Question about your OCs! Does Sol need Lune to speak for him (hence the double tails on his speech bubbles)?

Yes, that's exactly it!! Sol's voice was taken for his arrogance, so he talks through Lune instead! (Although he does still moves his mouth as though he's talking himself even though it's silent)

He also makes up for the loss of his voice by being grandiose with his gestures/body language and he makes a lot of sounds like clapping, clicking his heels, or hissing through his teeth!

248. Sonic the Hedgehog #179

House of Cards (Part Two: Royal Flush)

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

Sonic and Tails are still embroiled in their fight from last issue, with Sonic trying to convince Tails to stand down so he can rush off to stop Rosemary and Amadeus from doing anything stupid. Tails, of course, refuses, hitting him again, and Sonic angrily tells him that while he understands sticking up for his parents, he's not cool with this whole "punching your best friend" business, to which Tails simply yells that Sonic's had this coming for a long time.

Oof, this is even worse than we previously thought. Rosemary and Amadeus approach the castle's side entrance, and Amadeus is suspicious when the codes he enters on the keypad let him in without a problem, realizing that since they haven't been changed since his arrest this must mean Elias is inviting him in. Indeed, inside the castle we see Elias urging his wife Megan along with their baby daughter Alexis to take shelter inside the nursery while he deals with the revolutionaries breaking in. He quickly orders Nicole, standing nearby, not to wake up his father under any circumstances, just as Amadeus and Rosemary enter the room.

I mean, while you have a point, Elias, the city is hardly going to fall to anarchy the moment it stops being ruled by a monarch. Keeping the peace is kind of the entire point of a democracy. Rosemary calls him out, insisting he should listen to his people who were just calling for a reformation earlier that same day, but Elias insists he won't step down, so Amadeus draws his sword. Elias reveals two honestly pretty cool-looking short double-ended blades beneath his royal cloak, and thus, the two parties clash swords…

And speaking of a clash, Sonic has finally gotten tired of fighting Tails inside the jail, heckled as they are by all the onlookers. Sonic rushes outside, and Tails follows him angrily, and what follows is possibly the most bizarre and scattered string of accusations he could possibly make. He calls Sonic out for, in order: leaving him behind on a lot of missions when he was younger, teasing him when he talked about his own adventures (to which Sonic objects that he teases everyone), and finally not immediately breaking his father out of prison when he got arrested. Sonic is truly baffled by the last one, considering Amadeus wasn't even in jail for a full twelve hours, and then Tails finally screams out the real reason he's so angry - Fiona. Yep, that's right, he's still hung up on Fiona - or should I say, Ian is still hung up on using her as a weird plot point in Tails' character arc.

Okay. You guys already know how I feel about the whole "Tails loving Fiona" thing. It's weird and unnecessary and just doesn't seem to fit literally anything else about Tails' character. But let's assume for a second that it is a valid thing to be upset about and that the whole plot point isn't weird as hell. A ton of things have just fallen into place with his little speech here. Tails has indeed been acting weird ever since Sonic returned from space, and he and Sonic haven't had a single good, honest heart-to-heart about it in all that time. Things have been strained between them for a while, and honestly, I'd say this is even less about Fiona than it is about Sonic being careless and forgetting to show Tails that he actually respects him. He's gotten so used to taking Tails' devotion for granted that once things started getting tense, he didn't know how to handle it, and ended up settling on the less-than-healthy option of  ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away. I've seen plenty of people point to this issue as a bad case of these two being totally out of character, but the problem that people cite always seems to be that Sonic and Tails are fighting at all, rather than what they're fighting about. And frankly, while Tails' initial stated reason for fighting Sonic - to help his parents overthrow the government - didn't make a ton of sense, anyone who knows anything about psychology knows that when one person is mad at another but isn't able to properly express why, those bottled up feelings can come bursting out in all sorts of bizarre ways, including many that don't seem to make any outward sense. And, of course, this can include blaming the other person for things that seem totally out of the blue - because that's not actually what they're angry about at all.

My takeaway from all this is that, again, Tails is not angry about the Fiona thing so much as that the Fiona thing represents a lot of what he has actually been upset about, and he's been carrying around these feelings of resentment that have been slowly building up for years. It's a very believable and reasonable reason for these two to end up butting heads, especially considering Sonic can be quite arrogant and self-centered at times, even without meaning to. In essence, what Tails is ultimately expressing in this whole outburst is that he's no longer content to simply be the forgotten sidekick who always has to take a backseat to Sonic's glory. And if you're wondering why Tails in the comics needs this character arc but not Tails in the games, that very premise is mistaken from the get-go - because he did get this moment of character growth in the games, just under totally different circumstances. Remember how the comics' Sonic Adventure arc never included Tails battling the Egg Walker or saving Station Square from the missile Eggman fired? In the games, that was a very important part of Tails' growth as a character - learning that he could be independent from Sonic and didn’t always have to rely on him or trail behind him, that he could be a hero in his own right. But that entire sequence was cut from the version of the story we got in the comics, and thus, Tails was still left as the sidekick, the little kid, the dependent younger brother without a family of his own. I would imagine that he had to teach himself a lot of that lost independence in the year that Sonic was missing - and it had to be jarring once he got over his initial joy at having Sonic back in his life, the realization that to Sonic, he was still the little dependent sidekick when he'd grown so much since those days. And since his life situation has so drastically changed even in just the last few weeks, all of these feelings have finally come bursting out of him in the form of siding with his biological parents over Sonic. With his above comments about Fiona and about taking away everything he cares about, the entire situation has just become crystal clear to Sonic, and now he wants to make amends, finally knowing exactly what has been bothering Tails this whole time.

But ANYWAY! While all that is going on above, Elias and Amadeus continue to battle it out, only to be shocked by the sudden appearance of a solid wall of nanites in between them. Nicole cheerfully announces from the doorway that while Elias told her not to wake up his father, he said absolutely nothing about waking up Sally, and that's exactly what she's done, with Sally glaring at the two combatants in stark disapproval.

See, this is why Sally should have been involved in the proceedings from the beginning. Outside, Tails has halted his attack after Sonic's words, uncertain about what Sonic is getting at, so Sonic explains himself.

There you go, Sonic. That was what he needed all along - a genuine apology and understanding of his feelings. Tails calms down once Sonic reassures him he's being sincere, and Sonic lightens the mood by joking that Tails has gotten too good at kicking butt for Sonic to want to continue being beaten on by him. Tails says he still wants to talk a few things out, but for now, they agree to team up, rushing to the castle to try to prevent Tails' parents from doing anything they'll regret. They're quite taken aback when they burst through the doors only to find Amadeus and Elias sitting down to a peaceful talk over tea, having agreed on a compromise. The government will be reformed into a combination of a democracy and a monarchy, with a council of six elected citizens being presided over by the king as a seventh member. This way, the people have a government that actually represents them, while they don't lose their monarchical heritage! That's actually probably the best solution that could have possibly been reached, and I applaud these two for having agreed on such an elegant solution.

Oh, Maximillian, so stuck in your old ways. Honestly, though, all things considered, I actually do not think he's a bad person. He's stuck in rigid tradition, but it was something he was indoctrinated into his whole life, and it's not surprising he'd be so resistant to change, especially after everything he's been through in his life. Remember, this guy can't be older than his mid-forties - it's not like he's some old and wizened ruler who has had time to process his life's experiences, he's barely halfway through an ordinary person's life span! That's a lot to deal with in a short amount of time. Outside, Sonic, Tails, and Sally watch the election take place, and Sonic asks Sally why she didn't run for a spot on the council, to which she slyly replies that it's likely for the same reason that Sonic didn't. I presume that means that she wants to have free time to herself to help lead the Freedom Fighters and not continue to be stuck at home, but we don't get a lot of time to think about that, because out of goddamn nowhere, Dimitri shows up in his little head-bubble and scares the living hell out of all three of the heroes, asking after Knuckles and warning them that Enerjak has returned…

Luceo non Uro - Chapter 6

Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived)

Relationships: Asra/Apprentice

Rating: Mature

| Read on Ao3 |

~

“Is this everything you imagined?”

A sea of light and dazzling colour greeted Daya as they spun on the spot, anchored by the warm hands that held them. The palace ballroom was even more overwhelming than they’d imagined: glittering masks and fabrics coupled with the murmur of conversation and the smell of richer food than they’d ever tasted in their life.

Asra pulled them back in gently so they were facing, as close as their masks would allow.

“No,” Daya said honestly. “It’s better. I always wished you’d be the first I’d dance with.”

They’d been to the Masquerade once, some three years earlier when their aunt received an invitation. Now it was they who had the invite, along with Asra. It was hard not to be nervous -- all things considered. But they were coping, mostly. The tentative anonymity of their mask helped somewhat.

Asra must have sensed the change in their mood, for he squeezed their hand. “What’s wrong, Daya?”

“I’m worried,” Daya confessed as they spun slowly. “My aunt was invited to the Masquerade a few years ago, and then...well, you know what happened. Do you think…?”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.” Asra cupped their cheek, his fingers edging their mask up. “You know I wouldn’t allow that.”

“You can’t save me from everything,” they replied, then sighed as he frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be morose.”

“I love you,” he breathed against their cheek. “Even when you’re morose.”

The song ended with a flourish and applause erupted around the dance floor. Asra raised their hand to his lips and peppered their knuckles with kisses, smiling slyly.

“Good evening, Vesuvia!”

The lips on their hand paused. Daya saw Asra’s eyes flick to the grand staircase, where a figure in white descended. They caught sight of slicked blonde hair, cold blue eyes and a flash of gold before recognition sent adrenaline surging through their body.

They moved without even thinking, Asra’s hand tearing from their grip.

A rustle of fabric. Indignant sounds as they pushed past the guests. Hurried footsteps; hers and others clacking on polished stone. Daya’s senses registered the sounds as they happened, but their body moved of their own accord, overwhelmed by the need to run.

They burst out into the hallway. Empty, echoing, bright. Too bright, too open, too loud--

“Daya--”

Asra’s voice behind her, with a note of alarm. Daya hit the wall and slid down, head in hands. Their breath came out in sobs.

“Daya. Daya.”

Asra dropped to his knees before her, careless of his coat-tails crumpling, and wrapped them in a hug.

“It’s okay,” he said in their ear. “Just breathe, slow and deep.”

Gradually Daya’s breathing slowed...then quietened. Eventually they sat back, wiping their tears with the heel of their hand.

“Are you okay?” Asra asked; he looked frantic, grasping their forearms tightly. “I’ve never seen you panic like that. What happened?”

“I’m--I’m fine,” Daya choked. “I’m okay. I just heard his voice and it...”

They trailed off wordlessly, chest tightening, and Asra pressed his hand against their breastbone.

“Shh,” he said, low and soothing. “You don’t need to talk about it. I understand. Do you want to go home?”

“No.”

Daya shook their head vehemently, and began to stand. Asra steadied them with his hands on their shoulders.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” They would have rather confronted a hundred Lucios than make Asra miss the Masquerade on their account, but he didn’t need to hear that. “I’m just dizzy. I need some air.”

“If you’re sure,” Asra said, doubtfully. “We can go out to the veranda.”

Daya clung to his arm as he guided them down the hallway. The gleaming stone made their eyes hurt, but the more they squinted the less painful it became. They didn’t think to ask how Asra knew where he was going, but he seemed to be comfortable leading them through the endless hallways.

After a few minutes he guided them out through a pair of double doors onto a veranda, decorated festively for the party. It was mercifully empty of guests and all but a single servant standing at the door.

Daya leaned against the balcony, pulled off their mask and breathed deeply, letting the air dry the tears on their face. They let their shoulders slump and their head droop as the tension began to flow out of them.

“Better?” Asra murmured.

“Mmm.” Daya lifted their head and gave them a watery smile. “You should go back to the party, beloved. I’m making you miss out on the bubble room.”

“Daya,” he said admonishingly. “You don’t expect me to try the bubble room on my own, do you? It wouldn’t be half as fun without you.”

They laughed. Asra drew closer, nuzzling their cheek affectionately.

“I didn’t think so,” he whispered, and kissed her ear. Daya leaned their head against his shoulder, welcoming the warmth of his arm around them, and they stood quietly together for a few minutes, until Daya’s breathing slowed and deepened. Eventually they sighed and lifted their head, pulling back so they could see Asra’s face.

“My timing is probably awful,” they began, “but seeing we’re alone...I did have something to discuss with you.”

“Oh?”

“Um. So, we’ve been together for a while, and I’ve been happier than I have been in a long time...”

“So have I,” he said, his smile soft.

Daya took a deep breath. “Well, I--I would really like it if you came to live with me at the shop. I have it worked out,” they added, as Asra’s eyes widened. “You can read your cards from the back room, and you can set up your own sleeping space, if you’d rather not share the bed.”

His eyes were glittering, they realised, and he had a strange expression on his face.

“I know you’re already living with Muriel, but…”

Daya paused as a brilliant smile spread over Asra’s face. He pressed forward, taking their face in his hands, and kissed them--once, twice, three times, even as they laughed against his lips.

“Yes! Yes, of course I will. I was hoping you’d ask--”

Asra spun them, prompting a fit of giggles, and then they pressed together--noses touching and arms wrapped around each other, breathing each other in.

“I love you,” Daya whispered, kissing his nose. “I love you so much. And look, you’ve chased away my anxiety.”

A delicate cough from behind cut through Asra’s soft laugh, making them both jump. They turned, separating, and blinked at the entrance to the veranda. A woman stood silhouetted against the lantern light.

Asra dropped to one knee. “Countess.”

Caught between surprise and anxiety, Daya gave an awkward bow. They recognised the woman now, though they’d only seen her in glimpses--including the night she had arrived in town five years before.

The Countess moved towards them. She had a mask of black and gold in her hands, which she toyed with idly. Her red eyes swept over the two magicians. When she spoke her voice was smooth and heavy with her Prakran accent.

“I see I am not the only one who does not enjoy the Count’s speeches.”

Asra rose, adjusting his gloves.

“It’s my fault, Countess,” Daya said, before he could speak. “I was feeling unwell, and needed some air.”

A smile pulled at the Countess’s lips. “Peace, Dayana Firestone. I don’t fault you for excusing yourself.”

“How did you--”

“Know your name?” She moved closer, to a small table Daya had missed in their haste to get onto the veranda, and beckoned them to sit. “Did I not extend an invitation to you and your companion? I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

Asra smiled, adjusting his coat-tails.

“My name is Asra, Countess,” he said, in the voice Daya knew he used to reserve for their aunt. “I’m delighted to meet you.”

“Likewise. My name is Nadia; I assume you know my title already. Please, sit.”

A servant appeared at the Countess’s elbow with a bottle and three glasses. As they sat, she poured a glass for each of them before serving herself.

“Are you enjoying the Masquerade?” she asked, and took a sip of her wine.

“Very much so, Countess,” Asra said, and Daya suddenly envied him for the ease he had in slipping into proper etiquette. “You and the Count have outdone yourself. Is the bubble room new?”

“An old favourite, actually. In recent years I have convinced Lucio to make some changes to the entertainment on offer.” Countess Nadia smiled. “But I did not invite you to hear small talk. I invited you to enjoy the festivities of the Masquerade...and in return I ask that you read my fortune.”

The request took Daya by surprise.

“Oh. You want me to read the cards for you?”

“Yes, if you would.”

“Well, I suppose I…oh, I’m afraid I don’t have my deck.”

Asra reached into his pocket and produced a black silk pouch.

“Here you are, my love,” he said, and handed it over. “I thought we may need them.”

Daya glanced quizzically at him, but he said nothing else--only gave them a smile full of pride.

“Excellent,” the Countess said, and sat back in her chair. “What would you have me do?”

There was no refusing, it seemed.

“Nothing, Countess, unless you have a specific question to ask.”

Daya cut and shuffled the cards as they had done a hundred times. Nervousness radiated from them in waves; they knew Asra sensed it, for he gave them a reassuring smile. They closed their eyes and took a deep breath. The cards wouldn’t speak if they weren’t calm, and that would be worse than losing their nerve in front of the Countess.

“Past, present and future,” they said aloud. “An insight reading, if that’s agreeable to you.”

“By all means,” Countess Nadia replied smoothly, and tapped her lips with an elegant finger. “Please.”

Asra shuffled his chair a little closer to them, until his hand could pat Daya’s knee under the table. They laid out three cards, put the deck aside and flipped the first.

“The High Priestess.”

Countess Nadia’s brows rose.

“An enigmatic card, one that could indicate a guide or patron that you call upon to develop your intuition. To me, it suggests magic is not unknown to you.”

They glanced up, but the Countess only looked down at the card. Her eyelashes were so long they obscured her eyes, and she gave nothing else away in her expression.

“How intriguing,” was all she said.

Daya flipped the second card. “The Devil.”

Another expression passed over the Countess’s face, equally inscrutable.

“Bondage,” Daya said, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. “Entrapment and emptiness.”

The Countess locked eyes with them. Her gaze held a keen interest--but also a challenge. Daya felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of their neck, but underneath the anxiety was a sense of defiance. She had wanted a reading, hadn’t she? And if Daya were to pay for their words…

But the Countess did not seem like her husband, and that thought gave Daya the courage they needed to speak.

“Perhaps,” they continued quietly, steadily, “an unhappy marriage.”

The silence that followed was almost painful. Countess Nadia took a sip of wine, her eyes locked on Daya’s. But far from being angry, she seemed satisfied.

Sighing, Daya flipped the third card. “Death.”

The Countess’s eyebrows raised. “Death?”

“Don’t be alarmed, Countess,” Asra said, and squeezed Daya’s knee. “Death is a card of transformation. Its appearance can mean an ending, but also a new beginning. It’s not to be feared.”

“I see.” Countess Nadia looked thoughtful, her fingers tapping on her wine glass. “What advice can the cards offer me?”

“To allow yourself to be guided more by your feelings,” Daya replied, and gathered up the deck. “Embrace change, even if it seems frightening.”

She laughed softly. “Do I seem easily frightened to you, magician?”

“No. But everyone fears something, and each in their own way. Fearing change is normal, but if you have people you can rely on, the burden is less troublesome.” Daya exchanged a smile with Asra and lifted his hand to their lips.

Another swift, searching look from Countess Nadia. Then she smiled.

“Thank you, Dayana,” she said, “and thank you for your honesty. It is refreshing to have the cards read by a true master, not the frauds that litter the marketplace.” She stood, and Asra and Daya followed suit. “If you will excuse me, I must return to the ballroom...if only to temper my husband. Feel free to enjoy all the palace has to offer this night.”

With a swish of rich fabric, she was gone, and Daya sagged in their chair.

“D--did that just happen?” they wheezed, clutching their chest. “The Countess asked me--to read her fortune and I--”

“You were magnificent, of course,” Asra said, laughing, and put the cards back in his pocket. “I knew you would be.”

“Did you know she invited me to--”

Asra’s mischievous grin said it all.

“--ohhh. You.” Daya pointed an accusing finger, and Asra began to laugh. “YOU. You picked up the invitations. You--you knew this was--Asra Alnazar!”

Asra collapsed against their shoulder in a fit of giggles.

“Your face--” he choked out, and Daya grabbed him by the chin and kissed him.

“I hate you,” they said, when they separated.

“No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t. Well, maybe just a little.” They held him by the chin and looked at him fondly, their heart full to bursting. “What am I going to do with you?”

Asra pretended to think as Daya drew him up, adjusting his collar and sleeves.

“Well, we could go home and…” he leaned forward to whisper in their ear. Daya blushed violently, muffling their laughter against his shoulder.

“How about a compromise?” they said, when they could speak again. “First we try the bubble room, then we go home and--do that.”

Asra brought their hand to his lips, his eyes dancing. “Deal.”

Sweet as Poison - Grindeldore

Summary of the chapter: Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrive at Hogwarts and it is truly a wonderful sight to be seen

Warnings for the chapter: none

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Schools Arrival

All houses gathered outside by the lake to watch the arrival of the other two greatest schools of wizardry in the world. And Albus was just in the middle of the crowd, close to his brother but not close enough to bother, just keeping his excited eyes in the horizon. At any moment now the Durmstrang ship would rise from the depths of the lake and rise, proud and almighty. And then, the carriages with flying horses would bring the girls from Beauxbatons, with all their grace and wonderfulness. Albus had only heard of the magnificence of those schools, never studying about them or reading their books.

Still, it was bound to be an impressing visual.

And just as described before by some Gryffindor students, the ship rose from deep within the black waters of the Hogwarts lake, and sent water flying all around it as the water bubble that covered the deck of the ship dissipated in a harsh wind blow that almost made the Hogwarts students fall back. Even Albus had to lean against a close-by tree to keep his balance. But the sight itself was impressive. The ship, wonderful, all in dark wood with beautiful golden details showed off the wealth of the school it belonged to, and it showed its pride well, the symbol carved in gold on both sides of the ship.

And after ascending, it regained a horizontal position and began to drift slowly towards the shore.

As it did, it was the Beauxbatons' time to shine. From above the clouds, the neigh of their horses could be heard, calling attention to their arrival. All Hogwarts students' heads moved upwards towards the direction of the noises, and their watched in bewilderment as carriages after carriages came flying down the clouds, poking holes in the fluffy skies and showing their beauty with their silver ornaments in the white carts. And from inside, the girls waved their wands, making small blue petals fall over the students below.

A single petal even made its way to Albus, falling right over his nose and becoming a little twirl of glittery magic upon touch. He smiled, amazed, and looked back up just to see the ship arriving to the harbour and the carriages coming to a stop on the ground.

Slowly, the students began to come out of their respective transportation vehicles, and their headmasters came right in front, heading for a meeting with Hogwarts' headmaster. Albus just stared at them in amusement, wondering how could a woman be so tall and a man, so tiny. Side by side, the three headmasters looked more like muggle toys, so different they were. The Beauxbatons headmistress was at least two and a half meters tall. The Durmstrang headmaster, on the other hand, was smaller than Aberforth, which was saying a lot since he hadn't hit puberty yet. And he looked so grumpy too!

Albus was enjoying himself way too much with this new experience. But unlike in his second year, when he had way too little practise and knowledge of the importance of talking to other people, watching tournaments and engaging into activities, this time he was thrilled to know more about the other two schools. This encounter, he felt in his heart, would change his destiny forever.

And if he was lucky enough, he would become a champion for Hogwarts, and the champion of the tournament by the end of the year.

Perhaps he could even get new friends from across the world, and finally learn one thing or another from the places he could never visit.

After a quick greeting between the headmasters and students, they were all guided towards the great hall, where they would feast for the arrival of the two schools, and then they would make a quick show, followed by Hogwarts' choir group, and then they would all be relocated for specific rooms for this very occasion.

As he walked, Albus noticed a group of girls discussing amongst themselves about which one of the Durmstrang students were the most handsome. They pointed and giggled, watching as the boys from the northern school walked past them, their heavy coats hanging low on their arms due to the elevated temperatures of England. Each one of them also carried a wooden stick alike their headmaster's, and Albus wondered if it was part of the uniform, or if it was only used for events like this.

On his other side, a group of boys bragged about how they would invite the Beauxbatons girls for the prom, and how they would obviously say yes to their charms. He watched as they winked to a few of the girls passing by, and they responded accordingly: ignoring them completely and raising their heads up, to assert their ground, like proud birds, the tail of their blue dresses drifting over the ground. They indeed were very graceful and pretty, and sure of their high status and pride.

Albus found it very amusing that both schools were so worried about stereotypes while Hogwarts had all types of students. They even had different houses, unlike the other two schools. The only thing uniting all Hogwarts students were their uniforms, nothing like a practiced walk or a wooden stick that hit the ground precisely when commanded.

"Albus! Come along!" he heard someone say, suddenly, and turned his attention forward, to where Aberforth was waving his hand and calling him over. His friends were long gone into the crowd, but the younger Dumbledore made sure to wait for his older brother.

"You should be with your friends. You won't get a good spot for the show if you stick around waiting for your distracted brother" Albus said fondly as he approached, but walked with Abe towards the main hall. Abe simply shrugged, and pulled Albus by the robe, finding them a perfect spot for the show.

"See? With only two is easier to find a little room" Aberforth winked and Albus chuckled softly, nodding and sitting comfortably on the bench, awaiting. As soon as all Hogwarts students had settled down on their house's tables, the headmaster stood from his chair and walked forward, welcoming the other two schools and presenting their headmasters, who sat on the chairs next to his. The students, however, were nowhere to be seen.

"And now, the students of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons will grace our dinner with a short presentation that I hope you all enjoy" the headmaster completed his speech, before returning to his spot and sitting down. With a wave of his wand, the main doors opened, and in the air, the sound of a sweet melody and birds chirping filled up the hall.

"They really have a show" Aberforth whispered next to Albus, who nodded as dumbfounded as him. The two Dumbledores watched in amazement as the beautiful girls made their way inside the hall, waving their wands and forming a beautiful glittering silk-like strip of fabric. As they waved their wands, the stripes moved along, and together with each one of their dance moves, it conducted a dance of its own, filling the room with a beautiful blue colour and a sweet scent of plums.

"It’s the prettiest thing I've ever seen" Aberforth whispered suddenly, and Albus could only nod, eyes fixated on the magic around him. He almost missed the wink a third year girl sent to his brother, but he surely didn't miss the blush on his cheeks and the small smile curving on his face.

And as quickly as it began, it was gone. The room filled up with applause, and the girls all bowed as a thank you, waving their wands and making their stripes disappear in thin air. Then, they were relocated to their places next to the Hufflepuff table, to watch the presentation of the Dursmtrang boys.

And thus, Albus' and Aberforth's attention returned to the main hall's door.

The Durmstrang boys had a completely opposite style to the Beauxbatons girls. They walked inside to the beat of a drum, and slammed their wooden sticks on the ground to each beat, sparks flying out at every strike. They also let out groans and noises at some points to fit in with the music, before they took their sticks out of the ground and waved them around in manoeuvres that Albus would never even dream of learning.

Two by two the boys walked forward, making a few jumps and tricks during the walk to the front of the hall, and smirking to some girls every now and then that seemed interested in more than just the music and the amazing skills they had.

And then, the last two came, jumping from the door forward in an areal twist that left Aberforth with his mouth agape. They made a new twist, now leaning on the sticks, and then groaned loudly in time with the song, slamming their sticks on the ground and provoking an immense amount of sparks, that all united and flew upward like a dragon.

When that happened, they were right next to Albus and Aberforth, and as they rose their heads, Albus found his eyes stuck on the boy's in front of him.

The world seemed to go slow for a bit. It almost froze to a complete stop.

One of his eyes icy blue; the other, warm brown. The red from the sparks reflected beautifully into his irises, and Albus felt the air disappear from his lungs for a second or so, as those piercing eyes struck right into his soul.

And then the moment passed, and the boy turned his face away, walking forward to meet his friends in the front of the hall, all while Albus followed his every movement, despite of his brother constantly saying something.

It wasn't until they were relocated to the Slytherin table that Albus finally snapped out of it, looking at his brother and chuckling weakly at something he said.

But his mind was a few meters away from his body.

 ---------------------

 As the Hogwarts choir began singing, Gellert finally allowed himself to sit down, going as far as sitting closer to the edge of the table as possible, unwilling to talk to anyone that wasn't from his school before dinner.

"That was quite the presentation, Gellert. I think we are doing better and better each year" his friend and presentation partner Gunni said, poking him on the arm with his elbow, but Gellert didn't really feel like talking. He nodded and agreed with a light hum, but his friends quickly noticed he wasn't up for much.

"What's gotten into you Grindelwald? Cat's got your tongue?" another boy asked, clearly mocking him, and his friends all chuckled along, while Gellert slowly turned his face to the boy, cold eyes seeming to turn even colder.

"You should watch yours before I cut it out" he replied, to which all around him turned quiet. He looked back forward, and located the table with the red-wearing students. "The reds in Hogwarts are what again?"

"Gryffins, I believe. That's what I've heard" Sindri, another one of his friends, said over a piece of turkey he was eating. "Why do you want to know?"

"I think I found them" Gellert responded, quietly, and leaned closer to his friends, eyeing them both. "Or, at least, their family members."

"Them who?" Gunni asked, confused, and Gellert growled.

"The person in my dreams! The one with blue eyes, red hair, glasses and the amount of knowledge I need to fulfil my destiny"

Gunni and Sindri stared at him for a while before them both chuckled and shook their heads.

"You're insane Gellert. You're not a seer, and even if you were, what are the odds?" Sindri asked, chuckling to himself as he ate another bite of his turkey leg. But Gellert refused to answer, rolling his eyes and turning their attention back to the Gryffin's table.

He had seen them. Staring at him at the time of the presentation.

Two students with the purest blue eyes and longest red hairs he had ever seen. And one of them, the eldest, had looked at him straight in the eyes, like a deer in the spotlight.

He needed to find them, ask them what they knew.

He knew he had to.

Curse of the enchanted arrow - henry danger mythology au

So this right here is a nice little oneshot for this au, and I’m REALLY proud of the results! I’m sorry it’s so long, though.

H*nray shippers don’t interact I don’t have a banner for that shit

Word count: 4420

Rating: PG-13?

Warnings: towards the end there’s pretty violent fight scene and some super light gore, and a quick scene with body horror right before it

"You see our enemies on that crystal screen, my friends?" Ray asked, slamming his cup down. "I pity them. They were brought here with more combat expertise than anyone here could hope to have. They outnumber us six to one. They're fast and they're mean. Every single one of them will be dead by sunset. They think we're demons with swellview wrapped around our finger. They think they can wipe us out. However, they couldn't be more wrong. You see, my friends. They are no soldiers. They live a sheltered life in Their leader's hideout. While they sit sunning their wretched hides in calm meadows, we fight unspeakable horrors in the harshest conditions, protecting the land of swellview with our lives! Our suffering is our strength, let's show them the unbreakable fighting spirit of captain man and kid danger! Shred their bodies with a storm of lead! Rip out their organs with your swords! Crush their pathetic skulls with your iron boots! SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!"

"Calm down, Ray. It's just dr. Minyak with an army of weird magic rats." Henry brought his friend back to reality, all nine of his orange tinted fox tails curled around himself as he sat on the ground.

"Oh, so I can't give a pep talk?" Ray replied, crossing his arms and curling his scorpion tail. 

"No, just maybe you should save your big dramatic speeches for murderous shapeshifters and pissed off dragons." Henry said, Grinning a little. "We could definitely use it more then."

"Whatever." Ray said as he got to his feet, two massive scorpion claws on the front of his body helping him up. "Let's go stop minyak and his army of 'magic rats', as kitsune boy here calls them." He said as he made air quotes. 

"Sorry, scorpion man. I have a big test tomorrow, I need to get home early to study." 

"Hey! So you're just going to leave me to fight those things on my own? Then it'll be, like, 100 to 1!"

"Ask Charlotte to go with you, she's an amazon! You're not the only one here who belongs to some fancy warrior race."

Ray crossed his arms. "I guess it'll be nice to have a real warrior around for this one." He teased.

Henry's ears flattened. "Hey! Just because Charlotte is an amazon and always wears armor doesn't mean she's any kid danger! I have hypermotility!" 

"Don't you have to study?"

"Yes! It's important." 

Ray nodded. "Alright then. Charlotte, I'll go grab your hero armor. Looks like we'll have to show them the unbreakable fighting spirit of captain man and red Valkyrie." 

Charlotte stood up and saluted him. "Can I use that scythe?" 

Ray nodded and Charlotte  jumped on the back of Ray's scorpion body, and they headed off to another room while Henry walked over to a magic doorway, leading to junk-n-stuff.

He walked out and took a look at the potions, amulets and spellbooks littering the walls, locating Jasper behind the counter, helping an elf check out a few potions. Once they left, Jasper walked out from behind the counter and closed up shop. 

"Hey, jasp. Where are you going after work?" Henry asked, his tails fanning out. 

"Oh, I'm just heading home." He replied, his intricate and beautiful antlers bumping into a shelf, causing him to flinch a little from surprise. 

"Can you give me a ride to crystalline lake?"

Jasper's hooves clicked against the ground as he turned around, as if he were surprised he'd ask. 

"Of course! Hop on!" The cervitaur replied, grinning. 

Henry thanked him and switched to his kitsune form, jumping on Jasper's back and laying his head on his paws as Jasper walked out the door. 

It was sunset, and the town of swellview looked even more enchanting and beautiful than it typically did. Several small wyverns flew right past Henry, a bird stopping to rest on Jasper's antlers. The buildings around them stood tall, nearby trees glowing faintly in the slight darkness. Beings and beasts alike littering the paths beside the road, a time where the adventures of the day began to calm down. Henry watched as a mother gryphon carried her young on her back to a nest high in the sky, his currently foxlike face curling into a drowsy smile. 

In what felt like no time at all, Jasper stopped at their destination. 

"Here we are, crystalline lake," He said, watching Henry jump off his back and to the ground before switching to his Humanoid form. "Do you have your water amulet?" 

Henry rifled through his pockets and took out a small circle that looked as if it had small scales with an ocean wave painted on it, and put it around his neck alongside his kid danger talisman. "Yep."

"Good, see you tomorrow!" Jasper said and scampered off.

Henry turned to look at the lake, it seemed to go on for miles, a bridge right in the middle, the other side of the lake reaching all the way to downtown swellview. 

The kumiho looked down at the lake, and took a deep breath and clutched the water talisman, and dived in. He had friends in that lake, the magical kind.

Henry felt the water hit his face, as he went deeper, a flurry of bubbles unveiled him as a satisfying chill ran through his body. Slowly, he tested himself and let a little air out, no bubbles rose up.

With the help of the amulet, he could breathe underwater. Slowly Henry became more accustomed to it, short breaths, then deeper ones. 

Slowly he opened his eyes, before him stood a wonder he completely forgot about.

An underwater city, lights of bioluminescent kelp illuminated the streets. Buildings covered in aquatic plants as far as the eye could see, and beautiful sea creatures to match. A school of fur-bearing trout sped past Henry as he began to swim down towards the bottom. 

The blond wasn't sure if he knew where he was going, he hadn't been in the underwater district of swellview in a while. There were a few levels, after all. He had only come down recently to stop a threat, and even then he spent a lot of it practically carrying ray, whose species didn't swim well due to their heavy scorpion bodies. 

He paddled further towards the city, then stopped to rest on top of a second level building.

I'm here, but I've completely forgotten where to find what I'm looking for. He thought, deciding to take some time to look around. 

"Hi Henry!" A familiar voice called to him.

He turned to see a satyr with short black hair, beige skin, and glasses.

"Oliver?" He replied, his ears perking up.

"What are you doing down here?" The satyr replied, sitting down on the roof of the building with him. 

"I'm looking for Sidney's place," Henry was distracted by a kelpie swimming by. "Although I've completely forgotten where it is, I don't come down here often after all."

"That's fine, I'll help." Oliver replied as his own water amulet glowed and translucent, ghostly batlike wings appeared.

"Woah!" Henry was amazed by the newfound magic appendages. "How did you do that?"

"water amulets can recognize it's wearers swimming abilities and help them accordingly." Oliver explained as he got ready to lead Henry to their destination. 

"How come mine doesn't do that then?" 

"I don't know, maybe because your tails can work like fins?"

Henry shrugged and followed Oliver as they began to swim again. They weaved through buildings of all kinds; coffee shops, clothing stores, and they even passed a huge dome Oliver said was like a botanical garden, but for plants and creatures found in the ocean.

He missed his trips down here, he didn't know why he stopped. It was like an entirely different world, everything felt silky and ethereal, high speed races through the clouds high above swellview were nothing compared to the odd peacefulness found here. Not many on the surface really seemed to bother with it, some even considered the thought of what could possibly be contained in that lake unnerving. As for henry, he considered it an almost safe place, where the waves would gently caress you and let you feel peace, drifting alongside creatures you'd never see on land. 

"Hey, we're here." Henry's admiring of his surroundings were stopped once he realized where he was.

He was in front of what appeared to be a typical house if it were built at the bottom of the ocean, carvings of seashells and Celtic symbols decorating the exterior. Henry recognized the place immediately. 

Oliver knocked on the door, and not much later a merperson answered who had short black hair that caused the large fins protruding from their ears and arms to stand out, and wore a gray shirt to compliment the blue and white hues of their tail. Henry recognized this creature as Sidney. 

"Henry? I haven't seen you in forever." They said, pleasantly surprised by his presence. 

"Decided I'd come down with Oliver to visit." Henry replied, his ears twitching a little. 

Sidney invited them both in, and the two land-dwelling creatures sat down in relief, the underwater district of swellview was nice and all, but it was definitely tiring to navigate. The three took some time to catch up, it had been a long time after all. They told each other about all things that had happened above the water, and Sidney told them the events of the lake, as the two districts were a bit detached from each other. Suddenly, the merfolk asked Oliver to leave. He said he'd meet Sidney by a certain pub henry never caught the name of, and headed off.  

"Sidney? Why did you want me alone?" Henry asked, a few of his tail tips facing up but curling, the others twitched a little. 

"Because I can tell something's bothering you." Sidney said, crossing his arms. "I could tell before you even showed up today."

"How?" Henry asked, one of his tail tips twitching. 

"I know a little plant magic, remember?" Sidney reminded him, showing Henry a line of aquatic plants near a windowsill. "Each one is named after a friend of mine, if a plant starts to droop or look unhealthy, it's a magic indicator that something is bothering the friend they're named after."

Henry nodded. Sidney was right, something was bothering him, he just hoped to hang out and forget. That plan had failed. 

"Look." Sidney pointed out a small pondweed plant with curly leaves, and it seemed to be turning brown near the ends. "That's yours. So, what's bothering you?"

"It's nothing, really."

"Plant magic doesn't lie, Henry." 

Henry's ears flattened in reluctance, how was he supposed to say this without revealing he was kid danger?

"There's been a lot of mysterious appearances up on land, and it's getting a little creepy." Henry admitted. "My boss up at junk-n-stuff says it's happened before a few times, like some pattern."

Sidney tilted his head. "Are you sure it's not some dragon with an unusual hoard?" 

"No, no." Henry continued, shifting from side to side ever so slightly. "If it was, captain man and kid danger would probably return with the creatures that disappeared, and my boss said that every time this has happened, they don't come back. Apparently captain man and kid danger don't find a dragon or anything." 

Sidney suddenly froze as he remembered something. "Henry, I think I might know what's going on. You have every right to be scared." 

Henry's ears flattened again and his tails curled back. "What do you mean?" 

"I saw something on the surface last night. I know it'll be safe here in the water, so you're welcome at my place in the face of something happening." 

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't want to worry anyone else. Just take this and address it to the man cave, make sure it's submitted anonymously." Sidney gave him a waterproof scroll. 

"A scroll? Sidney, people just use paper and envelopes."

"Not when it's important."

"Right..."

"Anyways, I'd suggest keeping your mind off the disappearances. I'll make sure your plant gets extra sunlight."

Henry thanked him and swam off, heading to the surface and switching to his kitsune form, scampering all the way home with the scroll in his jaws.

*     *     *

The next day, Henry managed to get Sidney's cryptic message off his mind. He was sitting in the man cave with a video game controller in his hand, much more relaxed now. Despite this, he couldn't help but wonder exactly what was written on that scroll. Scrolls were only reserved for messages of utmost importance, so what would they know that captain man and kid danger didn't?

His thoughts were interrupted by ray bursting into the room, wide-eyed and holding something. 

"HENRY! Get ready for the biggest mission we've ever gone on!"

Henry' ears perked up as ray headed over. He was holding Sidney's scroll. "This was just mailed to us with no return address or anything, and it has everything in it to finally put an end to an ongoing crime!"

"What kind of ongoing crime?" Henry asked. 

"There's been random periods of time when a bunch on swellview citizens suddenly disappeared, without returning. I've been chasing whatever's responsible for it for nine years!" 

Henry nodded, only half listening.

"I couldn't figure anything out about it to save my life! But this scroll, this has everything I need to know! Whoever wrote it has all the missing information!" Ray went on before rolling it open. 

"Cool."

"Those mysterious disappearances, they were murders! Victims of some kind of hunt! The scroll says a marrashi was planning it!"

"What's a marrashi again? Aren't they usually peaceful?"

"They're beings that look like jackals with bird's feet and wings that stand on two legs, they can't reproduce normally, so they craft enchanted arrows and shoot them at a living thing and that technically kills them and turns the body into a new, sentient marrashi. But here's the thing, that doesn't happen anymore. Marrashis are civilized, they create magic statues and shoot those so nothing has to die! They just shoot animals if anything at all!"

"Sounds cool, dude."

"But this specific one, he calls himself mizain the bold, has been building an army! And he doesn't use statues, he's been killing innocent swellview citizens! For nine years! And he's going to attack tonight!" 

"Mizain the bold? That's a cool name."

"Not when it's the name of a brutal murderer!" Ray shouted back. "Tonight we're going into the woods next to crystalline lake, I'm guessing that's their training ground. Bring your most powerful weapons, we'll take the part facing swellview. wait a second, have you even been listening?"

"I have. Now go away, I'm training my mind for battle."

"Henry, you're playing video games."

"Exactly, training. Now leave me alone, you're distracting me."

*     *     *

And so, night fell. Ray, Henry, and Charlotte stood outside the woods, each one clad in their respective armor, their best weapons with them. 

"Okay, here's the plan." Ray began, snipping his claw a few times in thought. "Charlotte, you stand guard here. Make sure to take down any marrashis that make it past us. only the hostile ones in some kind of armor, don't go attacking any innocent citizens."

"Tell me something I don't know already." Charlotte said, crossing her arms.

"That's a dangerous statement. There are many things you don't know, and there's even more things that should be kept secret."

Charlotte was clearly surprised by his response. "You're annoyingly cryptic, captain man."

Ray smirked and shrugged. "I try." 

"alright, general. Let's go." Henry said, jumping on Ray's back so he'd have some time to get his weapons ready.

As they walked around looking for their enemies, Henry has brought a large rucksack and continually took weapons and their holsters out and strapped them to his armor. Henry had brought weapons ranging from shurikens to gauntlets, and needed everything to be accessed easily. As he was doing this, he took out what appeared to be a dull sword with a hook at the base.

"How are you going to do any damage with a sword that dull?" Ray asked, looking at the weapon his sidekick was holding. "I told you to bring only the best weapons."

"Best offensive weapons." Henry corrected him.

"And this isn't just any sword, it's a hachiwari."

"Okay? It just looks like a bad katana."

"It's more than that."

"A sword that dull is totally useless, kid!"

"Only if cutting and stabbing are it's only uses." Henry replied, his tails fluffed out in annoyance. 

"That's what you use a sword for."

"didn't you bring a bow and arrows?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Then by using that you're not expecting your enemies to be wearing any metal! The arrows will just bounce right off them! With a hachiwari, it's made specifically to tear off armor-"

"Sounds a little creepy to me." 

"So you can make them an easier target for things like arrows! Who doesn't wear something underneath their armor? That's just bad planning."

"I do that sometimes!"

"That's weird."

"You're weird." 

The two stopped, Henry put the hachiwari in a holster on his back and instead took out intricate red and silver gauntlets.  Ray curled his tail as if ready to sting and put his claws in front of him defensively as he grabbed a battle axe. 

"Keep watch for anything." Ray whispered.

They were out there for quite a while, looking around for something, anything to indicate that mizain the bold was coming. After what felt like hours, they heard a rustle in the bushes. Henry noticed something nearby.

"Captain man, it's just a deer."

Ray stood wide-eyed and held his battle axe closer to himself and held out a claw in front of Henry. 

"Stay back, kid."

"Why?"

"That's not a deer anymore."

They watched as what they thought was a deer's antlers seemingly melted off, as their ears decayed away and new, taller ones at the top of their head grew in their place, it's front hooves slowly seemed to melt off  and handlike paws appeared underneath, it's back hooves elongated into large bird's feet. The rest of it's body looked like it was rotting, shrinking a little and turning a dark brown with small spots, it's snout elongated and wings sprouted in a process that looked so painful it was hard to watch.

Henry seemed to recognize this transformation after a while, it had been hit by one of the enchanted arrows, and it had become a marrashi.

"Surprised, are you?" An unnerving voice called out to them. 

Henry and ray turned to see one of these creatures, clad in heavy metal armor and blue paint on it's face. Behind it stood what looked like an army of creatures of the same species.

"Who are you?" Ray shouted, brandishing the large axe.

"The name's mizain. I'm here for swellview." They replied.

"If you want swellview, you'll have to get through us first."

Mizain grinned and drew a broadsword. "That won't be an issue."

The crowd behind mizain all drew their weapons. The marrashi grinned. "Get 'em, boys!"

The army charged foward, Henry's ears flattened and he hissed as he charged back and punched an attacker right in the snout. They snarled and swung their sword. Henry blocked it. 

He ran around to the back using hyper motility and climbed onto them and jumped off their head as a booster, tossing several shurikens at enemies below. 

He landed on another marrashi and slammed their head into the ground before getting hit in the stomach by a mace-wielding enemy. Henry hissed in pain and tried to deflect the mace, but it was no use. He almost took a blow to the head, but the opponent's weapon was knocked out of their hand. Henry quickly glanced behind him to see ray with a longbow, quickly winking before returning to the fight.

Henry ran and quickly grabbed the mace and finished off the attacker before heading off to another, the rush he got from all intense fights kicking in. He slammed the mace into the head of an approaching attacker. Then into the wings of another particularly determined one. They punched him in the neck. 

Henry gasped for air and hit them with the mace again. And again. And again. Henry just barely missed getting stabbed with a sword and dropped the mace, mizain swooping down and grabbing the weapon. 

Henry wrestled the attacker to the ground and punched with the gauntlets until they gave up. 

"Who's next?" He growled, drawing his sword.

Five attackers answered to that call, each swooping in with their swords. 

Henry's tails drooped as his eyes widened. "Oh no." 

He took the hachiwari in his other hand and ended up in quite the sword fight. He could barely hold them off.

"It's over, kid danger!" One bellowed before getting knocked several feet in the air by a familiar blue battle axe. 

Ray had arrived to help out his sidekick. together, the two were knocking marrashis off their wretched evil feet.

Henry was about knock out a particularly vicious one, but he noticed something about it. It looked familiar. Too familiar. Henry's grip softened as something came back to him. 

"What's wrong, kid?" Mizain taunted, his lips curled into a devilish smile. "Was this someone you knew?" 

Henry's heroic fighting high melted into shock. Henry looked up at the leader. "You..." he whispered.

The shock ignited into a raging fire of anger and vengeance. This fire consumed him as he activated the claws on his gauntlets.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KILLED MY SISTER!" Henry screamed and charged at mizain, tackling him and ripping off his helmet and stabbing and slashing him anywhere he could, watching the blood spurt out like it were a firework show. 

Once mizain was for sure dead, Henry switched to his kitsune form and sunk his jaws into the neck of another attacker, the need to bring justice morphing into bloodlust. 

He went back and forth between every remaining member of mizain's dark army, switching between humanoid and kitsune forms, mauling any one unfortunate enough to catch his eyes. 

"DON'T YOU DARE THINK YOU'RE GETTING OUT ALIVE!" Henry screamed as he snapped the neck of an attacker, the remaining fleeing.

"Come back, I'm not done with you yet!" A kid danger drenched in marrashi blood shouted, running after one of them. 

Suddenly, ray picked him up off the ground and pulled him close, holding him back from doing any more damage. 

"Henry, stop! You've gone hysterical!" Ray shouted as Henry struggled to get out of Ray's grip, but to no avail.

Henry squirmed and kicked and hissed, screaming to be let out and about how he wanted all of them dead. Ray kept him close, making sure he didn't get out again no matter what. After a while, Henry calmed down. 

Henry slowly came back to his senses, taking deep breaths. His eyes, however, were closed.

"Good, good. It's okay, Henry. I'm here. Mizain's gone. Nothing can attack you anymore." Ray said, looking down to make sure he's okay.

Henry's eyes slowly opened, he saw the damage he caused. Marrashis across the ground for what seemed like miles, dead. 

His ears dropped to the sides of his head, similar to that of a sad puppy. Then, he cried. Silently, but ray could clearly hear his sniffing. 

Ray was shocked. He'd never seen anyone cry like that before, tears were streaming down Henry's face so fast it looked like a waterfall.  He slowly put Henry down.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

All ray got back was Henry's hysterical babbling. 

"Do... do you want to go back to the man cave?" Ray asked.

Henry nodded.

"Here, you can ride on my back." Ray said, helping Henry on.

The whole walk back, he kept checking on henry, and he didn't know what to do. Just minutes ago he watched Henry shred through countless enemies like a murder machine, and now he sat sobbing hysterically in his blood-soaked armor.

He could only wonder what had happened to send Henry into such a state.

Once they got to Charlotte, even she couldn't help Henry. He just had his face buried in his gauntlets, tears dripping down. 

Once they got back to the man cave, they sat Henry down on the couch. 

Ray took off his armor plates, revealing scuffed chainmail. 

"Henry, Henry..." ray began, drying Henry's tears with a finger. "Speak to us, Henry."

Henry sniffled. "I... killed them back there..." 

"They were our enemies, it happens..."

"No, ray! You don't understand! I killed them! There were like, a thousand or more! I don't even know how many I got..." Henry sobbed. "I'm a terrible person..."

"No, you're not..." Charlotte said, unsure of what else to say. "What do you remember?"

Henry looked up at her. 

"It's just us here." Ray gently reminded him.

"I... I was fighting... and I saw this one try to attack me.. I was going to... I was going to hit back." Henry began.

"and?" Ray asked, putting his hand on Henry's shoulder.

"It was... it was Piper."

Ray's eyes widened. "What do you mean it was Piper?"

"When... I was eight, Piper got hit by some cursed arrow that killed her... and she came back as a ghost person... but that's what her body turned in to." Henry explained through sobs as he hid his face in his tail. "I realized mizain killed her... and I don't remember what happened next. All I know is ray was holding me off the ground and all the marrashis were dead, and something told me I did it... I'm a murderer, ray! A crybaby and a murderer! Why would captain man want a sidekick who's a murderer?" 

Ray didn't know what else to do besides hug Henry close and try to comfort him. Henry buried his face in Ray's shoulder and cried even more. 

"It's okay, they were enemies out to destroy swellview. If anything, you saved us..." he said, hugging Henry tightly back.

Once Henry calmed down, he went off to go take a shower. Charlotte had to go, and ray sat alone in the man cave.

 He didn't know what to make of it. All he knew was he wished he could have done more, and maybe Piper wasn't the brat he thought she was.

Ariel - The Ticklish Mermaid

Part 1

Through my magnetically clipped on sunglasses I peered upon the body of water in front of me.  The late morning sun glistened across the deep blue waves of the Disney Springs lake.  Ripples from the passing Friendship boats created a cascade of imagery and illusion as the sunlight got parsed and fragmented along the watery crests.  I was sitting.  I was waiting.  I had arrived at the location that I was meant to be, the location discussed about over messages and phone calls, over rapidly typing fingers and giggle infused speech.  I was at Starbucks.

I normally keep my phone in my pocket.  But on this day I needed to make sure that I had it in hand for an important message.  And then it happened--my phone buzzed.  

“Here.”

Succinct but accurate.  I raised myself from my seat, leaving behind my natural body warmth for an apparition to enjoy.  Excited like a child on Christmas morning I made my way past the busy baristas inside the well stocked coffee shop and exited through the front double doors.  Where could she be?, I wondered to myself.  I turned to my left to peer towards the nearest garage.  Why would anyone call it the Orange garage?  It’s more red in color than orange.

“Hey Chaneda.  Turn around!”

A voice familiar from our phone call the previous night rang from behind me.  I turned to see a casual but pretty young woman.  Lovely highlighted wavy hair, eye shadow highlighting her deep green eyes, makeup covering her cute and supple cheeks, and adorable purple leggings covered in Disney theming adorned her features.  

“Where were you going?  I was standing here the whole time.”

I sheepishly didn’t have a good answer for her so instead I simply walk up.

“Hi Ariel.”

When I greet a friend I like to do so with a nice embrace.  Handshakes had always felt cold and indifferent to me and I wanted things to be different with Ariel.  Like me she was an independent adult.  We both owned our homes, we both had full time jobs, both had collegiate degrees.  We both loved Disney.  And, the topic that led us to talking in the first place, we both loved tickling.  Specifically I loved to tickle and she loved to be tickled.

“We should go ahead and grab our drinks since we’re here.”

We entered the Starbucks, an energy of mature youth and excitement flowing through us, and got in line to put in our order.  Or rather we walked through the line straight to the cashier as there were no other customers in front of us at the time.  I went up to the first available cashier and put in an order.

“I’ll have a trenta strawberry-açai lemonade please.  Oh, and could I also have an order of the chorizo and tortilla strip egg bites?  Thanks!”

Yes, I was aware my drink contained more sugar than I should consume in one sitting but it would have to power me through the day.  I knew through my excitement of meeting a new friend that I was going to need the quick and easy carbohydrates to not crash and collapse from exhaustion in the middle of this hot day.  

I was nervous as Hell.  I already knew Ariel was cute.  I had kept the pictures she had sent me the last couple of days.  I also knew she loved the same things I did and to some extent her appetite for her hobbies and desires was insatiable--I have an insatiable appetite to please other people and see them happy.  But meeting her I felt inadequate and also confident; I felt inadequate in appearance due to my weight and early stages of male hair loss but also confident in my ability to speak and act effectively upon our two main shared interests.  I am a Disney nerd.  I am an evil tickler.

“What did you order Ariel?”

“I told the barista to just get me something light and low fat using coconut milk.  It’ll be a surprise.”

Not a moment passes before I hear my name from the counter.

“Chaneda, your order is ready.”

I go and pick up my drink and egg bites.  Freshly made I revel in the dew that quickly forms on the outside surface of the cup.  It also reminds me that Florida is way too humid most of the year, but I digress.

“Ariel, your drink is ready.”

Ariel goes to pick her drink.  A warm lightly roasted coffee with coconut milk it quenches her thirst for her daily morning intake of caffeine.  

I escort Ariel to the back porch, the same place I was originally waiting for her just a few minutes ago, and we sit down at a table for two and position ourselves to be able to converse freely.  Over the next hour or so we talk freely and openly about our families, our love of Disney, our love for tickling.  We have no cares in the world other than that moment in which we’re in.  I was happy.

I ended up talking more than I normally do upon meeting someone.  There was an allure to Ariel something about her voice.  Something about her laugh.  When she spoke I listened.  When she laughed I picked up on every single decibel change.  It was as if I was at an Opera and I was listening to an entrancing performance of sound that captivated my senses.  I knew I needed to hear more of that laughter.  The evil Ler inside of me wanted to be freed.

I had however done what I always do with my friends when I first meet them.  I was going to make sure I had complete and utter consent before I touched her.  I was going to make her ask me to tickle her while making eye contact with me.  Only then would I know she trusted me enough to do to her what she always desires and that I would not be overstepping boundaries or invading her personal bubble.

Ariel finished her drink while I lagged behind.  Since I had been talking so much I had forgotten to make progress on consuming my beverage and was left with almost half of it.  We decided to leave for the Magic Kingdom and, after discussing options to get there, walked to our own cars and we drove to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) 

As I pulled out of my parking spot I was still in shock.  I tried to seem calm and collected but I was as excited as a young puppy that runs after its own tail.  Something about Ariel made me happier than I had been in a while.  Maybe I just wasn’t used to making friends this quickly or maybe I just wanted to keep making a good impression.  In any case I made my way over to the TTC.

Somehow she had gotten there before me despite me knowing all the roads on Disney World property.  And as I was parking she boarded a tram that was about to set off.  As her tram veered towards the TTC station I ended up parking, hopped on the next tram, and arrived shortly after her.  

She spotted me from a distance and met up with me after I had made it past security.  Seeing as how we had both just consumed vast quantities of liquid we made a quick pit stop and met outside of the restrooms.  On our way to the monorail I hear her voice heighten with urgency, her cheeks flushed with a red blush from the words she was going to utter in public.  We made eye contact.  She parted her lips, curling a bit upwards on the side in a smile, and spoke:

“Chaneda...I want you to tickle me.”

The magic words had been spoken.  They became the theme to the rest of our magical day together.

To be continued...

Love’s Remedy | Chapter 1

(Sorry i haven’t posted this sooner! I got a fever ;;)

Written by: Evvy (Evan)

Edited by: Lamebagel (Shane)

        Alderkit looked around, his reddish-brown fur fluffing up. He could almost feel butterflies fluttering in his stomach. He was going to be apprenticed today! How exciting! He couldn't wait! Oh StarClan, I wish Dandelionkit and Juniperkit were here to see this! He ruffled his pelt, trying to look bigger and stronger, and he sure did plan to be. He wanted to impress his leader Bramblestar and show him that he would be a worthy warrior.

        But, among his excitement lurked a stabbing anxiety. What if he didn't know what to say during the ceremony? Did he have to answer any questions? Was it a test? Would it hurt? What if he made a fool of himself, what if-         "Alderkit! Are you excited?" Sparkkit trotted up to her brother, bouncing up and down with energy. You couldn't mistake her for being nervous, anxious wreck like Alderkit. Only a fool would think that.         "Y-yeah," Alderkit replied in a shaky voice, the tone of his voice giving away the fact that he was lying. But of course, like always, Sparkkit didn't notice.         "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather beneath the high rock for a clan meeting!" Both kits jumped up when they Bramblestar's yowl coming from the across the camp.         "Straighten your whiskers! Make your fur smoother Alder-I'll do it myself!" Sandstorm rambled as she began licking Alderkit's fur furiously and quickly. Alderkit was embarrassed when Jaypaw looked at him. The tom's icy blue gaze seemed to see more than most other cats did,even though Jaypaw was blind. Hollyleaf and Lionblaze, his siblings, both let out a mrrow of laughter. Jaypaw had stared at him, emotionless and bland. He blinked once before setting his light blue, blind eyes on Bramblestar. He heard where his voice was coming from.         When Alderkit and Sparkkit were ready, Brblestar beckoned for them to come closer with a flick of his tail. Alderkit's heart was pounding and his paws felt numb. He couldn't feel anything, it was like he was walking on air. He could sense the eyes of his Clanmates staring right at him, piercing him with their slitted pupils and shades of amber, blue, and green. It made him tingle inside and he fidgeted, petrified.

        "Alderkit and Sparkkit. You have been awaiting this moment for six moons. It's finally time that you begin your journeys as apprentices." Alderkit's heart swelled with pride at these words. "Alderkit, from this day, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Alderpaw. I ask Starclan to watch over you and guide you until you find in your paws the strength and courage of a warrior. Molewhisker, you have shown great skill and a determination to do your best, and I believe you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Rosepetal, a d I expect you to pass on that knowledge to your apprentince. You will be the mentor of Alderpaw, and may StarClan light your path." As he finished his speech, Alderpaw and Molewhisker stood up, dipping their heads in gratitude.

        "Thank you, Bramblestar. I am honored. I promise that I will teach all I know to this young apprentice." Molewhisker mewed as Alderpaw jumped down to touch Molewhisker on the nose with his.         The same thing happened with Sparkpaw, she was apprenticed to Cherryfall. Bramblestar made the right choice for sure, Alderpaw reckoned, noting that Cherryfall was a very bubbly and extroverted kind of cat, just like Sparkpaw. 

      "Alderpaw! Sparkpaw!" Alderpaw heard his Clanmates around him chant his and Sparkpaw's names. Suddenly, his anxiety washed away and he lifted his head up high, letting his pride swim through him. He heard a voice that stood out to him the most. It was Jaypaw. Alderpaw shuffled his paws and turned to his mentor.

       "So, uh.... What are we going to do first?"

       "I'm going to show you around the rest of the territory, and your sister and Cherryfall will be coming, too." Molewhisker mewed in response.

       Oh yeah, that's what all apprentinces do first. Great StarClan, Alderpaw, pull yourself together!

        But, seeing as Sparkpaw had already stopped by the fresh-kill pile, Alderpaw asked Molewhisker if he could get his breakfast first. He replied with a quick nod and went up to the fresh-kill pile. He grabbed a vole and padded up to Sparkpaw. "Hey! Do you want to share this with me?" He asked his sister. She looked away from her mentor for a small moment and nodded. she looked back at Cherryfall and tried to confirm her answer.         "Of course, get your strength up!" Cherryfall meowed, walking away from the two littermates. At once, they had started to share the plump vole. "So, did you wish you had another mentor?" she asked, twitching her tail.         Alderpaw shrugged. "Not really," he meowed back, letting his eyes wander the camp. From across camp, Jaypaw's icy blue gaze caught him like a claw. He didn't show any emotion, not a single shred of joy in those blind blue eyes. How does he live like that? Does he know something nobody else does? He always looked like that, like he didn't give a rat's tail about anyone.          Though Alderpaw felt pity for the blind tabby tom. Maybe he only looks like that because he's blind.... We might not see any more of him than he does of us. Alderpaw wished he could cheer him up and make him smile. But he does realize that it's almost impossible.         "Who are you look-oh." Sparkpaw stopped and turned to look at Jaypaw too. She tried to act distracted by a moth to avoid staring. There was something about Jaypaw that made everyone uncomfortable. He was sitting in front of the medicine den, twitching his tail with his ears back. He looked tired and unhappy. Well, Alderpaw gets it. He has to wait till the next half-moon, which is very far away, to become a fully-trained medicine cat. While on the other paw, Hollyleaf and Lionblaze were made warriors not too long ago.          Alderpaw longed to get up and talk with him, to get to know him, but he knew what it would result in. Alderpaw could just imagine how the conversation would go in his head.

     "Hey, I'm Alderpaw... Uh.... Wanna share a blackbird with me?"

     "Bah, those have almost as much feathers on their wings as you do in your brain. Don't you have tick duty to get to work on?"

     And then he'd give me that cold, dead stare and make me leave.

        After Alderpaw and Sparkpaw finished the vole they were sharing, Alderpaw licked his fur clean and walked to Molewhisker where he was chatting with Cherryfall if they should explore together. They both agreed and nodded at Alderpaw, Sparkpaw catching up a few heartbeats later.         I hope that this training ends up going well.

(Literary Sketch) Pseudoreality and Stupidity

You have, pretty much begrudgingly decided to help your friend troubleshoot a project they have been working on: Some kind of pseudoreality zone. Looking over it, you see why it needs troubleshooting: There's pockets of wild magic everywhere. Despite this, there's a fairly large area to help with.

"Seriously, why do you have so much wild magic in there?" You ask.

"It kinda just happened. Think it might've been something to do with my mind wandering a bit while I worked on it." They answer.

"And you can't troubleshoot alone?" You suggest.

"Just watch." They point out a stray creature, a white fox, as it approaches a patch of wild magic. Almost instantly on touching the area, it shifts and reforms, becoming a foxgirl with white fur and hair.

"Alright, that doesn't seem... that... bad..." You trail off, the foxgirl's nakedness slightly distracting you as she starts to explore herself.

"Tag her for relocation into the holding area for later interview." Your friend says. The foxgirl vanishes in a cloud of pixels. "She's not the first to be relocated, and if I want to remove the areas, I need someone capable of retrieving me and returning me to my senses."

"That's probably the smartest thing you've ever said, mate." You reply.

"Yeah, it'd be a disaster if I was turned into a horny dragon girl and never found again. Imagine how disappointed Ruxi and ArneT would be." They seem to have said some of that in disappointment, but you think the last part is sincere.

"Hold on, you said about the ones affected being sent to a holding area? I want to inspect it." You say.

"Suit yourself. It's through there, don't unlock any doors unless you wanna be... Y'know... by those lusty ladies." Your friend warns you.

"Is there any other way to communicate with them?" You ask.

"Commpad, by each door. Look carefully at them to see what buttons do what." They answer. You nod and go on through. In the hallway, you inspect the first commpad you see. A fairly comfortable room is shown, as well a Lizardish lady who seems to be mostly out of the horny haze, and is wearing the bedsheets as a makeshift dress. You move along, looking at each of the pads. There's a good many Lizardfolk and Foxes, a single Griffon and some very confused others. Although they seem more and more into their self exploration as you go along, the Griffon seems fairly irritated at something. You touch the speech bubble button on the pad. While trying to word your words, she speaks first.

"So, someone finally came. What's the purpose of holding me here, in this room?" She sounds as irritated as she looks.

"Well, I'm not too sure, but I'm thinking it's to prevent you from causing a problem?" You say.

"...Just fuck off, then. I'm not gonna talk to you anymore." She says. You decide it better to leave her alone than talk any more. Satisfied with your your inspection yielding no significant problems, you return to your friend.

"I'll assume you have no further questions, then?" They ask, pulling on some black, almost clawlike gauntlets. In the time since you left the room, they've almost completely changed into armor that gives a draconic appearance.

"...What does that armor do?" You say, noticing it has a vaguely feminine shape, as your friend seems to prefer. The boots also seem to be heels, with clawed decoration.

"It's meant to absorb magic, but... I probably made it wrong for that." They shrug.

"...Get the helmet on, then come here." You say. They do so. You look over it a bit. It definitely doesn't absorb magic in the way that they thought it would. If they went in like this... You shiver at the thought. You remove the magic absorption and fashion your own effect to remove the magic. You note the decorative wings and tail on the armor. Once you finish weaving the effect into the black gems inset all over the armor, you make sure it works as intended. The quick, unfocused raw magic pulses through the armor for a moment, before settling stretched all through the tail, slowly dissipating.

"Should be good to go now. Instead of taking in all the magic at once, and becoming a sex-starved dragoness cursed to be ready to go for the rest of eternity, you'll slowly get better, assuming you can pull yourself out of the haze." You explain.

"Well, it's good to know I won't be stuck humping a tree for the rest of my life." They say sarcastically.

"Yeah..." You nod. You can't help but wonder why they chose to use a bunch of onyx gems on the armor. Concentrating on that thought, you give them a look over. For a moment, you mistake the figure in front of you for a form of Onyx you regret seeing. "Wait... Fuck." Too late. They already left. A ping on the monitor tells you that they're already in the worst place to be. You watch as your friend steps into a highlighted area, feeling slight panic. Their tail and wings slowly come to life as the magic feeds into them. The highlighted area shrinks slowly, as your friend falls forward, looking more girlish by the minute. The helmet twists, and becomes their face, panting. You don't really know what to do. They begin to stand back up, still getting more and more girlish. They look up at you, wink and start reaching down... The armor did it's job, but you see the arm trying to resist. It eventually reaches it's destination, and rubs at themself. You try to switch to a view where you can see how much magic the armor took in. It's a first person one from inside the helmet. The tail and wings, the designated dispersion points, are at 100%, the torso, head and legs are also at 100%, and the arms are at 90% and dropping, according to a diagram in the top right. A transcript of dialogue is displayed in bottom left. A lot of "Mnph" and "Grph", with "*aroused moans*". You're essentially watching your friend's armor turned dragon girl masturbate with them inside. At the rate the magic is fading it'll have already have climaxed twice. Assuming it has control of the hands for the entire time. As the magic left in the arms reaches 60%, the one at the nethers pulls out, a trail of almost neon green mixed with a little sky blue goo on the clawtips as it lifts high enough to see. You watch as the dragon girl puts the claws in her mouth, wondering if it connects to your friend's. She knew what she was doing. She brought the natural arousal of your friend almost to max, and left them there.

A transcript note appears. "Enjoy the show, Jack? I know your friend did~."

You hesitate. She's taunting you. You want nothing more than to get in there and tear her off your friend, bit by bit. If you brought her back here...

"What's wrong, scared of a horny suit of armor ruining your day?"

But, if you go in there, who's going to guarantee your friend's safe return, when their armor isn't a horny dragon girl?

"Maybe you're scared that your friend will want help with their girly problems?"

If you bring her back, who says your friend won't keep her in this state?

"Or maybe you're scared of touching my magic exhaust?"

There's a lot of problems with the way you made that work, and one is that she's in control of the armor until it's all gone. And if you touch it while it's being dispersed...

"Yes, you hate the idea of being a girl, but you also hate the idea of your friend being one."

How much did she know? Did you even know? Or, as a residual effect of your friend creating that place, was the wild magic...

"Fear, doubt, other emotions tied to depression... A desire, one single desire..."

You don't really want to acknowledge it, but the dragon girl has a point.

"All your friend really wanted... was you to accept her for who she is. And you won't even save her from the dragon."

"Shut the fuck up, you fake dragon bitch." You declare.

"Oh? Or what?"

Yes, or what? You ponder it over. What could you do to help your friend in their moment of need?

"Maybe all you have is words? Pathetic."

No, you have more than this. You know you do.

"Whatever it is you're doing, know that your princess is here, waiting for a knight of some sort. Preferably a girl, but a cute guy works too." You look. The arms have reached 35%.

"Depending how long it takes, I might decide to entertain myself... with predictable results."

The dragon girl offered her challenge to you. As you fixed the armor up, you learned your friend's theory of magic absorption. Maybe... Wait, even if you did make a staff for it, you'd still have to go in there... Unless you didn't? And you think you know a girl who could go in your place. You hurry into the containment area and find the Griffon again.

"You, Griffon girl!" You say to her. She starts to respond, but you cut her off. "If you think you can handle it, I have a task for you."

"And what do I get? Probably nothing I want..." She starts complaining angrily.

"A name, clothes, education and a home?" You offer.

"Tempting... Go on then." She responds. You explain the situation, your friend's problem and that you want the Griffon girl to remove the rest of the wild magic before the dragoness decides to search out another pocket of it. As you explain, you create a black staff inset with various hunks of onyx gems, connecting them with a core spell and ensuring the capacity is as high as possible.

"And, in order to remove the magic pockets, I'd need a tool of some kind to absorb them, right? I want it to be able to shoot the magic back out, turning any living thing it hits into more of me." She requests. You consider it. "Griffon girls, not copies of me." She seems a lot better at talking than you thought she'd be.

"Convince me that's a good idea." You say.

"You can give it a keyword to reverse the effect if you have to, but it'd be extremely helpful for me to have a girlfriend to snuggle?" She says. You kinda see the point, but you wouldn't exactly trust her. The upside is that you'd gain her trust immediately. The downside is you don't know her or what she'd do. There's every chance she'd go mad with power and turn an entire country into her girlfriend harem.

"If a time comes where I feel like I can trust you with that sort of power, I'll let you have it." You say carefully. You're thinking about implementing a timer instead of 'until a phrase is said'. Maybe a couple hours? Having given the Griffon girl an index of all possible clothing to choose from, she turns it towards you, pointing at a fairly covering, but just under the belly button up to the neck are exposed, covering most of the breasts.

"This looks comfy." She declares. "I want it."

"Are you sure?" You ask. She nods. You look at her, accounting for fur fluffiness, tail and wings, from all angles, and start creating it for her. You hand it to her, and she starts to pull it on. You turn away, as you don't really want to see her getting dressed. A feeling of what's likely her boobs pressing on your back tells you that she's probably done.

"Are you-" You start.

"Yeah, kinda. It's complicated." She answers the question you didn't finish.

"What's the problem?" You ask.

"Tits are out." She answers nonchalantly.

"Then get them covered." You tell her.

"Dunno how to." She states.

"Then let me-" You start to offer. You feel the boobs move off your back. "-help?" You turn around, and, true to her word, her tits are hanging out of the outfit. You sigh as you tug a bit at the almost rubbery clothing, working up from the belly, carefully avoiding touching her as much as possible, and straightening it out for her, so it actually does its job of covering her. You release the material gently, so as to not elicit unexpected reactions.

"Thanks. It seems like you have a good motherly instinct." She says. You're fairly sure it's sincere but the last part irritates you.

"Don't say that to me ever again." You state in irritation.

"So... the staff for magic collection?" She asks. You hand it to her, along with a set of eyewear to let her see where to go to do her mission.

"So, you know what to do, right? Head towards the places which look greyer than others." You explain.

"Sounds simple enough." She says. "How do I start? And when do I get my name?" You show her to the doorway to the teleporter.

"Just go in there, I'll send you there and bring you back when you're done." You say. "And... I think you should be named Safina."

"Alright, wish me luck~!" She... kinda squawks excitedly, as she heads off into the imitation reality. You look back to see how your friend is doing. 100% head, torso, wings and tail. 15% arms. 95% legs. All sorts of things in the log, challenging you, your resources, your gender, whether it'd be a good idea to breed with you, dismissal of the previous because you're not man enough to girl up once in a while... The odd muffled noises from inside. You switch the screen to split between map, glasses and helmet. Safina seems to be doing her job well already. You can't help but wonder though... Why wasn't she as horny as the rest? According to your research and experience, Griffons are amongst the horniest creatures, easily within the top ten.

"You found a way to deny me further magic, then? Good move. But how about this?" You glance at the magic levels. The gauntlets hit 0%. There's a brief moment but your friend regains control of their arms.

"What's the meaning of this? Didn't you want to tau-mph!? Mph mh phmhk, mhrl!" It's mildly amusing to watch the dragoness try to talk while her arms are trying to keep her mouth closed. As she struggles to make muffled noises more, you notice the distribution of the magic change. The longer the hands remain on the helmet, the more transfers into them, but leaves less in the helm. And as the dragoness is too unfocused to just remove them with her control, the drain continues at an increasingly rapid rate. The arms pull the helmet off. Most of the readings are cut off. 1% remains in the helmet as it's set down on a nearby rockpile, at about head level.

"Girl! Why do you reject my influence!?" The helmet demands. The shape of your friend's back is seen through the eyes.

"Maybe..." They say. "Because I'm not the kind of person who enjoys those things?" They turn to face the helmet. You don't really understand it. The armor should have taken all the magic. And dispersed it. And protected your friend. The armor shouldn't have become self-aware. It definitely shouldn't have done most of what it did. But there's your friend, looking into the eyes of the talking helmet with a drakyr face that rivals Onyx's in cuteness, a set of horns that don't seem impressive, but add to the cuteness overall... Your friend, in a pseudoreality you can't personally get to without great risk, has become a black-scaled drakyr girl, and you're not there to slap sense into them. How frustrating. And knowing them, they'll want to be like this for an extended period of time. Your friend is talking to their helmet about the hows and whys of being a black drakyr girl. Safina has almost entirely removed all the magic. You're doing your best to manage not to to let your irritation get to you. How could the day possibly get worse? You sigh as you contemplate. You hear the door shut.

"Oh no..." You mutter, dreading the worst.

"What's wrong?" You hear a voice say. Thankfully, it's only Ryana.

"Thought it was someone else." You explain.

"Yeah, mistaking people for other people can sometimes be awful. What are you looking at? " She takes a sip of her drink.

"A pseudoreality, need to wait for it to be clear of wild magic before I can bring... them back." You explain. "What've you been up to?"

"Spear training, break for reading some internet stuff. Y'know, the basic weekend fare." She says.

"And how's that going for you?" You ask. She shrugs.

"Managed to achieve a high score." She says. "My personal best was like half of today's."

"Good for you..." You say.

"So, what exactly was with the pseudoreality?" She asks.

"The wild magic causes almost everything to become monstergirls." You explain.

"That sounds..." You glance at her. She's kinda red in the face. Probably imagining the potential wives.

"Very nice for you, not desirable for me." You finish her sentence for her.

"Yeah, that." She agrees. It's silent. You watch the screens. Safina's logs indicate she wants retrieval. Your friend's logs show that they really might, low key, want to be more capable of being like a black dragon lady. You glance at where Ryana was. She left without a sound. What kind of spear training is she under, that she's learning assassin tricks?

"System? Retrieve Safina." You say. The signal from her glasses distorts, before you see the inside of a room like the one she was in through them. You head back through to retrieve her from the cell.

"Good job on clearing up most of the mess." You say.

"Thanks." Safina says. "I'm gonna want some food soon, probably."

"Yeah, you probably will." You consider the amount of people here you know can cook. It's just you. But you can't leave your friend without a retrieval option.

"Someone talkin' bout needing food?" Ryana says. She thrusts you paper bags that smells of McDonald's. "One for you... The other for her."

"Who's that? What is she?" Safina asks.

"Ryana Blood, or sometimes Azure, resident electric blue drakyr, spearfighter, and mostly ok at cooking." Ryana responds, offering her hand. "Glad to meet you, miss...?"

"Safina." You interject. "I named her Safina Griffs." Safina takes a moment, and shakes the hand of Ryana.

"I look forward to potentially working with you you in the future, Ryana." Safina smiles.

Ryana kind of killed your mood to talk by being her dumb self. Safina and her are pretty much just talking about their dumb stuff. According to the screen, your friend is still talking to their armor. It could be worse, but it could be better... At some point, you fell asleep, and are woken up by a jolt on the hand.

"I think it's time to retrieve them?" Ryana suggests, rewrapping her hand. "And, don't worry, Safina's been shown to her room." You look at the screen. It's a helmet view of a black gauntlet, all parts in the hud showing 0%.

"...Ugh... Retrieve them?" You say groggily. The view distorts for a moment, then switches to just an overview of the map. In a while, you're gonna have to let your friend out, but for now, you think you'll just rest...

All the asks!

Okie Doke. Except 84. I answered that yesterday. 

1. Who was the last person you held hands with? My ex. 2. Are you outgoing or shy? Outgoing as hell. I’ll talk to anyone.  3. Who are you looking forward to seeing? My new potential beau.  4. Are you easy to get along with? I think so.  5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you? I think so.  6. What kind of people are you attracted to? People with presence. A nice face doesn’t hurt either.  7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now? Maybe. We’ll have to see how things go tomorrow.  8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind? The same dude who always is.  9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? Nope. The last officer I rode with tried to test this and failed.  10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? My sister, probably.  11. What does the most recent text that you sent say? “okay don’t get into anything too life threatening”  12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now? 1. “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” - Abba; 2. “My My My!” - Troye Sivan; 3. “Mystery of Love” - Sufjan Stevens; 4. “Edge of Town” - Middle Kids; 5. “Paris Latino” - Bandolero.  13. Do you like it when people play with your hair? Unless you are a hair stylist, not really.  14. Do you believe in luck and miracles? Luck yes, miracles maybe.  15. What good thing happened this summer? This past summer? I got to play with the SWAT team! I went to the Lake with my bestie! The solar eclipse was a thing! 16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Negative. 17. Do you think there is life on other planets? Affirm. 18. Do you still talk to your first crush? Nope. I wonder what happened to that kid. I wonder if he still wears Hawaiian shirts every day.  19. Do you like bubble baths? Yes. 20. Do you like your neighbors? Most of them.  21. What are you bad habits? I tend to smack my gum.  22. Where would you like to travel? I’d like to visit every Disney park. I’d also like to visit Norway.  23. Do you have trust issues? Affirm. 24. Favorite part of your daily routine? Makeup! or Coffee.  25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with? My tummy.  26. What do you do when you wake up? check the time.  27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker? Negative. I’m good being pale. 28. Who are you most comfortable around? My bestie. 29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up? Not to my face. 30. Do you ever want to get married? Maybe? IDK. 31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail? It is! 32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with? Tom Hardy and Armie Hammer. 33. Spell your name with your chin. flu8ff6y 34. Do you play sports? What sports? Negative. 35. Would you rather live without TV or music? I’ll just die. Thanks anyways. 36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them? Affirm. 37. What do you say during awkward silences? Random “fun facts” 38. Describe your dream girl/guy? 6′3″, dark hair, blue eyes, spent some time in the military, not a cop.  39. What are your favorite stores to shop in? I love Macy’s and T.J. Maxx.  40. What do you want to do after high school? Already did it. 41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? Negative. 42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean? That I’m pissed.  43. Do you smile at strangers? All the time. 44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean? Outer Space. 45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning? The need for coffee.  46. What are you paranoid about? Owing people.  47. Have you ever been high? Negative. 48. Have you ever been drunk? Affirm. 49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about? Affirm. 50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore? Black. 51. Ever wished you were someone else? Affirm. 52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself? My metabolism.  53. Favourite makeup brand? Too Faced 54. Favourite store? Safeway. 55. Favourite blog? Can I say my own, or is that too self-centered? I’m digging @symphony-in-silver they post Chris Isaak gifs and I am here for it.  56. Favourite colour? Tiffany blue. 57. Favourite food? Sushi or pizza.  58. Last thing you ate? A smoothie I made for lunch.  59. First thing you ate this morning? I had a cup of coffee… 60. Ever won a competition? For what? Yes! I won four Golds and Bronze medal for SkillsUSA in high school for  Broadcast News Production (gold), Prepared Speech (gold, two years in a row), Crime Scene Investigation (bronze), and CPR/First Aid (gold). I was the first female in Nevada to win two gold medals in the same year. I also won a short fiction award senior year of college.  61. Been suspended/expelled? For what? Negative.  62. Been arrested? For what? Negative.  63. Ever been in love?  Affirm. 64. Tell us the story of your first kiss? I got cornered like a wounded animal and it was awful.  65. Are you hungry right now? Negative.  66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends? Negative. I like you all about the same.  67. Facebook or Twitter? Twitter. 68. Twitter or Tumblr? Tumblr.  69. Are you watching tv right now? Negative. 70. Names of your bestfriends? I call my bestie “favored person” quite a bit.  71. Craving something? What? Yes. Chinese food. 72. What colour are your towels? Yellow and Blue.  72. How many pillows do you sleep with? Five. 73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? Sometimes.  74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have? Not as many as I did when I was six. 75. Favourite animal? Dogs. 76. What colour is your underwear? Black. 77. Chocolate or Vanilla? If it’s ice cream, vanilla. If it’s cake, chocolate. 78. Favourite ice cream flavour? Chubby Hubby. 79. What colour shirt are you wearing? Plum. 80. What colour pants? Light rinse denim color. 81. Favourite tv show? Adam -12 82. Favourite movie? L.A. Confidential (fuck you, Kevin Spacey) 83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2? Mean Girls. 84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street? Same as last night.  85. Favourite character from Mean Girls? Karen.  86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo? Pearl. 87. First person you talked to today? My mom. 88. Last person you talked to today? My ex. 89. Name a person you hate? My advisor. 90. Name a person you love? Officer Male Model (A nickname given to him by a toothless motel clerk).  91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now? Affirm. 92. In a fight with someone? Negative.  93. How many sweatpants do you have? Like two, maybe? IDK. 94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have? Oh my god soooo many.  95. Last movie you watched? Boondock Saints (It was St. Patrick’s). 96. Favourite actress? Gal Gadot. 97. Favourite actor? Colin Farrell 98. Do you tan a lot? I don’t tan so much as fry.  99. Have any pets? No. :( 100. How are you feeling? Pretty okay.  101. Do you type fast? If I’m not thinking about it. 102. Do you regret anything from your past? Affirm. 103. Can you spell well? Affirm. 104. Do you miss anyone from your past? Affirm.  105. Ever been to a bonfire party? Negative. 106. Ever broken someone’s heart? Affirm. 107. Have you ever been on a horse? Unfortunately.  108. What should you be doing? Putting my laundry in the dryer. 109. Is something irritating you right now? My eczema flared up again, so yeah, that’s irritating.  110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt? Affirm.  111. Do you have trust issues? Didn’t I already answer this? 112. Who was the last person you cried in front of? My mom, probably. 113. What was your childhood nickname? Fona.  114. Have you ever been out of your province/state? Affirm. 115. Do you play the Wii? Negative.  116. Are you listening to music right now? Affirm - The The’s “Beyond Love” 117. Do you like chicken noodle soup? I’m largely indifferent. 118. Do you like Chinese food? I don’t like chinese food. I love chinese food.  119. Favourite book? John Steinbeck’s East of Eden or S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.  120. Are you afraid of the dark? Negative. 121. Are you mean? Yeah, kind of.  122. Is cheating ever okay? On people or in cards? People no, cards maybe.  123. Can you keep white shoes clean? Negative.  124. Do you believe in love at first sight? Affirm. I saw at least three dogs today and I fell in love with every single one.  125. Do you believe in true love? Maybe? It seems like a ploy to sell engagement rings to me. 126. Are you currently bored? I’m almost always bored.  127. What makes you happy? Television, records, things that go ~squish squish~ or at least look like they embody the ideals of things that go ~squish squish~ 128. Would you change your name? Affirm. I’m working on getting my last name changed to distance myself from a deadbeat male parent. 129. What your zodiac sign? Virgo! 130. Do you like subway? No. Port of Subs or Jimmy Johns. No subway.  131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? Say “too late asshole. That ship sailed, sank, and is now home to a colony of octopi” 132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? I definitely already answered this one.  133. Favourite lyrics right now? “Give your love freely to whoever that you please, don’t let nobody tell you ‘bout who you oughta be.” - Josh Ritter “Getting Ready to Get Down.  134. Can you count to one million? Probably not.  135. Dumbest lie you ever told? “my mom won’t let me give my number out” I was seventeen.  136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed? Closed. 137. How tall are you? 5′4″ in my 5.11 boots. 138. Curly or Straight hair? Curly. 139. Brunette or Blonde? Can I go with option C - red.  140. Summer or Winter? Summer! 141. Night or Day? Day! Unless it’s a ride along and then Night. Nothing fun happens on day shift.  142. Favourite month? May.  143. Are you a vegetarian? Negative. 144. Dark, milk or white chocolate? Milk. 145. Tea or Coffee? Coffee. 146. Was today a good day? So far it’s been whatever. 147. Mars or Snickers? Snickers. 148. What’s your favourite quote? “When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” - Walt Disney 149. Do you believe in ghosts? Affirm. My grandma’s house is absolutely haunted.  150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page? “Out of Elivagar sprayed poison-drops” (The book is the Oxford World Classic translation of the Poetic Edda.)

Thanks for asking!

Orion the Crusher leaped at Ultramaaze, who turned his head to meet Orion’s mechanized fist. As kernels flew from his noggin, he turned back around to see a shiny kneecap whack him in the gut. As Maaze let out a violent, pain stricken growl, his eyes were directly locked at Orion’s window eyes.

What the hell are you?

Back on the bridge, Kruonch pushed a button on his captain’s chair and spoke in a growly, demonic voice, as if he smoked 20 packs of moongarettes a day.

I am Orion the Crusher. Your terror is at an end, Maaze!

With his corn cob fingertips, Maaze slapped Orion so hard, the windows started to crack as did the giant moonrock which served as his torso. The Tuuns on the bridge felt the lash and nearly fell out of their respective places. Using the Runmaster device, Zappy made Orion do a kick in mid air, directly at Maaze’s face and knocking out some of his teeth. But as Maaze fell to the ground to lick his wounds, he looked back up at the giant robot and the Tuuns saw, to their disbelief, all of Maaze’s teeth grow back in a matter of seconds. Kruonch nearly urinated in his pants.

He’s an unnatural fiend! Siobhan, are those weapons fully charged yet?

Siobhan looked down as the controller gleamed a bright green and made a soft beeping sound.

All charged daddy. Can I finally fire away?

Kruonch grinned. He was so proud of his daughter.

Yes kitten, fire like a kamikaze!

Siobhan pressed every button simultaneously and all the gadgets on the side of Orion’s head began functioning vigorously. Most importantly, the laser cannon Shellhard installed launched a fiery red blast at Maaze who raised his hands in an act to defend himself. The blast finally ran it’s coarse on Maaze and he toppled over like an asteroid sized domino. Through the view screen, the Tuuns could see that he was smoldering, but as they continued watching, they noticed he was also expanding like a balloon. Even through the bridge walls, they could hear the sound of tremendous popping, like several bombs going off at once. The ever expanding Ultramaaze got to his feet and looked ferociously at Orion. 

Extra large, with butter! 

And then Ultramaaze started launching kernels like never before. Within a single minute, he must have launched at least 200 or more giant sized pieces of popcorn into the air, all while roaring as if he was a giant dinosaur from Tokyo. 

Orion did it’s best to blast the kernels into oblivion, but the buds kept coming and ended up pulverizing several Tuun homes in the village. As several innocent Tuuns were led away from the battlefield to the underground ravine where Sanctuunary once stood, Lagumer, Shellhard, Opilio and Keet embarked on a mission of their own. They went through the underground tunnel and infiltrated the empire’s palace, confronting Swab and Swig, Colonel Sugacoat, Chilly Willy and the recovering Fry Spy. Lagumer stood proudly before the group.

I’m gonna give these refrigerator rejects a one way ticket to kung-fu ville. 

And he leaped into the air, waving his arms, his trunk and legs. When he landed and started delivering the blows, it took him several seconds to realize he was swatting at the air, giving Swig enough time to blast him through the ceiling. Shellhard tucked himself into his shell as Opilio kicked it towards the Confectoons, knocking them down like bowling pins. As they all got to their feet, the three of them engaged them as Lagumer bursted through the wall, whipping Chilly Willy and Fry Spy to the floor with his trunk. Keet suffered the worst out of the four of them with Sugacoat picking and poking him with his sharp appendages. Shellhard found himself suffering frostbite from Chilly Willy’s bearhugs and as he toppled to the floor, he looked to one corner to see something that nearly made him faint. It was the helmet and belt he lost years earlier and as Chilly Willy dashed towards him, he quickly zipped to the corner, put on the equipment and phased through Willy, much to the Ice Cream Brute’s surprise. When he turned around to face the turtle, Willy was surprised yet again when Shellhard began frying him with the transmitter on his helmet, melting Willy into a neapolitan river. 

Shellhard couldn’t help but feel the great pride and joy of defeating one of the Lethal Seven, reveling in his victory. He took off his helmet, through it into the air and shouted mightily. 

COWABUNGA! 

Meanwhile, Opilio was having one heck of a time avoiding Swab and Swig, especially since Swig kept obliterating the surroundings with his optic blasts. He climbed up and down the walls and found himself smack dap in the middle of the ceiling. Just then, Sugacoat jumped onto him and he fell to the floor, making his back hurt more than it ever did in his entire life. As Sugacoat began hacking away at one of his legs, Opilio remembered that he had, under his torso a small container of dental floss. Being a daddy long legs meant that he couldn’t weave webs like spiders, so he settled for the next best thing. He quickly stomped down hard on Sugacoat, cracking his chalky little body as he hurled all the floss around Swab and Swig, cutting off their circulation and hindering Swig’s ability to shoot beams. Opilio then signaled Lagumer to assist him. 

I’ve heard that cotton candy disintegrates when it’s exposed to water. 

Lagumer chuckled as Swab and Swig began wining in horror. 

Luckily, I just drank a whole galloon on moonrock tea before we came here, Oppy! 

The two headed cotton candy menace screamed in agony as Lagumer blasted them with the tea, reducing them to pink and blue puddles on the floor. Opilio and Lagumer high fived each other as Sugacoat got to his feet. He prepared to charge at Opilio with his sharp fangs and multiple claws, but before he could leave a scratch, he was pummeled over the head, crushed into orange fragments by an incoming.........speech bubble. Shellhard looked up. 

Keet, you feathery son of a gun! You’re talking! 

Keet flew around the room, leaving out an array of ka kaas and polly want a cracker. As Fry Spy caught the bird by his tail feathers and prepared to break his neck, he spoke for the first time, his voice not what everyone was expecting. It was ominous, yes, it was intimidating, but it was also, very sassy.   

Your little flight’s been cut short little birdy. You may have been able to stop the boys, but you won’t be able to stop me. 

It was then that they all realized it. Fry Spy was in fact, a she. She clasped Keet’s throat so tightly that all he could do was gargle and gasp for air. Thinking quickly, Opilio used the last of his dental floss to tie up the Spy’s fries and with all his might, he spun her around like a carousel. Then Shellhard tucked himself inside his shell as Lagumer hurled it at her with his trunk, sending her through the nearest wall. Now that Keet was free, he flew over to the Spy and spoke directly above her head, mashing her potatoes once and for all. 

The battle between Orion and Ultramaaze was getting more and more heated. With each blow from the enemy, Orion became more and more battered until his left arm broke off and his laser cannon was useless. In a last ditch effort to overcome Ultramaaze, who seemed to be getting more and more powerful by the minute, Kruonch gave Hampire a very important command.

Transfer all remaining power to the main generator. And give us some of the abra kadabra gobbledygook to go along with it!

Hampire was hesitant, but after a bit of pondering decided it was best. After pulling a series of small switches and knobs, Hampire lit up like a glow stick as a green aura covered him and he clamped his hands down on the control deck. 

Oola Roola Spizoola Frandoola Quipoola!

Before they knew it, Orion the Crusher was covered in the green aura as he delivered another great blow to Ultramaaze. As his red and white body started to rip, Ultramaaze was then picked up by Orion’s remaining arm and slammed into the ground, leaving a massive crater in it’s wake. Still, the Popcorn Menace wasn’t through and put his arms around the robot, crushing his rocky torso and shattering the power core on his chest. Then Ultramaaze put Orion’s head in his mouth, biting down and tugging it away like it was raw meat. The Tuuns stood in horror but Kruonch knew they couldn’t go on any further. 

Abandon ship! 

And they all ran out Orion’s emergency mouth door as Orion’s head went plunging into Maaze’s stomach. The Tuuns found themselves fighting Ultramaaze on their own and even without their giant robot, they still were going to give it their all. 

Ultramaaze just wouldn’t go down and it was in that moment that Igginsworth realized what had to be done. He knew that the Ethereals are what gave Ultramaaze his seemingly unlimited power and he knew that if he went back into ice, the Ethereals would become new Tuuns and Maaze could be defeated. 

You guys keep him occupied. I know how to stop him.

And Igginsworth ran off to Dabertson’s lab. Zappy, who realized what his friend was going to do wasn’t ready to let him do it, but knew it was the best thing at the moment, the best thing for Tuun kind. 

I’m going with you!

(I am so sorry, mobile users. This is really long.)

My Mass Effect Andromeda thoughts:

1. I was gonna stream the trial, but proceeded to use almost all 10 hours at once because I couldn’t stop playing. I suppose this is a good thing. I’m definitely streaming it once it’s actually out.

2. I hate the character customization. Mass Effect has always been ugly as fuck when it comes to making characters, but my dudes it is 2017 what is going on here.

2a. Side note but I laughed for like 15 minutes that there is only one “White People” face and it is honestly the ugliest thing. Cool feature (sorta not but I’m viewing it as a positive) is that there are designated skin tones with each face set. Speaking of sets, all facial features are stuck to a specific preset face. You can slightly move them, but there’s no changing. I’m hoping this is just for the trial, as other things in the game were locked off until it’s official release.

2b. so many pony tails. no undercut. despite reports saying that hairstyles would be less militaristic as you’re not a soldier, they’re more or less the same. let me be the woman i want to be dammit. There were braids, but only one style. Still double the representation compared to previously I guess? I have very much so white people hair so I don’t feel comfortable having an opinion on that subject. I will say that the braids are exclusive to fem!Ryder and m!Ryder gets 2 different textured styles. I, personally, cannot wait for the beautiful mod community to fix this hair travesty, both with representation variation and all these fucking ponytails. Maybe they can make something happen with the faces, but I hold little hope. They had “alt” hair colors, so it’s already way better than ME Original Trilogy. My Ryder has blue hair, because of course she does. There’s not much shade difference in the colors available, and some of the unnatural colors were, in fact, so unnatural looking that it was hard to accept as a hair color. dyed hair doesn’t reflect light the way it did in game and it didn’t look like much shade variation between the strands so it occasionally looked like the hair hadn’t actually finished rendering. The color selection suggested a more soft ombre look than was actually present.

3. I like that you can customize your twin also, but limits on the CC still drives me crazy. Male hair diversity isn’t super, like I said before, but it just felt like more than the female counterpart. I just really, really hate ponytails you guys.

3a. In your CC options, you can pick story bits. The only options that connect to the previous games is a selection between your Shepard having been male or female. I suppose that’s so pronouns are correct later on.

4. Prologue: I feel it takes too long, the tutorial is honestly not that great. SAM, your AI, is down for most of it, so you have no idea what anything is. It was fine at first, adding to the worldbuilding and urgency and whatnot but it got irritating by the 30th “unknown” enemy.

5. The Omni-Scanner is a neat addition, but it felt sort of...forced at times. More on that later.

6. The prologue story is okay. The ending of it, and the beginning of the actual game, was actually pretty dramatic and I didn’t expect it given the hype around certain characters that Bioware has tried to generate.

6a. Dad Ryder seemed really one dimensional with his kid. Like, never referred to them affectionately even at the last bit. This is sort of explained when you go to his room later, but it felt really hollow to me as a whole. Cool dad fact: CC of your Ryder and their twin decides what Dad looks like. Mine had obscenely blue eyes but grey hair.

6b. Evil dude looked really sad during his introduction and I wanted to be friends with him. This feels like a failed attempt at showing off the ominous silent bad guy, as I immediately started rooting for him. You go, evil dude, touch the stuff and let your dreams be true.

7. I hate the weapon interface. Inventory functions like ME1, allowing you to see the items you’ve picked up (both upgrades and actual weapons) but you cannot equip them. I couldn’t until the first mission after getting my ship. Which is terrible, as I got a sniper rifle I wanted to use and couldn’t for the prologue portion.

8. The Hyperion’s travel system is awful. There’s very little instruction about it. The tram looks as if it’s a one way thing, from the ark to the new citadel-like port, but in actuality you use it to travel around the ark itself too. Didn’t notice until my camera turned slightly to the right and another thing on the board was selectable.

8a. Not travel related, but you do get more info about the ending of the prologue and a new ongoing mission on the Hyperion. It felt like a bit of a slap. It’s all “Here’s this cool new power and a friend BUT ALSO FUCK YOU JON SNOW YOU KNOW NOTHING and you’ll never find out until you go look for these things randomly around. But not around here! Fuck you twice!” It was clearly created to push the story more later on, which is all fine and good, it just ticked me off at this moment.

9. The new Citadel is a goddamn mess. I’m not a huge fan of it right now, though what I’m 100% sure will happen is that as you make more homesteads, the place gets nicer until you’re at endgame and have a fully functional hub. I’ll like it more once it starts changing. It looks like it has really good potential. I hope it functions more than the keep in DA:I, and your choices really DO have an effect on what is opened up and how the society there builds itself.

9a. The Original Trilogy made each race very distinct, with their own speech patterns and everything. I didn’t really get that from this game’s other races. The Salarians didn’t speak in fast bursts with lots of words jammed together, and the Turians more often than not didn’t have that robotic twinge to their speech, and weren’t all that hostile. It seems unlikely to me that there wouldn’t be any left over anger as they left for Andromeda seeing as it’s possible some actually fought in the first contact war. It is about 30 years apart. It was something constantly prevalent in the previous trilogy, which every NPC lived during (at least ME1)

9b. I do, however, love super not Krogan Krogan lady. She’s perfect and I wish I could romance her. You do talk about the genophage. Sucks that she and her clan have no idea that there’s been a cure for over 500 years now.

10. The ship, Tempest, is really nice. I always felt like Normandy was very irritating to navigate around. ME1 especially, but 3 wasn’t so hot either. This one isn’t as large, but it has a really nice flow that I liked. Pathfinder quarters were way better than Shepard’s.

10a. It has a system like the Dragon Age: Inquisition war table where you have timed missions that NPC complete for materials, items, and intel. Seems interesting, but I didn’t see one to completion. They’re still running.

10b. the R&D table is interesting, and I like the separation between the two, but it didn’t feel like a huge asset so early in the game.

11. The traveling system is beautiful. Visually it gets 100% approval. However, it’s extremely slow paced. any selection of a new planet or system takes you back to where you were originally, lets you stare at it a moment, then flies you to the next place where you zoom in for another moment before zooming out and then FINALLY getting information about it. It’s nice, but by the 12th time I was incredibly tired of it.

12. Your Salarian pilot is cool. Not especially Salarian-like, but still I liked him. Cannot kiss. I tried.

13. Material gathering is kind of limited. You scan a whole system, and you have the option to scan planets, but there’s not much point to it as SAM tells you if there’s something worth scanning there. Usually it’s a single deposit of a mineral.

14. I hated the MAKO in ME1, but this one isn’t so bad. I think it helps knowing that I can customize it later.

15. Speaking of customization, you can change the colors of your casual clothes and your armor. It’s the same color selection tool as in CC, so it’s awful. The dial to change the color overlaps with the bubble to select the actual shade so there’s a lot of trial and error involved. Once again, no indication that [SPACE] is necessary to confirm your color choices. I hate the whole design of it.

16. You do meet some companions that you’ll pick up, but you barely interact with them. Good intros though. Really gave them personality right off the bat.

17. ROMANCE: Being fem!Ryder is rough at the start.

17a. Gil is one of the ship’s crew. He’s one of the few genuinely attractive males in all of Mass Effect’s history. As a woman, you can flirt with him, but he turns you down solidly. He’s kind, but firm. He states that he’s interested in men. Which is awesome, because now I have a reason to play a male Ryder after my first play through is done. Female Ryder apologizes, nothing is weird (unlike other interactions) and it actually made me like him more as a character.

17b. Liam kind of blows off your advances but it definitely felt like a rejection. As he wasn’t very clear, I don’t know if he’s a bi character that you have to develop a friendship with first, or if he’s gay and just doesn’t want to come out to your Ryder. I didn’t like the wishy-washiness of the interaction but we’ll just have to see what’s what when the full game is out.

17c. Doc. I forgot her name, so now she’s Doc. I knew this interaction wouldn’t go well, as I’ve read articles about it. She definitely turns you down because you’re a patient. I’ve read that she has a crush on the Krogan that joins you, so is he not a patient too? Either way, she’s very professional about it and as with Gil it made me appreciate her character. Knowing that it’s Natalie Dormer and I’ll never hear her tell me she loves me hurts me deep in my soul though. Why does the world hate me like this???

17d. Blonde biotic woman with the goddamn hair that I want on my Ryder. Cora. I don’t like her. You have the option to hit on her early on, and her reaction felt really awful to me. She gets kind of hostile and all “I already told [person you never met] that I’m not interested in women and I’m telling you too.” Like, ok. Damn. You aren’t my type anyways. I just wanted to see the option play out. 0/10 poor way to handle the interaction. I’m not super fond of the Asari commando thing either. Jack was a kickass biotic too and she was treated like a monster. This woman gets to take part in something very culturally specific like it’s nbd? jnasdlfknasdivhbna, not a fan of her. She looks somewhere between confused and murderous all the time. Also, she walks like Stretch Armstrong. It makes me laugh.

17e. Vetra. The only individual that actually reacts positively to fem!Ryder flirting with her. Even then she really only takes it like a compliment. But, as I love Vetra and much like Garrus I would die for her from first glance, I’ll take it. I think it’ll be a beautiful relationship. She’s also really tall. And pretty. One thing I thought was strange with her is that it always looks like she’s posing when she’s just standing around. One hip is thrust out and her arms are crossed. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they rigged her to always be in mysterious seductress pose.

17f. I couldn’t flirt with the pilot. Let me kiss the Salarian, damn you Bioware. Also, our nice Scottish friend Suvi can’t be flirted with, but she sounds really soothing to talk to. I’m def a fan of all these non-American, thicker than previously heard, accents on the ship. The Original Trilogy was full of light British accents or full on American. Sort of hard to believe the Alliance was multinational when everyone spoke like they were from the US.

18. Combat: I mostly use the sniper rifle and the pistol. Pistol was nice. I love the sniper rifle in this game. Other ME games it was hard for me to confirm headshots but this one was a clean and clear animation. Very nice. The companion AI was strange at times, as they’d just use their abilities but in odd places so the skills would get stuck in corners or just go off to nowhere. There was combat stutter on the first planet you can visit but I think that’s more my graphics card. The update refuses to finish so I’m stuck 2 updates behind where I should be.

I have, like, an hour I think left so I’m gonna try to rush through a male Ryder play and see how companion reactions differ. I’m really only in this for the romance, you know.