#also if i could figure out how to get a horse to raptor hands i would. i got about as close as im able.
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random story snippet
@goblin-tea this is part of that story I was talking about/sending you bits of. I'll get into the better stuff (imo) in a bit, but this is a much better example of what the main characters are like than what I sent earlier lol
“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto,” she mumbled, still clinging to Audrey’s hand as she nervously followed Fiona’s example and took a moment to study the immediate area.
“No shit, Sherlock,” the blonde growled, yanking her hand away. Rebecca could stand there like an idiot if she chose, but damn it! She was going to explore and find a way home, right now. Clearly, her friend’s oh-so-brilliant spell had backfired quite horribly, and now they were lost, with no idea of where they were, when they were, or what was going…
Her thoughts were jarringly interrupted when Rebecca suddenly let out a short, high-pitched scream, causing both of her friends to jump.
“WHAT?!” Spinning to face the taller woman, she took a deep breath in preparation to chew her out, and then promptly hid behind her. “…Is that a dinosaur?”
“Deinonychus,” Rebecca confirmed in a reverent whisper. Her screech had been from excitement, rather than fear; the giant grin on her freckled face was evidence enough of that. Though she knew she was the only one who cared about the details, she still explained in a rush, “Fast, smart, and very deadly carnivore from the late Cretaceous period, probably the basis for the oversized velociraptors in Jurassic Park… A raptor’s colorful feathers make it look like a ridiculous, disproportionate toucan, which is probably why the producers chose to make it look more like our friend here. Fossils of the deinonychus have never been found with any indication of feathers.”
“It does have feathers, you walking Wiki!” Audrey hissed, stepping back. No way in hell was she going to stand there like an idiot and get eaten by some parrot on crack.
Fiona remained rooted in place beside the other redhead, though she did stoop to pick up Rebecca's forgotten staff, just in case the curious animal decided to attack. A tiny smile played at the edges of her lips at the toucan comparison. It did sort of look like one, in a weird way…
Swallowing past the sudden lump in her throat, their nerdy friend nodded. “Yeah… Most of this type of dinosaur did, so paleontologists kinda figured the deinonychus would, too.”
The prehistoric bird of prey studied them, almost seeming to ponder something. Just as Rebecca was about to make a Philosoraptor joke, the fascinating – if deadly – beast twitched, letting out a series of loud clicking noises.
“…Huh. Whaddaya know. That dude on youtube was right…” An answering call echoed from somewhere to the left of the three shivering girls, and startled the amateur paleontologist out of her daze. “Oh shit.”
“What?” Both of her friends shot her nervous glances, reluctant to take their eyes off of the giant predator. Why wasn’t it moving?
“Run.” When Fiona shot her an incredulous look, Rebecca shook her head. Normally, yes, she would caution against any sudden moves around a wild animal, but this was different. More clicks from their right, answered by the one animal they could see, illustrated why. “He’s calling in reinforcements – run!”
That was all the motivation the shivering blonde needed. With a terrified shriek, Audrey turned and bolted into the forest, Rebecca and Fiona hot on her heels.
“I think it’s safe to assume,” the oldest woman gasped out, jumping over a fallen tree limb, “that we’ve somehow been sent back too far.”
“Ya THINK?!”
"Now's not the time to get snippy!” Her lungs were burning, her legs cramping, and though she could hear the creature gaining on them, she had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t putting forth much effort. She and her surrogate sister were both overweight to the point of obesity, and as such, speed wasn’t exactly on their side. In fact, it had been one of the things they’d hoped to go back and change; if they never got fat, they wouldn’t have to deal with the health problems associated with it or the hassle of constantly trying and failing to lose it.
Risking a glance to the side, she noticed Fiona keeping pace with them, and winced. She was hanging back to help them, she knew. By far the skinniest and healthiest of the three of them, she was lightning fast compared to the other two. While both her companions were morbidly obese, Fiona was lithe and fit, with legs like a gazelle. She was going slowly so she could defend them with that big stick if she had to. That was the only logical explanation Rebecca could come up with. The fact that the 'big stick' was her own walking stick was momentarily lost on the eldest of the three.
Mother above, she prayed desperately, if there’s even a trace of magic left in my blood, please, please unleash it now to give us speed.
Too angry and frightened to bother with logic, Audrey just rolled her eyes, yelping when it caused her to trip over a rock and nearly sent her sprawling. Fiona caught her by the arm and helped her steady herself, and she managed a tiny grateful smile, even as she snapped at the redhead, “Shut up! It’s your fault that we’re in our own personal Jurassic Hell, being chased by a fucking raptor!”
“Cretaceous!” Rebecca snarled, dodging around a rather intimidating thorny bush. “And it’s not a raptor, it’s-”
“I DON’T CARE!”
“It’s actually quite fascinating,” Rebecca asserted through wheezing gasps for breath, “if you think about it. We finally… get to see… proof… that dino…saurs… were more like…flightless…birds…than…”
“I don’t give a shit if we’re being chased by an ostrich or a crocodile!” Audrey screeched before her friend could finish. “If I end up something’s lunch, it’s your fault! And you know what? Fuck you! Fuck your stupid spell. Fuck your obsessions. Fuck your fucking imaginary friend and the horse you both rode in on for good measure!” Even in a life-or-death situation, somehow an old inside joke popped into her head, and she managed to suck in a deep enough breath to scream, "AND YES, HE'S NAMED 'SIDEWAYS'!"
“Guys, this really isn’t the time to be arguing,” Fiona pointed out as calmly as she could, glancing over her shoulder to see how they were faring. It wasn't good. She could deal with Audrey and her rather offensive temper tantrum later, she decided; escaping the turkey-sized ball of feathers and teeth chasing them took precedence.
“Sorry…” Pouting a little, the blonde risked a glance back, and nearly wet herself when she saw that their prehistoric pursuer was getting closer and closer. “Oh, fuck me…” Something brushed the side of her head, and she jumped, but it was only a leaf hanging down from another large tree.
Wait. Leaf…tree… She glanced up, relieved to see that the branch was low enough for her to grab hold. Circling around so that she wouldn’t get caught by their feathered menace, she pushed herself just a little bit more and managed to haul herself up onto the branch. “Guys!”
“What are you doing?!” Rebecca cried, having been too focused on running to notice where Audrey had gone. Fiona had been taking up the rear, focus switching between the others and the predator, but had been looking primarily in the latter’s direction for a few minutes. When she turned and saw only Rebecca standing there, she froze and glanced around. As they spotted Audrey in the tree, they also became aware of the fact that their enemy seemed a lot closer than before.
“Can raptors climb?” Audrey called out, wincing as she watched the scene unfold. Though she had long legs and strong, muscular calves, Rebecca outweighed her by a good fifty pounds, and it was visibly taking its toll. She was tiring, and the blonde just prayed she could pull herself up to safety before that thing or its as-yet unseen companions ripped her apart. She had plenty of reasons not to worry too much about Fiona.
“Come on.” Urging her tiring friend on, the skinnier redhead decided to take at least this one cue from Audrey and circled around the trunk of a massive tree, making sure Rebecca followed. It confused their attacker, bought them a little time, and kept them from getting out of earshot of Audrey.
At her friend’s soft, gentle reminder of what she’d been asked, Rebecca frowned. She wanted to remind the treed woman that they weren’t being chased by a velociraptor, but dismissed it as a waste of time. Instead, she considered her question as she doubled back.
Could this breed of dinosaurs climb? “I…I’m not sure,” she panted, one hand coming up to press against her chest. “I don’t think so. Their arms are probably too small to pull them up.”
“Then get your ass up here!”
They reached the tree, and Fiona quickly jumped up like it was nothing, setting the staff aside and braced across two nearby branches to keep it from falling. She and Audrey then each stretched out an arm, hands extended to grab Rebecca’s and pull her up as the youngest of the three continued, “And pray Jurassic Park was wrong about more than just the raptor’s appearance, cuz here he comes, and if he brought friends, you’re toast!”
“It’s not a raptor!” Rebecca reached for their hands, though she harbored little hope that she could actually get her fat ass up there. With or without their help, in her mind, she was dead.
“Please note, you’re the only one who cares,” the other young woman grumbled, grasping her friend’s wrist and exerting every bit of strength she had left to pull her to safety. Rebecca had virtually no upper body strength, and without Audrey and Fiona, would never be able to make it up onto the branch, despite being taller than both of them.
She almost dropped the larger girl when she suddenly yelped. Fiona glared at her, trying to compensate by taking more of their friend’s weight until she got a better grip on her arm.
Still a bit startled, she searched Rebecca’s eyes for some sign of what the hell that had been about, and found only fear. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Pull me up! Pull me up!” Refusing to say anything else, she gritted her teeth and pushed with all her might, kicking all the while. What she knew the blonde couldn’t see from her perch was that the dinosaur had caught up to her while they both struggled, and had grabbed hold of her calf with its sharp claws. Suddenly, she was glad for the long leather boots that, only moments before, she’d been cursing.
As the creature went for Rebecca again, Fiona grabbed the staff and whacked it as hard as she could over the head. It turned on her for a moment, but before it could do anything, Rebecca kicked it in the face. Taking advantage of the opportunity she’d just created, she stood on the hungry animal’s head and pushed off. At last, she was seated on the rough limb, with the deinonychus just barely out of reach. Gasping desperately for air as she turned and clung to Audrey, she glanced down at the bewildered creature and managed a breathless “thanks!” The moment Rebecca was safely out of reach, Fiona crept along the branch and headed for a different one. The tree was old and strong, but the three of them in the same spot could easily snap the branch and send them right to the dinosaur’s clutches.
Once she settled on another perch, they sat there for a moment, contemplating their luck, both good and bad, and watching the hungry animal watch them. All three knew that with a little effort, the thing could probably reach the two on the lower branch with those lethal, powerful jaws. Since it had clearly not yet figured this out, none of them really cared. Audrey was exhausted and sore, the entirety of her plump body throbbing unbearably now that adrenaline had begun to flee her as she had fled the dinosaur. Fiona was desperately trying to get her breath back, and though she felt fine otherwise, she knew she’d feel like she’d been hit by a bus in the morning. Rebecca, too, was exhausted and sore, though the pain in her muscles and joints hadn’t yet registered. Her gaze shifted from the restless animal to the long jagged tears in the back of her skirt, which she studied with a sort of numb, detached fascination.
“Well,” she said finally, still scarcely able to breathe. “That was exhilarating.”
Fiona laughed.
“Exhilarating?” Audrey gaped at her. “Are you fucking kidding me? We just almost became something’s soon-to-be-fossilized lunch!”
Shrugging, Rebecca glanced down at the prehistoric lizard…bird…thing. And suddenly she felt pity for it, and all the living things around them. After a long silence, during which the deinonychus finally lost interest and stormed off in search of easier prey, she finally murmured, “We survived, didn’t we? That’s more than anything else in this time period can say.” Where were its companions? The question bubbled up out of nowhere, and once formed, refused to be dismissed. She'd heard it call to someone, and heard an answer... Or had she? Had she imagined it all?
“We don’t belong in this time period!” Audrey's reply startled her out of her confused reverie. Her voice was shrill, expression aghast as she stared at the other woman as if she’d lost her mind. Perhaps that was obvious. For a second, she considered that maybe shehad gone mad, and this whole nightmarish situation was just a scene playing out in her ever-overactive imagination.
Then she shifted, and the ankle she’d twisted when she tripped on a rock sent a twinge of pain up her leg. The idea of any of this being anything less than horribly, undeniably real was scrapped, and she glanced around. She would merely search for makeshift supplies, she decided. She would rewrite Rebecca’s stupid spell, and get them back to the present. If this experience was meant to teach them anything, she was sure it was that the past can’t be changed, which she was suddenly ready to accept as Gospel truth. Life sucked, but they could make it better if they just focused less on whining about it, and more on actually doing something about it.
A strange weight on her mind drew her from her thoughts and she turned to look. Rebecca was staring at her.
Huffing a bit, she gestured to her shredded clothing. “That’s going to get infected. You’ll probably die before the week is out.”
“Thanks, Captain Optimism,” the other woman growled, rolling her eyes.
“We don’t have anything to wrap it with!” she snapped, interrupting her friend’s attempt to assure her that she was fine.
“I can rip something if you want,” Fiona offered, gesturing to her clothes.
“We have no idea what’s poisonous and what’s not,” Audrey continued to rant as if the other young woman hadn’t spoken, “We’re about sixty-five million years away from peroxide, never mind penicillin. And all of this is assuming you just get some kind of nasty infection. Every carnivore with at least one nostril can probably smell all that blood for miles. If we don’t get the hell back to modern times, you are going to die!”
To shut her up, Rebecca sighed and reached down, shoving her torn skirt out of the way to show the long scratches across her boot. She could see them alright through the slashes in her skirt, but clearly Audrey was less observant. “I’m not bleeding, genius. He was aiming to grab, not gut; he didn’t get through the leather.” She gestured, but wasn’t the least bit surprised when Audrey only shook her head and looked away.
“I’m just worried about you,” she whispered, much more subdued as the fight slowly drained from her. “You got lucky this time, but as long as we stay here, we’re in danger every second, from everything.”
As if only just then remembering that Fiona was there, she whipped around and stared up over her shoulder at her. "And how the hell are you still corporeal? How were you ever in the first place? I mean, nice to meet you, I guess? But what the actual fuck is going on?!"
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You mentioned that the bee would be creation in your own take on ml. Would their still be tiers and counterparts? Could you maybe talk about your own version, I know you’ve mentioned some aus before but what would be your ultimate and ideal take on the miraculous?
In a sense? Ish?
Honestly, I don't have tiers and counterparts down yet, or if I'll even do so. I am like, the worst at making decisions and just constantly go back and forth on stuff. My buddies can confirm as they've had to listen to be busting in to dump lore ideas on them which I will proceed to then change like a few weeks to a month later.
But ok, my ideal... putting this under cut as this is a big headcanon lore dump.
My ideal is that there are a lot of existing miraculous, but not the hundreds that canon is setting up. As of right now, I have 40 that exist (which does include the canon 19 in the show, which Dragon being changed to Lizard).
All miraculous have 5 powers, though those that are the most powerful have 7. The most powerful (as of current mindset) are those that have the most presence/significance worldwide. Of canon, this elevates: Cat, Butterfly, Fox, Bee, Turtle, Peafowl, Snake, Horse, and Dog. Lion, Deer, and Raptor are the elevated OC miraculi. In kwami society, the most powerful (known as Overseers) aren't treated all that differently though they're regarded with a little more respect, though it can vary depending on the kwami (Plagg doesn't act like a leader and isn't interested in being one, so is treated like any other kwami. Though there are some who are bothered that Plagg is an Overseer). At most, Overseers are expected to intervene with discourse between kwamis, as not all kwamis get along and step as leaders when needed (not that it happens with all Overseers).
In terms of origin, no one knows who actually made the miraculi or when. And kwamis themselves don't know either. From what's gathered from kwamis who barely remember anything of their early years, it is believed that kwamis started out as little toys or golems, and they were initially tools to fight against magic and other people; it is believed that the more kwamis spent time with humans, the more they started to grow mentally and emotionally, becoming their own beings with their own views and feelings. Kwamis were the ones to even pick their own names and gender pronouns, which has changed depending on where they are right now.
As for when, some Guardians thought it was around the time of Mesopotamia, and some think they were established in the lost Atlantis. Kwamis just can't confirm any of it. It's just too early in history for them to recall.
While kwamis have no recollection of their early years, they instinctively know the Laws of the Creators.
Kwamis are to assist humanity.
Kwamis do not hurt humans.
Kwamis have a right to not share anything with someone they believe has ill intentions.
Kwmais have a right to defend the worn miraculous if they choose, or allow it to be taken or influenced.
Kwamis are never allowed to use their power to clash with one another.
Guardians and the Orders actually came later in the miraculous life. They were initially made by mirauclous users and those who knew of them and started out with good intentions of keeping track of miraculi and securing that they went into good hands as originally, miraculous came into people's hands at random or through inheritence. It started to fall from grace as humans become more controlling and started to see these miraculous as tools to serve them. Some made Orders to be clan exclusive, some wanted to use them as a means to control governments from the shadows, some to push their religion and crusades, and some wanted to keep them to themselves exclusively. There were even secret wars fought to decide on what miraculous belongs with who or where in the world. Guardians are also the ones who will group miraculi together into themes, from elements to zodiacs to ect. This desire to group them up led to some of these wars as they wanted specific animals there.
Guardians also wanted more obedience like the djinns and figured out how to tweak miraculous to get kwamsi to be more serviceable to the wearer. Thankfully, the magic of the Creators was strong enough that kwamis didn't have to be fully obedient to their wearers and can still pick what information or powers to share.
Kwami views on the Orders vary, though all agree that they don't care for where it went. Some still think its a good idea but needs changes that incorporates them more while others don't want them to exist anymore and go back to the old ways of getting around, through being carried and picked up by people. Even more so that thanks to the Order, kwamis can't entirely do other things as they used to.
Pollen can't drift around in the world and help plants grow with her mere presence and offer guidance to those who have passed.
Plagg can't go out during the witching hour to hang out with lingering spirits and have fun with the magic that grows under the moonlight.
Duusu hasn't been able to go out and perform healing miracles as she used to, or help bring peace to someone's spirit/subconscious when they have bad dreams.
Orders have eventually fallen, either through their wars or outside forces. The few surviving even whisper the Catastrophe where its believed a kwami intentionally used their power to destroy an Order that they were at, rumored to be Camelot where Elder Merlin oversaw it. But there is no confirmation of this to be found.
Through the Orders and their multiple interactions with a variety of humans, kwami views on humans have come to vary. The majority like to keep an open mind and want to be on good terms with humans they come across, some have become skeptical and mistrustful of humans they come across, and some are a mixture, giving humans a wary eye as they're secretly evaluated. Kwmai interactions with humans vary as well. Some will be very upfront with humans and engaging or detached, others will be misleading and manipulative. While they were made to be advisers, guides, and protectors of humanity, as its not a Law to obey to embrace all of humanity, kwami relations with a human will vary. Some will treat the bind as a business and formality, and some want to be engaging as a mentor, guide, or friend. And some want to string humans along and play them like puppets, especially if they don't like the human they're with or find that they're easily led and will guide the human along to grow. At the core, all kwamis stand for the greater good of all though some can have a grey morality and a wary/dark view on humans.
Certain humans though do have a certain "pull" that will draw kwamis towards them. Most humans draw in one or a very small few. There are cases where a human is able to match with many. Guardians typically find that this is only one human that comes to exist at a time. Depending on where, thus human is referred to as the avatar, the chosen one, or the prodigy. They unique draw in and work with a wide variety of kwamis, and many can't help but connect with these individuals. Some Guardians even believe that this is one of the Creators reborn, going though a cycle of rebirth to secure that they will always be there for their creations. Guardians are always on the look out for this individual as they'd prefer to raise/influence them.
In instances where more than one kwami, is drawn to a human, it varies on how the kwamis respond. Some don't mind sharing, some it depends on who the other kwami is, and some don't like sharing at all.
On matters of romance, all kwamis are aroace and they all have their own views on love. Some don't get it and aren't interested, some view it as a form of entertainment and like to watch the drama unfold, and some want to genuinely help humans find happiness and work off what they've observed with previous users to offer advise on matters.
#ask Punchie#long post#miraculous lore#miraculous headcanons#Punchie writes#lore dump#kwami lore#a lot of this can end up changed to#just knowing me anyway
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What if it were only possible to acquire a limited number of morphs?
Oh man, a handful of thoughts on how that would work:
Everyone should specialize even more than they do in canon. Like, assuming they get 10 morphs apiece (because why not), then they should alternate who gets any new morph they need to use. Ideally this would be in teams of two, because lbr Jake would never send anyone out alone if he could help it. So the team would have two eel-morphers, two bat-morphers, and so on.
That would also mean that many missions would, by necessity, be a lot smaller. It’d be super-dangerous to have just two people pull some of the hijinks that the kids do, but there are some circumstances where it’d be impossible to help out without the right morph. So kind of like we see in AniTV, there would probably be a lot of episodes with just two or four of the kids running around doing stuff while the rest of the team stays home.
I think the best way to do it would be to specialize within types of morphs, the way that they do with their battle morphs and raptor morphs. So for instance, they could each have one bug, and that’d include one fly, one flea, one spider, one dragonfly, and maybe one ant or termite if they didn’t figure out in time that hive insects are a Bad Idea. They’d also each have one “big swimmy thing” morph: Cassie could have humpback whale, Ax could have tiger shark, and then the other four would divide up orca, hammerhead, dolphin, and giant squid. Maybe they’d also each have one small mammal — shrew for Rachel, chipmunk for Cassie, rabbit for Tobias, raccoon for Ax, squirrel for Marco, and lizard [not a mammal but you get the idea] for Jake. Another important subcategory might be the “looks harmless but isn’t” one, such as Cassie’s wolf (can pass for a dog), Rachel’s house cat (much tougher than it appears), everyone’s skunk (duh), Ax’s rattlesnake (which andalites at least mistake for being harmless), and other “cute but deadly” morphs.
However, I also think there are a few morphs so fundamentally useful that the team would all end up acquiring them. First on that list would be seagull. Tobias might talk shit about gulls, but they’re ubiquitous and thus uninteresting (at least in a So Cal beach town, apparently) and have the best combination of flight, stealth, swimming ability, agility, and versatility of any morph the kids use. Second would probably be cockroach. That “nigh unkillable” power proves to be quite something in the later books, as does the relative sophistication of roach senses. Unromantic animal shapes, to be sure, but ones that prove to be useful in over a dozen missions apiece. Third on the “most useful” list would almost certainly be hork-bajir shape, given how often the kids use it to get into yeerk-owned spaces and the extent to which it becomes a secondary battle morph for all of them but especially Tobias.
So I think the final list would be, with some approximation:
Ax:
Human
Tiger shark
Northern harrier
Housefly
Rattlesnake
Raccoon
Seagull
Cockroach
Hork-bajir
Eel
Jake:
Tiger
Orca
Peregrine falcon
Flea
Dog
Lizard
Seagull
Cockroach
Hork-bajir
Bat
Cassie:
Wolf
Humpback whale
Osprey
Ant [so many regrets]
Chipmunk
Horse
Seagull
Cockroach
Hork-bajir
Eel
Marco:
Gorilla
Hammerhead shark
Owl [no point in having two ospreys]
Wolf spider
Squirrel
Skunk
Seagull
Cockroach
Hork-bajir
Chimpanzee
Tobias:
Human
Giant squid
Duck [assuming red-tail isn’t one of his 10?]
Mosquito
Housecat
Rabbit
Seagull
Cockroach
Hork-bajir
Bat
Rachel:
Elephant
Dolphin
Bald eagle
Termite [So. Many. Regrets.]
Housecat
Shrew
Seagull
Cockroach
Hork-bajir
Chimpanzee
#animorphs#animorphs meta#PLEASE REBLOG AND DISAGREE WITH ME#I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR Y'ALL'S THOUGHTS#morphing#morphs#anonymous#asks#Jake Berenson#Rachel Berenson#Ax#Aximili#Marco Animorphs#Cassie Animorphs#Tobias Fangor
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Steel Ball Roommates
Episode Three: Surprise Birthday
Diego didn’t have much planned for his birthday as he didn’t often celebrate it. But Gyro, Johnny and Hot Pants have other ideas.
Author’s note: Please, thank @ymisiposts for, again, coming up with such an amazing and wholesome idea for this series. Please enjoy.
***
Shutting the car door behind him, Diego locked the vehicle and made his way to the front door. Normally, he would have been home earlier but he wanted to treat himself to one of those muffins he really liked and so took a detour to the shop.
He unlocked the door and entered only to be greeted by pitch darkness. No lights were on at all. No sounds could be heard. All this setting Diego’s nerves on edge, he slowly reached for the broom that stood by the door from when Johnny forgot to put it away. As quietly as possible, Diego closed the door and gripped the broom, raising it and ready to strike at anything that could lunge out of the darkness at him.
His footsteps were slow and silent, cyan blue eyes scanning the darkness for any movement that could indicate a threat. Where was everyone? It wasn’t that late. Had they gone out or something? As Diego rounded the corner into what should be the living room, a sudden movement in front of him caught his attention and he struck. The broom came swinging down repeatedly at the thing, ignoring the sounds it was making.
Suddenly, the lights flicked on, blinding Diego for a split moment to reveal Johnny and Hot Pants standing in the living room with party hats on, the living room decorated in brightly coloured banners that had “Happy Birthday” written on them. Multicoloured balloons scattered the floor and a small pile of presents sat on the couch. The blonde looked down to see Gyro on the floor with the broom pressed against his face, a party hat also on his head -though his was crumpled from the beating from the broom.
“I don’t think Diego likes surprises, Johnny.” Gyro said, pushing the broom from his face and sitting upright. Diego narrowed his eyes at the Italian, feeling no shred of guilt for hitting him with the broom.
“What the Hell is all this for?” he asked, motioning to everything around the living room. Johnny took a step forward.
“We wanted to throw you a surprise party since it’s your birthday.” Johnny motioned to the banner as if to prove his point. Diego gave them a confused look, he didn’t remember telling them when his birthday was. Did he?
“How did you find out when it was? I never told you.” Hot Pants rose her hand at that,
“I found it out.” Diego wasn’t going to even ask how she did. Hot Pants seemed to be able to know everything about everyone, and that did kinda scare the guys but they decided not to question it. Gyro rose to his feet, dusting himself off before fixing his party hat and turning to the blonde.
“Well, come on, birthday boy.” Diego only blinked. Throughout his entire life, he has never had a birthday like this before. Most of the time, his mother -before she passed away- would scrape together what little money they had and buy a small cake for him and a present or two, if she could. There were never any brightly colour banners or piles of presents; just him and her. And he never once complained because he didn’t need to. He enjoyed those birthdays because he spent time with his mother.
Now that she was gone, it appeared that they tried to fill that void. Diego, under normal circumstances, would never allow something else to try and take his mother’s place but they weren’t. They were just being his friends and that was enough for him.
Diego was led across the room towards the presents, mentally counting how many there were. When did they have time to buy these for him? It, though he would never admit it, warmed his heart a little to think that they did all this for him. The first present he reached for was an oddly shaped thing, making it more difficult to figure out what it was. The tag hanging from it read: To Dino-Boy, Saw this and thought of you, Gyro.
Oh God, what was it? Some kind of gag-gift? Rolling his cyan eyes, Diego began to pull at the wrapping and was shocked to see that the gift was a stuffed toy dinosaur. A raptor of sorts by the design. Diego looked over at Gyro who smirked at him,
“Hey, I was only thinking of you.” The Italian chuckled at the look on Diego’s face. The second he saw that plush in the shop, Gyro knew it was perfect for Diego with his love for dinosaurs. It was either the stuffed toy or a shirt that had a stupid dinosaur joke on it, and Diego had enough of them as it was.
“WAIT!” Everyone froze at Gyro’s sudden shout. The Italian darted off somewhere, leaving the three alone for a moment. The blonde looked between Johnny and Hot Pants,
“What was that about?” he asked, his eyes lingering where Gyro disappeared off to, the raptor plush still in his hands. Neither of the two gave him an answer as this surprised them as well. Seconds later, Gyro returned, holding something behind his back and making Diego narrow his eyes in suspicion. If he dares tries to pull some kind of party prank, he was going to kill him.
Quickly, Gyro rushed over to Diego and slammed something on his head and jumped back before Diego could lash at him. Upon Diego’s head was a comedic birthday hat that looked like a cake with candles, earning a laughter from all three of the others, including Hot Pants -who rarely even cracked a smile.
Diego only growled lightly, ripping the silly hat from his head, “No hat.” he dropped the hat on the table and turned back to the pile of gifts, reaching for the next present.
After the presents had been opened, Hot Pants told everyone to gather in the dining room whilst she got the food sorted. Though no one was going to admit it, they could see the smile that rested on Diego’s lips when he was going through the presents, surprised to see things that he had eyed but never bought for himself due to not having the money.
Such as the dinosaur themed jumper he was now wearing. He had to admit, he was enjoying himself far more than he thought he would. Though, when the lights suddenly went out and a glow could be seen peeking around the doorway, everything seemed to freeze for him.
For a spilt of moment, he didn’t see Hot Pants holding the cake, he saw his mother. A warm smile on her lips that assured him that everything was alright, that smile that always made him feel so safe no matter what happened around them. The light from the candles sparkling in her cyan blue eyes that he inherited from her. They always held that hope that got them through each and every day, the hope that things will get better.
And they did. Diego grew up to become the “Prince of British Horse racing”. He had surpassed everything people told him he would be, that he would amount to nothing. He had friends who enjoyed his company despite his attitude.
He had everything his mother told him he would have.
“Come on, make a wish, Diego.” he heard her tell him. A warm smile lifted his lips at the memory before he took a breath and held it for a moment. His mind thought of his mother, and he wished that, wherever she was, that she was at peace.
Then he blew the candles out.
#gyro#gyro zeppeli#diego#diego brando#johnny#johnny joestar#hot pants#gyro steel ball run#diego steel ball run#johnny steel ball run#hot pants steel ball run#johnny joestar jojo#hot pants jojo#diego brando jojo#gyro zeppeli jojo#steel ball run#modern au#jojo#jojo part 7
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Their Hero Academia – Chapter 62: Final Exam Part 4: Short Essay
Presenting the next raw and unedited chapter of my on-going, next-gen, My Hero Academia fic, Their Hero Academia! Please note, this chapter may undergo more extensive editing before it gets posted to AO3/FF.net, as there’s a lot of fight scenes that may need clarity editing.
Earlier chapters can be found here
The last blast of her Jetpack brought Sora to the ground, where some of her classmates, including Toshi, were waiting. Ordinarily, she might remove her helmet in order to have a clearer conversation or to wipe the sweat from her brown, but with a potential sniper on the loose, it seemed an undue risk. Instead, she used her tongue to adjust the small straw on the helmet’s right cheek and sipped from the juice it offered.
Satisfied with that, she tapped the side of her helmet and activated the communicator. “This is Jet-Red,” she announced. “I spotted nothing on my sweep of the western sector and have returned to base camp.”
Her brother’s voice quickly followed. “Jet-Blue responding,” he said. “Eastern sector air sweep is complete. No sign of any additional civilians or the Villains. They appear to have gone to ground.”
“Slyde here, nothing on the ground sweep of the north sector either,” Haimawari reported. “Heading back home.”
“You’re listening to Channel Stick ‘Em Up,” came Sero’s voice. “Nothing on my aerial view either. Where the hell are they? I didn’t expect to be playing Hide the Villain today. Totally unfair! Midoriya, I thought you said they were coming for us!”
Kirishima-Bakugo’s voice cut in. She was up on the roof of the civilian defense shelter with Kaminari, Aoyama, Izumi, and Shinso. Their ranged fighters, who could rain firepower down on any attackers or more easily shoot Raptor out of the air if it came to it. “Cut the chatter, you damn sorry excuse for a tape dispenser!”
“Okay,” Toshi said, his communicator filled with static. She’d done what she could to repair it, but it had gotten very damaged when he’d smacked into the building. Hopefully, her patch job would hold. “When you guys get back, we’ll brainstorm a new plan. With Shadow-Thief, they could be anywhere.”
As he clicked off the communicator, Toshi let out a sigh. “So much for that plan.” He was discouraged, she could tell. It had been nearly thirty minutes since they had regrouped and he had dispatched the speedier and more mobile members of the class to look for where the Villains might be coming from and they had nothing to show for it.
So many times, she and her classmates looked to him for direction. They always had. Toshi had always been the one looking out for all of them, even when they were small, making sure everyone was getting along, making sure everyone’s needs were met. With the fate of everyone’s passing being tied to this exam, it was little wonder he seemed to be feeling that even more strongly.
“When one hypothesis fails,” she said, “you must select another.” Slightly cautiously, she put her hands on his shoulders. He didn’t flinch away from the contact, which was good. Since they had last talked about it, he had been getting better about not being as anxious when they touched. “We believe in you, Toshi. And we will figure this out.”
Toshi nodded. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Sora.”
“Of course,” she said. “One of the requirements of being your girlfriend is supporting you in your endeavors.” She’d been reading excessively on “how to be a good girlfriend” on the internet. Much of the advice was contradictory and confusing, but she was attempting to sort through it all. If need be, there were more experienced sources of advice within the class as well. “Also, I am as invested in our success as a class as anyone.”
Above, she could hear Shinso’s sonar scream, sent out at regular intervals per Toshi’s directions, sweeping in a wide arc from west to east. The noise would probably let any Villains know they were being watched, but it was better than being caught completely unawares.
“I think I saw something this time!” Shinso reported. “Just a blip though. Like when Shadow-Thief was doing her shadow thing! Big group though… I think she’s moving all of them!”
“It looks like your hypothesis was correct after all,” Sora told Toshi. “Your time scale was merely inaccurate.”
Time scale… time scale… That had to be important…
Oh no.
Sora looked up and tracked the position of the sun in the sky, relative to where it had been early. Her eyes darted to the buildings across the street, where long shadows were starting to draw. Of course. The Villains had waited until they had opportunity to use the shadows to their advantage.
“Aoyama!” she shouted. “We need as much light as you can muster! Across the street! Now!”
But it was too late. The shadows across the street rippled as four figures began to rise out of it. The same Villains Shinso had identified before. Jawbreaker. Raptor. Kamuy. Shadow-Thief.
There was no time. The Villains were here.
“Okay, everybody!” Toshi called out. “Just like we planned it! Let’s take these guys down!”
***
Shinso, Todoroki, Aoyama, Kaminari, and Kirishima-Bakugo were still on the roof, ready to rain their firepower down from above. Tensei Iida, Sero, and Haimawari were still out in the field, heading back to the basecamp. On the ground, that left Midoriya, Sora Iida, Koda, Sato, Ojiro, Mineta, Tokoyami, and Daisuke. He’d been tense, waiting for the moment when the Villains appeared. He was strong, he knew. He was no Deku, of course, but still powerfully built. In training, he was used to be being able to take care of most simulated opponents with just a few blows.
Strength was hardly everything. It was why he trained his reflexes and his senses to their utmost and why he tried to maximize the range and mobility his Extendo-Arms offered him. He doubted that he would ever be a particularly highly ranked Hero, he shied away from the spotlight too much for that without factoring in anything else, but he was determined to be an effective one.
But for the first time, when fighting that Kamuy woman, his strength had been useless. Worse than useless, it had been turned against him. She’d thrown all the strength of his punches right back at him. Not a feeling he relished, nor one he hoped to experience again.
There was barely a moment between the Villains appearing, Midoriya’s direction, and the move by both sides to attack. A barrage of ranged attacks flew forth first: focused laser beams from Aoyama, explosive-infused disks from Kirishima-Bakugo, electrical blasts from Kaminari, waves of sonic-force from Shinso, and gouts of flame from Todoroki. They had the desired effect and the Villains scattered, with Raptor taking to the air on a giant gust of wind, Kamuy going right, and Jawbreaker going left. Shadow-Thief vanished back into the shadows… something that probably wasn’t going to be good.
He saw Sora Iida jetting into the air to fight Raptor, with Tokoyami dispatching Frog-Shadow to fight alongside her. He saw Mineta firing those sticky balls from her horns, trying to tag Kamuy. And before him, he saw Jawbreaker.
The Villain was more massive than Midoriya had described him, now made of both stone and metal, blending unevenly across his form. Daisuke glanced briefly to his right and saw Midoriya, then nodded.
Daisuke was too tall to go low, but he darted this way and that, dodging out of the way of Jawbreaker’s fists. Even weighed down with the extra mass, the big Villain was fast. He swung his second set of arms high and his third set of arms low and extended them out as fast as he could, smacking the Villain with a series of rapid-fire blows. Again and again, like pistons, he fired his four fists out, smacking hard against metal and rock.
“Argh!” He let out a cry of pain as his fists bounced uselessly against the Villain’s hide, not even denting the metal or cracking the rock.
“Was that supposed to hurt?” Jawbreaker taunted. He launched a powerful blow, but Daisuke got all three of his right side-arms in place to block it. That blow hurt too, but not as bad as it would have if he’d taken it full on. He held his ground at least.
“Would have been nice if it had,” he said. “But I’m just the distraction.”
Midoriya’s gravity enhanced fist smashed into the side of Jawbreaker’s head, sending him flying. Daisuke would be lying if he said he didn’t envy the gravity-backed powers Midoriya could put behind his blows. They made his best triple-haymaker look like a love tap. Jawbreaker skipped like a stone across the street for a moment, before digging in his fingers to stop himself. When he was stable, he jaw opened wide and he took a huge bite out of the street, his scoop like jaw shoveling in cement. As he did, he got bigger still, patches of cement spreading across his body.
Midoriya gave him a concerned look. “You up for hitting him some more? We’ve got to get him closer to our ranged attackers.”
Daisuke shrugged. He was definitely going to have sore knuckles after this. “Might as well…”
***
Mika let out a whoop as her sticky balls successfully pinned Kamuy’s feet to the ground. “In your face, giant lady!” she taunted, making a face. The massive woman was struggling to free her feet, shooting daggers in her direction.
“Ah, maybe don’t taunt the giant woman, Mineta?” Sato suggested.
“Definitely not a good idea,” Ojiro agreed.
There was a non-zero chance they were right. At the end of the day, her balls were very sticky, but they weren’t the universal sealant. On the other hand, seeing the woman fume was so much fun!
“When I get out of here,” Kamuy growled, “I am going to send you to the glue-factory, horse girl!”
“Oh, whatever,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. “And I keep telling people, I’m a cow, now a horse!”
She pointed to Kamuy, turning her head to their snipers. “Todoroki! How about you show her how to chill?”
Above, Todoroki pointed and ice began to form around Kamuy. Mika wasn’t exactly sure on what her range was, but whatever it was, it was good. Being able to draw in heat and form ice just by pointing was a damn useful talent.
“Dammit,” Kamuy said. “Didn’t want to do this this early… Going to make you regret it, kid.” She seemed to shimmer for a second, then slammed a fist into the ground. The resultant shockwave rippled outward, blowing Mika, Ojiro, and Sato off their feet, and shattering both the her balls and Todoroki’s ice.
When Mika’s head stopped spinning, she could see Kamuy approaching her. She looked noticeably smaller, though still just as tall and still built like a truck. But noticeably less bulky all the same. She’d probably had to expend a lot of power to do that shockwave then.
Shinso had been surprisingly light on the details of Kamuy’s Quirk. She’d apparently only had a handful of public conflicts with Heroes before being imprisoned. But if they could get her to keep expending energy, maybe she’d run out?
She tried to prop herself up, but Kamuy was faster. The giant woman lifted her by her neck, squeezing just enough to hurt, but not so bad that she couldn’t breathe. Obviously, these guys weren’t allowed to kill them. No matter how much Aizawa had threatened to kick all their asses over the course of the term.
“No smartass remarks now, huh?” Kamuy asked, holding her at eye level. “You got me a little mad, but when I get mad, things get broken.” She raised Mika up a little higher, ready to give her a toss. “This is your last roundup, Hero.”
If she wasn’t about to get slammed into the pavement, Mika would really have appreciated the taunt. As far as those went, it was a good one. She kicked, ineffectively, slamming her hooves into Kamuy’s stomach. Of course, with her Quirk, it wasn’t doing much.
“You know,” Mika grunted, “you’re forgetting something…”
“Am I?” Kamuy’s lips pulled back in a sneer. “What’s that?”
“This close, I don’t gotta aim my balls. What goes up… comes down!”
She fired off a ball from her left horn and jerked her own head back. It didn’t go far, but it did distract Kamuy enough to look up. The ball smacked her right in the face. It wasn’t a big one, barely the size of a softball, but it did cover one eye and hit her with a pretty solid plop! The shock made her release Mika, who fell to the ground on her butt in an undignified heap.
Which was when Ojiro struck. Or at least, that’s what Mika assumed happened. Something struck Kamuy’s legs anyway, causing her to topple over backwards into a hole that definitely wasn’t there before.
“…What?”
“Sorry,” Sato said, suddenly at her side and offering her a hand up. She noticed he had some dirt on his face around his lips. The hole had to be his doing then. Beside him, Ojiro came back into view. “Didn’t mean for that to take so long.”
“Had to wait for a moment where we could actually do something,” Ojiro said. “Even if she didn’t see me, not much I could do unless she was off-balance.”
Mika waved it off. “Nah, you guys did good.”
Unfortunately, all it had bought them was a brief respite. Kamuy jumped out of the hole, landing with a solid thump.
She cracked her knuckles noisily. “You little Heroes used up your shot. Now it’s my turn.”
***
In the time between Tensei’s communication with the others and his arrival back at the civilian defense shelter, the scene had become a warzone. Below, he could see Shoji and Toshi fighting with Jawbreaker, with even Toshi’s gravity backed ricochet blows having little effect on the massive Villain. Haimawari arrived on the ground moments later, peppering Jawbreaker with his blasts, but he succeeded in only distracting him long enough to buy Toshi and Shoji a moment.
Also on the ground, Mineta, Sato, and Ojiro were dodging out of the way of Kamuy, mostly looking like they were trying to avoid giving her any additional power. Based upon his observation, she had decreased in overall mass by at least fifteen percent since his previous encounter with her. Tensei winced as Sato narrowly avoided another of the woman’s blows, but let out a sigh of relief as Takuma finally arrived on the scene, temporarily restraining Kamuy with his tape.
And in the air… Raptor was putting up a valiant fight against his sister and Tokoyami’s Frog-Shadow. According to both Shinso and Takuma, the winged Villain could not actually “fly” like winged Heroes like Hawks or Kestrel, instead relying on his ability to generate powerful winds to keep himself aloft. It required a continuous expenditure and forced him to keep himself in motion, much like his and his sister’s Jetpack Quirks.
But Raptor’s wind blasts were enough to keep both of his attacks from reaching him. Tensei poured on his speed as he watched his sister fire the capture rope built into her gauntlet, but it too was buffeted by the winds and fell back harmlessly.
Fortunately, Raptor did not see him. With one final burst of speed, he came up on the Villain and swung out a fist for a high speed punch. It connected with a solid clang of armored fist on flesh, sending Raptor tumbling out of the air.
“Good to see you are safe, Little Brother!” Sora said, as they both jetted after the Villain, who was flapping his wings and calling up a gale to right himself.
“As I must remind you, I am a statistically insignificant amount of time younger than you!” he snapped back. “That appellation is highly inappropriate!”
“Hey, argue later!” Frog-Shadow shouted after them, being recalled by Tokoyami. “Sheesh, when I’m being the sensible one…”
A sharp blade of wind split the air between them, forcing both Tensei and his sister into evasive maneuvers. The familiar was right. It was hardly the time for arguments. Instead, it was time for…
Tensei turned his head slightly to look at his sister, who, seeming to have sensed his intent, was now looking at him. “Double Rocket Attack?” he asked.
“Double Rocket Attack!” Sora confirmed, confidently.
Both adjusted their flight paths so they were facing each other, then linked hands and fired an extra boost of speed through their Jetpacks. It sent them spinning and both stretched their legs out as far as they would go. Spinning around and around, Tensei’s legs smacked hard into Raptor, followed immediately by Sora’s, again and again.
“And make way for me!” Frog-Shadow shouted. Tensei and Sora backed off as, at what appeared to be Tokoyami’s direction, Frog-Shadow-swooped in and rushed Raptor, slamming into his mid-section, her arms and hands extending to grab his wings. Pinned, he seemed helpless as he slammed into the ground not far from Tokoyami.
Tensei touched down, Sora right behind him. “Is he subdued?” he asked.
“I am afraid not,” Tokoyami replied. “He is… struggling still.”
She was right. Frog-Shadow was strong, of course, but Raptor seemed to be a rather powerful Villain as well. And while she had pinned his wings enough to prevent them from use in flight, she could not grasp every feather… The tips of his wings snapped forward, hitting Frog-Shadow with focused and sharp blades of wind. The familiar let out a cry of alarm and pain one echoed by Tokoyami, and snapped back, allowing him to rise again. Raptor got back on his feet in an instant, wings spreading out behind him for another attack. They snapped forward, shooting out another blade of air. But it sailed over their heads.
“Ha!” Sora taunted. “You missed, Villain!”
Raptor simply sneered. “Did I?”
Tensei turned to look behind them, just in time to watch the wave of pressurized air slam into the roof of the civilian defense shelter, sending their classmates tumbling over the edge!
***
Koharu let out a sharp gasp as the members of Class 1-A who were on the roof were sent tumbling over the edge by the wind blast from Raptor. The girl with the white and red hair—Todoroki, she remembered now—reacted quickly though, forming an ice slide that brought them down to the ground chillily and probably uncomfortably, but all in one piece. The explosive girl, Kirishima-Bakugo, checked on Todoroki to make sure she was okay, but Todoroki pointed towards the fight. With that, the students who had been on the roof joined the fight proper.
“Still waiting on that answer, Kocho,” Aizawa said. “What would you do against these Villains?”
“Give the girl a break, Aizawa,” All Might said. “She wasn’t expecting to get challenged like that.”
“Heroes have to think on their feet,” Aizawa said. “If she can’t do that, she’s got no business joining my class.”
“She’s in the room, you two,” Vice-Principal Midnight reminded them.
“It’s, it’s okay,” Koharu said. “It’s a fair question.” On the screens, she watched as Kirishima-Bakugo hit Jawbreaker with a series of explosive-backed punches, giving Midoriya, Haimawari, and Shoji a brief respite. Even as he swatted her away, Shinso hit the Villain with a sonic blast of force.
“That the best you can do, kid?” Jawbreaker taunted, looming large over the small boy, who suddenly seemed even smaller in the moment. “You giving me the kid’s gloves treatment?”
There was a stillness in the room, a baited breath that told her this was a very important moment, even if she didn’t understand the context.
“Not… even… CLOSE!” Shinso made the word itself into a scream, hitting Jawbreaker with a much more powerful blast that knocked the Villain across the street.
“I knew he still had it in him!” Aizawa said, very nearly rising from his seat. Was he… proud? What was the story there? All Might and Midnight were much less restrained, letting out louder cheers.
“Ahem,” Aizawa said. “Back to the question.”
“Er, yes, sir,” Koharu said. “Jawbreaker… He’s got to see, right? So I’d probably try to blind him with my String Shot. I’m not strong enough to hurt him and he doesn’t look like he breathes, so I couldn’t use any of my scale powders, like my paralysis agent or my poison, so… I might be able to restrain him or at least keep him busy until somebody with a different Quirk comes along.”
Aizawa did not give her any indication as to whether or not that was the correct answer.
On the screens, the fights went on. Sero and Mineta combined their sticky Quirks to restrain Kamuy, setting up Kaminari and Todoroki to join the fight. Todoroki flicked a hand, sending out a wave of ice that covered her legs and temporarily immobilizing her, while Kaminari unleashed an electrical blast from her gauntlets. Kamuy jerked under the attack for a moment, but then began to laugh.
“Oh, yeah!” she cackled. “That’s the stuff!” She was growing larger and more muscular, breaking out of the ice easily.
“Oh, no fair!” Mineta shouted, dodging out of the way of Kamuy’s blows. “She can absorb energy too?! I know Shinso didn’t say that!”
“In his defense,” Aizawa said, seeming to come to the boy’s defense, “it didn’t come up much. All of her recorded battles were with Heroes with more physical Quirks.”
Koharu winced at Kamuy tagged Mineta with a heavy punch. The horned girl went flying, went down, and did not get up. Sero wrapped a strip of tape around her arm, but she flicked her arm and pulled him to her instead, smashing her other fist into his face with enough force to crack his helmet and drop him instantly.
“Um,” she said, feeling slightly bad watching 1-A get beat up like that. “Kamuy absorbs physical attacks. So I wouldn’t want to engage directly. But my scales would probably work. Keep her distracted, keep her fighting and breathing hard, and I could paralyze her or put her to sleep.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option for the students fighting her. Powerful blows quickly took down Sato, the poor guy not getting a chance to do much now that she was powered up and enraged. Probably revenge for dropping the telephone pole on her. Kamuy turned her attention back to Kaminari and Todoroki, with Kaminari putting herself in front of the girl with the two-tone hair. Koharu watched as she plugged her Extension Cords into other parts of her uniform, opening panels that revealed lights and speakers. The resulting sound and light barrage stunned Kamuy for a moment, giving the girls a moment to retreat. In the resultant confusion, Koharu realized she’d lost track of Ojiro…
On another screen, the Heroes fighting Raptor were doing a little better than the rest. The glowing boy, Aoyama, had joined the Iida twins and Tokoyami, adding bolts of blinding light to the fight. With Raptor disoriented, the twins both jetted around him, firing some kind of capture line from their gauntlets, circling him several times to pin his wings. Tokoyami sent forth her frog thing again, and this time it let Raptor have it with a one-two punch that sent his head spinning, knocking the winged man down and out.
“And him,” Koharu said, “I’d probably end up fighting in the air, which isn’t great, even if I can actually fly and he’s just blasting himself around. Because those winds could send anything I send at him back or somewhere else. I’m immune to my own scales, but other people wouldn’t be. Too risky. He’s tough… but I might have to risk trying to out-fly-fight him. He doesn’t look like he’s meant for fighting someone who can stay up in the air with him.”
“Good answers!” All Might told her. The compliment made her smile. “Two out of five down. Think they can pull it off?”
***
Kimiko was about to do something incredibly stupid. But Mineta and Kenta were down and nothing Todoroki or Kaminari were throwing at Kamuy was going anything to slow her down for more than a moment. Plus, there was the whole absorbing energy thing to deal with, which nullified Kaminari’s best attacks.
She’d gone invisible as soon as the woman had started swinging. It had kept her safe, but it wasn’t doing anybody else any good. Kimiko considered herself pretty good in a fight and she was a master of hitting things (as Kenta and Takuma could tell you), but against Kamuy…
Todoroki unleashed a blast of flame and that was what finally made Kamuy falter, dodging out of the way of the fire. Fire wasn’t really energy like Kaminari’s electricity was, so maybe she couldn’t absorb that? Over her shoulder, she could see the group that had been fighting Raptor rushing to join the last two ongoing fights. The Twins were jetting off to help Midoriya’s group, while Aoyama and Tokoyami were coming Kamuy’s direction.
Either way, she had an opening. It was time to do something stupid. Keeping herself invisible and silent, she took a running jump and landed on Kamuy’s back.
“What the hell?” Kamuy shouted, trying to reach back to dislodge her. But as muscular as she was, she didn’t have the flexibility to dislodge her, especially since she couldn’t see her. Her legs wrapped around Kamuy’s middle, Kimiko reached up and put her hands on Kamuy’s face and extended her Quirk. Normally, when she extended her Quirk over someone else, if she did it right, she could allow them to continue to see, even though light was no longer reaching their eyes. Some kind of layering thing, Doctor Izumi had said, where she wasn’t stopping all of it, just some of it.
But if she pushed it just right…
She couldn’t see it, but she could only imagine the horror show that was Kamuy’s eyes disappearing from her face. “I can’t see!” Kamuy screamed, thrashing this way and that to try shake Kimiko off, but she’d learned more than a few things from her dad about clinging like a monkey. “Gonna kill you, brat…!”
“Hit her now, guys!” Kimiko yelled. “Hit her now!”
“But, I can’t…” Kaminari started.
“It would not be safe…” Todoroki added.
Right. Dammit. Kaminari’s electricity and Todoroki’s fire would probably hurt her too. Her best idea yet in this fight and she hadn’t thought it all the way through!
“Then leave it to moi!” Aoyama called out. She could hear a faint sound, growing louder, a high pitched whine as he powered up his light to intense levels. “Blinding Dazzle Beam!” Focused on Kamuy, Kimiko couldn’t see him from her perch, but she could hear the sound of a powerful laser firing.
Tokokyami’s voice joined in. “Verdant Cross-Slash!”
“Here I go!”
Kimiko jumped off just in time to see the combination of Aoyama’s laser and Tokoyami’s Frog-Shadow strike Kamuy, taking the big woman completely off guard and knocking her down.
“All right!” Kaminari shouted, doing what Kimiko hoped was supposed to be a victory dance. “Go team! Take that, scary giant lady!”
“Um, Chihiro…” Todoroki began, looking behind Kaminari.
“Not now, Izumi, I’m doing my victory dance!”
“I really think you should listen,” Tokoyami said.
“And look behind you,” Aoyama added.
“And please stop dancing,” Kimiko said. “It’s just embarrassing. And really not the time…!”
“Okay, I don’t know what I’m expecting to see, but I’m going to turn around and… aw, dammit!”
Kamuy was getting right back up. She was steaming and shrinking a little, maybe using some of what she’d absorbed to keep herself going… but she was far from down. The giant woman clapped her hands together faster than the eye could follow, unleashing a massive shockwave.
Kimiko only had time to scream before everything went dark.
#their hero academia#my hero academia#fan fiction#fan fic#my writing#kimiko ojiro#daisuke shoji#tensei iida (THA)#sora iida#Koharu Kocho#shouta aizawa
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The Hunter part 2 - Our Guilt
The continuation of the self indulgent Catralonnie nonsense
This time with 100% more homoerotic sparring matches
The information they got wasn’t complete. They knew now that Prime’s ship had landed in the middle of a canyon in the Wastes; the awkward forced landing nearly completely covered the area in rocks and dirt and kept the ship hidden from scavengers for years. One of the gangs had recently uncovered it and planned to use the weapons there to get back at the kingdoms that rejected them.
Catra recognized that sentiment. She had felt the same way about Adora, Shadow Weaver, the whole world, even. Back then she would’ve grinded the entire world into dust to fill the hole in her heart. She was different now, and she would not let so many lives be destroyed with that same foolish anger.
They still didn’t know where the ship fell exactly, or where the super weapon would be pointed, or even which of the many gangs was responsible, so they still had a fair share of investigations ahead of them. And that is why they were taking a little trip through the Valley of the Lost hoping Lonnie’s contacts knew something they didn’t.
No, they were the Hunter’s contacts and Catra was travelling with the Hunter now, not Lonnie. They had put their helmet back on and it was back to having the quiet, professional, and constantly grumpy Hunter. Thinking about it now, Catra was kinda surprised it took her a whole day to figure out who they were.
Her companion guided her through shady streets and even shadier alleys, until they found themselves in some abandoned storage facility...or just a shack full of shit, both options were equally plausible.
“You wait outside.” They commanded. Catra opened her mouth to protest, but was promptly interrupted. “He’ll only talk to me. You wait outside.”
Catra sighed and once more waited while her companion did the talking. Part of her wanted them to get this over with quickly so they could get on their way already. The other part wanted it to go about as well as it did last time so she had something to do.
Luckily the former part of her got what it wanted and after a few minutes the Hunter returned, giving her a nod that Catra understood as ‘mission accomplished’. Unluckily, the second half also got what it wanted for as soon as they stepped into the main street they were surrounded by armed thugs. Armed thugs with sleeveless leather jackets and whips. Great.
“Shouldn’t you shit heads be helping with Fright Zone reconstructions?” Catra called out, her hand slowly reaching for her whip.
“You got the wrong gang, girl.” A goat man answered, sounding way too confident for someone who was about to have some broken bones. “We don’t work with those traitors and we sure as hell don’t work for you!”
“So are those the ones we’re looking for?” Catra casually asked the Hunter, completely ignoring the over confident fool.
“Yes.” They answered, hand moving for their spear.
Once more they found themselves in that familiar position of fighting back to back. It made sense now that she would feel this kind of familiarity with someone she had sparred with so many times, but for some reason knowing that it was Lonnie inside of that armor made these moments a lot more strange for Catra.
Lonnie understood her, in some bizarre way. This woman who she barely talked to outside the necessary, who made Catra suffer and was made to suffer by Catra’s hands, who hated her and had every right to. Somehow this woman got her more than anyone back at Brightmoon. More than Adora ever did.
“Do all your hunts end up like this?” Catra asked, trying to distract herself from the turmoil that always came over her when she thought of Adora.
“Not until you came along.” They complained, putting their spear away and turning to face Catra.
“Are you seriously blaming me for this?” Catra asked, incredulous “They all attacked you!”
“I am blaming you, because you are the one getting all the unwanted attention.” Lonnie argued, her voice growing louder as she nearly dropped the Hunter act.
“Says the woman wearing a whole tank worth of weapons.” Catra bit back, exhausted and stressed from the track in the desert, the stupid bandits who kept getting in the way and the unbearable silence that kept grinding at her sanity. At least shouting was better than quiet judging.
“I-” Lonnie began, but Catra would not let her finish.
“You hate me!” She loudly interrupted, “I get it. Join the fucking club!” Lonnie looked ready to strangle Catra, but before she got any chance another bandit rode past them on the back of a raptor. “You gonna shoot them?”
“We’re gonna follow them.” The Hunter answered, Lonnie’s burst of emotion once again replaced by cold professionalism. Catra let out a sigh of frustration and attempted to calm down.
“That thing is way faster than our cart.” Catra stated “A skiff would draw too much attention, so I say we cut the horses lose from the cart, grab as many supplies as we can carry and ride for the rest of the trip.”
“Sounds good.” The Hunter agreed with a nod.
It was mechanical and cold, in a way that Catra was starting to hate. She was this close to getting something out of Lonnie, even if that something was probably her right hook. Losing a few teeth was preferable to enduring the silent hatred from behind that awful helmet.
~~~
Their chase had been less a high speed chase and more a slightly hurried ride through the desert. The raptor couldn’t keep up its speed for much more than a few minutes, and as their mark slowed down so did they. They were careful to keep them just at the limit of what their binoculars could see so they wouldn’t draw their attention and raise suspicion.
“You gonna take that helmet off?” Catra asked, after a few hours in the desert. She refused to spend another minute alone with ‘The Hunter’.
“No.” The answer was quick and short, delivered with that insufferable voice distortion.
“I already know who you are,” Catra reminded her, “Why even keep it?”
“Why take it off?” Lonnie had to be fucking with Catra at this point.
“Because I wanna talk to you and not some mercenary weirdo.” Catra explained.
“I’m fine not talking.” Lonnie answer and Catra just wanted to jump her right now “And I’m not a mercenary.”
“Well I’m not fine with silence!” She complained, exasperated.
“You were before.” Lonnie retorted, now with even fewer words.
“Maybe because I didn’t know you were my lost childhood friend until last night.” Catra couldn’t believe she had to explain that “I thought you were dead!”
“We were never friends, Catra.” She answered. The words were accusatory, but her tone was tired and maybe even regretful. “You made that very clear.”
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t care when you just up and vanished!” Catra wanted Lonnie to open up a little, but Catra was the one leaving herself wide open. “Fuck, Lonnie. Rogelio and Kyle-”
“Are happily married and living a peaceful life somewhere else.” She interrupted.
“They were worried sick!” Catra argued back “And here you were, all this time, wearing a mask and pretending to be someone else so you could maybe get your shot at happiness, but guess what? You can never be happy by pretending! Believe me, I tried!” Catra only realized how much she had said once it already left her mouth.
Lonnie didn’t answer for a while, leaving Catra to regret every second of her emotional burst, but after a few moments and a heavy sigh Lonnie took off her helmet. She still didn’t say anything to Catra, but at least there was a human face next to her and not a cold mask.
Catra tried not to stare this time, but every time she turned to look at Lonnie she saw the woman’s face going through a journey far more intense than the one they were having. Frustrated, angry, regretful, tired, sad. Lonnie hadn’t had to suppress her own expressions in a long time and now without the helmet her emotions were exposed for the whole world to see.
“After this is done,” Lonnie finally spoke. It was nice to hear her real voice again. “Let Kyle and Rogelio know I’m fine and tell them I’m happy for them.”
“After this is done you could tell them yourself.” Catra offered, but it only earned her a glare. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
She opened her mouth to ask something, but Lonnie lifted her hand in a motion that said ‘halt’. They both stopped their mounts and brought up their binoculars. It seemed their mark’s ride decided that they had done enough running for a day and refused to move from that spot. The following display of hilarious incompetence from their target both amused and confused Catra. How did a bunch of bumbling fools manage to become such a threat to Etheria? Maybe they kept all the competent leaders at their homebase and use the rest as cannon fodder.
“Looks like they’re setting up camp.” Catra commented. It was getting pretty dark.
“Let’s do the same then.” Lonnie added, jumping off of her horse.
~~~
There was no fire tonight for either them nor did their target dare light one. It was a good thing Catra and Lonnie had spent most their lives eating cold and tasteless ration bars or this meal would’ve been dreadful. It still was, but at least they were used to it.
Catra passed her binoculars back to Lonnie as her turn on ‘idiot watch’ was over. She lazily rolled over and looked up at the stars that illuminated them, shining as bright as they had the day she escaped from Prime, expanding endlessly towards the horizon. If anything good ever came from the war, this view would be it.
“I was wondering something.” She mentioned lazily. “Why the whole ‘Hunter’ thing? Do you really need a secret identity?”
Lonnie didn’t answer for a while and Catra felt like she pried into something she shouldn’t.
“I wasn’t planning on it at first.” Lonnie explained. “I used the helmet for protection. Never understood why Rogelio insisted on fighting without it.” She shook her head and allowed a small smile at the memory. “I also never made a point of introducing myself before helping people, then one day someone called me The Hunter and I never bothered to correct them.”
“You could have said something back when we met.” Catra complained, but it was halfheartedly. More to poke fun at Lonnie than to really display displeasure.
“I said ‘Catra!’” She repeated in that same annoyed tone from before, earning a short laugh from Catra. “And ‘I hate you’. I was practically telling you my name.”
“You underestimate how many people still hate me.” Catra joked along. Lonnie chuckled at that. “I was worried it could’ve been Octavia under the mask the whole time.”
“Like Octavia ever fought that well.” Now they were both laughing. When did they get this friendly?
“Who said you fought well?” Catra teased. “If I recall correctly I was the one pinning you down.”
“That is because I was holding back on you!” Lonnie defended “Just because I wanted to work some tension out on your face doesn’t mean I wanted to kill you.”
“What? Did years in the desert give you She-ra powers or something?” Catra joked, turning around to see Lonnie detaching the chest plate from her armor. Inside there was a single First Ones relic connected to the exoskeleton she was wearing.
“Stole one of Hordak’s old models before leaving.” She explained “I could probably kick you all the way to their camp!” She gestured towards their target while looking smugly at Catra.
“Well, then take that off. We’re having a rematch.” Catra declared as she got up and began stretching.
“Excuse me?” Lonnie asked, surprised by Catra’s eagerness. “We have to keep an eye on them!”
“If they start running in the middle of the match we just catch up to them later.” Catra shrugged. “Not like it’s gonna take that long.” Catra offered her a challenging smile. “Afraid I’ll be the one on top again?” Lonnie smiled back.
“In your dreams, Catra.” She answered and began taking off her armor.
Several of Catra’s dreams had in fact started with Lonnie stripping off her armor and ended with Catra on top, but she was definitely not gonna mention that, so she settled with just waiting for her adversary to get ready with feign impatience.
The clothes Lonnie was wearing under the armor were simple and plain, offering a little extra comfort under the mountain of bulky metal she carried daily. She was definitely still wearing more under her armor than she did in those dreams.
Their sparring match was quick, but intense. Catra had speed on her side and was more than used to fighting stronger opponents, easily sidestepping and dodging anything Lonnie threw at her. Lonnie, on the other hand, had the stamina to keep fighting regardless of what Catra threw at her and enough strength in that right hook to keep Catra on her toes. They would both have to rely on wits to take the upper hand and that was something both women had quite a lot of.
In the end they were both laughing. They were tired, dirty and sweaty, but they were laughing. Even when Lonnie tackled her to the ground and pinned her in place Catra still smiled, not even defeat could take that from her.
“Told you I’d be on top.” Lonnie teased, with a smug smile on her face that was somehow brighter than any of the stars that framed her. “Do I win something?”
‘Me’ a part of Catra wanted to say. The same part that was now bombarding her with terrible ideas she would absolutely regret and questioned why her past self insisted on thinking about herself on top when this was clearly much more fun.
“Yeah,” Catra finally said, banishing any stray thoughts about Lonnie’s biceps. “You earned my silence. Congratulations, I’ll stop bothering you now.”
Lonnie looked disappointed, maybe even sad and Catra immediately regretted her decision. Lonnie pushed herself up and began putting on her armor again, making a clear effort to not look at Catra.
They both returned to their respective corners of the camp. Lonnie went back to watching over their target, and Catra accepted that she was gonna fall asleep full of regrets once again. But as she closed her eyes, she heard Lonnie’s voice.
“I think I’m gonna refuse that prize.”
And Catra fell asleep with a smile.
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Since you wanted to see it
Here are a few cringy old writing things I did years ago.
They are bellow the cut since they are long and I don’t want to take up your dash.
Yeah, they’re bad and I left out some of the worst fan-fiction stuff I did as an edgy teen. Maybe I’ll post those too...Maybe.
Title: Darkness
The world is a dark place
The human race is no longer interested in mere survival, they want to thrive and is not afraid to
destroy everything in their path
I’m only 15 but I feel like I may have more sense then any of the other humans
In this dark world money is everything, no one cares for anything other then money
Teachers don’t care about the kids only their paychecks, all the kids can’t wait to get a job and
to get money, everything revolves around money
I found that out
No one would know that I have a monster I hold at bay but before, when I was little, it was hard
not to let it out
I tried to lock it away and throw away the key but it got out
For a year it was no longer me, but the monster, it ruled
I was lost in the dark world, locked away all my cries for help where met with nothing
People looked down on me, seeing me as a threat
My life fell apart because of the monster
Then it went away, but it left my life in shattered
I knew that no one would answer my calls for help, so I stopped trying
Writing became my life, it helped keep the evil at bay
Still people saw me as a threat so I became a doormat, a pushover
Then I was seen a week, people could do anything and I would go along with everything they
said or did
I tried to fight it but every time I did the monster would return, I felt it’s claws tearing at my mind
It wanted me to surrender, and let it take over
I didn’t want to, I would ignore the pain and the teasing
Writing helped me hide from the dark world but I still knew the monster was waiting, the evil
would take over
One day it happened, I snapped everything crashed down and I was done
I stood up and became a threat again
The younger kids didn’t know anything they didn’t like that I was older, I knew more and could
show them the right path
So I didn’t, I fought everyone
The darkness got larger the more I fought
Then the water came, it washed my life away I was soon drowning in everything
So I did what I should have do in the beginning and became a nightmare around everyone but
those I trusted
But no one knew the pain the evil caused me, each day I woke up afraid it would take over and
leave me in that dark, again
To stop it I tried to be help full, I tried to help but everyone was too afraid
I hated help now, once asking for it in my own way I not despised it and wanted it to go away
I still hate to get help
To me help is a sign of weakness and surrender
I’m afraid
If I stop fighting
The darkness will come back
And everything I worked for would be destroyed
I can feel the evil coming
I know that monster is waiting
I don’t know how to end it
I don’t think I want to
Darkness is not that bad, it’s just scary and lonely so I create characters to join me
In my internal prison
In the darkness as a monster takes my life away and leaves me to clean up the mess
Title: Fight in the past to protect the future (Cut down, cause it was 14 or something pages long)
The new girl, Bella, looked around for a table, everyone had friends they hung out with, but her. She noticed a blue glow, turning her head she saw four boys grab a backpack and hurry out of the lunch room, curious about what they were going to do, she crept after them, unaware she was being followed
Rose tried not be seen. She had also seen the backpack and was following Bella without being seen but she had tripped over a pile of boxes and landed behind Bella.
Bella pushed Rose off her “Who are you?” She asked, trying to be quite “Did you see that backpack glow too?”
“Yes my name is Rose.”
“I’m Bella” Bella noticed something on the ground, she picked them up, they looked like tops, with dinosaur figures on top “These look cool, I wonder what they do” Bella held them out “Do you want the raptor or Tarbosaurus?”
“I want the raptor” Rose said
“Ok” Bella handed her the raptor, there was a sudden blue flash, that filled the entire room.
“What?” Rose said
Title: Into the darkness (I’m 90% sure this was from a dream)
Shadows hung over the ground, cast by the decaying trees, eyes flickered in the pale moon light, the blood red eyes searched for it’s prey. The eyes faded into nothingness, as a heart stopping shriek filled the air, it wasn’t the sound of an animal in pain but a creature howling in anger. Knife sharp claws scraped down a rotting tree, creating four deep gashes in the trunk.
A small bear cub wandered down the path, her black fur with stunning yellow eyes and spiraling suns that danced across her fur. She looked about, curious about this dark place, her fur seemed to shine like the sun, lighting her path. Blood red eyes watched her from the darkness as she wandered, blood stained fangs dripping with saliva as the creature watched the cub. It seemed to move swiftly, blending into the dark perfectly. The cub stopped suddenly, she glanced behind her the shadows seemed to move, no longer curious about the forest her yellow eyes widened in terror but it was too late and huge shadow rose up, blocking out the moon.
Before she could run, or scream the light radiating from her fur showed long, sharp claws just before the dug into her neck. Blood ran down the path, black and yellow fur mixed with it. The thick blood oozed down the path and pooled in a little puddle right under a sign that read
The Dark Forest
DO NOT ENTER
Young Flinch trotted under the stone arch, it was the gateway to her destination, a school on survival and learning how to control the unique power each predator is born with. Flinch was ten moons old, her family had sent her out on the long journey away from their small town to this school, she had been on the move for two weeks and was looking forwards to sleeping peacefully. Mud splattered her white fur, almost hiding the ice blue watermarks on her paws and shoulder, her water blue eyes danced from spot to spot in amazement, until this day she only had heard stories on this place and now she was standing in it. There was a tan watch tower on the hill, Flinch recognized the gleam of water at the base of the tower.
“Welcome to Frozen Ember” An elderly polar bear growled, welcome “I’m Lilly the head instructor”
“I’m Flinch” The wolf pup dipped her head “I’m glad to be here” A older wolf pup trotted up
“This is Lark, she will escort you to the den” Lilly nodded to the wolf, like Finch, Lark had
watermarks but they were a darker ocean colored, to match her brown fur “She will also be your mentor”
“Come on” Lark wagged her tail “I’ll show you around” Finch barked happily and pranced after Lark
“If you need anything, I’ll be around the school, just find me” Lilly called after them
“Ok!” Finch barked over her shoulder
“Here is where I spend most of my time” Lark said, splashing into the water “There are a lot of water power in school right now, I guess the world needed it”
“Where are they?” Flinch asked “Studying, there is a test coming up” Lark barked, Flinch looked worried “You don’t have to take it, neither do I because I’m mentoring you”
Title: The forgotten pup
Clouds tumbled in the sky, driven by wind, below the sky, huge trees stretched towards the sky, their branches piled in snow, the thick white frost clung to the trunks as the wind howled, no stars, nor moon shined on the ancient forest. A pack of wolf paw prints were quickly fading into the snow. A small, white, wolf pup bound through the snow, she jumped onto an exposed root and looked back, the barks and growls from her pack rang in her ears, she searched the empty forest for her mother and siblings, a twig snapped and savage jaws tried to grab her, with a yelp the wolf pup darted away, zig, zagging between the huge trees, fighting the wind. Fear drove the pup further and further from her pack, and her home.
The snow slowly began to pile higher, slowing the pup down, she looked around, flattening her ears, she was lost, and alone. “Mum?” The pup whinned, searching the shadows for the dark pelt of her mother, only the wind
answered her call. The pup noticed a small den under a root, the tree above it sheltered it from getting buried in too much snow, the pup forced her way through the snow, diving into the den she watched the snow pile up until she curled up and let sleep take over.
Finally, last but not least here is this.
I can’t even explain it, just read it. I have no clue when I wrote this or why but it’s something I have now... I’m sorry
Sunlight, that was the first thing Lucky Seven saw when she woke up. It was strange, one minute she had been spending eternity under the ocean in a graveyard of broken jaegers, and now she was here, no longer destroyed, broken, left to rust away. The jaeger tried to stand, but it was different, she was no longer a massive robot, she was small, weak, fragile. Tucking her legs under her large body she pushed up, now standing she swung her head from side to side, taking in her surroundings.
She was by a mountain range, it curved so the ends were out of sight, Lucky glanced the other way, she could see the faint green glimmer of trees in the distance, suggesting to a forest. Preferring not to go into the trees, she looked the other way, it was plain and flat, the grass was dried and golden, but an aurora of green seemed to still shine from the dried stocks. Confident
she got the lay of the land, Lucky evaluated herself. She was in a stocky body, her fuzzy sooty brown coat slightly rippled as a salty breeze blew over her, her greyish mane and tail swayed with the wind. Finally it clicked for her, she was a horse, a large one from what she could tell, she remembered Scott and Herc’s memories from the drift what the beasts looked like. The mare shuttered a bit as she inadvertently brought on memories of the rangers, the battles, the
betrayal, she shook her head, clearing it. Lucky looked around again, there were definitely other horses, she could faintly see their figures milling about just about everywhere, she wondered if any of her comrades were here also, and why she was brought here.
Carefully Lucky began picking her way down, deciding to go in the opposite direction of the forest, she set off at a brisk trot. Every so often another horse would approach her, she would be friendly but tried not to linger too long, she was on a mission to find her comrades, she had to know if she was alone here.
It was day four, or at least she thought it was, Lucky sighed, she had hardly covered any space, in fact she could see the area she woke up. She stood at the edge of a forest, not as dense as the first she saw when she first woke up, but it still made her nerves. “I’m never gonna find anyone” She muttered to herself, if she was still a jaeger it would be easy, she would probably would have searched the entire island by now. Another horse approached her from the shadows of the forest, at first she prepared herself for another boring interaction with one of the local horses, but this horse seemed different, in fact almost familiar. “C-Crimson?” Lucky gasped, the horse bounded up
“Lucky!” He greeted her “It’s great to see you!”
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Animorphs notes 7.5 or Megamorphs 1
Book 7.5/ Megamorphs 1
Why does this format of an animorph book exist? Aren’t we supposed to be under the impression that the kids are writting diaries or someshit like that?
Starts with Jake
Again, not seperating the yeerks from their hosts is a very bad mentality to have
Also aparently Ax doesn’t get to be an animorph
ALso Ax skipps out on a lot of meetings. Granted the kids could show some consideration for Ax and meet in the woods
Rachel is going on a two day gymnastics trip
Tobias is an asshole and continues to over anthropomorphise animals. I havent forgoten him sneaking into Cassie’s family’s barn to eat the patients
...Cassie teh crow can and will go where ever it pleases after it recovers. Heck it might hunt Tobias down and mob him out of spite
Melissa’s going on the trip
Wow Jake, rude. Tobias can have romantic relationships even if his body remains a bird
Marco’s the kinda jerk to crash parties he wasnt invited to
Full moon
Cassie is psychic. WHich honestly I don’t doubt.
Rachel part
Are they… all going to give intros?
Not that Jake is without his own level of stupidity. I mean, he was right there with us,
walking through an isolated, abandoned construction site that night. Wasn't the smartest
thing we ever did.
I’ve not forgotten the flea thing from book 2
Rachel gets books for Tobias
...damnit Rachel you can’t just show up at a camp without letting peolple know ahead of time. They need warning gto make sure they have room and food for you
I was close to Tobias's territory when I spotted something interesting below me. It was a
deer-like animal, running swiftly through the trees. When I focused my laser-intensity eagle
sight, I could see the semihuman torso and face and the deadly scorpion tail.
Aximili
ANd this is why large predatory bird morphs aren’t great. Rachel getting mobbed
A bunch of small birds take down Rachel
Marco part
Honestly Marco sounds like some of the jackass class clowns I had in school, Darlene’s not wrong to not invite him
The kids ARE all going to give the intro talk
Marco that is a very confusing way to talk
Ax is right, this is dishonorable
That poor mouse
Ax has parasites. ANd Marco is extorting? him to help him be a creep b4 he’d give Ax medicine for them. Dick
Technically speaking none of the kids actually knows how the morphing tech works
When I was done acquiring the mouse I handed it to Ax. He had to use both hands to hold
on. Andalite arms and hands are kind of puny. Of course, they also have four legs, and
those are pretty strong. I mean, Ax can haul when he wants to. I'll bet he could do forty
miles an hour.
Baby arms
So the reason Marco wasn’t invited IS b/c he’s a dick
A bunch of jays took out Rachel
Part Jake? What?
That whent jake> rachel>marco>jake? Bullshit
You don’t have to go to a party if you don’t want to people
Why couldn’t this part be narrated by Cassie? She’s fucking here!
Jake is fucking ready, fight or flight
Marco and Ax are very lucky none of the kids or adults at the party try to crush them to death
Huh, Marco and Ax are lucky that none manages to crush them to death
Jake is ready to cuss the shit outta Marco
Accidental human pileup saves Jake’s life
Part… Marco? BULSTIT SHILSHSTSOSHS
AX IS RIGHT THERER LET HIM NARRATE YOU THINDER CUNTS
I hate this human centric bs and it fucking leaves out Cassie
Marco,,, cats are very good at NOT being seen. Ambush predators
Marco is a dick
Then I saw it. It was gigantic! Enormous! A creature that seemed to be made of nothing but
teeth and blades and destruction. It was like twenty Hork-Bajir glued together and given
dragon wings.
heh
Poor Darlene’s family
It looked down at us with a dozen weird eyes that seemed to be stuck here and there at
random. It stared at us the way I'd seen Tobias stare at his prey.
Part, sigh, Rachel
Rachel has amnesia
Ns somehow started morphing while unconcious
If you wonder if yer a freak and are that startled with yer apperance, then no that’s not always how you were
If you need to concentrate to morph, how’d u managed that far with a heavy concussion/unconciousness?
Part Tobias
Damnit they are all giving the intro speech
Huh, so marco and ax coulda gotten killed twice b4 they even got to the party
Also the fuck how is the yeerks covering the wind monster
Part fucking Rachel
...why is this creature wasting so much energy instead of just flowing around the trees
Like people are seeing this shit
Finally! Part Cassie
Cassie spotted cryptid Rachel in the news
Part Rachel. WHy not just have her narrate the whole book at this point?
There’s an excaped yeerk host living in an abandoned clothing shop in the woods
Well, thaty’s not an unreasonable response for an excaped host
Rachel got some memories beaten back intio her
Oh she might be one of the people who’s yeerk starved from the actions of last book
Part fucking Jake again
The kids are gonna track down Rachel by scent
The monster found them
Part rachel
Old lady is gonna burn down the shack, with Rachel inside, b/c she’s not going back to the yeerk pool
Rachel morphs bear without concentrating or intending to or even knowing how
These bootleg books are so bad. Part Marco
They’d be dead if the creature turned back to particle form and just reformed around their bodies
Part Rachel. Really this is mostly just Rachel/Jake/Marco as narrators. No attempt at equaly splitting up the plot
I looked at the new creature. It had come to a stop, just a dozen feet away. I peered at it
with my dim bear vision. It had four legs, like a horse or a deer. But it seemed to have a
head and upper body that was almost human. And there was a tail, I was sure of that. The
tail was cocked back like a weapon ready to be fired.
Andalite
Fifteen fucking chapters in and Ax finally gets to narrate
Ax does the intro speech
Ax says he’s not an animorph
Ax doesnt like having to be the space expert
Ax tucks his tail to his back to run fast
Ax is smart enought to know when standing yer ground is a terrible idea
Ax figured out that morphing attracts the beast.
Morphing has a distinct kind of energy signature
Part jake
Andalites have a distinct scent
Ok lots of animals can harm or kill a large bear. This is turning into a raptors are mahjestick thing
Tobias assumes that Ax tried to fight the creature. Tobias doesn’t really know Ax well enough
Part Cassie
Why are they at the mall?
AGain I wouldn’t be surprised if Cassie is supposed to be psychic
You don’t mean Chapman, you mean Iniss 226
Learning about history is useful in figuring out humans and with invasion plans Cassie
Part Ax
… do andalites even have battle axes? They dont have the arms for it
Once, the Hork-Bajir were a decent, peaceful race. Then they were enslaved by the Yeerks.
Hork-Bajir are incredibly dangerous and very powerful. They stand on two legs, balanced
by a tail. Each leg ends in a foot, like an Earth bird of prey. They have two arms. There are curved blades at their knees, at their elbows, at their wrists. Blades similar to my own tail-
blade. Atop their snakelike heads are two more blades, swept forward. And their tails end in long, sharp spikes.
They are not a species you want to start a fight with. Which may be why they were such a
peaceful, even poetic, species. They had no one to fear. Until the Yeerks began to make
them into Controllers.
The series did so much retconing
Again, I like the Parting the Clouds fic so much better. At least there someone tried to figure out how to use the aura power
Veleek is the dust monster, from Saturn
So the andalite bandits being human was a solid yeerk theory
Visser 3 continues to waste good bodies
Visser 3 throew a lot of bodies into getting a veleek pet
Part Cassie
Compund eyes dont work like that
Iniss 226 knows about spy novels and thinks they’re stupid
Iniss 226 is not a dumb yeerk
Also Visser 3 is the worst boss
Part rachel
Rachel is starting to put things together
Part Marco
The kids ar eputting 2 and 2 together
Part rachel
Rachel made it back to civilization
Rachel breaks into a house for food and rest’
Some snitchy bitch called the police
Rachel the elephant says fuck the police
Part jake
The kids steal Cassie’s dad’s truck
Part rachel
The veleek chases elephant Rachel
The veleek cant pick up an elephant
Part marco
Why do they have marco drive?
Also that poor truck
Jack morphs to lure the creature’s attention
Part jake
Why did jake choose tiger for being chased?
Part rachel
Doesnt quite have her memory back but ready to help
Part ax
Ax feels like a failure of a warrior
Suddenly, one wall of my cage shimmered and became transparent. Ramonite is a metal
that can stretch open or be made clear or opaque by molecular realignment.
Nice’
Ax is also racist towards taxxons
Visser 3 is a terrible boss
Part marco
That poor truck
Why choose gorrila for a chase?>
Part rachel
Cassie tries to fill the gaps fotr rachel
Part marco
Part cassie
Cassie chooses squirlle
Bug fighters are stooting at em
Part ax
So bug fighters and shit DO have cameras
Flea ex machina
Ax morphs one of his fleas
… theres no way in hell thast theres no bugs on the andalite homeworld
Thats not what a flea mouth is like
Ax says that andalites have a shit vertical jump
Part marco
The veleek caught him
Ax is on Visser 3
Ax is having a blast fucking up Visser 3’s day
Part ax
And only then, locked together with it, was I able to see it through my weak flea eyes. It
was alive! It was a creature my own size, but with a hundred minuscule wings that beat the
air. It had antennae, but different than any seen on Earth. These antennae were covered in
tiny, upturned bowls. Like the dishes of primitive human radio telescopes. Those were the
structures it used to sense energy sources.
There were no eyes. And no mouth. But two long filaments, like strands of wire, swept
back from the front of the creature. These must be how it fed: by channeling the energy
down the wires.
The Veleek was not one creature. It was billions! It was a swarm of billions of these tiny
creatures. They had evolved into a swarm that could come together and become a
destructive entity of gnashing teeth and slicing blades. But in reality they were separate
insectlike creatures that fed on energy.
Its a swarm of navivorous bugs
Water is the veleek’s weakness
Marco and Ax jump out of the ship
Part rachel
Her memory is mostly back
Hork-bajir have foot long blades on their head, that’s impoalement’
Part marco
Fear speads up thei morphing
Part jake
Jake is grounded
The team apparently whent home without knowing if marco and ax were alive
Part cassie
Cassie is psychic and can probably see the future
Cassie comes up with a plan that only she can do
To make up for almost getting marco killed
Part tobias
So did Cassie not have a whale morph already? DIdn’t marco get one when they’d met the psychic whales?
Or am I thinking of a fanfic?
Part cassie
Cassie is awesome
Cetaceans are just canon psychic
Part tobias
Cassie is a total badass
Part cassie
Rapid fire morphing
Falling whale body slam
Part rachel
So apparently the veleek never evaporates out of the ocean at any point later?
Cassie speaks whale . Cassie is the one chosen by the whales. All hail the whale messiah
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Ford F-150 Lariat Supercrew 4x4 Hybrid: Is this the best pickup ever?
Words and Photos By Michael Hozjan
No matter which pickup camp you favor, be it Chevy, Ram, GMC or one of the Japanese versions you have to admit that Ford’s F-150 has been setting the benchmark for pickups since biblical times. Sure it has had its share of hick ups, which vehicle hasn’t, but it’s been the segment leader more often than not and Ford is not about to relinquish the spot. This year’s F-150 has received some notable improvements that are sure to make it a favorite with farmers, tradesmen and enthusiasts alike.
It may be cliché, but the F-150 does come in every configuration that you could want to suit every taste, budget and need. You can choose from V6 power to V8 as well as turbocharging and hybrid assist. From two doors to four doors, rear wheel drive or 4x4 as well as three different bed lengths.
Above: Nearly seven decades separate these two blue beauties
Decisions, decisions
Prices start at $36,174 for the base XL in two-door/6 ½ foot box configuration powered by a 3.3L V6 that develops 290 horses and 265 lb.-ft. of torque feeding the rear wheels through an electronic 10-speed automatic. Sorry folks, Ford has nixed manual trannies. Add another three hundred dollars and you get the more useable 8-foot bed. There are seven more trim levels, XLT, Lariat, Tremor, King Ranch, Platinum, Raptor right up to the $94, 120 Limited. You get a choice of five engine choices including a 3.0L V6 diesel.
Above: You wouldn’t guess by looking at it that there are 430 horses waiting to be unleashed.
Add to the various trim lines, engine options, cabin sizes and bed lengths and you can see what I mean by a truck for every taste, need and budget. With more variants than I care to count I decided to look at the least thirsty one, the full hybrid version Lariat powered by a 3.5L V6 EcoBoost engine and an electric motor. As a $4,850 option, it sounds pricey, but it also delivers a whopping 570 lb.-ft. of torque and 430 horses. My tester’s towing capacity amounted to 12,400 lbs. In contrast, the base Lariat starts at $61,845 with a 2.7L EcoBoost mill that doles out 325 ponies and 400 lb.-ft. of torque and is rated to tow 8,500 pounds.
Other options included Group 502A at $4,245.00 (rain sensing wipers, LED projector bending head lights, LED taillights, onboard 400W outlet, heated steering wheel, 10-way power driver’s seat, power passenger seat, heated second row seats, leather seating, adaptive cruise and a slew of driving aides). My tester also came with 275/60Rx20 all terrain tire package at $1000, the $1,300 Sport Appearance package added power running boards and did away with the chrome grille replaced by a more subtle black grille, a twin panel moonroof at $1,750, Bang and Olufson sound system and power tailgate ($800.00 each), FX4 off-road package gets you skid plates to protect your investment’s underpinnings at $950.00, a sprayed bedliner ($600.00), co-pilot assist with active park assist ($1,350.00). With the ever-increasing sizes and heights of pickups, the $850.00, 360-degree camera is a must, especially if your travels include parallel parking around low-slung cars.
Above: Plugging in your power tools was unheard of just a few years ago now you can use your F-150 as a mobile generator – the Hybrid package can transmit up to 7.2 kW of power.
There were no extra fees for the leather seating, the 20” six spoke aluminum wheels, the towing package and the 3.73:1 electronic locking rear axle.
As you can see the numbers add up rather quickly, nothing new in the pickup world, so how does it stack up?
Hybrid Power
Ford has been a leader in alternative power for its pickups for years having experimented with [hydrogen] fuel cells in its Ranger line decades ago, and hybrid pickups are nothing new. They’ve been around for a while, some better than others, oddly, the F-150 is the sole full hybrid pickup in the 2021 model line up. It’s also the best. Not only is power transition from full electric to gasoline completely transparent, it’ll even drive on full electric in four-wheel-drive. Ford calls it PowerBoost and it’s available on all F-150 crew cab models regardless of trim, even the base XL line.
Not to be confused with Ram’s e-Torque mild hybrid system, which can’t be driven solely on electricity. Ford’s system consists of a 1.5 kWh lithium ion battery pack that's liquid cooled and engineered to minimize weight. The electric motor makes 41 horsepower (35 kW) integrated directly to the 10-speed automatic transmission.
Best of all the truck self-charges through regenerative braking and engine power, so you don’t plug it in. A workhorse should not be required to have daily downtime. Right?
New look
For 2021 the F-150 got a mild and dare I say welcomed refresh with new skin giving it a modern look.
New interior
Whether you’re pickup’s needs are for farming, towing or simply commuting, Ford’s stylists have completely redesigned the cabin. Fit and finish is top notch, as are the materials. Borrowing from the Ram, the center console features a large flat workspace ideal for taking notes or working your laptop. My Lariat came with a 12” infotainment screen that thankfully could also be navigated with buttons and dials (screens have a hard time recognizing my finger/hand gestures).
Above: For extra storage, my truck had a pop-up bin (closed in pic) under the rear seats - a $200 option.
On the road
In all honesty I haven’t enjoyed an F-150 as much as I enjoyed this one since the “Bullnose” F-150s of the early to mid ‘80s. Its road manners are above and beyond what I’ve been used to with Ford’s previous renditions and better than most of the competition. With a smooth ride and comfortable seats, road imperfections go virtually unnoticed unless you find a real large pothole.
Above: How much is too much light? I wish manufacturers would consider oncoming traffic when designing their headlamps.
With gobs of torque (the most ever in an F-150) and a whole corral of ponies under the hood, you would think that the F-150 is a speed demon. Well you’re right, zero to a hundred kms is achieved in just over 5.5 seconds and it’ll do the quarter mile in 13.8 seconds at 164 kph. The 10-speed automatic works perfectly in conjunction with the hybrid package. Whether accelerating from a full stop to highway speeds or in stop and go traffic, shifts go unnoticed. I can’t recall a single incident where the truck felt underpowered or misstepped a gear. Steering is light yet precise, but I do wish the turning circle was smaller.
On board scale
Ever wonder just how much you’re carrying? Well Ford has taken the guess workout by offering an onboard scale that measures your payload and sends it to the Sync4 screen and you can even read the weight via an LED display in the taillamps!
The verdict
I’m not a big fan of electric vehicles, (not enough space to explain why here) but I love hybrids, especially those that regenerate themselves. If I can save my gas bill while getting more power what is not to like. While this F-150 fit the bill, I’m an old school pickup guy so for me 8-foot beds are the way to go, and they’ve been making a big comeback in my neck of the woods. Having said that, I’d love to see the hybrid package offered in a regular cab version with the long bed. I’m sure the battery could safely be stored under the bed. Ford doesn’t offer the crew cab with an 8-foot box, once the darling of municipal yards and racetracks alike. Are you listening Ford?
My combined thirst for the week averaged 10.95L/100kms, unheard of in a full size pickup, much less with these horsepower figures.
Price as tested $83,715.00 *
*Includes Dealer prep and delivery fees, federal excise tax and off-road discount.
Warranty: 3yr/60,000 km Basic, 5 Yr/100,000 km Powertrain – 24hr Roadside Assistance
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I have a treat for you today. Last night I had several dreams!
1. My best friend was pregnant with twins, but with a twist. Even though they were both her babies, one of them was growing in her womb, and the other was growing in mine ????? No, I wasn’t a surrogate, and it wasn’t mine; that’s just how she was having her twins. But because of that, her left leg was fused to mine, and we couldn’t even get our legs surgically separated because that would have killed her kids; so we were stuck shocking people as we tried to figure out what to do.
2. I had just arrived at mum’s house for a visit, and next door I saw that there was a man who was definitely not her neighbour, being abusive to a large brown horse that stood by the fence, and was stealing. Before I could call the cops, someone had already attacked him and choked him. He didn’t die, but the force was enough to leave a deep bruise around his neck and leave him spluttering for air while the attacker escaped. It was enough to make him instantly.
3. I think this was part of the same dream, but it was more detailed, as though the other dream was just the prologue of a book, and this was the whole story. This time when I went to mum’s house, my brother was home with the dogs, and the exact same guy was back again, but with 2 or 3 other men. Already weary from last time, I warned my brother to bring the dogs inside and we’d call the police. My brother, being who he is decided to strike up a conversation with the guy from last time instead and basically said that if he did anything illegal, my brother would phone the cops. The guys didn’t really care about the threat, so my brother called the emergency number straight away. As he was telling the address, he got confused and thought it was unit 3 of the street, and I corrected him, giving him my address instead which was unit 1; then I realised my mistake and quickly corrected him saying his house number was 13. The guy was really tall, and easily jumped the fence to get to my brother to cut the call. By then, this guy’s mates had fled the scene, not wanting to get caught by police; so it was just us against him. I marched right over and stood in front of my brother, who is much taller than me.
Because I recently arrived, I still had a backpack on. Remembering this, I took it off so I could defend my brother better; also telling him to stay behind me. I didn’t realise how tall this guy was, and as he went right up to me, I saw that my head only reached his abdomen. It was a little intimidating, but I was prepared to fight. My brother whispered for me to “go for it”, meaning his crotch because it was right there in front of me and much easier than climbing the guy to punch his face; so that was my plan. We both fought at the same time, and I can’t quite remember exactly what happened, but I do remember being lifted easily in a fireman’s lift so I was essentially helpless; but I managed to get out of his grip and defeated him. I really can’t remember if he was tied up or not, waiting for the cops, but he was definitely seated and wasn’t attacking. He had his face down, as though it was pointless for him to try and do anything and he was now a prisoner, and I studied the man quietly to myself. I became a bit of a psychopath then, and had a sudden urge to run a knife across his neck, not to kill him, but just to scare and hopefully teach the guy a lesson so he didn’t do anything like that again. Then all of a sudden I giggled to myself as I said “Ew, how gross!” when I saw a tent peg and had a visual of plunging it into his neck. I was tempted to do it, so I walked away and chose to tell my brother how gory the idea was instead. Just as I finished telling him, I saw blue and red flashing lights along the fence, and the guy was taken away.
4. From here, I was in a different dream, but it started at mum’s house as it transitioned into the next world. Basically, I was a very wealthy red headed little girl, and my father* had just asked me if there was a block of land that I wanted for my birthday; and I nodded yes as I gazed into the sunset that coated the forest and farmland at the edge of town. He knew there was one specific area I had always dreamed about going to, and he gave it to me. From then, I went with my grandfather who also wanted to see it, because he was curious to know if the area had changed. The city I lived in was very futuristic and up in the sky was basically a hovering train that looks very much like the shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan, except instead of being predominately white with a splash of colour, the trains were a shiny metallic silver colour. It was basically a flying train, but passengers followed train rules instead of plane rules. Cars and buses hovered too, but even so, there were still ordinary tilt trains around (old and rusted a little but still operational) that were available for people who couldn’t afford to travel in the hovering technology. My grandfather and I took a hovering taxi to my new block of land, and I was studying the man, who was staring intently out the window.
“Do you think they’re still there?” I asked. He was silent. I stared out the window again to see a white animal transportation bus, and began to wonder what was inside. At the top of the bus was a slit for animals like horses to stick their heads out the side, and instead of an animal, I saw a weathered bright orange sail about the size of a pillow, and it had a hand-painted white symbol on it. It was the same symbol of the place my grandfather used to work, and I recognised immediately that sail in particular was his work. As I began to think about how my grandfather lived life, he looked out my window in disbelief, so I looked straight where he was staring. A word began to etch itself across the body of the vehicle, as though it was being carved my claws, and when the creation was complete, it spelled “Raptor”.
“Yes. They’re still there.” my grandfather finally responded. The main reason I had wanted to visit that block of land was to check out and preserve the giant livable tree house the size of a mansion that was right in the middle of it; but knowing for sure that dinosaurs would be there too made my trip that much more exciting.
*My ‘father’ and ‘grandfather’ are not my actual family - just my family for this dream
#pregnant#dream#surgery#abuse#vigilante#battle#home#police#psychopath#fight me#criminal#crime#futuristic#future#dinosaur#raptor#bullet train#shinkansen#wealth#wealthy#sail#hovercraft#just a dream
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Chapter 4: Beauty
Aideen, she was beautiful.
Her hair was a mess tucked under a hat, her clothes were grubby and wrinkled, and she was covered in filth. He had no doubt she hadn’t showered or washed her clothes in longer than she’d admit, not that she cared atop her horse laden with sacks as the pair worked. And he found himself staring at her the moment she had come into view.
There were already fans gathered nearby, watching as the stage received its final touches. Raptor had come out for a sound check and to get a feel of the stage but had ended up staring over the heads of the fawning crowd at her and her horse. He had forgotten how perfect the woman and horse looked together, fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, and the sight made his heart clench in awe at the beauty formed by the pair.
After an embarrassingly long time he remembered he was supposed to be focusing on the sound crew and his assistants but even as he turned his head from her he wondered if she had seen him staring like an idiot, or if she had even noticed him. He began to hope she wouldn’t be in the crowd when he performed, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to focus to get through his line up. To both his relief and dismay he didn’t see her waiting patiently on the side as he performed.
He performed the three times he was scheduled to go on that day and did the fan meet ups as he was required. The routine of it all was easy to fall into and he was sure no one noticed his glances looking for her or how he continued to reach for his phone as if he had felt it vibrate from her text. He was beginning to think she had decided against meeting up with him, at least that day, when he realized that everyone backstage had sandwiches and drinks.
“Would you like something to eat?” her voice was familiar and he had to restrain a smile as he realized she had somehow managed to help the caterer with the food. He looked at her, looking at him innocently with a plate of sandwiches, wrapped and labeled for his choosing.
“I wondered where you were,” he said as he took a sandwich and unwrapped it.
“I figured I should try to look presentable given there are people around,” she explained with a shrug and he realized she had cleaned up.
“You looked fine before, when you were hauling sacks.”
“Hah! I hadn’t bathed or changed my clothes in who knows how long, I was disgusting…” she blushed as she admitted just how filthy she was.
“I know, and you looked beautiful all the same,” she stared at him with a deep red blush and ducked away before he could say more as an assistant came up to talk about Raptor about something.
“where can we meet?” Raptor shot a text out to Rebecca as he dealt with the after show details and calls.
“Can you get away on your own?”
“ill change into different clothes, this isnt the first time ive been in public unnoticed”
“True. If you can get down the path behind the houses you’ll be at the marsh, I can meet you there.”
He had the experience to sneak out without a fan chasing him down, and he knew the darkness of night had helped in his escape. To be safe he had told his people he was going on walkabout, a thing he did often around Jorvik that they didn’t mind so long as his phone was on and he wasn’t missing for too long. Such excursions were how he had been wandering around Jarlahiem to meet Rebecca in the first place.
A horse woke him from his thoughts and he looked around for the source of the sound. He saw a form appearing from the darkness as his eyes adjusted, the flash of light hair making him smile.
“Good, you didn’t get lost!” she spoke quietly, as though someone might overhear them.
“Where to?” he wondered if she had a plan or not for hanging out. They couldn’t go anywhere public, and she had mentioned something about marshes.
“You may want to get on,” she offered her hand and he hesitated. He had never ridden a horse before, but if all he had to do was sit behind her…
She helped haul him up and realized he didn’t know how to get on a horse, so she made a note to not go above a walk tonight. More amusing to her, and distressing to him, came after he was on Midnightwarrior and realized he didn’t know what to do with his hands. He first tried to keep his hands on his legs, at least until Midnightwarrior began walking and he grabbed Rebecca’s waist in a moment of panic. Before he could pull back and apologize they lurched as Midnightwarrior crossed the first bridge. Rebecca placed one hand over his, silently conveying that she was fine with the contact. He didn’t want to admit how much of a relief that was to him, and he also hoped she didn’t hear him gulp as Midnightwarrior crossed the terrain until they were on the farthest island of the marsh.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” Rebecca murmured as she looked out over the water. Raptor nodded and rested his head on her shoulder, his arms crossed around her in what he hoped was a casual embrace.
“We don’t have to stay on Midnightwarrior, you know,” she mentioned after several minutes of content silence.
“Oh! Aight…” Raptor muttered and ungracefully dismounted. She tried not to laugh and slid off her horse with practiced ease and removed Midnightwarrior’s tack.
“Shouldn’t you tie him up or something?” Raptor watched in confusion as Midnightwarrior was stripped bare, the tack and saddlebags placed on the ground.
“Nah, he won’t go far,” Rebecca watched as the horse rolled before trotting off to graze on the various marshy islands around them. She spread out a blanket by the gear and sat down, motioning for Raptor to join her.
“I do hope you don’t mind my lackluster plans for hanging out, not exactly up to your glamorous standards I’m sure,” he couldn’t tell if she was genuinely apologizing or teasing.
“I’m sure you can make up for the inexpensive venue,” he decided to tease back, earning him a stuck out tongue from her.
“I shall try to impress, oh great Rap God Raptor,” she mock bowed her head, chuckling.
“You can call me Tor.”
“Wait… seriously?” she blinked at the sudden serious comment.
“Yea, call me Tor. It is my name after all,” he grinned at her confusion.
“Oh, ok, I just, I dunno, I thought- I guess I didn’t think you’d actually want to be like, that casual with me?” she stammered and he wondered why she would think that.
“Shouldn’t friends call each other their name? Are we not friends?” he asked and she hastily shook her hands and head.
“No that’s not what I meant! Of course we’re friends! And we should call each other by our names! Or nicknames we give each other but Raptor wasn’t a nickname…” she was mumbling by the end of her words, clearly embarrassed.
“I’m glad we’re friends,” he decided to focus on that and was pleased that she looked at him with a smile.
“Me too. And I want to get to know you. I already know Raptor, I want to know Tor,” there was something in her voice, something in her words, that made him stop breathing for a moment. He wasn’t sure anyone had said that to him before, and he tried to ignore the clench in his heart as she looked at him, completely sincere and honest. She wanted to know him, and not his public image, not the wealth and fame. She wanted to know who he really was.
“Huh, uh, well,” he leaned back on the saddle and bags that were bordering the blanket they were sitting on. “As you may know, I wasn’t exactly born in the best area…”
She settled next to him, looking at him and giving him her full attention. He found himself talking longer than he had expected, the more she looked at him with interest the more he wanted her to know. There were things he told her that he had never told any interviewer, yet she never seemed bored with anything he was saying, not the random tangent about an early teacher he had had, not his favorite street games, not his family life, she listened to it all. At some point she moved closer so she was sitting next to him, leaning against the saddle and bags like him and watching him as he talked. He was so wrapped up in telling her stories and about himself he didn’t realize Midnightwarrior had returned to the island they were on and was idly grazing around the blanket. It wasn’t until Midnightwarrior’s tail swished Tor that he was broken from his talking.
“Oh, Midnight is back,” Tor commented and watched the horse silently for several long moments. He glanced back at Rebecca, surprised she had remained quiet, and realized she was dozing off.
“Sorry… I talk too much,” he immediately felt bad for keeping her up and her head shot up.
“No no I’m awake! I’m listening, keep going,” she insisted as her head fell back down and her eyes closed. He smiled and reached over to brush her hair from her face, staring at her in the starlight. She decided in her sleepy state that his movement was an invitation and she moved closer, placing her head on his shoulder much to his surprise. Giving in to temptation he placed his hand on hers, thrilled when she linked her fingers with his. He looked over at Midnightwarrior, feeling oddly safe as he realized the horse was standing guard over them. Nothing was going to happen to them and Tor let himself yawn and relax, letting Rebecca’s hand go to pull her into a close embrace. He fell asleep looking at her in the morning light, wondering what he was going to do about the mess he was getting himself into and knowing he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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I’ve been wanting to get started on the second northern goshawk in my series. It’s amazing how many things suddenly just absolutely have to get done when I decide to get started on a project.
Procrastination?
We have some frigid air moving in for the weekend, so I needed to put extra bedding out for the dog.
Warmth for me too
Also wanted to bring in some extra firewood so at least tomorrow’s wood is sort-of dry when I wake up. The rick of wood is fairly green and the older wood in the pile is fairly wet. LOL, I can’t win either way with that. But, at least what’s inside the house will be a little drier by morning than it was this morning when I brought it in.
Put up the water
So after taking care of the cold weather outdoor stuff, I thought I’d better fill some containers in case the water freezes. I don’t want to have to move the horses to the other field if their water bucket line freezes. Because that would mean I also will have to move hay in the frigid temperatures. I’d rather just haul the water to their bucket if that happens.
Market display
Then I remembered I’d bought some peg board to make a vertical display space for my market booth. Before I could work on that it would need to be painted. So I painted the board and left it outside to dry. Except it didn’t. It was too cold for it to dry well and even after several hours had passed it was still tacky. So I brought it in to put in a warmer spot.
Check the mail
Just before noon I remembered a letter I needed to bring down to the mailbox, so took care of that, And when I got back up to the house, figured I’d better put the car in the shop in case we really do get some of that giant hail I heard mentioned in the forecast. Well guess what? Now it’s coffee time. I completely missed lunch and so just let that go. Once I had my coffee I finished the vertical display space. Then, once that was done I did-finally-get started on my goshawk.
Yep. Procrastination.
It was all just procrastination. Though all of those things did need to be done today, I could have started the goshawk and done those things while stepping back from it. I step away from it almost every time I do anything significant to the painting.
Here’s where I stopped on it today:
The eye is not finished. It’s just ‘good enough’ to hold the rest of the painting together while I go forward. I can’t do the bird until the eye is good enough.
The northern goshawk (accipiter gentilis) isn’t commonly found in the Ozarks. Sometimes one might get blown off-course during migration, though. It is one of the raptors favored by falconers and I find them to be beautiful birds of prey.
Some Changes
I did a few things differently on this painting. Each new painting is somewhat of an experiment with me, but there were some things I wanted to intentionally do differently this time.
Drawing lines
On the previous goshawk I had a really difficult time getting the angles right. So this time, on the photograph I printed out to work from, I drew lines with my ruler. These lines show me where the various parts of the bird line up in comparison to each other. I think that helped a lot.
Better paper
Another difference is that I’m painting this northern goshawk on a much higher quality paper. This time I have #300 (640 gsm) Arches paper and it is definitely a huge improvement. As it very well should be, because it was a lot more expensive. The pricey paper added to my reluctance to get started, I think. I’m afraid to ruin a sheet on a wasted effort. On the other hand, I couldn’t wait to try it out.
Finer pigments
The last difference is in the pigments I used for the background. I used some of the fine powders I’d processed and it gives a much bolder, color-drenched effect. I like it. But the particular shade I used is much more inclined to stain the paper. So the areas I need to be white later are going to be harder to produce. But that’s one of the sweet things about this paper. I can lift on it a lot more often than I could on the previous paper. Lifting is when you take color off the page with a damp brush by touching the spot and then rinse and wipe the brush-repeated until it’s white. Or in this case, white enough. I’ll never get the stain completely off. To get whiter spots on the bird later I’ll have to use some of my limestone paint.
Photographer
For this painting, I’m using a photograph of a wild northern goshawk by @javiersanzfoto (Javier Sanz at Instagram).
Progression
Here’s the progression from start to current. As I can I’ll update the photo collection to bring it up to date. If you want to see it as I post them, follow me at Instagram (@wildozark).
Sprinkling on the pigments to rub for the background on my northern goshawk painting.
Pigment rubbed, hills taking shape. Goshawk no. 2 is soon to appear!
The sketch of the bird is in the wrong place on the paper.
Moved the outline to a better position. Still looks terrible at this point, though!
The eye is not finished. It’s just ‘good enough’ to hold the rest of the painting together while I go forward. I can’t do the bird until the eye is good enough.
The assortment of colors at hand. I won’t be using all of these.
Let’s hope I don’t ruin the pricey sheet of paper!
Goshawk no. 2 – Next in a series of northern goshawk paintings I've been wanting to get started on the second northern goshawk in my series. It's amazing how many things suddenly just absolutely have to get done when I decide to get started on a project.
#accipiter gentilis#bird of prey#earth pigments#falconry#goshawk#handmade watercolors#hawk#madison woods#natural colors#raptor#recording nature#wild northern goshawk
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Here's all 30 NBA teams' best 3-on-3 lineups, ranked
Here’s a hint: The Warriors would still win.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced 15 new events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. One of those events is 3-on-3 basketball.
That got us at SB Nation thinking: which three players would each NBA team send to compete in a 3-on-3 tournament? And which team would have the best shot at winning?
Here’s our list:
30. Los Angeles Lakers
D’Angelo Russell
Jordan Clarkson
Larry Nance Jr.
I’m only here for the Russel-to-Nance lob passes. If the Lakers could have Lou Williams back, they’d move up to 29.
29. Dallas Mavericks
Seth Curry
Harrison Barnes
Nerlens Noel
I deferred to our in-house Mavericks expert, Tim Cato, who picked hand-picked these guys. I had Wesley Matthews, Barnes and Dirk Nowitzki. Here’s why he chose his lineup:
... Alright, Tim isn’t available, so I’m speaking for him. These three guys are the youngest talents on the team and provide more athleticism than my lineup would have. That’s about all I’ve got, though.
28. Sacramento Kings
Tyreke Evans
Buddy Hield
Rudy Gay
I tried to figure out which players would have the best shot at winning a game. Yes, Skal Labissiere is gonna be good some day, and Darren Collison is the starting point guard, but these three guys give the Kings the best shot at pulling an upset, especially if Hield is the second coming of Stephen Curry.
27. Orlando Magic
Evan Fournier
Terrence Ross
Aaron Gordon
This would be fun solely because we get to watch Terrence Ross and Aaron Gordon trade poster dunks. Wouldn’t be so much fun when their opponents start playing defense.
26. Phoenix Suns
Eric Bledsoe
Devin Booker
Brandon Knight
It would be very Phoenix of the Suns to trot out a three-guard lineup with Bledsoe, Booker and Knight. That might just give them the edge — everyone’s quick, small and can shoot. But that’s about it with this team.
25. Brooklyn Nets
Jeremy Lin
Caris LeVert
Brook Lopez
Lin and Lopez were the easy picks. I was tempted to go with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson because of his defense. I was tempted to go with Sean Kilpatrick because of his offense. I chose LeVert because he’s the best rookie you’ve never heard of. Still a lot of Ls, though.
24. Charlotte Hornets
Kemba Walker
Nic Batum
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
This team really doesn’t stand much of a chance against the tougher competition, but hoooomygod just clear it out and give the ball to Kemba.
23. Atlanta Hawks
Dennis Schroder
Kent Bazemore
Paul Millsap
I was tempted to go with Taurean Prince over Bazemore, and Tim Hardaway Jr. may be more suitable for a 3-on-3 setting, but Bazemore is Atlanta’s best wing player. Can’t see this team winning more than two games, though.
22. New Orleans Pelicans
Jrue Holiday
DeMarcus Cousins
Anthony Davis
Not sure the two big man thing works in a 3-on-3, but they can each handle the ball and shoot. Don’t think they’re gonna win very many games though
21. Detroit Pistons
Reggie Jackson
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Andre Drummond
In a 5-on-5, I wouldn’t dare take Reggie Jackson. In a 3-on-3, however, you need a guy who can create a shot out of thin air. Jackson’s that guy — sometimes to a fault — and giving him a shooter and a lob option is a great mix for this competition.
20. Miami Heat
Goran Dragic
Dion Waiters
Hassan Whiteside
Give the ball to Dion Waiters and get out of the way.
19. New York Knicks
Derrick Rose
Carmelo Anthony
Kristaps Porzingis
This team looks great on paper, but we know how this story ends.
18. Philadelphia 76ers
Ben Simmons
Dario Saric
Joel Embiid
We don’t know what Ben Simmons looks like on an NBA court yet. So for 3-on-3 blacktop purposes, let’s say he’s a mix between LeBron James, Magic Johnson, and Oscar Robertson all in their primes. Yup, I’ve got Philly, too.
17. Denver Nuggets
Wilson Chandler
Danilo Gallinari
Nikola Jokic
Who needs a point guard in a 3-on-3 when you’ve got The Joker? I can see Chander and Gallo running action amongst themselves while Jokic either makes the right pass or gets an easy post-up bucket. They could be unstoppable... or really bad. Who knows?
16. Indiana Pacers
Jeff Teague
Paul George
Myles Turner
Is this team convincing enough for you to pick them in a 3-on-3 tournament?
15. Memphis Grizzlies
Mike Conley
Chandler Parsons Tony Allen
Marc Gasol
The Grizzlies play one way and one way only: with grit. No need to change that for a 3-on-3 game. We wanted Chandler Parsons on the floor for spacing, but he’s out 4-6 months nursing a pinky toe injury, so we replaced him with First Team All-Defense.
14. Oklahoma City Thunder
Russell Westbrook
Victor Oladipo
Enes Kanter
This is really a 1-on-3, but I put two other guys next to Westbrook just for fun.
13. Portland Trail Blazers
Damian Lillard
C.J. McCollum
Jusuf Nurkic
This is my dark horse because you have three playmakers on the floor. Imagine Lillard and McCollum getting each other open for Nurkic’s pinpoint passes? Or just a straight up iso for McCollum on the wing? Maybe a Lillard stutter-step pull-up 3?
This is a very fun team.
12. Utah Jazz
George Hill
Gordon Hayward
Rudy Gobert
Gobert’s a really good shot blocker and rebounder, but he’s also an extraordinary screen setter. That’ll give defenses problems, especially with Hill and Hayward.
11. Chicago Bulls
Rajon Rondo
Dwyane Wade
Jimmy Butler
These guys showed you can’t count them out in the first round against the Celtics. With a healthy Rondo, anything is possible.
10. Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Khris Middleton
Jabari Parker
With a healthy Parker, this team is about as good as any the NBA has to offer. If you’re not the Warriors (KD), Cavs (LeBron), or Spurs (Kawhi), you don’t really have an answer for Giannis. And that’s game right there.
9. Washington Wizards
John Wall
Bradley Beal
Markieff Morris
John Wall and Bradley Beal are a duo tailor-made for 2-on-2 basketball. I thought to add Otto Porter here, but he’s mostly a corner 3-point shooter. You can add Markieff Morris, who can shoot the 3 but also create his own shot, instead.
8. Toronto Raptors
Kyle Lowry
DeMar DeRozan
Serge Ibaka
These guys are good up until they run into Cleveland.
7. Minnesota Timberwolves
Zach LaVine
Andrew Wiggins
Karl-Anthony Towns
This team would be really fun to watch. They’re conditioned to play 50-minute games. They can shoot, they’re all young and athletic. Bet’s on this squad to upset someone.
6. Boston Celtics
Isaiah Thomas
Avery Bradley
Al Horford
This 3-on-3 team perfectly exemplifies the Celtics’ current situation. Avery Bradley is a stud, but against top-level talent, Boston needs a third All-Star. Imagine this team with Jimmy Butler, Gordon Hayward, or Paul George? That’s a different conversation.
5. Los Angeles Clippers
Chris Paul
Jamal Crawford
Blake Griffin
I’m not sure you need two big men in a 3-on-3 tournament. And while DeAndre Jordan is a vaunted rim protector, our own Harry Lyles agrees: can roll the dice in a half-court setting and task Griffin with that responsibility.
What you DO need, though, is a guy like Jamal Crawford who can get his shot at any time, from any place. Him breaking ankles is only an added bonus.
4. Houston Rockets
James Harden
Eric Gordon
Ryan Anderson
You know why Houston’s here. Space the floor to clear the paint. Pick your poison: defend James Harden 1-on-1 or give Gordon or Anderson an open look at a 3. Sheesh.
3. San Antonio Spurs
Jonathon Simmons
Kawhi Leonard
LaMarcus Aldridge
Part of what makes the Spurs so good in 5-on-5 is Gregg Popovich. Most of that game planning goes out the window in a 3-on-3, so it’ll be hard for the Spurs to match up against a superior team.
Still, any time you’ve got Kawhi, you’ve got a shot.
2. Cleveland Cavaliers
Kyrie Irving
LeBron James
Kevin Love
We know why these guys are here.
1. Golden State Warriors
Stephen Curry
Klay Thompson
Kevin Durant
It only took me about four seconds to choose Klay Thompson over Draymond Green here. Why? Because this is a 3-on-3, and I’m not sure Draymond is as important in a half-court pickup game as Klay is.
**
There you have it. I think the Warriors (surprise) are the most unstoppable team and, if we’re breaking it up by East vs. West, the T’Wolves, Spurs and Rockets are their top competition. In the end, they’re just too versatile of a team with three shooters and two lock-down defenders.
Things in the East are a bit more complicated. It’s hard to bet against LeBron and the Cavaliers, but Giannis’ Bucks are scary, as are the Bulls and even the Knicks. I’m gonna take the Bucks in a game against the Cavs.
That sets the table for Giannis vs. KD, with a bigger Khris Middleton on Steph and Jabari Parker checking Klay Thompson. In my humble opinion, that game could go either way.
Did we get something wrong? Let us know in the comments.
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