tell yourself it's just this once. You'll never fucking do it again. And you keep telling yourself that. Before ya know it, people start leaving you because you're just a cocaine husk, bleeding from the tip of a heroin needle. I told myself I'd quit again, and again, but that shit changed me. And in some sinister fucking way, I'm always going to be a junkie, caught between this rift in reality. Cause I just ain't been me ever since white powdered fingers came for me in the dark and choked the reality from me." - Armano Sketer

"I wouldn't get in the habit of denying reality. It's a knife, my friend. And with every denial of it's existence, it sharpens. And it prepares to cut, slow." - Darwin Flowrick

"I'm a lustful, starving, crooked shadow. Feasting off of innocence. off of scars. Off of pieces of fragility and wicked divinity. Many call me a monster, but I'm human. Dreadfully human. And isn't that what makes their hearts run black? I am as human as they who damn me. I used to be just as innocent. But I came for myself, with teeth reddened by the slaughter, claws sharp and hungry for a young boy's innocence. And with pale, crooked eyes I desecrated my sense of self, and tore it apart piece, by delicious, starving piece." - Darwin Flowrick

"Redemption passed 'er by, and delusions came for 'er with feral, rotting teeth. If she ever knew innocence, it curled up in her chest and opened in her heart like a dyin' flower. Blackining. Decayin'. Dyin' before she ever had a chance ta fuckin' live. I once asked 'er "Why?" And all she ever did was smile and ask, "Why not?" And that's such a wicked kinda' evil. Such a relentless, fucked up kinda misery. And I always wondered, as she faded inta the night if she went home ta the darkness she'd always lived in." - Roan Scorpio

"Darkness beats in my chest, like a soft, quiet melody told by very few. They say it's forbidden. They say it's cursed. Dreadful. Deadly. But I like the way it resurrects me. The way it pulls my cracked bones back together. The way it stitches the flesh and sits, like blood on the tongue. I sway under the dying light of innocence, closing my eyes as I know, I've truly felt what it was, to die. And it came for me with pale fingers and crooked, bones. And I like the way it nips at my scars with reddened teeth and tells me this horror is beautiful." - Elzibith Varcoat

"There's a ghost in my head, and it whispers reasons for it to haunt me. You'll fall back, it says, you'll grasp at that sweet release just to escape from the mind numbing reality of who you are. And I always fight back in whimpers, and cries, and tears in the corners of my eyes. It's not so easy fighting a war when the enemy is yourself, and it's who you are on the frontlines. Armed with rifles full of addiction and needles, ready to prod. And tear. And chew away at me until I'm me no more. Just another drug bound, addiction fueled ghost." - Torva Allidaine

"Truthfully, I am not a human being. Humanity was ripped from me first from bullet hole fangs and gunpowder dripping tongues. And as I tried to scrap together what pieces of me I had, humanity was once more torn away from my bones. For pale fingers came in the dark and ripped, away. As if I was just another layer of skin hiding the bitter, rotten goods. So I do what I can with what little I have. I kill a bad man. I fire off another fucking bullet. Because that's all I am. A thing that goes bump in the bad thing's quiet darkness." - Amarillo Crocker

"Sometimes, I must confess, I begin to wish I could rip away at this skin. Like a sunburn beginning to peel. I have stood in this flesh for too long. This aching, heavy, crushing flesh. This is not me. It can't be. I want to fall, like Icarus from the sky. To let my wings and skin burn away with the heat of the sun. If only to reveal the woman hiding behind all this skin. This ugly, defiant, constricting skin. I am a cage. But I've always been a cage. too." - Valdosta Coffenbury

"Hungry, reminding fingers wrapped around my chest. Stealing the air from me. The comfort. The safety. It was always there. Always hungry. Always reminding me I'm not who I should be. Who I want, to be. It lives in the mirror, and the steam from the shower. It lives in my chest. In the edge of a shaving razor as I cut away at facial hair that never should've been there. It's suffocating, sometimes. But usually, it's quiet. In the back of my head. In the back of my chest. The back of the shower. Always there. Always hungry. Always reminding me of the face that isn't mine in the mirror. And that's what it feels like. Being somebody that isn't you. Never was. Never will be. Never again." - Valdosta Coffenbury

"I fell asleep, but it weren't so kind. I tossed, and I turned. I fell inta my first nightmare'a the night. I can remember the pitch black sky. His quiet anger that was so, loud. I couldn't speak. As if the terror, or the sorrow, or whatever the fuck it was sat in my throat, forcing my words back down like tears drippin' from my cheeks. I don't remember much'a the second nightmare. Just red. Everywhere. In my throat, in my words, bleedin' from my God damn eyes. But then I was awake in the twilight, wrapped in itchy blankets and cold sweat, wonderin' if I'd woken back inta my life, or stepped inta another fucked up piece'a me." - Ace Swinton

"My heart's a threadbare emotion, starving on the memories of my mother." - Rafaela Caesar

"I want to see the vulnerable side of you as I slink under the shadows of your bed, to listen to the way your breath breaks and mourns under the weight of a nightmare and dream divided. I want to see you broken as I hide in the shadows of your closet, to hear the secrets you whisper to torn sweaters and dresses you outgrew long ago. Eaten away by moths and woven into a spider's web. But most of all, perhaps, I want to taste the blood of your malice in my mouth as your anger nips at my tongue and tries to kill this man I am. You can never be rid of me, for I am the monster under your bed, who has killed all your shadows, and butchered all your light, wondering what you'd become on the edge of existence." - Darwin Flowrick

"Running my fingers against an old, worn out photograph, I come to realize my sister was a delicate hero to herself. There was a storm in her, a deadly, violent storm of anger and sadness. But when I look into those paper eyes, splashed with her sister's tears, I can't help but think I failed her in some way, as if I'd just tried a little harder, she wouldn't be this cold case in my heart." - Sun Morvosina

"Some sins are perhaps worse than murder, worse than lust, death, desire. And perhaps my mind lusts for the things that will damn it, shoving sins into it's maw and sucking at the heart until it's bone white. But the greatest sin of all, perhaps, is that I am me, and in some way, I always have been." - Melias Skinwalker

"My heart's a gentle, moss covered bomb, and every now and then, a fragile little emotion comes on by and pulls back the pin. Can you imagine that kind of deadly vulnerability to your darkness?" - Ben Stilts

"I dipped my pen in the blood of my identity, and word by word, I wrote my death." - Shilo Andrakall

"I'm gunpowder and pistol smoke rising after the murder of another man's conscience, and as the smell of death begins to brew in the puddles of red rain, I come to realize a soldier dies the moment he steps on the battlefield, and out from his heart claws a monster made of gunmetal sacrifice and howling intentions." - Halzio Vickmon

"Blood on the hands mares the vision of the revolution, dwindlin' it down ta nuthin' but murder. But rest assured, good will come'a this." - Cedric Popovici

"It's starting to feel like this world doesn't run off of what's right, but rather thrives off of what's profitable. We spill blood and we call it noble. We fire our rifles and call it a good cause with violent tendencies. Good, does not come for men like you and me. We died the moment we stepped into a revolution built on the backs of those who fought." - Havar Swanson

“I spent so long thinking something was wrong with me. Thinking that being who I am was wrong, and hateful. But as I learned to accept myself, and met a man in the shadows of the night, I came to realize hate convinces you love is just another afterthought of the foolish.” - Paige Newdelle

“Armello's a kind, soft, beautiful soul, loving me in all the colors we can see. And even some we can't, too. As he kisses me deep, and I run my fingers through his tangled hair, I know the lost can be found, even if it's in their own Neverland. Even if they have to find beauty in a Wonderland of our own.” - Paige Newdelle

“If I have to be somebody, I want to be somebody worth being.” - Camille Trueblood

“If I could, I'd wear all their scars for them. I'd let the darkness swallow me whole. For all my life, I've promised to be their mother, their hero, their best friend. When they're hurting, mama's always here to wrap em up in a big old hug and tell them everything'll be okay. And when they have secrets that dig into their hearts, they can always come to me and unburden themselves. I'll give them everything I never had. Because I lived in a loveless home, and I just want them to know though life can hurt, it can also be so, damn beautiful.” - Camille Trueblood

“In some way, my children are heroes to me, too. I was living a lonely life until I held my two baby girls in my arms. And slowly, more of my heroes came into my life and grew like seeds of love that just couldn't wait to blossom. I must be the luckiest woman alive, to have found such joy after the hurting. To find such love after my heart stopped beating.” - Camille Trueblood

“Truthfully, I'm not a masterpiece. But aren't I beautiful with these torn edges and faded colors?" - Camille Trueblood

“Scars can only exist so long as they're hidden.” - Camila Dillingo

“There's no greater misery, really. Then being surrounded in a field of hateful hands that poke and prod at your identity until you no longer feel like yourself past all those stains of mean spirited words and actions.” - Camila Dillingo

“I think family never ended with blood. It always started with the promise of loyalty, the promise of love that grows and changes with who we become.” - Camila Trueblood

“I know I'm just one voice in a crowd of shouts, but I always had this funny little idea that even just one person can change the world." - Camila Dillingo

“I often wonder who I would be if I was not me. And I often feel as if being a man I'm not would be kinder than being this man I am.” - Calliger Cougar

“I shook hands with a faceless devil, for he's worn a thousand different faces and a million different smiles, only to realize that truthfully, he can never be himself. Again and again he tells me he wants to wipe his slate clean, but his eyes are ever filled with immortal emotion. As are mine, as are mine.” - Calliger Cougar

“We're puppets dancing on nooses.” - Calliger Cougar

“My hands are stained in red emotion, my heart scarred the dirty color of emptiness, my eyes dripping with the tears other men couldn't bring themselves to shed.” - Calliger Cougar

“The world's grown tired now, and as it's eyes begin to close, and humanity reaches it's final hour, we should come to realize with the world's aching last breath, peace shall finally rise golden over the horizon. Humanity's become such a festering plague to themselves, and we're just waiting to rot away in bodies that aren't our own." - Calliger Cougar

“Life's become little more than an instinct, really. My heart beats because it always has, I breathe because that's what I've been doing all my life. I don't live because I want to. Because truthfully... I don't cherish my life.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I feel like a flower that's decayed, and people just take little pieces of my body away because they find beauty in the broken. But no light gets through my cracks.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I can still remember my mother's eyes, filled with ugly horror. And I can still remember all those nights spent in the dark, weeping because I wished this body wasn't mine. This scarred, bruised, fucked up body.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I've tried to escape myself in every way possible. I've touched the tips of death's fingers only to recoil at the feeling of her cold skin against mine. I've killed for substances that left me dreary and high, lost in a fucked up fantasy that I didn't earn. I can still remember the way cocaine tastes on my lip, the way the needle feels pressing against my bruised skin.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I'm like salt in coffee. Everyone always mistakes me for sugar, but recoil and hiss upon the tasting of me on their lip.” - Burasbley Highersman

“I'm just a heavy and cumbersome body carrying around bones that aren't even his.” - Burasbley Highersman

“People say we rise from our pain, but I was never a Phoenix, just a bird with broken wings that never learned how to fly.” - Burasbley Highersman

“Past dis hard shell, tiny cracks begin ta appear, cause dat's da life of a fighter. She swings 'er fists no matter da trouble dat comes 'er way. Dat's what life's about. My fathah taught me 'ow ta throw a fist at eight, I could throw my brothah outta the ring at ten. I've spent my whole life preparin' for the fight so that when it came 'round, I wouldn't be da one bloodied in the dirt.” - Ronda Blousey

“I've got black eyes and bloodied knuckles from all these wars I've waged.” - Ronda Blousey

“I'm a lioness, and my roar lives on the edge'a me bleedin' fist.” - Ronda Blousey

“The cruel, the damned and the monsters own this town in my heart. The inside of my ribcage is etched with old claws and gnashed, broken teeth. Because where all my memories used to hide, only scars now reside.” - Ellise Kivenstein

“Mark and my scars are all I've still got, because my heart beat's slow and only quickens in terror. Mark and I are feeble souls trying to make it to another day in each other's arms, but we feel so cold on each other's skin. We're lost, trying to find ourselves in each other, but I think that hope left us as our children became cold cases and became lost to an ever growing statistic that leaves wounds in the hearts of a parent.” - Ellise Kivenstein

“We're all just trying to gain some ground in the town of bastards and cheats, knowing even if we play the right cards, even if we roll double six or snake eyes, winning was never an option in a town of outlaws and sinners.” - Ellise Kivenstein

“I'm a cigarette tangled mess, skin etched with a mother's scars.” - Ellise Kivenstein

“I wish I remember what it was like. To be truly happy. But I suppose when you lose that big a piece of yourself, you'll never really feel complete. Because no matter how many part time substitutes you shove into that emptiness, it remains a blackhole, consuming everything else you thought you'd always have." - Ellise Kivenstein

“I've got pain in my heart where my mother used to be, and every now and then, I can still hear her ghost telling me no matter how far I fall, no matter how much pain I'm in, I'll always be her baby girl.” - Crescella Shroovet

“Truthfully, I'm playing Russian Roulette with my sorrow, wondering which of us will drop first. It's a dangerous game, fighting against your misery. Because the bastard cheats. I've learned to let go of the things that bring me pain. I can't climb a ladder of knives and blame myself for the way my palms bleed. I can't trudge up stairs of sticks and stones and blame myself for the way the soles of my feet begin to bloody.” - Crescella Shroovet

“My heart's a tapestry of my mother's words and loss, beating slow. Beating feeble. Beating truthful. I close my eyes and remember my mother's arms around me, and I tell myself, in a voice that sounds like hers', that everything'll be okay.” - Crescella Shroovet

“I woke up in a foreign land of ash and smoke, the remnants of my bridges burning in my nostrils and pulling tears from my eyes as I realize life gives no choice to the broken man.” - Asher Shroovet

“My mother used to tell me people are equal in the fact that they all have the choice to be good, but unequal in the choices they choose. But ever since my mother became a cold case in this heart of mine, I've begun to learn nothing ever changes. All but the weather and the nature of man.” - Asher Shroovet

“I used to be part of a silent crowd, anger sitting in my chest but never roaring. But I've learned silence is the kinda thing that kills, so with these scars in my voice, I let my roar be heard. Even if it's a little weathered. Even if it's a little broken.” - Asher Shroovet

“My sister and I are warriors of loss, mourning our angel's wings but knowing no warrior ever got to keep their halo. A hero is a man who fights with honor, sparing the bad man and the good man alike. A warrior is a man who does what needs to be done, giving no mercy to the cruel man because later down the line, another will die for the trigger you couldn't pull.” - Asher Shroovet

“I've learned pain's an immortal thing. Once you feel it, it never leaves you be. But it becomes easier and easier to live with as you grow, love and learn. We're all in pain. We're all hurting. It's what we do with that hurt that counts. It's who we become after the worst of it that makes us or breaks us." - Asher Shroovet

“My pain sits, like barbed wire under my shirt, bleeding me every time I move. Every time I sit. Every time I try to flee. My pain's in the gasps of my breath and the smoke that leaves my lungs. I'm a war of change and indifference, locked away in a barbed wire, human ribcage, wondering why my heart feels so locked up in the past.” - Bryan Jensen

“My memory's a thief in the night, stealing my joy. My safety. My sense of self. It rips into me, like a knife dragging thin white scars across my hurting mind and heart. Always reminding me that I'm not worth much past the words other people say. My scars whisper to me, begging me to add more to my collection. My traumas repeat, as if I'm under a roaring river, tumbling and breaking my bones on the stones of my fucked up memory.” - Bryan Jensen

“I stay alive, if only to protect her from my death.” - Bryan Jensen

“We were just two broken children in a fucked up home, hiding beneath dirty sheets and blankets. Wondering why love never found they who needed it the most.” - Bryan Jensen

“I can still hear the shouts of my father, the open palm of my mother. Their pain became my pain. Their words became my words. It was as if they were a fucked up religion, burying my sense of self underneath holy words and verses, bound in the righteous spine of a young boy's pain.” - Bryan Jensen

“I'm a grave bound shovel diggin' the holy their beds'a eternal slumber, made'a dirt and names forgotten by all but the fuckin' stone.” - Peter Scolifade

“Truth is, monstahs hide in da kindest'a men, and all it takes for that wicked bastard ta break outta his cage is one good reason. And friend, my monster found plenty'a reasons.” - Peter Scolifade

“Cold, deathly fingers wrapped around me chest, stained teeth bit down on my skin, opening red mouths in my scarred flesh. And as the monster within' tore through me, coverin' me in reasons ta die, I knew this was it. This is how saints fuckin' die.” - Peter Scolifade

“I grew up on an old dirt road with nuthin' ta call me own, lookin' for reasons ta live in the ink spilled sky. But brothah, all I found 'tween the stars were bullet shadows and gunpowder constellations whisperin' of the end'a old Saint Peter. And it was there, under the ol' night sky that Peter Scolifade died, and out from his corpse rose a man that looked like him. All but in those wicked eyes, cold and righteous with the promise'a grim ends ta come.” - Peter Scolifade

“I ripped through me sense'a self with a dead man's knife, partin' the red sea in my ribcage, barin' me black heart ta the shadows and monsters'a dis world. And as I fell back, a mess'a things that glisten red in da night and crimson that pools beneath dead men's feet, I knew I was no more than a murder, livin' on past 'is years as a ghost." - Peter Scolifade

“In my mind, it feels like two old friends have collided fist to fist and neither knows what they're fighting for.” - Brandall Mulligan

“Under lonely and begging colored bar lights, I met a devil, wrapped in desire and lust, and all the things that go bump in the night. She's cigarette smoke curling around a dead man's finger, whirring him back to life with empty promises and whispers of a grand becoming.” - Brandall Mulligan

“You know, a ghost of the gambling den once told me that the darkness is welcoming to those who don't fight it. And I'm starting to think he was right. Because the shadows look more forgiving then the light that burns like fire on my back.” - Brandall Mulligan

“I wouldn't take a bullet for me, so why should I expect anyone else to fight for me?” - Brandall Mulligan

“Bullets fall, like red rain down my ribcage, stainin' me heart the dirty color'a murder and whiskey bound misery.” - Ramsey Von Agamasteine

“I was always broken knuckles and shattered windows, walkin' down an old dirt road, trustin' my revolver sooner than me old heart.” - Ramsey Von Agamasteine

“I'm an outlaw of the old night sky, angel's fallin' through my scotch glass, devils clamberin' in the smoke'a my damn cigarette.” - Ramsey Von Agamasteine

“My ma always told me the weak man's easy prey for the bullet, the lost sheep's an easy meal for the starvin' wolf. And oh son, you're beginnin' ta look a little lost, and I got some hunger on the edge'a my bleedin' tongue.” - Ramsey Von Agamasteine

“We're all a silver coin away from a casket, we're all a cigarette away from a wildfire. Life don't care for the dead, but damn, it don't give much a damn bout the starvin' livin' neither.” - Ramsey Von Agamasteine

“Dare ye whisper bout me sin, I'll make sure yer damned by Sunday mornin', beggin' the preacher ta forgive yer wicked misery.” - Ramsey Von Agamasteine

“The thing about people is, they can't heal in the place where they were first hurt. Before they find peace, they've gotta leave the origin'a the pain behind.” - Wilford Straw

“The way I see it, we're all warriors in our own regard, hearts bared on whatever kinda sleeve we got. Be it leather, denim, bare or tattooed. Our hearts are out in the open, and the truth becomes the water in which we feed and grow.” - Wilford Straw

“I once asked a powerful man with pain in the cracks'a his smile and blood on the edge'a his razor where his fall from grace began. And he told me with flickers'a sorrow in his eyes that it started with death. It always starts with death. And sadly, that's what some men think. They tell emselves their already dead, so they never git ta thinkin' they can live again.” - Wilford Straw

“After the rain comes the bloomin.” - Wilford Straw

“The day I was born life gave me a blade and threw me into a war before I ever had a chance to learn how to swing my sword. And so I earned bruises I never should've suffered through, and my back's etched with scars I didn't have the right to earn.” - Liv Creek

“I see pieces of our father lost in his eyes, the lies of our mother dancing on his tongue. He tells me this is how it has to be. This is who he has to be to survive. But survival isn't worth it if it kills who you are.” - Liv Creek

“I'm a scarred warrior wielding a rusted blade against her demons, knowing their deaths come too slow.” - Liv Creek

“I've learned the path to strength is paved in the pain of the weak. Through this path of my own broken bones I stumble, pain hanging like a sword on my lip, heart hardly beating as I choose to survive rather than live. Don't cheer for the warrior as she passes you by, don't thank her for her sins. Mourn for her as you would a grave, weep for her as you would a lost one. Because the warrior is the weak girl who had no choice but to be strong and defy who she was in the face of her pain.” - Liv Creek

“I grew up believin' in all the little things. Like magic, and fairytales, and love that would last. But my Wonderland was stolen from me by a mad man's bullet, and as I look inta the eyes of a man I used ta call brother. Used ta call family. All I see is a tickin' clock, whisperin' that my old heart's runnin' out of time with each strike'a midnight. Boomin' like thunder in my mind.” - Buster Beckem

“Ya know, I've found that I find no comfort in the idea'a the future. The past's warm and welcome, wrapped in the blankets'a my love and the red lipstick'a my lover smeared on my paint stained cheek. But the future stands cold, flecks'a snow promisin' I won't make it out the other side a man that's me. And as I leave this Wonderland'a my memories behind, I know I leave with a heavy and burdened heart.” - Buster Beckem

“This old heart'a mine used to bare it's wings with pride, soarin' over the clouds and touchin' the sun with the tips of it's fingers. But it fell like an angel, graspin' at everythin' that made it feel loved as it faded away inta the future's distant twilight.” - Buster Beckem

“I've been countin' days ever since my love was lost on me. I've been savin' every smile in parts'a myself I hide. But I can't measure the loss in me. I can't begin ta describe this bruise on my tongue where her love used ta reside. I close my eyes and I can still see her sippin' from a chipped coffee mug, hair frizzy and orange, hands stained in blue and pink paint. I always told 'er she was a masterpiece, even if she weren't perfect. Even if she made mistakes. And now, as I lie down in an empty bed, I begin ta wish it was her arms around me rather than these tear stained cheeks. I begin ta wish it was her hand on my shoulder rather than a crow perched like loss on my jacket. And I begin ta wish, as I curl this finger around a trigger, that it was her fingers curled inta mine." - Buster Beckem

“I'm the color that stains your lips as you take your own off mine. I'm the color of your heart as she dances her clawed fingers against your scarred skin. And I'm the color that trails your body as she stains you with her venom love. But I'm the color of your rage, too. The color that bleeds from between your knuckles as you grip the broken pieces of your love. The color that stains your tongue as she bites down on your lip. How beautiful, how deadly, how strange, that I can be anything you want to be, and everything you never knew you needed. While also being the very thing that rips your heart from your chest, my hands thick with the color of love, and anger and pure blood that tastes innocent on the siren's lip.” - Kaia Harzelburg

“Don't you know monsters look like people? Don't you know sinners look like saints and taste like beauty on a heathen's bleeding tongue? I was always a serpent, fingers trailing against the holy as I mark them with my lust filled brand. It's foolish, to fall in love with the serpent, but I've pressed my lips against the skin of Eve and the forbidden fruit tastes of me as she bites down on the feeble flesh of sin. Of forbidden desire. Of deadly lust.” - Kaia Harzelburg

“They say we're all sinners, damned before we were ever born, but I don't think of it that way. Sin is earned, just as sainthood is fought for. Just as good is taught, just as evil is learned.” - Bobby Sticcs

“On the edge'a death I met a boy with misery and shadows in 'is eyes, carved inta like he was just another sheep fed ta the wolves. Never did I see war break a man so young, never before 'ad I seen a man bite down on bullets and call em his fangs. But in the eyes'a that boy, it wasn't war I saw. But hell, flickerin' in the eyes of a mad man.” - Bobby Sticcs

“Some men march off ta war for honor, others find the monster inside as the bullets begin ta fly. But in some way, we're all ghosts and monsters'a the trenches, as if those dirt dug battlefields were our Eden, our rifles our flaming blades. The pools'a red in the rain our forbidden fruit. And I 'spose that made they who sent us off ta die our serpents, lies and forbidden truths flickerin' from behind their damn teeth.” - Bobby Sticcs

“We can't live behind the lines'a our enemies, expectin' them ta care when we throw our lives on the wire thin line.” - Bobbi Crazendale

“Family don't end with blood, it starts with love.” - Bobbi Crazendale

“I've got an old heart that hums and whirs ta life upon the tappin'a Vernon's fingers 'gainst my cheeks. He's my gentle lullaby, and every time he presses his lips 'gainst mine, my heart bursts with colors I'd hardly 'ave recognized if it weren't for this love we share. We love each other in colors that didn't exist, but whirred ta life as our hearts collided.” - Bobbi Crazendale

“I've been on a long, treacherous road, throwin' my fists at da 'eart'a darkness, wonderin' why it looked like me own.” - Billy Jenkins

“In da past I see eyes I used ta love, caught in da rift between gunpowdah and survival, drownin' undah da tide'a sin and love. Swept away by the hungry, starvin' need ta stay alive. I can still remembah runnin' undah da willow wif' her, swearin' I'd love 'er for da rest'a me days. But where 'er 'eart used ta reside in moine, now sits a hungry bullet, carved with a name I recognize and used ta press against me lips. But this bullet feels cold between me teeth.” - Billy Jenkins

“I'll face me future wif' a baseball bat and a grin built off all da things it took ta survive. And as me sister tells me I'm 'er hero, I know dat even if me bones are etched wif' love lost ta the edge of a bullet and da loss'a me heroes, I can do me best ta do good by her.” - Billy Jenkins

“Da broken man wif love all around 'im is blind to da beauty before 'im." - Billy Jenkins

“There's not much man can control, all but the words that tumble like devilry from his tongue.” - Beutler De Niro

“I'm a business man, and everywhere I go I see business in black hearts and lies that shake the soul.” - Beutler De Niro

“Many have described me as a monster, but I'm human, and that's what makes me so dreadfully horrific to all who witness my blood stained revelry.” - Beutler De Niro

“Do you know what lies do to man? They sit, like a guillotine's shadow over the good man's neck, slowly wilting away their sense of self like a rose decaying to black. And eventually, through the lies of cruelty, the good man dies, and from his corpse, the husk of a wolf begins to rise.” - Beutler De Niro

“Any man will pull the trigger if told it's for his own good. Anyone will sin under the light of anonymity. We're monsters beating in black hearts, convincing ourselves that in our deadly sin, that we're human. But we never were. We never will be. We haven't been human ever since Cane rose a stone against Abel, ever since Eve took a bite from the dead man's fruit.” - Beutler De Niro

“Don't mistake my kindness for the truth, my friend.” - Beutler De Niro

“I've seen misery in the form'a rusted hatchets and dusty black coats bitin' at the wind, but I ain't gonna let this murder'a crows be the damn death'a me.” - Dolly Rainbolt

“I'm a spurred boot outlaw, kickin' her way ta freedom as the bastard sons'a darkness open fire at the girl they just can't catch.” - Dolly Rainbolt

“Some folks think power's found in the edge of a revolver with a hammer pulled back. But ya could never fire power from a dead man's gun. Power always came in the form'a good people helpin' other good folks make it ta sunrise. Power's found in the good hearted, in the justice bound, in the heroes and do gooders'a this world.” - Dolly Rainbolt

“I refuse ta stand by as bad men get their kicks at the edge of a hatchet's malice.” - Dolly Rainbolt

“The sunrise waits for all who sit in the dark, and the stars shine for all those who are lost. No matter where you go, light always shimmers, preparin' to let ya back inta her gentle embrace once more. Don't dare lose yerself ta the delusion that redemption don't come for those who've hurt." - Dolly Rainbolt

“I've been a dead man walkin' ever since I first dug a grave, and under that shallow dirt, two men lie. Ol' Thomas Quisly and Margrave Ed'Collinmellow. And together, they rot, like shadows under the light's festerin' grave.” - Margrave Ed’Collinmellow

“Welcome ta the wastelands, where the weak become blood on the strong's teeth, and the strong stand above like a shadow'a survival and misery.” - Margrave Ed’Collinmellow

“Good luck tryin' ta kill this vessel'a rotted flesh and hollow heart. My humanity was ripped into by stained, yellow teeth. It pulled away at the flesh. At the mercy. At the goodness in me. Until nuthin' but a festerin' heart'a sins sat where Margrave Ed'Collinmellow used ta be. Shadow, and cruelty bit inta my heart and tasted the redness in me, stainin' their teeth with innocence and purity. Until all that ran through my veins was dark.” - Margrave Ed’Collinmellow

“The world's gone quiet these days, all but the moans'a hunger that come from the wax white graves'a man. And here I stand, just like the biters and creepers that shamble and bite.” - Margrave Ed’Collinmellow

“Ever since my mother was taken from me for the things she did to survive, I've been left out alone like a criminal amongst the dead and weary. I've spent my whole life fighting a war, just trying to survive. Just trying to get back to my mother. But fate tore us apart before it brought us together, and all I can do is clutch these memories and whisper, "I wish you were here." - Hazel Winchester

“On the dark and grimed streets I met insanity, reflected in yellow teeth and cold blue eyes. They called themselves the unforgivables, and as my death flashed in the silver of their knives, I knew why they could never be forgiven. They made a warrior out of me, but I won't thank them for these wolves' claws.” - Hazel Wincester

“I wish my mother was here to tell me how to survive. To wrap me up in her tattooed arms and tell me everything's going to be okay. But she's a broken piece in my memory, always bleeding me. Always reminding me that she's not here.” - Hazel Winchester

“Always reminding me that she's not here. I speak in the tongue of violence. My words have become steel clashing on steel. My song has become blood on innocent hands. And this language I speak has become teeth gnashing and biting at the good in me until all that remains is the survival, in me.” - Hazel Winchester

“I'm a lion lookin' ta the grey and empty sky, wonderin' why the only color I see is red.” - Bortley Dekruiful

“Dare not walk inta the shadow of the circus, where bad things are done in the dark and plastic teeth rip inta the hearts'a the frail and weary.” - Bortley Dekruiful

“Wherever I go, there's a siren callin' me name in strobe lights'a red and blue, tellin' me I'll be the last one standin' in a murder full'a crows. But here I sit, as the one beast I can't tame, my heart nocturnal, my ribs broken by the beast that rattles in my damn chest.” - Bortley Dekruiful

“Look deep inta the eyes'a those who preform and you'll begin ta find it's pain that drips from their tears. Our laughs are made'a glass and we're just the beasts taught how ta dance. There lies no beauty in this paradise, for Eden's been consumed by a serpent's maw, and the angel who swore ta protect lies silent in the belly'a the snake.” - Bortley Dekruiful

“Long ago I asked life what I'd become, and as I stared at a pool'a my own blood, all I could see was a red lion reflected in me pale and hungry eyes.” - Bortley Dekruiful

“Life is lived at it's best when it's simple. When it's beautiful in it's odd and whimsical mundane fantasies.” - Beckett Cruvell

“My thoughts and who I am just don't align, cause as things begin to change, my regret stays stagnant. And it claws at me, ripping through my throat as it says, "I wish you the best with me by your side." - Bartholomew Stiller

“I've spent my whole life wanting to bring justice to the cruel, to bring peace to the good. But as red and blue sirens blare in my head, coloring the smoke and fog the color of justice and division, I begin to realize I'm just a gunshot echoing between my own dead eyes.” - Bartholomew Stiller

“Who am I past this anger? Past these sins? Past the gunshot fired off in rage and bitter consequence?” - Bartholomew Stiller

“Some secrets are better left undug, but there I stood, shovel in hand, unaware it was a grave I dug for myself. And as I fell, clutching at roots and dirt, I came to realize looking for secrets in the dark is like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded chamber. And damn, man. I just pull that trigger.” - Bartholomew Stiller

“What a wonderful world it is, ink, rippling like blood in the water, stars blinking out as humanity whither and dies like a daffodil God forgot.” - Azralos Crossvine

“Do you wish to kill me? Good luck. Killing a man with such power is no easy task. For his words live on in the empty hearts of the men and women who stood so gleefully under his boot's shadow. My words live on like a growing weed in the garden of Eden, choking the life from the roses and leaving a bush of thorns behind. It's not so hard, killing a man with simple phrases such as, "You are saved," And, "In the eyes of God, you are forgiven." - Azralos Crossvine

“I've watched men put a gun against their temple and pull the trigger for the grace of God. I've watched people leap from cliffsides to appease the clouds and stars. I've got blood on my hands, and they are drenched in the kind of words that kill.” - Azralos Crossvine

“I was just a young and dumb shot in the dark, hurtling toward a target he didn't know shared his damn name.” - Avian Browdy

“I stare heavy into the empty eyes of fate, and with a broken claw, he carves bits and pieces of me away from myself, until I can hardly call myself human with these puzzle piece scars etched into my damn skin.” - Avian Browdy

“You know, an old friend once told me monsters look just like us. They share our eyes and pretend to be human, but when they smile, and the sun glints pale on their fangs, you best know to run head over heels to escape a fate of claws and reddened maw.” - Avian Browdy

“Peace don't live in the man mercy forgot but hate remembered.” - Avian Browdy

“Shadows exist as extant forms of us, and as regret claws at my throat, I know it left it's scarf behind in my life, only to come back for it years later and fashion it into a noose around my fucking throat." - Avian Browdy

“People break you down and cast their stones against you, just to say, "That's life, better get used to it before it kills you." But cruelty was never life, just death coming for the hurting souls early.” - Gabianna Santinos

“The cruel and hateful look for justification for what they've done, condemning they who they've hurt just to feel as if they're righteous in their cruelty, in their hate. But there was never any justification in hate, just the way our emotions bleed onto others. Like a red rain coming from the dark clouds of our misery.” - Gabianna Santinos

“You can't spend your life wasting away into emotions better left spoken. You've got to let the truth speak for you when your words can't.” - Gabianna Santinos

“Mistakes are what we learn from, they build who we are, but they also leave scars. Truthfully, I'm haunted by the things I've done and the people I've hurt. They sit in my mind like ghosts who just don't wanna leave me be, reminding me that worst parts of me are the ones running the show.” - Sam Wormwood

“She saw past the worst parts of me, and told me that she was here for all of me, not just shards and pieces of me. But these days, it feels as if I'm a wayward archer with an arrow that never flew. My arrows sit in my heart, like holes of loyalty and intention. I'm always bleeding. Because I've got blood on my hands and memories I wish I could forget.” - Sam Wormwood

“As I looked into the eyes of someone I called brother, and saw nothing but cruelty in his eyes, I realized who we're around influences who we are. And I'd become cruel in the search for brotherhood. But as he swung his fist, and I laid him in the dirt, it still felt as if karma would come for me with eyes I recognized.” - Sam Wormwood

“I have to wonder if that's an angel or regret lying on my shoulder.” - Sam Wormwood

“I was just a rough and bruised country girl lookin' for a fight 'til I met her. And all of a sudden, as she pressed her lips 'gainst mine and told me I was loved, it felt as if my bruises and scars were healin', fadin' away like stars as the sun gently wraps it's arms 'round the pale orange sky.” - Morice Bronzinheit

“We're all burdened souls, buildin' up our strength ta lift the weight'a the world. But we never realize that we don't oughta do it alone. Ya see, we git this idea that our burdens are ours ta carry, and ta have another help us lift that weight would be selfish. But those who love ya are always willin' ta stand by your side and relieve ya of the burdens that leave ya crippled, gaspin' for air in an empty heart.” - Morice Bronzinheit

“I'll never come ta understand why folk choose ta succumb ta rage and cruelty, but he who pulls the trigger ta end a life's no soldier. Just a killer dressed in noble intentions.” - Morice Bronzinheit

“Home ain't some place you can go. It's found in the eyes'a love, in the hearts'a family. It ain't where you're born, it's where you felt like you could truly live." - Morice Bronzinheit

“It seems his flickering smile follows me wherever I go, and when I look into my eyes, it's his I see.” - Pamvera Wendellburn

“Every now and then, my sorrow comes for me. There is no end, nor a beginning, just circles and circles of sorrow as I dance my way around the edge of misery.” - Pamvera Wendellburn

“I sit like a softly spoken sorrow at the bottom of my ribcage, weeds and black rot growing out from my promises, out from my lies, until I can hardly call myself a garden with all this decay in me.” - Pamvera Wendellburn

“Being who I am's such a lonely, quiet thing. It feels as if I'm cursed to this circle of sorrow and remembrance. And whiskey was always easier to swallow then the idea that I'd never return to myself. Easier to swallow then the tears, the grief, the anger.” - Pamvera Wendellburn

“All my life, I've been a bruised knuckled, broken glass kind of woman, anger running like blood through her veins, fist always curled back, jaw always clenched. Because life was a fight and I'd spent my days losing.” - Avarell Boneson

“I'm an angry serenade, followed by the slight echoes of peace. But as my daughter wraps a blanket around my scarred shoulders, and tells me I'm her hero, it feels as if I've always had a place in this world. And it's to protect that girl, full of spunk and curiosity for a world that don't leave girls like her be.” - Avarell Boneson

“I've always been a fighter, but what becomes of the warrior when she's no more battles left to fight? When she's no more reasons to throw her fists?” - Avarell Boneson

“I've lived my life in a violent blackout, and I've hardly been who I am. But as I hum my daughter another lullaby, and my sister tells me I'm her hero, it feels as if I'm falling together into a person that's me. I've been cold steel and wildfire smoke for too long. I just want to be the peaceful melody that lulls my anger to sleep. But my rage sits in my curled up fist, and as I clench my jaw and prepare for another battle, I know life's not through with this wounded warrior yet. So I put rage into the chamber of my revolver and let it fly." - Avarell Boneson

“You know, my brother used to tell me that he's met death a thousand times, and as the world began to fall, I began to wonder if it was all the ghosts he'd met, falling like angels from the wounded and burning sky.” - Ash Plucker

“I used to fight who I am, my knuckles bloodied from wars I never should've fought. Because hiding from yourself is such a strange, accepted kind of misery. But as I cut my hair and traded my dresses for a leather jacket and old, torn jeans, I felt like I was slowly beginning to become me. I'd always known I wasn't a girl, but I'd never wanted to be a man either. So I'll just exist, I'll be me, and that's all I ever really needed to be, huh?” - Ash Plucker

“Cruelty never had a place in this world. It echoes on the tips of bad men's tongues, justifying it's existence by claiming it's name is survival. But if you cast it's shawl aside, you'll soon realize blood for blood was always just cruelty in disguise.” - Ash Plucker

“I've spent my whole life trying to avoid this person I am, tripping over identities that weren't me, covering my face with paint to kill the scars that whisper the story of how the joyful girl died. I've got a heart made of cracked and fragile glass, and whenever someone dares whisper who I am, it crumbles into my stomach and I bleed on these pieces of my heart.” - Amorith Vesbly

“I've never known peace, all but when Heather touches a rough hand against my cheek and tells me I'm hers'. She loves me as I am, and just as the sun loves the moon, she's here for me in all my phases, loving whichever emotion chooses to rear it's head and bare it's teeth. If it weren't for her, I'd be long gone, drifting away into the empty just to avoid this person I am. But she makes this heart of mine a bit less lonely of a place to hide.” - Amorith Vesbly

“I wish I was a war cry, but I'm just a fragile whisper, and the only ones that can hear me are the ones that care enough to listen. To everyone else, I'm just a ghost sitting on the edge of her identity, as if she wanted to leap, but didn't have the courage to fall.” - Amorith Vesbly

“I swear, those I loved follow me like ghosts in the smoke, and just as I close my eyes and think I'm okay, I find myself fading away into memories too close to forget, but too far away to crawl back to.” - Amalda Greene

“I'm haunted by the heat on my skin, by the smoke and cinders in my lungs. My mind's becoming a grave, haunted by my memories ever drifting, and no matter where I go, I can't escape this ghost of who I've become. My mom would tell me to put it all behind me, put on a brave face and think of better days. But honestly? I don't think better days are coming.” - Amalda Greene

“Life ain't just some sorrow bloody repeated, it's every mistake ya made on the way ta success.” - Vinceta Dallifritz

“We're all questions ta ourselves until we earn da courage ta find da bloody answer.” - Vinceta Dallifritz

“Power, I've learned, makes inhuman monstahs outta 'umanity, moldin' the good like clay, wettin' it's hands in the blood'a da merciful until da peace is no more.” - Vinceta Dallifritz

“I once looked to da skies and asked for somebody ta shatter me so I could become somebody new. And out of these broken pieces, I built somebody worth bloody bein'.” - Vinceta Dallifritz

“Some people want to stick to lies, just as lies have stuck to them, but we can't really find peace if we're at constant war with the truth.” - Rust Ashena

“In truth, I'm not made of stone. My bones are fragile and easy to break, my emotions whir like glass in my head, and my hands are scarred with blood and broken nails. But I'm a soldier.” - Rust Ashena

“In all this war, in all this pain, I must at least remember, I've got people who fight for me. In my garden of black petaled roses and problems, a single rose stands, like a bloom of red I'll never come to understand. When Camallo pulls me into his embrace and tells me he'll never let go, I know that at least in his love, I'm safe. He holds me while I fall apart, threading my stitches back together as I begin to unravel. Often, I feel six foot under all this doubt, all this pain, all these scars, but Camallo's always there, shovel in hand, ready to dig away at the mourning man's grave.” - Rust Ashena

“On the edge of the horizon, I see a silver lining, and I start to believe it looks like his smile, like the way his fingers curl into mine, like the way he looks at my scars as if they were a beautiful tattoo telling the story of the way I died and was born again.” - Rust Ashena

“I was just an x value I couldn't understand, trying to catch my answers in the wind as lies drifted on by. But it feels like, when Melania took my hand in hers' and told me she loved me for the very first time, I'd finally found the answer to who I wanted to be. When she pressed her lips against mine, everything began to fall into place, every question became an answer, all the unknown became known, as if my heart had always known what it needed.” - Glorice Shaywalker

“It's not the bruises that matter, or the scars, but how we let them heal.” - Glorice Shaywalker

“I'll always remember the way the gunfire echoes and ripples, as if it was a stone skipping across a lake of all the lives it would touch.” - Nyla Riverbrook

“I heard once, that she who fights for the world is very rarely fought for, and as I struggle to get to my feet, I've come to learn no one's fighting for me, and it's my own feeble fists I must raise.” - Nyla Riverbrook

“My ribs are etched with what it took to survive, my tongue wet with the blood that fills my mouth when I bite down on my tongue to keep these emotions in my skull.” - Nyla Riverbrook

“My body's a battlefield, and my heart beat sounds like a bullet casing hitting against the crimson river.” - Nyla Riverbrook

“A man I look up to once told me that we're not strong, just broken, trying to carry the weight of the world with two human hands. And as my sister looks at me, swearing up and down I'm her hero, I begin to realize heroes exist only in the eyes of those who haven't tasted war on the edge of their tongue.” - Nyla Riverbrook

“I used to be a question to the world, lost in doubt and visions of who I could be. But as I embraced myself, and found my answer hidden deep in my little beating heart, I knew this is who I was meant to be. People ask us to change while they stay the same, lost in ignorance and hate until it becomes the air in their lungs and the tears in their eyes.” - Amanda Blaze

“I was lost, stumbling in the dark, until the light of my identity flashed like a torch in the horizon. It was only for a moment, like a whisper, but it was enough for me to follow the memory of the warmth and light I felt when I was accepted as I am.” - Amanda Blaze

“Love lives in all of us like a seed, and we're just waiting for someone to come along, not afraid to get their hands dirty as they dig through our identity and scars with loving, gentle human fingers.” - Amanda Blaze

"I watched all my friends become strangers, and I'm just sitting here in their shadow wondering why I couldn't save them from the darker side of life. But I guess monsters always look at us with eyes we sadly recognize." - Jess Mercikal

“We're all looking for someone who makes us feel safe and comfortable in who we are, and when I look into my daughter's eyes, and I feel my wife's hands on my cheeks, I know I've found my safety. And I'll never find myself falling without knowing I'll survive the landing.” - Alicia Winnefred

“Life can seem so complicated, but all it takes to live is a few simple things that make you, you.” - Alicia Winnefred

“Some people say we die much before we ever live, but if you've done it right, than as you lay down for your final rest, you'll have lived, and lived, and lived, and in some odd, beautiful little essence, you'll never die. Because flowers will bloom on your grave, and that's where you'll sit, like a smile that never forgot the sorrow that made it shine so bright." - Alicia Winnefred

“I am a lie so often told, and in the pen of sheep I sit, draped in white wool with dapples of red, waiting for the opportunity to rip my teeth through the feeble skin of truth.” - Akolzo Cometsphire

“My heart never beat, my mind never felt. The rare times I did, feel, was in the emotion that rippled in a dying man's eyes.” - Akolzo Cometsphire

“The sheep is easily fooled into thinking he's safe, because so often wolves wear wool on their backs and kindness in their smiles, hiding the blood behind their fangs and murder behind a handshake.” - Akolzo Cometsphire

“I'm just a little spider, spinning his web and watching in glee as the fly finds himself caught, struggling and festering like murder flashed on the newspaper headline's. With hungry fangs and blood filled eyes, I descend on the weary fools caught in my web of lies, sinking my teeth into their skin and ripping scars into their minds as I taste them, like a tragedy on my lips.” - Akolzo Cometsphire

“My friend, gaze to the midnight sky and tell me what you see. Stars, twinkling with wishes, or specters of something that was once beautiful, shining in the dark like a grave marked with a corpse instead of stone? And then, I want you to look into my eyes, and tell me what the night sky means to a man who spills blood as if it were ink on a page, spilling into poetry and prose. I'm a vessel through which murder and lies see. Nothing more." - Akolzo Cometsphire

"Mercy is a fool's game for a cruel man." - Bovine Thukkit

"The most fearful foe of all is the one that haunts you with a long dead friend's smile." - Maxmillius Sharonbew

"Boy, you think that was death? You ain't met death 'til ya've felt her fragile, cold fingers on the edges'a your back and spine. You ain't met death until she stares back atcha with cracked glass eyes as ya look inta the old mirra. Death, Martin fucking Hatcherfly, tasted like barbed wire, bitin' down on a thirsty tongue." - Apollo Dreadful

"My anger claws at me feral, like a woman raised by wolves. Biting, clawing, scratching at the corners of my heart and skull, as if her teeth were made to kill and her claws were made of steel. And there's somethin' so temptin' about the beauty of the anger that lost it's peace in the gentle maw of wolves." - Kurizo Chandlewick

"The dark came in quiet whispers and deadly screams, as if the sky had ripped into itself, thrashin' and howlin' with the light of a thousand dyin' dreams. And that's what his shadow looks like. Them wolves are lightnin' strikes in our sky, and he's just the heavy clouds full with rain and thunder." - Miallo Strawburry

#writing #characters #author #dialouge

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cardest · 3 years

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New Jersey playlist

It's a place between heaven & hell. No need for a map, just follow the smell. A place full of filthy air and dark despair. A place called New Jersey. If this New Jersey playlist won't save the Garden State, nothing will. Hit play: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC192SSgXShuxLj6wA3Kcaolf

Toxie approves of this playlist!!

NEW JERSEY

001 Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back - Jays Rap 002 The Time - Cool 003 The Night Flight Orchestra - American High 004 Kool & The Gang - Open Sesame 005 Bon Jovi - Born To Be My Baby 006 Monster Magnet - Supercruel 007 The Dillinger Escape Plan - When Good Dogs Do Bad Things 008 Misfits - Green Hell 009 Over Kill - Welcome to the Garden State 010 Skid Row - The Threat 011 X-Cops Welcome to New Jersey 012 Clutch - Pulaski Skyway 013 Lee Fields & The Expressions - Special Night 014 Bruce Springsteen - Badlands 015 Weird Al Yankovic - Ill Sue Ya 016 Nona Hendryx - Run for Cover 017 Freddy Cannon - Palisades Park 018 Operation Ivy - Hoboken 019 Twisted Sister - The Kids Are Back 020 Ruby The Hatchet - Vast Acid 021 The Drifters - Under the Boardwalk 022 Symphony X - Premonition 023 Screaming Females - Something Ugly 024 Calendar - Monster From The Black Toms 025 Nat Adderley - St. M 026 Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) 027 Evoken - The Fear After 028 Misfits - Earth a.D. 029 Bon Jovi - Burning for love 030 Ella Fitzgerald - The Jersey Bounce 031 Dillinger Escape Plan - Sugar Coated Sour 032 WEEN - Frank 033 Monster Magnet - Slut Machine 034 Overkill - Feel The Fire 035 Ice-T - New Jack Hustler 036 Incantation - Unholy Massacre 037 Franke & The Knockouts - Sweetheart 038 Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight 039 Looking Glass - Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) 040 Seven Witches - Fever In the City 041 Michael Jackson - Got To Be There 042 Instant Funk - I Got My Mind Made Up 043 The Phil Bernardi Band - I Like Jersey Best 044 The Moments - Look At Me (I'm In Love) 045 Bobby Rydell - Wildwood Days 046 Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive 047 BON JOVI - In And Out Of Love 048 The Misfits - From Hell They Came 049 Jason Lindner - New Jersey Ballad 050 Toxic Avenger theme song 051 Monster Magnet - Black Balloon 052 Voltaire - Bomb New Jersey 053 Revenant - Prophecy Of A Dying World 054 Cyclone Static - Runaway 055 Old Wounds - Stripes 056 Aqua Teen Hunger Adult Swim theme song 057 Overkill - Never Say Never 058 Love Among Freaks- Clerks 059 Toothgrinder - Diamonds For Gold 060 The Toxic Crusaders Intro 061 KATE PIERSON - Throw Down The Roses 062 Dillinger Escape Plan - Sunshine the Werewolf 063 WEEN - Tick 064 Twisted Sister - What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You) 065 Smart Remarks - Reverse Velocity 066 Bon Jovi - Let It Rock 067 Skid Row - Can't Stand the Heartache 068 Misfits - Vivid Red 069 McCoy Tyner - Vision 070 Over Kill - World of Hurt 071 Monster Magnet - Mindfucker 072 Oblivious - Mob Justice 073 Pride and Glory - Losin' Your Mind 074 dEUS - Theme From Turnpike (from In A Bar, Under The Sea) 075 Mishka Shubaly - New Jersey Valentine's Day Orphan Blues 076 Danzig - Am I Demon 077 Tom Waits - Jersey Girl 078 Coheed And Cambria - Devil In Jersey City 079 Player Hater - Smb 080 Donald Byrd - Elijah 081 Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine 082 El Drugstore - Samaritrophia 083 Gothic Slam - Who Died and Made You God 084 DÄLEK - Guaranteed Struggle 085 Trixter - One In A Million 086 The Break Lights - Why Don't You Call Me 087 Wayne Shorter - Schizophrenia 088 Skid Row - My Enemy 089 Samhain - Black Dream 090 Bayht Lahm - To Serve Your Bottom Line (Oligarchs Fuck Off!) 091 Whitney Houston - Thinking About You 092 Fit For An Autopsy - Your Pain Is Mine 093 Black Label Society - Fire It Up 094 Monster Magnet - Dopes To Infinity 095 Herbie Hancock - I Have A Dream 096 The Dillinger Escape Plan - When I Lost My Bet 097 Over Kill - Necroshine 098 Alice Donut - New Jersey Exit 099 Toxic Avenger Musical - Who Will Save New Jersey 100 Misfits - Static Age 101 MilesDavis - The Theme 102 Pattis Smith - Pissing In a River 103 Whiplash - Snake Pit 104 Evoken - Omniscient 105 God Forbid - Antihero 106 OLD - Corpse Full Of Gunk 107 Nudeswirl - F sharp 108 Sugarhill Gang- Rapper's Reprise (Jam-Jam) 109 Danzig - Snakes Of Christ 110 Bruce Springsteen - Growin' Up 111 Doyle - Cemeterysexxx 333 Twisted Sister - I wanna rock 666 Bon Jovi - Homebound Train

Play the songs here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC192SSgXShuxLj6wA3Kcaolf

#Toxic Avenger #new jersey #bon jovi #new jersey playlist #monster magnet #skid row #over kill #evoken #misfits #zakk wylde

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the-omni-princess · 4 years

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Blood Bound [Chapter Seven]

Author: @the-omni-princess

Pairing: Vampire!Bucky x Witch!Reader

Summary: Vampires and witches have been known enemies since the dark ages. Backstabbing, secrets, and magic turned supernatural brethren again each other. As a natural-born witch, you grew up on these stories, your own monsters under your bed. What happens when one of those sworn enemies claims that you are his blood mate, the vampire equivalent of a true mate? Will you give in to this man out of time? Or destroy him for the sake of your Coven?

Word Count: 4K

Warnings: smut! (18+ only), blood kink (?kinda? lol he’s a vampire so), fluff, nightmares, cursing, flashbacks, Bucky being adorable, a hint of dom!Bucky and Praise kink, let me know if I missed anything

A/N:

For a <18 version/summary, please message me and I got you.

Finals are killing me so rip, I’ll be working on writing challenges/Secret Santas (lol I’m in multiple) first then the next chapter of this series (on the bright side, guess who’s writing a Stucky one shot :D )

[Series Masterlist] [My Masterlist] [Playlist Inspired by the Series]

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Previously….

“Hey, Bucky?” You whispered softly.

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me again.” He obliged, closing the distance to kiss you again. He was the one to deepen the kiss first, gentle yet dominating, demanding your full attention. You got lost in his touch, pressed against him as his hand around your waist pulled you tighter against him. “James,” you practically purred against his lips.

He groaned softly, smirking. “I love it when you say my name.” His lips brushed against yours, easily pulling your mouth back on his.

“Then I’ll keep saying it, Angel Eyes,” you murmured, pulling far enough off of him to run a hand through his fluffed up and mused hair. He groaned softly, making you grin as you lightly traced your fingertips against his scalp. “I want to remember, Bucky. Help me remember and I help you remember? All of it? From the beginning? I know a witch from another Coven who can help us.”

He leaned his forehead against yours, lips brushing past yours as he nodded. “All of it, Sweetling. From the beginning. And Theo?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you too.”

----

“Hey, Bucky?”

“Yeah, Little Witch?”

“Why’d you jump in front of that silver dagger? It would have like, ya know, hurt Nat, but it would like kill you. Dumb bitch juice much?” You turned to face Bucky, still wrapped in his arms, completely content with just teasing him.

“Don’t come after me with facts, y/n/n, it's not fair.” He groaned, “I just acted, didn’t really stop and think.”

“Also, did my entire coven fuck off because they thought we were gonna bone?”

“Honestly, I was kinda crying because I took too much blood from you, Nat called me a pussy and said your anemic ass passes out easily, paraphrasing here-“

“Obviously.”

“And Nat and Steve, totally have a thing going on btw,” he continued, ignoring your interruption, “Kinda like shared a look and Nat went, ‘Alright, well, coven’s gonna just move this party outta here, give these kiddos some space,’ and that’s when I noticed you killed that Council Member, which is incredibly hot honestly, and like woah you’re hot, sorry sidetracked.”

“Keep boosting my ego and you might get more kisses out of it,” you bopped his nose, grinning playfully as he snapped his fangs towards it, making you yelp and burst into a fit of giggles.

He happily buried his face in your neck, holding you close, “My powerful and adorable witch,” he murmured.

“My brooding and dark and mysterious but actually a big goofball vampire,” you retorted, grinning when he pulled back to give you a look. “What? It’s completely true.”

You shrugged, grabbing your phone off the nightstand to shoot Nat a text. The Coven group chat was already lit up with messages, mostly them talking behind Sam and Steve’s back about the vampires, and planning their next move, and of course, the obligatory ‘making fun of the couple for their sex-scapades’ messages.

Bucky read most of the messages over your shoulder, not wanting to let you go so easily. “How many eggplant emojis can Wanda text before her fingers hurt?”

“Don’t let her hear that, or you’ll find eggplants everywhere. I made that mistake with the donut emoji,” you leaned your head against his shoulder, shooting a gif of a girl rolling her eyes.

“Did that picture just move?” Bucky whispered behind you.

“Do you not know what gifs are?”

“Phones are too easy to track; we usually use burner phones. Call and simple texts only.” He explained, much to your amusement.

“Allow me to teach you, oldie,” you teased, spending the next hour showing him the world of social media. His little grin and wide eyes sent your heart fluttering, and you silently prayed he didn’t hear it.

Soon, you yawned, your eyes threatening to close as sleep started to pull you in. Bucky simply tightened his arms around you, tucking you both underneath the covers of the bed. “Sleep, Sweetling. I’ll be here when you wake up,” he kissed your head tenderly, causing you to smile tiredly.

“Promise?” You spoke mid-yawn, letting Bucky place your phone back on the nightstand.

“Promise. And then we’ll talk about everything that happened. You deserve to rest.” You didn’t reply, only burying your face into his chest, elated to drink in his scent, the warm vanilla, and mint overtaking your senses. Spending so much time around him lately, you no longer minded the faint scent of copper blood mixed into his scent, but now you noticed something else. Tones of earthy traces, sparks of flame, and salt from the sea. He was starting to smell like a witch too. That last thought had you smiling goofily as sleep overtook you and your mind plunged into darkness.

Warm hands. Big, dragging, gentle, soft. Light kisses below your ear. Whispers of love. A murmur of “Sweetling.” Contentment. Sated. But this time the memory didn’t flee, it continued. Light kisses became heated, hands pressed against each other, fingers brushing alongside a soft fur blanket. Gasping breaths, nerves lit up on fire. Bits and pieces like a puzzle pulling together to make the final picture.

“Come on, James! It’s the summer solstice and a full moon, and you are taking positively forever!” Your voice cried out, tugging a warm hand with you, your other arm carrying a woven basket filled with candles and blankets.

Pale moonlight illuminating the grassy meadow as you let go of his hand, placing the fur blankets down before lining the stones, crystals, and candles in a circle. “I do not think the moon will climb any faster than it does every year, Theodosia,” Bucky stood there, his hair an inch longer than you remembered, grinning as he helped make the circle comfortable.

“Still! I want this to be perfect,” you whispered, sighing softly as you stood in the middle of the circle. Alone with only your lover in the wilderness, unafraid to be who you really were. At peace. Excited.

You pulled on the string of your cloak, tugging it off until you tossed it out of the circle entirely, bare as you sat on the furs. Looking up at Bucky, you smiled, “Will you be joining me, or staring the entire time?”

He simply smirked, “I would not mind watching, I must admit.”

“Oh nonsense, hurry yourself or I will send you back home,” you teased, ignoring the blush threatening to creep onto your face.

“I am moving, do not worry, Little Witch,” he chuckled, pulling off his own cloak and tossing it out of the circle before lying beside you.

Without a word you threw your leg on the other side of his hips, easily finding your way above him, straddling his hips. “Why hello there, My Love,” you smiled warmly, wrapping your arms around his neck.

“Hello there, Sweetling,” his hands gripped your hips, the electricity pulsing from your body didn’t affect him, simply surrounding you both as the winds started to pick up. Light kisses became needier, heated. “I’m yours,” he pledged in a soft voice.

“And I’m yours. Forever, mo chridhe,” You smiled warmly, his eyebrows furrowing as he pulled you close to kiss again. Your hands ran through his hair, moaning softly as he nipped at your bottom lip. Electric pulsing came from a source that was not your powers, euphoria as flashes of other memories swept along like a coursing river.

Picking flowers in a meadow, laying amongst the lavender.

Lying beside a fire, warm hands around your body, pulling you closer by your hips.

Handmaking candles in preparation for the winters, lining your coats with furs, placing new fur blankets on the bed.

Your back arching, fingers gripping those same furs as you cried out.

Murmurs of spells and enchantments, healings.

Whispers with sour tones behind your back. Witch. Devil’s Spawn.

As quickly as the wave of memories turned changed, they quickly turned back to icy blue eyes. Eyes and arms that pulled you in, kissed your head and lips that said they loved you. James. Bucky.

“This isn’t real, Little Witch,” He gently cupped your face in his hands. “This isn’t real, it’s time to go,” He whispered.

“I don’t want to go again, James. I don’t want to lose you again,” you murmured, closing your eyes as you leaned against his hands.

“Don’t you remember, Theo? You found me again, I won’t let you get away that easy.” Your eyes fluttered open, deep blue ice pulling you back into the bright room. You noticed it was an older room, seemingly of a log cabin. You’ve been here before, but you couldn’t quite remember when. “I’m never letting you go again.”

“I thought you said it was time to go?” You looked back at him, nuzzling deeper into his warm arms. Something about that seemed wrong.

He smiled warmly, tilting your chin up to look at him, affection burning in his eyes, “It is, but I’ll be right there when you open your eyes. I’ll be your anchor in the light, you’ve always been the Good Witch, now it’s my turn to guide you to light magic. We’ll go together.”

“Promise?” Your voice showed exactly how terrified you were.

“Promise, Sweetling.” He smiled, kissing your temple affectionately, “You won’t be alone. Now, wake up.”

You gasped awake, eyes wide, shaking. Bucky was sitting up above you, wide eyes and trying to calm you. His mouth was moving, and you absentmindedly felt his hands gently holding your face. Your senses seemed to flood you at once, the bile rising in your throat, terror filling your body as Bucky’s words finally registered in your brain.

“There you go, baby girl, breathe with me. In, out, just like that,” following his words your trembling soon stopped, and you let your eyes close, trusting in the man in front of you. Sighing softly, he pressed his thumbs against your cheeks, and you were surprised to find that it came back wet. You were crying. God, you felt kinda pathetic but being in his arms made you feel safe. “You alright now?” He asked softly, your only response being a small nod. You couldn’t even remember why you were crying.

You moved closer, leaning against him on the bed again. “The memories… They’re coming faster than I can stop them.”

“What did you see?” His voice was soft, still cradling you close, not willing to let you go so easily.

“Doesn’t matter too much,” you mumbled, hoping he didn’t notice you blushing as you recalled the moonlit ritual with him.

“Does it? Or are you too embarrassed to say it?” He teased, tilting your head up to look at him, you were curled up in his arms, both of your arms secure against your chest.

“Rituals in the light of the full moon,” you swallowed thickly, steeling your courage. “Using sex magic for bigger spells,” you murmured.

His cheeks flushed pink but kept on grinning, clearly enjoying your shyness. “Is that it, Little Witch?”

“Mostly flashes of random moments,” You paused, becoming more serious, “I hate how none of them connect, it’s all a bunch of random pieces of string in a cobweb…”

“Or a really fucked up jigsaw.” He gently laid you back down across the soft blankets, laying beside you. “I understand that more than you think.”

You moved closer, gently rubbing your nose against his, allowing your eyes to close as you pressed a kiss to his head, letting his head rest at the top of your sternum. “I want to remember you, all of you. You’ve always been there, in the back of my head for years and I haven’t even noticed. You’ve always been a part of me,” you gulped faintly as his nose pressed lightly against your collarbone, grazing past the skin there, lips dotting small kisses along the exposed flesh above your mint charm necklace.

“I used to wonder why I was obsessed with honey. Sam used to tease me that there was no pleasing me,” he continued pressing kisses up your skin, “No matter what honey I tried, I never liked it, it was never right. Now I know it’s because,” he paused at your pulse point, teasingly licking up the thin cords of your neck that shielded your arteries from exposure. The attention made you keen, a faint whimper escaping your lips; one you instantly regretted as you felt his responding smirk against your skin. “Your scent is the honey I was missing. My mate’s scent,” he murmured, placing a possessive kiss just below your ear.

“Mate?” you whispered, the question at the forefront of your mind promptly evaporating the second he started to suck gently on your pulse point, fangs brushing against the skin without breaking it.

“Mine,” his voice was at a near growl, which sent a warm spark directly to your core.

“Make me remember, mo chridhe,” you weren’t quite sure where that phrase kept coming from, an underlining need to say it, but you decided not to question it. “Please-“ your pleas died off with a small breathy moan as his kisses moved up just far enough to suck a line of hickeys right under your jaw.

“Gladly, Sweetlin’ I’d do anything for ya,” as his voice got huskier, his accent started to slip in. He rolled a bit of his weight onto you, moving his lips higher again to claim yours. He was dominating, just a level below overwhelming; too much without being too much.

As your lips are being kissed, very thoroughly mind you, his hands start to push up your shirt, a random button down you happened to have on a chair earlier and Nat must have put on you while you were passed out. Must have had blood on the other shirt.

Your skin was heating up, your hands finding their way onto his body. One hand pressed against his abdomen, nails scratching faintly, enjoying the little groan he would give you in response. The other hand in his thick curls, finding purchase in them as you arched faintly against his touch.

“Bucky?” you murmured, biting your lip as you pressed your forehead against his. “Bite me,” you paused before adding in a soft voice, “Claim me.”

He pulled away, icy blue eyes wide, voice hoarse, “How do you know about vampire claims?” It was a little archaic, but a vampire could claim another nocturnal, and sometimes even humans. It wasn’t painful per se, but it would be for life.

“When I was doing research into vampires, I read it in one of the older texts.” You whispered, suddenly nervous. “Y-you don’t have-“

“No, no, Sweetling,” his hands pulled away from your hips, tenderly holding your face in his palms. “I just want you to be sure. Being Bound to each other is one thing, we cannot control that, but Claiming? It’d be forever, no one would come near you,” his thumbs gently rubbed circles into your cheeks, eyes watching your response carefully.

“I know… I’m yours, remember? Forever,” you placed your hands on top of his, pressing a soft kiss against his fingertips.

His face softened, his thumb running along the seam of your lips, his eyes glancing down before focusing on your eyes again. “And I am yours,” he agreed, smiling faintly. “I remember…. Are you sure you want this, Little Witch? You don’t have to let the past define you - define us.”

“I’m sure. The past isn’t making this decision for me, Bucky. Our past brought me to you, but I fell in love with this version of you. I love every form and every part of James Buchanan Barnes.”

“God, I love you,” he confessed before pushing forward and kissing you. Desperate as he kissed you deeper, demanding in his ministrations. You pushed his hands back onto your hips, your own hands quickly finding their way back to his hair, tugging him closer as you moaned softly against his lips. He groaned softly, his hand gripping your thigh and pulling it over his waist.

Lips breaking apart for breath, voice hoarse and gasping pleas. He simply smirked in response, your hands moving past his shoulders to tug his shirt up. He pulled away, sitting up, chuckling as you whimpered softly from the loss. “Patience, baby,” he teased, pulling his shirt off and tossing it aside. You blinked a few times, your brain connecting to your body again before pulling your own shirt off, looking up at him shyly. He ran his hands down your sides, before tugging your hips closer to where he was kneeling on the bed. “If you want to stop, just say the word,” he leaned over you, foreheads pressed together as he kissed you again, this time softer, with more reverence.

“I want this, I want you. Don’t stop, Angel Eyes,” you murmured against his lips, eyes fluttering closed with a small moan as his hands ran up against your inner thighs, pushing them apart.

“Gladly, Sweetlin’” his touch was teasing, but his hand soon moved right over your throbbing core, making you gasp softly. He dragged your shorts and panties off with one tug, throwing them aside hastily before his fingers returned to your folds, teasing as he spread your slick around. “Fuck, you’re so wet. Is this all for me?”

He pressed harder against your clit, rubbing small circles there making you cry out. “Ye-yes! All… all for you,” your hips jerked against his hand, choking out a moan as the pleasure started to electrify every nerve in your body.

“Is that right? How bad do you want me, Little Witch?” You whimpered softly, your mind swirling, unable to fully formulate a response. Your hand gripped his wrist, writhing under his touch as his hands started to tease your entrance. “Answer me, baby,” he warned against your ear, thoroughly enjoying your squirming. He kissed down your neck, taking his time teasing your skin with his teeth. Your hands quickly gripped onto your comforter, toes curling as he kitten licked your nipple, lips attaching to it before sucking harshly.

“So- ah! So bad!” You cried out, breathy moans escaping your lips as he slid two fingers into you.

He pumped them in and out slowly before curling them against your walls, smirking against the skin of your collarbone as you practically wept. “There it is,” he marveled, soon pumping his fingers faster against that spot, his thumb rubbing circles into your bundle of nerves as he sped up.

The knot in your stomach tightened, your heart fluttering as you neared your edge. “Please, James. Please,” you practically begged, not noticing his smirk as he watched you squirm for him, his free hand pressed against your stomach to keep your hips from moving.

“That’s it, Sweetlin’, let go, I’ve got you,” his hand pushed your hips down as you arched against him, the show of strength adding to the building ecstasy. The knot snapped, sending you into euphoria as you moaned his name. Electricity ran up your spine and down your arms, gripping onto him as little sparks surrounded you.

He watched you in awe, slowing his hand once you squirmed away from his hand from the overstimulation. He chuckled, pulling away from you as your eyes opened. You groaned, the first sight you saw being him sucking his fingers clean. You tried catching your breath, pushing off of your elbows to sit up, grabbing onto his jeans and pulling him close with it, attacking him in a heated kiss.

Your hands immediately went to the button of the jeans, practically ripping it off as you unzipped them. “Off. Now,” you gasped against his lips. He nodded, obliging as he pushed his knees up off the bed to stand, scrambling out his jeans and boxers. You bit your lip, smirking as you watched him trip over himself. He froze, unsure if he should continue, giving you the ‘deer in headlights’ look. You sat up on your knees, pulling him closer and using his surprise to push him down onto the bed, putting yourself on top of him. “Need you now, babe,” you murmured. Straddling his hips, you kissed him deeply as he lined himself up.

Slowly lowing yourself down onto him, you moaned, feeling the stretch of his length. He wasn’t small by any means, so you slowed down, whimpering softly as your hips met his, his length fully seated in you. “F-fuck, you feel so good,” he mumbled, his hands gripping onto your hips. You preened at the praise, taking a moment with him bottomed out, adjusting to his thick length.

“So do you,” you lean your forehead against his, pressing kisses across his face as you softly rock your hips. You moved slowly, lacing your hand in the hair at the nape of his neck, your other hand gripping onto his shoulder as you raised your hips a little faster. You dug your nails into the thick cords of his muscles, moaning as you moved. His hips bucked up against yours, making you basically mewl out, “Fuck.” You whimpered, your eyes closing as he fixed his stance, continuing to meet your hips thrust for thrust as you rode him. “Couldn’t just let me be in control, huh?” you teased, circling your hips against his.

He chuckled, gripping your hips to still you. “Bold of you to assume you’re in charge here,” your eyes opened in slight surprise, a chill going up your spine as you realized his eyes were a mix of his witch and vampire sides, red with a golden ring around them. He took charge, slamming his hips up, making you yelp as the pleasure spread at the rough display, both arms around his neck holding on for dear life. You most definitely didn’t mind this side of him. “You take me so well, such a good girl,” the praise sends your head spinning, a fact he locked away in his head for later. “Fuck, Sweetling,” He groans loudly as he grips you tighter, using the angle to pound up into you.

“Fuck, ple-please,” your voice died off as he continued, in total control of your pleasure. One hand was wrapped around your waist, keeping you steady as he moved harder, his length pressing against sensitive nerve endings you didn’t even know existed. His other hand slid between your bodies, roughly circling your clit, making your body seize up, clenching around him.

“Cum for me, Sweetling,” his voice was husky, lips pressed below your ear, “Then I’ll Claim you,” he promised, his own moan cutting his voice off.

You could only reply in breathless whimpers and mewls, brutal yet beautiful bliss overwhelming your body as the familiar knot in your stomach snapped again. He licked right over your pulse point, his hips stuttering a bit as he praised you, “That’s it,” he practically snarled against your skin.

Just as the pleasure started to die down, you felt his fangs brush against your skin. You relaxed in his arms, perfectly boneless. “Come on, Bucky. Cum for me,” you nuzzled your nose under his ear, “Please,” you groaned quietly, one hand tugging lightly on his hair.

His growled softly, fangs bared before they sunk into your lifeline just as he came hard. You cried out, the bite sent euphoric sparks down your neck and spine, pooling at your core and lighting up your brain which sent you gasping and crying out into another orgasm. It was completely different from the last time Bucky fed on you.

Just like that, you felt something snap inside of you, the hole you felt in your chest all your life shifted, filling. The yearning gone, filled instead with contentment and consuming bliss. You could feel and hear Bucky whimper against your neck as he pulled away, hips slowing until they stilled. He still held you close, gently licking the mark on your neck, cleaning off your blood as the wound closed while you mewled softly.

You both just held onto each other, catching your breath, gladly pressed into each other. “Did you feel that too?” You whispered once your breathing became normal again.

He pulled away slowly, a small sheen of sweat on his skin but he was grinning at you. “I did… I think my vampire side is a little happy I claimed you,” he teased.

You blushed but couldn’t help your little smile. “I concur,” you joked, kissing him softly. The heat and passion from earlier dwindling down, both of you sated. He held onto your hips, turning and laying you both down on the bed again, holding you close, unwilling to let you go just yet. “Ya know, we didn’t get much talking done.”

His eyes lit up as he laughed, grinning as he kissed your temple. “I don’t think your Coven will mind much. Now rest, Sweetling,” he pushed a curl of hair behind your ear, tenderly holding you. Your legs curled between his, your body tucked into his broad chest, letting his scent mixed with the smell of sex surround you.

“You too, mo chridhe,” you smiled warmly, holding yourself close together as you let sleep take both of you into the depths of darkness.

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mo chridhe means My Heart in Scots Gaelic

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Permanent Tags:

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For a tag, just reply/comment, if I don’t see it, just message me. Tell me what you think! Literally, any comment makes me happy! Like, comment, reblog, interact <3

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monstrousliarstold · 3 years

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#MWE 2021 Expanded, Week One

Last year I started tweeted a Music Writer Exercise created by Gary Suarez. It happens every February all month long, and it works like this: you listen to one full album you’ve never heard, from start to finish. Write one tweet about it.

I am tweeting my albums, but I am expanding my albums on the blog, and here as well. I’m going to put up the first week now:

1. Television – Marquee Moon : The title track is a dizzying piece that mesmerizes you, while the remaining songs are improvisational post-punk to their core. Decades onward, and there’s still a lot on the album that’s fresh. “Venus”, “Friction”, and “Elevation” are standout of Verlaine’s poetic lyrics over unrestrained riffs. You can hear the influences its made on LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, The Strokes, and countless classic attacks like R.E.M. among others. Even Joy Division fans can’t deny that Television’s album, which came out years before Unknown Pleasures, is a bedrock to the genre and many that came after.

2. Doves – The Universal Want: Long time since Kingdom of Rust, and the sound is like they shook off a lot of it. Not overly ornate, but the expansive melody and Goodwin’s anguish (“Prisoners” and “Broken Eyes” come to mind) makes a luster that washes out the dull. It’s difficult to pull off a decent album after an eleven-year hiatus, many stumble on the comeback swing. yet Doves pulls the uplifting from the melodrama as the adept veterans they have become.

3. PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea: A love letter to urban life that reaches out to you. Nightlife, seediness, longing – Polly Jean makes the alt-rock strumming intimate, even with that widespread appeal. The Thom Yorke tracks are amazing, but you can’t overlook “Good Fortune”, “Kamikaze”, and “This Is Love”. On a more personal note, I feel a slight pang of guilt because I should have listened to this album DECADES ago when I heard her live when she opened for U2 back in 2001.

4. White Zombie – La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One: Slick, primal sleaze-metal w/ trashy intensity oozing out of every song. The monotony is saved by the punctuations of exploitation movie samples like the devil’s ad-libs. There’s nothing to be lost from an Iggy Pop spoken word bit in the middle of “Black Sunshine”, either. The crunch in”Cosmic Monster Inc.” and unrelenting “Grindhouse (A Go-Go) ” are of note, along with “Thunder Kiss 65”, of course. Faster, slimebag, kill!

5. Death – …For The Whole World to See: Some archeologists fight about the origins of musical instruments. It’s not the same for this album and Death’s mark on punk rock when you listen. From start (“Keep On Knocking”) to finish (“Politicians In My Eyes”) it is a burst of vibrant, nonconformist rock that should have been respected at release, but alas.

6. Animal Collective – Sung Tongs: What an offbeat little symbol of emergent 2000s weirdness. Veering on the twee at times, it’s a psych-folk album that takes you on a jaunt through an indie idyll. Whether it’s back to normal or down to hipsterdom, that would depend if you went on to listen to Merriweather Post Pavilion.

7. Actress – Karma & Desire: Certain hypnagogic melodies permeate this album. It has a Selected Ambient Works Vol II vibe, evolved into something organic, energetic, and cybernetic. Whispers slip into pulsating beats on “Angels Pharmacy”. There are haunting piano pieces throughout, but “Many Seas, Many River” with Sampha’s soulful vocals is a standout. Actress’ house roots still emerge on the bottom half of the album, and the T-909 special guesting.

#MWE #music writer exercise #television #music review #marquee moon #post punk #pj harvey #actress #electronic music #punk rock #death #white zombie #heavy metal #animal collective #freak folk #doves #alt rock

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curious-wildflower · 3 years

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Mothman The Seconded Most American Cryptid Of All

Straight up first is bigfoot.

Anyhow, not here for him so let’s talk Mothman: calamity and capitalism. Everyone who knows anything about cryptids knows Mothman, people are very thirsty for him, he has that statue with the fine steel ass, have a festival for him the 3rd weekend of September, all over Point Pleasant you can find capitalism at it’s finest marketing everything for shirts to pizzas about Mothman.

Below I will be listing the Mothman sightings I know of before sharing my own thought upon it all, also to note I will not be including those that are about large birds which supposedly had wide wings (of which there are many) because I feel like that’s creeping into Thunderbird territory and I’m not looking at. You can also see where it went from your average small-town UFO/Creature sightings into well what it is today.

1960- Shirley Hensley and her family lived on the outskirts of Huntington, West Virginia. Their house was located on Crotty street also known as 31st Street Hill. Shirley said that she and her family would often hear odd noises and see "two big, red eyes….. You could hear the grunting noise as it bumped up against the house and the leaves crackling - [as it walked.] We could also hear a gargling type of sound, and then a very loud scream would come out...and it was a blood-curdling scream like nothing I had ever heard before or since."

Growing up as a poor child of nine "[they] all took turns getting the water [from the well], and [they] had a rule that [they] had to get the water in before dark - that is when this thing always came around. [They] never saw it in the daylight, so everyone knew that they had to bring in the water before dark. It would come around one or two nights for about three weeks, and then it would go away. This went on for about three years."

Her father once attempted shooting it once when it was digging around in the neighbour’s coal pile out front, “he shot at it and it let out a loud scream and started running towards the hill.” Her "dad was a little angry, because he had told [her] sister Mary to stay in the house, but she had witnessed the whole thing while standing behind him. She said it was a big, tall black shiny thing with big red eyes. [The] dad described it as at least 7ft [(2.1m)] tall, and that it had very long arms that went down past its knees and that when it ran up the hillside the arms stayed down at its side…it ran in an awkward manner.” And that it’s eyes “looked like red bicycle reflectors”

1961- A woman and her elderly father was driving on Route 2 along the Ohio River on the West Virginia side. As they passed through Chief Cornstalk Hunting Grounds, in the middle of the road suddenly she slowed as “A big grey figure. It stood in the middle of the road. Then a pair of wings unfolded from its back and they practically filled the whole road. It almost looked like a small airplane. Then it took off straight up...disappearing out of sight in seconds.” Terrifeid she stepped on the gas, and got out of there, and decided once having spoken with her father about it not to share the encounter out of fear of reticule.

1965 - A woman living on the Ohio River, was amused when her seven-year-old son ran into the house one day and excitedly told her that he had seen "An angel . . . A man with wings". She assumed it was just his imagination and thought no more about it, until the next year.

1966- Early summer the wife of a doctor in the Ohio valley, was in her backyard when a 6ft (1.8m) long thing soared past her very rapidly. She thought it resembled a "giant butterfly" and she dared to mention the incident to only a few people.

August Sometime, Jefferson Avenue Point Pleasant WV, Lawrence Gray was coming home from church when he got the strange sense that something was in his house as he approached the steps at around 9:30PM. He lived in a small white house on Jefferson Avenue across from Wesleyan Church. As he entered his house, the feeling of dread grew stronger but he didn’t find anything when he searched around other than the hook-style lock on his basement door being unlatched. Lawrence and his wife went to sleep around 10:30 or 11:00PM. At around 3AM, he found himself awake and looking out the window by his bedside as a car pulled into the nearby church and the bright streetlight illuminated the street below.

Lawrence turned his head to see a 6ft (1.8m) tall glowing figure with deep eyes and large wings standing with its shoulders arched and its head tilted. The figure was described as “lunar” in coloration meaning dirty grey and white like the surface of the moon. When Lawrence saw the being, he was paralysed. He was convinced that it was “the devil”. The encounter went on for about 45 seconds. Lawrence said that when he focused on Bible verses, the creature vanished.

September 1st, Mrs. James Ikart of Scott Mississippi was astonished to see a man flying around above the Pine Land Plantation. She telephoned the Delta Democrat Times, Greenville, Mississippi and a reporter armed with cameras was rushed to the scene, once arrived he found several people staring at the sky, all claiming that they had seen an object shaped like man manoeuvring overhead. "It got down pretty low and then would go up," Mrs. Ikart told him. "I have never seen anything like this before."

November 1st, Armory near Camp Conley Road, Point Pleasant WV, a national guardsman at the armoury near Camp Conley road in Pt Pleasant WV claimed to have seen a large brown humanoid figure perched on the limb of a tree.

November 12th, Reamer Hill Cemetery near Clendenin WV, Kenneth Duncan Robert “Bob” Lovejoy, William “Bill” Poole, Andrew Godby and Emil Gibson were digging a grave for Kenneth’s father-in-law, Homer Smith, in a cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia. Claimed to see a man-like figure that flew out from some nearby trees and glided low over their heads, the creature was brown and in sight for about a minute and that it didn’t look like any kind of bird but seemed to be humanoid, like a man with wings.

November 15th, Abandoned North Power Plant building, TNT Area, Mason County WV & Route 62, Point Pleasant WV. Two young married couples Linda Scarberry, Roger Scarberry, Steve Mallette and Mary Mallette were joyriding around in a black ’57 Chevy to a hangout spot north of Point Pleasant known as The TNT Area. When they suddenly saw two circular fiery red eyes next to the abandoned North Power Plant. They said the grey man-like figure was 6 to 7ft (1.8 -2.1m) tall with folded wings behind it’s back. They quickly drove off on Route 62. The couples then saw the creature on a hill by a large billboard. It spread it’s 10ft (3m) wings, went straight up into the air and began gliding over the car.

When they got to a straight stretch of road, they were going about 100mph but the thing was still able to follow them. They were only able to get away from the creature when they reached the edge of Point Pleasant. The monster disappeared, veering off into a field as they entered town.

After stopping at the local Dairyland to discuss what to do next, the teens decided to head back onto Route 62 to see if it was still there before they drove back into town, stopped at the local Tiny’s Diner and contacted the police.

Deputy Millard Halstead accompanied them back The TNT Area but found no clear sign of the creature. The witnesses however claimed to see red eyes, shadows and dust being kicked up nearby. They also reportedly heard a strange noise that sounded like a squeak or a record being sped up. The Mallettes accompanied Linda and Roger back to the Scarberry home where they stayed awake all night from fear.

The next day, Sheriff George Johnson held a press conference and newspaper reports began being written. By that night, the TNT area was filled with cars of people looking for the monster. While the locals simply called it “The Bird”, the newspapers named the creature “Mothman”.

November 16th, Point Pleasant WV – Housing within the TNT Area. 21-year-old Marcella Bennett, her 2-year-old daughter Tina, her 19-year-old brother Raymond Wamsley and his 18-year-old wife Cathy Wamsley went to visit their relatives. Raymond and Marcella’s sister Virginia Thomas lived within the TNT Area with her husband Ralph Thomas.

When the group arrived at the residence, they found that the only ones home at the time were the Thomas children, 15-year-old Rickie and his two sisters Vickie and Connie. After exchanging a few words, the Bennetts and Wamsleys headed back to their car. It was about 9pm now and that’s when they spotted some strange lights in the sky hovering above the trees. Raymond stopped at the bottom of the steps and tried to get Marcella’s attention. She ignored him and began walking to the car, carrying her daughter.

She said she saw creature out of the corner of her eye as she was unlocking the car door and that it stood up from behind her parked vehicle. She first saw men’s legs which looked to be covered with grey feathers. It had wings drawn in toward the body and its head was tilted sideways and sunken into the shoulder area. Marcella described the creature as over 6ft tall, like a giant bird yet also a man. Raymond and his wife Cathy were both very frightened and kept yelling for Marcella to run, but she was paralysed by fear. When Marcella finally managed to turn she took only a few steps towards the house before falling to the ground in a state of shock on top of her daughter. She was unable to get up as if in a trance.

Marcella heard the flapping of wings as she was trying to run. After pulling herself together, she picked up her child and ran into the house. The family locked themselves inside. Marcella’s hands and knees were badly scrapped and bruised. She had been burned from her lit cigarette and the side of her face was bleeding from where she had fallen. The children inside were all screaming and crying in panic. Raymond Wamsley frantically phoned the sheriff’s department. By this time Marcella was lying on the sofa and could hear him telling them to get to The TNT Area because they’d seen the monster. He said they were locked in the house but that it was still outside.

The bird creature is said to have shuffled onto the porch, pushed on the door and peered into the windows. It took the police about 15 to 20 minutes to arrive but the creature was gone by the time they got there. They came with guns drawn and searched all around the property. The front yard was soon full of police cars and curious people. Raymond talked to the police and filled out a report.

November 17th Route 7 near Cheshire Ohio, a teenage boy driving on Route 7 reportedly saw a grey man-shaped bird creature with red eyes and 10ft (3m) wingspan. The creature pursued the witness’s automobile for about a mile.

November 18th TNT Area – Point Pleasant WV, Point Pleasant volunteer firemen Benjamin Enochs and Captain Paul Yoder supposedly sighted a huge bird-like creature with large red eyes while in the TNT area unlike anything they’d seen before.

November 20th Dixie, Nicholas County WV, Howard Miller reportedly saw a 4ft (1.4m) tall bird with red half-moons under the eyes which landed on a school bus shelter in Dixie, Nicholas County WV.

Same day near Campbell’s Creek WV six teenagers claimed to see a grey red-eyed man-sized creature. On that night, Brenda Jones and four other teenagers driving along Campbell’s Creek saw a man-sized bird-creature standing beside a rock quarry by view of their car’s headlights. It turned and ran into the woods.

November 21st, Charleston WV, Richard West phoned Charleston police and talked with Patrolman D.L Tucker. He reported that a 6ft (1.8m) tall man with red eyes and a 6 to 8ft wingspan was sitting on a roof near his home. West said that it flew like a helicopter straight up into the air.

November 24th, Point Pleasant WV two adults and their two children reported a giant red-eyed flying creature.

November 27th Route 33, near New Haven WV, 18-year-old Connie Carpenter was driving home at 10:30 AM passed the old Mason County Golf Course outside of New Haven WV when she saw a large grey 7ft tall man-like figure with glowing red hypnotic eyes which caused her to almost run her car off the road. The 10ft(3m) wings unfolded from the creatures back and it rose straight up into the air then headed toward Connie’s windshield. When she accelerated forward, the creature flew over the top of the car and Connie raced home. She developed conjunctivitis for over two weeks afterwards supposedly caused by staring into creature’s glowing red eyes.

On the same evening at Route 60 near St. Albans WV, 13-year-old Sheila Cain and her younger sister were walking home from the store in St. Albans WV when they saw a large 7ft (2.1m) grey and white creature with big red eyes standing next to the local junk yard. Shelia screamed and they ran away stating that the creature flew up into the air and pursued them. They ran into a neighbour’s house who confirmed their sighting.

November Sometime in the TNT Area, North Power Plant, Mason County WV, Bob Bosworth and his friend Alan Coates were riding around Alan’s motorcycle towards the TNT Area along Camp Conley Road. When they arrived at the abandoned North Power Plant they saw what appeared to be two red eyes looking at them from the roof of the old building. They thought perhaps someone had nailed some reflectors to a board. The two men tried to turn and the lift the front of the motorcycle to shine it’s headlight at the roof but it was too heavy. They decided to go up into the building to check it out. As they began entering, the red lights seemed to turn to watch them.

Moonlight illuminated much of the power plant’s interior through the large industrial size windows. Within the shadowed section of the building, towards the back, a large 6’6″ to 7ft (1.8-2.1m) tall figure walked forward; stepping across the broken glass covered flooring. The figure in the dark had broad shoulders and its head appeared to be sitting on its shoulders with no visible neck like an upside down letter “U” which tapered to its body like a robin. It came within about 6 feet of Bob and Alan and just stood there. Bosworth, to see if it was a person, said aloud that he was going to shoot the creature. He put his hand in his coat as if to reach for something but the figure remained motionless and silent.

Eventually, the creature slowly turns it’s body towards the decaying metal grate catwalks within the power plant and began walking along them. Bosworth shouted out to the figure, still unsure if it was a person, saying not to go onto the catwalks because they were dangerous and led outside to a multiple story drop they then heard something that sounded like wings, frightened the two men took off and left on Alan’s motorcycle.

On a late fall evening in November, TNT Area, North Power Plant, Mason County at about 11PM, after seeing a movie in Ohio, Faye Dewitt’s 16-year-old brother Carlisle who went by Topper drove Faye (14) and her younger siblings Betty, Ray and Jack in his car to the TNT Area. He reportedly took them there to prove that the creature they’d heard about from the kids at school didn’t exist. As they drove at about 50mph, Faye turned to see something running beside the truck. It had a human-like head and was covered in feathers with large ruby red eyes that took up most of it’s face. The creature was described as over 5ft tall and white-ish and tan in coloration.

Her older brother Topper drove around a sharp turn in an attempt to try to lose the creature but it kept up with them and continued to follow. In a panic, Faye’s younger siblings were hiding by ducking down in the floor of the truck with Betty huddled over Ray and Jack. Topper went around another sharp turn and stopped his car sideways in the road by the abandoned North Power Plant. Faye said the creature got on the roof of the car and looked at them through the windshield. It then stood up, jumped down off the vehicle and ran towards the power plant, the creature then jumped up to the top of the old three-story-high power plant and crouched like a gargoyle. Faye’s brother got out and began throwing rocks and pieces of coal at the creature.

When he threw a larger chunk of coal that landed by it’s foot, the creature stood up, turned sideways to looked at him and jumped down from the roof. Topper rushed back to the vehicle and closed the door. The creature spread out a pair of 5 to 6ft (1.5-1.8m) wings and flew off into the darkness, they then drove to the Mason County courthouse and told the deputy what happened.

December 6th in the TNT Area, Mason County WV a couple spotted a huge man-like grey figure with glowing red eyes.

December 7th Route 33, Ohip, four women describe a man-shaped flying creature with glowing red eyes, brownish and silver in coloration. Same night in the TNT Area, Mason County WV author John Keel arrived in Point Pleasant WV. After talking to Deputy Millard Halstead at the Mason County courthouse, he met with Mabel McDaniel who was the mother of Mothman witness Linda Scarberry. Mabel made several phone calls and assembled the witnesses for Keel to talk to. This included Linda and Roger Scarberry, Steve and Mary Mallette as well as Connie Carpenter and her aunt Mary Hyre who was the local reporter. After recording statements from the witnesses with a tape-recorder, at about 9PM Keel and the group that consisted of John Keel, Mary Hyre, the Scarberry and Mallettes, Mabel McDaniel, Connie Carpenter and her boyfriend Keith Aeiker decided to go the sighting location at the TNT Area with a flashlight.

They went through the old gate at the abandoned North Power Plant where Keel, Connie and Keith went into the building. Keel climbed the steel ladders and walked along the catwalks. After not finding anything, the trio went for the exit. As they were leaving Connie suddenly saw two large red glowing eyes by the back wall and screamed. Connie and Keith left the building in a panic but Keel went back in, shining his flashlight around and searching for something that could’ve made the red lights she saw.

Finding nothing he walked out of the North Power Plant and saw Deputy Alva Sullivan had joined the group. Mary Hyre told Keel that they’d seen a tall running figure and asked if it was him but he told her that he’d been in the building the whole time. Mabel McDaniel added that while Keel was in there, they had heard a loud hollow metallic sound like something metal had fallen. The whole group, except for Keel, said they had heard this. Mary Mallette’s ear also began bleeding seemingly without reason. The group drove back to the McDaniel residence and Mary Mallete’s ear eventually stopped bleeding. Keel returned to The TNT Area alone at about midnight. There he found what he described as a “zone of fear”. It was a spot in the road that was mysteriously fear-inducing each time he passed it yet he couldn’t figure out why.

December 8th, Route 35, WV, two women sight a shadowy figure seen on hilltop with two glowing red eyes.

December 11th, TNT Area a man and his son spot a man-shaped grey figure which quickly flew overhead. Same day Kathryn Beaver on Route 35, WV, sees a very large grey creature with glowing red eyes, flew past her car.

December of 1966 13th Street in Point Pleasant WV, A month after the Linda Scaberry’s initial Mothman sighting, she had moved in with her parents, Linda reportedly looked out the window and saw the creature sitting on the roof of the house which slanted down from the upstairs bedroom window, the creature’s wings were folded around itself as if to keep warm in the cold weather. Its head was tilted, looking curiously through the window. Linda said she views the creature as lonely and thought it didn’t want to hurt her but to communicate.

1967- January 11th, Tiny’s Diner, Route 62 , Point Pleasant WV, Mabel McDaniel (mother os Lina Scarberry) was walking near Tiny’s Diner when she saw a large brown creature with a 10ft (3m) wingspan flying over Route 62. At first she thought it was an airplane but it was flying very low. The creature had “men’s legs” hanging down from it, she didn’t see a head or a neck. It glided silently without flapping it’s wings. It circled the restaurant and then flew away.

March 12th, Letart Falls, Ohio, a woman reports a large flying being with long white hair and a 10ft wingspan which passed directly in front of her car.

May 19th, Route 62 TNT Area Pt Pleasant WV at about 10:30PM, while driving past the area, Brenda Stone and another woman witnessed what looked like a winged creature fly up to meet a UFO. The women claimed that they had seen a shadowy form with bright red lights like glowing eyes in the top of a tree near the road. A large hovering red light which looked to be a luminous object then appeared and approached the tree. The shadowy figure flew towards the red glowing object and vanished the UFO then flew out of sight to the north.

November 2nd, TNT Area Igloos, Point Pleasant WV, Virginia Thomas (sister to Marcella Bennett) was in the kitchen of her house when she heard a loud squeaking sound, she said was similar to a bad fan belt. Virginia stepped out on her front porch to investigate the noise and saw a large shadow across the grass field and a tall grey man-shaped figure moving quickly among the TNT Area igloos. The figure walked upright like a man but was much larger and moved amazingly fast in a gliding motion. It then disappeared into some nearby trees. After that sighting, Mrs. Thomas had several nightmares. One of which featured strange people along the river and an invasion of some sort coming over The Silver Bridge in trucks and going into the TNT Area. In the dream, the Thomas’ grab the kids and run. She wasn’t sure what the dream meant.

November Sometime, Chief Cornstalk Park WV, four male Hunters encountered a large grey figure with red eyes they were so frightened that they didn’t think to use their rifles until after it was gone.

December 15- The Silver Bridge was built in 1928 and named for the colour of its aluminium paint. The bridge was meant to be built with suspension cables but wanting to cut costs was made with the cheaper ear-bar chain suspensions instead, it carried U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio.

December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Analysis showed that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it had originally been designed for and had been poorly maintained.

Paranormal author Gray Baler made a Mothman theory especially popular in 1970 with his book ‘The Silver Bridge’ where he made links between the bridge collapse and the Mothman sights turning the Mothman into a harbour of death or an omen of bad things to come.

Mothman’s origin story are said to be with Chief Hokoleskwa (spelled Colesqua in some accounts) also known as Keigh-tugh-qua and Wynepuechsika, "Cornstalk" by Anglo-Americans. Who lived 1720 – 1777 and was a prominent leader of the Shawnee nation just prior to the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783. When he along with other leaders of the seven nations of Indians in the area (the Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandot, Mingo, Miami, Ottawa and Illinois) formed a powerful confederacy to keep the white men from infringing on their territory opposed European settlement west of the Ohio river- where they wanted to take over 100,000 acres/156.25 square miles/4.05 square meters of Indian land, they attacked. Over the years of death in 1764, to assure that American Indians would sign a peace treaty ending the rebellion, they seized several hostages, including Hokolesqua. The Shawnee agreed not to take up arms against the English again.

During the next decade, fighting did occur between the British and the American Indians of the Ohio Country. Hokolesqua tried to peacefully ease the tensions, but the arrival of more white settlers placed him in the minority as to how to deal with the whites.

In August 1774, Pennsylvania militia entered the Ohio Country and quickly destroyed seven Ohio Seneca-Cayuga villages, which had been abandoned as the soldiers approached. At the same time, Lord Dunmore sent one thousand men to the Kanawha River in modern-day West Virginia to build a fort and attack the Shawnees. Cornstalk as the soldiers invaded the Ohio Country, dispatched nearly one thousand Shawnee warriors to drive Dunmore's force from the region. The forces met on October 10, 1774, at what became known as the Battle of Point Pleasant. After several hours of intense fighting, the English drove Hokolesqua's followers north of the Ohio River. Dunmore, with a separate force, followed the Shawnee across the river into the Ohio Country. Upon nearing the Shawnee villages on the Pickaway Plains, Dunmore stopped and asked that the Shawnee discuss a peace treaty with him. The Shawnee agreed, but while negotiations were under way, Colonel Andrew Lewis, and a detachment of Virginia militia that Dunmore had left behind at Point Pleasant, crossed the Ohio River and destroyed several Shawnee villages. Fearing that Dunmore intended to destroy them, the Shawnee immediately agreed to terms before more pointless blood was shed. They were forced to give up ownership to all lands east and south of the Ohio River. This was the first time that an American Indian group that lived in the Ohio Country were forced to relinquish their land. In addition, the Shawnees promised to return all white captives and to no longer attack English colonists traveling down the Ohio River.

Hokolesqua abided by this treaty of course angry most Shawnee did not. By 1777, the Shawnee Indians again planned to drive the white settlers from their region. This time they did so at the urging of British soldiers who sought assistance in defeating the colonists in the American Revolution. Hokolesqua and his son, Elinipsico seeking to maintain his faction's neutrality, went to Point Pleasant the site of an American fort, on a diplomatic visit to warn the whites of the impending attack and were taken hostage by them instead. Shortly thereafter, American militiaman stationed at the fort was killed by unknown Indians in the vicinity. Angry soldiers brutally murdered Cornstalk, his son Elinipsico, and two other Shawnees (Red Hawk and an unknown man) in American custody, even though the men had nothing to do with the crime, the Americans decided to execute the prisoners as revenge. Red Hawk and Elinipsico was shot where he had been sitting and the other unknown Indian was strangled to death. Hokolesqua was shot eight times upon his dying breath he was said to have pronounced his now legendary curse.

“I was the border man’s friend. Many times I have saved him and his people from harm. I never warred with you, but only to protect our wigwams and lands. I refused to join your paleface enemies with the red coats. I came to the fort as your friend and you murdered me. You have murdered by my side, my young son.... For this, may the curse of the Great Spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature. May it even be blighted in its hopes. May the strength of its peoples be paralysed by the stain of our blood.” And then he died.

The bodies of the other Indians and his son were then taken and dumped into the Kanawha River but Hokolesqua ‘s corpse was buried near the fort on Point Pleasant, overlooking the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. The murderers were acquitted.

Local legends arose about his dying "curse" being the cause of misfortunes in the area. Any disaster that stuck the area was blamed upon this curse such as:

1880s: Fire destroyed an entire downtown city block.

1907: The worst coal mine disaster in American history took place in Monongah, West Virginia on December 6, when 310 miners were killed.

1913- 1937: Point Pleasant was almost obliterated in floods.

1944: In June of this year, 150 people were killed when a tornado ripped through the tri-state triangular area.

1953: Barge explosion killed six men from Point Pleasant just before Christmas.

1967: The devastating Silver Bridge disaster that sent 46 people hurtling to their death in the Ohio River on December 15. Many have also connected this tragedy to the eerie sightings of the Mothman, strange lights in the sky and odd paranormal happenings.

1968: August, A Piedmont Airlines plane crashed near the Kanawha Airport, killing 35 people on board.

1970: On November 14, a Southern Airways DC-10 crashed into a mountain near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75 people on board.

1970 – 1984: The Minden-based Shaffer Equipment Company built electrical equipment for the coal industry from 1970 to 1984 and used the oil in transformers and other hardware, which was common at the time. The United States banned the manufacture of products containing oil with polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs in 1979, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies the group of chemicals as a “probable human carcinogen.”

1972: February 26, a sludge dam on the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek in Logan County gave way, loosening a torrent of thick, murky water that promptly wiped out the small community of Saunders, and sixteen more Buffalo Creek Valley communities--Pardee, Lorado, Craneco, Lundale, Stowe, Crites, Latrobe, Robinette, Amherstdale, Becco, Fanco, Riley, Braeholm, Accoville, Crown, and Kistler--were either partially or totally destroyed claimed at least 118 death with an additional 1000 injured, 507 houses were lost or demolished; 44 mobile homes were destroyed; another 273 houses were severely damaged; while nearly 663 more houses suffered damage to varying degrees and a total of 4000 people were thus left homeless by this flood.

1976: March 2, housed in the Mason County Jail was a woman named Harriet Sisk, who had been arrested for the murder of her infant daughter, her husband came to the jail with a suitcase full of explosives to kill himself and his wife and to destroy the building. Both of the Sisk’s were killed, along with three law enforcement officers.

1978: In January, a freight train derailed at Point Pleasant and dumped thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals. The chemicals contaminated the town’s water supply and the wells had to be abandoned.

1978: In April of that same year, the town of St. Mary’s (north of Point Pleasant) 51 men who were working on the Willow Island power plant were killed when their construction scaffolding collapsed.

1979 – 1989: Released in July by the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, due to past PCB dumping suggest that the rate of cancer deaths in Minden could have been twice as high as for the rest of Fayette County.

1990 – 1999: Due to PCB dumping the Minden cancer death-rate spiked to four times higher than that of the rest of the county before dipping in 2000 to a rate that was nearly equal to the rest of the county.

2010: Upper Big Branch Mine disaster occurred on April 5 in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine blew up, twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed.

2016: A flood hit areas of the U.S. state of West Virginia and nearby parts of Virginia, resulting in 23 deaths.

Any and everything that could go wrong can get pointed back to this curse and Mothman who since the bridge collapse has been tied to it all as well. Amazing how Mothman’s popularity is based on American racism blaming a murdered man’s curse, capitalism being happier for people to blame that then any of their lax government regulations, economic pressure and cut corners, because in America who cares what’s risked for a small profit? And my now they can market and sell it all for more profit. The Mothman is a symbol of calamity and capitalism as American as can be.

For like newspaper clippings go look out at: https://themothman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mothman_Timeline

Sources:

The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel 1975

Mothman and Other Curious Encounters by Loren L. Coleman (2002)

Strange Creatures From Time And Space by John Keel (1970)

Mothman- Behind the Red Eyes : the Complete Investigative Library by Jeff Wamsley (2005)

https://www.aaanativearts.com/shawnee-chief-cornstalk

http://www.wvculture.org/history/disasters/buffcreekgovreport.html

#Mothman #Cryptids #Long rant #mothman says fuck racism #cornstalk

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dragonrajafanfiction · 4 years

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Dragon Dancer III: Carli’s Child

Major Spoiler Warning: Villain Plot Reveal, and Monsters Revealed from Chapter 103 in the game

Trigger Warning: This chapter has been described as ‘gruesome’, and ‘messed up’ by some beta readers for its disturbing imagery.

The King stood at the edge of the well, a deep hole a football field in diameter surrounded by walls of jagged rock cut into the mountain by wind and rain. He and his engineers wore full-body suits made of a synthetic material that could withstand the most corrosive substances. White spiderweb filaments that crawled up from this hole like mold, spilled over the edge and crept over the whole area, oozed a milky noxious liquid that dissolved organic material. Trees dropped their leaves, and grass withered. It grew over animals who came in contact with it and couldn’t escape until they were cocooned and dissolved into blackened husks.

The underground river at the bottom of the well should have been devoid of life. It was an ancient lava tube that collected water that seeped through the porous ground. This river also came in contact with the active volcanic activity in places, warming it like a hot spring. The warmth and the nutrients provided by the volcano made it the perfect nursery for growing dragonkind.

The Executive Department of Hydra had dumped powerful poisons into the water not a day ago in an attempt to destroy that dragonkin. Yet the sonar, the infrared and the seismic instruments of The King’s engineers indicated that something very large was breathing down there. It was moving. It had a heartbeat. The temperature of the water had gradually heated to boiling. The stench was overpowering.

The King looked down at the small bundle in his arms. His voice held a great fondness. “Do you smell it little one? Oh yes, the smell of a new birth!”

The baby looked up at him with calm innocence. His skin was a soft chocolate brown, his eyes a fiery red. His dark hair curled on his head.

From the day Ruri Kazama failed to capture the Empress Hybrid, The King knew he had a problem on his hands. He depended on Ruri being under his complete control from beginning to end to resurrect the god. Once he realized that there was someone to rival him, someone who could break through his woodblock hypnosis, he got to work on a replacement.

Using the Empress’s egg cells he’d purchased from the Comemnus Corporation and the sperm harvested from Ruri Kazama, he had created this replacement. Something this tiny and helpless did not need to be controlled.

“The god has awakened... now to pay our respects.” He took a razor blade and pierced the baby’s hand. The baby’s face twisted in a grimace and his face turned red. He began to cry and scream. It gave the King a shiver of joy to hear it.

He held the baby’s hand over the expanse and let the blood run down his little fingers and sprinkle into the well.

“Sonar detects a large object incoming!” The members of the Devil Clan stepped back from the edge of the abyss.

“Let us welcome our new god!”

The water underneath spawned a whirlpool as a great creature swam to the surface, drawn by the scent of the baby’s blood.

“Let’s see how strong it is! Start the turbines!” The King ordered.

The engineering crew turned to their control and command center. At the bottom of the well, a turbine spun with such great force that even a submarine would not be able to resist the pull.

The beast in the water in the water ignored it, continuing upwards, without slowing down.

“Amazing! Amazing!” The King danced with joy, swaying, pacing and gesturing erratically

The engineering crew, meanwhile, exchanged glances as they looked over the creature’s quickening vital signs and unstoppable power. Perhaps they were making a mistake.

“Begin the second test!”

The second test involved a volley of explosives dropped into the well that sank down and detonated, surrounding the beast with fire. But again, the sonar screen indicated that the dragon was unaffected. It quickened its rise to the surface! “The target is accelerating!” An engineer looked over his shoulder at the well.

“Test number three!”

They closed twelve thick reinforced gates above the creature. A net of nanofibers stretched over each of them made out of threads strong enough to carry the Trieste. The beast not only broke through the gates but began breaking through the nets, stretching and sawing through the powerful fibers!

The engineering crew scrambled to safety. “It’s coming to the surface! Take cover!”

Only the King stayed calm. He held the crying baby over the well. The beast broke the surface, shooting completely out of the water and clinging to the sides of the chasm by what at first appeared to be tentacles. They realized, once the pairs of bright glowing eyes opened on each appendage, that they were not tentacles but multiple heads cleaning to the rock.

Eight heads.

Four cannons surrounding the chasm pointed down into the well and exploded into deafening fire, each round full of anesthetic drugs. But that couldn’t slow down the beast clinging and hissing on the wall.

The integrity of the well itself began to falter. The struts holding it open collapsed down into the dark. “Throw down more nets!” The chief engineer roared. “Capture it!”

The King chuckled. He knew that at full power, this creature was beyond capture. He would need to weaken it further. Against the nets, against the cannon fire, it used its eight heads like arms to climb up. It leveraged a sharp sickle on its tail to gain stability on the slippery rock. Soon, it would be completely free.

The King opened his hands.

The baby fell screaming down into the dark. He didn’t see the child hit the boiling water, but now the river was full of the blood of the god. He trusted in a rapid transformation.

“We’re detecting another heartbeat! A new energy signal!”

The awed cries of the engineering department sang like a chorus in the King’s ears. An oblong pale shape levitated from the water. The floating egg ascended, cracking and splitting. Finally, it shattered into glass-like fragments. Beautiful white and gold wings spread into the cavern. Even though the baby was still a baby, the wingspan appeared to stretch the length of a bus.

Two of the dragon's eight heads turned to look. Tiny motes of light snowed down toward the wings, being absorbed into the feathers until they turned an angry glowing red. They stretched and elongated into a multitude of flaming whip-like tendrils.

The eight headed dragon struggled to continue its climb and managed to just reach above the lip of the well when bright red-hot tendrils of energy surged upward. They whipsawed against the flesh of the newly awakened dragon, tearing off bloody strips of quivering muscle. One head was taken off completely, spraying a spiral of blood back into the depths of the well.

The dragon roared and wailed in despair, as though begging for the torment to stop.

The King folded his hands behind his back. So this was the power of the offspring of Emperors. Even in infancy, not even the gods could challenge it.

The eight headed dragon, weakened and in pain, relinquished its grip on the wall. It fell to the bottom of the well. It hit the water, sending up a splash reaching meters high.

The child’s wings lifted above the opening. It soared to his father, mewling, seeking comfort. The wings stretched up into the sky as it reached down for him. The King held up his arms and cradled the baby. The sheer weight of the wings should have flattened the King, but these creatures did not follow the simple laws of physics.

The engineering team rushed to dump liquid nitrogen into the well. Dragons were reptiles and the cold temperature put it into a stupor. It was unable to move or fight any longer. They’d done it.

They’d captured a god.

The King paced back and forth. Using more of the nanofiber nets, they lifted the half frozen monster out of the well. Cranes lowered car-sized buzzsaws to cut into the creature. Heavy machinery lifted the severed parts away. Blood poured from the helpless dragon, painting the white filaments in red, staining everyone in the work area crimson.

This eight headed creature actually wasn’t the White King. It had only inherited the White King’s remnants. The Devil Clan worked to dismantle it with uncharacteristic joy. Finally, they would ascend above the years of torment and injustice and become more powerful than anything they ever dreamed. Some of them openly wept.

The creature was completely subdued. It was still conscious but unable to move as it was skinned and one by one its heads were severed until the last one was gone and it died in truth.

The King glanced up at the sky, understanding he was on a strict schedule. The Sword of Damocles edged ever closer. The satellite weapon would descend and turn this place into an inferno. He would have to contain the sacred remnants and leave this place.

Eventually, they reached the heart of the dragon. The massive organ slid out of the chest with a suction noise and a shower of blood. It was translucent like a gem and inside the gem, something was wriggling.

The King panted with urgency “Cut it open! That’s it! The Sacred Skeleton!”

The skeleton wasn’t bone at all, but a living parasite, white, like a mutated embryo with a tail like a flexible spine. about the size of an orange with a single eye like spot at the tip.

The saws cut into the heart. The liquid inside poured out, taking the sacred parasite with it. As soon as the white worm emerged, it was met with a shower of liquid nitrogen.

“How beautiful.” The King is still cradling his now sleeping ‘son’ in one arm. “See… once our host arrives… I will be sure you are the first to taste the true power of the White King.”

They used a strong vacuum to suck the creature into a glass canister for storage to prevent it from entering another creature.

The rest of the Devil clan were confused. Finally someone spoke up. “How can something like this make us into full blood dragons?”

“We will need a host. Once the parasite finds the host... it is the blood of the host that will evolve you.”

A beam of light suddenly illuminated the mountain side. A large helicopter descended rapidly from the sky, its downdraft sweeping the area.

The King began to laugh. “And now our host is here!”

#Herzog #Ruri Kazama #Dragon Raja #Fanfiction #Writing

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jonsateaparty · 5 years

Text

Let’s Analyse The Heck Outta This Playlist

I have listened to every single song in the Game of Thrones: The End Is Here playlist and hooo boy do I have shit to say.

Looking at all the songs, I found that I could seperate them into different categories. The categories were songs which fit certain characters or houses, or songs which fit the white walkers or war in general. There were also quite a few love songs, some of which could be easily interpreted as jonsa. Below the cut I’ve put together all the songs in their categories with some lyrics for each song and any notes I made while listening.

HOWEVER since that shit is loong, I’m gonna add a preemptive TL;DR for some categories of interest before the cut.

JONSA

Overall, there were six songs that I could recognize as jonsa. The themes of these songs were that of a passionate and loving romance, with the occasional tinge of forbidden love and having to wait for their lover. These songs were also very, very blatant in their connection to jonsa. With most of them, jonsa was honest to goodness the only GoT interpretation for this love song. I really was shocked listening to how blatantly jonsa this playlist is guys.

J0NERYS

There were three songs in the playlist which I could call j0nerys songs. One of these songs I could argue belongs elsewhere and only there was one jonsa song that was ambiguous enough that it could be attributed to j0nerys. My absolute favourite song of these three is the song Little Monster by Royal Blood. In this song, a man who refers to himself as a wolf is the lover of someone who he calls Little Monster and betrays her. Yeah. They really went there.

D4NY/TARGARYEN

Three songs that are definitely about her, but I suspect a few of the “general” war songs are about her as well. Why, you say? Because Dark D4ny LIVES in this playlist man. These songs, which are mainly about fire and “black wings” (Drogon, anyone), talk about someone mad with powerlust, a “bitch” coming to take you to hell, and being haunted by demons in the fire. DARK D4NY IS COMING AND MY BODY IS READY FOR HR GLORY

STARK

In contrast to songs about fire being full of madness, the four “wolf” Stark songs that we get are about being free and victorious. One song in particular talks about the “Wolves of Winter” getting the better of someone who has “fits of paranoia”, someone who sees themselves as an exception but without people supporting them, they’re going to lose. Like. Holy shit.

TARGBOWL

Now, most of the other songs are either about the Greyjoys/Lannisters, generic war songs, power or dead things. However there is ONE war song that I think heavily implies targbowl. This song is called Go to War by Nothing More and seems to be about two groups of people who were once on the same side going to war.

That’s it of particular interest, however if you want to see a list of all songs and all categories, plus some lyrics and notes, check out under the cut!

Potential Jonsa Songs

Girl from the North Country – Bob Dylan - If you go when the snowflakes storm/When the rivers freeze and summer ends/Please see if she's wearing a coat so warm/To keep her from the howlin' winds Note: This song is either about Arya or Sansa. I honestly cannot see this song being about Arya, this is about a traditionally feminine girl with long hair. I say this is jonsa because I literally cannot think of any other thing this could be about.

Howlin’ for You – The Black Keys - I must admit/I can't explain/Any of these thoughts/Racing through my brain Note: Can’t explain their reasons (maybe because they shouldn’t be having them), wolf references, bird references? Very jonsa. Also could be general stark or gendrya.

Sister – Prince - My sister never made love to anyone else but me/She's the reason for my, uh, sexuality Note: OMG this SONG. Although this could also be about Jaime/Cercei… but considering that’s over, I’m going with jonerys. Especially since there’s a song about wolves right after…

Devil’s Spoke – Laura Marling -I might be a part of this/Ripple on water from a lonesome drip/A fallen tree that witness me/I'm alone, him and me Note: Honestly the only concrete reason I put this here is because I ship jonsa. It could be any ship. Also the first verse makes me thing of the Winterfell Godswood.

Winterlong – Niel Young - I waited for you Winter long/You seem to be where I belong

Furr – Blitzen Trapper - I brushed the leaves off of my snout/And then I heard my mother shouting through the trees/You should have seen that girl go shaky at the knees/So I took her by the arm

Potential J0nerys Songs

Mama Kin – Aerosmith - Well you've always got your tail on the wag/Shootin' fire from your mouth just like a dragon Note: Those line, plus the whole “Mama” thing makes me think this is jonerys. It could also be jon? I guess?

Little Monster – Royal Blood - I'm your wolf, I'm your man/I say run little monster/Before you know who I am Note: A song about a “wolf” in a relationship with a “little monster” who plans to betray them? HMMMMMMMMMMM.

Be My Fire – The Blue Stones - Baby, be my conjurer/And I'll hold you dear/Baby, be the visions in the night/And wait till morning light for you/To disappear

Dany/Targ Songs:

Sleep Now In the Fire – Rage Against The Machine - The world is my expense/The cost of my desire/Jesus blessed me with its future/And I protect it with fire.

Her Black Wings – Danzig - Demoness calls/The bitch is come/For those who wait/Cross the breach in hell Notes: I’m guessing another Targ song, what with the “black wings”.

Fire – Barns Courtney - Ghosts and devils come a-calling/Calling my name oh, lost in the fire

Stark Songs

Wolf Like Me – TV On The Radio - Got a curse I cannot lift/Shines when the sunset shifts/When the moon is round and full/Gotta bust that box, gotta gut that fish

Wolves of Winter – Biffy Clyro - We are the wolves of winter/We live in a kingdom of blood Note: Holy fuck the implications of Dark!Dany in this song!!!

Dire Wolf – Grateful Dead - In the timbers to Fennario, the wolves are running round/The winter was so hard and cold, froze ten feet 'neath the ground.

Killer Wolf – Danzig - I'm the wolf/I'm the one you want/I'm the killer wolf

Potential Targbowl Songs

Go to War – Nothing More - I don't know what you had in mind/But here we stand on opposing sides/Let's go to war Note: Holy FUCK, this song seems to really foreshadow targbowl. It’s not a generic war song like some of the others, and it’s not about dead/evil/cold wars. This song seems to be about people who were on the same side then turned against each other.

White Walkers/war for the living songs

Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin - How soft your fields so green/Can whisper tales of gore/Of how we calmed the tides of war/We are your overlords

The End – The Doors - Of our elaborate plans, the end/Of everything that stands, the end/No safety or surprise, the end/I’ll never look into your eyes again

Cold Cold Cold – Cage The Elephant - Doctor look into my eyes/I've been breathing air but there's no sign of life/Doctor the problem's in my chest/My heart feels cold as ice but it's anybody's guess

Burn the Fleet - Thrice - In this dark night we stand or fall/We are kings now, or nothing at all/Check your armor; Light up your torch

Dead Skin Mask – Slayer - Graze the skin with my finger tips/The brush of dead cold flesh pacifies the means

General songs

Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes - Don't want to hear about it/Every single one's got a story to tell/Everyone knows about it/From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell

War – Grandson - War up north/And war down south/Everywhere is war

Let Me Live / Let Me Die – Des Rocs - Tears don't stop the fire/It's killing time/Back from the dead/See your eyes, got nothing left/Kiss me, I am the colder Note: This is a song of ice and fire. This. Is A. Song. Of. Ice. And. Fire.

POWER – Kanye West - Life is a trip, so sometimes we gonna stumble/You gotta go through pain in order to become you Note: I’d call this a general song but this came right after a song about wolves so make of that what you will 😉

Let’s Have A War – Fear - Let's have a war/So you can go and die!

Powa – Tune-Yards - Rebel, rebel, no/Lightening dances in my head

No One Knows – Queens of the Stone Age - We get some rules to follow/That and this/These and those/No one knows

The Time Is Now – Atreyu - Flying high above the world/It's a new life, it's a new mind/And I will never fall Note: A Time for Wolves anyone? Especially since this comes right after a wolf song…

Rise Above – Black Flag - Jealous cowards try to control/Rise above, we're gonna rise above

Alternative Ulster – Stiff Little Fingers - There's nothin' for us in Belfast/The Pound's old, and that's a pity/OK, so there's the Trident in Bangor Note: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Sickbed of Cuchulainn – The Pogues - And you heard the rattling death trains as you lay there all alone/Frank Ryan bought you whiskey in a brothel in Madrid/And you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all the Yids

Power – AJ Ghent [j-ent] - You wanna take me down/But I won’t bend

Toxicity – System of a Down - You, what do you own the world?/How do you own disorder, disorder

Here’s Your Future – The Thermals - God reached his hand down from the sky/He flooded the land then he set it on fire

Love is Blindess – U2 - A little death/Without mourning/No call/And no warning

Greyjoy Songs

Flugufrelsarinn – Sigur Rós - Ég næ ekki andanum og þyngist við hverja öldu/Mér vantar kraftaverk/Því ég er að drukkna – syndir (I can not breathe and I am heavier with every wave/I need a miracle/Because I am drowning- sins) Note: Lots of talk about the ocean/rivers/boats along with despairing over your sins and struggling to be better and repent. If that isn’t a fucking Theon song I don’t know what is.

Bottom Of The Deep Blue Sea – MISSIO - The sweet surrender of silence forces me to live alone/Locked and loaded, where the hell is peace of mind?/I wait on you inside the bottom of the deep blue sea

Wave of Mutilation – Pixies - You'll think I'm dead, but I sail away/On a wave of mutilation

Jon Songs

Born for Greatness – Papa Roach - No we’re not nameless, we’re not faceless/We were born for greatness Note: This could be generic, but this gives me heavy Jon vibes

EDIT: @ward--runa pointed out to me that this song suited Jon better.

Mother – The Amazons - Friends wanna kill me/But I give them all my loving anyway/If God won't forgive me/I'm not the only one to make amends

Lannister Songs

Listen to the Lion – Van Morrison - All my love come tumblin' down/Oh, listen listen/To the lion

Hot Blood – Kaleo - You wanna prove you're the better man/You wanna reach for the things that nobody can/Oh all you need is to break away, yeah/Just keep telling yourself there's no shame Note: This was either Jaime or Jon for me, but I settled on Jaime. Partly because this came after a string of what I think to be Cersei songs. Also The idea of being a better man, “love is gonna get ya”, “turn your back, you’re a broken man”, “shake your hand”.

Gold Lion – Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold lion's gonna tell me where the light is

Cersei Songs

Queen – Perfume Genius - Don't you know your queen/Gleaming/Wrapped in golden leaf/Don't you know me Note: This gives me Cercei vibes but I honestly don’t know…

Cruel – St. Vincent - So they took you, and they left you/How could they be casually cruel? Note: ??? Maybe another Cercei one?

Crown of the Ground – Sleigh Bells - Set, set that crown on the ground and-ah

#jonsa #actuallyjonsa #game of thrones #anti-jonerys #anti-daenerys targaryen #dark dany #villain dany #jon snow #sansa stark #jonsa meta #sort of?

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critical-derolo · 5 years

Text

not like the stories

"You'd think there would be one bookstore in this town," Caleb grumbles beside her. He folds his arm on the table, around his mug of swill, and taps his fingertips against the surface. "Even in a city of beasts, someone is bound to partake in some light reading. Knowledge is the foundation of any society..."

It's not totally her fault that she tunes Caleb out - not when he dives into a lecture of academia, he knows she can't force herself to focus on something she finds so boring. But Caleb is her friend and so she hums and nods every now and then, leaning against her elbow with her chin in her palm as she stares at the tiefling across the crowded tavern they're in. The fake tiefling. The human polymorphed into a tiefling. The incredibly attractive fake tiefling that's really a human, specifically her friend Beau.

Jester's eyes linger on the defined muscles of her bare arms, how vibrant the red of her skin is. The way it makes her blue eyes and black hair pop. People throw around the slurs 'devil' and 'demon' at Jester often enough, but gods, Beau is sinfully delicious as a tiefling.

The little Trickster sighs deeply, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. She drags her gaze along the expanse of abdomen that shows in the monk's vestments and robes, imagines running her fingers along the grooves of those stone abs. Her eyes flutter and she can almost see Beau beneath her, chest expanding with a choked expletive caught in her throat, Jester's cool palm against red hot skin as Beau drives her head back into the mattress. Those lovely defined arms flexing when she holds onto the bedposts above her head as Jester rides her for all she has.

"Even a little stand in the market with information pamphlets," Caleb groans and holds his face in his hands. "I'll take anything, at this point."

"Bahamut's balls, Caleb!" Jester hisses reflexively. She jerks up in her seat, swallowing heavily, and lets out a shaky breath. Her friend stares at her curiously. "It's almost as if this city doesn't appreciate fine literature!"

Caleb blinks and slowly nods like he's piecing together a complex puzzle. "Ja... ja, it is, isn't it. It's an affront to the pursuit of education!"

"Do you have any new books?" she wonders abruptly. Tilts her head and bats her eyelashes in a deceptively innocent manner. "Any sequels to Tusk Love or something like that, maybe?"

Suspicion glows in those blue eyes of his but the fondness in them outshines it. He leans back in his chair, brushing his hand over a scruffy chin. "You are meaning smut when you say something like Tusk Love?"

"Technically..." Jester grins.

"I am sorry, my friend, but I haven't - eh, replenished the library, so to speak. Travelling underground for so long and then popping up in this... city, I haven't had the chance."

Rather impressively, Beau juggles an armful of mugs as she approaches the table. Her grin is sharp, all predator, and Jester hops in her seat. Pointedly ignores the heat in her stomach, and leans forward over the table. "Beau, were you flirting with that Orc lady at the bar?"

Beau rolls her eyes at the eyebrow wiggling and sets the mugs down. Jester preens a little when she catches the flash of blue dart towards her cleavage, and maybe, maaaaybe squishes her arms together a little more than necessary. "Flirting is just like any other skill, Jes," Beau says around her smirk and kicks out a chair for Fjord. Yasha helps Caduceus bring over a couple platters of food, and Nott just appears when they're set down on the table. "Gotta flex it now and then or it gets rusty."

As if to emphasize her point, Beau lifts her arms to display those biceps carved by the Muses themselves. Jester hums or purrs, maybe, tail swaying back and forth behind her head. Fjord slowly, discreetly leans back to look between the two of them, brows pinching together with confusion.

And then Jester blinks, dropping back in her seat. "Well, I don't think you're rusty even a little. She's still staring at you." She decides to ignore the acid that churns in her stomach. "You must be really, really good at it."

A darker red creeps up Beau's neck and Jester wants to chase it with her tongue, but also... her heart clenches at how sweet it is that Beau is blushing? How someone can be so suave, so brash, so cocky... and then turn around, getting bashful by the attention - it makes something in Jester ache with longing.

No. Nope, bad thoughts. Beau is pretty. Just super pretty. And tiefling Beau is handsome like Fjord, and Jester is just getting herself a little confused. Maybe she's been reading too many books lately.

Beau is her friend and she doesn't ache for her friends - well, mostly not. Mostly just Fjord. Only Fjord. Maybe Yasha now and then, when the pain in her eyes is so profound it takes Jester's breath away. And Beau just, like, at night when she's reading and Beau groans in her sleep, or when Beau twirls around a bad guy to drop him like a sack of bricks, or when Beau finds her on the ship just as she's about to fall apart, saying such kind and lovely things that make the world hurt just a little bit less. But! Mostly Fjord.

Fjord, who gives her the guiltiest puppy dog eyes she's ever seen. Who hovers over her like a parent over a newborn, like she's made of fucking glass, like she isn't a grown woman who fights monsters and dragons, like she's a frightened little girl whose feelings were hurt because he chose Captain Avantika, sex goddess of the sea.

"Uh, Jester? Did I do something to upset you?" he asks hesitantly.

She blinks and smiles, head tilting, and watches the colour drain from his face. "Of course not, why would you even ask that?"

"Oh, it's just..." he waves his hand dismissively, lips puckering in a frown that tries to force itself to be casual. "You're glaring at me something fierce and you impaled that apple with your fork, uh, straight through into the table."

Jester instinctively releases the death-grip on her fork, staring down at the poor little fruit. "Oh, no, I was just drifting. Whoops."

"If that's you drifting, I'd hate to see you angry," Nott chirps around a mouth full of... meat?

Beau scoffs into her mug. "Gods, I'm still aching to see it."

Intrigue draws Jester up on the table again, leaning closer. "I could-"

"Jester, would you pass me the... thing that looks like salt?" Caleb asks loudly and Jester drags her heated gaze away from Beau's wide eyes, to a knowing Caleb. And then around the table to all of her friends. Her friends.

Oh, she really, really needs some midnight reading. "Sure, no problem, Caleb!"

Fjord plucks it right out of Caleb's hand when he catches it, a crooked grin on his face made all the more charming by his tusks still growing in. "What's the magic word?" he teases.

"Holscheif."

Fjord blinks. "Bless you?"

"It's a magic word, hand me the salt." Caleb holds out his hand, tracing a circle in his palm. "Or I will make you."

An eyebrow crooks up. "Mighty big words coming from a man who still has his own blood dried in his beard."

"That door came out of nowhere and that is beside the point."

Fjord claps his hand on Caleb's shoulder and presses the salt shaker into his palm. Caduceus leans over to pull the fork from the table, biting into the apple. Nott looks between them all as she shovels more food into her mouth, the gears slowly turning, and Yasha's lips curve up in a warm smile.

The day has been long and gruelling. After trudging all the way out to the river, only to spend the morning walking the banks, they finally found the tumormoss... and a Roc. And then Gnolls. Roc and Gnoll do not mix, trying to fight off the pack with a monstrosity swooping at them was a literal nightmare that depleted every last spell slot between them.

But it's over. They won. They walked away, lived to keep on fighting, to keep on running. Those who fell got back up, and now they drag themselves back towards the city. Anxious looks shot between them as they eye their friends' wounds warily.

Everyone is alive.

Ahead of her, Jester watches Fjord and Beau cradle Caleb between them. An arm hooked around both of their shoulders, while Nott trails behind quickly. Fjord grunts, his hand slipping from Caleb's coat, and Beau twists to catch and hold all of the wizard's weight.

It only takes a moment for Fjord to adjust his bag and hook Caleb's arm around him again. Jester watches on fondly, sighing softly. "I miss Molly."

Beside her, Caduceus rases a pink eyebrow and angles his face down towards her. He literally always has a sort of dazed, serene look on his face, but in the glow of the afternoon light, he looks like peace incarnate. “Hm? Oh, sorry.”

“It's not your fault.”

He watches her for a silent moment where her entire frame droops with the weight of life and death. The guilt of a survivor is a unique thing, almost untouchable, a burden that only a tormented few bear. Torn between the gift of a second chance, and the knowledge that you weren’t there, you couldn’t help. “I know. But it will always hurt, in its own way, for the rest of your life. I'm just sorry. Is there a specific reason you miss him right now?”

“I need to talk to him about something,” Jester says thoughtfully. She stares up at her fellow cleric, at the concern and comfort that brim up in his gentle eyes.

He smiles softly. “You should then. I don't know for sure about the afterlife,” he waves his large hand around, “I don’t know for sure about this life. But. Things have a way of gettìng around, and I'm sure it would feel better than it does right now if you did.”

It’s not exactly foreign, she knows she’s heard it somewhere before. It might be something she'd overheard her mother tell her grieving clients, that people aren’t ever truly gone. That sometimes it’s best to just get the grief out than keep it in, eating away at your soul. And if her momma said it, then it’s gotta be true. “That's true. You're super wise, Caduceus.”

“Thank you. Maybe I could help?”

She considers her actual question and can’t help but giggle. Tries to smother it with her hand, and shakes her head. “Oh, I don’t know. You're super wise but this might be beyond you.”

“Okay.” Caduceus doesn’t even blink. Just a simple shrug of his shoulders and he inclines his head amicably. They walk in silence a few more steps and he tilts his head curiously. “I could try.”

It’s worth a shot, Jester supposes. “Well... do you think Beau is sexy?”

Those big pink eyes stare down at her blankly and she waits... and waits. His brows slowly furrow with thought, nodding ever so slightly, as if he’s truly considering this question as deep as one might ponder their reason for existence. "Oh. Oh, uh. Sure, yeah. Why not. Sexy like the sky.”

“What does that even mean??” Jester laughs with a shake of her head, hooking her arm with his.

His lips twitch, a long grey finger tapping his fuzzy chin. “Just. You know. As comforting as she is unyielding. It's a little uneasy, a little uncomfortable when you can't see it, a panic when you don't know where it is. But reversely, if you look at it too long, if you stare more than you should...” he instinctively reaches for his staff, bracing himself as he gazes up above them.

“You don’t know what sexy is, do you?”

Caduceus grins. “No. Sorry.”

“I still appreciate the effort.” Jester sighs, shaking her head with a delighted smile. “It does feel a little better, talking about it.”

“So you think Beau is sexy then?”

Jester gasps, pulling her arm from his to lightly slap his elbow. “Caduceus! I think Fjord is sexy, and handsome, and dashing, and all of the things I'm supposed to think he is.”

He looks confused again. “Supposed to? Thoughts are free, Miss Jester. You're allowed to think whatever you like.”

“No, I know that, I just meant. Okay, technically, like, I am all about Fjord, you know. But also, maybe, I'm sometimes about Beau? But like lately... these days... for a while now... maybe since the Ball Eater... I have been very much not all about Fjord. And perhaps, if we dissected it, I have been all about Beau.”

“Okay.”

Jester wrings her hands, smiling anxiously. Purple eyes flit away, shadows of hurt lingering in them. "But Beau is about Yasha. And I am about Fjord. So it's silly! It doesn't even matter, I don't know where I was going with that. It's really, really ridiculous.” She glances back. “Right?”

“Maybe,” Caduceus agrees softly. Tilts his head to one side... and then the other. Looks back down at her. “Maybe not. Is Beau about Yasha the same way that you are about Fjord?”

Eyebrows jump and Jester opens her mouth. The words linger on her tongue and she looks ahead of them in time to see Beau flash Fjord a grin and adjust Caleb’s weight again. “I... oh. I hadn't thought of that. Like, she's not really about Yasha, she's only supposed to be?”

“Who decides what we're supposed to be about?” Caduceus wonders aloud. “I would like to ask that person some questions. How do they decide?”

“It's not a person, it's just... the way it is!”

“Why?”

Well. Well... because. It just is? Maybe? “I'm not really sure.”

“That doesn't seem fair then,” he decides and nods firmly. “I think I'll ignore it, and feel how I feel, and think what I think.”

“That's a good idea,” Jester agrees while her mind races.

Another quiet moment passes between them. Yasha’s hand stops glowing and she doesn’t limp anymore when she pulls it away from her hip. In another few strides, she hoists Caleb up over her shoulder and falls in step with the others. “What do you think your friend would have told you?” Caduceus asks.

“Oh, I don't know. Anticipating Molly was always difficult, almost impossible, really.” She thinks about it and hums, smiling slightly. “He would probably tease me about my taste, he really liked giving Beau a hard time. But maybe he would have told me that the heart wants what it wants, and who are we to disagree with the whimsy of love? Something like that, he was very poetic. I feel like he could have written half the books I read.”

“He sounds lovely.”

Some of the sadness creeps back in, but Jester forces her smile to stay strong. Brilliant and blinding, just like his. “He was. I'm sorry you never got to know him, Caduceus. And that he never got to know you, I think you would have liked each other.”

“I think he would very much appreciate the way you all still carry him with you. I also think maybe we should catch up to the others before they get worried.”

She snorts. “Yeah, no, yeah. I see Nott's Mom Face aimed back at us, let's go before she assigns first watch on us.”

Soft gasps and muffled moans echo in the quiet room, the darkness of the night like a protective shroud that blocks out the rest of the world. It's just the two of them and the bed beneath them, moonlight spilling in from the window and catching the blues of Beau's eyes. Pools of crystal clear water and Jester has never wanted to drown before, never wanted to fall in, and in, and in... her tail tightens around Beau's thigh. Her fingers splay across the brown skin of Beau's abs, flushed with the heat between them, and she runs her hands up Beau's sides.

It's adorable how the monk tries to bite back her grin and electrifying how she wiggles and squirms between Jester's thighs. But a tickle fight is not why she crawled into Beau's bed tonight, and so she rolls her hips in a seductive circle and gasps at the lightning that shoots up her spine. Beau clenches the sheets in her fists, swallowing her favourite vulgar word, and shudders.

"Beauregard..." Jester purrs and rocks her hips forward again, a delighted smile full of her fangs when it draws a guttural groan from the woman beneath her. "I know you've been watching me lately."

Swooping forward, Jester catches herself with her hands on either side of Beau's face. Their noses brush together and her eyes crinkle when she catches sight of the blush creeping up Beau's neck. So she dips down and follows it with her tongue, a scorching path up, and up, and-

A strong hand cups the back of her neck, yanking her forward into aggressive but oh so gentle lips. Desperation tamed by adoration, and the molten pit in Jester's stomach tightens, the grip on her inhibitions loosens. Beau's arm circles her waist, and rough fingertips trace Jester's jaw featherlight.

Another strike of lightning, Jester rolls her hips down into Beau. She swallows the monk's gasp, and playfully flicks her tongue with her own. Beau tastes like blood - a faded copper bite, and Jester has seen that bloody grin often enough. Has swooned over it, has tasted it now, and the heat in her stomach grows. Intensifies. The coil tightens. Beau's hands slide down her sides, fingers dig into her hips as she sucks on a far more experienced tongue. Magic crackles against her skin everywhere she makes contact with Beau, Beau, Beau...

She sits back with a gasp and drags in as much air as she can. Beau pants beneath her and Jester stares up at the ceiling, her chest heaving, continuously rocking down against her friend. "Beau," she chokes out and swallows. Forces her heavy eyes to focus on the blown pupils that stare up at her hungrily. Jester lays her hands over Beau's on her hips, guiding them up her sides again. "I really, really like you," she whispers in the moonlight. Brings Beau's hands to her lips and presses a kiss against the scarred fingers, placing them on the lace ribbon of her corset. "Do you like me?"

"So much it hurts," Beau growls in a voice so rough it sounds like gravel. Jester rocks harder against her and Beau leans up, kisses Jester again. And again. And again. Until they're against each other, in each other, and Jester didn't even notice she's pinned Beau back to the bed.

Until Jester feels the ribbon laced across the front of her chest pulled free. And then not even the desperate, heated mash of lips and tongue can distract her from Beau pulling the corset loose. From her breasts spilling up and Beau slipping her hands in. A deep, primal noise is torn from Jester's throat, along with Beau's name.

She gasps harshly in the cool night, eyes shooting open wide. Her chest still heaves and she swallows, slowly blinking up at the ceiling of their inn room. She lifts a trembling hand to wipe her sweaty forehead.

"Jes...? You calling me?" Beau's groggy voice carries across the room from her own bed.

Jester turns her head and leans up, feels the sheets and her nightgown cling to her sweaty skin. "No!" she says in a voice much too squeaky. "I said... oh...?"

In the soft moonlight, Jester watches Beau sluggishly turn onto her side. Her eyes are closed, on the precipice of sleep, but hums. "Did'ja have a bad dream?"

"No..." She hates the way her heart drops. Her chest sinks. The way reality crashes in and steals a moment, even a fake one, from her. "Maybe."

Beau's breathing heavily and Jester wonders if maybe she wasn't really awake to begin with. A few seconds pass and she slowly lays back down in her bed, knowing she's going to have a long, lonely night of sorting out her head.

But Beau grunts (Jester ignores the reminiscent pulse of want that echoes through her) and pats her bed. "You can sleep with me if you're scared."

It's probably not a good idea.

Probably a bad idea.

Almost definitely a bad idea, especially with how preoccupied her thoughts are these days. How loose the control she has over what she wants, and what she's doing about it.

But that doesn't stop Jester from climbing into Beau's bed and snuggling up against her back. From looping her arm around a warm waist, and her tail around Beau's leg.

So what if her mind plays tricks on her and tells her that Beau hums again, sinking back into her embrace?

Xorhas has an unfathomably beautiful sky. It's so big and open, a stretch of purple that fades to blue that fades to black, with pink just barely peeking over the horizon, and an explosion of stars scattered across it all. There are patches, true, where the night is so dark that you can't see your hand in front of your face, but out in these open fields, the stars shine so bright that she can sketch in the soft glow of light.

Especially in the little pocket of wildlife they've found. With grass so green that in the dark, the roots give off a faint blue luminescent glow. Splashes of purple pop up with the mushrooms, and Caduceus snores amongst the orange flowers that almost seem to cradle him while he sleeps.

Jester couldn't sleep if she tried, not when there's so much beauty to capture, to memorize and desperately sketch. None of her inks do the colours justice and her hand cramps painfully, but she can't stop.

"It's not as pretty down south," Yasha murmurs from her side of Caleb's bubble. Jester twitches and looks up in surprise, watching the little smile that graces the barbarian's face. "Sorry."

"You apologize a lot," Jester tells her thoughtfully.

And nothing more, just an observation, surface deep. Or it would be if those purple eyes didn't hold the same kind of scrutiny that Caleb's do when he's studying. "I do," Yasha agrees. "Do you want me to take next watch?"

"If you'd like. I might stay up a little longer, I'm not sleepy." She doesn't mention the hassle that is sleeping lately, how she can't get her dreams under control and she's worried about letting something slip while she's asleep. She doesn't mention the sour twist in her stomach, looking over to see Beau between Caduceus and Nott, no room for Jester.

She doesn't mention that she wants Beau so badly that her unconscious is screaming at her.

It's not Yasha's problem, it's barely a problem. Not worthy of anyone's time, not when they're out here to rescue Yeza. Not with the risk of death looming over them. Not with war on the ever approaching horizon.

Jester has a crush, who cares.

"Are you alright?" Yasha asks softly. And her gaze. Her gaze is so gentle, so compassionate, and Jester knows that Yasha would care. That if she told her, explained that her heart hurts, Yasha would care enough to help without hesitation.

But Yasha is maybe part of the problem. Yasha maybe holds Beau's heart in her hands. Beau maybe holds Yasha's broken one. And the last thing Jester wants, the last thing she would ever do, is hurt her friends.

Still. What is it that Caleb is always saying? Knowledge is power, neither good nor bad. A resource to use and share.

"Yasha, how..." Jester adjusts her sketchbook in her lap and casts a glance around their group, careful to be quiet. Prying ears are not what she needs.

Seemingly following that line of thought, Yasha stands silently. She holds out her hand and jerks her chin to the side, very easily pulling Jester up to her feet.

They don't go as far as they did last time. The fear lingers down both of their spines, remembering the last time the two of them, and Fjord, had wandered too far from the group. They stay close enough that Yasha could kick stones at the bubble if she needed to.

"What's on your mind, Jester?" she asks and fiddles with the little bracelet that Nott had given her.

Jester stares out at the sky, where the blue and the black collide and make something daunting and hopeful. "How did you know you loved Zuala?"

"Oh." Jester glances up to see Yasha's eyebrows bounce and the smile stretch across her face. Her large shoulders slump, entire stance relaxing. "You had such a serious look on your face, I thought something was wrong." Her smile... doesn't fade, but it softens into something more tender. Her mismatched eyes skirt the area, always alert for danger, but she looks... happy. And sad. It's weird. "I suppose I always loved her, but I guess I knew, for sure, on our first hunt together."

Simple delight flares at her edges and Jester pours herself into it like she always does, so desperate to make those feelings last as long as she can. Knowing that they will fade - they always fade. So she twirls in place and clasps her hands under her chin. "Was it super romantic?"

"Well..." Pink slowly creeps across Yasha's cheeks, she scratches at the back of her neck and ducks her head. "Not really, no. But it was nice. Sweet. I fell out of a tree."

"Oh my gods, Yasha, that is so cute!" Jester gushes brightly. She can totally picture it - big badass Yasha with her warpaint and rippling muscles... falling out of a tree in front of her crush. "What happened?"

"Oh," she sighs and scoffs, a chuckle mixed in. "If that wasn't bad enough, I landed on her. She twisted her ankle and I spent an hour trying to heal it but, well, I couldn't do what I can now. So I carried the boar and her back to camp."

"You're so strong!"

Yasha bobs her head in a nod because, yeah, she's really fucking strong. "I was so nervous with her in my arms and so embarrassed about falling on her, I got lost. We spent the night in a hollow tree."

Jester hums thoughtfully and taps her chin. "And that's when you knew?"

"Yes."

"How??"

"Later in the night she told me that I didn't really land on her, so much as she tried to catch me," Yasha murmurs with a twist to her lips and a sparkle in her eye. "And that she didn't point out we were heading in the wrong direction because she didn't want our hunting trip to end."

"And that's when you knew?" Jester asks and Yasha nods. Which is frustratingly unhelpful, if not super sweet. "But how did you know?"

Yasha sighs and brings her hands up onto her hips. Stares up at the sky and thinks about it. "I don't know. I just... felt it. My chest was so full of this giddy warmth that I could hardly breathe, my cheeks hurt from smiling. I guess, I don't know, I realized my life would always be better with her in it and that I wanted to spend the rest of it by her side."

It's not something to cry over, like, okay, yeah, it's such a lovely story and maybe it is super sad when she thinks about it. Knowing that Yasha had that and lost it, lost Zuala. But it's sharp, it tears through Jester's chest like the talons of a roc, and she chokes back a sob. Buries her face in her palms and holds her tears at bay.

For a while, at least, for a moment where she's not sure if she'll ever stop feeling like this. But then strong, warm fingers pull Jester's hands from her face - Yasha ducking to catch her watery eyes, concern shining back at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Jester insists in a broken voice, even as she pushes a beaming smile on her face and it is perfect. Jester's smile is always perfect - the perfect tinge of mischief, the perfect flash of joy, perfectly warm, and perfectly charming... not even her tears can take away from it. "Everything is fine, of course!"

Yasha swipes a thumb along Jester's cheek, wiping away a tear, and smiles softly. "That is an impressive trick."

"I'm okay!"

"It's alright if you're not," she insists gently.

Jester's chest tightens and she sucks in a sharp breath. "I'm totally fine, Yasha!"

"Even a mountain bows to the sky."

She shakes her head and clenches her fists. "What's with everyone and the sky lately? Why don't you just marry it?"

"I-... well, I actually don't have a reply to that. It's a pretty weird thing to say," Yasha tells her fondly.

So sweet. So patient. Jester nods and falls forward, sinking into the barbarian's hug and buries her face in a strong shoulder. "I'm maybe not totally fine, Yasha."

"And that's okay." Yasha hums softly, rubbing comforting circles on the tiefling's back as she cries. They stay like that for a little while as the night rolls by, as Jester lets her heartache pour from her in waves. Yasha never wavers, never pulls away. She simply holds Jester while something is mumbled into her neck. "What?"

Finally, Jester pulls back. She flashes an embarrassed but grateful smile and wipes at her eyes. "I like Beau."

"I know."

Wait. "Wait. What?"

They both look back towards the bubble where the monk stretches her foot out where Jester had been sitting. Where their friends, their family, slumber peacefully. Yasha inclines her head again. "I don't say much, and I won't mention it, but I see almost as much as Caduceus."

"Are you upset?"

Apparently, it's a weird thing to ask, if Yasha twisting to look at Jester like she grew another head is any indication. "No."

"It's just." Jester shakes her head and sniffles again, waving her hand towards the bubble. "She's always flirting with you, like, so super obviously."

Again, Yasha blinks and considers this. "Yeah, but... why would that make me upset if you like her?"

"She's yours...?"

"People don't belong to people," is Yasha's automatic reply. But her lips tug down in a frown and she shifts, rolling a shoulder. "But I get what you're saying and I think Beau and I understand each other. I will always be Zuala's, even if Beau likes to... poke. It's our thing."

"You don't want her?" Jester wonders with something like hope in her chest.

And Yasha chuckles, a frustrated noise. "You really need to word these things differently." She sighs and hangs a hand on the back of her neck. "I... I'm okay with how things are. It's how I want them to be, I couldn't... I can't be what Beau wants or needs."

Another comfortable silence lingers between them for a beat. They watch the monk stretch her foot down farther, towards the edge of the bubble.

"Jester, you are everything she wants and needs," Yasha tells her so softly she almost doesn't hear. "I'm not sure if either of you know it but I hope you realize it soon."

The cleric scoffs. "Right, because-"

"Jester!" Beau gasps and wrenches up in the middle of the bubble. Her frantic eyes fall over each other member around her and she twists up onto her knees. "Jester!"

"AHH!" Nott darts up to her feet, spinning around wildly with the crossbow in her hands. "Where are they? Who am I shooting?"

Caleb pops up beside her with a flaming fist, his eyes still closed. "Put down your weapons or forfeit your own face!"

Jester drags Yasha back towards the bubble. "Shhh! Beau, I'm here! Guys, quiet! You're going to wake up every creature in a hundred miles."

"Jes," Beau sighs in relief and springs from the bubble, not even at Jester before she starts reaching. Jester lets herself be dragged into a rough hug, while Beau places her hand on Yasha's shoulder. "What are you guys doing out of the bubble?"

"Stretching our legs," Yasha mumbles sheepishly. "Sorry. Sorry, Nott."

"I'll fuck you up," the goblin gargles - half asleep still. "Nobody takes my babies."

"Put it down before someone loses an eye," Fjord warns without lifting his head from Caduceus' arm.

She drops back on her butt, rubbing at her eyes, and yawns. "Alright. Just say the word and I'll blast 'em between the eyes."

Caleb wordlessly drops back into the grass and curls around Frumpkin.

"You should join them," Yasha says and nods towards the group. She presses her hand against Jester's back, guiding both of them towards the bubble. "I've got second watch."

Beau muffles her yawn in Jester's shoulder and scratches her cheek. "You sure? I can take it."

"No, I'm fine. Go to sleep."

She nods and steps between Fjord and Caduceus' legs, stopping only when their hands threaten to separate. She blinks sleepy eyes at the tiefling, a drowsy smile. "Comin'?"

"Yes," Jester breathes and crawls down between her fellow cleric and the literal girl of her dreams. Caduceus mutters something about flora and scratches his chest, sighing so deeply it disturbs the fireflies gathered in his hair. Jester stares up at them as they flutter and buzz, biting her lip when Beau curls into her side. "Goodnight, Beau."

"Don't stab me with a horn."

She can't smother the snort and freezes when Beau groans, readjusting to nestle her face in Jester's neck to shield her eyes from errant points. "Goodnight, Beau."

"Gonna make me say it?" She can feel the smile against her skin. "Goodnight, Jester."

"If you hurt him..."

"I know, Nott."

"If you so much as make him cry..."

"I know, Nott."

"I'll drown you again."

"I know, Nott."

"Okay. You better. He's a prince and he deserves to be treated like a prince. Now come give me a hug, floppy wrist. I'm very happy and proud of both of you."

"Aww. Someone's a big old softie under that tiny, prickly, drunken exterior."

"I will literally smother you in your sleep, is that what you want? Is this happening right now, is it go time? Put up your fragile little fists, I'm ready to go toe-to-toe with the wet tissue paper man."

She watches Fjord raise his fists, hopping side to side on his feet and feigning a couple jabs down at the goblin. Nott bares her teeth, fishing around in her coat, and Fjord is up the tree when she yanks out a vial of acid. Jester smothers her giggle in her palm, giving up on her sketch to quickly recreate the image in her book.

A shadow falls over her and she twists, holding her hand up to block the sun and squint at Beau. Her heart thuds painfully in her chest and she offers a brilliant smile. "Hi!"

"Hey," is tossed at her casually and the monk drops to the ground next to her, elbow hooked over her propped up knee. "How's it going?"

"You know, pretty good!" Jester sings and closes her book. It's been a few days since she's really spoken to Beau, more than a couple words in passing, or meaningless things amongst the group. She's glad they're heading back into town today, that they'll get to room together again. "How are you?"

The scars on her shoulder are still fresh, the swipe from the Bugbear particularly deep. Jester hates that Beau so willingly throws herself between her friends and danger, so eager to be a damage sponge. But she knows it only really became an issue after Molly, that Beau only started excessively doing it after he fell.

Jester knows she's not the only one who carries the guilt of walking away from the Iron Shepards.

"I'm pretty good," Beau echoes. Her hard eyes study the scene playing out before them, amusement making them sparkle like sapphires. "So." She clears her throat and tilts her head, glancing at Jester. "Fjord and Caleb."

"I know!" Jester gasps and presses a hand to her heart before leaning against Beau. "It's super cute, I can hardly handle it!"

Beau nods, let's Jester jostle her roughly, and grins. "No, yeah. That's... cute, I guess."

"Beau, you're still tough even if you think things are cute."

"Hey, I know. I'm very secure in my toughness. I think you're cute and I'm still tough," she replies gruffly and dramatically tugs at her vestments. But Jester hardly notices, her brain hooked on Beau's words and looping them over and over again. Beau brushes her knuckles against her jaw and stares out at their friends. "I just wanted to check in, make sure things were... pretty good. I know you like Fjord and stuff."

It's heartwarming, how much effort she's going to. Jester knows this isn't exactly Beau's forte, she's not into talking about feelings, or having feelings, or talking... but she's trying. For Jester. And it's the sweetest thing ever.

Even if she's a little wrong.

Jester hums and straightens up, smoothing her hands over the cover of her sketchbook. "I don't like Fjord like that, actually," she says as matter-of-factly as she can. She can see Beau whip her head around out the corner of her eye, and smirks. "I mean, don't get me wrong. He was super fun to flirt with and poke - he's very pretty, and charming, and funny, and handsome! So handsome."

"Yup, pretty, gotcha," Beau grumbles roughly.

Jester's smirk deepens and she tilts her head, leaning sideways to look up at Beau. "Not as pretty as you, of course." She waits for the blush to slowly unfurl up Beau's neck and straightens up again. "He checked a lot of the boxes that all of my stories told me had to be checked and I think maybe I got confused? He was my first boy friend and all the girls' boy friends eventually become their boyfriends, that's how it goes."

"Ugh, compulsive heteronormative ideals."

Jester nods, a little confused again, but utterly serious. "Yes, yes, quite. Hetertive ideas."

With a chuckle, Beau drops her face into her palm to hide her grin. "So you don't like Fjord?"

"I love Fjord!" she gasps earnestly.

"But not in the way that would have you crushed over him and Caleb getting together."

"No, I'm so happy for them!"

Beau stares at her for a few lingering moments where Jester digs her fingers into her knees to keep from leaning in. When Beau looks off again, she sighs in relief and relaxes. "Good. That, uh, you're not heartbroken or whatever. That's good. For you."

"Very good for me," Jester agrees.

Beau blinks. "Yup."

"... yeah."

"Great."

"Good."

She sniffs and nods, squinting up at the bright sky. "So I'm gonna go."

And gone she is, quick like a bunny, hopping up to her feet so she can dart away. Jester watches her dash towards the trees where Caleb reads, and sighs roughly. "Traveler, what the heck was that?" she groans and flops back in the dirt. "It was so awkward!"

With Essik gone and important conversations out of the way, everyone feels their exhaustion catch up to them. The emotional and mental fatigue of almost losing everything, only for Caleb to play the most powerful hand in their deck, to becoming heroes of the dynasty, all the way to having actually rescued Yeza? It's more than anyone can handle in a single afternoon and they all trudge down the hallway to their rooms.

Nott tugs Yeza by the hand, a nervous smile on her face as they enter their room, and something in Jester's chest flutters. Beau rubs at her sore shoulder, making for the next door, her serious and sharp cloud still lingering around her.

Jester knows this isn't the nicest situation for her to be in. While dangerous for them all, especially the humans, Jester wonders if it's not more precarious for a monk of the Cobalt Soul, for someone with connections to higher powers within the Empire, for someone who still belongs to something. She doesn't know how to lessen that burden, that worry. Doesn't know how to smooth the jagged edges that the group keeps getting caught on ever since they got here.

Maybe Beau is just tired.

Maybe it will be easier in the morning.

Maybe she needs a reminder that they're still friends? Still family? That while their lives change, their cores do not, and she might be with the Cobalt Soul but she's also one of them, and they won't let anything happen to her.

There's no time to second guess the decision - Jester sprints down the hallway to catch up and flings herself on Beau's back for a piggyback ride, her cackle echoing down the hall.

But Beau is tired and not Yasha or Jester herself, she drops to her knees and claws at the door as they fall. "Fucking what?!" she gasps as they go.

Jester winces as Beau's knees make impact with the floorboards. "Shit! Sorry!" she gasps and tries to skitter off.

Except Beau hooks her hands under Jester's knees and, with a grunt, pushes up to her feet again. They careen backwards, Jester's back slamming against Fjord and Caleb's door. "I got this," Beau grinds out between her teeth and Jester giggles, hugs her tightly from behind.

They angle forward and swoop quickly - Jester catches them with her hands on their door. "Careful!"

"Shh! Don't worry."

"Beau, just let me down!"

"Fuck that, I got you."

"Okay, bend down a little, I can't reach the handle."

"Sweet... Wildmother... my fucking knees..."

Jester fumbles with the handle and shoves the door in but without it, they lose their balance and go toppling into the room. Beau gasps and Jester shrieks, palms slamming against the wooden floor. Beau sags against it and Jester can feel the laughter against her chest. "Beau, are you okay?" she giggles.

"Always," comes the muffled reply. She twists beneath Jester, agile and lithe, and always, always so squirmy.

Her brown cheeks are flushed, dark hair clinging to her forehead, and Jester's heart jumps up into her throat. Blue melts into purple, they stare at each other for a beat... and then two.

Jester's tail sways side to side behind her head, she only notices when Beau's eyes flick to track the movement. When the grin on the monk's face smooths into something more tender. Jester leans her weight on one hand and her knee between Beau's, lifting a hand to brush back the hair on Beau's forehead, to tuck it back up with the rest. She trails her fingertips back down the side of her face and Beau's eyelashes flutter.

This is what she wants. It clicks in her chest, like the softest lock. This is where she wants to be, to spend the rest of her life by Beau's side. With her or with her, in any capacity the monk will have her. Not like her stories, not happily ever after, but something real.

Real like this.

Beau tilts her chin up to press her lips against Jester's.

#cr spoilers #a little #at the end #also maybe almost smut?#idk man #jestergard #beaujester #critical role #the mighty nein

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